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Arya Losin' It


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That was awkward. For many reasons, my personal list being:

1. She's a psycho, as usual

2. The show barely acknowledges this fact, and that's a problem when, for instance, I don't know whether Gendry is admiring her boobies or a little freaked out by some noticeable trauma

3. Along the same lines, I don't know if she really likes Gendry or just picked him because he's young and somewhat experienced

4. I don't know how old she's supposed to be

5. Not that I want to see Maisie Williams naked, but it's strange to see a modest sex scene on Game of Thrones. Though it's happened before, and I guess it's less jarring than characters who go from constantly nude to wearing almost too many clothes (Danny).

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Showrunners/writers have slowly but surely tried to feminize our girl Arya. Longer hair, heavy metal girl leather attire, Hotpie tells her she's pretty, and even when she's mindgaming sansa or sword, spear fighting, she's become somewhat sensual in her movements. Bit more of a sexy strut since she left Faceless Men temple.

And as preteen she had a little crush on Gendry, used to hang around him at the blacksmith shop. Arya seems to come from the If I give you a hard time, it means I like you underneath it all.  Jr. high flirting.

And Gendry seemed to get off on her tough girl prowess, sarcastic banter, ability to throw knives, etc. So he got his little warrior girl, the NinjaStark for the night. An odd couple that seems to make sense now that I think about it later.

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Arya's plot line and character broke irreparably in the House of Black and White - but lets just assume she is No-One, a psychologically scarred trained magical assassin by virtue of choosing to be Arya Stark after she failed at training. As a psycho no-one I thought she chose to bang Gendry B because:

1) She had a prior emotional connection with him when he called her mi'lady and she told him she could be his family.

2) She is trying to get over her psychosis and back in touch with her humanity.

Therefore, she feels being intimate with someone she had feelings for before she became an inhuman little monster might help her be human again in some way.

I gather she is supposed to be 15 - 16 in show, so barely legal by modern Western terms. Gendry I put at early 20s. This kind of age pairing is not uncommon, even now.

This said I was surprised Gendry didn't say something about her scars - perhaps he is saving it for pillow talk.

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I find funny so much scandal about a grown teenager having sex... the same teenager who has killed quite a number of persons, including stabbing eyes. And I can not recall a big reaction (I'm talking about twitter, not this forum where I have becone active right now)

 

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4 hours ago, darmody said:

1. She's a psycho, as usual

Gendry:

Not at all. She is VERY human and normal here. A battle ahead, this might be the last night on earth, this is exactly what VERY many soldiers are doing... having sex or doing what they want to have done before dying.

It makes a lot of sense and this is just a teenage warrior looking into the eye of the reality: It could be her last day. She never had sex or acted out desire or love. She wants to know how it feels like.

This is reality of war time. This is reality of teenagers. This is utterly believable.

The Hound:

Further, Arya's interaction with the Hound was forgiving, peace making. Sitting besides him, sharing some quiet moments. Accepting he has fought for her. Two experienced warriors who do not need many words to show each other some sort of strange respect.

4 hours ago, darmody said:

I don't know whether Gendry is admiring her boobies or a little freaked

Gendry is taken by surprise, partly appreciates her body, partly realises how many scars and wounds she has. In this moment Gendry realises how much of a warrior Arya really is. He somehow thought her to be a girl, then she demonstrated her knife throwing and he got a bit  suspiscious of her abilities and now he sees her naked body, not hiding all the scars she has acquired.

So for Gendry this is a mixture of a beautiful female body and a revelation of a scarred warrior body.

4 hours ago, darmody said:

I don't know if she really likes Gendry or just picked him because he's young and somewhat experienced

She really likes him. They were close back then and she wanted him for family, maybe had a bit of a girlish crush on him. Now, the was pretty flirtatious with him in the forgery (E1) and again really feels attracted to him, a young, muscular man who is kind, honest, and familiar to her.

This is not about love, yet, but about attraction and desire.

4 hours ago, darmody said:

4. I don't know how old she's supposed to be

Arya is 18 in S8. She was 11 in S1.

Gendry is five years older than Arya.

4 hours ago, darmody said:

Not that I want to see Maisie Williams naked, but it's strange to see a modest sex scene on Game of Thrones.

I'd like to see more of Maisie, though... ;-) But it's OK.

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3 minutes ago, Kajjo said:

Not at all. She is VERY human and normal here. A battle ahead, quite a probability this the last night on earth, this is exactly what VERY many soldiers are doing... having sex or doing what they want to have done before dying. It makes a lot of sense and this is just a teenage warrior looking the realities into the eye: It could be her last day. She never had sex and acted out love. She wants to know how it feels like.

This is reality of war time. This is reality of teenagers. This is utterly believable.

Arya interaction with the Hound was forgiving, peace making. Sitting besides him, sharing some quiet moments. Accepting he has fought for her. Two experienced warriors who do not need many words to show each other some sort of strange respect.

Gendry is taken by surprise, partly appreciates her body, partly realises how many scars and wounds she has. In this moment Gendry realises how much of a warrior Arya really is. He somehow thought her to be a girl, then she demonstrated her knife throwing and he got a bit  suspiscious of her abilities and now he sees her naked body, not hiding all the scars she has acquired.

So for Gendry this is a mixture of a beautiful female body and a revelation of a scarred warrior body.

She really likes him. They were close back then and she wanted him for family, maybe had a bit of a girlish crush on him. Now, the was pretty flirtatious with him in the forgery (E1) and again really feels attracted to him, a young, muscular man who is kind, honest, and familiar to her.

This is not about love, yet, but about attraction and desire.

Arya is 18 in S8. She was 11 in S1.

Gendry is five years older than Arya.

I'd like to see more of Maisie, though... ;-) But it's OK.

Having sex on the eve of combat is common. As is picking someone to do it just to get it out of the way. 

That part is fine. It's the way Arya interrogates him. She might be measuring his coffin; she might be interviewing a boyfriend. Maybe she's going to chop him up and serve him to somelne. Because that's something she does. 

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34 minutes ago, Black Arya said:

I find funny so much scandal about a grown teenager having sex... the same teenager who has killed quite a number of persons, including stabbing eyes. And I can not recall a big reaction (I'm talking about twitter, not this forum where I have becone active right now)

 

That's a side effect of cutting her character development off in season Four. The Faceless Men stuff was confusing, and since them she has been barely human. Dropping her down on Gendry reminds people she was like 12 when she had a personality and maybe a bit of a crush on him. And that Arya shouldn't have sex.

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15 minutes ago, darmody said:

Having sex on the eve of combat is common. As is picking someone to do it just to get it out of the way. 

Agreed. Good that we have the same perspective here.

15 minutes ago, darmody said:

It's the way Arya interrogates him

Well, some might call this funny, some weird, but it is not psychopathic anyway. She plays the faceless men's game with him, flirting with him about experiences. She finally admits to be virgin herself, she want's to know how much experience he has. What's wrong about that? Most teenager just before their first sex want to know. This is not strange, but real-life. 

14 minutes ago, darmody said:

That's a side effect of cutting her character development off in season Four.

This was your answer to "I find funny so much scandal about a grown teenager having sex... the same teenager who has killed quite a number of persons, including stabbing eye" -- and no, this is not primarily a side effect of a story-line, but the typical American way of having no problems at all with handling weapons and killing, but with erotic of 16 year old boys and girls. A movie showing a 14 year old killing someone may be published, a 16 year old having sex is oh-no because of extremely prudery.  In Europe it's the other way round. Of course people have sexual experiences with 14, but weapons are taboo. I don't judge, I just state the facts.

Arya is 18 years old, never had sex and wants to experience it with Gendry. No problems at all. It makes sense to me.

19 minutes ago, darmody said:

and since them she has been barely human

That's the same wrong accusations you repeat over and over. I get it you are unhappy about the Arya arc, but please understand that Arya is de factor very human, even in Bravos. She saves Lady Crane, she does not murder for cold, she keeps her identity and returns home. In Winterfell she gets more and more normal, smiling, sparring with Brienne, "a pack survives" with Brienne, defending her family and "never forget that" to Jon. Arya is depicted as not having lost humanity or heart. She is just trained to fight, kill and being remorseless in defending herself and her pack. A man acting like that would not be questioned at all.

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4 minutes ago, Kajjo said:

s the same wrong accusations you repeat over and over. I get it you are unhappy about the Arya arc, but please understand that Arya is de factor very human, even in Bravos. She saves Lady Crane, she does not murder for cold, she keeps her identity and returns home. In Winterfell she gets more and more normal, smiling, sparring with Brienne, "a pack survives" with Brienne, defending her family and "never forget that" to Jon. Arya is depicted as not having lost humanity or heart. She is just trained to fight, kill and being remorseless in defending herself and her pack. A man acting like that would not be questioned at all.

Are you in the habit of threatening, upon the thinnest of provocation, to steal your sister's face and live as her for an indefinite period of time? Because this was part of the Stark Family Love Renaisance. 

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12 minutes ago, Kajjo said:

This was your answer to "I find funny so much scandal about a grown teenager having sex... the same teenager who has killed quite a number of persons, including stabbing eye" -- and no, this is not primarily a side effect of a story-line, but the typical American way of having no problems at all with handling weapons and killing, but with erotic of 16 year old boys and girls. A movie showing a 14 year old killing someone may be published, a 16 year old having sex is oh-no because of extremely prudery.  In Europe it's the other way round. Of course people have sexual experiences with 14, but weapons are taboo. I don't judge, I just state the facts.

I am european, actually :)

I have no problems with both sex and murder. It is her story

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3 minutes ago, darmody said:

Are you in the habit of threatening, upon the thinnest of provocation, to steal your sister's face and live as her for an indefinite period of time? Because this was part of the Stark Family Love Renaisance. 

Well, that was a scary scene, but on the other hand she gave her the dagger. She just made clear that no one messes around with her. Sansa was breaking into her room after all. But yes, Arya was not back "in the pack" back then. That doesn't mean she was less human.

I really don't get all this talking about "being human". In the real-world there are thousands of traumatized veterans returning home and having problems. Would you really accuse them of being less human? This is a horrible thought, both with regards to veterans in real-life as to Arya in the show. Yes, she has survived a lot of hardships, suffered more than her share, was trained as assassin and killed a lot of people. But that does not make her less human, it just makes her scarred in more than one way. By the way, even professional murderers are human, often have family and children. 

Please stop this "non-human" talk. It's just not fair in real-life and does not make sense here. They clearly depict Arya very human in Winterfell. So we have to follow what they show us. 

7 minutes ago, Black Arya said:

I am european, actually

Well, we are on the same side here anyway. Your "finding it funny" stimulated me to write that paragraph. We agree. It's Darmody who see Arya as non-human and sex unfitting for her.

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Just now, darmody said:

She can have sex. Just this way was awkward. I'd rather her go to a brothel, frankly. 

She knows Gendry, she flirted with him in E1, he is a kind and fine man.

Why on earth would a young woman would need to go to a brothel? Women can get sex exactly in the way Arya did. A main advantage of women in real-life, too.

Only men need brothels.

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1 hour ago, darmody said:

That part is fine. It's the way Arya interrogates him. She might be measuring his coffin; she might be interviewing a boyfriend. Maybe she's going to chop him up and serve him to somelne. Because that's something she does. 

I think that just shows that Arya never had a chance to learn how to flirt. But if worked, so I guess she knows enough!

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6 minutes ago, nara said:

I think that just shows that Arya never had a chance to learn how to flirt. But if worked, so I guess she knows enough!

Yes, a mixture of faceless men's game and flirting and wanting to assess the boy she selected. Nothing special about it. Many people are clumsy at getting to each other. It feels in sync with Arya's character that she is not good at these things. I like it.

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Anyone else really did not see it coming, like me? I mean, I know that there are theories that Arya and Gendry migth end up together in the books. Until this episode Arya seemed more or less like an asexual psycho. It didn't look like she was interested in love or sex at all. And then suddenly she starts asking Gendry about his past sex partners and asks him for sex. There is nothing wrong with Arya or Gendry having sex but imo it felt really awkward because it was very out of Arya's character.

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I ship it. But oh my god that was not how I wanted it to happen. I just wanted a nice implication in the last episode. Or an announcement of the House Baratheon living on coupled with a betrothal/wedding.

But I never expected we'd see Arya of all people getting it on on-screen.

And I find the whole "last night" thing cringy even though it's truth in fiction but why did they have to use it twice in one episode even if the other time nothing happens.

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9 minutes ago, Nerevanin said:

It didn't look like she was interested in love or sex at all. And then suddenly she starts asking Gendry about his past sex partners and asks him for sex.

Well, in S4-S6 I have to admit to have been more or less an oppponent of Arya-Gendry shipping. 

Since Arya's flirtatious dialogue in S8E1 I was very sure it would happen that way.

10 minutes ago, nborders said:

Gendry has always known Arya to be a little girl. But between the knives, the scars, and her figure, he found out quite suddenly that she’s a woman now. 

Exactly. Great scene.

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