Maisie Williams has made light of a sex scene between her Game of Thrones character Arya Stark and Gendry (Joe Dempsie ), the bastard son of Robert Baratheon.
Fans were left reeling after the second episode of the eighth season aired over the weekend , while Williams admitted that she thought the moment was a "prank" when she read the script.
Arya makes her feelings known for the blacksmith after he made her dragonglass weapon for her. She told him she wanted to “know what it feels like” in the face of her potential death in next week's battle against the White Walkers.
Viewers were quick to Google Arya's age on the show, believing her to be far younger than the 21-year-old Gendry. The character is in fact 18 years old, while Williams is 22.
You can find our extensive ranking of every character – from worst to best – here and our definitive episode ranking below.
There has to be a loser. ‘Eastwatch’ throws away one of the most important pieces of information in the whole show, Jon’s true parentage, as well as lots of good reunions. It’s the clearest example of how rushed the show has become in recent years, as its unpredictability gives way to conventional plot.
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Jaime appears to rape Cersei next to Joffrey’s corpse. The scene is confused, unpleasant and different from the books in confusing and unhelpful ways.
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The Sand Snakes are just unbearably naff and this is one of their worst.
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At Craster’s Keep, much rape and murder of children. Unpleasant.
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The opposite of the rushed plot of the later seasons, this is basically a leisurely chat up the M1.
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Given a chance to return to real intrigue after the Battle of Winterfell, Benioff and Weiss showed they had lost their grip, with an incoherent episode that betrayed several key characters for the sake of obvious plot grinding. A Starbucks cup left on a feasting table told us everything we needed to know about a series that has given up.
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There is some good stuff with Arya and Jaqen H’ghar, but it’s mainly placeholder as they set up the Battle of Blackwater.
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Jon Snow and Ygritte’s goodbye at the climax of season three ought to have been much sadder.
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Lots of setting up. Jaime and Bronn plan to go to Dorne, Arya arrives in Braavos.
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This ought to have been one of the great battles: ice zombies plus dragons plus Jon Snow’s expedition. It looked spectacular, but everyone worried about teleporting ravens and speed of sound dragons.
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Some absolutely horrible banter between Grey Worm and Missandei.
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Pyat Pree kills the 13 in Qarth. Tywin talks to Arya about legacy.
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Melisandre is a very, very old woman.
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Lots of Tyrion talking in King’s Landing but not much else.
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The Hound meets Ian McShane. That’s about it in an episode full of preparations.
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A classic season opener that flits from place to place.
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Lots of grimness. Rat and bucket torture at Harrenhal. Robb Stark meets Talisa. Joffrey is cruel to Ros and Daisy.
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Mance Rayder refuses to bend the knee, is burned at the stake by Stannis before Jon shoots him with an arrow. A pretty good death actually.
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Season five is perhaps the weakest, and this is one of the weakest episodes in it, despite some good Bolton action and the Stone Men’s fateful attack on Tyrion and Jorah Mormont as they sailed through Valyria.
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In the season two opener we meet Stannis at Dragonstone, and then Joffrey orders a tremendous infanticide. It was vaguely controversial at the time. Feels like a lifetime ago. ‘Power is power,’ Cersei tells Littlefinger, which was good.
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Jon Snow coming back to life really shouldn’t have felt flat. Yet it did.
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Understandable given that it had to build an entire medieval universe, but 12 major characters are introduced here. That’s too many major characters.
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Jon and Sansa reunite, which is cool, Daenerys burns some more enemies, which is hot, good High Sparrow monologue to Margaery.
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Theme of climbing. Thormund makes his way up the Wall; Littlefinger gives his most famous monologue, as he explains to Varys that chaos is ‘a ladder’.
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Mid-season doldrums, particularly acute in five, as Jaime and Bronn arrive in Dorne.
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The same, basically, except for Tyrion meeting Daenerys. Everyone gives each other presents.
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Sluggish early-season number, although we meet Olenna and Margaery shows how skilful she will be at manipulating court.
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Until the later series, eight episodes are a bit hamstrung by setting up denouements to follow. This is true in season one, as the machinery creaks to set up the beheading they didn’t think could happen.
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Even re-looking at what happened in this episode I still can’t really remember it, except for the fight with the bear. Oh yes, Mackenzie Crook! Forgot he was in this programme.
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Two good moments: Renly is killed by the shadow, and Arya meets Jaqen H’ghar.
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Another slow scene setter for the epic Battle of Winterfell, full of night-before antics including the knighting of Brienne by Jamie, and the slightly disturbing sight of Arya and Gendry preparing to go at it hammer and tongs.
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The demise of top lad Roose Bolton, as well as Balon Greyjoy, both sent to their ends by their families. Melisandre finally works her anti-death magic on Jon Snow.
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One of the good things about season four was that it was the only moment where, even briefly, it looked as though a kind of temporary stability had been achieved. Tommen is king, Sansa has escaped King’s Landing, Jon Snow and co get revenge on the mutineers at Craster’s Keep.
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The White Walkers attacking the Night’s Watch at the Fist of the First Men is a good laugh, but other than that there is a lot to get through, after the events of Blackwater in the previous episode, and the season two finale anticipates some of the rushed feeling that will occur later on.
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Our first real glimpse of what Cersei will become, as she outmanoeuvres Ned Stark after Robert Baratheon’s death in a hunting accident.
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A superb Arya moment, as she wipes out the rest of House Frey, but mainly this is set-up for a season that packs a lot in.
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Ned working as policeman in Kings Landing to find out what happened to Jon Arryn.
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One of the most upsetting deaths in Game of Thrones, as Stannis Baratheon burns his friendly daughter Shireen alive to appease Melisandre.
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Theon jumping off the boat after Euron overruns the Greyjoy fleet. Nice reunion between Arya and Hot Pie. Tyrion talks Daenerys down from incinerating King’s Landing.
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A slower than expected opener for the final season, albeit with some touching reunions at Winterfell, especially Bran and Jamie seeing each other again.
Midseasoner. Cersei sends Jaime to retake Riverrun, while Arya is finally trained as an assassin. Can’t really remember it, to be honest.
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Jaime and Ned have a brawl in the streets of King’s Landing in an episode that focuses on skulduggery rather than magic. If you ask me skulduggery always trumps magic.
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The first moment where a character’s trajectory was really reversed. We’d disliked Jaime since the start, but when his hand was chopped off he began to win us back. The Blackfish schooling Edmure at shooting fire arrows was another highlight.
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The opening of the fourth series introduced the charismatic, enigmatic Viper of Dorne, one of the few good things other than wine to come out of Dorne. Also notable for an excellent scene with Arya and the Hound clearing out an Inn.
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Introduces Margaery Tyrell and Brienne of Tarth, two of the best characters, and also sees Theon decide to betray Robb Stark. What is family? Who can you trust?
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Built around Sansa and Tyrion’s unwelcome wedding, while in the north there is a display of how important Sam will be as he draws on reserves of bravery to dragonglass a white walker.
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Littlefinger dumping Lysa out of the Eyrie is probably the most dramatic moment here, one of his decisive power-stealing moments as he saves Sansa.
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Can you remember a time before Game of Thrones? Re-watch ‘Winter is Coming’, marvel at the baby Starks, think on how many characters have died, reflect on your own mortality. You are much, much older than when Game of Thrones began. Your life is running between your fingers.
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Another dramatic death which is hard to remember now, as the miserable Viserys was put out of his grump with molten gold.
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Well, that was that. The grand finale provoked much gnashing of teeth and hot air, not all of it from Drogon. In truth, things were tied up as best they could, given the way the the different pieces had been arranged, although some of the criticism was valid. The king-choosing and first council scenes were amazingly lame. A number of questions were skirted over. Still, what a spectacle.
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Theon takes Winterfell. Theon, you utter bastard. I hope you are punished for this.
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A key Littlefinger episode, as he continues to manipulate Sansa, while Jon Snow executes Janos and, in King’s Landing, Cersei’s machinations are matched by Margaery’s.
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Joffrey, scratching at his throat, going purple, dying. Top stuff.
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An excellent mid-season episode, built around Tyrion’s trial but with lots of other things to admire that hint at the underlying economies in the Game of Thrones universe. Drogon barbecues some livestock, while the Iron Bank of Braavos refuses to bail out Davos and Stannis.
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The full depravity of Ramsay Bolton is laid bare as he taunts Theon with a fake escape, while Commander Mormont is murdered at Craster’s Keep. But really it’s all about Daenerys, as she and her pets flame Astapor to the ground.
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It turns out Jon Snow is actually the true heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the remaining Stark children finally team up to kill Littlefinger, admittedly in overwrought style, and the White Walkers use their new lizard hairdryer to destroy the wall. There is far too much going on, especially the odd scene where Jon shows Cersei the wight, but nevertheless it sends you reaching for the popcorn and cheering along, which is more or less where we are at with the whole series by now.
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Most notable for Ygritte and Jon’s much-parodied love grotto scene, but also for the Hound’s duel with Bendric Dondarrion, which revealed his terror of fire. Nursing his stump in the baths, Jaime tells Brienne the truth about his assassination of the Mad King. Mid-seasoner.
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The denouement of the fifth series is the most sympathetic we ever see Cersei, as she completes her walk of atonement through the streets of King’s Landing, her hair cut and her clothes stripped. Strategically, humiliating Cersei proves not to be the masterstroke the High Sparrow thought it would be.
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Spoils aplenty. Arya returns to Winterfell and sees Sansa, then fights a brief duel with Brienne that shows just how much she’s learnt. It’s nothing on one of the great shots of the whole series, however: Daenerys riding Drogon above a Dothraki horde in full charge before incinerating the Lannister lines.
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We were promised dragons, and here they are, mewing atop the naked Daenerys. And one thing we know about baby dragons is they must grow up. This is Game of Thrones’ version of Chekhov’s rule about guns. You’ll keep watching until they torch something.
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As the big battles go, the showdown between the Night’s Watch and wildlings and the wights at Hardhome doesn’t quite match some of the others, but it is still dead cool, especially when Jon realises his sword works against the snowmen. If that wasn’t enough, Sansa also learnt that her family might be alive.
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The big set-piece between the Night’s Watch and the wildlings. Not quite up to Blackwater’s standards, despite its battle specialist Neil Marshall being summonsed back to direct.
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There is too much crammed into this episode, which could have been spread over several hours, but it’s wonderful stuff all the same. Jon meets Daenerys for the first time, Sam cures Jorah of greyscale, Cersei obliterates the Tyrells. Best of all is Diana Rigg, at a table in her tower, bowing out from what is perhaps Thrones’ best overall performance.
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One of the most divisive episodes, as Dany’s frustrations spilled over into a holocaust in King’s Landing. Whatever you thought of the pacing, or the plot’s fidelity to the characters, it was quite a spectacle, and killed off several key figures in dramatic style.
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Poor old Hodor. The death nobody wanted, as a wonderful character, played so sympathetically by Kristian Nairn, is finally given his due.
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Other things happen: Littlefinger takes over the Vale, and the Boltons move into Winterfell, but the episode is mainly memorable for the central duel, as Oberyn seeks justice from the man who murdered so many of his relatives, and for one image above all, of the Mountain’s armoured fingers crushing Oberyn’s skull like a grapefruit.
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Poor old Ned Stark. The death they said could never happen! Clearly they had not watched enough Sean Bean films.
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After two scene-setting episodes, The Long Night finally delivers on the promise of season eight, with 90 minutes of marvellous blood and fire at Winterfell. The Night King’s hordes meet the assembled ranks of Westeros, wildlings, Dothraki and Unsullied. The defenders lose and lose and lose until they finally win, although not before a few spectacular deaths. If it lacks some of the strategic nuance of other battles, it compensates with stunning action sequences and CGI, especially on the dragons, who dogfight high above the plain.
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Winter has come. It opens with peak Cersei, as she eliminates all her remaining enemies in one enormous blaze. Arya kills Walder Frey. The Jon Theory is confirmed. Tommen walks out of the window.
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The Lannisters send their regards. Some would have this number one, and one could easily make the case. The Red Wedding was the scene that broke Game of Thrones out of its fandom and into broader popular culture, the point where it was no longer avoidable. Fury, anguish, love, surprise, pity, hate: it’s all here. The look Roose Bolton gives Catelyn Stark when she reveals the chainmail he is wearing to dinner might be my single favourite moment of the whole programme.
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Anyone who has seen Mel Gibson’s Mayan drama Apocalypto knows that running in a straight line away from arrows rarely works. So it proved for Rickon, setting up one of the great battles not only on TV but on any kind of film. Where in previous seasons battles had occasionally felt hampered by budget, most egregiously when Tyrion was knocked out and missed the whole thing, this was the full belt and braces. It was brilliantly directed, with aerial shots, as well as face-in-the-mud close-ups to convey the full grinding horror of the battle, and the grim relief of victory.
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The fourth season is the best all-round, I think, the high-point of character development before it started to be forced by the machinations of the plot in the later series. Brienne’s bloody brawl with the Hound leaves him bleeding and broken, as Arya heads off to Braavos. Tywin finally gets his comeuppance, a crossbow bolt on the loo, administered by his son, Tyrion, who then flees. And Stannis’s cavalry arrives to save Jon and defeat Mance Rayder and the wildlings in a pincer movement, having been persuaded by Davos.
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This is purely a personal view, but if Ned Stark’s death was the moment you sat up and paid attention, Blackwater was the where you started cheering at the TV. The scale, the splendour, the depth of character brought to bear on grand events: they all felt new, somehow. This might have been the last moment where we were equally rooting for both sides, except for one side to be consumed in an eerie green glow. Wildfire doesn’t care who your favourite character is.
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Williams also said it was left for her to decide how naked she appeared on camera. Following the episode, some viewers expressed distaste at the thought that Williams, who was 11 when the show began, would have had to undress in front of crew members who have known her since she was a child.
“(Writers) David (Benioff) and Dan (Weiss) were like: ‘You can show as much or as little as you want,’” she said, adding: ”So I kept myself pretty private. I don’t think it’s important for Arya to flash. This beat isn’t really about that.“
Sophie Turner , who plays Arya's sister Sansa, joked on Instagram: “In honour of Easter, I guess Game of Thrones wanted the storyline to have a little Easter bunny hop hop hoppin’ into that p****."
Williams later tweeted: "If u feel uncomfortable just know that my mother and my step dad and my 2 sisters and my 4 brothers have all probably watched this too ahahakillmeehehe."
Game of Thrones continues on Sunday in the US on HBO. UK viewers can see the latest episodes on Sky or NowTV
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