HBO
WARNING: This post contains spoilers concerning the Battle of Winterfell from the latest episode of “Game of Thrones.” If you somehow haven’t seen the episode yet AND somehow haven’t had it spoiled then consider me impressed. If you want to keep it that way, I suggest you stop reading and watch it ASAP.
After a very nice 69 episodes of buildup, Game of Thrones fans were finally treated to the showdown we’ve been eagerly awaiting for over seven seasons on Sunday night when the Battle of Winterfell finally went down.
Things might have literally gotten off to a hot start when Melisandre made her grand return and lit the weapons of the Dothraki on fire but their charge was relatively short-lived and it was only a matter of time until our heroes saw themselves facing the military equivalent of a 28-3 deficit.
Sorry Falcons fans.
Things looked particularly dire as the Night King descended upon the Godswood, where Theon and the Iron Borne did their best to protect a particularly useless Bran before getting mercilessly slaughtered.
Thankfully, everything changed when Arya came off the top rope and vanquished the Night King once and for all with her Valyrian steel dagger and caused viewers around the world to absolutely lose their shit.
However, there was one person who didn’t think people would be too receptive of the scene: Arya herself—or, more accurately, the actor that portrays her.
After the episode blew everyone’s mind, Maisie Williams spoke with Entertainment Weekly and revealed she thought viewers would want someone else to deliver the fatal blow after reading the script for the first time, saying:
“It was so unbelievably exciting. But I immediately thought that everybody would hate it; that Arya doesn’t deserve it.”
“The hardest thing in any series is when you build up a villain that’s so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them. It has to be intelligently done because otherwise, people are like, ‘Well, [the villain] couldn’t have been that bad when some 100-pound girl comes in and stabs him.
You gotta make it cool. And then I told my boyfriend and he was like, ‘Mmm, should be Jon though really, shouldn’t it?’”
Good call, boyfriend. You really nailed that one.