Becoming No One: Rereading Arya II

[Uncat]

Btw. did someone ever pickup on Harrenhall = HH which would be short for "Heil Hitler". Quite an acronym for that place. But I'm pretty sure people did see it ages ago.

[Lummel]

No, never seen that before.

[ShadowCat Rivers]

Rorge and Biter were there, she didn't want them to know, and she couldn't be sure just yet that that the northmen would win. What if they would lose?

[Uncat]

Well, then the girl, who brought the soup would be in for a treat anyway. But still you are right about Biter and Rorge. Guess, Lummel has it right.

[1234567]

Well we have reached the end of ACOK.

Summary for the book will be up on Monday evening / Tuesday evening. :)

Sorry more lateness.

[1234567]

ACOK Summary and Analysis: Finally! (Sorry about the delay everyone)

So here we are finally at the end of ACOK and the Arya we have at the end of this book is a very different Arya to the one who left us at the end of AGOT.

At the start of ACOK we have a small girl who is in grief and hiding, but is essentially safe and on a journey towards home. In the first couple of chapters we feel a rising tension and foreboding which soon comes to fruition with the death of Yoren and the third time Arya experiences the removal of a male fatherly figure if added to Syrio and Ned’s deaths. * Then comes the most horrific part of Arya’s story in ACOK (and arguably the worst apart from the RW) the captivity by Gregor Clegane and the days watching the group being tortured to death one at a time until they are put on a forced march, filled with death, violence and rape, to Harrenhal.

There is certainly a gothic feel to Harrenhal and it’s ghostly and crumbling visage echoes more of the mundane brutality of Castle life where petty and small minded people are given bits of power and Arya is one of the powerless at their mercy. This is where we see her self conceptualised identity as “a mouse” transform into “the ghost” with the help of Jaqen and her reestablishment of her connection to the old gods and her slowly growing connection to the wolves outside Harrenhal who are led by Nymeria. We see her ability to enact personal power through Jaqen, and then eventually to free the Northmen with the assistance of Jaqen. We also see that while Arya sees things on a immediate field, she (quite naturally at her age) is unaware of the bigger political picture surrounding events. The events following Weasel Soup, lead her to being Roose Bolton’s cupbearer and then through her discovery of Vargo being put in control of Harrenhal, which precipitates her daring escape plan and her first kill that cannot purely be put down to self-defence or in support of her family.

In discussing her first chapter, Just an Other pointed out that “Her going on the road is contrasted with Winterfell, two environments where Arya feels like an outsider. As the comparison of the two respective nicknames indicates, this is decidedly worse. It is also a reality check between an environment she felt like an outsider and an environment where she actually is one.” Indeed throughout her Arc, ‘Arry, Weasel, a mouse and Nan are all commoners without a support structure around them. Of all the identities she assumes only “the Ghost” is something outside the ordinary. It is also serves as a bridge to the references to death in Arya’s arc, which are constant throughout. The frequent change of name also marks the beginning of a fluid identity for Arya that will continue until ADWD and presumably beyond. Elaena Targaryen writes a bit about this here.

Arya’s desire to regain a “pack” is a further undercurrent of her arc in this book. She begins to do so with Hotpie, Lommy and Gendry, but it is her bravery and selfless saving of Jaqen, Rorge and Biter that wins her the unexpected help of Jaqen (or not so unexpected if he is Syrio in disguise **). It also highlights that a good action, helping them, also has negative consequences as Rorge and Biter will go on to terrorize and murder until their own deaths at the hands of Brienne and the BWB. However their release as commented by Brashcandy highlights Arya’s sense of fairness and right and wrong. Just as she rescues the little girl, she will not leave the men to burn as it would be wrong. As Vuron pointed out, she in many ways lives up to the ideals of Knighthood: defending the weak even when she doesn’t have to. The only negative side we see to this is (in line with her behaviour in AGOT) that her first response to almost any situation where she is frustrated in her goals is to react with violence as a way to solve whatever is happening at the time.

However she does begin to form a new pack or group with Gendry, Hotpie and Lommy. Indeed, her time with Gendry and Hotpie is the only respite from horror and fear in her chapters and as Lyanna Stark noted there is even an element of slapstick and humour to their conversations.

On her travels we sense her growing intuition and her ability to work out when something is just not right. Much gained from her lessons with Syrio which she use to survive at several points in the story. For example at the abandoned village she thinks:

As they rode between the silent white houses, gooseprickles crawled up Arya’s arms. This empty town frightened her almost as much as the burnt holdfast where they’d found the crying girl and the one-armed woman. Why would people run off and leave their homes and everything? What could scare them so much?

A lot of this is her own instincts in combination with Syrio’s lessons, but given the growing connection to Nymeria, this could also be Nymeria’s animal instincts coming into play as well.

In terms of seeing where her character might develop from her experiences in ACOK the seeds for her working effectively for the FM are already in place. For example, Errant Bard further highlighted her ability to pick up information without being seen by playing a commoner, in detail here. In addition in Harrenhal we see that she does gather information easily through her disguise as a commoner due to those higher up assuming she can’t read:

“Weese never imagined she could read, though, so he never bothered to seal the messages he gave her. Arya peeked at them all. “

Arya is already picking up spying abilities.

The influence of Syrio is incredibly strong. She constantly remembers his words and uses his lessons to give herself strength. When she becomes the ghost, there is even some joy to be taken in the small victories she can take such as spitting on Ser Amory’s tarts.

“Eating Ser Amory’s tart made Arya feel daring. Barefoot surefoot lightfoot, she sang under her breath. I am the ghost in Harrenhal.”

Between the memory of Syrio and the assistance of Jaqen, she has become empowered again.

The importance of the “ghost” is it gives her back a sense of personal strength:

It wasn’t Harren … It was me. She had killed Chiswyck with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate.

However her power here is regained through no one knowing her identity rather than regaining her identity publically as Arya. She is in essence the hidden blade. However it is only too late that she realises that she could have used that power better when she sees Tywin leaving:

I’m so stupid, she thought. Weese did not matter, no more than Chiswyck had. These were the men who mattered, the ones she ought to have killed. Last night she could have whispered any of them dead, if only she hadn’t been so mad at Weese for hitting her and lying about the capon. Lord Tywin, why didn’t I say Lord Tywin?

In a sense Arya doesn’t see the wood for the trees.

The main advantage to being the ghost though is her return of some degree of power in a situation where she was powerless. Better said by Lyanna Stark below:

That seems to tie in with Arya's feelings of powerlessness as well. Like Sansa is in Kings Landing through ACOK, Arya is so incredibly powerless after Yoren's death. She's truly in survival mode and can only be a spectator through all the horrors. Jaqen's offer is the first chance she gets to actually exert some power on her own, and to take charge. She may not be able to look Chiswyck in the eyes as he dies, but in a manner of speaking, she has been "looking Chiswyck in the eye" as long as she has been a prisoner to the Lannister henchmen. She's done nothing but seen with her own eyes the effects of their actions. And Chiswyck's tale is a bit of a "confession" as well. He confesses to Arya, and she as the judge finds him guilty. It may not be his final words, but they are his own words on what happened, and not someone else's twisted version of events.

The disadvantage of her relationship with Jaqen was highlighted by Lummel and how Jaqen gives Arya a Faustian deal when he offers her the 3 wishes: She may not in the end be thankful that she was given them. Indeed through the Weasel Soup and the escape, Arya has become a much darker character than how she started out. There is certainly a powerful inference when Jaqen wipes his blade on her tunic and tells her

“A girl should be bloody too. This is her work.”

. We then see a slightly darker reaction from Arya when she kills the guard during her escape:

“What did you think I would do?” Her fingers were sticky with blood, and the smell was making her mare skittish. It’s no matter, she thought, swinging up into the saddle. The rain will wash them clean again.

The rain washing them clean being very reminiscent of Lady MacBeth and Pontious Pilot and of course Little Finger, and is certainly ominous in tone.

Also contrary to popular opinion we also see that Arya despite liking Masculine activities and dressing as a boy, very much identifies as a girl. As noted by Lyanna Stark: This is definitely something to keep in mind for further reading, I think, that like Brienne, Arya seems to reject the traditional role of women in society, but she does not reject the fact that she is a woman. In that, Arya has very "modern" problems. Modern women also battle trying to balance work with children, or doing something outside the home with having a family. That does not necessarily mean a complete rejection of anything related to having children and a family. Arya also seems to value her mother a lot, which means she doesn't have issues with motherhood based on a negative role model. Cat seems to be a source of strength that both Arya and Sansa can draw from.

And by Brashcandy: Jaqen tells her that a boy becomes a girl, but she insists that she was always a girl

This links to another seeming misperception, which is that Arya is nothing like Cat. Indeed the links between Cat’s personality and Arya’s are highlighted at various points.

• Mirijam noted: Arya wanting to bury at least Yoren is similar to Catelyn insisting on burying the dead on the way to the Eyrie.
  
• Starkalways noted the similarity between Cat and Arya in their mothering capacity: "Arya tugged at Weasel's matted hair, thinking it might be best to hack it off." compared to "Catelyn looked at Bran in his sick bed and brushed his hair back off his forehead. It had grown very long, she realized. She would have to cut it soon."
  
• Errant Bard noted: A Catelyn trait: she see Lorch's banner and a stab of hate goes through her. That's strong, for a kid who underwent Gregor's care and months under Weese. Funny echo in "I hope they all die", Catelyn says as much to Brienne.
  
• Cat and Arya both have musing on who can talk to the dead: “silent sisters do not speak to the living, Catelyn remembered dully, but some say they can talk to the dead. And how she envied that…” and “Perhaps the dead could speak to them in some secret tongue the living could not hear.”
  

Also contrary to popular opinion we see that like her sister Sansa, she too, believes that Knights should help people: “Arya could reveal herself to Lady Whent, and the knights would escort her home and keep her safe. That was what knights did; they kept you safe, especially women. Maybe Lady Whent would even help the crying girl.” As Lyanna Stark points out, she also has similar thoughts about Yoren as Sansa does over Ser Dontos, namely that their protectors are not as the stories make out, which both saddens and frustrates them: He was going to take me home, she thought as they dug the old man’s hole. There were too many dead to bury them all, but Yoren at least must have a grave, Arya had insisted. He was going to bring me safe to Winterfell, he promised. Part of her wanted to cry. The other part wanted to kick him.

Again later after Weasel Soup, she presumes life will get better because her Brother’s forces will be in charge. There was a lot of discussion about this with excellent points raised by BrashCandy, UnCat, ShadowCat Rivers, Cruella, Lummel, Lyanna Stark etc. It was noted that again she was expecting things to get better, but for many in Harrenhal they got worse (Pia the dead etc), while for others all they did was stay the same.

We are also reminded that she is still just a little girl who desperately wants to go home and see her family.:

I wish I was home,” she said miserably. She tried so hard to be brave, to be fierce as a wolverine and all, but sometimes she felt like she was just a little girl after all.

When she thought of seeing Robb’s face again Arya had to bite her lip. I want to see Jon too, and Bran and Rickon, and Mother. Even Sansa … I’ll kiss her and beg her pardons like a proper lady, she’ll like that.

The utter sadness that Arya has lost her childhood and needs to support herself from the age of 10, is one of the saddest aspects of her arc.

Foreshadowing, Symbolism and imagery

Water

Water is constantly referenced in Arya’s chapters. Milday of York wrote up a nice bit about water and swans here. and Fire Eater noted the references to Swan’s and Arya’s similarity to the Ugly Duckling story.

Gendry

There is a Lot of potential Gendry Foreshadowing in ACOK:

Brashcandy pointed out :

“The red comet/The Red Sword: Gendry says it looks like a sword, newly forged, and Arya thinks it’s not just any sword but Ice smeared with her father’s blood. Is this possible foreshadowing that Gendry will have a hand in reforging Ice? It does underscore how people often see what they want to see, based on their own experiences and emotional involvement.”

The latter point being reiterated by Lummel and Ragnarok who commented that everyone one in the novel sees something different in the comet and we may be just as wrong as in world book characters.

There are however several references that link Gendry to fire, although again as an Armourer this may just be association by trade.

“Arya would watch him polish the metal with an oilcloth, shining it so bright you could see the flames of the cookfire reflected in the steel. “

Arya grabbed Gendry by the arm. “He said go,” she shouted, “the barn, the way out.” Through the slits of his helm, the Bull’s eyes shone with reflected fire.

“Would m’lady permit? Could I shoe your horses for you, and make swords for your lordly brothers?”

Braavos Foreshadowing and Possibly Dany:

As Arya crossed the yard to the bathhouse, she spied a raven circling down towards the rookery, and wondered where it had come from and what message it carried. Might be it’s from Robb, come to say it wasn’t true about Bran and Rickon. She chewed on her lip, hoping. If I had wings I could fly to Winterfell and see for myself. And if it was true, I’d just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan’s stories, dragons and sea monsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn’t ever fly back unless I wanted to.

The House of Black and White and Death

Death Themes repeat throughout ACOK.

• We have Arya’s death list prayer: “ Every night Arya would say their names. “Ser Gregor,” she’d whisper to her stone pillow. “Dunsen, Polliver, Chiswyck, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei.” Ice Turtle has noted down the pattern Arya uses for her nightly prayer here.
  
• Arya drinking her fill of the water when she had avoided it before only to discover it is tainted with death as pointed out by Lommy: “I told you there was bodies,” Lommy announced. “I could taste them in that water.” Also a nod to the House of W&B and the pool where the water is literally death.
  
• Arya almost hearing the voices of the dead: There are several times Arya can almost hear the dead through the trees when others can’t. Elaena Targeted noted Arya hearing Syrio words in the stable in AGOT and linked it to Mormon talking to Jon, when he told him that” The children of the forest could speak to the dead, it's said." Although ARYA is not a CoF, she is a Warg and the powers could be linked. We certainly see some of this in her arc: “When the wind blew, Arya thought she could hear the long trailing branches whispering, “Please. Please. Please.” The little hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she almost ran from the graveside.” The symbolism of Weeping willows to life and death was raised by Ragnorak and further expanded upon by Milady of York, here and Kittensrulebeetsdrool also referenced the symbolism of willows for Death in Japanese legends, here.
  
• There is a lot of imagery of Arya in the dark and in the moonlight, again connecting her to the House of Black and White. These references may have an element of foreshadowing connected to the FM:“About his neck he wore a chain made of linked coins of many different sizes, shapes, and metals, and his horse was one of the strange black-and-white ones.“You don’t want to know that lot, Weasel,””I took the “You don’t want to know that lot, Weasel,” as not just a comment on the Bloody Mummers, but also a subtle nod towards the FM and getting involved with them. There are also the coins from many lands hinting at the FM and that they take coin from anywhere.“Their armour glinted pale in the moonlight, and she saw a pair of striped black and white zorses. The Bloody Mummers. Arya withdrew a little deeper into the shadows.”Again more Black and White and Darkness and Moonlight, the Zebra/Horse crossbreeds providing even further black and white symbolism. Indeed the Mummers change sides but they essentially the same group.
  
• She also hopes that Ser Addam Marbrand and all his men die, which may mean bad things for them as Arya’s death wishes tend to come true. I hope he dies, Arya thought as she watched him ride out the gate, his men streaming after him in a double column. I hope they all die.
  
• We also see Arya rather worryingly wish death on herself which ties in with the foreshadowing of her death from AGOT: “I hope your princess dies,” she said, and ran off before he could grab her.
  

Wargging

Arya begins to have encounters with Wolves. From the first wolf she meets at night in the woods to her growing wolf dreams and the sense that the wolves are near her to the protective nature of wolves in dreams:

• She must have slept, though she never remembered closing her eyes. She dreamed a wolf was howling, and the sound was so terrible that it woke her at once. Protective
  
• Arya was dreaming of wolves running wild through the wood when a strong hand clamped down over her mouth like smooth warm stone, solid and unyielding. (Her first true wargging dream)
  
• When he stopped moving, she picked up the coin. Outside the walls of Harrenhal, a wolf howled long and loud. (protective as it brought Gendry and HotPie without Arya having to fake a wolf howl, which may have raised suspicion.)
  
• We also have other references to her being able to hear the dead when she muses on Tothmure and the Ravens: “Perhaps the dead could speak to them in some secret tongue the living could not hear.” At the time she herself is no longer “the ghost”.
  

Lummel also pointed out that the faces on weirwoods are always either angry or sad. Is this the outlook of the old gods on life?

Warrior Woman

Like Nymeria, Arya is both a warrior but also a caring leader within her pack structure.

Ice Turtle pointed out the similarity between Arya and the Mormonts:

The girl wouldn’t walk, even when slapped. Arya dragged her with her right hand while she held Needle in the left.

reminds me little of this:

“There’s a carving on our gate,” said Dacey. “A woman in a bearskin, with a child in one arm suckling at her breast. In the other hand she holds a battleaxe."

Syrio / Jaqen

There are some hints that Syrio might be Jaqen because Arya thinks Jaqen reminds her of him and because he knows she is Arya. However as pointed out by Brashcandy:

Arya screams "Winterfell" many times... Jaqen heard for sure. So there's a noble kid wanted by the queen hailing from Winterfell. Hmm...

Bridge References

IN AGOT there were several covered bridge references and we have one again in ACOK:

The old gods of the north must have been guiding her steps. Halfway to the brewhouse, as she passing under the stone bridge that arched between Widow’s Tower and Kingspyre.

Interestingly connecting the King to a Widow: Joff / Marg?

The Ruins

There is an extremely Gothic feel to Arya’s time in Harrenhal. The people are living amongst the ruins of a deluded glory that fell crashing apart in hubris and flame. There are elements of terror, the supernatural and the power of destruction as well as the images conjured by the building itself. The gothic feel is created in many ways through the terror and majesty of the surroundings and given that “the sublime signals the limits of rationality – the ‘sleep’ of reason – and was best communicated by obscurity”*** then the idea of Arya becoming the Ghost in Harrenhal, gives her a gothic persona that will fit with the idea of Jaqen’s chapter end face change. What is normal – rational, in this instance is not. Harrenhal is a place of discord and non-logic.

Arya and the symbolism in Norse Myth

The seems to be a lot of corresponding links between Arya and the concept of the Valkyries and the Norns, at least one of whom, Skuld was also a Valkyrie. Their selection of the dead, has overtones that may differ from the FM ideals, relate to Arya’s death list and also to her insistence to return to find Yoren and her burying his body. He was the worth dead that she selected for a proper burial.

Similarly the Valkyries have strong associations to horses and wolves and ravens. They also take the form of Swan’s to come to earth to then change into human form to swim. They have to do this unobserved as they should not be seen and this reminded me of a couple of chapters ago, where Arya sees the Swan and wants to swim, but can’t as the others will then discover she’s a girl.

* I hope that Syrio being included there made Lummel smile.

** Sorry Lummel

[Uncat]

Rapsie, it was worth the wait. More later

[Lyanna Stark]

Wow, great and very comprehensive write up Rapsie. Need to read it again to note down things to comment on too!

[Errant Bard]

Braavos Foreshadowing and Possibly Dany:

At least a sensible use of the word "foreshadowing", since it describes what she would want to do, and so if the occasion arises, what she could decide to do, metaphorically.

Also, prophecy-wise: she describes a winged wolf.

Content-wise, she basically says that her family name is actually what is tying her down, and if not for that, she would prefer exploring the world. If she could let go of her past, of her anger, she could be happy that way, alas she did not give up on Needle and assorted feelings.

[Uncat]

Just a small thing, another instance of her hardening: GRRM mentiones the smell of the blood and then contrasts her horse reacting with fear.

Her fingers were sticky with blood, and the smell was making her mare skittish. It’s no matter, she thought, swinging up into the saddle. The rain will wash them clean again.

The smell of blood is a smell that triggers a lot of emotions in men and beast alike. But it does nothing to Arya. Her horse shows more emotion towards the blood and kill then the child on his back.

But as i said, nothing new. Just a nice detail on Martins writing.

So here we are finally at the end of ACOK and the Arya we have at the end of this book is a very different Arya to the one who left us at the end of AGOT.

And more then this, this is a break. The story of Arya the lost child ends in Harrenhall. Her escape is a ryte de passage culminating in the throat cutting. Arya killing the guard, she sacrifices her childhood to the Old Gods. The girl that climbs the horse feels like an adult to the reader.

As for Harrenhall, yes, it feels very gothic. But its gigantomanic architecture also keeps reminding me of the architecture of the Nazi Germany: larger then live, gigantomanic and more then everything designed to dwarf individuals into nothingness: You are to feel lost and helpless and overhelmed here. A single life means nothing there. Hitler never came to build his new capital. But if he had, it would have been a lot like Harrenhall.

[Ragnorak]

Very nice overview, Rapsie!

The idea of Bloodraven watching over Arya was something that never occurred to me before this reread. If we count him that makes two members of the Nights Watch and two people from Braavos that have been her tutors/protectors.

I also never noticed the Faith imagery mixed with the Old Gods before. She passes through the Sept and the godswood while escaping and there is the crystal on the grave before she hears the whispering from the willow at the other grave. It makes me wonder if Septon Meribold's The Cobbler speech in Brienne has any connections to Arya with her blacksmith hands.

The whispering willow and her musings on the ravens talking to the dead maester both deal with speaking or listening to the dead. Crackpot temptations abound with the crypts in Winterfell among other things but that's probably something to keep an eye out for in the future. Arya being a "ghost" also has connections to Jon through Ghost and his being the ghost in the crypts as well as the death connection.

I also never noticed that her arc more or less parallels the creation of the Faceless Men. With Jaquen at the Citadel and Dany having dragons with an anti-slavery campaign I wonder if there will be more to that parallel in Arya's future.

In recalling my first read I'm amazed at how much the humor and the hope and tension around Arya offset the horrors of what goes on in her chapters. The crying girl eating dirt and Gendry thinking about abandoning Hot Pie and Lommy is just awful stuff but the whole "yield" exchange changes the tone and feel. Even the sexual violence is offset by the relief of Arya being spared that fate. With very few exceptions (Theon and Jeyne Poole come to mind) Arya's chapters are probably the most brutal content in the series, but the delivery and the fact that she largely escapes the fate of what she witnesses around her don't give them that tenor initially. I also think the abuse Sansa endures heightens the tension for Arya on a first read. Sansa actually suffering abuse at the hands of her captors adds to the fears for Arya (and that probably works in reverse too with what Arya witnesses.)

[Lummel]

...* I hope that Syrio being included there made Lummel smile...

No it didn't. But please feel free to keep trying.

The only thing I would add is to stress the blood on the smock and blood on her hands as both a thematic link to other POVs and symbolic of ASOIAFs discussion about power and responsibility (not my idea alone, I know Blisscraft and Ragnorak amongst Others are thinking along the same lines. There are two aspects it seems to me about POV rereads, while you are drilling down and focusing in on one character in depth at the same time that allows parallels and links to other characters to emerge).

[1234567]

No it didn't. But please feel free to keep trying.

Ah Lummel. Is there no joy in your heart? I shall endevour to keep trying.

The only thing I would add is to stress the blood on the smock and blood on her hands as both a thematic link to other POVs and symbolic of ASOIAFs discussion about power and responsibility (not my idea alone, I know Blisscraft and Ragnorak amongst Others are thinking along the same lines. There are two aspects it seems to me about POV rereads, while you are drilling down and focusing in on one character in depth at the same time that allows parallels and links to other characters to emerge).

Excellent points. Indeed the line between responsibility and power and how to exercise power and view ones responsibility for ones actions actions seem to be one of the central themes of the series.

[Lummel]

Ah Lummel. Is there no joy in your heart? I shall endevour to keep trying...

not much :( however I appaud your undaunted endevours in advance :)

Anyhow even more pertinent than the state of my stony heart ;) ...

There is an extremely Gothic feel to Arya’s time in Harrenhal. The people are living amongst the ruins of a deluded glory that fell crashing apart in hubris and flame. There are elements of terror, the supernatural and the power of destruction as well as the images conjured by the building itself. The gothic feel is created in many ways through the terror and majesty of the surroundings and given that “the sublime signals the limits of rationality – the ‘sleep’ of reason – and was best communicated by obscurity”*** then the idea of Arya becoming the Ghost in Harrenhal, gives her a gothic persona that will fit with the idea of Jaqen’s chapter end face change. What is normal – rational, in this instance is not. Harrenhal is a place of discord and non-logic.

the sleep of reason brings forth monsters. Heh. Notice the black bat of Harrenhall there?

[Lyanna Stark]

Excellent points. Indeed the line between responsibility and power and how to exercise power and view ones responsibility for ones actions actions seem to be one of the central themes of the series.

:agree:

We've seen a lot of characters experience powerlessness in one form or another, often extreme powerlessness, and that influences their view (and often the readers' views!) on what is and what isn't a responsible use of power or taking respnsibility of one's actions. For Arya, that issue is really starting to take hold of her arc from when she kills the guard in Harrenhal.

AGOT sets the tone with Ned who says you owe it to a man to look him in the eyes and hear his last words if you are going to kill him. In many ways Tywin Lannister is the anti-Ned, as his approach is to always order others to do the dirty deeds, and also present them in a good light, and above all to totally mislead when it comes to responsibility (as we saw with his comment to the Tyrells et al about Rhaegar's children, whre he completely denied culpability). Littlefinger's "clean hands" comes to mind as well.

For Arya, we have Jaquen say "a girl should be bloody too" and we have the blood on her hands and blood on her smock. This places Arya more aligned with Ned than the Tywin/Littlefingers of the world. But that is a heavy burden to bear and I agree with Uncat that the Arya that leaves Harrenhal is not a child anymore. She's a very young war veteran, in a way.

[Daphne23]

Excellent write-up Rapsie - so comprehensive that I can only think of something to add here:

Arya’s desire to regain a “pack” is a further undercurrent of her arc in this book.

I think this is a desperately sad part of Arya's trajectory in Clash, actually. She gains the trust and friendship of Gendry and Hot Pie as they travel with Yoren, but by the end of Clash they view her with suspicion again and, on Hot Pie's part at least, fear. The Arya-Hot Pie relationship in fact goes full circle with Arya being initially threatened by Hot Pie when he claims that he violently murdered a boy, but the last scene in Clash shows Hot Pie aghast at Arya's killing of the guard. It's a status reversal that leaves neither of them better off. Sadly, I can't help feeling that the end of Arya's temporary pack was inevitable. I've written earlier in this thread that I feel Arya fails to understand Gendry and Hot Pie's situations and is manipulative when she forces them to leave Harrenhal with her, but to be fair, however considerate she had been, they can't stay as a pack forever because their goals are in opposition. Gendry continually emphasises the position of the smallfolk in a time of civil war, and how formal sides matter little when one's safety is at stake, whereas for Arya, house loyalties are still all-important and she's trying to win back her place as Arya Stark.

Arya's determination not simply to survive but to regain her family means that ultimately she has to part with Gendry and Hot Pie, and also leads to some of the actions that they find hard to stomach, like the guard's killing. I think this also highlights Arya's black-and-white logical thinking however - she (rightly, I believe) saw that the guard had to die for them to escape and went ahead and did it, while Hot Pie couldn't make that connection. I agree with whoever said earlier that this is reminiscient of Ned not keeping his own headsman but performing executions himself, but I also feel that it indicates how Arya's development is increasingly stunted. Which reminds me of this point:

I agree with Uncat that the Arya that leaves Harrenhal is not a child anymore. She's a very young war veteran, in a way.

I do mostly agree with this, but I think it depends what we mean by 'child'. Arya certainly isn't a child any more in terms of innocence and naivety, and in this sense she is a 'war veteran', traumatised by her experiences. But I do think that an important theme in Arya's arc is actually arrested development - not growing beyond a childlike view of the world because she has been stunted (temporarily, I hope) by the awful things she has witnessed. I think we see this in the simplistic way she rationalises the guard's murder and her binary view of right and wrong. Arya's simple moral compass is often a great asset to her, but it can also be a burden.

[Lyanna Stark]

I do mostly agree with this, but I think it depends what we mean by 'child'. Arya certainly isn't a child any more in terms of innocence and naivety, and in this sense she is a 'war veteran', traumatised by her experiences. But I do think that an important theme in Arya's arc is actually arrested development - not growing beyond a childlike view of the world because she has been stunted (temporarily, I hope) by the awful things she has witnessed. I think we see this in the simplistic way she rationalises the guard's murder and her binary view of right and wrong. Arya's simple moral compass is often a great asset to her, but it can also be a burden.

That's a very good way of putting it! And an interesting theme to follow through the rest of the novels as well.

[1234567]

Anyhow even more pertinent than the state of my stony heart ;) ...

the sleep of reason brings forth monsters. Heh. Notice the black bat of Harrenhall there?

Not only the Bat, but there is a cat in the corner. Great pic!

[Blisscraft]

I honestly don't remember if anyone else brought this idea up, but please forgive me if you did.

Blooding - When Jaqen wipes the blood on Arya, it seems like a "blooding." For anyone unfamiliar with the term, it comes from fox hunting. Once the poor fox has been captured and killed, most often by the hounds, the youngest or most inexperienced rider's face is "painted" with the deceased fox's blood. The "innocent" huntsman now is marked by experience of hunting and killing the fox or other prey.

Arya, at least to Jaqen, orders the killing and is now initiated into the experience of talking life as part of a "commander." She choses the victim to be killed, rather than effecting it herself. Her intent has transformed from a "self defense" mode, that is, acting to save herself in a "fair fight," or mutual combat situation to a much more "malicious" one. As such, Jaqen "marks" her with the blood. As said above, it not only reflects her responsibility in the victim's death, but also is a symbol of her change in status. This is perhaps why she does not "fight" the Northern guard at the HH gate. She is no longer only a "water dancer" engaged in the martial art of mutual combat. She tricks the poor man with the coin and slices his throat. No dancing is involved. No art. Only valar morgulis, all men must die.

Rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous - This is central to the Riverlands story line. Autumn is present and with it so much damp and dreariness and dankness. Arya hopes the auntumn rain will cleanse her blood from hands.

Rain is symbolic of two things. First, it is a symbol of fertilization and as such is related to the general symbolism of life and water. Second, it is a symbol of purification.

Water is a great part of Arya's story as noted above and will continue throughout her story as we will see in the later books. As a means of fertilization, water is required to give life to earth, to stir seeds to grow, and benefit all living creatures. It is a "universal substance" in every culture and one of the four elements. Rainfall comes from the sky; falls from Heaven above to earth below. Consequently, rain is also associated with the spiritual world and its influence upon the earth and represents the "sacred marriage" between Heaven and Earth.

Rainfall as a means of purification is dualistic. Rain can cleanse with gentle steady fall, (as Arya hopes it will to clean her hands of blood), or pour down so hard and heavy that it is a deluge and one must, like Noah, build an ark to survive as the entire world must be cleansed of evil men. (As Fire Eater will note, it's a "destroyer, preserver" as in Shelley's West Wind). However, as the reference above from the Bible suggests, rain's power to create or destroy is indescriminate. It falls upon everyone.

[Lummel]

I like that Blisscraft, the fox hunting seems apt to me, there is no element of a fair fight at harrenhall, or indeed later in how the faceless men do their killings, it is a ritual that ends in the death of the participant.

Rain. I was thinking about the old pathetic fallacy - nature was weeping. Very apparent in ASOS in the Catelyn chapters before the red wedding, but maybe also here, the gods are weeping at the girl becoming a war veteran.