Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for the Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night;" read at your own caution.

Overview

The Battle of Winterfell refers to the colloquial name for the Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night". The episode is considered by many to be the climax of the entire series, which was capped by an 82-minute battle sequence, among the longest and most expensive in television history. The episode inspired a range of reactions, including issues with the episode's lighting.

Background

On April 28th, 2019, HBO aired episode three of season eight of Game of Thrones, "The Long Night". In the episode, the series' protagonists Jon Snow, Sansa Stark and Arya Stark (Kit Harington, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, respectively) fought against the White Walkers, the Game of Thrones' primary antagonists (trailer below).^[1]

Online Reaction

Users online reacted to the episode in real-time, commenting on the episode on social media during the episode and immediately afterwards. Actor Neil Patrick Harris tweeted, ^[2] "Game. Of. Thrones. Goodgod. Ohmygod. Thatwasbrilliant." The tweet received more than 5,200 retweets and 43,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left). Actor Sarah Paulson tweeted, "WELL THAT WAS THE BEST FUCKEEEEN THING I HAVE EVER SEEN AND EVERYONE ELSE CAN TAKE A SEAT." The tweet^[3] received more than 3,500 retweets and 24,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Comedian Leslie Jones tweeted a video a joke about the ending of the episode. The tweet received more than 5,300 and 37,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

A GIRL WAS TRAINED FOR THIS!!! AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! @GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/XO4veu0qZN

— Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) April 29, 2019

#NotToday

Additionally, fans of the series expressed their enjoyment of the episode's ending, which featured Arya Stark stabbing the antagonist The Night King (played by Vladimir Furdik) and winning the battle. Fans catalogued their enjoyment using the hashtag "Not Today," a reference to a line of dialogue Arya said before going after the Night King. HBO tweeted,^[4] "Good Morning, Happy Arya Day. #NotToday." The tweet received more than 18,000 retweets and 53,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Throughout the day, others shared their fandom of Arya and other heroic characters by using the hashtag (examples below, center and right).

Episode Lighting

People online did notice an issue with the lighting in the episode, primarily the deep levels of black, making the action difficult to follow. For example, Twitter^[5] user @ewstephe tweeted, "Turning off my own lights isn’t enough. Everyone in DC needs to turn out their lights for it to be dark enough in this house to see what’s happening in this episode." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 1,300 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, left).

Some explained that the episode's darkness was caused by a mix of cinematography and video compression. Twitter^[6] user @davechensky tweeted, "GAME OF THRONES creators: Tonight is a great opportunity for much of America to learn about what streaming compression does to black levels on hit television shows."

Twitter user @younglefhander tweeted,^[7] "The color balance issues were exacerbated by direction and editing decisions that made it nearly impossible to follow the action with any clarity. The Battle of the Bastards was much easier to follow, even though the entire point of that ep's style was to convey chaos."

Related Memes

The Arya Stab refers to a memorable scene from episode "Battle of Winterfell" of fantasy TV series Game of Thrones, in which character Arya Stark stabs and kills character Night King with a Valyrian steel dagger. Following the premiere of the episode online, the scene gained major recognition and was referenced as one of the defining plot moments of the series.

Following the release of the episode, multiple posts referencing the scene were made online on Reddit, Twitter and other platforms. For example, a tweet posted by user @TaliSky gained over 1,300 likes and 260 retweets in one day (shown below).^[8]

Search Interest

External References