Quoted:
Okay, I have been doing a lot of thinking and I think I have figured out how I feel about this episode.

Arya is not a Mary Sue. She's been training to fight THE LIVING the entire show. She starts out small and gradually increases in power.

Arya killing the NK is not Deus Ex Machina- I believe it's realistic given the parameters of the show.

The problem is with the STORYTELLING.  It doesn't make sense IN THIS STORY. It's not a satisfying or fulfilling end to Jon Snow's character Arc. His whole arc is pointless now. He had next to no effect on the battle, even thought he's one of 2 main characters in the show.

https://old.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/bjkeqm/spoilers_this_is_not_nitpicking_this_is_a_massive/

And also specifically THIS reply

It's bad writing.
The actors are brilliant, the special effects are great. The characters are mostly excellent. The Cinematography, sound, and music are all on point. The source material is fantastic (until the last book) And it even does emotions pretty well. But they are too focused on emotions to tell a good, solid story.
And yeah, they do get it right, very right, some times. That's why Ep2 felt pretty well written, on the whole- because it was focusing on human emotion and preparing us for the battle.

Even if you go back to Season 6, season 6 was mostly fantastic.

If you are sitting here thinking- hmm, should a woman kill the NK, or should it be a man- you've already lost. Because you're not thinking about writing a good story, you are inserting virtue signaling into your decision process.

Another example of bad writing- you have Jamie and Brienne, 2 characters we really care about. You barely show them. But you did spend 2 minutes on Lyanna Mormont.
Yeah, the zombie giant is cool. But it shouldn't have been able to bust through the castle door so easily. Bad writing.

The zombie dragon blew a hole in the castle wall, but now it can't damage Jon Snow if he takes cover behind piles of rubble or interior castle walls. Bad writing. They were too focused on cool shots and emotions to worry about details like a plot that makes sense.

Quoted:
The zombie dragon literally blasts a massive gaping hole in the side of Winterfell's thick outer wall earlier in the episode.

Quoted:
Weird fan theory.
What if at the end of it all Bran becomes the next Night King?

Quoted:
Weird fan theory.
What if at the end of it all Bran becomes the next Night King?

So I've been thinking a lot about why Arya was the one to kill the Night King. As many people have pointed out, the Night King has always been Jon's storyline - not Arya's. So what is Arya's storyline exactly? To be blunt: death.

?

season one: "There is only one god and his name is Death, and there is only one thing we say to Death: not today."

Arya is introduced to the concept of 'Death' as a personification, and as something that can be fought if one has the strength to do so

Arya makes her first kill

?

season two: Jaqen H'ghar, a servant of the Many-Faced God (AKA: Death), informs Arya that a debt is owed: three deaths, for the three lives she saved.

Arya is introduced to the concept of a life/death balance; while Death can be fought in one place, it will then be inevitable in another

Arya gets an assassin indebted to her

?

season three: Arya meets the Brotherhood Without Banners and sees the power of The Lord of Light, who is capable of resurrection.

Arya is introduced to the concept that Death can be fought and denied, Death maybe isn't as inevitable as she thought.

Arya meets Melisandre who gives the prophesy Arya will kill many, many people

?

season four: Arya travels with the Hound on a murder tour of Westeros, eventually becoming so used to death that it stops bothering her; this is also where Arya takes control of her own storyline

After witnessing Rob's army massacred outside the Twins and being utterly shellshocked, Arya later ends up outside the Eyrie and laughs when she learns more of her family are dead

Arya becomes unbothered and unworried by the prospect of murdering people - so long as they deserve it. She kills Poliver to get Needle back, but is angered by the prospect of the Hound killing the farmer and his daughter

Arya refuses to go with Brienne because of her Lannister affiliation, refuses to mercy-kill the Hound even though he is/was on her list, and makes the decision to go to Braavos to learn how to be an assassin like Jaqen

?

season five: Arya tries her hand at being a servant to the Many-Faced-God, learning that there is more to Death than she thought.

Arya is introduced to the concept of death as an act of kindliness rather than violence: washing the bodies and treating them with respect, listening to and empathising with the pleas of the supplicants.

Arya is also introduced to the reality of life as an act of selflessness: cleaning the floors so that people can pray, removing her personal effects to become one of the interchangeable servants and letting go of personal affiliation, becoming 'no one' and becoming 'Lanna' rather than being herself.

Arya is tasked with fulfilling a contract, something she has been begging for, but goes rogue and kills Meryn Trant instead.

?

season six: Arya furthers her training as a servant to the Many-Faced-God, but rejects the ideology and takes her life into her own hands once more

Arya, by having her eyesight removed, learns how to see outside of herself and gains a better understanding of how death affects people other than herself:

she learns to anticipate and understand people when they are trying to kill (Waif's instruction)

and learns to analyse and understand people who are faced with death (empathising with Cersei's grief for a murdered Joffrey).

Arya tries to commit herself to becoming a kindly, selfless servant like Jaqen, but decides that she needs to take control of her own life instead of trying to control others.

?

season seven: Arya goes about her new life, killing those that she (as opposed to the House of Black and White) want dead but using the skills and philosophies they taught her. She is now in control of her life, and other peoples deaths.

Arya massacres House Frey, but only those who had a direct role in the killing (the men) - she leaves the women alive, because they have taken no lives themselves. She says that "Winter came for House Frey".

Arya kills Littlefinger, but only once his crimes have been read out for all to hear and his guilt is made apparent - she does not simply kill him at the nearest opportunity or in a frenzy, she waits for the right moment.

?

So what has Arya's storyline been about? Death.

Arya knows Death. She has had his servants indebted to her, she has served him herself, she has avoided his grasp, and she has let others feel his wrath. She has seen the power of Death, the Many-Faced God, and she has seen the power of the Lord of Light. She knows they are both real. She knows that the Lord of Light wants her alive for something - has been resurrecting Beric and keeping him from Death for something, she knows that Death can be denied, and she knows that he's coming for her little brother.

?

To Arya, he's not the Night King. He's Death, and there's only one thing she needs say to him: not today.

Quoted:
The problem is with the STORYTELLING.  It doesn't make sense IN THIS STORY. It's not a satisfying or fulfilling end to Jon Snow's character Arc. His whole arc is pointless now. He had next to no effect on the battle, even thought he's one of 2 main characters in the show.

https://old.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/bjkeqm/spoilers_this_is_not_nitpicking_this_is_a_massive/

And also specifically THIS reply

It's bad writing.

Quoted:

This last episode shit all over Samwell and even the Hound kinda. I liked Samwell, he was a buffoon but he tried his best. He even attacked a White Walker head on to protect Gilly. But this episode took all the character building from the previous seasons away from him and just turned him into a crying bitch for the entire episode. And now nobody cares about him, thanks D&D.

They could have just as easily shown him hacking away at the dead like a madman for 10 seconds and people would like his character more now.

Quoted:

I'm going to stop you here, and bring your idea to a few conclusions, tell me what you think.

GRRM can be accused of many things when writing.
Having TOO MUCH detail, killing too many characters, things like that.

Know what he'll NEVER get knocked for? Being flimsy in the writing.
We never meet Rhaegar Targaryen.
But we know he wasn't a knight, until one day he "Suddenly" decided to.
"Rhaegar never liked killing."  He would sing sad songs, all these other details.
We never see the guy.

We know about Rhaegar because of what we find out through like a dozen different characters each giving the audience a piece of the story.
What GRRM did in the books is amazing. Using many, many characters he advances the story, with the reader putting the pieces together.
We know tons, and tons, and tons, of things about characters we NEVER MEET - Fuckin A' The smiling knight.
We never meet that guy, he has no role in the story.
We know who he is.
He was that Era's Mountain, half the size, twice as crazy.

What am I saying:  GRRM can be accused of many things, Lazy writing is not among them.
And all of a sudden we have a ton of loose ends, and a thinner story on a huge payoff moment.

This is why people are suspecting a switch.

This and the sudden tone shift of the show Season 7 on.

So Arya was training and all, but here's the problem, and you spell it out in two words.
She was training the fight THE LIVING.
And more as an assassin, not a straight up combat class character.

Jon Snow, the "Promise me Ned" kid who was birthed of the most noble man in the south of Westeros, raised by the most noble man in the North of Westeros, spent his Arc north of the wall.
There he dealt with the free folk, AND THE WHITE WALKERS, the dead.

While Arya was learning to assassinate people and use disguises,
Jon was,

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/fIFn0rPcFMZZbuOxJMa5yQ--~A/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NjAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/cbstv.cbs.com/ebaa486794306c9b0fe5600c4ee75063

Literally killing White Walkers
Encountering the Night King, living to tell the story.
Uniting the living.

The problem here is the audience remembers the virtue signalling of the show.

Remember DickWart^TM?
Female audience members SJW Writers complained about the amount of female nudity in an HBO show, and the show-runners gave us a shot of a dude whipping out his dick, with a wart on it.
While GRRM and his "lazy" writing might have that much detail in there, the showrunners have shown they will not hesitate to throw in SJW nuggets.
Not hard to imagine in the hollywood/entertainment field.

Here's George W Bush's head on a pike.
I bet that was GRRM's call

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/144599/DumbAndDumberSJW_png-931640.JPG

Now go one step further.
A lot of these decisions may have created cool scenes, and for favorite characters, but they were "huh" moments for the audience.
For about seasons 1-6, there was not a lot of that going on.
..Suddenly the story on TV outruns the books, and suddenly we get
- More "payoffs"
- More "woww cooool" scenes that may not add up, like ones you pointed out. Little Mormont is an 11 year old girl who doesn't belong on a battlefield.
We saw it because: Fan service, and she killed a Giant because, virtue signalling.
- And suddenly the STORY'S WRITING, looks lazy... in a story where the writing was ultra-involved and intricate?

The sudden tone shift is why many people are putting on the tinfoil.
As you mentioned, there are some elements for Arya having skill.
She did train.
There's quotes.
There isn't NO reason it can't be her, but it doesn't make as much sense as "Promise me Ned..." guy who actually fought white walkers face to face, was born under a comet and all that.

And THIS is why, we believe D&D may have seen this quote about blue eyes on a Re-watch of Season 3, fallen in love with their idea of it being Arya instead.
They had only 2 seasons to cram it in, and some existing story GRRM had laid out.
So they figure, fuck it, if we can persuade GRRM to change his mind, he can re-write the book that isn't out yet.
(might explain why that's taking so damn long..)
GRRM relents, and then they begin to backfill everything.

The result sorta makes sense, and in the remaining episodes we will likely see the additional back-filling to make it air tight?
But I do believe there's question marks.

Quoted:

I'm going to stop you here, and bring your idea to a few conclusions, tell me what you think.

GRRM can be accused of many things when writing.
Having TOO MUCH detail, killing too many characters, things like that.

Know what he'll NEVER get knocked for? Being flimsy in the writing.
We never meet Rhaegar Targaryen.
But we know he wasn't a knight, until one day he "Suddenly" decided to.
"Rhaegar never liked killing."  He would sing sad songs, all these other details.
We never see the guy.

We know about Rhaegar because of what we find out through like a dozen different characters each giving the audience a piece of the story.
What GRRM did in the books is amazing. Using many, many characters he advances the story, with the reader putting the pieces together.
We know tons, and tons, and tons, of things about characters we NEVER MEET - Fuckin A' The smiling knight.
We never meet that guy, he has no role in the story.
We know who he is.
He was that Era's Mountain, half the size, twice as crazy.

What am I saying:  GRRM can be accused of many things, Lazy writing is not among them.
And all of a sudden we have a ton of loose ends, and a thinner story on a huge payoff moment.

This is why people are suspecting a switch.

This and the sudden tone shift of the show Season 7 on.

So Arya was training and all, but here's the problem, and you spell it out in two words.
She was training the fight THE LIVING.
And more as an assassin, not a straight up combat class character.

Jon Snow, the "Promise me Ned" kid who was birthed of the most noble man in the south of Westeros, raised by the most noble man in the North of Westeros, spent his Arc north of the wall.
There he dealt with the free folk, AND THE WHITE WALKERS, the dead.

While Arya was learning to assassinate people and use disguises,
Jon was,

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/fIFn0rPcFMZZbuOxJMa5yQ--~A/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NjAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/cbstv.cbs.com/ebaa486794306c9b0fe5600c4ee75063

Literally killing White Walkers
Encountering the Night King, living to tell the story.
Uniting the living.

The problem here is the audience remembers the virtue signalling of the show.

Remember DickWart^TM?
Female audience members SJW Writers complained about the amount of female nudity in an HBO show, and the show-runners gave us a shot of a dude whipping out his dick, with a wart on it.
While GRRM and his "lazy" writing might have that much detail in there, the showrunners have shown they will not hesitate to throw in SJW nuggets.
Not hard to imagine in the hollywood/entertainment field.

Here's George W Bush's head on a pike.
I bet that was GRRM's call

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/144599/DumbAndDumberSJW_png-931640.JPG

Now go one step further.
A lot of these decisions may have created cool scenes, and for favorite characters, but they were "huh" moments for the audience.
For about seasons 1-6, there was not a lot of that going on.
..Suddenly the story on TV outruns the books, and suddenly we get
- More "payoffs"
- More "woww cooool" scenes that may not add up, like ones you pointed out. Little Mormont is an 11 year old girl who doesn't belong on a battlefield.
We saw it because: Fan service, and she killed a Giant because, virtue signalling.
- And suddenly the STORY'S WRITING, looks lazy... in a story where the writing was ultra-involved and intricate?

The sudden tone shift is why many people are putting on the tinfoil.
As you mentioned, there are some elements for Arya having skill.
She did train.
There's quotes.
There isn't NO reason it can't be her, but it doesn't make as much sense as "Promise me Ned..." guy who actually fought white walkers face to face, was born under a comet and all that.

And THIS is why, we believe D&D may have seen this quote about blue eyes on a Re-watch of Season 3, fallen in love with their idea of it being Arya instead.
They had only 2 seasons to cram it in, and some existing story GRRM had laid out.
So they figure, fuck it, if we can persuade GRRM to change his mind, he can re-write the book that isn't out yet.
(might explain why that's taking so damn long..)
GRRM relents, and then they begin to backfill everything.

The result sorta makes sense, and in the remaining episodes we will likely see the additional back-filling to make it air tight?
But I do believe there's question marks.

Quoted:

Exactly, Jon Snow is a diplomat and a leader.  He's not a legendary warrior that fought off the Ice Giants and the Barbarian Horde and  the only one that can take down the Evil Warlord.

Again, all the complainers are butthurt that their fan theory that Jon is the prince of prophesy that will slay the NK is wrong.

Quoted:

This reeks of D&D refusing to run beastmode from the 1yard line.
As TLJ shows us, sometimes "Subverting expectations" to seem smart, flies into the face of basic storytelling.
Build a story, pay it off.

Quoted:
Scene #17  Death has many faces

I believe you can see Arya enter the woods just before Theon's men are attacked.

It occurs when Theon hears something and sees shadows in the wood.   He says “Get Ready”.  I think Arya is the first shadow seen by Theon.  She is being followed by one or more undead.  One of whom she will use to disguise herself, so that she can get into position without drawing attention.

When the undead start to come into the scene seconds later they come through the gate and directly attack Theon and his men, as they usually do.  No strategy just aggressive straightforward undead attack. That’s why the first few didn’t attack.  … they were chasing Arya.

When this attack starts there still aren't many undead around.  This occurs during the great lull in the battle where the living have cleared out most of the undead. And before the Night King raised the second wave of undead.   It’s during this phase that Arya is getting ready for the most important assassination attempt of her life.

So, she was in place earlier then I thought.

Also in this scene you can see the iron bucket she will uses to increase both her jump height and distance.  Theon was using it to hold his arrows.  But when she uses it’ll be empty.

So, I believe, she got to the forest when there weren't many undead around and she waited.  She may have prepared a disguise, While I don’t think she needed one, I think she did,  because it would have made it easier to just be standing there with the rest of the regular undead, and it would have allowed her to get closer to the Night King. That and the title of the scene #17 Death has many faces would kind of make sense.

How did Arya's attack go down?

Facing the tree, her attack came from off center and to the right of where the Night King is standing over Bran, maybe 10 yards from where Arya is.

She ran from her position slightly off the right shoulder of the NK, she jumped on the edge of the iron bucket which gave her an extra 24"-30" of height to her jump.  The average girl her age, in good shape, can jump 20" vertically.

I think that would have given her a maximum jump height from her feet to the ground of 44" to 50" At the peak inflection point of her trajectory, that put her head somewhere between 2.75'-3.25' above the head of the Night King. ...well represented in the shot we get to see.

Yes, with her arms extended at the min-max potential of that trajectory inflection point she could have dunked a basketball.

I also think we'll probably get a reveal.  So maybe we'll get to see if I'm right or not.  Which would be nice.

If you go back and watch from scene #14 titled What do we say to the god of death everything I've written is based on evidence that can be seen in the episode.  It's just not in your face obvious.  There are also a lot of cut-scenes so you have to watch carefully.

Quoted:

There I go being wrong again LOL...

I need to watch it again, I missed too many things.

Quoted:

Yep.

They should have at least let him die in the battle. Instead he is gonna get belittled by women for 3 more episodes.

Quoted:

Exactly. I didn't get why so many people were saying Cersei was a moron who didn't understand the WW threat.  She did understand.  She simply knew that by sitting out the battle between the living and the dead she gave herself the best chance of keeping the throne.

Quoted:

Yep, if she had joined Team Alive and they had won she would at best lose the throne at worst be put to death.

If Team Dead won she would have died anyway or have to flee across the ocean and lose the throne.

If she stayed in the south with her 20k fresh troops and the Team Alive somehow wins the day(night) she has a chance to defeat a depleted Team Alive army.

Quoted:

If that happens, I'll be pissed.

I think Jon ends up king of the seven kingdoms.

He's Arthur.

Quoted:

Jon made peace with the Wildlings, took back Winterfell and united the North, created the army of the living by recruiting Dany to his cause, and successfully led and won the war against the dead.

But because he didn't get the kill shot on the NK, the whole story is ruined and its all over for him.

That's toddler logic.  The carrots are touching the mashed potatoes and gravy, dinner is ruined!!!