One 'GoT' Star Doesn't Want A Stark Reunion

In news that may come as a surprise to some fans, Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams doesn't want a Stark family reunion in the series. When the cast of the HBO show were visiting a Syrian refugee camp, Williams was interviewed by PEOPLE Magazine about what she would like the future to hold for her character. “I’d love for her to be a bit of a lone ranger, I’d love for her to be kind of like The Hound. I don’t really want her to reunite with her family because I don’t think that they’re the same people anymore or that she’s the same person anymore. I think she’s better off on her own. I’d love for her to be alive, actually, and be her own boss.”

Ever since Arya has been separated from her family, fans have been rooting for the murderous tomboy to be reunited with the surviving members of the Stark clan, namely Sansa Stark and Jon Snow. Arya Stark's renunciation of her assumed identity of "no one" at the end of Season 6 and her decision to leave Braavos had us all hoping that she was headed back to Winterfell. However, maybe Williams has a point and Arya-as-eternal-loner might be the happiest of possible endings.

Sansa Stark has been exposed to horrific violence since her separation from her sister — first at the hands of Joffrey, then during her short-lived marriage to Ramsay Bolton. Even her aunt threatened her physical safety. While Sansa feeding Ramsay to his own dogs implies she's hardened some, I still believe she would be profoundly disturbed by her little sister's newfound capacity for endless revenge. Killing the man who abused you personally is one thing — but making a list and chanting names every night before bed is closer to Patrick Bateman territory.

Both Sansa and Jon seem to try their hardest to avoid violence as much as possible, something that in the Game of Thrones universe is easier said than done. Arya is the opposite: she seems to take genuine pleasure in violence (as we saw in the Season 6 finale in her inventive murder of Walder Frey — that was, after she finished serving him his children in a pie) and seems to see it as like any other craft — something you can improve at through practice. Because of this, it certainly seems that Arya as she is now wouldn't find it easy to be around her family anymore. Jon and Sansa would insist on asking the questions that we ask ourselves every time Arya crosses another name off her list: Why does she insist on singlehandedly wreaking revenge? Doesn't it nauseate her? Is she potentially as immoral as the people she insists on hurting?

Arya as she is is a product of her environment — she's as untamed and violent as Westeros has to her been throughout the duration of the show. While I don't always endorse Arya's special brand of street-justice, I'm still rooting for her to survive — and honestly, she's most likely to do that staying exactly the way she is. Her family are wonderful, but LBR, they'd change her. And a softened Arya might not survive during Season 7. So answer me this: would you rather Arya and Sansa were reunited? Or would you rather Arya made it out alive?

Images: HBO (2); Giphy