What?

This show has taken us on a lot of wild rides when it comes to character development. But if you had told me in season 1 that my favorite character at the end of all this would be Theon Fucking Greyjoy I would’ve laughed for about 6 days straight. And yet, here we are.

This man, a boy who was taken from his home at a young age, who was raised alongside the Starks, his siblings bound by love, not blood, who was the ward and honorary son of Eddard Stark, has come such a long way. Because let’s be honest, even before he betrayed Robb, he was annoying af. Then he went running off to the Iron Islands, betrayed the Starks (who had been nothing but kind to him), and all to please a father who was so unloving he would barely acknowledge him as his son.

And along came Ramsay Snow, who was honestly one of the most terrifying people in all of Westeros.. Theon’s scenes with Ramsay almost made me stop watching the show. I cried through all of them. They were horrifying, every single one of them. Watching Theon’s transformation into Reek was one of the most difficult things this show put us through, because even though he’d been a shithead, and even though he’d done horrible things, he was losing all of his humanity. It was heartbreaking, and how can anyone help but start to root for a man who’s hardly a person at all anymore?

His character arc from Reek to man who died saving Bran in 8.03 was absolutely spectacular, and most importantly, not at all linear. It was clear that he still cared about Sansa after the scene on her wedding night, yet he still betrayed her when she asked him to light the candle in the window. He saved Sansa from the Bolton’s, got her to safety (by Westeros standards), and seemed to be on the up-and-up again by the time he got back to the Iron Islands… and then he abandoned Yara when she needed him most, only to finally come back for her. It’s one of the most realistic arcs in the whole story because it shows us that change is gradual. There will be triumphs. There will be mistakes. Nobody is perfect.

Theon was complicated, tormented, and haunted by his past both physically and mentally. But all of those things, as Bran said, led him to where he finally ended up: at Winterfell, his home.

Honestly, Theon was a lot of things over the years. A coward. A traitor. A usurper. A murderer. A victim of torture. A snitch. He was all of these things, and many more. But he died a hero, defending the family he loved, and that is how he will be remembered.

Thank you Theon.

A Greyjoy.

A Stark.

A Hero of the Battle of Winterfell.

Bran:

Arya:

EDD DIED. EDD WHO WAS A LOYAL AS HELL BROTHER OF THE NIGHT’S WATCH TO JON AND SAM. EDD WHO WAS GOOD AT BEING IN CHARGE WHEN JON HANDED HIM THE REIGNS. EDD WHO IS THE REASON SAMWELL TARLY IS STILL ALIVE TO SEE THE LONG NIGHT END.

LYANNA MORMONT DIED. THIS LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS CHARGED WITH BEING THE HEAD OF AN IMPORTANT HOUSE AFTER HER FAMILY ALL DIED WHILE FIGHTING FOR THE STARKS. LYANNA WAS LOYAL TO THE STARKS TILL HER LAST SECOND. LYANNA WAS NEVER SWAYED BY THE SHITS WHO TRIED TO GET HER TO BE LOYAL. LYANNA WHO PUT GROWN MEN IN THEIR FUCKING PLACE. LYANNA WHO KILLED A WIGHT GIANT IN HER FINAL ACT.

BERIC DIED. THE MAN WHO HAS DIED COUNTLESS TIMES ONLY TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE TO SERVE A PURPOSE. BERIC WITH HIS FLAMING SWORD. BERIC WHO IS THE SOLE REASON THAT ARYA STARK IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL. BERIC DIED SO ARYA COULD LIVE. HIS PURPOSE WAS FOR HER TO BE ALIVE TO KILL THE NIGHT KING.

MELISANDRE DIED. MELISANDRE WHO COULD SEE VISIONS IN THE FIRE. MELISANDRE WHO WHETHER GOOD OR BAD, ADDED A LOT OF ELEMENTS TO THIS SHOW. MELISANDRE WHO IN THE FINAL BATTLE LIT THE SWORDS OF THE DOTHRAKI BUT ALSO LIT THE FUCKING TRENCHES WHEN NOBODY ELSE COULD. SHE FULFILLED HER DESTINY.

JORAH FUCKING MORMONT DIED. JORAH WHO IS ONE OF THE DAY ONE PEOPLE TO DIE IN THIS EPISODE. JORAH WHO PROVED HIS LOYALTY TO DANY TIME AND TIME AGAIN. JORAH WHO NEVER GAVE UP ON WHAT HE’D SWORN HIS LIFE TO DO, NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES SHE SENT HIM AWAY. JORAH WHO WAS BANISHED, SOLD AS A SLAVE, FOUGHT IN THE FIGHTING PITS, HAD FUCKING GREYSCALE. JORAH WHO SHOWED UP TO SAVE HER WHEN NOBODY ELSE WAS. JORAH WHO DEFENDED DANY, HIS QUEEN, HIS KHALEESI, THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE TILL HIS LAST BREATH. 

THEON GREYJOY DIED. THEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEON WHO WAS WARD TO THE STARKS. THEON WHO GREW UP WITH THE STARKS LIKE THEIR BROTHER. THEON WHO MADE MANY MISTAKES AND PAID FOR THEM. THEON WHO WENT THROUGH THE MOST DRASTIC CHARACTER GROWTH. THEON WHO SUFFERED COUNTLESS HORRORS. THEON WHO HELPED SANSA ESCAPE RAMSEY. THEON WHO SAVED YARA. THEON WHO CAME BACK TO WINTERFELL TO FIGHT FOR THE STARKS OUT OF TRUE LOYALTY. THEON WHO TILL HIS FINAL MOMENTS WAS FIGHTING TO PROTECT BRAN, STILL TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR THE THINGS HE CAUSED IN THE PAST. THEON WHO IN THE END OF HIS LIFE GOT TO HEAR WORDS HE NEEDED TO HEAR. THEON WHO WENT OUT A FUCKING HERO.

Let me just get it on the record right now: Arya Stark killing the Night King is going to get a lot of shit, especially from the male book snobs. But let’s just take a moment and revel in the fact that they can complain all they want about how Arya didn’t fit into the prophecy as Azor Ahai because it still won’t do shit to change the fact that she is the prince that was promised. She brought an end to the Long Night. She did that.

Throughout the three years that I’ve been a member of this fandom, I’ve read all the books, watched every episode as soon as I could get my hands on it, watched all the theory/explanation videos, and from the very first time I was introduced to her in the books, I singled out Arya Stark as my favorite. On New Year’s Eve of 2016, my family adopted a puppy, who we named Arya Bark because she was everyone’s favorite character. I’ve spent more hours than I’d like to admit studying her every movement in an attempt to understand her character, and having this episode now, having her being the one who killed the Night King, I’ve genuinely never felt more proud of a character in my life.

So many people said that it would be Jon and/or Dany because they represented ice and fire, they were the heads of the dragon, they were Azor Ahai and Nissa-Nissa. But let me just say, this was 100% Arya’s moment because the Night King and the whole war between the living and the dead wasn’t about ice, it wasn’t about fire, it wasn’t about dragons or wolves, it wasn’t about honor and shame, it was about one thing and one thing only: Death. Throughout this series, we have seen Arya’s relationship with the god of death shift many times. In season one, under the training of Syrio Forel, she defied death. (“‘What do we say to the god of death?’ ‘Not today.’”) In seasons two through four, she witnessed death. In season five, she served death. (Valar morghulis, valar dohaeris.) In season six, she cheated death. (She spared Lady Crane and then defeated The Waif when she came to kill her.) And finally, in season 8, she faced death, and defeated it, once and for all.

This time last week, straight men everywhere took to twitter to talk about how “wrong” it was for Arya to lose her virginity because they still saw her as a kid (apparently violently murdering 50+ people and then wearing their faces didn’t do the trick). But she showed everyone in that episode that she didnt give a single fuck about what they thought, she saw what she wanted, she knew who she wanted to do it with, and she did it. She controlled the situation, but still gave Gendry agency (“I’m not the Red Woman. Take your own bloody pants off.”), which is honestly the only time in all of Game of Thrones that I can recall a woman losing her virginity in an empowering way on her own terms. And then this week, she showed us how you break the glass fucking ceiling. That moment when The Hound had stopped fighting and told Beric that it was pointless, that you can’t defeat death, and Beric pointed at Arya and said “Try telling that to her!”, my heart just swelled with pride. She never once let herself get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of wights that she was fighting, she just kept going. She knew that as long as there was still an enemy in front of her, she still had a job to do, and she didn’t hesitate to do it.