Arya in the red keep stables, whose voice calms her?

[a_motherf'ndragon]

I am listening to GOT on audio right now and I never noticed, but after she kills stable boy she is about to make a run for it from the stables but she has to calm her nerves.  The words Syrio Forel taught her about still as calm water and something else come from a disembodied voice it seems.  It doesn't come from her inner monologue as when she hears it, it actually startles her and I think she nearly drops Needle.  Anyway she calms down and just brushes it off and starts her escape.  I don't have notes or resources to pull from on direct quotes but I thought this was just one of those moments in the story and early on I might add where it seems there was outside influence on a POV.  Any theories?

[Lost Melnibonean]

That's a tricky one because the only two characters we normally associate with entering men's thoughts and dreams are Bloodraven and Quaithe. But there is no reason to assume Quaithe, and there are no proximate hints at Bloodraven in the text. 

[a black swan]

Here is the scene from the GoT:

 

Quote

 

She had to leave now, she told herself, but when the moment came, she was too frightened to move.

Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.

Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrio's? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears. 

She stepped out of the stable.

It was the scariest thing she'd ever done. She wanted to run and hide, but she made herself walk across the yard, slowly, putting one foot in front of the other as if she had all the time in the world and no reason to be afraid of anyone. She thought she could feel their eyes, like bugs crawling on her skin under her clothes. Arya never looked up. If she saw them watching, all her courage would desert her, she knew, and she would drop the bundle of clothes and run and cry like a baby, and then they would have her. She kept her gaze on the ground. By the time she reached the shadow of the royal sept on the far side of the yard, Arya was cold with sweat, but no one had raised the hue and cry.

 

 

[Red Man Racey]

Quote

She had to leave now, she told herself, but when the moment came, she was too frightened to move.

Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.

Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrio’s? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears.

Based on the text it looks like it is her internal monologue (internal thoughts are italicized). It's the lessons of Syrio Forel finally coming back to her. This appears to be a contrast with her inability to remember Syrio's lessons earlier:

Quote

Everything Syrio Forel had ever taught her vanished in a heartbeat. In that instant of sudden terror, the only lesson Arya could remember was the one Jon Snow had given her, the very first.

She stuck him with the pointy end, driving the blade upward with a wild, hysterical strength.

I'm guessing that's all this is. She's surprised because his teachings had left her earlier, but now she's regaining her composure so his words are coming back to her and she probably wasn't expecting it.

[a black swan]

5 minutes ago, Red Man Racey said:

Based on the text it looks like it is her internal monologue (internal thoughts are italicized). It's the lessons of Syrio Forel finally coming back to her. This appears to be a contrast with her inability to remember Syrio's lessons earlier:

I'm guessing that's all this is. She's surprised because his teachings had left her earlier, but now she's regaining her composure so his words are coming back to her and she probably wasn't expecting it.

"a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her"

Is that a typical reaction to internal monologue? If so, that's rather crazy.

It won't be the last time Arya will hear a voice speak to her. 

 

 

 

 

[Lost Melnibonean]

37 minutes ago, Red Man Racey said:

Based on the text it looks like it is her internal monologue (internal thoughts are italicized). It's the lessons of Syrio Forel finally coming back to her. This appears to be a contrast with her inability to remember Syrio's lessons earlier:

I'm guessing that's all this is. She's surprised because his teachings had left her earlier, but now she's regaining her composure so his words are coming back to her and she probably wasn't expecting it.

Yes, I think this is the best explanation. 

[a black swan]

7 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Yes, I think this is the best explanation. 

Even though it makes no sense? Her reaction to the voice doesn't sound like her inner dialogue. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

3 minutes ago, DutchArya said:

Even though it makes no sense? Her reaction to the voice doesn't sound like her inner dialogue. 

I hear ya. (Is that a pun?) But without a Bloodraven hint, I don't see any other explanations. 

[DigUpHerBones]

she is incredibly young and suffered unimaginable trauma.

for all intents and purposes, she has coped amazingly well for a pre-pubescent girl thus far.

the thought of Arya having distinct, multiple personalities is always something that I believe has or will happen.

the "small voice" IMO, to steal a line from Jon's arc, was "the girl" Arya Stark. not who she was becoming while training with Syrio, and certainly not the FM Version of Arya.

but rather a small, soothing voice she trusted, and that was her innocent childhood voice.

 

[Free Northman Reborn]

It was the bicameral mind.

[Lost Melnibonean]

Bran from the future!

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

I don't think that would be Bloodraven or Quaithe, but maybe someone else with a glass candle? Well, I can only think of Marwyn, Sarella Sand (Alleras) and maybe Lord Leighton Hightower (who might have a glass candle). But I don't know why any of those would want to help Arya.

[a_motherf'ndragon]

2 hours ago, DutchArya said:

Even though it makes no sense? Her reaction to the voice doesn't sound like her inner dialogue. 

That's why I brought it up, it seems like if it were her own voice she would have pieced that together by the time she gathered her nerves, but instead she doesn't.  Most people who talk to themselves notice, unlike here where she is even startled by it because it is a whisper in her ear which I'm pretty sure I was never capable of accomplishing.  I ask how does one whisper in their own ear?

[Jon Fossoway]

There's a lot of scenes in the books that plays out like a movie action thriller: Arya, cold on her feet, needing to move on. Then Syrio Forel comes out of his memory to push her onward. That's it.

I don't read that deep into Martin, to be honest. He's great at painting political intrigues and can really build tension, but he falls short on other things. Besides, the first books are more action paced, he pushes the plot onward by sometimes using cinematographical effects that in literature may seem a little absurd if you stop and analyze it, of course; otherwise, it pass unnoticed and becomes a part of a general action scene. Speed in writing is the key, to create the effect of a thriller. It works well.

Writing compelling action scenes often requires linking small absurd scenes that nevertheless give the impression of vertigo. Martin is very fond of this. I really like him when he does that.

 

[Scootaloo Stark]

There probably are lots of problems with this idea, but I still feel like I have to say it... maybe it's Jaqen.

[Beautiful Bloody Sword]

I think it was Syrio's voice, who may also be Jaqen. He/They were like a guardian angel of sorts for her, just like the younger POV's have one or more themselves.

[John Suburbs]

13 hours ago, a_motherf'ndragon said:

I am listening to GOT on audio right now and I never noticed, but after she kills stable boy she is about to make a run for it from the stables but she has to calm her nerves.  The words Syrio Forel taught her about still as calm water and something else come from a disembodied voice it seems.  It doesn't come from her inner monologue as when she hears it, it actually startles her and I think she nearly drops Needle.  Anyway she calms down and just brushes it off and starts her escape.  I don't have notes or resources to pull from on direct quotes but I thought this was just one of those moments in the story and early on I might add where it seems there was outside influence on a POV.  Any theories?

Classic Martin. Was it just a trick of the mind under duress, or something more? Bran has been shown to whisper to be people both in the past and present through a heart tree, but maybe later he develops greater powers? Could he have been eavesdropping on Arya's dancing lessons to learn Syrio's commands? (Perhaps through a certain black tomcat with one ear who was a beloved pet of a princess with Blackwood (First Men) blood?) But then why would Bran abandon her in other moments of crisis later?

Or mayhaps Arya's own green capabilities are awakened later in the story and she is reaching back to her past self?

Or, again, maybe it's just nothing.

We'll have to wait and see, or not.

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

I remember Jaqen whispering to her in Harrenhal when they are there and she is sleeping, he appears out of nowhere and talks to her as she is sleeping. That would make sense.

[RedShirt47]

I think it was her training coming back to her. She practiced so much that it became instinctual, her sub-conscious reacted to the situation before her conscious mind had time to. This is the first time she uses her training in a life or death situation rather than chasing cats or listening to Syrio teaching her.

I didn't think it's a "Use the Force, Arys" moment.

[Ser Duncan of Flea Bottom]

But if that was herself talking to her, why would she get startled? She heard a whispering in her year, not in her mind.