These days, there are too many great programs on TV to keep up with, but for nearly a decade, Game of Thrones was the show that united a generation. Then the final season happened, undermining eight seasons of what had come before with bad writing, bad special effects, the whole cast acting out of character, and more bad writing.
The great villain of the series, the Night King, descended on Winterfell with his armies and was defeated in a depressing anticlimax that made the world wonder why they'd bothered watching at all. But the series could have had a better ending. Here are five reasons the Night King should have won, and five better ways to defeat him:
Night King Should Have Won: Numbers
The Night King is the leader of the Army of the Dead. This is to say, he commands all of the dead. Any person his army kills becomes added to their ranks. However, his army is even bigger, as multiple tombs were unearthed, the frozen corpses rising from the dirt to join the White Walkers in their war against life itself.
Mathematically speaking, the army at Winterfell is pathetically small compared to the wights that the Night King leads to battle.
Better Way To Defeat Him: Jon Slays Him
Jon Snow is the hero of the story. At least, he has been the main character ever since his father Ned Stark was murdered. There is a lot to suggest that Jon is the Azor Ahai, the legendary Prince That Was Promised. Even if he is not the mythic hero from a prophecy, he is the heir to Iron Throne.
Narratively, it makes sense for the main hero to kill the main villain. But Jon also has a Valyrian steel sword capable of killing both the undead wights and the White Walkers, while he has more experience fighting them than any other living person in Westeros to be born south of the Wall. This may seem like a predictable ending, but that is because the plot sets it up for Jon to be the most likely person to defeat the Others.
Night King Should Have Won: Can't Kill the Dead
The undead are technically still dead, and as such, they are hard to kill. Every fantasy story that includes some form of undead has a rule about how to slay them, whether it is staking vampires through the heart or shooting Walkers in their brains. In Game of Thrones, the dead can be killed by fire and Valyrian steel.
Since Valyrian steel is rare and the technology to make it has been lost, this basically just leaves fire. Considering that it is difficult to keep fires lit on a blade that one is swinging into frozen corpses, it seems unlikely the defenders at Winterfell could take out enough of the dead to have an impact.
Better Way To Defeat Him: Daenerys
In the final season of the series, Daenerys's character arc can best be described as a downward spiral, basically emulating the same trajectory as her pet dragon after it gets shot out of the sky by a harpoon.
This is tragic on so many fronts, as she had so much potential. After all, she's the Mother of Dragons, the Breaker of Chains, and the Stormborn. It only makes sense that Daenerys would pull off one final miracle, defeating the Night King and winning the love of the people of Westeros.
Night King Should Have Won: The Dothraki Sacrifice
In what may be the single stupidest military tactic ever shown on a major TV network, Daenerys sacrifices her entire Dothraki cavalry at the start of the battle. She puts them outside the walls of Winterfell to charge against the Army of the Dead. But why? Their weapons can't even hurt the dead. Sure, Melisandre shows up at the last minute and summons a deus ex machina of fire magic to enchant their blades, but Daenerys never knew this would happen.
Then the Dothraki charge, die, and join the ranks of the dead. The largest and best trained part of the army dies three seconds into the fighting.
Better Way To Defeat Him: Dragon Fire
While the TV show takes its name from the title of the first novel, the book series is actually entitled A Song of Ice and Fire. The undead represent the ice. Naturally, the best way to counter them is dragon fire.
In fact, as dragons are basically metaphors for the nuclear bomb, it only makes sense that a dragon should drop out of the sky and light up the Night King. His last moment should be to hear the word "Dracarys" and then explode in a dranonic mushroom cloud.
Night King Should Have Won: The Crypts
Winterfell is built atop the ancestral subterranean crypts of the Starks. One of the earliest scenes in the whole series is set in these crypts. Considering that the army assembled at Winterfell is fighting the undead, it only makes sense that they hid all the women and children among these corpse soldiers, right?
In all seriousness, there is no way that audiences can be expected to believe that all of the great military minds assembled at Winterfell overlooked this detail. The crypts should have been emptied and the bones used to make bonfires. But instead of this, the Night King ends up getting to add generations of undead Stark corpses to his army, as well as all the innocents these corpses kill.
Better Way To Defeat Him: Bran Wargs Out
Bran's ability to travel outside his body and take possession of people makes him a valuable asset that is actually a threat to the Night King. So what does Bran do with his power to alter the course of the battle? Absolutely nothing of value.
But he could have done a lot. He could have possessed Theon, or Arya, or even one of the dragons, using their bodies as murderous puppets to defeat his greatest foe.
Night King Should Have Won: Magic
There are two magic users defending Winterfell, Melisandre and Bran. Meither proves all that effective.
It only makes sense that a whole army of magically powered White Walkers would easily overwhelm the defenders. Beyond their necromantic powers, they also conjure blizzards which could hypothetically quash the defenders' fires. Also, they are magically protected from being killed by anything except dragon fire, obsidian, or Valyrian steel. This gives them a clear advantage over their opponents.
Better Way To Defeat Him: Bran Replaces Him
This fan theory is one where Bran uses his greenseeing to go back in time and become the the Night King. As the YouTuber Hello Future Me discusses in his video on possible rewrites for the Battle of Winterfell, Bran has been losing his humanity for several seasons.
There are a few ways this could happen. Bran could travel back in time through the weirwood tree, merging with the Night King in the distant past. Alternatively, Bran could possess the modern-day Night King, replacing him and taking control of his army. This would fulfill Bran's arc, but also show just why he is so dangerous to the army of the dead. It is a lot more satisfying than him becoming king.