‘Game of Thrones’ Theory Speculates Arya Stark Is Dead Following White Horse Appearance

A popular Game of Thrones fan theory states that Arya Stark is actually dead already, and we might have got a major hint in the last episode.

Warning! Spoilers for Game of Thrones through Season 8, Episode 5 lie ahead!

It was a big week for Arya Stark, who spent most of the siege of King’s Landing on the ground, amid the fire and blood of Daenerys’ dragon attack. The young assassin was covered in gore and rubble at the end of the episode, when a miraculous white horse appeared as if from nowhere to take her away. Some fans see this as a symbolic hint that Arya is dead.

The horse seemed so magical that few fans took the time to look for a practical explanation for where it came from. However, there actually is one: the Golden Company. The sell-sword army that Cersei paid so much for was decimated in one blow this week, but not before we saw their commander, Harry Strickland, apparently riding the same white horse.

Obviously, like Strickland and his men, the horse appeared to be crushed by debris. Some fans on social media are now asking, what if it was? They speculate that the horse and Arya met in the liminal space between life and death, and rode off together into whatever comes next.

As evidence, fans are pointing out the last calamity Arya is caught in before the episode ends. After losing Nora and her daughter, whom she was trying to protect, Arya dove beneath a crumbling building, which then collapsed on her. She woke up completely covered in ash and rubble, with more blood on her than ever. Fans suggest that she was not really waking, just having a pre-death vision.

Add to this the parallel many fans have drawn between the white horse and the Biblical verse about death riding on a similar mount. There is also a plague in the books known as the “pale mare,” so fans see this as Arya close association with death incarnate.

Of course, the big argument against this theory is that Arya shows up in the trailer for next week’s episode. However, fans argue that there was a reason Arya rode off on the same horse Harry Strickland arrived on, saying that producers would never put a huge detail like this on screen by accident. For others, that is debatable.

Fans have speculated that Arya is dead for years now in countless variations of different theories. Many believed that Arya died in her fight with the Waif back in Braavos in Season 6. They maintain to this day that the person on the show is not Arya Stark, but a Faceless Man wearing her face. At this point, there is hardly enough screen-time left for a revelation of that magnitude.

The Game of Thrones series finale airs on Sunday, May 19 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.