Within a week of the much-anticipated Avengers: Endgame coming out to tie up that chapter of the MCU franchise, we have another long-awaited showdown between the forces of good and evil in ‘The Long Night’. Breaking the record for the longest battle sequence in film history, the stakes of episode 3 were monstrously high. Not only was the survival of humanity on the line, but millions of fans and critics were also waiting to either have their expectations exceeded or crushed.
Lingering on the suspense of the immediate pre-battle preparations was absolutely necessary, and effectively executed. Though we drifted between characters within Winterfell for about ten minutes, that time we spent establishing everyone’s stations set the foundations of the battle and built the tension to an almost unbearable level.
The terror that the army of the dead brings is single-minded and efficient, so when the battle finally arrives it isn’t heralded with any loud clanging of swords or limbs being torn off their respective torsos. Instead we are given a simple image of the Dothraki charging forward into darkness with their arakhs aflame, followed by the fading of their war cries and lights into a haunting silence and blackness. This is consistent with Sam’s description of White Walkers from the last episode – they bring a form of death that diminishes humanity to nothingness.
But of course, this is only what death looks like when seen from a distance. When faced with it front-on, it is chaotic, overwhelming, and worse than whatever we imagined. The army of the dead doesn’t move in formation so much as they create a relentless wave of bodies, and let themselves wash over the tight, organised structures of the living. Their army acts on a purely utilitarian basis, with no regard for individuals – we see this multiple times, including one terrifying moment when a small group of wights lie across a wall of fire to make a path for their allies to cross.
But let’s focus on our heroes for a moment, because there are plenty of solid cheer-worthy, suspenseful, and tragic moments for them. Dany and Jon riding Drogon and Rhaegal into battle against the Night King and an undead Viserion was of epic proportions, despite being a little messily shot. But it’s only when they all finally face off against each other on the ground that their confrontation becomes more engaging, and so much more frightening.
First, we discover that the Night King is immune to fire. Second, he uses this opportune moment of victory to raise every single corpse from the dead to fight for his side. Thirdly, the newly risen wights don’t hesitate in jumping onto Drogon and stabbing the crap out of him. And finally, Jon and Dany stand their ground and fight for their lives against all odds.
Before things get really bad, we take a moment to check in on the people hiding down in the crypts. As one of the only scenes with proper extended dialogue it is a nice reprieve from the battle, with some spicy banter going on between Sansa, Tyrion, and Varys. It doesn’t last for long though, because as every GoT fan out there predicted last week, the deceased Stark ancestors are coming back to fight for the Night King. Somehow every character worth caring about who was hiding out down there survives (including Gilly, Little Sam, Missandei, and breadline girl from the last episode), but given that we lost some characters I care deeply about I’m more than happy to let these guys off the hook.
Speaking of which, the death of Lyanna Mormont was an absolute tragedy, but if she was to bow out in any way I’m pretty stoked she took a giant wight with her. There is a delicious irony in seeing the smallest fighter on the battlefield take on the largest fighter in a David-and-Goliath-like scenario.
With that, let’s pay our respects to other deceased fighters of the living: Dolorous Edd, the first of many named characters to fall; Ser Jorah Mormont, who tragically defended Khaleesi to his last breath; Beric Dondarrion, who finally fulfilled his reason to stay alive; Melisandre, who drained the last bit of her magic to protect the living; and of course Theon Greyjoy, who completed a redemption arc that I didn’t really expect to care about, but still got me a little bit emotional in his final moments of bravery.
At this point you might have noticed I’ve gone about 700 words without mentioning Arya. Don’t worry – she’s getting an entire section for herself, being the brilliantly ruthless, world-saving assassin that she is.
I got a little bit spoiled in the lead up to this episode when I suddenly saw a flurry of articles on social media announcing an important character moment for Arya, so right from the start I was scared for her life. The moment she first came out swinging, knocking wights out left, right and centre, I assumed this was it – what a fantastic moment, seeing her in her element, fighting in a war for the first time rather than skulking in the shadows.
This isn’t to suggest that there isn’t any shadow skulking at all though. In one tense scene set in the library she glides past the wights, moving from one hiding place to another, always staying just outside of their periphery. She silently slides her dagger up under one of their jaws before they even realise what hit them, and leaves without cluing the rest of them in on her presence – until they see the body of their fallen ally.
She saves the Hound’s life, and in turn he and Beric save hers. She runs into the Red Woman one last time, who reminds her of her destiny. She recalls what Syrio Forel taught her to say to the God of Death. And in a blazing moment of glory, she leaps through the air towards the Night King as he towers over Bran, Valyrian steel dagger glistening in the moonlight – and is caught in mid-air. But Arya has been training for this moment for years. She feints, drops the dagger, catches it in her free hand, and plunges it into the Night King’s chest. And this motion sets off a domino effect, as every other White Walker and wight is destroyed, effectively saving all the Seven Kingdoms.
So what does this mean for the remaining three episodes of the season? Now that the Night King and his army are gone, is Cersei going to be able live up to being the boss villain of the entire series, and deliver something even bigger? I don’t know, and right now I don’t want to think about it. This episode was brilliant. It wraps up a lot of subplots and main plots, but it doesn’t appear to set much up for whatever will come next. The editing and scoring make it a cinematic feast, and although the dark lighting sometimes adds unnecessarily to the confusion onscreen, it is a minor misgiving next to the greatness of the rest of the episode. Though we can’t be sure what will come next and how much it will make us reconsider what we just watched, ‘The Long Night’ is essentially the climax of the entire Game of Thrones series, and it was certainly worth the wait.
