Arya Stark

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 HBO 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 character to have a viewpoint chapter in every published book of the series, with her chapters having various alternative titles such as "Cat of the Canals", "The Blind Girl", "The Ugly Little Girl" and "Mercy" from the fourth book onwards.

Introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones, Arya is the third child and youngest daughter of Lord Eddard 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.