‘Game of Thrones’ S8: Everyone on Arya’s Kill List – Updated
HBO’s Game of Thrones shuffled wight-like to its inevitable conclusion: the time fans all dreaded. Game of Thrones is no longer on our TV schedules and we’ll have to make do with endless weekend GoT bingewatching sessions, LARPing as our favorite characters, and waiting for the flurry of sequels & prequels to grace our HBO boxes.
Therefore it’s time to revisit one of the most important plot arcs of the peak TV show: exactly who was left on Arya’s Kill List, and did she dispatch them all?
We saw some growth in S8 for the young Stark woman on a mission to make herself the most badass of assassins in Planetos. (Even Barry Berkman could take a page or two from her book.) Fresh with the blood on her hands from cooking Freys into a pie and helping Littlefinger suddenly and anticlimactically get his just desserts, Arya let a few old grievances slide.
But for fanservice, we wanted to see some Arya assassin action – otherwise those turgid scenes of her hangin’ out with the Faceless Men in the House of Black and White won’t have the satisfactory ending we need.
Without delaying any further like Dany in Meereen, here’s our list of all the characters remaining on Arya’s Kill List – and the likelihood she’ll get to off ‘em.
You’re welcome.
Sandor “The Hound” Clegane
How he made the Kill List: The Hound killed Arya’s friend Mycah the butcher’s boy at the command of King Robert after the young ginger was falsely blamed for injuring then-Prince Joffrey – way back in simpler times, when it wasn’t common knowledge that the dead walk the earth.
How he can be redeemed: First is the fanservice theory: our money is on a Robert the Strong (the reanimated corpse of The Hound’s ghastly brother The Mountain) vs. The Hound fight-to-the-death scene late in this last season.
The second redemption possibility: Arya and The Hound managed to form an unholy alliance and mutual appreciation for each other on their many travels, and the Wolf may have developed some compassion for the Pup.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: 15%, with a margin of error there in case he does anything else to upset her.
Update: Deceased by his own doing, pushing his brother and nemesis The Mountain off the side of a tower in the Red Keep.
Ser Beric Dondarrion
How he made the Kill List: Sold Arya’s crush, all-around handsome, great guy, and solid blacksmith Gendry Waters – whom he had accepted into the Brotherhood Without Banners – to Melisandre.
How he can be redeemed: Dondarrion sacked up and journeyed with Jon Snow beyond the wall to capture a wight.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: Only 20%: Gendry survived, and in S8E2 after The Hound asked Arya “was he on your list”, she replied: “For a little while.”
Update: Deceased of wounds sustained at the hands of many, many wights. Naturally, fanservice dictated because Arya showed Beric “Nine Lives” Dondarrion mercy, he had to save Arya’s life delaying the wights in the forlorn stone corridors of Winterfell just long enough for her to get out and win the day in the Godswood later.
Ser Ilyn Payne
How he made the Kill List: Ilyn Payne beheaded Arya’s loyal, beloved dad, Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark.
How he can be redeemed: Not a redemption as such – we’re just unsure if he’s still alive. The tongueless killer hasn’t been seen in quite a while.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: 100%, if he’s still around that is.
Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane (or Robert the Strong if you’re nasty)
How he made the Kill List: The Mountain is a huge asshole. He was horribly cruel to, and badly burned, his brother when they were children, and delighted in torturing & killing people at Harrenhal, where Arya was in a Lannister jail. His reanimated corpse, Robert the Strong, now protects Cersei, sin enough to get him killed.
How he can be redeemed: Not a chance in hell.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: Only 1%: fanservice dictates our homie The Hound must end this nasty giant in an epic one-on-one brother battle.
Update: Deceased (or destroyed if he was already dead) as fanservice dictated, by his brother The Hound.
Lady Melisandre, a.k.a. The Red Woman
How she made the Kill List: Melisandre bought and bound young Gendry, and bled him against his will for a magic ceremony.
How she can be redeemed: No chance here: Melisandre has done all types of terrible things since we last saw her, including burning a poor young innocent kind child, Lady Shireen Baratheon, at the stake. Absolutely despicable.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: 99%: based on Melisandre’s insistence that she will die in Winterfell, we’re quite certain Arya will be her slayer.
Update: Deceased of natural causes. Venerable Melisandre denied both Arya and Ser Davos satisfaction by leaving behind her magic youth ruby choker and succumbing to the ineluctable ravages of time.
Queen Cersei Lannister
How she made the Kill List: Back in slightly happier times, Queen Cersei accused old loyal Ned Stark of treason. Her son, newly crowned psychopath King Joffrey, ended up commanding Ilyn Payne to bring him Ned’s severed head, which was added to the Red Keep as a decorative detail. (Martha Stewart, eat your heart out.)
How she can be redeemed: Oh this bitch is literally the worst. Over the seasons Cersei has schemed, killed, and betrayed repeatedly. Among her many sins, she also reanimated The Mountain (Robert the Strong) after he (mostly?) died. Cersei is going down.
Likelihood to die at Arya’s hand: Only 5%: Cersei has a lot of enemies, and when she was a girl, Maggie the Frog prophesied she would die being strangled by the “valonqar”, High Valyrian for “little brother”. Our money’s on her twin former lover Jaime (born moments after Cersei) for sheer poetic resonance, but Tyrion, Bran, Euron (little brother of Lord/King Balon Greyjoy) or even her own unborn fetus (little brother to Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen) could end up the culprit.
Update: Deceased by cave-in. Inanimate objects as random fallout from architectural destruction make for the most resonant ends, don’t they?
