"Game of Thrones" season 8, episode 3 titled, "The Long Night," featured a rather controversial moment that divided the whole fandom. I am, of course, referring to the final minutes of the episode, when Arya Stark stabbed the Night King with the Valyrian steel dagger that Bran gave her in Season 7. It caused the White Walker leader and his minions to shatter to pieces.

While some fans believe this episode was the greatest thing that has ever aired, on a small or a big screen for that matter, others think that the Night King's death not only ruined the episode, but also the entire White Walker storyline and the series as a whole.

This may be a little too harsh, but it doesn't change the fact that the scene was riddled with problems. It felt cheap, unrealistic, and extremely underwhelming. I'll explain.

How did Arya sneak up on Night King so easily?

First of all, I've got to say that I have nothing against Arya delivering the final blow to the Night King. I do, however, have problems with how she did it.

I mean, are we supposed to believe that Arya, after hiding in terror from like ten scattered wights in the Winterfell library somehow gets by the White Walker generals in the Godswood, and is somehow catapulted right onto the chest of the Night King? It's too much for a semi-qualified inexperienced assassin. And yes, I said inexperienced because poisoning people and killing crying men on their knees don't really count.

You see, it's one thing to sneak around a dark dusty library dodging mindless wights, but outsmarting the White Walker generals in an open space and sneaking up to the Night King like that is something else entirely. If that was so easy, then why would the First Men bother building a giant ice Wall after the first Long Night to keep the White Walkers out when someone could just sneak up and stab the Night King as Arya did?

As The Irish Times pointed out, the whole concept of Arya being this super-assassin doesn't hold up. She may have studied stick-fighting and face changing, but in reality, she is nowhere near the level of a fully-fledged Faceless Assassin.

The problem with Melisandre's prophecy

Melisandre's "eyes you'll shut forever" prophecy as the foreshadowing of Arya killing the Night King is utter nonsense.

"I see a darkness in you," Melisandre tells Arya in Season 3, episode 6, "And in that darkness eyes staring back at me - brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes."

And in Season 8. episode 3, Melisandre repeats the same line to Arya, only this time she emphasizes the blue eyes part as she knew all along that Arya was destined to kill the Night King. It felt forced. It felt like the showrunners altered the meaning of that prophecy. Turns out this is exactly what they did.

In the "Inside the Episode" interview, the showrunners said that they didn't know that Arya was going to be the one who kills the Night King until three years ago, which means right before the filming of Season 7. This statement all but proves that Melisandre's prophecy didn't refer to Arya killing the Night King when she said it in Season 3.

My point is that they shouldn't have brought this prophecy up at all in Season 8, not just because it felt cheap, but also because it spoiled that Arya will kill Cersei, you know, because of the "green eyes" part. If that turns out to be true, Arya might as well rule Westeros in the end with Gendry by her side, and the showrunners could make this whole series about Arya. Talk about butchering the story. Am I right?

There were a lot more problems with this episode, such as turning the Night King into a generic baddie with no depth, thus ruining the entire eight-season built-up, Bran doing absolutely nothing, and Jon Snow screaming at the dragon like a crazy person. But despite all these problems, I am going to finish this post with a hope that the showrunners can redeem themselves with some kind of a twist that is worthy of "Game of Thrones."

And if not, well, let's just hope "The Winds of Winter" comes out soon enough.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED