Arya's next step

[lomiller]

I imagine that Arya will have to abandon the FM and high-tail it out of Braavos somehow. There will be no way to cover up her murder of Raff, as the other guard can finger Mercy in Raff's disappearance.

The FM will know what she did, and they won't be happy. She's clearly not and will never be "no one"; Arya's spirit and her connection to Nymeria ensure that.

I think she's got enough training now, and her warging powers are growing. So she can head back to Westeros and start making the bodies hit the floor!

She wasn't using her own face in the chapter and as far aw we know she doesn't know how to change back on her own. I can't see her going back to Westeros that way. IMO she goes back to the temple, tells them what "Arya" did when asked is possibly punished in some way then moves on to the next stage in her training even sooner that she would otherwise.

As to what that is, she still needs to learn some sorcery to change her face on her own and/or may spend some time learning from courtesans.

[Good Guy Garlan]

I think she'll stay with them for a little while more and then she gets assign a mission in Westeros, and she uses Massey's party as a means to travel home.

[thoughtless711]

"Arya" has no place in the FM- I believe the 'kindly man' repeated this many times over. If the "Mercy"chapter showed us anything about the "her/she/Arya" arc is that "her/she/Arya" can see the bridge- but can't see where it ends". As an audience, we are meant to "discover' her as much as she discovers herself.

“'Valar morghulis,” Arya whispered, but Raff was dead and did not hear. She sniffed. ...'"

Wolves don't cry. But 'sniffing' is one way to control tears in humans.

[thoughtless711]

She wasn't using her own face in the chapter and as far aw we know she doesn't know how to change back on her own. I can't see her going back to Westeros that way. IMO she goes back to the temple, tells them what "Arya" did when asked is possibly punished in some way then moves on to the next stage in her training even sooner that she would otherwise.

As to what that is, she still needs to learn some sorcery to change her face on her own and/or may spend some time learning from courtesans.

"A pretty one this time, I think. As Pretty as your own. Who are you, child?"

"No one," she replied.

'As far as we know' is the key here- we don't know the face of"Mercy"...ALL PUNS INTENDED.

It could be her own face- Arya's that is. She wouldn't know the difference- as it feels the same but is seen differently. And being "seen differently" is something else entirely...ask Cersei

[Mrmanakan]

I'm under the impression she has another face on. Mercedenes face, she's a giggly girl she said and all those other hints that it wasn't her. Sure it's possible it just was her face shaved and all that but I do not think so.

I do think the Faceless men will send her on her way but I expect atleast 3 more chapters in Bravos. She's still as far as we know not an exceptional sword fighter and she can't do glamors. We know she can use her head, but her body (fighting) and her appearance (mummery/glamors/changing faces) needs the most work.

I expect her to go to the first sword of bravos before her time is out or someone if the sort, also I expect her to do an apprenticeship with a faceless man out in the world. I expect this is how she comes to leave Bravos and after a short stop in the disputed lands heads to westeros. She needs to be a better straight up fighter and learn some parkour 😜 . that's my prediction I see no need for going to the black pearl though

[Booknerd2]

I think she is out four-sixths of the way. Not a bold "take this job and shove it" monologue. She may go somewhere and then decide to leave and change course and destiny.

They won't know anything if they are under the impression she is still doing work for them.

[lomiller]

"A pretty one this time, I think. As Pretty as your own. Who are you, child?"

"No one," she replied.

'As far as we know' is the key here- we don't know the face of"Mercy"...ALL PUNS INTENDED.

It could be her own face- Arya's that is. She wouldn't know the difference- as it feels the same but is seen differently. And being "seen differently" is something else entirely...ask Cersei

"he sad-eyed little man called Quill stood in the back, come to see what he could steal for one of his own plays. Cossomo the Conjurer had come as well, and on his arm was Yna, the one-eyed whore from the Happy Port, but Mercy could not know those two, and they would not know Mercy."

Yna knows Cat but would not recognize Mercy. Since Aray uses her own face for Cat, she can't be using her own face here or Yna would recognize her.

[barmyscouser]

Arya/Mercy woke to the smell of blood. The taste of Raff's blood has awakened Arya of House Stark. I would look for her on the next cog to KL.

We know she can't keep her job at the Gate. She's suspect number 1 in Rafford's dissapearance. Unless Weese taught Weasel how to get blood stains out of unvarnished pine she can't cover her tracks. Besides, she refers to that nights performance as her first and last.

As for this nonsense about returning to the House of Black and White. FM is an assassin service. I wouldn't want to finds out what happens when the Kindly Man stops being kindly.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

This might be a bit off topic, but why was Arya sent to Izembaro in the first place? Hardly to be a mummer...

[Littlefinger's dagger]

This might be a bit off topic, but why was Arya sent to Izembaro in the first place? Hardly to be a mummer...

No, but a grounding in Acting skills is rather useful if you're an assassin who has to work undercover for a while to case a target and plan a kill. As Varys notes in the books, simple physical things like changing the way you stand or walk can help sell a role or obscure an identity, to a point where you might have to be right next to someone before you recognize the face. If a glamor or FM facewearing magic is going on, even that wouldn't be enough.

I find it difficult to determine if it's a form of method acting or an influence from long-term magical wearing of a face (for months or years rather than a few days or weeks) that is the cause of Arya's skewed and schitzo PoV in the Mercy chapter. She seems pretty deeply in character, whichever is the cause, she seems to have the hang of accessing the available memories, character, and habits of the face she's wearing and making that a default to go to unless there's an overriding reason. I lean toward the face, but further chapters should give more insight. just having trouble with the anachronism of Stanislavski method acting having a place in the story, it's like having a character show up not just with a gun, but a Colt Peacemaker. A little hard to give credit to.

[CyberKlown28]

Arya needs to come back quickly in my opinion. She's been doing nothing since hopping on that boat to Braavos, and it'd just be surprising to see a main character not be a game changer by the tale's end.

[Darksnider05]

Arya needs to come back quickly in my opinion. She's been doing nothing since hopping on that boat to Braavos, and it'd just be surprising to see a main character not be a game changer by the tale's end.

Come back and do what exactly? Live where and do what without being a hostage or whore to random lord X?

There's no getting back WF without killing people and actually retaining agency over herself.

[Mrmanakan]

This might be a bit off topic, but why was Arya sent to Izembaro in the first place? Hardly to be a mummer...

IMO all the FM trainees will spend time with mummers to learn how to play roles as different people. I'd assume most don't have as much real life experience where becoming someone else is dependent on their survival.

It seems natural for someone who is going to become "someone else" for the purposes of infiltrating and killing that play acting is one of the many steps of the training. As is making poisons, going blind, helping with dead bodies, and wearing different skins. So that's why she was sent to the mummers.

As to her being sent to Isembaro himself as "king of the mummers" I can't say. It does seen like the bravosi respect and atleast have a healthy fear of the faceless men (as we see with the captain that takes arya to bravos and the crew giving her gifts instead of her giving them one). It's possible he has a history with the faceless men or that whoever runs bravos has ties with the faceless men and helps place recruits in different required training positions.

I personally wonder how the kindly man/Faceless men know Brusco/Izembaro and why they are willing to take on Arya, also did they know she was a faceless trainee? They must be connected I wonder if we'll find the reason

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Come back and do what exactly? Live where and do what without being a hostage or whore to random lord X?

There's no getting back WF without killing people and actually retaining agency over herself.

Finish her list. KL seems the best place for the former, and having skills acquired from the FM, she could step back into a variant of Cat of the Canals while there. Nobody's looking for her anymore (except Brienne) and by most the lie of Jeyne Poole is accepted: Arya is in the north and married now, so no way that urchin in KL is significant enough to bring to Cercei's attention.

Once her list is complete, then and only then can I seriously see her heading for Winterfell.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Arya needs to come back quickly in my opinion. She's been doing nothing since hopping on that boat to Braavos, and it'd just be surprising to see a main character not be a game changer by the tale's end.

Disagree, the time was not wasted. A lot of valuable spycraft skills are getting soaked up, her skinchanging skills are awakened, and there's character development beyond that. In order to be the game change we both seem to think she'll turn into, she will need every bit of what she learns in Braavos.

[ShadowCat Rivers]

No, but a grounding in Acting skills is rather useful if you're an assassin who has to work undercover for a while to case a target and plan a kill. As Varys notes in the books, simple physical things like changing the way you stand or walk can help sell a role or obscure an identity, to a point where you might have to be right next to someone before you recognize the face. If a glamor or FM facewearing magic is going on, even that wouldn't be enough.

I find it difficult to determine if it's a form of method acting or an influence from long-term magical wearing of a face (for months or years rather than a few days or weeks) that is the cause of Arya's skewed and schitzo PoV in the Mercy chapter. She seems pretty deeply in character, whichever is the cause, she seems to have the hang of accessing the available memories, character, and habits of the face she's wearing and making that a default to go to unless there's an overriding reason. I lean toward the face, but further chapters should give more insight. just having trouble with the anachronism of Stanislavski method acting having a place in the story, it's like having a character show up not just with a gun, but a Colt Peacemaker. A little hard to give credit to.

I like the idea of "Stanislavski method acting". I don't find it anachronistic, because I don't think that this is what she was supposed to learn by Izembaro. She was sent there to pick up the mummers' tricks, but the true lesson in acting was to perform as Mercy, not as the charcaters that Mercy would play on stage.

It also fits with the multi-layered character of the chapter: Like the chapter itself is a play within a play (within a play?), I think that the mummer's phase was a lesson within a lesson.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

I like the idea of "Stanislavski method acting". I don't find it anachronistic, because I don't think that this is what she was supposed to learn by Izembaro. She was sent there to pick up the mummers' tricks, but the true lesson in acting was to perform as Mercy, not as the charcaters that Mercy would play on stage.

It also fits with the multi-layered character of the chapter: Like the chapter itself is a play within a play (within a play?), I think that the mummer's phase was a lesson within a lesson.

If you don't find it anachronistic, you should. Method acting and the Stanislavski method (slightly different things, apparently) are grounded in modern, post-Freud Psychology, so it's an artifact of an Industrial or post-Industrial society, and as out of place in a medieval or even renaissance society as a 19th century firearm would be in a world where gunpowder's only known use is for fireworks. The influence of commedia del arte was felt well into the 20th century, and explains why the acting in most silent films in so laughably broad by modern standards. Subtle, it was not.

From time to time there are bloopers in the books. I heard someone raised on a farm complaining that sheep couldn't survive multi-year long winters because ______. They were probably right, but the explanation boils down to GRRM being a city boy and not thinking that aspect through, and hey, what do you want in a story that also features Ice Zombies and Dragons?

[ShadowCat Rivers]

If you don't find it anachronistic, you should. Method acting and the Stanislavski method (slightly different things, apparently) are grounded in modern, post-Freud Psychology, so it's an artifact of an Industrial or post-Industrial society, and as out of place in a medieval or even renaissance society as a 19th century firearm would be in a world where gunpowder's only known use is for fireworks. The influence of commedia del arte was felt well into the 20th century, and explains why the acting in most silent films in so laughably broad by modern standards. Subtle, it was not.

From time to time there are bloopers in the books. I heard someone raised on a farm complaining that sheep couldn't survive multi-year long winters because ______. They were probably right, but the explanation boils down to GRRM being a city boy and not thinking that aspect through, and hey, what do you want in a story that also features Ice Zombies and Dragons?

Well, the reason I put it in quotation marks is because I was thinking about something of similar tequniques/results but not quite the same. I understand that Stanislavski started developing his system at the time when psychology had just started to develop as a discipline, so I would imagine it transfered in story as something inspired by Stanislavski/method acting but based on intuition rather than knowledge on psychology.

Also yes, artistic licence...

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Well, the reason I put it in quotation marks is because I was thinking about something of similar tequniques/results but not quite the same. I understand that Stanislavski started developing his system at the time when psychology had just started to develop as a discipline, so I would imagine it transfered in story as something inspired by Stanislavski/method acting but based on intuition rather than knowledge on psychology.

Also yes, artistic licence...

Ok, that makes sense too, I'll give it that. It's not like both Varys and Littlefinger don't display a very Machiavellian (quite literally) though intuitive grasp of both group and individual psychology, if one intended to manipulate rather than heal. That someone else developed a cruder and less academic version of method acting for covert ops rather than the theater is not impossible, just a very odd twist. It's not like the FM haven't been refining their blending-in skills for centuries.

[Mourneblade]

I predicted long ago that she would go off mission and kill Raff. This is a huge turning point for Arya. It brings her back to herself and her purpose. She has learned enough to survive in KL now without being recognized. She has also learned enough to not be molested or randomly killed.

She does not need to learn face changing, if she manages to get a glimmer item. That would be enough to accomplish her goals IMHO.

It's time for Arya to come back to Westeros. Learn the dark passages under KL and find Dark Sister :)