GAME OF THRONES Character Recap: Arya Stark, Seasons 1-7

{WARNING: BIG SPOILERS: This article is meant as a reminder and refresher for those who have seen and/or read and/or can’t stop thinking about GAME OF THRONES. You will likely be confused if you haven’t done. But, read on friends! All are welcome in these nerd halls!}

Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season fast approaches. If you’re like me, you’ve obsessively analyzed the photos and the trailer. You’ve done your rewatch. You are anxiously awaiting the next chapter. And, if you’re like me, you often go; “When exactly did that happen? Was it before or after the other thing?” Like, did Arya kill her first person before she was on the King’s Road? Or was that later?

Or, maybe you don’t have time to rewatch nearly 70 hours of television. You have better, more important things to do! We applaud you. And, we may be able to help you refresh your memory for the war to come.

It occurred to us at GGA, that whether you’ve obsessed over every GoT detail or not… it would be nice to have a map, if you will, of individual characters’ arcs over seven seasons.

So, we present to you the second in our Game of Thrones character recap series. Let’s follow Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) through her arc over seven seasons of Game of Thrones, shall we?

SEASON ONE

Arya is a tiny little tom boy in season one. The first time we see her, she shoots an arrow past Bran while he’s learning to shoot arrows. She’s good. And, she’s bold. Very unladylike. Her grit gets her out of season one alive.

King (Mark Addy) and Queen (Lena Headey) arrive in Winterfell. She trots into the reception line wearing someone’s helmet and knows the dirt on everyone that passes through the gates.
Has a bond with Jon (Kit Harington), who gives her Needle before she leaves for King’s Landing and he leaves for the wall. “Stick ’em with the pointy end.”
Leaves for King’s Landing with Ned (Sean Bean), Sansa (Sophie Turner) and the Lannister/Baratheons. She’s not enthusiastic about leaving Winterfell. Neither is her dad.
Makes a friend of the Butcher’s Boy and they play by the river. This will not end well.
Beats Joffery (Jack Gleeson) with a stick and then his own sword, in defense of the Butcher’s Boy.
Nymeria bites Joffrey in defense of Arya. She throws Joffrey’s sword in the river instead of killing him. Wrong choice. I mean, c’mon. We could have avoided so much heartache if she’d offed him right there.
Sends Nymeria away so Lannister guards can’t catch and kill her for biting Joffrey.
Stands up against Joffrey in front of the King when Sansa won’t. Cersei makes sure a wolf dies. Ugh, Cersei. Bye bye, Lady. Hound (Rory McCann) kills the Butcher’s boy. Arya hates Sansa for lying and letting it all happen.
They make it to King’s Landing. Ned has an awesome talk with her about the pressure Sansa is under and taking care of the family. They’re in a dangerous place. They can’t war amongst themselves. He let’s her keep Needle and decides to train her. They have a special bond. So good.
Meets Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou) who teaches her the art of water dancing and calls her boy. He won’t be the last.
Another heart-to-heart with Ned. She’s balancing on the stairs. They talk about Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead Wright) new future without his legs. Ned tells her that some day she’ll be a lady of a great house. “No. That’s not me.” She’s gonna chase cats and fight instead. Cool.
Chases a cat into the dungeons. Discovers dragon skulls and Varys’ (Conleth Hill) whispers about a war between wolves and lions and the fact that Ned will be killed.
Runs away in fear and ends up outside the city walls.
Tries to enter through the gates. Soldiers call her boy and tell her to get lost. She pulls rank and it’s awesome. They bring her to her dad.
She tells Ned what she heard. She has details she shouldn’t and he knows it’s true. Danger is coming for them. Then Yoren arrives (Francis Magee) with a request for men to bring to the wall and information on the wights. Yoren clocks Arya, calls her boy. She gets sent away.
Ned tells Arya and Sansa that he’s taking them out of King’s Landing. It’s too dangerous. Pack up. Sansa is mad that she won’t have blonde lion babies, and Arya’s like no they’ll be stags…. Ned realizes Joffrey is a bastard. Good work, sister fight!
While water dancing, learning to leave her trouble behind while fighting, Lannister men come for her. Syrio won’t have it. He fights them off with blunted wooden sword… for awhile. She runs.
Gets Needle among dead Stark men and all of their things ransacked. Kills a stable boy in self-defense. Her first kill.
She’s in the city trying to survive, killing pigeons. Everyone rushes past her, and she follows to her father’s execution. She watches from the statue of Baelor until Yoren grabs her to keep her from seeing Ned’s head removed. “Look at me, boy!”
Yoren gets her out of there. She’ll come with him to the wall. Jon is there. Yoren chops off her hair right there. “We’re going North, boy.” She will be a boy called Ari, and she will pee in secret.
Meets Hotpie (Ben Hawkey) and Lommy (Eros Vlahos) who are not friendly until she lets them know that she’ll gladly use Needle.
Gendry (Joe Dempsie) shows up and has her back. A band of orphans and criminals. They start walking to the wall.

SEASON TWO

Arya is, for the first time, not Arya. Ari spends season two on the King’s road and at Harrenhal. She’s surrounded by danger, suspicion and enemies. But, she’s got her list and some very helpful friends.

The King’s Road. Jaqen H’ghar (Thomas Wlaschiha) is in a cage with Rorge and Biter. They’re clearly the bad, gross ones. Jaqen is intrigued by the boy, and asks for water. Arya is not into helping, but antagonizes the bad guys. “The boy has more courage than sense.”
Gold cloaks come looking for someone. Yoren isn’t having it and goes straight for the femoral artery. Arya hides, thinking they’re there for her. They’re not. They’re rounding up bastards and looking for Gendry.
Gendry tells Arya that he talked to her dad. Arya reveals her true identity to Gendry. He’s only a little surprised.
Yoren tries to play the sage and warn Arya against vengeance. She’s like, “yeah, vengeance!” and starts reciting her list every night.
Gold cloaks come back with Lannister men. Everyone scatters. Lommy grabs Gendry’s bull helmet.
Yoren won’t back down. “I always hated crossbows. Take too long to load!!” Yoren dies fighting them off. I miss him, he was awesome.
A fire breaks out, and Arya gives Jaqen an axe to get out of the cage. That’s gonna pay off big time.
Lannisters win the scuffle, take everyone prisoner. Polliver (Andy Kellegher) steals needle and uses it to kill Lommy who’s been injured by an arrow. Gruesome and cruel. He makes the list. Arya tells them that Lommy was Gendry so they stop looking for the bastard. “you got him.” She’s a quick thinker.
She’s taken to Harrenhal where The Mountain (Ian Whyte) and The Tickler (Anthony Morris) are picking a prisoner a day to torture with rats. Gross and horrifying. That’s the second Mountain, by the way, not to be confused with the first Mountain (Conan Stevens) or the third and eventually undead Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson)… but I digress. The Mountain and The Tickler make the list.
Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) arrives to run the place, and doesn’t like the messy torture bit. Waste of man power. He stops the practice right before Gendry gets chewed up. And, because nothing gets past Tywin, he notices immediately that Arya is a girl dressed as a boy. She says it was safer to travel.
Tywin is impressed and makes her his cupbearer. Does he know it’s Arya? Nah. Some things get past Tywin.
She’s in with the lion. Tywin asks where she’s from, picking up that she’s a northerner. She has to lie a couple of times to satisfy him. She’ll learn. Tywin is talking Rob’s rebellion and asks Arya about her northern perspective. She relays the rumor that Rob is a warg. But, she doesn’t believe it. “Anyone can be killed.”
Jaqen finds her in the halls and offers his gratitude for the axe, in the form of three murders. She just has to say a name, and a man will get it done. Cool. First up, The Tickler.
Cross The Tickler off the list. He’s found dead in the courtyard. One down. Two to go.
Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) shows up and Arya does her best to avoid him. She reads a letter meant for Tywin, he catches her reading which she shouldn’t do but she talks her way out of it and steals the letter.
Ser Amory (Fintan McKeown) catches her stealing the letter and she makes a mad dash for Jaqen who murders Amory just in time to keep her secret. Two down.
Tywin goes to fight Rob, and she tries to have him killed, but Jaqen is gone and when he comes back it’s too late. So, she wants to escape. Jaqen is like that’s not the deal. So she gives him his own name! Awesome! “Unname me… please.”
She gets Jaqen to help her get out for the unnaming. Brilliant. They are to walk out, and as they do… it turns out all of the guards at the gate are dunzo. Dead. Great. Bye bye, Harrenhal.
She’s free, with Hotpie and Gendry. Jaqen shows up out of nowhere, he gives her the iron coin. She can walk up to any Braavosi and say the magic words “Valar Morghulis” and they’ll take her to him. Then he turns to leave and he’s a different person. No big deal. Okay, bye.

SEASON THREE

Arya spends season three searching. She doesn’t find what she’s looking for, but she does find an unlikely ally, her own strength and a penchant for violence that will come in handy.

She, Gendry and Hotpie are making their way to Riverrun, to her mother’s people. Good plan. But, nope. They get captured by The Brotherhood.
Good news, The Brotherhood treat them well. Bad news, they also capture The Hound who knows her immediately. For real: nothing gets past The Hound.
Gets taken back to Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) with Gendry and The Hound, but not before Hotpie makes a smart career move and stays at the inn to bake.
Accuses The Hound of the butcher of the butcher’s boy when they get to Beric’s cave. Trial by combat. Beric loses, but Thoros (Paul Kaye) brings him back. The Hound leaves. She’s mad because they let him go, and they’re ransoming her and they can’t bring her dad back because he has no head. All bad news.
Brotherhood sells Gendry to Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) when she shows up looking for King’s blood. Gendry is mad, he wanted to join the brotherhood. Arya is mad because Gendry is all she’s got.
Melisandre sees her future and promises a reunion, like she wants one. No thanks, witch lady.
Runs away from the Brotherhood. The Hound snatches her up.
She thinks about killing him with a rock. He dares her, she backs down.
The Hound is going to bring her to her mother at the Twins. She’ll pay for her.
Steals hog cart with The Hound. She keeps him from killing the hog farmer but they both punch him out. They’re not so different after all. They should have a sitcom.
She promises to stab him through the eye when he talks about her family.
Arrives at the Twins. Gets away from The Hound and witnesses the outside carnage of the Red Wedding. Stark men are killed, Grey Wolf is murdered in the stables before she can let him out.
The Hound finds her and knocks her out before she gets killed. She sees her brother’s body with his wolf’s head sewn on it. The Hound steals a Frey flag and they get the hell out. At this point, she’s less of a meal ticket and more of a responsibility. He wants to protect her.
Riding out, they cross the camp of Lannisters that had done the sewing, laughing about their deed. She gets off the horse, asks for food and drops the iron coin. When a soldier goes for it, she gets super stabby all over his back with a knife she stole from The Hound. Savage. The Hound kills the other guys, and she picks up the bloody coin. “Valar Morghulis.”
She’s becoming a full sociopath and we’re all into it.

SEASON FOUR

Season four is Arya’s coming of age. She is cold, brutal, violent, savage and vengeful. She has survived unthinkable tragedy and strikes off on her own.

New plan. The Hound will take her to the Eyrie where her aunt will pay for her.
Stop at a Tavern covered in Lannister soldiers. Including Polliver… with Needle in his belt. Oooh. She’s gonna get him.
Polliver recognizes The Hound and strikes up a conversation. The Hound isn’t great at conversation, and he REALLY wants some chickens. No chickens? Okay. Everybody dies.
The Hound takes on like 6 guys. Arya watches most of it until the end when she gets a chance to hamstring Polliver and reenact the scene where he put Needle through Lommy’s throat. Chilling. Polliver is the first that she personally crosses off her list.
She gets her own horse for helping The Hound get his chickens.
Meets a farmer and his daughter, and gains access to their food and water by posing as loyal to Riverrun. They eat the food and take the shelter and The Hound beats up the nice man and takes his silver. She’s furious. Those people were good and made her feel human. The Hound says they won’t make it through the winter anyway.
She lets him know that he is on her list.
Needle is back so she does some water dancing practice. The Hound makes fun of her, and gives her a chance to use her training. She fails, and he gives her a lesson in who can kill whom.
They come across a dying man. The Hound mercy kills him and immediately gets attacked by Biter and Rorge, who she saved back in season 2. There is a price on The Hound’s head. Snaps Biter’s neck and asks Arya if Rorge is on her list, but she doesn’t know his name. Rorge says his name and she stabs him in the heart. “You’re learning.”
The Hound comes away with a nasty face bite. He won’t let her cauterize the wound, because fire. But he lets her stitch him up. There’s a bond.
Gets to the Eyrie. Lysa (Kate Dickie) is dead. She bursts into laughter. Appropriate. She can’t win and The Hound is foiled again.
Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) stumbles on them stumbling away from the Eyrie. The Hound doesn’t trust her, because she’s carrying a Lannister sword. Brienne doesn’t trust him because he’s The Hound. They fight. I mean, they FIGHT. Brienne pushes him off a cliff, but Arya hides and Brienne can’t find her.
Hound begs for Arya to kill him. She won’t. She takes his money and leaves him to die. Cold.
Ends up on the coast, and asks a ship’s captain to take her to the wall. Jon is there, she thinks. But, the captain’s going to Braavos. Oh! I’ve got this Braavosi coin and nothing left to lose! “Valar Morghulis”, she gives him the coin and gets a cabin.
Sails to Braavos. Goodbye to the old Arya Stark.

SEASON FIVE

Season five is all Braavos all the time and it is so good. She’s got it hard in Braavos, but it’s all a means to an end. This is her destiny. Arya not only grows in skill, courage and brutality… she also starts in on her journey around her own identity.

Enter Braavos. The Titan greets her arrival. She’s not scared. Yes, she is. She’s scared.
Goes to the House of Black and White. Gets rejected by old man.
Waits. And, waits. And, waits. Then gives up, tosses the coin in the ocean and goes to explore Braavos.
Kills pigeons and gets in trouble with Braavosi boys set on stealing Needle. But the old man appears and scares them away before she can kill them. She follows him.
Back at the House of Black and White, old man has her coin and reveals that he’s Jaqen H’ghar. But, he is no one. And she must learn to be no one. No problem. Cool.
She’s on cleaning duty and watches Jaqen “help” people. What are they doing with the bodies?
The Waif (Faye Marsay) shows up and she’s mean. Beats Arya up for not being no one, until Jaqen stops it.
Throws silver in the ocean, “gets rid” of Needle, but not really. She’s just storing Needle until later.
Upgraded to corpse washing. They still won’t tell her what they do with the bodies. She’s not ready.
Learns to lie. Jaqen tests her. Smacks her every time she lies. She says she hates The Hound. Smack. She’s lying to herself about that one.
Helps a little girl with a convincing and merciful lie. Gets taken to the Hall of Faces.
She’s not ready to become no one. First she’ll become someone else. She gets her first assignment to sell shellfish and kill the Thin Man.
Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie) shows up on his way to the Iron Bank. That’s distracting. She doesn’t kill the Thin Man. Instead follows Trant to a brothel where he’s revealed as a straight-up pedophile. Noted.
She’s in trouble with Jaqen, but promises to kill the Thin Man tomorrow. Instead, she steals a face and poses as a young girl in the brothel so she can stab Meryn Trant in the eyes, taunt him, reveal herself as Arya Stark and slit his throat. She is someone, alright.
Gets caught stealing the face and providing the wrong death to the Many Faced God. She’s in trouble. “Only death can pay for life.” Jaqen drinks poison and dies.
But, wait! The Waif, standing next to her, pulls her face off and SHE’S Jaqen.
But, wait! Arya turns to the dead Jaqen and pulls off face after face after face until she sees her own.
Her eyes go white. She’s blind. (Fun Fact: I threw my book across the room when I read this in A Feast for Crows)

SEASON SIX

Season six is Arya at full survival/sociopath mode. She takes several literal beatings and becomes this Jason Bourne-like super assassin who wears actual human skin masks. Turns out, super assassin is exactly the job description needed as a Stark family member when she returns to Westeros. And, I know we’re all on her side and we’re rooting for her… but, she’s scary right? Arya is scary.

We find her blind and begging on the streets of Braavos. Oooh. Things got so bad.
She hears people talk about Trant’s murder. That’s cool. She did that.
Waif shows up, throws a fighting stick at her (like she can defend herself) and beats the living s#*% out of her. The Waif promises to come back tomorrow. Oh, great.
Waif comes back tomorrow and beats her to a pulp again. Jaqen shows up, asks her name over and over. She is consistent. No one. A girl has no name. Okay, come on back to the House of Black and White. She follows him back.
The Waif keeps kicking her a#* in stick fights. But, she’s learning and adapting to blindness. She’s getting better.
Jaqen gives her a cup from the death well, and she’s like “okay” and drinks it. Her sight is restored.
She’s given a new last chance assignment to kill Lady Crane (Essie Davis).
Lady Crane is in a play about the death of her father, the death of Joffrey and everything Westeros. Crane plays Cersei and she’s really good. Turns out, a lesser actress is the one that wants her dead. Ugh. Actresses.
She accidentally bonds with Lady Crane over pretending, right after poisoning Crane’s backstage show rum.
Knocks the rum out of Lady Crane’s hand before she drinks it. The old, human Arya is still in there. And, she points out the tart that wanted her dead.
Now she’s in real trouble. The faceless men will definitely kill her.
The Waif reports Arya’s failure to murder Crane, and Jaqen gives her the green light to murder Arya. He doesn’t want her to suffer. Heh. Have you met the Waif?
Arya goes and gets Needle. Audience cheers. Well, I did.
Manages to bribe a Westerosi ship person to give her passage. While she waits to sail, she drops her guard in the city. WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT??? I mean, come on. She knows better than that.
The Waif, disguised as an old lady, stabs her so many times. So many times.
Throws herself into the river to escape and finds herself stumbling, stabbed, through Braavos. Not good.
Who can she turn to? The amazing actress she just saved! She goes to bleed backstage at the theater. Lady Crane finds her and takes her in.
Crane fixes her up in a surprisingly adept way. Turns out she like to stab and then bandage her boyfriends. Handy.
Arya protests and then agrees to drink milk of the poppy to sleep and heal. She sleeps, but she’s awoken by Lady Crane getting broken over a step stool by the Waif who looks like some creepy blond boy with mustache.
Arya escapes by throwing herself off the balcony and Bourning her way through the Braavosi streets. It’s a pretty awesome chase scene. Arya busts her stitches in the process and lures the Waif with a trail of blood to her Needle hideout.
Waif shows up on her trail… she takes a breath and cuts the only light, a candle, in half. Snuffing out all light in the room and in the Waif.
Arya shows up in the Hall of Faces and you’re not sure if it’s her or the Waif wearing her. Oh, it’s her. She’s got the Waif’s face as a trophy.
Jaqen tells her she is finally no one. Oh, no way pal. She is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And, she just walks out. Boss.
She makes it to Westeros, and the Twins, as a servant girl at a celebratory Frey feast. Walder Frey (David Bradley) is toasting the demise of her family.
After feast, servant girl gives Walder some meat pie. He asks where his sons are. “They’re already here, my Lord.” Black Walder and Lothar are in the pie. Then she peels her face off.
“The last thing you’re ever going to see is a Stark smiling down on you as you die.” Slits Walder’s throat and holds him there with the blankest, most chilling look in her eyes.

SEASON SEVEN

Homecoming is a grossly inadequate description of what happens for Arya in season seven. She is reclaiming her family, her identity, and her mission to destroy those that have gotten in her way. She is a killing machine. It’s awesome. And, scary. Still scary.

Walder Frey is having another feast with “every Frey who means a damn thing”. Hmm. That’s weird. He got his throat cut… oh, it’s Arya in a Walder face and she’s poisoned everyone’s wine.
House Frey is gone. Just like that. “Leave one wolf alive and the the sheep are never safe” The North remembers. She’s spared the innocent young girls, who will tell the tale. “Tell them winter came for House Frey.” God, she’s awesome. And, scary.
Runs into some Lannister men that include Ed Sheeran. Um. What? No. Bad move. No. But, fine. He sings. Whatever. She thinks about killing them, but they’re kind humans. Not all people are monsters. We get it. Thanks, Ed Sheeran.
Stops at the Inn at the Crossroads. Hotpie is still there. This is good. He still calls her Ari, which is awesome. He gives her free food, and the dirt on her family. The Starks are in Winterfell. Jon is King of the North.
She goes North. YES.
Makes camp in the woods, and is surrounded by wolves. That’s bad. Oh, but who’s the wolf boss?? NYMERIA. Finally. Oh my god, finally we get to see Nymeria again. She’s huge, and she’s living her best life.
Wants Nymeria to come with her, but that’s not gonna happen. She echoes the words that she gave Ned when he told her she’d be a lady. “No. That’s not you.” Nymeria isn’t a pet. They part ways. Ugh. We get so much dragon action and the dire wolves are jilted. More. Dire Wolves. Please and thank you.
Arrives at Winterfell. Gets stopped at the gate. She’s always getting stopped at gates. Convinces guards that it’s in their best interest to let her in. They try to keep her in the courtyard. Nope. She’s a freaking super assassin. She’s gone.
Sansa finds her exactly where she expected when she heard that she was back. In the crypt. They’re both super damaged. They catch up on some damage.
Bran is in Winterfell. But, that’s not Bran. It’s spooky three-eyed raven Bran. He knows about her plans and her list, and he gives her the Cat’s Paw dagger, that Littlefinger had recently given to him. She’s gonna use it.
Fights Brienne. But, you know, just for fun. They’re well matched. Sansa and Littlefinger look on. Pretty much wins. Brienne is impressed and everyone else is scared.
Butts heads with Sansa over running Winterfell. Starts spying. Finds the scroll Littlefinger planted of Sansa’s plea to Rob to bend the knee, a betrayal of their family in Arya’s eyes.
Confronts Sansa with the scroll and they have words. All playing into Littlefinger’s plan to divide them.
Sansa finds Arya’s faces. Just a reminder: they’re human skin masks. Okay.
Arya is threatening. Wants to play the game of faces and catch Sansa in a lie. Then she makes a creepy speech about taking her own sister’s face. Still scary.
Bait and switch. Arya is called to the great hall, where Sansa reads, aloud, a list of crimes against the Stark family. But, they’re charges against Littlefinger, not Arya. Before Littlefinger can talk his way out of it Arya slits his throat with his own Cat’s Paw dagger. It’s the dagger that caused this whole terrible calamity for the Starks. Poetic justice.
Sansa and Arya have been on the same page the whole time, or most of it. They remember what Ned told them; “When the snows fall and the white winds blow… the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.”

READ OUR GAME OF THRONES CHARACTER RECAPS, HERE!

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Jenny Flack

Co-founder and Senior Contributor to Geek Girl Authority.
Actor, Improviser, Comic.
I like to like things and talk about them.
I like to pretend.
I like to make things.
I like to write things down.

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