Arya Stark

Arya Stark, nicknamed 'The Wolf', is the third child and second daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn Stark (nee Tully) of Winterfell, the sister of Northern monarch Queen Sansa Stark, Brandon Stark and was a cousin of Aegon II Targaryen (AKA Jon Snow). She escaped the imprisonment and persecution of her family by the crown as a child before being kidnapped by another fugitive, Sandor Clegane. She was later trained by the Faceless Men of Braavos and returned to Westeros as a rogue assassin, before helping to lead a successful revolution in the Riverlands. She survived the Long Night but denounced her titles and deeds.

Characterisation
After her murder of Walder Frey and his heirs Lothar and Black Walder, Arya is left without a real purpose in real beyond the occasional killing of Lannister soldiers in the Riverlands. This listlesness only increases when she learns that both her sister Sansa and her half-brother Jon Snow are still alive, and in control of Winterfell, and she is driven into a directionless killing spree of Lannister and Frey troops, which is mistaken for rebellious acts by Riverlanders. When she is reunited with Clegane and the Brotherhood, it gives her the resources and support needed to mount an effective insurrection and reclaim The Riverlands in the name of the Tullys. Meanwhile, her warging abilities are kindled as she reconnects with her wild direwolf, Nymeria. The most significant conflict in Arya is between her desire for violence and murder and the need for something better in her life, a conflict that is observed and challenged by Clegane.

Season Seven
Arya rides south from The Twins, through the Riverlands, and sees Lannisters and Freys taking huge amounts of food and grain from farmers. One farmer near Hag's Mire tells Arya it’s all bound for King’s Landing, by the Queen’s decree – that they’re demanding triple the amount of grain than before, which is leaving the Riverlands smallfolk with nothing for themselves. Arya learns that Cersei is now Queen, and that all of the Tullys are gone, with Edmure and his family effectively captives at Casterly Rock. The Lannisters have otherwise been mostly withdrawn by the crown, with the Freys bearing the bulk of the task. The farmer notes the number of mounted soldiers rushing north and comments that something must be happening. Arya smirks.

That evening, she encounters a small group of Lannisters camped outside Fair Market. They offer her food and wine and share war stories. They're young and tired men who simply want to go home. Their sergeant admits that he hasn't even heard a word about his children in five years. Arya shows her sympathy, and when an amusing song is sung about the royal family, she laughs.

That night, the men fall asleep after too much wine. Arya moves around the fire and slits their throats one by one. The last of the boys, the singer, wakes up before Arya reaches him, but is so terrified that he cannot even muster a cry. She kills him swiftly. She mounts her horse and ride off into the night. A wolf howls in the distance. (7.1, Behind the Wall)

Later, a Frey detachment discovers another group of dead soldiers. It's the third company to have been found dead, and all by a single blade. The Captain of the detachment concludes that this is the work of a traitor or an assassin amongst the smallfolk. He orders that the Riverlands “be scourged.”

We see villages put to the flame and peasants cut down as they flee Frey cavalry. Prisoners are lined up and taken away in chained columns, whipped with riding crops and verbally abused by their captors. One old man is dragged through the frozen dirt when he falls.

Arya sees this mistreatment, but rides away from the raiding parties, through the woods. She is forced to abandon her horse and provisions, which are quickly discovered by search parties with dogs. She continues on foot, and is almost caught but manages to escape via a freezing river. She emerges some distance away, shivering and fearful. There she finds a cave and strips and dries her clothes on a fire. She removes needle from her scabbard, points it at the cave opening and cowers.

That night she sleeps and dreams of a huge wolf pack moving at speed through the forest. They are led by Arya. She comes across a small stream and, at the top of it, a large dam of stones stopping the surge of the river waters. She pushes the stones with a huge paw and water bursts through the dam, eventually collapsing it. The stream overflows. Arya wakes. She hears noises outside and arms herself. She slowly emerges from the cave to find the mouth surrounded by dirty and dishevelled knights. Beric and Thoros emerge and note that Arya didn't get far. She turns and sees Sandor Clegane behind them. They stare at one another. (7.2, Dragonstone)

At an Inn in Wendish Town, Arya sits surrounded by the Brotherhood. The Hound drinks heavily from a flagon of ale, his eyes never leaving Arya.

“Am I your captive again?” she asks. “You should know there’s no one left to ransom me to.”

“My, you have been busy,” The Hound says. “Somewhere far from here obviously.”

“She doesn’t know,” says Beric.

“Of course she doesn't fucking know.”

Thoros tells her: her bastard brother Jon Snow came back from the dead and reclaimed the North. Northmen swear he faced the Bolton cavalry charge alone with a white sword. Her sister Sansa Stark rode with the Knights of the Vale to make sure the victory. Thoros says he has seen in the flames the young King leading the forces of the living against the dead in the snow, from the back of a dragon. The Hound notes that Thoros only saw his vision in the flames after they’d heard the stories about Jon Snow.

“But don’t worry, little she-wolf,” he tells Arya. “These Lord of Light-worshipping cunts have no need for gold now, they say. All they want to do now is march north to join your brother. The prince who was promised.”

Beric explains that they're taking a quiet route, west of the Blue Fork and along the coast by the Cape of Eagles, using fords and woods. Arya is slow to react. She seems almost troubled, insecure. Then she turns on them all: “Going north? Has the Brotherhood forgotten why it started in the first place? To defend the weak against the strong and cruel whatever banners they fly! The Lannisters and Freys are starving and robbing the Riverlands and you dream of questing north, and dragons?”

“Is that what you’ve been doing – defending the weak?” asks the Hound. “All those dead Lannisters and Freys, and we find you hiding in a cave as they hunt for an assassin. I can see it in your eyes. Was it worth it, seeing the blood run down their pretty red and gold breastplates – all the villages burning, all those peasants dying, for you?”

Doubt clouds Arya’s eyes.

“What happened to you, little she-wolf, after you left me to die? You’ve started to like it, haven’t you? What does right or wrong mean next to that feeling, that look in their eyes as they go? You’re a killer now.”

Arya looks up at The Hound. “And you’re a talker,” she answers.

Thoros smiles and notes that they're all both things once the wine starts flowing. He offers some and Arya drinks, a little faster than we might expect.

“You can put that killing to some use yet,” Beric tells her. “I remember you once told me you'd like one man to come back from the darkness. The Lord brought you his true son.”

“He has that habit,” Thoros says, “funny old way of answering prayers.”

“Do you love your brother?” Beric asks. Arya nods. “The Lord brought him back to you, that you might love him again. What more sign do you need?”

“Death is the only God,” she replies.

“Yet there's all this life about,” Thoros says, “it's even spilling out of the grave. Odd, that.”

Arya looks down. (7.3, The Marches)

In the Riverlands, Arya once again dreams of the wolves. This time it is from the alpha's POV that we see them. There is a distinctive hill nearby. They attack a small Frey caravan carrying grain and blocked on the road by fallen trees. The wolf Arya seems through runs down the Frey sergeant and bites out his throat.

She wakes sharply and is clearly shaken. She and the Brotherhood are in those same woods, camped out in a well-covered position. Arya sees the same hill, albeit further away. They eat breakfast and gather their things, ready to move on. Scouts return to inform the two dozen or so men that a nearby Frey patrol has passed. Arya approaches Beric and Thoros, while the Hound listens in from nearby.

She proposes that, rather than heading north, they stay and help free the Riverlands.

The Hound scoffs at this, and suggests that this confirms that Arya is only interested in killing. “These bastards are offering you some dead bodies to bloody and you'd rather chase down pale boys in the woods.”

Arya ignores him. Thoros explains that whoever runs the Riverlands is irrelevant compared to the threat they must face at the Wall or beyond. “Doesn't matter who's running Riverrun,” he says. “There won't be a Riverrun if none of us head on up the King's Road.”

They pack and mount up and move out of the woods. Arya is not convinced though. She goes with them all the same, but starts at movement in the trees. Something large and dark slinks away.

The Brotherhood reach the village of Mudgrave and stop off for a break. Thoros and Beric talk to the villagers, and their men drop off food and weapons. In exchange one of them hands the Hound a keg of wine. Arya watches them, rather unimpressed. Thoros tells Arya that King Jon has set sail from Eastwatch, destination unknown. He suspects it'll be Eastwatch he's bound for. “You'll be wanting to come with us now, I'd have thought.”

Arya doesn't seem to like this. She goes to Beric, who has taken a walk alone into the trees. He now sits looking off into the undergrowth. Arya approaches and asks what he's doing.

“Remembering,” Beric tells her. “It's much easier to see their faces against the birdsong, and the wind in the leaves. I believe I held land like this once.”

Arya is confused, so Beric explains that he struggles to recall his wife and children, and the holdfast he once held, “before your father dispatched me in the name of justice.”

Arya says that he hasn't delivered justice. She wants him to stay and free the Riverlands, so that they might still remove Cersei from the throne. She insists that she has a plan to do it, but needs their help. Beric is unmoved.

“I’m not fighting so some man or woman I barely know can sit on a throne made of swords,” he says.

Arya asks what he is fighting for.

“Life,” he replies. “Death is the enemy. The first enemy and the last, and the enemy always wins. We still need to fight him. That’s all I know. You and I won’t find much joy while we’re here, but we can keep others alive. We can defend those who can’t defend themselves. But who should we defend? These people, this country? Or all the countries, all the people? Would you not rather save them then bring death to their door?”

Arya has no response to this. They go back to the village. Some of the local lads have joined the cause, much to Beric's pleasure. Word comes through that there Freys nearby, so the Brotherhood clear off. Arya continues with them.

The Brotherhood come to a farm which has been recently abandoned. Smoke still rises from the chimney of the house and no dust has gathered inside. However, the animals have been slaughtered, not by men but by predators.

“A wolf did that,” the Hound says. “A big one at that.”

Arya looks at the bodies while the Brotherhood take what they can and move on. They continue to ride. Thoros tells Arya about what awaits them in the North, based on the stories that have come to him. “The shadows of Westerosi legend are drawing in,” he says, “and they wait at the gates, waiting for more enemies. It's a holy war, child. Your God of Death against our Lord of Light.”

Their troop comes to another village, Sevenstreams. Though untouched by war, it is empty. Nobody comes to them as they arrive. Beric, Arya, Thoros and the Hound are immediately on edge, even while the younger volunteers joke and call out. They find the market square, where dozens of villagers are hanged from palisades, almost ritualistically. The brotherhood stop and stare.

“This enough death for you?” the Hound asks Beric.

There's movement in a window, and a horse whinnies. Beric draws his sword and signals a retreat. It's too late. Frey soldiers burst from doorways and Lannister cavalry flank the buildings. Many of the Brotherhood are caught in the ambush, and others panic. Everybody goes in their own direction, some fighting and some fleeing.

Arya gallops clear adroitly, moving through the ambush and village. The Captain of the Lannister soldiers – the diminutive Ser Raynald Westerling – spots her and attacks. He chases Arya and corners her before the river. Her horse throws her clear as she tries to jump across. It runs clear. Ser rides down towards Arya. She tries to raise needle to defend herself. (7.4, Castle Black)

Casterly Rock. Ser Raynald arrives leading a column of Lannister soldiers. His throat is wrapped in a bloody bandage, and his jaw is badly scarred. The column bring a carriage with a cage, in which the Hound is kept. They enter the castle without issue and Ser Raynald immediately dismounts and heads for the keep. He ignores the greetings and questions of the pages and soldiers, earning a couple of annoyed glances. A sergeant of the newly arrived troops, a blonde and clean-shaven young man chats with the guards of the city, boasting about how they destroyed the Brotherhood Without Banners. They'll earn the Queen's favour.

From atop the Keep, the castellan, Lord Reginald Lannister, looks down at the new arrival with his advisers. He remarks that his second cousin is as arrogant as Tywin was. “The Queen thinks she can see better from King's Landing than I can from the rock.”

Ser Raynald and the blonde soldier, who introduces himself as Ser Merlon Crakehall, the third son of Lord Roland Crakehall, meet with Lord Reginald. Merlon explains that Raynald was badly wounded in an encounter with Arya Stark, who managed to escape. He cannot speak well, and so Merlon speaks for him. They clashed with a large host led by the Brotherhood Without Banners, who were heading west towards Casterly Rock. They killed one of their leaders and captured another. Raynald pulls a head out of a sack that resembles Thoros. He wheezes that “his fire couldn't save him from Lannister steel.”

Merlon says that the Hound happily gave up information in exchange for a keg of wine. The Brotherhood, their numbers swelled by desperate Riverlanders and the remnants of their noble houses, have rallied for one last desperate rebellion and are heading to the Rock to free Edmure and rebuild House Tully. “Apparently they're quite passionate about it,” he says.

Lord Reginald is startled by this claim, but believes it due to his trust in House Westerling and the reputation of Sandor Clegane. He decides that he will personally take charge of the Riverlands campaign, and will begin by reinforcing the Rock, moving his vassal army to pursue the Brotherhood and by sending Clegane and Edmure to the Queen. “Then she'll see that she isn't the only one from these parts with claws.”

After being dismissed by Lord Reginald, Raynald goes to Edmure Tully's quarters. Edmure does not recognise him, and is alarmed by his sudden appearance. Sir Raynald reveals himself to be Arya, who has to then introduce herself. She explains that their shattered houses can be rebuilt, or at least avenged. They need to free Edmure, then put him back in Riverrun. Then the Riverlands will be free and the Tullys restored. “You can be a hero then.”

Edmure is beaten, though. He reminds Arya of everything he has lost, and the little he has left – the safety of his wife and son, still kept and raised in captivity at Riverrun. “If I take one step out of this cell, they'll be catapulted over the city walls and into the Red Fork.”

Arya scolds him, telling him she lost everything he did, and that his family will never be safe with the Lannisters and Freys in control. His people, the people he should be leading, are dying in their droves and being starved out of their homes, or hanged as bait for rebels. Instead of rising from his shackles to save them, he is sitting in a plush apartment and mulling over the past. She asks him what Catelyn would think if she could see him now.

Edmure later watches Arya, back in disguise as Raynald, leading his host back out of Casterly Rock and east again. His face is the picture of pained uncertainty.

Edmure and the Hound are placed together in the same carriage, part of a caravan bound south. They head out of Casterly Rock and through the Westerlands, escorted by a reasonably sized force of Lannister troops. The Hound stares at Edmure for a long time, but Edmure does not reply or meet his eye until some hours have passed, when he grows tired and stares back at him.

“Are you really it?” the Hound asks. “You're the one who's supposed to rebuild the Riverlands, fucking you? A soiler? How are you going to face the Queen of Westeros when you can't even look an old dog like me in the eye?”

“I'm looking now,” Edmure replies.

“Well, it's just as well you finally showed up.”

The Hound looks about him at the road and notices the quick glances and sudden disquiet among the Lannister troops. He then carefully explains that Edmure will have to do more than to eventually cough up the nerve to look soldiers in the face. He will have to be the bravest, most inspired, scariest warrior in the Riverlands if he's to convince his people that they can be free again, “or whatever it was that they convinced themselves was freedom.”

Edmure is bemused and asks why the Hound is telling him all this. The Hound shrugs then, upon hearing a whistle from the woods around them, lowers his head. “I'd fucking duck if I were you, m'lord.” Arrows suddenly rain on the caravan and slay numerous Lannisters. There are screams and orders shouted and suddenly soldiers appear from the trees, even jumping from above, and cut down the last of the escort. A hooded figure approaches the carriage.

“You took your fucking time,” the Hound says. “Next time give me better company than a wet fish before you lock me in a cage for half a night. And give me a chance to piss.”

The hooded figure pulls down her hood. It's Arya. She breaks open the door and the Hound immediately clambers out and goes behind the horses to relieve himself. Arya offers a hand to Edmure, who takes it and steps down on to the road. He takes a deep breath and smiles. Thoros wanders past and notes that a man really needs freedom when he enjoys the stink of horse shit so much. Arya says she and her group are going east next, to free the Riverlands. She asks if Edmure would like to join them. He straightens up, sets himself and then nods.

The Brotherhood ride to the top of a nearby hill, where they meet Beric and the rest of their group. Beric congratulates Arya on the success of her plan, and Arya asks if this means he'll honour his word. Beric confirms that it does. “Lead the way, my lady,” he says. (7.5, The Rose Road)

Arya, Edmure and the Brotherhood ride through the higher southern ground of the Riverlands, sticking to the smaller trails and off-road tracks through woods and across streams. They stop in the waters they pass and hurriedly wash the hooves of their horses before moving on. This route takes them over the further reaches of the Red Fork and past Stony Sept.

They go to the village of Pinkmaiden, where they are quickly able to rally the smallfolk and the few former soldiers in that population. Beric has sent scouts and messengers ahead to spread word of their crusade. Edmure is a useful rallying point, though he makes sure to praise Arya and confirm some of the rumours about her. The Brotherhood are treated with similar reverence, with Beric in particular singled out for bows, bent knees and handshakes. Nobody approaches the Hound, however, something which he snorts out while looking put out.

Arya sees many of the people joining the ranks of the Brotherhood, and some are administered confessions by Thoros. Others keep their distance. Arya approaches the blacksmith, where a group of young men and women around the same age as her, and asks them if they won't ride with her. A girl says that she doesn't keep faith with fire Gods, and nor does she care to see another useless lord she'll never meet put back into power.

Arya asks for her name, and she answers Alissa. “Well, Alissa. I don't really believe in any god except the one at the end of my sword, and I'm not really interested in lords either. I never was. But if you come with us, you can save your people, and whatever friends and family you have, and you don't have to starve in the dirt anymore.”

The youths don't reply, so Arya shrugs.

“You'll get to kill Freys and Lannisters too,” she adds. “By the hundred.”

The growing army leaves Pinkmaiden, the village left empty. Arya rides near the front, with Alissa and her friends close behind her.

Further into the journey, the Brotherhood takes a stop to feed and water the horses, and Arya approaches Edmure. She says she's glad he joined them, and that he regrets shaming him by invoking Catelyn. Edmure admits that she was right to do so. Without his Uncle Brynden around to shake him by the shoulder, or indeed his father to show him the way, or without his sister to open his eyes with the right words, he fell into darkness. “Self-pity, self-hatred, cowardice, all the things that they said about me, the smallfolk, I mean. They weren't wrong. It's perhaps too late for me, but for my family? For the Tullys? You've given me the chance to make them strong again. To make us strong again, I should say.”

“I'm not really a Tully,” Arya replies. “I never really was. We didn't know each other. I never even saw the Riverlands until my father became Hand, and I was dragged this way. I've never seen Riverrun at all. But I'm not really a Stark either, not anymore. I'm not really anyone.”

“That's not what they say,” Edmure says. He points to the young Riverlanders watching her every move. “They say you're the Wolf. We're all someone, whether we want to be or not. I'm a father, and a husband. I want to be those things. I'll just take the rest on the chin.”

The Brotherhood rides on and reaches Stony Sept. The town is densely populated, but the people are starving and the town itself is badly damaged. The gates stay closed, and an elder appears on the wall and calls down. There is no lord left, she says, and the Lannisters occupy Acorn Hall. They hold Lady Smallwood captive, and until they are removed, the people of Stony Sept will not open their doors. Arya turns to Edmure and urges him to take this mission.

“They're hungry, malnourished,” Edmure says. “We'll be gaining more problems than soldiers.”

“Your people are not just soldiers,” Arya replies. “Feeding them is your duty. Our duty.”

Edmure ponders this, and finally demurs. He rides forward and shouts up to the townspeople. He promises them that he will liberate Acorn Hall, return with Lady Smallwood and then will free the Riverlands from the Lannisters and Freys one holdfast and one farm at a time. Some of the people inside laugh at him, though none on the ground do. The elder woman tells Edmure they'll be happy to believe him when he returns with Lady Smallwood.

Arya approaches the Brotherhood command, and finds them sobered. Beric accepts that he needs the popular support such an action could generate, so he can get the men needed to assemble an army, and Thoros says that scout reports suggest Acorn Hall is no fortress. The Hound muses that they're all just biding their time before the “big final fucking ugly maw of a judgement” anyway, and that he might as well spend that time doing something right by “these skinny bastards and bitches.”

At Acorn Hall, Arya uses her various faces to approach the keep as a beggar, then gain entrance to the back door as a scullion, then – after a slit throat and quiet procurement of armour – get into the tower as a guard returning from the latrine. The meagre Lannister forces are clearly complacent and bored, many of them sleeping and drinking at their post, playing games by firelight and talking about battles fought and their homes. Arya takes up a sentry position and waits, listening.

When night falls, Arya sneaks back down to the bottom of the keep and kills the guards there, then at the gate, which she opens. After a tense pause, the Hound, Beric, Thoros, Merlon and a dozen other members of the Brotherhood sneak through. They return to the keep and carefully but quickly work their way through the sentries, killing them all without an alarm being raised. The pleasure both Arya and the Hound take in this is visible for all to see. They reach the cell door at the top of the keep, and Beric opens it.

The following morning, the band return to Stoney Sept. The head of a Lannister Captain hangs from the back of Arya's horse, and she takes it to the gate and throws it over. Behind her, the Brotherhood carry the skeletal corpse of Lady Smallwood to the wall and look up at the inhabitants. After a pause, the gate opens. The Brotherhood proceeds inside, Edmure in front. (7.6, Home)

A pre-dawn twilight. Arya dreams of the great wolf again, and from the wolf's perspective. The wolf races through the forest, leading a huge pack, and bursts out of the treeline and run ups a hill to the gate at Acorn Hall, visibly frightening the guards, who call for help. Arya wakes, goes to a window in the keep and looks down. She sees Nymeria down below, looking back up at her. She rushes down the spiral staircase of the keep but, by the time she gets through the gate, Nymeria and her pack are gone, disappeared into the woods.

When morning proper comes, the band roll out again, the Brotherhood leading the way behind Edmure, the Riverlanders protecting their own in the middle and back of the column. They cross the old hills of High Heart, covered in wide and white old tree stumps adorned with carved patterns, flower spirals and often bordering makeshift graves. Arya is riding beside one of the Riverlanders – Sutton – and he tells her about the hill. It was once ground occupied by the Children of the Forest, protected by the Green Seers, who lived inside a dense forest of Weirwoods.

“We had a weirwood at Winterfell,” Arya says. “In our Godswood.”

“This whole hill was a Godswood,” Sutton replies, “and open to all who worshipped the Old Gods, assuming they weren't hostile to the Children.”

He goes on to say that a last stand was made here, but beaten down by the Andals. The Greenseers were forced to withdraw to the Isle of Faces on the God's Eye, where it's rumoured that Children of the Forest still reside. “But it is just a rumour,” he admits. “You'll know dangerous they can be.”

Arya asks who Sutton is, and he says he was a maester once, until he “learned the cost of being neutral in a world like this one.”

The band reaches the King's Road, but the scouts report that an army is on its way. They take cover and watch as a column of Royal Troops – led by Kingsguard Ser Boros Blount – make their way north. The Hound watches next to Arya, and remarks that she's done a fine job of goading the lion. He asks if she's still working her way through her list.

“One by one,” she says. When he asks when he can expect a blade in her back, she shrugs and says that he's already been scored off the list. “You already died once. Where's the fun in doing it again?”

After the Royal army has passed, the Brotherhood continue and make camp in the forest overlooking Maidenpool. The leadership gather when scouts return. The town has been rebuilt with defences and is heavily defended by the Freys, with a contingent of Lannister cavalry in support. Arya says that they have to besiege the town, pointing out their superior numbers, and Edmure agrees; it is a good chance to show his power.

However, Beric and Thoros disagree. “It is a waste of precious life,” Beric says. “The Freys will not be letting anybody in their gates now, and that means throwing young, inexperienced, untrained souls at their walls.”

It quickly becomes clear that they have differing objectives; the Brotherhood want to preserve their forces so they can bring them north, while Arya and Edmure are focused solely on freeing the Riverlands. Or, as the Hound suggest, on “killing Freys and Lannisters.” Arya shrugs at this.

Beric implores her to cut her losses and join them on the ride north, suggesting that she'll benefit tremendously from finally returning to her home. Lord Edmure, he says, will be able to organise his campaign and retake the Riverlands without their help. Edmure does not look happy about this suggestion, though he keeps his tongue.

Arya counters that if the Brotherhood help them free Maidenpool and destroy the garrison, they will be perfectly placed to continue alone. Now Edmure speaks up. He promises Beric that, if they stay and put him in the ascendancy, he will send Riverland forces north to help them. After a quick conferment, Beric and Thoros agree.

At Maidenpool, a Frey knight arrives at the reinforced gates, bloodied and beaten. Upon entry, he tells the garrison commander that his battalion was ambushed by rebels on the King's Road. The garrison commander immediately orders his troops to ride out. The Lannister cavalry head out of Maidenpool while a modest collection of Frey infantry stay behind to guard the town.

After they have left, a small gaggle of smallfolk appear along the road and approach the gate. The Freys at the gate challenge them, aiming their bows and demanding they turn round. One of the smallfolk suggest the Freys lower their weapons. They look up and see a large force surrounding the town, led by Thoros. The speaker removes his cloak to reveal himself; it's Edmure. The Freys hesitate, wary of the arrows aimed at them from Thoros' detachment. Edmure calls on the people inside Maidenpool to rise up in support of the Tullys.

The Freys laugh at this, but one of the villagers approaches the wall, ignoring their orders for him to back away. He goes to the wall edge and speaks to Edmure. His entire family is dead, he says. His lord is gone, his home burned to cinders, the future taken from him. All of it because of squabbles between great houses like the Tullys. Edmure looks to Thoros, who shrugs. He doesn't look all that much like he disagrees.

“If you won't rise for me,” Edmure calls up, “rise for yourselves. You are the Riverlands, you are this land. These traitors and invaders are your enemy. Rid yourselves of them once and for all.”

The villager nods, then begins to shout “for ourselves, for ourselves!” down to his fellow citizens. The Freys grab him and try to drag him away, but the others move to his defence. They attack the Freys with tools and dropped weapons and even fists. Thoros' men fire arrows at the Freys on the walls. Soon the Freys are overwhelmed, and are dragged screaming from their battlements, stabbed and clubbed to death until none remain. The villagers cheer and the gates open.

Meanwhile, the Lannister cavalry gallop down the King's Road, making their way through dense forest. A tree abruptly falls and lands across the road, narrowly missing the lead knight. Without warning, arrows fly out of the trees and knock the Lannisters off their horses. The Hound and Beric lead spearmen out of the woods and attack the cavalry, knocking them down where they stand trapped. Arya leads a group of Riverlanders into the Lannister rearguard and they pull men from their horses to finish them off.

The garrison commander rallies his men and they launch a counter-attack against Arya's inexperienced troops. Despite her shouts, they falter and hesitate, and Arya is quickly isolated. The commander, knocked from his horse by Alissa, rushes to attack her. There are howls from the woods, and suddenly wolves charge and pounce on the Lannisters, breaking their charge. Nymeria, a massive wolf, lunges at the captain and slaughters him in a heartbeat.

Arya kneels and offers a bloody hand, and Nymeria pads towards her. The Brotherhood and the Riverlanders watch on, astonished. The Hound removes his helm and shakes his head. Nymeria smells Arya's hand, then licks it, and Arya strokes her mane.

The Riverlanders begin to chant. “The wolf!” they shout. “The wolf! The wolf! The wolf!” (7.8, Shipbreaker Bay)

With Arya, Edmure, Beric, Thoros and the Hound at the front, the rebellion cross the Trident past the Quiet Isle, ferried across by the many boats of the river. Smallfolk and volunteer soldiers alike look upon Arya with wonder, while Edmure looks on ahead with a beaming smile, seemingly oblivious. The Hound notices the visible devotion and speaks to Arya.

“Maybe this is what you wanted all along,” he says. “To have all these people looking at you like you're the real fucking queen of these parts. It's lucky your uncle can't see the forest for the trees.”

“I'm doing this for them,” Arya replies.

“Of course you are.”

A wolf howls on the other side of the trident, and the smallfolk cast they eyes in wonder once again, not a hint of fear in them, even the children.

The ferries reach the other side of the river and disembark. They ride or march on, their host too vast to be entirely mounted or carried in carriages. Arya drops back from the leadership and falls in with Sutton, who's talking with Gladwyn, one of the popular Riverlanders. He is a powerful young man who was “killing Lannister soldiers before it was a safe occupation.”

Arya clearly likes him, and notes that she was similarly ahead of the curve. Gladwyn was telling Sutton about the real enemy the people face; not the Lannisters, not the crown, but the noble class and their control over the lives of the farmers, fishermen and laymen of these “chained rivers.” They should be free, he says, free of dominion. The smallfolk around them chime in with their agreement, murmuring and grunting approval.

When Arya agrees in principle, Gladwyn challenges her, asking if she isn't a lady herself.

“I was once,” she says. “But I'm a wolf now, apparently. Wolves don't wear crowns.”

This answer delights Gladwyn, who laughs. They pass two more of the river dams and Arya looks at them with some interest, then at her hand. She asks Gladwyn how exactly he plans to bring about this land without lords.

The band reaches Saltpans and they grind to a halt. The port town has been utterly annihilated, without a single building left standing. Even the harbour has been torn down stone by stone, a pile of rubble left mostly submerged by the river. The people are dismayed and angered, some wailing and crying for lost relatives and friends. The Brotherhood move in, investigating the cinders and ruin left behind. They quickly come back with a spear found in what was once the village green. Mounted on it are the rotting remains of a wolf head, a fish and a plain banner.

“Reprisals,” Beric says. “For every life we save, they take another to punish the intervention.”

“An eye for an eye,” Edmure says. He is visibly fuming. “There must be an eye for an eye.”

“Then we can ride north as blind men,” the Hound says.

Arya approaches the smallfolk and the Riverlander volunteers and, standing on a rock, gives them reassurance that their losses will be avenged

“We will march,” she says, “until every last Lannister debt has been repaid, and until there is not a drop of warm Frey blood left.”

The people cheer raucously.

Scouts come to the Rebellion camp, reporting that Lord Reginald Lannister and the King's Guard Ser Boros Blount are personally leading a huge Lannister/Frey/Royal army that has amassed further down the Trident, garrisoned at Lord Harroway's Town. They look ready to move at short notice, and Beric surmises that they are waiting for word from their spies. Keeping the entire rebellion and Brotherhood together is a mistake.

Beric, with Thoros' support, makes it clear that he does not wish to engage this army. They are better equipped, better experienced and better trained, and their superior resources make them quicker and more flexible. They can destroy their enemy in the field, hold superior positions on the other side of the Trident and now have numerous garrisons and fortifications to fight from. “The Brotherhood serves the people,” he says, “but there can be no serving if there are no people left, either to fight or to be saved. Our fight is in the North. We cannot afford to die here instead.”

Edmure and the Riverlanders are dismayed by this, but quieten when told to by Arya. She acknowledges Beric's points, praises his heroism and states that the Brotherhood have done more for the Riverlands than anyone. They have earned the right to move on. However, if they do stay, if they do fight one last battle, it will surely defeat the Lannisters for good. “Queen Cersei has enemies at every turn,” she says. “Her army is stretched and she has precious little support. She'll give up on the Riverlands like she gave up on The North. If we defeat her now, it's over.”

The Hound agrees. The Lannisters only care about furthering their own legacy, he says, and they have nothing to gain from a country that simply will not be dominated. “One last fight should do it,” he says, “but a fucking cunt of a fight at that.”

Arya smiles and nods at his support, but disagrees on one point. It doesn't have to be a fight they cannot win. She urges Beric and Thoros to stay and help them, on the basis that, like before, she has a plan that will make victory inevitable.

“Don't be shy then, child,” Thoros says. “What's this plan?”

Lord Harroway's Town. Lord Reginald looks down at the feeding of his troops from the keep, shaking his head as he does. He stands in the lord's hall with Ser Boros and Ser Hosteen Frey, his co-commanders, and complains about the quality and scarcity of the rations.

“Lannisters eating slop,” he says, “and barely a drop of it at that.”

Ser Arys says that the Queen needs the food elsewhere, and from wherever anything can be grown. Ser Hosteen warns that soon there will be nothing left to grow, with the winter setting in and the ground hardening even more. Lord Reginald interrupts him to state that royal troops should always eat better than commoners, and that his men are as royal by blood as the gold-cloaks below.

A messenger arrives with word from Lord Emmon Frey. The Brotherhood Without Banners have been spotted moving north along the King's Road, seemingly bound for The Twins. Lord Emmon is taking his forces back there and will reinforce at the river, to face them at the bridges. Ser Arys suspects a trap, but Lord Reginald no longer “has time or patience” for caution.

“The Brotherhood and the rebels think they can defeat us by avoiding a battle altogether, and by seizing Lord Emmon's home. They think us slow. We'll show them.”

He orders that their forces follow the Brotherhood up the King's Road and crush them against Lord Emmon's host, destroying the rebellion once and for all. They will cross at the Ruby Ford, and he will lead them personally. The Lannister/Frey/Royal army leaves Lord Harroway's Town and reach the Ruby Ford crossing. Ser Arys again raises his reservations, and Lord Reginald suggests that a “pomped up bodyguard for two dead kings should learn to keep his tongue.”

Meanwhile, Alissa and other Riverlanders sneak through the forest nearby, rushing towards the dams where Vale rivers are contained. She orders them to start pulling the rocks clear.

Half of the army are across the river when the current begins to increase, the horses struggling and soldiers dropping their equipment into the rising water. Ser Arys, on the other side of the Ruby Ford, is alarmed and sees the banks beginning to overflow. Lord Reginald calls for his men to hurry their crossing. Then, abruptly, wolves begin to howl, dozens of their voices audible. The soldiers pull out their swords and are terrified. Many begin to run, heading into the river where they are swept away by the current.

Then, as the lines are breaking, a flaming arrow arcs out of the nearby woods and lands in the river. Rebels appear from in front of Ser Arys' vanguard, led on horseback by Edmure. Ser Arys marshals his beleaguered gold-cloaks to face them, but then they hear shouts from their flank. Gladwyn is leading another charge along the riverbank, spearmen and farmers with scythes and sickles alongside him. The gold-cloaks readjust to face this charge, but then the howling begins again, and barking. Along the riverbank from the other side comes another force. Arya, Nymeria and her wolves in front of her, and another mob of Riverlanders.

The Freys break and run into the river, some swimming down it in their armour. Those caught on the Ford try to retreat back the way they'd come but are swept away too, horses and carriages with them. Ser Arys sees Lord Reginald on the other bank, but Lord Reginald calls for his men to rally so they can redeploy. The rebels strike the Gold-cloaks and break through their lines, Nymeria's wolves tearing into their rear. It is a slaughter, and Ser Arys is cut down by Gladwyn's axe.

Lord Reginald gathers his men, but before they can act, there is another charge, this time from their side, by cavalry. Beric and his flaming sword leads the vanguard, the Hound with him. They reach the remaining Freys led by Ser Hosteen first and run them down easily. Lord Reginald flees, leaving the Lannister soldiers in rout. Some run and some surrender. The rest are massacred. In short order, there is no resistance remaining. The rebels shout and cheer, and the wolves howl. Arya laughs and Edmure smiles. Edmure waves across the Trident, and Arya waves back, a victorious salute.

“The wolf!” the Riverlanders shout. “The wolf! The wolf!”

Edmure's smile slips, but he keep it back up. Arya basks in the cheers. The water of the Trident runs red, staining the dirt and grass on the banks it touches. (7.9, Defender of the Vale)

At Lord Harroway's Town, there are wild celebrations amongst the townspeople and the victorious Riverlanders, even those visibly emaciated by hunger. Word has come down that a spontaneous rebellion at Seagard has driven last of the Freys back into the Twins, and that the Lannisters have left the Riverlands, save for Lord Reginald and his house guard, who are dug in at Riverrun. Arya enjoys these celebrations and embraces her new friends, Alissa, Sutton and Gladwyn, who is a champion amongst the people.

“He slayed a Kingsguard,” one of them cries. “Next he'll kill the Queen.”

Arya is amused by this, and surprises Gladwyn by kissing him roughly. Alissa pleads with Arya to give a victory speech, but she insists that Gladwyn is the real hero.

“He's one of you,” she says, “and he slayed the best of them. He's your champion.”

Grinning madly, Gladwyn addresses the crowd, promising that a new life is almost at hand. Soon they will be free, they will be their own lords, that the rivers will finally run free. The crowd roars.

Arya wanders off, away from the celebrations and mounts her horse. She is riding away from the town, unchallenged by any of the soldiers, when she is intercepted by the Hound.

“Been too long since you tasted blood, wolf pup?” he asks.

She says she wants to go down the river, to the Inn at the Crossroads. She has her own reasons for going, little beyond curiosity. Then she asks if he wants to come with her, and he admits that the food in Lord Harroway's Town is no better than chicken feed, and he wants the chicken.

They ride down the river towards the Inn, talking about how much has changed since the last time they made their way through this country. Arya has been across the Narrow Sea to another world and back again, transformed from a helpless water dancer into a faceless killer. The Hound, meanwhile, has experienced yet more death and destruction and continues to moan.

“I'm not fucking moaning,” he says. “I'm speaking the ugly fucking truth. You think you're the only one who's seen another world? I saw one too, one right here. Good people working hard to make a life for themselves worth living. What happened to it? Burned to the ground, like it's all burned to the ground, or frozen over. I bet you're really proud of yourself for what you've done here. This lot will starve when winter comes, and they're heroes will fight each other for the last of the glory, and then all the battles they fight will make other poor, hopeless cunts fight other poorer even more hopeless cunts over what their families did once, when we were all better off. Before winter came.”

Arya pauses before responding to this. “Is that why you're going north?” she asks.

“There's nothing for me anywhere else,” he replies. “Redemption? What's that in the real world? You can't make it all better, no matter how hard you fucking try. All you can do is try to do some good so you can maybe think about a nice thing you did as your guts are falling out your arse, on the end of some pointy stick. You should come with us.”

“I'm needed here,” Arya says.

“All the more reason to come,” he replies. She doesn't answer this. "But then there's no reason why you wouldn't go home to your family, to safety, yet here you are still, in this murderhole. Maybe you know more about the world than you let on."

They reach the Inn at the Crossroads and find it burned down, a smouldering ruin. Rebels pick over the place and pack up a cart with pilfered food supplies. Arya confronts them, and the leader of the group says that the Inn was housing and feeding Royal soldiers, as well as Lannisters and Freys. Nobody who helped the occupation of the Riverlands can be left to prosper.

Arya doesn't have a reply to this, and the rebels head off. Arya and the Hound pick over the ruins, and then find the bodies hanged in the grounds behind the building. Each of them are daubed with the word 'Traitor', and all have had their hands cut off. One of them is Hot Pie. Arya stares at his body with a blank expression, her eyes losing focus.

Some time later, Arya and the Hound return to Lord Harroway's Town. The Brotherhood are packing up. The Hound falls in with them, and then Arya approaches Beric and Thoros. Beric tells Arya that Edmure wants to march on Riverrun and free it, so he may be reunited with his family and restore the Tullys to power. The rebels are going with them. However, Beric is confident that they can win this final victory without the Brotherhood, who are finally on their way. They are now a thousand men strong, where once there had been barely two dozen, and they depart knowing the Riverlands is now safer. He asks Arya to come with them, but she looks down.

“Please, child,” he says. “This isn't your place, it isn't your home. You know no good will come of you staying here. This fight will never end.”

“Neither will yours,” Arya says, and Beric smiles.

“No,” he admits, “but that means death still has not prevailed.”

They set off, and Arya waits for the Hound to move past her. He slows, spits on the ground, and tells her not to worry about leaving him for dead, or for robbing him. “I'm forgiving now,” he says.

She thanks him and then, as she grows emotional, she begins “Sandor –”

“Oh, fuck off,” he interrupts, looking away. “Stop pretending that I'm not going to run into you again and remember how fucking annoying you are all over. A little fucking she-wolf. Enjoy the killing, it's all you're good for now anyway.”

He nods and rides off. Arya watches the Brotherhood as they head for the Green Fork and beyond.

The rebels march on Riverrun, growing even larger the closer they get to its walls. Edmure and Arya ride at the front alongside Gladwyn, Sutton and Alissa. Fierce rhetoric is espoused, all about independence and a new style of governance.

“This is a people's war,” Gladwyn says, “fought by the people and for the people. It is the people who will rebuild the world that's left over once that war is done.”

“It has been done before,” Sutton says. “Braavos was built on such a principle, and is one of the richest city states in the known world. Those freed slaves never returned to their chains.”

“And nor shall we!” Gladwyn shouts. His people cheer.

Arya notices Edmure's demeanour. He looks disappointed by this, almost as if he knows that his destiny will not come true, yet he manages to smile gently. Arya makes his way over to him, and he explains that he's looking forward to seeing Roslin again, and holding his son.

“That's family,” he says. “Not titles or deeds. Holding my son. Embracing my wife.”

The rebels reach Riverrun and find it scarcely defended. As they approach, two boats row away up down the Red Fork, seemingly bound for the south-west. On Gladwyn's orders, rebel cavalry chase after the boats. The army presses on to the raised drawbridge and finds that the sluice gates have been opened, the moat filled with water. Edmure stands before the city and shouts up to the guards on the wall. He demands their surrender, promising that he will allow the Lannisters inside to return to the Westerlands in exchange. Lord Reginald will not be harmed, but rather treated as well as Edmure was, as a hostage. His calls are ignored.

Arya moves forward and shouts up to the people of Riverrun. She knows they can hear her, and that the Lannister troops are few and likely scared, probably desperate to throw down their swords. She tells them that nobody can rescue them from their bondage; they have to free themselves, to rise from beneath if they are to be free again. At first, nothing seems to happen. Then there are shouts and screams, the clattering of blades. The drawbridge is lowered, revealing a desperate but failing uprising inside. The Lannister soldiers see Arya, Edmure and the rebels with wide eyes.

Led on, the rebels race inside and kill the Lannister soldiers. They capture Lord Reginald and his officers. Edmure confronts him and says he will honour his word, then orders arrangements to be made for the Lord's stay as his guest. Edmure then asks where his family are. Lord Reginald sneers and coldly tells him that the Lannisters are a family of their words, not like the Freys.

“My second cousin, Ser Jaime, made it clear to me,” he says. “In the event that you tried to resist your imprisonment, your wife and child were to be catapulted into the Red Fork. It was not something I did with any great joy, Lord Edmure. It pained me to hear their cries.”

Edmure is heartbroken and enraged, but stops short of striking down Lord Reginald. He repeats his order that the Lord be taken away as a guest. Gladwyn and his men move forward and seize Lord Reginald roughly, and take him to the battlements. Edmure is further dismayed and orders them to stop. Arya watches on. Gladwyn tells the rebels that all Lannisters and all Freys must be vanquished, lest the “Free Rivers” become “nothing but a dream.” They string up Lord Reginald and all of the Lannisters, and then disembowel them before hanging them from the walls.

Edmure stares, shellshocked, lost. Then Gladwyn orders that the traitors suffer the same fate, and those people of Riverrun who did not die in the uprising are grabbed too, pulled out of hiding spaces and tossed over the walls into the Red Fork. Arya begins to hesitate, swallowing rapidly, unsure of herself. Finally, Alissa shouts for the lords to be vanquished. Edmure looks at Arya with empty eyes as the rebels grab him, beat him, and take him up to the wall.

Arya follows them up and hears a howl. He looks down and see Nymeria and her vast pack, standing outside the city, near the treeline. Gladwyn declares that “the Free Rivers are of the people, no longer to be toyed with by a greedy few. No more Lannisters, no more Freys, no more crowns, no more lords!”

“No more lords!” the rebels echo. “No more lords!”

A noose is placed around Edmure's neck and he weeps. Then, amidst the shouting, Sutton pushes him over the edge. He falls and the rope snaps his neck. The rebels roar in approval. Arya staggers back, stunned and staring. She turns and sees Nymeria and the wolves returning to the forest. (7.10, Lord of Light)