The final season of Game of Thrones was full of endless controversies that tainted the show's place in history, but buried amongst those controversies was the confused reaction to Arya Stark's character development.

After reuniting with Gendry years after meeting and forming a bond in Season 2, the two began a brief fling before embarking in The Battle of Winterfell against the White Walkers. Arya even lost her virginity to him in the episode "The Long Night." This sparked controversy from the fans because they weren't entirely certain as to how old Arya Stark is at the time of the final season.

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Throughout Game of Thrones, the Stark children grow from little kids into young adults, prepared to take on the cruel world they inhabit. In the first season, Arya is just a little girl whose family is being torn apart by war and backstabbing politics. As she ages into her teenage years, Arya's innocence is destroyed, and she becomes one of the most cunning assassins in all of Westeros.

Arya and Gendry

In the first season of the show, Arya is only eleven years old, making her ordeals throughout the series that much more difficult. Each season of Game of Thrones comprises a year in the life of each character, meaning that by series end Arya is 18 years old when she loses her virginity to Gendry. The actress Maisie Williams was 22 years old at the time of the episode's premiere, meaning she was a couple of years older than her character. This is not unusual for most actors who play teenagers in TV shows and movies.

Gendry's age is not revealed in the TV show, but in the book, it's revealed that he's five years older than Arya, meaning that he's likely 23 in the last season. The actor, Joe Dempsie, was actually 31 at the time of the last season, 10 years older than Williams. The one creepy aspect to their affair is that when they meet in Season 2 Arya is supposedly 12 while he's 17 and near adulthood, though nothing beyond a friendly alliance existed between the two at the time.

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Arya in Game of Thrones The Long Night

While Arya and Gendry's night together can be justified as them being adults in the TV series, in the books the act is much harder to explain. Most of the characters from George R.R. Martin's book series A Song of Ice and Fire were aged up by a few years for the show. Instead of starting the saga at age 11, Arya is 9 years old in the first book, A Game of Thrones. When Martin's ending of the series gives Gendry and Arya a similar arc to the TV show, then they'll have their affair when she's 16 and he's 21. While that may sound cringe-worthy to some, it's nothing compared to how young characters in the novels get married and have children.

While the legacy of Game of Thrones may have been tainted by its infamous finale, the fact that several of the main characters are just beginning adulthood could lead to future adventures that could revive fan interest.

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