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Arya's Latest Face


Roose on the Loose

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I've thought for a long time that Arya would go Femme Nikita on the FM. I know that a few stalwarts still think she's found her place in the House of Black & White. But I don't see how one could think that after reading the Mercy chapter.



A foolish giddy girl she'd been, but good hearted. She would miss her, and she would miss Daena and the Snapper and the rest, even Izembaro and Bonobo. This would make trouble for the Sealord and the envoy with the chicken on his chest, she did not doubt.



The first rule of office politics is this: Don't make other people's jobs difficult. Especially important people. Arya (Mercy) seems to understand that and realize she has to bug out.



There's one thing though. Face transplant surgery. Last we see her, Arya is wearing a face she got from ThoBaW and she can't go back. Theoretically, if she returns to Westeros, her own people wouldn't recognize her, but the FM they send to kill her surely would.



But what about these faces they give her? Are they even a real thing? They tell her she is going to be ugly, then they put her through some hocus pocus, and lo and behold everyone shrinks from her gaze. Then they tell her she's going to be pretty, and everyone is charmed by her smile. Is it magic or are they just screwing with her? Maybe she's just as attractive as she believes she is.



What if the FM are no more than deadly mummers. Understanding that may be the only difference between Arya and Jaqen. And Arya is clever enough to work it out for herself.




If she really is wearing some dead girl's face, she may find a way to scrape it off, or she may prefer being anonymous among the Westerosi. Some still want her dead. But I think that at some point she's going to want her whole identity back.


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They have to know she did it first don't they? She has hidden neddle succesfully so she must be good at lying.

About the face, perhaps she is going back to Westeros with it and she is like, I'll worry about that later? I would.

In Westeros being Arya Stark was dangerous, being Mercy is anonymous. She could use that to work her list.

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  • 2 weeks later...

WoW Spoilers

I've thought for a long time that Arya would go Femme Nikita on the FM. I know that a few stalwarts still think she's found her place in the House of Black & White. But I don't see how one could think that after reading the Mercy chapter.

A foolish giddy girl she'd been, but good hearted. She would miss her, and she would miss Daena and the Snapper and the rest, even Izembaro and Bonobo. This would make trouble for the Sealord and the envoy with the chicken on his chest, she did not doubt.

The first rule of office politics is this: Don't make other people's jobs difficult. Especially important people. Arya (Mercy) seems to understand that and realize she has to bug out.

There's one thing though. Face transplant surgery. Last we see her, Arya is wearing a face she got from ThoBaW and she can't go back. Theoretically, if she returns to Westeros, her own people wouldn't recognize her, but the FM they send to kill her surely would.

But what about these faces they give her? Are they even a real thing? They tell her she is going to be ugly, then they put her through some hocus pocus, and lo and behold everyone shrinks from her gaze. Then they tell her she's going to be pretty, and everyone is charmed by her smile. Is it magic or are they just screwing with her? Maybe she's just as attractive as she believes she is.

What if the FM are no more than deadly mummers. Understanding that may be the only difference between Arya and Jaqen. And Arya is clever enough to work it out for herself.

If she really is wearing some dead girl's face, she may find a way to scrape it off, or she may prefer being anonymous among the Westerosi. Some still want her dead. But I think that at some point she's going to want her whole identity back.

Just screwing with her? no way. She can feel the knife.

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“[…] so best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. […]”

I had always taken this to mean that she will just use her own face. But I might be wrong, though?

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They have to know she did it first don't they? She has hidden neddle succesfully so she must be good at lying.

About the face, perhaps she is going back to Westeros with it and she is like, I'll worry about that later? I would.

In Westeros being Arya Stark was dangerous, being Mercy is anonymous. She could use that to work her list.

The other guard knows that Raff left with Mercy. The floor of her crib is covered with blood. I don't think chlorine bleach exists in this world.

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The most logical thing is for the Faceless Men to send her back to Westeros to knock someone off. Consider that the Iron Bank is owed millions by The Iron Throne. It makes a lot of sense for the Bank to hire some FM to knock off some key players. I know it's a long bow to draw, but GRRM has said he wants to kill off a few people to start wrapping things up. I figure sending Arya back to Westeros makes sense. She's basically completed her character development arc in Braavos. She's become a master assassin and has found her identity (in someone who kills others and uses her gender and size to her advantage) so it's time to bring her back to the fold and complete her story - for better or worse.

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The most logical thing is for the Faceless Men to send her back to Westeros to knock someone off. Consider that the Iron Bank is owed millions by The Iron Throne. It makes a lot of sense for the Bank to hire some FM to knock off some key players. I know it's a long bow to draw, but GRRM has said he wants to kill off a few people to start wrapping things up. I figure sending Arya back to Westeros makes sense. She's basically completed her character development arc in Braavos. She's become a master assassin and has found her identity (in someone who kills others and uses her gender and size to her advantage) so it's time to bring her back to the fold and complete her story - for better or worse.

But do the FM trust her not to go outside the huddle? They're a tight disciplined organization, and Arya is a loose cannon. What would any intelligence service do about a loose cannon who knows too much?

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But do the FM trust her not to go outside the huddle? They're a tight disciplined organization, and Arya is a loose cannon. What would any intelligence service do about a loose cannon who knows too much?

I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps if she's killed a certain number of people they accept that she's got the idea. Plus I don't think the organisation expects to have FM who are straight shooters. Their job description pretty much requires them to be loose cannons. The FM give them a target and trust their ingenuity to get the job done, that's what makes them special. They're not soldiers in the traditional sense where they get given an order and told what they must do it, how they must do it and why. They are given a target and little else.

As Jaquen has said, "speak a name and he will die. Maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now..." or something to that effect. Jaquen seems to believe in the one Red God, yet Arya has been taught of the Many Faced God. Would it be that Jaquen is a loose cannon who worships a different God? Yet still gets the job done. If they're happy enough to train and employ a man of a completely differing faith, I'm sure they wouldn't be too opposed to sending someone from Westeros back there to do a job.

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  • 1 month later...
There has been a lot of discussion on earlier threads and a lot of varying viewpoints. My own take is that yes, Arya has had a face change.. no, she won't be in trouble with the House of Black and White , and she won't be leaving for Westeros just yet.


If we consider what's going on politically , I think that suggests a few things. Because the King's Landing representative is Harys Swyft ( with Lannister guards) ,that suggests that Tommen (Cersei) is still in control , not Tommen (Margaery).


In Braavos, the Sealord is dying (whether by natural causes or not) and a new regime is expected at any time. Meanwhile, the IB has extended a massive loan to Stannis ( and don't forget Jon / the NW ). The IB may very well want to cause trouble for the Sealord and the Iron Throne. So...


It looks to me like Arya was sent on her apprenticship, but when it was learned (or predicted) that Swyft would be coming, his trip to the theatre would be planned. She was contacted and instructed to orchestrate a politically embarrassing situation.


She will dump the body in the canal, complete her performance and disappear. When they discover her blood spattered room, it will be assumed that Raff killed her and then he disappeared. Since Raff was one of Clegane's men , it will be all too believable , even to Swyft.


She'll miss the friends she made and the role (Mercy) she was playing, just as she missed Cat of the canals.


The iron key in her pocket probably gives her access to one of the secret entrances to the HoB&W.

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My take is Arya was on duty.



She'd been sent wearing a pretty face, but not hers.


She was with a troupe, but hardly playing.



So, she was there to intermingle with some Westerosi men, who could recognise Arya Stark. She had to entice one of them, and what you all know. For her, finding Raff was a gift from the unnumbered gods. Bur anyone could do.



The situation is pretty thorny. One man in the trail of the IT envoy kills a Braavosi girl and flees. No good for the envoy or the Lannisters. Bad omen for his mission.



Eta. I wonder what the FM are into.


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I'm not totally sure what's going on between Arya and the HoB&W at this point, i.e. how approved or not her actions were. However, I do take issue with the theory that she was sent to the theater to cause some kind of nonspecific trouble for the envoy or even the Sealord. The HoB&W are a religious group, however bizarre their religion may seem, and they take it very seriously. Petitioners have to request a specific life, and pay a specific amount for that person. The whole reason Arya was punished with blindness in the first place was for going off-book, and unless she majorly lucked out and someone in Braavos specifically requested the death of Raff...well, pretty sure she was going off-book yet again in this instance. However, it is unclear whether she will tell the Kindly Man about this incident or not. She has progressed in her lying skills, and she knows he doesn't approve of her taking care of personal business. As for why she was there in the first place, I'm pretty sure she was sent to Izembaro to learn mummer's skills, not to kill anyone. Either she was nearing the end of that phase of her training anyway and is on her way back to HoB&W with none the wiser...or, as the OP said, she is going Femme Nikita and is about to go her own way and start using her skills to cross more people off her list.



It's hard to know more at this point, but I feel very certain that she was not "on duty."



As for Jaquen being a R'hlorian loose cannon...I thought that at first, but another poster pointed out that the FM's recognize all gods as aspects of the many-faced god, and Jaquen is probably referencing the Red God in this case because Arya saved him from death by fire. If she'd saved him from death by drowning, he probably would have said the Drowned God was owed three lives. So, basically, I don't think Jaquen is any more of a loose cannon than any other FM. I think he's on a mission for them.



Of course the hole in my argument is that, if FM's only kill people by specific request, and Jaquen's not a loose cannon, why did poor Pate get it? I don't know. Maybe he is a loose cannon after all. But if he is, the evidence is Pate's face, not the Red God reference.


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Oh, one more thing about the faces...based on the fact that


1) They never seem to take faces off of Arya, just put them on, and


2) When Jaquen changed his face he didn't have to physically put a dead face on himself,



I think that once a face is applied, it becomes an option for the FM to use whenever they want. It's magic, not actual plastic surgery. So Arya could now switch between 3 possible faces at will--her own, Blind Beth's, and Mercy's. (Unless Mercy really was Arya's own face and she had to rely on her new mummer's skills to look different. Then just 2 faces.)

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I'm not totally sure what's going on between Arya and the HoB&W at this point, i.e. how approved or not her actions were. However, I do take issue with the theory that she was sent to the theater to cause some kind of nonspecific trouble for the envoy or even the Sealord. The HoB&W are a religious group, however bizarre their religion may seem, and they take it very seriously. Petitioners have to request a specific life, and pay a specific amount for that person. The whole reason Arya was punished with blindness in the first place was for going off-book, and unless she majorly lucked out and someone in Braavos specifically requested the death of Raff...well, pretty sure she was going off-book yet again in this instance. However, it is unclear whether she will tell the Kindly Man about this incident or not. She has progressed in her lying skills, and she knows he doesn't approve of her taking care of personal business. As for why she was there in the first place, I'm pretty sure she was sent to Izembaro to learn mummer's skills, not to kill anyone. Either she was nearing the end of that phase of her training anyway and is on her way back to HoB&W with none the wiser...or, as the OP said, she is going Femme Nikita and is about to go her own way and start using her skills to cross more people off her list.

It's hard to know more at this point, but I feel very certain that she was not "on duty."

As for Jaquen being a R'hlorian loose cannon...I thought that at first, but another poster pointed out that the FM's recognize all gods as aspects of the many-faced god, and Jaquen is probably referencing the Red God in this case because Arya saved him from death by fire. If she'd saved him from death by drowning, he probably would have said the Drowned God was owed three lives. So, basically, I don't think Jaquen is any more of a loose cannon than any other FM. I think he's on a mission for them.

Of course the hole in my argument is that, if FM's only kill people by specific request, and Jaquen's not a loose cannon, why did poor Pate get it? I don't know. Maybe he is a loose cannon after all. But if he is, the evidence is Pate's face, not the Red God reference.

Well the FM do not kill mindlessly or for personal reasons, but if someone other than the intended target needs to die for the intended target to die, then that would just be part of getting the job done. I am not sure that Jaquen is in Old Town to kill somebody. It seems to me that he infiltrated the citadel either for knowledge or an object he is to find. Poor Pate was just his access to the citadel.

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