#he barely grieved hodor

[lagosbratzdoll]

bran is my second favourite asoiaf starkling and the way that #those men butchered him keeps me up at night. they took my sweet boy and turned him into a monosyllabic, inhuman, immortal god-king. and the fact that his siblings don't care. meera doesn't care. nobody really grieves for the boy who wanted to be a knight. the boy who wanted to repay the liddle. the boy who was sick of frogs. the boy who loved his siblings and missed them. the boy who put aside his desires to learn and grow. the boy who tried his best to be the stark in winterfell. the boy who kept forgetting to mark the tree. nobody grieved for the boy.

[witheredoffherwitch]

Hate to say it but if the writers go for Aemond and Helaena then all the changes they're making actually do make sense. If Helaena doesn't just stay in the keep then her being a dreamer gets expanded to the point that she could take up the seer role--- I think...she actually already is. I've lost all hope with Daeron. We knew this was coming. If he doesn't appear in season 2 then he might just as well don't---because why do Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White get more than time to be fleshed out than Daeron? The only explanation is Helaena and or Aemond getting his plot. Helaena already has dreamfyre---a formidable dragon and she has the best reason out of all the Greens to be a part of the Dance. I believe it was Hess who said that they want the show to be more about the women so I can't exactly be mad if Helaena does get her due.

by god if they cut out aemondcito just because aemond would already have children---whom he will be avenging I--- it does makes sense but does not mean we have to like it. I do wonder how they'll include him though because the show might just end with aegon iii's coronation---but queen of harrenhal plot happens in 132 AC after that. I just don't know at this point kind of losing hope

Hi nonnie,

I need to ask this time: what are 'all' the changes? Helaena was turned into a dreamer, but much has been altered for Aemond, Alicent, Rhaenyra and Aegon. Some for the worse! NOTHING about Helaena suggests that she will be a warrior: 1. she is neuro-divergent, 2. she speaks in cryptic sentences and 3. she mostly draws some hints for the upcoming events. She is in fact the least developed character out of all TG members. And now, we hear these conflicting reports of Helaena being relegated to a recurring character while both Tom and Ewan are billed in the main cast. If that is the case, even the 'dreamer' part will be downplayed! These showrunners would barely give her any scenes of mourning - and most of her 'dreamer' aspect will be reduced to her giving cryptic warnings to Rhaenyra about their potential future. This is bad news for all Helaena fans, as it appears that she will be used as a plot device rather than a proper flushed out character. We know that Helaena's death is important for Rhaenyra's arc (think Hodor to Bran), so there's little chance they will change it; this means she won't be participating in the battle.

Furthermore, we still don't know if Daeron leaks are true or not. Even if they are, his part will not be given to Helaena. It may even go to Aegon but Helaena's story arc in the show does not appear to be anything more than a dreamer, and her sole purpose during 'The Dance' will likely be that of a grieving mother. Plus, the introduction sequence has already revealed that Aegon fathered Helaena's children - so this should not even be a point of discussion. Basically, no one outside of the shippers believes these theories, which from your comments makes it sound like you're one of them. If you're interested in a more detailed explanation, take a look at this post.

If Aemondcito is removed from the show, it's not because Aemond already had three illegitimate children; it's because they decided to end Alys' story with Aemond's death in the battle above God's Eye. If you want to engage with this topic further, then you need to provide more proof for 'all' of the changes you're discussing here.

That's all! 🤗

[madaboutasoiaf]

For @canonaryastark: Favourite quote

I thought about this and quickly realised I didn’t want to pick just one favourite quote. There are so many that touch me, that really make me feel something, and I think I can do better justice to canon Arya by discussing favourites plural, rather than just the one quote. Instead I have chosen several quotes, or more correctly, several passages, because these passages are linked with themes in Arya’s story, and because they are really good.

The first is from when Arya is in Harrenhal, reeling from the news that Bran and Rickon might be dead, feeling powerless, and adrift. We have her thinking about Winterfell being burned, and essentially gone, and Arya’s doubts increasing now that her home is lost because home is what she has wanted so dearly.

If Winterfell is truly gone, is this my home now? Am I still Arya, or only Nan the serving girl, for forever and forever and forever?

She asks the question, and it is in the godswood at Harrenhal, when she prays to the old gods, that she receives the answer. Firstly:

...far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya’s skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy.

This alone is an answer. Arya has been feeling like a mouse, small and powerless, but she isn’t. She’s a Stark, a wolf, and in this moment she connects with Nymeria, the beginning of her warging into the direwolf, and the beginning of the bond that will ensure that no matter what she calls herself, no matter what is thrown at her, no matter what trial she endures, that identity cannot be taken from her.

Then to really hammer it home, the old gods speak to her.

“You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.” “The wolf blood.” Arya remembered now. “I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.” She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.

It is a reminder, but it’s also more than that. This moment is so powerful. It isn’t just about Arya’s identity, it’s about her connections. Her father is gone, but it is his voice she hears, and even with him being gone she is still a daughter of the north, still a Stark, still of Winterfell, wolf blooded, a direwolf and not just because it’s the sigil of her house. This moment empowers Arya, and it is a moment she will continue to draw strength from, that affirmation that she is a wolf, and that she can and will be strong in the face of adversity, even though she’s still only a little girl.

The passage continues, showing that the effects of her experience in the godswood stay with her.

That night she lay in her narrow bed upon the scratchy straw, listening to the voices of the living and the dead whisper and argue as she waited for the moon to rise. They were the only voices she trusted anymore. She could hear the sound of her own breath, and the wolves as well, a great pack of them now. They are closer than the one I heard in the godswood, she thought. They are calling to me.

Her connection to the wolves, to Nymeria will only get stronger from this point. She can hear them, a pack, calling to her, and it’s not in her head. Arya struggles with loneliness, and yearns for family, for a pack, and she has one with the wolves. This passage is the start of her realising this. Her bond with the direwolf, and reclaiming of her identity as a wolf, sets her on a course that will not only affect Arya herself, but impact Westeros even while Arya isn’t even on that continent.

Her warging of Nymeria doesn’t only provide her with a pack. It also serves to highlight Arya’s issues with loneliness, and feelings of abandonment.

That was the best part, the dreaming. She dreamed of wolves most every night. A great pack of wolves, with her at the head. She was bigger than any of them, stronger, swifter, faster. She could outrun horses and outfight lions. When she bared her teeth even men would run from her, her belly was never empty long, and her fur kept her warm even when the wind was blowing cold. And her brothers and sisters were with her, many and more of them, fierce and terrible and hers. They would never leave her.

That last part is telling. When Arya wargs into Nymeria she feels strong, no matter what position she herself is in. She also feels like she has family, a wolf family, brothers and sisters. Arya has lost family, lost her father, and then her mother, and she’s grieving for those losses and for the loss of Robb, and Bran and Rickon who she also believes to be dead. That loss affects her so much that she feels she has “a hole where her heart used to be” and the Kindly Man observes that she has “sad grey eyes that have seen too much.”

When she is told she must rid herself of all that makes her Arya, starting with her possessions, we see how much she still longs for her family, and misses them. We see that Needle, beyond being just a present given to her and a tool she might use to protect herself, represents a connection to her home, and her family, and all those she loves.

“It’s just a stupid 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.”

Needle is home, Needle is family, Needle is the North and its people, and it’s Jon Snow, the person Arya loves best. Arya can’t give that up, won’t give that up, and so she cannot give up Needle. Like Nymeria and the wolf pack, it is a tie to her identity, one she cannot give up, no matter how much the House of Black and White tries to make her.

“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 he wanted.”

In her heart of hearts she wants her family, she wants the North and she wants Jon. She’s only at the House of Black and White because the ship wouldn’t go to the Wall, it would only take her to Braavos. Arya is only there because somebody gave her an iron coin and she had nowhere else to go. But she’s still Arya, with the same morality, the same need for justice, and the same desire to go back to Winterfell that she had all the way back in book one.

The candles in the House of Black and White tell the truth, the candles that are designed to soothe people by reminding them of the things that would bring them comfort.

When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?” Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit, I smell hot bread baking, I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf, I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. “I don’t smell anything,” she said, to see what he would say. “You lie,” he said, “but you may keep your secrets if you wish, Arya of House Stark.”

They might be secrets to the Kindly Man, but they are not secrets to me. These themes in Arya’s story leap off the page when I read her chapters, and they are so well-written, and filled with emotion, that I’m with Jon Snow in thinking please GRRM, You owe me this one little girl, safe, home, with those she longs for, and knowing she’s loved, and wanted, and worthy no matter how many doubts she has endured along the way.