Razor’s Rant: Is Arya’s Next Target Walder Frey?

CAUTION: THIS POST IS CHOCK-FULL OF SPOILERS

In “Oathbreaker,” the latest Game of Thrones episode, we saw Arya go through a training montage. Her skills with a staff were tested, as was her resolve to remain No One. It was during this scene that the Waif asked Arya about her now infamous kill list. Arya ticked off the names, and when she mentioned Walder Frey, the Waif on her heels, as if she recognized it (check out the video below at 2:14).

Now, true, the editors were cutting together Arya’s conversations with the Waif with their sparring, but the timing still raised a few eyebrows.

Afterwards, Jaqen H’ghar restored Arya’s sight, seemingly satisfied that she was committed to becoming No One. But to what end? Now that Arya can see again, will the Faceless Men send her after another target?

I think they will, and it is my personal belief that the target will be Walder Frey, the man who organized the Red Wedding and current Lord Paramount of the Trident. Let’s take a look at some of the clues from behind-the-scenes filming reports and trailers, and see if this theory holds any water.

We know that Game of Thrones will return to the Riverlands in Season 6. Specifically, Jaime Lannister will go there to lift the siege at Riverrun. We also know that actor David Bradley, who portrays Walder Frey, will also be making his Thrones return this season. Check him out in this clip from one of the Season 6 trailers.

It appears from the GIF above that old Walder Frey is planning another party at the Twins. Perhaps the old codger is getting married again? But where does Arya fit into all of this, and how would she be anywhere near the Twins if she’s currently in Braavos?

We know that, in the near future, Arya will become involved with a troupe of Mummers. Either she will take part in their traveling show, or she will be an observer. Perhaps, she will observe first, as is the way with the Faceless Man way, and then work her way in and make herself one of them. In the books, she joins a troupe of mummers briefly.

What if Walder Frey hires this very same Mummer troupe for whatever celebration he’s having up above, and Arya, traveling under the a new name, finds herself back at the scene of the slaughter of her brother Robb and her mother Lady Catelyn?

There’s one other tiny clue to this puzzle. In Season 5, when Arya was playing the lying game, or the game of faces, with the Waif, the Waif told a story about being the daughter of a recently widowed rich lord who remarried. Her father’s new wife didn’t want a rival for his fortune, so she poisoned the Waif. Now, in the story, the Waif made it sound like she was an only child, but that could have been part of the lie. What if the Waif was a Frey, and her father is Walder, who is constantly and famously being widowed and remarried, and whose children are infamous throughout Westeros for their jealousy over his title and fortune?

We saw Arya mix ingredients during her training montage in “Oathbreaker.” Presumably, she’s learning to make poisons. Might she slip a little into a certain old man’s drink, right before he raises his goblet of wine in a toast? In a season that has already been full of wish fulfillment, it would be icing on the cake for Walder Frey, who had a large hand in bringing about the downfall of the Starks, to be killed by one.