page_title: No One (Game of Thrones)
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: No One (Game of Thrones) / Production / Writing
caption_attribution_description: English: D. B. Weiss and David Benioff at HBO's Game Of Thrones Season 3 Seattle Premiere at Cinerama.
context_page_description: "No One" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 58th episode overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Mark Mylod.
  Arya Stark fights for her life and chooses her destiny; Jaime Lannister returns Edmure Tully to Riverrun; Cersei Lannister is thwarted; Daenerys Targaryen returns to Meereen; and Sandor Clegane tracks down the Brotherhood Without Banners.
  "No One" received mostly positive reviews from critics, who listed the conclusion of Arya's story with the Faceless Men, the reintroduction of the Brotherhood Without Banners, and Jaime's scheme to retake Riverrun as high points of the episode, but also received some criticism as being anticlimactic. Filming of the episode's foot chase scene between Arya and the Waif required a month of practice in Belfast to get the choreography right. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 7.60 million in its initial broadcast. The episode was Peter Dinklage and Maisie Williams' selection for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards to support their nominations.
context_section_description: "No One" was written by the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
  In the "Inside the Episode" featurette published by HBO following the airing of the episode, David Benioff spoke about the revelation in King's Landing, and Tommen's decision to abolish "trial by combat," stating "This moment is a grievous blow for Cersei because she's been counting on trial by combat really since the end of season five. This was always her ace in the hole, the Mountain was never going to lose a trial by combat there's no one out there who could beat him. And then Tommen takes it away from her and knowing really what he's doing. He might be a weak King, but he's not an idiot, he understands that this move is going to mean that she's probably not going to fare that well in this trial. So it's a pretty devastating moment for Cersei, and you see that in her reaction, and partly because it just bodes so ill for this coming trial, and partly because it's her own son who's really betrayed her."
  Speaking about the siege of Riverrun, Weiss noted about Brienne and Jaime's reunion that "Jaime didn't expect to see Brienne necessarily ever again, he certainly didn't expect to see her marching into his military camp. And his relationship is obviously very complicated, and fraught, and has undercurrents that he's uncomfortable with feeling." Benioff continued about Brienne's escape, "It's these two who are not quite sure how they feel about the other, and he lets her go. He'd be well within his rights to send his men after her, to capture her, and it wouldn't be that hard to capture her since she's being slowly rowed away by Podrick, but he doesn't. She might technically be an enemy now that she's serving Sansa Stark, who is still obviously a suspect in Joffrey's murder, but she's not Jaime's enemy."
  Clive Russell, who portrayed Brynden "Blackfish" Tully in the series, spoke about his character's encounter with Brienne of Tarth, in an interview with IGN, noting "Brienne represented for him his young self, a person of integrity, a soldier of integrity, trying to do the right thing. That added to the conflict he felt of what was the right thing to do: whether to send men to Sansa or not." He continued by saying about their relationship to each other, "She spoke very clearly to power. She was talking to an older man who's, initially, very irritated by her being there, but eventually takes her very, very seriously. There's a touching moment where he acknowledges that to her face. It's very touching and sad, and I think that's what it's about. He's really recognizing the next generation of what I once was."
  In the conclusion of the "Inside the Episode" segment Weiss spoke about Arya's story, saying "Arya is in danger, she's got an open wound in her stomach, and the one person who has protected her to this point unfortunately gets murdered. The fact that the Many-Faced God gets the people who have been promised to him really makes you think that there's almost an inevitability about what happens to people who run afoul of the Faceless Men, as Arya has done." Weiss continued about the final part of the sequence, "Arya's telling Jaqen by putting the face on the wall that 'this account is settled, and we're good here, and now I'm going to walk away,' and I think she knows what the answer's going to be. The implication, obviously, is that Jaqen was, on some level, rooting for the outcome that he got. He may be "no one," but there's still enough of a person left in him to respect, and admire who this girl is and what she's become. Arya finally tells us something that we've kind of known all along, that she's not no one, she's Arya Stark of Winterfell."
caption: The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
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