Arya's whereabouts and actions in the forthcoming novels

[ARYa_Nym]

I believe that if Dany decides to get Pentos for the Tattered Prince Arya will meet her there.

"The blind girl understood Braavosi and could speak it passably, she had even lost most of her barbaric accent, but the kindly man was not content. He was insisting that she improve her High Valyrian and learn the tongues of Lys and Pentos too."

I also believe that Bloodraven has been warging Rhaenys' cat Balerion. Balerion led Arya to overhear Varys' and Illyrio's convo.

Arya saw Illyrio and overheard him threatening Ned's life.

"If one Hand can die, why not a second?" replied the man with the accent and the forked yellow beard. "You have danced the dance before my friend." He was no one Arya had ever seen before, she was certain of it. Grossly fat, yet he seemed to walk lightly, carrying his weight on the balls of his feet as a water dancer might..."

[Jayce]

The FM seemed to be waiting for her and ready to train her, knowing who she is and keeping her there by making her feel like she doesn't have to stay (as some other posters point out).

Also she doesn't need to be 'no one' she just needs to make them believe she is 'no one' as that feels like a test to me, whether or not she can fool them (the almost un-fool-able) will be her passing the last and hardest of tests. If they believe her when she says that she is 'no one' then she can lie to anyone about anything and be believed. If that makes sense.

I think she will be sent to Dany, I would like to think she allies with Dany or similar. I would also like to think that come the Others fight she has met up with Nym and sends the whole pack in to fight with the remnants of the Wildlings, the North and anyone else fighting against the Others.

[TakingThemUnawares]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Try this: FM do send Arya to kill Cercei due to her refusal to pay the Iron Bank. Arya kills or otherwise assumes the identity of Tommen. Gets her wish of killing Cercei. And from Cercei's perspective, she is indeed killed by the valonqar.

[ChozenOne]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Try this: FM do send Arya to kill Cercei due to her refusal to pay the Iron Bank. Arya kills or otherwise assumes the identity of Tommen. Gets her wish of killing Cercei. And from Cercei's perspective, she is indeed killed by the valonqar.

That's a pretty sneaky way to end Cercei and let Arya do some badass FM stuff and get her revenge. It does fit the prophecy, from a certain point of view as Kenobi would say, and is the kind of twist I could see GRRM incorporating. I like it.

[bemused]

Oh boy, I don't think the FM seemed to be waiting for Arya ,at all..I think the KM and the Waif were completely nonplussed when she turned up at their door. when she kept asking after Jaqen , it's entirely possible that Jaqen was just an identity of convenience that they didn't know the Alchemist had taken , and it wasn't just secrecy ( or a riddle ) that made the KM answer " I know no-one by that name "

[JonTargaryenW/Viserion4WIN]

Who, What, or Where is Izembaro?

KM tells her she will leave for her first apprenticeship tomorrow.

"...you will go to Izembaro..."

He doesn't imply that it's a city or person or anything really.

He does tell her to put on a new face because the city watch are looking for an ugly little girl.

"He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. 'A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?'"

Some have speculated her training will be in the seven sighs but I find this a little creepy especially because he references her as a child and I don't think Martin would send off the youngest female main character to be sexualized but I would argue that some sort of sexual training could be important in Faceless (Wo)Man training.

My bet is on Izembaro being an Essosi warg who can help "No one" hone her skills

Or it could just be a place.

What do you think?

[ARYa_Nym]

I would rather not but Arya is 12 now. That's only a year younger than Dany was when she was married off to Drogo. I think she may get training because courtesans have been mentioned in her chapters, the KM offered to send her to become one before, and they are mentioned in the appendixes. Also, the KM saying that she needs pretty face gives me pause.

I don't think GRRM would have her do anything sexual if she is sent to get training (or at least I hope not) because she hasn't flowered yet. She may flower in the next book though.

[Faint]

It'll be interesting to read the reactions on the forum if Arya does end up killing Missandei who, after all, would easily qualify as her most innocent victim.

[Sheena]

I love Arya (she's definitely my favourite character) and I've read every post in this thread. As I read, I wrote points down that popped into my head as I had to work and wouldn't be able to reply until now. So I'm going to take the reasonable points (a couple were way out there) and post them below in something that is hopefully coherent.

• Reunions: I believe that Arya needs to (and will) reunite with Nymeria, the Stark children (especially Jon), and Gendry. Arya's connection with Nymeria is so strong even when they are in very different parts of the world. This tells us that Arya's warging ability is probably one of the more developed among the Stark children. Anyway, Nymeria, I think, serves as a symbol: Nymeria, the warriors Queen, was a conquerer and extremely strong woman. Arya is def a strong female and will no doubt be a warrior. It's only fitting that she find herself with her direwolf once more (who is a warrior and conquerer as well... a Queen too it would seem). I feel like it would make things complete - the direwolf and the girl fighting side by side, conquering others. Second, the Stark children. I simply just really want something happy for the Starks. End of story. But I think Jon and Arya's relationship has been set up as being a type of unbreakable bond. They are each on the other's mind frequently and I ... I just really want them to see each other again. Third, Gendry. I love Gendry and there's a lot that I think will happen to him, being Robert's bastard and all. King's blood, what have you. I loved their friendship and it just feels right that the two would encounter each other again. Someone somewhere had mentioned that Gendry will probably be found with the Lady Stoneheart crowd, so Arya will be able to see her mother again... or the ghost of her mother, since she saw her dead and all. I don't think all of these reunions will happen, but they def should.
  

• Faceless Men: there are a lot of posts surrounding Arya's time with the FM. I agree with the idea that Arya will not complete her training. She will get what she wants - the information on how to completely change her face - and then she'll up and leave. Whether this is because she wants to answer her "prayer" or because she hears word of Jon's "injuries" or another Stark's trouble, I don't know. I don't care. I just think she will go back to Westeros. I don't think that she will be sent to kill Dany, but I may be missing some information that others seem to have about the FM's agenda. Mostly, I don't want her to do any harm to Dany.
  

I think it's very important to note that Arya will have a new, pretty face (as mentioned by another poster). First, I wonder if it could be someone's face that we once knew. Second, if she decides to leave the FM during this time, which I think could be the case, Arya will find herself acting as someone new, while remaining as Arya Stark, as I believe she always will. In this case, she will be able to kill those who have wronged her. LaroC said that Arya's "prayer" was the only constant thing among the frequent identity changes, so I agree that it will be answered in some way. However, I don't think she'll go in search of these people - I think something more important will come up - and she will rather encounter them by coincidence (with a new face, perhaps) and kill them happily.

As Jayce said, Arya must only make the Kindly Man/FM believe that she truly is no one. In order to acheive that, I think she will first perfect lying and then she will convince the KM/FM that SHE believes she is "no one" and therefore a Faceless (Wo)Man. Perhaps that will give her leave to go out and complete whatever there is to be done. I know some of these ideas contradict one another. It's okay.

Um, I think Jaqen is going to appear soon. Not as Jaqen of course, but he will make himself known to Arya in one way or another. It has to happen.

• Lyanna: The similarities between Arya Stark and Lyanna should not be ignored. They were put there for a reason. I think more about Lyanna will be discovered in the upcoming books. Someone had mentioned (was it here or somewhere else?) that Arya has been able to live the life that Lyanna was never able to. It's full of adventure and new places that would never have been seen if she had remained in Winterfell in the beginning. I think she has also developed a love for killing. Anyway, Arya's aversion to marriage and having babies of her own might mean that she is not destined to the same fate as Lyanna (may have been). Someone had mentioned that people within Arya's prayer do seem to be dying and questioned whether her wish that (whatshisface) Frey's princess would mean that Arya is also destined to die. I hope not. But it's def a possibility. Just because Arya is reportedly one of GRRM's favourite characters, does NOT make her safe. It's the ones that we like the most that we should most expect to die.
  

I hope Arya doesn't die.

[ViSeiRa]

I think that as much as we try to speculate about Arya's arc in the next (hopefully) two books, we can't quite pin where GRRM's taking her, he's usually unpredictable and no character is sacred for him. Even so, I'll share a few points about Arya that I think will pretty much affect her story in ASoIaF:

[1] Apprenticeship: an apprenticeship is basically "observing a master at work" and in time work with the master, my guess is some of the adventures and events you all predicted for Arya would indeed happen but she'll be accompanied with a senior FM that'll provide guidance and support, there's a common zen poem that describes how to follow a path:

To follow a path,

Look to the master,

Follow the master,

Walk with the master,

See through the master,

Become the master.

Now arguably Arya went through the first couple of steps, she's already looked at the master (Jaqen) and she followed him (a metaphor for his path) by going to Bravoos and initiating her training with the Faceless Men, now it's her time to walk with a master, as in become an apprentice and going on high stake missions with one of the more experienced FM so that she can further hone her skill, I can predict that by the end of WoW she'll reach the 4th step with little to separate her from reaching the 5th and final step of becoming a true FM, and I in contrary to most here think she'll actually finish her training with the mysterious organization.

[2] The Prayer: In the TV show, when Jaqen was inviting Arya to Bravoos with him he said "names to offer up to the red god" about her prayers, now and to this moment we still don't know how the FM choose their targets, although it'd be cool to have something akin to the loom of fate in Wanted I doubt it'll be that simple, the FM accept contracts to give the gift in return for some kind of offering the god of death, doesn't the KM always talk about Arya giving herself up to Him of Many Faces? does that amount to some kind of sacrifice that allows every FM to have his/her enemies killed in exchange for his service? only another FM does the killing for him? I think that'd be a very interesting notion.

[3] Starks: I think the Starks will eventually reunite although it could be a bittersweet union, I'm in the camp that believes it's Jon Targaryen and not Jon Stark, so I'll exclude him from this, but the rest of the Starks? they'll emerge to have their vengeance, "The North Remembers" and "Winter is Coming" are not just words, they're warnings and promises, whether Arya will be a part of that vengeance remains to be seen.

[4] Jon & Arya: That's a tricky one, their love and care for each other has been much emphasized in the last two books, I believe news of Jon's assassination (attempt?) will reach Arya, but it'll drive her in the opposite direction, she won't up and go to avenge him, she'll lose her last connection to her family and sink deeper into FM mentality, what might bring her back is knowledge that he's still alive, Arya always called herself (as Nymeria) the Nigh Wolf, I hope this becomes a personality of hers, one that she wears when she's on killer mode.

[5] Volanqar & The Queen: Many believe it's Tyrion, others that it's Jaime but I believe it'll be Arya; it could be that the right interpretation of the word is "little sibling" and the maegi didn't say "your volanqar" so it's some younger sibling, Arya? who knows but it may very well be, another part of the prophecy is that she'll be replaced by another queen, one that is younger and more beautiful than her, now people's reaction to Arya is different when it comes to beauty, some see her as plain, other as beautiful and her father once compared her to Lyanna which allegedly was very beautiful, so Arya as queen? maybe, it's one of the things she never wanted, but we all know she can adapt to almost any situation and if she has to be queen... she will be.

Sorry about the wall of text, but Arya is my favorite character and I really can't wait to read WoW and see more of her and her adventures.

[Lady Wylla Manderly]

Arya's storyline is one of the most unpredictable ones for me, and I pay twice as attention to hers because she's my favourite. I truly want her to return to Westeros and become ARYA again. I know it's not poor Jeyne's fault but the fact that everyone seems to think that "Arya" is married to Ramsay SNOW is making my skin crawl. My hope is that she and Rickon will reunite after Wyman Manderly returns Rickon to Winterfell with Ser Davos and reveals his true allegiance to Stannis. I'm sure Rickon would be able to tell which one is her real sister. Right? I hope so.

[Jolene Brown]

When Aemon talks about how they were wrong about the gender of the person they were waiting for, wasn't it tied to the fact that dragons don't have a gender? But brother is not ambiguous when it comes to gender - I don't think the same kind of misunderstanding is going to happen there, or that GRRM will use the same trick twice. If there is a twist, the key there is going to be either it being Jaime when Cercei expects Tyrion or the issue with it being "the younger brother," not "your younger brother." I don't see Arya as the valonqar, for that reason, and lots of people on her list have died at other people's hands already.

[Lionofwar87]

I think shes going to get a contract for "Alayne Stone" not knowing her real identity. I'd like Sansa last words to be "Arya?".

[HaflFaceless]

[5] Volanqar & The Queen: Many believe it's Tyrion, others that it's Jaime but I believe it'll be Arya; it could be that the right interpretation of the word is "little sibling" and the maegi didn't say "your volanqar" so it's some younger sibling, Arya? who knows but it may very well be, another part of the prophecy is that she'll be replaced by another queen, one that is younger and more beautiful than her, now people's reaction to Arya is different when it comes to beauty, some see her as plain, other as beautiful and her father once compared her to Lyanna which allegedly was very beautiful, so Arya as queen? maybe, it's one of the things she never wanted, but we all know she can adapt to almost any situation and if she has to be queen... she will be.

Sorry about the wall of text, but Arya is my favorite character and I really can't wait to read WoW and see more of her and her adventures.

Through Sansa's marriage to Tyrion, she is Cersei's sister-in-law, which may satisfy the valonqar status, if it's interpreted as younger sibling, and not brother.

[Anya, Vengeance Demon]

But here's the thing for me : Everywhere Dany goes, she meets new people and some of them wind up being / getting quite close to her .. close enough to be able to be informed as to what's going on , if they have their wits about them. So I don't think Arya would be limited to the characters named.

I think that understates how unique Missandei is. We've been to a lot of courts, for lords and kings and so forth. How many of them feature twelve year old girls in important positions? Jon says that in Westeros, twelve year old girls are seen as children. The Dothraki don't have many important women outside of the dosh khaleen, who are older women as a rule and whose influence isn't nearly the same as Missandei's. And basically, that would amount to GRRM creating a Missandei-like character to serve the same function that Missandei herself could serve.

[bemused]

Harry the Heir... We may never be able to agree on this..:) I meant to imply that Missandei's uniqueness cannot be overstated , and to my mind , that raises many problems as well as providing opportunity.

Firstly, while I'm sure the FM , in Braavosi interests, would want to know what's up with Dany, I'm not sure they'd be interested in killing her ( at least at this stage of the game ). So if they'd want someone , at least initially,to be on an information gathering mission , I would think they'd have a more experienced operative , with more of the skills necessary to impersonate Missandei , in the Waif.

Dang ! I have an interruption . G-r-r-r! I'll have to come back.

[Anya, Vengeance Demon]

So if they'd want someone , at least initially,to be on an information gathering mission , I would think they'd have a more experienced operative , with more of the skills necessary to impersonate Missandei , in the Waif.

Dramatically speaking, GRRM's not going to send the Waif to do something important that Arya could do.

[bemused]

Yeah...but dramatically speaking ,GRRM must have lots of options for Arya's path. I'm not sure that sending her to infiltrate Dany's court will turn out to be the one he chooses. And I don't think that's the only feasible way Arya's and Dany's paths could cross ( or the only way Arya's wish / daydream of getting to see dragons and sea monsters could become reality ). And I would think if he chose that path for her he'd take care to work out some of the obstacles to that choice. ( so if it's to be , I wouldn't imagine it to be anytime soon ).

GRRM has given us a few examples of the way FM work. Arya is sent out as the blind girl to gather information by being unremarkable..someone who can just fade into the background. People don't notice her,or don't think she's worth noticing and therefore don't guard what they say near her. She could ( and apparently did ) use this persona repeatedly.

With the Ugly girl, she's given a persona that people will remember , so that should she fall under suspicion, she would be safe as soon as she adopts another guise. An excellent precaution for an apprentice carrying out a killing.

The Alchemist appears to go to the location and from there make his own decision as to what persona to adopt , and formulate his own plan as to how to achieve his goal.

Someone else would have to get close enough to decide that Missandei would be the best person to supplant..Then there would be the problem of disposing of the original Missandei, who doesn't wander around as freely as Pate, for example. As I said before , I'd think that they'd want to prepare Arya as well as possible, because I don't think they'd want to consider her disposable if she was discovered , or take the risk that she would reveal what she knows about them . Whatever her mission , she'd need support to get in and support to get out again . So why wouldn't they choose to use an experienced FM, who wouldn't need support, and maybe go for Barristan, or another of Dany's close circle ?

Actually , from an FM point of view, I'd think the innermost circle of Dany's associates would not be the best choice. Close but not too close would be better , I would think. A guard , a servant, someone around on a daily basis , but not a close confidant.

I think one of the other interesting possibilities for Arya has to come from the appearance of the Fake Arya on the scene. and the importance of what's going on in the North of Westeros. It's not clear what this will mean to the FM or to Arya herself.

[ghotibowl]

At first I thought maybe Izembaro was a person who would teach Arya how to kill or whatever, but the more I come across the courtesan idea on the forums the more I think it might actually be true. SLIGHTLY off topic, but in the show Firefly there is a girl who is a "companion" (which is pretty much a courtesan). Aside from just having sex with people, she is trained to read peoples' emotions and body language, as well as manipulate their feelings and such by using her own body language etc. That being said, Arya could be training as a courtesan in all things except the sex part, which would make sense imo.

[JP Dayne]

arya is gonna kill the mountain. that's the only place i'd put money on what's to come for her :D