Daylight at last! Dawn breaks across the parapets of the north, and Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell is over!
If for some reason you haven’t yet watched last night’s epic clash, be advised that...
...massive S P O I L E R S follow.
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Mid-point in this final season, this episode carried the weight and anticipation akin to a series finale.Thrones has served up some doozies in previous seasons, so the bar was insanely high here. I know, I know, “The Night is dark and full of terrors.” – but is it supposed to be that dark?! This episode (The Long Night) was big and bold at an hour and 22 minutes, but as many viewers were quick to point out, it was woefully murky and underlit at times. Fealty to environmental realism is great, but huge chunks of the first half of this episode made it nearly impossible to clearly see what was going on, with all the darkness, smoke, snow and fog. Compared to Hardhome (5.8), Battle of the Bastards (6.9) and The Spoils of War (7.4), this may have been a more elaborate shoot to orchestrate, but it’s just not as compelling or visceral to experience.
This battle didn’t quite unfold as I expected. The army of the dead is enormous, and when they collide with Winterfell’s defenders, it’s like a massive tidal surge, completely overpowering. When thousands of Dothraki riders charge into the fray, they’re overwhelmed and absorbed in seconds. This is an insanely populous and devastating enemy. So then how come so many of our principal characters emerged intact?! Stunningly, nearly all the characters who were in front line vanguard positions against the dead escaped with their lives. Brienne, Jamie Lannister, Podrick, Grey Worm, Gendry, Tormund, Ser Davos, Sam – there were surprisingly few casualties among the core characters, unrealistically so, given the nature of their foe.
Season 8 continues to be all about Arya, who had some of the most extreme character and action beats in this episode. She’s awesome, and a fantastic fighter. So it seems abruptly out of character, given her long evolution into one of the assassins of the Faceless Men, that she’d seem so panicked and afraid during the siege of the castle. She eventually regroups – and how – but for a good part of the episode, she seemed to have forgotten that training.
It was a rough night for the Mormonts, with young Lyanna meeting her end by a giant wight, who she killed with her last breath. Also valiant Ser Jorah Mormont, who had a perfect demise for his character, protecting his Queen right up to the very end. Theon Greyjoy also got a fantastic, redemptive sendoff, heroically defending Three-eyed-Bran even as the Night King fell upon him. Melisandre also met her maker, removing her protective necklace and surrendering her antiquity to her Lord of Light with the coming of the dawn.
Which brings us to what for me was the biggest surprise of the evening, the sudden obliteration of the Night King – and with him, his entire begotten army – by a tenacious Arya. Yes, she was wielding Valyrian steel, but it was unexpected to have the story-defining, overarching threat of the entire series suddenly vanquished, and having just survived a massive blast of dragon fire unscathed, it felt like a sudden and anticlimactic victory. Having the dead defeated at the halfway point of this final season is not what I was expecting.
Don’t get me wrong – this was an impressive, massively entertaining episode, but it deserved to look much better, and at times, the staging of events just simply couldn’t keep disbelief aloft. I have to admit, when they rolled the scenes from next week’s episode, I was thrilled to see daylight exteriors again! “Ah, crisp shot compositions! Focused depth of field! King’s Landing!” So it would seem that the threat beyond the wall is past, and now we’re all heading south – to a final confrontation with the real heart of darkness, Cersei Lannister.
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