Is Arya Going to die?

[Corvo the Crow]

After all, all men must die. But to my reasoning. Since Dany/Targaryen threads are getting lock downs for no reason, I've put on hold quote searching for two threads I was going to open, "Craster is a Targaryen", which was obviously going to be more logical than Craster is a Stark thread, and another, "Dany's Crime Against Humanity". Instead, I was searching for quotes on another thread I was planning but haven't pursued yet for it was a subject that has been discussed many times before. While doing that, I ran into this:

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She pictured the two of them sitting together in a garden with puppies in their laps, or listening to a singer strum upon a lute while they floated down the Mander on a pleasure barge. If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya.

While it's not much to go on, we know the books are rife with foreshadowings. Her children look like the brothers she lost and sometimes there's a girl as well, could this mean she'll lose Arya as well? Oh and one other possible foreshadowing here, she has 3 boys and they don't look like the brothers she lost, so unlike Arya, not even Eddard doesn't have the Stark look. 3 Tully looking sons for 3 Tully looking brothers lost, right? But at this point she has only lost 2. This is so small it may have been unintended but is nice nonetheless.

 

[LongRider]

It's possible Arya will die, but if so, it would happen late in the books, me thinks.   Don't forget this quote of Jon Snow talking with Arya:

Quote

You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.”

 

[sweetsunray]

16 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

While doing that, I ran into this:

While it's not much to go on, we know the books are rife with foreshadowings. Her children look like the brothers she lost and sometimes there's a girl as well, could this mean she'll lose Arya as well? Oh and one other possible foreshadowing here, she has 3 boys and they don't look like the brothers she lost, so unlike Arya, not even Eddard doesn't have the Stark look. 3 Tully looking sons for 3 Tully looking brothers lost, right? But at this point she has only lost 2. This is so small it may have been unintended but is nice nonetheless.

 

Except those brothers that the quote in Sansa's POV alludes to (Bran and Rickon) aren't dead.

[Corvo the Crow]

8 minutes ago, LongRider said:

It's possible Arya will die, but if so, it would happen late in the books, me thinks.   Don't forget this quote of Jon Snow talking with Arya:

 

Great! I'm sure there are more that could foreshadow her death. Arya will die doing "needlework" then.

[Rondo]

Arya is an assassin.  A murderer.  One of her targets will not be fooled by her silly tricks.  Arya will die trying to complete her list.  Her soul will continue to live in her direwolf.  

[LongRider]

2 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Great! I'm sure there are more that could foreshadow her death. Arya will die doing "needlework" then.

Who can say how Arya will die, if she dies in either WOW (most likely not) or DOS.   I've read that Arya is the favorite character of GRRM's wife, so she may have a lifeline.   

[Gilbert Green]

6 minutes ago, Rondo said:

Arya is an assassin.  A murderer.  One of her targets will not be fooled by her silly tricks.  Arya will die trying to complete her list.  Her soul will continue to live in her direwolf.  

My suspicion is that Arya will lose her connection to her Direwolf -- in the process of losing her Stark identity and becoming "no-one".  This is one of the prices she must pay for her dark path.

Someone else will bond with Nym.

[Rondo]

Just now, Gilbert Green said:

My suspicion is that Arya will lose her connection to her Direwolf -- in the process of losing her Stark identity and becoming "no-one".  This is one of the prices she must pay for her dark path.

Someone else will bond with Nym.

The Starks are dark.  Rejoining the pack is getting deeper into the darkness.  She lost Nym temporarily but they will connect again.  I think the Starks will live as a pack of direwolves before the end of the novel.

[astarkchoice]

Grmm.says his wife would never forgive him if she dies thus arya is prob the  only safe character

[Gilbert Green]

2 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

Grmm.says his wife would never forgive him if she dies thus arya is prob the  only safe character

Easy misdirection.  GRRM is too clever for you all if you are this easily fooled.

Which is not necessarily to say that Arya will necessarily die.  But she's not safe either.

[Nevets]

Arya is, along with her siblings, in a standard coming-of-age story.  Until she comes of age and starts making her presence felt and affecting events in Westeros, she's safe.  I would be surprised if she dies before the middle of the final book, if then.  Too much story left to tell.

[Gilbert Green]

20 minutes ago, Rondo said:

The Starks are dark.  Rejoining the pack is getting deeper into the darkness.  She lost Nym temporarily but they will connect again.  I think the Starks will live as a pack of direwolves before the end of the novel.

When her dad told her that the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives, he was trying (unsuccessfully) to convince her not to hate her sister.

When Arya thinks back on her father's words, she thinks that dad was wrong, since Arya is the lone wolf, and only Arya survives.

She has forgotten Sansa.  Not because she mistakenly thinks Sansa dead.  It is merely that she hates Sansa.

Sansa, btw, does not have a direwolf.  It not that Sansa will live on as part of Lady, but rather that Lady lives on as part of Sansa.  The ghost wolf, big as mountains.

 

[Craving Peaches]

Do you mean death death or identity death?

[Corvo the Crow]

5 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Do you mean death death or identity death?

I was thinking more one identity death while first opening this thread, because, she is sometimes there and sometimes not. But @LongRiders quote make me think more of a death death, but then again it could mean doing needlework will destroy her identity.

[chrisdaw]

Arya will finish the series as queen.

Before the War For The Dawn as part of bringing the realm together Arya will be betrothed to marry someone she does not love to become queen of the realm on the Iron Throne. She will have developed the ability to face change, giving her the option to go anywhere and be anything in the world, total freedom.

After the realm of men win TWFTD her arc will climax in the decision to choose to be either Arya Stark and fulfil her betrothal and begin a life of duty as wife and queen of the realm, or be no-one and run away to enjoy total freedom. Freedom vs Duty, that is her arc.

Key to her decision will be two things,

1) the recognition that if she doesn't step up to the power and duty of Arya Stark, Sansa Lannister (to Arya's mind Cersei II) will be salivating at the chance to fill the void.

2) What is hinted here, the sacrifice of others.

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He looked south, and saw the great blue-green rush of the Trident. He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.

The shadows are dead people. They're the Hound, Jaime, and there'll be a whole host more, flawed but in many other ways the best Westeros has to offer, Dany and Jon included. Jon who will have been Arya's lord and forged the marriage pact, it'd be his word and work she'd be betraying if she were to abandon her identity and the marriage. Almost everyone is going to die, and they're going to die for the realm and in some cases specifically for Arya and/or Sansa. Their ultimate sacrifices for her and the realm will shame Arya into sacrificing her freedom.

She'll also have a lovechild with Gendry, and Jon and Dany will have a child before they die, and it will become apparent to Arya that they died for the children's future, so that the children may have a world and realm to live in, and so Arya will be shamed into doing her part to live and rule and safeguard the realm for them.

This is why in Arya's arc she is being hit over the head about justice, mercy, how her parents married out of duty not love, the plight of the lowborn, expectations of the highborn, how love and affairs can cause wars, and the presence of seemingly random parentless children scattered about.

Arya's arc is about becoming to GRRM's mind the best possible queen.

[King_Tristifer_IV_Mudd]

I think “Arya” will die in the same sort of way Anakin “died” at the end of Revenge of the Sith. I think she’ll truly become no one by the end of the series.

I have this idea for scene where Jon is being coronated as King after the battle with the Others is won, he’ll be walking down the throne room, and he’ll think he saw Arya in the corner of his eye. But when he double takes it’ll just a serving girl(new face) and that’s the last time we see “Arya”. In Jon’s final POV.

[MissM]

On 1/15/2023 at 9:21 PM, Gilbert Green said:

My suspicion is that Arya will lose her connection to her Direwolf -- in the process of losing her Stark identity and becoming "no-one".  This is one of the prices she must pay for her dark path.

Someone else will bond with Nym.

What do you base our "suspicion" on? Besides your obvious hate for a character you barely understand. 

She hid her sword for this exact reason, to return to Needle when it's time to go home. 

You can't just "lose" your connection to a direwolf. Especially considering Arya has the send strongest warg abilities of the current Starks.  

 

[Loose Bolt]

1 hour ago, MissM said:

You can't just "lose" your connection to a direwolf. Especially considering Arya has the send strongest warg abilities of the current Starks.  

I suspect that different types of magic are like radio channels that use different "frequencies". Or there is a chance that sooner or later Arya would has to choose do she want to keep "listening" Radio Old Gods or Radio Stranger. But she cannot use totally different types of magic same time. So losing her connection to Nymeria might be the price she has to pay if she want to gain more powers from FM.

[Springwatch]

On 1/15/2023 at 9:13 PM, Corvo the Crow said:

On 1/15/2023 at 9:03 PM, LongRider said:

It's possible Arya will die, but if so, it would happen late in the books, me thinks.   Don't forget this quote of Jon Snow talking with Arya:

Quote

You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.”

Great! I'm sure there are more that could foreshadow her death. Arya will die doing "needlework" then.

Here's another one, that sounds very much like the frozen fingers one - when the cold crisis is over, Arya will found lying somewhere:

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Sansa drifted to sleep as the moon rose, Arya several hours later, curling up in the grass under Ned's cloak. All through the dark hours he kept his vigil alone. When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon's breath surrounded the girls where they lay. "I dreamed of Bran," Sansa had whispered to him. "I saw him smiling."

I don't think she's dead though - spirit Ned is protecting her.

[Rosetta Stone]

I think Arya's human body will die.  She gets a second life in the Direwolf.  She will join Jon after their deaths.  He in Ghost.  She in Nymeria.