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asprettyasyourown · 8 years

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The Importance of Arya Stark

Analysis and conjectures

OH. MY. GOD. I can’t believe that the fandom, even after seeing Arya walk out of the House of Black and White in the show, still thinks she will die or disappear trying to be a Faceless Man. Come on people !!!

Let me be clear : Arya’s fate is not to be forgotten. Neither by her family, neither by the readers, and dare I say, not by anyone ever.

First of all, Arya is a hugely important character. She’s one of the first created. She’s one of the Big Five for god’s sake ! George knows what her fate will be since the beginning, and I can guarantee you, it is not to die in a corner like a common street dog.

“Some major characters — yes, I always had plans, what Tyrion’s arc was gonna be through this, what Arya’s arc was gonna be through this, what Jon Snow’s arc is gonna be.” [x]

You seriously think that he planned for one of his favourite characters from the beginning to die as a nobody ? (When asked he said : “She [Arya] was one of my favorites right from the beginning. I mean people often ask me who’s my favorite character and my answer is always Tyrion but Arya is probably the second favorite. It’s pretty close. She’s always a joy to write." [x]. She’s also his wife’s favourite - so much that she threatened to divorce him if something happened to her !)

George is nothing but a planner. He "knew what the principal deaths were gonna be, and when they were coming” [x]. We joke that he kills way too many characters, but the truth is, his deaths have meanings. Ned’s death was the spark that started the War of the Five Kings. Robb’s was a deconstruction of the myth of the dashing young king out there to avenge his family and bring peace to the realm. Catelyn’s was to allow Lady Stoneheart to exist, and show the futility and destruction of a revenge-driven character.

And, in some cases, these deaths were there to further another (more important) character’s storyline and personal evolution : thus Khal Drogo and her child’s happened so Daenerys could hatch her dragons and realize her power without the influence of a man. If Robb hadn’t died Sansa would probably never have left King’s Landing (hoping he would rescue her) and wouldn’t learn the schemings of politics with Littlefinger, Bran wouldn’t join Bloodraven and wouldn’t be becoming a “god” and, let’s be honest, Arya wouldn’t have left Westeros if there had been the slightest chance of her reuniting with him and Catelyn - and thus wouldn’t have joined the Faceless Men and wouldn’t be learning their secrets. Deaths are important in a story. What would Arya’s bring ? Nothing.

In terms of numbers, Arya is the female character with the most chapters and the third overall, after Tyrion and Jon. She’s the only one who has a POV in every novel, and one of the only three, along with Dany and Jon, to have a picture in The World of Ice and Fire. George regularly brings her up in interviews, even when the topic apparently doesn’t have to do with her. She is so prominent that other important characters - namely Sansa - were created as a foil for her !

“Arya was one of the first characters created. Sansa came about as a total opposite because too many of the Stark family members were getting along and families aren’t like that. Thus, Sansa was created.” [x]

In a story with so many characters, so many points of view, why would he waste so many chapters for a character that is meant to die uselessly ?

Still not convinced ? OK, let me tell you why Arya Stark is a fucking crucial character in terms of storyline.

The Faceless Men

First of all, the Faceless Men matter. I can’t believe you guys still think she will stay (or worse, die) there ! You saw her walk out in the show ! What is wrong with you !

It’s like, a given she will not stay with the Faceless Men. First, because she is a terrible one. We know that the FM have to get rid of their ancient identities, for the sake of becoming a blank page and get new ones. And Arya cannot for the sake of her life do that.

"Who are you?" he would ask her every day."No one," she would answer, she who had been Arya of House Stark, Arya Underfoot, Arya Horseface. She had been Arry and Weasel too, and Squab and Salty, Nan the cupbearer, a grey mouse, a sheep, the ghost of Harrenhal... but not for true, not in her heart of hearts. In there she was Arya of Winterfell, the daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn, who had once had brothers named Robb and Bran and Rickon, a sister named Sansa, a direwolf called Nymeria, a half brother named Jon Snow. In there she was someone... but that was not the answer that he wanted.” [AFFC, Arya II]

“Try as she might, though, she could not rid herself of Arya.” [AFFC, Cat of the Canals]

She tries though. She tries so hard, but no matter what she does, Arya always comes back. You can see it in the way she justifies killing this old man in her first assassination (”Why should he have so many years when my father had so few?” [ADWD, The Ugly Little Girl]). You can see it when she kills Daeron, because he was a man of the Night’s Watch and he deserted and it is the Starks’ duty to kill their deserters. You can see it when she kills Raff, though he has done nothing - yet - to Mercy (”See? thought Mercy. You know your line, and so do I. "Think so?" asked Arya, sweetly.” [TWOW, Mercy]). You can see it in the way the “wolf dreams” (aka her bond with Nymeria) will not leave her alone (”I should not be dreaming wolf dreams, the girl told herself. I am a cat now, not a wolf. I am Cat of the Canals. The wolf dreams belonged to Arya of House Stark.” [AFFC, Cat of the Canals]). And ultimately, you can see it in the way she desperately cannot get rid of Needle, the last thread that links her to her family, to Jon Snow.

“It’s just a sword,” she said, aloud this time…

…but it wasn’t.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell’s grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan’s stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow’s smile. He used to mess my hair and call me “little sister,” she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

Polliver had stolen the sword from her when the Mountain’s men took her captive, but when she and the Hound walked into the inn at the crossroads, there it was. The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father’s gods, the old gods of the north. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can’t have this. [AFFC, Arya II]

Arya is not losing her identity. She physically cannot. She’s leaving the Faceless Men, pretty soon I guess. Whether it’s because killing Raff was the last straw for the Kindly Man, or learning that Jeyne had to impersonate her, or hearing about the “death” of Jon Snow ; but she is definitively walking out of there.

Ok, now that this matter is closed : what could Arya possibly do then ?

It always surprise me how little consideration people give to Arya in terms of what her role will be in the story. They act like we have little clues, when in truth we have so many it’s hard to guess !

Wolves

The most obvious - in my opinion - is that Arya will reunite with Nymeria. I mean, she has dream/she wargs into her a lot, as far as in the chapter of TWOW, and Nymeria is one of the things that keeps Arya from loosing her identity. And she is currently leading a giant pack of wolves in the Riverlands who, according to our dear George, is one of the Chekhov’s guns ready to go off in the later books.

"You know, I don't like to give things away." says Martin, a grin spreading across his face. "But you don't hang a giant wolf pack on the wall unless you intend to use it." [x]

It’s worth noting that George absolutely adores wolves. He gave a lot of money to charities for them. There’s a reason why he gave the Starks children wolves, and not say shadowcats (that would have been cool too) or giraffes (kidding). There’s no way he’s gonna let them roam the Riverlands “unused”. Plus, Arya is the one Stark sibling who identifies and is identified as a wolf the most (some nicknames include “wolf pup” (from Catelyn), “she-wolf” and “wolf-bitch” (from Sandor)).

So what are there for ? The most common explanation - to which I agree - is that they will have a role in the war with the Others. I doubt they will be involved in the battle for Winterfell (because I don’t think Arya will be there yet when it happens). And though I would love Ramsay to be torn apart by her pack (it would so poetic and satisfying : Ramsay, who likes to hunt women with his dogs and who treated “Arya” so badly, to get the same treatment by the real Arya) I have a feeling he will already be dead when she gets to Winterfell (unless he escapes ?).

But the wolf pack will need someone to lead them. They will not enter the battle of their own volition. Nymeria might be swift and strong and smart, she is still an animal. Someone has to think strategy to make the most of their abilities. And since Nymeria is their Alpha, that means Arya will be as well.

Magic

Arya has a strong connection to magic. She :

- wargs into Nymeria, something she’s amazingly powerful at, since she’s warging into her when she’s a continent away ! and without even the training Bran has !

- wargs into cats, when it is said they are one of the most difficult beings to warg into (because they have such independant minds) ; even Bran had trouble warging into something else than Summer at first, and he’s the most powerful of the Stark kids. She manages to do it without thinking and knowing what she is doing.

- witnesses the magic of the Faceless Men, a magic that she accepts incredibly well, not thinking it’s unatural and terrifying like most people but fascinating.

While the War of the Five Kings was purely military, I doubt that will be the case for the one with the Others. They’re supernatural beings after all. People will need all the help they can get, and magic users will be incredibly useful. I will not be surprised if people name her The Wolf Witch.

All that leads me to...

Dragons

There are SO MANY hints about dragons in Arya’s storyline ! From the first book where she finds the dragons’ skulls in King’s Landing’s basement (and thinking of them as “old friends”) to her “I would like to see a dragon” in her last TWOW chapter, Arya is heavily foreshadowed with dragons. For me, it means three things :

Arya will meet Dany, and team up with her. These two have so many common points : exiled princesses, lived in poverty and amongst the people, easily underestimated, champions of the smallfolk, kind, brave,... (I made this gifset about their similarities, and it doesn’t even cover everything they share !). I think they’re gonna be great friends. Arya will really admire her - she loves stories of conquering queens, as with Nymeria’s - and Dany will feel protective of Arya, this child who went through so much (also I really think Dany needs a female friend who is not her subordinate, like Irri and co.) Arya needs a female role model who doesn’t conform to the patriarcal standards of Westeros (like Catelyn or Sansa), and Dany needs someone who can advise her truthfully on people, without sugarcoating the truth (and since Arya is a great judge of character, I think the job will fall on her). And they’re currently on the same continent !

Arya will be the one to tell Dany about the truth of her father, or at least what happened to the Starks. Dany, thanks to Viserys, has this really idealized view of her father. She thinks Robert Baratheon usurped the throne not because he reacted to Aerys’ tyranny but out of sheer lust for power. She still thinks Ned Stark was his “dog” that helped steal their power. Someone needs to tell her the truth about what really happened, how Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and Aerys killed Rickard and Brandon. Since Barristan is too much of a Targaryen loyalist who will likely never break her the truth, I think Arya can very much be the one to do so (Tyrion would be the other option, but I think it would have less impact than from someone whose family is actually the one that was affected by the actions of her father and brother). This will probably rough things up between them, but Dany is not stupid : she is able to reassess her views of the world if proven wrong.

Arya will warg into one of the dragons. Let’s be honest, Viserion and Rhaegal are feral now. Poor things have been locked in the dark for weeks. They will need to be controlled. Though I don’t think Arya is one of the three-headed riders, I do think she will warg into them to, let’s not say “break their minds” but at least make them used to the feeling of being warged into. Now since Jon is probably one of the three-headed dragons, and since he is not their mother and does not have the same control (out of affection) that Dany has with them, he will probably have to warg to control his dragon. But Jon is definitively not powerful enough to control it on the first try. That’s where Arya comes into play. We already know she is powerful enough to warg into Nymeria when she’s leagues away, and she has no difficulty warging into other animals. Though I suppose warging a dragon is much more difficult than warging a cat, I do think she will be up to the task. Maybe she’ll even get to ride him ! (P.S : I say “them” but that’s mostly because I don’t know if Rhaegal or Viserion will be Jon’s dragon. I actually believe the theory that one of the dragons will be stolen by Euron.)

The Hardhome theory

That theory was first brought by Harlaw’s Book The Sequel on Westeros.org ; you can read it here if you want a more detailled analysis. Basically, we know from Jon’s chapters that wildlings have been stuck at Hardhome. A wood witch told them ships would go to their rescue ; when they saw them coming, the men sent their women and children to be saved first. But the ships were in truth pirates, who roped them up and meant to sell them in Lys when a storm broke out and parted them. One of the ships had to anchor at Braavos.

(Seriously, go read the original theory, it’s much more detailed.)

So. A bunch of enslaved wildlings women and children (northerners) are waiting in Braavos (a city created by former slaves) and Arya, who absolutely cares for the smallfolk, who makes friends with lowborns and highborns alike, who yelled that the masters should have been killed instead of the slave when the Kindly Man told her the story of the first Faceless Man, this Arya will do nothing ?

(Oh ! Eh ! Another parallel with Dany, her leading women and children and protecting them !)

The Riverlands

Man, that’s a big chunk of her story. I’m absolutely convinced Arya will have to go back to the Riverlands. First, because that’s where Nymeria and her pack are. And since they haven’t left this place since book 1 when Arya made Nymeria run away, I don’t see why they would suddenly go North on their own, where there’s scare game and it’s much colder. No, Arya will have to go get Nymeria herself - and show her that she didn’t want to get rid of her because she didn’t like her anymore, but for her own protection.

Secondly, because that’s where Lady Stoneheart and The Brotherhood Without Banners (and Gendry) are.

Lady Stoneheart : this, this is a heartbreaking story. Arya spent much of the third book trying to get back to her mother, only to get so close and see her slaughtered almost virtually in front of her. Then, to top that, she dragged her body from the waters through Nymeria. (Not cool George. Can’t you give the girl a break ?) Arya reuniting with her mother would fit George’s thread of “Be careful what you wish for” - like Sansa and Cersei wanting to be queen or Arya wanting to have adventures. Arya will reunite with her mother... but is she, really, anymore ? Catelyn has become this vengeful shell of her previous self, and despite what the fandom thinks, nothing in Arya is about revenge. Plus, there’s this whole “gift of mercy” philosophy that Sandor taught her, and that haven’t come into play yet. And now, Catelyn is suffering. I’m pretty sure Arya is the one who will kill her for good, both as a way to stop her and to give herself closure. (And, what is more heartbreaking, LS getting killed by Jaime, her official ennemy, or her own daughter ?)

The Brotherhood Without Banners : right now, the BWB is on a dark path as well. Some of that may be attributed to LS but they also lost faith in their cause - protecting the people from the damages of the highlords’ games. Honestly, they basically became a common band of outlaws, out for themselves more than anything (which is I think one of the reasons Gendry is so angry, besides Arya’s disappearance). I think Arya will be appalled by what they have become, and try (unconsciously or not) to get them back on the right track. Because, who better than Arya, one of the only highborns in the series to really care about the smallfolk to remind them of what they fought for in the first place ?

Gendry : Aaah, Gendry. The poor guy has had it hard too. First he joins the BWB because he believed in their cause, because he knows how little the nobility cares for the likes of him ; but they become this revenge-driven band who don’t care for anything beside themselves. Then his friend, the girl he admires, the girl he opened to when you have to beat him over the head to get the slightest scrap, the girl he was probably in love with, disappears, kidnapped by a man whose reputation as a brutal killer is well renowed - and worse, he thinks it’s his fault. I mean, he feels so guilty he stayed at the last place Arya was seen, protecting a bunch of orphans not so different of him and Arya. George wouldn’t have brought him back in AFFC if he didn’t have a role to play in the story (which he confirmed he will [x]).

And finally : I’m pretty sure Arya will run into her great-uncle (I think ?) Brynden Rivers in the Riverlands.

So, this is a personal theory of mine but it seems plausible enough for me to give it a shot. When I read AFFC, this line made me pause :

"After the trouble Ser Brynden took to leave us, I doubt that he'll come skulking back." Unless it is at the head of a band of outlaws.He did not doubt that the Blackfish meant to continue the fight.” [AFFC, Jaime VII]

The Blackfish isn’t dead, that’s for sure. And he doesn’t intend to give up Riverrun without a fight. My theory is he will run into Lady Stoneheart (another heartwrecking moment) and her part of the BWB. Whether he will take the lead is yet to be seen (I don’t think he will as long as LS is alive) but I really do think he will tag along. Arya will meet him when she runs into them later ; there was already a talk of them meeting in ASOS :

Lord Beric paid no heed to her outburst. "My lady," he said with weary courtesy, "would you know your grandfather's brother by sight? Ser Brynden Tully, called the Blackfish? Would he know you, perchance?" Arya shook her head miserably. She had heard her mother speak of Ser Brynden Blackfish, but if she had ever met him herself it had been when she was too little to remember. [ASOS, Arya VIII]

He could be her advisor like he was for Robb, or like Barristan is for Dany.

And after that, who knows ? I guess she could run into some lords of the Riverlands (including her uncle Edmure), who would support her claim to Winterfell once it revealed who fake!Arya really is, and if none of her brothers is revealed to be alive by this time. Since she witnessed firsthand the horrors inflicted to their people, she could get some sympathy points if she says how she wishes to protect them. Or they could try to use her to get ahold of Winterfell and the North through her, like the Manderlys are trying to with Rickon or Littlefinger with Sansa. And the Blackfish could help her naviguate these dangerous waters (ah !) by advising her, since he knows the lords of the Riverlands much better than her - with her own training helping her as well. I don’t have enough evidences to 100% support this theory, but it is as plausible as another.

Leadership

Of all the Stark kids, Arya seems to be the less connected to politics and leadership. Robb was King in the North, Jon is Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and the legal heir of Robb’s will, Bran is heir/Prince of Winterfell (and the North), Rickon has the Manderlys searching for him in hope to get him on the throne, and Sansa has Littlefinger rallying the Vale to support her claim. Arya, on the other hand, has spent years hiding among commoners, believed dead by almost everyone who could help her reclaim her identity.

And yet... Arya's storyline is filled with leadership symbolisms and queen references. Much more than it would be for a simple coincidence.

1. Nymeria

It has been established that the Stark kids and their direwolves are basically one soul in two bodies. They have most certainly been sent by the Old Gods to protect them ; but their significance runs a little deeper. Each direwolf is a “part” of their master, as Catelyn said (”He is part of you, Robb. To fear him is to fear you.” [ASOS, Catelyn II]).

So what is the significance of Nymeria for Arya ?

First of all, let’s take a look on the name itself. Arya is the only one of her siblings to have named her wolf after not a concept but an historical figure, a real person. And not any one : Nymeria, the Rhoynar queen who led thousands of her people to safety. The parallels between her and Arya are numerous. They’re both women in a position of command (I’ll get to that later for Arya), leading their people to safety ; they both have a deep connection to water ; and they’re both seen as warriors when really, their strengths lie elsewhere, in their cunning and their determination and their love for their people/pack.

So. Not only Nymeria (the direwolf) is named after a character known for leading and protecting thousands of people, she does that herself. She is actually roaming the Riverlands at the head of a pack of hundreds of wolves, wrecking havoc on the Lannister’s and Frey’s forces. Nymeria has become the alpha of her pack with surprising ease - mirroring Arya’s natural ability to make friends and loyalists amongst the people she meets.

Indeed, Arya has a natural ability to make people loyal to her, and to turn foes into friends. That’s the case with Hot Pie and Lommy, who tried to bully her at first - but they became, especially Hot Pie, fiercely fond of her (one of the few things the show did right was that scene with him, Brienne and Pod, where he wouldn’t betray her even if he didn’t know if she was dead or not). Once Yoren is killed, or when they escape Harrenhal and they find themselves on their own, Arya takes the leader’s role without a pip from the others, even though she is younger and a girl to top that.

2. The qualities of a great leader

And why would they complain ? Throughout the series, Arya displays numerous qualities that make her a great leader. She’s an excellent judge of character - needed when naviguating in politics -, she’s smart, logical, practical. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths. But she’s also kind, protective, and most importantly, absolutely uninterested in getting power. Arya doesn’t care about power, and that means her primary goal would be to protect her people.

It has been asserted countless times, both through words and actions, that Arya cares a great deal about the smallfolk. She had a special relationship with them since she was a little girl.

Arya had loved nothing better than to sit at her father’s table and listen to them talk. She had loved listening to the men on the benches too; to freeriders tough as leather, courtly knights and bold young squires, grizzled old men-at-arms. She used to throw snowballs at them and help them steal pies from the kitchen. Their wives gave her scones and she invented names for their babies and played monsters-and-maidens and hide-the-treasure and come-into-my-castle with their children. [AGOT, Arya II]

She befriends a lot of them, and treats them as equals. When Mycah is killed she’s the only one who really mourns him, and whose fate is more than a passing thought. She witnesses (and experiments) the lack of consideration the smallfolk gets, how little their lives mean for the highlords. But Arya cares. And you know what have been consistently defined as a good leader ?

"A good lord comforts and protects the weak and helpless," [Maester Luwin] told the Freys. [ACOK, Bran II]

"A queen must listen to all," she reminded him. "The highborn and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found." [ASOS, Daenerys I]

This is a philosophy that have been ingrained in Arya (in all the Stark kids, really) all her life, seeded by her father and his ruling. Ned took more time teaching his sons than his daughters (as was expected of him, and Catelyn to the girls) but Arya picked a lot more of his lessons than she should have.

“Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. “Know the men who follow you,” she heard him tell Robb once, “and let them know you. Don’t ask your men to die for a stranger.” [AGOT, Arya II]

“Whenever her father had condemned a man to death, he did the deed himself with Ice, his greatsword. “If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him go look him in the face and hear his last words,” she’d heard him tell Robb and Jon once.” [ACOK, Arya VII]

Ned’s teachings have a deep impact on Arya and her decisions, way more than Catelyn’s (who should have been her main role model, like she’s Sansa’s) ; and it shows in how she fiercely cares about the people she feels entitled to protect, no matter how lowborn they are.

Arya took the lead, kicking her stolen horse to a brisk heedless trot until the trees close in around her. Hot Pie and Gendry followed as best they could. […] From time to time Arya glanced over her shoulder, to make sure the two boys had not fallen too far behind, and to see if they were being pursued. [ASOS, Arya I]

It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that they had Gendry. Even if he was stubborn and stupid, she had to get him out. [ACOK, Arya V]

Also, let’s take a look at this quote :

Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.” [ADWD, Kevan]

Replace “Aegon” by “Arya” and there’s literally no difference, nothing she doesn’t fit. She has been trained in arms (waterdancing + whatever training the FM gave her). Her highborn education ensured she can read and write and knows history and poetry (maybe laws too). She knows how to speak the common tongue, but also braavosi, high valyrian and the dialects of Lys and Pentos. We know Arya favors the Old Gods, but Catelyn must have ensured she knew about the Faith of the Seven too. She has lived with commoners, cooked, bound up wounds,... She has been hunted and hungry and afraid.

Every point of this list can be applied to Arya. Actually, I think it is even more relevant to her than to Aegon ! (Come on, the boy was under Illyrio’s protection for decades, with Jon Connington and Duck to protect him, in case the false death wasn’t enough. I highly doubt he has ever been hunted or starving in his entire life.)

So, if Aegon is supposed to be the Perfect King™, what does it make Arya ? A Perfect Queen™ ? Wait...

3. Queen references

For someone apparently so removed from anything political (she’s actually way more involved than given credit, but it is a topic I will not delve into here), Arya has an awful lot of queen references in her narrative :

- her direwolf is named after “the warrior queen of the Rhoyne”, and like her, is leading hundreds in her own right - she’s not the Alpha’s mate, she’s the Alpha, period.

(Also :

Robb was calling his Grey Wind, because he ran so fast. Sansa had named hers Lady, and Arya named hers after some old witch queen in the songs, and little Rickon called his Shaggydog, which Bran thought was a pretty stupid name for a direwolf. Jon's wolf, the white one, was Ghost. [AGOT, Bran II]

Arya’s direwolf is the only one to not be named specifically. The emphasis is not on the name there, but on the concept, the “witch queen”.)

- in No Featherbed For Me - a song GRRM composed exclusively for Arya, since it doesn’t appear anywhere else but in her chapter - this line is intriguing :

“My featherbed is deep and soft, and there I’ll lay you down, I’ll dress you all in yellow silk and on your head a crown. For you shall be my lady love, and I shall be your lord. I’ll always keep you warm and safe, and guard you with my sword. And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the tree. She spun away and said to him, no featherbed for me. I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves, and bind my hair with grass, But you can be my forest love, and me your forest lass.”

Now, we can read that the maiden “spunning away” means she is rejecting that life. I choose to read it as her refusing to be coddled by a man, instead making her own choices in how she wants to live her life ; not necessarily refusing to become queen, and if she does so, it will be on her own terms and volition.

- Ned also offers several times where he severely stans for Queen!Arya. The first one is when he’s talking with Catelyn about Sansa’s betrothal :

“Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King’s Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me.” [AGOT, Catelyn II]

The second one is about Arya’s future :

Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon." [AGOT, Eddard V]

These two quotes stand out. At that point of the series, Joffrey is the only heir to the throne available, there is no suspicions about his parentage (from Ned at least). And Sansa is the one expected to marry him. Why talk about “queens” on plural, and tell Arya she will marry a king ? He’s not trying to cheer her up, because he knows his daughter well enough to know that’s not the kind of things she dreams about.

Compare this to the conversation he has with Sansa, when he tells her they have to go back to Winterfell and she can’t marry Joffrey anymore :

“Sweet one,” her father said gently, “listen to me. When you’re old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who’s worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong.” [AGOT, Sansa III]

You would think Sansa gets the king and Arya the high lord, no ?

We can assume it’s a simple mistake... yet I highly doubt so. First of all, because these quotes both take place in AGOT, right when he started the books ; GRRM still had the original endings in mind. Then you could argue that time has passed, and he probably changed them... I don’t think so either.

David Abraham is the writer working on the graphic novels. He thus work closely with GRRM (even lives in the same neighborhood). He said about the “you will marry a king” line :

Have you collaborated at all with George R.R. Martin in the process of adapting the novel to comics? If so, what’s the creative process there?

I’ve spoken to George a lot in the process. The biggest issues we have are continuity questions. There are things about this story that only he knows, and they aren’t all obvious. There was one scene I had to rework because there’s a particular line of dialog – and you wouldn’t know it to look at – that’s important in the last scene of “A Dream of Spring.” [x]

Now, the first comic book came out in 2012. Assuming it would take roughly a year for Abraham to write the script, we can say with certainty that GRRM’s intentions about that line didn’t change from 1996 to 2011. Plus, since it doesn’t appear in the first issue - probably in the fourth or fifth, and those two came out respectively in 2014 and 2015, he then still didn’t change his mind about it. That’s barely two years ago. I would be very surprised if they changed in this laps of time.

Third objection you may have : Arya’s reaction when presented with this scenario.

Arya screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa."

Of which I will respond : of course she says that ! Arya is a little girl who wants adventures, and whose insecurities ensure she would never see herself in the role of the beautiful queen. “That’s Sansa” refers both to the fact that she is the one who wants babies and sit quietly and be pretty (and who is expected to), and to Arya’s belief that she is not good enough to play that role.

But let’s take a look at two other instances where this kind of, let’s say “strangely timed quotes” appear :

“King,” croaked the raven. The bird flapped across the solar to land on Mormont’s shoulder. “King,” it said again, strutting back and forth.“He likes that word,” Jon said, smiling.“An easy word to say. An easy word to like.”“King,” the bird said again.“I think he means for you to have a crown, my lord.” [ACOK, Jon I]

Of course Jon will object to becoming a King. He’s a bastard, he has been taught all his life he would never get anything. He already feels incredibly guilty when he thinks about how he wants Winterfell, he wouldn’t dare imagine ruling the North. Yet the show made it that way... Why ? It could be one of their decisions that drift off the original endings, but Jon is one of their favourite. I don’t think they would pass on something this big for him.

Second quote :

And once my sister Rhae put a love potion in my drink, so I’d marry her instead of my sister Daella.” (…) “Did the potion work?” Dunk asked. “It would have,” said Egg, “but I spit it out. I don’t want a wife, I want to be a knight of the Kingsguard, and live only to serve and defend the king. The Kingsguard are sworn not to wed.” [The Sword Knight]

Egg too wanted to be something else than a king growing up, yet he became one (and may I add, him and Arya have a lot in common too, their love for their people being only the top of the iceberg).

So. That’s two instances of GRRM announcing the character’s fate, that is brushed away by the character himself and BAM! it turns out it happens anyway.

- This quote :

The girl smiled in a way that reminded Jon so much of his little sister that it almost broke his heart. The snowflakes were melting on her cheeks, but her hair was wrapped in a swirl of lace that Satin had found somewhere, and the snow had begun to collect there, giving her a frosty crown. Her cheeks were flushed and red, and her eyes sparkled. [ADWD, Jon X]

Alys has been repeatedly said by Jon to look and act like his little sister. How about she is a personification of Arya, crowned by snow symbolical of the North ? It would be crowning her itself, which would make sense because she’s, with Jon, the Stark kid that embodies the most northern values, and, in my opinion, the North itself.

- This other quote :

Gendry was the closest thing to a man grown, but it was Willow shouting all the orders, as if she were a queen in her castle and the other children were no more than servants. If she were highborn, command would come naturally to her, and deference to them. Brienne wondered whether Willow might be more than she appeared. The girl was too young and too plain to be Sansa Stark, but she was of the right age to be the younger sister, and even Lady Catelyn had said that Arya lacked her sister's beauty.[AFFC, Brienne VII]

Willow and Arya also share common traits, things that Brienne - who never met Arya - cannot know. They’re about the same age, with almost the same coloring. They’re both brave, headstrong, protective, and assume the leadership of their “pack”.

So. Interesting that most of the people who have been mistaken for Arya (save Jeyne) have a line about being a queen.

- And finally, Emilia Clarke herself said the one worthy of the Iron Throne would be Arya. (What do you mean it’s not relevant ?)

So, let me laugh when I see people saying she will end up dead or in a position of servitude. You can interpret these as you want but you cannot look me in the eyes and tell me Arya is not destined to greatness ? That her role will consist of being someone’s pet, doing what others tell her to do without a word ? It has been made clear by now that it’s against her character in her core. Arya Stark is a character who draws loyalty like she breathes, and who more than once assume the role of a leader. You won’t tell me this won’t come into play later.

Ok, that was a tad long but now you cannot say there’s nothing planned for Arya outside the Faceless Men, especially considering all the directions I didn’t explore :

The Battle of the Dawn : as one of the Big Five, Arya will have a role in the battle against the Others, something that will I presume involve Nymeria and her skills in leadership. I could see her as a strategist commander, much like Queen Nymeria - her being the only Stark kid, apart from Jon, to have witnessed and been a part of battles (about which she made astute comments like “Arya hated being left behind like she was some stupid child, but at least Gendry had been kept back as well. She knew better than to try and argue. This was battle, and in battle you had to obey.”, or “She loved swordfighting, but she could see how arrows were good too.” This girl has a real knack for strategy.)

Dark Sister : the lost sword of Visenya Targaryen. While it has been wielded by men before, it was designed for a woman’s hand. It was last seen belonging to Brynden Rivers, aka Bloodraven who look ! is alive ! and teaching Arya’s brother ! It would be fitting if Arya ended wielding her against the Others. Also look at the name : Dark Sister. It fits Arya like a glove.

The Stark look : Jon and Arya are the only ones to have inherited the grey eyes and brown hair of the Starks. For Jon, it’s certainly a proof of R+L=J... But what about Arya ? Her likeness with Lyanna, that have been repeatedly asserted throughout the books (so far as in ADWD), cannot be emphasized for the sole purpose of proving Jon’s parentage. I’m guessing it has something to do with her and Jon being King and Queen ? Of course for now it is just conjecture.

Arya’s beauty : Arya is definitively growing into her looks (you can go there and there for more informations). Arya has the Ugly Duckling trope going on (btw, the swan is another symbol or royalty -> another hint at Arya becoming queen ?), and there’s no way this won’t come into play later. And I think the courtesans of Braavos will be a part of that. After all, one the options the Kindly Man offers when he tries to get rid of Arya is to make her a courtesan (he thus obviously think her beautiful enough, and they’re among the most beautiful women of Essos, if tales are to be believed). My money would be on either the Merling Queen, who takes young girls about Arya’s age to assist her, or, even more likely, the Black Pearl (not the ship) that Arya met in person in AFFC when she bought her cockles and that we encountered again in The Winds of Winter, when she escort Harys Swyft to the play. Seeing how GRRM clearly set Arya as a Femme Fatale type of figure in Mercy, I think - this does not delight me but it is plausible - that she will have some kind of training by either one of them.

The Iron Bank of Braavos : it was said in her first chapter that Arya was good with numbers and the managing of a household. She’s good with money. She has the same reasoning than Littlefinger, consisting of using competent people rather than naming whoever can bring the most benefits. She’s currently in Braavos, knows the language perfectly... How could she not deal with them ?

Foreshadowing : there’s a lot of them, of course, but this sentence always puzzled me : “If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself. And if it was true, I’d just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan’s stories, dragons and seamonsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn’t ever fly back unless I wanted to.” [ACOK, Arya X]. There’s obviously a reference to dragons and Braavos, but what about the seamonsters ? My take on this (but I could be wrong) is that Arya will encounter a Greyjoy, possibly Euron, while traveling with Dany ; after all, she has a strong connection to water throughout the books. I think (emphasis on the “I”) that she will see right through Euron’s attempts at seduction on Dany, see him for the monster he really is, but she won’t listen to her and this will cause a feud between them. But Dany will ultimately see reason too, and they’ll reconcile. But again, I could be wrong, this is pure conjecture. I have almost no proof of that.

I am done. I applaud you if you stayed til here ! But I felt necessary for this meta to be this long. Too many people reduce Arya to this shell of her character, blatantly ignoring all the possibilities her narrative offers. I may have gone off road for a few of these hypothesis, but honestly, I don’t see them less plausible than a lot of what runs around.

Arya is crucial for the story. That may not be crystal clear at the moment, because she’s in training and not involved much in the main narrative (but neither are Sansa and Bran btw). But I can guarantee you, her role is far from done. On the contrary. It’s just about to begin.

If a twelve years-old has to conquer the world, then so be it. [x]

#asoiaf meta #arya stark #asoiaf #meta #mine #that one was a bitch to write #but i wanted to do it for a long time now #the title sucks tho

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