Tom Wlaschiha explains why Jaqen H’ghar let Arya leave Braavos

After the 8th episode, No One, we know that Arya Stark is heading towards Westeros and there might be a good possibility that we get to see her in the season 6 finale. The spectacular 9th episode, saw the Starks returning to the top after many years and it feels that Arya might return to Westeros soon and inflict some major damage. In the season finale preview, we saw that the Freys and Lannisters are celebrating at the Twins and there’s a good chance that Arya might strike over there, considering that she was just outside the Twins when her family was slaughtered by the Freys.

However, many fans still are wondering about the final scene of No One in which Arya confronted Jaqen. After defeating the Waif, Arya returned to the House of Black and White to offer the Waif’s face to the Many-faced God and to also tell Jaqen H’ghar that she was done with the Faceless Men and she did all this while pointing Needle to his heart and telling him that she’s Arya Stark of Winterfell. Game of Thrones fans thought that Jaqen might not like this but they were surprised when he gave her a smile and a gentle nod. This made the fans wonder about the meaning of all this and whether her training with the Faceless Men was just a waste of time.

Tom Wlaschiha, who plays Jaqen H’ghar talked with Access Hollywood about the events in the House of Black and White and what implications they might have on the story. Tom said that Jaqen knew from the start that Arya had other intentions and the Faceless Men were using that to meet their needs.

In my opinion, it was clear from the beginning. I mean, that’s the reason he trained her. He didn’t train her to become a Faceless Man and stay in the House of Black and White in Braavos forever. I think that Faceless Men, they certainly have an interest [in] what’s going on in Westeros, otherwise why would he [have] just shown up out of the blue, in Season 2 and picked Arya and offered her to train her? So there must be some sort of interest and I think, yeah, what’s the point of training her if she can’t put that training to use?

He further talked about the Waif and said that she had no bad intentions and her attacking Arya was sort of a test to see whether Arya was the right person he was looking for.

She didn’t want anyone in the House of Black and White who wouldn’t be ready or wouldn’t be fit to be a Faceless Man. … I don’t know if she had to be that mean to her, but ultimately, I mean, trying to kill her… when Jaqen told the Waif, ‘Go ahead and kill her, but don’t let her suffer,’ I think the Faceless Men, in their philosophy, they’re kind of evolved [beyond] all those human things. As I said, death is a part of life, so if Arya had died, Jaqen would have probably regretted it or would have been sorry, but that would have only meant that she wasn’t the person that he’d been looking for.

Tom said that Jaqen had seen the potential in Arya way back when they met in Westeros and he felt that she was capable of doing things which others couldn’t and when she returned after killing the Waif, he was pleased as it was evident that his student had excelled.

That’s why in the end, when he realized she’d managed to escape the Waif and kill her, he was also pleased because his student had excelled. When he first met her, he immediately recognized the potential in her. She posed as a boy and everybody but him believed it and so already when she was a little girl, he could see that she had quite some talent to do these things or to become a different person, and when she left Westeros, she was still a little girl and now, over the course of her training, she’s grown up and now she goes back to Westeros and she’s a totally different, yeah, she’s a totally different person. She’s an adult.