Arya's mental illness

[The Lord of the Crossing]

Lovable!!!!!!! Arya is not that.  She is very ill and obsesses over killing the people who she thinks are the ones who politically opposed her family.  The Stark part of her is nothing to sing praises about.  It's what motivates her to learn the killing trade and made her choose to murder the old man and the singer.  It's all for revenge and nothing more. 

[HoodedCrow]

Read the books. Arya saves people’s lives. She hates “the Hound”, supposedly, yet fights by his side when he is drunk and outnumbered I a tavern. There is a lot already outlined in this thread if you like. I find Arya loveable and others on here do, and characters in the books like her. Then, there are numerous people her that think she should be drugged and incarcerated at the age of ten. And there are lots of people who don’t get that she is surviving a war zone and has no reliable friends except those in  a homicidal religion…now that is a problem, but hardly unique in Westeros or even this one.

[SeanF]

On 11/1/2021 at 5:31 AM, Rosetta Stone said:

One of the best books centering on the topic of revenge is The Count of Monte Cristo.  Arya is George R. R. Martin's mix of the count, a serial killer, and another character from fiction, Michael Myers.  Dantes was an innocent man who lost everything because he was in the way of ambitious men.  Arya lost everything largely because of her family's own doings and their ill-fated alliance with the Baratheons.  They are both motivated by the desire to spill the blood of their enemies.  The count is sophisticated and uses the power of wealth to destroy his enemies.  Arya is a savage, blunt weapon.  She just kills those who she finds offensive.  Michael Myers is the villain of the Halloween franchise.  He murdered his first victim at six.  His madness motivate him to seek and kill his sister.  Although he doesn't exclude others.  Most of Michael's victims were

Arya's list will grow.  She is not ever going to stop killing until she herself is killed.  The person to kill Arya is Sandor.  He will take her life away to stop her madness from killing more people. 

The Count is a heroic figure, who ultimately realises that his revenge is not worth it.

[HoodedCrow]

Arya is a savage, who is able to fulfill the roles of a servant and retail? This “blunt weapon” is learning to fight in the dark. She gives food to people. Why oversimplify the books? She definitely has revenge issues. ( her list gets smaller though). What is it called when you have a tendency to dehumanize rounded book characters and have abuse fantasies? Is it gender based?

[The Commentator]

I like the idea of the Hound hunting Arya and stopping her for good. The Hound against the wolf.  Arya will become a savage machine so that even the Hound will be disturbed enough to track her down. 

[HoodedCrow]

Yawn. What a jerk.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

55 minutes ago, Widowmaker 811 said:

I like the idea of the Hound hunting Arya and stopping her for good. The Hound against the wolf.  Arya will become a savage machine so that even the Hound will be disturbed enough to track her down. 

This whole psychotic thread should be on an FBI list. Someone should be keeping an eye on you people. Maybe you shouldn't read fiction at all.

[Lord Lannister]

2 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

This whole psychotic thread should be on an FBI list. Someone should be keeping an eye on you people. Maybe you shouldn't read fiction at all.

Careful. You read this fiction too and have participated in this thread. Clearly you, sir, have an interest in criminal activity that should be monitored. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

3 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

This whole psychotic thread should be on an FBI list. Someone should be keeping an eye on you people. Maybe you shouldn't read fiction at all.

"FBI, open up!" 

As Lord Lannister said, you've contributed to this page. 

[Makk]

I don't think juvenile internet trolling is at the top of the FBI's list of priorities.

[Jaenara Belarys]

16 hours ago, Makk said:

I don't think juvenile internet trolling is at the top of the FBI's list of priorities.

 By Jove, I certainly didn't know that! 

[Lord Lannister]

3 hours ago, Makk said:

I don't think juvenile internet trolling is at the top of the FBI's list of priorities.

They'd have to pull every law enforcement officer off the streets and have them doing overtime to even begin to tackle all of that.

[Amris]

On 11/2/2021 at 12:03 PM, James West said:

A lot of Arya apologists are trying very hard to present her as an adorable and sane little kid.  That is so inaccurate.  Arya is a vicious murderer. 

Thank you for this well-reasoned and thoroughly researched post. Do you have any text evidence for your prejudice?

[The Commentator]

20 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

This whole psychotic thread should be on an FBI list. Someone should be keeping an eye on you people. Maybe you shouldn't read fiction at all.

Criticizing a fictional character is not a crime.  There is plenty to dislike about Arya. I

[mormont]

[mod] Folks, please return to the topic of discussion. Discussing your opinions of each other and what the FBI or anyone else should be doing about that, is never the topic of discussion. Talk about the books: if you don't like what you're reading, ignore it or report it. [/mod]

[Northern Sword]

I don't think Arya is Evil, nor Insane. She is a survivor. Her entire family has been killed, in some cases right in front of her.

I think she is a product of how she was raised, and the environment in which she has had to survive. At this point I believe she thinks she is handing out her own brand of justice. Northern justice. 

She starts off as the daughter of an honorable and truthful authority figure. She is taught to respect that authority But almost every step once she leaves Winterfell is a lesson that Authority does not tell the truth or do the honorable thing. In fact, they do the exact opposite. Immediately she sees the queen want to kill Lady, even though everyone knows that wolf didn't do anything. She sees a Knight kill her friend based on a lie. She sees her honorable Dad get executed by a Joffrey. Her mother and brother killed at a wedding. + + + She is traumatized.

Her world becomes a blurring of right and wrong. She distrusts authority and becomes her own. Rightly or wrongly...mainly rightly in my mind.

This leads her to believe she is doing the right thing in handing out justice, who is going to tell her she is not. Any authoritative figure is not to be trusted at this point. SHE knows right from wrong, SHE will bring justice. Even if it is misguided in some cases. 

She is on a dark path though. many more bodies will follow her. So, if she determines you are guilty....your dead. Once she gets back to Westeros, Stark enemies will start to fall. 

I think, she thinks, that she is killing people who deserve it. Which, they mainly do. But revenge on Stark enemies is coming. While it isn't the same thing as Justice....its good enough.

 

[Aline de Gavrillac]

On 9/26/2021 at 5:16 PM, Rondo said:

Arya Stark is on track to murder a lot of people who opposed her family.  She composed a list of her future knife targets.  She joins a cult of murderers in order to learn their work.  Part of the initiation into this gang involved the murder of an old, insurance vendor.  Which she carried out in cold blood.  She killed a Nightswatch bard named Dareon with her rapier.  Arya is on track to become insane, if she isn't already.  She suffers from a serious mental disorder and kills with little to no guilt.  

Arya and Lyanna are compared by Ned as having the same wolf's blood.  This temperament, being hypersensitive and having quick tempers made them biologically vulnerable to mental illness.  The trauma endured is the catalyst that drove Arya to her mental illness.  The teachings of a cult of people who worshiped the god of death and who delivers death without passion is as unhealthy an education as a person can get.  

Mr. Martin is crafting entertainment.  I have to admit, it would not interest me to read about a ten year old happy child playing with Lego blocks.  We already have that in Tommen.  Arya Stark is his extreme version of a crazed little girl who is suffering from mental illness and insanity.  Ofcourse she is not going to count the hairs on a mule's ass kind of insane.  No way.  That's comedy and not extreme enough.  I do not root for Arya Stark.  I am not a fan of Arya Stark.  But I will admit that I find her chapters a little more interesting now because of her madness.  You don't even get to watch a 10 year old this mentally ill on the television.  

I do not expect a change of character direction for Arya Stark.  She had a chance to pick a different way of living before killing the old insurance vendor.  She instead chose revenge.  Jon's last thoughts before dying was sending her a telepathic message to "stick em with the pointy end." He is telling her to murder Bowen Marsh and the leaders of the Nightswatch.  That can't be good.  She will murder a lot of people when she hears Jon's message and finds him dead.  Karma will come back and put an end to Arya but not until she has killed many.

Some of her future victims do deserve punishment.  Ramsay is without good and deserve punishment.  But there are those who were forced to play the game of power who do not deserve her wrath.  They were just on the opposite side of the playing field.  The ghost of HH saw a bloody future for Arya.  It's clear to me that there will be collateral damage and many innocents will die while Arya goes through with her murderous plan.  

How and who will stop Arya?  Somebody will.  

 

Arya will pay for her crimes but it will not come from the legal system.  Dareon is a commoner while Arya is nobility.  Nobody loses much sleep when Ramsay and Stannis are being cruel to the common folk.  Ramsay hunts girls and Stannis burns his own soldiers.  Rights are not equal in Westeros.  The governing people in Braavos will not execute an Arya Stark because she has value as a hostage.  They can sell her to the Lannisters if they wish. 

The Maesters are not going to take any interest in treating Arya's mental illness.  She has political value.  They will ship her off to Winterfell so the Boltons can make use of her.  Roose will keep her in a room where she can cause no harm. 

Arya may escape from Braavos and return to the north.  She will hear about Jon's death and go fully homicidal on the brotherhood of the watch. 

We should pity Dareon.  He was cheated by his lord in Westeros and later killed by Arya in Braavos.  Dareon did not deserve to die like that. 

[Rondo]

If not the law then some sort of divine judgement dropping down on Arya.  I would hate to see her get away with what she has done.  

[TheLastWolf]

Please die, thread...we want a new rant

[Jaenara Belarys]

10 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Please die, thread...we want a new rant

Patience, Padawan. The thread author will eventually get tired of posting a tiny post to keep this afloat, it can be hoped.

15 hours ago, Rondo said:

If not the law then some sort of divine judgement dropping down on Arya.  I would hate to see her get away with what she has done.  

I doubt nothing is going to happen to her, considering that GRRM isn't Dumber and Dogshit (no one can survive that many stabs in that location, it reeks of 1000+ plot armor).