Arya Stark: everything you need to know about the feisty Game of Thrones star

Through seven truly traumatic seasons of Westerosi warfare, no-one has had to adapt quite as fast or as frequently as Arya Stark.

The tiny teenager seemed to spend mere moments as a child before becoming a water dancer, massacre escapist, Hound-in-training, Faceless Woman and malificent assassin. With many identities in between - literally.

As we approach the start of Game of Thronesseason 8, here's a quick need-to-know guide on the feistiest young Stark, Arya.

Who is Arya Stark?

Everyone's favourite Needle-wielding Stark sister - the third child of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn - has had a pretty rough ride. If seeing her father beheaded wasn't enough, Arya goes on to arrive at the Red Wedding right after her mother, brother and sister-in-law had been brutally murdered. Outside, she sees Robb's direwolf is killed and its head sewn onto her dead brother's body, paraded around by Lannister/Frey savages.

Fleeing her family's slaughter, Arya finds herself on the island of Braavos and begins to train as a Faceless Man at the House of Black and White.

In the following months she becomes blind, loses a significant number of stick fights, gets miraculously cured of blindless some well water, fails to kill actress Lady Crane when her conscience gets in the way, and enters a killer cat-and-mouse game with The Waif.

Around this time, there is something entirely traumatic and unnerving about Arya. She has a childlike dependence on Needle (a slight sword gifted by her 'bastard' brother Jon Snow), but uses it to trick and kill her adversary.

Using valuable - albeit deadly- skills from the assassin's guild, she then turns to Westeros to don disguises and avenge the deaths of her family. Most notably, perhaps, by serving Walder Frey a pie filled with his family's body parts before slitting his throat - all while face-swapped as a serving girl.

As a young girl becoming a woman, Arya is a breath of fresh air to Westerosi ideals - she is unconstrained by social expectations like gender roles and class distinctions, fiercely opposing the norm at every opportunity.

Though her cold-blooded kill list appears to have no room for error, Arya also still doesn't seem completely detatched from her Stark-built morality. When finding out her family gained control of Winterfell, she abandoned her list to be at their side. Of course, these final eight episodes could change everything...

Who is Maisie Williams who plays her?

Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams was born in Bristol on April 15, 1997 and her home village is Clutton, in nearby Somerset. She has always been known as "Maisie" after the character from the comic strip The Perishers.

Interestingly, Williams has not read the Game Of Thrones books and has no intention to. As the TV adaptation omits a large amount of material,  she wanted to avoid basing her reactions or character on points which only exist in the books.

Nonetheless, Arya is left-handed in the books so Williams plays her thus, despite being right-handed herself.

On May 11th, 2017 it was announced that Williams will be playing Wolfsbane - a mutant with the power to turn into a werewolf  - in the next installment in the X-Men movie franchise, New Mutants.

Williams joins her on-screen sister Sophie Turner (Sansa) in the X-Men universe, after Turner was cast as young Jean Grey (a telepath) in X-Men: Apocalypse.

What's happened to Arya so far in Game of Thrones?

Season 1

Young Arya was more interested in learning swordplay than needlework, so her father Eddard arranged lessons with a Braavosi sword-master and her half-brother Jon Snow gave her a blade she named “Needle”. Fleeing Lannister assassins, Arya was on hand to witness the execution of her father by Joffrey Lannister. She headed north to seek refuge with Jon.

Season 2

Incognito, Arya was captured by Lannister men. In the process she rescued a mysterious convict called Jaqen H’ghar, whose assassination skills ultimately enabled her to escape from the Lannister stronghold. He offered to take her to Braavos and teach her to kill like him.

Season 3

Running from outlaws, Arya fell in with Lannister deserter Sandor “The Hound” Clegane. They attempted to reunite Arya with her mother Catelyn and brother Robb, but arrived just as the Starks were betrayed and murdered by houses Frey and Bolton on behalf of the Lannisters.

Season 4

The Hound and Arya formed an uneasy travelling partnership. Distrustful, Arya hid from would-be rescuers. Refusing to kill a wounded Hound, she took his money and headed by boat to Braavos.

Season 5

On the island of Braavos, Arya attempted to learn the assassination skills of the Faceless Men. Unable to let go of thoughts of vengeance, she killed a stray Lannister visitor and was punished for it.

Season 6

Arya fought her way out of Braavos through the Faceless Men. She returned to Westeros and began to work her way through her kill list.

Season 7

After nabbing the face of Walder Frey, Arya hosts a feast for the men of House Frey and kills the lot with poisoned wine. Though she initially sets off to kill Cersei in King's Landing, news that her family regained control of Winterfell sends her towards her ancestral home. On the way, she runs into a wolf pack led by Nymeria, her long-lost direwolf, and Brienne - the Stark-serving warrior. Whilst sparring, the tiny Stark amanges to rival the fight of Brienne.

After Littlefinger tries to turn the reuinted Stark sisters against each other in Winterfell, Bran's greenseeing proves his manipulative guilt and sends him into a trial of treason and murder, ending in Arya cutting his throat.

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