Arya and Bolton Prediction for WoW

[Ser Fatso]

stannis wouldnt hire a FM to kill Bolton because he expects to defeat him in the upcoming battle.

[Duckface]

Death is a gift. From Arya's point of view she will not have any pleasure killing anyone if she truly succeeds to become a FM

[yushkevitch]

I can't help but think that one of the longest running "angles" to the series is Arya reciting the names of the people she wants killed. If she doesn't end up offing at least one of them on her own ... well, as much as I respect GRRM but that would be beyond ridiculous.

My guess is Cersei - I've described my little theory in another thread but in essence I believe it may happen after Arya disappears for awhile to heighten the shock when it happens. I'm thinking at, or very near, the end of the series ... Cersei's alone, in the dark she hears a noise "Who's there?" ... "Cersei." ... stabbity stab stab.

[aryagonnakill#2]

I can't help but think that one of the longest running "angles" to the series is Arya reciting the names of the people she wants killed. If she doesn't end up offing at least one of them on her own ... well, as much as I respect GRRM but that would be beyond ridiculous.

My guess is Cersei - I've described my little theory in another thread but in essence I believe it may happen after Arya disappears for awhile to heighten the shock when it happens. I'm thinking at, or very near, the end of the series ... Cersei's alone, in the dark she hears a noise "Who's there?" ... "Cersei." ... stabbity stab stab.

Whoever it is, when Arya kills someone actually involved in the storyline ala faceless man tactics of no one even knowing she was there, my brain will have an orgasm and I will undoubtably re read the chapter before moving on... If its Cersei she kills, my god I just don't know what I'd do.

[Tharvot]

Arya's story arc is probably the 1 major character that I have no clue where GRRM is headed with.

I think Sansa will somehow flee or outdo LF

I think Dany will arrive in Westeros to fight The Others

I think Jon is going to be the ultimate tragic hero

Bran will do his warg thing and uncover secrets

Tyrion will come back to Westeros and exact revenge on Cersei

Arya...I don't know at all. All I am sure of is that she will wind up back in Westeros somehow and will probably end up killing someone or many someones. Don't know if it will be north or south or when/how she does it.

I do think for a certainty that the Bolton house is on its way out.

[fantasmas]

I can't imagine House Bolton will live long enough for Arya to make her way to Westeros.

[sertravisredbeard]

I don't think Stannis would resort to using the Faceless Men. He's got enough advantages now. Even without knowing the intentions of a large part of the force in Winterfell, he knows the Karstarks were planning on betraying him, so he can use that against Bolton. By the reaction of the mountain clans, the Glover people in Deepwood, and the support of the Umbers and Mormonts, he knows no one in the North is likely to resist him against Bolton for very long. I'm pretty sure the reason he's stayed in the village by the lake is that he's seen the battle and his victory in the flames. During Storm of Swords he'd described his developing ability to read the flames, and during Asha's chapters she describes him staring into the fires a lot. Staying there for so long while his army slowly dies makes more sense when he believes he's seen the future battle.

However I think it's definitely possible that Justin Massey and Jeyne Poole being in Braavos will be Arya's opportunity to head back to Westeros. Even if she doesn't tag along as a fighter, Jeyne will recognize her as the real Arya and Massey will be smart enough to bring her to Jon and prove she's a Stark. She doesn't need to get hired as an assassin whose job it is to kill Bolton to return to Winterfell and kill him if Stannis or Jon haven't already taken care of it.

[Crimson King]

It would be sweet if Arya killed Bolton, but I doubt it will happen. I don't think that Arya will simply 'jump on a boat' with Justin. That would require her to leave the FM, which would waste the huge potential for internal struggle that comes with Arya being part of the FM. The reason I say that she would have to leave the FM to go with Massey is the following: if Massey actually hires the FM to help him, they won't send Arya in the North to kill one Bolton. It wouldn't make sense. Why kill one lord at the service of a king, when you can kill the king himself? Arya has a great knowledge of King's Landing, an knows how to come in and out of the Red Keep. Sending her to kill a Bolton seems like a waste to me. Also, the logical, geographical follow-through of a King's Landing mission would be Arya going to the Riverlands and meeting Nymeria, which is quite convenient, while if she goes in the north she risks to stay stuck there for quite some time because of the snow.

I think her fate lies somewhere else, for now.

[Lil' Bird]

Ramsay forces the real Arya to play his hunting game.

Only this time the peasant girl wins.

[Amris1]

Ramsay forces the real Arya to play his hunting game.

Only this time the peasant girl wins.

This is one of my favourite daydreams too. While Ramsay's bitches whom he fancies can go toe-to-toe with wolves being made short work of by Nymeria.

However GRRM usually isn't so much into fulfilling our dreams. Still it would be somehow fitting. So one can dream on.

I have a crackpot suspicion that Roose is 'grooming' Ramsay because he somehow wants to take over Ramsay's body to continue his own existence. So if one spins this farther Arya may actually end up doing in both of them at once. Roose within Ramsay.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

The "Roose within Ramsay" idea, while fun in a very H.P. Lovecraft sort of way (See "The Thing on the Doorstep") idea has a big flaw in that it would require magic we've only seen flickers of in this fictive universe. We've not seen a hint so far that the Boltons can warg at all, much less into a human. Nobody has shown an ability to fully and permanently swap consciousness like you seem to suggest, it hasn't even been alluded to as a legend.

However, Arya taking out Cercei and Meryn Trant, either painlessly with poison or in a midnight hours bloodbath seems like a needed payoff to sending her to Braavos. Why would GRRM train her to do all this stealthy deadly stuff if she isn't going to use it in some appropriately gruesome way? All pandering to the readers aside, there's been so much effort put into the buildup by the author there has to be a payoff at some point.

For them that think the Iron bank would hire her to settle her own scores, keep in mind that their beef is currently with Harys Swyft and Cercei Lannister, as they're holding the bag by the end of DwD. Those are the ones now defaulting on the loans. There is no upside for the IB in ordering the death of what amounts to a rent-a-cops who wasn't even part of the decision to withhold payment. Now if they are the paid targets and the Trant is a target of opportunity, then everybody wins except the Lannisters.

I can't see any reason for the IB to send anyone after Raff, Dunsen, or Ilyn Payne, all last seen in the Riverlands. For Arya to get the opportunity to go after them, someone would need to send her to the riverlands, which brings me back to my theory that she'll shortly become Varys' favorite assassin. It's just cleaner storytelling if Varys is calling shots rather than the IB. He might see an advantage in taking Jaime Lannister off the board, and these other three might get in the way or cross her path. There is also a good chance they'd get taken out by Stoneheart or Nymeria's pack, preferably while Arya was warged in.

Yes, it's speculation, but it's just the sort of improvised munitions that Varys and LF have been using for years. All it takes is for Varys and Arya to cross paths, and suddenly it's quite plausible.

[Faceless Man Friday]

The "Roose within Ramsay" idea, while fun in a very H.P. Lovecraft sort of way (See "The Thing on the Doorstep") idea has a big flaw in that it would require magic we've only seen flickers of in this fictive universe. We've not seen a hint so far that the Boltons can warg at all, much less into a human. Nobody has shown an ability to fully and permanently swap consciousness like you seem to suggest, it hasn't even been alluded to as a legend.

Yes there is. There is much foreshadowing in the books that Roose is deeply involved with blood magic and speculation that he may not even be human.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/100796-has-roose-already-confessed-that-he-is-not-human/page-2?hl=%2Broose+%2Bbolton+%2Bsorcerer#entry5211667

[Mummers Dragon]

I can see the Arya (in a new face) to the Vale angle to reconcile Sansa. The Vale is probably the closest Westerosi point from Bravos. Now throw Brienne and The Hound into the mix. From the Vale, chase littlefinger off down to the Riverlands into the waiting arms of Lady Stoneheart, then make an end to LS, quick stop at The Twins to give another meaning to the phrase the "late" Walder Frey because, you know, the North remembers; and finally home to Winterfell.

Actually, i wonder if HBO didn't already give something away when Melisandre tells Arya they would meet again, even though they never meet in the books. Could mean Arya will ultimately connect w/ Stannis and gang

[Faceless Man Friday]

Actually, i wonder if HBO didn't already give something away when Melisandre tells Arya they would meet again, even though they never meet in the books.

Not yet but there are at least two more books to go. I believe Arya in some form or fashion will return to both the Riverlands to reunite with Nymeria and the North to retake Winterfell but how that is going to happen is full of possibility. It would be great if she gets to hunt down Ramsey.

[aryagonnakill#2]

Yes there is. There is much foreshadowing in the books that Roose is deeply involved with blood magic and speculation that he may not even be human.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/100796-has-roose-already-confessed-that-he-is-not-human/page-2?hl=%2Broose+%2Bbolton+%2Bsorcerer#entry5211667

That theory is right there with Ned or Quentyn still being alive. That is not foreshadowing or evidence.

[Littlefinger's dagger]

OK, I read that thread. I have to say, that's awfully thin "evidence" to support human-human permanent warging. Bran does it once, for a minute, with a guy with the brains of a cocker spaniel, and it's amazing because there's no precedent for it.

Roose gets leeched. Big deal, this is medieval level technology and leeching/bloodletting is an accepted form of medical treatment here. IRL it was an accepted medical practice well into the 1800s. As there is no mention of the leeches getting burned and chanted over with dire results, this simply makes him a hypochondriac as well as a creepy crafty bastard. Not seeing this as evidence of him secretly being a sorceror. Melisandre leeches someone, tosses the leeches in a fire with a curse, and people die. This is what we have to suppose magic based on blood and fire looks like, it's got a lot in common with what Dany did to hatch the dragons, and when Varys was cut.

The only bit of "evidence" coughed up is the mention of Boltons wearing skins of slain enemies pre-Aegon. The reference was to literal, tanned human hides. Barbaric, creepy, but not magical. Is it ever let slip that Roose Bolton quietly revived this practice? No. So far we have a stronger argument for Rattleshirt having this power, at least he does wear the bones of slain beasts and enemies, though he's never pointed at as one of the many wargs among the wildlings. That is, if getting confused over the literal wearing of a skin and a power to possess even qualifies as evidence. Go look up the definitions of literal and figurative.

If the Boltons are secretly a family of ultra-powerful wargs they would have wiped out the Starks millennia ago.

[Faceless Man Friday]

Mark my words before the song of ice and fire is fully sung you will know the magic of Roose Bolton.

[Stannis the Menace]

Where is it written that her apprenticeship to Izembaro will take place in Braavos? She could very well be heading to another free city making her storyline completely wide open

[Faceless Man Friday]

Where is it written that her apprenticeship to Izembaro will take place in Braavos? She could very well be heading to another free city making her storyline completely wide open

or Westeros

[Stannis the Menace]

or Westeros

Also possible but i think its not likely IMO, but either way she could very well be out of Braavos by the time Massey and co get there, making the chances of her return to the North so soon slim