Sansa and Arya Stark, the two daughters of Ned and Catelyn, have been through their own respective journeys of transformation throughout the eight seasons of Game of Thrones. They began as children of summer, young noblewomen who teased each other relentlessly. Sansa dreamed of marrying a handsome lord or knight, while Arya wanted to fight for herself. Since then, Sansa has been a queen-in-waiting, a hostage, and bargaining chip, but along the way, she learned the skills she needed to become a formidable player in the game of thrones. Arya left Westeros entirely, sailed to Braavos and trained as one of the Faceless Man assassins at the House of Black and White.
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In Game of Thrones‘ penultimate season, the sisters reunited at their ancestral home of Winterfell. Together, they put an end to the schemings of Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish once and for all. Maisie Williams plays Arya and is friends with Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, in real life. She says the Stark sisters will continue to team up during the HBO series’ final season.
“It’s not often you see a character siding with Sansa who’s not manipulating her,” Williams tells Entertainment Weekly. “Last season it was really tough for Sansa because Jon was thinking with his penis and it kind of made Sansa look bitter. This season you see Arya teaming with Sansa and sometimes calling out Jon. It felt nice and powerful to stand next to Sophie. Sophie and I are the tightest of friends when sitting across from anyone, so no acting required.”
Williams says that the final season contains enough callbacks to the beginning of Game of Thrones that she found herself revisiting old episodes. She tells EW, “After reading the scripts I went back and watched season one again because so much of it refers back to that season. There are so many scenes that will look similar. And also I watched just to remind myself of the arc I’ve taken already. I wanted Arya to go full circle and try for some kind of normalcy like when she was younger. Basically this year it’s like she has a dual personality — there are so many emotions and memories that come flooding back when you’re with your family and the things that you fight for become very different, yet she’s also remaining on this path to try and kill Cersei and remembering her list and getting closer to that. So there’s this split with Arya between trying to be who she wants to be — getting back to the naïveté and innocence with her family — and unfinished business.”
Are you excited about the final season of Game of Thrones? Let us know what you think in the comments. Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April 14th.
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