Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3. If you’re not caught up on the latest episode, bookmark us and come back once you’re ready to properly debrief.
We’ve always known that being in a relationship with a show like Game of Thrones is addictive, exhilarating and in many cases completely soul destroying.
But with the arrival of this week’s long-awaited battle-centric episode it has also become evident that not only has Game of Thrones caused us all to weep quietly into our pillows each night, it has also actively been misleading us and gaslighting us when it comes to what the show’s real stakes and endgame are all about.
If you cast your mind all the way back to the Game of Thrones premiere episode, you’ll remember it opened with a vaguely terrifying introduction to White Walkers and wights, effectively positioning them as the true looming threat to the characters living within this world. As the series progressed the question of who would sit on the Iron Throne was always an overarching one, but with each new story twist that brought the characters on the Game of Thrones chessboard closer together, the one main objective of the series began to become crystal clear.
The real endgame for the show became less about ‘who will sit on the throne’ and more about ‘who will protect the realm’.
Until this week, of course.
In a brilliant twist to season eight’s third episode, The Long Night, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) killed The Night King, effectively decimating his entire army with one deadly swipe and bringing an end to the raging battle between the living and the dead.
Top Comments
Ridiculous. The show is and has always been the story of the survival of the starks. And the final showdown is about the form of government and leader/s Westeros will have (also who says it has to be Cersei or Dany? There are far more players on the board than that). Who says there will even be an iron throne? The white walkers have only been central in the last few seasons, and the characters have always been the point of the show. Watching characters we have loved for 8 seasons deal with divided loyalties, the concept of leadership and tyranny, and struggle to do what they think is right is far more interesting than a Hollywood-style zombie movie. GoT is more complex than that and that’s why it’s so popular.