10) Arya Stark
Actor: Maisie Williams
Show: Game of Thrones
Everyone’s been asked the same question: “Gun to your head, who’s your favorite Game of Thrones character?” So you should know my inner turmoil in selecting one of its enormously enjoyable female leads for this list, but Maisie Williams’ Dark Arya turn in the show’s otherwise inconsistent fifth season had me as enraptured with the series as any other year.
On her own and confused in the towering, mystical city of Braavos, Arya’s arc gave 2015 Game of Thrones its best WTF moments: washing the bodies of the dead, the Hall of Faces, and her eventual brutal assassination of Meryn Trant. Williams hopscotched down Arya’s badass-in-the-making origin story with true grit, never resorting to annoying kid precociousness and proving that a show as grand as this is still endlessly fueled by the “no ones” who populate its hellish world.