It may have finished more than three months ago, but fans of Game of Thrones are still trying to untangle the show’s controversial final season.
In the wake of criticism of the show’s writing (we all know about THAT fan petition), many fans have sought to justify the out of character decisions that were written off as poor writing.
One new fan theory that has emerged relates to Arya Stark and argues that the character may have actually died earlier in the show.
During the show’s fifth and sixth seasons, Arya, played by Maisie Williams, learns to fight alongside the Faceless Men in Braavos, taking the faces of those she’s killed to wear in future battles.
Along the way, Arya met The Waif, a fellow warrior played by Fresh Meat’s Faye Marsay. Becoming mortal enemies and having some very violent battles, Arya finally triumphs over her foe and kills The Waif.
Or at least, that’s what we thought. But one Reddit user has theorised that Arya may have actually died at The Waif’s hand, with the warrior wearing Arya’s face in the final two season.
The reason? Arya’s list of people she wants to kill.
Ever since the second season, the Stark sibling has been driven by a desire to kill the people who wronged her family. At the top of her list were Cersei Lannister and The Hound, two figures who brought unimaginable suffering on her and her family.
Very little would stand in the way of Arya and her chance to exact revenge, besides the possibility that Arya might not have been Arya, and was in fact The Waif all along.
Reddit user SeedyProfessor theorised: ‘She had a list of people to kill, that was supposed to later serve as a sacrifice to the many faced God.
‘In the books, she never gave up on this list. In the series, she got to the Red Keep and the Hound turned her away, telling her to be safe, because it was dangerous to hunt Cersei.
‘It reminded me of how The Hound was on her list too… This just reinforces my Arya is the Waif theory.’
While we can definitely see why fans would want to see the positive in the show’s ending and justify Arya’s unusual behaviour, this theory sadly falls down when we consider Arya’s killing of the Night King.
Knowing Game of Thrones, we’ll probably never find out the answer. Still, at least it’s fun to guess!
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