Arya Stark’s final scene with Jaqen H’ghar left many fans puzzled, and, of course, it spawned a ton of theories about why he let her leave in the first place. However, perhaps we do not need to dwell that deep into a scene-by-scene analysis of Arya’s final moments in the House of Black and White. The answer is was given to us in season 2, when Jaqen H’ghar told Arya that he knew about her hit list and would be happy to train her in the ways of the Faceless Men so that she could achieve her goal. He also lets her go because he believes her training to be complete. With his initial promise of helping Arya learn to kill the people on her list, Jaqen H’ghar had always intended for Arya to eventually leave.
But as is the case with all things GoT, the answer is rarely that simple. To know why Jaqen H’ghar let Arya leave, we need piece together a bunch of different threads of her story.
Learning the art of balance
Jaqen H’ghar teaches Arya the art of balance – a crucial lesson that she already intuitively gravitates towards. After all, what is balance but a form of justice – something that Arya seeks so desperately? As Arya has saved three lives, she owes the Red God three in return. She names The Tickler and Ser Amory. When this arouses suspicious amongst the Lannisters, she asks Jaqen to her her escape but he refuses, mainly because this has nothing to do with their agreement. She then names her third name – Jaqen H’ghar and promises to take the name back if he helps her and her friends escape, which he does.
Learning how to extract knowledge
The next time Arya sees Jaqen H’ghar, she has been through horrifying circumstances. She has seen her family get slaughtered at Walder Frey’s castle, has deserted the Hound, leaving him to die, and has learnt to survive in the wild. At this point, she is perfectly primed by trauma to undertake more disciplined forms of training, which is what Jaqen H’ghar offers her. By asking her to learn three new things every day, he teaches her the power of knowledge and analysis. By pairing her with the waif, he teaches her how to fight with stronger enemies. Also, by making her clean corpses, he also teaches her to respect the dead. As a part of her training, he also takes away her eyesight and teaches her to rely on her other senses (to be fair, while this is presented as a punishment in the show, this is a legitimate part of the training that all Faceless Men go through).
Learning Self Awareness – The final lesson to freedom?
Arya, unlike other acolytes, has already been learning the ways of death throughout her journey. This is why her training period can actually be shorter than others learning the same arts. At the House of Black and White, what she needs to catch up on is how to become No One. The process of becoming no one means being able to exercise restraint and discipline, not becoming a blank wall. This is because assassins ruled by passion and anger are the ones who often get caught, while those who wait and calculate their moves are often the ones who succeed. Moreover, Jaqen has demonstrated throughout the show that Faceless Men are allowed to make choices. He chooses to help Arya, to leave the Lannister Army and to give her the coin that helps her come to Braavos. He also chooses whether or not to teach her. This shows that members of the Faceless Men do not completely give up their motives.
When Arya is given her first assignment, she fails to kill the target and kills Meryn Trent instead, a member of her Hit List. This shows that she still lacks the discipline to follow through on orders and cannot be considered an effective assassin. She also disfigures his face, which shows how she still lets her anger rule her and does not respect the dead. As a consequence, Jaqen takes away Arya’s eyesight and lets her fill in the shoes of a blind beggar on the streets. During this time, the waif tortures Arya daily. Jaqen finally allows her to get her eyesight back when she stands up to the waif and defeats her in combat in spite of being blind. He offers her a second assignment to kill a mummer named Lady Crane and when Arya stops the assassination, he considers her a failure. Witnessing this, the waif asks for the opportunity to kill Arya to make up for the name owed to the Many Faced God. Combat ensues, and Arya emerges victorious. She presents the waif’s face to Jaqen H’ghar, nullifying her debt.
By doing so, she shows that she has learnt all essential arts to become an assassin. She allows the waif to believe she is weak, lures her to a cave where she has hidden Needle, and assassinates her in the dark. Then, instead of running away, she returns to the House of Black and White, and restores balance.
By calling Arya No One, Jaqen acknowledges that she has become one of the Faceless Men. Arya then calls herself Arya Stark of Winterfell and states she is going home – an acknowledgment of herself and her mission. While many fans believe that this is actually the waif who is donning the mask of Arya and heading to Winterfell, it does not make sense for her to carry out Arya’s mission. Unless Euron, during his visit to the Iron Bank, gave the Faceless Men the name of someone who is currently at Winterfell.
However, that seems a little too convoluted. It makes more sense for Arya’s victory to be about self-acceptance as her character has been on a continual journey of living in disguise and denial. Every aspect of Arya’s training has been accompanied with Jaqen telling her that her ordeals will be over if she says her name. Though everyone has been interpreting this as a threat to end the training, what if the acknowledgment of who she is was actually the end game?
