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The One Major Arya Moment You Missed On 'GoT'

by Alaina Urquhart-White

Tonight was a seriously stressful episode of Game of Thrones, particularly for Arya Stark. Let's be honest, this whole season has been a seriously stressful journey for Arya Stark. She seemed to making some real progress in her training to become one of the faceless assassins who serve the Many-Faced God. Unfortunately at the end of last season, Arya was struck blind by Jaqen as punishment for going rogue to kill Ser Maryn Trant, while wearing one of the hall's faces. Once she got her sight back, it seemed like she was starting to wane in her original goal and Sunday she finally decided that she wasn't ready to give up her identity to serve the god of death. But, what you may have missed is the importance of one action during the episode. When Arya used Needle to cut a candle on Game of Thrones and killed The Waif in the dark, she really came full circle.

This entire season, Arya has been basically being beaten with a staff by The Waif while she has been blind. Most of her training has been consisting of this kind of brutality, but, once she had her sight taken from her by Jaqen, it seemed even crueler to continue the same kind of violence against her with her literally unable to see the attacks coming. Only a couple of episodes ago she finally got her sight back. Sunday, after a lengthy chase with The Waif, Arya picked up Needle, sliced down a nearby candle (which was the only source of light) and killed The Waif once and for all.

The fact that Arya was able to defeat her trainer while pretty much blind is such a show of strength for her character. She seemed to struggle with her lack of sight for a long time but now it's like she feels more comfortable and in her element when she is without it again. The punishment originally intended to knock her down, made her more powerful. And, in the end, she turned the punishment into a strength to kill the woman who had beaten her down time and time again while she couldn't see. How badass is that?

Let's hope that we can see Arya go back to Westeros to save her family now that she has finally given up the life as a faceless assassin. And, if she ever has to fight Ramsay in the dark, we know who will win.

Images:Macall B. Polay/HBO; Giphy