Game of Thrones is determined to break all of our collective hearts. If it feels like only yesterday that Arya (Maisie Williams) arrived at Winterfell, that's because the Stark sisters have only been reunited for three episodes. Last week's episode showed us that that Arya and Sansa (Sophie Turner) are struggling to trust one another — and there's potential for things to become deadly.
Alan Taylor, who directed "Beyond the Wall", as well as other episodes in the first two seasons, described a potential death scenario to HuffPost. "I love the fact that these two come back, they’re both lethal, and I just wanted to give the impression, as much as possible, that one of them is going to die. Something is coming very soon between them, and it will be violent but surprising.”
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Okay. Let's take a deep breath together and parse this out. "Beyond The Wall" definitely gave us the sense that one of the Stark women was going to die. Sansa discovered Arya's face masks, and Arya chillingly told her that she'd been training with the Faceless Men, a Braavosi ring of assassins. Sansa also knows that Arya has a kill list, even if she didn't seem to take it too seriously at first. After their last conversation, Sansa is clearly convinced that Arya is dangerous — and she sent Brienne of Tarth away, suggesting that Sansa is looking to engage with Arya herself. Is Sansa plotting to have Arya killed? Killing Arya would be a challenge, as the killer Stark is adept at hiding from danger. Is it more likely that Arya is trying to kill her instead, seeing Sansa's actions as a betrayal to House Stark?
We don't yet know, but I do know that I need the Starks to live. I need to Starks to get over their petty disagreements and figure their shit out immediately. There has been way, way too much death on this show. For Arya and Sansa to have come so far, to have endured so much disaster, just to kill each other over some nonsense, would be such a cruel way to end their story. It wouldn't do justice to their characters, who are both far smarter than their current tension would assume.
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