So Wait, Who Is Actually Left To Kill On Arya’s Kill List?
Why was Beric Dondarrion on it again?
Blink and you’ll miss it, but on Game of Thrones episode 2 of season 8, Arya briefly threw back to her infamous kill list.
In a super fun conversation with Sir Beric Dondarrion (one-eyed church botherer) and The Hound (grumpy!), Arya mentions that Beric was on her list for a while. Beric was absolutely chuffed at this, because as someone who has died like nine times before, this is a normal and cool conversation to have!
But, if you’re anything like me, you have absolutely no idea WHY Beric was on her list in the first place. When did they even meet? Has this show gone for our entire lives?
There’s been some pretty notable people on the list who have been all stabbed up a treat by Arya — Walder Frey and Littlefinger to name two, while others have been taken off the list by other people (such as when their sons shoot them with a crossbow on the toilet), or in Thoros of Myrs’ case, when they got extremely polar-beared.
But there’s still a bunch of people waiting to be killed. Will any of them get a Needle in the face before the show ends, or is this the end of Arya’s vengeance?
Who’s Still On Arya’s Kill List?
Beric Dondarrion
Alright, it seems like Arya is going to let this one go.
Plus, we all know Beric is going to die extremely soon — probably during the Battle of Winterfell. My guess is that he’s going to try and go against the Night King himself, as he tried to do once before north of the Wall. Arya can probably sense that, tbh.
But Beric managed to get himself on the list when he sold Gendry to Melisandre. Remember that? I sure do.
Anyway, it all seemed to work out fine in the end, so no harm no foul, I guess?
But then again, Gendry is maybe her boyfriend, or at least her bonk-buddy, so she might start feeling a bit more wrath.
The Hound
Sandor Clegane famously killed Arya’s friend, Mycah, the butcher’s boy, all the way back in season 1.
She’s kinda had her revenge, when she left him to die after his fight with Brienne. That must have felt good.
However, this is old news — over in Bravos, Arya told the Waif that she no longer wanted to kill the Hound. They’ve since drank together on Winterfell’s walls, so this seems done and dusted.
Melisandre
Melisandre raised Arya’s ire during the aforementioned Gendry trade, in which she tried to suck all of his kingly blood out with leeches. Not many people have been so flagrantly and persistently wrong as the Red Woman!
Anyway, this could still be a valid grudge, even though Arya has apparently forgiven Beric for the same crime.
We know that Melisandre is coming to Winterfell, and that she is fated to die in Westeros. Also, last time she and Arya hung out, she said that the two of them would meet again. That could be a cause and effect thing!
And, in the last episode, Arya did speak quite a bit about the Red Woman, and it was mostly about how she’d stolen her new bonk-buddy. Seems plenty of reason to cross another name off the list.
Ilyn Payne
The creepy dude who cut Ned Stark’s head off is a pretty qualified candidate for this list.
However, we haven’t seen him since season 2, back at the Battle of Blackwater, although he’s been mentioned offhand a few times since. This is not an oversight — according to The Guardian, unfortunately the actor who plays Payne, Wilko Johnson, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013. He’s now cancer free, but still recovering from the dramatic surgery — it’s unlikely we’ll see him again just for Arya to kill him.
The Mountain
Arya hates The Mountain because he tortured and killed people at Harrenhal, when Arya was imprisoned there. Sensible!
Gregor Clegane is TECHNICALLY already dead, killed by Oberyn Martell — but he was then reanimated by Qybyrn. He’ll also be guarding Cersei, so if Arya wants to kill her, she might have to go through him?
And believe me, I want to watch him die — I’ll never forgive him for exploding the most beautiful skull in Westeros.
But I also think he is The Hound’s to kill, not Arya’s. Bring on Cleganebowl.
Cersei
Ding ding ding, the biggest and most evil name on the list.
This seems like the perfect end goal for Arya — frankly a magic assassin is a little wasted on an army of the undead. But infiltrating King’s Landing and bypassing the Queen’s guard and a Frankenstein to kill the queen is SO up her alley.
However, we know that it is prophesied that Cersei is killed by a brother, sooooo probably not? I dunno. I kind of want this for her!
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Patrick Lenton is the Entertainment Editor at Junkee. He loves grudge lists — you might even be on his!