If you haven't watched the latest episode of the eighth and final season of HBO's Game of Thrones, then what are you waiting for, because here there be SPOILERS HERE, and don't say we didn't provide a warning in advance.
As we saw during "The Long Night," the critically acclaimed show's most recent episode, Arya Stark lived out her destiny, defeating the Night King in a surprise attack befitting a "faceless" assassin.
If you've paid attention over the course of an admittedly remarkably detailed series, you'd have taken note of all of the foreshadowing leading up to the moment the Night King exploded into thousands of ice shards, but we understand if you were taken aback.
Thankfully, a Redditor by the name of gride9000 laid it all out for you so you wouldn't have to, but you should know he did this a full year before the episode even aired.
from gameofthrones
Much like Chekov's gun––the rule that if you show a gun in the first act then logic dictates you must fire it before the play's end––the Valyrian steel dagger Arya used to defeat the Night King has had an important role to play from the show's beginning, being the blade used in a botched assassination attempt against Bran Stark, and it popped up in a big way during Season 7:
"In season 7 we see the knife again....in a book in old town. This knife has history. Why is it so important compared to other Valarien [sic] blades on the show? We see Bran give away the knife. He knows whats going to happen. What will Arya do with it."
As gride9000 noted, in Season 6, a trip down memory lane shows that one of the Children of the Forest stabbed a man with dragonglass; that man became the Night King. The blade finds its way into the hands of Bran Stark, the Three-Eyed Raven with some knowledge of how future events will play out.
Bran then presents the knife to his sister, Arya.
And this Redditor called it last year, when he noted that this very same blade "has some of the original dragonglass" that the Children of the Forest used to create the Night King. (And while that bit about the dragonglass is unconfirmed, the rest of it is spot on.)
And people had to give credit where credit is due.
"Well, props where due. Good call, I never saw it coming."
"Good job dude. That was actually pretty impressive."
"Forget about gold, you deserve a castle and lordship, My Lord."
"You got nothing but hate for it too, nice."
"Fair play, top theorizing!"
"I love this. I always knew the knife was important, but my hunch was that Arya would use it to kill Cersei. And I felt Jon would kill the Night King. But honestly we love this show because it is so unpredictable, and looking back everything makes so much sense and it all fits perfectly into place. Can't wait for the next 3 episodes."
It seems people are still reeling from this development elsewhere on social media, too, spawning a whole host of memes.
We can't get enough, and we're eagerly waiting to see where this show takes us next week.
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