🗡️ House Stark · Alive
Arya Stark
Also known as: Arya Horseface · Arry · No One · Cat of the Canals · The Night Wolf · Lanna
Titles: Princess of Winterfell · Faceless Apprentice
Portrayed by: Maisie Williams · Origin: The North · Seat: Winterfell · First appears: S1E1 “Winter Is Coming”
“A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And I'm going home.”
Biography
Arya Stark never wanted to be a lady. While Sansa stitched, Arya shot arrows over her brother's shoulder, and Ned — wiser than the customs he upheld — gave her a 'dancing master,' the Braavosi swordsman Syrio Forel, whose lessons ('What do we say to the god of death? Not today.') would carry her through every horror that followed. From the crowd beneath the Sept of Baelor she watched her father beheaded, and the girl who escaped King's Landing that day began composing the most famous prayer in Westeros: a nightly list of names. Joffrey. Cersei. Walder Frey. The Mountain. The Hound.
Her education in death was an odyssey through the war's underbelly: a prisoner at Harrenhal serving Tywin Lannister himself, hostage and reluctant companion to the Hound, arriving at the Twins minutes after the Red Wedding to see her brother's body desecrated. Crossing to Braavos with the iron coin Jaqen H'ghar gave her — valar morghulis — she trained at the House of Black and White to become No One: blind, beaten, serving the Many-Faced God. But the Faceless Men's final lesson was the one she rejected. A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell, and she was going home.
Her homecoming was the prayer answered. She baked Walder Frey's sons into a pie and slit his throat wearing a servant's face, then poisoned every Frey man who held a blade at the Red Wedding in a single toast. At Winterfell she executed Littlefinger after the trial that finally united her and Sansa. And in the godswood, with the world's last hope dying around her, she did the impossible: leapt at the Night King and put the Valyrian dagger meant for Bran into the dark. The deadliest assassin in the world ended the Long Night, then chose the only frontier left — sailing west of Westeros, off every map ever drawn.
Attributes & statistics
Editorial scores (0–100) and metadata — our own estimates for comparison, not official canon.
| Combat | 95 |
|---|---|
| Intellect | 82 |
| Loyalty | 90 |
| Influence | 50 |
| Survivability | 96 |
| Moral compass | 65 |
Screen time: 287 min across 59 episodes · Named on-screen kills: 60 · Lore milestones: 13 · Debut: S1E1 (2011)
Timeline
- ⭐ S1E9 — Witnesses Ned's Execution: The list of names begins.
- ⭐ S3E9 — Arrives at the Red Wedding: Reaches the Twins as her family is slaughtered inside.
- S5E2 — The House of Black and White: Begins Faceless training in Braavos.
- ⭐ S6E10 — Kills Walder Frey: Frey pie, a borrowed face, and a cut throat.
- ⭐ S8E3 — Kills the Night King: The dagger drop heard around the world; the dead fall.
- ⭐ S8E6 — Sails West of Westeros: Leaves the known world behind.
Key relationships
- family Eddard Stark — Watched his execution from the crowd
- family Jon Snow — Needle was his gift; the bond that defined them both
- family Sansa Stark — From rivalry to the partnership that destroyed Littlefinger
- mentor Sandor Clegane — Captor turned reluctant teacher; she left him to die, then forgave him
- killer-of The Night King — Ended the Long Night with the catspaw dagger
- killer-of Petyr Baelish — Executed him with his own dagger after Sansa's sentence
Trivia
- Her sword Needle is the only physical object that survives her entire journey from S1E2 to the finale.
- Arya has the highest named kill count of any non-dragon character.
- Maisie Williams is right-handed but learned to fight left-handed because book-Arya is a lefty.
- The catspaw Valyrian dagger she kills the Night King with is the same blade sent to assassinate Bran in Season 1.
- Her kill of the Night King was planned by the showrunners three years before it aired.