The Long Night (episode)

The forthcoming third episode of the eighth season of Game of Thrones will premiere on April 28, 2019. It will be the seventieth episode of the series overall. It was written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.

Plot
The army of the dead has arrived at Winterfell and the great battle begins.

Appearances

 * Main: Season 8, Episode 3/Appearances

Deaths

 * Eddison Tollett
 * Lyanna Mormont
 * Beric Dondarrion
 * Alys Karstark
 * Theon Greyjoy
 * Jorah Mormont
 * Night King
 * Viserion
 * Melisandre

Cast
Starring
 * Peter Dinklage as Lord Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Sophie Turner as Lady Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy
 * Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Gwendoline Christie as Ser Brienne of Tarth
 * Conleth Hill as Lord Varys
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Jacob Anderson as Commander Grey Worm
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Guest Starring
 * Richard Dormer as Lord Beric Dondarrion
 * Vladimír Furdík as The Night King
 * Ben Crompton as Lord Commander Eddison Tollett
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Bella Ramsey as Lady Lyanna Mormont
 * Ian Whyte as Giant
 * Megan Parkinson as Lady Alys Karstark
 * Staz Nair as Qhono
 * Javier Botet as Wight
 * Seamus O'Hara
 * Bea Glancy
 * Lucy McConnell
 * Bronte Carmichael
 * Eileen McCloskey
 * Robbie Beggs
 * Roma Tomelty
 * Claire Connor
 * Logan Watson as Sam
 * Finn Watson as Sam

Cast notes

 * Annabel Brook, Yusuf Chaudhri, Nick Chopping, Dan Euston, Rachael Evelyn, Pete Ford, Luke Gomes, Dan Griffiths, Rob Hayns, Rowley Irlam, Theo Morton, Jason Oettle, Gemita Samarra, Sam Stefan, Ryan Stuart, Andy Wareham, and Ben Wright were stunt performers in this episode.

General

 * Due to concerns about spoilers, HBO is only releasing the titles of Season 8 episodes the moment they start airing - meaning that Game of Thrones Wiki can only make up accurate episode titles for each one as they are revealed.
 * With a runtime of 82 minutes, this episode is the longest episode of the television series overall.
 * Despite its long runtime, his episode has minimal dialogue in it. It may be the least proportionate dialogue per minute, on average, in the entire TV series.
 * This episode entirely takes place at Winterfell.
 * Although it wasn't clear by the end, the preview for the next episode confirms that Ghost survived the battle. Also, both of Daenerys's remaining Dragons survived (they didn't die from their injuries).
 * The status of House Mormont and House Karstark after the battle are unclear: Lyanna and Jorah Mormont die, as does Alys Karstark. In the books, there are younger branch members of each family: Lyanna has three other sisters in the books by this point, but none were introduced in the TV show. Similarly, Ned Umber died in the season premiere, but there were younger branches of House Umber in the books. Given that the invasion of the White Walkers has been defeated, someone will have to rule over Bear Island, Last Hearth, and Karhold.
 * The TV writers may just sidestep the question, as they did for Highgarden after House Tyrell was wiped out, or for all of Dorne after Ellaria Sand was sentenced to die (even though TV dialogue had stated in prior seasons that there were other members of House Martell).
 * None of the White Walkers, even the Night King, have ever had a single speaking line in the entire TV series, through their destruction in this episode. They've had a few screeches that sound like cracking ice, but in terms of "dialogue" leading to characterization, they never said anything.  Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss said that they did this on purpose, feeling that the Night King is basically "Death" incarnate, and Death shouldn't talk (it would only diminish him).
 * The novels have made mention that during the Long Night 8,000 years ago, the White Walkers rode on giant Ice spiders as big as hounds - not spiders that live in icy regions, but magical constructs made out of living ice and shaped into spider-forms. Despite being mentioned in the TV show as late as Season 5's "Hardhome", with the destruction of all White Walkers, they will now never appear in the TV show.
 * It is unknown if the White Walkers even could raise the bodies in Winterfell's crypts as wights. Many of them have been dead for hundreds of years and have withered away to only bones. The White Walkers can reanimate dead flesh, dead muscles, but they can't make a mere skeleton magically walk around with nothing to move them.
 * Director Miguel Sapochnik said in interviews that the showrunners insisted on filming the biggest TV battle in history - as in, with the largest number of actual extras fighting on-location, avoiding the use of CGI as much as possible. Moreover, they actually filmed at night, and only used natural lighting from the fires, instead of using a day for night light filter in post production.  The end result, however, is that many major review sites have pointed out that it was frequently difficult to see what's going on during the battle.
 * The showrunners also said they wanted to give the episode a tone similar to the Battle of Helm's Deep from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. That battle was filmed at night, but used set lights so the action could be clearly seen on camera.  This raises another comparison, with the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in the third movie:  in the books, that battle indeed takes place at night, but in the film version it takes place mostly during the day.  In the DVD commentary, the LOTR producers explained that change by pointing out that if the battle took place entirely at night, it would be difficult to see the size of the armies or discern the action on-screen.

Callbacks
This episode includes several callbacks to prior episodes and events:
 * Arya reminds Melisandre what the latter told her in "The Climb" - that they would meet again, that Arya would shut many eyes forever.
 * Melisandre refers to Davos's threat to kill her if she ever returns to the North ("The Winds of Winter").
 * Arya hands Sansa a weapon. Sansa says she does know how to use it, and Arya gives her the same advice Jon gave her in "The Kingsroad" - "stick them with the pointy end".
 * Tyrion and Varys relate to battle of the Blackwater; the Hound is dismayed by the fire, as happened to him in that battle ("Blackwater").
 * Melisandre and Arya say the same sentences Syrio Forel and Arya told each other in "The Pointy End" - "What do we say to the God of Death? Not today".
 * The trick Arya uses to kill the Night King is the same trick she used while sparring with Brienne in "The Spoils of War".

Does the Night King even exist in the novels?
Game of Thrones Wiki Admins directly reached out to George R.R. Martin during Season 6 to ask about the Night King, and he gave a response: his phrasing was cryptic, but seemed to imply that there is no "Night King" in the novels, one central leader of the White Walkers. That the TV show made this up to not only give the main villains a face, but to introduce the plot element that they are a "Keystone Army" (killing the Night King instantly destroys their entire race).

The issue was whether the "Night King" is the same as the "Night's King", a legendary early Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who turned to evil, conducted human sacrifices to the White Walkers, and had to be defeated by the Starks and wildlings. The "Night's King", however, was never a White Walker. The "Night King" (without the apostrophe-"S") of the TV show, however, is presented as being literally the first White Walker, created by the Children of the Forest, and thus an entirely different figure.

The direct quote of Martin's vague response to GoTWiki was:


 * "As for the Night's King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have."

Will any characters die like this in the novels?
In the Inside the Episode featurette, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss casually admit that many character deaths were their ideas - as in, not actually based on future events in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Up to and including major character deaths, they invented their own ending that they like more. Some of these characters might still "die" in the books - but under such different circumstances that it isn't really the same ending.


 * There might not even be a Night King in the novels, but if there is, they state that having Arya Stark kill the Night King was their idea - thus, not what actually happens in Martin's story. Benioff remarks that they knew "for about three years" that Arya would kill the Night King.  Given that this video was made weeks before the episode aired in 2019, that must mean they came up with this idea around 2016...when Season 6 was airing, and they were writing Season 7.  They've even said they consider Seasons 7 and 8 two halves of one big season.  When George R.R. Martin started to realize that the TV show would outpace the books, he had one last big sit-down meeting with Benioff and Weiss, to reveal to them the general outline of the future books:  this meeting took place between the writing of Season 3 and Season 4, around Christmas break 2012.  Thus, through simple math, if Martin told them his ending in 2012, and they "knew" that Arya would kill the Night King in the TV show since 2016, this cannot be the storyline from the future novels.
 * No explanation is even given for how Arya physically managed to sneak up on the Night King...through a horde of wights and other White Walkers who had totally surrounded Bran Stark in the godswood. It isn't simply a matter of "sneaking up" on him, unnoticed, as they had formed a solid ring around the heart tree.  She couldn't have jumped off a castle wall because there aren't any that close to the heart tree, in the center of the enclosed wood.  The camerawork almost makes it look like she jumped from somewhere but with no walls it seems more like she made a flying leap.
 * This episode tries to establish that Melisandre's lines to Arya in Season 3 were prophesying that she would kill the Night King - but the simple chronology of this doesn't match up. Benioff stated that they only got the idea Arya would kill the Night King "three years ago", thus when they were writing Season 7 - thus they could not possibly have known Melisandre was talking about the Night King in Season 3.  For that matter, Melisandre never even meets Arya in the books, so this isn't referring to any prophecy about Arya in the books.
 * By extension, the entire defeat of the White Walkers by simply killing their Evil Overlord to destroy his Keystone Army, may be an invention of the TV series.
 * The showrunners say in the Inside the episode video that they took some time "deciding" how to kill Jorah Mormont - implying that his death now, or at least in this manner, isn't what happens in the books.
 * The showrunners also explain that Lyanna Mormont was originally a one-episode character in Season 6, but they liked actress Bella Ramsey so much that they turned it into a recurring role (they "reconceived the role to make it worthy of the actor's talents"); thus, they explain in the Inside the Episode video, they wanted to give Lyanna a big and memorable death scene. Therefore, this isn't how Lyanna Mormont dies in the books - and she might not even die at all.  So far, however, Lyanna Mormont hasn't appeared directly in them, just the angry letter she sent to Stannis.  Moreover, she has three other sisters in the books, and TV-Lyanna is somewhat of a condensation of all four sisters.
 * While Theon Greyjoy dying to defend Bran Stark in Winterfell itself has thematic resonance, we have no idea if this is how he will die in the novels - or if he even does die in them. Eddison Tollett and Alys Karstark, similarly, may or may not die fighting the White Walkers, but in a different context.  For all three characters, however, the showrunners made no comment one way or the other about whether this was their idea and not Martin's. If there is no Night King in the novels, the context of Theon's death would be at least somewhat different (if he just defends Bran from White Walkers in general).
 * It is quite possible that Melisandre may die by exhausting all of her magical powers to aid in the final battle against the White Walkers, but the context in future books might be very different.

The Prince That Was Promised
Given that the TV showrunners said that Arya Stark killing the Night King was their idea, they may have simply abandoned all of the setup across multiple seasons of The Prince That Was Promised, also known as Azor Ahai in the novels. It is heavily implied that Jon Snow and/or Daenerys Targaryen may be this messiah figure (possibly three people acting together). The entire reason Jon Snow was born is because his father Rhaegar Targaryen was convinced he needed another son, to be the Prince That Was Promised.

Although the legends vary, it seems that during the Long Night 8,000 years ago, the White Walkers were pushed back and defeated by a lone hero who rallied the forces of humanity, wielding a flaming sword called "Lightbringer". It was prophesied that when the White Walkers eventually returned, this hero would be reborn to defeat them once again: thus, the prince that was "promised" to return (the actual term in High Valyrian is gender neutral, better translated as "Ruler That Was Promised" etc.).

This raises some issues for the proposed Long Night prequel TV series headed by Jane Goldman: if the central focus of the Long Night prequel was on "the Prince That Was Promised"...yet the main TV show abandoned this storyline, then it wouldn't have as strong of a connection to the original TV series.

Military tactics
The military tactics used in this episode do not make a lot of sense. Characters seem almost willfully ignorant of what they know about the Army of the Dead, in order to set up dramatic tension.


 * In the preceding two episodes, emphasis was put on all of the new defensive works being built around Winterfell - including a ring of caltrops spiked with dragonglass. When the battle starts, however, all of their forces are positioned in front of their defensive fortifications. With no attempt to funnel the dead into choke points. Time and effort was put into adding dragonglass to the caltrops, which ultimately had no impact on the battle.
 * No reason is given for why all the infantry didn't form up behind the flaming trench. Indeed, the trench filled with flammable pitch was only set on fire after they retreated inside the castle - the only effect being to cover their retreat for a time.
 * The Unsullied are the only force that employs any coherent tactic, by forming up as a rear-guard to cover the retreat of their other forces, and making a phased withdrawal.
 * Some excuse can be more for the Dothraki not forming up behind fortifications, as they are mobile cavalry - but they still charge headlong into complete darkness, with only their flaming swords for light, and are promptly overwhelmed. In the Inside the Episode featurette, the showrunners make no attempt to explain the in-universe reasoning behind this - just that they wanted a dramatic beat of the audience thinking the Dothraki might have some hope with their flaming Arakhs, only to then subvert this by having them wiped out.
 * Few characters in the field battle attempt to use flaming arrows, even though this has proven to be effective against Wights before. Compare this with how volleys of ranged arrow-fire were used during the Battle of the Bastards. The Dothraki are even noted in-universe for their skill as mounted archers, famously employing feigned withdrawals to pick off the enemy with arrow-fire at the Field of Crows. In contrast, Theon is shown to be able to hold off dozens of wights using flaming arrows, until he ran out of them.
 * The showrunners do mention in the Inside the Episode featurette that the dramatic point of explaining the battle plan in the previous episode is that everything would go wrong: they wanted to lure the Night King into attacking Bran Stark in the godswood, then surprise him with two dragons against his one - but then Daenerys couldn't stand to see the Dothraki being slaughtered, so she rushed into the battle to defend them. All this did was alert the Night King that they had two dragons at Winterfell, so he held back from engaging on Viserion and sent forward his army of pawns - exactly as Daenerys was warned to avoid during the battle plan in the preceding episode. The goal was to let enough of their men get killed that the Night King felt confident enough to risk exposing himself.
 * The physical mechanics of the final battle against the White Walkers probably won't be like this in the novels, due to established changes in how Wights function in the TV show. **Wights in the novels aren't capable of running (though they can lunge), while TV-Wights are "fast zombies", capable of running and swarming over enemy infantry formations like a mass of driver ants. It's also unclear if wights in the books are capable of scaling the walls of Winterfell like this.
 * Wights in the novels are not vulnerable to Dragonglass weapons. Only their masters, the White Walkers, are harmed by obsidian weapons. TV writer Dave Hill confirmed last season that this was officially a deliberate change from the novels (apparently in order to have engaged action sequences with wights - it would be impractical for all the actors to be fighting them with flaming swords).
 * Even within the TV show, wights are very vulnerable to fire. In the books, it is explicitly demonstrated that they are unnaturally more flammable than a normal corpse, as if their very flesh was made out of pitch. Even a single spark is enough to set an entire wight ablaze and kill it. While wights are seen being killed by fire in this episode, it isn't as effective as it was in the past: if anything, a tightly bunched mass of wights should be easy to set on fire, as the flames spread from one to the next. It's also unclear if wights could breach a flaming trench as they do in this episode, by just sending so many forward that they somehow smother the flames: it would only add more fuel to the fire.
 * The battle at Winterfell plays out like a combination of elements from the Battle of the Bastards and the Massacre at Hardhome:
 * In the Battle of the Bastards, the leadup emphasized the battle plan that they wanted to lure the Bolton army into attacking their defensive formations - only for Jon Snow to become so upset at friendly forces (Rickon Stark) under threat of death, that he rushed out of formation to try to save him - at which point the Stark formations devolved into a melee, and ultimately had to be saved by an external force (the Vale army). In this battle, it is Daenerys who rushes ahead and breaks formation because she is upset at the threat to friendly forces, ruining their entire, pre-stated battle plan - and ultimately they have to be saved by an external force (in this case, Arya sneaking up to kill the Night King).
 * At Hardhome, the White Walkers near instantly slaughtered all of the wildlings who happened to be outside the town walls, and then they advanced in seething swarms that overran their positions. Jon Snow was there, and saw this - yet now at Winterfell, he still chooses to put all of their forces in front of their new earthworks and caltrops.
 * The defenders should have expected that anyone who'd get killed would be reanimated on the spot and turn against the defenders - because this is also exactly what happened at Hardhome, which Jon Snow personally witnessed. They might not have had time to burn their dead, but this only comes back to the earlier point: if they know the enemy can turn their own dead against them, why did they rush men out to fight them, instead of focusing on defending choke points?
 * The production team made frequent remarks leading up to this episode's premiere that they wanted the "battle" for Winterfell to really be a "survival horror" (even though a field battle isn't like that). As this played out, halfway through the episode, after Winterfell is largely overrun the fighting shifts genres into characters sneaking around the interiors of Winterfell trying to run from the wights.
 * The scene of Arya Stark sneaking through the Winterfell library avoiding wights lasts a full four minutes with no dialogue or music, just playing off reaction shots on Maisie Williams' face. No sounds of external fighting outside the castle can be heard, treating it as a horror scene, even though later scenes show that Jaime, Brienne, and others are still fighting in the courtyard.
 * After the Night King is knocked onto the ground, Daenerys desperately flies Drogon away to avoid his ice-javelin, the same kind that killed Viserion. He only had one javelin, however, and it missed - but no explanation is given why Daenerys just continue to flee.

In the books
[This section will be updated with comparisons when the sixth and seventh novels are released.]

Memorable quotes
Sansa Stark: "The most heroic thing we can do now is look the truth in the face."

Jon Snow: "The Night King is coming." Daenerys Targaryen: "The dead are already here."

Brienne of Tarth: "Stand your ground!"