Portrayed by Maisie Williams

Status: Alive

Age: 18 (in her final season)

Date of Birth : 287 AC

Origin: Winterfell

Episode Appearances: 59

First Seen: ‘Winter Is Coming’

Last Seen: ‘The Iron Throne’

BACKGROUND

Eleven-year-old Arya Stark is the youngest daughter and third child of Lady Catelyn Stark and Lord Eddard Stark, the ruling liege of the North. She was born and raised at Winterfell. Arya has an older sister, thirteen-year-old Sansa, an older brother, seventeen-year-old Robb, two younger brothers, ten-year-old Bran and six-year-old Rickon Stark. Her closest relationship is with her half-brother, Eddard’s seventeen-year-old illegitimate son, Jon Snow.

Despite her young age, a convicted Arya rejects the notion that she must become a lady and marry for influence and power. Instead, she believes that she can forge her own destiny, which lends itself to her fascination with warfare and training in the use of arms. Arya is easily bored by embroidery and other "lady-like" pursuits. She instead takes after her father Eddard and has a quarrelsome relationship with her sister Sansa, due to their contrasting interests and personalities. As Arya is closest to her bastard half-brother Jon Snow, they both share the feeling of being somewhat of an outsider.

Arya is left-handed, talented in sums and housekeeping, and is excellent at horse-riding. In contrast to her more praised older sister Sansa, who favors activities traditionally befitting a noblewoman and expresses disdain for outdoor activities, Arya shows no interest in dancing, singing and sewing, and revels in fighting and exploring, much to the chagrin of her mother and household tutor Septa Mordane. She is described as "wolf-blooded," blunt, impulsive and "always difficult to tame" by her mother Catelyn. She was given the nickname "Arya Underfoot" by several of the guards of Winterfell.

Arya is the only one out of her full-siblings to inherit the Stark features of athletic physique, long face, grey eyes and brown hair, and is said to resemble her late aunt Lyanna Stark in both looks and temperament. As a fiercely independent girl, she is unconstrained by social expectations like gender roles, courtly virtues and class distinctions.