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Starks; Royalty and the realms of "Life" and "Death"; Honour


Ghosts Lunch

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While going through some topics and speculating on character arcs when some of the themes deeply interwoven into each of the Starks have become apparent

The incident near the inn of the crossroads, Trident and Castle Darry leading to Lady dying in place of Nymeria as people know already through so many threads and analysis is quite central to many an aspect of ASOIF

For mine it also seems to point towards the re-conversion of the Starks from a Lordly House or Lords and Lady's back into a Royal House or Prince and Princesses

This might seem obvious given Robbs Kingdom but it is much larger than that ACoK plotline and Robbs short-lived "political" Kingdom.

In a nutshell there's a fine thread of Stark Royalty that traverses the realms of life and death

I'll start with Sansa and slowly work my way through it

SANSA - FROM LADY OF WINTERFELL TO THE BLACK BUTCHER DEATH QUEEN OF HARRENHALL


.

.

There are still wild aurochs in this land I am told"

"I've never seen an aurochs", Sansa said, feeding a piece of bacon to Lady under the table. The direwolf took it from her hand, as delicate as a Queen.

Septa Mordane sniffed in dissaproval. "A noble Lady does not feed dogs at her table" she said, breaking off another comb and letting the honey drip down onto her bread.

"She's not a dog, she's a Direwolf", Sansa pointed out, as Lady licked her fingers with a rough tongue

The septa was not appeased. "You're a good girl Sansa, but I do vow, when it comes to that creature you're as wilful as your sister Arya"

AgoT p.139

This next little line is a fair jump but it was hard not to see the imagery when reading back through it, let's play a rhyme game for a second and see how this can sound in another context, say let's think of Lady Lothston and those Bathtubs at Harrenhall...


..feed the dogs at her table, breaking off another comb limb and letting the honey blood drip down onto her bread head

So we can see this very early on the indications of "get her a dog" instead and that Lady is going to be substituted for the Hound, "under the table" is an inference that this crosses the realms of life and death with the table being the actual threshold.

Amongst other things this is also an early indication that Sansa's strong Ladylike virtues are set to be completely inversed, her Ladylike virtue symbolised by Septa Mordane in this passage

Reading later


..."We're travelling in the Queens wheelhouse with Princess Myrcella today"...

.

.

...Robert looked at Ned with flat, dead eyes and left without a word, his footsteps heavy as lead. Silence filled the hall...

...Where is the direwolf" Cersei Lannister asked when her husband was gone. Beside her Prince Joffrey was smiling.

"The beast is chained up outside the gatehouse", Ser Barristan answered reluctantly.

"Send for Ilyn Payne"...

"No" Ned said. Jory, take the girls back to their rooms and bring me Ice". The words tasted as bile in his throat...

..."She is of the north, she deserves better than a butcher"...

..."Lady", he said, tasting the name...

...When it was over he said "choose four men and have them take her body north. Bury her at Winterfell"...All that way, Ned affirmed. "The Lannister woman shall never have this skin."

He was walking back to the tower to get some sleep at last when Sandor Clegane and his riders came pounding through the Castle Gate, back from their hunt.

There was something slung over the back of his destrier, a heavy shape wrapped in a bloody cloak...."No sign of your daughter, Hand"

Bending, Ned pulled back the cloak, dreading the words he would have to find for Arya, but it was not Nymeria after all. It was the butchers boy Mycah, his body covered in dry blood...

"you rode him down" Ned said.

The Hounds eyes seemed to glitter through the steel of that hideous dogs-head helm. "He ran". He looked at Ned's face and laughed, "but not very fast"

There are a number of themes and even some possible foreshadowing laced all throughout this chapter

You have to look at them all in their inverse form

Firstly in the over-arching sense, there is a tendency once again to subtly link the direwolf, to beast and then to the Hound. There's an implication I'm still thinking through that the Hound becomes somewhat chained to Sansa via the blood sacrifice of Mycah, and this somewhat symbolises the transition from Joffrey to Sansa

Lady's death has taken Nymeria's place, Lady is given death so Nymeria may have life. As we know Nymeria is named after a "Warrior Queen", this symbolises the transition of the Starks from a noble Lordly House to a Royal House once again generally (the fact it is done at the Trident near the inn where the last King Stark knelt is fitting, plus where Robert "won his crown" being the same place the Starks had previously given it up but we are also at Castle Darry)

What are the consequences, well Nymeria runs wild (uncivilised) and she becomes the Queen of her own Riverlands based pack in the Wolf realm. The growth of Nymeria's pack is indirectly linked and borne out of the death of Lady.

In terms of Sansa specifically the reverse dynamic is that her Queenly power in the human realm is also ultimately borne out of the death of Lady event, but it is set to be of an uncivilised nature, what's more like the relationship of Lady and Nymeria it is a Queenship that straddles life and death. As

Sansa was in KL but in a sense when Robbs Kingdom was formed she became Princess Sansa while in KL, meaning she has Kings blood/Royal blood even without having ascended to Queenship in her own right, which can make for some potent magic spells which she will probably use. My guess is that she will gain revenge on the Westerlings through this, probably some kind of death curse similar to what was placed on Robb would be fitting (Baratheons involved again)

Anyway I have highlighted Princess Myrcella. That's because she should be viewed as Sansa's Lannister counterpart (they are both in KL at the same time which symbolises they are mirrors) as we all know she was the subject of a Dornish Queenmakers plot and this should be understood to be mirrored in Sansa's story, eg Littlefinger unwittingly is the mirror of Arianne and is central to another Queenmaker plot based around Sansa.

My prediction is that Queen Sansa of Harrenhall will kill Queen Myrcella, quite possibly using the "poison kisses" flowers that Arya got rashes from. There's is symbolism in the fact that they are both being invited to ride in the "Queens Wheelhouse" plus it is the counter-balance of Cersei having Lady killed on behalf of a smiling Prince Joffrey. Sansa most certainly the "younger and more beautiful Queen to strike Cersei down"

Lastly there is Sandor, I do indeed think he is the Gravedigger, the term Gravedigger being linked to death is important. Cleganebowl fans will be dissapointed as on top of the "stealing a kiss from a maid in Gulltown" there are strong signs riddled throughout the chapter that the Gravedigger will end up being Sansa's main attendant if you like and hunt down sacrifices (an inverse of her feeding Lady bacon like a dog) for her and of course as the gravedigger he will be disposing of the bodies. Best bit is he will willfully serve as her "creature" in silence.

Loyal as a dog. a Black dog. All of this will be an inverse reflection of the fact that Lady Sansa helped the Hound heal, later on she will bind him back to her and he will be more twisted than ever (like a beast), a complete counter-reflection of what he is now in that silent hill place. Mycah seems to have been a form of blood sacrifice "chaining" the two.

The link to Robert, wild aurochs is interesting, this for me seems to signal that Sansa will have Sandor hunt Gendry down as a counter-balance to Robert ordering the death of Lady, but I think there is a larger picture, this occurred at House Darry, so I reckon this will be part of Sansa aligning with the Blackfyres and Dornish and so they are hunting for Roberts progeny.

Of course the Hound hunting down Gendry for Sansa in support of the Blackfyre alliance is a twist on the Mountain hunting down Aegon and Rhaeynus on behalf of a Lannister alliance with the Baratheons during the sack of KL, all near the place where "Robert won his crown"

"No sign of your daughter, Hand", even though we know where Sansa physically is, this along with Lady's dead body going back to Winterfell is a sign that her northmans honour that Ned instills in his children (via Septa Mordane) begins to dissipate from this moment on and she is no longer "Ned Starks daughter" so to speak, and as we know she betrays him later

That's all for now, I'll add the other Stark characters later

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^^^ yeah but she is hired by Ned Stark ultimately, even though it is Cat guiding the process really

Either way Septa Mordane and Lady stand for Sansa's Ladylike values, Lady dies first by then Ned's hand and then Septa Mordane follows by a Southron hand

Either way their demise points to the death of romantic Sansa and the transition occurs quite pointedly in Alayne 1 of WoW

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Septa Mordane isnt there to teach the girls Northman honor.She is teaching Southern values.

Should also point out the connection, the fact it is Sansa is symbolically disconnected from the North given Ned is doing it and Lady's bones go back.

Indeed I'm still mulling over the notion Sansa may become aligned with Queen Barbrey Dustin against her siblings (Jon Snow and Bran/Rickon in the North)

Septa Mordane points to Sansa's relationship to Cat, then later to Lady Stoneheart as Alayne Stone. Initially Sansa grows up being the perfect epitome of a Lady and everything Cat raised her to be, this is conducted through Septa Mordane

As we know Septa Mordane dies which is a precursor to a death of these values, or rather these values being mired in death

People get irritated with some "cheesy" moments but they are rife with symbolism

Basically Lady Stoneheart is a precursor to what Sansa will become, the Twins are symbolic of the Twin Powers of the Tully's and Freys. Rains of Castamere is a foreshadowing of what will happen at the Twins, but this also represents a crumbling of the twin Riverland powers of the old Tully's/Freys. Thing is Edmure and Roslins baby as the personification likely will be catapulted over some Castle Walls at some point (Tom O'Sevens heard Jaimie make that threat), I actually reckon it will be Jaimie who has to "keep that oath" too, "Lannisters send their regards" indeed.

Lady Stoneheart personifies the fact that the Riverlands that was once beaming with vitality at the outset of AGoT is dead, as a resurrected character she represents the fact an old dynamic is dead. The fact Tom O'Sevens is still part of of Lady Stoneheart faction represents the values of the Faith of the Seven in the area is dead, which was the basis of Sansa's teaching and values which are now dead as Septa Mordane is dead.

The ascension of Alayne Stone is representative of the ascension of the reverse values "focused on death"

I fully expect Sansa to be reunited with Lady Stoneheart before the end, LS arc will end with the Castamere of the Freys. Out of that rises Sansa's Kingdom (or perhaps Queendom) which is basically Harren the Blacks Kingdom MkII

A sad thing is though that as Sansa she had the impact of healing the Hound and giving him peace, he said "Fuck the King" and eventually put the Hound persona aside and lives peacefully on a remote island as the Gravedigger.

Thing is as Alayne Stone rises, it needs to be remembered this is a Warg style relationship and that this arc will lead to a re-corruption of Sandor, but he gets bound to her as Queen just as before he was bound to Joffrey as King, what's more as a reversal of Mycah the Butchers Boy dynamic he will be the "pet" who goes around Butchering people on behalf of Sansa instead of Joffrey and the "Gravedigger" will be more terrifying than the Hound ever was

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From Jon Snow and "non-Lady" Arya Stark to King Jon Targaryen-Stark and his "Warrior" Queen Arya


...Arya has the hands of a Blacksmith.

Arya glanced furtively around the room, worried that Septa Mordane may have read her thoughts, but the septa was paying no attention today. She was sitting with the Princess Myrcella, all smiles and admiration. It was not often that the Septa was privelaged to instructed a royal princess in the womanly arts, as she said when the queen brought Myrcella to join them...

....we were talking about he Prince, Sansa said, her voice soft as a kiss.

Arya knew whoich prince she meant, Joffrey of course. The tall handsome one. Sansa got to sit with him at the feast. Arya had to sit with the little fat one. Naturally...

...then Sansa will be Queen of all the realm....

"Jon says he looks like a girl," Arya said.

Sansa sighed as she stitched. "Poor Jon", she said, "he gets jealous because he's a bastard"

"He's our brother". Arya said. Much too loudly. Her voice cut through the afternoon quiet of the tower room...

..."our half-brother" Sansa corrected, soft and precise. She smiled at the septa

"Arya and I were remarking on how pleased we were to have the princess with us today" she said...

...Arya felt tears filling her eyes. She pushed herself out of her chair and bolted for the door...

Septa Mordane called out after her, "Arya, come back here, don't you take another step"...

..."Just where do you think you are going, Arya?", the Septa demanded

...Nymeria was waiting for her at the guardroom at the base of the stairs...

...Nymeria nipped eagerly at her hand as Arya untied her. She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea...

Arya did not care to be found. She had a better notion. "Come"..

They arrived flushed and breathless, to find Jon seated on the sill...He was watching the action, so absorbed that he seemed unaware of her approach until his white Wolf moved to meet them. Nymeria stalked closer on wary feet. Ghost, already larger than his litter mates, smelled her, gave her ear a careful nip and then settled back down...

...Jon grinned, reached over and messed up her her. Arya flushed. They had always been close.

"You'd think the Royal sigil would be enough but not, he makes his mothers House equal in honour to the Kings"

"The woman is important too". Arya protested

Jon chuckled. "Perhaps you should do the same little sister, wed Tully to Stark in your arms.

"A wolf with a fish in its mouth" It made her laugh,

"that would look silly", Besides if a girl can't fight why should she have a coat of arms"...

..."...I did not make the rules little sister".



This early chapter of Arya's is great,

Firstly it should be understood as a precursor and linked to the A Feast of Crowds Chapter" "the Princess in the Tower" Arianne chapter where she broods over her Queenmakers plot, I view the early part of Needlework as something of a twin to Ariannes quiet brooding over the crooked stitches of her own failed plot in her own Tower

It is a bit like the Queen Wheelhouse both Arya and Sansa are invited to along with princess Myrcella, eg it hints that they will become Queens of various kinds. We see it in her as well, Sansa is aligned with Joff who we know became King, and Arya was somewhat aligned next to Tommen who as we all know by this point is currently King. Myrcella has already been the subject of a Queenmakers plot by Arianne but she will probably become Queen anyway once Tommen is killed. Jon is also mentioned pointing to the fact he will be King. Interestingly the same chapter later has Jon and Arya observing Joffrey, Bran, Tommen and Robb, and 3/4 have become Kings

Secondly, we have to think back to Ygrittes story about the Stark Princess in the Tower from a King-Beyond-the-Wall figure, "we are so glad to have the princess with us today", this hints at Arya (and Sansa) as well, as when Robb declared his Kingdom they both became Princess Stark, though only the Reeds are calling Bran Prince at the moment. Jeyne Poole is in there too, as we know later on she poses as Arya and Theon rescues her a different tower(?) in Winterfell. I am curious to see whether Beth makes a reappearance...

Thirdly the Septa calling out to Arya is also indicative of her upcoming abandonment of her identity but also the rules of the society she grew up in, the descent of the steps is the descent of her character into the obsession of death witth he HoB&W but as we see Nymeria is down there at the very depths.

Personally I see this as matching up with Mercy chapter that has been released, she has virtually run away from and "killed off her own identity as Arya" but she can never truly fully leave it all behind and it keeps calling back to her, eg the entire chapter starts with her remarking about having had the "Wolf Dreams" again which we know were in Nymeria.

Long story short I can envision Arya being able to detect Jon Snow in Ghost while she is in Nymeria and they'll reach out to eachother an re-connect.

This is where we need to think about Varymyrs like about "Jon could have lived like a King" in Ghost. This is exactly what he is doing, while in Ghost Jon is a King Beyond the Wall in effect, but more than that the Pink Letter and the heartfelt desire to protect Arya from "Ramsay" "woke the Dragon" (to borrow Viserys terms) in Winterfell so to speak as foreshadowed when Bran in Summer sees a Dragon rising out of Ramsays Winterfell fires. Pretty ironic that a Pink Letter from King Beyond the Wall mance Raydar (IMO) leads Jon to live firstly as a King Beyond the Wall in Ghost as a precursor to claiming his role as King

That is important thematically because Jon Snow joined the Night's Watch as Ned Starks Bastard, this is a bit like Dany's Red Door being in Braavos and a sign the prescribed history and pathway derived from that doesen't quite fit. As he claims his true identity IMO as Rhaegar and Lyanna's son he obviously throws his LC vows aside and in a reverse of the Mance as Rattleshirt burning and executed by arrows is stabbed.

Long story short Ides of Marsh and Mance/Rattleshirt burning are twin events and I reckon the Horn of Joramun was sounded at the same time.

People seem to think that his NW vows count if resurrected still. Personally I don't but it's a moot point because thematically Coldhands points to the Nights Watch being dead on its feet as an institution so they will become void vows because I reckon by the time he is resurrected out of Ghost the NW won't even exist anymore. This is a precursor to the Others invading etc

Anyway, not hard to see the "Queen across the narrow Sea bit is important", because that is what Arya becomes through Nymeria while dreaming of being inside Nymeria while physically in Braavos eg her version of Jon living like a Ghost in Nymeria and it isn't too hard to see that interactions between the two are as a King and Queen and a precursor to their late arcs.

Like Nymeria of the Rhoyne (Queenmaker plot of the Rhoynish Arianne again...) Jon will steal Arya from the House of Black and White and entice her back across the narrow sea. Obviously the fact that Jon is pseudo King of the Wildings aka the Wildlings now through respect is a sign that they can indeed "make the rules" as pseudo freefolk and Arya can live like a warrior (Queen) in the Wildling lifestyle as she likes

What happens with Sansa is interesting, I've already said I reckon Sansa will be a Riverlands Queen based out of Harrenhall, the "half-brother" bit is interesting because it suggests she will not accept Jon as heir to Robbs Kingdom which includes the Riverlands. When we throw in the fact that Arya thinks the fish in the Wolfs mouth double arms is silly (this was a foreshadowing of Nymeria dragging Cats body out of the river),

this little argument in here between Arya and Sansa seems to suggest Arya will have to break from her Tully heritage in order to support Jon (and protect Gendry)

In terms of the Cat of the Canals, this is a reference to Catelyn Stark of the Riverlands, at this time Catelyn is dead and is Lady Stoneheart - death. Arya warging Cats and her identity as Cat of the Canals points to her relationship with her mother and death thematically in terms of HoB&W development and it is at odds with her Wolf dreams which is calling her back to her Stark identity. The seeing "Snow in the riverlands" seems to be Arya's version of the Pink Letter and the awakening of the Dragon as she is subconsciously being pulled back to Jon Snow,

Robbs heir fills an important plot point and it combines with the Mormont girls letter and the conversation of Joffrey giving the mothers house as much a place as the Kings. As son of Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark, if he does the same as Joffrey then presumably he will carry twin sigils of the Dragon and Direwolf on his arms and this conversation may be a nod to that being forthcoming.

This makes perfect sense, as he has been caught between Ice and Fire all the way through, eg think of being caught between Val and Mel in ADwD, Westerosi and Wildling. Later this will mean having Rhaegal as well as Ghost. Anyway, on his ascension arc, he starts off as a lowly bastard, finds individual acceptance via Mormont giving him Longclaw, this builds up to being elected LC of NW on the one hand and then a sizeable body of Wildlings following him on the other etc etc

Anyway, in WoW he will become recognised as King of the deep northerners who will back him on the Stark side of the equation and reject Sansa, the Riverlanders will side with Sansa and reject Jon and probably align with Barbrey Dustin and the Ryswells etc. Either way Robbs Kingdom of the North and Riverlands will cease to exist, I expect the WoW prologue featuring Jeyne Westerling to be a bloodbath

This is tricky because of the Crypt dream telling him he didn't belong, but I think that is a reference to the fact he is a Dragon King too ultimately (ADoS) and not a King of Winter and relates to the ancient Stark association with the forces of Ice. This is probably what Benjen kidnapping relates to and it will tie in with the Jon vs Barbrey plot which will be connected to an ancient Barrow Kings versus Stark Kings plot and it delves into the Royalty over realms of Life and death issues etc

I'm still thinking through the Dragon side, basically being born in Dorne at ToJ could be considered relevant, in that the Stark side relates to the high north and Dragon to the deep south and at the end of ADoS he moves up from being King of the northerners to the southerners as well, lol maybe there will be a ploygamous marriage to Arianne or something (Kingmaker plot!). Jon Snow is the only person who will be able to unite the entirety of Westeros at the end of it all

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