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Your thoughts on Izembaro?


Lady Hodor

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Izembaro is the man Arya will go to for her new apprenticeship in being a Faceless Man.

Even though we have not met him yet, I am already beginning to imagine what he will be like.

What do you want him to look like? Act like? Train like? Essentially, how would you create Izembaro?

I'd like a rather Syrio like character, with the "Just so" and a Braavosi accent, though maybe a little stricter.

He should not be nice, but not mean either, just the right balance in between so that Arya learns well from him.

He should also come up with amazing words and phrases that Arya can emulate and use in her training.

And I don't think we should ever know what he looks like. Every time Arya meets him, he should have a new face.

That way, Arya always has to work to guess which one is her mentor, and it makes him pretty cool :)

What about you?

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I don't think it's a person; I'm thinking it's a place. Somewhere close or nearby Braavos so she can come back every few months to learn more at the House of Black and White (face changing, glamors, etc). Just guessing but I'd say she'll be training as a courtesan next, learning the ways of the elite of society and such.

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Interesting notion. My first thoughts were that Izembarro sounded like a braavosi name and might not be a FM himself since he actually has a name, but someone who can teach her necessary skills for "giving the gift" like glamors or is actually a mummer, as we have been told that the FM share techniques with mummers. Now, I think it is the current guise of the FM with the plague, who gave her the assignment to kill the insurance salesman. I think the apprenticeship is not unlike a knight/squire relationship and that he will take her on a mission with him, getting her on the move once again.

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If Izembaro is a person, then he's not an FM, cause they don't have names. There'd be so many possibilities. He might be a magician or he might be some Bravo who'd teach her sword fighting. Or he might be some magician or mummer.

If it's a place, then I picture it to be a very awesome one. It would be kind of a secret place or a place where common people don't usually go to. It'll be like a school there. She would learn magic tricks like glamor, maybe a little more about poisons and some other assassination skills even sword fighting. And of course, learning to master her face and learning to lie and also removing your personality. That's the way I picture it because it'd be the most awesome IMO (but not the most likely).

BTW, I'd like the similarity with Syrio thing, but I really don't think it's gonna happen.

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BTW, I'd like the similarity with Syrio thing, but I really don't think it's gonna happen.

I know :P If GRRM had both Arya's mentors too alike it would raise a few eyebrows. It was just wishful thinking :)

And I've never thought of Izembaro being a place, interesting idea! For some reason I'm imagining a really weirdly shaped tower or something...

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If Izembaro is a person, then he's not an FM, cause they don't have names. There'd be so many possibilities. He might be a magician or he might be some Bravo who'd teach her sword fighting. Or he might be some magician or mummer.

If it's a place, then I picture it to be a very awesome one. It would be kind of a secret place or a place where common people don't usually go to. It'll be like a school there. She would learn magic tricks like glamor, maybe a little more about poisons and some other assassination skills even sword fighting. And of course, learning to master her face and learning to lie and also removing your personality. That's the way I picture it because it'd be the most awesome IMO (but not the most likely).

BTW, I'd like the similarity with Syrio thing, but I really don't think it's gonna happen.

FM dont have names, but the people they pretend to be have names. Just ask Ja'gen Hqar..or Pate...or Cat of the Canals

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FM dont have names, but the people they pretend to be have names. Just ask Ja'gen Hqar..or Pate...or Cat of the Canals

Cat of the canals wasn't a FM. Pate and Jaqen H'ghar needed a false name for the other people. Right now, Arya has become an acolyte, and she's now one of them. So, they wouldn't name him to her. If they really did have names, what's the name of the kindly man? I might have missed it, but I never saw it even mentioned.

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That night they gave her back the face of Arya Stark.

They brought a robe for her as well, the soft thick robe of an acolyte, black upon one side and white upon the other. “Wear this when you are here,” the priest said, “but know that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?”

Whoever or wherever Izembaro is it seems that she will head outside of Braavos.

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That night they gave her back the face of Arya Stark.

They brought a robe for her as well, the soft thick robe of an acolyte, black upon one side and white upon the other. “Wear this when you are here,” the priest said, “but know that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?”

Whoever or wherever Izembaro is it seems that she will head outside of Braavos.

There is nothing in that passage that suggests that she will be leaving Braavos.

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There is nothing in that passage that suggests that she will be leaving Braavos.

It makes it obvious that she is leaving, perhaps for a long time, which implies she is departing from Braavos, to this strange Izembaro.

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Cat of the canals wasn't a FM. Pate and Jaqen H'ghar needed a false name for the other people. Right now, Arya has become an acolyte, and she's now one of them. So, they wouldn't name him to her. If they really did have names, what's the name of the kindly man? I might have missed it, but I never saw it even mentioned.

The false name they have is the character that they have assumed. Like when arya put on that face, they can feel thoughts and memories from that character. The face they put on has its own character and name. The FM becomes that person. The kindly man is wearing no face, so he is no one.

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The false name they have is the character that they have assumed. Like when arya put on that face, they can feel thoughts and memories from that character. The face they put on has its own character and name. The FM becomes that person. The kindly man is wearing no face, so he is no one.

I don't think they become 100% that person. But I agree that they get memories though as with Beric with death some part is probably lost forever.

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I have no idea how to begin speculation on whether Izembaro is a person, place or thing, but one of the questions I've been wondering is if Arya is to leave Braavos, does she take Needle now or after Izembaro? I'm very interested if she intends to leave it for now, and/or whether the instruction to "take what clothes you will from the vaults below" is a test to see if she'd end up bringing it along (as I have no doubt that the KM and company know where it's hidden).

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