There’s no room on the bus for whining about lighting or the minimal number of major character deaths. It’s Arya Day, and this Metrobus knows it.
Politico reporter Daniel Strauss headed to work this morning ready to do battle with his coworkers who didn’t like last night’s epic episode of Game of Thrones (they’re wrong, for the record). He was about to board the D2, per usual, when he spotted a timely update to the digital sign below the windshield. The four digits were replaced with the only name that matters.
Arya—first of her name, killer of the Night King, savior of the Seven Kingdoms—has extremely earned one-name status.
Strauss asked if the driver was a Game of Thrones fan: “He said, ‘This is about the episode last night.’ We smiled and that was it.”
The episode, of course, being the one where humanity is about to be wiped out by a zombie army that until now has been a looming subplot. That is, until highly effective assassin Arya Stark slays (literally and figuratively) the Night King.
While the sign didn’t appear to generate an inter-bus fight about the merits of the Battle of Winterfell, the driver told Strauss that he wasn’t the first person to notice and snap a photo.
A Metro spokesperson was unable to immediately say what the numbers normally are or the process by which they are changed.
Game of Thrones is regularly among the top-watched shows in the District—to the point that your super-fandom is apparently an asset in D.C.’s dating world.
“D.C. really does stop to watch to watch this show,” says Strauss. “It’s kind of refreshing.”
And if you somehow needed any more proof: Politico has a Westeros Playbook.
Strauss says he’s more of a Tyrion fan, but he’s not mad about how the episode went down: “It was her time to shine.”
Rachel Sadon