"Game of Thrones" returned to HBO for its sixth season premiere last night (read our review HERE), giving fans their first looks at fan-favorite characters such as Jon Snow (still dead), Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark in almost a year. Of those three, Arya appears to be in the least amount of immediate danger, though she remains blinded from the events of the Season 5 finale.
Last night's episode picked up shortly after, with the plucky little Stark girl being trained to hone her other senses as she continues to serve the House of Black and White. However, as we saw last year with her killing of Meryn Trant, Arya is reluctant to truly become "no one," something actress Maisie Williams noted herself.
"Watching it back, however, it was definitely a lot more gruesome than I had let myself on," Williams said of the Season 5 climax involving her character. "Because this sort of thing shouldn't affect Arya, she shouldn't be freaked out by the thought of someone else's blood on her hands. Personally, I'd find that awful... I guess I distanced myself from the emotion of that scene when I was filming it. When I watched it back, I thought, 'Oh wow, this is dark.' But the scene went down really well and it's always nice when everyone can rejoice together and think, 'Oh well, he's a bad guy.' It was a messed up thing for Arya to do, but we were all in agreement that we didn't like Ser Meryn. So there's not controversy on that front."
That pivotal scene proved to many fans that though Arya may undergo the training of a faceless assassin, she will never be able to truly adopt their mantra of being "no one." Williams admits that it's a question that Arya struggles with throughout the sixth season.
"All the other Starks have been let down by the fact that they have a heart," she said. "I think that's the reason she's still alive. She has this very dark side to her and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. The reason it's worked so well is because it's about what she wants - but to now channel all the same emotion and energy into working for someone else, I don't know if that is something she is cut out for. And that's a huge thing we see coming into Season 6, we see a massive conflict within her."
"Game of Thrones" airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.
Follow Brandon Katz at @Great_Katzby.
