Dareon's Fate and Arya (spoilers)

[VRD]

So I just finished the chapter where Arya apparently kills Dareon and I was curious as to other people’s thoughts on the act.

I ask not so much because I’m hoping the character is still alive, but more so because I found the murder to be rather strange since I’m still searching for her motivation.

My thoughts on the matter are twofold. Either GRRM had her kill the singer to show how her character is transforming (and not for the better) due to all the loss she has suffered, or GRRM actually had Arya tell her first successful lie to The Kindly Man to show she is beginning to learn their arts.

To me, it could be either or but it seemed strange to me that Arya would have killed a man for his boots and because he had deserted the Night’s Watch. I get that she’s killed before, but those were in situations where she didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter. While Dareon was no saint, he certainly wasn’t Cersie or the Mountain and I can almost picture Arya threatening to kill him one night in his sleep if he didn’t leave Bravos and try to find Sam or at least make his way back to the wall.

So yeah, what does everyone think? Was Arya’s act done to show the effects of violence and poverty on the young? Or did Arya tell a lie to see if she was progressing with her studies?

[kephv]

She killed him for a deserter, and because she thinks him treacherous and foul. I thought it made sense given her character because, as a Stark, she's always been brought up to believe that desertion is death, and she probably just saw herself as doing something her father would have done.

[Onion Smuggler]

She killed him for a deserter, and because she thinks him treacherous and foul. I thought it made sense given her character because, as a Stark, she's always been brought up to believe that desertion is death, and she probably just saw herself as doing something her father would have done.

That's pretty much it. She's an angry, bitter girl who is quite capable of killing. As a Stark she was brought up knowing that the penalty for desertion is death, and the fact that she finds out Jon is still alive (and that he is Lord Commander?) means that she sees Dareon as directly betraying Jon, therefore she has to punish him for his desertion.

[Chelly]

You know this puzzled me as well, I first thought she succeeded in telling her first lie and tricking the kindly man because we don't actually see her killing him and taking his boots. I thought it was weird how it transitioned from her talking to Dareon and then the next scene.

But then again, it also makes sense if she really did kill him, because when she tells the kindly man this, he asks who killed the singer and her response was "Arya Stark of Winterfell" or something to that effect, which means she was being a Stark(herself) at the time and not Cat of the canals. Ned raised his children that the sentence for desertion is death, so she was doing what her duty as Stark would be.

I guess we won't know for sure until the next book.