4 theories about Arya and the white horse on Game of Thrones

With Arya mounting that majestic white horse, fans have been wondering what it means for her end game.

“The Bells” angered the Game of Thrones fan base, but season 8 episode 5 left us with some haunting images. That includes Arya’s rise from the ashes of King’s Landing. Testament to Miguel’s Sapochnik’s skillful directing, he concluded this chapter of an apocalyptic destruction of the capital with visually stunning impressions replete with symbolism.

It’s a shame the storytelling did not match the beautifully conceived directing. The battle sequences were awe-inspiring, and the nihilism felt by the incinerated citizens represented some of the most harrowing images to come out of a show that has already taken viewers to a very dark place. But perhaps the most haunting image was Arya emerging from the hellish landscape and discovering that majestic white horse. Both Arya and the white horse wore the blood-spattered evidence of the genocidal carnage they had just witnessed.

An unforeseen death we never noticed

I’d say they also survived, but some fans are reading into the white horse. Many have noted the horse looked like the one ridden by Harry Strickland at the beginning of the episode, which was definitely destroyed once Daenerys cremated the Golden Company from behind. The ghostly dust of ash surrounded Arya as she discovered the phantasmic pale horse, reminiscent of the nuclear winter in The Road. After slowly stroking the spectre, she ascended him to ride off somewhere. If this theory is to be believed, this scene plays out that Arya has risen up from the landscape of death all around her and the pale horse. She is now journeying to the land of the dead, leaving the wreckage behind her.

Of course, the white horse could also foreshadow Arya’s death in the final episode.

Death personified

What about the green eyes she was prophesied to shut forever, by Melisandre? Since S3, we’ve always assumed this projected death belonged to the hated Cersei, who’s been on Arya’s famous list since the beginning. But after Daenerys’s about-face transition to mad queen, Dany is likely the new target for the Faceless Man-trained assassin. We know Arya is a death dealer, having delivered some of the most consummate retributions on the show (Walder Frey, the Night King). So that means the white horse clearly symbolizes Death, right? As described in the Apocalypse prophesy in the New Testatment of the Bible, Books of Revelation 6: 1-8:

"“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”"

Her new mission is likely to take out the dragon queen who wreaked so much wholesale slaughter in “The Bells.” Perhaps she will take out Grey Worm– who delivered the first lance blow to the Lannister soldiers who had just surrendered. Maybe she will take his face? Or perhaps GoT has more surprises to come: could she appear as Khal Drogo? Jaime Lannister? There are more shocks approaching, surely.

Conqueror of King’s Landing

Not so fast. Arya was riding a white horse, and the Bible says Death rides a pale horse. According to the Book of Revelation, the population of the earth will be decimated by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The first rider–symbolizing Conquest, or Pestilence, or the Antichrist– wields a bow (a preferred weapon of Arya’s as well) and rides a white horse. “It’s rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”

Is Arya in King’s Landing to conquer the throne itself? Will the young Stark be the one to ascend the Iron Throne instead of the more predictable options of Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen or Sansa Stark? Probably not, given Arya’s character. She’s an executioner, not a ruler. However, given the creators’ penchant for shock value, you never know.

During the Roman Civilization, horses were aligned with the god of Mars, exemplifying war. One of the pictures from the final shows Arya among the Unsullied soldiers. Arya will continue to factor in the war for the throne, there’s no doubt.

A “girl has no name”

One of the refreshing surprises this season– and one that worked, I’ll add– was Arya’s tryst with Ghendry, which was both believably built up to (from seasons ago). However, true to her character, she told Ghendry after he proposed (as the newly made Lord Baratheon), that “she was no lady.” Sitting up in a castle was never going to be “the girl with no name,” whose adventurous and fearless spirit would be stifled in such an environment.

Horses have symbolized freedom throughout history, and Ayra certainly shares this trait. She’s survived so much, starting with the (assumed) death of her first mentor, Syrio Florel, to the beheading of her noble father Eddard Stark, to the sacking of Winterfell and extermination of half of her family. She has been on the road to revenge ever since, nightly chanting her list of kills. However, it took another speudo-father figure, Sandor Clegane, to impart these words of wisdom against trying to assassinate Cersei.

"The Hound: “Go home, girl. The fire will get her, or one of the Dothraki, or maybe that dragon will eat her. It doesn’t matter. She’s dead, and you’ll be dead too if you don’t get out of here.”Arya: “I’m going to kill her.”The Hound: “You think you wanted revenge a long time? I’ve been after it all my life. It’s all I care about, and look at me. Look at me! You wanna be like me? You come with me, you die here.”Arya: “Thank you, Sandor”"

And just like that, she turned away from the path that has inspired most of her story arc, and instead transitioned to one of heroic action, trying to save lives, rather than take them.

Perhaps “when the hurly-burly’s done / When the battle’s lost and won” (Shakespeare: Macbeth) in King’s Landing, the adventurous “no one” will ride her horse into unknown territory. She will leave all this pain and carnage behind and travel throughout Westeros.

When she’s asked if she would like to deal out more death, perhaps she will echo Floriel’s words:

“Not today.”

The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones airs on HBO May 19 at 9 p.m. EST.