Will Last Night's Monumental GAME OF THRONES Reunion Be The Precursor For An Arya And Sansa Feud?
"Sansa's watching and isn't quite sure if Arya is holding back," says Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff on what's going through Sansa's mind while watching Arya spar with Brienne.
It's been many seasons since Arya and Sansa shared screen time together on HBO's Game of Thrones so it's very easy to forget that the two never really saw eye-to-eye. But where their childhood animosity had a flair of innocence, might something more sinister and dangerous take its place given all the trials and tribulations both have went through?
David Benioff comments, "Sansa always wanted to be a lady and Arya always wanted to be a fighter. In other ways, they are so different from who they were when they last saw each other. Both of them have had difficult journeys, and difficult in their own ways. I think they come to respect the other in terms of how they've grown as people, but at the same time, it doesn't diminish the tension between them."
But could that tension lead to trouble for Winterfell and the rest of the North? "The idea with the scene was we wanted to lay in the beginnings of the storyline where Sansa realizes what Arya is now," said co-showrunner D.B.Weiss. Benioff chimed in, "Sansa doesn't know much about where Arya's gone and what she's done since they last saw each other. This scene more than anything else tells her what she's been up to. The fact is, Brienne is a pretty legendary swordswoman, and it looks like Arya maybe beat her. Sansa's watching and isn't quite sure if Arya is holding back. Arya is really good at killing people. That's a bit worrisome."
Worrisome for who? Arya would never target her sister but she could very well end up killing a certain former Master of Coin, who's currently more valuable to the North alive than dead. Keeping someone like Littlefinger alive because he's useful is exactly the sort of thing the current Sansa would see value in. In contrast, the journey Arya's undergone to finally arrive back at Winterfell has created someone who would undo Littlefinger with no hesitation.