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[TWOW Spoilers] NEW Chapter Discussion - "Mercy"


TeamMartell

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Well he definitely released this chapter since its basically echoed in Episode 1 of Season 4, its pretty much just like it except exchange Raff with Polliver. Kind of pisses me off that we still wont get the Tickler kill in the show lol



Awesome chapter though, really thought it would be controversial here with Arya being only 11 but this board seems like its not taking back by it at all, but I can definitely see other boards hating the sexual nature


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After reading through part of this thread, now I'm pretty convinced that having the play to honor the envoy from Westeros is kind of a jab at the silly envoy that the Iron Throne sent. The Iron Bank has already been disrespected and has sent an agent to negotiate with Stannis. Now Harys Swyft is the Iron Throne's ambassador for goodwill, and every single character that has interacted with him in the series has disparaged him and realized he's pretty much a tool. Now he has men who used to serve the Mountain serving as his guards, and they probably haven't made a good impression.



Izembaro is the King of the Mummers is linked to the Iron Bank, and apparently the Forel family is fairly infuential in the city. Fashioning a play making fun of and insulting the Westerosi nobility, then performing it for its envoy has to be on purpose. Westeros's leaders have spent five books possibly killing members of Braavos's upper class (Sylvio Forel) and renegging on debt, and now they're sending lickspittles like Harys Swyft to beg for more money. Everyone in Braavos is probably making fun of them and giving them shit.



I wouldn't be surprised if Arya wasn't ordered to kill one of Swyft's guards just to inflame his delegation and instigate an open war. It could also serve as a way to prove to Justin Massey that Braavos and the Iron Bank are behind Stannis 100%.


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Well.

Even today about 10% of girls have had sex by age 12.

What percent have murdered a man in cold blood?

It's hard to get worked up by the former when the latter is way more ghastly. Especially when it turns out she doesn't even do the former.

The problem is that Arya has murdered before in cold blood. That's not new or surprising. Arya carrying out an elaborate show of seduction with practiced ease, luring a man with the promise of sex, and going so far as to return his kiss and touch his crotch (if only to find the femoral artery, to be fair)? That is new, if not super surprising.

Survey question: knowing what's in ADWD, should the Mercy chapter have been left in ADWD to round off Arya's arc, or was it better to push it to TWOW? Thoughts?

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The problem is that Arya has murdered before in cold blood. That's not new or surprising. Arya luring a man with the promise of sex? That is new, if not super surprising.

Agreed.

It's just not .. er... "morally" shocking to me, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I responded to that without quoting and the thread had already scrolled so it looks totally out of place now.

Have to admire the excited fans here.

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Perhaps this was a precursor. AFFC:




"...the sad-eyed little man who made up all the bawdy farces for the Ship, offered to teach her how a woman kisses, but Tagganaro smacked him with a codfish and put an end to that."







“It’s hard at first,” she admitted. “But after a time it comes easier. I could teach you to say a line. I could.”


He grabbed her wrist. “I’ll do the teaching. Time for your first lesson.” He pulled her hard against him and kissed her on the lips, forcing his tongue into her mouth.
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I just wanna know WTF the guards were talking about when they said "they queen will have their heads"


did Cersei send Swyft there? On an official Iron Throne business? I can't believe she's gonna recover, fuck that


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After reading through part of this thread, now I'm pretty convinced that having the play to honor the envoy from Westeros is kind of a jab at the silly envoy that the Iron Throne sent. The Iron Bank has already been disrespected and has sent an agent to negotiate with Stannis. Now Harys Swyft is the Iron Throne's ambassador for goodwill, and every single character that has interacted with him in the series has disparaged him and realized he's pretty much a tool. Now he has men who used to serve the Mountain serving as his guards, and they probably haven't made a good impression.

Izembaro is the King of the Mummers is linked to the Iron Bank, and apparently the Forel family is fairly infuential in the city. Fashioning a play making fun of and insulting the Westerosi nobility, then performing it for its envoy has to be on purpose. Westeros's leaders have spent five books possibly killing members of Braavos's upper class (Sylvio Forel) and renegging on debt, and now they're sending lickspittles like Harys Swyft to beg for more money. Everyone in Braavos is probably making fun of them and giving them shit.

I wouldn't be surprised if Arya wasn't ordered to kill one of Swyft's guards just to inflame his delegation and instigate an open war. It could also serve as a way to prove to Justin Massey that Braavos and the Iron Bank are behind Stannis 100%.

As if the Iron Throne has gotten so used to looking inward and shitting on its own subjects without answering to anyone that it's forgotten you can't treat other sovereign political entities that way and get away with it. Yeah, I'm down with this.

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Survey question: knowing what's in ADWD, should the Mercy chapter have been left in ADWD to round off Arya's arc, or was it better to push it to TWOW? Thoughts?

As ADWD stands now, this chapter just wouldn't work for me. There would need to be a lot of switching up, especially with the epilogue. It's difficult to imagine Kevan not being the epilogue. If it were to work in ADWD, the Westerosi she meets couldn't be the Swyft envoy which would suck because there's a special sort of glee out of reading the Raff death scene. Uncomfortable, but gleeful for a reader nonetheless. So yes, I think it's better that it was saved for TWOW.

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<snip>

pretty sure that Cersei telling Sansa how to use the weapon between her legs didn't include cutting a major artery in a person's upper leg right near their junk.

I like to think that maybe her target was Swyft and that the key that she had was to the door to the private box. Maybe the Bank of Bravoss hired the FM to kill Swyft as a big FU to Cersei. But she saw Raff and it was too good to pass up.

If Harys Swyft was her mark then at some point in this chapter she would have been trying to figure out a way to kill him and only him. I mean last time she worked out that it was pointless to try and judge her mark or to figure out if he was good or evil, but ignoring that stuff this time is fine but she still would've had to at least had some idea on how she was going to kill him right?

Cersei shoots, she scores...

:commie: :box: :commie: CERSEI for the Comeback :commie: :box: :commie:

Im taking this as fact FTW

Phario Forel= one giant troll kick to our faces, i love it!

At least now we finally know, Syrio Ferrell is dead, but his long lost brother Phario returned to Braaovos right after his brother died.

It's hard to determine since the last time she broke the rules, she was rewarded with an advancement in training.

it was meant as a punishment as she lost her sight earlier than she should have but again she "cheated" to advance again.

Perhaps again she'll advance as she successfully did learn how to seduce a guy and lure him back to her room where she killed him

“I would like to see a dragon,” Mercy said wistfully.

Mercy had been born and bred in Braavos...

Only a slight mistake Arya makes there. Most Braavosi know that their ancestors were slaves to the dragonlords of old and thus:

They do not jest of dragons...

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Fuck. He's going to kill her, I know it. Fuck.

100% shes going to die I think. Really, would be shocked if George lets this character live. Shes a killer for goodness sakes, and seems to be the exact message George is putting in here, we are hypocrites rooting for this girl(shes the most popular character after for her revenge plotline).I dont think George is the type of writer that writes pro-war/killing as long as its "justified", war and murder are always selfish acts, and it wont lead to no happy ending(there is no ending, people always want more and more).

Arya living will be glorifying revenge, which doesn't seem like George at all. Every instance in the book we've seen that people that got their revenge they are unfulfilled. Nothing will bring back what she lost, Catelyn herself had that very wise way of thinking.

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Survey question: knowing what's in ADWD, should the Mercy chapter have been left in ADWD to round off Arya's arc, or was it better to push it to TWOW? Thoughts?

Having two "list kills" down and possible transport to KL lined up (where most of the rest of her "targets" are) is a way better cliffhanger for Arya than "who is Izembaro," IMO.

Especially when - after all the speculation about his identity with very few clues to go on - Izembaro himself turned out to be one of the least interesting and least important aspects of this chapter.

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Survey question: knowing what's in ADWD, should the Mercy chapter have been left in ADWD to round off Arya's arc, or was it better to push it to TWOW? Thoughts?

Nah. I think its better that its in tWoW mostly because of how heavy the subject matter gets and because

As ADWD stands now, this chapter just wouldn't work for me. There would need to be a lot of switching up, especially with the epilogue. It's difficult to imagine Kevan not being the epilogue. If it were to work in ADWD, the Westerosi she meets couldn't be the Swyft envoy which would suck because there's a special sort of glee out of reading the Raff death scene. Uncomfortable, but gleeful for a reader nonetheless. So yes, I think it's better that it was saved for TWOW.

This.

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it was meant as a punishment as she lost her sight earlier than she should have but again she "cheated" to advance again.

Perhaps again she'll advance as she successfully did learn how to seduce a guy and lure him back to her room where she killed him

How can you say it was meant as a punishment when you also say that this punishment was essentially a significant advancement in training? An advancement in training seems more like a reward. For a punishment, there should be a negative consequence. There's no negative consequence when she essentially skipped a grade mid-semester. It's reward.

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Maybe I'm being picky (ok, I'm likely being picky.) but it annoys me when I'm reading threads and there are 75 variations of characters' names.

It's Syrio Forel. Phario Forel. Izembaro. Etc.

Excellent chapter.

I am not at all disturbed by Arya's use of sex as a lure. Thought it was great, dark, scary. She already has killed people. There's really nothing darker than that. People get really uptight about sex but someone can slit throats, cut off heads, and burn people up... cracks me up.

Love the play angle.

Definitely wondering about Varys more and more... was his mummer's gig actually training like Arya's?

The reference about Tywin going to Lys immediately made me think he's the Hand that had the passage to the brothel built in KL.

The mention of citrus fruits immediately made me think of Dany's house with the red door.

I want to know more about Izembaro.

I think the assumptions that Arya has or will forget who she is and/or treats Sansa/her family callously are way off. The North Remembers. Arya has been hurt by what she's seen and been through. She has built up walls for survival.

I kind of got that this play was mocking Westeros on purpose while the envoy (Swyft) is there. Very funny.

Lots else but really I absolutely love that Arya is getting very poetic revenge. I so hope she does get Cersei now!!!

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What the hell am I missing with people referencing season 4 on here?!?!

Some people already saw the premier and they don't know how to use spoiler tags. Still not as bad as last season when some people got to see the first FOUR episodes before the season began.

How can you say it was meant as a punishment when you also say that this punishment was essentially a significant advancement in training? An advancement in training seems more like a reward. For a punishment, there should be a negative consequence. There's no negative consequence when she essentially skipped a grade mid-semester. It's reward.

Had she not had her warging abilities she might have lost her sight for a longer period of time which I'd consider a negative consequence. No way to know since she advanced two steps quicker than most people do in her organization.

Killing Daerion wasn't even as bad as the fact that she called herself Arya of House Stark. Killing someone proved that she could kill someone and get away with it. She also proved that she could kill someone she's assigned to kill.

She maintains her character of Mercy almost all completely throughout this kill as well and only finally becomes Arya again when Raff says "You'll have to carry me"

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