What Is Left After The Long Night?

The ending of “The Long Night” was one of the most jaw-dropping moments ever on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Never in a million years did I expect the episode to end the way it did—and only halfway into the final season no less! But now that the Battle of Winterfell has reached its shocking conclusion, what is left after the Long Night?

Back To The Game Of Thrones

It appears Cersei is now the final antagonist on Game of Thrones. While I had expected the Night King would define the conflict until at least the penultimate episode of Season 8, Cersei has always been the better villain.  And this may be how George R.R. Martin had planned it, too.

For one, his first book was titled A Game of Thrones. It was also inspired by the historical War of the Roses, the fifteenth-century conflict that decided who would sit on the English throne. Not surprisingly, most of the show’s key events have involved the many clashes between the Lanisters, Starks, and Baratheons. Oh, and the Targaryians too, though Daenerys has only been on Westeros for a season and a half. Palace intrigue, plotting, and murder have been the show’s bread and butter, so it seems fitting to end there.

Cersei is also a master at the game of thrones. She was the one who arranged the death of her husband, King Robert, which allowed the Lannisters to secretly take the Iron Throne. She’s also eliminated her long list of enemies one by one. The Lanisters murdered Robb Stark at the Red Wedding, even though that plot was more her father Tywin’s doing. She blew Margaery Tyrell and the High Sparrow to smithereens, and she and Jaime outwitted the Queen of Thorns. And she decimated the Sand Snakes who ruled Dorne. Now she will turn her aim toward Daenerys and Jon Snow, and I suspect her initial efforts will prove successful. My guess is that some of the characters who survived the Long Night won’t escape Cersei Lannister.

Will the North Bend The Knee?

Sana’s brief exchange with Tyrion in the crypts during the battle of Winterfell suggests she still has a problem with the Dragon Queen, even if Dany was out there trying to save the North. Even more, it turns out that Arya Stark was the one who truly saved the realm. So what does that make her? Arya can’t go back to being merely the little sis of Jon and Sansa. I suspect she’ll become a hero to the Northerners, and I bet Arya will throw her support behind Sansa in a heartbeat.

Then there is the powder keg that is Jon’s parentage. What will happen when the Northerners learn that Jon is the rightful Targaryen king? Will they turn on him? Or back him over Dany?

Which brings us to Daenerys. I don’t think her near defeat at the hands of the wights has dampened her lust for the Iron Throne. The show has shown us very little about her reaction to Jon’s parentage, except for concluding that he could be a threat to her claim to the throne. (The creepy aunt-nephew thing be damned!) The real question, however, is what Jon will do. He never wanted the Iron Throne, and now the one thing that has motivated him since Season One—the threat of the White Walkers—is gone. Who knows what will drive him going forward? I could see him joining in an attack on Cersei. After all, the Lannisters did kill Ned Stark, who raised Jon like a father, and revenge is a powerful motive. But I doubt it will be that easy. Even with the White Walkers gone, I suspect the tension between ice (the Starks) and fire (Dany) is about to explode into full-blown conflict.

Has Bran’s Story Ended?

The ending of “The Long Night” is probably destined to become an iconic moment in television history. Arya, out of nowhere, killed the Night King! It was so breathtaking, I had to go back and watch the ending three times. But does this mean Arya is Azor Ahai? Or The Prince Who Was Promised? Reconciling her with either prophecy is hard. But it was a huge twist that I think few people saw coming. If this is how George R.R. Martin intended it, kudos to him for setting up Arya’s wonderful tale and giving meaning to those long nights in the House of Black and White. Maybe the prophecies have always been a red herring—something to lead Melisandre astray until she finally saw “the light.”

But what does this sudden ending mean for Bran’s tale? The Three-Eyed Raven has always concerned himself with the Night King; he has never cared about mortal kings. Is he truly going to spend the next three episodes being some supernatural spy for Jon and Sansa? That seems totally out of character for such a mystical being, unless Bran has been freed from his Three-Eyed Raven duties now that the Night King is gone.

And speaking of the Night King, did his 10,000-year threat to Westeros end in one well-timed dagger strike by Arya Stark? Is that all it took to end the nightmare of eternal winter? If so, it feels a bit anticlimactic, without taking anything away from how great the episode was. But could it really have been that easy?

Is the Night King Truly Gone?

We all saw him blasted into a thousand shards of ice, so it sure seems so. But fantasy tales have a way of bringing back their dark lords, and one need look no further than The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter for a  theory on how he might have survived. After all, we saw Sauron meet a similar “death” in the opening images of the film version of The Fellowship of Thre Ring,  but he survived by transferring a portion of his lifeforce into the One Ring. Ditto for Lord Voldemort with his Horcruxes. At times, Martin has tried to stay away from fantasy tropes, but there are plenty of examples from A Song of Ice and Fire where he has embraced them. So, even while the game of thrones is reaching its endgame, might an old threat re-emerge in the North, such that history will be bound to repeat itself?  Only time will tell, but it sure would give Bran something to do.

* Images courtesy of HBO.