It did? I'm still not all that impressed with her skills.

"The most lethal killing machine (except a dragon) in Westoros? That's insane. At best she has the element of surprise if they underestimate her because of her age and size. I could however see her beating the Mountain Zombie. With a Needle through the head. But only because his focus is elsewhere due to him not considering her a threat."

She has barely gotten better after a few seasons of training.

she'd be much better at it if they had just given us a damn montage.

Arya is only good in the dark, so we will never see her fight anything.

How come they haven't given her any dialogue? She needs to speak more.

Huh? She's only been in two scenes so far and the scene on Bear Island she talked the majority of the time.

I wanted her to speak in this episode. Something like.. "Tomorrow, when you're dead, I'm going to shit in your skull."

that's only Jack...

I meant since that scene. She was also shown at the camp:

I think they're going to make her permanently blind somehow and she will become a "blind swordsman" type of character.

So the prevailing theory is she's not an assassin because she didn't finish training and killing the Waif was a fluke? Her storyline was a waste of time because she's going back basically the same?

She's not going back basically the same, when she first started out, she couldn't even last one second against the waif. I'm not a fan of the way they finished out the Braavos stuff after spending so much time on it, but I do like where her character has ended up. Also, let's not forget she also has a fundamental knowledge of potions which probably include the deadly kind as well. It's not just assassin jet li fight training.

Exactly how advanced is the potion knowledge of the Faceless men? I'd imagine a Maester would also have be an expert in antidotes, poisons, or if not an average Maester, then someone like Qyburn who does his own experiments. Not to mention the Sand Snake that poisoned Bronn.

The character/actress is great, but I think there was plenty to cover in the episode without her.

What kind of music do you use for a "getting my ass kicked while blind" montage?

Absolutely, there are many people that have a basic knowledge (getting poison/Sand Snakes) or fundamental knowledge (Qyburn) of potions, but...Arya never had that ability before, although she could have found poison i'm sure. Now, as we saw from the season 5 scene, she knows what elements to mix for different potions as well as smell in case someone ever tried to poison her or something different.

What i'm saying is hopeful it just isn't, "Hey, see I'm a little bit better now at fighting and stuff." Instead I'm hoping in the future, they show off the other elements she learned as well. Like she meets up with hound again and someone tries to poison him, but she recognizes the scent and knocks it away before he drinks it, then she goes all "daredevil" on their asses with needle. Or someone tries to poison her, either way, IMO they need to use that element in the future.

If Arya is supposed to be a bad ass assassin, it certainly didn't come off that way over the last few episodes. She beat the Waif, but largely because she happened to learn a particular skill of fighting blind and used that to her advantage. But the rest of Arya's actions leading up to that, including all the previous beat downs by the Waif in normal sparring and letting herself get stabbed so easily certainly doesn't lend herself to being the most lethal killing machine.

She's obviously much better then before, but I thought the show could have done a better job with her arc as others have mentioned. Either condensing the story down so it wasn't so stretched out, or do a better job showing her as a competent assassin. In my opinion, the way the show depicted it she didn't seem close to being a faceless man.

^more people need to feel this way.

She is not a bad ass assassin by any means, she is better technique wise and at taking a beating while being able to recogonize, mix and use potions. She is a little bit better fighter, but nowhere near proficient enough to start taking on skilled fighters and besting them IMO.

They should have condescend the storyline and cut out the scene of the waif stabbing Arya. I still have no idea why they just didn't start the scene with Arya baiting the waif on the bridge, recognizing the waif's disguise and getting her into the spot where needle was. Maybe the writers were playing with the "Starks are always naive" angle, but they didn't need to have that scene.

Thought this was kinda funny - Watching Episode 9 with Seth Meyers and Leslie Jones

Ayra 3
Bad Guys 0