Here be spoilers for ‘The Long Night’…
The Night King and his zombie horde descended upon Winterfell this past Sunday night as the war between the living and the dead reached its crescendo in the third episode of Game of Thrones’ final season.
And, as we saw at the end of the extended episode, the Long Night has been averted thanks not to Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen, but rather young Arya Stark, who brought the Night King’s reign of terror to an end thanks to her Valyrian steel dagger.
Arya killing the Night King certainly came as a surprise, not only to fans but also to actor Kit Harington, who has revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he thought Jon Snow would be the one to defeat the mysterious villain:
“I was surprised, I thought it was gonna be me! But I like it. It gives Arya’s training a purpose to have an end goal. It’s much better how she does it the way she does it. I think it will frustrate some in the audience that Jon’s hunting the Night King and you’re expecting this epic fight and it never happens – that’s kind of Thrones. But it’s the right thing for the characters. There’s also something about it not being the person you expect. The young lady sticks it to the man.”
SEE ALSO: Game of Thrones Season 8: What’s in Store for Episode 4?
Meanwhile, Arya actress Maisie Williams also spoke to the outlet about the episode, revealing that she was initially unsure as to whether fans would accept her characters being the one to save Westeros.
“It was so unbelievably exciting. But I immediately thought that everybody would hate it; that Arya doesn’t deserve it. The hardest thing is in any series is when you build up a villain that’s so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them. It has to be intelligently done because otherwise people are like, ‘Well, [the villain] couldn’t have been that bad when some 100-pound girl comes in and stabs him.’ You gotta make it cool. And then I told my boyfriend and he was like, ‘Mmm, should be Jon though really, shouldn’t it?’”
“When we did the whole bit with Melisandre, I realised the whole scene with [the Red Woman] brings it back to everything I’ve been working for over these past six seasons — four if you think about it since [Arya] got to the House of Black and White,” she continued. “It all comes down to this one very moment. It’s also unexpected and that’s what this show does. So then I was like, ‘’Fuck you Jon, I get it.’”
SEE ALSO: Read our review of ‘The Long Night’ here
What did you make of the decision to have Arya defeat the Night King? Did you enjoy the episode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Originally published April 30, 2019. Updated May 1, 2019.
