GRRM on Gendry and Arya (Allegedly)

[Annara Snow]

 

Sansa is being sold like a horse by Littlefinger. She was also almost raped during the Riot at King's Landing. Jeyne Poole is what happens to Arya if she decides to be a normal girl. I like Arya being a predator better than I like Arya being a victim.

 

Jeyne Poole being raped has nothing to do with her being a "normal girl" or "not like Arya" and everything to do with her being lower born than Sansa and Arya and being trapped in KL without anyone who cared who help her, with LF sending her to a brothel, and sending her to Winterfell where she again didn't have anyone to help her until Jon send people to save Arya - because she was his sister - and Theon grew a backbone.

 

Had Arya been in Jeyne's situation, she'd also have been raped, many times. And if she hadn't had people to help her - Syrio, Yoren, later Jaqen, Harwin, Sandor... - she would have been dead or captured by the Lannisters long time ago. She also could have been raped in Harrenhal, she could have been raped by someone like Rorge, etc. She would have no doubt react differently, but she'd be just as traumatized. 

 

And frankly, saying things like "that's what happens to you if you're like Jeyne in personality and not like Arya" is, beside being stupid and absurd, really gross and constitutes victim-blaming.

[Winter's Cold]

 

Jeyne Poole being raped has nothing to do with her being a "normal girl" or "not like Arya" and everything to do with her being lower born than Sansa and Arya and being trapped in KL without anyone who cared who help her, with LF sending her to a brothel, and sending her to Winterfell where she again didn't have anyone to help her until Jon send people to save Arya - because she was his sister - and Theon grew a backbone.

 

Had Arya been in Jeyne's situation, she'd also have been raped, many times. And if she hadn't had people to help her - Syrio, Yoren, later Jaqen, Harwin, Sandor... - she would have been dead or captured by the Lannisters long time ago. She also could have been raped in Harrenhal, she could have been raped by someone like Rorge, etc. She would have no doubt react differently, but she'd be just as traumatized. 

 

And frankly, saying things like "that's what happens to you if you're like Jeyne in personality and not like Arya" is, beside being stupid and absurd, really gross and constitutes victim-blaming.

 

Arya was molested by Raff and ended up killing him. So you can't say that she would be raped like Jeyne was. Jeyne was raped by Ramsay because she was unable to kill him and she did not have protectors like Sansa did. 

 

I used Jeyne Poole as an example because she was used by the Lannisters and the Boltons as a substitute for Arya. It shows quite clearly what would have happened to Arya if she refuses to strike back against her abusers. 

[Shuvuuia]

 

GRRM has shaped her as a "child soldier". They are also victims in war, as much as those who are in the losing/attacked part.

 

I don't think we're meant to see Arya and cheer for what she has become. Of course, most of her actions seem "badass" at first, but we're talking about a little girl who has already murdered people, who is training to be an assassin and who has even

 

 

If you ever read a lot of the stories of children who are kidnapped or training to be soldiers by guerrillas or terrorist groups, you would find a similar pattern. We're not mean to believe that one of those children using weapons and knowing how to kill are cool, right?

I'm sorry to butt into the conversation, but I think we are meant to cheer for Arya. Not because she is killing people - this is obviously horrible and would let her scarred for life, but because she still has her humanity and compassion despite all of what happened to her. In Braavos she is still making friends and is interested in life surrounding her. Her helping Weasel, returning for Gendry, helping Sam, that's all badass. Her trying to save her identity, hiding Needle - all very cool and admirable. I don't think she is like broken men Septon Meribald talks about and there is hope for her to recover.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

I'm sorry to butt into the conversation, but I think we are meant to cheer for Arya. Not because she is killing people - this is obviously horrible and would let her scarred for life, but because she still has her humanity and compassion despite all of what happened to her. In Braavos she is still making friends and is interested in life surrounding her. Her helping Weasel, returning for Gendry, helping Sam, that's all badass. Her trying to save her identity, hiding Needle - all very cool and admirable. I don't think she is like broken men Septon Meribald talks about and there is hope for her to recover.

 

I actually agree.

 

What I meant to say is that we're not supposed to say "oh, she's becoming an assassin, that's awesome!" because there more than meets to the eye about her situation. We root for her when she is not forgetting who she really is.

 

I think the problem is on how she's becoming a fighter. And the fact revenge drives her. Again, she has the chance to live a more tranquil life and she didn't want it. I doubt any member of her family would feel "oh, yeah... she's doing all of those things to avenge us, that's great!".

 

She's not losing herself, that's correct. But she's still losing a lot of her integrity and humanity. I doubt she will end the series whole. There is a bittersweetness about the things she's achieving. The price is very high.

[Winter's Cold]

 

I actually agree.

 

What I meant to say is that we're not supposed to say "oh, she's becoming an assassin, that's awesome!" because there more than meets to the eye about her situation. We root for her when she is not forgetting who she really is.

 

I think the problem is on how she's becoming a fighter. And the fact revenge drives her. Again, she has the chance to live a more tranquil life and she didn't want it. I doubt any member of her family would feel "oh, yeah... she's doing all of those things to avenge us, that's great!".

 

She's not losing herself, that's correct. But she's still losing a lot of her integrity and humanity. I doubt she will end the series whole. There is a bittersweetness about the things she's achieving. The price is very high.

 

Robb, Jon and Ned had a lot of integrity and humanity. They're dead because of it. Why should Arya share their fate?

[Shuvuuia]

 

I actually agree.

 

What I meant to say is that we're not supposed to say "oh, she's becoming an assassin, that's awesome!" because there more than meets to the eye about her situation. We root for her when she is not forgetting who she really is.

 

I think the problem is on how she's becoming a fighter. And the fact revenge drives her. Again, she has the chance to live a more tranquil life and she didn't want it. I doubt any member of her family would feel "oh, yeah... she's doing all of those things to avenge us, that's great!".

 

She's not losing herself, that's correct. But she's still losing a lot of her integrity and humanity. I doubt she will end the series whole. There is a bittersweetness about the things she's achieving. The price is very high.

I agree that we aren't suppose to cheer on her becoming an assassin, but I disagree that she is revenge driving. Her list is important, but I never felt like it is the most important thing for her, more like a way to deal with her situation in her head, I don't think she would abandon her friend, for example, for revenge.

And I don't remember when she had a chance for more  tranquil life? She was always drived from place to place by circumstances and in Braavos she didn't have anywhere to go.

But I think that her bittersweet ending could be settling down and having more or less unassuming life, but with flashbacks and ptsd.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

 

Robb, Jon and Ned had a lot of integrity and humanity. They're dead because of it. Why should Arya share their fate?

 

Tywin, Aerys and Balon have little integrity nor humanity and they are also dead. There is no one formula for what makes people survives.

 

That's kinda the question and the whole theme of ASOIAF. The heart at conflict. What is better? Being Tywin Lannister who wouldn't mind killing and raping as long as he's on the top or keep yourself whole despite you might lose?

[Winter's Cold]

 

Tywin, Aerys and Balon have little integrity nor humanity and they are also dead. There is no one formula for what makes people survives.

 

That's kinda the question and the whole theme of ASOIAF. The heart at conflict. What is better? Being Tywin Lannister who wouldn't mind killing and raping as long as he's on the top or keep yourself whole despite you might lose?

 

Who says she needs to murder innocents and/or rape people like Tywin, Aerys, and Balon did? She just needs to help people like Sam and kill people like Raff. It seems like you think that Arya is female Gregor Clegane. I think she's more of an Asha Greyjoy or a Ygritte. She's doing what's necessary to survive in a harsh world without totally forsaking her morals.

[Chocs]

 

How is not Arya a victim of the circumstances? :dunno:

 

I think you're assuming that because Sansa is taking now a more passive role, she's a victim. She is not. For once, she hasn't yet married Harry the Heir.

 

Let's not take Cersei's definition of medieval marriages as a fact. She claims a marriage is for the woman being "sold like a mare" while she had zero problem to be mounted by Rhaegar whenever he wanted despite she didn't know him. Also, would you consider Cat being a horse in her marriage to Ned? I doubt that, despite his political intentions, Hoster Tully saw her daughter as some object he could  bargain. He found her the best husband he believed he could find. Wouldn't you believe Ned would be the same with her children?

 

The definition people from the times that inspired ASOIAF have about marriage is not our own. The concept of marriage was a duty to their families, a way to bind two houses in one for political purposes. Marriage for love is a very modern concept. GRRM himself has said that the idea of the girl running away from an arranged marriage would be unrealistic: they would try to honour their families in the best way they could. We assume that, in every marriage, the woman is always the victim. For once, not every husband was a tyrant that would rape them nor every men is willing to bed a woman they aren't comfortable with. And of course, women also have important roles to play in the newly formed societies that constituted their marriages.

 

If we compare Sansa with Arya, none of them is a victim. Even though Sansa has been betrothed here and there, she has refused to see herself as a victim. We saw her while Joffrey abused her and we saw how she shut down her feelings whenever Tyrion wanted her to approach her, something that kept him away from her. There is no way she didn't have the upper hand there. Had Arya been married to Tyrion or Joffrey, she could have done something that ended up killing her too in order to escape. And she probably wouldn't mind. They have different ways to survive and they both work because they both are alive and struggling with keeping their own identities. It's not coincidence they both have now different identities.

 

What's the whole Sansa/Arya comparison thing has to do with what Winter's Cold said! :S They were probably trying to say that in the kind of circumstances Arya is in, she needs to do those things to survive.. she doesn't really have other choices, it's better that she's being the predator than a victim like Jeyne. In the sense, that she took the path she did rather than the path where she could have potentially been raped and fall victim to even more circumstances. Of course she didn't really have to kill Raff to 'survive', that was tied to her personal agenda. 

[JonCon's Red Beard]

 

Who says she needs to murder innocents and/or rape people like Tywin, Aerys, and Balon did? She just needs to help people like Sam and kill people like Raff. It seems like you think that Arya is female Gregor Clegane. I think she's more of an Asha Greyjoy or a Ygritte. She's doing what's necessary to survive in a harsh world without totally forsaking her morals.

 

This is the thing. If we say that Arya does all the things she does to survive, then we can't consider Raff and Daeron on that list. How killing them helped her to survive? She killed them because she believes she has the right to do it. Daeron, because he's a deserter and Raff, because he killed her friend. She believes she's entitled to give death to others when she's not: she's not a lord, she's not a judge. And even, by the rules of the organization she's living, she's doing wrong.

 

Arya kills people because she believes that killing them is a retribution or a payback. She gets something from those killings that has little to do with surviving. Has she killed for survival? Yes. Not all of the people she has killed she did because she needed to survive. Becuase, if we're talking about survival, the KM offered her to live with a merchant, safely. She refused. She believes she NEEDS to kill those who have wronged her. This has little to do with survival. This has to do more with PTS. It's a coping mechanism.

 

This tumblr kind has expressed better my views:

 

With Yoren, the trauma at Harrenhal, Jaqen and Sandor, Arya has the kind of idea that in order to survive, she must know how to kill. She didn’t end up like this on her own. Another fact about child soldiers is that some also join to avenge their families. Also very accurate when speaking about Arya. Arya doesn’t want these other options because she thinks they aren’t the places for her and because her hit-list is a kind of coping mechanism.

Even though the House of Black and White is trying to turn her into “no one”, Arya still constantly seems to think that she’s there to avenge her family. They’re trying and she’s trying, but her identity is rooted very deep inside of her. Specifically when she has to give up all her belongings but she secretly keeps needle and there’s an entire passage about how this sword is a symbol for her childhood, home and family. Then she hides the sword because “one day she might have need of it”.

To me, this sounds like she will not be able to truly give up Arya Stark. But she’s still with the Faceless Men at the moment, she hasn’t overcome it yet. And back to the facts about the child soldiers, do we villanize these children? No. We think about the institutions that are using children, brainwashing them, to fight. Do we sit here and point at these children, calling them ‘evil’ or ‘creepy’ or ‘psychos’? No. These websites and organisations are built to help these children. They’re trying to get them out of armies and into schools instead.

Clearly Arya doesn’t have that help, so it’s up to us to root for her. Root for her to overcome the situation. If I didn’t believe in Arya I wouldn’t be here doing this. She has given me enough evidence to prove that I can believe in her to find her way and not become the assassin that no child should feel they have to be.

 

We're not supposed to root for what Arya could become but because what she won't. We should root for her to remain Arya, the Arya her family loves, not the Arya her family would barely recognise. Martin has said he finds children soldier interesting but that doesn't mean he approves what has become of them. If anything, Arya personifies what he really feels about the subject: that they shouldn't be killing people but going to school and be children.

[Winter's Cold]

 

This is the thing. If we say that Arya does all the things she does to survive, then we can't consider Raff and Daeron on that list. How killing them helped her to survive? She killed them because she believes she has the right to do it. Daeron, because he's a deserter and Raff, because he killed her friend. She believes she's entitled to give death to others when she's not: she's not a lord, she's not a judge. And even, by the rules of the organization she's living, she's doing wrong.

 

Arya kills people because she believes that killing them is a retribution or a payback. She gets something from those killings that has little to do with surviving. Has she killed for survival? Yes. Not all of the people she has killed she did because she needed to survive. Becuase, if we're talking about survival, the KM offered her to live with a merchant, safely. She refused. She believes she NEEDS to kill those who have wronged her. This has little to do with survival. This has to do more with PTS. It's a coping mechanism.

 

This tumblr kind has expressed better my views:

 

With Yoren, the trauma at Harrenhal, Jaqen and Sandor, Arya has the kind of idea that in order to survive, she must know how to kill. She didn’t end up like this on her own. Another fact about child soldiers is that some also join to avenge their families. Also very accurate when speaking about Arya. Arya doesn’t want these other options because she thinks they aren’t the places for her and because her hit-list is a kind of coping mechanism.

Even though the House of Black and White is trying to turn her into “no one”, Arya still constantly seems to think that she’s there to avenge her family. They’re trying and she’s trying, but her identity is rooted very deep inside of her. Specifically when she has to give up all her belongings but she secretly keeps needle and there’s an entire passage about how this sword is a symbol for her childhood, home and family. Then she hides the sword because “one day she might have need of it”.

To me, this sounds like she will not be able to truly give up Arya Stark. But she’s still with the Faceless Men at the moment, she hasn’t overcome it yet. And back to the facts about the child soldiers, do we villanize these children? No. We think about the institutions that are using children, brainwashing them, to fight. Do we sit here and point at these children, calling them ‘evil’ or ‘creepy’ or ‘psychos’? No. These websites and organisations are built to help these children. They’re trying to get them out of armies and into schools instead.

Clearly Arya doesn’t have that help, so it’s up to us to root for her. Root for her to overcome the situation. If I didn’t believe in Arya I wouldn’t be here doing this. She has given me enough evidence to prove that I can believe in her to find her way and not become the assassin that no child should feel they have to be.

 

We're not supposed to root for what Arya could become but because what she won't. We should root for her to remain Arya, the Arya her family loves, not the Arya her family would barely recognise. Martin has said he finds children soldier interesting but that doesn't mean he approves what has become of them. If anything, Arya personifies what he really feels about the subject: that they shouldn't be killing people but going to school and be children.

 

Why do you keep using we? Instead you should use I because you certainly don't speak for all readers. You're even speaking about whether or not the author approves of a character's actions. How do you know these things? Are you a personal friend of Martin?

 

She killed Dareon and Raff to maintain her identity as a Stark. No matter what name the faceless men give her she will always be Arya Stark of Winterfell. It's the same reason she repeats her list to herself. She will not forget her murdered family and her murdered friends. She is currently locked in a struggle with the Faceless Men to not lose her identity. Memories fade over time. The Faceless Men make her wear new faces and make her change her behavior to fit that face. If this is repeated enough times, then Arya would eventually become no one. To avoid this she repeats her list and kills Dareon and Raff. It's a way of ensuring that her identity as Arya Stark survies.

[sweetsunray]

Hmm, and yet Willow isn't training to be an assassin, losing more and more of her originally sparse traditional femininity. Ans Sansa is far from the traditional lady she once was and has toughened up. And did you just say "bloody"? I truly hope you're actually English... ;)

 

1 - Unrelated to Gendry hanging around bossy girls.

2 - Actually the FM don't allow her to pretend at being a boy, and are subtly encouraging to accept her feminine side.

[sweetsunray]

 

I actually agree.

 

What I meant to say is that we're not supposed to say "oh, she's becoming an assassin, that's awesome!" because there more than meets to the eye about her situation. We root for her when she is not forgetting who she really is.

 

I think the problem is on how she's becoming a fighter. And the fact revenge drives her. Again, she has the chance to live a more tranquil life and she didn't want it. I doubt any member of her family would feel "oh, yeah... she's doing all of those things to avenge us, that's great!".

 

She's not losing herself, that's correct. But she's still losing a lot of her integrity and humanity. I doubt she will end the series whole. There is a bittersweetness about the things she's achieving. The price is very high.

 

It's not revenge that drives her; it's vigilante justice from having been in a situation where she witnessed nothing but injustice and the people who did it were rewarded and would never be held accountable for it.

 

As for the tranquil life she's being offered - it's completely meaningless what the kindly man offers her. She doesn't know what a courtesan is, other than perhaps an expensive whore. She doesn't even believe she's pretty. Marriage - she never sought it, and she's 11, just having escaped 2 years of war situation. But, oh we can find you a good husband. She just arrived in a new world where she knows no one, and doesn't know the customs. Which child would agree to any of those propositions. I'm even pretty sure that the km knew very well how hollow his proposals were. What he does is making a formal situation where she volunteers. 

 

Where did she lose her integrity and humanity? She's actually learning to be more discernable about who she kills. When she gets the face, she sees three groups of faces - loved ones, people she killed but considers a mistake (stable boy, the squire at the inn, the guard of HH, Dareon), and then scum like the Tickler.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

It's not revenge that drives her; it's vigilante justice from having been in a situation where she witnessed nothing but injustice and the people who did it were rewarded and would never be held accountable for it.

That's my point. Who has given her the right to give justice?
 
Also, what are her views of justice but a basic sense of revenge? You hurt someone I love, I hurt you. The line between justice and revenge is very very thin.
 
The meaning Arya seems to have about justice shouldn't be that simple. Look at Ned executing the deserter. For him, it was justice. It was doing his job and following the law. We, as readers, know why the guy escaped. Was fair to kill him? Was it justice?
 
Remember Martin is a fan of Tolkien:
 
'Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.'
 
Something Martin is good at is in giving us scenes that we're meant to cheer for at first sight but we really shouldn't. 
 
Oberyn fighting the Mountain caused only his own death. And Doran's amazing speech of Fire and Blood will bring nothing but pain to Dorne. How any of this actions will make Elia rest in peace, knowing her brothers and her people are in danger to die on her name?
 
Cersei's WoS is a comeuppance for her, but at the same time, it's ok. for us to pity her.
 
Dany's campaign in SB is good intended and justified, yet, she has also caused destruction of their economy and she's bringing war.
 
Why is Arya different? Are we meant to see her actions as positive? inspiring? Doubt it. Martin's views are Elaria's words: revenge, payback or retribution brings nothing but death.

[arabian]

OK so you interpreted the quote positively, but how do you explain the author, who also ships Gendry/Arya, being sad about it?

 

Because I've found that, unfortunately, a lot of shippers do live up to the reputation that they have and since GRRM didn't have a 100% positive attitude therefore OH NOES! it meant the end of their ship for all time! WOE IS ME!!!  Sorry, but the over-the-top way in which most of shipping fandom (in just about every fandom) reacts to quotes from writers/showrunners about any given couple is ridiculous because DUH! of course they aren't going to give anything away.  They want you to keep reading/keep watching. 

[Lady Blackmont]

Jeyne Poole being raped has nothing to do with her being a "normal girl" or "not like Arya" and everything to do with her being lower born than Sansa and Arya and being trapped in KL without anyone who cared who help her, with LF sending her to a brothel, and sending her to Winterfell where she again didn't have anyone to help her until Jon send people to save Arya - because she was his sister - and Theon grew a backbone.
 
Had Arya been in Jeyne's situation, she'd also have been raped, many times. And if she hadn't had people to help her - Syrio, Yoren, later Jaqen, Harwin, Sandor... - she would have been dead or captured by the Lannisters long time ago. She also could have been raped in Harrenhal, she could have been raped by someone like Rorge, etc. She would have no doubt react differently, but she'd be just as traumatized. 
 
And frankly, saying things like "that's what happens to you if you're like Jeyne in personality and not like Arya" is, beside being stupid and absurd, really gross and constitutes victim-blaming.

I don't know if that really qualifies as victim blaming. If one person has no locks on their car, it's more likely to be stolen. That's simply a fact.

[YunoGasai]

GENDRYA

 

I'm not really a fan of this couple, but they make more sense than Jon/Arya or worse....*shudder... Sandor/Arya. (dang those shippers)

[sweetsunray]

That's my point. Who has given her the right to give justice?
 
Also, what are her views of justice but a basic sense of revenge? You hurt someone I love, I hurt you. The line between justice and revenge is very very thin.
 
The meaning Arya seems to have about justice shouldn't be that simple. Look at Ned executing the deserter. For him, it was justice. It was doing his job and following the law. We, as readers, know why the guy escaped. Was fair to kill him? Was it justice?
 
Remember Martin is a fan of Tolkien:
 
'Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.'
 
Something Martin is good at is in giving us scenes that we're meant to cheer for at first sight but we really shouldn't. 
 
Oberyn fighting the Mountain caused only his own death. And Doran's amazing speech of Fire and Blood will bring nothing but pain to Dorne. How any of this actions will make Elia rest in peace, knowing her brothers and her people are in danger to die on her name?
 
Cersei's WoS is a comeuppance for her, but at the same time, it's ok. for us to pity her.
 
Dany's campaign in SB is good intended and justified, yet, she has also caused destruction of their economy and she's bringing war.
 
Why is Arya different? Are we meant to see her actions as positive? inspiring? Doubt it. Martin's views are Elaria's words: revenge, payback or retribution brings nothing but death.

 

1. There are people on her list who hurt nobody she loved. You cannot completely discount that.

2. Well actually I have a theory that she has a magical right to it. From the moment Jaqen talks to her and until he departs we get a complete cycle of references to Valkyrie elements. These were mythological women who "chose" who died, who lived, who won a battle, who lost. The word means "chooser of the slain". The elements of Valkyries are

• cupbearing
• female
• choose who dies and lives according to their master/god's will, which they know intuitively or supernaturally.
• battles get dedicated to them

I even think the FM may have a prophecy regarding a First Reborn. It's immensely important to both Jaqen and the kindly man that she takes every step voluntarily. Arya is not recruited like the Second FM, but like the First she comes to the realizations herself.

 

3. Isn't if curious how Gandalf's words are reflected by those of the kindly man? And yet the people they assassinate are the scum of the earth.

 

4. Nobody here seems to be arguing we should "cheer" her arc. I certainly don't. But who gave her the right? Jaqen gave her the right. And all those who were supposed to be the ones who would deal out justice, but instead corrupted it or rewarded injustice - Tywin gave her the right to deal out justice herself, when he completely failed at it himself. She was healing somewhat and becoming slowly a normal child again with the BwB. But then there came the Hound's trial by combat, and the man she herself had seen as having butchered Mycah was free to go. While she noted his pain, there she even gave up on believing the seven or old gods would deliver justice. That's why her later arc with the Hound is so important. She leaves it to fate.

 

[spoiler]Raff though talks about taking the head of the dwarf actor, not even caring if it'd be the wrong dwarf - it's just a dwarf. He ensures her she'll not miss out on her rape. He goes for someone who's a maiden still and hasn't even flowered. He's damning himself right before her eyes as one who is what he always was - scum.[/spoiler]

[Joan Jett]

 
Because I've found that, unfortunately, a lot of shippers do live up to the reputation that they have and since GRRM didn't have a 100% positive attitude therefore OH NOES! it meant the end of their ship for all time! WOE IS ME!!!  Sorry, but the over-the-top way in which most of shipping fandom (in just about every fandom) reacts to quotes from writers/showrunners about any given couple is ridiculous because DUH! of course they aren't going to give anything away.  They want you to keep reading/keep watching. 

Alright but you should consider that the author and her friend knew the real nature of the question that George was asked, and their reactions to the answer are key in determining the correct interpretation of the quote (since one of them was there). Also I sent the author an ask about it on tumblr, so we should get some clarity soon.

[arabian]

Alright but you should consider that the author and her friend knew the real nature of the question that George was asked, and their reactions to the answer are key in determining the correct interpretation of the quote (since one of them was there). Also I sent the author an ask about it on tumblr, so we should get some clarity soon.

 

Nah. Even if the question was "Will Gendy and Arya get together romantically?"  It doesn't matter because he's NOT going to answer that.  And you'll note that he didn't say "Yes" or "No.'  He said their futures are on different paths, which right now, obviously they are and clearly will be for the next book considering where we left off.  But then.... he went on to say "whether they'll meet up again, keep reading."   Which means that whatever happens after they potentially meet up again... well, anything goes!  So his response was basically a big ole: I'm not telling!! Heheheheheheheh!  Typical George.  But then he actually added in a jolt of hope with that "but whether they'll meet up again, you'll just have to keep reading" meaning that it's possible they'll meet again thus leaving the door open.  So huzzah! Hope! 

 

Still, he didn't really give anything away other than the logical 'Arya and Gendry's stories wouldn't be intersecting any time soon' ... which, again, pretty darn logical considering where he is and where she is in the tale right now.