Arya in TWOW Arya is in BIG trouble... (Mercy chapter spoilers)

[Gizzelle]

We are purposefully left in the dark about her mission.

As soon as Raf is dead she acknowledges having to leave Mercy behind.

So either she’s fulfilled her mission with Raf, is about to fulfill it with Issembaro or knows she has been naughty and is disappearing.

For what it’s worth I don’t think it’s the latter. She still needs the Faceless Men. The Mercy chapter strains to make the point that Arya is changing, she’s older, more attractive, more confident, less lip chewing etc. However, it would still stretch most people’s imagination to accept her as a fully fledged assassin at the moment.

Edit: Thanks for the correction.

[edd tollett:(]

You mean Raff ?

What Ever is going on she didn't seem too worried so I'm taking that as a good sign

[sj4iy]

I think this is a turning point, and she'll be out of the FM and on a boat for westeros by the first quarter of wow. I don't think she'll be kicked out exactly, but, perhaps after a severe scolding perhaps not, will leave, because she has recovered her identity, realized she is and always will be Arya Stark, and realized - perhaps with the strong helpof the KM - that she will never be able to become "no one."

^This. I never thought she was going to stay as a FM...she was always going to be Arya Stark and they were unable to strip that identify from her. She will probably go back to Westeros on a vengeance spree.

[Winter.Is.Coming]

I think she will be exiled from the Guild and then cause havoc all around Westeros, performing high-profile assassinations that she has on her hit-list (e.g. Cersei, Meryn Trant, Ilyn Payne). The high-profile nature of these assassinations will draw the attention of the guild who will send start a manhunt of other FM to hunt Arya down and ultimately end her chaos.

[hallam]

Nope, Faceless men are allowed to kill people who attack or threaten them.

Raff tried to rape her. She plugged him, where is the problem?

But the issue is certainly going to come up in the future. She kept needle for a start and she joined the FM to train so that she could whittle down her bucket list of kills.

I think thats more a problem for the faceless men than for Arya though.

[Talking Hodor]

The Faceless Men don't care about Raff the Sweetling. They don't care that Arya or one of her identities killed someone who wasn't her designated target. I think that they only care about the target dying.

One thing that does confuse me about them is their motives for killing people. One of the FM tells Arya that they do not kill for money or to extend their power. But in GoT Petyr Baelish claims that the FM are extremely expensive, and there are indicated many times through the series as being some kind of service that can be bought.

Their service costs the person hiring them dearly, because they have to give them something they consider valuable - it doesn't necessarily mean gold.

[Talking Hodor]

This is assuming they even find out about him dying. They found out about Dareon because she was careless. She's probably much more careful this time.

And who's to say the entire retinue of Harys Swyft isn't in for an early death at the hands of the faceless mummers? The Iron Bank may want to send a message to King Kong's Landing.

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

This is assuming they even find out about him dying. They found out about Dareon because she was careless. She's probably much more careful this time.

And who's to say the entire retinue of Harys Swyft isn't in for an early death at the hands of the faceless mummers? The Iron Bank may want to send a message to King Kong's Landing.

They found out about Dareon because Arya showed up with his boots and told the Kindly Man that she killed him.

It was theorized what the "rape and murder" Mercy was referring to throughout the chapter could mean. Obviously Mercy was to be "raped" on stage, but the circumstances in which both Raff and Mercy would disappear would lead the authorities to believe that Raff murdered Mercy. They'll find her apartment, there will be blood everywhere and both Raff and Mercy would be gone. It's more likely that Raff would kill Mercy rather than vice versa. Thus Mercy was "raped and murdered" that night.

[Brother Seamus]

I think it was just to practice her acting skills. Most of a FM's time is spent acting but a lot of ppl come through a place like that and this play seemed bigger than normal so maybe she did have another target

Correct. This was part of her training. And the reason this will lead to Arya leaving the FM and abandoning her training is less that she killed someone she wasn't assigned to kill, or killed someone she knew, but because it shows that her becoming "no one", completely losing her identity as Arya Stark (apparently a pre-requisite to becoming a FM), is hopeless.

Not coincidentally, IMHO, this is necessary to the plot of the novels. Arya becoming no one and a full-fledged FM renders her character irrelevant to the central narrative of the novels, which is the dispersal, near-destruction and then resurrection of the Stark family, and their role in the larger history of the world, especially the supernatural history of the world, vis-a-vis the Others, the CotF, the Wall, dragons, ice, fire, the Doom, etc.

I think so many people on this forum get so deeply buried in the minutiae of the world GRRM has created that they forget the narrative set in place in the first few chapters of GOT. the story is about the Starks and the rise of the Others. It's about a family that separates, in 3-4-5 different directions, then tragedy befalls them, and, as of the end of dwd, they (what's left of them) still haven't reunited and are mostly unaware of each other's continued existence, much less whereabouts. In the meantime, this supernatural threat is rising, and we have numerous overt and covert hints that the Starks and the Others have some deep magical and historical connection. The emotional core of the story is the separation of a family; of children losing their father and mother; a mother losing her sons and maybe a daughter; siblings separated and at the mercy of the cruel world. It's about a family. That is what these novels are about.

that said, I'm concerned that sometimes GRRM gets lost in the minutiae too. no doubt there's a tension between world-building/fleshing out the details of interesting sub-plots and historical backdrops, on one hand, and advancing the core narrative, on the other.

which leads to what another poster suggested: Arya will leave the FM very soon, because the plot needs to move forward, and that means we need to start homing back in on the core narrative of the story.

Let's not forget AFFC and DWD were essentially written to bridge the timeline between the end of the original book one (which became three) and the beginning of the original book two, because there was originally supposed to be a five-year gap. I predict the plot starts moving very quickly. Arya's killing Raff is the trigger for getting her out of the FM, probably out of Braavos, and back into the mainstream of the story.

[JonBranRickon]

She has to kill someone of prominence all signs to Cersei.

[edd tollett:(]

George can get carried away with all the political intrigue I can barley keep westeros straight let alone volantis, and slavers bay and all the rest. I don't know how George does it but I think your right about the starks. Wasn't the 5th or 6th book originally called " a time for wolves"

[Daenor]

I wish she stayed a little bit more with the FM to further improve her skills.But i don't see how this is possible after this.Even if she's the best liar in the world it doesn't take much for anyone from her guild to figure out how Raff died.I mean the other guard will report to the Braavosi authorities that a girl from the mummers approached them offering herself as a sex toy ,Raff went away with her and now Raff is dead.How can you justify this?And it's quite obvious that the FM are well aware of what's going in the city,they definitely have their own network of informants and can't exactly miss such a serious incident.

[kav2001c]

The chapter certainly read like she was on the job...

My wild stab; she is placed in the mummers group to practice her acting but also to kill a target

When she first saw Raff she thinks her prayers were answered

So perhaps someone wanted to kill a member of the royal envoy to make a statement (eg not welcome in free cities) and she chose Raff for her personal reasons (which may or may not get her in trouble)

Question, who had a chicken for their emblem though?

[edd tollett:(]

Harys Swift the master of coin

[xendta]

I agree with what some people have said: she will always be a Stark, but I don't think she's going to be "kicked out" or other such things of the FM. She is going to be fully capable of pooling those resources to move forward with, as Brother Seamus posted, the core plot line. She's going to be the strongest link of the Starks. Besides, her mother is running around with revenge on her lips - why wouldn't the daughter hold the same anger?

I think the FM training plays an essential role in her development as a woman, as a character in the war that is coming, and as a Stark. The FM is going to be a lot like her water dance skills - shaping her and her actions.

[espresso]

Good thread.

One thing that does confuse me about them is their motives for killing people. One of the FM tells Arya that they do not kill for money or to extend their power. But in GoT Petyr Baelish claims that the FM are extremely expensive, and there are indicated many times through the series as being some kind of service that can be bought.

I have been wondering about the same thing, too. Its possible that they take something very dear to the client, so that the giving the gift of mercy to a marked person will be worth it, but why do they do it? What do they do with so much money? The whole FM idea raises a lot of questions. Who did littlefinger wanted dead so badly? If I were LF, I would want Jon Arryn or Ned Stark dead at the time of GoT. But evidently LF got it done all by himself. Euron 'threw a dragon egg to sea', which probably means gave a dragon egg to get Balon sent to the drowned god.

Regarding Arya: She thinks to herself that 'she will miss Mercy'. It could be similar to the way she missed Cat of the Canals. Its repeatedly told by the blind girl how she 'missed' Cat. Probably she is expecting the FM to take away another of her senses.

One possible scenario in which the FM would need Arya is
They got a dragon egg from Euron-> They know Dany has dragons, so they sends someone(alchemist/Jaqen) to the citadel to learn how to hatch dragon egg-> In the event that they hatches the egg, then they will need to control dragons-> Most of the horns etc are found in the North, Essos people may not have any resources left(this is the weakest link: we know FM is good in sorcerery)-> A skinchanger would be handy.

But then, they need to know something about Arya being a warg or all Starks being wargs. If they have a glass candle, they will know it. I don't know the statistics of glass candles, like how many left in the world etc, but the Kindly Man know a great deal about Arya when she first meets him as Salty, much similar to the way Marwyn knew about Sam.

[Big Daddy]

Arya will leave the FM very soon, because the plot needs to move forward, and that means we need to start homing back in on the core narrative of the story.

Let's not forget AFFC and DWD were essentially written to bridge the timeline between the end of the original book one (which became three) and the beginning of the original book two, because there was originally supposed to be a five-year gap. I predict the plot starts moving very quickly. Arya's killing Raff is the trigger for getting her out of the FM, probably out of Braavos, and back into the mainstream of the story.

This right here. The point of the chapter is that Arya can't shake off who who is: Arya Stark. She needs to go back to Westeros and she was never going to devote her life to the FM. The plot of the books should make that obvious. It seems like her killing Raff might be the thing that gets her our of the FM and on a boat back home.

I think the best way to do it is have her next chapter her getting on a boat to Westeros, and thinking in flashback about how she just got kicked out because they know she can't give up her old life. Then we don't see Arya until the end of the book where she makes a dramatic entrance similar to how Varys did with Pycelle and Kevan.

[Brother Seamus]

This right here. The point of the chapter is that Arya can't shake off who who is: Arya Stark. She needs to go back to Westeros and she was never going to devote her life to the FM. The plot of the books should make that obvious. It seems like her killing Raff might be the thing that gets her our of the FM and on a boat back home.

I think the best way to do it is have her next chapter her getting on a boat to Westeros, and thinking in flashback about how she just got kicked out because they know she can't give up her old life. Then we don't see Arya until the end of the book where she makes a dramatic entrance similar to how Varys did with Pycelle and Kevan.

Exactly.

I've said it many times by now: Arya's role will be as an important, if not the most important, instrument of Stark vengeance. Arya's taking vengeance is a plot element that's been building since COK, since she started her nighttime prayer, and in some ways since the conflict with Joffrey in GOT.

Remember, the KM has been skeptical of her ability to shed her identity from the beginning, and it's been foreshadowed, e.g by her not throwing away needle, that he has good cause for concern.

And I like your idea of how it plays out. We see her getting on a ship, with some ambiguity as to where she's exactly going, and the next time we see her she's driving a sword through LF's chest to stop him raping/killing sansa, or she's standing over cersei's corpse with a bloody knife, or she's standing behind the door with needle as Roose Bolton walks into his bedchamber in winterfell, or she sneaks into Robert Strong/Gregor Clegane's room, wakes him, and drives needle through his eye or . . .

[Brother Seamus]

Arya is the one who knocks. :-)

[Maester2chainz]

I am not 100% sure what will happen to her, but I know the last time she disobeyed she got punished, but right after she got promoted. Plus we see Jaqen kill a lot of people. Some people believe he is rouge, but why would he send Arya to the FM if he was.

I personally think that the kindly man lying to her, and that they don't care who you kill, as long as you get the job done. However she is too inexperienced to read his lies like she practiced with waif.