Game of Thrones: 5 Times Arya Stark Was An Overrated Character (& 5 She Was Underrated)

Arya Stark was an extremely popular character in Game of Thrones. But at times, she was both overrated and severely underrated.

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Game of Thrones is one of the most popular TV shows of the past several decades. In many ways, the show was the definition of ‘event TV’, with hordes being able to hold lengthy conversations with strangers solely about the events on Game of Thrones.

One of the most important characters on the show was Arya Stark. Played by Maisie Williams, Arya became one of the most popular characters after her travels with the Hound and her training with the Faceless Men of Braavos. That being said, despite her popularity, Arya has received her fair share of criticism.

10 Overrated: Comparisons To Sansa

Sansa received a lot of unfair criticism, particularly during the earlier seasons of the show, with many disliking the character for how she acted while living as a hostage with the Lannisters. However, Arya has received a warm reception consistently throughout the series.

Perhaps this is something to do with the fact that, in the earlier seasons, Sansa preferred needlework and Arya preferred sword fighting.

9 Underrated: Relationship With Her Family

Arya Stark was never really close to her family. Aside from her relationship with Jon Snow, Arya never really had any close connections with her family – her relationship with Sansa Stark being the clearest example of this.

That being said, while she may not have been close to her family she still valued them and this became more clear in the later seasons.

8 Overrated: Resiliency

Arya’s time with the Faceless Men of Braavos didn’t end very well, with Arya ultimately trying to leave the order and then being pursued by the Waif. Eventually, Arya was stabbed in the gut by the Waif and swam through dirty water but ultimately survived.

While fans weren’t wishing for Arya’s death, they did find it slightly unbelievable that she survived a wound that had killed others in the show.

7 Underrated: Relationship With Her Wolf

A direwolf to a Stark is like a dragon to a Targaryen. Not only is the animal the symbol on the Stark coat of arms, but the wolf and Stark share a bond. In the books it is clearer that Arya has ‘wolf dreams’ where she lives through Nymeria’s eyes, hunting with her Wolfpack in the river lands.

This was a huge part of her character that was played down on the show. It reveals that, despite trying to give up her Stark identity, she will always remain a Stark of Winterfell.

6 Overrated: Assassin Skills

Arya is, perhaps, most well known for her time with the Faceless Men of Braavos. After receiving the Faceless Men’s coin from Jaquen H’Ghar at Harrenhal, Arya used it to book passage to Braavos where she would eventually train with the order.

However, despite not spending too much time with the assassins, she developed incredible skills that could put even the most experienced knights in Westeros to shame.

5 Underrated: Accepting Her Stark Identity

Much of Arya’s storyline is centered around her identity crisis. George RR Martin is a huge fan of taking away character’s names; in the books, Sansa hides behind the name Alayne Stone, Theon becomes Reek, and even Mance Rayder becomes Abel the Bard.

Arya, however, accepts so many different names. She’s been Arya, Arry, Mercy, and even No one; although, despite all of this, she ultimately retains her Stark identity and accepts being Arya Stark.

4 Overrated: Brienne Duel

This is certainly an issue with Arya in the show rather in the books. In the show, Arya seemed to flicker between an unbeatable warrior and an error-prone assassin. Her skill as a warrior has been criticized by fans around the world.

One fight in particular that fans highlight as being ridiculous is her duel with Brienne. Ser Brienne of Tarth is one of the most skilled warriors in Westeros, with Brienne capable of holding her own against Ser Jaime Lannister and the Hound. However, Arya doesn’t even appear to break a sweat when fighting her.

3 Underrated: Forgiving The Hound

Arya’s relationship with the Hound was one of the best aspects of Game of Thrones, with both characters changing each other in subtle ways. Unfortunately, however, the Hound was badly wounded after dueling Brienne (in the show) and Arya left the Hound for dead rather than giving him the gift of mercy.

A big part of Arya’s arc was her list of those she wanted to kill. In the books, it is clearer that Arya has started to forgive the Hound, at one point she even has to force herself to include him on her list.

2 Overrated: Azor Ahai Reborn

Without a doubt, the biggest issue with Arya was the fact that she killed the Night King, ending the White Walkers’ invasion of Westeros with one stab. The main issue with this for fans wasn’t that it was Arya per se, the issue was that there was no build-up to it being Arya.

For several seasons, fans were given prophecies and foreshadowing toward the mythical Azor Ahai being either Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen (with even more foreshadowing existing in the books); this turned out to be a red herring, as it was Arya Stark who brought dawn to Westeros.

1 Underrated: Emotional Trauma

Maisie Williams performance as Arya Stark often doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Arya Stark is a girl who was snatched away from her comfortable life, forced to watch her father murdered, arrived at the Twins just as her brother and mother were murdered, and before all of this she had to scare away her own direwolf to save her life.

Arya Stark is a character who struggles with these emotional traumas and Maisie Williams does an incredible job of bringing this character to life on screen.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/game-of-thrones-arya-stark-overrated-underrated-character/