Arya's White Horse

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for Game of Thrones; read at your own caution.

About

Arya's White Horse refers to a series of fan theories and discussions about the implied meaning for a pale horse the character Arya encounters at the end of the penultimate episode of the American fantasy series Game of Thrones, "The Bells".

Origin

On May 12th, 2019, the Game of Thrones episode "The Bells" aired on HBO. At the end of the episode, following the attack waged by Daenerys, Arya (portrayed by Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams, respectively) surveys the damage to the city of King's Landing when she encounters a white horse, which she rides out of the city (clip below).

Spread

Following the release of the episode, people began commenting on the scene, focusing on its symbolic meaning and easter eggs throughout the episode and series. Twitter ^[1] account @thronesfacts tweeted a series of screenshots with the caption "The little girl #Arya tried to save was holding a white horse." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 2,800 retweets and 16,000 likes (shown below, left).

Twitter^[2] user @livelovebread tweeted, "so they really made Arya see a white horse covered in blood to represent the white horse Dany receives back in S1 and what she has become now in S8." The tweet received more than 200 retweets and 1,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

Others joked about the horse's inclusion. For example, Twitter^[3] user @JennyENicholson tweeted, "The series finale of game of thrones is about Arya coming home with the horse and Jon telling her no that horse is too dangerous I forbid you to ride that horse Arya but it teaches her responsibility and they win the rodeo." The tweet received more than 1,700 retweets and 12,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Many posted about the scene and paired it with the popular Lil' Nas X song "Old Town Road". Twitter user @WorldofIsaac posted a remix of the scene, adding the song to the clip. The post received more than 470 retweets, 1,600 likes and 48,000 views in 24 hours (shown below).

Time^[4] magazine posted an explanation of the horse in western literature and culture and in Game of Thrones. They wrote:

In the Bible’s Book of Revelation, the four horses of the apocalypse all ride different colored steeds, and Death rides a “pale horse.” The passage reads: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.” Many writers have made allusions to this more sinister symbolism in their works, including Watchmen author Alan Moore and mystery writer Agatha Christie (see: The Pale Horse.)

Game of Thrones has historically presented white horses as the animals of heroes on the show. Ned Stark rode a white horse in season 1, and Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) gifted Daenerys a white horse at the beginning of the series. But a lot has changed in the show since those first episodes: One of those heroes was quickly beheaded, and the other has transformed into a villain capable of killing thousands of innocent people. Game of Thrones is always subverting tropes, so it’s likely that the new horse Arya encounters represents something more sinister.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References