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In Season 6 of Game of Thrones, Arya was tasked with

killing the actor, and declined to complete the task. Jaqen H'ghar then tasks the Waif with killing Arya to appease the Many-Faced God. Arya, in the course of two battles, defeats and kills the Waif, hanging her face in the House of Black and White.

Is the Many-Faced God appeased? A name was spoken, and a face was hung, but they do not concur.

Jaqen H'ghar lets Arya (nee No One, nee Arya) leave without further retribution, but she is armed at the time.

Complicating matters, earlier in the season,

upon awakening Arya from her blindness, I believe Jaqen H'ghar says something to the effect of, "You can drink this and become No One, or drink this and become Arya, but you can't have both."

This suggests that beyond the debt to the Many-Faced God for the face of the actress, is the debt that Arya would have to repay based on choosing to become No One, and later recanting.

Thoughts?

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3
  • Future works will cover this.
    – Plumbing for Ankit
    Commented Jun 22, 2016 at 18:59
  • "née" is French for "born", n'est pas? Only one "née" is necessary unless you are a Knight in a Monty Python movie. AKA is more appropriate, and Jessica Jones would approve. FKA works too but has less pop-culture references
    – m1gp0z
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 18:16
  • Clearly she was born again.
    – MattCole3
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 18:42

1 Answer 1

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The Debt

DB Weiss addressed the scene in a Inside the Episode video

Ayra is in danger. She has an open wound in her stomach, and the one person who has been protecting her to this point unfortunately gets murdered. The fact that the Many-Faced God gets the people promised to him really makes you think that is just almost an inevitability about what happens to people who run afoul of the Faceless Men.

Getting to the final part of this sequence, Ayra is telling Jaqen by putting the face on the wall that this account has been settled and we’re good here, and I am going to walk away, and I think she knows what the answer is going to be.

The implication is that obviously Jaqen on some level was rooting for the outcome that he got. He may be No-One, but there is still enough of a person left in him to respect and admire who this girl is and what she has become. Ayra finally tells us something that we’ve kind of known all along, that she is not No-One, she’s Ayra Stark of Winterfell.

So, Ayra was let go because Jaqen wanted to let her go!

The Drink

Jaqen says to Ayra :

If a girl is truly No-One, she has nothing to fear.

So we have have two options here...

  1. Ayra truly is No-One
  2. The drink was just a test to see if Ayra believed she was No-One.

Either way, looking to the above explanation , Jaqen is okay with letting her go.

We also have evidence from the first time Arya meets Jaqen that the Many-Faced God is willing to except substitutes...

Jaqen: The Red God takes what is his, and only death may pay for life. You saved me and the two I was with. You stole three deaths from the Red God, we have to give them back. Speak three names and the man will do the rest... Three lives I will give you, no more, no less then we are done.

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  • That confirms a few of my thoughts as well, in an incredibly well thought out argument. Bravo.
    – MattCole3
    Commented Jun 23, 2016 at 1:51
  • Good point about the drink. When watching it the first time I assumed it was some silly magic potion that can somehow tell if someone is "no-one" but it makes more sense if it was a test to see whether Arya was prepared to risk her life like this. They didn't realise she's so stubborn she'd rather drink what she suspects is poison than back down!
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jun 23, 2016 at 9:28
  • @user568458 Well, it easy to see why we would think that. It is the same well the people drink from to kill themselves to make an offering to the Many-Faced God. IMO option 1 has more evidence, as Ayra smells the drink and pulls back, which prompts Jaqen to give the line.
    – Skooba
    Commented Jun 23, 2016 at 13:49
  • Of course I should have said... Braavos.
    – MattCole3
    Commented Oct 5, 2018 at 18:43

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