A fan has worked out that Arya definitely should have died on this week’s Game of Thrones
According to the medical science of Westeros
Game of Thrones is full of fantastical elements from fire-breathing dragons and the evil White Walkers to face-changing assassins and time-travelling young boys, and it’s safe to say they add a lot to what fans enjoy about the series.
However, it’s also safe to say that fans really DON’T enjoy when the series becomes implausible in more prosaic ways, such as when this week’s episode saw Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) more or less walking off a vicious stomach stabbing after being patched up by an actress.
Now, one dedicated fan has taken to reddit to lay out exactly why her survivial is irritating – because based on what we’ve seen of wounds in Game of Thrones before, she should have been a goner.
In a lengthy post, Zahn1138 compares Arya’s injury to similar fatal ones inflicted on Talisa Stark (Oona Chaplin), King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), as well as non-fatal wounds acquired by characters like Theon (Alfie Allen), Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and the Hound (Rory McCann).
Generally speaking, characters with as severe a wound as Arya’s either died immediately (Talisa), were immediately bedbound and incapable of doing the kind of parkour/fighting Arya displayed (King Robert) or succumbed to infection (Khal Drogo), with even characters who survived shown in the series to have severe risk from infection or septicaemia (Jaime, the Hound).
More like this
And considering Arya fell in a filthy river straight after her stabbing, the post concludes that she should have met her maker within hours, no matter how good a physician the actor who patched her up was (after all, Grand Maester Pycelle couldn’t save King Robert). Even if the Waif missed every major artery in Arya during the stabbing (which is possible), the infection would have been enough to finish her off.
As the post sums up:
Oh, and the writer also had a great response to those who would point out that Arya’s survival wasn’t the least likely thing to ever happen on Game of Thrones.
So there you have it – Arya’s survival is even less likely than that whole Waif/Arya Fight Club theory everyone was talking about last week, and by all rights she should be a new face on the wall of the House of Black and White. Who knew Game of Thrones could be so soppy about keeping its characters alive?
Game of Thrones continues on Sky Atlantic this Monday at 2am and 9:00pm
