Any predictions of Arya's fate?

[Littlefinger's dagger]

I wonder if this means something will happen to Arya while she is living in the temple of God of Many Faces where Arya may have to go threw a special anitiation to become a FM? Or could this mean Arya could find a mysterious chamber that was long forgotten and open up a form of Pandora's box that will change Arya forever?

Yeah, she might open the chamber of secrets. It could happen.

:bang:

[Mourneblade]

A lot of what people see as foreshadowing isn't, but I'm not sure how the fact that the ghost of high heart is more put off by Arya, afraid and freaked out by Arya, and smells more death on Arya than the actual dead, reanimated zombie who is also there....doesn't count as foreshadowing that her story is all about death.

I know you now believe that GRRM is going to axe her. I get it, you really like Arya, cant blame you. Just understand the powers and outside magical influences on her character, and state of mind.

When thinking she wont come back, or she is destined for death, or she is acting weird about sex for her age, or killing too much etc, please remember she is not a normal 12 yo girl. Keep in mind the influence of the Wolf, and the influence of the Magical memories that those faces hold.

If she ever loses Needle, unless she trades it for dark sister lol, or loses her connection with Nymeria.... Then be afraid of her losing her identity, and or dying, until then she is definitely salvageable and can come back.

She cares and feels, but she thinks her whole family is dead except Jon, and she has tried to get back to him on a few occasions, but for now she has given that up, that does not mean she wont try again later. She is empowering herself, its a means to an end, and she is still a "Good Guy" for now.

[Cas Stark]

Yeah, that one definitely stands out. Plus, I put prophecies into different categories.

A lot of them including the GoHH's seem to be magically connected to the weirwoods, and I take those more seriously.

I happen to think that the weirwoods will become a much bigger element in the final books.

That's pretty well established by the final Bran chapters in ADwD.

At the opposite end of the prophesy hierarchy are the Azor Ahai and PtwP myths, which to me seem to be just old stories that have been retold so many times that they've become distorted and have lost all value. Their adherents (best represented by Melisandre) seem to be thrown off the track by them more than guided to the truth.

Ghost of High Heart has a high accuracy rating so far, so does Maggy, for that matter. I do think that AA has been misunderstood in some way, but Mel and the rest of the Red God followers have real power, she sees real things in the flames and they are so far the only people who can raise the dead, so there is something there...it would be strange if the most powerful sects prophecy means nothing so most likely something has been lost/forgotten over time.

I think Arya will end up in the Riverlands, back where it all started. She will probably reunite with either Jon or her mother. I can't see Bran happening, too far North, Rickon would have no emotional resonance w/the reader, and I think Arya and Sansa meeting would get too bogged down in the sister's personal KL history. I hope shes reunited with Nymeria and leads a massive assault on someone, LOL. Then, I see her most probably dying, sacrificing herself for her family in some way.

[Cas Stark]

I know you now believe that GRRM is going to axe her. I get it, you really like Arya, cant blame you. Just understand the powers and outside magical influences on her character, and state of mind.

When thinking she wont come back, or she is destined for death, or she is acting weird about sex for her age, or killing too much etc, please remember she is not a normal 12 yo girl. Keep in mind the influence of the Wolf, and the influence of the Magical memories that those faces hold.

If she ever loses Needle, unless she trades it for dark sister lol, or loses her connection with Nymeria.... Then be afraid of her losing her identity, and or dying, until then she is definitely salvageable and can come back.

She cares and feels, but she thinks her whole family is dead except Jon, and she has tried to get back to him on a few occasions, but for now she has given that up, that does not mean she wont try again later. She is empowering herself, its a means to an end, and she is still a "Good Guy" for now.

I will always think she's a good guy, even as dark as GRRM has made her she is still a good guy, I don't care that she killed Raff so much as the crazy ritualistic re enactment of Lommy's death, that is disturbing. I also don't think and never though she would lose her Stark identity, she won't. That's the path of her lame sister. I did find the Mercy chapter very sad and disturbing because she is so dissociated from everything. Much more so than when she was the ugly girl or Cat of the canals.

Yes, I do think he's going to kill her. I'm trying not to blind myself to the clues, like I did for Robb. I will hate it, I may hate the author, LOL. It would be fantastic if she lives and is redeemed and stays alive, but this is GRRM we are talking about, the only characters likely to get a reprieve are Tyrion, Jon and Dany and he will almost certainly kill one of them as well before the end.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

I will always think she's a good guy, even as dark as GRRM has made her she is still a good guy, I don't care that she killed Raff so much as the crazy ritualistic re enactment of Lommy's death, that is disturbing. I also don't think and never though she would lose her Stark identity, she won't. That's the path of her lame sister. I did find the Mercy chapter very sad and disturbing because she is so dissociated from everything. Much more so than when she was the ugly girl or Cat of the canals.

Yes, I do think he's going to kill her. I'm trying not to blind myself to the clues, like I did for Robb. I will hate it, I may hate the author, LOL. It would be fantastic if she lives and is redeemed and stays alive, but this is GRRM we are talking about, the only characters likely to get a reprieve are Tyrion, Jon and Dany and he will almost certainly kill one of them as well before the end.

Really? I found the re-enactment a beautiful bit of poetic justice. If she ever came up against Ramsay I'd love to see her hunt him through the woods too.

Now let's stop for just a minute. She's wearing Mercy's face, remembering a dead girl's thoughts and feelings as well as mannerisms, OF COURSE SHE"S DISSOCIATING. And as soon as she takes the face off she's mostly back to being Arya or can step seamlessly back into Cat, because 99% of that was magic. Having wolf dreams and Nymeria's influence actually helps her stay who she is.

Once again: what clues? if you have greendreams or prophecies from the text, please point them out, but if all you have is "GRRM keeps killing Starks, so statistically. . ." save it. "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." It proves nothing. I'd put more faith in Melisandre than statistics in this story.

Reported dead, yet still alive:

Davos

Theon

Arya

Sansa

Bran

Rickon

Catelyn (ok, she's undead)

the Hound (speculated but very possible)

If that's my statistical sample I can "prove" they'll all live, even though I have no assurances. Statistics are usually BS.

It really sounds like you're playing emotional defense after Ned and Robb, and it's safer for you to assume the others will die. If they live you can rejoice, but if they die you had already written them off.

That's understandable, if sad in its own way.

[ViennaGirl]

Maybe she'll become a Silent Sister if everything goes really wrong. I hope she makes it back and reunites with ANYONE, and I think her plotline probably will hit Tyrion's or Danerys', if not Jon's or Nymeria's, but I could actually see her ending up as one of those death nuns.

[Mayura]

I've been daring people to show me a good reason why Arya's death is necessary or inevitable before the story's conclusion. Nobody has the goods. They just mumble incoherently about how she can't be allowed to survive, as though their moralizing and horror at her actions was the same thing as a plot point.

Well nobody can show you a "good reason" because nobody knows, we can just speculate. And if you don't like the speculations we propose, then it's your own right not to.

As stated before, the way I understand the FM, either she pledges her life to the God of Many Faces and embraces her destiny, or she chooses to leave and to become a rogue. I think it seems likely Arya will turn her back on the HOB&W whenever she will judge she is ready to go back to Westeros to keep going through her black list.

After that, you can choose to believe Arya will be allowed to return to her old self, that she will live happily ever after and be reunited with Nymeria and her family. And of course you can choose to think the foreshadowing isn't foreshadowing at all.

I choose to take a different path: Arya is obviously going down a dark and dangerous path, she has joined a guild of assassins and she is being observed and judged. Right now she feels she is safe with them and she takes a lot of freedom in her assessments. But is she really safe? I don't think so, but that's just a choice. I think Arya's end has been foreshadowed: 1) Jon's comment about the fact Arya will be found frozen to death with a needle in her hands in AGOT 2) The words of Ned "when the snow falls and the white wind blows, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives": I think the lone wolf is Arya. Unlike Nymeria, she has lost her pack and she has chosen to leave her pack behind by choosing to join the HOB&W and to become "no one". Some readers think this sentences refers to Sansa who has lost her wolf, but I thinl the loss of Lady is there to create a parallel between the sisters: the one who lost her wolf isn't the one who will die in the end because she will be reunited with her "pack".

I think Arya will go rogue, she will definitely go back to Westeros to take down her targets and probably take part to the last events of TWOW. And then she will either die or she will have to change her face and be "no one".

If anyone has good arguments as to how Arya could definitely survive this story to go back to who she was, I am genuinely interested to read that, as I cannot imagine any logical way in which it would happen?

[drayrock]

Arya won't die until book 7 if she does IMO.

And that I'm ok with. But god damn do I hope she gives us some redemption in the favor of raw vengeance. I think the end point will be that by the time the stark's have any way to get vengenance, they will have to unite and put their vendettas behind them to look at the bigger threat and save humanity.

My hope is that Arya will be the exception of this rule for the most part. I do hope she has a big unveiling as Arya of House Stark, publicly, so the people see her get her redeem Ned and Robb before she goes down though.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Well nobody can show you a "good reason" because nobody knows, we can just speculate. And if you don't like the speculations we propose, then it's your own right not to.

And the speculation isn't the problem. Effective and persuasive arguments for things like R+L=J can and have been made, to the point where I'm willing to accept some of them as a puzzle left by the author that the fans have collectively worked out, even though the final proof is not yet in the series. What blows me away is the sheer arrogance of someone's personal theory being swanked around as fact when there's no support for it. It's just a theory, and when you try to remind them of that or challenge them to prove that their theory is the fact they insist it is they freak out.

I speculate and have theories too. I'm willing to let them evolve after other things are brought to my attention. I'm willing to either admit some of them are vaporware speculation or start bringing forward evidence to support my claim, and if someone is not willing to do the same I'm likely to dismiss them as a charlatan deserving of a bit of heckling.

Reasonable disagreements I'm just fine with, it's the unreasonable ones that make me want to start up the flamethrower.

[panther]

I completely agree she is being played. There is a vast and ineffable force at work not just on Arya but on all the PoV characters. I call him "The Author."

Yep, I guess you can't be more correct than that.

[Giorgio Corrado]

If the Gods are behind Arya's future then this is what the Gods are planning for Arya: "When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come and see!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."

[Mourneblade]

Arya could die at any time, and that would totally suck, but so can every other character in the story. I am not going to, out of hand, just accept it will happen, without some serious evidence though.

That being said Robb had some huge foreshadowing along with prophesies, GRRM basically hit you over the head with his impending doom, the few blerbs about Arya is more caution than foreshadowing, and hopefully when a choice is presented, those words will come back and remind Arya, just like they did in Harrenhal.

Nymeria and her father's words saved Arya then, and IMHO, they will save her in the end, along with Jon and Bran. Once she realizes that she is not, in fact, alone or no one, she should be right as rain. Scarred, yes, but not broken.

[The Bastard of Walton]

I really hope she survives, but personally I think she wont. I see her being given a name by the Faceless Men, we wont find out who it is until the end, but it will be hinted as "The Dragon" it will either be Daenerys, Jon, Aegon or Drogon.

[The Stags Man]

Wait, I thought she was wareing her own face as Mercy? At the end of ADWD the kindly man said "A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own." Then it ended with; not exact quote but something like; 'and that night they gave her back the face of Arya'

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Wait, I thought she was wareing her own face as Mercy? At the end of ADWD the kindly man said "A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own." Then it ended with; not exact quote but something like; 'and that night they gave her back the face of Arya'

Nope, not even close. She knows she's stirred up a bunch of shit for Izembaro and the Sea Lord, the "Mercy" identity is burned and she knows it, she'll miss the acting company. She also knows she has to get back to the theater or she'll miss her scene on stage and draw even more attention to herself so off she scoots.

She still has that dead girl's face on as the chapter closes.

[Edric]

I don't think she is needed anymore. I mean, in ACOK and ASOS she was alive and in the riverlands so that readers could witness how war has affected the riverlands directly. In AFFC, when Arya had gone to Braavos, that fell on Brienne. And in ADWD, there was Jaime so we could experience the end of the war in the riverlands.

Now, though, why does she have to live when Jon and Robb have died? So we can see how good she can kill people? She's become such a monster. Sometimes I can't believe that she's the same person Jon told "Stick them with the pointy end" back in AGOT. She was so then.

[The Stags Man]

Nope, not even close. She knows she's stirred up a bunch of shit for Izembaro and the Sea Lord, the "Mercy" identity is burned and she knows it, she'll miss the acting company. She also knows she has to get back to the theater or she'll miss her scene on stage and draw even more attention to herself so off she scoots.

She still has that dead girl's face on as the chapter closes.

At the end of ADWD its implied she is wareing her own face and is imediatly going to work for Izembaro no evidence is given that she is wareing another face or experiancing anothers memorys in the Mercy chapter. I took her charater Mercy as just one she created like Blind Beth, No one, or Cat of the Canals and that she would miss the people who new Mercy becuse after murdering Raff she could never pretend to be Mercy. Be it because Mercy is wanted for killing Raff or people think Raff raped and killed her.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

"The Kindly Man is pleased by her success, and raises her to the status of an acolyte. He gives her a black and white robe to wear while at the House and restores her face. However, the next day she is to take a new face and leave for her first apprenticeship with a Faceless Man named Izembaro." DwD ch 64 wiki

I'd have pulled the quote from the book, but it's not handy. She is wearing the face of someone else the whole preview chapter in WoW. That accounts for the slightly schitzo way she keeps reflecting on what Mercy is like: her memory and personality and little habits like gait and stance are all shoved into Arya's head and have been for months. It's got to be a disorienting thing, long term, almost like being on the receiving end of being skinchanged by someone for months or years.

[Giorgio Corrado]

Just got to read GRRM latest post called Mercy and was wondering could it be that this part of the Arya chapter will be part of Arya's memories trainning with Izembaro before they properly age Arya before she makes her way home?

[Littlefinger's dagger]

Edric,

Arya clearly has some purpose still in the overarching plot, if she did not she could easily have been killed around the time of the Red Wedding. It certainly would have saved the author a deal of trouble.

I find your dismissing her as a monster depressing. Today thousands of child soldiers exist, forced by their life circumstances to become "monsters" little different from Arya. Do you propose we deal with them by lining them up and shooting them? And our own soldiers coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq with PTSD and far higher body counts than Arya, do you propose we do the same thing to them? They are all damaged but should be extended the opportunity to recover and rebuild themselves, the fictional Arya no less than the real people. We can regret the loss of those who fell without taking it out on the survivors.