ARYa_Nym

I wonder if the Dornish prince is supposed to be a stand-in for Arianne's little brother in the books. 

1 hour ago, Danelle said:

It did seem a bit random.

I mean her maternal grandfather was mentioned that he loved to travel, and there was a Stark ancestor who also seemed to enjoy exploring. But so far in the books and the tv series her arc seemed to focus on revenge and her pack. Perhaps in the books we will be given more context in regards to that decision. 

I think it's already in the books. The ending made sense to me. 

Quote

“If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself. And if it was true, I’d just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan’s stories, dragons and sea monsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn’t ever fly back unless I wanted to.”

Excerpt From: George R.R. Martin. “A Clash of Kings.” Apple Books. 

Quote

“Polliver said that Sansa killed him, and the Imp. Could that be true? The Imp was a Lannister, and Sansa… I wish I could change into a wolf and grow wings and fly away.”

Excerpt From: George R. R. Martin. “A Storm of Swords.” Apple Books. 

In Braavos, what she liked best was the harbor. She can hear about all the adventures sailors took.

Quote

"...the Ragman’s Harbor, a poorer, rougher, dirtier port than the Purple. Cat liked it best of any place in Braavos. She liked the noise and the strange smells, and seeing what ships had come in on the evening tide and what ships had departed.She liked the sailors too;"

& taking revenge prevented her from maintaining the lifestyle that she liked.

Quote

“She missed the friends she’d had when she was Cat of the Canals; Old Brusco with his bad back, his daughters Talea and Brea, the mummers from the Ship, Merry and her whores at the Happy Port, all the other rogues and wharfside scum. She missed Cat herself the most of all, even more than she missed her eyes. She had liked being Cat, more than she had ever liked being Salty or Squab or Weasel or Arry. I killed Cat when I killed that singer.”

Excerpt From: George R. R. Martin. “A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five.” Apple Books. 

Additionally, with the people she admires like the pirate queen it makes sense. 

She also has a few similarities with Elissa Farman who also sailed west of Westeros. 

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Elissa_Farman

Arya wanted to travel from the first book. 

Quote

“Arya glanced at it thoughtfully, but it was well beyond the reach of her stick. It made her think of the sea. Maybe that was the way out. Old Nan used to tell stories of boys who stowed away on trading galleys and sailed off into all kinds of adventures. Maybe Arya could do that too. ”

Excerpt From: George R R Martin. “A Game of Thrones Enhanced Edition.” Apple Books. 

This episode wasn't bad but I remember having to remind people that the Kindly Man hit Arya meaning it was barely mentioned in the books. Her training seemed  to be more observing the people of Braavos and learning languages than learning how not to get her ass beat. In the books she really used warging a cat as a means of getting better but I didn't expect them to portray that.

I was one of those who believed in the Mel is going to burn Shireen and Stannis will allow it theory. Maybe in the books it will go down differently but I'm even more convinced now that she will die.

Hmm yeah. But even Arya herself thought that she should stop that stupid lip bitting habit of hers :)

In AFfC, the KM was trying to catch her unawares while hitting her with his stick and faking a different voice.

LOL, but she thinks almost everything is stupid. It's not much different than when Sansa failed to keep her mouth shut when Jon was brought up in the Vale.

Yes. Arya was never beaten for her misbehaving because she realized that the FM raise their hands only for killing. When the KM beat her while she was blind, it was meant to improve her senses. One can argue that Jaqen's beating upon her lies can be more or less the same thing but it looked more like Arya was being punished, not trained.

In ADWD something similar happened. I'd have to recheck if it the same thing was in AFFC too.

"Why are here, liar?" "To serve. To learn. To change my face." "First change your heart. The gift of the Many-Faced God is not a child's plaything. You would kill for your own purposes, for your own pleasures. Do you deny it?" She bit her lip. "I-" He slapped her.

So no one else was bothered by how Jaqen kept smacking the shit out of Arya?

That's the first time I've seen someone complain because the KM does hit and beat her in the books on different occasions.

Anyways, TBH I'm not that surprised by the scene because the reasoning as to why it wouldn't happen didn't make sense to me. That Sansa is a great player and she'll manipulate him into doing what she wants and he won't hurt her. IMO that's not logical with a character such as Ramsay. I admit I laughed when either Roose or LF said that Ramsay was smitten with her. So her storyline already came off as ridiculous to me before this especially with as I said the belief that she would coax him into liking her like Margaery did Tommen.

Also, I think it was interesting that with all the whining, name-calling, and really, if Arya and Gendry were lesser people, they could have just left both their asses behind, and Weasal too, if they were heartless. But they won’t and would never. They, even in better health, never contributed food wise, strategy wise, as much, and hell with Hot Pie being loud and the rest, he can be a pain, and with Lommy in his condition, they are huge liabilities. And Arya has to get somewhere.

I've made this observation before but both Hot Pie and Gendry wanted to leave Weasel alone in the woods. If Arya had been the one who wanted to leave them behind instead of them she would have been called all kinds of evil for it.

"Hot Pie stepped out of the barn. "Arry, come on! Lommy's gone, leave her if she won't come!" Stubbornly, Arya dragged all the harder, pulling the crying girl along. Hot Pie scuttled back inside, abandoning them..."

"He's going to die, and the sooner he does it, the better for the rest of us. We should just leave him, like he says. If it was you or me hurt, you know he'd leave us...I'm sick of carrying him, and I'm sick of all his talk about yielding too. If he could stand up, I'd knock his teeth in. Lommy's no use to anyone. That crying girl's no use either." "You leave Weasel alone, she's just as scared and hungry is all." ...."She's no use," Gendry repeated stubbornly. "Her and Hot Pie and Lommy, they're slowing us down, and they're going to get us killed. You're the only one of the bunch who's good for anything. Even if you are a girl."

Gendry was not only able to discover Arya's secret at once (something older men didn't notice, apparently), but has seen Arya in her worst moments, and he's not afraid of her wild nature. If Robert ever thought that Lyanna would be his docile sweet wife, he was quite mistaken. If Gendry ever gets paired with Arya in years to come, he knows what he's getting and he's ok. with it.

I don't think he has.

Psychologically- It's debatable when she was at her worst. Some may think it was when she was with the Hound. She was most depressed after the Twins and she snapped during the fight with the Tickler. He's never seen her like that. Others might think it's her latest chapter and she's going to get worse.

Morally-When he was around her kills could be justified much easier and they aren't as predatory as she is now. It can be argued that she wasn't a murderer until she went to Braavos starting with Dareon.

He did have a problem though with the weasel soup. Outwardly, we know Hot Pie had a serious problem with the Bolton guard but we don't know how Gendry felt. Whatever he felt he kept it internally.

To me character development shows she is not the same now as she was when she was Arry. But that would also be simple maturation IRL. Knowing someone as a child is not necessarily the same as knowing them as an adult or older as we see with LF and Cat or even Lysa and Cat.

Oh, and for some or many the latest chapter was a shock. So even going from the Ugly Girl, Beth, or Cat to that there was a difference. He knew her as Arry but that doesn't mean he would know she was capable of what she did.

ETA: As for Gendry's behavior there has been moments when he was rude-to Ned and to Brienne. Both of whom are much higher station than him. Comparably, Val is seen as regal but she's disrespectful and lacks tact quite a few times. I don't see them as any better than Arya's lack of lady like manner.

Arya fits Varys' speech more than Gendry does what with the speaking several tongues. She just misses the poetry and law and she hasn't received knightly training. She studied history but I doubt she paid much attention. She has lived with the fisherfolk in Braavos and she cooks with Umma.

Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.”

Gendry hasn't studied all those things. He hasn't been trained in arms. I don't think he reads and writes. I'm guessing no on the Faith.

Although I don't think fitting the speech means much. I'm skeptical Aegon even fits it and you can fit it and not be what would be best for the realm.

So in this chapter she fixes the Stranger's horn and of course the Stranger is similar to Moqorro in description.

Anyways, I was reading the Victarion transcript and I noticed:

Moqorro brought it forth, and the dusky woman lifted up a lantern to give them all a look. In the shifting lantern light the hell-horn seemed to writhe and turn in the priest’s hands like a serpent fighting to escape. Moqorro was a man of monstrous size – big-bellied, broad-shouldered, towering – but even in his grasp the horn looked huge.

That the horn was likened to a serpent. This chapter has serpent/snake references as mentioned as well as her earlier ones when she was in the Riverlands.

They're not irrelevant. The Brotherhood Without Banners is exactly the kind of insurgency that could destabilize and overthrow Frey rule in the Riverlands. Combined with the merciless Lady Stoneheart and Nymeria's mega wolf pack, the Freys are facing a real threat.

Besides, Lady Stoneheart is also now in control of two POV characters - Jaime and Brienne.

I have no idea if Lady Stoneheart and Arya are related at all, but I do know that Lady Stoneheart is not irrelevant.

I don't find that relevant in the grand scheme of things unlike say killing Aegon or Dany. It doesn't significantly advance or change the plot. It would be better that by the end she killed at least one person that was important instead of random Freys, a NW deserter, Lannister guards who weren't in charge, etc.

If we get to the end of series and ask what did she do that was important killing random Freys wouldn't help her case especially if you compare that with the things that say Bran will be capable of doing or the things that Dany, Jon, or Tyrion have done.

I also think with the dragon references that points to Aegon or Dany or both. IMO she will have a chance to get involved in something important. Before she really hasn't.

The poison line might be getting readers ready for the FM arc considering the FM we've seen so far mainly kill with poison. Just so the readers know that she's not opposed to killing with other methods and to get ready for her to use different ones.

In that zap2it interview Maisie said that Arya is indifferent about her family. Perhaps the laughing scene is where she got the idea since we know she doesn't read the books.

"She's completely given up on [reuniting with her family], and it almost feels like they've given up on her because she's like, where were they?" Williams says. "She's angry. She feels like she's the only one who's been trying. Where's the search party looking out for her? Why did no one recognize her? She's angry at the fact that she's trying so hard -- she was angry at the fact that she was trying so hard -- and she can't see any of it coming back.

"Where's Jon? Why has he not come back? And obviously no one knows [where she is], and there's reasons for that, but in her head [she's thinking] 'You're all being really, really selfish and I'm the only one, so now I've given up. Good luck, have fun, hope you don't die.' That's literally it. And she's like, I won't. I know I can do this, because look how far I've come already without you guys. Whereas you, I don't know you anymore. I tried to help you. I tried to get back with you, but [shrugs]."

I laughed but I don't think it was in character. Mainly because book Arya very rarely laughs. In the books she didn't want to go to Lysa and when she found out she was dead all she thought was she had no aunt and moved on.

Well, that confirms that the Queen of Thorns slipped Joff the poison. You can clearly see her palm the jewel off of Sansa's necklace while fiddling with her hair, which is then missing a piece. And when Tyrion picked up the cup to give Joff his last drink it had been sitting right in front of her at the table. LF had already hinted at it strongly in the books, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

Also, that whole convo with Bran about how he'll forget Winterfell and his familiy if he stays in his wolf for too long made me worry about Jon...I think the personality changes in him after he's resurrected are going to be more drastic than some people are anticipating. Maybe some Lord Beric style memory problems.

I'm not surprised. I've never understood why whenever the subject of Jon or Arya possibly dying and going into Nymeria that fans say it will preserve them. Varamyr's prologue implied the opposite to me. They say you forget. They fade until there's nothing of them left.

“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” she sang sadly. A foolish, giddy girl she’d been, but good hearted. She would miss her, and she would miss Daena and the Snapper and the rest, even Izembaro and Bobono. This would make trouble for the Sealord and the envoy with the chicken on his chest, she did not doubt.

She would think about that later, though. Just now, there was no time. I had best run. Mercy still had some lines to say, her first lines and her last, and Izembaro would have her pretty little empty head if she were late for her own rape.

It is pretty obvious that she will abandon Mercy persona and she will even leave the Gate. Sorcery requires years of practice and sacrifice. She does not have that much time. As we see in Mercy POV, she has learned almost everything she needed to. Her basic desire was to learn the necessary skills to kill those people in her list. I think she will definitely leave Braavos.

“The first Black Pearl was black as a pot of ink,” said Daena. “She was a pirate queen, fathered by a Sealord’s son on a princess from the Summer Isles. A dragon king from Westeros took her for his lover.”

“I would like to see a dragon,” Mercy said wistfully. “Why does the envoy have a chicken on his chest?”

This dragon is not Dany or her dragons but Aegon himself. By that time, rumors of his appearance should have reached Braavos. I think she will go to Westeros and possibly King’s Landing first where she knows for sure that Cersei is present. She may be disguised as a boy, especially as one of the little birds of Varys. She has an unfinished business with Cersei.

Yes, I think it's very much possible that that line is referring to Aegon although I think she will see Dany/her dragons. The dragons and seamonster line of ACoK were paired together and we know they're going to around each other soon.

I've also thought Varys' line about him applied to Arya a lot.

He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be...He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith....

He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.

Arya has been trained as an assassin which would be different.. But she reads and writes and speaks several languages. She lived with a fishmonger. Worked with her hands. Jon said she swam like a fish. She wanted to work about the Titan's Daughter and splice ropes, reef the sails, and steer a course. She washed her own clothes in the fist book. She helps Umma with cooking. She bound up the Hound's wound. She definitely knows what it's like to be hungry, hunted, and afraid.

Although I'm skeptical if the real Aegon has those qualities but we did see that he is very intelligent and proficient with languages at least and is possibly skilled with a sword. He still has similar qualities though with being bold, proud, wanting to prove himself and be in the thick of battle, and is stubborn and reckless. Tyrion said he risks all for a quick kill which is Arya behavior.

I'm not about the Varys/Illyrio thing though because I thought she at least would be against Illyrio.

I've also wondered how long this masquerading as a boy thing will go. Pretty soon she's going to look decidedly female.

Anyways, back to this line:

“Mercy,” he sang as she tied him tight, “Mercy, Mercy, come to my room tonight and make a man of me.”

“I’ll make a eunuch of you if you keep unlacing yourself just so I’ll fiddle with your crotch.”

“We were meant to be together, Mercy,” Bobono insisted. “Look, we’re just the same height.”

It somewhat reminds me of Robert's unrequited feelings on Lyanna except that was talk of marriage not sex.

“…it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe…and mine again, as she was meant to be.”

But as I said it's most similar to Asha/Tristifer.

"You think you want to wed me, but you don’t.” “I do. All I dream about is you. Asha, I swear upon the bones of Nagga, I have never touched another woman.” “Go touch one… or two, or ten….”

“Botley blinked,, as if he did not quite understand what she had said. “You…I thought you would wait. Why…” He rubbed his mouth. “Asha, were you forced?” “….You are a sweet boy, and always were, but I am no sweet girl. If we wed, soon enough you’d come to hate me.” “Never. Asha, I have ached for you.”….”Find a brothel, Tris. They’ll cure you of that ache.” “I could never…” Tristifer shook his head. “You and I were meant to be, Asha. I have always known you would be my wife, and the mother of my sons.” He seized her upper arm. ”

I found another link to Asha from the Kingsmoot too.

“What will you give us?” asked Lucas Codd. “Knitting?” “Aye, Lucas. I’ll knit us all a kingdom.” She tossed her dirk from hand to hand.”

This reminds me of Arya and her "needlework."

Considering there is talk of the Black Pearl who was likely Aegon's mistress and her friend was called Daena who was Daemon Blackfyre's mother with the same Aegon I wonder if that points to her seeing Aegon Blackfyre.

I remember Sam saying that Dareon looked like some dark prince which made me think that's what Aegon really is if he is a Blackfyre.

IDK who Snapper stands for in the play but the only other time snapper comes up in the books is in ADWD with Tyrion and Aegon when they're at Nymeria's palace and that great big turtle.

I also noticed that Varys had been searching for Arya.

“Arya Stark?” Tyrion cocked his head. “And Bolton? I might have known Frey would not have the stomach to act alone. But Arya..Varys and Ser Jacelyn searched for her more than half a year. Arya Stark is surely dead.” “So was Renly, until the Blackwater.”

Maybe she will find him.

ETA: Plus, seeing Aegon could continue her bastard connection. In book 1 there was Jon Snow. Then there was Gendry. She was engaged to Elmar Frey who might be a bastard. "Arya" is married to Ramsay who some Northmen still see as a bastard and like Daemon he was legitimized. The KM said that Braavos was Valyria's bastard child who ran away.

Yeeees, with the addition of releasing lord of Riverrun and RW hostages and retaking Riverrun.

IMO with Jamie and Daven gone, Lannister army falls apart, Lannister grip on Riverlands breaks. Freys that live through RW 2.0 must retreat to the Crossing and not get out. The North suddenly has free hands to act (and witnesses against Roose IIRC).

So, while I agree it is small scale event, the ripples it would send would influence the world around them greatly, and UnCat might get a lot more notorious.

Still, I agree that Arya is better suited to Dance of Dragons 2.0.

ETA:

looking trough the now closed tread:

:agree:

Well, yeah. I imagine it will help the North and the Riverlands in the long run.

On another note more on the snakes.

Gooseprickles covered her legs. Her coverlet had twisted around her like a snake. She unwound it, threw the blanket to the bare plank floor and padded naked to the window. Braavos was lost in fog. She could see the green water of the little canal below, the cobbled stone street that ran beneath her building, two arches of the mossy bridge… but the far end of the bridge vanished in greyness, and of the buildings across the canal only a few vague lights remained. She heard a soft splash as a serpent boat emerged beneath the bridge’s central arch. “What hour?” Mercy called down to the man who stood by the snake’s uplifted tail, pushing her onward with his pole.

The waterman gazed up, searching for the voice.

This is from one of her chapters in AFFC:

Slender boats slid in and out among them, wrought in the shapes of water serpents with painted heads and upraised tails.

^This also sounds sexual.

Looking up stuff I realized that a snake being cold-blooded, hairless (Arya isn't completely but she is bald), and always shedding their skin (it's identities for Arya), and the fact that they spend a lot of time hiding can relate to her. ETA: Also, since she has learned about poisons that could qualify her as venomous.

In this chapter I don't think she is a snake per se but I definitely think the snake is trying to mate with her. In the books snakes are associated with dragons literal or people and Dornishmen.

Zeus- He coupled with Rhea, his mother, who had taken refuge in the form of a snake, by taking the same form and becoming an 'insoluble knot' with her;

The serpent was used by the Egyptians in nearly all symbols, but mainly the sun-symbol: it even formed part of the hair-style of Isis

Snakes are associated with the sun god Apollo. I guess it makes sense for Dornishmen to be represented by snakes and to also be represented by the sun with Sunspear.

The uraeus serpent was regarded as a representative of a goddess who had many names; in it, one saw the embodiment of the eye of the sun god; according to mythology, it rises up on its tail end on the sun or on the forehead of the sun god and destroys its enemies with a breath of fire;

I remember Arya wishing she had a flaming sword in ASoS so she could set people on fire but overall I don't think she is like this goddess that much.

Among the oldest predynastic Goddess figures in Egypt was the serpent-mother Iusaset, or Ua Zit, or Per-Uatchet whom the Greeks called Buto. Pyramid Texts say she is the Celestial Serpent, giver of the food of eternal life. 3 Her symbol, the uraeus, meant both "serpent" and "Goddess." She was also Mehen the Enveloper, the female serpent like Ananta who enclosed the phallus of Ra the sun god every night.

Mehen protects the sun God Ra during the Night as he journeys to the Underworld.

On Wadjet:

Her name means "papyrus-colored one",^[7][8] as wadj is the ancient Egyptian word for the color green (in reference to the color of the papyrus plant) and the et is an indication of her gender.

She is the one depicted as a uraeus

In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the pharaoh's head, it was, in effect, part of the pharaoh's crown. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler.

^Which reminds me of Izembaro asking for his crown for legitimacy purposes.

The she-serpent is the invisible serpent principle which dwells in the lower levels of consciousness and the deeper strata of the Earth. It is secret and equivocal, its decisions are unpredictable and as swift as its transformations. Ever ambivalent, it toys with its own sexuality; it is both male and female, twins within the same body, like so any of the culture- heroes who are always depicted initially as cosmic serpents. The serpent does not therefore depict an archetype but an archetypal complex, linked to the freezing, clammy subterranean darkness of the beginning of things.

'All possible snakes together form one single primordial manifoldness, an inseverable primordial Something which yet is ever coiling and uncoiling, which is ever melting away and re-emerging' (KEYM p. 222).

As a symbol of evil the coiled serpent of Midgard encircled the earth in the mythologies of the Noresemen. A serpent entwined the Tree of Life in the Garden of Paradise and first whispered the words of corruption to Eve. The woman succumbed and, like Hecate and Artemis who carry the snake in their hands or the grotesque Medusa whose tresses are made of reptilian coils, the shadow of sin endangered the spirit.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_brotherhoodsnake08.htm

As I mentioned in the last thread part of Syrio's words to her was quick as a snake which comes up a lot so she has been likened to a snake in the series.

Arya has also already been an eel in AGoT:

She saw a window above her, high and narrow, scarcely more than an arrow slit. Arya leapt, caught the sill, pulled herself up. She held her breath as she wriggled through. Slippery as an eel.

Raff was the eel in this chapter. I didn't know it but back to salt water that's where eels apparently spawn.

More than snake or fish, the eel points to a slippery temptation, on the intrigues which threaten us.

A fish with elongated body. Looks like a snake with weak developed fins, far-famed for its slip body. Eel is a freshwater fish and characterized by migration from fresh water to salt water to spawn.

To my knowledge that theory is centered around killing a lesser Lannister-one of the cousins and doing what they were doing before-killing Freys only this time they're not picking them off one at a time or in small groups. It's still an imitation of a game changing event, the RW.

Killing the BWB and Uncat only helps Freys and I don't see this as major scale. Hell, even Rickon might even be more relevant than that without doing anything. Arya needs to get involved in big scale stuff like the Dance of the Dragons 2.0.

I think their and Stoneheart's relevance may well be Arya's arc, besides Stoneheart will be gunning for Cersei soon enough and she may have very relevant prisoners.

Sure Ayra will be killing, it's a question of motivation, what's driving her killings, and seeing herself in the BWB and Stoneheart may see her begin some self assessment, make her more susceptible to a more meaningful cause than her revenge list, like Sansa's or maybe Jon's.

That still doesn't help Arya's arc to become relevant on a major scale. It helps to keep her small scale.

Cersei is going to be killed by the little brother. If it's Jamie then just like in life Uncat will set Jamie free so she loses a valuable hostage.

Mass murdering the BWB which includes former friends and committing matricide would actually make her even darker than she was before.

Why would you consider Stoneheart or the BWB irrelevant? They've been concocted for some purpose.

Like Uncat their story parallels Arya's rather conspicuously, and having become an inhumane instrument of revenge I think they're good candidates to receive the gift, if not the mercy of death then release from their deathly master. And in meeting and perhaps ending Uncat and the BWB Arya may realise something of herself in them. I think it'd be rather fitting, especially as it was in an Arya chapter we first met the then rather noble BWB.

One of the complaints against Arya's arc is that it's small scale and does not effect the major plot.

Killing an undead zombie that the majority of the realm doesn't know about changes nothing in the grand scheme of things. Uncat is also currently killing John Doe Frey #50 and 60. She's not killing major players. The BWB aren't some powerful group either.

Arya also would still be illegally killing people so that's still murder. The difference is that she will cross the line and kill people that she had an emotional connection to at one point. She's only contemplated doing so before.

If we look at Jon's line you will be sewing through winter she's going to be killing throughout. It won't stop. So seeing some undead zombie wouldn't change that. The Ghost of High Heart sees Arya's future but she does not see Arya and death parting ways. Arya is dark heart, blood child, and she smells of death.

The "She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed." made me wonder - 'glamor technique'? Maybe these world famous courtesans have more skills than we give them credit for - :shrugs: - but if so Arya could possibly be spending some time with the Black Pearl next as she does need to learn this art.

Maybe. It would be very interesting to see more of the courtesan.

Anyways, that line I posted before about mud I backtracked a page and saw something interesting.

Going back into that barn was the hardest thing she ever did. Smoke was pouring out the open door like a writhing black snake, and she could hear the screams of the poor animals inside, donkeys and horses and men. She…crouched low where the smoke wasn’t quite so thick.

Arya rolled headfirst into the tunnel and dropped five feet. she got dirt in her mouth but she didn’t care; the taste was fine, the taste was mud and water and worms and life. Under the earth was the air was cool and dark. above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. she moved her belt around so Needle would not be in the way and began to crawl. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell. Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. for whom, she could not say.Arya, ACoK

The dragons have been likened to snakes/serpents several times by different characters. She says black snake, and monstrous beast which makes me think of Drogon. Plus, there's the smelling of hell line which reminds me of Dany before she rode Drogon in ADWD:

When his mouth opened, she could see bits of broken bone and charred flesh between his black teeth. His eyes were molten. I am looking into hell, but I dare not look away.

So it's possibly Drogon/Dany chasing her.

More on the snake and crooked talk in this chapter I saw that it has come up before in ACoK:

The bad part was, the road wound back and forth like a snake, tangling with even smaller trails and sometimes seeming to vanish entirely only to reappear half a league farther on when they had all but given up hope. Arya hated it….Even so, the path was so narrow and crooked that their pace had dropped to a crawl.

In this chapter she seems to like the crooked path.

It kind of reminds me of that tunnel at the Wall.

It was cold and dark beneath the ice, in the narrow tunnel that crooked and slithered through the Wall.

But I think the crooked talk is metaphorical about both her journey and morals.

I'm not in favor of her going back to the Riverlands (another travelogue) and going back to kill irrelevant characters. I think this chapter shows the start of a new Arya. She knew killing Raff would cause problems. This is a step in the right direction.

I agree on what was said about the Black Pearl except for almost romantic. She has yet to describe a man so positively. I always thought she liked her when she spoke about interacting with her in AFFC.

The woman with him could not have been more than a third his age. She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. She had dressed in a low-cut gown of pale yellow silk, startling against the light brown of her skin. Her black hair was bound up in a net of spun gold, and a jet-and-gold necklace brushed against the top of her full breasts. As they watched, she leaned close to the envoy and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh. “They should call her the Brown Pearl,” Mercy said to Daena. “She’s more brown than black.”

Interesting again ARYa_Nym. :)

Thank you for taking a closer look at all of the crooked lines, there is definitely something going on with all of that, and it has peaked my curiosity. I have been paying attention to your Arya-Ironborn connections as I feel there is something to it.

I can't help it but the "mad, madder and maddest" part made me think Theon (for the first time btw) although that's a very, very longshot that he gets sent to Braavos with Massey and Jeyne unless he does end up being spared and she demands that he accompany her. :dunno: he is a eunuch now too...

However, like you have speculated, one of the others - Victarion or Euron - are undoubtedly more likely.

There's also Salty and choosing brackish water. It was mentioned maybe that was an AA reference although that is smoke and salt but salt is also sacred to the Ironborn.

Yeah, and I can't tell. Victarion has muscled like a bull. Arya said that of the Hound and we know Gendry was the Bull. But then Euron says men are meat. & Arya said meat was meat and men were prey. She is the Night Wolf.

Now Euron would be way cooler but my problem is that he's possibly a child molester and he's a sadist who will rape or will have someone else rape. Ehh.....

Not to mention I wonder if GRRM will be like once Arya flowers it's fair game.

A sudden shout snapped her head about before she could leap. The ferrymen were rushing forward, poles in hand. For a moment she did not understand what was happening. Then she saw it: an uprooted tree, huge and dark, coming straight at them. A tangle of roots and limbs poked up out of the water as it came, like the reaching arms of a great kraken. The oarsmen were backing water frantically, trying to avoid a collision that could capsize them or stove their hull in. The old man had wrenched the rudder about, and the horse at the prow was swinging downstream, but too slowly. Glistening brown and black, the tree rushed toward them like a battering ram.

It could not have been more than ten feet from their prow when two of the boatmen somehow caught it with their long poles. One snapped, and the long splintering craaaack made it sound as if the ferry were breaking up beneath them. But the second man managed to give the trunk a hard shove, just enough to deflect it away from them. The tree swept past the ferry with inches to spare, its branches scrabbling like claws against the horsehead. Only just when it seemed as if they were clear, one of the monster’s upper limbs dealt them a glancing thump. The ferry seemed to shudder, and Arya slipped, landing painfully on one knee. The man with the broken pole was not so lucky. She heard him shout as he stumbled over the side. Then the raging brown water closed over him, and he was gone in the time it took Arya to climb back to her feet. One of the other boatmen snatched up a coil of rope, but there was no one to throw it to. Maybe he’ll wash up someplace downstream, Arya tried to tell herself, but the thought had a hollow ring. Arya, ASoS

She describes it as a monster which makes me think back to seamonster of course. Now it doesn't kill her but someone else and causes her to slip and fall on her knee. Bow?

This could be Victarion although Euron has been described with tentacles and tall and twisted with long arms. Wolves devour prey and crow birds usually come up behind them and feed on the dead.

But as said about the horn thing Victarion has the horn now.

“Mercy,” the Stranger called, “bring the bloody paste, my horn is coming loose.”

“Mercy,” boomed Izembaro the Great himself, “what have you done with my crown, girl? I cannot make my entrance without my crown. How shall they know that I’m a king?”

“Mercy,” squeaked the dwarf Bobono, “Mercy, something’s amiss with my laces, my cock keeps flopping out.”

She fetched the sticky paste and fastened the Stranger’s left horn back onto his forehead. She found Izembaro’s crown in the privy where he always left it and helped him pin it to his wig, and then ran for needle and thread so the Snapper could sew the lace hem back onto the cloth-of-gold gown that the queen would wear in the wedding scene.

& you know it was called a hell horn. It would be cool if Arya was the one who could sound it and live. She is no man.

Anyways, here's another dragon mention:

“Don’t see why no one wants neither o’ you,” Yoren said, “but they can’t have you regardless. You ride them two coursers. First sight of a gold cloak, make for the Wall like a dragon’s on your tail. The rest o’ us don’t mean spit to them.”

Shireen is going to know first hand what a dragon's teeth are like when one of them eats her.