Of the Stark children and Parallel Journeys

[Artemis]

Before I begin, I just want to clarify that some of these thoughts are all over the place and therefore might appear to be incoherent. I was hoping, with the collective pooling together of our mental faculties, we might be able to sort through some of them.

I’ve attempted to enumerate my ideas below and attempt at elaborating each as to how they would seemingly fit into my crackpot theory.

Hypothesis: There are numerous parallels between both Bran and Arya Stark’s story-lines, leading me to conclude that there may perhaps be some sort of connection between Braavos and the North. These similarities are specifically manifested within the House of Black and White (HoB&W) in Braavos- the headquarters of the Faceless Men- and the North, specifically Bloodraven.

The Moon

Arya’s POV

- In the novel AFfC, we are told that Arya returns to the order of the Faceless Men (FM) at the HoB&W every “new Moon”, when the Moon itself is faceless. Arya assumes the identity of “no one” in this time, during this PHASEless Moon.

- The Faceless Men change their faces as the Moon changes faces (known as the "phases" of the moon- etymologically speaking, the word "phase" derives from the Ancient Greek word "appearance")

• Interpretations:
  

When the Moon is waxing, waning or full, Arya goes about her business as Cat of the Canals- valar dohaeris – until the new Moon (aka no Moon; faceless/phaseless Moon) where she sheds her assumed identity and returns back to the HoB&W to pay tribute to the Many-Faced God of Death- valar morghulis.

- Furthermore, the HoB&W is situated in between the Red Temple of R’hllor and The Moonsingers Temple; this is what is described of the latter Temple:

It was one of those that Arya had spied from the lagoon, a mighty mass of snow-white marble topped by a huge silvered dome whose milk glass windows showed all the phases of the moon. A pair of marble maidens flanked its gates, tall as the Sealords, supporting a crescent-shaped lintel.

Bran’s POV

- In ADwD, after Bran consumes the suspicious paste given to him by Bloodraven and the CotF, he assumes the eyes of a weirwood tree. This weirwood tree, it’s important to note, is the very same heart tree that resides at the godswood in Winterfell.

Near the end of Bran’s vision, he sees a white-haired woman holding a bronze sickle who uses it to perform a blood sacrifice before the weirwood.

• · Interpretations:
  

The "bronze" link at the Citadel, represents astronomy. The vast majority of the sickles we see throughout the series are made of bronze (Mirri Maz Duur uses one in AGoT, used in the weirwood sacrifice in Bran’s vision in ADwD, etc). My belief is that ‘bronze’ is specifically linked to the Moon (astronomy), and with sickles shaped as a crescent, perhaps bronze sickles and the Moon are linked to sacrificial rites or blood magic.

This could possibly recall to:

1) Temple of the Moonsingers in Braavos, specifically the two maidens carrying “a crescent-shaped lintel”

2) Mirri Maz Duur telling Dany that she learned birthing songs from the Moonsingers of the Jogos Nhai

3) The legend Doreah recounts to Dany in AGoT:

“He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi,” the Lysene girl said. “Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.”

4) The Dothraki myth of celetial objects:

“Moon is no egg. Moon is god, woman wife of Sun. It is known.”

5) The Azor Ahai myth as told by Salladhor Saan:

"Azor Ahai thrust the smoking sword through [Nissa Nissa’s] living heart. It is said that her cry of anguish and ecstasy left a crack across the face of the moon, but her blood and her soul and her courage all went into the steel. Such is the tale of the forging of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes."

Things to Consider with the Moon in Bran & Arya’s POVs:

At the Temple of the Moonsingers, why only 2 maidens? In many cultures, the Moon was represented as a triumverate (Artemis, Selene, Hectate) with three faces as the Waxing Crescent Moon, the Full Moon, and the Waning Crescent Moon, respectively. (Maid, Mother, and the Crone). And why holding up a crescent? Does that indicate both the waxing crescent AND the waning crescent?

Colors and Imagery:

Bloodraven (Bran POV in ADwD):

The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire, surrounded by twisted roots and tatters of leathery white skin hanging off a yellowed skull. The sight of him still frightened Bran -- the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been.

The Kindly Man (Arya POV in AFfC):

"'Do you fear death?'

She bit her lip. 'No.'

'Let us see.' The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket.

'Kiss me, child,' he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle.

Does he think to scare me? Arya kissed him where his nose should be and plucked the grave worm from his eye to eat it, but it melted like a shadow in her hand.

The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen was smiling down at her. 'No one has ever tried to eat my worm before,' he said."

Compare the description of Bloodraven to Arya’s first encounter with the Kindly Man changing his face.

Another possible indication of a connection between Arya-Bran and the environments in which their training takes place was Arya’s first encounter ever with the Kindly Man Arya upon entering the HoB&W. This is prior to the aforementioned quote from the very same Arya POV in AFfC:

The hooded man was tall, enveloped in a larger version of the black­ and­ white robe the girl [the Waif] was wearing. Beneath his cowl all she could see was the faint red glitter of candlelight reflecting off his eyes.

Hmmm.

Again, we see the colors black, white and red. What's more fascinating here is that the red of the candles Arya sees is reflected onto his eyes, making them appear red.

Lord Bloodraven is dressed in "ebon finery" and the black soil when Bran first encounters him. He's noted to be "pale lord" with white weirwood roots snaking through his body. The only thing that's alive-seeming is the red of his one eye.

Also in the HoB&W Arya notes the color around her:

“Around [the statues] feet red candles flickered, as dim as distant stars.

In the center of the temple she found the water she had heard; a pool ten feet across, black as ink and lit by dim red candles.”

There are three colors in the HoB&W- black (ebony of the carvings), white (weirwood carvings) and red (candles that smell of what you love the most)

There are three colors in Bloodraven's cave- black (soil), white (weirwoods), and red (his eye)

There are three colors of weirwoods- black (soil), white (bark), and red (the sap and leaves)

Physical Environment

HoB&W (Arya POV in ADwD):

Note the description of Arya’s surroundings as she descends into the lower sanctum of the HoB&W. This occurs when Arya is led by the Kindly Man Arya to procure her first “face”:

The tunnels here were cramped and crooked, black wormholes twisting through the heart of the great rock [...]

He led her across the chamber, past a row of tunnels leading off into the side passages. The light of his lantern illuminated each in turn. One tunnel was walled with human bones, its roof supported by columns of skulls. Another opened on winding steps that descended farther still. How many cellars were there? she wondered. Do they just go down forever?

Bloodraven’s Cave (Bran POV in ADwD):

Compare the description of the lower sanctum in the HoB&W and what Bran witnesses as he is led to Bloodraven:

There were more side passages after that, more chambers and Bran heard dripping water somewhere to his right. [...]

"Bones," said Bran. "It's bones." The floor of the passage was littered with the bones of birds and beasts. But there were other bones as well, big ones that must have come from giants and small ones that could have been from children. On either side of them, in niches carved from stone, skulls looked down on them.

The Magic of Skins: the North vs. Braavos

There are stark similarities between the types of magic utilized in the North and Braavos- specifically within the House of Black &White.

Before we explore this subject any further, what exactly is magical about the North? Well we have things such as:

- Skinchangers (ex. Wargs)

- Weirwood trees

- Children of the Forest

- The Others and wights

- Greenseers (i.e. skinchangers to the nth degree)

Only in ADwD did readers become fully cognizant to what degree almost all (except the Others) of the above are related to one another and how they function into the context of the novels. One thing all readers may fully agree upon is that there’s a lot of talk of “skins” and “faces” when we look to Northern Westeros. Some of this so-called “talk” has absolutely no preternatural basis, such as the skins of enemies House Bolton used to wear into battle that are still rumored to exist deep within the confines of the Dreadfort, while most are deeply rooted in some kind of mysticism or another. In fact, much of this is illustrated in Bran’s POVs when he is trained by Bloodraven to become the next greenseer. The reader is able to glimpse Bran taking the “face” of the weirwood in Winterfell when he describes the scenes he was witnessing from decades past. The weirwood faces, in a way, seems to hold memories of yesteryears.

How on earth does this tie into Arya’s Braavosi storyline?

It’s obvious Braavos is an oddly curious city-state. For one thing, they seem to harbor a seemingly sinister organization known as the Faceless Men with their world headquarters traced to the House of Black and White. Also, it seems as if the latter tends to dapple in an unsavory hobby such as collecting, oh you know, human skins. Human skins that can be worn by others with a teensy bit of blood magic involved.

So, the magic associated with “faces” and “skins” abound both in the North and Braavos, both of which are on two completely separate continents.

This is how Braavos is explained to the readers through the eyes of Arya:

"Braavos was a city made for secrets, a city of fogs and masks and whispers. Its very existence had been a secret for a century, the girl had learned; its location had been hidden thrice that long..."

Interesting. A city of fog (we’ve seen mists arise in the North accompanying the Others), masks (self-explanatory) and whispers (elaborated on later). Even its existence had been a secret, for the dragons could not find Braavos- it was an invisible, “faceless” city.

Also, take for example Arya’s first impressions of the city when she arrives as is being rowed to the HoB&W by Yorko:

Yorko swung them north of the docks and down the gullet of a great canal, a broad green waterway that ran straight into the heart of the city. They passed under the arches of a carved stone bridge, decorated with half a hundred kinds of fish and crabs and squids. A second bridge appeared ahead, this one carved in lacy leafy vines, and beyond that a third, gazing down on them from a thousand painted eyes.

As we all know, our favorite albino Bloodraven is described to have "a thousand eyes and one" in the Dunk & Egg stories. From The Mystery Knight:

How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? the riddle ran. A thousand eyes, and one. Some claimed the King's Hand was a student of the dark arts who could change his face, put on the likeness of a one-eyed dog, even turn into a mist. Packs of gaunt gray wolves hunted down his foes, men said, and carrion crows spied for him and whispered secrets in his ear. Most of the tales were only tales,Dunk did not doubt, but no one could doubt that Bloodraven had informers everywhere.

Faces. Mists. Spies. Perhaps Braavos and the North are far more similar than we thought?

Let’s keep going. When Arya also sees the House of Black and White for the first time, she notes:

The lefthand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought.

Again, it's interesting to note that she's reminded of a heart tree, especially the heart tree at Winterfell. The "face" on the heart tree of Winterfell is the first Bran dons when beginning his training.

If you compare the quote right above to what Arya feels when she encounters the chamber full of faces, a parallel emerges:

As they made their way back to the steps, the empty eyeholes of the skins upon the walls seemed to follow her. For a moment she could almost see their lips moving, whispering dark sweet secrets to one another in words too faint to hear. Sleep did not come easily that night. [...] whichever way she turned, she saw the faces. They have no eyes, but they can see me.

Funnily enough, the first thing she notices or her first thought related to the rooms of faces is,

"A thousand faces were gazing down on her."

We see the mention of the phrase "a thousand eyes and one" repetitively in ADwD due to the appearance of Bloodraven. The words appear most in Bloodraven's cave in the Bran POV, but we also see the mention of "thousand faces" and "thousand eyes" in the Braavos chapters within Arya's POV. Arya feels like she's increasingly being "watched" by BOTH the faces on the weirwood doors and the faces in the lower sanctum. Bran has noted once that it felt like the weirwood in Winterfell was watching him. In fact, we find out in ADwD, it actually was! Bloodraven is a creeper, guys.

We also see such “faces” and “skins” whisper in both the North and Braavos. Arya believed that the faces were whispering to one another while Bran (in AGoT) AND Theon (in ADwD), respectively, at one time or another thought the weirwoods also "whispered":

"A faint wind sighed through the godswood and the red leaves stirred and whispered. Summer bared his teeth. 'You hear them, boy?' a voice asked. […]

Osha studied him. 'You asked them and they're answering. Open your ears, listen, you'll hear.'

Bran listened. 'It's only the wind,' he said after a moment, uncertain. 'The leaves are rustling.'

'Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?' She seated herself across the pool from him, clinking faintly as she moved. […] 'They see you, boy. They hear you talking. That rustling, that's them talking back.'"

"...yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. 'Theon,' they seemed to whisper, 'Theon.'"

During the scene in the lower sanctum, quoted above, when Arya is to put on a new face in ADwD, she recounts that "the cut was quick, the blade sharp". She had found it strange that the metal of the blade felt warm instead of cold, like it should have been.

"She could feel the blood washing down her face, a rippling red curtain falling across her brow and cheeks and chin, and she understood why the priest had made her close her eyes. When it reached her lips the taste was salt and copper. She licked at it and shivered."

Arya's face getting cut sounds a lot like (similar as in the blood from her true face gives "life" to the dead face) the blood magic/blood sacrifice performed in front of the heart trees in the old North (it's been theorized that blood sacrifice 'activates' a weirwood face). The cut on her forehead with the blood running down her face is reminiscent of cutting into a tree for its sap, and many times it has been observed that the faces of the heart trees are covered in red sap:

"Eight days ago, Asha had walked out with Aly Mormont to have a closer look at its slitted eyes and bloody mouth. It is only sap, she'd told herself, the red sap that flows inside these weirwoods. But her eyes were unconvinced; seeing was believing, and what they saw was frozen bood."

As we know, each heart tree carved with a face has different memories from their vantage points, as Bloodraven explains to Bran. So when Bran dons the "face" of a particular heart tree, he can see its memories. Similarly, the Kindly Man tells Arya to take some care as the new "face" she's given for her FM assignment comes with the memories of its previous owner.

"A face floated in front of her, fat, bearded, brutal, his mouth twisted with rage. […]

No one was choking her, no one was hitting her. […]

'You may have bad dreams for a time,' warned the kindly man. 'Her father beat her so often and so brutally that she was never truly free of pain or fear until she came to us.'"

Then when Bran takes the skin of a raven in ADwD while in Bloodraven’s cave:

"Then he realized he was not alone. “Someone else was in the raven,” he told Lord Brynden, once he had returned to his own skin.

'Some girl. I felt her.'

'A woman, of those who sing the song of earth,' his teacher said. 'Long dead, yet a part of her remains, just as a part of you would remain in Summer if your boy’s flesh were to die upon the morrow. A shadow on the soul. She will not harm you.'"

Interestingly, both Arya and Bran are training to adorn new "faces” or “skins”, both of which seem to harbor memories of some sort.

I REALIZE THIS IS HORRIBLY ORGANIZED and I essentially regurgitated all that's been on my mind. Please feel free to make of this what you will. Also, please check out Elaena Targaryen's awesome thread, Howl at the Moon, which has some truly wonderful ideas circulating around that got me thinking up all of this gibberish.

I realize this is more rampant speculation than anything else, but I was hoping that this could be a thread for discovering and discerning parallels between each of the Stark children, with Bran and Arya being only the beginning. Please feel free to talk abt similiarities in the story arcs of Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, Robb Stark, Bran Stark, Arya Stark, and Rickon Stark.

[ab aeterno]

I think you've made some really interesting and thought provoking points. I can't really comment right now because I'm still trying to process all the information and think it all through, but it's quite facinating IMO, especially if it turns out that there is something to it. Kudos for being brave enough to start a long, bold thread like this.

[pablonohablo]

Agreed. I started off thinking "What the hell is this person talking about?" when I was reading the parallels you were finding. I mean, people can find parallels between anything if they want to. But the more I read, the more sense your theories made. You've really synthesized a lot of information here, and given all of us a lot to chew on. Well done.

[Lord Liam DarkStark]

Bravo!! Excellent job on pointing all these connections out. That is a lot to chew on

I had a lot of similar thoughts about bran and arya's connection. It seems one is becoming a servant to life(old gods,nature,and weirwoods) and the other is becoming a servant to death. I like these ideas you put out there lots of interesting points made, and definitely not bad organization for such a large amount of detail.

[Artemis]

Agreed. I started off thinking "What the hell is this person talking about?" when I was reading the parallels you were finding. I mean, people can find parallels between anything if they want to. But the more I read, the more sense your theories made. You've really synthesized a lot of information here, and given all of us a lot to chew on. Well done.

Trust me, while I was writing this I asked myself a variant of that question many, many times. :P

[Lady Wylla Manderly]

Brilliantly written. I'm speechless. Kudos! :)

[DragonSpawn]

Great post! :)

Just to add my own little parallels that i quite like:

Eddard Stark - Sat on the Iron throne for like 5 seconds and did more justice than Robert Baratheon in his 17 years as King...

Robb Stark - In his first war defeated Jaime Lannister and out-smarted Tywin Lannister, and killed Karstark doing 'real justice'

Ayra Stark - killed Dareon for being a deserter and did more justice as a Trainee FM than it seems they have done in many years...

Jon Snow - did more for the watch in his short time as Lord Commander than Mormont did in his entire time as Lord Commander - and did justice on Janos Slynt while previous commanders would be too afraid or see Slynt as too valuable an asset.

Sansa / Bran and Rickon are tbc :) - but they seem to be just coming into their own.

[FittleLinger]

Great post indeed!

There are other small parallel between Bran's Journey and HoB&W. For instance, when taking Bran north of the Wall, Sam encounters a weirwood door, that asks him "Who are you?". Also there are parallels between BR and the Kindly man that you already mentioned, but also between the Waif and Leaf - they are both "children", but are actually much older and wiser than they appear, and kind of serve as the main guy (Bloodraven and the Kindly man)'s sidekick.

[Prince of the Green]

Great post indeed!

There are other small parallel between Bran's Journey and HoB&W. For instance, when taking Bran north of the Wall, Sam encounters a weirwood door, that asks him "Who are you?". Also there are parallels between BR and the Kindly man that you already mentioned, but also between the Waif and Leaf - they are both "children", but are actually much older and wiser than they appear, and kind of serve as the main guy (Bloodraven and the Kindly man)'s sidekick.

The same thing occurs, at least in the same vein of Sam responding to the Black Door's question, when Stannis asks Jon who he is:

"Just who do you imagine that you are?"

"The watcher on the walls. The sword in the darkness."

ADWD, Nook version, p. 69

It is interesting to note that we have yet to see a weirwood growing anywhere in Essos. Nearly every single god or goddess or worshiped entity has a place in Bravos, save for the Old Gods (and perhaps the Lamb-God of the Lhazarene; didn't see them mentioned), so no Godswood or heart tree is seen. But the doors of the House of Black and White, as well as some of the interior furniture, utensils, and bowls, are made out of weirwood. And not just any weirwood, but weirwood adorned with faces.

Other than the port of Ibben, there is no more northern city or port in Essos than Bravos so it would stand to reason that there was some trade between the two in past days. As to how that trade occurred or if the acquisition of weirwood was more theft than through trade, I couldn't really say, but I was pleased to see that Arya Stark would have a reminder of home in this strange Essosian city.

[Ser Endrew Tarth]

Great post indeed!

There are other small parallel between Bran's Journey and HoB&W. For instance, when taking Bran north of the Wall, Sam encounters a weirwood door, that asks him "Who are you?". Also there are parallels between BR and the Kindly man that you already mentioned, but also between the Waif and Leaf - they are both "children", but are actually much older and wiser than they appear, and kind of serve as the main guy (Bloodraven and the Kindly man)'s sidekick.

Good point! Great OP on the similarities. so BR=KM/Waife=Leaf (was that the child of the forests name?)

Also found this when reading ASoS on my lunch break:

(Bran in the Nightfort)

He could almost hear the ghostly sentinels calling to each other atop the wall and winding their ghostly warhorns. Pale moonlight slanted down through the hole in the dome, painting the branches of the weirwood as they strained up toward the roof. It looked as if the tree was trying to catch the moon and drag it down into the well. Old Gods, Bran prayed, if you hear me, don't send a dream tonight. Or if you do, make it a good dream. The Gods made no answer.

[evita mgfs]

Posted by evita mgfs on 18 July 2012 - 02:47 AM in General (ASoIaF)

I am excited about this thread. I have been muddling with similar ideas. Until I can organize my thoughts, here's a copy of a post I made in July.

Great Job, Artemis.

The faceless men remind me of other passages in the ASOIF. For instance, the faceless men (faces concealed with scarves) on Quiet Isle with Good Brother, who perform services similar to the novies in the Temple of Many Faced God or HOB&W (SOS). They care for the dead washed ashore, collect valuables from corpses and from the river, amass wealth, and conduct a ten year silence. [i know they worship the Seven, but the Stranger is mentioned in the HOB&W, as is the horse lord]. Good Brother maintains a ‘quiet isle’, and he provides burial for the dead. Likewise, in the HOB&W, even a whisper can be heard (I can’t find passage).

In the House of the Undying, Dany passes through a black and white weirwood door: “ . . . a set of wide wooden doors had been thrown open. They were fashioned of ebony and weirwood, the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns” (COK 703), very like the doors Arya enters when she arrives in Braavos: “ . . . she [Arya] found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high . . . the left . . . made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony . . . . In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood of Winterfell” (135).

In the House of the Undying, Dany also passes through a ‘mouth’ door, “. . . a tall oval mouth, set in a wall fashioned in the likeness of a human face” (COK 698) which is similar to the magic door Sam takes Bran and company through beneath the Wall, “ The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken. It looks dead. Its mouth was closed . . . the door opened its eyes . . . its lips wide, and wider . . . a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles” ( SoS 733). Bran’s observation of the face follows: “If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like this” ( SoS 733). This description may foreshadows Lord Brynden, the Blood Raven, “. . . a pale lord in ebon finery sat . . . on a weirwood throne”. BR looks like a corpse, white skin, aged garb, little flesh hanging here and there. His face is like a skull, his one red eye “staring at him [bran], shining like a pool of blood . . . Where the other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty eye socket, down his cheek and into his neck” (DWD 178). This skull face harks back to the KOM’s skull face in the HOB&W, where Arya surprises him by attempting to eat his worm.

Back in the House of Undying, a “splendor of wizards” indicate they have not only waited for, but sent the comet to guide Dany to them. “Daenerys of House Targaryen, be welcome. . . . We are the Undying of Qarth.”

“Long have we awaited you,” said a woman . . . “We knew you would come to us,” the wizard king said. “A thousand years ago we knew, and have been waiting. . . .” (704).

Similarly, BR shares with Bran, “I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, and that of your lord father before you. . . . I was watching you when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, although the hour is late” (DWD 178).

Both Dany and Bran share similar experiences: both have been promised – Dany to the UD and Bran to BR. Pyat Pree warns Dany that to the UD, “Our little lives are no more than a flicker of a moth’s wing to them,” (703). Likewise, BR says the weirwood conduit will live forever if untouched, and “To them seasons pass in the flutter of a moth’s wing, and past, present, and future are one.”

So – with this much related so far – are there correlations among these locations: HOUD, BR’s cave, the Wall, and HOB&W and the “faceless men”? How does this fit with the Old Gods and maybe the Children of the Forest? I also read a post connecting BR to the Others.

[Tam Lin]

Just to echo some of the other posters, this was a fantastic, thought-provoking post. I'd noticed some general similarities in the journeys/story-arcs of Bran and Arya, but the parallels you document are really remarkable -- right down to the exact same images and descriptions of Bloodraven & the Kindly Man. If there isn't a connection between those two, I'm a hobbit. Now what all this means for the story going forward I can't guess . . .

[Fire Eater]

@evita mgfs

I would also add that Bloodraven has been able to extend his lifespan by living off the weirwoods, and he is pale and white like the trees he lives off of and corpse-like and withered in appearance whereas the Undying have lived beyond their normal lifespan by living off the shade-of-the-evening from the trees with blue leaves outside the HotU, being withered and corpse-like.

[Lord Liam DarkStark]

From an ass's pizzle or a camel's cunt we are apt to see the fig.

Did you mention how the candles remind her of winterfell....

And when bran eats the paste he has a similar reaction.

[evita mgfs]

Back, as promised. This is a moon/celestial objects in Jon’s POV that might be significant in you theory. I will post Arya and Bran later. I hope this helps.

Here is a reference to face/phase less moon in Jon’s POV DWD: This is the night the six new recruits say their crow vows to the nine weirwoods, and in this ring they come upon nine wildlings, two dead and a giant, and return to the Wall with them:

“They [crows & co.] had no moon to guide them home, and only now and then a patch of stars. The world was black and white and still . . . Jon glimpsed the red wanderer above, watching them through the leafless branches of great trees as they made their way beneath. The Thief, the free folk called it. The best time to steal a woman was when the Thief was in the Moonmaid, Ygritte had always claimed” (469-70). Note: More #'s in that POV - I imagine they might mean something since they are so deliberate in the narration.

Also, depending on where you go with the ‘celestial’, the comet in COK’s among Stark POV’s is substantive – the direwolves howl continually [even Bran joins them in a chorus].

[evita mgfs]

I am back with some of the parallels I found with your hypothesis in mind. I tried to offer evidences of similarity not mentioned – but I found lots of patterns, in Jon’s POV as well as Bran’s and Arya’s. Anyways, here is what I have – I hope it makes sense.

After Bran looks through the weirnet for the first time, he sees his father cleaning Ice beneath the heart tree in WF.

Leaf tells Bran, “ ‘You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw’ (458).

“ ‘A man must look before he can hope to see . . . in time you will see beyond the trees themselves.’

‘When?’ Bran wanted to know.

‘In a year or three, or ten, that I have not glimpsed. It will come in

time . . .’”

Note that Arya also despairs in her training when the KOM puts off teaching her to change her face with the magic she witnesses in Jaqen. KOM says, “’All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a proper glamor.’

‘Years?’ she said, dismayed.

Quick point: Syrio’s lessons will suggest the link to the ‘heart yearning to see’ – through his Sealord story mentioned below.

Likewise, in GOT, Syrio Forel educates Arya on “ ‘The seeing, the true seeing, that is the heart of it’” (531).

After Syrio’s story about how he became the first sword of Braavos through honestly reporting the TRUTH of the Sealord’s cat, Arya says, “You saw what was there.”

“ ‘Just so. Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies, and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true . . . Look with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth’” (GOT 531).

Similarly, Jojen, whom the three-eyed crow sends to Bran, tells him to OPEN HIS THIRD EYE:

“Open your eye.”

“They are open. Can’t you see?”

“Two are open.” Jojen points. “One, two.”

“I only have two.”

“You have three. The crow gave you the third, but you will not open it . . . with two eyes you see my face. With three you see my heart . . . ” (COK 437).

As the KOM names Arya “LIAR” in the HOB&W [“Who are you?” “No one.” “You lie” (FFC 738) ], Jojen calls Bran “Warg. Shapeshifter. Beastling.” Jojen claims, “A knight is what you want. A warg is what you are . . you will never fly .. . Unless you open your eye.’ . . . Jojen puts two fingers together and pokes Bran in the forehead, hard” (COK 523).

Arya asks the KOM how he knows that she is lying:

“Is it magic?”

“A man does not need to be a wizard to know truth from falsehood, not if he has eyes. You need only learn to read a face. Look at the eyes. The mouth. The muscles . . . A false smile and a true one may look alike, but they are as different as dusk from dawn. Can you tell dusk from dawn? . . . Then you can learn to see a lie . . . and once you do, no secret will be safe from you” (FFC 459). To which Arya responds, “Teach me.”

Notice Bran’s lament in DWD: “He had thought the three-eyed crow would be a sorcerer, a wise old wizard who could fix his legs, but that was some stupid child’s dream” (455). [bran’s irony is unconscious – he has no inkling BR had once been called ‘sorcerer’ and ‘wizard’ by some].

Also, Bran observes the eyes of the ravens in the warded cave – they are filled with secrets.

Regarding dreams, when Bran tells Jojen Master Luwin says “there’s nothing in dreams to fear”, Jojen responds prophetically:

“The past. The future. The truth” (COK 523).

Back to Arya – she laments, “I don’t know any mummer’s tricks either.”

“Then practice making faces. Beneath tour skin are muscles. Learn to use them. It is your face. Your cheeks, your lips, your ears [Almost word for word Syrio: “Look with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin.” ] Smiles and scowls should not come upon you like summer squalls. A smile should be a servant, and come only when you call it. Learn to rule your face.”

“Show me how” (FFC 463).

The KOM instructs Arya to train before a Myrish mirror one hour every day. “Eyes, nostrils, cheeks, ears, lips, learn to rule them all.”

So every morning and every night Arya sits before the mirror with a candle on each side of her, making faces. “ Rule your face, she told herself, and you can lie” (FFC 463).

Aren’t these words mirroring each other? BR’s: “Choose one now and fly” (DWD 450).

“ Rule your face, you can lie”

“Choose one now and fly”

Likewise, when Bran is alone, he tries to open his third eye, which parallels Arya learning to rule her face: “ . . . he wrinkled his forehead and poked at it, he couldn’t see any different than he’d done before” (COK 523). Jojen advises Bran to use his heart, not his fingers, to open his third eye, much like the KOM advises Arya to master her facial muscles in order to conceal emotion.

Okay – what “larger picture analysis” do these evidences project? I am not sure. Perhaps others can use my findings to make connections. Here are my thoughts:

The KOM teaches Arya to detet lies in others and to train her facial musles so others will not detet her lies. Through observation and practice, Arya learns master secrets others hide and discern the truth all while “masking her own truths, ie, her true identity as Arya of House Stark which is hidden beneath a different face, or skin. [Note that when Bran surfs the weirnet, he is covered with ‘skins’ as well; and, at first, he looks through heart trees – back to Syrio’s “The heart lies, and the head plays tricks on us, but the eyes see true . . .”].

Likewise, Jojen wants Bran to open his third eye to seek the ‘truth’ – In Jojen’s lessons, he challenges Bran to examine his wolf and tree dreams, to confront his fears of falling, and to accept the truth about himself: that he is the winged wolf who must break free of Winterfell and learn to fly; that he is a greenseer and a warg who has been blessed by the old gods to see as they do while still mortal.

Just as Arya studies the art of glamor – illusion versus reality – Bran weds the weirwood to learn the truth that men forgot. As Arya wears a mask, so does Bran – he peers through the faces carved in the weirwoods.

Bran’s education is inert, Arya’s is active. Bran sits – he learns through an on-line college whereas Arya is attending a vocational institution. Bran surfs, Arya experiences [sort of]. Both will be an instrument of some force; both will assert their superiority by mastery of knowledge albeit through differing methodology; both will serve a purpose. However, the knowledge they acquire may be the same, they will most likely ‘implement it’ in different ways for polar purposes.

[evita mgfs]

Here are some of my wild crackpot ideas about Arya. I hope you can follow because the thoughts came fast - then I had to add the quotes - but I just thought this out. I know you won't bash me, but others might. So in my defense, I am warning crackpot follows: :dunce:

I made a connection with Arya and Jon: both of them are part of a Night’s Watch. Arya, as well, is the sword in the darkness, for as a faceless man she wears a mask, or hood, to cloak her own features as Arya of House Stark, so she is shrouded in darkness, metaphorically speaking. Her weapon is her killing ability, symbolized by “sword”, one of the three dogs of war in Shakespearean plays, notably in Julius Caesar when Antony promises bloody vengeance for Caesar’s death: He says, “Cry Hovoc, and let slip the dogs of war”. Another thought, the Starks are the dogs of war who will be metaphorically unleashed from their crypts to rise against their enemies.

“Havoc” means not taking any prisoners as well as taking all spoils, or booty, and the three dogs of war are the results of war: Famine, Sword, Fire, metaphorically speaking. However, war dogs are also associated with battle to scout, cause a diversion, to sniff out cadavers, to attack and kill the enemy, etc. Ares, the Greek god of war, is oft depicted in images with a hell hound at his side and a vulture on his shoulder. His animal associations are the same: dog and carrion birds, animals that eat the dead on the battle field.

The analogy I am making is with the Starks representing aspects of the Shakespearean elements of war, since Martin does make pointed references to the specific play Julius Caesar, and most copies have annotations defining the “havoc’” and “dogs of war” – that’s how I know.

The Starks, as the dog/wolf/direwolf counterparts, will cry havoc against those who wronged them. Who will unleash them, or what, is the big question.

I can see Arya’s service with the Faceless Men as parallel to Jon’s oath to the Night Watch:

[with a few adjustments in the vows to attend to Arya’s female sex]

Night gathers, and now my watch begins

• “On the night the moon went black” (FfC 772), Arya returns to her duties at the House of Black and White, where she tends the dead and serves other Faceless Men and priests at their monthly gathering. Both involve the verb watch: whether literally or figuratively.
  
• Arya calls her own self the Night Wolf, for she is the dark force who escorts, metaphorically and figuratively, the dead to their final resting places – to the Shadowlands, Nightlands, or roots of trees. She associates herself with the Night where she is in charge of watching and caring for the dead, as well as taking good care of her victims.
  
• The Night Wolf’s prayer is still Arya of House Stark: “Ser Gregor . . . Dunsen, Raff the /sweetling, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei” (DwD 593).
  
• Night is also represented when Arya is made blind through a potion given to her:
  

“. . . every dawn she woke to darkness” (DwD 593).

• “Hear, smell, taste, feel . . . there are many ways to know the world for those who cannot see” (DwD 594).
  
• When Arya asks the Waif how long she must be blind, she answers, “Until darkness is as sweet to you as light . . . “ (DwD596).
  
• Also, when he has an assignment, she studies him far in advance, learning his habits, his schedule, his clientele, and so on. She watches, maybe not on a Wall specifically, but from a perch with a good vantage point, as the Wall with its height allows the NW to lookout over the haunted forest, etc. to spot the enemy’s arrival.
  

It shall not end until my death.

Once part of their order, it is for life. She will take an oath at some point, for the Kindly Old Man tells her, “We are but his servants, sworn to do his will” (FfC 772).

• Also, the Kindly Old Man tells Arya: “The cost is all of you” (FfC 452).
  

• Arya may die as a Faceless Man ironically, as well. For example, if she joins the mummers in the Purple Harbor or elsewise, she may perform a death scene – or act the part of a character who dies in a mummer’s play.
  

I shall take no wife [husband], / hold no lands, / [father [mother] no children.

I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.

• “Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death. No one can do both” (FfC 453).
  
• The Kindly Old Man tells Arya, “. . . the Many Faced God will take your ears, your nose, your tongue. He will take your sad grey eyes that have seen so much. He will take your hands, your feet, your arms and legs, your private parts. He will take your hopes and dreams, your loves and hates. Those who enter his service must give up all that makes them who they are” (FfC 453-453).
  

I am the watcher on the walls. /I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

• “All [realms of men] must bow to him [Him of Many Faces] in the end, no matter . . .” (FfC 722) what their faith.
  
• “All mankind belongs to him . . . else somewhere in the world would be a folk who lived forever. Do you know of any folk who live forever?” ( 722).
  
• “It is not for you to say who shall live and who shall die. That gift belongs to Him of Many Faces” (772).
  
• She is a shield in an ironic sense compared to the Night’s Watch, who keep an eye out for the marching death that the Others and their minions represent. Arya, on the other hand, is an instrument of death for some deserving appointee of Him of Many Faces, the end god of the godhood. She shields the victim or victims of the recipient of the Him of Many Face’s gift.
  

I pledge my life and my honor to the Night’s Watch, for this Night and all nights to come.

• Once part of their order, it is for life. She will take an oath at some point, for the Kindly Old Man tells her, “We are but his servants, sworn to do his will” (FfC 772).
  

• Since she learns the arts of deception, especially the skills of spotting a lie and telling a lie, her sense of honor may be skewed. Her honor is serving a God of Many Faces as an instrument of death, which is an ironic twist to the “shield” – Arya is, in a sense, protecting the interests of others who seek out the deaths of supposedly deserving victims.
  

Just thoughts.

[Im no Ser]

Interesting stuff.

In terms of the Braavos/North connection, it's worth noting that Braavos is geographically closer to the North than King's Landing, and the North seems to have deeper trade connections with Braavos than it does with the rest of Westeros.

[Ser Endrew Tarth]

I like how your info illustrated an embracing of the darkness for both Arya and Bran. Earlier when Bran speaks to Jon via Jon's wolf dream Bran tells him he likes the dark... Perhaps Jon will have to embrace the dark as well in TWoW.

(by darkness I don't necessarily believe they are becoming evil, I guess it's a metaphor for losing your sight in your eyes and opening your heart/exploring your own power)

[evita mgfs]

@evita mgfs

I would also add that Bloodraven has been able to extend his lifespan by living off the weirwoods, and he is pale and white like the trees he lives off of and corpse-like and withered in appearance whereas the Undying have lived beyond their normal lifespan by living off the shade-of-the-evening from the trees with blue leaves outside the HotU, being withered and corpse-like.

Great Point, Fire Eater. :bowdown: