If it were just about her list, she'd have never gone back to Winterfell.

She was deeply conflicted once? **** I take it all back, deepest most complex character of all time.

What we need is more A Girl Fights With Sticks scenes TBH.

Yeah, it's beginning to feel like the writers are going full-MCU and want to show Bronn, Arya, Jamie, Hound, Jorah, Jon Snow, Brianne, dragons, etc all fighting on the same team against White Walkers.

Everyone joining hands to fight the WW is the absolute worst way the show could end.

Pretty sure Cersei and Mountain won't be there.

Lol at bolded then calling out others for being rustled.

Fails at TV, fails at not being total hypocrite.

Why do you deliberately misinterpret? I'm of course not claiming that she is as deep or nuanced as Jaime or Tyrion, but she's certainly a deeper character than Walder Frey or The Mountain or Euron or any of the Dorne characters apart from perhaps Oberyn. And I think she is more so than Bran, whose arc is interesting but arguably not as deep.

Think u got this backwards, i dont think she ever forgave the hound. He was an odds on favorite to die a slow and agonizing death out there, he was begging her to kill him and it would have been merciful. She chose not to because she hated him and wanted him to suffer

I've thought about this and I think the scene is ambiguous. I get your interpretation, but I also think that she realizes over the course of their journey that he is not evil and deserves forgiveness; and that by not killing him she gives him an opportunity to survive. It's one of the things that I really like about the show -- it at times leaves motivations deliberately ambiguous. And the characters are thus only rarely caricatures.

Also, she's a teenage girl. It would be more absurd if she was more nuanced. The great thing about Arya is that her arc has been well thought out and who she is now, and her motivations, make sense based on where she's been and what she's been through.

She was born into a high house but didn't want to be a lady. She wanted to fight. Her dance teacher was murdered and then she witnessed (kind of) her father being beheaded. Now she had an excuse to fight. But how? First she was captured by Lannister men, and then, after a brief encounter with the faceless man, the Hound. Neither time was she strong or skilled enough to save herself but she picked up skills along the way. Then, finally, after Hound v Brienne she had her chance to give into her hate and cross a name off her list. Instead she chose compassion. And then, when she honed her skills with the faceless man in Bravos (sp?), she had a choice once again- let go of her identity and become a faceless killer, or leave. Once again she chose the more compassionate route.

Her arc is one of humanity, and trying to balance a thirst for revenge with compassion. She now has the skills, but it's clear she doesn't want to be an emotionless killer. She wants revenge, but she wants family too. I don't see how you can't find that incredibly nuanced and relatable- at least in terms of trying to balance things in your life that you want and are important to you- and I definitely don't see, even if you don't find it "deep", how one doesnt find her arc- which has consisted of great scenes with Tywin, The Hound, The Faceless Man, etc- entertaining as hell.

Nice post, ras. Check your last sentence for typos.

Fail of Thrones.

i can accept that the scene is ambiguous and that i'm not necessarily correct.

i do stand by my interpretation of it tho. he was alone and exposed with no water, no food, a snapped femur and bleeding out from a gaping hole in his leg. gotta figure he wouldn't last more than what, maximum 48 hrs or so, maybe if he tied a tourniquet around his thigh to stem the bleeding? by that point infection would almost be certain. that area they were in was pretty remote too, even the preacher guy who saved him had expressed some level of amazement at the fortune of stumbling upon him when they did.

she also took his silver before she left, iirc.

This is 100% wrong. Arya had taken the Hound off her death list prior to the point where she left him, due to the fact that she wasn't sure if she still wanted him dead.

Yes. All those facts support your very reasonable thesis. I would like to see the two characters meet again, actually.

You saw howards terrible list, and thought I can do even worse than that?

There was a scene with the faceless girl and every time Ayra told a lie she got slapped with a stick. Faceless girl asked Ayra who was on her list, when she said the hound she got slapped. She then corrected herself and said he was on list and she wasn't sure anymore or took him off

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Could mean she didn't know if he was alive or dead.

Nice sentiment but is totally at odds with how it went down itt.

The accusation was that only nerds would remember Chaos is a Ladder and 99% of "average" viewers would not remember it.

The berating was initially directed at those actually average viewers who do remember that line and the idea that remembering it makes you "cool" is actually reverse snobbery projection from those that dont.

Which of her good scenes do you think she carried?

Here is the scene - Hound questions start at 1:10. It's clear that she had taken him off the list prior to when she left him to die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBue47iGonM

As an actress or what? I'm not sure she's carried a scene by herself, but that's extremely tough to do in GoT bc there are so many good characters. So, let's take a look at one of those scenes...



Take Arya out of this scene and it's a conversation between LF & Tywin that doesn't get paid off until Tywin saves the day at Blackwater. What makes this scene truly special though is Arya's presence. Will LF recognize her? They're plotting against her family how can she potentially use this info to help? She also wants Tywin dead. A LF/Tywin scene will always be interesting, but this one was extremely tense and memorable, mostly due to Arya being there.

Did she carry that scene? Probably not. But I think it sheds light on why she's been such a great character. Furthermore I don't think, especially in Goat, "carrying a scene" is required to be an interesting or deep character. It definitely wasn't your original critique.

R-E-L-A-X

Tywin made each of their dialogues great because Tywin as a character and the actor as an actor kicked ass. You could throw any random Disney tween in Arya's spot and the scene wouldn't be affected. Try saying the same about dialogue between any other two non terrible characters interacting in GoT.

She's Buffy the One Dimensional Teenaged GoT Slayer. Yawn.