Game of Thrones Season 6 Discussion [SPOILERS WITHIN]

[Aegon]

Really though,  Arya's plot this season was fucking terrible   just bad writing

Meh, I don't think so.  Everyone knew that she was always Arya Stark and was never going to become 'No one.'  Now she's got the skills of a real deadly assassin, has her sword, and is rededicated to the Stark name.  

There was one or two things that irked me though, and I suspect it's just a case of the show being so much more crunched for time than the books.  1) When the waif ambushed her, she didn't have Needle.  I'm not even that upset that she seemed a little careless; she had just booked passage home and took literally 5 seconds to look at the sunset.  But she wouldn't go anywhere without Needle, it's a part of her, and it's her protection.  
2) This is the biggest one.  She magically heals two stab wounds to the stomach in what seems like a few days, and is then parkouring away from the T1000 waif-inator.  Again, this is much harder to do in the show than the books, because in the books you can just say like "weeks passed..."  but in the show we have to see everything.  it was a little jarring, certainly.


But "fucking terrible" and "bad writing"?  I disagree strongly.  The theater troupe was great, especially as it rekindled her Stark-ness when she saw her family in the play.  Also, Lady Crane and the dwarf in the troupe were really funny.  There were those two hangups that I mentioned (one larger than the other), but calling it "fucking terrible" is a bit of an overreaction.

The biggest problem is with the show's concept of the Faceless Men and the House of Black and White. Jaqen has put it in the viewers' heads that a true Faceless Man is "no one," with no past, no identity, only existing to serve the Many-Faced Gods and pay the debts of death. It is implied in the show (and clearly noted in the novels) that the Waif is a FM herself. Not a trainee like Arya, but someone who has been serving the House of Black and White for some time. Yet, she's the worst FM ever, if we go by what the show has led us to believe the FM are like. The Waif clearly holds a personal grudge against Arya, she asks to personally assassinate Arya, and she tries to kill her in a painful manner which Jaqen told her not to do. That's "no one"? And yeah, you could argue that that was the point; the Waif wasn't truly a FM and being defeated by Arya was sort of the Waif's final test, which she failed. But when Arya, who clearly is exactly the same despite being able to kill the bitch, comes back Jaqen praises her and acts like she passed the tests and now she's suddenly "no one", with no past, no identity, only existing to serve the Many-Faced God. Like, what? This goes against everything we've come to know about the Faceless Men, show and book.

The two things you mentioned were also an even bigger deal IMO. Do you know why there were so many theories about how Arya from Ep. 7 may not be the real Arya, or Arya set it all up, etc. etc? Because otherwise what you're left with is really, really shit writing. Walking around out in the open with no protection making a scene for any FM around by buying a voyage home with a shit ton of cash (using her right hand, despite being left-handed), then taking a little stroll....and then not thinking it was suspicious when an old lady got mad close to her even though she's been training for god knows how long and should know not to trust anyone since the FM can take anybody's face...it was just ridiculous. Out of character, and the scene was only written that way for the viewer to be shocked when the Waif shanked her. There was no logic beyond that.

The story definitely had its shining moments, but with a conclusion this bad (IMO) I can't truly be satisfied by most of it. In the end it just felt like a way for Arya to pass the time while other characters actually did shit.