Game of Thrones: Arya Stark’s Kill List—Every Target and How They Met Their End

Let’s talk about Arya Stark—the murder prodigy of Game of Thrones. Forget princess tropes. From the moment her dad loses his head in season one, Arya ditches a quiet life of needlework for a literal kill list. She spends nearly the entire series away from home, reciting her enemies’ names before bed—sort of a bedtime prayer if you grew up watching way too many revenge movies. Not everyone on her infamous list dies by her hand, but almost all of them meet a grisly end eventually (the Starks might lose wars, but their karma game is strong). Here’s the breakdown of who's on Arya's kill list, why they're there, and how they met their maker. If you want to keep score at home, I’ve put all the deaths into a tidy list. Some go out with a bang, a few with a whimper, and one just sort of… disappears. Let’s dive in.

Arya's Kill List: Who Made It, Who Died, and Who Got Away

• The Hound (Sandor Clegane) – Added to the list for killing Mycah (Arya’s friend, the butcher’s boy), Sandor (played with gruff perfection by Rory McCann) actually ends up as her oddball road trip buddy. Their relationship goes from murder rivalry to mutual snark-fest. She leaves him to die at one point, but by the end, they say their farewells as friends before The Hound kills his zombified brother (The Mountain) in King’s Landing by tackling him straight out a window and into a fiery grave (Season 8, Episode 5, 'The Bells').
• Meryn Trant – If anyone deserved a spot on Arya's list, it’s this guy. He killed her sword-dancing teacher, Syrio Forel, way back in season one. Arya finally gets her revenge in Braavos by going full Faceless on him—stealing a girl’s face, cornering him in a brothel, and stabbing him repeatedly to savor the moment (Season 5, Episode 2, 'The House of Black and White').
• Joffrey Baratheon – The crown prince (Jack Gleeson) was the series’ top-tier brat and possibly TV’s most punchable face. Arya wanted him dead for his part in Ned’s death, but in true Thrones fashion, someone else beats her to it: Lady Olenna Tyrell poisons him at his own wedding. We find out it was her much later, and honestly, we should all send Olenna a fruit basket (Season 4, Episode 2, 'The Lion and the Rose').
• Melisandre (The Red Woman) – Tell Arya not to trust creepy ladies in red; she doesn’t listen. Melisandre (Carice van Houten) gets on Arya’s hit list after buying Gendry from the Brotherhood for one of her Lord of Light rituals. Ultimately, after aiding Westeros in the Battle of Winterfell, Melisandre removes her necklace and dies of old age on her own terms—no intervention needed (Season 8, Episode 3, 'The Long Night').
• Thoros of Myr – Arya’s beef with this somewhat drunk fire priest (Paul Kaye) is straightforward: Thoros helped sell Gendry to Melisandre. Thoros escapes death by Stark early on, but beyond the Wall, a zombie polar bear wounds him. He dies from his injuries, so no Stark vengeance required (Season 7, Episode 6, 'Beyond the Wall').
• Cersei Lannister – Arya’s life goal for several seasons is to put Cersei’s head on a spike. The show even gives Arya an iconic 'I'm going to kill the Queen' line. Instead, Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime die under a collapsing building after Daenerys goes full dragon-scorched earth on King’s Landing (Season 8, Episode 5, 'The Bells'). For Arya, it’s a near-miss.
• Ser Ilyn Payne – The silent royal executioner (Wilko Johnson) who lopped off Ned Stark’s head. Here’s your trivia: Wilko’s real-life cancer diagnosis meant his character just disappears after season 4—never killed, just never spoken of again. The last on-screen mention is Tywin name-dropping him in the finale of season 4. If you forgot he existed, so did the writers.
• Polliver – This one’s about as straightforward as they come. Polliver (Andy Kellegher) killed Arya’s buddy Lommy and stole her sword, Needle. Arya runs into him at an inn, skewers him with Needle right to his heart, and checks him off the list. No hesitation; this is the moment you realize Arya means business (Season 4, Episode 1, 'Two Swords').
• The Mountain (Gregor Clegane) – After seeing this giant torture people for fun at Harrenhal (and learning he’s the reason The Hound’s face looks like a burned ham), Arya wanted Gregor dead. She doesn’t get to kill him, but The Mountain does die, courtesy of his own brother during an apocalyptic sibling brawl (Season 8, Episode 5, 'The Bells'). If anyone argues he didn’t deserve to be on the list, they weren’t watching the same show as the rest of us.
• Rorge – Super minor character alert, but he still made Arya’s hit parade. Arya technically frees Rorge along with Jaqen H’ghar, but he’s persistent in being a jerk. Later, she bumps into him again—with The Hound along for the ride—and dispatches him using Needle with barely a second thought (Season 4, Episode 8, 'The Mountain and the Viper').

So, did Arya get her revenge?

Out of everyone on Arya’s list, most ended up dead—some by her hand, most by someone else’s, and one (Ilyn Payne) sort of ghosted out of existence entirely. Either way, if Arya Stark added your name to a nighttime murder mantra, your days in Westeros were basically numbered.

"I'm going to kill the Queen." – Arya Stark, season 7, when asked why a nice girl’s heading to King’s Landing. In retrospect, this was possibly the world’s most dangerous road trip announcement.