Is Arya a realistic character?

[Mourneblade]

Fair enough. The impression is certainly mentioned many time, but not by Arya fans. When it comes to Arya's skills, the potential for becoming lethal when she she's older is more realistic than what she is capable of now, and I agree with you she has a lot of help thru her ordeals (which wouldn't be realistic otherwise), but she is ultimately responsible for the actions she takes to gain that help, like throwing JH the axe, which resulted in him giving her the iron coin.

I tend to lean towards this view of her. When she has needed help, it has been there for her, but when she has had to make a decision or perform an action she has done that also. For good or bad.

[Lord Thornhart]

As someone with a sister her age, I can confirm Arya is not a realistic character. But definitely not to the point where it makes her a bad character.

[Cas Stark]

As someone with a sister her age, I can confirm Arya is not a realistic character. But definitely not to the point where it makes her a bad character.

From the age standpoint, the only "realistic" child character is Sansa and maybe Tommen. Bran, Arya, Missandre, Dany are off the charts in intelligence and perception. For that matter, Jon and Robb are not that realistic at what? 14 year olds who are able to best and cow adult men over and over again. That's why I rarely get into the 'but just a child....' type arguments because they are all written as if they were at least two or more years older in terms of mental development.

[Lord Thornhart]

From the age standpoint, the only "realistic" child character is Sansa and maybe Tommen. Bran, Arya, Missandre, Dany are off the charts in intelligence and perception. For that matter, Jon and Robb are not that realistic at what? 14 year olds who are able to best and cow adult men over and over again. That's why I rarely get into the 'but just a child....' type arguments because they are all written as if they were at least two or more years older in terms of mental development.

True, especially because GRRM intended for more time to pass. But even so I can understand why people in this way of life are forced to mature mentally faster. It's not even too unrealistic for two young men to mature physically that quick, more so considering they've been trained by masters of arms since they were young, which most of their opponents haven't. But for a tiny little girl who has had little maturing physically in such a short time and only learned to use swords a little more than a year ago, it's impossible for her to be able to do most of the things she does.

[ARYa_Nym]

She will get some kind of revenge, she will be reunited with Nymeria in the riverlands, otherwise, what is the point of all of the wolf dreams? Not that GRRM doesn't put in pointless info. but this seems like a strong possibility. What happens from there, who she fights, if she sees any of her family again, mother, sister, Jon, no idea.

Also, it would seem that all of the foreshadowing that she is going to grow up to be beautiful like Lyanna would also be leading somewhere...that its in there for some future purpose...otherwise why sprinkle these references to her increasing beauty throughout the books? I still think he's going to kill her at the end, but hope to be wrong about that.

She may get one or two on her list who come to Braavos but the major targets of revenge aren't a guarantee for her.

These things can happen but that doesn't mean that she needs to immediately render her storyline irrelevant and basically go back to the same thing she was doing before-a travelogue.

First off Hi, love your Arya of Death posts...a lot to digest, still reading lol.

I do not know how satisfied we will be with what she learns or how quickly she does at the HoBW, but it seems hinted that she will leave sooner rather than later. Many people are of the opinion that she will leave with a contract, but I just do not see her staying there remotely long enough to have those skills. She might learn how to change her face, as it might be something simple, or some potion that she could steal that gives her a limited amount of face changes, or some magical device, but her training will be no way complete IMHO.

I do think that GRRM wanted to flesh this out much more than he will have to settle with when he started this, but she will be given just enough knowledge to continue her arc. Like I said we have two different plot devices heading to Braavos, Ser Justin Massey, and the new Master of Coin, who is being guarded by Raff the Sweetling. I think these events will trigger her seperation from the HoBW.

Hi, thanks. :)

I don't think it's certain that she will leave immediately. I think it is assumed. Justin may not ever meet her or it may not amount to anything. This happens several times. Sam and Brienne were either near to her or interacted with her and nothing happened. I see her meeting with other Essos POVs before she even sets about going to Westeros. They are not ready to align yet.

[conon394]

As someone with a sister her age, I can confirm Arya is not a realistic character. But definitely not to the point where it makes her a bad character.

Really I'd like some detail because based on my daughter I disagree. At outer envelope maybe but not defiantly un realistic.

[Lady Sharya]

Really I'd like some detail because based on my daughter I disagree. At outer envelope maybe but not defiantly un realistic.

Couldn't agree more because based on myself at her age and my children, 4 nieces & all there friends, Arya is a fair representation of middle school kids. I love Sansa but she'd be eaten alive anywhere near my house ;)

[The Mother of The Others]

Somebody's always young when the bad stuff happens. You want to believe that people persist through it without being crushed. And obviously a lot of people have survived bad stuff because look at all the freakin humans we still have. So it's believable that she survives. People are usually warped after so much, though, so if she's able to hold on to herself and not change very much that'd inch toward unbelievable.

[Ser Lady Stark Martell]

In personality, no doubt. There are a lot of things that happened to her in the story that aren't very realistic, but then again, dragons and magic aren't very realistic either.

[Cas Stark]

Somebody's always young when the bad stuff happens. You want to believe that people persist through it without being crushed. And obviously a lot of people have survived bad stuff because look at all the freakin humans we still have. So it's believable that she survives. People are usually warped after so much, though, so if she's able to hold on to herself and not change very much that'd inch toward unbelievable.

I love Arya, but she's kind of warped already, don't you think? She has a pronounced tendency toward a "violence first" set of solutions, she's full of anger and sorrow, so much so that when offered the chance to be sent back to Westeros, even to Jon, she decided to stay with the assassin freaks whose goal is to destroy her sense of self and turn her into a remorseless killer. She still has her Stark self and her own sense of justice, but....gotten very dark.

[ARYa_Nym]

She wasn't that remorseful before she got to the FM and she killed way more then. They are actually disciplining her when it comes to killing so she doesn't just go on killing sprees like when she wanted to kill the insurance man's guards for no other reason than she could do it.

[The Mother of The Others]

great point. I'm so trained to associate cults with changing people for the worse. She already was giving herself free rein to kill, these cult bastards are teaching her responsibility and to not do it like a brat kid.

[Mourneblade]

She may get one or two on her list who come to Braavos but the major targets of revenge aren't a guarantee for her.

These things can happen but that doesn't mean that she needs to immediately render her storyline irrelevant and basically go back to the same thing she was doing before-a travelogue.

Hi, thanks. :)

I don't think it's certain that she will leave immediately. I think it is assumed. Justin may not ever meet her or it may not amount to anything. This happens several times. Sam and Brienne were either near to her or interacted with her and nothing happened. I see her meeting with other Essos POVs before she even sets about going to Westeros. They are not ready to align yet.

I disagree with it rendering that arc useless, she has learned quite a bit, but I also believe we will not be satisfied with the arc when she leaves.

You make a valid point on the "When". I am not of the same opinion, but that does not diminish yours :)

Other than what I have already stated, I feel that she will not choose to leave under her current situation. From a writing point of view any thoughts of going with Sam would have only lead her to Oldtown, even though she did not know that. So it suits the story, for her choice to not even attempt to leave. So to leave she needs to have something change. It is entirely possible that should she encounter Raff that she will attempt to/actually kill him. This could cause her to be removed from the HoBW, or to escape if the punishment was death. This is where Ser Justin Massey comes in. His mission puts him back in the north once fulfilled. This gives Arya a way back and to a better location.

Now as you pointed out this could be a red herring and she could stay longer. All things are possible :)

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Realistic in personality? Yes.

Her plotline though is full of contrived and implausible moments.

:agree: Nailed it.

[Marillon]

No, but then considering what ASOIAF is generally about and stuff that's happened in the book, why does she have to be?

[ShadowCat Rivers]

In the context of a story with dragons and people rising from the dead, her character is very much realistic. She hasn't done anything that is out of the range of possibilities of what a child of her age is capable of doing. She's not the average/ordinary child, but extraordinary people exist in the real world as well and history is full of exambles of extraordinary life paths. "Audentes fortuna iuvat".

As a for the description of emotions and thought proccess she is very much a child of her age and I think she's amazingly written. It must not be easy to write children POVs and not make them stereotypically or cheesy "childish".

[Lady Sharya]

She wasn't that remorseful before she got to the FM and she killed way more then. They are actually disciplining her when it comes to killing so she doesn't just go on killing sprees like when she wanted to kill the insurance man's guards for no other reason than she could do it.

What killing spree? Other than JH's three, four hits, she killed the Stable boy, guard at Harenhal, Mummer's squire, Dareon and the old man in Braavos. That's 5 people unless this list is missing others. That doesn't seem like many given the amount of danger she was in for so long. What am I missing?

[Catastrophe]

She's exceptional, but that doesn't mean she's unrealistic. The real world is full of exceptional people too. Also, considering her circumstances, it'd be downright unrealistic for her to act like a normal child.

[HMR]

Well, why would a little girl go for a fair fight with grown men? She is the "rogue" type character, and she is awesome at it. Cloak and dagger and all.

I think considering that she is a tomboy character, she could realistically do all the things in real life. Of course, her being one of the main main characters, she has a lot of plot armor and gets lucky a lot through others helping her achieve things that she wouldnt be able to achieve on her own.

[Dragon Roast]

Well this is a story so.....

Just so.