Becoming No One: Rereading Arya IV

[Fire Eater]

They were skins

thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the ancient roots of trees

Arya starts taking on a role that allows her to wear the skins (faces) of others like greenseeing allows Bran to wear the skins (warg) of others including animals.

By rights the metal should have been cold against her flesh, but it felt warm instead . . .When it reached her lips the taste was salt and copper.

The door's upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran's head, and a drop of water fell on him, and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear.

[Lyanna Stark]

Great discussion and great summary Milady. :) I've struggled a bit with this chapter, read it through some three four times, and even if it's on the surface is pretty straight forward in that it is the description of how Arya carries out her first Faceless Man kill, there seems to be a lot of stuff going on under the surface.

As always there are references to Winterfell, Ned, Cat and her siblings.

I don't know about you people, but the fate of the original Ugly Girl really moved me. Such a terrible life to lead and to beg for death just to escape the suffering at the hands of one of the few people who should, by rights, do everything in his power to protect you.

It touches again on the theme of power and powerlessness. In this chapter, Arya takes in her hands the power to end someone's life: the insurance broker. At the same time, she is faced with the fate of the original Ugly Girl, who was so powerless, in so much pain and completely unable to change anything about her situation so that her only way out was death, which she prayed for. After being faced with the Ugly Girl's fate, Arya has nightmares about her family, and I think with good reason. When it came to the fate of her family, Arya was powerless to save them. In that case, she was as powerless as the original Ugly Girl to change anything.

It's also an interesting commentary on other disfigured people, like the Hound, who was also mutilated by someone in his own close family.

"Ugly. Women will look away when they see you. Children will stare and point. Strong men will pity you, and some may shed a tear. No one who sees you will soon forget you."

Tyrion suffers a similar fate, partly due to his dwarfism, but also due to the hideous scar on his face.

They were skins

thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the ancient roots of trees

Arya starts taking on a role that allows her to wear the skins (faces) of others like greenseeing allows Bran to wear the skins (warg) of others including animals.

I thought of this parallel as well, although the skinchanging enables you to "enter" into the mind of another human being while they are still them, while the face Arya is wearing, even if it is more complete than a glamour, it still a shell that she puts on. A skinchanger can more "remote control" someone else, while the FM faces are "skins" on top of the same person. But yes, in a way it is very similar to skinchanging. Especially since Arya relived some of the Ugly Girl's memories, that implies there is something, some essence, of the person left in the face. Sort of like when a Warg dies some of his or her essence can be left behind in the animal.

Regarding the FM agenda, I agree with the assessment that it is not wholly neutral, but then going by their "origins" story, it wasn't from the beginning either. Someone was so desperate as to pray for death, and someone else thought it a valid reason granted it. Then it moved on to the Overseer. Further, the FM were born out of the slaves of old Valyria. It started as a movement among the completely powerless to let them have some power over their lives, even if the price was steep. Hence the original Ugly Girl is an ideal FM "gift". She was the ultimate powerlessness and the FM could offer her a small smidgeon of power over herself: that of ending her life and thus her agony. So even if the FM isn't anyone's tool to be used in whatever way and lightly, they can give the utterly powerless that power if they so desire and if they are willing to pay the price.

The Cat parallels continue with the Ugly Girl face as well, I think.

Sorcery, she thought. I have a new face. And ugly, broken face.

Cat is also "uglified" and she is definitely broken.

[fantasmas]

The statue outside the shrine of the Weeping Lady of Lys was crying silver tears as the ugly girl walked by.

I think this reference to the Weeping Lady of Lys is supposed to be some reference to the tears of Lys, and it comes right as the ugly girl passes by in order to poison a man.

So the next day she returned to Brusco and his daughters in the house on the canal. Brusco’s
eyes widened when he saw her, and Brea gave a little gasp. “Valar morghulis,” Cat said, by way
of greeting. “Valar dohaeris,” Brusco replied.

I’ve always loved this bit just because it’s so morbid. Brea’s little gasp says it all. Brusco and his daughters must’ve assumed Cat fell into some ill luck. Her return was not anticipated. But a simple “valar morghulis” seems to be enough to do as you will in Braavos without being asked pesky questions.

One time, the girl remembered, the Sailor’s Wife had walked her rounds with her and told her tales of the city’s stranger gods. “That is the house of the Great Shepherd. Three-headed Trios has that tower with three turrets. The first head devours the dying, and the reborn emerge from the third. I don’t know what the middle head’s supposed to do. Those are the Stones of the Silent God, and there the entrance to the Pattern-maker’s Maze. Only those who learn to walk it properly will ever find their way to wisdom, the priests of the Pattern say. Beyond it, by the

canal, that’s the temple of Aquan the Red Bull. Every thirteenth day, his priests slit the throat of a pure white calf, and offer bowls of blood to beggars.”

On rereads, this bit about Braavos’ gods has interested me. The three-headed Trios reminds me of the three-headed dragon concept that is presented in the text. The first head devours the dying, and the reborn emerge from the third. However, the second one is a mystery. Perhaps that head acts as a middle ground between death and rebirth. Jon and Dany experts can figure out how that applies to those particular dragons.

After passing the house of the Great Shepard, the entrance to the Pattern-maker’s Maze is introduced. This could be a reference to the great maze that has been Arya’s journey through the text so far. Often, Arya has been lost and confused, but there is a chance to find some purpose, some wisdom if she can figure out how to walk it properly. Just a little note as the ugly little girl considers this maze as she walks through the very busy Braavos.

The temple of Aquan the Red Bull comes after the maze, and Arya notes that the priests sacrifice a white calf every 13^th day.

“The golden dragon of Westeros,” said the kindly man. “And how did you come by this? We are no thieves.” “It wasn’t stealing. I took one of his, but I left him one of ours.” The kindly man understood. “And with that coin and the others in his purse, he paid a certain man. Soon after that man’s heart gave out. Is that the way of it? Very sad.” The priest picked up the coin and tossed it into the pool.

So the KM threw the Westerosi golden coin with the dragon one one side and a king on the other into the pools of death. I’ve wondered if this had any foreshadowing for Arya’s future, apprentice or not. It seems a bit useless to have a character train with the most deadly assassins in the world just so they won’t kill someone high profile. The dragon/king combination brings to mind Aegon, Dany, or even Jon Snow. Though, Aegon seems like the most clear candidate seeing as he’s the mummer’s dragon being supported by the Golden Company.

But I could totally be inflating this moment :P

On a last note, I do like that this chapter of Arya’s progression as FM apprentice comes before Cersei II, where she’s particularly paranoid about the valonqar and the younger queen. Not that I really subscribe to the theories of Arya filling either of these roles.

[Fire Eater]

Three-headed Trios has the tower with the three turrets. The first head devours the dying, and the reborn emerge from the third. I don't know what the middle head's supposed to do.

The dragon has three heads

I think it is akin to Varamyr Sixskins. He has six skins, the skins of his five animals and his own. Jon having three heads could be the heads of Ghost and Drogon along with his own. The first head could be Drogon, who roasts and devours a dying Barsena. The third head could be Ghost since after spending some time in Ghost, Jon will be reborn. The middle head is Jon's own head, the head between the direwolf (representative of House Stark) and the dragon (representative of House Targaryen), the balance between ice and fire.

[A wilding]

... the entrance to the Pattern-maker’s Maze is introduced.

I suspect that is just a nod to the Amber series of GRRM's friend Zelazny.

[Ragnorak]

Interesting comment on Arya taking down Varys/Illyrio - there would be a certain nice parallelism between the arcs of the two sisters if this were the case. In a certain sense, V/I are playing a "mummer's game" still, and, as a FM, Arya would essentially be defeating them at their "own game." Similar to how Sansa is expected to defeat LF at his "own game" of cyvasse pieces on the board.

I'm much more comfortable with the volumes of evidence pointing to Sansa taking out LF but Arya bringing down Varys and/or Illyrio has potential. That both girls overhear information that they will likely piece together later is what made me first think of the parallel. I don't think we have anything as blatant as the slaying of a giant in a castle made of snow for Arya. Back in Dany's first chapter in GoT she comments on the two servants

Nonetheless, they were slaves. The old woman, small and grey as a mouse, never said a word, but the girl made up for it. She was Illyrio’s favorite...

Varys and Illyrio originally named their spies mice instead of birds and it seems this silent woman is one of the "retired" little mice. So it seems that Martin's gardener style had this seed planted very early. Arya thinks herself a mouse at Harrenhal and uses her ability to read to spy. I see a number of snippets like that pointing to Arya as the potential downfall of Varys and Illyrio but not anything as solid as the theme in Sansa pointing to LF.

I think this reference to the Weeping Lady of Lys is supposed to be some reference to the tears of Lys, and it comes right as the ugly girl passes by in order to poison a man.

...

The gods seem significant but I don't have anything specific that jumps out. The three headed god and Dany is a good connection though with her theme of threes. Jon has potential as well. I did notice a silver theme though. Twice Arya notes that her target is paid in silver and gold instead of just gold plus there are three other silver references two of which are in the gods she sees.

she sharpened the steel on a whetstone until its edge glimmered silver-blue in the candlelight

The statue outside the shrine of the Weeping Lady of Lys was crying silver tears as the ugly girl walked by. In the Gardens of Gelenei stood a gilded tree a hundred feet high with leaves of hammered silver.

I thought of Alyssa's Tears and the Cat connection with the Weeping Lady (though the tears of Lys may be a better fit.) I wondered if the silver-blue of the dagger might be a reference to the Vale and the Arryn colors where a certain dagger currently resides. The Tully colors are a silver fish on blue and red but there's no red here. A tree in a place of the gods brings a weirwood to mind and the normally blood colored leaves shaped like hands are replaced with an image of hammered silver leaves. Not sure what to make of it. I could speculate but none of my ideas seem sufficiently echoed in the rest of the chapter.

...

It touches again on the theme of power and powerlessness. In this chapter, Arya takes in her hands the power to end someone's life: the insurance broker. At the same time, she is faced with the fate of the original Ugly Girl, who was so powerless, in so much pain and completely unable to change anything about her situation so that her only way out was death, which she prayed for. After being faced with the Ugly Girl's fate, Arya has nightmares about her family, and I think with good reason. When it came to the fate of her family, Arya was powerless to save them. In that case, she was as powerless as the original Ugly Girl to change anything.

It's also an interesting commentary on other disfigured people, like the Hound, who was also mutilated by someone in his own close family.

...

I like the theme of power vs. powerlessness. All of Arya's thoughts surrounding who should die in stories like the Ugly Little Girl are centered around the powerless. I seem to recall her thinking a lady throwing herself from a tower in a song was stupid because they should have killed the one who locked her up there. She thought a similar thing about the FM origin where she felt the overseers should have been killed and not the slaves. With the FM origin killing as a mercy came before killing for revenge which is reversed in Arya's experience. While Arya is fixated on killing for revenge she did learn to give the gift of mercy from Sandor. The Hound parallel to the Ugly Girl you bring up is an interesting one. We've seen a good deal of sept imagery throughout Arya. Will she have a similar opportunity to address her internal "broken man" through the Faith and internalize mercy like we see with Sandor? It has potential as a parallel with Arya moving closer to Cat and finding something she's missing inside with her mother's faith to Sansa's relationship with Ned and finding something with her father's faith.

The parallel's between Littlefinger and Arya's target that Milday noticed still intrigue me. I suspect there's more to be gleaned there. He is an insurance broker who reneged on a contract or a promise. The idea of taking hostages in Westeros is an insurance policy. Ned was taken hostage and Joffrey through the coaxing of Littlefinger reneged on the "contract." While Cersei is technically the direct parallel to the policy holder who ought to pay (through Jaime) it is really Littlefinger who orchestrated the contract and its breach. Arya's indirect way of killing the insurance broker is similar to the way LF operates particularly with the indirect attack, the use of a proxy, and a public spectacle as a sideshow.

[Lyanna Stark]

Varys and Illyrio originally named their spies mice instead of birds and it seems this silent woman is one of the "retired" little mice. So it seems that Martin's gardener style had this seed planted very early. Arya thinks herself a mouse at Harrenhal and uses her ability to read to spy. I see a number of snippets like that pointing to Arya as the potential downfall of Varys and Illyrio but not anything as solid as the theme in Sansa pointing to LF.

There's also the comment by the KoM that wise men can see through mummery and glamours, but they cannot see through a FM face. Varys uses the mummery face to take on different identities and Varys was a mummer. Hence it seems that in the mummery and fake identities department, Arya has now "out mummered" Varys.

Varys' and Illyrio's protege is f!Aegon, and the coin Arya tosses in the fountain has a king and a dragon on it, too. Perhaps a pointer that she'll be the one taking down Aegon? (perhaps Cersei's last wish, if Aegon kills off Tommen? Cersei giving her life to off the killer of Tommen? That would also make Arya the Valonquar, incidently. :lol: But not as an FM kill, but as the cost. OK, end crackpot. )

[blacken]

One of the things that struck me this chapter was:

"She got her first look at the man she must kill later that morning as she wheeled her barrow through the cobbled streets that fronted on the Purple Harbour."

How did she know to recognise the man? It was clarified earlier in the chapter that she does not know this man yet she recognises him easily as he walks passed. Has he been physically 'marked' in some way?

[Elba the Intoner]

I had a few observations from this chapter but most of them have been mentioned so I'll just list them here as a way of reinforcing that I saw them too.

1. The insurance man that Arya kills reminded me very much of Littlefinger too, especially the pointy beard and dealings with gold. I think Arya's comment that his beard is a villain's beard could be viewed as the author telling us directly that Littlefinger is a villain. I'm more convinced than ever that LF will meet his end through some indirect means at the hands of a Stark girl.

2. I think Ragnorak mentioned that the statue of the weeping woman reminded him of Cat (and Alysa Arryn) and I as well first thought of Cat. Now that she is Lady Stoneheart, she has been turned to stone in a way, but she does not weep anymore, which is the opposite of Alyssa Arryn who did not cry in life but whose tears now flow infinitely. I felt like the statue represented a mother who was weeping specifically for Arya in that scene as Arya is now going off to carry out her first true FM kill whose methods and entire philosophy are the exact opposite of Ned Stark's, ore less specifically it represents a mother weeping for her lost children.

3. I picked up on the lemoncakes reference too. And later when she is given the ugly little girl's face she has nightmares about her Stark family. She is still thinking about them even in the skin of the ugly little girl.

Also, some thing I wanted to comment on from Arya's last chapter as the blind girl was how brilliantly it's placed. It comes right after Jon's chapter where Alys Karstark comes to him for refuge. Alys has been mistaken for Arya and Jon is forced to think about his real sister Arya. Arya wonders in one of these chapters whether Jon would even recognize her and that's a good question given that he still thinks of her as the girl she was in Winterfell. Then the blind girl chapter is followed by Theon's Ghost in Winterfell chapter which is also heavily associated with a false Arya or one of mistaken identity. Theon recognizes that she is not the real Arya because of the eyes. I wonder if even with her new face a human could still recognize Arya through her eyes? Also, the animals intuitively know who she really is. Would a warg in his animal skin recognize the true identity behind a faceless man?

[Lyanna Stark]

One little detail I really liked was the temple with the silver tree. Just like the Titan of Braavos seems inspired by the Colossus, the silver tree reminds me of the legendary Silver Tree of Karakorum.

In general there seems to be a lot of inspiration taken from real world architecture when GRRM has created Westeros and Essos. We have the Wall as Hadrian's Wall, old Valyria as some sort of proto-roman state with the Valyrian roads as some sort of Roman roads. Braavos also seems to have an aqueduct in the Sweetwater river, further drawing parallels to the Romans.

For some reasons, the Meereen pyramids I always picture in my mind as ziggurats, For this I blame Quake, wholly and completely!

[Odon]

There's also the comment by the KoM that wise men can see through mummery and glamours, but they cannot see through a FM face. Varys uses the mummery face to take on different identities and Varys was a mummer. Hence it seems that in the mummery and fake identities department, Arya has now "out mummered" Varys.

I remember there's a scene where Varys turns up at Tyrion's love nest disguised as a begging brother, yet Shae recognises him immediately whereas the normally perceptive Tyrion doesn't. I wonder if this foreshadows Arya seeing through Varys, maybe even recognising him as the man she overheard plotting her father's death.

[Lyanna Stark]

I remember there's a scene where Varys turns up at Tyrion's love nest disguised as a begging brother, yet Shae recognises him immediately whereas the normally perceptive Tyrion doesn't. I wonder if this foreshadows Arya seeing through Varys, maybe even recognising him as the man she overheard plotting her father's death.

Good point! It seems such a coincidence doesn't it? I don't really believe in coincidences in Martin-world, so I agree with you completely that these little nuggets are not dropped there for nothing.

I am working on the recap for Arya ADWD and hope to have it up in a couple of days after some brutal trimming. I am now fast approaching 5 word pages and feel I am not half way through, so I need to be harsh with myself. :lol: But anyway, it is approaching, and then we can freely discuss the entirety of Arya's story lines, the themes, etc. As we have seen there are lots to look at.

The Jon Snow re-read has also unearthed a lot of interesting little links between Jon's and the other Stark children's story lines, which is another interesting subject to look at (although of course without rushing ahead in the Jon re-read. :) )

[Lummel]

The story of the ugly little girl is haunting, the room full of faces is horrible like something out of Josef Mengele's private collection. We are definitely in the realm of horror when you loose your own face and are trapped with the remnants of somebody else's consciousness - shades of Bran's experience wearing the raven's skin here too.

They give the ugly little girl exactly what she asks for, but not what an objective observer might think she needs or would help her. This takes us back to Jaqen and the three lives and that kind of folktale in which the hero bests the Devil through cunning. Notice how often the kindly old man asks her what she wants or offers her things, as with the three lives or the ugly little girl taking those offers on face value is dangerous. Presumably asking for your sight back would mean that you get kicked off the training course.

[Blisscraft]

This chapter, The Ugly Little Girl and the previous one, The Blind Girl, are the only Arya chapters in ADwD. Because both chapters use the word "Girl" as indicating, Arya, and the two chapters are the only Arya chapters in this book, they seem to form a diptych, or a two fold portral of our subject, Arya Stark.

A diptych is a term from the art world which refers to a two panel protrayal, usually on wood or wax, that are hinged together. Diptychs are found not only as large ME pieces, such as the Wilton Diptych, but also are found in ancient world, especially during the Roman period in smaller, more portable versions. Some of these ancient smaller versions of diptychs survived unto this day because the hinge in between the images naturally formed a front cover and a back cover for written material to be held and thus created books. Interestingly enough, many of the ancient books that survive using this diptych conversion technique were Roman comic books. The diptych's two part form hinged together may suggest that there are opposing images represented on the sides of each panel. However, many diptychs are not protrayals of opposing images, but rather, represent two related parts of a continuing story. That's what seems to be at work here in the two Arya chapters from ADwD.

I am out of time to finish this metaphor in detail. More later. . .

[Pod The Impaler]

For some reasons, the Meereen pyramids I always picture in my mind as ziggurats,

Same here. I did not think of them as Egyptian-style, the way they're used seems all wrong for that. Ziggurats or even Aztec / Mayan style.

[Blisscraft]

Back to the two panel presentation of Arya Stark in ADwD. . . (Apologies to all, as I am often interrupted).

The first "panel," The Blind Girl, reveals to the reader Arya's inner vision-- most importantly, her wolf dreams. Though physically blinded by the Waif's daily administered dose of poison, Ayra still "sees" by night. Her other senses, taste, touch, hearing, and smell are brighter and more amplified as she goes through her day without sight, learning new skills in order to possibly serve the God of Many Faces.

The story continues into the next and only other Arya chapter, The Ugly Little Girl. Arya's eyesight is restored, however, there is little reference to her "insight," as in the previous chapter. No wolf dreams are described as were previously. In this second chapter the new, "Girl," is not limited by poison creating loss of her eyes. She is described in the chapter's title as not only "Little" but also, "Ugly." The substraction of the word, "Blind," and addition of the words "Little," and "Ugly" suggests a summary of her experience in her quest to belong to the Faceless Men. Interestingly, the words, "blind," and, "ugly," are both mechanical, so to speak. That is to say, both are imposed upon Arya by the KM and the Waif. "Little," must be a reference then, not only to Arya's physical stature, but also to her status as a neophyte within the society of the FM.

A couple of other thoughts in particular as to this last chapter:

The Descent - In order for Arya to transform into the "new," girl, she must go down so many steps into the depths of the Temple. This seems akin to descending into Hell, as in Dante's, The Inferno. (This is amplified by Martin's repeated use of the number three and the use of three by three which becomes the number nine or the number of the rings in Hell as in Dante's depiction). Arya descends the stairs to transform. Stairways by their very nature not only provide a means to descend, but also to ascend which she inevitably does after her transformation into the ugly little girl.

The nature of Arya's transformation is not only physical, but psychical. We see this first, with her blood sacrifice, as she must physically bleed to transform and then, her psychic response, as she bonds with immediate empathy for the real, "Ugly Little Girl." Arya experiences psychically, the other girl's struggles and sorrows at the hands of her abusive father. This is the first time that Arya fully experiences empathy for another person.Another person is not just "meat," as when she wargs into Nymeria. The other person has thoughts, feelings, and emotions which effect Arya almost to the point of panic.

The Ornate Key - The KM's "ornate key" to "the sanctum." Like the stairway discussed above, keys can go either way. Keys lock and unlock in a similar manner to that of stairways ascending or descending, going upwards or downwards. The KM uses his ornate key to unlock the doorway to take Arya deeper in to the depths of the temple than she has ever been before. Arya is, once again, not only physically going deeper, but also psychically going deeper with this key. The KM's key gives Arya access to the object of her desire: to find a place, a home, an acceptance without abandonment as she has so deeply feared previously.

On Ugliness - In art, especially in the Middle Ages, ugliness was depicted as the result of old age. Old people, especially old women, were "ugly." (Not really so different now, come to think of it). It's interesting that Martin choses this depiction of ugliness in the form of a young person which is typical of his style in going against stereotypes. The wrinkle in this choice is that Martin uses a young person who was made ugly by abuse rather than simply born "ugly," (whatever than may mean).

In a way, this may be another example of Martin's Beauty and the Beast motif. In this case, the Beauty, the young abuse victim is transformed by a Beast, her abusive father, into an ugly girl. Ugliness, not portrayed as ravaged by time, as in a typical portrayal, but by inner ugliness and cruelty.

ETA: Thought about how eyesight, seeing, is the window to the judgment as to whether someone or something is "ugly." This is, as Lyanna noted above, very much a part of Tyrion and his character. The fact that Arya knows she will not be the ugly little girl forever probably assuages some of her apprehension in wearing the ugly little girl's skin.

Finally, all of these skin faces which can be worn and then changed reminded me of Eliot's line, "to prepare a face to meet the faces we will meet" from Prufrock. This wearing and then shedding of skin in order to disguise as noted above as well, is not only a quality of the persona, but also of liars. It is ironic how Arya and her unabashed, enduring hatred for lies and lying liars is now a part of her as she proceeds on the path to becoming a FM. (It's always been a bit ironic that Arya and her distain for lies and lying liars has never stoppped her from such behavior in order for her to survive. I am curious how this will change in the future as her survival is a bit more settled and lying to affect her purposes as a FM become more of necessity).

[Barbs Jr]

I thought of this parallel as well, although the skinchanging enables you to "enter" into the mind of another human being while they are still them, while the face Arya is wearing, even if it is more complete than a glamour, it still a shell that she puts on. A skinchanger can more "remote control" someone else, while the FM faces are "skins" on top of the same person. But yes, in a way it is very similar to skinchanging. Especially since Arya relived some of the Ugly Girl's memories, that implies there is something, some essence, of the person left in the face. Sort of like when a Warg dies some of his or her essence can be left behind in the animal.

Hi guys, first post here. Reading through this thread I have to thank Just an Other for his commentary on these Arya's chapters. Real good stuff, and I like that he really looks closely at the text in his analysis. On to the book:

This was a really important passage for me as well in that it's one of the few POV perspectives of not just witnessing magic, but experiencing magic. And, despite being half a world away, these few POV experiences of magic are strikingly similar. Arya senses this other girl's life just like Bran can sense the "life force" in the raven he wargs when he's with BR. GRRM really focuses on how interconnected the entire world of ASOIAF is, with the iron bank having huge influence on westeros and with Dany's abolition of slavery indirectly causing the wildlings at hardhome to be taken, and with PWWP and AA being different manifestations of the same prophecy (GRRM confirmed). Here we see that even though these two groups, the COTF and the FM, came about from different places at different times, and even though on the surface their powers/techniques seem different, the magic at its core shares fundamental similarities. Arya having to feel the ugly girls pain and fear is consistent with the fact that magic always has a price. Look at Danys attempt to revive Drogo. Look at Melisandre's pain when she casts the glamor for Mance and Rattleshirt. Look at how creepy those dudes from the House of the Undying are. Look at the price for being able to glamor your face like Jaquen- your entire identity.

It's cool: The gods and magic look on the surface to be very different, but they seem to only be manifestations of the same thing.

I also think its relevent that Arya's first face is the ugly beaten little girl. Not only because Arya saw herself as ugly when she was at winterfell and thus can relate, but also because this girl's way of coping with strife is such a stark (ahah pun) contrast to Arya's. Where this girl had asked for the gift of death in response to her difficulties, Arya had resolved to murder everyone who hurt her or her family. One of Arya's defining qualities is that of a survivor, so I don't think it's an accident on the KOMs part that he gives Arya this completely different perspective. In order for Arya to become no one, she has to become everyone first.

[Lummel]

As I was stirring my porridge it struck me that justice and injustice (though this could also be expressed as responsible and irresponsible uses of power and authority I suppose) was a major theme in the Arya narrative

AGOT the impact of fight with Joffrey, the 'trial', the execution of lady sets Arya apart

ACOK the conduct of the war, judicial torture, 'crimes' and punishments - the list - the idea of retribution

ASOS the BWB as a society aspiring to justice but with no firm legal basis in westeros, the trial of Sandor - which threatens to repeat the pattern of ACOK, simply not being on the right side becomes a criminalised activity, the fight at the inn - ideal of retribution and restorative justice westerosi style

AFFC/ADWD Daeron and other assassinations, Arya is repeating the lessons she's picked up in westeros - judgement and justice are political, versus the faceless men for whom death is the reward for heartfelt prayer and a substantial offering on the donation plate.

If we take Justice as a theme for Arya's arc then the role of little blind girl and her hidden sword look distinctly interesting...

In addition denial of personhood

AGOT Syrio tells Arya she is a boy, an extension of a sword, Yoren tells her she is a boy

ACOK a multiplicity of names and roles adopted and forced on her

ASOS the role of captive and hostage put on her: a 'golden squirrel'

AFFC/ADWD no one, supposed surrender of the personality to become a tool of the Faceless men.

Folk/fairy tale elements like the repetitions, the choices given to her by the faceless men might be something to consider too considering the role of framing narratives in the Sansa arc (beauty and the beast) or framing roles in the Tyrion story (dwarf, second son) possibly the others too!

[Blisscraft]

As I was stirring my porridge it struck me that justice and injustice (though this could also be expressed as responsible and irresponsible uses of power and authority I suppose) was a major theme in the Arya narrative

If we take Justice as a theme for Arya's arc then the role of little blind girl and her hidden sword look distinctly interesting...

In addition denial of personhood

Folk/fairy tale elements like the repetitions, the choices given to her by the faceless men might be something to consider too considering the role of framing narratives in the Sansa arc (beauty and the beast) or framing roles in the Tyrion story (dwarf, second son) possibly the others too!

Had the same thoughts regarding the depiction of Justice, blind, holding her scales and bearing her mighty sword. This reminds me of line from Emerson: "One's man's justice is another's injustice. One man's beauty is another's ugliness."

Of course her scales are hinged with one side hopefully balanced by the other (Cough, cough, diptych). Arya's role has been from the beginning to "call a spade, a spade." Her constant insistant rants against lies and lying has been with us from the begining. She is constantly pushing for the truth in her own way. There are moments when her survival instincts are more powerful than her sense of justice, such as the murder of the guard at Harenhal, also involving the the slip of a coin from Braavos as with her first FM kill. No poison, though, just a quick flick of her knife. Her methods now are made much more sophisticated than in her past.

Don't really want to go all Keats on the thread and yet, I can't help myself, "Beauty isTruth, Truth, Beauty." In this regard, it seems our Stark sisters are the so similar and the same. Both represent Beauty and Truth; Truth and Beauty. Possibly flavored with a bite of lemon tart. :drool:

[Pod The Impaler]

Finally, all of these skin faces which can be worn and then changed reminded me of Eliot's line, "to prepare a face to meet the faces we will meet" from Prufrock. This wearing and then shedding of skin in order to disguise as noted above as well, is not only a quality of the persona, but also of liars. It is ironic how Arya and her unabashed, enduring hatred for lies and lying liars is now a part of her as she proceeds on the path to becoming a FM. (It's always been a bit ironic that Arya and her distain for lies and lying liars has never stoppped her from such behavior in order for her to survive. I am curious how this will change in the future as her survival is a bit more settled and lying to affect her purposes as a FM become more of necessity).

As well, this links in with the idea of Eddard Stark (and Robb) putting on their "Lord's Face" - the different persona required to face the colder, harder world outside of family life. It's the Lord's face that decides life or death for other people, that makes the hard decisions. This is symbolic of Arya growing up too - less like a little girl and more like a Lady as she takes on the grown-up duties of life and death.