Ed Sheeran Serenades Arya Stark in His 'Game of Thrones' Cameo

He got a LOT of screen time.

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(Image credit: HBO)

We didn't have to wait long for Ed Sheeran's highly-anticipated Game of Thrones cameo. The singer appeared in an entire scene in tonight's premiere.

Sheeran shared the screen with Arya Stark, which is something we've known for a while—showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said they gave him a role on the show for Maisie Williams, who plays Arya.

In the scene, Arya comes across a group of Lannister soldiers who are all harmonizing together around a campfire, you know, as soldiers do. As promised, Arya's first words to onscreen Ed were, "Oh, that's a nice song."

The scene itself is actually worthwhile—the Lannister soldiers are all very nice to Arya, sharing their roasted squirrel and homemade wine with her and generally respecting her as a human being, which is a nice change of pace for the treatment of a woman in Westeros. It humanizes the Lannister army for Arya, who had fallen deep down a revenge spiral and was ready to basically obliterate anyone with a Lion on their sigil.

The scene was also overshadowed by the ginger elephant in the room, however. It's impossible to watch the moment and think much other than, "Wow, that is Ed Sheeran, sitting in Westeros. Ed freaking Sheeran got to be in an episode of Game of Thrones. And not in a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. In a blink-several-times-and-he's-STILL-there-speaking-multiple-lines-of-dialogue cameo. Wow. Oh, also Arya and some potentially important character development...nope, still thinking about Ed Sheeran."

Also, when we leave Arya, she's still with Ed Lannister, so this could be a MULTI-EPISODE ARC, people. Probably (okay, hopefully) not—but it's possible.

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Kayleigh Roberts
Contributing Editor at Marie Claire

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.