Game Of Thrones Season 8: 9 Ups And 2 Downs From 'The Long Night'

1. It's Too Soon

And so, that's it. The Night King, the White Walkers, the ENTIRE army of the dead are gone. Just like that.

Part of the issue with this is to have two truncated final seasons. While Season 8 has already been a major improvement, some of the flaws of Season 7 have still hindered it, not least how quickly they're blowing through so much story. But even within the context of a six-episode season, this feels overly sudden.

From the very beginning, we've been reminded that the White Walkers are the real threat. Yes, the political machinations have driven the show, but it's always been against the backdrop of that threat slowly making its way south. This is a story about the futility of war; that all the petty squabbling wasn't going to matter compared to literal death.

And yet, for all of that setup, this is the first time the Night King himself has properly entered the fray. This is the first time we've had a proper battle with the dead, rather than the living being caught off-guard. And at the first time of asking, he dies? Yes, it's an awesome moment for Arya. Yes, it's a shock and it subverts expectations. But that doesn't necessarily equate to good storytelling. It's good that it'll end with the human characters - and bring Cersei into the story again at last - but there should be a way of doing that without also rushing this.

Going back to the squabbling over the Throne after facing THIS feels almost inconsequential, but it's more so that it happens after making the Night King feel inconsequential by killing him so easily and quickly, without really learning much about him at all. Why did he have three stare downs with Jon Snow without killing him? Why was he only now marching south anyway? Why exactly is he impervious to dragonfire? These questions won't be answered by the show. The White Walkers marched because the plot demanded it. They've died so they can change what that plot is. The show built them up to be the major villains, and the Night King most of all. You don't write those aforementioned showdowns if they're going to mean nothing. And yet, here we are. Coming into this season, it felt imperative that the show got the White Walkers right: that they needed to do more, show more, be more. The ending to this episode is undeniably shocking. It's even really cool (no pun intended). But it's also an anticlimax to the story between the living and the dead.

What did you think of The Long Night? Let us know down in the comments.