Tyrion and Arya meeting on the Kingsroad?

[Mathis of Rowan]

Here's an issue that has bothered me since I've read the books for the first time:

At the end of AGOT, Tyrion is sent to King's Landing by Tywin. He travels down the Kingsroad an arrives in his first chapter of ACOK. Around the same time Arya leaves KL and travels north with Yoren. It isn't until her third chapter of ACOK that they leave the Kingsroad. Therefore I conclude that the two parties must have met sometime during their journeys, probably not far from King's Landing. But in ther respective chapters there are no hints, that one of them noticed that. While I think it's plausible that Tyrion would overlook a pack of boys and men travelling north (He knew Yoren, but may not have recognised him) I find it hard to imagine that Arya had nothing to say about the Imp crossing her way, accompanied by a bunch of "savages".

So are there any hints in the text that an encounter took place? Usually GRRM uses every opportunity he can get to bring together two or more characters by coincidence if they are remotely in the same region of the world. Examples for such chance encounters are Catelyn/Tyrion at the Crossroads, Bran/Jon at Queenscrown, Bran/Sam at the Nightfort, Arya/Sam at Braavos or Tyrion/Jorah at Selhorys. It doesn't seem typical that he would let slip that possibility. Any kind of interaction between Arya and Tyrion would have been great, so why doesn't any of it occur? Is it possible that GRRM left it out on purpose, so he could go back to it later in the book in some kind of flashback? I would like that, but I'm not sure if that's a likely option.

Any thoughts on this?

[The Fourth Head]

good catch, I hadn't thought about that. They would likely have crossed each-other on the Kingsroad.

It would have added a level of irony to Tyrion ridiculing Cersei for letting Arya give her the slip, despite having walked right past him. A good old chat to Yoren would have made Tyrion look all the more foolish, but I guess GRRM was going for the dramatic KL entrance, and Tyrion appearing to outwit everyone throughout the book. Either he missed the opportunity, or deliberately missed it to keep the book down and keep to the themes of each character - that of apparently outwitting Cersei, and of sustained unbroken horror.

[Lykos]

I don´t think so. Yoren left the Kingsroad after they encountered the men that Cersei had sent after Gendry "That´s no Law, ... happens I got one too". They´ve been avoiding the main roads ever since.

Edit: Oh, ok I´ve seen you´ve addressed this, and the timeline says you´re right.

01/02/299 COK Arya 2 Gold cloaks catch up at inn with ivy
10/02/299 COK Sansa 1 Tywin Harrenhal. Tyrion arrives in KL. Joff nameday (13)
10/02/299 COK Tyrion 1 Tyrion becomes hand
21/02/299 COK Arya 3 Left Kingsroad, toward god's eye, past briarwhite

[40 Thousand Skeletons]

I never thought about it. I have no other explanation than Tyrion didn't notice Yoren for whatever reason. Yoren is not going to rock the boat even if he sees Tyrion, so I'm OK with that. Or perhaps the NW group made camp off to the side of the road and Tyrion passed them without seeing Yoren that way. Very interesting catch OP.

[aryagonnakill#2]

Arya's company did not move very fast, not everyone had horses and they had a loaded down wagon. Its possible that aspect of the timeline is off, and since the alternative seems to be a GRRM mistake I think we should assume the timeline is wrong unless otherwise told so by GRRM.

[Trigger Warning]

GRRM probably didn't consider it.

It's easy enough to explain away though, maybe Yoren's lot were making camp off the road when Tyrion passed their way.

Or the timeline may simply not sync up.

[Lost Melnibonean]

Here's an issue that has bothered me since I've read the books for the first time:

At the end of AGOT, Tyrion is sent to King's Landing by Tywin. He travels down the Kingsroad an arrives in his first chapter of ACOK. Around the same time Arya leaves KL and travels north with Yoren. It isn't until her third chapter of ACOK that they leave the Kingsroad. Therefore I conclude that the two parties must have met sometime during their journeys, probably not far from King's Landing. But in ther respective chapters there are no hints, that one of them noticed that. While I think it's plausible that Tyrion would overlook a pack of boys and men travelling north (He knew Yoren, but may not have recognised him) I find it hard to imagine that Arya had nothing to say about the Imp crossing her way, accompanied by a bunch of "savages".

So are there any hints in the text that an encounter took place? Usually GRRM uses every opportunity he can get to bring together two or more characters by coincidence if they are remotely in the same region of the world. Examples for such chance encounters are Catelyn/Tyrion at the Crossroads, Bran/Jon at Queenscrown, Bran/Sam at the Nightfort, Arya/Sam at Braavos or Tyrion/Jorah at Selhorys. It doesn't seem typical that he would let slip that possibility. Any kind of interaction between Arya and Tyrion would have been great, so why doesn't any of it occur? Is it possible that GRRM left it out on purpose, so he could go back to it later in the book in some kind of flashback? I would like that, but I'm not sure if that's a likely option.

Any thoughts on this?

The only one of those chance encounters that didn't move the plot along was Arya/Darren. And even that was used to develop Arya's character arc.

[Eat My Steel]

Where was Tywin's company when Tyrion found them? Was it at the crossroads inn or were they in the west? Anyway, if Tyrion did see Yoren, they might have said hello and continued on their opposite ways. Tyrion woulnd't have taken notice of another boy in Yoren's company, even though he had seen Arya before.

[Ser Arthur Hightower]

I think the timelines should have synced up, either one or the other were making camp when they passed, else Martin didn't consider it happening, Tyrion should have mentioned meeting Yoren again at some point in his PoV if he did.

[Maid So Fair]

It's a good catch but I think it's easy to explain the discrepancy: The recruits tend to camp for the night, only visiting an inn once to get washed after who knows how long whereas Tyrion was likely staying in inns along the way. It's not inconceivable they might have passed each other without either of them being aware of it. The Kingsroad is full of people.

[Rhaenys' kitten]

They could have passed one another if Tyrion was entering the city by one gate (to stash Shae in a house?) while Arya and Yoren were leaving by another. Or Tyrion could have spent the night at an inn. Or Yoren avoided the large armed group Tyrion was traveling with.

[Lykos]

I think Martin does not only like chance encounters, but also chance misses. He likes to show how much in life is chance.

I took a look at the Arya chapters again, and I think Yoren´s group had left the King´s road after the encounter with the gold cloaks (01/02/299) and was travelling on "ruts" parallel to it and Tyrion must have passed them on the Kingsroad before arriving in King's Landing (10/02/299).

The road was little more than two ruts through the weeds. The good part was, with so little traffic there'd be no one to point the finger and say which way they'd gone. The human flood that had flowed down the kingsroad was only a trickle here. The bad part was, the road wound back and forth like a snake, tangling with even smaller trails and sometimes seeming to vanish entirely only to reappear half a league farther on when they had all but given up hope.

In Arya III they change the general direction away from the Kingsroad (21/02/299) to pass the Gods Eye on the west.

"We're not far from Gods Eye," the black brother said one morning. "The kingsroad won't be safe till we're across the Trident. So we'll come up around the lake along the western shore, they're not like to look for us there." At the next spot where two ruts cut cross each other, he turned the wagons west.

[aryagonnakill#2]

^ That's a good point Lykos, about GRRM liking close misses. Brienne barely missed Arya as well, in fact almost got on the ship with her to get to Gulltown.

[Lost Melnibonean]

^ That's a good point Lykos, about GRRM liking close misses. Brienne barely missed Arya as well, in fact almost got on the ship with her to get to Gulltown.

Sine he drew so much attention to that I think the Tyrion/Arya miss was not even considered.

[Tywin Lannister_]

GRRM has made it clear readers shouldn't worry about dates and geography. Meaning if something overlaps or doesn't fit, it doesn't matter. It still happened how he said it happened.

"My suggestion would be to put away the ruler and the stopwatch, and just enjoy the story."

-GRRM

Source:

http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/Chronology_and_Distances

[Lion Of The Night]

Sine he drew so much attention to that I think the Tyrion/Arya miss was not even considered.

It all depends on how much of these meet ups and misses he planned and how many he noticed durring editing.

The fact is though, if there were tons of these near misses, it would get tired pretty fast, so better that ones like this were left out.

[King Tyrion I]

GRRM has made it clear readers shouldn't worry about dates and geography. Meaning if something overlaps or doesn't fit, it doesn't matter. It still happened how he said it happened.

"My suggestion would be to put away the ruler and the stopwatch, and just enjoy the story."

-GRRM

Source:

http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/Chronology_and_Distances

Thank you. Couldn't agree more.

[Pod The Impaler]

^ That's a good point Lykos, about GRRM liking close misses. Brienne barely missed Arya as well, in fact almost got on the ship with her to get to Gulltown.

Yup. Arya is the queen of near-misses.

Arya missed the Red Wedding by a close shave as well Inside vs. outside anyway).

As well, she was not too far from reaching the Eyrie, but had to go elsewhere in the end.

Considering her meeting with Sam in Braavos, that either counts as a lucky meeting for Sam or another near miss for Arya. (If she'd known this was Jon Snow's best friend she was talking to, and someone who had seen Bran alive... )

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

I would surmise that Yoren and Co were covertly heading north to disguise Gendry and Arya. If they were to spot anything that looked like Lannisters or trouble they would have pulled off and hid for a while until the coast was clear. They may have crossed paths, but that didn't necessarily mean they had an encounter.

[Lord Hyrule]

Okay, so if there's no hints or textual evidence of this even possibly happening, why are you reaching out on a limb? What's the point of this? Mere speculation?