One Game of Thrones fan has found viral fame for her defense of that unexpected Arya and Gendry scene in Season 8, Episode 2.
Warning! Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 2 lie ahead!
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After Arya and Gendry decided to turn up the heat in Winterfell ahead of the final battle against the Night King, their possibly short-lived romance and brief respite was met with both confusion and criticism from fans online, though Twitter user and bona fide GoT fan Mikki Kendall was quick to dispel concern and come to Arya’s defense.
“Arya is 18, in full control and making a choice. She’s having probably the least weird, and most empowering consensual interaction in the whole show. Ever. EVER,” she wrote. “She went with a guy she always liked, who has a little experience, a body she likes looking at, isn’t 8 million years older, isn’t cruel, isn’t weird in some horrifying way, he’s never even been dead. It’s amazing.”
“And he’s not remotely in her gene pool. NOT EVEN CLOSE. She did great. Amazing. I’m so proud of her,” she added. “he made the best choice for herself and on her own terms. I mean a bath might have been good, but I guess this is enough.”
Much of the shock and confusion surrounding the scene largely stemmed from the fact that fans have watched both Arya and actress Maisie Williams grow up on the series. Williams was only 11 when the series began and is now 22, her character, now 18, was just 13 when fans first met her. Kendall, however, also addressed the age concern in her thread.
“Also I haven’t seen Arya as a baby since she cut that man up in the bordello. She was grown emotionally long before that, but uh…the disconcerting part was the savage violent glee in that scene. Everything afterward was grown woman shit,” she wrote. “You don’t cut someone to shreds, tell them they are no one, they are nothing and then I pretend to pearl clutch because you might like sex. Making sure she didn’t die a virgin might be the most normal thing Arya has done in years. YEARS.”
Kendall also stated that given the nature of many sex scenes in the series, Arya and Gendry’s hookup was a bit of a relief.
“I think Jon and Ygritte was the last sex scene that didn’t involve coercion, manipulation, the recently undead, or incest,” she wrote. “I might have missed one. But that seems likely.”
Whether or not Arya and Gendry last remains to be seen, as the Battle of Winterfell, likely to be the deadliest battle to play out on the series, will be fought when Game of Thrones Episode 3 airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
