[TWoW SPOILERS] March chapter mercy part ii

[Crimson King]

I do think that Arya likes being not-normal too. That she has this secret and that she can wear the faces of others. Because its a path she chose to walk. But being someone else everyday and having a sense of normalcy helps her cope. Its hard to explain and heartbreaking as hell. Just like Sansa forces herself to ignore or not think on past events in order to keep sane, Arya must be a completely different person. However, this chapter shows that Arya is still there and very very angry.

That's exactly what I thought too. As she put it herself so well, 'no one has no hole inside of her'. New, fake memories replace the old true ones when she is a personna, memories that don't carry true emotionnal baggage. In AFFC, she casually tells Sam that one day she'll slit the throat of the guy who killed her (fake) father. We're miles away from the obsessionnal, semi-religious prayer. It's no big deal. And she was so enthousiastic when choosing her backstory with the KM. New memories help forget the old. The help Arya become what she could have been, and never will be.

[RoamingRonin]

Mercy found it for him, helped Big Brusco don his boar suit, checked the trick daggers just to make certain no one had replaced one with a real blade (someone had done that at the Dome once, and a mummer had died)

I wonder who did that? Oh, Arya. :lol:

[juanml82]

Well, she seemed too confident and experienced on how to seduce a guy compared to the last we saw of her. I would't have imagined something like that from ADwD Arya. And not so much time has passed since then (I mean, then she was sent to Izembaro and now she's still with him, so...)

I don't know... I too found this would be well suited as the opening after the 5 year gap, but don't think it was very plausible at how things are right now. It's very well written and well-crafted, there's enough references and nodes for everyone to be happy about it, not doubt about that, but... it felt a little uncomfortable to me. Never thought I'd say this about anything in ASoIaF, but it felt farfetched. But again, who's to say what's farfetched when dealing with the FM and their faces?.

She's been exposed to a lot of similar situations and she's being trained in disguising herself as someone else. All she has to do is to imitate Pia or any of the prostitutes she met in Braavos. It's just a character she's playing. And if she does it wrong, then a degenerate like Raff would be even more enticed.

After all, this isn't Jeyne Westerling trying to win the WO5K for the Lannisters by marrying that Northern barbarian who laid waste to his lands and men.