Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3: David Benioff, DB Weiss open up on the Battle of Winterfell

See our full coverage on  Game of Thrones   here .

Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3

The Great War was fought and the living defeated the dead. The third episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, The Long Night was an epic battle sequence with some of the key players out on the frontlines fighting for survival. The show’s creators David Benioff and DB Weiss walked the viewers through the plot lines, fight sequences and character deaths in episode 3 of the final season in HBO’s Game of Thrones | Season 8 Episode 3 | Inside the Episode.

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, The Long Night opens with a calm before the storm that Game of Thrones has carefully mastered over its eight seasons and as usual exceeded all expectations in building up the tension over a ten-minute scene, moments before the fighting begins.

“We’ve been building towards this for so long now,” Benioff said of the  battle  which is one of the key storylines of the show.

As the war begins, in a shocking and disappointing turn of events, the mounted riders charge into battle with flaming arakhs but fall to their deaths in what is ’essentially the end of the Dothraki.’ Explaining the war strategy as devised by the characters in the show, Weiss says that while initially, it was important to wait for the Night King to reveal himself, things start going south when Dany, on seeing the Dothraki die, gets on her dragon and charges at the wight army. It is then that the plan starts to fall apart.

Cut to the several battle scenes, Benioff points out that they “can get really boring, really quickly” and hence special efforts were taken to ensure they “really stayed focused on the characters” and show the “separate little battles within the greater battle,” be it Sansa or Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys or Arya and the Hound. About the several crucial deaths in the episode, particularly that of Lyanna Mormont, Weiss says, “You can’t give a big death to everybody who dies but also if she were to die there was no way to not make a moment of it …”

Arya Stark and the Night King

Explaining Arya Stark’s role in the war Benioff says, “For three years we’ve known now that it was going to be Arya who delivers that fatal blow.”

“She seemed like the best candidate provided we weren’t thinking about her in that moment,” Weiss adds.

“One of the great things about having these many people you care about in a sequence together is that you can kind of pull people’s attention and focus to people that they cared about a lot like Jon and Dany, Theon and Bran, not to mention Tyrion and Sansa in the crypt so you are going all over the place with people who you are desperately worried for and hopefully you forget about the fact that Arya Stark ran out of that castle with the battle drums playing …” he continues.

Benioff goes on to say, “… we knew it had to be Valyrian steel to the exact spot where the Child of the Forest put the dragonglass blade to create the Night King and he is un-created by the Valyrian steel …”

Towards the end of the explainer, he also notes, “At the end of it, it is still a victory for the living but at great cost …”