Arya Wasn't Meant to Be the Night King's Killer in Game of Thrones Season 8
Arya Stark wasn’t always destined to take down the Night King. A new reveal in James Hibberd’s Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon says the final-season shock was a late pivot from creators David Benioff and DB Weiss.
Game of Thrones Season 8 is one of those TV endings people will be arguing about forever. And the deeper you dig into how it came together, the more it feels like a perfect storm of big plans, bigger distractions, and a finale that punted on years of setup.
About that Night King twist
The Night King dying by Arya Stark's hand was not the first draft of history. In James Hibberd's oral history 'Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon,' showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss walk through who they considered for the kill shot and why they changed course.
"It had to be somebody with believable access to Valyrian steel. We didn't want it to be Jon because he's always saving the day. We talked about the Hound at one point, but we wanted his big thing to be Clegane Bowl. Ultimately it wouldn't have felt right if it was Jon or Brienne or the Hound."
Leaving Jon out because he 'always saves the day' rubbed a chunk of the fandom the wrong way, and picking Arya for that moment was divisive on its own. But that call was just one piece of a season that sped toward the finish line for reasons that had nothing to do with winter coming.
Why the final season moved like a bullet train
In 2018, Benioff and Weiss landed a deal with Lucasfilm to develop new Star Wars movies. That timing matters. Season 8 suddenly became the last chapter, and the show shifted into wrap-it-up mode. Around the same period, reports said HBO was open to more seasons and more episodes, but the showrunners opted to end it in six.
- 2018: The duo signs on to develop Star Wars films, which effectively sets a hard stop for Thrones.
- Episode count: Season 8 shrinks to six instead of the 10-episode run many expected.
- Source material gap: George R.R. Martin still had not finished the books, so the writers were working off high-level bullet points and broad outcomes rather than detailed text.
- Process rumors: Reporting at the time suggested Benioff and Weiss split scripting duties while sharing most other responsibilities, which allegedly led to creative friction during the sprint to the end.
Put all that together and you get a finale that looked big and moved fast, but often felt like it was skipping steps the show used to savor.
Jon Snow: built up for years, sidelined at the buzzer
The most glaring casualty of the rush was Jon Snow's arc. The show spent multiple seasons building him up: resurrected hero, secret Aegon Targaryen, a natural leader with a claim to the throne and a long history of facing the White Walker threat head-on. In the end, most of that setup went nowhere.
His true parentage mostly served to create friction with Daenerys rather than change the endgame in any meaningful way. Many viewers expected Jon to face the Night King; instead, he spends the Battle of Winterfell largely stuck in survival mode while Arya delivers the kill. As for uniting Westeros? He winds up with little strategic sway, kills Daenerys to stop a tyrant, and gets exiled to the Night's Watch. Crown? Nowhere near him.
The bottom line
Game of Thrones ran eight seasons, created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, with a cast led by Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, and Lena Headey. The series still sits at a towering 9.2/10 on IMDb, and you can stream it on HBO Max in the US. But the way Season 8 wrapped — especially how Jon's storyline fizzled and the Night King twist landed — is a reminder that endings are hard, and rushing one rarely helps.
Where do you land on Arya taking out the Night King and how Jon's arc wrapped? Sound off below.