ACOK Reread - Arya

[Ealasaid]

I agree that Arya was caught up in the moment when she chose her first kill.

I respectfully disagree that Hoat is a faceless man. Dany certainly met one.

[Barba]

Arya (VIII) {XIII}

Introduced: Lucan* (blacksmith at Harrenhal).

Lord Tywin Lannister was marching, leaving the castle in the hands of Ser Amory Lorch and Vargo Hoat. There is much talk in the castle about Robb’s strike into the heart of the West, but the stories of what actually occurred are mixed. Arya does a favor for Weese and is promised a good dinner, but Weese later slaps her and reneges on his offer. Arya decides to have Weese killed, and goes in search of Jaqen, but bumps into Rorge instead. The criminal with the missing nose accosts her, but when she mentions that she is looking for Jaqen, Arya notices something in Rorge’s eyes, something that looked like fear of Jaqen. Arya attempts to walk up to Jaqen quiet as a shadow, but the Lorathi hears her anyway. Arya whispers the name Weese. As Arya watches Lord Tywin’s army depart, she curses herself for not whispering the names of Lord Tywin or Ser Gregor to Jaqen, because Weese and Chiswyck were insignificant. Arya tries to find Jaqen in time to change her request, but she finds Weese dead, with the dog that he had raised as a pup tearing out his throat. Arya looks up and sees Jaqen on the battlements, and the man lays two fingers across his cheek casually.

[Ealasaid]

This is the chapter were Arya has a little rite de passage. She realizes she's wasted two of her deaths. I wish she had made it back to Jaqen in time to withdraw her Weese death wish. I guess this is GRRM's homage to the the three wishes and how the first two are always squandered.

[The Adequate Jon]

Good point about always wasting the first two wishes. Arya probably could have figured out how to kill Weese on her own.

[The Adequate Jon]

Arya (IX) {XIV}

Introduced: Mebble (called Pinkeye, replaces Weese as Understeward);

Ser Aenys Frey (third son of Lord Walder and his first wife, brother of Ser Stevron and Ser Emmon);

Shagwell the Fool* (a member of Vargo Hoat’s Bloody Mummers; slain by Brienne, the Maid of Tarth).

Arya and Hot Pie are eating tarts in the kitchens, when the Bloody Mummers return, this time with nearly 100 northmen as prisoners, along with their commander, Robett Glover. Vargo Hoat claims that Lord Roose Bolton fled with his host after the battle. Ser Amory Lorch has the men imprisoned in the Widow’s Tower. Arya tries to convince Gendry to help her free the northmen, but the apprentice smith is happy enough where he is and wants no part of it. Arya later goes to the godswood to practice with a wooden stick, and she meets Jaqen H’ghar there. The Lorathi tells her he would have done with his promise, and asks her to name a third. He also knows her to be Arya Stark, and tells her that some people have many names. She asks him to help her free the northmen, but Jaqen reminds her that she has only one name left. When Arya asks if she could name anybody, even the king, Jaqen tells her, "Speak the name, and death will come. On the morrow, at the turn of the moon, a year from this day, it will come. A man does not fly…but one foot moves and then another and one day a man is there, and a king dies. A girl whispers if she fears to speak aloud. Whisper it now. Is it Joffrey?" Arya whispers "Jaqen H’ghar", and stuns the man. But Jaqen is unafraid, and a dagger appears in his hand, telling her she would lose her only friend. Arya says that a friend would help her, and Jaqen agrees to help her if she names another name. They go and find Rorge and Biter, and Jaqen tells her, "The hungry gods will feast on blood tonight, if a man would do this thing", but Arya is resolute.

Jaqen brings Arya along, and has her demand several kettles of hot soup from the cooks. Each man takes one of the huge kettles, with Rorge carrying two, and invade the guardtower where the prisoners are kept. Boiling soup flies everywhere as the guards are dispatched, and when Rorge unlocks the door to the cells, Robett Glover thanks them and asks if they are from the Brave Companions. Arya is confused, but has no time to ask him what he meant when fighting breaks out in the great castle. Jaqen wipes blood from his sword on Arya’s shift, telling her this is her work. Later, Arya takes back the name, and asks if she still can name a third, but Jaqen tells her she has gotten far more than three deaths. As she watches, Jaqen tells her the debt is paid and that he must die, and his features change as he passes a hand over his face! <Note: The appearance that Jaqen takes on, a man with a hooked nose and a scar on his right cheek, is virtually identical to the description of the Alchemist in the Prologue of AFFC> Arya asks who he is and if she could learn, but Jaqen tells her that she would need to go with him across the narrow sea. He leaves her with a coin, of great value in the right place, and tells her that if she ever needs to find him again, she should give the coin to any man from Braavos, and say "Valar morghulis". Jaqen, who claims his name is as dead as Arry, then disappears into the night.

Later, after the northmen and the Bloody Mummers have secured Harrenhal, Lord Roose Bolton arrives, and Vargo Hoat turns the castle over to him. The prisoners were all a ruse to begin with, and apparently Bolton had bought the services of the Qohorik sellsword. As Roose Bolton takes control of the castle, Shagwell grabs Arya and presents her to her brother’s bannerman as the weasel who made the soup. Bolton asks her name, and Arya tells him ‘Nan’. The Lord of the Dreadfort then asks if she is afraid of leeches, for he claims that a man must purge himself of bad blood. When Arya tells him she is not afraid, Bolton names her his cupbearer. The banners over the gatehouse are changed to the flayed man of the Dreadfort and the direwolf of the Starks. Arya watches as the Bloody Mummers parade Ser Amory around naked, then feed him to a caged bear, and she thinks to herself, a bear all in black, like Yoren.

[A wilding]

This is one of those chapters where GRRM makes the reader work by not spelling out what is going on, so I guess that it would not hurt to do so.

The supposed battle between Vargo Hoat and Lord Roose Bolton, resulting in Hoat capturing the northmen, never took place. Instead Bolton and Hoat negotiated a deal in which Hoat would change sides and join Robb in exchange for being made Lord of Harrenhal (as we learn in ASoS). The purpose of the "prisoners" was presumably to smuggle extra fighting men into the castle to help Hoat when he turned on Ser Amory Lorch. Arya short circuited this by releasing the prisoners ahead of schedule. So ironically her last wish was wasted as well (except insofar as it may have impressed Jaqen and got him to give her the coin).

An intriguing possibility is that Bolton and Hoat had a secret additional double cross plan in which some or all of the prisoners would unfortunately be killed in the fighting before they could be released, as part of Bolton's general plan to eliminate his rivals. That is merely speculation however.

[The Adequate Jon]

An intriguing possibility is that Bolton and Hoat had a secret additional double cross plan in which some or all of the prisoners would unfortunately be killed in the fighting before they could be released, as part of Bolton's general plan to eliminate his rivals. That is merely speculation however.

I don't think Roose started to plan his double cross until Robb married Jeyne and Stannis failed to take Kingslanding.

[The Adequate Jon]

Arya (X) {XV}

Introduced: Elmar Frey (fourth son of Lord Walder and his seventh wife, once betrothed to Arya although she was never aware; brother of Arwyn, Wendel, Colmar, Waltyr, and Shirei);

Ser Harys Haigh (eldest son of Perriane Frey [daughter of Lord Walder and his first wife] and Ser Leslyn Haigh);

Qyburn (former maester disgraced by the Citadel for dabbling in necromancy, advisor to Vargo Hoat and then Lord Roose Bolton; later named Master of Whisperers by Queen Cersei to replace Varys, winning him a seat on the small council despite having once rode with Vargo; currently banished from the small council by Ser Harys Swyft and Pycelle, although he is still in charge of the Spider's whisperers).

Arya, now serving Lord Bolton, is bothered by the killing of many of the servants under Lord Tywin. Arya does not wish to reveal herself to the Lord of the Dreadfort, even though she knows the man to be one of Robb’s bannermen. Arya overhears a meeting between Lord Bolton and his advisors, mainly Freys. The Freys believe that Robb will lose, and that they should sue for peace and leave Harrenhal. Bolton states that he is not a man to be undone, like Stannis Baratheon was. Arya learns that Winterfell has fallen and is horrified when she finds out that her brothers are dead. Bolton dismisses the Freys, and has Arya remove the leeches. Qyburn, expelled from the Citadel for dabbling in necromancy, reads a letter from the Lady Walda, Bolton’s new wife. Bolton orders the letter burned, and a message sent to Ser Helman Tallhart, who had recently taken Castle Darry from the Lannisters. Bolton orders him and Robett Glover to burn the castle and put the people within to the sword in the name of King Robb, and then to strike east for Duskendale. Bolton says that both men will wish vengeance for what has transpired to their families and homes in the North.

The Lord of the Dreadfort then announces that he will hunt wolves that day, for he cannot sleep with all the howling at night. That evening, Bolton returns with nine dead wolves, and tells Arya that he means to give Harrenhal to Vargo Hoat when he returns to the north! Arya is to remain at Harrenhal to serve the Goat. Outside the tower occupied by the Freys, she hears much shouting within and sees Elmar crying on the steps. The young son of Lord Walder says, "We’ve been dishonored. There was a bird from the Twins. My lord father says I’ll need to marry someone else." Elmar was promised a princess originally, but whether or not he knows it to be Arya is unknown. Arya then decides to flee Harrenhal, and eventually convinces Gendry and Hot Pie to come with her. That night, Arya is forced to kill one of the guards from the Dreadfort, and the three ride out through a sally port and away from Harrenhal.

[Gilgafresh the Bling]

Arya (X) {XV}

Arya does not wish to reveal herself to the Lord of the Dreadfort, even though she knows the man to be one of Robb’s bannermen.

Are we ever told exactly why she doesn't want to reveal herself to Roose? Or, is there any speculation on this?

I ask because I recently 'turned on' another reader and he asked me that question after reading one of the last Arya chapters in ACOK.

The only thing that I can think of is that she really doesn't trust Roose, or maybe she was never accepting of the whole macabre nature of the Boltons in the first place.

Just thought I'd ask...

[dancer]

How would she prove it?

The only way that she could be verified is if either Robb or Catelyn were to catergorically state that she is Arya, and I think I remember her thinking that she doubts that Robb would actually recognise/care about her.

[thotk]

It is a good thing she did not reveal herself, perhaps Bolton would have been like "OMG REALLY AWESOME, here are 20 of my best men to escort you to your mother"

OR OR

he could have kept her there, perhaps the little Frey would have married her and he would of had a hostage to use in anyway he needed. He certainly didn't flinch at release Jaime L.

[tlains]

It is a good thing she did not reveal herself, perhaps Bolton would have been like "OMG REALLY AWESOME, here are 20 of my best men to escort you to your mother"

OR OR

he could have kept her there, perhaps the little Frey would have married her and he would of had a hostage to use in anyway he needed. He certainly didn't flinch at release Jaime L.

Maybe I am mistaken but weren't there other Northern Lords like Glover and Cerwyn who may have been able to help her. And since Arya and Jon supposedly resemble Eddard wouldn't they be able to recognize her when she states who she is.