3 major reasons why fans are dissatisfied with the Battle of Winterfell

Game of Thrones – “The Long Night”. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

Here are the three major reasons why hard core Game of Thrones fans are throwing down over the Battle of Winterfell, starting with some old prophecies.

If you are anything like me, then your heart was in your throat from the moment your clammy hands hit play on Sunday night’s episode of Game of Thrones (and you also pre-adjusted your TV’s brightness before the episode even started). Here it was, the culmination of eight years worth of intricate planning and build-up. The largest possible threat to the very existence of the realm was finally at Winterfell’s doorstep, and fans were expecting suspense, surprise, and bloodshed. What many fans were left with instead, was a seeming emptiness at the loss of its potential.

Game of Thrones has always been famous for its subversion of expectations. We have seen it with Ned Stark’s execution, with the Red Wedding, Jon Snow’s death, and Cersei’s (many) betrayals. And though these events were far from happy for the audience to experience, they are held in such reverence by fans for their implications and adherence to theme.

Ned’s unshakable honor being his downfall, or Robb Stark’s love for Talisa causing him to break his oaths, eventually bringing the Red Wedding upon himself. All of these prior twists have deep connections to the themes of the story: love, honor, memory, and never have they invalidated the vastly interconnected story line preceding them. Which brings us to “The Long Night.”

This is not a review of the episode, and I will try my best from critiquing it on its own merits. The lighting has been lambasted on social media already, and the tactics used in the battle were laughable.

Instead, I’ll look at the following: how choices made during “The Long Night” effectively invalidate major portions of the show’s prophecies, themes, and character arcs; how the rest of the final season may pan out because of them; and just why fans (book readers especially) are a little miffed at Arya’s epic assassination.