Arya Stark is one of the most beloved characters on Game of Thrones and it’s not hard to see why people love her so much. From the very beginning, Arya has shown she is willing to fight against tradition and forge her own path. That path led her to become one of the most badass people in Westeros and even killing the Night King.
However, like most people in Game of Thrones, Arya is not perfect. Her tendencies towards violence can be disturbing, she has trust issues and she makes some pretty dumb decisions on occasion. So while we can celebrate all the awesome things she’s done, we can also point to her flaws as well. Here are the worst things Arya Stark did on Game of Thrones.
Hitting Joffrey
Joffrey is high on the list of the most hated characters on the show and he was also high on Arya’s own list of people she wanted to kill. While she didn’t get the chance to kill him herself, she was able to get one good hit on him early in Season 1.
While Joffrey cuts Arya’s friend Mycah, Arya hits Joffrey with her wooden sword. While there’s usually nothing wrong with hitting Joffrey, especially since she was protecting her friend, this resulted in the deaths of Mycah and Sansa’s direwolf, Lady. It’s just one example of how Arya sometimes acts without thinking.
Unfair Additions To Her List
Arya’s list of names has become an iconic part of the series and remained an important part of her character ever since Season 2. The list mostly consisted of the most horrible people in Westeros and those who we would not be sad to see die painfully. But some of the names were a little uncalled for.
Arya kept The Hound probably longer than she should have considering their friendship. However, the most unfair additions were Beric Dondarrion and Thor of Myr. The two outlaws earned their spots after giving Gendry to the Red Woman. However, Arya knew they were good people and didn’t belong on the list. Especially considering Beric sacrifices himself to save her later.
Blackmailing Jaqen H’ghar
Arya forms friendships with some very unusual people throughout the series, but she also consistently treats them poorly. After saving the mysterious Jaqen H’ghar, he pledges to repay her by killing any three people she names.
Despite the potential of such an offer and the risk Jaqen is putting himself through in order to carry out the killings, Arya still takes advantage of him. After Jaqen refuses to help her escape from Harrenhaal, she names him as the next victim unless he helps her. Clever, but not very nice.
Joining The House Of Black And White
Arya’s Season 5 and Season 6 adventures in Braavos were not very popular with fans. While the time she spent there was important for her becoming a skilled assassin, there wasn’t a lot of story to keep us entertained. But it was also uninteresting because it felt like a selfish chapter in Arya’s journey.
She joined the House of Black and White, despite having no interest in following their values and rules, in order to become an assassin. However, she chose this path of revenge instead of reuniting with her family in Westeros.
Not Trusting Brienne
The Starks can be a pretty selfish family and no one knows that better than Brienne of Tarth. The noble lady was sent on a quest to find Catelyn Stark’s missing daughters and keep them protected. Brienne didn’t have a lot of trouble finding the girls, but getting them to go with her was more difficult.
When she runs into Arya and The Hound, the stroke of luck turns bad fast, as The Hound quickly convinces Arya that Brienne is just some Lannister thug. Though Arya proved she could take care of herself, dismissing her in such a way was not what a hero like Brienne deserved.
Not Killing Tywin
Some of the most dynamic scenes in the series involving Arya are in Season 2 when she served as Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer. Though Tywin doesn’t recognize her, they do form an uneasy trust and share some thrilling conversations together. Of course, the entire time we were just waiting for her to kill Tywin.
Even if Arya wasn’t as skilled an assassin as she would later become, she could have poisoned him or stabbed him in the back pretty easily. Even better, she could have used Jaqen to kill him instead of some random Lannister soldiers.
Being Careless
Sometimes Arya seems like the smartest person in the room, but other times she acts pretty foolishly. However, after all her training in Braavos, we had hoped that Arya’s survival instincts would have become a bit better.
After betraying the Faceless Men, Arya must know that she will become a target for them. But while making plans to return to Westeros, she walks around the town without a care in the world. This leads to the Waif pulling a pretty obvious sneak attack on her and almost killing her.
Killing The Stable Boy
Given all the bad people Arya has killed over the series, it’s easy to forget that her first kill was such a disturbing one. When the Stark forces in King’s Landing are being purged by the Lannisters following Ned’s arrest, Arya finds herself on the run.
She is soon confronted by a stable boy who threatens to turn her over to the queen. When he grabs her, Arya sticks him in the belly with her sword. Yes, he posed a threat to her, but killing him seemed excessive. It’s not the heroic first kill you might expect.
Threatening Sansa
Arya and Sansa have always had a difficult relationship. They are so different and like most sisters, they bicker frequently. However, all their past squabbles were forgotten as soon as we saw they reunite in Winterfell in Season 7. But that happiness didn’t last long.
Shortly after Arya returns home, Littlefinger works his schemes to pit the two Stark sisters against each other, this time with much deadlier stakes involved. This all culminates in Arya threatening Sansa for supposedly going against the family. Though they eventually come together, it wasn’t fun seeing Arya behave like that.
Leaving The Hound To Die
Another complicated relationship in Arya’s life is with Sandor Clegane, aka “The Hound.” He is one of the first names on her list after he kills her friend Mycah. He later kidnaps her to ransom her to Robb Stark, but they form an unexpected bond in their travels.
Unfortunately for The Hound, his more selfish tendencies rub off on Arya. After he is seriously injured following his fight with Brienne, The Hound asks Arya to put him out of his misery. Despite their time together, Arya cruelly walks away as he begs for mercy.
