Syrio to return?

[The Meeraculous Third Reed]

I love Syrio. Sadly I also think Syrio is dead. I still hope otherwise, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Jon WintryMix]

This is a nice idea and I'd be glad to see Syrio's return. It could possibly make a nice conclusion to Arya's story arc. Having said all that, I don't think it's going to happen. There are plenty of other ways to bring a fitting end to Arya's story.

[namtose]

The character of Syrio in the series played by Miltos Yerdemou is such a compelling personality that we want him to live on in the story. Both in the book and series he is seen fighting to the end, but his death is pretty certain.

Septa Mordane's death is never stated in the book but she is shown confronting the soldiers in the passage way in the series. In both cases, book and series, her head appears on the wall and shown to Sansa. Not every character needs to have a body and death scene to be declared dead.

[DoctorSwerve]

Not that it's very Syrio like, but he could have run after his sword was broken. Like previously stated, he was unarmored while everyone else was in armor. They would never catch him. I don't think he would just stand there and say, "Oh well".

[deleted01]

I want Syrio to be alive, and until I see a body, I won't stop believing that there's a small chance of him coming back. It also doesn't make sense that GRRM didn't explicitly show us that Syrio had died on the TV episode - suspicious.

[Ashen Shugar]

Not that it's very Syrio like, but he could have run after his sword was broken. Like previously stated, he was unarmored while everyone else was in armor. They would never catch him. I don't think he would just stand there and say, "Oh well".

He didn't just stand there and say "Oh well". He looked Trant in the eye and said:

You can't win, Trant. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

I'm not fussed either way but I think there is a good chance he is alive, I don't see why people say it is just people being hopeful. Characters have been left in worse situations and made it or at least are suspected of making it.

I think people are making too much of Martins words as well, all he did is tell us what we already know, yes it did seem that Syrio was left in a hopeless situation and yes we know he is not immortal.. neither is Jon, the hound and several other characters that made it out of "seemingly hopeless situations". If he is such a minor, insignificant character just come out and say "he is dead" if for no other reason than so that people stop bugging you. Instead he answered in a manner that would make any politician proud.

There are no strong arguements either way imo.

How much weight can we put on a 9 year olds assessment of the situation?

[EgoistMusketeer]

Is he the character about whose death GGRM is frustrated and puzzled with all the inquiry? There is one and I can't remember who, but if Syrio is the one I'm thinking about GGRM (probably unreasonably) has expressed that the death was fairly self-explanatory even barring actual witnesses.

Yup, GRRM was utterly confused when people asked him what had happened to Syrio.

As good as he was, a tiny bravosi with a wooden sword couldn't have beaten a fully plated knight of the kingsgaurd.

We don't see it because we only see it through Arya's eyes and she is escaping.

Syrio served his purpose in heroically sacrificing himself to give Arya a chance to escape, if he escaped as well then it makes lite of the sacrifice.

Let the man rest in peace.

[Light a wight tonight]

I'm normally the first person to not believe someone is dead unless I see a body, but ... I think Syrio is dead. I think he served his narrative purpose — train Arya and toughen her up and protect her from the Lannister guards — and he was killed. In order to escape, he would have had to have killed or severely maimed Meryn Trant. Trant is shown later alive and without any injuries of note, the insinuation being that he did dispatch Syrio. I think it's just that Syrio really was just a minor character — his popularity grew after the fact, when Martin had already closed the book on him — and thus didn't really necessitate the on-screen death that would otherwise (and later in the series) be necessary to prove a death.

ETA: And I don't think he's Jaqen. Jaqen had been in the cells for, what, a few years? I don't think he could have been in the cells and roaming free giving sword-fighting lessons. I think Jaqen's interesting (did he intend to land in the black cells, knowing he'd be taken north, or was he caught at something?), but I don't think he's Syrio.

I'm among those who want Syrio alive, though not necessarily cropping up later. I liked the character and don't think Trant was a good enough fighter to kill him.

As to whether Jaquen could be in the cells and roaming, remember that Varys played at gaoler part time, so maybe Jaquen was on Varys's payroll. He could be using the cell as a hotel room and taking meals there. Doesn't explain why he was on the way North, of course, but not too crackpotty otherwise.

[Viking]

I think the scene where he buys time for Arya to flee Trant has very significant wording. Arya tells herself to "look with her eyes" and notices that Trant is fully armored and armed while Syrio us completely unarmored and armed only with a wooden practic sword. After taking in the situation, she screams at him to run. He refuses and is soon disarmed, then she runs sobbing. The "look with your eyes" bit is very important I think, particularly as it immediately precedes the description of how badly outmatched he is. It is also important to remember that by the time Arya runs, his wooden sword has been destroyed as well. There just seems to be almost no wiggle room at all here. We do not see him die but we see everything short of it.

So your suggestion is that Syrio and Meryn Trant are both secretly working for the same person?

[Kaldaur]

Oh please. Martin wrote it to be ambiguous. He made it dramatic. "His sword was shorn in two." He made it compelling. And he made it ambiguous. It is just as ambiguous as Jon Snow's 'death' at the end of aDwD, and Brienne's 'hanging' at the end of aFfC. He may be dead, he may be alive. Will we ever know? I doubt it. For better or worse, Syrio's part in this story wrapped up when he trained Arya in the Red Keep. Unless Martin has other plans for him, which I doubt, we won't see him again.

Martin writes these kinds of endings to his character arcs all the time. Some of them die, some of them live. Sometimes we get Balon Greyjoy falling off the bridge and dying, sometimes we get Ramsay Bolton switching places with his man Reek right before they're captured. It's too hard to tell unless we see it in a PoV, in front of us, and even then, Martin often pulls a Gandalf and summons them back from the Valar, or the Lord of Light, or whoever happens to be resurrecting Catelyn.

[Katydid]

I think the good news about Syrio's fate is that George left it off-page. It's implied that Syrio was killed, however, he had just disarmed how many guards?, so there are probably swords scattered all around the floor. When Arya fled the scene, we have no way to know whether Syrio was gutted, or retrieved a discarded sword & fought his way out of the room.

So should George decide to bring Syrio back one day, he's got the wiggle-room to do it.

[Crown]

Syrio Forel is Meryn Trant. It is known.

[Wales338]

Ok, so the only way for him to survive would be to get away from Trant. We know Trant is not injured later so Syrio didnt kill or ingure him, and there were how many Lannister guardsmen and goldcloaks in the Red Keep? The only reason Arya got out is becasue she knew of the secert tunnel. Their is no way Syrio escaped the Red Keep. He's dead.

[Patchface12]

I think he will. But to change his face, reveal he was Jaqen, and to kill her when she fails a mission due to her need to kill everyone on her list. :bawl:

[ChromeWeasel]

I for one think that Syrio is still alive. Since Syrio's death was not explicitly discussed in the books, I think that we will see him again.

I believe that Arya will be tasked with assassinating someone she knows, and she will feel tremendous guilt. Syrio will be there either to stop her from completing her mission or there to pick up the pieces after she has completed the task in order to guide her back to the path of light.

There is a reason George did not give any clue to the fate of Syrio and we will find out in the next couple of books. Just a hunch.

I liked Syrio as well, but I hope and expect that he stays dead. The coolest thing about Syrio is that he was impressively able to dispatch a few no-name retainers, but he was clearly outmatched when facing an experienced and skilled knight. Skill at arms can take you pretty far, but at some point size, strength, and equipment is the difference maker. Syrio's finish was a nice shot of reality as far as Westeros martial arts goes.

[Crown]

Ok, so the only way for him to survive would be to get away from Trant. We know Trant is not injured later so Syrio didnt kill or ingure him, and there were how many Lannister guardsmen and goldcloaks in the Red Keep? The only reason Arya got out is becasue she knew of the secert tunnel. Their is no way Syrio escaped the Red Keep. He's dead.

He didn't have to escape if he killed Trant and changed his face to his.

[Faint]

The moderators seriously need to pin a single Syrio thread for this topic in order to give space for all those that want to engage in this exercise in lunacy instead of having it spread across the whole board like some parasitic plague.

[Wales338]

How does he change his face? there is no reference to him using magic anywhere.

[Xayoz]

I see no reason whatsoever for him to be alive and I am quite confident - neither does Martin.

[Teal'c]

I'm hoping he told Trant, "not today," and took off.