Oldgodsnewtricks

Got it - a bit new to this; I saw the "spoiler-free" label on a different thread related to this topic and so assumed this one was okay. Thx

Just noticed the Mercy connection was commented on much earlier, sorry bout that - anyway, loved the scene.

In some ways, Arya's killing of Poliver in the S4 premier has more in common with her killing of Raff the Sweetling in the recently released Mercy chapter than it does with anything in the source chapter from ASOS (e.g., her revealing her identity to him through references to his earlier murder of her friend, her cooly inserting the sword through the throat). Is it possible Martin put the WoW chapter out there just ahead of the premier airing just so there would be no mistake about which scene was written first and by whom... ? And more importantly perhaps - she seems to have become this cool assassin over night - are they streamlining her transformation here, and if so why?