Benioff and Weiss Actually Improved This Part of ‘Game of Thrones’

The Big Picture

• Arya Stark’s arc as Tywin Lannister’s cupbearer in Harrenhal is exclusive to the Game of Thrones TV series and greatly adds depth to their characters.
• Arya’s interactions with Tywin provide unique insights into their motivations, with Tywin valuing family legacy and Arya finding validation in someone who recognizes her true self.
• Arya’s decision not to have Tywin killed by Jaqen H’ghar is better understood through her interactions with Tywin and her desire for recognition and respect.

The early seasons of Game of Thrones were really something to behold. There was an ever-expanding thread of great characters and great plotlines, and when some of those met, it was delightful to watch – although not necessarily the same for them, of course. It’s incredible how David Benioff and D.B. Weiss managed to have all that happening within the frame of a 10-episode season, given the complexity of the characters and their original book arcs. But there’s one unlikely meeting of characters that is special in that sense, because, while Game of Thrones is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, this one is exclusive to the TV series. We’re talking about Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) meeting and briefly working for Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance). This incredible arc happened in Season 2 and greatly improved both characters’ journeys in ways that the novels only wished they had.

Arya Stark Works as Tywin Lannister’s Cupbearer in Harrehal

The first two seasons of Game of Thrones adapt the first two books of A Song of Ice and Fire, – Season 1 adapts A Game of Thrones, and Season 2 adapts A Clash of Kings. In the latter, Arya has just left King’s Landing after the ruling House Lannister beheaded her father, Lord of Winterfell Eddard Stark (Sean Bean). In response, Arya’s oldest brother, Robb (Richard Madden), leads their homeland, the North, against the Lannisters and declares independence. Similar skirmishes were happening simultaneously in the Seven Kingdoms, and this general conflict became known as the War of the Five Kings. As part of the war, Lord Tywin Lannister, the head of House Lannister, takes the strategic castle of Harrenhal over from the Stark vassals of House Bolton.

When she meets Tywin, Arya is disguised as a commoner boy and is initially hoping to be taken to the Wall, where her bastard brother Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) is, but her group is raided by Lannister soldiers, and she ends up at Harrenhal just as Lord Tywin arrives. He immediately scolds the commanders in his army for keeping so many able-handed youths as prisoners and not having them work. He sends Gendry (Joe Dempsie) to work as a smith and immediately identifies Arya as being actually a girl, praising her for thinking of disguising herself as a boy and taking her to work as his cupbearer. Lord Tywin had no idea, but he’d recruited Arya Stark, who could’ve been the leverage he needed in his war against Robb Stark.

Over the following days, Arya works closely with Tywin, listening to his meetings and even hiding notes about Robb’s army. Although he doesn’t know who exactly Arya is, Tywin deduces from her speech, posture, and knowledge that she’s highborn, despite her cover story about being the daughter of a stonemason who served House Dustin of Barrowton. Their exchanges are filled with subtext, though, with Arya hiding some sharp commentary on her remarks to Lord Tywin, and him warming up to her as a sort of child figure. All that takes place while Arya is trying to keep her friends from being tortured and bullied by the Lannister soldiers, also learning from Jaqen H’ghar (Tom Wlaschiha) her first lessons in taking lives, and how this isn’t something to be done lightly.

Arya’s Interactions With Tywin Lannister Provide Unique Insight Into Both Characters

Shortly before arriving at Harrenhal, during the raid on her group carried out by Lannister soldiers, Arya rescued three prisoners from a cage that was about to be burnt in a fire. One of them was Jaqen H’ghar, who told her she had just stolen three deaths from Death herself, so now Arya’s in debt. To pay that debt, Jaqen offers to kill three people for her in Harrenhal, and, when he does, everyone in the audience immediately thinks that Arya should use one of those to have Tywin Lannister killed. Harrenhal is seen as a haunted castle and many Lords have died there before, so it wouldn’t be something that is out of the ordinary. But she only names two soldiers who were threatening her and her friends and uses the last name to get Jaqen to help them escape from Harrenhal.

This happens in both A Clash of Kings and Game of Thrones Season 2, but the change made by the series regarding Arya and Tywin’s relationship during their brief stay at Harrenhal gives us much more reason to understand Arya’s choice in not having Tywin killed at that moment. There are two key moments in this arc that show us what’s behind her decision. In the first, Arya finds a letter talking about Robb, which she thinks of hiding just when Tywin shows up. He’s surprised that a girl like her can read and tells her about when he taught his own son, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to read. Then, Tywin asks Arya about her father. She says he was a stonemason who’d taught himself how to read and who was killed by “loyalty.” She then asks Lord Tywin if he’d ever known his father, and he answers that he did. In fact, he saw Lord Tytos Lannister grow old and almost ruin the Lannister name. A few scenes earlier, we saw Lord Tywin send a cousin of his, Reginald Lannister (Patrick Fitzsymons), back home to Lannisport for being a lousy counselor and say that, if Reginald’s name weren’t Lannister, he would’ve been scrubbing the floor. It’s when we understand that Tywin is all about preserving his family and their position of power in Westeros.

This takes us to the second moment when Tywin tells Arya about the notion of legacy. He talks at length about how the War of the Five Kings will be his last war, and Arya seems like she’s considering putting a knife on Tywin’s back when he turns and asks her if she knows what “legacy” means. “It’s what you pass down to your children. And your children’s children. It’s what remains of you when you’re gone.” When he says that, it’s like a whole flashback happens in Arya’s and the audience’s minds of how she was brought up by her actual father, Ned Stark. Like Tywin, Ned was also all about family, but he’d never approve of someone close to him, especially his own daughter, killing a person that way, even an enemy like Lord Tywin.

Arya’s Arc With Tywin Lannister Explains Why She Didn’t Have Him Killed by Jaqen H’ghar

All this is exclusive to Game of Thrones, though. In A Clash of Kings, the same period of time is narrated in a much different way, and she never interacts with Tywin Lannister at all. Instead, Arya observes how the Lannister army works under Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane’s (then portrayed by Ian Whyte) orders, with vassal houses and sellswords alike, including Vargo Hoat’s Brave Companions mercenary company. She also spends more time with her friends and Jaqen H’ghar himself and even realizes she should’ve indeed named Tywin to be killed. Instead of Tywin, she becomes Roose Bolton’s (Michael McElhatton) cupbearer after the Lannisters leave Harrenhal, but that’s not even a fraction as good as her stint as Tywin’s cupbearer in Game of Thrones (let’s face it, Roose Bolton is the worst).

What makes these scenes so enticing is how, deep down, Arya and Tywin have a sort of respect for one another. From the moment they meet, Tywin takes a liking to her for being what none of his children are — and let’s remember that he never thinks of Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) in that mix, which is terrible. Tywin mentions frequently how smart and sharp Arya is, and how “he enjoys” her. Of course, he knows she’s noble-born, but he respects her too much to take advantage of that and also knows that he probably wouldn’t get anything from her anyway.

That’s basically what saved Tywin’s life in Harrenhal. He is unaware that Arya is a lot more dangerous than she lets on, but, now, her not naming him to be killed by Jaqen H’ghar makes a lot more sense. For her, having her praises sung by Tywin Lannister is quite an achievement. She’s always been the child who didn’t fit, the girl who wasn’t girly enough. When someone recognizes her traits as valid, regardless of her being a girl, that’s something she only got from Jon Snow and a little from her father. It doesn’t matter if Tywin is the Lord of the enemy family, he admires Arya for what she is. That counts a lot for someone growing up, especially someone who never fits anywhere.

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