Night King Strolling Into The Godswood

Published May 1, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi guys,

A few things:

1. Gene, I’m sure by now you already got an “Um, actually” about the Arya & Podrick comment in the Instacast. I didn’t hear it mentioned in the Deep Dive, but I’m not on Twitter to see if it was mentioned there. (I also want to confuse Podrick and Gendry’s names just because their characters are similar in age, stature, etc. & now they’re in the same place, so you know, no judgments.)

2. One character that died who I haven’t heard mention of yet is Ghost. Why the hell was Ghost on the front line??! I freaking love the Direwolves, and Ghost has always been my favorite. I expected that he’d die in this episode, but I didn’t think it would be more or less suicide! Why did Jon let him outside the wall? He should have been with Sansa or someone else. The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, and those wolves were individual companions/protectors of the Stark children. These creatures are better suited to be body guards, not part of an army. We’ve seen Ghost and Bran’s wolf save lives in different small group/close quarters attack situations. This is completely different. Why the fuck did Ghost charge with the Dothraki? What can he do against thousands of dead, swarming, Whites? Did he just feel he no longer had a purpose in life now that Jon has a new pet (dragon)? That bit really bothered me because it was seemed like a throw-away. Give Ghost an honorable death, dammit! Not this bullshit off-screen death with the Dothraki instead of the Starks.

3. I have to disagree with Big D and tell you all that I did not at all expect a turn-around when I saw the Night King strolling into the Wood with all his lieutenants. Yeah, he’s walking extra slow because he’s confident as fuck–and he should be. Big D said he’s out in the open, and only one arrow could stop him, but could it? The archers didn’t have Valerian Steel arrow tips. You’re operating under the assuming that dragonglass could kill him, but we still don’t know if that’s true. He was created with dragonglass, so he might be immune to that like he is fire. I heard the piano score and was instantly reminded of the Season 6 finale where Cersei blows up the Sept and Tommen commits suicide. That’s one of the only times they ever used piano in the score of an episode, so when I heard it here, I thought, Oh my God, they’re really going to do it, they’re going to kill everyone. It looked so bleak, and the writers are so good at getting us to change our feelings toward characters (i.e. Jaime & Theon), that I thought for sure, every single character we saw in this episode was dead. The army would continue to march South, and in the end, we’d all be rooting for Cersei just because we want the living to survive. Also, to the show’s credit, I 100% forgot that Arya went running out of the room with Melisandre and the Hound. She literally came out of nowhere, and Big D, I’m with you–I hope they show us a flashback moment of how the hell she came to be flying through the air towards the Night King. That shit was epic, and they fucking got me.

Thanks so much for doing what you do! Your podcasts are great. I so appreciate the research you all do. (Big D, your military experience/input was super interesting, and Gene, I appreciated knowing that this was a for real strategy used in the past.) I also loved the story you shared about the listener who lost his son and finds solace in the time he spends listening to your show. You all do come into our homes like friends. My boyfriend and I talk about you guys like we know you, and you all have inspired more intellectual conversations between us about the shows we watch (including American Gods).

Thanks again, and keep up the good work, guys!

Andi S.

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