Weasel

[AbareBlack]

I've been re-reading Clash for the past week or so. Anybody else wonder what ever happened to Weasel/The Crying Girl? I assume she probably doesn't show up again.

Of course she wasn't a very prominent character, but I'm curious where she ended up. I guess that's a credit to GRRM, that even such a minor character leaves me wanting to know more. :)

[Sordelor]

I think she is death, such a little girl can't survive alone in such circumstances.

[angloesque]

I've been wondering this, too. Yes, in all likelihood, she's dead, but what is the point of her character, then? Why was she ever rescued from the village? Why did Arya save her? Why did she run off instead of get obviously killed? For all the characters in the books, they really do seem to serve specific plot purposes; I'm not sure what hers was.

[Merope]

It may not be a specific "plot purpose", but my assumption was always that she was just another identity for Arya to take on, a name to give herself when asked.

Later on she makes a name for herself cooking up the "Weasel soup". Maybe providing Arya with another layer of fake identity was the only purpose she served. That's more than the weeping woman who could only say "Please" ever did.. but then, we all love GRRM for his huge attention to detail!

[MidnightAurora]

I thought the child was an analogy. the child obviously knew Arya was a girl and why she always followed her and held her leg. my thought for the child was that she was an analogy for Arya meaning Arya will not become a mother or some other analogy for her in the future.

[That Demon Monkey]

Probably just in the story to show Arya is a decent person by giving her someone to care for/ worry about.

[AC Angel]

I've been wondering this, too. Yes, in all likelihood, she's dead, but what is the point of her character, then? Why was she ever rescued from the village? Why did Arya save her? Why did she run off instead of get obviously killed? For all the characters in the books, they really do seem to serve specific plot purposes; I'm not sure what hers was.

To show that Arya has compassion at times, and to add a little more depth to her story and give her another name/alias to use perhaps.

[Lady-Nymeria]

Maybe she is dead. Or alive, in some village, where somebody decided to take care of her. Since she didn't even speak, I think she will not show up again. But I like that about Martin: not all the characters have to do great deeds to exist in his books

[Dead Wolf]

If GRRM decides to jump forward several years and arya makes it back to westeros, she may meet weasel again and weasel could convince her to just go back to winterfell and her family

[Lady-Nymeria]

If GRRM decides to jump forward several years and arya makes it back to westeros, she may meet weasel again and weasel could convince her to just go back to winterfell and her family

I get what you say (I have finished ASOS) but we are in the "still reading ACOK" subforum, so Arya hasn't left Westeros yet.

[Lady Acorns]

I always assumed that Weasel was a neccessary loss to fuel Arya's sense of not wanting to be a weak defenceless little girl, destined to die.

[Atropis the Elf]

If GRRM decides to jump forward several years and arya makes it back to westeros, she may meet weasel again and weasel could convince her to just go back to winterfell and her family

I get what you say (I have finished ASOS) but we are in the "still reading ACOK" subforum, so Arya hasn't left Westeros yet.

What LSotV said. A little respect for the readers, and actually is not difficult. Just use: [ spoiler]your text[ /spoiler] with no gaps.

[Synthius]

I always assumed that Weasel was a neccessary loss to fuel Arya's sense of not wanting to be a weak defenceless little girl, destined to die.

I agree. As sad as it is, it was to illustrate the severity and despair of the situation.

Weasel likely did not make it very far, but I hope she is alive.

Though, it's likely that she's just another painful loss on the road. Arya cared for her, then lost her as well.

[Ko Rakharo]

(AFfC)

When Brienne arrives at the inn at the crossroads and finds Gendry, there are a lot of children there; including a little girl that didn't have clothes and a few young kids who Brienne would put around five. From early ACoK to late AFfC there was almost a two years' time gap, and Weasel was lost near the Godseye, so if she's alive...

[Aerys Frost]

I took this as also being 'the girl' in Arya.

When we first meet Weasel,she cries a lot, calls for her mother, etc, because she's afraid. Arya is only like 9? or certainly still young enough to feel the same. BUT she knows fear cuts deeper than swords.

So, I thought she was symbolically the girl in Arya. Perhaps I took it too far.

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

I think Weasel is at the orphanage where the Brotherhood caught Brienne.

[Faceless Man Friday]

Nymeria said Weasel had good taste...or was it that she taste good????

[Shinjinobrave]

She's also there to show that Arya has become very hardened already. She's constantly annoyed that this girl is weak and crying, she wants her to take control of her situation as she is trying to do...

[John Suburbs]

There are all kinds of characters that have no "purpose" to the plot: Jalabar Xo; Desmond, Jacks, Porther and a half-dozen other Stark guardsmen; Tyrek Lannister; 90 percent of the Freys and too many lords, knights, bannerman and other characters to count. Heck, what was the point of Hot Pie? The entire Arya/Gendry story arc could have progressed from KL to the Inn of the Kneeling Man and beyond without him.

People who try to find purpose and reason in everyone and everything that happens in aSoIaF are missing the point. GRRM has gone out of his way to demolish all the old tropes about good and evil, heros and villains and contrived plotlines that lead to the ultimate triumph of good over evil. This is a much more reality-based fiction where things just are, rather than created to support "the narrative."

So Weasel survived the burning of her village, was part of few Arya POVs, and then was gone. Her own story either continued or ended with her death -- no meaning, no purpose, no point. Kind of like real life.

[Diregirl]

I thought she was there to show that Arya has been hit so hard by the loss of her family that she's trying to take care of any "pack" she becomes a part of. Even if they annoy her or slow them down, like Weasel, she doesn't do the rational thing (leave them or kill them), she tries to take care of them and somehow get them through. It also shows she identifies with the weak - those are "her people" - not the strong and brutal, like Weese, who are "the enemy" at this point.