Maisie Williams and Game of Thrones producers talk Arya and Braavos

One of the most memorable moments in “High Sparrow,” last Sunday’s new Game of Thrones episode, occurred when Arya Stark tried and failed to throw away her beloved blade Needle in an attempt to show her mentor, Jaqen H’ghar, that she was ready to give up her old life and become a Faceless Man. Arya has been through a lot in the past few years, but she’s always held on to a few key things: her spirited independence, her refusal to conform to rigid Westerosi gender norms, and her thirst for revenge against the people who decimated her family. In a new interview with Zap2It, Maisie Williams teased Arya’s story going into the middle of Season 5, and hinted that the character will have trouble letting go of these traits.

She’s been carrying this weight of the loss of her family and everything for so long, and she thinks coming here and pretending that she can be someone new is going to really help, and she realizes it’s a lot harder to let go of your own personal hate and your own personal issues…I think because she’s done so well in the past and she’s convinced herself that she can do this on her own, when faced with a real challenge, it really does kind of throw her. I think that’s what she faces this year.

It’s a little odd to describe Arya as having “done so well” over the past few seasons, seeing as she’s basically been passed from one captor to another as she made her way across the Westerosi countryside. Still, she managed to survive despite being thrown into some pretty heinous conditions, so Williams has a point. In fact, it’s that survive-at-all-costs instinct that that has endeared Arya to fans, and watching her try to set it aside may be strange to watch. Fan reaction was on Williams’ mind when she talked to Zap2It:

This year’s been really, really great for me, but I don’t know how the audience is going to react, because it is a very different Arya to the one that people originally sort of fell in love with. I don’t necessarily think they’re going to dislike her, but it’s just not going to be the same as it was before.

However fans react to the changes in Arya’s storyline, they’ve already reacted positively to Braavos, her new base of operations (okay, I’ve reacted positively to Braavos, but I doubt I’m alone). Within the space of two episodes, the production team has turned the canal-crossed city into one of the most beautiful locations on the show. The inside of the House of Black and White, meanwhile, is filmed on a gorgeous, atmospheric set that drips with mood.

Producer and writer Bryan Cogman seems especially excited to finally be in Braavos. “It’s going to be an incredible thing. That’s all I can really say,” he said. “We had a lot of fun working with the designers to make up the world and mapping out this plotline. It’s one we’ve wanted to get to, obviously, for a long time. I know Maisie was excited to be indoors.”

Cogman went on to say that Arya will “[meet] a lot of new characters” during her stay in the city. Depending on how true the show stays to A Feast for Crows, there are any number of characters he could be talking about. One of the few downsides to Arya’s storyline this year is that she’ll be cut off from a lot of old characters, since Braavos is geographically removed from Westeros and the rest of Essos. Still, the show moves at a brisker pace than the books, so who’s to say it won’t blow through the Arya material from the books and bring her somewhere new by the end of the season?

• Published on 04/30/2015 at 4:40 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT