Arya Stark, Maisie Williams, talks violence, haters and why she misses The Hound

AFTER one princess was burned at the stake by her father and another raped by her husband, surely Game Of Thrones has gone too far? Wrong, says Maisie “Arya Stark” Williams.

GAME Of Thrones star Maisie Williams has some advice for anyone outraged by the violence on the show — watch something else.

Williams, who plays tomboy princess turned assassin-in-training Arya Stark, says she is surprised that people are still shocked by the violence, saying that it has been an integral part of the gripping but gruesome drama since the very beginning.

After last week’s penultimate episode of Season 5, in which one of the only innocent and likable characters, teenage princess Shireen, was burnt at the stake at the hands of her father, ambitious would-be king Stannis Baratheon, social media lit up with howls of outrage.

This coming just a few weeks after Arya’s sister, Sansa, was raped by the monstrous Ramsey Bolton, proved too much for some fans who said that the show had finally gone too far and they’d had enough.

Horrific ... Sophie Turner whose character Sansa Stark was raped this season, left, and Aidan Gillen, as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, in Game of Thrones. (AP Photo/HBO, File)

But Williams says that shocking violence is Game Of Thrones’ stock in trade and has been since the first season, in which her character’s father lost his head and Iron Throne aspirant Viserys Targaryen was killed by having molten gold poured on his head. She further defended the show by saying much of the recent violence against women was implied rather than shown.

“I also think the way we have portrayed it, we haven’t seen a lot of it,” she says. “I feel like it’s been done quite classily and in such a way that isn’t too grotesque. And it’s Game Of Thrones — I still can’t believe that in season five, people are still shocked by the violence. This is what our show is and I feel like that is what makes our show so different.

“I still find it surprising that people are shocked by the show — but that’s what we do and that’s what we love doing. So often we get people, even the book readers, who sit there and go ‘you can’t do that’ and we’re like ‘well, we just did’. It does upset people and that’s a shame — but maybe this isn’t the show for you.”

Grown up before our eyes ... Williams out of character on the red carpet.

Williams, whose character was seen in last week’s episode defying her Faceless Men masters with an eye to settling an old score with the man who killed her fencing teacher, says she’s had a “slow” season compared to last year but that “things are going to get good”.

“She is taking a couple of steps back in terms of her training but in terms of her storyline I think she’s taking a couple of steps forward,” she says. “This year has been pretty slow but it’s definitely been necessary — you can’t have a killer storyline all the time.

“She was so eager to learn and do well and now in episode 9 she sees one person who brings back all these emotions and all the hard work that she has put in has now been tossed to the side and she has gone back to her old ways.

“It’s a really big deal with the Faceless Men — this is serious training. It’s not just saying one thing and doing another, these people take these things very seriously and for her to go back on what she promised to do is quite a bad thing she has done. I don’t think the consequences are going to be easy.”

On-screen pair ... Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Rory McCann as Sandor ‘The Hound’ Clegane.

Williams echoed the feelings of many fans by saying she missed her captor/protector Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, played by Rory McCann, who Arya left for dead on the side of a mountain at the end of last season after ignoring his pleas for her to kill him.

“I miss Rory so much,” she says. “People always ask me ‘is the Hound coming back?’ and I have no idea. I don’t think so but I wish he would because I have missed him so much. He was so great on set and it just hasn’t been the same without him this past year. But the truth is I don’t have a clue if the Hound is coming back. But if he does, I hope he crosses over with Arya.”

Game Of Thrones Season 5 finale, Monday, 11am and encore performance 7.30pm on Foxtel Showcase.