Becoming No One: Rereading Arya II

[Lyanna Stark]

Arya I ASOS will be up either tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully tonight but as I got delayed by taking the offspring to the emergency, planning went a bit out the window!

[Lummel]

Let that be a lesson to you Lyanna, always plan your emergencies!

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

Hello. I'd like to try and help with the conversation. Arya seems like an interesting character because it's so hard to see where she will end up from just casually reading the text.

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 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.

I'm starting to see a funny Brienne, Geadry, Arya triangle here. Not just love but also life and death.

Love: Brienne loved Geadry's uncle. Geadry's father was Robert, Robert loved Lyanna who was Arya's aunt.

Arya likes Geadry like a brother, like Jon Snow. Geadry teases her, play fights with her etc. even after Geadry finds out her true identity.

Geadry seems to have affections for Arya treats her like Jon Snow does sometimes but realizes that there's a "status" between them that Arya doesn't seem to care about.

Life and Death:

Arya gives aid to Rorge, Biter and Jaqen, who later as the bloody mummers give her aid in weasel soup. Arya kills "Jaqen"( in name) and Biter is killed by Geadry while saving Brienne's life in the process.

Geadry joins the BwB and he and Arya are split up. She refuses abandon her identity of Arya Stark. Brienne joins the BwB after being given a choice. The choice is serve or death. All men must serve, all men must die.

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.

She has a pattern to the grouping if you look at it. She lists the knights together usually(one exception is the Mountain), the nicknames, the non knight people and then she lists King Joffrey and Queen Cersei.

It's also interesting to note that The Hound is dead but not Sandor, same with his brother, Ser Gregor is dead but the Mountain lives on through a different name.

• 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.
  

The princess dies could mean a lot of things, her title being destroyed, her identity as Arya Stark being stolen or her giving up her identity.

[Beets]

Ah! This exists! It is a thing! Arya Re-Reads are officially a thing! I shall hereby set up camp in this thread, and leave only for food and bathroom breaks.

As I build a summer home in this topic: Has the relationship between Arya and the animals she comes to represent been explored?

All of the Starks hold on to their wolf connections, but as the girls, Sansa and Arya, grow away from their roots, they also end up adopting other animals. Ever since KL, Sansa's been a 'little bird' - now that she's in the Eeyrie, the nickname's even more appropriate, and she really HAS become one of those pretty little talking birds that repeats the words of others, as she's a mockingbird of House Baelish to all outward appearances. Arya, however, has been skipping from animal to animal the way Margaery Tyrell skips from king to king. She was Horseface, then a mouse, then a weasel, and now a cat. Does the constant exchanging of animals signify further how Arya has yet to find who she really is, and that she may have been the "No One" of the FM since the very beginning?

[WiDMNDBAMMD]

Arya has a lot of

if I was this I could do this kinda things with animals.

If I was a crow I could pluck his[Joffrey's] lips off, when wondering what his head would look like dipped in tar

If I could fly I'd go to Winterfell and see that it was a lie, or if it was try I would fly above the moon and stars to see the stuff in Old Nan's stories, monsters and dragons and the Titan of Braavos.

I think she might even mention at one point if she was a fish she could swim back to Winterfell...

and so on.

[Quiet Isle]

I tend to agree with you on Lorch, mostly. Even if Tywin didn't order them to be brutal, it is clear he didn't forbid it, and probably told them to be thorough and possibly also "putting the fear" into Tywin's enemies. In the Tyrion reread, we saw that Tywin appreciated how useful these "dogs" could be, so clearly Tywin knows and knew what people like Lorch and Gregor could be used for.

Tywin did a "Rains of Castemere" on Elia and Rhaegar's children, same as he is doing on the Riverlands here in Arya's chapter. Rape, pillage and burn, thoroughly and without remorse or distinctions made for social rank or origin. This time starring not only Gregor and Lorch, but also Vargo Hoat, going by the armless woman. (I tend to lean more towards Hoat than the Tickler, normally because I'd think the Tickler's victims would not survive at all, while Hoat is ok with maiming and then letting them perish on their own. We'll see more of the Tickler soon enough though.)

EDIT: It's also interesting to note here that Arya wonders what can make the people who left the village so afraid. Then we get a direct view into exactly why these people took everything they had and legged it. The long arm of Tywin Lannister and the horrors of war, as it happens.

Lyanna Stark, you are brilliant. and say things in a way that other "massive posters" don't. you're never harsh, or judgemental, or narcissistic. you lay it out. thank you. i mean that.

[Lyanna Stark]

We're off with Arya's story in "A Storm of Swords". Rapsie did the great summary for ACOK above and now we have 12 new Arya chapters to look forward to in ASOS.

Arya I ASOS - Running with wolves

Summary:

We left Arya in ACOK when she fled Harrenhal together with Gendry and Hot Pie. Arya I ASOS starts with the three of them riding away in the rain, heading north in the dark. Arya is in the lead. She can hear wolves.

Wolves howled off in the distance, and she could hear Hot Pie's heavy breathing. No one spoke.

Arya believes that they are followed.

They would be, she knew. She had stolen three horses from the stables and a map and a dagger from Roose Bolton's own solar, and killed a guard on the postern gate, slitting his throat when he knelt to pick up the worn iron coin that Jaqen H'ghar had given her.

Arya thinks Roose Bolton won't come himself, but he will send either Steelshanks Walton or the Brave Companions.

Others called them the Bloody Mummers (though never to their faces), and sometimes the Footmen, for Lod Vargo's habit of cutting off the hands and feet of men who displeased him.

If they catch us, he'll cut off our hands and feet, Arya thought, and then Roose Bolton will peel the skin off us.

Arya often looks back and expects to see followers. She goes to some lengths to avoid pursuit, by riding in brooks and avoiding the roads all together.

There is death on the road, she told herself, death on all the roads.

Hot Pie and Gendry are following her without question, and she suspects that Hot Pie is as afraid of her as of their possible pursuers.

They run into some wolves feasting on the corpse of a fawn. Hot Pie's horse bolts, but Arya advises Gendry to slowly back away, which they do, and the wolves leave them alone. Again Arya is not shown to be afraid.

They move on and get to a burnt village where the corpses swing in apple trees. Hot Pie says a prayer for the Seven, but Arya prays by way of her list of names, she touches Jaqen's coin as says valar morghulis.

..and then [she] reached up and plucked an apple from among the dead men as she rode beneath them. It was mushy and overripe, but she ate it worms and all.

They ride on in a "day without dawn", and end up arguing a bit about which river they are seeing, where they can cross, and where they are heading. Arya tells them they need to go to Riverrun, which Hot Pie questions, but she thinks she cannot tell him why they would be safe there since it's a secret. Gendry she feels different about.

Gendry knew, but that was different. Gendry had his own secret, though even he didn't seem to know what it was.

They press on, cross the stream and again Arya spots wolves.

Once, from the crest of a ridge, she spied dark shapes crossing the stream in the valley behind them, and for half a heartbeat she feared that Roose Bolton's riders were on them, but when she looked again she realised they were only a pack of wolves. She cupped her hands around her mouth and howled down at them "Ahoooooooooo, ahoooooooo." When the largest of the wolves lifted its head and howled back, the sound made Arya shiver.

Hot Pie is complaining a lot about being sore and tired, and while Gendry doesn't say anything, and in fact joins Arya in joking about Hot Pie, Arya notes that Gendry is as uncomfortable. Arya feels responsible for Gendry and Hot Pie, as her pack.

She would make much better time on her own, Arya knew, but she could not leave them. They were her pack, her friends, the only living friends that remained to her,....

She's worried the Bloody Mummers or Roose Bolton will get hold of them, but she is determined that they will not. Hot Pie wants to stop, but Arya and Gendry make him continue a but longer. Arya is convinced they need to continue due to the Bloody Mummers, and she names several of them and calls them "monsters".

They continue a bit longer until Arya keeps falling asleep on her horse. Gendry wakes her up and tells her they need to stop, which she ends up agreeing with. When she falls asleep, she dreams of the Bloody Mummers following them.

They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them.

We understand from the description that Arya is having a wolf dream, and the wolves, headed by Nymeria, take down the Bloody Mummers looking for them. Arya shares in the hunt through Nymeria.

Exulting, she shook it back and forth in her mouth, scattering the warm red droplets amidst the cold black rain.

[Lyanna Stark]

Analysis:

Arya's state of mind. GRRM seems to have summarised Arya's development and mental state in the following paragraph:

She should be more frightened herself, she knew. She was only ten, a skinny girl on a stolen horse with a dark forest ahead of her and men behind her who would gladly cut off her feet. Yet somehow she felt calmer than she ever had in Harrenhal. The rain had washed the guard's blood off her fingers, she wore a sword across her back, wolves were prowling through the dark like lean shadows, and Arya Stark was unafraid.

Being disempowered is worse than being on the run, and in the dark with wolves, Arya is not afraid. Who is the real terror in the dark for Arya? Not the wolves. And the darkness hides her.

Gendry: This chapter contains a bit of exposition and character development of Gendry and of the Gendry/Arya friendship. We see Arya note that Gendry is not a horseman at all, but he still does not grumble like Hot Pie, and when his horse slips and he falls off, Arya notes that he just gets a stubborn expression on his face and gets back up. Later on when Hot Pie complains that he's got saddle sores and says he's going to fall off, Gendry joins Arya in joking that the wolves will get Hot Pie before the Bloody Mummers since they have better noses.

We also have Gendry and Arya discussing which rivers to cross, and Gendry comes across as someone who treats Arya like an equal, I think. While he generally trusts he judgement, he is not afraid to voice his own opinions, or to contradict her with rather valid points. Gendry still chooses to follow Arya here when push comes to shove.

Later on, Hot Pie wants to light a fire.

"NO!" Arya and Gendry both said, at the exact saem instant. Hot Pie quailed a little. Arya gave Gendry a sideways look. He said it with me, like Jon used to do, back in Winterfell. She missed Jon Snow the most of all her brothers.

Interesting here that Gendry gets to be the stand in for Jon Snow here. Arya's longing for home, for Jon Snow and her family is intense, but at the same time, Gendry comes off quite well in this Arya chapter. He's able to exchange deadpan jokes with her even when in clear discomfort, and he does not complain. He is also far more of an equal to Arya than Hot Pie, and although Arya often seems to think he's a bit of a thickie, he still raises some valid complaints about the way they are heading, and he's 100% astute in the end of the chapter when he thinks they need rest.

It was no good arguing, Arya realised; Gendry had the right of it.

Overall, the Arya/Gendry friendship I think is the most significant we have seen grow during Arya's story arc. We know she was fond of her siblings and especially Jon Snow, but that all happened before the story started. Even if Arya grumbles about Gendry being slow and stubborn, she still seems to appreciate him. She respects that he keeps a secret and seems to see him as the closest thing she has to a good friend.

Wolf theme: One of the strongest themes in this chapter, I think. The wolves appear everywhere. Sometimes just as howls, and we actually have several run ins with them and then it ends with Arya's wolf dream where the wolves, led by Nymeria, take down several Bloody Mummers.

The wolves come off as far less dangerous than the human "monsters", mostly represented by the Bloody Mummers, but also by Roose Bolton. We again pass a burnt village and get reminded of the horrors of Arya's ACOK journey through the Riverlands and the answer to "what could make these people so afraid?". That something is what Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie are running from, and in that context, wolves seem ordinary, and especially in Arya's case, as a strength.

Throughout, she constantly draws strength from the presence of the wolves, which culminates in Nymeria et al's attack on the Bloody Mummers in Arya's wolf dream. It's a very strong reconnection for Arya with her roots, and she is definitely no more Weasel, Arry or any other identity. This comes off as very much Arya Stark the warg, and also that she is very much aware that even if wolves are dangerous, they are not THE most dangerous thing; far from it. Wolves are natural creatures even if they are predators, and not the monsters that have ravaged the Riverlands.

Foreshadowing:

I'm actually coming up with only a meagre crop here so I hope you guys can help me out, but there seems to be some foreshadowing of Arya ending up in the house of Black & White, with the darkness that she does not fear, but feels at home in, and her eating the apple she picks from among the dead men, which she eats, worms and all.

There also seems to be quite a bit of imagery with the flayed man of the Dreadfort involved, but I cannot really make any headway with it, although it's definitely there.

There are also plenty of wolf imagery and wolves appearing. Wolves are devouring a fawn, they respond to Arya's call. It seems to be something animalistic calling Arya, and she seems to wholly accept her wargishness, unlike Jon did, for instance. The wolves are described as lean shadows waiting in the dark. Could this be what the Stark children will become? Lean shadows waiting in the dark to pounce?

If we want to riff a bit on Arya as a possible heir to the Tullys, Arya specifically names Riverrun as her grandfather's castle in this chapter.

[Queen of Winter]

Not sure if this is something you might consider but I do want to bring this quote up, if I may:

"She had stolen three horses from the stables and a map and a dagger from Roose Bolton’s own solar, and killed a guard on the postern gate, slitting his throat when he knelt to pick up the worn iron coin that Jaqen H’ghar had given her."

This is probably going to sound seriously nutty, but do you think this might be a play on the words "paying the iron price" as said by the Ironborn. Again, this is not literally paying with coin, but connected to the act of killing. Perhaps it points to Arya and her future with the House of the B&W??? :dunno:

[Lyanna Stark]

Welcome to all the new readers! :)

All of the Starks hold on to their wolf connections, but as the girls, Sansa and Arya, grow away from their roots, they also end up adopting other animals. Ever since KL, Sansa's been a 'little bird' - now that she's in the Eeyrie, the nickname's even more appropriate, and she really HAS become one of those pretty little talking birds that repeats the words of others, as she's a mockingbird of House Baelish to all outward appearances. Arya, however, has been skipping from animal to animal the way Margaery Tyrell skips from king to king. She was Horseface, then a mouse, then a weasel, and now a cat. Does the constant exchanging of animals signify further how Arya has yet to find who she really is, and that she may have been the "No One" of the FM since the very beginning?

It's certainly an interesting topic, and perhaps it mirrors Sansa's and Arya's need to suppress or hide their real identities? Instead they take on animal monikers and some of their characteristics.

What is clear as we move into ASOS is that Arya's connection to wolves is very strong, and it seems to be part of her "Arya Stark" identity as well.

The animal theme is definitely something to keep an eye out for, since we do have the very "real" and magic connection the Starks have to their wolves on the one hand, and then we have people like Illyrio, who comments to Tyrion in ADWD that Westerosi put an animal on their tunic and pretends to be one, but would Tyrion like to meet a real lion? So you have both sides in the novels.

In the Arya's case, and in the Starks' cases though, I think an argument can be made that the connection is real to them, being wargs, and also that animal symbolism is used a lot to illustrate their character development and identity issues they struggle with.

Lyanna Stark, you are brilliant. and say things in a way that other "massive posters" don't. you're never harsh, or judgemental, or narcissistic. you lay it out. thank you. i mean that.

Thank you for your kind words. :) Although I am afraid I can occasionally be pretty harsh. Or so I have been told. ;)

QoW:

I noted the iron as well, and apart from the Iron born, there is also the Iron bank of Braavos and people like Jacelyn Bywater with an iron hand. Are the Valar Morghulis coins perhaps issued by the Iron bank?

[Lummel]

...but there seems to be some foreshadowing of Arya ending up in the house of Black & White, with the darkness that she does not fear, but feels at home in...

That reminds me not of the house of black and white but that's the same as Bloodraven tells Bran in ADWD

[Lyanna Stark]

That reminds me not of the house of black and white but that's the same as Bloodraven tells Bran in ADWD

Very good point, and it seems here that darkness need not be threatening, but can hide and dare I say nurture instead.

Maybe I am going off on a tangent here with darkness as a metaphor for nurturing and the mother, but we also have the matriarch Nymeria hunting in the dark.

[Ice Turtle]

I can't get this image of Roose siting in his solar and wishing Ramsay was there out of my mind.

The theme of being hunted is strong in Arya's story. Even in her first chapter she is "hunted" by Cat and her septa, later Cersei sends the Hound and Jaime after her. We don't have his POV but I wonder if Sandor had the same instructions as Jaime - to kill or main Arya. After her father's arrest she became probably the most wanted of Westeros and now she is hunted again. But I think that:

They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them.

Is becoming as true for the girl as it's for the wolf.

[Lyanna Stark]

They thought they were hunting her, she knew with all the strange sharp certainty of dreams, but they were wrong. She was hunting them.

Is becoming as true for the girl as it's for the wolf.

I agree with this. Arya's agency here is definitely stronger and she seems to identify with the wolves as a lean shadow in the darkness. She is now not only hunted, but she can hunt, too. She is no longer powerless.

Not to get ahead, but it reminded me a bit of Sandor Clegane in the BwB cave scene where they chant that the night is dark and full of terrors, and he claims he's the only terror there. As we'll get to these sections soon enough, I'll leave it there, but it's definitely something worth coming back to. :)

[Queen of Winter]

QoW:

I noted the iron as well, and apart from the Iron born, there is also the Iron bank of Braavos and people like Jacelyn Bywater with an iron hand. Are the Valar Morghulis coins perhaps issued by the Iron bank?

Ooooh, I do like that thought! Nice one Lyanna. :thumbsup:

(And yes "The Iron Bank will have its due"! ;) )

[Uncat]

Arya I ASOS will be up either tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully tonight but as I got delayed by taking the offspring to the emergency, planning went a bit out the window!

Hope, the offspring is fine, btw.

[Ragnorak]

Great write up, Lyanna. I like the hunting observation Ice Turtle.

There's been the theme of Arya learning lessons and we have this:

It’s better if he’s scared of me, she told herself. That way he’ll do like I say, instead of something stupid.

I don't want to make overly much of this but it is a "better to be feared than loved" mentality. Cat reminds Robb that his bannermen must have an element of fear too and I don't think it is a Tywinesque moment but it stood out.

the rain fell soft and steady, muffling the sound of their horses’ hooves and running down their faces.

The rain had washed the guard’s blood off her fingers

The rain running down their faces is a surrogate tears image. I'm not sure what to make of the blood being washed off her hands. There's a lot of "blood on hands" scenes. Jon feeding the ravens with Aemon, Dany getting as clean as she'd ever be, the whole First Men philosophy of the man passing sentence swinging the sword, Tyrion has several thoughts of responsibility for the death in Clash especially around the Blackwater (though certainly not for all his actions.) The only reference I can think of that seems to fit is Cat in the godswood back in GoT.

Catelyn took her husband’s hand. “There was grievous news today, my lord. I did not wish to trouble you until you had cleansed yourself.”

I think Blisscraft mentioned the poem/song Strange Fruit back in Clash when Arya was running across the horrors of the Riverlands.

then reached up and plucked an apple from among the dead men as she rode beneath them. It was mushy and overripe, but she ate it worms and all.

This is another image of Arya feeding on or eating death like drinking the water with the taste of dead bodies. The apple and the worm reminds me a bit of Persephone and the pomegranate. Arya eats the fruit and the symbol of death or the underworld. She'll later try and pluck the worm to eat from the Kindly Man's facial illusion. I thought of the coin and the river crossing as a possible a River Styx allusion too.

This could be a White Walker/Long Night reference. Black turned grey has Jon potential.

That was the day without a dawn. Slowly the sky lightened around them, but they never saw the sun. Black turned to grey, and colors crept timidly back into the world.

It was growing colder, and pale white mists were threading between the pines and blowing across the bare burned flelds.

A couple thoughts on House sigils

She was still dressed in her page’s garb, and on the breast over her heart was sewn Lord Bolton’s sigil, the flayed man of the Dreadfort.

I don't know what to make of that. Maybe a reference to Jeyne Poole? I can't see how Arya's heart adorned with a Bolton sigil fits. Nobles claiming to be their House sigils comes up often. In the Tyrion reread we just ran across Illyrio offering to put Tyrion in a lion's cage if he thought he truly was one. Despite Cersei putting her hand in the lion's cage in Casterly Rock none of these nobles are their sigils-- except the Starks. Arya is a wolf in much the way Illyrio mocks Tyrion for not being a lion.

The flayed man of the Boltons is a bit odd too. Back in GoT Cat reflects on how odd the Stark words are in that they aren't a a prayer or pledge like all the other House mottos. The Bolton sigil is similarly odd. It isn't what they aspire to be or model themselves after. It is their victims they put forth as a symbol of who they are. Does any other House do that?

[Yukle]

Wolf theme: One of the strongest themes in this chapter, I think. The wolves appear everywhere. Sometimes just as howls, and we actually have several run ins with them and then it ends with Arya's wolf dream where the wolves, led by Nymeria, take down several Bloody Mummers.

The wolves come off as far less dangerous than the human "monsters", mostly represented by the Bloody Mummers, but also by Roose Bolton. We again pass a burnt village and get reminded of the horrors of Arya's ACOK journey through the Riverlands and the answer to "what could make these people so afraid?". That something is what Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie are running from, and in that context, wolves seem ordinary, and especially in Arya's case, as a strength.

Throughout, she constantly draws strength from the presence of the wolves, which culminates in Nymeria et al's attack on the Bloody Mummers in Arya's wolf dream. It's a very strong reconnection for Arya with her roots, and she is definitely no more Weasel, Arry or any other identity. This comes off as very much Arya Stark the warg, and also that she is very much aware that even if wolves are dangerous, they are not THE most dangerous thing; far from it. Wolves are natural creatures even if they are predators, and not the monsters that have ravaged the Riverlands.

Importantly, I think that the connection with Nymeria is more important than hiding Needle away in Arya's secret connection with her personality in the House of Black and White. It seems to suggest that she cannot forget who she is, even if she wants to (and it seems to be fairly certain that she doesn't).

Unlike Bran, Arya doesn't seem to be aware of her connection to Nymeria nor can she control her in the way that Bran controls Summer. Arya also seems to be more impressionable than the other Starks as she links Ned's comments about being a wolf-pack (which he intended to be figurative) to the real-life wolves pursuing her.

Wolves howl to find each other if they are scattered out (which they do to maximise their chances of finding something to hunt). When Arya howls, it seems that she is hoping that the wolves will join them, in a friendly way.

She definitely draws strength from knowing that somewhere her direwolf is still alive and I think that's the most important foreshadowing of all: whatever happens to the direwolf happens to the child. Nymeria went missing, and then went wild. Arya is soon to do the same.

[Ice Turtle]

The flayed man of the Boltons is a bit odd too. Back in GoT Cat reflects on how odd the Stark words are in that they aren't a a prayer or pledge like all the other House mottos. The Bolton sigil is similarly odd. It isn't what they aspire to be or model themselves after. It is their victims they put forth as a symbol of who they are. Does any other House do that?

Devan Lannister made fun of sigil of house Piper. There are drowned men and hanged men and snails. I think that sigils differs from words in this. Even smallest lordling and hedge knight have sigil, there are even personal sigils, but only more significant houses have words. Sigils represent anything that is typical for a person or a house, words are what they want to tell the world. I have no proof for it but it could also be that sigils appeared only with Andals but words were part of the First men tradition.

[Daphne23]

there seems to be some foreshadowing of Arya ending up in the house of Black & White, with the darkness that she does not fear, but feels at home in, and her eating the apple she picks from among the dead men, which she eats, worms and all.

There's been some interesting discussion on the board recently about Arya'choosing death', especially when she goes to the House of Black and White, and while I don't agree with everything that's been said, this does seem to be foreshadowing of her associations with death and a permanent or temporary trip to the underworld.

There's been the theme of Arya learning lessons and we have this... I don't want to make overly much of this but it is a "better to be feared than loved" mentality. Cat reminds Robb that his bannermen must have an element of fear too and I don't think it is a Tywinesque moment but it stood out.

I think this is a really interesting point, and I noticed that Arya and Gendry use the same tactic later in the chapter when Hot Pie is flagging and wants to take a rest:

Arya looked at Gendry. "If he falls off, who do you think will find him first, the wolves or the Mummers?"

"The wolves," said Gendry. "Better noses."

I can imagine someone more focused on 'ruling through love', like Sansa, turning more to the methods of persuasion she used with Sweetrobin here, rather than this veiled threat. This isn't meant to be a criticism of Arya's methods, especially as they are clearly effective, but I think this could be an intriguing theme to trace.

My only other comment relates to the scene near the end of the chapter, where Arya argues with Gendry about continuing on, and finally realises he is right to say they had better stop for a rest. I'm not sure why, but this reminded me strongly of the Cat scene when she is riding to the Vale and wants to stop to bury the bodies of their fallen comrades before they move on, but is persuaded not to by the rest of her men. I think there's something about the way Cat and Arya both argue strongly for what they think is right, but when they realise the other way is actually the best, acquiesce immediately and move on.