Spoilers for Game of Thrones season eight, episode four. Well, we're in the great game now, to quote Tyrion. Game of Thrones episode three really, really delivered on an epic battle with the undead Night King and his army of wights. There was even a surprise twist, which is now typical for the show—a.k.a. our little spunky badass Arya swooped in (literally) and saved the day by plunging her Valyrian steel dagger into the Night King's heart. Now, it's time for the final season's real big bad: Queen Cersei, who's looking awfully smug in the episode four trailer. Who will finally conquer Game of Thrones' Mad Queen?
But let's back up a second to the red priestess Melisandre (RIP) and her pep talk/hint at Arya's destiny in episode three, because fans think it might be a hint that there's more badassery to come from our favorite Stark warrior. Essentially, Melisandre reminds Arya what she'd told her in season 3—that Arya would close green, brown, and blue eyes forever by killing a whole bunch of people. In last night's episode, Melisandre put emphasis ever so slightly on the blue eyes part, reminding Arya that—oh wait, the Night King totally has blue eyes and he's coming for my brother, BRB, gotta go save him and the rest of mankind. Seriously, I cheered so hard at that scene that I might have alarmed my neighbors.
But fans are also pretty certain that there's more to come from our little assassin—mainly, that it's a hint that we're getting a Cersei-Arya faceoff, terrible pun intended.
Now, this might initially seem to contradict Cersei's Valonqar prophecy, which, if you're not familiar, was part of the witch's prophecy about Cersei insinuating that "a little brother" would murder her. The most obvious candidates would be Tyrion or Jaime, both of whom are still alive. There's another theory out there that she'll die in childbirth. But now fans think that Arya will take Jaime's face and use it to impersonate him and finally kill the Mad Queen for good, which would keep the Valonqar prophecy intact. It would also give more credence to the theory that Arya is legendary warrior and "princess that was promised" Azor Ahai.
I find this theory to be kiiiiind of plausible? Arya absolutely has a role to play in the rest of season 8, and there's a reason she (and a lot of other characters) have survived this long—it's "plot armor" in the sense that the main characters have to stay alive in order to continue on to the big battle with Cersei, during which I predict we'll see more main character deaths. I don't think Arya will just randomly take off Jaime's face, considering he just fought bravely alongside her family to try and defeat the Night King? But, if Jaime dies in other circumstances, like in battle, it would mean she could steal his face without killing him.
Either way, I wouldn't doubt that there's going to be a cool "face-off" moment during which Arya pulls a bait-and-switch for an important plot point. Arya killing Cersei would be very similar to Arya killing the Night King, so I doubt it would be that straightforward—after all, George R.R. Martin and the show creators don't like to repeat themselves—but I'm betting she's involved somehow. And it's going to be super exciting.
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