If Game of Throne’s latest episode tells us anything, it is that the end of the Night King has been foreshadowed as far back as season 3 episode 6 “The Climb” — first aired six years ago on May 5, 2013.
In it, Arya Stark is held captive by the Brotherhood. They receive a surprise visit from Lady Mellisandre, who is startled by the sight of Arya. Visibly shaken, she leans towards Arya and tells her these prophetic lines:
“I see a darkness in you. And in that darkness, eyes staring back at me — brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes you'll shut forever. We will meet again.”
Six years is a long time to remember such dialogues and thankfully for fans, Arya repeats the dialogue herself in season 8 episode 3, when she finally met Mellisandre again at the darkest moment of the Battle of Winterfell, when all hope seemed lost. She tells Mellisandre, “You said I’d shut many eyes forever. You were right about that”, who then replies, “Brown eyes, green eyes, and blue eyes”.
It proves to be all the inspiration the youngest Stark girl needed to set out to kill the single most dangerous being in the world. With a flying stab attack followed by a drop-dagger-feint — last seen in her duel with Ser Brienne of Tarth— Arya dispatches the Night King and becomes the undisputed featherweight champion of Westeros.
It was a shock twist for a villain the series has been hyping up since the very first episode. But almost as soon as it ended, the trailer for season 3 episode 4 reveals the person likeliest to be the show’s final (or penultimate) villain — Cersei Lannister. Which brings us back to Mellisandre’s “list”, the original order of which had brown eyes followed by blue and then green.
Brown eyes — Walden Frey.
Blue eyes — The Night King (RIP).
Green eyes — Cersei Lannister.
With Mellisandre’s death, Arya now just has three people remaining on her infamous list if you exclude the Hound for sentimental reasons — Illyn Pane, the Mountain, and Cersei Lannister. Of these, only Cersei is known for having clear green eyes, though the Mountain’s eye colour is a shade of green after his transmutation at the hands of Qyburn.
However, the end of Cersei will depend on whose prophecy comes true. If the flashback to her childhood is any indication, Cersei will more likely be killed by her own brother and former lover, Jaime.
As the show reaches its final three episodes, it is worth revisiting the past just to see how far it has come till now. As Stephen King tweeted:
”As a long-time storyteller, I'm in awe of how perfectly the minds behind this show brought all the major characters together at Winterfell. They made it look easy. Constant Readers, it is not.“
If you feel the need to catch up with the past episodes (and potentially spot more moments foreshadowing the future), here is a handy list of one episode worth watching from each season of the show.
