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Here's What You Should Know About The Night King After This Week's 'GOT' Episode

by Dylan Kickham
HBO

Game of Thrones finally gave fans the episode we have been waiting for since the fantasy epic first began. Sunday night's new episode focused solely on the climactic battle between the Night King's army of the dead and everyone living in Westeros. And of course, the final moments left everyone completely shaken. Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, "The Long Night." At long last, the Night King appears to have finally been defeated, but is the Night King really dead on Game of Thrones? Nothing is ever as it seems on this show, after all.

Sunday night's new episode finally gave Game of Thrones fans the epic battle that we have waited over seven seasons for. The super-sized, 82-minute episode was entirely focused on the Battle of Winterfell, as the Night King's army of White Walkers and Wights brought a wave of destruction and devastation into Winterfell. While most of the characters were focused on staving off the endless hordes of undead ice zombies pouring into Winterfell, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen took to the skies on their dragons to have an epic aerial battle against the Night King on his own dragon.

At one point, it looks like Daenerys has the whole battle won when the Night King is standing helpless on the ground while Dany is flying over him on her dragon. But shocking, when Dany orders her dragon to incinerate him, the Night King is totally unaffected by the flames!

HBO

This is a major shock since fire is one of the only two things that are known to kill White Walkers. The moment seems to confirm a popular fan theory that the Night King may have actually been a Targaryen before his transformation, since (as we all remember from Dany's arc in Season 1) fire cannot kill a Targaryen.

The moment comes as a major disappointment for everyone watching, since it seems to suggest the Night King may be unkillable, but then Arya Stark pops in to save the day. In the final moments, the Night King is advancing towards Bran, seemingly his goal all along, but before he can reach him, Arya sneak attacks the Night King and stabs him in the chest. We then see the Night King disintegrate into shards of ice and his entire army follows suit, thus ending the battle.

But, even though we saw the Night King break apart... does that really mean he is gone for good? After all, there are still so many questions that we have about the Night King, and he has long been teased to be a hugely important character and likely a big part of the show's series finale. Are we really to expect the final three episodes to wrap up the series without anything more about the Night King? Fans still want to know more about what the mysterious icy warlord had been planning for Westeros, and what his true identity may have been. Oh, and how he was connected to Bran Stark. It seems impossible for the show to end without giving us these answers, and that could possibly mean the Night King coming back in some form or another in the remaining few episode. Anything is possible on this show.