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Arya Stark


Gaz0680

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There is something very different about Arya's character this season and in Maisie's acting. Im surprised more people havent noticed/commented on this.

Arya had always been a strong minded individual who wears her heart on her sleeve. She always spoke her mind directly when something was bothering her and she was very expressive. Maisies acting was too. She was brilliant.

In season 7, Arya is almost a different person and Maisie is definitely playing her more controlled and emotionless, like she has lost touch with most of her humanity.

 Even in the conversations with Sansa this season, Maisie's delivery has been more in line with the Waif or the Hound than that of Season 1-6 Arya.

Even where the content of the dialogue leads us to believe its angry words, the delivery doesnt match. Its like Aryas soul has been removed.

Compare Maisies delivery of her 'anger' with Sansa this season to her performances in S1 with Joff/Sansa, S2 with Hot Pie bullying her, S3 with Hound/BwB, S4 with Hound and even S5/6 in HoB&W with Jaqen "Im not playing this stupid game anymore". Delivery VERY, VERY different this season.

I also believe this is by design and not just an acting choice from Maisie. 

I see only 3 possible reasons for this:

1. The writers are taking Arya down an even darker path towards full blown psychopath and the change in delivery of the character is to illustrate that descent. They will then either find a way to bring her back from the edge or will kill her off in S8.

2. Arya is dead and the Waif is wearing her face. I would absolutely loathe for this to be true but I am genuinely fearful the show may go that way.

3. Arya truly did become No One at end of season 6 and is just playing the part of the old Arya Stark, therefore the true emotion of the real Arya isnt there.

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Huh. You are right, now that I think on it a bit....

I do think Arya has been going down a dark path but this set up is quite different than normal. 

I could see 1 happening and also 3. I would hope to the Gods not 2 though. Please please no no no.

I think it would be interesting to see Arya nearly going off the edge and her family bringing her back, especially since I've always thought her character was very strongly connected with the theme of family/packs/etc. I wouldn't like her to go psycho and die off. That would be a very shitty end for a good character.

I can also see both Arya actually being No One or maybe since Jaqen said the faces can be as good as poison to someone who isn't No One (if I remember correctly) maybe the faces are doing this to her? It would be interesting for her to discover that and have to quit the faces almost like an addiction. 

I seriously hope the Waif thing isn't true though. 

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20 minutes ago, Pandean said:

Huh. You are right, now that I think on it a bit....

I do think Arya has been going down a dark path but this set up is quite different than normal. 

I could see 1 happening and also 3. I would hope to the Gods not 2 though. Please please no no no.

I think it would be interesting to see Arya nearly going off the edge and her family bringing her back, especially since I've always thought her character was very strongly connected with the theme of family/packs/etc. I wouldn't like her to go psycho and die off. That would be a very shitty end for a good character.

Yeah it would. Sadly, I dont feel D&D are very invested in Arya or understand her character.

I too hope to all the gods point 2 isnt true. If Arya = the Waif I would be extremely pissed, but it may be exactly the kind of 'shock' D&D want to deliver to the casual audience.

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1 minute ago, Gaz0680 said:

Yeah it would. Sadly, I dont feel D&D are very invested in Arya or understand her character.

I too hope to all the gods point 2 isnt true. If Arya = the Waif I would be extremely pissed, but it may be exactly the kind of 'shock' D&D want to deliver to the casual audience.

I don't think D&D know how to write strong female characters in general without completely ruining them or their storylines.

Let's have one go psycho! Let's have one have a trauma conga line! Let's have one get a bit tyrannical! Let's have a little kid basically become fanservice because hey she's a badass little kid! 

Etc.

I could see D&D doing that but I swear to the gods, that would just....*shudder*.

GRRM would be tossing in his sleep, haunted by the butchery

 

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I would hate for Arya to be revealed as the Waif.  And I doubt that it will turn out that way.  I don't think GRRM would have written it that way, either.

I think Arya is emotionally scarred by all she's been through.  Remember the chilly way she treated Hot Pie?  That's not characteristic of the pre-Braavos Arya.  I think she hoped she'd see some semblance of the home she knew; i.e. the presence of Stark retainers like Maester Luwin and Master Rodrik (who she asked for); instead, she was laughed at by guards who didn't know her, Jon wasn't there, the only familiar face is Sansa, who Arya distrusted and remembers disliking.  Arya's come home and home must feel very strange to her.  She's not acting like Arya Stark, she's acting like No One.  Arya needs to remember that she and Sansa are both Starks, at least if they're both going to live in Winterfell.

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The way I see it, two things are playing into Arya's behaviour; she is overconfident and very keen on meeting and helping Jon.

The first goes back to that flaw of her saying "A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell". No-one isn't just a clever trick, it's also great protection for the assassin. To adapt a phrase from Littlefinger; if people don't know who the assassin's is, they can't know what she plans to do next. The people who now matter do know who Arya is. She's exposing herself, both out of overconfidence in relation to Sansa, and perhaps a false sense of security because she's in Winterfell.

I expect her to face some set-backs in the final episode, but who knows!

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1 hour ago, Gaz0680 said:

There is something very different about Arya's character this season and in Maisie's acting. Im surprised more people havent noticed/commented on this.

Arya had always been a strong minded individual who wears her heart on her sleeve. She always spoke her mind directly when something was bothering her and she was very expressive. Maisies acting was too. She was brilliant.

In season 7, Arya is almost a different person and Maisie is definitely playing her more controlled and emotionless, like she has lost touch with most of her humanity.

 Even in the conversations with Sansa this season, Maisie's delivery has been more in line with the Waif or the Hound than that of Season 1-6 Arya.

Even where the content of the dialogue leads us to believe its angry words, the delivery doesnt match. Its like Aryas soul has been removed.

Compare Maisies delivery of her 'anger' with Sansa this season to her performances in S1 with Joff/Sansa, S2 with Hot Pie bullying her, S3 with Hound/BwB, S4 with Hound and even S5/6 in HoB&W with Jaqen "Im not playing this stupid game anymore". Delivery VERY, VERY different this season.

I also believe this is by design and not just an acting choice from Maisie. 

I see only 3 possible reasons for this:

1. The writers are taking Arya down an even darker path towards full blown psychopath and the change in delivery of the character is to illustrate that descent. They will then either find a way to bring her back from the edge or will kill her off in S8.

2. Arya is dead and the Waif is wearing her face. I would absolutely loathe for this to be true but I am genuinely fearful the show may go that way.

3. Arya truly did become No One at end of season 6 and is just playing the part of the old Arya Stark, therefore the true emotion of the real Arya isnt there.

You don't murder dozens of men at a dinner, than suddenly grow a conscious and act like a normal little girl again.

Arya is a changed person, a darker person who has buried her humanity for years now. That she distrusts Sansa ties back to her memories of her as being this pompous bitch who only liked "pretty" things. She can't seem to reconcile that fact with this new Sansa. And I think Arya can read Sansa's true, hidden, desire about power. Although, I think that even though Sansa has these desires, acting upon them are two very different things. She can't help but prepare for an event where Jon does not make it back - she has become a survivor. However, Arya see's this as a kind of betrayal, that she does not have faith in King Jon.

The tension between the two siblings is really captivating to me. I love Arya all the more for standing up for Jon, protecting his interests in Winterfell while he forges an alliance with the "unmarried"Dragon Queen :D

Arya for the win!

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the only thing that made me question was that while talking to sansa, arya said something like the last time she played game of faces it didnt end so good for the other person...maybe i got it wrong and rewatch the last season but wasnt it waif constantly beating her in that game cos she wasnt a very good liar? that made me thought maybe its not really arya but actually waif disguising as her o.o

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Just now, Jasemina said:

the only thing that made me question was that while talking to sansa, arya said something like the last time she played game of faces it didnt end so good for the other person...maybe i got it wrong and rewatch the last season but wasnt it waif constantly beating her in that game cos she wasnt a very good liar? that made me thought maybe its not really arya but actually waif disguising as her o.o

 

36 minutes ago, DirePenguin said:

Waif would have no reason to kill the Freys nor know about Nymeria tho.

I'd also add, waif would have no way of knowing anything about Nymeria, nor would Nymeria recognize/mistake her for Arya.

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I really don't know what Arya is up to. The whole time she was about her family and her friends. Now she finally came home and met with two siblings and she spends the whole time creeping around more than LF and torture Sansa.

My only ideas, and I am not much convinced by them, are:

- either she is consumed by paranoia for an unspecified reason

- or she is suddenly so full of anger and revenge that she is willing to kill even her sister,

- or she is just going full psycho for no reason,

- or she in fact believes Sansa but she is testing Sansa's character and loyalty

 

The Waif being disguised as Arya is a cool idea but I believe that there was the Waif's face hanging in the house in Braavos, wasn't it? So the waif is dead imo.

1 hour ago, DirePenguin said:

Waif would have no reason to kill the Freys nor know about Nymeria tho.

In the books when Arya wears someone else's face for the first time, she remembers the last moments of the person's life. The waif was more experienced so theoretically she may be able to extract more memories. But the show didn't introduce this element, so it doesn't make sense to start with it now.

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40 minutes ago, Jasemina said:

the only thing that made me question was that while talking to sansa, arya said something like the last time she played game of faces it didnt end so good for the other person...maybe i got it wrong and rewatch the last season but wasnt it waif constantly beating her in that game cos she wasnt a very good liar? that made me thought maybe its not really arya but actually waif disguising as her o.o

What she said is "The game of faces didn't turn out so well for the last person who asked me questions". That would be the Waif; when they used to play the game of faces, it was never Arya who made the questions, she was the one answering them. So this points out to the real Arya being the one who is speaking now, and the Waif the one for whom things "didn't turn out so well"

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30 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

The Waif being disguised as Arya is a cool idea but I believe that there was the Waif's face hanging in the house in Braavos, wasn't it? So the waif is dead imo.

As unlikely as I think this theory is, that isn't great evidence against it.

It seems pretty plausible that we never saw the Waif's true form (which fits the books, where we're told she's 36 years old despite appearing to be a young girl). If so, the face hanging in the House is just the face she wore when training/harassing Arya, now returned to the collection. It could be returned because she died, but it could just as easily be returned because she no longer needs it because she's no longer training/harassing Arya—or because this theory is right and she no longer needs it because she's now wearing Arya's face.

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3 minutes ago, falcotron said:

As unlikely as I think this theory is, that isn't great evidence against it.

It seems pretty plausible that we never saw the Waif's true form (which fits the books, where we're told she's 36 years old despite appearing to be a young girl). If so, the face hanging in the House is just the face she wore when training/harassing Arya, now returned to the collection. It could be returned because she died, but it could just as easily be returned because she no longer needs it because she's no longer training/harassing Arya—or because this theory is right and she no longer needs it because she's now wearing Arya's face.

Oh, that's right. I haven't thought about it.

But when Jaqen (or the one with his face) sees the Waifs' face, he seems quite unsure and even terrified imo. So I dare to say that either it was the waif's real face, or she wear the face for so long that something had to happen to her. But yeah, you're right, not a good argument.

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3 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

But when Jaqen (or the one with his face) sees the Waifs' face, he seems quite unsure and even terrified imo.

I forgot about that.

Maybe the Waif is a face that they wear specifically for training new recruits, so most Faceless Men have a PTSD attack when they see it?

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Once LF is dead and Jon meets Arya again, she will go back to same old Arya, I believe.

I love her character but I have to agree that she's a little bit too dark for me. I mean, she wasn't like that in the Ed Sheeran scene. Or the Hot Pie scene. What changed was the way she found Winterfell and her distrust to Sansa since season 1. They weren't close sisters. Arya remembers how Sansa wasn't fond of Jon. Sansa was lost in the idea of a prince, and she betrayed Arya when Nymeria attacked Joffrey. Arya saw as a betrayal when she stood there while her father was beheaded. Everything in Sansa screams traitor to Arya

I expect to see some bonding between them by the end of this season. 

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Arya is not just crazy. She is stupid, too.  She left her gun and her bag full of faces with Sansa. If I was Sansa, I'd use the faces as proof Arya lost the reason. Unless Sansa just testing Sansa and she wants to know until where Sansa'd go to be the queen in the North. And if Sansa is naive and she believes that Arya was theating her. I mean Arya says that she prefer to die than to betray the familly.  To threat a sister is worse than this. 

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The Sansa/Arya scenes are bugging the shit out of me. Both sisters are totally letting LF play them. Like, I thought they were both smarter than this? I can't believe Sansa hasn't caught on to his games regarding Arya yet. And did Sansa send Brienne away to protect her from LF's plot and/or to protect Arya from being killed by Brienne? I didn't understand that whole part, maybe I missed something but it seemed as if maybe Sansa did sense that LF is trying to get rid of Arya and so sent Brienne away. IDK ...either way both Stark sisters are bugging the shit out of me with their little drama. There's no time for that, guys 

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