Becoming No One: Rereading Arya IV

[Elaena Targaryen]

I really love this re-read thread as I've been reviewing it over the past few days. Will we be continuing with Mercy's chapter in TWoW?

Elia,

I really, really think you should consider adding to this reread project the work you put together connecting Arya and the Kindly Man with Bran and Bloodraven!!! I'm still so amazed and impressed by your analysis that I feel it would be a shame for that not to be a part of this Arya project, where they have done a wonderful job too! At this stage, I believe (?), it is supposed to be more of a 'rethinking project' so it could be the perfect thing to get this active. :)

[Lyanna Stark]

Hi Elia Sand,

I'm glad you liked the Arya re-read! Like the Sansa re-read thread, I think the decisions to continue with further analysis will probably be taken once TWOW is out, but if the success of the other re-read threads are anything to go by, I think you can expect the Arya re-read to continue in some form. :)

[Artemis]

No, because that is in the WoW subforum and reread project is supposed to be spoiler free.

Ah, thank you for this clarification!

Elia,

I really, really think you should consider adding to this reread project the work you put together connecting Arya and the Kindly Man with Bran and Bloodraven!!! I'm still so amazed and impressed by your analysis that I feel it would be a shame for that not to be a part of this Arya project, where they have done a wonderful job too! At this stage, I believe (?), it is supposed to be more of a 'rethinking project' so it could be the perfect thing to get this active. :)

I'd be honored to! I think this might be the best thread to discuss the mystical/preternatural arc of Arya's storyline - especially because the insights I've read thus far on this re-read thread have been nothing short of brilliant. Hopefully I'll be finishing up reading the thread soon so I can add my own contributions and lend another voice to the discussion of such a fascinating character.

Hi Elia Sand,

I'm glad you liked the Arya re-read! Like the Sansa re-read thread, I think the decisions to continue with further analysis will probably be taken once TWOW is out, but if the success of the other re-read threads are anything to go by, I think you can expect the Arya re-read to continue in some form. :)

That's wonderful :cheers: I hope this thread isn't dead yet, however. This past week I charged myself with the task to read all of Arya I-IV and I'm still halfway through reading the posts on this particular thread and I'd love to be able to share some humble observations!

[Artemis]

Sorry for the double-post, but I did have an observation while reading some of this insightful discussion and I was hoping someone else might have caught this as well!

At the culmination of AFfC, we see Arya hiding Needle under the stone steps of the HoB&W and the powerful reaction it evokes in her:

"...Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me 'little sister', she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes."

Also, I strongly believe GRRM writes with much awareness, leaving hints within how he phrases certain sentences and situations. There is some similarity with Jon with respect to her actions in AFfC. When Jon joins the Wall, and more significantly, when he becomes the Lord Commander, he actively authorizes/chooses getting involved within the realm's game of thrones. In AFfC, when Arya decides to join the order of the Faceless Men, she's also told to sever ties with her former life as Arya Stark of Winterfell. Jon rebels against the Night Watch, involving himself with the realm for many sound reasons, with one of them being for his sister. Arya rebels against the Faceless Men when she refuses to give up and hide Needle.

However, that's not what reading the above quote made me initially think.

What's surprising is that it recalled another conversation back in my mind, but this one between Jon Snow and Aemon Targaryen at the Wall. To provide some context, this was the chapter in AGoT when Jon had received word of Robb calling his banners to march off to war against the Lannisters and the IT. The impetus of these following words spoken by Aemon to Jon was in light of the aforementioned event and a sense of intuition of Jon's conflicting state of mind about whether to aid Robb and desert the NW or uphold his vow and forsake his brother, his family.

"Jon, did you ever wonder why the men of the Night's Watch take no wives and father no children?" Maester Aemon asked.

Jon shrugged. "No." [...]
"So they will not love," the old man answered, "for love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. [...] What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy [...] Yet brothers they had, and sisters. Mothers who gave them birth, fathers who gave them names. They came from a hundred quarrelsome kingdoms, and they knew times may change, but men do not.

So they pledged as well that the Night's Watch would take no part in the battles of the realms it guarded.[...] Yet soon or late in every [wo]man's life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose."

Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty.

As Maester Aemon says to Jon, "What is duty against the memory of a brother's smile?" Needle was Jon Snow's smile, and for Arya, what is duty (to the FM) against that memory of Jon Snow? What is honour and duty for Jon Snow compared to the love he bears for Arya, his "little sister"?

Just some food for thought! :)

[DrunkSister]

Hereby I name you necromancer, go forth and resurrect! lol