“Game of Thrones” hyped mega-long battle episode ended with a bang — but it surprisingly didn’t have as many deaths as you might have thought.
Spoilers below for the third episode of Season 8, “The Long Night.”
The main casualties were Theon (Alfie Allen), who charged the Night King while defending Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright), bringing his redemption journey to a close to atone for trying to take over Winterfell and kill the Stark boys in Season 2.
He paid the ultimate price to atone.
Then there was Daenerys’s ever-loyal friend and advisor Jorah Mormont (Iain Glenn), who heroically defended her against the army of the dead before succumbing to his injuries, and his cousin, sassy little Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey), who had a hero’s death as she brought down an undead giant with her.
Jon’s Night’s Watch buddy Edd (Ben Crompton) also fell while saving a flustered Sam on the battlefield, and along with Lyanna and the Dothraki leader, he was later resurrected as a terrifying Wight.
And of course, the Night King fell thanks to Arya Stark slaying him, which we predicted two weeks ago, not to brag or anything.
A girl killed Death. And she did it using the same Valerian steel dagger that was used in an attempt to assassinate Bran — Littlefinger’s dagger.
Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) also died after helping the Winterfell troops with her fire powers. She took her necklace off, aging into an old woman, and fell.
Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer), the only character besides Jon who has been resurrected by Red Priests, also saw his final death tonight. Dany’s dragon Drogon also looked like he was in rough shape, but he flew off into the dark before we could see if his injuries were fatal.
There are several characters whose fates remain unclear, because nobody seems to have told “Game of Thrones” that having a battle episode at night really should have uh, at least some lighting.
Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) and Gilly (Hannah Murray) both looked like they were in peril, but the camera cut away. Presumably, they’re important enough to warrant real death scenes — so we’ll mark them as safe for now.
All in all, no main characters died, but they suffered heavy losses and will likely be changed by this horrific experience.
Expect this to inform their decisions going forward — the savvy Sansa, who normally relies on her formidable brains, now has experience in the field with a knife, and Daenerys has lost one of her loyal friends. With some of the top political players reeling and off their game, anything could happen now.
