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An evil girl's dark heart


AlaskanSandman

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5 hours ago, AlaskanSandman said:

That would be interesting for the FM to know that Roose Bolton (House Bolton likes to flay people too) was planning on betraying Robb Stark and killing them. (I allude to this connection already actually)

And why not? Daenerys has a weakness for young slave girls and Dario. If Dario is a FM, then Arya can just wear his face. Just speculation though. 

But yes, seems a weird arch for her to just randomly meet a Fm, who just randomly gives her a coin, that randomly becomes useful, who randomly joins the FM, just to quit once it fill's her Health Meter for the Final level of the game. That's just such a waste of such an interesting organization, and a main character right at the heart of them.

I tend to think of the FM as a means to an end, story wise.  Teach Arya a few skills and maybe give us some backstory.  I hope so, because I don't particularly like them, nor do I think (hope) that they will turn out to be important.

As for Daenerys, I am at a loss as to why they would want her dead in the first place.  In any event, the easiest way for Arya to get close to her would be as herself; Arya Stark, scion of a Great House of Westeros.  That should get her in the door.  The problem with killing someone isn't actually the death, it's getting away with it, and I seriously doubt Arya has the skils or training to do so.

I doubt that they are actually training her to be an assassin in any event.  Her training is the sort of thing you would give an investigator or spy, not an assassin.  Admittedly, there is some overlap, but she doesn't know much about killing that she didn't already know.  Some stuff about poisons, but that is mostly theory, with no practical application.  No weapons training at all for example.

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On 9/20/2018 at 8:50 AM, AlaskanSandman said:

Hey, thank you very much! :)

I do think some of her motives are definitely understandable, but the revenge seems' to definitely be consuming her as it did Lady StoneHeart. Her vulnerability i think leaves her open much the same way i think Bran is potentially being used through his desperation. Again, Bloodraven should be long dead, so for all we know, that's just the Weirwood's tricking people using BR's Corpse.  To me the bigger question is whether Arya and Bran will realize their peril and fight back, or if they'll follow the path they are on. Martin has said that he likes sympathetic villains, and the Starks being the sympathetic villains seems on par. No one is the bad guy of their own story.

I agree.  I also think Arya's defenders are letting the show sway their opinion.  They forget, it's not the same character.  HBO's character is not true to the book. 

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2 hours ago, Moiraine Sedai said:

I agree.  I also think Arya's defenders are letting the show sway their opinion.  They forget, it's not the same character.  HBO's character is not true to the book. 

OMG i totally agree!!! You can see it bleed into conversations on here alot hahah Tryion especially was made much more likable hahah

Edit- Im sure i've done it too hahah and not saying people are doing it right now. But i have wondered if the show is influencing haha :)

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A Dance with Dragons - Melisandre I

Snow wrenched his arm away. "I think not. You do not know this creature. Rattleshirt could wash his hands a hundred times a day and he'd still have blood beneath his nails. He'd be more like to rape and murder Arya than to save her. No. If this was what you have seen in your fires, my lady, you must have ashes in your eyes. If he tries to leave Castle Black without my leave, I'll take his head off myself."

He leaves me no choiceSo be it. "Devanleave us," she said, and the squire slipped away and closed the door behind him.

Melisandre touched the ruby at her neck and spoke a word.

The sound echoed queerly from the corners of the room and twisted like a worm inside their ears. The wildling heard one word, the crow anotherNeitherwas the word that left her lips. The ruby on the wildling's wrist darkened, and the wisps of light and shadow around him writhed and faded.

The bones remained—the rattling ribs, the claws and teeth along his arms and shoulders, the great yellowed collarbone across his shoulders. The broken giant's skull remained a broken giant's skull, yellowed and cracked, grinning its stained and savage grin.

But the widow's peak dissolved. The brown mustache, the knobby chin, the sallow yellowed flesh and small dark eyes, all melted. Grey fingers crept through long brown hair. Laugh lines appeared at the corners of his mouth. All at once he was bigger than before, broader in the chest and shoulders, long-legged and lean, his face clean-shaved and windburnt.

Jon Snow's grey eyes grew wider. "Mance?"

"Lord Snow." Mance Rayder did not smile.

"She burned you."

"She burned the Lord of Bones."

Jon Snow turned to Melisandre. "What sorcery is this?"

"Call it what you will. Glamor, seeming, illusion. R'hllor is Lord of Light, Jon Snow, and it is given to his servants to weave with it, as others weave with thread."

Mance Rayder chuckled. "I had my doubts as well, Snow, but why not let her try? It was that, or let Stannis roast me."

"The bones help," said Melisandre. "The bones remember. The strongest glamors are built of such things. A dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of fingerbones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. The wearer's essence does not change, only his seeming."

She made it sound a simple thing, and easy. They need never know how difficult it had been, or how much it had cost her. That was a lesson Melisandre had learned long before Asshai; the more effortless the sorcery appears, the more men fear the sorcererWhen the flames had licked at Rattleshirt, the ruby at her throat had grown so hot that she had feared her own flesh might start to smoke and blackenThankfully Lord Snow had delivered her from that agony with his arrowsWhilst Stannis had seethed at the defianceshe had shuddered with relief.

 

 So Melisander makes it seem like it's just so easy and effortless, even though it's costing her some sort of price. In her case we know she is using a jewel and the bones, similar to the Faceless Men using skin. Its a part of them that will remember. Hair, boots, finger bones, what ever's clever. 

Something to note also is that Mance feels like Mance and as Melisandre says, he is still Mance, but just looks like Lord of Bones. Meaning, his true flesh was never altered. Also, Melisandre is the one performing the magic, while Mance is just the one being hidden. His illusion ripples away.

 

Quote

 

A Clash of Kings - Arya IX

"A god has his due. And now a man must die." A strange smile touched the lips of Jaqen H'ghar.

"Die?" she said, confused. What did he mean? "But I unsaid the name. You don't need to die now."

"I do. My time is done." Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.

Arya's mouth hung open. "Who are you?" she whispered, too astonished to be afraid. "How did you do that? Was it hard?"

He grinned, revealing a shiny gold tooth. "No harder than taking a new name, if you know the way."

"Show me," she blurted. "I want to do it too."

"If you would learn, you must come with me."

Arya grew hesitant. "Where?"

"Far and awayacross the narrow sea."

"I can't. I have to go home. To Winterfell."

"Then we must part," he said, "for I have duties too." He lifted her hand and pressed a small coin into her palm. "Here."

"What is it?"

"A coin of great value."

Arya bit it. It was so hard it could only be iron. "Is it worth enough to buy a horse?"

"It is not meant for the buying of horses."

"Then what good is it?"

"As well ask what good is life, what good is death? If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him—valar morghulis."

"Valar morghulis," Arya repeated. It wasn't hard. Her fingers closed tight over the coin. Across the yard, she could hear men dying. "Please don't go, Jaqen."

"Jaqen is as dead as Arry," he said sadly, "and I have promises to keep. Valar morghulis, Arya Stark. Say it again."

"Valar morghulis," she said once more, and the stranger in Jaqen's clothes bowed to her and stalked off through the darkness, cloak swirling. She was alone with the dead men. They deserved to die, Arya told herself, remembering all those Ser Amory Lorch had killed at the holdfast by the lake.

 

 So Jaqen play's Arya and pretends like it's just so easy and effortless, no need for her to know the cost ....

Jaqen's image ripples away too, which is similar to Mel's glamour. What's it's costing Jaqen to perform this though? Or is someone else glamouring him?

Quote

 

A Dance with Dragons - The Ugly Little Girl

She had reached fifty-four when the steps finally ended at another iron door. This one was unlocked. The kindly man pushed it open and stepped through. She followed, with the waif on her heels. Their footsteps echoed through the darkness. The kindly man lifted his lantern and flicked its shutters wide open. Light washed over the walls around them.

A thousand faces were gazing down on her.

They hung upon the walls, before her and behind her, high and low, everywhere she looked, everywhere she turned. She saw old faces and young faces, pale faces and dark faces, smooth faces and wrinkled faces, freckled faces and scarred faces, handsome faces and homely faces, men and women, boys and girls, even babes, smiling faces, frowning faces, faces full of greed and rage and lust, bald faces and faces bristling with hair. Masks, she told herself, it's only masks, but even as she thought the thought, she knew it wasn't so. They were skins.

"Do they frighten you, child?" asked the kindly man. "It is not too late for you to leave us. Is this truly what you want?"

Arya bit her lip. She did not know what she wanted. If I leave, where will I go? She had washed and stripped a hundred corpses, dead things did not frighten her. They carry them down here and slice their faces off, so what? She was the night wolf, no scraps of skin could frighten her. Leather hoods, that's all they are, they cannot hurt me. "Do it," she blurted out.

He led her across the chamber, past a row of tunnels leading off into side passages. The light of his lantern illuminated each in turn. One tunnel was walled with human bones, its roof supported by columns of skulls. Another opened on winding steps that descended farther still. How many cellars are there? she wondered. Do they just go down forever?

"Sit," the priest commanded. She sat. "Now close your eyes, child." She closed her eyes. "This will hurt," he warned her, "but pain is the price of power. Do not move."

Still as stone, she thought. She sat unmoving. The cut was quick, the blade sharp. By rights the metal should have been cold against her flesh, but it felt warm instead. She could feel the blood washing down her face, a rippling red curtain falling across her brow and cheeks and chin, and she understood why the priest had made her close her eyes. When it reached her lips the taste was salt and copper. She licked at it and shivered.

"Bring me the face," said the kindly man. The waif made no answer, but she could hear her slippers whispering over the stone floor. To the girl he said, "Drink this," and pressed a cup into her hand. She drank it down at once. It was very tart, like biting into a lemon. A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes. No, that was not me, that was only Arya.

"Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with. Keep your eyes closed."  She felt his fingers brushing back her hair. "Stay still. This will feel queer. You may be dizzy, but you must not move."

Then came a tug and a soft rustling as the new face was pulled down over the old. The leather scraped across her brow, dry and stiff, but as her blood soaked into it, it softened and turned supple. Her cheeks grew warm, flushed. She could feel her heart fluttering beneath her breast, and for one long moment she could not catch her breath. Hands closed around her throat, hard as stone, choking her. Her own hands shot up to claw at the arms of her attacker, but there was no one there. A terrible sense of fear filled her, and she heard a noise, a hideous crunching noise, accompanied by blinding pain. A face floated in front of her, fat, bearded, brutal, his mouth twisted with rage. She heard the priest say, "Breathe, child. Breathe out the fear. Shake off the shadows. He is dead. She is dead. Her pain is gone. Breathe."

The girl took a deep shuddering breath, and realized it was true. No one was choking her, no one was hitting her. Even so, her hand was shaking as she raised it to her face. Flakes of dried blood crumbled at the touch of her fingertips, black in the lantern light. She felt her cheeks, touched her eyes, traced the line of her jaw. "My face is still the same."

"Is it? Are you certain?"

Was she certain? She had not felt any change, but maybe it was not something you could feel. She swept a hand down across her face from top to bottom, as she had once seen Jaqen H'ghar do, back at Harrenhal. When he did it, his whole face had rippled and changed. When she did it, nothing happened. "It feels the same."

"To you," said the priest. "It does not look the same."

"To other eyes, your nose and jaw are broken," said the waif. "One side of your face is caved in where your cheekbone shattered, and half your teeth are missing."

She probed around inside her mouth with her tongue, but found no holes or broken teeth. Sorcery, she thought. I have a new face. An ugly, broken face.

"You may have bad dreams for a time," warned the kindly man. "Her father beat her so often and so brutally that she was never truly free of pain or fear until she came to us."

 

Arya though is "Supposedly" given a face of her own, yet she feel's no different. Now, this is how Mance should feel when Mel is glamouring him, using the Lord of Bones bones to do it. Hear, the Kindly man is giving Arya a face of someone and she can't tell, implying to me that Arya is not performing the magic, nor actually learning how it works or how to use it. At least not yet. Will they actually teach her? Who is paying the price of her glamour though? The kindly man? Mel had to pay for her glamours and was glad when Jon killed the Lord of Bones when she was having him burned as Mance. 

All the while going down this path though, Arya keeps numbing her self to everything. She tells her self what she has to, to kill the old insurance man. 

Whether the insurance man deserved to die or not. Did the Starks anger the Old Gods by taking death and judgement upon them selves? This seems odd for the faceless men to be against killing random people. 

I hope the Stark side get's the better of Arya and killing people who possibly dont' deserve it eventually actually bothers her, but so far it's not. 

Though Arya kills Raff the Sweetling taking justice in her own hands again. Defying the Faceless Men. Though, will the FM really care? Did they really care that Arya killed the deserter? They blinded her, but it seems being blinded is just part of the training. He say's they will take her hearing as well. 

So what do they want of Arya? Why is Arya allowed to keep breaking the rules? Will they actually show her how do the magic and make the sacrifice needed, or are they playing her to some greater purpose? What could that purpose be for our little Dark Heart?

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On 9/19/2018 at 7:48 AM, Tucu said:

Arya is a descendant of the Kings of Winter, hard men for a hard time. She is not a contradiction to the Starks ways, she is a good example of what "winter is coming" really means.

That doesn't mean good if we are talking about morality.  It's a throwback to the very savage ways of the north.  Like the time of the human sacrifices.  

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33 minutes ago, AlaskanSandman said:

I hope the Stark side get's the better of Arya and killing people who possibly dont' deserve it eventually actually bothers her, but so far it's not. 

She's dead on the inside.  This is not a tale of things becoming more civilized.  The trajectory of the story has so far been heading towards people becoming more primal.  

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Interesting post!

 

I think this is actually very simple. A girl prays - a man hears. But the girl wasn't praying in the temple and it wasn't clear how serious is she, so nothing happened at that point.

Then Arya essentially makes an advanced payment to the House of B&W by saving 3 of their servants - Jaquen, Rorge and Biter. So Jaquen comes up to her and offers his services according to the payment: 3 deaths for 3 lives.

After Arya forces Jaquen to kill more than 3 people, it means essentially he killed them on a loan that she has to pay. And what does she have? - Only her life at this point. Thus Jaquen gives her the coin and a Braavosi ship with a captain who is a worshipper of the religion and can smuggle her into the city is stationed at the closest harbour. She either dies before getting anywhere, which would be payment enough. Or if she stayed alive and didn't make it to Saltpans, she could be found and delivered to Braavos later.

I think the House of B&W isn't all about morals, when she kills people on her own accord, she

  • does jobs that are not prayed for and not payed for
  • may compromise her cover
  • may unknowingly interfere with the temple's other plans
  •  
Spoiler

Arya killing Raff the Sweetling was a move calculated by the House of B&W: they had somebody pray for him and they felt confident that Arya would want to kill him without them telling her to, so they sent her to where she could spot him.

And I think it's Joffrey who made Arya a monster, not Jaquen.

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4 minutes ago, wia said:

Interesting post!

 

I think this is actually very simple. A girl prays - a man hears. But the girl wasn't praying in the temple and it wasn't clear how serious is she, so nothing happened at that point.

Then Arya essentially makes an advanced payment to the House of B&W by saving 3 of their servants - Jaquen, Rorge and Biter. So Jaquen comes up to her and offers his services according to the payment: 3 deaths for 3 lives.

After Arya forces Jaquen to kill more than 3 people, it means essentially he killed them on a loan that she has to pay. And what does she have? - Only her life at this point. Thus Jaquen gives her the coin and a Braavosi ship with a captain who is a worshipper of the religion and can smuggle her into the city is stationed at the closest harbour. She either dies before getting anywhere, which would be payment enough. Or if she stayed alive and didn't make it to Saltpans, she could be found and delivered to Braavos later.

I think the House of B&W isn't all about morals, when she kills people on her own accord, she

  • does jobs that are not prayed for and not payed for
  • may compromise her cover
  • may unknowingly interfere with the temple's other plans

Arya killing Raff the Sweetling was a move calculated by the House of B&W: they had somebody pray for him and they felt confident that Arya would want to kill him without them telling her to, so they sent her to where she could spot him.

 

And I think it's Joffrey who made Arya a monster, not Jaquen.

Welcome to the forum! And nice avatar :)

 

I think your proposition sounds good. It would tie that whole mess up with the asymmetry to Jaqen's life-debts and Arya's.

 

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1 minute ago, Sigella said:

Welcome to the forum! And nice avatar :)

 

I think your proposition sounds good. It would tie that whole mess up with the asymmetry to Jaqen's life-debts and Arya's.

 

Thanks! ♥

I've been lurking for a while, decided to join just recently.

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37 minutes ago, Kandrax said:

Do you have any proof that these two are FM?

Well physically, one is Black and one is White. Kinda on the nose. Soon as Arya told Rorge that Jaqen sent her, he shows fear and lets her pass. He knows something at least about Jaqen. Perhaps Jaqen was the first FM? Idk. After Harrenhal though, they're both looking for Arya and follow her trail to near Salt Pans before Brienne kills them. 
Preston Jacobs does an interesting series on this where he speculates the FM are working for the Blackfyres and trying to kill Bloodraven. In it though, he brings up many points about Rorge and Biter. 

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11 hours ago, wia said:

Interesting post!

 

I think this is actually very simple. A girl prays - a man hears. But the girl wasn't praying in the temple and it wasn't clear how serious is she, so nothing happened at that point.

Then Arya essentially makes an advanced payment to the House of B&W by saving 3 of their servants - Jaquen, Rorge and Biter. So Jaquen comes up to her and offers his services according to the payment: 3 deaths for 3 lives.

After Arya forces Jaquen to kill more than 3 people, it means essentially he killed them on a loan that she has to pay. And what does she have? - Only her life at this point. Thus Jaquen gives her the coin and a Braavosi ship with a captain who is a worshipper of the religion and can smuggle her into the city is stationed at the closest harbour. She either dies before getting anywhere, which would be payment enough. Or if she stayed alive and didn't make it to Saltpans, she could be found and delivered to Braavos later.

I think the House of B&W isn't all about morals, when she kills people on her own accord, she

  • does jobs that are not prayed for and not payed for
  • may compromise her cover
  • may unknowingly interfere with the temple's other plans

Arya killing Raff the Sweetling was a move calculated by the House of B&W: they had somebody pray for him and they felt confident that Arya would want to kill him without them telling her to, so they sent her to where she could spot him.

 

And I think it's Joffrey who made Arya a monster, not Jaquen.

There is no reason to think she will end up at Saltpans, much less Braavos, when he gave her the coin.  Her most likely destination was Riverrun. 

I do not believe for a millisecond that Rorge and Biter are FM.  They are way too violent.  Just regular criminals.

There was no way for the FM to know Raff would be in town until he got there.  Preparations for the visit were well under way by then, and arya had been at the theater for months at that time.

 

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17 hours ago, wia said:

Interesting post!

 

I think this is actually very simple. A girl prays - a man hears. But the girl wasn't praying in the temple and it wasn't clear how serious is she, so nothing happened at that point.

Then Arya essentially makes an advanced payment to the House of B&W by saving 3 of their servants - Jaquen, Rorge and Biter. So Jaquen comes up to her and offers his services according to the payment: 3 deaths for 3 lives.

After Arya forces Jaquen to kill more than 3 people, it means essentially he killed them on a loan that she has to pay. And what does she have? - Only her life at this point. Thus Jaquen gives her the coin and a Braavosi ship with a captain who is a worshipper of the religion and can smuggle her into the city is stationed at the closest harbour. She either dies before getting anywhere, which would be payment enough. Or if she stayed alive and didn't make it to Saltpans, she could be found and delivered to Braavos later.

I think the House of B&W isn't all about morals, when she kills people on her own accord, she

  • does jobs that are not prayed for and not payed for
  • may compromise her cover
  • may unknowingly interfere with the temple's other plans

Arya killing Raff the Sweetling was a move calculated by the House of B&W: they had somebody pray for him and they felt confident that Arya would want to kill him without them telling her to, so they sent her to where she could spot him.

 

And I think it's Joffrey who made Arya a monster, not Jaquen.

The House of B&W would just tell her to kill Raff if they wanted it done.  No need to make it this complex.

 

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7 hours ago, AlaskanSandman said:

Well physically, one is Black and one is White.

" If the Lorathi was a wizard, Rorge and Biter could be demons he called up from some hell, not men at all."  I don't think Rorge and Biter are faceless men, but represent the semi-sentient weirwoods trees being controlled by an intelligent mind.  In Freemasonry and Tarot there are black and white pillars and one of them is named "Jachin" and they stand before the Temple of Solomon, which holds the Ark of the Covenant and enlightenment.  The sigil of the Iron Bank is almost exactly the compass and square from Freemasonry.  

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9 hours ago, Kandrax said:

Do you have any proof that these two are FM?

There is no textual evidence that would confirm them to be FM without a doubt.

But there's a number of circumstantial factors that make me inclined to believe that they are. The ones that AlaskanSandman listed. Some others like why was Jaqen with them in the black cells; why he didn't try to talk his way out with Yoren seeing how he's perfectly sociable; why Rorge is calling Biter Biter when he knew Biter before they met Jaqen, but it's Jaqen who named him; why Rorge who is absolutely uncontrollable rises in the ranks of Brave Companions very fast; why Rorge knows Jaqen's whereabouts when Arya asks; why Rorge and Biter, violent as they are, generally get along with Jaqen when they've had opportunities to kill him; why the generally act as a group as opposed to individuals who have nothing in common who happened to share a prison cell and so forth. 

 

7 hours ago, Nevets said:

There is no reason to think she will end up at Saltpans, much less Braavos, when he gave her the coin.  Her most likely destination was Riverrun. 

I do not believe for a millisecond that Rorge and Biter are FM.  They are way too violent.  Just regular criminals.

There was no way for the FM to know Raff would be in town until he got there.  Preparations for the visit were well under way by then, and arya had been at the theater for months at that time.

Well there's no reason to give her the coin if she's going to Riverrun and not gonna use it, is there?

Arya's possible outcomes at that point were:

  • death
  • reunite with her family
  • should those two not happen, she'd have to find a port with a ship that could take her North as passage overland was impossible and the closest port is Saltpans

So the coin would work in 1 out of 3 outcomes. And it was totally a lie that any man from Braavos would accept the coin. House of B&W is a minority religion in Braavos, their temple is not often visited, not even half people in Braavos would accept it. The captain even had to smuggle her into the city and number of people on his own ship's crew shunned Arya. The captain is a worshipper and it's just highly unlikely that he was in a minor port that's next to other major ports by accident, he was there for some sort of FM business and Jaqen knew he'd be there. The coin would only work for that ship.

I replied about Rorge and Biter above.

Spoiler

That's a good point. I have not considered Raff's timeline and I do not remember it, I'd have to reread. 

 

4 hours ago, Rufus Snow said:

Can we be a bit more circumspect with spoilers please, folks? At least use tags for events from Winds :read:

Oh, pardon me, I've put it under the spoiler.

 

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3 hours ago, By Odin's Beard said:

" If the Lorathi was a wizard, Rorge and Biter could be demons he called up from some hell, not men at all."  I don't think Rorge and Biter are faceless men, but represent the semi-sentient weirwoods trees being controlled by an intelligent mind.  In Freemasonry and Tarot there are black and white pillars and one of them is named "Jachin" and they stand before the Temple of Solomon, which holds the Ark of the Covenant and enlightenment.  The sigil of the Iron Bank is almost exactly the compass and square from Freemasonry.  

Yea just an interesting connection, in no way means they are for sure FM :) And i do kind of like that, reminds me of the Hound and the Mountain

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On September 19, 2018 at 5:14 AM, AlaskanSandman said:
What is going on with Arya? She seem's to be going down a very evil path. Has Jaqen created a monster, or just found a good one to use? 
 
This is such a deep subject and can obviously delve much deeper into her time at the House of Black and White, but i wanted to start simple with her time with Jaqen and the basic contradictions that begin a girls dark path.

Let me know what you think, what else you think is important to this all or anything else.

This is awesome--and I need to dig into it a bit more to collect my thoughts.

But have you seen @sweetsunray's theory about Arya as  fulfillment of prophecy for the Faceless Men? -

It might fit in with some of you reasoning/evidence.

Will be back when I have time to read the rest of the thread--but just wanted to say I agree that something more is up with the Faceless Men and Arya. All the stuff you cite is pointing to something more than just wanting a recruit.

 

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3 hours ago, wia said:

here is no textual evidence that would confirm them to be FM without a doubt.

But there's a number of circumstantial factors that make me inclined to believe that they are. The ones that AlaskanSandman listed. Some others like why was Jaqen with them in the black cells; why he didn't try to talk his way out with Yoren seeing how he's perfectly sociable; why Rorge is calling Biter Biter when he knew Biter before they met Jaqen, but it's Jaqen who named him; why Rorge who is absolutely uncontrollable rises in the ranks of Brave Companions very fast; why Rorge knows Jaqen's whereabouts when Arya asks; why Rorge and Biter, violent as they are, generally get along with Jaqen when they've had opportunities to kill him; why the generally act as a group as opposed to individuals who have nothing in common who happened to share a prison cell and so forth. 

Most of this simply indicates that they are friendly and that Jaqen is able to exert some influence over them.  Given the amount of time they have spent together, and the fact that Jaqen is clearly more intelligent and sophisticated, this is hardly surprising.  Jaqen was probably able to talk them into Lorch's unit, which could heighten their respect for him.  Given the FM's dislike for collateral damage and killing those not prayed for, I don't think they would even remotely tolerate Saltpans.

3 hours ago, wia said:

Well there's no reason to give her the coin if she's going to Riverrun and not gonna use it, is there?

Arya's possible outcomes at that point were:

  • death
  • reunite with her family
  • should those two not happen, she'd have to find a port with a ship that could take her North as passage overland was impossible and the closest port is Saltpans

So the coin would work in 1 out of 3 outcomes. And it was totally a lie that any man from Braavos would accept the coin. House of B&W is a minority religion in Braavos, their temple is not often visited, not even half people in Braavos would accept it. The captain even had to smuggle her into the city and number of people on his own ship's crew shunned Arya. The captain is a worshipper and it's just highly unlikely that he was in a minor port that's next to other major ports by accident, he was there for some sort of FM business and Jaqen knew he'd be there. The coin would only work for that ship.

It's one of those situations where there is significant possible gain and minimal downside.  If she does reunite with family, then the coin will likely never get used and nobody will ever be aware of its existence, or significance.  If things go badly, and she has no other options, then she will be grateful to the Hob&W for any help they give her.  And, as a scion of a Great House, she would be a potentially useful agent for them in Westeros, able to provide intel, shelter, and other assistance if needed.  It seems clear to me that her training seems aimed in this direction, focusing on intelligence gathering and undercover work, and not actually killing people.

As for the ship, the captain appeared surprised to see her, and not at all happy about it, either.   In fact he seemed quite frightened.  I think the FM have enough influence in Braavos that nobody is going to deny help to someone with the coin, especially something as simple as passage to Braavos.  And if it's close to major ports,, then there is every likelihood that Arya could wind up at one of them, right?

That ship appears to trade in the area.  Brienne saw it in Maidenpool some weeks (months?) later after her detour through Crackclaw Point.

23 hours ago, wia said:

I think the House of B&W isn't all about morals, when she kills people on her own accord, she

  • does jobs that are not prayed for and not payed for
  • may compromise her cover
  • may unknowingly interfere with the temple's other plans

Not sure what you are talking about here.  As of the end of ADWD, she had killed two people in Braavos, and one of those was on orders.   The other was Dareon, who is essentially a nobody.  And for that, the temple blinded her.  Yes, it was training, but it was also punishment and a test.  It was all three rolled into one.

As for Raff, we have no idea what the FM's response will be, but I don't doubt that there will be one, as I doubt that it was sanctioned by them.  There is no way they are going to give an apprentice that much authority over a high-profile op, and killing the bodyguard of an envoy is high-profile.

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