Was Arya Stark truly stabbed in Braavos, or is Jaqen H’ghar disguised as Arya, in order to test the Waif?
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Transcript:
Towards the end of Season 6, Episode 7, “The Broken Man”, we see the waif sneak up on Arya Stark, and stab her multiple times in the gut, shortly after she requests to sail to Westeros (the following morning).
Arya had just left the faceless men last episode, after her encounter with Lady Crane, and even retrieved Needle, as she goes into hiding. Currently, Arya’s list consists of
Cersei Lannister
Walder Frey
Melisandre
Beric Dondarrion
Illyn Payne
The Mountain
possibly The Hound, and more than likely, the Waif.
I was doing my weekly after-show theory reading last night, and I came across a theory that I really buy into.
Reddit user grounded_astronaut mentions that Arya sounded exactly like a rich person skipping town, which is the waif’s opinion of Arya. We all know Arya, the girl we’ve come to love from Season 1 is not that dumb of a girl to completely let her guard down in the middle of Bravos. Plus, where did she come up with all that cash, and where in the world is needle? These small missing details lead to a theory that the girl stabbed on the bridge in Bravos isn’t truly Arya, but Jaqen. Now, why would Jaqen want to save Arya? Remember at the end of episode 6, Jaqen sent the waif to assassinate Arya, but told her “don’t let her suffer”. Keep in mind that we don’t know all too much about the waif, apart from the fact that she’s Jaqen H’ghar’s apprentice, and a member of the faceless men. Some even believe that the waif is just Arya’s imagination. For all we know, the waif still may not have proven herself to Jaqen, and Jaqen was testing her to see if she would let Arya suffer. If this is the case, well, she failed. Instead of slitting Arya’s throat, she stabbed her multiple times in the stomach, making her suffer. Jaqen sure won’t be happy that the waif elected to disobey him, maybe he’ll even kill her. In the trailer for next week’s episode though, we see Arya being chased by the waif and performing a super-badass stunt jump, a scene that everyone has been waiting for ever since the teasers. How would Arya be able to perform such a jump shortly after such a brutal stabbing? Either way, I think it’s clear that Arya will find help if it was really Arya Stark that was stabbed, and take on the waif prepared with Needle. Hopefully we can see some good old waif ass-kicking by the end of Season 6, and see Arya sail back to Westeros.
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She's my Waifey.
😂
excellent theory. surprised i didnt think of this myself. it would be a great test for the waif who seems to get away with whatever she wants but in the end arya says to jaqen, "you told her to kill me…" so while it may have been jaqen who took the blow, how did arya know about the waif being sent to kill her?
Lol its obvious if you read inbetween the lines that arya here is actually arya disguise as jaqen who disguised himself as arya to attract the waif who is actually jaqen disguised as an old woman whos an incognito waif to find arya who was disguised as jaqen who is disguised as arya
One thing that I didnt get and just made me think it was just a big ol' mess was:
if Jaqen is indeed camouflaged as Arya to test the waif, why would he act so much like himself and so NOT like Arya? Everything she did prior to the stabbing was completely out of character, stupid and non-canon
The waif was Arya…Arya's (self)-hatred to be exact. Thats why she knew to call her lady stark to piss her off. Arya spend her time fighting, hurting and running from herself..literally and figuratively. She didn't die from her stabbing cause it didn't really happen fysically. She stopped running from herself, faced herself, killed her self-hatred and proclaimed herself Arya Stark to go and face her life. Think about it, in order to become a faceless man she had to kill lady crane who played..yeah Cersei…aka the #1 on Arya's kill list..but Arya couldn't kill her so the waif did…the waif kills who Arya thinks are to blame…including Arya. Arya is the name Arya forgot to mention on her kill list. Arya is who Arya blames the most for their deaths. She tried to stop it, she knew something was going on but wasn't able to prevent her dads death. Thats why "dead jaqen"…
underneath it all…at his core had Arya's face….they are Arya. I think he IS the many faced God….Death…using many faces to train Arya…in combat and emotionally. I think Syrio was Jaqen already…they were all no one. Remember she prayed to the old Gods and the new for her fathers safety..but Syrio said there was only 1 God…death…I think Death heard her prayer. Syrio came when she needed protecting just like Jaqen did. Now she can protect herself and protect others and kill those that deserve to die (aka the WW who were stolen from Death)…which serves the God (s)..she is the servant of death. 😁
better theory, the waif is Jaqen h'ghar
valar morghulis , take me to bravos
jacken h'ghar replaced ned from dungeons to keep him live and then ned is taking care of his daughter by remaining close to her.. (fans theories of stupidest kind)
yeah ned is typing here who came from future i.e 7th season..
dont worry my fans..
So where did jaqen get arya's face???
These theories kill me
Arya has Dissociative Identity Disorder & there is no Jaqen H'ghar.
Rule #1.
i think The Waif and Jaqen H'ghar is the same person..everything that The Waif done to Arya is some sort of test that she have to pass before become The One with No Name.
Anyone else notice the "Oh, fuck me" at the end?
I have never watched an episode of game of thrones in my life
I see some interesting theories but if someone is using Arya's face then would she not be dead and someone has her kill list?
Wearing someone's face would not make them taller or shorter.
hah you thought
How would that be possible when they don't have the same size ? 😛
Why is Beric on aryas list
Wait why does she want to kill the eyepatch guy?
A man is a little disapointed…
Except Arya would have to be dead and have her face cut up in order for Jaqen to use it.
Jaqen has really cool hair
The scene with her offering to pay the sailor was bad writing but the running and jumping after being stabbed isn't all too crazy. She had been drinking milk of the poppy and had a LOT of adrenaline trying to escape. People in the real world do far crazier things with far worse wounds because of adrenaline
these theories are entertaining but dumb as shite
um no she asked to accompany the men on the ship before she got stabbed
Faceless men only have access to faces of the dead. Hence this theory is incorrect.
BUT…. when they change faces they don't change body sizes; haven't you noticed? It was Arya.
She took the hound off her list
She took the bag of coins from the hound
No… shortly before she requests her sail to westeros
Arya is not the one being tested. The whole thing is actually the Waif being tested, and she failed. Oh, and Jaqen is the many faced god. True he is a man, but he is true to the concept of the many faced god, since the many faced god is a concept. This is demonstrated by Arya, who is also the many faced god as she has already worn many faces already, or more to the point roles. The Waif was being tested to become the many faced god in the manner of skilled servant aspect. The Waif practiced and developed skills and from her perspective this upstart girl comes in with the talent and already being the many faced god, so the Waif is understandably pissed. And the test was to see if the Waif could overcome that jealousy and anger to fulfill the concept of the many faced god.
You're seriously scratching the bottom of the barrow.
Next time read the book!
for him to take the apperance of arya she must be dead so he can take her face, right?
Ayra's great!! Have not started series 3 GoT yet, so have not seen what's happening. NO SPOILERS PLEASE! Loved I & II, looking forward to III !!!
Bad imagination…. Obviously, no reason that Jaqen has to trick Waif.
wrong
Arya was my fav but d&d made sure she is now bottom of list. She is not as bad as daenerys but still bad.
Arya died. The waif returned the face she was using and now she is using ARYAS face and starts her real mission of being " arya".
Still a good theory!
The fight club and Jaqen theory are both better than the outcome, but at least it wasn't overly confusing
I really can't get over how you are pronouncing Arya with 3 syllables, who'd a thought such a simple name would be difficult for people.
Damn, you're stupid as fuck.
You cannot expect these kind of in-depth story lines from the show writers.
There is a major flaw in this theory and instantly ends the conversation…
The faceless men only use faces of dead people!
This is what should have happened. -_-
Well so much for that idea….
I don't find the explanation for why he would do it very plausible. I mean the testing, seem a bit useless to the story … But I do agree that Arya was acting very much out of character, and indeed where did she get the gold from?
Would H'ghar do it because he wants to get rid of the Waif and try to give Arya a chance to redeem herself (because she has so many gifts)? If the Waif kills him instead of Arya, she would have stolen a face/life from the many-faced god … He would have sacrificed himself, but when his time has come and it's for the greater good …
The only problem would be that then why would he try to escape and safe himself. But that also applies to the testing theory, because if it would have been without suffering, he would not have been able to escape either …