What will Arya do now

[Vuron]

I think many people in this thread are still trying to reconcile the books with the show and it's not going to happen.  Show wise, the Freys are done and Arya's storyline with the Freys is done.  She's not going to take the place of LSH and wander around the Riverlands and Twins exterminating every Frey.  The show has barely introduced us to any of his hundreds of family members and the show is not going to dedicate any time to killing a bunch of random characters that we don't know.

The BwB storyline has changed from tracking down Freys to knowing about the true threat in the North.  The conversation between Beric,Thoros, and Sandor made it clear that they planned to head north to deal with the WW threat and made no mention of cleaning up the Riverlands.

The show has begun to consolidate characters in a few major locations and this trend should continue over the next few episodes.  We have Mel traveling south from Winterfell, BwB heading north, Arya probably headed north, and Brienne/Pod somewhere in the middle.  I believe some, or all, of these characters will meet at some point early in the season because most of their arcs have already crossed at some point.  A Mel/Arya meetup has already been foretold and an Arya/Hound/Brienne reunion wouldn't be a stretch.

[SevasTra82]

25 minutes ago, Vuron said:

I think many people in this thread are still trying to reconcile the books with the show and it's not going to happen.  Show wise, the Freys are done and Arya's storyline with the Freys is done.  She's not going to take the place of LSH and wander around the Riverlands and Twins exterminating every Frey.  The show has barely introduced us to any of his hundreds of family members and the show is not going to dedicate any time to killing a bunch of random characters that we don't know.

The BwB storyline has changed from tracking down Freys to knowing about the true threat in the North.  The conversation between Beric,Thoros, and Sandor made it clear that they planned to head north to deal with the WW threat and made no mention of cleaning up the Riverlands.

The show has begun to consolidate characters in a few major locations and this trend should continue over the next few episodes.  We have Mel traveling south from Winterfell, BwB heading north, Arya probably headed north, and Brienne/Pod somewhere in the middle.  I believe some, or all, of these characters will meet at some point early in the season because most of their arcs have already crossed at some point.  A Mel/Arya meetup has already been foretold and an Arya/Hound/Brienne reunion wouldn't be a stretch.

Pretty much.

The show is completely streamlining everything and bringing things to the end.  Arya makes it to Westeros, kills the Freys, moves on.  This is the end of any and all things Frey-related in the show, and you will probably never hear from them again.  It's D&D's way of wrapping up the story arc and getting the major players North.  (Which is the same thing they are doing with BwB...by just having them go north with no other reason other then fighting the WW's).

As you said, people tend to blur the lines between the Show and the Books.  The show is, by all accounts, very very simplistic and obvious.  There is no "hidden meanings" or "new plot lines" unfolding.  What you see on the screen is *exactly* what you see.

[Kytheros]

On 6/27/2016 at 5:09 AM, JonSnowed said:

I was wondering this too, I can see her potentially killing Mel (this is show only) then eventually killing Dany.

Why do you think Arya might kill Dany?

[JonSnowed]

Someone has to take her down, I don't think Jon will do it or the Nights King so Arya is the only other realistic possibility and it would be the climax of Arya's arc too.

[Leticia Stark]

I think she'll meet Hound again and both will go to the North and, eventually, Winterfell.

[Winter's Cold]

Meet with Melisandre and BWB including the Hound. Travel north to Winterfell for the big Stark reunion. Participate in the downfall of Littlefinger. 

[Cin]

On 6/27/2016 at 11:17 AM, DreadedNorwegian said:

Die hopefully. I might be the only person who dislikes Arys story but to me she is the weakest part of the series, and nthing about her feels right. The way she ruined the death of walder and our epic would be manderly frey pie moment shows that. 

The window for Frey pie was missed when they didn't have them come to Winterfell last season. My takeaway is the amount of jokes that will be made. 

I dislike Arya on the show (essentially she's the good side's Ramsay, kills people and gets away with all sort of illogical stuff), I can't see the showrunners killing off a fan-favourite. Nymeria returning with her pack of wolves would be quite ambitious on a CG perspective, and she hasn't even been mentioned since season 1, nor have the rumours of her roaming the land, I don't see it happening (though it would be a nice surprise).

She will likely bump into the Red Woman, and I don't see the latter being able to talk her way out of what happened with Gendry, especially with him missing since she took him. Melisandre said they will meet again, and that is all she said. Arya killing her seems likely, even if I don't like the idea it's the most likely thing on the show right now. They are cutting down on characters, and Arya is the one doing it now.

Arya doesn't know that Jaime pushed Bran from the window, and I don't believe he's on her list. Cersei and the Mountain are, but I hope that is resolved without Arya's intervention.

[DreadedNorwegian]

2 hours ago, Cin said:

The window for Frey pie was missed when they didn't have them come to Winterfell last season. My takeaway is the amount of jokes that will be made. 

I dislike Arya on the show (essentially she's the good side's Ramsay, kills people and gets away with all sort of illogical stuff), I can't see the showrunners killing off a fan-favourite. Nymeria returning with her pack of wolves would be quite ambitious on a CG perspective, and she hasn't even been mentioned since season 1, nor have the rumours of her roaming the land, I don't see it happening (though it would be a nice surprise).

She will likely bump into the Red Woman, and I don't see the latter being able to talk her way out of what happened with Gendry, especially with him missing since she took him. Melisandre said they will meet again, and that is all she said. Arya killing her seems likely, even if I don't like the idea it's the most likely thing on the show right now. They are cutting down on characters, and Arya is the one doing it now.

Arya doesn't know that Jaime pushed Bran from the window, and I don't believe he's on her list. Cersei and the Mountain are, but I hope that is resolved without Arya's intervention.

Agreed.

[mafro987daboss]

Arya killing Mel is just bad writing after this finale. If Mel is going to die early next season, why didn't they just let Davos kill her this season? Bringing Carice back just to be killed, despite fulfilling her prophesy of meeting Arya again, would feel abrupt, yet predictable- two feelings the show brings with every episode.

[Lord Friendzone]

On 27. 6. 2016 at 2:36 PM, Lord Varys said:

I don't even understand how she can switch faces now. That wasn't shown to her by the Faceless Men, right? They just gave them to her.

Arya's plot now officially sucks in the show. Not that it was ever very good. But nobody thought it would be about her killing the people on her list. At least I did not. I thought she might actually do something of importance and involve herself in politics one way or another. By getting an assignment to kill somebody.

Sure, she should eventually see her family again. But that is just crap.

And what's the point of that? To kill Melisandre when Davos could have done it already?

No, Mel will help arrange the alliance between Jon and Dany.

How? I mean she could said something about him if she meets her. More like Tyrion is the one to do it.

[Frimmel]

I'm with Vuron and SevrasTra82. Arya heads north. Stop off to see Hot Pie. Reunions with Hound, Mel, Brienne, and Nymeria. One big happy band with the rest of the BwoB and off to Winterfell sans Mel to face the army of the dead. 

[Masha]

8 hours ago, JonSnowed said:

Someone has to take her down, I don't think Jon will do it or the Nights King so Arya is the only other realistic possibility and it would be the climax of Arya's arc too.

I do think that Nights King will take Dany down, if anyone can. Arya has nothing to do with Dany, unless she becomes a psychotic murderess who will go after Dany because she "stole her brother" if Jon and Dany ally.

[Jarl Halstein]

On 2016-06-27 at 11:32 AM, tugela said:

Cersei has to be cast down by a younger more beautiful queen first. Then her younger brother kills her.

So there is still quite a lot of water to flow under the bridge still.

That was Queen Margaery. She outmaneuvered Cersei, cut her off from her son. The prophecy didn't cover that the younger queen would die right after, but it didn't prohibit it either.

[Rory Snow]

Arya only has 2 logical destinations, Kings Landing or Winterfell. Cersei's fate is wrapped up in Maggy's prophesy so expect Arya to head North. No doubt she'll meet up with the Hound, Beric and the boys.. prob'ly cross paths with Mel, then the expected hilarity will ensue.

[Rhollo]

She had that weird conversation with Lady Crane about "what's west of Westeros".

Maybe she steals some gold from the Freys, buys a ship, collects some Ironborn - happy to abandon the lunatic Euron - as her crew and sails off to discover the new world.

[Lady Stouthearted]

Arya's kill list must be complete, so she'll go about killing her enemies until she makes it to WF. I also think she'll gather information as she makes her way home. 

[Rob Storm]

I'd like to think that Arya will free her Uncle Edmure, his wife and her cousin before departing the Twins.  Walder specifically stated he was back in the Twin's dungeon rather than the suitable accommodations Jaime promised in Casterly Rock.  

Perhaps before returning to the North she helps Edmure restore house Tully and bring the Riverlords back into the Kingdom of the North.  She could take the Stoneheart role going forward in the show, killing Freys and leading the BwB Tully restoration.  Obviously the book and show are a unnecessarily different here, with Edmure having prior knowledge of Stoneheart from Tom O'sevens and letting the Blackfish escape, rather than the show that has him turn his back on Blackfish and the Tully-loyal men.  

Maybe she meets Brienne near the Twins as it is on the way to the north from Riverrun but you would think Brienne is ahead of Jaime on that path but with show travel who knows.  

It seems knowledge of Bolton-Frey extermination will reach Kingslanding soon.  Cersei will hide in the Red Keep so it seems likely to me that whoever kills her will have to get close (Jaime, Arya as a FM, or Dany rolling through on Drogon).  But I also believe a Cersei-Euron team is going to happen and he has something up his sleeve.  Not sure it will be as devastating as Oldtownpacalypse in the show but Cersei won't be done right at the start on season 7 so I think it makes more sense for Arya to head north than south. 

[Sigrid]

On 6/27/2016 at 7:58 AM, Lord Varys said:

I really doubt it. Catelyn will take care of the Freys. We know the Prologue will feature an attack on the Lannister men escorting Edmure and Jeyne, so we can reasonably assume that Tully restoration will begin very early in TWoW. Riverrun will fall at once due to infiltrating by the Brotherhood. If they have Riverrun then the Riverlords will unite, free the hostages Jaime foolishly commanded to be sent to KL, and attack the Twins.

Story done. Arya is not needed for any of that. Her wolves might feature in the story, helping her people (say, perhaps saving Edmure in the Prologue) but she doesn't have to be there in person. As things stand she would most likely come too late for the action, anyway.

In the books, Arya will have at least a couple of chapters continuing her training with the Faceless Men and unlike the show this will actually involve some revelations.

I think your predictions for the book are good, and I look forward to reading the things that George will do as I have no doubt there will be many more layers and nuance to the story.

That said, we all know that the show is incapable of that kind of treatment, especially at this point.  They are all about cutting out subtext and combining characters.  There is no way they are going to take the time and budget to show the things book readers would like to see.  

We know there's no Lady Stoneheart.  It's pretty efficient to just combine that with Arya.  Her being a revenge machine isn't that big of a stretch.  I was satisfied with having her infiltrate the Freys.  I appreciated they managed to wedge in the pie.  Better an adapted Frey pie than none at all I guess.  Having her back in Westeros is much better than all of the nonsense going on in Braavos.  

I say this as a big fan of the Arya story in the book and someone who has been VERY disappointed with how her story has been adapted recently.  As with other plot lines, I think even when a character levels out into more interesting territory for the show, they still have the baggage of crappy previous stuff.  For Arya, all that ridiculousness in Braavos leaves a bad taste.

I tend to agree with those who think she's on a collision course with Melissandre.  Perhaps she'll be going south as Arya is going north.

[Sigrid]

3 hours ago, mafro987daboss said:

Arya killing Mel is just bad writing after this finale. If Mel is going to die early next season, why didn't they just let Davos kill her this season? Bringing Carice back just to be killed, despite fulfilling her prophesy of meeting Arya again, would feel abrupt, yet predictable- two feelings the show brings with every episode.

So, it's a totally likely scenario then?  It's just like bringing Natalie Tena back just to get stabbed in the neck?  Davos didn't kill her outright because Davos is very much the conscience of the show, as he is in the books.  He takes Ned's place as the "honorable one", he just has a little more street smarts.

[tugela]

3 hours ago, Jarl Halstein said:

That was Queen Margaery. She outmaneuvered Cersei, cut her off from her son. The prophecy didn't cover that the younger queen would die right after, but it didn't prohibit it either.

She does not appear to be cast down yet as far as I could tell. She is the actual queen now, rather than a queen consort.