Arya's storyline going forward

[King Adrian Storm]

My prediction for where Arya's storyline will go:

We've seen the pre released chapter for Arya is called Mercy. I think this could have a bigger meaning going forward for Arya. In Twow I predict Arya will get a mission that brings her to Westeros. I don't know what name it will be, but it'll be somewhere around the twins. At this time in the story I think lady stoneheart will have a red wedding 2.0. When it's finished, Arya will come across LS, and they will have some sort of reunion. Once Catelyn finally gets her revenge, and sees that her children are alive Arya will put her out of her misery, and kill her as a mercy. This will be really hard on Arya. Then, in the final book Arya might join her wolfpack and fight the Others. The ending to her arc imo will be her finding Cersei, and having the chance to kill her. Just before she does, she will be reminded of Lady Stoneheart, A broken woman who is devestated by the loss of her children. I think this will cause Arya to have mercy on Cersei, and walk away from her revenge killings. And in the end she will return to Winterfell.

[zandru]

Those are some reasonable possibilities! Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Lady Stoneheart will meet up with one or more of her children. It might be most instructive for Arya to encounter her; Arya saw what a life dedicated to vengeance did to the Hound, but she was only 10 and appeared not to have taken the lesson personally.
• On the other hand, Arya needn't even go to Westeros. She has started to realize that her "wolf dreams" are real, and are her seeing through Nymeria's eyes. Plus, she has some ability to influence Nym's actions. The giant wolf pack would be a great vehicle for hunting Freys - and Boltons.
• "Mercy" has a double meaning in the Common Tongue. It's also describes euthanasia.
• I suspect that Cersei is out of the picture for Arya at this point. Plus, Cersei is doing a great job of destroying herself along with the kingdom. Like so many others on Arya's list, Cersei will take herself off.
• Arya will hear pretty quickly that her dearest brother, Jon, is dead, killed by his own men. She monitors the wine sinks around the port cities, where news spreads fast. But taking on the entire Night's Watch would be crazy, and Arya's not a lunatic.
• Bran, via the Wolfnet, may be able to contact Arya in one of her Nymeria dreams, now that he's learning to use the Weirnet. Bran could also get in touch with Rickon, who was always closest to his direwolf, Shaggydog. Sansa, without a wolf and never having developed that rapport, will be out in the cold and under the toxic influence of that sociopathic manipulator, Littlefinger.

We have to bear in mind that there will be no happy endings.

[kissdbyfire]

11 minutes ago, zandru said:

Arya will hear pretty quickly that her dearest brother, Jon, is dead, killed by his own men. She monitors the wine sinks around the port cities, where news spreads fast. But taking on the entire Night's Watch would be crazy, and Arya's not a lunatic.

Yup. I think that’s when she heads back to Westeros under a disguise. “Good boots are hard to find”.

[Dot Com]

I think she will go east, towards Dany, before coming back to Westeros. There are already a few hints that she'll get involved in Dany's storyline, like her remark in AGOT that the dragon skeletons seemed like "old friends" and her reaction to the kindly man's story about slavery:

Quote

Arya drew back from him. "He killed the slave?" That did not sound right. "He should have killed the masters!"

As for why, I think she'll be sent on a mission by the Faceless Men to assassinate Dany or someone in her social circle, but ultimately turn cloak and join her cause. I also predict that she'll disguise herself by killing Missandei and taking her face - George has dedicated page space to Arya learning languages for a reason, methinks.

In general, I think TWOW will feature less long awaited reunions (Jon/Arya, Arya/Sansa, etc) than first meetings (Tyrion/Dany, Tyrion/Arya, maybe Jaime/Sansa, and so on). 

Edit: I also think she will be the POV in which we witness the Red Wedding 2.0, through Nymeria. 

[the Other Wolf]

53 minutes ago, glassgardens said:

The show made a point that she is...

Books only please.

[Brother Seamus]

I think the murder of raff in the sample chapter means she is done with the faceless men. She's broken the rules for the last time. She's out. I don't think she'll even try to go back, but if she does they'll kick her out. I don't think they'll kill her or otherwise punish her. It's possible she spends the rest of the series looking over her shoulder for an assassin but that's not my prediction. I think she leaves, either with or without the FM's knowledge and they don't go after her. That was the point of the Raff killing. She's Arya Stark of Winterfell and she always will be and there's nothing she can do about it. 

The next chapter after the Mercy chapter will have her on a boat to westeros or in westeros.

I think she'll reunite with LS and Nymeria more or less simultaneously, and kill a bunch of Freys soon thereafter. Giving LS Mercy is also a good prediction.

After that she'll be heading for Cersei but get misdirected somehow to the wall and to resurrected Jon and join in the fight for the north, if it's still going on, and against the others.

And I won't be surprised if the climax of her story is something in the ballpark of that which must not be mentioned.

 

 

 

 

[a black swan]

2 hours ago, glassgardens said:

I’m increasingly suspicious that she just stays in Essos and/or becomes a pirate. She seems increasingly disassociated from Arya and has so many other personas now. The show made a point that she is wild and undomesticated and yes, lonely, but that she’s so much more now than just a Daughter of House Stark.

The last we saw her in Mercy, she wakes to Wolfdreams and kills a rapist/murderer who has been on her list for a long time. She smells magical candles that give you fond memories - Arya thinks:

 

Quote

When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"

Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit, I smell hot bread baking, I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf, I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said, to see what he would say.

Undomesticated? Arya lives a strict and highly disciplined life in Braavos. She maintains a routine and follows rigid rules. Lonely, yes very often I'm sure. But she also seeks the company of others every chance she gets. She makes friends and cares about people no matter what name she is using. 

At some point, she's going home. 

[glassgardens]

57 minutes ago, the Other Wolf said:

Books only please.

OK in the books she's eating dogs and people as Nymeria (dogs are cousins of wolves and people are people) which is a bad sign for her ability to re-enter civilization without wearing a constructed persona/mask. 
 

for that matter, she's now warging cats which Haggon specifically warns against: "Cats were vain and cruel, always ready to turn on you." She's so far gone from Arya that she's taking on Lannister traits. 
 

when she left the Hound on the banks of the Trident, he told her a real wolf wouldn't leave an animal to suffer. But she just did that. 
 

She contains multitudes now and Arya Stark and Nymeria are just two of her faces. They've been commensurately reduced in mental/emotional size and influence. 
 

She's adrift in the world now, a global citizen of Planetos, and that's OK. 

[kissdbyfire]

14 minutes ago, glassgardens said:

OK in the books she's eating dogs and people as Nymeria (dogs are cousins of wolves and people are people) which is a bad sign for her ability to re-enter civilization without wearing a constructed persona/mask. 
 

for that matter, she's now warging cats which Haggon specifically warns against: "Cats were vain and cruel, always ready to turn on you." She's so far gone from Arya that she's taking on Lannister traits. 

The FM would argue that her problem is precisely thane fact that she can’t - and doesn’t want to - let go of Arya Stark. 

 

14 minutes ago, glassgardens said:

when she left the Hound on the banks of the Trident, he told her a real wolf wouldn't leave an animal to suffer. But she just did that. 

 

She pretended to not care and to want to let him suffer, but the truth is, she didn’t want to kill him. 

14 minutes ago, glassgardens said:

She contains multitudes now and Arya Stark and Nymeria are just two of her faces. They've been commensurately reduced in mental/emotional size and influence. 
 

We have very, very different takes on the character. 

 

[Mithras]

I don't think Jon is truly dead.

Whether he is dead or just severely injured, I don't think he will be gone fore more than 3 days.

Even if he is dead and then resurrected, no one will believe that he actually died and got this miraculous resurrection. Most people will just assume that he was actually injured and he got healing. This will be even more so as we get further and further away from the Wall. After all, Others fade into snarks and grumkins as we get further away from the Wall. Far enough, people will not get any news of the assassination attempt in the first place, let alone miracles.

Therefore, Arya getting the news of what happened in Jon XIII of ADwD as if she read the chapter is not happening in the books. 

What is more likely is that instead of Jon's death and resurrection, the news of his desertion will spread. Here is how that will happen.

During that chaotic night, it was dark and there was heavy snowfall. No one was paying attention to Jon except the assassins. Similar to what I said above, you should keep in mind that people at Castle Black are not reading the Jon chapters as the readers do. Jon is under the spotlight for the readers because we read his POV, but he is just a person among the many during that chaos. And the text is very clear that he was having a hard time being noticed and his voice be heared.

Marsh and the conspirators will quickly lock Jon's body to the ice cells before any one sees them. But somebody (Val) will secretly steal the body and flee during the night. Next day, Marsh and his conspirators will announce that Jon deserted his post and broke his vows. This will be proven by the simple fact that Jon will be missing after that Shieldhall speech. Marsh will send letters to other castles on the Wall and to relevant Northern Lords to look out for this deserter, which is the regular way of doing this thing as we know from way back in AGoT. This way, Jon's "desertion" will spread far and wide. I think Arya will learn this from Jeyne in Braavos. She will think that Jon broke his vows for a fake Arya.

[kissdbyfire]

20 minutes ago, Mithras said:

What is more likely is that instead of Jon's death and resurrection, the news of his desertion will spread.

Why is it unlikely people will learn of the assassination attempt but not the alleged desertion?

ETA: yeah, letters about the desertion will spread the news. But if things go well for Marsh - and they won’t - he’d also have to send letters about the NW having a new LC.

 

Also, there were other black brothers there when Marsh and co stabbed Jon, it’s not like it was just Jon and the traitors. 

The rest doesn’t make much sense either. Val is going to steal his body? How? Marsh will think he’s dead, but then is ok w/ his body having disappeared? 

[the Other Wolf]

1 hour ago, glassgardens said:

OK in the books she's....

Thank you!

[Alexis-something-Rose]

There's the political unrest that will likely follow the death of the Sealord. I can see her story being expanded that way in Braavos before she leaves for Westeros. And I'm pretty sure she will return there. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up at the palace of the Sealord at some point.

I think she will end up intersecting with Justin Massey when he lands in Braavos with Tycho. I think this is how she will find out what happened to Jon. I think Justin could recognize her or figure out her identity. He's been around Jon and he was Robert's squire at one time, so he might have known or seen Lyanna in passing.

[a black swan]

31 minutes ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

There's the political unrest that will likely follow the death of the Sealord. I can see her story being expanded that way in Braavos before she leaves for Westeros. And I'm pretty sure she will return there. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up at the palace of the Sealord at some point.

I think she will end up intersecting with Justin Massey when he lands in Braavos with Tycho. I think this is how she will find out what happened to Jon. I think Justin could recognize her or figure out her identity. He's been around Jon and he was Robert's squire at one time, so he might have known or seen Lyanna in passing.

Or perhaps he has Jeyne Poole with him and she clocks Arya. 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

13 minutes ago, a black swan said:

Or perhaps he has Jeyne Poole with him and she clocks Arya. 

Sure. I can see Tycho finding Jeyne work at the Iron Bank or some other place where they speak the Common Tongue.

[a black swan]

I could see Tyrion arriving in Braavos soon. 

"Do you know where whores go?" When they did not respond, he repeated the question in High Valyrian, though he had to say courtesan in place of whore. - Tyrion

Hmm. It would be such an interesting stand off if Tyrion & Arya met. It could go so many different ways. 

1 hour ago, Alexis-something-Rose said:

Sure. I can see Tycho finding Jeyne work at the Iron Bank or some other place where they speak the Common Tongue.

Do you think they'll meet? Would Arya learn about Ramsay and the horrible thingz he did to poor Jeyne. I can see Arya adding another name to her list. With fragments of her old life returning, this would be another foot out of the door. 

Yes hopefully we learn more about the IB and their links to the FM too. I find that whole dynamic so interesting. 

 

[Quoth the raven,]

Arya will continue on her path to insanity.  The innocent casualties of her mad desire to kill those whom she feels responsible for her family's losses will continue to pile up.  True that she will kill many of the people who fought against the Starks but it will also be just as true that many innocents who had nothing to do with the Starks will get killed.  Arya will die in the middle of an assassination attempt.  She will die by the sword, like her mother.  She will die in the riverlands, like her mother.  Like her mother, she has turned into something obscene. 

[Dot Com]

42 minutes ago, a black swan said:

Hmm. It would be such an interesting stand off if Tyrion & Arya met. It could go so many different ways. 

Agreed, and it will probably happen sooner or later considering Tyrion's already met with Jon, Sansa, and Bran. The only Stark remaining is Arya. 

[chrisdaw]

There's so much more story coming than that.

Arya is foreshadowed to hell and back. Black Aly, Lady Baela, Lady Daena, Black Betha, Nymeria.

In Kings Landing she's going to be Sansa's catspaw without revealing her face to Sansa. She's going to witness Sansa's game playing in the background of the dance of dragons 2. Possibly Sansa tries to have her killed as dead men tell no secrets. Very good chance she takes Lady Nym's (all Nymerias symbolically or literally lead to Arya) identity and so is able to infiltrate Aegon's small council (to report back to Sansa). Likely The Watcher or Barristan eventually catch on that Lady Nym isn't Lady Nym. She will become disillusioned by Sansa's game playing, and leave because of this or on Sansa's orders. Sansa will become queen.

After KL she'll play her role in the Riverlands, witnessing extreme bravery by Gendry, Jaime and Brienne in bringing down Stoneheart. She won't reveal herself to Stoneheart.

She will play a decisive role in leading Dany north to Jon.

When Jon comes South Arya will join with him but not immediately reveal herself to him. She will lead forces on his Western flank. There will be a battle in the Riverlands, the opposing general will be Kingsguard Gendry. Arya will defeat him and take him prisoner. They will share a night of passion.

Sandor will be kingsguard and Sansa's man, but like Arya, will have grown to resent her lying game playing ways. Sandor will feature on behalf of the crown against Jon at the Trident. There will be a meeting before battle and Arya will reveal herself to Sandor. Sandor will have a chance to choose between Arya or Sansa, and he'll choose Arya, turning his cloak. Sandor will enable Jon to be able to use the path through the quiet Isle so that he's not stuck on the Trident.

When Jon takes KL and wins he will broker a marriage to make Arya, princess of the north, queen on the Iron Throne. Arya will love Gendry and be carrying his baby. Arya will refuse to name the father of her child and the marriage Jon has made for her in the interest of uniting the realm in peace. Jon will confine her to the maiden vault, with Sansa and Dany, because all three will not be able to be trusted not to kill, seduce or weave magic.

Arya will escape with at least Sandor's help and go on a journey relating to the Children of the Forest, Bran and magic for the purpose of defeating the Others.

The Others will be defeated and nearly everyone will have died, characters that already matter to her and others that will - Jon, Dany, Sandor, Jaime, Tyrion, Barristan, Arianne, Aegon and so on, all dead. Arya will bear her child, a boy, it will live. Dany will have had a child with Jon, a girl, it too will live. The sacrifices for the realm of all those she loved and respected will humble her into doing her duty. Arya will take both the newborn children and send them anonymously to Lady Smallwood. She will sacrifice her love of Gendry, and the freedom of being no-one, and accept the marriage her king and lord Jon had made for her, and take her place as queen, and serve the realm as best she can.

[Nevets]

Arya's actions in the preview chapter will put her on thin ice with the FM.  They may keep her around for a while, or transfer her, but eventually they will break ties.  I expect the FM may exact a price for leaving without consequence: that she help them from time to time with Intel, shelter, etc. 

At some point I think she will meet Jeyne Poole.  Most likely, she will hear that "Arya Stark" is in town, probably staying with the banker.  Arya will pay a visit to find out what is going on. 

Jeyne will probably give her information that leads her to decide to return to Westeros.  I expect Arya to return around the middle of TWOW, probably with Jeyne in tow.  (Although they have had their differences, I can't see Arya abandoning her in Braavos.)  Their most likely landing spot is the Riverlands, as she has friends and people who know her there.

After that, it becomes difficult to say.  I think she will seek out Nymeria.  Running into Brienne is a possibility as well, and at some point I expect a reunion with Sansa.  Nymeria and the wolf pack will probably prove useful in the fight against the Others.  Beyond that I really can't say.

I do not believe she will be sent on a mission to kill Dany, Alayne Stone, or anyone else we know,or even sent outside Braavos.  She is too inexperienced and untrusted to be given something really important.

I think training with a courtesan is a possibility.   Not to learn about sex, per she, but how to influence people and affect events as a woman.

Arya's story is one of identity.  Who is she going to be?  I expect that she will choose to be Arya of House Stark.