The Arya Stab / #NotToday

Warning: this entry contains major spoilers for HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones and book series A Song of Ice and Fire.

About

The Arya Stab refers to a memorable scene from episode "The Long Night" of fantasy TV series Game of Thrones, in which character Arya Stark stabs and kills character Night King with a Valyrian steel dagger. Following the premiere of the episode online, the scene gained major recognition and was referenced as one of the defining plot moments of the series, inspired the "Arya Challenge" social media game and the hashtag #nottoday.

Origin

On April 29th, 2019, episode three "The Long Night" of season eight of HBO-produced fantasy series Game of Thrones premiered.^[1] In one scene of the episode, character Arya Stark attempts to assassinate character Night King with an Valyrian steel dagger by leaping onto him from behind, but is unable to reach them due to him intercepting her strike. She then proceeds to drop the dagger to her other, free hand, ultimately succeeding in stabbing and killing the Night King and securing the victory of the living over the white walkers.

Spread

Following the release of the episode, multiple posts referencing the scene were made online on Reddit, Twitter and other platforms. For example, a tweet posted by user @TaliSky gained over 1,300 likes and 260 retweets in one day (shown below).^[2]

On Reddit, multiple posts referencing the scene were posted in /r/Freefolk subreddit. For example, an image of Arya Stark titled "Literally a pic of the King slayer, posted by Redditor Chenry1999, gained over 20,400 upvotes in 12 hours.^[3]

#TheArya Challenge

On April 28th, Twitter user @KremPuff tweeted a video of a short dance move they made up inspired by the woah and Arya's stab (shown below). The tweet garnered only 50 likes in a week.

That same night, Twitter user @GBDRN tweeted a video of two people doing #TheArya (shown below). The tweet was popular and received over 6,000 retweets and 15,600 likes in a week.

Other twitter users used the hashtag #AryaChallenge to apply the stabbing movement to more than a dance. Twitter user @AviWechsler used the movement to unlock a door (shown below). The tweet gained over 800 likes and 70 retweets in a week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References