Bad writing or fake arya?{spoilers}

[HellasLEAF]

I think there is clearly more to this story that we will just have to wait until next episode to see why.

It's either Arya was a bit foolish or she has something up her sleeve.  

[tinyskeeveuk]

I don't understand those saying that the FM couldn't use Arya's face because it hasn't been removed. Didn't we see it being used at the end of last season, when she was in the hall of the faces?? Doesn't that mean some other kind of magic is going on, not just rip someone's face off to use it as halloween mask?

[CrypticWeirwood]

Just now, HellasLEAF said:

I think there is clearly more to this story that we will just have to wait until next episode to see why.

It's either Arya was a bit foolish or she has something up her sleeve.  

Remember the synopsis said "Arya makes a plan"; makes you wonder how this is making a plan.   If it's stuff we aren't seeing, that makes much more sense.

[Ser Not Appearing]

8 minutes ago, Facebookless Man said:

Now that I've read it in plain words, the alternative you guys are suggesting might very well be even stupider than the straight read of what we were shown.

So it could be true after all.

Haha. Fair enough.

I'd cast it as either Arya is unreasonably stupid or the relationships they've established throughout her time in Braavos and the supposed training they provided proves meaningful ... but there are plenty of pitfalls in trying to fix/hope a TV show into adequately executed resolution.

[LadyFitzRandolph]

3 minutes ago, tinyskeeveuk said:

I don't understand those saying that the FM couldn't use Arya's face because it hasn't been removed. Didn't we see it being used at the end of last season, when she was in the hall of the faces?? Doesn't that mean some other kind of magic is going on, not just rip someone's face off to use it as halloween mask?

Yes. I agree.  

[Firefae]

I wonder where did she get all the silver from? I don't suppose a novice can steal so much silver without being caught at least once? And where is Needle?

[Facebookless Man]

6 minutes ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

Haha. Fair enough.

I'd cast it as either Arya is unreasonably stupid or the relationships they've established throughout her time in Braavos and the supposed training they provided proves meaningful ... but there are plenty of pitfalls in trying to fix/hope a TV show into adequately executed resolution.

Dude, she did a double cork when she jumped into the water.

If that's not proof of how useful her ninja training was, there's just no pleasing you.

[Ser Not Appearing]

2 minutes ago, Facebookless Man said:

Dude, she did a double cork when she jumped into the water.

If that's not proof of how useful her ninja training was, there's just no pleasing you.

A bit crooked on the entry...

[Maid So Fair]

I was thinking it could maybe be a vision of the future - the last time we saw Arya she was going to bed. It's possible that she could have had a prophetic dream where she sees what's about to happen to her and then avoids it in the next episode by changing the events slightly. 

It's probably just bad writing.

[AryaNymeriaVisenya]

No, Arya was stabbed. The Faceless Men and Arya's journey with them has mirrored Jon's in the Night's Watch. From service to action. From person to weapon.  Their time in each institution has ended the same way.

[Clive Bixby]

The overall picture here is kind of gloomy.  Either a: the faceless men are a bunch of evil dicks,  or b:   Arya had someone stand in for her to draw out the waif.  Now, is there any character on the show that compared herself to Arya?  One who asked her if she liked to pretend to be someone else?  One who had their life saved by Arya? 

I think if we look at the answer to those questions we might be a little closer to solving the mystery.  (if there is one)

[Tooms]

6 hours ago, TickTak7 said:

So, bad writing then? 

Surely a strong plan would involve *not* getting stabbed and slashed in the abdomen repeatedly? 

I opened up a thread in the episode 6 forum discussing how poor Arya's storyline is, and this was just icing on the cake for me.

She's spent almost 2 seasons in Braavos, and yet has failed to improve as a character at all:

1 - She's strutting around in broad daylight 

2 - She's openly talking to Westerosi individuals. 

3 - She's throwing around money. 

4 - She didn't see the Waif attack coming, even though it was so. damn. obvious. What did she expect would happen?

it's just frighteningly bad at this point, and I have no idea what sort of pay-off would be acceptable at this point save for her getting to run the House of the Faceless Men / get access to all those faces. 

Because it's clearly NOT Arya, for all the reasons you just pointed out

[Thel]

3 hours ago, RhaeBee said:

Being stabbed to death is quite poetic for Arya who herself stabbed people to death (the tickler/random Frey soldier no.481, Meryn Trant). 

 I thought so, too. Esp in an episode that starts with The Hound and the Septon. Arya left Westeros and the Hound with an ugly ugly gut wound---there seemed some karmic symmetry in her understanding the kind of pain that she's inflicted on others and perhaps wanting the mercy she's previously denied someone else. 

I definitely want there to be more to the scene than bad writing. It seems totally crazy for Arya to be walking around without a care in the world and throwing coins around and being so obvious. It's also crazy to think that its parkour time in the next episode with a gut wound like that.

[Tooms]

5 hours ago, TickTak7 said:

Wut...?

The focal point of this story arc is Arya - why would the viewer care if the FM were testing The Waif? She's literally a secondary character that we have no interest in. 

I can assure you 100% that this wasn't Jaqen, or a focused test on The Waif that didn't include Arya. 

The reason why so much of this arc feels off, is because it's a terribly written arc. 

You can't assure us 100%, that's foolish.

Watch it again! It's not Arya. It's 100% not Arya. 

[Facebookless Man]

1 minute ago, Tooms said:

Because it's clearly NOT Arya, for all the reasons you just pointed out

So which is it

1) she gave her face to some random person 

2) Kindly Jaqen impersonated her so that he could catch the hateful, personally involved, bad-at-murder Waif being a less than perfect FM?

 

Hint: both of the above are even more retarded than the straight-faced reading of what happened on screen by a few orders of magnitude.

[Tooms]

3 hours ago, Viper Hound said:

To those of you saying "bad writing", how can you say that without seeing the resolution of the situation? Maybe it does end up being a dumb plot, but can we at least see the end before criticizing it?

Because they're in that boat where they are so blinded by the changes from the book they can't see good TV even if it was a hot woman sitting on their face!

[TickTak7]

5 minutes ago, Tooms said:

Because it's clearly NOT Arya, for all the reasons you just pointed out

Or, it IS ARYA, and ARYA's portion of this episode has suffered from the same AWFUL writing that all of ARYA's portions have received for almost 2 full years now?

Sorry, but your theory is ridiculous

[Clive Bixby]

Logistics aside, wouldn't it make sense that the actress would stand in for Arya for such a ruse?  She seemed to let on that she knew a thing or two about the faceless men.  She owes Arya her life.  We just have to work out how she appeared as Arya. 

[Tooms]

7 minutes ago, Facebookless Man said:

So which is it

1) she gave her face to some random person 

2) Kindly Jaqen impersonated her so that he could catch the hateful, personally involved, bad-at-murder Waif being a less than perfect FM?

 

Hint: both of the above are even more retarded than the straight-faced reading of what happened on screen by a few orders of magnitude.

Because one way or another a face will be added to the wall ... A person must die! 

Jaqen promised her in season 2 that he would teach her how to cross off the names from her list. Her death list, he life as a Stark comes up over and over and is raised again and again by Jaqen and the Waif ... It's all fake! Arya was a terrible FM, Jaqen knew she was terrible, and yet he kept pushing. Her first assasination was set amongst a troupe of actors who would remind her of who she is, it's too nice of a setup for it to be anything else.

Jaqen wants her to be Arya Stark, he wants her to go back to Westeros to do something, and he will let her do that.

Edit: Any "straight-faced reading of what happened on screen" cannot conclude that was Arya. Maise Williams was deliberately not acting like Arya, which means she was told to by the script and the director and did so deliberately. It's stunningly stupid to believe there isn't more going on.

 

[Tooms]

4 minutes ago, TickTak7 said:

Or, it IS ARYA, and ARYA's portion of this episode has suffered from the same AWFUL writing that all of ARYA's portions have received for almost 2 full years now?

Sorry, but your theory is ridiculous

I'll expect your apology next week.