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GMantis

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  1. In reality, Arya is consistently one of the most popular characters in the series (see for example the two surveys carried out in 2010 and 2015). And the reason for that are all her positive qualities, including (but not limited to) her bravery, determination, loyalty to her family and friends and her readiness to defend those weaker than her. The killing of Dareon is in fact one of the times when these characteristics come to the front: by killing the faithless Dareon who's abandoned both his duty to the Night's Watch and his companions, she asserts both her outlook about the importance of loyalty and her determination to uphold the values of her family. It's no wonder that she reasserts her identity after killing him and it's one of the best signs that she'll never become an assassin but will eventually return to the life of Arya Stark.
  2. No one reads these books with modern sensibilities in mind. If we did, we'd have to condemn all authority figures, including the most benign, as irredeemable tyrants. Arya's killing of Dareon fits entirely with the setting's moral, ethical and political outlook. As for the legal point of view, don't make me laugh. Arya is only in her current position because so many powerfull people trampled over all the laws of the realm, both written and unwritten. If she now has taken the law in her own hands, she's still more devoted to upholding it than the majority of those who are actually supposed to uphold it. Not to mention that she's currently being trained to be an assassin - do they also uphold the law? And all of this won't change the fact that if Ned or Jon had executed Dareon (which they most certainly would) no one would consider it wrong, let alone question their sanity. The double standards involving Arya (and other female characters for that matter) are beyond aggravating.
  3. She's married because Tywin who didn't give a damn about her well-being ordered her married. People who aren't in a hurry to steal her birthright don't think she's old enough to marry even at fourteen. Arya sometimes (not always) acts older than eleven, but certainly not sixteen. I don't agree at all with Sansa and Bran sounding older than they actually are. The only exception are Sansa and Arya's sample chapters from TWOW, but they're likely barely edited from they were supposed to be set after the five year gap.
  4. Catelyn specifically arranged for Arya's marriage with Elmar to be delayed until she was 16. She certainly wouldn't believe that 12 is old enough for Sansa to marry. Not everything has to be stated directly to be clear to the reader, the horrified reaction of Catelyn is enough to express her feelings. Jon outright calls Arya "still a child", so it's certainly incorrect that he doesn't think she's too young to marry.
  5. Not even remotely true. Just for an example, Sansa is considered still not old enough to marry in AFFC. Nor do any of them act like their age should be.
  6. If you ignore the fact that the two are siblings and Arya is nine, I guess you can imagine that the strong affection between them is romantic. Jon wouldn't call Arya "little sister" seven times in their brief time together on page if this relationship was supposed be anything but that between a brother and sister.
  7. If Arya is insane, why would she deserve punishment? And what kind of punishment do you have in mind?
  8. As I already said, he didn't reflect on the other significant events that he would've learned about at the same time as the marriage (like the death of Robb and the disappearance of Arya), so that doesn't mean much regarding his feelings towards the marriage. And Jon thought of Tyrion (he didn't ask about him) in connection with Tywin's murder, not the marriage. You're reversing the chronology of events. Sansa's forced marriage is (as far as Jon knows) already in the past at the time. I don't quite understand your point here. As I pointed out above, Jon thinks only once about Tyrion in ADWD and that was in connection to Tywin's death. It's hardly significant that he didn't think about Sansa at the time (even disregarding that Jon considered her dead), since she had nothing to do with this event. Jon learned nothing in the intervening period to change his belief about her being dead. Asserting Sansa's right to Winterfell isn't a contradiction - since it's not definitely known whether she's dead, Jon is correct in pointing out that she is the rightful heir. Your final quote is completely out of context. Jon had no reason to think that Arya was dead in ACOK. Before he went north on the ranging, he had not received any news about Arya and had only Mormont's guess that Arya and Sansa were being kept as hostages in King's Landing, so this is what he thought had happened at the time. He would have received the information that led him to believe that Arya was dead only after the arrival of Stannis at the Wall. I think we're getting sidetracked. Of course Jon was closer to Arya and Robb than to Sansa. But I think it's rather clear that your specific comparison about Jon's thoughts on the two marriages simply isn't valid.
  9. This is not really a fair comparison. The earliest time Jon could've learned about Sansa's marriage to Tyrion was at the same time as he learned about Tyrions' arrest and her disappearance, so there was never even an opportunity to reflect on the marriage. Furthermore, at the same time he also learnt about Robb's death and about Arya's disappearance. He thereupon concluded that both of his sisters, like his brothers, were dead: And apart from this moment, he never reflects on any of these deaths - even Arya's. So what Jon reflects about or what he's shown reflecting about is not at all a good guide about his true feelings. Of course, Jon later learned that Arya was alive, but he never received any information to reconsider his belief that Sansa was dead. See how he remembers her alongside his dead brothers after receiving the pink letter. So when Jon thinks about Tyrion in ADWD, it's reasonable to believe that he simply doesn't associate him with the sister he now believes dead. In conclusion, Jon is obviously immensely more concerned about the current marriage between the living Arya and the monster in human form Ramsay than he is about the marriage between the dead Sansa (as far as he knows) and Tyrion who he considered a friend. But this says nothing about his attitude towards either sister. We would know about this only if we knew his reaction to Sansa being married to Ramsay, which is an interesting hypothetical but obviously can't happen in canon. She's described as dark haired - a rather vague term, since it could mean both black and brown haired, and as having blue eyes. So you could more easily argue that Tysha is described similarly to Sansa
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