25 reasons Arya should win the Iron Throne

22. She understands mercy

Arya is not opposed to killing, but it also seems The Hound’s fatalistic view on life hasn’t rubbed off on her too much. In this scene from Season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere,” Arya just won’t let him kill a farmer who is headed for the Red Wedding. It’s a different story in Season 4’s “Mockingbird,” where they happen upon a dying farmer.  The Hound teaches Arya where the heart is on a man, so if she needs to, she can deliver the death blow. He even echoes this to her after Lady Brienne’s brawl, but that wasn’t the time for Arya to show any form of mercy. Later we learn The Hound survived his trauma, so he was clearly meant to survive anyway.

Reserving her killing skills for those who really deserve it is beginning to be a pattern for Arya. In Season 5’s “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” she takes in a dying man’s daughter, having her drink from the pool in the House of Black and White in order to ease her into death. In Season 6, she refuses to let Lady Crane drink the poisoned alcohol simply because the actress who paid for her death wanted it for selfish reasons. These emerging patterns show that Arya is willing to at least make death easier for some, and refuse to kill without getting to know someone first.