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Arya Stark is a fictional character in American author George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy novel series, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where she was portrayed by English actress Maisie Williams. She is a prominent point-of-view character in the novels with the third most viewpoint chapters (behind Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow), and is the only viewpoint character to have appeared in every published book of the series. In later-series POVs, her chapter titles have various names such as Cat of the Canals, The Blind Girl, The Ugly Little Girl and Mercy. Introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones, Arya is the third child and youngest daughter of Lord Ned Stark and his wife Lady Catelyn Stark. She is tomboyish, headstrong, feisty, independent, disdains traditional female pursuits, and is often mistaken for a boy. She wields a castle-forged steel smallsword named "Needle" forged by Mikken the blacksmith of Winterfell, as a parting gift from her half-brother Jon Snow, and is trained in the Braavosi style of sword fighting by Syrio Forel. Arya is among the most popular characters in the series. Williams' performance has received critical acclaim. Williams was twice nominated for a Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2016 and 2019. She and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Character Arya was born in 289 AC ("After (Aegon's) Conquest") as the third child and youngest daughter of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark of Winterfell, the ruling liege of the North, and is nine years old at the beginning of the book series and 11 in season 1 of the show. She has five siblings: an older brother Robb, an older sister Sansa, two younger brothers Bran and Rickon, and an older illegitimate half-brother, Jon Snow. Through her mother, she is also first cousin to Robert Arryn, the lord paramount of The Vale; and the niece of Edmure Tully, the lord paramount of the Riverlands. Arya is left-handed and talented in sums and housekeeping. In contrast to her older sister Sansa, who is more praised for favoring activities traditionally befitting a noblewoman, Arya shows no interest in the ladylike dancing, singing and sewing, and revels in outdoor activities and exploring, and is an excellent horserider. She is described as "wolf-blooded", blunt, impulsive and "always difficult to tame" by her mother Catelyn, proven to be a constant source of headache for her household tutor Septa Mordane, and given the nickname "Arya Underfoot" by the guards of Winterfell. Socially an outcast, she is particularly close to her bastard half-brother Jon Snow, who encourages her and gives her a smallsword as a parting gift. The sword, which Arya names "Needle" after her dreaded embroidery lessons, is well suited to her slender build and favoring the Braavosi "Water Dance" (fencing) style of swordplay which emphasizes speed and agility with quick thrusting attacks. Throughout her travels, Arya displays great resourcefulness and cunning and also becomes increasingly ruthless. Arya is the only one out of her full-siblings to inherit the Stark features of lean athletic physique, brown hair, grey eyes and long face (for which she was teased as "Horseface" by Sansa's companions), and is said to resemble her late aunt Lyanna in both looks and temperament. At the start of the series, she is prepubescent and generally regarded as messy and plain-looking, and often mistaken for a boy; but there are multiple instances in the books comparing her (favorably) to the famously beautiful Lyanna, and frequently catching the eyes of men (to the point of harassment) when her body starts to develop later in the series. She is also a powerful skinchanger, developing purely on her own instinct the ability to telepathically control her direwolf Nymeria when sleeping (even from a different continent), as well as a psychic bond with a street tomcat in Braavos. Storylines Novels A Game of Thrones Arya adopts one of the direwolf cubs that her brothers Robb and Jon discovered in the wild, and names her "Nymeria" after a legendary Rhoynish warrior queen. She travels with her father, Eddard, to King's Landing when he is made Hand of the King. Before she leaves, her half-brother Jon Snow has a Braavosi-style smallsword made for her as a parting gift, which she names "Needle" after her least favorite ladylike activity. While taking a walk together, Prince Joffrey and her sister Sansa happen upon Arya and her friend, the low-born butchers son Mycah, sparring in the woods with broomsticks. Arya defends Mycah from Joffrey's torments and her direwolf Nymeria helps Arya fight off Joffrey, wounding his arm in the process. Knowing that Nymeria will likely be killed in retribution, Arya chases her wolf away; but Sansa's direwolf Lady is killed in Nymeria's stead and Mycah is hunted down and killed by Sandor Clegane, Joffrey's bodyguard. In King's Landing, her father discovers Arya's possession of Needle, but instead of confiscating it he arranges for sword fighting lessons under the Braavosi swordmaster Syrio Forel, who teaches her the style of fighting known as "water dancing". After her father's arrest, Syrio is killed protecting her and Arya narrowly escapes capture. In her escape, she kills her first person, a stable hand who was going to turn her in to the queen, Cersei Lannister. She later witnesses the public execution of her father before falling under the protection of the Night's Watch recruiter Yoren. A Clash of Kings Arya escapes King's Landing with Yoren and his party of recruits where she pretends to be a boy named Arry; on the road, she clashes with the other Night's Watch child recruits Lommy, Gendry, and Hot Pie, but eventually befriends them. On the way, the party is attacked by Amory Lorch when Yoren refuses to yield Gendry, who is actually a bastard son of the late King Robert, to the Lannisters. The Night's Watch convoy is overrun and massacred, but Arya and the other children escape through a tunnel. Before escaping, she rescues three prisoners locked in a wagon cage, among them a mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar. Arya and her friends are later captured by Ser Gregor Clegane and taken to Harrenhal as slave laborers. After witnessing the torture and death of her fellow prisoners, Arya begins nightly reciting the names of the people upon whom she wishes to exact revenge. At Harrenhal she re-encounters Jaqen, now under the employ of the Lannisters, who offers to kill for her any three people she names; whereupon she names two people who hurt her at Harrenhal. When Jaqen asks her to name the last target, Arya extorts him to help her free northern prisoners by naming Jaqen himself as the third person. In order to get Arya to retract the name, Jaqen stages a massive prison riot that overwhelms the Lannister garr.... Discover the Alec Stark popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alec Stark books.