Arya’s Kill List: Who Has She Killed and Who’s Left on Game of Thrones?

A girl has a list. 

Arya Stark has been through quite a lot on Game of Thrones. Roughly half of her family has been killed in the grim, medieval world of Westeros. But Arya Stark is not just any other girl. She is No One. Trained by the Faceless Men of Braavos, Arya is a finely tuned killing machine. We saw just how finely tuned in the climactic Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3 “The Long Night.” 

read more – Game of Thrones Season 8: Arya Stark is No Mary Sue

The bad news for everyone that’s wronged Arya is that she keeps a kill list… a list of the eyes she still needs to close. Here is everybody on Arya’s kill list that have seen the Many-Faced God and everyone still left to go.

Ser Meryn Trant

Crimes: Meryn Trant, a member of Joffrey Baratheon’s Kingsguard, had the tremendous misfortune of being the one to kill Arya Stark’s “dancing” teacher, Syrio Forel. That’ll getcha on the list.

Status: Dead. Arya killed him in a Braavosi brothel. Posing as a courtesan, Arya stabs him in the eyes and chest before slitting his throat.

Tywin Lannister

Crimes: Oh man. All of them. As the head of House Lannsiter, Tywin was personally responsible for pretty much every bit of misfortune that befell Arya’s family. Arya wasn’t even aware of his role in setting up the Red Wedding but he was still a marked man for his role in killing Ned Stark and for riding against Robb in battle.

Status: Dead. Tywin Lannister was killed by a crossbow bolt fired not by Arya, but by his own son Tyrion. Adding insult to injury, Tywin was slain while upon a different kind of throne.

Rorge

Crimes: Rorge is a monster of a man, forcibly recruited into the Night’s Watch. Upon meeting Arya (disguised as Arry) in season 2, he threatens to violently rape her/him. He later joins the Lannister army.

Status: Dead. Arya and the Hound come across Rorge and his buddy Biter at an Inn on their travels. Arya remembers him but says she cannot kill him because she doesn’t know his name. Rorge, for some reason, tells her and she promptly plunges Needle into his chest.

Joffrey Baratheon

Crimes: Joffrey Baratheon is the worst and his crimes are legion. Specifically for Arya, however, Joffrey finds his way onto the Kill List for ordering the execution of her father Ned Stark.

Status: Dead. Joffrey is killed at his own wedding via poison, which comes to be known as “The Purple Wedding.” While Tyrion is naturally accused of the crime, it is really Olenna Tyrell who poisoned Joffrey while in league with Littlefinger, as she later reveals.

Polliver

Crimes: Polliver, a Lannister soldier, kills Arya’s friend, Lommy and steals Needle. Those are both big no-no’s.

Status: Dead. Arya had the pleasure of killing this one herself. She does so during the same Inn confrontation in which she and the Hound discover Rorge. Arya slowly plunges Needle into Polliver’s neck, mirroring her friend Lommy’s manner of execution.

The Tickler

Crimes: Torturing smallfolk to death indiscriminately at Harrenhal, including almost killing Gendry.

Status: Dead. Arya used one of her three “wishes” of kills from Jaqen H’ghar to punch this dude’s ticket via one very nasty Harrenhal fall. Or maybe it was a ghost?

Walder Frey

Crimes: Walder Frey is both the mastermind and host of the Red Wedding, in which Arya’s mother, brother, and a whole host of Stark soldiers are killed. 

Status: Dead. Arya uses her Faceless Men training to infiltrate the Twins. She serves Walder a delicious pie containing some of his family members and then slits the old man’s throat. Later she takes Walder’s face and uses it to kill virtually the rest of the Freys with poisioned wine.

The Hound

Crimes: At the orders of King Robert I, the Hound kills Arya’s friend Mycah. The butcher’s boy’s crimes were bothering Joffrey Baratheon.

Status: Alive. Though Arya has never explicity confirmed it, the Hound is now likely off of her list as he’s become a Stark ally in the war against Cersei and the White Walkers.

Melisandre

Crimes: Melisandre took Arya’s beloved Gendry away. 

read more – Game of Thrones Season 8: Why Did Melisandre Return?

Status: Dead. But also off the list, now that Gendry was returned safely.

Beric Dondarrion

Crimes: Complicit in Gendry’s abduction.

Status: Dead. Killed by wights in the Battle of Winterfell, all while saving Arya no less. Arya had removed him from the list prior to that though.

Thoros of Myr

Crimes: Complicit in Gendry’s abduction.

Status: Dead. Killed by wights north of the Wall. He had also been removed from the list, or at least was not mentioned in Arya’s nightly prayer.

Ser Ilyn Payne

Crimes: Ser Ilyn Payne is the king’s justice, a.k.a. the realm’s executioner. It was his hand that guided Ice to chop off Ned Stark’s head.

Status: Complicated. Wilko Johnson, the actor who portrayed Ilyn Payne, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012 and given months to live. Miraculously Johnson survived! In the context of Game of Thrones, however, his character was all but written out of the show’s history. Arya ceased to mention him on her list anymore, presumably out of respect for the actor. Perhaps Arya has removed him from the list given that it was Joffrey’s decision to execute Ned and Ilyn was little more than Joffrey’s right arm in the act. It’s unknown what became of Ser Ilyn since then.

The Mountain

Crimes: Violent lapdog of the Lannisters, the Mountain has terrorized the realm for years. His Arya-specific crimes, however, include leading the torture of all the Riverlanders at Harrenhal.

Status: Complicated. Ser Gregor Clegane was actually killed by the slow-acting poision on Oberyn Martell’s spear during Tyrion’s trial by combat. He was brought back as something decidedly less-than-human via Qyburn’s vile experiments. 

Cersei Lannister

Crimes: Cersei is the big one. She’s “the Queen” on Arya’s list and might as well be known as “The Queen of Misery.” Alongside her father, Tywin, Cersei has been the author of all the Stark’s pain, going all the way back to the murder of the direwolf pup Lady in season 1. Cersei is the big closer on Arya’s list and with good reason.

read more – Game of Thrones Season 8: What’s Next for Cersei Lannister?

Status: Alive. But hopefully not for long.

Ary’s List in the Books

In the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series, Arya’s list differs a litlte bit. Here is who is on that list and their current fate through five books:

– King Joffrey I Baratheon – Dead

– Chiswyck – Dead

– Ser Gregor Clegane – Dead (kind of)

– Sandor Clegane – Dead (presumed)

– Dunsen – Alive

– Queen Cersei Lannister – Alive

– Ser Amory Lorch – Dead

– Ser Ilyn Payne – Alive

– Polliver – Dead

– Raff the Sweetling – Dead

– The Tickler – Dead

– Ser Meryn Trant – Alive

– Weese – Dead

Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad