In the episode S06E08, No One, Arya defeats The Waif by taking advantage on her in fighting in the dark. But it seemed that The Waif were a more advanced acolyte than Arya was, so The Waif should have mastered the blind training too.
Arya disobedience induced here to follow the blind training sooner than planned, but blind training is part of the Faceless Men graduation anyway. So why isn't The Waif stronger than Arya in a blind fight?
Answer
Arya continued the blind training until she could hold her own against the (sighted) Waif while blind - they're now well matched when Arya is handicapped and the waif isn't. So:
- Blind Arya can beat sighted Waif. With Waif using sight and Arya using only other senses, it's a close fight Arya can win.
- Blind Arya has lots of experience fighting the Waif. She is finely attuned to the sounds and patterns of the Waif's movements
- The Waif has (presumably) also been trained to fight while blind, but has always fought Arya while sighted. She knows all the visual cues for Arya's particular moves - but they're useless here.
So, Arya's extensive experience of the Waif's fighting style is 100% useful here, but the Waif's specific experience of Arya's moves is much less useful in this fight.
Arya's fighting a familiar fight she's fought countless times, while the Waif is blind-fighting against Arya for the first (and last) time.
Arya's also using a weapon (Needle) she's got heaps of experience with, but which the Waif has never faced from Arya. This is a big deal not just because it'll be a different experience, but also because Arya is left handed (fun fact: actress Maisie Williams is right-handed but taught herself left-handed swordplay for this role) and the Waif has mostly fought Arya while she was using a two handed weapon.
In real-life fencing, left-handers are tricky to defend against because attacks are coming from less familiar angles. This must be harder still if unable to see.
So, things that give Arya an advantage:
- Her blind-fighting skills are fresh and sharp
- She's mastered anticipating the Waif's moves without sight
- She's using her favorite weapon (Needle)
- She's very familiar with this particular enclosed room, and can use the walls and furniture to her advantage
Things that may give the Waif a disadvantage:
- We don't know how recently she's used her blind fighting skills. Presumably she can do it well, but she's likely to have less recent experience and might be rusty
- All her experience fighting Arya was while sighted
- We don't know how recently she fought an opponent who was using Bravo-style swordplay. Presumably (living in Braavos) she's familiar with it, but she might be rusty
- She's in an enclosed space she doesn't know and can't see, which is likely to make her even more vulnerable
- All her experience fighting Arya was with a two-handed weapon. She's never seen the unique blend of Syrio-inspired water dancing, Hound-inspired brutal pragmatism and Waif-inspired minimalism that later on (beware small season 7 spoilers) we see that Arya had developed.
This reminds me of what Ned said to Jaime about why he never fights in tournaments (from this transcript):
...because when I fight a man for real, I don’t want him to know what I can do.
The waif is unarmoured, unprepared for this type of fight, on unfamiliar ground against an agile left-handed opponent she underestimated, who has a big sharp f*****g sword and remembers where the heart is.
Of course, as noted in a comment, Arya also has a massive fresh stomach wound that is probably infected from the stagnant, sewage-ridden city canal water she then swam in, plus the deadly fast-acting poison that the waif has unlimited access to and would surely have coated her dagger in as a matter of habit.
But, erm, that doesn't affect her fighting ability here because.... erm... Reasons
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