#i'm about to finish season 3 and this slow burn is killing me (positive)

[morningnoodles]

someone please tell me nandermo is a guillermo falls first but nandor falls harder trope. this is for scientific purposes.

[apiratecalledav]

Okay, I'm gonna need you to tell me nice things to make me hopeful about Sansa and Arya. Please. Help me obi-wan, you're my only hope.

Ask and you shall receive, friend.

It’s another long, numbered list and mostly Arya-centered, since she’s the one who seems more concerning. Hope that’s okay.

Finishing under the cut because the answer is dark and full of 7x06 spoilers. ;)

So the end of 7x05 and the first half of 7x06, I was sure that it would turn out that Arya and Sansa (and Bran, too) were playing Littlefinger. All the Stark kids know to some extent that Littlefinger’s a psycho, so I thought it was obvious that they would scheme together to take him down. Especially since Arya confronted Sansa out in the open, where Littlefinger or one of his toadies could have easily been lurking.

Then Sansa went to Littlefinger (doing exactly what he wanted!) and they were talking about how Brienne promised to serve both Arya and Sansa. And again, I was hopeful. Littlefinger seemed to be suggesting that Brienne would help Arya before Sansa (LF and Sansa watched them training together and having fun) but I thought it could also be him implying that Sansa should “get” Brienne on her side first. And Sansa almost immediately sent Brienne away, which I hoped was an effort to spare her from Littlefinger’s potential manipulations.

But Arya and Sansa later had it out alone, so now I don’t think they’ve teamed up (yet??). Unless they knew Littlefinger was hiding under the bed. Holy shit, how fucking hilarious would that have been if the camera had panned to him down there, his mustache all full of dust bunnies?  I’m still hoping Arya has a trick up her sleeve but even if that’s not the case, this “feud” is not going to last long and I’m pretty much positive that the sisters’ relationship will be on the mend by the end of the season finale.  Here’s why:

1) If they don’t work together to take out Littlefinger, one of them will. It will be very soon and the other will be grateful (Sansa) or impressed (Arya) and they will bond.  I really will be shocked if this isn’t Littlefinger’s last season. And if it’s not, it’s only because they’re saving it for the opening of season 8. Or it’s because Aidan Gillen once saved Dan or David from choking to death on an hors d’oeuvre at some fancy event and in their gratitude, told Aidan he could stay on the show til the end. Seriously, there are no other explanations that don’t plummet into M. Night Shyamalan levels of weird insanity.

2) Over the course of this show, especially during season 6 and 7, we’ve seen a lot of characters “going home”/back to the start and temporarily regressing:

  Dany with all of those Dothraki strangers, with no army, no dragons,and no friends. And then boom.

We saw Sam back at his father’s house, his self-esteem splintering. Then he left, not even needing some bs confrontation or validation from his father. Gilly loves him, what else matters? >HEART EYES

Jaime, whose inner decent person really got to shine when he was FAR away from Cersei and with Brienne… Well, we’ve seen how he’s been the last few seasons, barf. But Brienne is headed towards him so I think there’s a lot of hope now! :D

Then there’s Theon. Theon, who has been Theon: hostage of Winterfell/Robb Stark’s friend and ally, then Theon Greyjoy, then Reek, then Theon:captive of Wintefell/friend and ally of Sansa Stark and then Theon Greyjoy again… has now had a Reek relapse. Most likely, he is working up to a grand rescue of Yara and/or defeat of Euron and will finally just get to be Theon, his own man on his own terms.

 Sansa was a bit bratty/entitled and channeling Cersei earlier this season and now we see her being much more thoughtful and mature.

So it seems it’s Arya’s turn now.

One of the most important things Arya has learned is forgiving/understanding those who have done horrible things in order to survive. Such as herself. Such as the Hound. And notice how after she managed to stop hating the Hound and no longer wanted to kill him, Ilyn Payne, Thoros, Beric, and Melisandre suddenly disappeared from her list. While they’ve done a lot of shitty things, they aren’t pure evil and they didn’t do anything with the malicious, sick kind of glee that Walder Frey, Cersei, Joffrey, The Mountain, and Meryn Trant did.

So obviously, Arya’s regression would have to involve forgetting that particular lesson. Especially since this time, it is so much more personal. She loved her parents and Robb. And thinking that her sister had a hand in the events that lead to their deaths, even unintentionally and indirectly, would make her have a temporary meltdown/throw a tantrum.

And then there’s the fact Arya and Sansa were both absolutely terrible to each other when they were little. But I don’t think Arya ever managed to hurt Sansa as deeply as Sansa hurt Arya. After all, Sansa was the pretty one, the one who had praise and approval from all sides: their mother, their septa, Jeyne Pool, etc. Arya mostly just had Jon and occasionally Ned.

So of course, backsliding!Arya would snap up the chance to finally “get even” with Sansa. Since Arya’s mantra is “fear cuts deeper than swords” (at least in the books), her revenge would not be physical harm but rather completely and utterly scaring the shit out of Sansa and effectively saying, “You will never have power over me again. You couldn’t if you tried.”  

But as with Dany, Sansa, Sam, and probably Jaime and Theon, Arya is going to overcome her past weaknesses and show Sansa empathy and forgiveness.

I think her handing Sansa the dagger was kind of the start of that? Possibly “I officially offer you my badass assassin services” or “Hey, want to borrow a face and get rid of somebody on your list? I know you probably have one, even if you don’t acknowledge it or say it out loud every night…”

3) Arya is not nearly as dark as D&D want to trick us into thinking.

In my opinion, D&D use Arya as a red herring for a certain Queen with a boatload of titles and some cool pets. Hear me out. They are probably the two characters who started off the most innocent that have gone down the darkest paths, with Arya’s being the more obvious one.

I think it’s very interesting that whenever Arya does something like bake Freypies, D&D are quick to say in interviews, “Hurr durr, Arya’s getting kinda scary. Maybe we should be worried about what she is becoming?”

And yet, Arya repeatedly proves that there is a line she won’t cross, even if it’s a risk to her own life- She didn’t leave Hot Pie at Harrenhal, despite the fact he would slow them down and had no skills that would be helpful on the run; she managed to feel empathy for the Hound/couldn’t bring herself to kill him; couldn’t kill Lady Crane, even though sparing her was dangerous for Arya; she didn’t let those Frey girls drink poison (she only would have needed to spare one if it was just about delivering a message), was friendly to those Lannister soldiers who were nice to her, and oh yeah, SHE CHOSE JON/WINTERFELL OVER REVENGE/KILLING CERSEI.

Meanwhile, they are almost always curiously quiet about said certain Queen whose line seems to get blurrier all the time…

  Though the show itself doesn’t shy away from dropping hints, ie the very sinister version of her “victory theme”  in 6x04 after she burns shit down. Not to mention that Varys (the most intelligent person in Westeros) and Tyrion (the cleverest person in Westeros) are beginning to be uncomfortable with some of her choices. And I’m betting it won’t be long until Davos (the wisest person in Westeros) raises an eyebrow at her, too….

I sorta compare it to Arya walking down a set of stairs vs. Dany walking down a ramp. The stairs might have you descend quicker but it can be a hell of a lot harder to stop when you’re on a ramp, especially after you’ve gained momentum. And walking upstairs is typically a lot easier than walking uphill. ;)

4) More than once, Arya has been shown to fight with Sansa or bitch about her and then almost immediately defend her from someone else. The thing with Mycah/the direwolves, for example. Arya was pissed at Sansa but Cersei wanted to punish Sansa by killing Lady and Arya immediately shrieked, “Lady wasn’t there! You leave her alone!”

Or she told Ned she hated Sansa for siding with Joffrey but when Ned said Sansa was going to HAVE to take Joffrey’s side Arya is concerned and asks “How can you let her marry someone like that?”

Aka the classic “I can be mean to my sibling, but YOU CAN’T, ASSHOLE.”

5) “I don’t hate her, not really.”

TL;DR:

1) Littlefinger is just about toast, and one or both Stark girls are going to be behind it. Wolves are known to hunt birds, sometimes. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

2) Lots of characters have been temporarily reverting to their old, lesser selves and they have either bounced back or are clearly getting ready to make a comeback and Arya is no different.

3) Arya certainly might enjoy walking around ankle deep in darkness but she’s not going to drown in it.

4&5) Arya might complain about Sansa, but she loves her. And Sansa loves Arya.