Why Arya Stark and Beric Dondarrion are formidable enemies in Game of Thrones

Upcoming Spoilers for Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 2, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms".

"A knight of the seven kingdoms", the second episode of Game of thronesThe last season is full of fireside chats and cold meetings, including one between Arya Stark and two men she has traveled with in previous seasons: The Hound and Beric Dondarrion. It is a meeting charged with tacit emotions coming from bad memories. Beric says to Arya: "Madam, it's a pleasure to see you again. I'm sorry, we separated as we did. Nothing is said about their story. It's been five seasons since Beric and Arya shared a scene together for the last time. It's hard to remember how they broke up unless you recently ran the show.

First, Arya's father, Ned Stark, asked Beric and his men to execute Gregor Clegane, aka The Mountain. Armed with a hundred men, they go to Gregor's guard during season 1. Arya meets them in season 3 after Beric's religious conversion. He now believes in the Lord of Light. He has good reason to do so: his friend Thoros of Myr has brought him back to life six times by praying to the Lord of Light. At this point, he has somewhat abandoned his original goal of running the mountain. Instead, he formed the Brotherhood Without Banners, a rogue organization that defends the citizens of Lannister and Stark housewives.

This background strangely positions Beric as an ally of choice for Arya in Season 3, when she, Hot Pie and Gendry are captured by Brotherhood Without Banners. He is ready to challenge the dog for a battle trial after Arya has accused Sandor of killing his friend. Beric also promised to reunite Arya with his mother and brother in Riverrun, but ransom him. Beric loses the duel and the Dog dominates him and kills him. Thoros then resurrects Beric, who determines that the Dog is not guilty "in the eyes of God" since he won the duel.

Image: HBO

Beric's new religious beliefs and his reluctant allegiance to Stark House mean that he and Arya are ultimately too different to remain traveling allies. He also exacerbated his frustration by selling Gendry to Melisandre, then deciding to send his irregular army to harass Lannister soldiers a little north of their camp, in the opposite direction to Riverrun. Arya explodes in front of this new change of plan to go further from Riverrun, shouting: "You are a liar. You lied to Gendry and you lied to me. I hope the Lannisters will kill you all. She runs away and adds Beric's name to her list of victims, alongside Melisandre and Cersei Lannister.

All this happened in season 3, episode 7. The red wedding, where Arya's mother and brother were killed, was only two episodes later. Thus, Arya was justified in her haste to join her family. By the time she arrives in Riverrun, she is too late and they are all dead. We can say that if she had arrived earlier, she would have died with them.

Maybe that explains why Arya does not seem to have much resentment against Hound and Beric now. Or maybe it's because she's aware that all are allies against an even more powerful and deadly enemy, the Army of the Dead. She calls them both "miserable old shit" before forcing them to go see Gendry, so they are not exactly friends. But it is worth remembering how much history is wrapped up in Beric's excuses and in this simple and brief meeting between three people who put aside their past in the hope of having a future.

Correction April 25 at 12:46 ET: This article has been corrected to reflect the fact that Beric's mission was to kill Gregor Clegane of The Mountain, not his brother The Hound.