Spoilers (and theories) for Game of Thrones below.
Let it be fear.
Arya Stark dipping out of King's Landing on a pale, blood soaked horse apparently confused a lot of viewers of the penultimate episode of the long-running series. But there's a fairly simple way to understand the jarring scene. This might be the only time that this has been said completely literally, but Game of Thrones viewers might need Jesus.
Specifically, they need to take a look at the most metal (and final) book of the New Testament. That's where the famous image of Death riding a pale horse along with the other bringers of the apocalypse originated.
That's right, after years of training, countless deaths, and one well-placed dagger in the Night King, Arya has become the Angel of Death. Knowing that, the scene goes from confusing to a bit heavy-handed, being the most obvious biblical allusion in the show since Beric Dondarrion gave himself up in a literal Christ pose a few episodes back.
However, there's another theory floating around that isn't quite as heavy on the Bible. The horse still represents death, but is nodding toward the fact that Arya actually perished multiple times in the sack of King's Landing. Fans theorize that Arya died in all of those seemingly inescapable moments where the camera cut away, being brought back by the Lord of Light to serve her ultimate purpose.
Someone said this was an uber Bran sent for Arya. https://t.co/SJzFFegOm6
Of course, the pale horse might have belonged to the least qualified mercenary army leader in all of Westeros. Harry Strickland rode a white horse at the front of the Golden Company before being almost immediately dispatched. But we doubt a future as the new leader of a sellsword army can be set up in just one episode. And the ethereality of the scene could also suggest that Arya is straight-up dead.
Also, maybe Bran sent the horse her way by doing some warging.
The little girl #Arya tried to save was holding a white horse#GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/rW7mPdFrqe
As it stands, the most likely idea is that Arya will finish up her quest to kill the queen, regardless of who is on the Iron Throne.
Oh, and this:
