Finally the battle! After the first two episodes, it was time to see our protagonists arm themselves with swords, bows and arrows and fight against the common enemy, the Night King and the complete army of White Walkers. The Long Night, best known as Battle of Winterfell, the third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones, opens with Winterfell lined up and ready for the massacre. Everyone is in position, Jon and Daenerys riding their dragons, the Dothraki on the front line, the brutes with Tormund and the Night’s Watchmen with Sam, Edd Tollett, Beric and The Hound just behind, and just before the trench, the Immaculate with Jorah Mormont, Melisandre and Ghost. In the courtyard the young Lyanna Mormont and on the walls Jaime, Brienne, Podrick, Arya and Sansa who will then reach Missandei, Gilly, Tyrion and Varys in the crypt.

In the Godswood Bran escorted by Theon and just before the forest the Army of the Dead. 

Ah, I forgot! Cersei comfortably seated on the Iron Throne at King’s Landing. 

The Battle of Winterfell can begin. 

The flaming swords

In order to give hope to the army of Winterfell, Melisandre intervenes and with a spell, she makes all the blades of the Dothraki swords fiery. This gesture, however, is not new to us, in fact, it immediately reminds us of Beric Dondarrion, who unlike The Red Woman has no need to say a word.

The spell pronounced by Melisandre is in Valyrian, the language invented by David J. Peterson, also the inventor of the Dothraki language, who shared with the world the exact words: “Āeksios Ōño, aōhos ōñoso ōñoso ilōn jehikās! Āsios Ōño, ilōn misās! Kesrio syt bantis zābrie issa se ossȳngnoti lēdys!” (“Lord of Light! Come to us in our darkness. We offer you these false gods. Take them and cast your light upon us. For the night is dark and full of terrors.”).

Arya and Sansa

On the walls, side by side, the Stark sisters prepare for the battle in two totally different ways. Arya is ready to fight, after all, she has been preparing for seven seasons, while Sansa begins to feel fear and to feel unprepared. That’s why she confides in her sister who hands her a dagger, Sansa takes him and says she can’t use it. 

Arya’s answer, who tells her “Stick ’em with the pointy end“, immediately reminds us of Jon’s first advice to the little girl from Casa Stark when he gave her the needle, but if Arya made this advice her own, Sansa doesn’t seem to be prepared to learn. 

The Hound

The battle begins and, as often happens, the war reveals the greatest personal fears. This is exactly what happens to The Hound who seems to get stuck and can no longer recover. If you are wondering why you should know that the solution lies in the fire, of which the Hound is deeply terrified. His fear is related to when his brother put half his face on the fire, which gave him his famous scar. 

Arya and Melisandre

This is not the first time that The Red Women and Arya Stark have met, in fact, the two protagonists met each other in the third season. It is precisely in their first dialogue that an important clue is hidden, which even then could have made us understand that it would be Arya who would kill the Night King and now makes us think that she will kill Cersei. Melisandre said, “Brown eyes, green eyes, blue eyes…eyes you’ll shut forever.“

With brown eyes she referred to all the people she has killed in these seasons, with blue eyes to the King of the Night and, at this point, we think that the green eyes refer to those of Cersei.

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Arya, Not Today

This is perhaps one of the most emblematic scenes of the episode. Nestled within Winterfell, for The Hound, Melisandre, and Arya it seems that there is no hope when the Red Woman, quoting the words of Syrio Forel, Arya’s sword master, reminds little Stark who she is and what her task is.

“- What do we say to the god of death? 
– Not today.”

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The Valyrian steel dagger

By now we have learned that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss leave nothing to chance, as, for example, with regard to the weapon with which Arya kills and definitively defeats the Night King. 

It is Valyrian steel daggerr with a very particular shape, difficult to forget, in fact, its story begins with that of all the others in the first season. 

The first time we see him is, in fact, during one of the first episodes, when a Lannister mercenary enters the room where Bran was hospitalized, after the famous fall from the tower of Winterfell, trying to kill the son of Ned Stark. 

Having taken possession of the dagger, Catelyn Stark takes it with her to King’s Landing where she tries in every way to find out who it belongs to, going so far as to officially accuse Tyrion Lannister. Here it passes into the hands of Little Finger who will use it to arrest Nerd Stark in the throne room.

After being finished, almost inexplicably in the hands of Arya, the dagger also appears in one of the books stolen by Sam from the library of the Citadel, this led us to think that this weapon was the key to everything, and in fact…

But there’s something else very familiar about the mother scene in Battle of Winterfell. Arya’s move, that of passing the dagger from one hand to the other, thus unexpectedly hitting his opponent, we’ve already seen her doing it during a training session in the courtyard of Winterfell against Brienne.

By the way, it’s no coincidence that Arya hits the King of the Night at the very spot where the forest’s children pushed the dragon glass into the chest of the first White Walker.

Who dies

The first we watch die are the Dothraki and with them Qhono who, after Kahl Drogo, had decided to follow Daenerys and fight for her cause alongside the Unsullied.

We can say that Edd Tollett is one of the secondary characters we are most fond of. The Night’s Watchman has always been at Jon’s side, both at the Wall and beyond it, during the Battle of the Bastards and also in the latter which, however, was not at all lenient with him. And now his Watch is ended.

One of the deaths that perhaps made us suffer the most is that of Lyanna Mormont, literally crushed by the giant. But the young Lady never gives up, managing, just before exhaling her last breath, to stab the giant, making him fall in exactly the same place where he was killed by Bolton in the sixth season.

For a long time, we wondered why the God of Light had brought Beric back to life and now we discover that his task was to protect Arya, allowing her to kill the Night King. Beric Dondarrion’s is certainly one of the most honorable deaths, but he does not take first place.

The most honorable death is, in fact, that of Theon Greyjoy who, to protect Bran, resists to the end, managing to find the courage and strength to face the Night King in person. Theon is certainly the character with the most tragic and surprising evolution and path that, in the end, led him to fight for what has always been his family.

Lyanna is not the only one from House Mormont to leave us. After eight seasons we are forced to say goodbye to Jorah, a character who has divided the audience between those who love him and those who hate him. His place has always been at the side of his beloved Daenerys and it is for her, and next to her, that he dies.

Melisandre‘s death had already been announced by herself. Once the battle is over, her task is over and this life has nothing more for her.

The episode ends so, leaving us many doubts about the survival of other characters who, fortunately, are immediately remedied by the trailer of the next episode in which we watch Dany and Jon, but also Jaime and Brienne, Grey Worm and Missandei and Ghost, of which during the Battle we lost track. We also have the confirmation that both dragons of Daenerys are alive and ready to march on King’s Landing.

At this point, there are still many questions. Was this the great battle or the one that will come? Was the King of the Night the real enemy or is it Cersei? Or maybe Daenerys?