Social media, as always, was abuzz with the teaser of a possible series (or film?) with Arya Stark and her adventures west of Westeros. I found myself shrugging. A series with a sociopath, cold, completely crazy discovering a new continent? I’ll pass.

I can already imagine myself taking imaginary stones because Arya Stark has always been one of the favorites and Maisie Williams may have tried in the Game of Thrones universe. Still, she won’t erase the fans’ memory of her first and most important role so far. But Arya, like Bran, was the victim of a simplified script and direction, taking away from the character all the liveliness and authenticity that made her – potentially – one of the best in House Stark.

The fact that George R. R. Martin met with Maisie Williams and celebrated what may come next, puts Arya Stark ahead of Jon Snow in the leadership of the post-Game Of Thrones. This saddens me because in my opinion, although Arya’s future suggests a sea of ​​new adventures, Jon’s story was the one that ended unsatisfactorily and with the greatest need for a conclusion. And vastness for vastness, sea or land, the “true North” was not fully explored either. The potential would be the same, right?

Still, fans celebrate because Arya Stark’s evolution was marked by a complex and exciting journey, during which she went from an innocent young woman to a ruthless warrior.

In eight seasons, a girl who becomes a woman

Season 1

We met Arya as the youngest daughter of Ned and Catelyn Stark, who, unlike her sister Sansa, has a rebellious spirit and aversion to the expectations imposed on young noblewomen. She is not interested in traditional skills, preferring to learn to fight and wield a sword. She is very affectionate with her brothers, especially Jon Snow, and makes Ned compare her to Lyanna Stark. When Ned is betrayed and executed in King’s Landing, Arya manages to escape, but this loss changes her life and marks the beginning of her journey of revenge and survival.

Season 2

On the run and considered dead, Arya is captured by Lannister soldiers who do not identify her and taken to Harrenhal. She is living under the identity of a boy, “Arry”, and, to hide, survives as a cupbearer for none other than Twyin Lannister, who takes a liking to her. During her time there, she meets Jaqen H’ghar, an assassin from the mysterious organization the Faceless Men. He helps her escape and leaves her a Braavosi coin, telling her that she can find him again if she so wishes.

Season 3

Arya continues her flight through enemy territory and temporarily joins the Brotherhood Without Banners, where she is disillusioned when she realizes that the Brotherhood has its own agenda. She is later captured by Sandor Clegane, who plans to exchange her for ransom. During this time, Arya and Sandor develop a complex relationship. She begins to develop a sense of pragmatism and realizes that the world is crueler than she imagined. She almost reunites with her mother and Rob, but is barred from the wedding feast and – fortunately – escapes with her life. As far as she knows, Bran and Rickon have been killed, so now she only has Sansa (whom she hates) and Jon (who is far away). Her desire for revenge intensifies.

Season 4

Arya continues her journey with Sandor, witnessing the brutality of the world. When they arrive in the Vale to find her aunt Lysa, they discover that she has died, foiling the rescue plan. It’s almost a reunion between the Starks (Sansa was there, but neither of them knows it) and the relationship between Arya and Sandor intensifies, and she learns valuable lessons about survival and brutality from him. In the season finale, after a fight, Arya leaves the wounded Sandor for dead and sets sail for Braavos, intending to join the Faceless Men.

Season 5

In Braavos, Arya joins the House of Black and White and begins training with the Faceless Men. She learns about the concept of abandoning one’s identity since the organization demands the total nullification of the ego. However, she struggles to let go of her desire for revenge. When Arya disobeys orders and kills Meryn Trant, a man on her list of revenge, she is punished by being temporarily blinded.

Season 6

Still blind, Arya faces new challenges in her training. She is eventually cured and given a second chance with the Faceless Men. However, Arya realizes that she can never completely abandon who she is. She refuses to be a “nobody” and flees Braavos, killing the Waif assassin who was chasing her. Arya decides to resume her revenge and returns to Westeros, where she executes Walder Frey, avenging the murder of her mother and brother.

Season 7

Arya continues her revenge against the Freys, killing the men of the family with poison. On the way to King’s Landing, where she wants to kill Cersei Lannister, she changes her mind and decides to return to Winterfell to protect the Stark family. Together, they unmask and execute Littlefinger, who has conspired to tear the family apart over the years.

Season 8

In the final season, Arya is fully integrated into her warrior identity. During the Battle of Winterfell, she uses her assassin skills and surprises everyone by being responsible for killing the Night King, ending the threat of the White Walkers. After the battle, Arya decides that she no longer sees herself as a lady of Winterfell. She also tries to kill Cersei, but Daenerys stops her by destroying the city with Drogon. Concerned about an assassin on the throne (Arya knows how to read people like few others), she warns Jon about the danger he runs by crowning Danny as Queen. When Jon realizes she is right, he chooses love for his family and duty to the people and kills Daenerys. At the end of the series, Arya sets off on a journey of exploration to the west of Westeros, in search of what lies beyond the known map.

My Problem with Arya Stark

There are many problems with Arya Stark, some of which are not always her fault. Her trauma of brutally losing her family and wanting to avenge them certainly required her to leave empathy aside. Impulsive for much of the time, Arya was losing her humanity (and sounding robotic), something I find regrettable.

The character’s journey was marked by the struggle between maintaining her identity and the need to adapt to a cruel world, evolving from a rebellious young woman to a purposeful assassin, learning from each experience. I am radically against the series’ decision to give her the mission of killing the Knight King. She was not committed at all to this part of the story, even with her skill, there was no pleasure in seeing her achieve this victory and “lose” the great chance to kill Cersei Lannister, a promise that was also not fulfilled. It was just a prank, not a plot twist. Furthermore, the disappointment with the night of sex she had made me think of her as a frigid woman, the opposite of the passionate young woman who won over fans. In short: Arya needs to be humanized to connect with her. As I saw her, she was just a trained sociopath.

In the books, another Arya

Martin’s original proposal was to transform Arya and Jon into a romantic couple (they are cousins, not siblings), but he changed his mind, although in the books Jon is still far from meeting Daenerys. In A Song of Ice and Fire books, there are other significant differences in terms of development and details, and Arya’s story is even more complex and deep in the books, reflecting the slower and more detailed pace of Martin’s text.

The differences are as follows:

Education and Training

In the books, the depth of Arya’s training with the Faceless Men is more detailed. In Braavos, she spends more time learning disguises, the art of poisoning, and the emotional control that characterizes the House of Black and White. The training is more psychological and less focused on immediate combat skills. In the series, her journey in Braavos is condensed and more action-oriented.

The Identity Conflict

In the books, Arya’s internal dilemma about giving up her Stark identity to be “Nobody” is further explored. She constantly reflects on what this means and faces great difficulties in letting go of her past and her list of revenge. This internal conflict is subtly presented in the series, but is much more intense in the books, showing that she can never fully free herself from her identity.

Omitted Characters

In the books, Arya meets important characters who do not appear in the series, such as Lady Stoneheart, who is the resurrected Catelyn Stark. Arya never meets her directly, but the presence of this vengeful figure symbolizes the price of revenge for the Stark family. In addition, her relationship with Sandor Clegane in the books is briefer and more ambiguous. After leaving him injured, she believes he died, but there are signs that he survived.

Relationship with the Wolves

In the books, Arya has a much deeper connection with her dire wolf Nymeria, and the wild wolves. She has dreams where she “becomes” Nymeria, leading a fierce pack that terrorizes the Riverlands. This symbolizes the wildness and freedom that Arya craves, as well as her mystical connection to her family and the North. In the series, Nymeria appears only briefly, and this spiritual connection is not explored much.

Revenge Is More Gradual

In the series, Arya has some grand moments of revenge (such as executing Walder Frey), but in the books, her journey of revenge is slower and more contained. She holds deep grudges, but her time in Braavos and her training try to prepare her to let go of those emotions. The narrative suggests that her desire for revenge may be both a purpose and a burden.

The Future of Arya’s Journey

As of the most recent point in the books, Arya is still in training in Braavos and has not yet returned to Westeros. This means that some of Arya’s final actions in the series (such as killing the Night King and confronting Cersei) may be unique to the series or addressed differently in the books. Arya’s fate remains open, but she may approach a different resolution to her personal journey.

Emotional Depth and Complexity

In the books, Arya’s emotional complexity is greater, and her losses and traumas are detailed in a more introspective way. Arya’s narrative in the books reveals a young woman who struggles between her roots and the brutality she adopts to survive. The series provides a good visual representation of her transformation, but the books offer emotional nuances that show Arya’s internal struggles as she deals with her family’s abandonment and her desire for revenge.

Arya’s Future

The possibility of a spin-off series centered on Arya Stark has always sparked interest among Game of Thrones fans, mainly because of the series finale, where Arya is left open on her adventure to discover what lies “west of Westeros”, an unknown and unexplored territory.

There is, I admit, an easier appeal to developing this sequel. Arya has no particular attachment to her siblings, not even the Queen of the North (Sansa) or the King of the Six Kingdoms (Bran). With Jon exiled to the North, she is free to finally be nobody. Add to that the great mystery surrounding the area she has been exploring and there are endless elements of new adventures.

In Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, Westeros and Essos have already been largely unraveled, but the West is still a mystery, with myths and legends about unexplored lands, dangers, and unknown civilizations. This plot could give the series a vibe of adventure and discovery, in which Arya encounters new cultures, threats, and, who knows, new alliances.

Furthermore, as I said, Arya refused to be “nobody”, but she also did not return to being a Stark, this identity crisis makes the spin-off an opportunity for us to discover who she really is or will be. She was never much of a fan of the pack, she always saw herself as a solitary warrior and survivor. In a new series, she could confront this side and explore the most solitary part of her personality, explore her relationship with her own identity, now that she lacks empathy. She no longer needs to avenge anyone, why not finally belong to a group or fall in love? Not to mention that she betrayed the Faceless Men, she could actually be a fugitive from this enigmatic organization.

I wanted to say that even this would spark my interest, but if Arya continues to be lonely and distant, why engage? To make matters worse, without the conclusion of A Song of Ice and Fire, we know that nothing will be coherent. The Game of Thrones series was severely damaged by not having the material from the books as a basis, if we don’t even end this series well, how can we advance even further what the books didn’t conclude? It sounds like a trap to me. Yes, the Snow series would have the same problem, but in GOT Arya’s arc ended spectacularly, and his did not. In six episodes we could “resolve” the main issues, while traveling with Arya only makes everything more confusing.

Of course, so far everything is speculation. HBO has invested in other projects in the Game of Thrones universe, such as House of the Dragon, and there are rumors about possible series exploring different periods and characters, so it makes sense to think about a series about Arya. At least Maisie Williams – who for a while seemed averse to the idea – is up for the challenge. As she is one of the most beloved characters in the original series, there is potential for her to be well-received. My skepticism has not yet been overcome. I like Arya, but seeing her travel the world? Again: I pass.

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