Arya, the Darkheart

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

7 hours ago, Damsel in Distress said:

I could see future Arya killing millions because of her illness.  She will if something bad happens to people she loves.  Like Jon Snow. 

I  hate to break it to ya mate but bad stuff has already happened to the people she loves, like pretty much all of them. 

[kissdbyfire]

5 hours ago, Lyanna&lt;3Rhaegar said:

I  hate to break it to ya mate but bad stuff has already happened to the people she loves, like pretty much all of them. 

Good on you to clear up  "minor" details like a dead mother  a dead father, and many more dead loved ones to those who have only read fanfic on reddit and not the novels!

[Son of Man]

Arya can be forgiven for hating and holding onto anger.  Becoming insane is not her fault.  But she went too far with murder.  The killing of the old man should not be forgiven. Arya should pay for that crime and for killing Dareon. 

[SeanBeanedMeUp]

I saw Arya is someone who’s trauma about witnessing the destruction that’s befallen on her family has led her into the arms of people who think might help her and is being led on a very dark path.

If she lives by the end of the story she might start to develop very serious regrets over some horrible things she’s done even if she does finally get her revenge (or the people she wants dead are finally done in).

[Ser Arthurs Dawn]

17 hours ago, SeanBeanedMeUp said:

I saw Arya is someone who’s trauma about witnessing the destruction that’s befallen on her family has led her into the arms of people who think might help her and is being led on a very dark path.

Oh my baby Arya ♥. I think she'll come out on top. She's just a grieving kid who is adapting to harsh environments for the purpose of survival. She's extremely adaptable and smart, but she lacks any positive guidance. But apparently the Stark haters in this thread can't bring themselves to harbor any sympathy for a lonely, broken girl who is fighting for her life in the wild. So they paint a false picture of her with horns on her head and a red pointy tail coming out of her behind.

 

17 hours ago, SeanBeanedMeUp said:

If she lives by the end of the story she might start to develop very serious regrets over some horrible things she’s done even if she does finally get her revenge (or the people she wants dead are finally done in).

I think essentially she already does, but she tries not to dwell on it.

Quote

"Arya told of Yoren and their escape from King’s Landing as well, and much that had happened since, but she left out the stableboy she’d stabbed with Needle, and the guard whose throat she’d cut to get out of Harrenhal. Telling Harwin would be almost like telling her father, and there were some things that she could not bear having her father know." -ASoS

"Arya didn’t know how much Robb would pay for her, though. He was a king now, not the boy she’d left at Winterfell with snow melting in his hair. And if he knew the things she’d done, the stableboy and the guard at Harrenhal and all. 'What if my brother doesn’t want to ransom me?'" -ASoS

In ADWD she is haunted by her kills in a dream..

Quote

Sleep did not come easily that night. Tangled in her blankets, she twisted this way and that in the cold dark room, but whichever way she turned, she saw the faces. They have no eyes, but they can see me. She saw her father's face upon the wall. Beside him hung her lady mother, and below them her three brothers all in a row. No. That was some other girl. i am no one, and my only brothers wear robes of black and white. Yet there was the black singer, there the stableboy she’d killed with Needle, there the pimply squire from the crossroads inn, and over there the guard whose throat she’d slashed to get them out of Harrenhal. The Tickler hung on the wall as well, the black holes that were his eyes swimming with malice. The sight of him brought back the feel of the dagger in her hand as she had plunged it into his back, again and again and again. -ADwD

 

[SeanBeanedMeUp]

8 hours ago, Ser Arthurs Dawn said:

Oh my baby Arya ♥. I think she'll come out on top. She's just a grieving kid who is adapting to harsh environments for the purpose of survival. She's extremely adaptable and smart, but she lacks any positive guidance. But apparently the Stark haters in this thread can't bring themselves to harbor any sympathy for a lonely, broken girl who is fighting for her life in the wild. So they paint a false picture of her with horns on her head and a red pointy tail coming out of her behind.

 

I think essentially she already does, but she tries not to dwell on it.

In ADWD she is haunted by her kills in a dream..

 

Of course all of this depends if Arya keeps her identity by the end. If she embraces the whole lifestyle of the Faceless Men she’s basically “gone”.

[KingAerys_II]

She is going to kill Roose Bolton playing the part of Nan again, hired by the Iron Bank to help Stannis, the Iron Bank needs Stannis to replace the Lannisters that have no intentions to pay their debts, the Faceless Men are a good choice, the sells word companies are busy in the siege of Meeren

Edited August 31, 2023 by KingAerys_II

[KingAerys_II]

There is the theory that the Faceless Men are training her to fight the Red War against the Others, Jaqen is in the Citadel to find out how to hatch the dragon egg Euron gave him and told to Arya he wishes to fight in the Red War, so the Faceless Men are aware of the threat beyond the Wall 

[The Commentator]

On 8/29/2023 at 5:30 PM, SeanBeanedMeUp said:

I saw Arya is someone who’s trauma about witnessing the destruction that’s befallen on her family has led her into the arms of people who think might help her and is being led on a very dark path.

If she lives by the end of the story she might start to develop very serious regrets over some horrible things she’s done even if she does finally get her revenge (or the people she wants dead are finally done in).

I don’t like Arya and wish the worst for her. Yeah she might have some regrets later but that doesn’t erase her heinous acts nor will it bring back those she killed. 

[SeanF]

Are there really readers who are gutted by the deaths of Daeron and the insurance broker?  Did we learn so much of their hopes and dreams, their fears and anxieties, that we feel nothing but hatred for the child that slew them?

Or they just a pretext to pursue an irrational hatred of Arya?

I presume no-one is actually bothered about Chiswick, The Tickler, Raff the Sweetling, or the various Brave Companions, although perhaps I'm being too generous.

 

[Craving Peaches]

1 minute ago, SeanF said:

Are there really readers who are gutted by the deaths of Daeron and the insurance broker?  Did we learn so much of their hopes and dreams, their fears and anxieties, that we feel nothing but hatred for the child that slew them?

I feel a bit sorry for Daeron if his story is true but the Insurance Broker is basically a non-character and was possibly involved in life-ruining fraud so...

[kissdbyfire]

3 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Are there really readers who are gutted by the deaths of Daeron and the insurance broker?  Did we learn so much of their hopes and dreams, their fears and anxieties, that we feel nothing but hatred for the child that slew them?

Or they just a pretext to pursue an irrational hatred of Arya?

I presume no-one is actually bothered about Chiswick, The Tickler, Raff the Sweetling, or the various Brave Companions, although perhaps I'm being too generous.

 

No perhaps, you’re definitely being too generous. After all, if RamRam the Player, Janos the Hero and Walder the Brave have their fan clubs, why not Chiswick, The Tickler, Raff & all the others?

[kissdbyfire]

1 minute ago, Craving Peaches said:

I feel a bit sorry for Daeron if his story is true but the Insurance Broker is basically a non-character and was possibly involved in life-ruining fraud so...

I have less sympathy for Dareon than the insurance broker… to me, the latter might have a couple of redeeming qualities we never hear about b/c we learn virtually nothing about him. Maybe he rescues puppies or donates to good causes. Dareon otoh is a nasty selfish & creepy arsehole and his story being true doesn’t change this and to me it definitely doesn’t give him a pass on all the stuff he does in Braavos.

[SeanF]

41 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

I feel a bit sorry for Daeron if his story is true but the Insurance Broker is basically a non-character and was possibly involved in life-ruining fraud so...

I feel a little sympathy for Daeron.  A little, but not much.

[Craving Peaches]

Just now, kissdbyfire said:

Dareon otoh is a nasty selfish & creepy arsehole and his story being true doesn’t change this and to me it definitely doesn’t give him a pass on all the stuff he does in Braavos.

Not saying he is a good person but I do feel sorry for him if his story is true, because it means he was falsely accused of rape (one of the worst crimes) and then forced to spend the rest of his life in a penal colony full of actual criminals to avoid castration. I find it hard to fault him a lot for deserting in those circumstances, because he has done nothing to warrant that punishment in the first place. It would be like an innocent man trying to escape prison. This does not mean I give him a pass for the way he treated Maester Aemon, but I don't think he deserved to die for it either. Arya herself appears to express doubts over whether killing Dareon was the right thing to do, given she feels the need to constantly reiterate to herself he was a deserter who deserved to die.

[SeanBeanedMeUp]

4 hours ago, The Commentator said:

I don’t like Arya and wish the worst for her. Yeah she might have some regrets later but that doesn’t erase her heinous acts nor will it bring back those she killed. 

?????

She had to flee from her life from Cersei’s men and live in squalor just to survive. She saw her father die. She had to witness the horrible atrocities of war. She also witnessed the Red Wedding and saw her brother die. She’s an utterly traumatized mess and she has a legitimate grievance against so many people.

She has many flaws I know but to simply write her off as irredeemably evil is not it.

[The Stannis Inquisition]

Daeron was a little bitch (an admittedly unlucky one). I wish a red priest had given him the kiss of life so Arya could kill him again.

Edited September 1, 2023 by The Stannis Inquisition

[kissdbyfire]

4 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Not saying he is a good person but I do feel sorry for him if his story is true, because it means he was falsely accused of rape (one of the worst crimes) and then forced to spend the rest of his life in a penal colony full of actual criminals to avoid castration. I find it hard to fault him a lot for deserting in those circumstances, because he has done nothing to warrant that punishment in the first place. It would be like an innocent man trying to escape prison. This does not mean I give him a pass for the way he treated Maester Aemon, but I don't think he deserved to die for it either. Arya herself appears to express doubts over whether killing Dareon was the right thing to do, given she feels the need to constantly reiterate to herself he was a deserter who deserved to die.

I know what you mean and I agree to a point. If his backstory is true, it was very unfair for him to be sent to the Wall, and I do have some sympathy for that situation, again, if it is true. That said, as a deserter his death was going to come sooner or later - probably, especially given all the westerosi running around Braavos “now” and the fact that he wasn’t exactly hiding that he was a crow. And more than that, to me it is the despicable and selfish way he behaves once they get there. There’s no excuse for that, even if he’d been sent to the NW for something he didn’t do. 

[SeanBeanedMeUp]

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

I know what you mean and I agree to a point. If his backstory is true, it was very unfair for him to be sent to the Wall, and I do have some sympathy for that situation, again, if it is true. That said, as a deserter his death was going to come sooner or later - probably, especially given all the westerosi running around Braavos “now” and the fact that he wasn’t exactly hiding that he was a crow. And more than that, to me it is the despicable and selfish way he behaves once they get there. There’s no excuse for that, even if he’d been sent to the NW for something he didn’t do. 

Also not to mention the Others are on their way. Not a good look to not try to do anything to stop them.

[kissdbyfire]

8 minutes ago, SeanBeanedMeUp said:

Also not to mention the Others are on their way. Not a good look to not try to do anything to stop them.

True. Though I could still grudgingly give him a pass for cowardice, but not for the abject selfishness he displays.