Um, Where Was Arya Stark’s Thank-You on Game of Thrones Last Night?
Caution: Spoilers for Game of Thrones are ahead.
After watching last night's episode of Game of Thrones, I have one thing to say to the series: Who the hell do you think you are? The levels of disrespect for the show’s female leads were running high: Jamie Lannister left Brienne of Tarth in the dust, Daenerys was insultingly shafted by Jon Snow (and possibly flipped on by her own advisers), and Arya Stark—the hero of last week’s grand-scale episode—was barely even thanked for single-handedly ending the greatest war Westeros has ever faced. Rude.
In “The Long Night,” last week’s buzzy episode, the living faced off with the dead—a war we’ve anticipated for years. Who was it that stopped the dead’s feared leader, the Night King, in one fell swoop of a dragonglass dagger? Arya Stark. Did Theon Greyjoy do it? No, the Night King murdered him. Did Jon Snow do it? No, he’s had multiple opportunities to do it with no success. It was Arya, and she did it with grace. So why was her victory not celebrated more on the series? In fact, it was barely even acknowledged.
That wasn't the case IRL: Arya’s big moment was so memorable that an “Arya Stark Challenge” emerged among fans on Twitter, in which people parodied her nifty knife trick. Her triumph resulted in endless praise, huge cheers, and lots of conversation about how the women continually save the day on the series. Sure, some sexist men called Arya a Mary Sue (a character who just shows up and has no flaws), but even more people came forward to slam that insulting claim. As they should: Arya is a deadly fighter who has been training since the very first episode of the series.
So why, then, did her own brother minimize her success? While defending his support of Daenerys, Jon Snow told his siblings, “You understand we’d all be dead if not for her?” Sansa retorted, “Arya’s the one who killed the Night King.” But Jon brushes her off, insisting, “Her men gave their lives defending Winterfell.” At least Sansa recognized her sister’s win, though it was one of only two mentions in the entire episode.
The other happened earlier, when Tormund raised a celebratory goblet to Daenerys, yelping, “To the Dragon Queen!” Daenerys shifted the focus and raised her own glass to Arya, saying, “To Arya Stark, the hero of Winterfell.” The men cheer, but we don’t actually see Arya being praised or embraced or celebrated. No one offers her a personal congratulations. She doesn’t body-surf over a crowd of soldiers who owe their lives to her. It’s wild. It was offensive. It’s also expected.
Game of Thrones has a reputation for slighting its female characters for a reason. We’ve watched nearly every female lead on this show be either sexually abused, beaten, subdued, patronized, or some horrible combination of such. So when a woman saves the day (or rather, the Long Night), I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that she was barely even acknowledged for her heroism.
Daenerys met a similar fate last night—in the same scene I mentioned above, Tormund fawned over Jon Snow for his contributions to the Battle of Winterfell. “He keeps fighting,” Tormund shouts gleefully as Daenerys side-eyes him. “He climbed on a fucking dragon and fought. What kind of a person climbs on a fucking dragon? A mad man. Or a king.” Or how about the Mother of Dragons, who has been riding on their backs and slaying armies by uttering “Dracarys” before Jon even knew dragons existed? During the scene Khaleesi looked like she was stewing, but she painstakingly kept a straight face through the pain—a master class in female anger. The scene was also, unfortunately, a master class in patriarchy at play: Yet again men were being praised for women’s work, yet again the men placed more value on male mediocrity than female greatness.
So am I disappointed? Yes. Arya Stark deserved to be held on a bunch of grimy dudes’ shoulders as a Gatorade cooler was dumped over her head. But Game of Thrones loves making its female fans burn with rage almost as much as it loves making its female leads, well, burn with rage. Instead, I'll just say what should have been said last night: Thank you, Arya.
Jill Gutowitz is a writer and comedian living in Los Angeles.
