First and foremost: ‘The Long Night’, season 8, episode 3 of Game of Thrones, is a magnificent example of filmmaking. Director Miguel Sapochnik outdid himself with this epic battle. Every scene, no, every shot, is a special effects shot. The pacing is perfect, the tension palpable, there’s dragons, Ghost the direwolf, a giant, the Night King, a lot of fire and a massive icy storm front. Still, many fans of the show (and books) were disappointed.
Don’t believe the ‘official’ reviews of any tv show or movie, because the big outlets have lost their credibility. They can never be too critical, because pop culture magazines (in print or solely as a website) need their exclusive access. Their access can be revoked with a single email. So they have to walk a very narrow line between giving honest reviews and pleasing production companies.
As a reader, you can’t tell if and when they wander away from that line, therefor their opinion pieces are no longer credible. To get an accurate idea about the common consensus about any movie or tv series episode, you’d best scan the message boards.
Message Boards
And this is what the message boards say: people don’t like ‘The Long Night’. I can understand why, and it’s not just Game of Thrones‘ fault. The show seems to have caught a virus called ‘subvert expectations’. In the last few years, writers of tv series (and movies, especially sequel movies) are setting things up, but never deliver a decent payoff. They say it’s because they want to surprise the audience, and in order to do that, they throw all their setups out the window, and deliberately jump the shark.
This current sickness in Hollywood is best illustrated by J.J. Abrams, who basically said a movie is nothing more than a ‘mystery box’. His idea of telling a story is giving the audience a truckload of mysteries to chew on, without any intention of solving them, because J.J. does not work with a plan. He – and many others – work with their whims instead.
The Dagger
Even though George R.R. Martin had outlined the story of ‘A Song Of Ice And Fire’ after Benioff and Weiss had run out of books to adapt, there are so many mysteries left, so many threads still dangling, that will never be explained. As Weiss said in Game Revealed (the short documentary about the production process of ‘The Long Night’), the audience just has to figure things out for themselves – when talking about the dagger that killed the Night King.
This appears to be the writers’ motto; throwing a lot of stuff against the wall, making the fanbase guess what it all could mean, and then abandoning it. We’re not going to tell you what it means, na na na na na.
Who is the Night King?
In terms of setups that will likely never be explained: the Night King. Who is he? We’ve seen how he was created (by the Children of the Forest, with dragonglass), but why? And why him? Why did he wait so long to make his move? What role did Craster’s babies play? What did he want with/from Bran? Sam told us the Night King just wants an endless winter and kill everybody because he doesn’t like history.
Really? That’s the only explanation we’re ever going to get?
Maybe not. There’s a prequel series in the works, that will focus on The Long Night (the first one), so we might get some answers in a few years time.
Hope
But I think many of the fans are done hoping. They’re done with the pointless foreshadowing. Look at episode 2, ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms‘. The interactions between Grey Worm and Jaime, Jaime and Brienne, Grey Worm and Missandei, Arya and Gendry. Their scenes all seemed to foreshadow something, specifically during this week’s big battle. But no. We hardly saw any of them – except for Arya.
Arya was chosen to be the hero. Benioff states that having Jon kill the Night King didn’t feel right. It’s interesting what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t mention George R.R. Martin. Maybe because he doesn’t want to spoil the end of the book series? Or maybe because he wants to hide the fact that he’s been picking and choosing from Martin’s outline?
Ice Spiders
And then there was the expectation of ice spiders that wasn’t met. The audience didn’t just make up ice spiders; Benioff and Weiss planted that idea in our heads, back in season 1. Now, I can understand you would abandon that idea along the way. The ice spiders were nothing more but a footnote in Old Nan’s stories. However, if you indeed decide not to include them in the show, why bring them up again in season 5 (in the episode ‘Hardhome’)?
That’s a clear sign of the virus called ‘subvert expectations’. To make your audience expect something, and then just drop it completely.
Bran
Maybe I’m talking out of turn. The show’s not over yet. There are three more episodes to go, in which we might receive all the payoffs we are eagerly waiting for. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. Are we going to get an explanation of what exactly Bran was doing during the attack on Winterfell? He warged into a raven, but why? Now, my guess is Bran did a little bit of time traveling. Putting ideas into people’s heads. Pairing Arya with Jaqen H’ghar, for example, so she’d be persuaded to go to Braavos and learn how to be the perfect assassin.
I have no reason to think this. The episode just showed us ravens and told us to figure it out for ourselves.
It all comes down to this: the clock is ticking. The fans are getting anxious. Three more episodes and none of the big questions have been answered. The show’s running out of time. That’s probably the reason nobody likes this episode; people want answers, not violence. No matter how well directed the episode was – and maybe in time they’ll learn to love it – but at this point in time, it has done whatever the opposite of satisfy is.
The Black Ox 