Twitter Is Losing Their Minds Over This One Scene in 'Game of Thrones'

Disclaimer: This is a major spoiler for Season 8, Episode 2 of Game of Thrones. Read at your own risk. You have been warned.

The social media platform Twitter is having a field day with a major revelation that occurred in last night’s Season 8 episode of Game of Thrones. “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” showed Arya, daughter of Lord Ned Stark and Lady Caitlyn Stark hook up with Gendry Baratheon, King Robert Baratheon’s illegitimate son. On the verge of war with the Night King, Arya did not want to die a virgin it seems, so she and Gendry proceeded to make love the night before the war begins.

Fans of the show are in what seems to be a heated debate on Twitter about the age of Arya. When the show began, she was about 10 or 11 at the time and fans are arguing that she was not old enough, that 8 or 10 years couldn’t have passed already, and that the scene crossed into the territory of “Jailbait,” and concern grew that the character Arya was way too young to be having sex. Maisie Williams, the actress who plays Arya Stark on the show is 22 years old. I understand the concern for such a scene as mind-blowing as that, however… there are a few things a lot of people don’t understand. Back in medieval times, the age a girl could marry was 12 years old. Game of Thrones is set in medieval times to my knowledge, so I don’t understand what the fuss is about; it was a different time way back then.

Now, I’m not saying that I condone anyone underage to participate in sexual encounters; in fact, I’m highly against it. One thing that us viewers need to remember is it’s a show. This is Game of Thrones where sex, violence, nudity, etc. run rampant on our TV screens every Sunday night; nothing should shock us anymore when it comes to the happenings in Westeros. Arya Stark is a beloved character who we have followed since Season 1, so of course we are going to be protective; however, as the seasons progress, and we follow the story, we need to realize that these characters are going to grow up, and do adult things. As much as we would like them to stay the same as when we were first introduced, that would just make the story bland and people would get bored easily.

Personally, I enjoyed this surprising revelation with Arya and Gendry. I believe for a few seasons there was some sort of spark there, and with the threat looming over the heads of the denizens of Westeros, the threat of imminent death, Arya decided that if she was going to die, she was going to die a woman, not a virgin. In my opinion, that’s brave of her. She’s checking off her bucket list should anything happen in the war with the Night King, but it makes me wonder what if by some miracle the people of Westeros survive the war... What then? Would Arya regret her decision? Would Gendry consider it a one night stand? There are so many questions about this scene that I have that I can’t seem to wrap my head around. Surely there were a couple of thoughts running through her head, as well as Gendry's. I do hope they become a couple. They seem to have a lot of chemistry. Gendry seems to stare at Arya a few seconds too long, which to me is a sign of infatuation, and the start of a love interest. We have 4 more episodes to see where this leads, and I can’t wait to see what happens with these two.