In GAME OF THRONES’ “The Spoils of War,” reunites Arya and Sansa, but the showrunners hint at trouble ahead for them.
If you haven’t seen last Sunday’s Game of Thrones episode, “The Spoils of War,” you probably should do that now before reading on, as we’ll be going more in depth to what happened in the episode. If you have seen the episode, let’s move on…
So far, season 7 of Game of Thrones has been nothing but amazing and intense, what with characters meeting for the first time and other character reuniting for the first time since the first season. Needless to say, it’s been a long, dark journey for the Starks, including Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner).
But as wonderful as it was to see the Stark siblings, sans Rickon (R.I.P.), there’s definite underlying trouble brewing between Arya and Sansa. (Yes, there’s also the issue with emotionless Bran/Three-Eyed Raven, but let’s focus on these sisters.) You can see it almost as soon as they meet, in front of their father’s statue, as David Benioff explains:
“Sansa always wanted to be a lady and Arya always wanted to be a fighter,” he said. “In other ways, they are so different from who they were when they last saw each other. Both of them have had difficult journeys, and difficult in their own ways. I think they come to respect the other in terms of how they’ve grown as people, but at the same time, it doesn’t diminish the tension between them.”
That tension is even more noticeable during Arya’s sparring session with Brienne of Tarth. Showrunners. As impressive as it was to see, Sansa is clearly disturbed. Dan Weiss and Benioff explain further:
“The idea with the scene was we wanted to lay in the beginnings of the storyline where Sansa realizes what Arya is now,” said Weiss, with Benioff adding: “Sansa doesn’t know much about where Arya’s gone and what she’s done since they last saw each other. This scene more than anything else tells her what she’s been up to. The fact is, Brienne is a pretty legendary swordswoman, and it looks like Arya maybe beat her. Sansa’s watching and isn’t quite sure if Arya is holding back. Arya is really good at killing people. That’s a bit worrisome.”
The series may be nearing its end, but it’s not over yet, and seeing how the journey has been so far for the Stark clan, we can’t imagine it’ll be smooth sailing from this point forward. As much as we’d like to see that, we’re going to take the hint from Arya’s reunion with her direwolf Nymeria and say, “It’s just not you.”
Check out the featurette for more insight into the caves of Dragonstone, the Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen continuing conflict of interests and their troubling attraction to each other.
