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Where is Nymeria and her pack right now? Still in the Riverlands or the North?


a black swan

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She woke with a gasp, not knowing who she was, or where.

The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils… or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her heels, hard on the scent of prey.

Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already. There had been blood in it, though, and a full moon overhead, and a tree that watched her as she ran. - Mercy, Winds of Winter

 

Would that tree watching her be Bran or Bloodraven? And if so, would that mean Nymeria and her pack are running passed a weirwood with a carved face?

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11 minutes ago, a black swan said:

Would that tree watching her be Bran or Bloodraven? And if so, would that mean Nymeria and her pack are running passed a weirwood with a carved face?

That Mercy chapter is old.

I seriously doubt that that will be first Arya chapter, much less make the book to begin with.

For what it's worth, there are weirwoods in the Riverlands. Plenty of them....

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I think Nymeria is probably in the Riverlands still, but if we hear of an increase in wolf attacks in the North, then that may mean she has moved.

Nymeria and Arya will probably meet up again at some point, and since I think Arya and Stoneheart will meet again then I am more inclined to think Riverlands.

Also, small note, should this topic be moved from World of Ice and Fire subforum to General ASOIAF?

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1 hour ago, BlackLightning said:

That Mercy chapter is old.

I seriously doubt that that will be first Arya chapter, much less make the book to begin with.

For what it's worth, there are weirwoods in the Riverlands. Plenty of them....

Why do you doubt that? George said Mercy was the opening Arya chapter and it got a great response from readers. Why would he take it out? 

From his LJ blog:

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I Broke the Internet 

Sorry about that.

The upload of the new sample chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER created so much traffic to my website and blog that the servers crashed.  This is the first time I've been able to get up myself all day.

Anyway, it seems to be easing off some.  And we are looking at ways to increase capacity.

The "reviews" of the chapter have been amazingly enthusiastic as well.  Thanks.   I am pleased that so many of you -- thousands and maybe tens of thousands, it would seem -- enjoyed "Mercy" so much.

I mentioned that this chapter had quite a history.  It's true.  The first draft was written more than a decade ago.  Originally, it was intended to be the opening Arya chapter after the infamous "five year gap," her first appearance in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS as initially conceived.   Then it was supposed to be a part of A FEAST FOR CROWS, after I abandoned the five year gap and split the books.  Then it was going to be the concluding Arya chapter in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS.  But it seemed more like an opening chapter than a closing one, so shortly before ADWD was published my editor and I agreed to remove it from DANCE and shift it over into WINDS.  Of course, it has been revised, tightened, polished, and tweaked at every step of the way, so the version on my website has some significant differences from the "five year gap" version.

https://grrm.livejournal.com/362384.html

 

Other than Godswoods, which I doubt a pack of hundreds of wolves would be roaming around in, where else could she be in the Riverlands where she is running though a dark pine forest with a weirwood close by to watch her? 

 

 

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9 hours ago, a black swan said:

Why do you doubt that? George said Mercy was the opening Arya chapter and it got a great response from readers. Why would he take it out? 

I doubted it (and still doubt it) because the Mercy chapter reads like there was a five-year-gap -- or at least another chapter -- in between it and the Ugly Little Girl chapter.

Honestly, it's all a bit abrupt for an opening.

The last time we see Arya she is being called an Ugly Little Girl (emphasis on Little and Girl). She had been successful in her assassination of the insurance-conman and was notified that she was being sent to Izembaro to begin her apprenticeship. Now, she is able to manipulate, deceive and seduce men much older than her and killing them in between acts of a play. Keep in mind that Arya is 12 years old max. Unlike Sansa, Arya is a long ways away from being capable of such guile.

Plus the timeline of it all is really wonky. If Cersei is the powerful Queen that is discussed in the chapter instead of Margaery or Myrcella (or although very unlikely, Arianne), then it can't work seeing as that Cersei has been out of power for quite some time now. I would say that about 1-2 months have passed in between Cersei X from Feast and Cersei II from Dance. It'd be one thing is Arya was in Meereen or Qarth and it took months for Harys Swyft to even get there and close to half a year before the news of Cersei's legal issues gets there but no...it's Braavos an Braavos is not that far. If it is Cersei, then she has to come back into some sort of power before hand. And the Golden Company's attack on the Stormlands is not something that would not be discussed in high Braavosi society.

And here's the kicker. The end of the chapter, Arya is like "this is the end of me being Mercy" and "I'm going to miss Izembaro." When did she even meet Izembaro? Why is she leaving now? And if she's not literally leaving, she's figuratively getting ready to leave. Didn't she just get there?

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4 hours ago, BlackLightning said:

The last time we see Arya she is being called an Ugly Little Girl (emphasis on Little and Girl). She had been successful in her assassination of the insurance-conman and was notified that she was being sent to Izembaro to begin her apprenticeship. Now, she is able to manipulate, deceive and seduce men much older than her and killing them in between acts of a play. Keep in mind that Arya is 12 years old max. Unlike Sansa, Arya is a long ways away from being capable of such guile.

Survives an entire continent in the middle of war based on growing guile, yet your surprised when she has improved at this?  Curious why you'd think after Harrenhal guile wasn't Arya's tool of choice?

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On 5/22/2020 at 7:38 PM, Darksnider05 said:

Survives an entire continent in the middle of war based on growing guile, yet your surprised when she has improved at this?  Curious why you'd think after Harrenhal guile wasn't Arya's tool of choice?

Because after Harrenhal, Arya stopped hoodwinking her enemies and started stabbing them instead. Remember the whole "I'm done with wooden teeth" thing.

Not only did she stop pretending to be a boy after Harrenhal, she made her true identity no secret. That's why there are so many people who know that the Arya in Winterfell is a fake and that the real Arya is alive and was last seen at Saltpans. And that's why Lady Stoneheart is so dead-set on finding Arya and crowning her.

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