Dramatic feint.
D&D have become renowned for pulling the rug from under the viewer - or at least their show has become synonymous with this trope because the books are full of them. But the watercooler culture that D&D have become used to still, apparently, needs to be endlessly maintained. Keep your characters in jeopardy, keep the viewer shocked and wanting more. And that is what Arya's injury was. It was, however, also the tackiest and laziest version I have seen on the show thus far.
Arya has been shown to be a clever, resourceful girl and, given the cult nature of the Faceless Men, when she abandoned them, there was no way she wasn't going to be hunted down. So to flaunt around town, throwing gold around was tripe, and a plot device to help give herself away to The Waif. Which could have been fine, if used properly. Receiving a major stomach injury now appears to only double down on the stupidity of the writing as, in the end, it offered nothing story wise - Arya was still able to leap, fall, tumble and fight, even though at the end of The Broken Man she was punctured, doubled over and crawling for her life. They could have played the "she killed my new friend, I will avenge her" angle, with the death of the actress she admired so much. Nope, let's parkour her around Braavos like Spiderman, even though she had a massive internal bleed.
I am well aware of standard TV tropes where characters rebound within minutes to allow them to perform the superhuman, or even just "the normal", but that doesn't stop me rolling my eyes every freaking time, and in this case, actively, endlessly tutting at the screen. Just because it is a Trope, doesn't mean it should ever be there. It only means the writers couldn't think of another idea, so gave in to the rote.
The entire section could have run - Arya tries to draw out The Waif, her "over-confidence" gets the better of her, runs and jumps into the river. Arya "hides" away, still tracked down by The Waif and her cyberdyne geo-locating software, Arya "flees" to trap the pair in the cave she secreted Needle in and, whoosh, out goes the candle. Simple, plays up the fact that Arya has become smarter and more cunning thanks to her training, bringing the advantage back to her side by concluding it all in the dark. Didn't need two seasons to get there, but the arc is complete, Arya can hang The Waif's face on the wall, knowing who she is and return to Westeros a warrior for the coming tribulations.
But the producers needed their "character in dire straits" cliffhanger, so they had her stabbed. Which makes the rest of the chase/fight just laughable (regardless of how well it was choreographed and shot).
This has been three episodes in a row where I have finished the 60 minutes with a "meh". There was plenty to enjoy in the episode (Cleganes, Thoros/Berric return/Jamie's singular focus) but much of it was closer to standard, generic ABC/CBS TV storytelling, which I typically try to avoid like the plague.
With all of the plates currently up in the air, I have no doubt that episodes 9/10 will be big, furious episodes of conflict and "drama", but how we have got here hasn't really done much for me and my favourite characters (Arya and Tyrion) have felt utterly wasted over the past two seasons.
Hugo - Also shit at dying
