How Did Arya Learn To Fight So Fast

"There is only one god, and His name is Death. And there is only one matter we say to Decease: 'not today'."

―Syrio Forel to Arya Stark ^[src]

Syrio Forel was a principal sword-fighter and instructor hired by Eddard Stark to train his daughter Arya Stark.

i Biography
- 1.one Background
- 1.2 Season 1
- ane.3 Season four
- 1.four Season v
- 1.5 Flavor viii
two Personality
3 Appearances
iv Gallery
5 Quotes
6 Behind the scenes
7 In the books
8 See also
9 References

Biography

Background

Syrio Forel is a bravo and master of the H2o Dance, originally from the Free City of Braavos where he spent nine years equally the Beginning Sword of the city, before relocating to Rex'southward Landing.

Season one

Syrio is hired to teach Arya Stark the ways of a water dancer.

After arriving in King's Landing, Lord Eddard Stark discovers that his daughter Arya owns a sword (Needle, a gift from her one-half-blood brother Jon Snow), simply has not been properly trained to use it. He hires Syrio Forel to train Arya in its use. Forel accepts the commission and begins to railroad train Arya in how to use the sword in the Braavosi style, known every bit the Water Dance. Arya'south lessons are kept a secret; her sister Sansa believes that Arya is getting "dancing lessons".^[2]

Eddard finds Arya balancing on the top of some stairs. She tells him that Syrio set her the chore to improve her rest.^[three] Arya chases cats to better her dexterity and speed on Syrio'due south suggestion.^[four]

Syrio and Arya have another lesson, simply Arya is distracted past the death of her friend Mycah and the wounding of her begetter during a fight with Jaime Lannister. Syrio tells her that she is more vulnerable when she is "with her trouble" rather than concentrating on the hither and at present. He teaches her how to forget her troubles so she tin concentrate on fighting.^[5]

After Eddard's abort for treason, Lannister guards led by Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard arrive to take Arya into custody. Suspicious, Syrio motions for Arya to stay behind him and asks why Lord Stark would send Lannister men for his daughter; Arya sees Syrio's point and refuses to get with them. When i guard tries to clomp past, Syrio disarms him. Armed only with a wooden training sword, he deftly fights off a mass assault by the guardsmen, immobilizing all of them. He then engages Ser Meryn, who breaks his wooden sword. Syrio instructs Arya to flee. When she asks him to come up with her, he tells her, "The Get-go Sword of Braavos does not run." Arya flees, and (unseen) Syrio and Ser Meryn keep their fight.^[half-dozen]

Flavour 4

Arya believes Syrio to be dead, and tells the Hound that he was killed by Ser Meryn Trant. Sandor proceeds to mock Syrio, claiming that Trant is a poor fighter, and that "Any male child whore with a sword could beat three Meryn Trants".^[7]

Flavor five

Arya finally exacts vengeance for Syrio when she kills Meryn Trant at a brothel in Braavos.

Season 8

Melisandre repeats Syrio's wisdom to Arya about what she should say to the God of Death during the Battle of Winterfell, to which Arya responds "Not today"; it gives her the courage to impale the Nighttime King.^[eight]

Personality

Mastering the technique of the Braavosi Water Dance, Syrio Forel was eccentric and confident in his movements and words, showing himself fearless and flamboyant. Arya Stark states that he was one of the greatest swordsmen that ever lived; this is proven true equally he single-handedly defeated v armored Lannister guards with a wooden training sword. Syrio never wore armor in combat and preferred light weaponry, as the Water Trip the light fantastic toe strongly relies on agility and being lite on ane'southward feet. He often used his enemies employ of armor to his advantage in a fight, wearing them down and outmaneuvering them with his speed before finishing them off. Syrio's lack of armor and strong weapons, however, might have resulted in his downfall against Meryn Trant. Sandor Clegane jests that fifty-fifty though Syrio might have been "the greatest swordsman who always lived", he lost to the cowardly and weak Trant solely because the knight had a big sword and armor. Syrio's teaching manner could be considered unusual but effective. During lessons with Arya, he taught her that in combat the sword and the ane property information technology should exist one, and to teach her mobility and dexterity, had her chase cats around the Red Keep.

Syrio seemed to lack faith in the Onetime Gods and the New, claiming the just true God is Death, as everyone succumbs to Him eventually. He possesses a warrior's belief in this, withal, claiming that the just matter one says to Decease is "non today". Courageous, implacable and fearsome, Syrio showed no visible fear even when faced with Meryn Trant and deprived of his only weapon'south effectiveness. Syrio had a very observant view on Westerosi combat, considering it to exist little more hacking and hammering, in that information technology lacked elegance or precision (An stance merely acceptable from a master swordsman, naturally), and he had a sense of laurels equally evidenced past his disgust that Meryn Trant'south men would accept the gall to threaten a fiddling girl. Syrio Forel was obviously quite charismatic, as he inspired Arya's behavior after his death: She was motivated to kill Meryn Trant for killing Syrio, and continued to utilize his lessons after he allowed her to escape from Cersei Lannister's men.

Appearances

Game of Thrones: Flavor ane appearances
Winter Is Coming	The Kingsroad	Lord Snow	Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things	The Wolf and the King of beasts
A Golden Crown	You Win or You Dice	The Pointy Stop	Baelor	Fire and Blood

Gallery

Quotes

"The First Sword of Braavos does not run."

―Syrio Forel ^[src]

Behind the scenes

Braavos and the Free Cities are loosely like to the medieval Italian city-states, vaguely "Mediterranean", so actor Miltos Yerolemou, a Greek Cypriot based in London, portrayed Syrio with an accent "a little Greek, a little Italian and a little Castilian, and and then pushed information technology East into Persia".^[9] Given the various polyglot nature of Braavos, at that place is no way of taking Syrio's on-screen emphasis as "typical" of all Braavosi (the style that Cersei could recognize Shae's Lorathi accent). The Spanish dub of the TV series produced in Spain renders Syrio's speech equally an Arabic accent, to try to maintain the impression that he is a foreigner to Westeros.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Burn novels, Syrio Forel was once the First Sword of Braavos, the well-nigh skilled bravo or sword-fighter of the city, in the service of the Sealord himself. He specialized in a style of combat known as 'water dancing', favoring a calorie-free sword and expert rest over the Westerosi style of hacking at one another with massive swords in heavy armor. It is unclear why he departed Braavos to relocate to Male monarch's Landing.

Syrio tells Arya how he became the first sword of Braavos. He was chosen over stronger, faster, and younger men because he was perceptive - he saw while others were bullheaded. He was invited to an audience with the ruler of Braavos, who had a cat on his lap. The ruler said to Syrio, as he had said to all the others that had failed this test, to look at the fantastic animal that has been brought to him from far away, was she not astonishing. Syrio replied "I see many like him every night in the streets of Braavos, it is a tomcat." The ruler pressed him with questions on the ears and the abdomen just Syrio maintained his answer. Others answered with flattery and unfounded claims about the virtues of the creature. Syrio was called over all of them. The lesson to wait carefully and run into what is truly at that place is taken to middle past Arya.

Eddard is bemused by Syrio'south odd training methods, which run across Arya balancing on one human foot for hours and chasing cats effectually the Red Keep, and is not impressed when she returns from her classes covered in cuts and bruises. He suggests hiring another swordsman to instruct her, such as Barristan Selmy or Jory Cassel, simply Arya insists that she but wishes to be trained by Syrio.

His advent differs from his TV serial's counterpart, described in the book equally a slight, bald man with a beaked nose. In the DVD commentary, author George R.R. Martin himself said that he didn't care about such minor differences, being more concerned with the satisfying performance of the actor.

Braavos is the about diverse of the Gratis Cities, existence founded by escaped slaves of the Valyrian Freehold who originally came from all the far corners of that empire. Every bit a issue, there is no prepare Braavosi "ethnicity" or set of typical physical features, in dissimilarity to how people from the Free Metropolis of Lys tend to be blonde and off-white-skinned and the people of Myr tend to have dark pilus and olive-colored peel. As the well-nigh powerful of the Free Cities and a major economical hub, it is also much more various and "cosmopolitan" even compared to the other Costless Cities. The Common Tongue of Westeros is non Syrio's kickoff language, and Arya describes him every bit having an accent, a "lilt", just the books don't describe information technology in detail.

Syrio's battle with Ser Meryn Trant and the Lannister guards in the Tv set series is portrayed much as information technology was in the books: except that Syrio kills or maims virtually of his opponents with his wooden sword. He kills one with a blow through the eye and breaks another's kneecap. As Arya watches Syrio fight, she realizes that he had merely been toying with her during her training sessions. He continues to fight Trant fifty-fifty later his wooden sword is broken, and as Arya runs abroad she hears his boxing weep. In both the serial and the book, his fate is left uncertain.

In an April 2016 interview, Maisie Williams (Arya) said that when she asked Benioff and Weiss whether Syrio survived or not, they told her he was expressionless. It is unclear, however, if they told her the truth or not - particularly given that inside the story Arya the graphic symbol is convinced that Syrio is dead, and they would want her performance to lucifer. Ultimately the matter remains ambiguous.

When Arya start sees Jaqen H'ghar, he somewhat reminds her of Syrio, and to her surprise, he knows her real identity. This has led to fan speculation that Jaqen and Syrio are the same person, merely then far this has not been verified.

According to the TV series official pronunciation guide developed for the cast and crew, "Syrio Forel" is pronounced "SEER-ee-o For-EL". Although, Syrio pronounces his name with a slight, guttural 'D' sound to it.