Let me start by saying I am a huge Game of Thrones fan. In fact my adoration, nay, devotion to the show often blinds me to some of the little niggles that others comment upon or dislike. Having studied Medieval Literature at uni, it is a world in which all of my favourite things are presented in one epic package: castles, politics, innuendo, strong characters and swordfights. But despite this, one line in the most recent episode really bugged me. Right down to my 'swords arent just for boys, not all little girls want to be princesses' core.
In the midst of the tear-inducing reunion between Arya and Hot Pie, the moment where the sassiest Stark learns that (part of) her family survives and she is not as alone in the world as she believed, the baking boy wonder comments that he can't believe he once bought into the idea that Arya was a boy.
"You're pretty." He states.
Pretty???
The youngest Stark daughter has been something of a maverick ever since her debut in season one. Shooting arrows instead of perfecting embroidery, playing with swords instead of dolls and forgoing the fashion and fancies of Kings Landing to learn fighting footwork, she has been a breath of fresh air amongst the WAGs of Westeros.
From there she escaped from beneath the nose of the Lannister army, infuriatingly just missed out on running into her sister in the Vale before independently travelling across the seas and learning the ways of the Many Faced God.
Unlike pretty much every other female character in the show she has never been presented as an object of male desire nor as a bargaining tool in the games of 'great' men. She has been different, she has been relentlessly herself - fiery, headstrong and independent. As sweet a moment as the writers may have meant to create in the scene with Hot Pie, and as gorgeous as Maisie Williams is, that is not what her character has ever stood for. So why all of a sudden the unnecessary, inutile remark on her appearance?
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