Arya Stark is a fictional character in American author George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy novel series and its HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones, where she was portrayed by English actress Maisie Williams. She is a prominent point-of-view character in the novels with the third most viewpoint chapters (behind Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow) and is the only character to have a viewpoint chapter in every published book of the series, with her chapters having various alternative titles such as "Cat of the Canals", "The Blind Girl", "The Ugly Little Girl" and "Mercy" from the fourth book onwards.
Introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones, Arya is the third child and youngest daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and his wife Lady Catelyn Stark. She is tomboyish, headstrong, feisty, independent, disdains traditional female pursuits, and is often mistaken for a boy. She wields a castle-forged steel smallsword named "Needle" forged by Mikken, the blacksmith of Winterfell, as a parting gift from her half-brother Jon Snow, and is trained in the Braavosi style of sword fighting by Syrio Forel.
Arya is among the most popular characters in the ASOIAF books, and Maisie Williams' performance in the HBO adaptation received critical acclaim. In 2016 and 2019, Williams was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.
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Character
Arya was born in 289 AC ("After Aegon's Conquest") as the third child and younger daughter of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark of Winterfell, the ruling liege of the North, and is nine years old at the beginning of the book series (11 years old in season 1 of the HBO television show). She has five siblings: an older brother Robb, an older sister Sansa, two younger brothers Bran and Rickon, and an older illegitimate half-brother Jon Snow. Through her mother, she is also first cousin to Robert Arryn, the lord paramount of The Vale; and the niece of Edmure Tully, the lord paramount of the Riverlands.
Arya is left-handed and talented in sums and housekeeping. In contrast to her older sister Sansa, who is more praised for favoring activities traditionally befitting a noblewoman, Arya is an unwomanly girl who shows no interest in the ladylike dancing, singing and sewing, but rather revels in outdoor activities and exploring, and is an excellent horserider. She is described as "wolf-blooded", blunt, impulsive and "always difficult to tame" by her mother Catelyn, proven to be a constant source of headache for her household tutor Septa Mordane, and given the nickname "Arya Underfoot" by the guards of Winterfell. Socially an outcast among the peers of young noblewomen, she is particularly close to her bastard half-brother Jon Snow, who encourages her and gives her a smallsword as a parting gift. The sword, which Arya names "Needle" after her dreaded embroidery lessons, is well suited to her slender build and favoring the Braavosi "Water Dance" (fencing) style of swordplay which emphasizes speed and agility with quick thrusting attacks. Throughout her travels, Arya displays great resourcefulness and cunning and also becomes increasingly ruthless.
Arya is the only one out of her full-siblings to inherit the Stark features of lean athletic physique, brown hair, grey eyes and long face (for which she was teased as "Horseface" by Sansa's companions), and is said to resemble her late aunt Lyanna in both looks and temperament. At the start of the series, she is prepubescent and generally regarded as messy and plain-looking, and often mistaken for a boy; but there are multiple instances in the books comparing her (favorably) to the famously beautiful Lyanna, and frequently catching the eyes of men (to the point of harassment) when her body starts to develop later in the series. She is also a powerful skinchanger, developing purely on her own instinct the ability to telepathically control her direwolf Nymeria when sleeping (even from a different continent), as well as forming a psychic bond with a street tomcat in Braavos.
Storylines
Novels
Arya adopts one of the direwolf cubs that her brothers Robb and Jon discover in the wild, and names her "Nymeria" after a legendary Rhoynish warrior queen. She travels with her father, Eddard, to King's Landing when he is made Hand of the King. Before she leaves, her half-brother Jon Snow has a Braavosi-style smallsword made for her as a parting gift, which she names "Needle" after her least favorite ladylike activity.
While taking a walk together, Prince Joffrey and her sister Sansa happen upon Arya and her friend, the low-born butcher's son Mycah, sparring in the woods with broomsticks. Arya defends Mycah from Joffrey's torments and her direwolf Nymeria helps Arya fight off Joffrey, wounding his arm in the process. Knowing that Nymeria will likely be killed in retribution, Arya chases her wolf away; but Sansa's direwolf Lady is killed in Nymeria's stead and Mycah is hunted down and killed by Sandor Clegane, Joffrey's bodyguard.
In King's Landing, her father discovers Arya's possession of Needle, but instead of confiscating it he arranges for sword-fighting lessons under the Braavosi swordmaster Syrio Forel, who teaches her the style of fighting known as "water dancing". After her father's arrest, Syrio is killed protecting Arya, and she narrowly escapes capture. In her escape, she kills her first person, a stable hand who was going to turn her in to the queen, Cersei Lannister. She later witnesses the public execution of her father before falling under the protection of the Night's Watch recruiter Yoren.
Arya escapes King's Landing with Yoren and his party of recruits, pretending to be a boy named Arry; on the road, she clashes with the other Night's Watch child-recruits Lommy, Gendry, and Hot Pie, but eventually befriends them. On the way, the party is attacked by Amory Lorch when Yoren refuses to yield Gendry, who is actually a bastard son of the late King Robert, to the Lannisters. The Night's Watch convoy is overrun and massacred, but Arya and the other children escape through a tunnel. Before escaping, she rescues three prisoners locked in a wagon cage, among them a mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar.
Arya and her friends are later captured by Ser Gregor Clegane and taken to Harrenhal as slave laborers. After witnessing the torture and death of her fellow prisoners, Arya begins nightly reciting the names of the people upon whom she wishes to exact revenge. At Harrenhal she re-encounters Jaqen, now under the employ of the Lannisters, who offers to kill for her any three people she names; whereupon she names two people who hurt her at Harrenhal. When Jaqen asks her to name the last target, Arya extorts him to help her free northern prisoners by naming Jaqen himself as the third person. In order to get Arya to retract the name, Jaqen stages a massive prison riot that overwhelms the Lannister garrison. Afterwards, Jaqen offers to take Arya with him, but Arya expresses a wish to go home, so he gives Arya a strange Braavosi iron coin to ensure her induction into his guild, the Faceless Men, and tells her to remember the passphrase "Valar Morghulis" ("All men must die" in High Valyrian) before leaving. The next morning Roose Bolton captures the castle, and Arya becomes his personal cupbearer. Eventually, Arya escapes Harrenhal with her friends Gendry and Hot Pie after killing a guard.
Television series
Arya Stark is portrayed by English actress Maisie Williams in the television adaption of the book series, this being Williams' first role as an actress. Williams was chosen from among 300 actresses across England.
Arya accompanies her father Ned and her sister Sansa to King's Landing. Before their departure, Arya's half-brother Jon Snow gifts Arya a sword which she dubs "Needle". On the Kingsroad, Arya is sparring with a butcher's boy, Mycah, when Sansa's betrothed Prince Joffrey Baratheon attacks Mycah, prompting Arya's direwolf Nymeria to bite Joffrey. Arya shoos Nymeria away so she is not killed, but is furious when Sansa later refuses to support her version of events. Mycah is later killed by Joffrey's bodyguard Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, earning him Arya's hatred. Ned arranges for Arya to have sword lessons with the Braavosi Syrio Forel, who later defends her from Ser Meryn Trant after Joffrey ascends to the throne and kills the Stark household. Arya flees the Red Keep, accidentally killing a stable boy in her escape, hiding out as a beggar in the streets of King's Landing. Ned is eventually taken to the Great Sept of Baelor to face judgment; he spots Arya in the crowd, and alerts the Night's Watch recruiter Yoren to her presence. Yoren prevents Arya from witnessing Ned's execution and has her pose as a boy, "Arry", to avoid detection as she joins Yoren's recruits traveling north to Castle Black.
The recruits are attacked by Lannister soldiers under Ser Amory Lorch, who have been ordered by Cersei Lannister to kill Robert Baratheon's bastard Gendry, who is part of the party. Needle is confiscated by a soldier, Polliver, who uses it to kill Arya's friend Lommy Greenhands (who Arya later claims is Gendry). The recruits are taken to Harrenhal, where Tywin Lannister recognises Arya is a girl instead of a boy and takes her as his cupbearer. Jaqen offers to kill three people for Arya as reward for saving his life and those of his cellmates during the attack; Arya picks Harrenhal's torturer The Tickler and Ser Amory. When Arya is unable to have Tywin killed before his departure, she has Jaqen help her, Gendry and her friend Hot Pie escape. Jaqen offers to take Arya to Braavos to join the Faceless Men assassin guild, and although she declines he gives her an iron coin that will allow her to obtain passage to Braavos.
Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie encounter Thoros of Myr, a Red Priest who is a member of the Brotherhood Without Banners, a group of men sent by Ned to restore order in the Riverlands. As Thoros takes them to the Brotherhood's hideout they encounter the Hound, a captive of other Brotherhood men. The Hound is brought before the Brotherhood's leader, Ser Beric Dondarrion, and after Arya accuses him of Mycah's murder Beric sentences him to trial by combat. The Hound wins, to Arya's fury, and is released by Dondarrion. Arya is further enraged when the Brotherhood sells Gendry to Melisandre. She escapes the Brotherhood soon afterward only to be captured by the Hound, who intends to take her to The Twins to ransom her to her brother Robb. However, as they arrive the Freys betray the Starks and slaughter their forces, with Arya barely escaping the massacre. In the aftermath of their escape, Arya encounters a Frey soldier bragging about his role in desecrating Robb's corpse. Arya stabs the soldier to death, marking the first time she has deliberately killed another person.
Anti heroine
Arya can be regarded as an anti heroine, Sophie Heawood of The Guardian described Arya's eight season character arc as a journey "from cute little sister to ruthless serial killer (of 64 victims)", and said that Arya was "the serial killer everyone's rooting for." A young character who witnesses both the unjust execution of her father and the immediate aftermath of her mother and brother's murder (including the parading of the latter's desecrated corpse), Arya works her way through a revenge death list of names of those responsible for killing all the people she cared about. After six seasons of battling alone she reunites with her family as a weapons expert and trained assassin. When the expected heroes and armies of the living appear defeated, Arya Stark is the hero that saves the entire fictional continent of Westeros by using her prowess as an assassin to kill the Night King (the "god of death") which causes the simultaneous eradication of his vast undead army. Arya killing the Night King was nominated for the 2020 BAFTA TV Awards under the "Must-See Moment" category.
Reception and awards
Arya is among the most popular characters in either version of the series. Williams' performance in Game of Thrones has received critical acclaim, particularly in the second season for her work opposite veteran actor Charles Dance (who played Tywin Lannister) when Arya served as Tywin's cupbearer.
Williams has received several award nominations for her portrayal of Arya. For her performance in the series she received two Portal Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Young Actor in 2012, an EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014, and a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Television Series in 2015.
Williams was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2016 and 2019. Other nominations include the Portal Award for Best Young Actor in 2011, the SFX Awards for Best Actress in 2012 and 2015, the Gold Derby TV Awards for Breakthrough Performer of the Year in 2012, the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Supporting Young Actress in 2013, the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015, and the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Television Series in 2016.
Popularity and cultural impact
The personal forename Arya is an existing real world name for both sexes of Sanskrit and Persian origins long used in South Asia. Following the start of the TV series, in 2012, the name Arya became the fastest-rising baby girl's name in the U.S., jumping in popularity from 711th to the 413th position, largely due to the popularity of Williams' character "Arya Stark". The name maintained its popularity in 2019. It was ranked 92 in the U.S. and its variation Aria was listed at 20. The name also entered the top 200 most commonly used names for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2017.
The 2017 international hit "Look What You Made Me Do" by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was partially inspired by Williams's Arya, with the line "I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined" inspired by her kill list, and Canadian rapper Drake thanked Arya Stark for killing the Night King during his acceptance speech at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. Williams was also one of ten actors from Game of Thrones featured in character in a collection of Royal Mail first class postage stamps. The set which celebrates British contributions towards the show was released to the UK Post Office in January 2018.
Arya Stark appears as a playable character in the 2024 platform fighting game MultiVersus, with Maisie Williams vocally reprising her role.