(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the third episode of “Game of Thrones” Season 8, titled “The Long Night”)
Our hearts are still racing after watching Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) single-handedly take down the Night King — but we need to cool it for a minute so we can break down the biggest fan theory brewing after the little assassin managed to take down the White Walker king and his entire undead army. So stick with us for a minute because we’re gonna dive into some “GoT” history from seasons past here that suggests Arya has at least one more dramatically important kill in her future: Cersei Lannister.
On Sunday night’s episode, Melisandre (Carice van Houten) rolls up to Winterfell just before the big battle between the living and the dead begins and proceeds to help/freak everyone out over the course of the 1-hour, 22-minute installment, titled “The Long Night.” Among the many things she does to assist, including setting a lot of stuff on fire in a very helpful way, the Red Woman speaks with Arya about the lives she has taken and says these words to her “brown eyes, green eyes, blue eyes … eyes you’ll shut forever.”
It’s after this that Melisandre asks Arya, “What do we say to the God of Death?” and she replies “Not today,” before running off to kill the Night King with the late Littlefinger’s Valyrian steel blade.
While the latter exchange might be familiar to fans right away as the often-quoted back-and-forth between Arya and her Water Dance instructor, Syrio Forel, from Season 1, the whole “eyes” bit might take you a minute. That’s because the very similar “brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes… eyes you’ll shut forever” line was first spoken by Melisandre to Arya on Episode 306 of the HBO series. The callback was noticed by some quick fans on Twitter, who pointed out that each set of eyes may relate to a very specific, big death Arya is responsible for and thus a prophecy she is set to fulfill.
While the “brown eyes” could be about 100 different people, the most popular pick here is Walder Frey and the Night King has taken the “blue eyes” slot, so fans think the “green eyes” belong to none other than Cersei Lannister.
Brown eyes, blue eyes & green eyes… Arya’s coming for Cersei #GameofThrones #GameOfThrones8 pic.twitter.com/LTqlLrIWJM
— Jada B (@chitchattalk) April 29, 2019
“Game of Thrones” airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.