{"id":438,"date":"2018-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/china.chinaacheru.com\/wp\/2018\/02\/08\/can-anyone-in-westeros-beat-arya-stark-in-a-sword-fight\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:43:09","slug":"can-anyone-in-westeros-beat-arya-stark-in-a-sword-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/can-anyone-in-westeros-beat-arya-stark-in-a-sword-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Anyone in Westeros Beat Arya Stark in a Sword Fight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

By Nate Jones<\/strong>
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Arya Stark is back at Winterfell, and she celebrated her homecoming the way many college students on Thanksgiving break have: By showing off everything she learned on study-abroad, and also getting into a fight. (Usually those are two separate things, but for Arya, it\u2019s only one.)
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Her inaugural duel with new trainer Brienne of Tarth was the most entertaining thing to happen in the Winterfell courtyard in years, and it also served as a fitting demonstration of Arya\u2019s skills.
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Now that she\u2019s matriculated at the House of Black and White, there isn\u2019t a swordfighter that Arya can\u2019t handle.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s enough to make us ask: Is there anyone in Westeros who could beat her? Let\u2019s go through the candidates.
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Brienne<\/strong>
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Brienne got shown up during her sparring match with Arya in the Winterfell courtyard, but she didn\u2019t get beat too badly. That last-minute kick was a good sign for her chances in any possible rematch: Brienne prefers to play by the rules, but as her fight with the Hound proved, she can more than hold her own when things get dirty. If she crosses swords with Arya again, going low may be the right strategy.
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Jaime Lannister<\/strong>
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In \u201cThe Spoils of War,\u201d remember how Jaime begged off operating the giant ballista because he\u2019s only got one hand, only for it to turn out he definitely could have figured it out if he really wanted to? That\u2019s how he would approach an Arya fight.
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Jon Snow<\/strong>
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Is Jon Snow a great sword fighter? He\u2019s definitely good, killing a White Walker and all, but how much of that was skill and how much of it was the Valyrian steel? I\u2019d slot him a tier below the best fighters in Westeros, and a relatively easy opponent for Arya. (Not that they\u2019d ever fight.)
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The Hound<\/strong>
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Arya beat Brienne. Brienne beat the Hound. Therefore Arya should beat the Hound, right? Well, this isn\u2019t exactly like a math equation; the Hound has a chance! But he\u2019d probably go easy on her. He\u2019s a big softie.
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The Mountain<\/strong>
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He\u2019s so big and brainless that Arya\u2019s sword, Needle, probably wouldn\u2019t have much of an effect on him. (A lot of painful little pokes aren\u2019t going to slow him down.) To win, Arya would probably need to target his head \u2013 a literal tall order, considering actor Hafb\u00f3r Bj\u00f6rnsson is six-foot-nine. And do we trust Arya not to get caught monologuing like Oberyn Martell?
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Bronn<\/strong>
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Our introduction to Bronn came during his duel with the unfortunate Ser Vardis Egen, which saw the charming sellsword dodge and parry Egen\u2019s attacks until he tired out, then \u2014 squelch! \u2014 that was it for Ser Vardis. A similar strategy might work against Arya, as Bronn could use his longer reach to fend off her attacks, then strike when the moment is right.
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A White Walker<\/strong>
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White Walkers have a huge advantage here, which is that Needle is totally useless against them. Arya\u2019s backup weapon is a dagger, and you know what they call people who bring daggers to a sword fight? Dead. Fortunately for Arya, that dagger is made of Valyrian steel, so she\u2019d only need to score a single hit to send a Walker crumbling into ice cubes.
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A wightre<\/strong>
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Unlike their evil masters, the blue-eyed corpses that make up the White Walkers\u2019 army of the dead are mostly unaffected by Valyrian steel. (And regular steel, too.) Their only weakness is fire. Okay, and the fact that they\u2019re dumb. Two weaknesses: fire and dumbness. This fight would ultimately depend on who\u2019s got home-field advantage. In one of those typical Game of Thrones rooms where torches are hanging everywhere? Arya all the way. But on an icy field? Bet on the wight.
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A dragon<\/strong>
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Arya\u2019s only chance would be jamming Needle in its eye. A dragon can shoot fire without opening its eyes. I\u2019m feeling okay about its odds.
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Culled from www.vulture.com<\/a>
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By Nate Jones\u00a0Arya Stark is back at Winterfell, and she celebrated her homecoming the way many college students on Thanksgiving break have: By showing off everything she learned on study-abroad, and also getting into a fight. (Usually those are two separate things, but for Arya, it\u2019s only one.)\u00a0Her inaugural duel with new trainer Brienne of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"china","author_link":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/author\/china\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Nate Jones\u00a0Arya Stark is back at Winterfell, and she celebrated her homecoming the way many college students on Thanksgiving break have: By showing off everything she learned on study-abroad, and also getting into a fight. (Usually those are two separate things, but for Arya, it\u2019s only one.)\u00a0Her inaugural duel with new trainer Brienne of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaacheru.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}