In George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” Arya Stark also lost her eyesight not through a punishment but as part of her training to become a Faceless Man.
However, in the popular TV series, her blinding came as a punishment for killing somebody out of anger and revenge, which the Faceless Men do not do. They kill because death is a gift and their idea is that a painless death is almost like letting people go.
In the Season 5 finale, Arya did not deal death to Meryn Trant as a gift but for herself, cites showrunner David Benioff.
It is likely that Arya would remain blind for the most part of the show’s Season 6 as actress Maisie Williams recently posted on her Instagram account the difficulties of wearing contacts. She captioned the image by saying that it was an aftermath of blind contacts, showing herself lying in bed and wearing cooling pads under her eyes.
During an interview in June, Maisie said that blindness will indeed impede Arya’s character and her plans so she is going to be vulnerable, citing that it would be both exciting and scary. She also said that she does not want to wear those crazy contacts for the rest of her time on “Game of Thrones.”