The 30 most heartwarming moments on Game of Thrones

20. Lady Crane nurses Arya back to health (“No One”)

SARAH: In her heart of hearts, Arya Stark is a caretaker. That’s easy to forget when she’s driving a knife into the eye of an enemy, but her penchant for violence hasn’t yet killed her deeper nature. She is fiercely determined to protect her loved ones, and in this respect, she is every inch her mother’s daughter. So it’s strange to recall that Arya and Catelyn never once shared a scene in which they interacted directly. Arya has been motherless, figuratively and literally, for as long as we’ve known her. Her only major relationship with another woman has been with Sansa, and they were too dissimilar to bond as children. This could change in Season 7, so that’s something to look forward to. Tissues are at the ready.

In the meantime, nobody has been taking care of Arya in the way she needs, not in the way a mother might care for her child. Her male companions have basically been inept. She parented Gendry and Hot Pie, and Jaqen was about as nurturing as a fifth of vodka. Even the Hound, who genuinely cared about Arya, was hopeless. He provided physical protection, but wasn’t fit to safeguard her mental or emotional health. Arya isn’t fit to safeguard it either. She’s a survivor, but she can’t handle her own grief, so she delays the mourning process in the vain hope that completing her list is going to make her feel better. Rarely has a character in Game of Thrones needed their mother more than Arya Stark.

When the Waif, driven by a bizarre personal vendetta, twisted her knife in Arya’s gut, she finally had a wound that couldn’t be ignored. She needed immediate care from a trustworthy person, and so she ran to Lady Crane, the only person in Braavos to whom she felt connected. Lady Crane, who owed this mysterious girl her life, rose to the occasion in the most maternal of ways. What makes this scene truly touching is watching Arya, an orphan who has fended for herself since she was very young, being tenderly cared for by someone who has her best interests at heart. For a brief moment, she had a mother, or something like it. Remember again that Arya has not received this kind of treatment throughout the entirety of show’s run, and the full impact of this scene is felt.