Arya Stark and Temporary Blindness

For a short period of time in seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones, Arya Stark was blind during her training with the House of Black. She was blinded by her inability to shed her identity as she switched faces for her kills. This experience effects not just her senses, but also the role she plays within society and the way that others treat her.

Arya's time as blind is brief, but I think it says a couple of really interesting things about blindness as she see it.

One of the things about Arya's blindness is that it ends up heightening her senses and empowering her on her later adventures. As far as I know, the heightening of senses associated with blindness isn't as dramatic as it is in this show. However, I find it interesting that this is used to empower her as much as it is. Rarely in media, or in real life, is blindness treated as a better alternative to sight. And as far as training her skills in assassination go, the show depicts blindness as being better than sight. However, the show also depicts this whole sequence as the blindness only temporarily being a good thing, because Arya is only her most skilled once she has regained her sight and can use the skills she had to learn while blind.

Another really interesting thing about this depiction is what I see as a sort of social commentary? Arya is often in positions lesser than her actual status (lady) while posing for assassinations. However, while blind is the only time that we see her so poor and rejected by society that she becomes a beggar. It provides an insight, I think, into thinking about how difficult jobs may be for those who are blind as well as how society sees those who are disabled and unable to work. It goes to show how much technology has mitigated those difficulties as well as how far we still have to go as far as making our world accessible for those with disabilities, particularly in making it so that those with disabilities can thrive.