Arya's character in the show.(Book spoilers)

[KingWolf]

I am interested to hear what other people think about how the show has handled Arya. IMO I still love her and she is my favorite character, however, I do like the book version more because of the shit she is put in. Her story really is the one that shows us what the war is like from the commoners point of view. She is put in one shitty situation to another. Plus I wish they could have shown her kill that guard, one thing I found interesting about her character was just how dark she became as the books went on. She really became insensitive to the whole killing thing. So do you think her character is just as good in the show or do you also like book Arya more?

Ps: Please forgive me if this has already come up.

[Sel(l)mysword]

I totally agree. Arya's character in the books is superbly constructed on the basis of the relentless adversity GRRM throws her against. Personally, I'm looking at the next two season as the show's potential redeeming seasons for this past one. She's a badass. But if the writers of the show keep half-assing the terrible crap she has to go thru she'll just look like an idiot when she goes to Braavos.

[Autopath]

She'll be slicin' and dicin' it up in that tavern with the Hound. They can't leave that out!

[Jolene Brown]

I love her in the show, but I would have rather seen more from the book... what she went through was important and I am sad to lose it.

[Tenlaar]

I feel like they have removed almost all of the terrible, utterly depraved cruelty and the constant mind-numbing terror that she experienced and that ultimately led her to decide "never again."

And that is such a let down.

[Slurktan]

I quite like the changes they made to the Arya character and most importantly her plotline. They cut away most of the dross and made up some good stuff with Tywin. Then again IMO Arya is easily the most needless character in both ACoK and ASoS so really any changes were helpful.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Completely gutted her character, she is an entirely changed person after Harrenhal. But in the show she's essentially the same as before, no character development at all.

[sennahoj]

Arya is one of my favourite POVs in the books and I liked her on the show a lot as well. But how can you say there was no character development? Just because she didn't kill that guard herself? Arya killed a boy her own age in season 1, and ordered the deaths of several men in Harrenhal. How much more ruthless can a teenage girl get? Much more important, after losing everything at the end of season 1, Arya learns to trust people again (Yoren, Gendry, Jaqen), which I don't think is a small development after that experience. Arya has seen another father figure killed, friends tortured, for a time she came to respect (and like even) the man who should be one of her worst enemies. Despite some smart-ass remarks to Tywin, on the whole Arya kept her head down low and played the mouse in Harrenhal. And even though the arc with Jaqen played out differently, she tricked him into helping her escape by naming him, and received the coin at the end.

How that accounts for no development is beyond me.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

No development because she's still the same person as she was at the end of season 1.

They're is no sign that she's been hardened by her experience. Ordering someone else to kill is not the same as doing the deed oneself, that precisely why the Starks require "the man who passes the sentence must swing the sword", because they understood that it's not the same.

Arya character in the book by the end was a very angry, very bitter, very determined and very vengeful. Where do you see that in the TV show? Weasel soup, and the killing of the guard, was all about her taking control of her destiny and gaining agency. Instead she gets Jaquen to do everything for her on the TV show. She doesn't lift a finger to do any of it,

[Salome the Persian Witch]

I'm in agreement. I think the loss of the weasel soup was a key moment lost to the development of Arya's character. She not only demands the death of many men, but is complicit in making it happen with no remorse. That's pretty huge if you ask me.

[SerMixalot]

As important and disturbing as Arya killing is, her state of living is equally important to her development, in the books she goes from hiding her identity and gender while walking to the wall, wandering the woods, becomes a sheep and a mouse, Arry, weasel etc. The point is that she is learning through hard experience to move silently to hide, to take on other identities. The intensity of those actions are critical to her development into a FM.

[Ser Dermett Corbray]

They kind of dropped the ball on her stay at Harrenhal. The almost Dickensian levels of abuse she was getting in the books didn't translater to screen. It kinda showed just how tough a girl Arya was, going from the priveleged life of a Lord's daughter to being kicked awake each morning by Weese etc. And she takes it all on the chin, up until Jaqen gives her the power to get some revenge.

Show Arya is Tywin's fecking cupbearer. Hardly a tough life. Sure, she gets a bit of abuse from the Lannister men but that's hardly scarring.

Maybe it will be the aftermath of RW when we see her harden up considerably. I reckon if RW happens in episode 9, they will have the fight against Lannister men (in the inn in the books, probably located elsewhere in the show) alongside the Hound into episode 10. Her season ending with her leaving the Hound to "die" from wounds fighting the Lannisters. But this is just guesswork. Can't see them including all the Hound and Arya's travels down the rivers and into the Vale in the show.

[Autopath]

The only moment you need to know that her character has already been permanently changed, is when she relays all the glorious legends of the Young Wolf, tales any normal child would buy into and believe, and then she looks at Tywin with that deadness in her eyes and says "Anyone can be killed."

[The Nerdly Knight]

I really enjoy her character in the books (one of my top five), and she's good in the show too but her potential isn't being met. Like a few others have said Harrenhall just really dropped down everything for her in the show. Yes the Tywin Lannister thing was a neat sub-story but I would have rather seen the books story here, especially her kill escaping the castle. She didn't need Jaqen to finally leave the castle, instead he helped put everything in place and she took the first step in her transformation.

I really look forward to seeing how things shape up for her in Season 3 though. The actress playing her is superb and really captures Arya, they just need to utilize her awesome story from the book,

[The Monkey]

I agree to a degree, but I have to say that the Arya/Tywin pairing made for damn good television. They could have remedied the lack of suffering by having an episode of Arya's life as The Mountain's cupbearer (which as we all know wouldn't have been pleasant), and and think one cold-blooded murder was vital to end her storyline this season, as it would leave viewers questioning where her character is headed.

Shame.

[Bearsblood8]

I agree that Arya killing the soldier to exit Harrenhal is a pivotal moment. The only "take the bull by the horns" moments we have from Arya at Harrenhal in the show are 1) Arya trying to steal battle plans from one of the most dangerous men in Westeros and 2) Arya threatening / outsmarting a skilled assassin. Both of these are pretty bold moves, but neither is vicious. I think it's a willingness to be absolutely vicious that begins to define Arya.

[Spearmother]

Considering the speed with which the other story lines were developing (apart from Dany's maybe), I could have gone without three episodes of Arya being Lord Tywin's cup bearer. Although, I have to admit, the scenes between them were excellent. I still would have liked to see her with Roose Bolton... Aah, all the changes are making me dizzy ! ... :shocked:

[sarah.jenice]

I really enjoyed Arya this season and her scenes with Tywin, but I do think they are missing her character ark.

I'm worried that they are afraid to make a young girl as violent as Arya becomes and that would be terrible. Even in Season 1 when she kills the boy in King's Landing, she just stands up and more accidentally stabs him than making a conscious decision to "stick him with the pointy end." And, if I am not mistaken, killing the guard at Harrenhal isn't her only personal kill in the book. Doesn't she fight before they escape the holdfast where Yorren is killed? I am not certain if she kills anyone, but I remember her fighting and stabbing at men climbing up the ladders to breech the holdfast.

They still have plenty of time to turn things around, but I think they have to have her kill at the inn with the Hound or it will be really unbelievable that she's training to become a FM when she's only killed on boy in King's Landing.

[SerMilady]

I was so disappointed that they skipped Arya killing the guard. That, out of ALL the scenes to look forward to in Season 2, was the one I could visualize the best. Rain falling. Arya slicing the guard's throat, whispering "Valar Morghulis" with that dead/blank stare Maisie does so well. If we're talking things that translate well to television, THAT was one of them. Shame.

[nearthewoods]

As much as I stick up for the series, I agree that Arya's character has been a little short-sided (no pun intended) with HBO. In order to survive in this most ruthless world, Arya had to essentially numb herself...and this sociopath tint to her development is what allowed her to become the very dark person she turned so willingly into. Killing the guard was definitely the point of no return...as we see in the HBO series, she accidentally killed that stable boy, and ordering deaths is not exactly the same as undertaking it yourself. In my opinion. I wish the show had shown her killing somebody with intent. While I look forward to her scenes with the Hound, it was not just some innocent joyride through the flooded countryside. I feel like the Hound teaching her how to stab someone cleanly through the heart, et cetera, and her time spent with this cold-blooded killer in his own right is what finally solidified what she was to become. A lot of that will loose it's meaning if tv!Arya does not initiate this change herself, first...so here's hoping we see something like that next season.