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Just 8 details you might’ve missed in Game of Thrones' Battle of Winterfell.

 

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3. If you’re not caught up on the latest episode, bookmark us and come back once you’re ready to properly debrief.

Hi, hello. Have your nerves recovered from episode three of Game of Thrones season 8 yet? OK. Good. Because there is a LOT to unpack from the 82-minute long Battle of Winterfell and lots of details you may have missed. Especially if you had to keep ‘going to the bathroom’ because you were so stressed out (just me?!). There is also a very real chance you missed some stuff because you literally couldn’t see what was going on. Thanks for turning up, Melisandre.

‘The Long Night’ was so bloody intense from the moment the Dothraki (RIP) lights went out on the battlefield to little Lyanna Mormont’s valiant final act, and if your heart wasn’t in your mouth when all your favourites in the crypts looked like they were all but doomed, then you have nerves of Valyrian steel.

Speaking of which, the episode culminated in everyone’s favourite assassin Arya Stark leaping out of nowhere and pulling some sick moves on the Night King, killing him with a Valyrian steel dagger, therefore killing the rest of the Wights and White Walkers, and saving the whole damn day.

Need to debrief about Game Of Thrones last night? Clare Stephens and Holly Wainwright are here for you…

Game of Thrones is undoubtedly one of the cleverest shows of all time in the way of symbolism, theories coming to life, callbacks and characters foreshadowing future events in seemingly innocuous ways. There were clues Arya would kill the Night King way back when we were all simply getting our heads around how many players were even in the game of thrones.

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Here are some of the details you may have missed from the Battle of Winterfell.

Arya gives Sansa the exact same advice Jon Snow gave her in season one.

As callbacks go, this is a pretty obvious one, but we were stoked nonetheless to hear Arya utter the exact same advice to Sansa that Jon Snow gave her in season one, episode two.  

Sansa says she doesn’t know what to do with the dragonglass dagger Arya has given her and Arya tells her: “Stick ‘em with the pointy end.”

Jon told Arya the same thing when he gave her Needle before he left Winterfell.

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How our little girl has grown.

Arya, the prince that was promised?

After getting it all so very, very wrong with Stannis Barratheon, Melisandre seems to have redeemed herself with that whole ‘prince that was promised’ prophecy. The Red Woman believes in the reincarnation of Azor Ahai, a legendary warrior, who will come back to save the day. She was spruiking Stannis hard as the ‘prince that was promised’ until he died in battle. It then kind of looked like Jon Snow could fulfil the prophecy when she brought him back to life.

But, if last night’s episode is anything to go by, we have a princess that was promised in Arya. It works because Arya disguised herself as a boy for so long and the fact she’s got all those faces.

Melisandre revealed the reason the Lord of Light kept bringing Beric back from the dead was to serve a purpose: saving Arya from the White Walkers. Which he did, before finally dying for real.

Arya got a very big nudge in the direction of the Night King.

Melisandre basically sent Arya in the direction of old mate the Night King by asking her the same question that master sword-fighter Syrio Forel used to ask Arya when he was training her: “What do we say to the god of death?” The answer being “Not today.” Obviously the Night King symbolises death itself so when Arya answers “Not today” to Melisandre, it was go time.

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Cersei could very well be the next to die on Game of Thrones.

Melisandre’s presence in ‘The Long Night’ was also super significant in terms of foreshadowing. Melisandre makes reference to ‘blue eyes’ in the episode which is essentially her reminding Arya of what she prophesied when they met in season three, episode three: “I see a darkness in you. And in that darkness eyes staring back at me – brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you’ll shut forever. We will meet again.”

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Didn't think much of this at the time...
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It made zero sense at the time but think about it now. We’ve got the brown eyes covered - Arya killing Walder Frey. We’ve got the blue eyes covered - see ya later, Night King. How’s about those green eyes... Cersei Lannister? Melisandre predicted two out of three. And that ain’t bad. Arya could be the one to kill Queen Cersei...

Arya’s dagger trick was similar to one she pulled on Brienne of Tarth. (Sorry, Ser Brienne of Tarth.)

Ooft. We thought Arya was a goner when the Night King grabbed her, but silly us, she’s actually shown us her little dagger-flip move before.

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It’s a similar move to one she pulled on Ser Brienne of Tarth towards the end of last season.

The dagger that saves Bran was the dagger intended to kill Bran.

OK, so this was perfect. This dagger has had a journey.

It basically caused sh*t to hit the fan in the first place as it was the dagger the hitman used to try to kill Bran with after he caught twins Cersei and Jaime getting busy with it. The fact the dagger is Valyrian steel made it a dead giveaway that it wasn’t some commoner’s dagger.

Catelyn Stark took it to Littlefinger who said he lost it in a bet to Tyrion Lannister (lies, of course), prompting Catelyn to arrest Tyrion, sparking the War of the Five Kings.

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Littlefinger...being Littlefinger. Image: HBO

Ned Stark holds the dagger briefly before Littlefinger betrays him and keeps it with him for seasons on end before eventually (smugly) gifting it to Bran Stark, telling him it was the dagger intended to kill him.

Bran gifts it straight to Arya which seemed significant (coz kid knows everything) and she later slits Littlefinger’s throat with it. Karma.

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Sam reading about the Valyrian steel dagger.

Of course, much has also been made of the fact Valyrian steel will kill a White Walker, thanks to Samwell Tarly discovering it in his books at the Citadel.

Anyways, when Arya plunged the dagger into the Night King, it really was a symbolic touch. Saving Bran with the dagger that was intended to kill him.

Et voila, a journey indeed.

The weirwood tree where the Night King met his end is significant.

Arya snuck up on Jon Snow as he stood by the weirwood tree in an earlier episode, mirroring how she’d eventually spring out of nowhere to kill the Night King in the exact same spot. Another little detail we didn't think much about at the time.

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Remember when you found out where the Night King came from and realised he was quite attractive as a human? Image: HBO.

It’s also significant the Night King dies in front of the weirwood tree as he was created in front of one when the children of the forest plunged a knife into his heart to make him the very first White Walker.

GHOST IS ALIVE.

Saving the most important news for last, it appears we have confirmation that Jon’s direwolf Ghost, last seen heading into battle with the whole gang, is alive and well. Phew.

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Ghost was spotted by eagle-eyed viewers in the trailer for episode four and honestly we can all rest a little easier now. Well, until the next episode at least.

Did we miss anything? Tell us in the comments!

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