Maisie Williams says Game of Thrones 'definitely fell off at the end'

Even Arya Stark has qualms about the contentious final season of Game of Thrones.

Maisie Williams, who portrayed the youngest Stark daughter throughout all eight seasons of the drama, revealed during a Twitch stream with her brother, James, this week that she recently rewatched the HBO juggernaut in its entirety. The show "definitely fell off at the end," Williams said when asked about her thoughts on it.

"But it started really strong," the actress maintained, later praising the success of the series. "It kinda popped off. I could never see it from the outside. So I could never say that and actually understand it. For the first time, it feels good to be proud of it. It was 10 years of my life."

Williams added that she was "heartbroken" when Ned Stark, Arya's father played by Sean Bean, died, even though she "knew it was coming." The patriarch was ruthlessly beheaded in season 1. "For the first time, I could really feel the story," she said.

Helen Sloan/HBO Maisie Williams as Arya Stark in 'Game of Thrones'

James noted that he could have found out about plot points from the series in advance, given that scripts were lying around the house, but he wanted to fully experience the show. "We were all enjoying the hell out of it," he said. "People will say, 'Do you know what's going to happen?' to me and I'd be like, 'I don't know.' But there were, like, scripts and stuff laying around. I never did [look] but I could have."

The eighth and final season caused division among fans (and even some stars) of the show, even culminating in a Change.org petition that called on the writers to redo the season. Back in 2019, Williams told EW she was happy with Arya's ending, but admitted that she wished her character had the opportunity to kill Cersei Lannister (played by Lena Headey).

"I wanted Arya to kill Cersei even if it means [Arya] dies too," Williams said. "Even up to the point when Cersei's with Jaime I thought [while reading the script], 'He's going to whip off his face [and reveal its Arya]' and they're both going to die. I thought that's what Arya's drive has been."

Antony Jones/Getty Maisie Williams

As she thought more about Arya's arc, however, Williams learned to embrace the direction. "The Hound says, 'You want to be like me? You want to live your life like me?' In my head, the answer was: 'Yeah,'" she said. "But I guess sleeping with Gendry, seeing Jon again, realizing she's not just fighting for herself anymore but also her family — it's bringing up all these human emotions that Arya hasn't felt for a long time."

"When the Hound asks her if she has another option, all of a sudden there are so many more things in [Arya's] life that she can live for, that she can do," Williams continued. "It was a shock for me because that wasn't how I envisioned her arc going this year. Then I realized there were other things I could play, bringing Arya back to being a 16-year-old again."

She concluded, "It's not a Game of Thrones ending for Arya, it's a happy ending. It gave me a place to take Arya that I never thought I'd go with her again."

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