What is Arya's weapon design?

Question

In season 8 episode 1, Arya asks Gendry to forge her a dragonglass weapon (which we can see drawn).

What is the purpose of this weapon?

With the hindsight of seeing the finished product, it's a polearm - most resembling a double-ended pike, I think, but definitely both a thrusting and cutting end. — PoloHoleSet, Apr 29 '19 at 20:42
Story developed and turns out that weapon was just a regular spear — Mehdi Dehghani, Apr 30 '19 at 05:23
It's her stick she learned to wield in Bravos, with new sharp ends. Answer added. I think the split is a bit of a red herring as she hardly used it that way. — Tetsujin, Apr 30 '19 at 11:08
It was ..curious to see how Gendry knew exactly what she wanted based on that simple drawing alone, though - it's hardly worth being called a 'design'. — Joachim, Apr 30 '19 at 11:36
@Joachim - Perhaps an iterative development process was actually used, and the show only displayed the final result. — T.E.D., Apr 30 '19 at 14:28

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 04 '20 at 15:16

Some info (mostly speculation) is available in this article:

From Dunne’s comments and those schematics, this looks to be a spear-like weapon that can unscrew into being two short-range stabbing weapons as well. Essentially, a double-ended spear that can also act as two daggers. One tip is definitely dragonglass—we can tell that from Arya’s schematics. Is the other end using her Valyrian steel dagger blade? Is that flame? Just an ornate handle? Unlikely just a handle—that doesn’t seem like Arya’s style. We’ve actually probably already seen Arya using this weapon in a few brief shots from the Season 8 trailer.

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 04 '20 at 15:16

Tommy Dunne, the weapons master for Game of Thrones, has the following to say on what is almost certainly the weapon Arya asks Gendry to make:

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair’s “Still Watching” podcast, Thrones weapons master Tommy Dunne teased what is very likely this new blade: “There is one creation in Season 8 that is absolutely phenomenal. It’ll be a showstopper. That was great to finish. It was great to make, great to design in that it was able to be reverse-engineered and made into two different items.”

_{Vanity Fair, Game of Thrones: Gendry Is Making Arya a “Showstopper” Weapon}

As of now we don't know what it actually is, and all we have to go off is the schematic and Dunne's comments.

That said the schematic shows two pieces that fit together and can come apart with one end being tipped in dragonglass so it is likely a long weapon that can be split into two dagger like weapons.

Tetsujin · Answer 3 · 2019-05-04T11:33:19.570

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Everybody seems to assume it's a spear - it's not, primarily, and she doesn't seem to use it as such most of the time. Of course, it's sharp at both ends so you can poke it at people [using dragon glass so would be effective against wights as well as humans], but that's not really how we see her use it.

Her weapon is basically the stick she learned to use so well fighting the waif in Bravos -
with two pointy ends to stick them with as well.

This is all her years of training being put to use.

She used it to great effect on top of Winterfell's walls...

She split it in half when she first moved indoors, into more restricted space, but mainly she still wielded it like her stick. I'd say ninja-style, even though that's not a discipline that exists in this world.

Why it was splittable I'm not really sure about. She split it when she went indoors, very briefly, but the next time we see her she's re-assembled it.

I checked some timings...

She actually loses the 'posh stick' as she dives over some wights down a flight of stairs, and is not seen again with it. [cross-ref to https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/100243/25773 with gif] She doesn't have it when she jumps off the parapet onto the sloped roof.
When we next see her again indoors, she picks up a dragon glass dagger from the floor behind some fallen furniture. She keeps this right through the library scene & the chase afterwards.
She loses that when she's rescued by Dondarrion.

So she splits the stick for an entire 10 seconds & that's it. All that for 10 seconds ;-) She has the stick from 39:40, splits it at 40:00 She goes out of shot with it still split at 40:11 & the next time we see her it's back together again at 40:18.

I first thought it split to be a long stick & a dagger, but it does split into two unequal sizes.

Splitting to a dagger didn't quite make sense to me, as she already was known to be carrying a Valyrian steel dagger; the one originally used on the attempt on Bran's life...

...and used, rather appropriately in the end, to kill the Night King and save Bran.

From comments -
In the godswood she doesn't have the stick at all [see timings above] she has only the Valyrian steel dagger, which she drops from one hand and catches in the other.

edited May 04 '19 at 11:33

answered Apr 30 '19 at 10:44

Tetsujin

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Thx for the clip of both mode. There was so mutch going on that people may have missed it. – Drag and Drop Apr 30 '19 at 12:35
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The point of those ends isn't so much that they are pointy, but that they have something on them that can actually kill white walkers (dragonglass). Without that, her usual tactics with such a stick would just result in her tiring herself out beating on them. – T.E.D. Apr 30 '19 at 14:31
@T.E.D. - that's not really the point of me re-quoting her "stick them with the pointy end" which I'm sure you're aware of. We're all fully aware by now of the need to be weilding dragon glass or Valyrian steel. – Tetsujin Apr 30 '19 at 18:23
"Why it was splittable I'm not really sure about" - it's in order to make the final surprise attack on the Night King. He expected her first blow and blocked it, but never saw the second blow coming, since she used a weapon he couldn't possibly know about. – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 01 '19 at 12:25
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@ShadowWizard - She didn't have her 'posh stick' with her in that scene at all. She had the 'Bran dagger' in her left hand.. dropped it & caught it with the other hand. – Tetsujin May 01 '19 at 12:51
@Tetsujin oh, oops. Didn't really see well due to the infamous darkness of the whole chapter, so when seeing this question assumed she used that split weapon. – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 01 '19 at 12:56
@ShadowWizard - I've added some more notes & timings into the answer. She has the split stick for a whole 10 seconds all-told. the rest of the time she's either wielding it like a ninja, or lost it & is using something else. – Tetsujin May 01 '19 at 13:28
@Tetsujin true, I now realize my first assumption was wrong, so also wonder the same. My only guess for now is the producers/writers planned to use it in the final battle, but then changed their mind to use Bran's Dagger instead. Otherwise... really can't explain it. :) – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 01 '19 at 14:07
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Or, another option is, we might yet see it's real "destiny" in the following chapters. – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 01 '19 at 14:09
...if she ever finds it again - there's a fair amount of wreckage to sift through ;)) – Tetsujin May 01 '19 at 14:21
Having an extra dagger does make sense in context - in a battle, loosing a dagger that you're constantly using is fairly likely, especially if you have to throw it (and yes, if it's a case of 'throw your weapon or die', you're going to throw the weapon). As such, she's going to use something other than her super-fancy dagger if possible. Also, since when have assassins only carried a single dagger? The more the merrier in this case – Mithrandir24601 May 04 '19 at 19:46

galacticninja · Answer 4 · 2019-04-29T08:39:12.380

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It's a Dragonglass Spear according to the HBO - Making Game of Thrones website. As of S08E03, "The Long Night", it is shown to be a spear with a dragonglass head at both ends and can be separated in the middle to be two shorter spears.

edited Apr 29 '19 at 08:39

answered Apr 27 '19 at 03:22

galacticninja

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score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 16 '19 at 07:43

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While i cannot be certain, it appears it may be an Atl-atl or a Spear Thrower

The user holders on end using a lever or rope to then propel the spear faster and further. the spear itself is shorter and expendable so perhaps that is what she wants. the design doesn't look quite right for one but it looks similar at least

I'll be honest its a bit of a stretch but it was what first came to my mind when i saw it

answered Apr 16 '19 at 07:43

Blade Wraith

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I hope so.....! – josh Apr 16 '19 at 08:54
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Something like that could theoretically be rather useful for taking down an undead dragon. – T.E.D. Apr 16 '19 at 13:38

score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 16 '19 at 11:20

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I'm pretty sure it's a rope dart with a handle and she just didn't include the rope part as she'll add that herself

answered Apr 16 '19 at 11:20

Tom Norman

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What is Arya's weapon design?

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