Bullrout

No. It's a case of Real Sword, False Dragon.

The person he trusted, Jaime, was part of the trickery. He was too young, too naive, to fully understand what was going on.

It was unsettling at the very least. I suppose the author purposefully wrote the chapter that way to make the reader see Arya for what she truly has become. Arya only knows death and that is what she gave poor Dareon. Something permanently broke inside Arya after she killed Dareon and the old Bravosi insurance man. There's no more pity and remorse inside that horrible heart.

Hostages are insurance against unwanted behavior. Do the unwanted and the person of value dies. The Starks and Theon wanted to discourage another party from acting against them. Hostages were the tools they had. Either way, it sucked for the hostages. It's the same even if the unwanted behavior is different. Ned Stark would kill Theon if Balon rebelled again.

It does not have to be intentional suicide. Arya may think she can get away in time with a long enough fuse. Mass murder fits Arya's illness and anger. This Arya Stark who joined a cult to the Many-Faced God of Death and has a wish to kill a lot of people is capable of this type of mass murder.

And the rabbit always outsmarted the canine in those tales, if I recall.

Yup It is actually not ridiculous. Arya is sick. She's sick in the head. She has joined an organization which kills people. This organization could have been the one responsible for the doom of valyria. They have no qualms about killing and they consider it a tribute to their many faced gods. Arya will lose her sanity after knowing her brother Jon was killed. The faceless men could even feed her the information and leave out the fact that Jon was a traitor to the watch. She will only hear this. Jon was attempting to rescue her and then he was killed. Arya's mind is already fragile. You started a topic and intentionally limited who you want to be the guilty in order to smear them. I see nothing wrong with the others who disagree with you and put forth the idea that the most likely person to do this is Arya Stark. I am also disagreeing with you. So you wanted to smear Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister. You want to limit the talks to them. You don't get to do that. You posted your theory and it is only natural for people to disagree with you. Me, I think Arya Stark is totally messed up in the head. Her school and teachers are monsters whose curriculum teaches students to kill. They worship the gods of murder. Arya and the fm are the most likely people to commit this amount of destruction and death. This is their trade.

Murdering fish is not going to satisfy her thirst for revenge. But you could say it adds to the punishment. Not being able to do what she wants. Clap irons on her legs and tie her to the fishing boat. Put her to mending nets or some other repetitive manual labor. Who was it that said hell is repetition.

They're idiots by design. Robert was being cuckolded beneath his nose by the very man he chose to keep on his Kingsguard. His kingdom got slyly taken away from him by the Lannister twins, of all people. Jaime and Cersei aren't the smartest of people but they outwitted Robert. Wasn't hard to do. There isn't going to be a next Baratheon lord of Storm's End. Westeros will experience a long freeze. Stannis is a fake Azor Ahai and he will pay for that deception. The Targaryens and their allies will take control of the Storm Lands. A Baratheon is not needed. Gendry is not going to rule anything. His job as a blacksmith is to forge weapons. Maybe he will forge the equivalent of Valyrian Steel and has to kill Arya to do it. But there is no reason at all to remove his bastard status.

Jon and his dog would have died with the other Starks at the twins. Being with Robb would not make any difference. Jon is just dumb enough to believe it's okay for Robb to bed and marry Jeyne after swearing to marry a Frey. Walder would have offered to marry one of his bastards to Jon. I suppose if Jon lived through the war and the Starks had not dishonored themselves by breaking their oaths, yes, Jon could have walked away a rich man if he had married a larger Frey.

Agree

Yes "the shroud of the dark side has fallen" (Yoda)

Agree, the maester was not thinking of some minor character. He was at death's door and regretful. Dany was on his mind the whole time.

harsh but believable

Rosey's momma. She gave a faceless stranger a free beer and let him know this flunky wants to elope with her daughter. She might have mentioned it casually to the man. He took it upon himself to return her kindness with an assassination.