Advertisement

Maisie Williams finally responds to her controversial sex scene in 'Game of Thrones'

Maisie Williams in Game Of Thrones (Credit: HBO)
Maisie Williams in Game Of Thrones (Credit: HBO)

For some, seeing Maisie Williams’ Arya Stark losing her virginity in the latest Game of Thrones episode was a bit too much to take.

But while a debate raged online over how appropriate the – extremely respectfully shot – scene was, considering we’ve followed her story in the show since she was 12, spare a thought for Maisie.

Read more: Who’s still left on Arya’s kill list?

Famously irreverent, she tweeted:

We’d probably want to shrivel up and die too.

Indeed, Williams herself has said that when she first read the script in which she gets together with blacksmith and bastard son of Robert Baratheon, Gendry, she thought it was all a joke.

“At first, I thought it was a prank,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

“I was like, ‘Yo, good one.’ And [they were] like, ‘No, we haven’t done that this year.’ [Showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] were like: ‘You can show as much or as little as you want.’

“So I kept myself pretty private. I don’t think it’s important for Arya to flash. This beat isn’t really about that.

Read more: Arya and Gendry got it together in GoT and people were into it

“This is something she’s stayed away from, an emotion we’ve never really seen her engage with. David and Dan were like, ‘It’s the end of the world, what else would you have her do?’

“This may be is a moment where Arya accepts death tomorrow, which she never does. It’s interesting to see Arya be a bit more human, speak more normally about things people are scared of.”

Some fans found the scene to push the boundaries of acceptability.

But many pointed out some serious double standards:

Veteran Game of Thrones correspondent for Vanity Fair Joanna Robinson probably put it best, however, on the A Cast of Kings podcast.

“She’s a teenager, she’s supposed to be 18-ish in the show, the actress is 22. Yeah, you saw her as a kid, but Emilia Clarke was a kid once too, so I don’t know what to tell you,” she said.

“Teen girls have sex. The End.”

The final season of Game of Thrones continues on Monday on Sky Atlantic.