Who speaks to Arya in the godswood?

[AryaRegina]

It's one of my favourite, if not the favourite, parts in the books, but I can never really decide who speaks to Arya:

In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. "Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed.
For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said.
"But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."
"You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."
"The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.
That night she lay in her narrow bed upon the scratchy straw, listening to the voices of the living and the dead whisper and argue as she waited for the moon to rise. They were the only voices she trusted anymore. She could hear the sound of her own breath, and the wolves as well, a great pack of them now. They are closer than the one I heard in the godswood, she thought. They are calling to me.
-Arya X, ACOK

Is it the old gods?
Is it Bran? Or bloodraven? Some other greenseer? The scene with Arya is similar to what we later see with Theon:

Theon found himself wondering if he should say a prayer. Will the old gods hear me if I do? They were not his gods, had never been his gods. He was ironborn, a son of Pyke, his god was the Drowned God of the islands … but Winterfell was long leagues from the sea. It had been a lifetime since any god had heard him. He did not know who he was, or what he was, why he was still alive, why he had ever been born.
"Theon," a voice seemed to whisper.
His head snapped up. "Who said that?" All he could see were the trees and the fog that covered them. The voice had been as faint as rustling leaves, as cold as hate. A god's voice, or a ghost's. How many died the day that he took Winterfell? How many more the day he lost it? The day that Theon Greyjoy died, to be reborn as Reek. Reek, Reek, it rhymes with shriek.
Suddenly he did not want to be here.
-The Prince of Winterfell, ADWD

In the godswood the snow was still dissolving as it touched the earth. Steam rose off the hot pools, fragrant with the smell of moss and mud and decay. A warm fog hung in the air, turning the trees into sentinels, tall soldiers shrouded in cloaks of gloom. During daylight hours, the steamy wood was often full of northmen come to pray to the old gods, but at this hour Theon Greyjoy found he had it all to himself.
And in the heart of the wood the weirwood waited with its knowing red eyes. Theon stopped by the edge of the pool and bowed his head before its carved red face. Even here he could hear the drumming, boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM. Like distant thunder, the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once.
The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. "Theon," they seemed to whisper, "Theon."
The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. "Please." He fell to his knees. "A sword, that's all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek." Tears trickled down his cheeks, impossibly warm. "I was ironborn. A son … a son of Pyke, of the islands."
A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool. It floated on the water, red, five-fingered, like a bloody hand. "… Bran," the tree murmured.
They know. The gods know. They saw what I did. And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran's face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad. Bran's ghost, he thought, but that was madness. Why should Bran want to haunt him? He had been fond of the boy, had never done him any harm. It was not Bran we killed. It was not Rickon. They were only miller's sons, from the mill by the Acorn Water. "I had to have two heads, else they would have mocked me … laughed at me … they …"
-A Ghost in Winterfell, ADWD

Or is it Ned's spirit? And if we go with that, did she also hear Syrio's spirit a book earlier?

She had to leave now, she told herself, but when the moment came, she was too frightened to move.
Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.
Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrio's? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears.
-Arya IV, AGOT

Two of the guardsmen were dicing together while the third walked rounds, his hand on the pommel of his sword. Ashamed to let them see her crying like a baby, she stopped to rub at her eyes. Her eyes her eyes her eyes, why did …
Look with your eyes, she heard Syrio whisper.¨
-Arya V, AGOT

Or do you believe in the plain old nonmagical answer, that it's simply Arya recalling Ned's words to regain her courage, maybe spurred on by her connection to Nymeria?

Or do you think it's someone (or something) else?

At this moment, I myself am leaning towards the Bran answer, but I always go back and forth, so it's far from set in stone for me

[kissdbyfire]

I think some of it is just Arya remembering her father’s words to her, and some of it is Bloodraven through the weirnet. I love those chapters! 

[Mithras]

Hopefully it is not Bran from the future 

[Craving Peaches]

16 minutes ago, Mithras said:

Hopefully it is not Bran from the future 

Time travel would come close to if not ruin it for me...also BR had a big speech about how you cannot change the past...

[Nevets]

The conversation with her father in the godswood is almost identical to the one she had with him in her room in AGOT.  This would appear to rule out Bran or Bloodraven, as they wouldn't know of it.  I'm perfectly happy thinking the old gods are involved but it's probably just her memory.

The scene with Theon is Bran trying to communicate in real time.  We see it from his end in another chapter.

[Sandy Clegg]

It speaks to her with different voices, gives her goose pimples then makes her feel dizzy for an instant.

To me, it's this moment of coldness + dizziness that is the subtle clue. A hint that this voice is not merely her imagination, but an outside force. And the fact that it speaks in different voices suggests that it is likely not the original owner of those voices.

I don't think it's Bran or Bloodraven either, but throughout the books there seem to be hints of some ... invisible other. The voice that Arya hears in the House of Black and White when Arya is blind is another good example, although she later claims it belongs to the kindly man. The voice that Varys hears in the flames.

I think we cannot rule out that there does exist some form of malicious entity out there in the world of ASOAIF, one that is very good at keeping itself hidden and secret. 

[AryaRegina]

1 hour ago, Mithras said:

Hopefully it is not Bran from the future 

1 hour ago, Craving Peaches said:

Time travel would come close to if not ruin it for me...also BR had a big speech about how you cannot change the past...

I know Bloodraven said Bran can't change the past, and that he himself is unable to talk to his loved ones,  but it does seem like there's some sort of vague communication to the past, as seen with Ned, even as just a whisper in the wind.  And Ned is not shown to be magical, while Arya is, so... it might happen

Lord Eddard Stark sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the godswood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's gnarled arms. The greatsword Ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap, and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth.
"Winterfell," Bran whispered.
His father looked up. "Who's there?" he asked, turning …
… and Bran, frightened, pulled away. His father and the black pool and the godswood faded and were gone and he was back in the cavern, the pale thick roots of his weirwood throne cradling his limbs as a mother does a child. A torch flared to life before him.
-Bran III, ADWD
 

"Father." Bran's voice was a whisper in the wind, a rustle in the leaves. "Father, it's me. It's Bran. Brandon."
Eddard Stark lifted his head and looked long at the weirwood, frowning, but he did not speak. He cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing. He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all that he could do was watch and listen. I am in the tree. I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes, but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can't.

-Bran III, ADWD

 

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

I think some of it is just Arya remembering her father’s words to her, and some of it is Bloodraven through the weirnet. I love those chapters! 

Me too! There's so much going on at Harrenhal with Arya, and it's a thrill to read

 

1 hour ago, Nevets said:

The conversation with her father in the godswood is almost identical to the one she had with him in her room in AGOT.  This would appear to rule out Bran or Bloodraven, as they wouldn't know of it.  I'm perfectly happy thinking the old gods are involved but it's probably just her memory.

The scene with Theon is Bran trying to communicate in real time.  We see it from his end in another chapter.

True, that conversation with Ned did happen away from a godwood... so that does make it unlikely for it to be Bran or Bloodraven, but it does seem like more is happening than simple recollection.
 

36 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

It speaks to her with different voices, gives her goose pimples then makes her feel dizzy for an instant.

To me, it's this moment of coldness + dizziness that is the subtle clue. A hint that this voice is not merely her imagination, but an outside force. And the fact that it speaks in different voices suggests that it is likely not the original owner of those voices.

I don't think it's Bran or Bloodraven either, but throughout the books there seem to be hints of some ... invisible other. The voice that Arya hears in the House of Black and White when Arya is blind is another good example, although she later claims it belongs to the kindly man. The voice that Varys hears in the flames.

I think we cannot rule out that there does exist some form of malicious entity out there in the world of ASOAIF, one that is very good at keeping itself hidden and secret. 

Good point about the physical signs!

Why does the entity have to be malicious? Would it not make more sense for it to be neutral, like any natural force? Neither good nor evil?

Edited April 11, 2023 by AryaRegina

[AryaRegina]

Spoiler from the TWOW Mercy excerpt:

Spoiler

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.

So Bran(?) will look for Arya/Nymeria via the trees, and she does make notice of it, but that does not explain how he or Bloodraven would know about her conversation with Ned...

 

[Sandy Clegg]

5 minutes ago, AryaRegina said:

Why does the entity have to be malicious? Would it not make more sense for it to be neutral, like any natural force? Neither good nor evil?

Well, let's say 'other' then, rather than malicious. Something that wants Arya to succeed, certainly, or sees her as an asset in the long term. The word 'grooming' might not even be out of place here. I guess it depends on perspective and how her story pans out.

Arya uses the cat in the rafters to 'see' that the kindly man has been hitting her, but the cat wasn't present when she had the fight with the 'cold, harsh voice' previously. So she is merely inferring that the kindly man was responsible, as he also wields a stick. Perhaps incorrectly. So the identity of the voice's owner is still technically a mystery. But recall that she does associate the voice with her 'nemesis'.

This blurring of lines between 'teacher/protector' and 'nemesis' is found many times throughout the books.

• We still don't know what sort of relationship Bloodraven and Bran will have, but there are plenty of theories out there which claim his objectives to be less than honourable. We'll have to see. 
• Jon's training master, Alliser Thorne.
• Many of Dany's teachers, or guardian figures, turn out to have shadowy motives. Illyrio, Viserys, Mirri Maz Duur, almost everyone in Meereen it seems. Is even Quaithe on Dany's 'side'? She's constantly awaiting betrayal at every turn.
• Littlefinger is Sweetrobin's protector and father figure yet is also seemingly poisoning him. His mentorship of Sansa will also likely prove to be a poisoned gift.
• Varys's little birds have been trained to read, but at the expense of their tongues.
• Theon, as Reek, sees Ramsay as his master, in a twisted 'owner and dog' relationship.

So we have plenty of reason to doubt the trustworthiness of disembodied 'father figure' voices in Arya's head, even if they seem to have her best interests at heart initially.

 

[Hugorfonics]

1 hour ago, AryaRegina said:

Spoiler from the TWOW Mercy excerpt:

  Hide contents

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.

So Bran(?) will look for Arya/Nymeria via the trees, and she does make notice of it, but that does not explain how he or Bloodraven would know about her conversation with Ned...

 

So I thought of a third option just now, kind meta. I agree Brans a regular Marty McFly but as noted above it is strange how he would know Ned's pep talk. As if he wasnt strange enough, constantly clawing and snarling at his bed sheets. Except they all do. Jojen freed the chained wolf and told him about his third eye, and yet, yet, Arya was able to skinchange a cat while staying lucid enough to dodge the kindly man's attacks all while also warging into another continent. She's beating the hell outta her little brother in this game. Girl, pass go and collect your 200$

Quote

"Only one man in a thousand is born a skinchanger," Lord Brynden said one day, after Bran had learned to fly, "and only one skinchanger in a thousand can be a greenseer."

"I thought the greenseers were the wizards of the children," Bran said. "The singers, I mean."

"In a sense. Those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest. By these signs do the gods mark those they have chosen to receive the gift. The chosen ones are not robust, and their quick years upon the earth are few, for every song must have its balance. But once inside the wood they linger long indeed. A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. Greenseers."

If it's just a numbers game, then I don't see why Arya couldn't hold a royal flush, so perhaps the angel that's helping, assisting and looking out for Arya is, Arya?

[John Suburbs]

6 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Time travel would come close to if not ruin it for me...also BR had a big speech about how you cannot change the past...

Yes, right after Bran went and changed the past.

[kissdbyfire]

40 minutes ago, John Suburbs said:

Yes, right after Bran went and changed the past.

When was this?

[Mourning Star]

7 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Time travel would come close to if not ruin it for me...also BR had a big speech about how you cannot change the past...

I don't think Bloodraven is the three eyed crow.

Bloodraven has a speech about being unable to speak through the trees at all, imo. Something we know Bran is capable of.

"He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it."

This fits with what he tells Bran too.

"Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
"A … crow?" The pale lord's voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. "Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood." The clothes he wore were rotten and faded, spotted with moss and eaten through with worms, but once they had been black. "I have been many things, Bran. Now I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams. I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late."

Bloodraven never claims to have been able to speak to Bran. He watched, saw, heard, and was a part of the dream, but couldn't come to Bran, nor I think, coherently speak to him (like we see the three eyed crow do).

But, back to Arya and Ned.

The Old Gods are said to be the spirits of the dead gone down into the trees.

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one. The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When singers die they become part of that godhood."

And Ned spoke to Bran too.

The mention of dreams reminded him. "I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad."
"And why was that?" Luwin peered through his tube.
"It was something to do about Jon, I think." The dream had been deeply disturbing, more so than any of the other crow dreams. "Hodor won't go down into the crypts."

So I would suggest that Arya did hear Ned's voice, speaking through the trees.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Mourning Star

[John Suburbs]

21 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

When was this?

Quote

Then all at once he was back home again.

Lord Eddard sat upon a rock beside the deep black pool in the godswood, the pale roots of the heart tree twisting around him like an old man's gnarled arms. The greatsword Ice lay across Lord Eddard's lap, and he was cleaning the blade with an oilcloth.

"Winterfell," Bran whispered.

His father looked up. "Who's there?" he asked, turning . . .

Brynden fobs this off as the wind or rustling leaves, but it's clear that Bran speak and Ned reacts, something he would not have done otherwise. It's a small thing, but it shows that Bran can, in fact, change the past even if Bloodraven cannot.

[BalerionTheCat]

There are already visions and prophecies.
Why not also these kind of communications? There are too many of them to be just resurfacing memories.
R'hllor is probably touching his priests with visions and prophecies.
Why not his counterpart too?

Edited April 12, 2023 by BalerionTheCat

[sweetsunray]

I think Arya hears Ned's ghost via the tree. His bones aren't buried yet, and his spirit is therefore free and restless, but already linked to the weirnet.

Varamyr's death shows how the spirit goes into a weirwood. But because he's a skinchanger, he can choose to go into his favourite wolf. Ned Stark isn't a skinchanger.

The convo is not a memory, because the entity speaks from the present referring to the past.

Ned Stark's spirit appeared also to Bran and Rickon in the crypts. Bran said his father tried to tell him something about Jon. And Jon also has a dream with Ygritte speaking to him in the pool and the WF weirwood having Ned's face.

These are too many Ned Stark instances and communications in some capacity to the Stark children, to simply dismiss Arya's experience.

I recently noted that voice whispering Syrio's words in the stable of the Red Keep as well. It's peculiar it's not explicitly Syrio's voice in that scene. That actually may have a non-magical and non-memory explanation: Varys' little birds spying. Perhaps not all are without tongues. It's possible one of them whispered her Syrio's words. They would know his words as well, because they would have spied on Aray's dancing lessons with Syrio. This suggests that Varys may have wished Arya to escape.

With the fake Stark guardsmen at the ship in the harbor, it's imo her memory of Syrio's words.

[Sandy Clegg]

1 hour ago, sweetsunray said:

I recently noted that voice whispering Syrio's words in the stable of the Red Keep as well. It's peculiar it's not explicitly Syrio's voice in that scene.

She initially identifies Syrio's voice as being from the free cities:

Quote

"You are late, boy." A slight man with a bald head and a great beak of a nose stepped out of the shadows, holding a pair of slender wooden swords. "Tomorrow you will be here at midday," He had an accent, the lilt of the Free Cities, Braavos perhaps, or Myr.

But when she hears the small voice in her head she seems unsure whether it's hers or Syrio's:

Quote

Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.

Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrio's? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears.

Odd that she could not tell whose voice it was. Yet it seems to conjure up the sound of herself, or Syrio. A suspicious mind might say that she is perhaps hearing her own voice ... speaking in a Braavosi accent.

Future Arya, now with a Braavosi accent, somehow calling out to her past self?

Nah. Too tinfoily. But eery all the same.

[AryaRegina]

On 4/11/2023 at 1:51 PM, Sandy Clegg said:

Well, let's say 'other' then, rather than malicious. Something that wants Arya to succeed, certainly, or sees her as an asset in the long term. The word 'grooming' might not even be out of place here. I guess it depends on perspective and how her story pans out.

Arya uses the cat in the rafters to 'see' that the kindly man has been hitting her, but the cat wasn't present when she had the fight with the 'cold, harsh voice' previously. So she is merely inferring that the kindly man was responsible, as he also wields a stick. Perhaps incorrectly. So the identity of the voice's owner is still technically a mystery. But recall that she does associate the voice with her 'nemesis'.

This blurring of lines between 'teacher/protector' and 'nemesis' is found many times throughout the books.

• We still don't know what sort of relationship Bloodraven and Bran will have, but there are plenty of theories out there which claim his objectives to be less than honourable. We'll have to see. 
• Jon's training master, Alliser Thorne.
• Many of Dany's teachers, or guardian figures, turn out to have shadowy motives. Illyrio, Viserys, Mirri Maz Duur, almost everyone in Meereen it seems. Is even Quaithe on Dany's 'side'? She's constantly awaiting betrayal at every turn.
• Littlefinger is Sweetrobin's protector and father figure yet is also seemingly poisoning him. His mentorship of Sansa will also likely prove to be a poisoned gift.
• Varys's little birds have been trained to read, but at the expense of their tongues.
• Theon, as Reek, sees Ramsay as his master, in a twisted 'owner and dog' relationship.

So we have plenty of reason to doubt the trustworthiness of disembodied 'father figure' voices in Arya's head, even if they seem to have her best interests at heart initially.

 

Interesting... I've never thought to doubt the voice being the kindly man, but it is true that she didn't recognize the voice.
Also, I've noticed the trend of dubious mentor's too, including the FM/Kindly man for Arya, especially the parallels with the Stark siblings (with Bran and Arya having the most obvious parallels, mentorwise, maybe?), so I'm looking forward to reading how that will turn out.

On 4/11/2023 at 3:21 PM, Hugorfonics said:

So I thought of a third option just now, kind meta. I agree Brans a regular Marty McFly but as noted above it is strange how he would know Ned's pep talk. As if he wasnt strange enough, constantly clawing and snarling at his bed sheets. Except they all do. Jojen freed the chained wolf and told him about his third eye, and yet, yet, Arya was able to skinchange a cat while staying lucid enough to dodge the kindly man's attacks all while also warging into another continent. She's beating the hell outta her little brother in this game. Girl, pass go and collect your 200$

If it's just a numbers game, then I don't see why Arya couldn't hold a royal flush, so perhaps the angel that's helping, assisting and looking out for Arya is, Arya?

20 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

She initially identifies Syrio's voice as being from the free cities:

But when she hears the small voice in her head she seems unsure whether it's hers or Syrio's:

Odd that she could not tell whose voice it was. Yet it seems to conjure up the sound of herself, or Syrio. A suspicious mind might say that she is perhaps hearing her own voice ... speaking in a Braavosi accent.

Future Arya, now with a Braavosi accent, somehow calling out to her past self?

Nah. Too tinfoily. But eery all the same.

Future Arya looking after her younger self is a new take. I'm intrigued. It's a well-known trope, but not one I've seen in ASOIAF context. It's not often we get new Arya theories, so even if I'm not sure I buy it, it's fun and intriguing, and we need more of that:)

On 4/11/2023 at 7:10 PM, Mourning Star said:

I don't think Bloodraven is the three eyed crow.

Bloodraven has a speech about being unable to speak through the trees at all, imo. Something we know Bran is capable of.

"He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I know. I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it."

This fits with what he tells Bran too.

"Are you the three-eyed crow?" Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
"A … crow?" The pale lord's voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. "Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood." The clothes he wore were rotten and faded, spotted with moss and eaten through with worms, but once they had been black. "I have been many things, Bran. Now I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams. I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late."

Bloodraven never claims to have been able to speak to Bran. He watched, saw, heard, and was a part of the dream, but couldn't come to Bran, nor I think, coherently speak to him (like we see the three eyed crow do).

Interesting that he never mentions talking to Bran and that he seemed a bit confused about being called a crow, really interesting. While I do think dream talking is different than tree talking, so I wouldn't discount his ability to do it, you have raised an interesting question, whether BR and the 3EC are truly one and the same, but if not BR, who?

On 4/11/2023 at 7:10 PM, Mourning Star said:

But, back to Arya and Ned.

The Old Gods are said to be the spirits of the dead gone down into the trees.

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one. The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When singers die they become part of that godhood."

And Ned spoke to Bran too.

The mention of dreams reminded him. "I dreamed about the crow again last night. The one with three eyes. He flew into my bedchamber and told me to come with him, so I did. We went down to the crypts. Father was there, and we talked. He was sad."
"And why was that?" Luwin peered through his tube.
"It was something to do about Jon, I think." The dream had been deeply disturbing, more so than any of the other crow dreams. "Hodor won't go down into the crypts."

So I would suggest that Arya did hear Ned's voice, speaking through the trees.

22 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

I think Arya hears Ned's ghost via the tree. His bones aren't buried yet, and his spirit is therefore free and restless, but already linked to the weirnet.

Varamyr's death shows how the spirit goes into a weirwood. But because he's a skinchanger, he can choose to go into his favourite wolf. Ned Stark isn't a skinchanger.

The convo is not a memory, because the entity speaks from the present referring to the past.

Ned Stark's spirit appeared also to Bran and Rickon in the crypts. Bran said his father tried to tell him something about Jon. And Jon also has a dream with Ygritte speaking to him in the pool and the WF weirwood having Ned's face.

These are too many Ned Stark instances and communications in some capacity to the Stark children, to simply dismiss Arya's experience.

This is probably the most heart-warming answer, and you both give great reasons for it actually being Ned talking to Arya.
I love the thought of Ned being able to help out his little girl, to give her back her courage and her name, to help her become a wolf again.

On 4/12/2023 at 4:03 PM, John Suburbs said:

Brynden fobs this off as the wind or rustling leaves, but it's clear that Bran speak and Ned reacts, something he would not have done otherwise. It's a small thing, but it shows that Bran can, in fact, change the past even if Bloodraven cannot.

I think so too:) And I love whenever the kids do things that's supposed to be impossible, or very hard.
Dany bringing back dragons, Arya easily slipping into the skin of a cat (which we're told in the ADWD prologue is an animal hard to control, and best left alone) and still having control over her own body, and of course Bran, literally changing the past, even if only as a whisper in the wind.

23 hours ago, BalerionTheCat said:

There are already visions and prophecies.
Why not also these kind of communications? There are too many of them to be just resurfacing memories.
R'hllor is probably touching his priests with visions and prophecies.
Why not his counterpart too?

This is a fantasy series, even if many readers prefer the political story, so I'm not counting anything out:)
I love the return of magic plotline.
Direwolves, greendreams, visions, prophesies, giants, children of the forest, skinchanging, face changing, glamours, glass candles, tree spying dragons, unicorns(), and why stop there? I'd love to see even more in coming books.

22 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

I recently noted that voice whispering Syrio's words in the stable of the Red Keep as well. It's peculiar it's not explicitly Syrio's voice in that scene. That actually may have a non-magical and non-memory explanation: Varys' little birds spying. Perhaps not all are without tongues. It's possible one of them whispered her Syrio's words. They would know his words as well, because they would have spied on Aray's dancing lessons with Syrio. This suggests that Varys may have wished Arya to escape.

With the fake Stark guardsmen at the ship in the harbor, it's imo her memory of Syrio's words.

Varys' little birds always makes me so sad, but the thought of one of those poor children deciding to help out Arya is sweet.
How could Arya have heard their whisipers from inside the wall, though?

[sweetsunray]

55 minutes ago, AryaRegina said:

How could Arya have heard their whisipers from inside the wall, though?

For one, I doubt the stables have thick walls, and likely has plenty of gaps.

And secondly, if little birds can listen and spy via walls (and gaps), they can talk via the walls (and gaps) as well, or at least those that can talk.

[Hugorfonics]

23 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

She initially identifies Syrio's voice as being from the free cities:

But when she hears the small voice in her head she seems unsure whether it's hers or Syrio's:

Odd that she could not tell whose voice it was. Yet it seems to conjure up the sound of herself, or Syrio. A suspicious mind might say that she is perhaps hearing her own voice ... speaking in a Braavosi accent.

Future Arya, now with a Braavosi accent, somehow calling out to her past self?

Nah. Too tinfoily. But eery all the same.

Oh damn that's interesting. Later on when she constantly talking to herself we assume it's cuz if not off her rocker she maybe doesn't have a lot of friends or something. But what if all these times shes not talking to herself, but like, screaming at the television that is her life, or past life or whatever. So you know still talking to herself but not in a crazy way. Well, crazy but not in the crazy way.

But, this is the first time? And I guess she just got used to hearing herself? Brushed it off like she at first brushed off her wolf dreams.

What's not fully selling me and leaving me confused is it's contradictory to the OP. Arya in the godswood, this ain't the godswood. In fact lots of times shes talking to herself phrases like silent as calm water or whatever is far from any weirwood. Which I assume is where the old gods can communicate. Maybe like a 5 yard perimeter around the tree or something.

1 hour ago, AryaRegina said:

Future Arya looking after her younger self is a new take. I'm intrigued. It's a well-known trope, but not one I've seen in ASOIAF context. It's not often we get new Arya theories, so even if I'm not sure I buy it, it's fun and intriguing, and we need more of that:)

Yea me too. 

It is kinda in asoiaf with Bran, some theories ascribe to him being the three eyed raven, which would make him, you know, talk to himself.

And Brans great, but anything he can do Arya can do better, right? Like Brans whole schtick is skinchanging and Arya can do that lucid. So while Bran being the three eyed crow or whatever is cool, it's kinda like Jon being Azor Ahai. He is, but Daenerys is on the sidelines shrugging. 

Not saying Arya is the raven, that'd be ridiculous. Mean sister stuff there lol. But these supernatural powers that all Starks have, all Starks have. And while Brans got some of the finest education magic can buy, Arya does too.