Christmas came early for Game of Thrones fans across the world as the series' official Twitter handle released the first teaser-trailer of Season 5 on Wednesday.
The ten-second long teaser gives very little away, yet leaves a lot to fans' imagination.
Two things, though, are aptly clear from the teaser: Season 5 will focus on Arya and her transformation and the 'innocent Arya', who's become fiercer by the seasons, is now headed for a dark makeover.
At the close of Season 5 we saw Arya on-board a ship headed to Braavos. Now, for those who don't know/remember much about Braavos, here's a refresher.
1. Braavos is one of the Free Cities located on the continent of Essos, east of Westeros.
2. It is arguably one of richest and the most powerful of the Free Cities. The Iron Bank of Braavos is one of the most powerful financial institutions and has clients across Westeros. In Season 4, we saw the 'rightful king' Stannis Baratheon travel to the bank with Ser Davos for a loan to help their war against the Lannisters.
3. The Braavosi are fierce swordsmen. Their skills are admired, respected and feared across Westeros. Arya's 'dancing master' Syrio Forel was a master sword-fighter from Braavos.
4. The Faceless Men are an organisation based in Braavos that is known to train assassins who do their job right on the money. Arya's second saviour, Jaqen H'ghar, was a member of this organisation.
Now that you see where Arya's headed, her transformation into a dark and maybe even terrifying character seems quite possible.
In the course of the last four seasons we've already seen our much-loved character kill a couple of bad guys.
She even left a deeply wounded Sandor Clegane (The Hound) to die a painful death while he begged her to kill him.
War is upon Westeros and the Starks have emerged as the biggest losers till now. Arya has a list of names she wants to kill and extract revenge from.
So, Season 5 might just prove to Arya's moment of reckoning. That will be, however, a very dark Arya of course.
