[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”16394″ img_size=”900×500″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]As we move toward the ultimate conclusion to HBO’s tour de force Game of Thrones, much has been written and debated about who will come out of the series unscathed. The answer to this is no one. Every character will be scarred or effected by the events that transpire in this final season, but who will be left standing. The opinions of this varies with whoever is asked. Our own @doubleoh_kevin has written a series of articles about who might survive (although he hasn’t given his prognostications on Arya as of yet…c’mon buddy). Because of that, it seemed like a good time to discuss the possibility.
The very reason that speaks to her surviving might also the thing that brings her down. Arya is an accomplished assassin and will kill someone without remorse if she feels they have earned that fate. Her very list of targets speaks to her idea that those people on her list deserve the justice that she brings to them. The fact that she can add to that list when needed speaks to the ruthlessness and efficiency she has developed. In the Season 4, Episode: Mockingbird, Arya and the Hound comes across the man that had previously threatened to rape her. The Hound asked her if he was on her list. She replied no because she didn’t know his name. As soon as he stated it she ran him through with needle. Sometimes a name is all it takes…oh and a threat of sexual assault. Because of her skill and her courage, when the fight with the Night King comes, she will likely be in the midst of it. That does not bode well for survival. Even if she somehow makes it through that confrontation, the people left on her list are formidable and will not be easy to dispatch.
Number 1 is Queen Cersei. We have seen that Cersei might be Arya’s equal when it comes to ruthlessness although she likes other people to do her dirty work while Arya believes that any job worth doing is worth doing yourself. While the skills she has picked up during her journey’s and with the faceless men would serve her well in this endeavor, she will more than likely have to go through another person on her list to accomplish the deed.
That would be No. 2, Ser Robert Strong, the zombie once known as The Mountain. Since he has already died once, I’m not sure she could do it again, short of burning him “alive.” That would be a poetic justice for his brother The Hound, who has his own bone to pick with the former “Mountain who Rides.” Although IF she were to be able to get by the Mountain, she could be able to get to Cersei. That honor though I believe will go to another. But that’s another story.
There are other people still on her list but they are on the periphery and as such may not be as much a priority as they once were. Melisandre was on her list for taking Gendry but she also brought Jon Snow back from the dead, the “brother” she was perhaps closer to than any of her siblings, Sansa included. Although the “Red Woman” predicted that their paths would cross again, I’m not sure if killing her is a thing she desires, especially if she realizes Gendry is still alive. The executioner Illyn Payne (who beheaded her father) was also on her list but seeing as his character hasn’t been seen in a long while (the actor who played him, Wilko Johnson, was diagnosed with Cancer and is presently in remission) so he has probably also been removed from the list. Especially if she realizes he was just following the king’s orders.
That doesn’t mean there are not plenty of people she could add to the list as she goes. The question is, will she survive. Other than perhaps Jon Snow, she is the best equipped to make it through the kind of conflict they have facing them. It will come down to if she attempts to complete her quest to eliminate Cersei and if she is able to outmaneuver the diabolical plans of the now “Mad”Queen. Although I am not convinced she will be the one to take Cersei down, I believe she will somehow survive through to the conclusion, perhaps taking her place in the position she wanted as a child, that of a Knight. Then again, she could continue her journey as a “faceless man” going where the Many-Faced Gods have need of her. Regardless, live or die, Arya Stark will face death as her mentor Syrio Forel, so often told her. “What do we say to the God of Death? Not today!”
How do you think Arya will fare in the end? Will she join her family members in death or will her skills and cunning bring her through to the conclusion? Share your thoughts with us at GVNation.
Source: THR[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.