no-idea-for-a-cool-name
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The more I get told to put a picture the less I want to.
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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If you’re still accepting requests… Arya and Missandei please and thank you 🩷

the little scribe and the little acolyte
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"And Arya thought, Run, Weasel, run as far as you can, run and hide and never come back."
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That night she lay in her narrow bed upon the scratchy straw, listening to the voices of the living and the dead whisper and argue as she waited for the moon to rise. They were the only voices she trusted anymore. She could hear the sound of her own breath, and the wolves as well, a great pack of them now. They are closer than the one I heard in the godswood, she thought. They are calling to me.
Arya Stark, commissioned from vienguinn (twitter)
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Working on different Gendry & Arya designs


I know it's likely not gonna happen in the books but I need them grown up so bad
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Sansa, Arya, and the Issues of Choice Feminism and Conformity
There's a lot of discourse surrounding Sansa and Arya, and I'm aware I may being stepping on a hornet's nest with this one, but oh, well. I've seen many of the discussions/arguments, and I think a level of disconnect comes from how people practice feminism. In particular, the idea of choice feminism feels like it's permeating the discussions even if it isn't brought up directly. Funnily enough, Sansa and Arya actually present the perfect opportunity to examine the issues with choice feminism while also examining the attitudes behind both the characters and the people who defend them.
Some of you may be wondering, what is choice feminism? Simply put, it's the idea that the individual choices of women/girls are inherently feminist. Now this idea often gets a lot of criticism since it tends to ignore the very real systemic, societal problems that affect and influence women. That is to say, our choices don't exist in a vacuum. The choices that we make are always influenced by outside forces and pressures that may make us feel like we have to make certain choices. Many proponents of choice feminism will argue that they enjoy things like doing their makeup or being a a stay-at-home mom which is fine. However, they never seem to ask whether they would make the same choice had they felt completely free and able to. I'm not saying you can't have fun with makeup or feel fulfilled being a mom, but these are choices that society expects women to make. Even if you nominally have other options, you are still expected to conform to a certain ideal or risk being mocked or ostracized. And I think a lot of women are looking at these choices with hindsight. You enjoy the thing now, but would the younger you who hadn't made that choice yet really have made the same choice if they felt completely safe choosing something else? The unfortunate reality is that under a patriarchal society, many choices that women make are colored by systemic pressure.
So how does this relate to the Stark sisters? Let's start with Sansa. Sansa is a character that is well loved by many women who tend to enjoy more feminine/girly things, and it's easy to see why. Sansa herself enjoys very feminine activities and is quite good at being a lady of noble birth. This is, of course, where the real issue lies. In the Sansa/Arya discourse, there often seems to be some issue with Arya's dislike for typically ladylike things. Many people seem to think that Sansa should be allowed to enjoy whatever activities she wants. Who cares if they happen to be the ones that are expected of her? And that's the problem. Sansa may enjoy those activities, but not because she chose them herself. These are things that all highborn ladies are expected to do, and Sansa was made to do these activities as soon as she was old enough. Now, Sansa happens to be quite good at them and receives a lot of praise for her talents, so unsurprisingly, she enjoys these activities. Most children would probably feel the same way. However, she didn't choose to enjoy these activities, which is something I think many of her most ardent defenders are missing. They never ask the question "Would Sansa, free of all expectations, encouraged to pursue any activity of her choosing no matter how 'feminine' or 'masculine', still willingly choose to be the same Sansa we see in the books?" The truth is, we can't know because Sansa is a fictional character who is shaped by the world she exists in. Sansa is fortunate to fit quite easily into the box Westeros expects her to and so never questions it.
Arya, on the other hand, struggles to conform to the strict standards that Westeros has set for her. She's constantly told, not just by society, but by the people in her life, that she does not fit what a highborn lady is supposed to be. When she does engage in the activities expected of her, rather than receiving support to help her improve, she is met with derision and comparisons to her better, perfect sister. It's no wonder, then, that Arya finds little enjoyment in these activities and actively tries to push against the box she's being forced into. Like many young girls who realize they don't fit entirely with the standards of femininity that society expects of them, Arya fights back and asks "if not everyone can fit in the box, why are you trying to make them?" What's interesting is that Arya struggles with her femininity, not because she doesn't like being a girl or being feminine, but because she actually does like those things. She hates being referred to as a boy, she likes to pick flowers, she enjoys songs, she even seems to wish to be perceived as beautiful. Arya wants to be able to engage in femininity, but because she doesn't neatly fit the societal standards of Westeros, she struggles to do so. Arya also doesn't have a particularly strong desire to engage in a specific masculine activity, like being a knight, as some people claim. This is brought up in a conversation with Ned where she offers up several options, like being the lady of her own house (not married) or becoming maester. Ned refutes her questions by offering the only option available to her: marry a lord and have his children. Arya isn't expressing a specific desire; she's expressing her wish for options. Arya wants to have a choice, wants to be able to decide her own future, and she doesn't understand why she can't. Arya isn't necessarily opposed to the idea of marriage wholesale; she's opposed to the idea because she has to do it whether she wants to or not. Thus, we must ask sort of the opposite of the question we asked with Sansa. Would Arya, free of societal pressure and encouraged to pursue any thing of her choosing, still feel such dislike for the typical ladylike activities, or would she willingly choose to participate in some of them?
Now we have to look at both of them together and how they interact. As previously mentioned, it seems to me that many people who strongly defend/identify with Sansa feel like Arya's distaste for certain activities is judgemental and pointed. I personally disagree with this, and I don't think Sansa's pov chapters support this idea. Sansa is generally displeased that Arya doesn't like those activities, but she never seems personally offended or acts like she feels that Arya is judging her. Rather, she is annoyed that Arya won't conform and even more annoyed that the adults around her aren't doing enough about it. Sansa is sometimes embarrassed by Arya, not because Arya has insulted her or made her feel judged, but because Sansa fears other people will judge her for her sister's lack of conformity. This is not Arya's fault; it is the fault of society for putting expectations on these young girls. Again, Sansa is lucky enough to meet the standards easily, so she never needs to put any work in to conform, whereas Arya has always struggled and would be forced to change to fit in. And Sansa wants Arya to change. She looks down on Arya for her "wild" behaviors, thinks Ned should be doing more to correct Arya, and fundamentally seems to dislike Arya the way she is. Sansa doesn't examine the restrictive standards of Westeros because she doesn't need to. When people defend Sansa even to the point of saying that Arya does need to change, they are continuing to uphold restrictive, patriarchal standards of what it means to be a woman. They, like Sansa, are blaming Arya for the poor treatment she receives instead of blaming a system that allows for only one type of woman to exist.
HOTD demonstrates this, too, with Alicent and Rhaenyra. The root of Alicent's anger and problems with Rhaenyra is not Rhaenyra's children or Alicent's fears for her own or even Alicent's feelings of abandonment. Alicent holds so much anger for Rhaenyra because Rhaenyra dares to defy the gender roles that have been forced upon them, that Alicent has spent so much of her life upholding. Rhaenyra dares to believe that she is worthy of power and respect just by virtue of existing, while Alicent goes along with her supposed duty with the expectation that she will be rewarded, only to realize that she keeps getting nothing. So she gets angry and hates Rhaenyra because she can't bring herself to hate the men who are really responsible. If she hates them, blames them, then she finally has to reckon with the fact that all her suffering, all her duty was pointless.
Sansa and Arya present a very interesting dichotomy and looking at their relationship allows us to examine how certain perspectives, while nominally helpful, can be harmful. The idea that women who conform are somehow more judged than women who go against standards is one that has persisted, from NLOGs to pick-mes, and one that I have a lot of problems with. At the end of the day, I find it hard to agree that doing what society expects of you is particularly revolutionary and ignoring the way society may have influenced those decisions hardly helps. Often, these ideas tend to hurt all women, even the ones who fit in. We can see this in Sansa and Arya and how conformity and supposed choice affect both of them. Arya cannot be who she wants to be, cannot engage in her femininity in way that feels authentic to her, and is blamed for her own ostracization by others. Sansa is built from the societal expectations around her, and though she benefits from conforming, her potential is lost because she was never given an opportunity to truly choose what she wanted to be. Both are trapped by the patriarchal expectations of Westeros, but while Sansa's conformity renders her blind to it, Arya's rebellion makes it all too visible to her.
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I drew Arya in the Smallwood acorn dress like a year ago and then I forgor about it.
So have Arya in the Smallwood acorn dress doodle
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I would first say that this is not an unpopular opinion.
But anyway, I disagree. It is true that a lot of people would behave like Sansa, but there're a lot of people who would behave like Arya too. Besides, Arya's story involves aspects that would definitely be relatable to many lower class women since she was forced to be a servant and do housekeeping work. Not to mention her struggles with self-steem, sexist gender roles, abuse, injustice, inequality, etc.
Both sisters are relatable in different ways.
Unpopular A Song of Ice and Fire opinion:
I prefer Sansa over Arya as a character.
For one, I think people overreact towards Sansa, saying how mean she was to Arya. Don't get me wrong, Arya is a badass character, but as an elder daughter/sister, Arya would annoy the fuck out of me also. Especially going back rereading those chapters between the sisters, I think people blow those interactions way out of proportions and the show did not help at all.
I think besides the obvious reason (MYSOGYNY) Sansa gets such a bad rep is because she conforms, but also because she's what we would do if we were in her situation. We like to think we'd be fighting like Arya, but most people would be quiet and hold their heads down.
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The fandom is filled with people who demonize, Arya, agressively ignore all her good qualities and her importance in the story, treat her as an irredeemable monster, and wish for her to be other characters' servant or be expelled from society, basically to never be important because "she's too far gone". People who had their hate towards this child character validated when the show effectively painted her as nothing but a killer, made her Sansa's servant and made her disappear by the end.
Call me biased but I don't think we need more people hating on this little girl.
Jon gives Arya a sword and then there’s this cute bonding moment where they’re like, “Don’t tell Sansa” implying she will tattletale.
Jon gives a very brash 9 year old girl, an actual lethal weapon.
Then, Arya actually kills someone with it by accident.
Yeah yeah, she moved without meaning to but like tell that to the stableboy, he’s still dead.
Yeah yeah, she was escaping Lannister capture, but the fact that GRRM doesn’t just make her slip away… even if he showed the stakes are raised that even the smallfolk will turn over the Starks— he still deliberately makes Arya kill someone.
It’s just astonishing to me that Arya’s actions are glossed over— actual my-physical-hand-stabbed-this-person murder—meanwhile Sansa gets blamed for killing Ned when she had no way of knowing what Cersei would do with the information she accidentally delivers.
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I got blocked...
I wanted to have a discussion.
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Putting aside that I personally think the ruler of the north has to be either Bran or Jon, I think you're completely mischaracterizing Arya. Basically all you arguments are plainly untrue.
Sorry in advance for the length but I really need to adress everything you're saying on this post. Feel free to not read it but I need to vent and I have time to waste.
Her whole arc and purpose as a character is about being a warrior
False. If her arc was about being a warrior you would think GRRM would've made her develop the skills of a warrior, yet he hasn't. Her martial training was extremely short and the actual skills GRRM is making her develop are mostly intellectual. She's learning to be observant, to analyze situations, to use manipulation, to read people, to speak multiple lenguages, she's not learning how to be a warrior at all.
about freedom, and about rejecting traditional roles like nobility, marriage, and ruling. That’s just not who she is.
Exactly! She's all about the feedom to reject traditional roles. Now the part ehere you lie is when listing ruling as a traditional role for a woman. It simply isn't, women are not expected to rule, so if Arya were to become queen or have a powerful position in nobility, she would absolutely be challenging traditional roles and using her freedom.
Arya isn’t patient or interested in politics or mind games. That doesn’t mean she’s not smart or that she can’t play the game. She absolutely can. But she’s just not interested in it.
And since when is this book about characters doing only what they like to do? If she has the capacity and feels she has the responsibility, she would absolutely do it. It's a common misconception about Arya that she would escape responsibilities but she actually has a tendency to feel responsible for things even when she shouldn't. Like how she took the responsibility for her pack's safety and risked her life multiple times to save other people.
She’s more of a "let’s settle it with a sword" kind of girl
False, she has no chance to defeat anyone with a sword and she knows this. Obviously she has her moments of impulsivity and stupidity just like every single character, but in serious situations, she knows when to act and when to keep her head down:
“A broken lip taught Arya to hold her tongue.”
"On the road Arya had felt like a sheep, but Harrenbal turned her into a mouse. She was grey as a mouse in her scratchy wool shift, and like a mouse she kept to the crannies and crevices and dark holes of the castle, scurrying out of the way of the mighty."
"Arya hated being left behind like she was some stupid child, but at least Gendry had been kept back as well. She knew better than to try and argue. This was battle, and in battle you had to obey."
Arya fights for survival, for revenge, and for herself.
Revenge and survival are motives for Arya, true, but so are love, compassion and justice. Notice how almost every person of her list hurt other people, not her. Notice how during the walk to Harrenhall she hated herself for not being able to save other people. Notice how she risked her life multiple times to save others. Her character does have a lot of darkness but she also has a lot of light.
She never wanted power, titles, or responsibility.
False. We literally have asking Ned this:
"Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"
What she doesn't like are the traditional noble roles forced on women, but she does have interest in roles that involve power.
We also see her taking advantage of her position as a noble:
"I'm not a boy," she spat at them. "I'm Arya Stark of Winterfell, and if you lay a hand on me my lord father will have both your heads on spikes. If you don't believe me, fetch Jory Cassel or Vayon Poole from the Tower of the Hand." She put her hands on her hips. "Now are you going to open the gate, or do you need a clout on the ear to help your hearing?"
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If the Mummers catch us, I'll tell them that I'm Ned Stark's daughter and sister to the King in the North. I'll command them to take me to my brother, and to do no harm to Hot Pie and Gendry.
Not to mention that basically her entire story is about going back home which is the same as her trying to go back to her life as a noble.
The argument that Arya is tied to Northern politics because people fight for her or because of the "Weasel Soup" moment really misses the point. Yes, she was part of those moments, but they weren’t about her stepping into a leadership role—they were about her surviving and helping the people around her. She didn’t do it with some grand vision of ruling the North. She did it because she had to.
You're right that the weasel soup is not an example of Arya making a political move with some grand vision behind, but in my opinion, the point of it is not to show Arya being a super politician and leader, but to show that she had the charisma and intelliigence to maybe one day hhave those roles.
NONE of the Stark kids except Jon made any clearly strategic political move, so either you think that Jon should rule the north (which reading the comments you made doesn't seem to be the case) or you're applying some major double standards in order to dismiss Arya and support you personal wish.
As for Nymeria leading a wolf pack that attacks Freys and Boltons—that’s not Arya playing politics. That’s a reflection of her subconscious, her rage. It’s poetic, sure,
Once again you're purposely missing the point. No one says Nymeria killing Stark enemies is a shroud political move from Arya, what we´re saying is that considering the direwolves reflect their owner, it seems very telling that Arya's wolf happens to be named after a female ruler and is the leader of a wolf army. Adding that Arya perfectly fits Varys speech about the ideal ruler and that she has a lot of intellect and charisma, the option of her becoming some sort of leader seems very likely. I can't say it's foreshadow as of now, but it definitely feels like a very strong foreshadow.
but it’s not Arya making strategic moves like Sansa does.
I'm sorry but what strategic move has Sansa done?
and yes, arya admired her father, but not as a ruler. She never once expressed a desire to follow in his footsteps as Lord of Winterfell.
Yes she did:
Her father used to say that a lord needed to eat with his men, if he hoped to keep them. "Know the men who follow you," she heard him tell Robb once, "and let them know you. Don't ask your men to die for a stranger." At Winterfell, he always had an extra seat set at his own table, and every day a different man would be asked to join him. One night it would be Vayon Poole, and the talk would be coppers and bread stores and servants. The next time it would be Mikken, and her father would listen to him go on about armor and swords and how hot a forge should be and the best way to temper steel. Another day it might be Hullen with his endless horse talk, or Septon Chayle from the library, or Jory, or Ser Rodrik, or even Old Nan with her stories.
Arya had loved nothing better than to sit at her father's table and listen to them talk. She had loved listening to the men on the benches too; to freeriders tough as leather, courtly knights and bold young squires, grizzled old men-at-arms. She used to throw snowballs at them and help them steal pies from the kitchen. Their wives gave her scones and she invented names for their babies and played monsters-and-maidens and hide-the-treasure and come-into-my-castle with their children. Fat Tom used to call her "Arya Underfoot," because he said that was where she always was. She'd liked that a lot better than "Arya Horseface."
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He has a lord's face, that's all, she told herself. She remembered hearing her lady mother tell Father to put on his lord's face and go deal with some matter. Father had laughed at that. She could not imagine Lord Tywin ever laughing at anything.
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I should kill them myself. Whenever her father had condemned a man to death, he did the deed himself with Ice, his greatsword. "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look him in the face and hear his last words," she'd heard him tell Robb and Jon once.
Granted, she's not explicitly saying "I want to be lord of Winterfell like my father, but look at those quotes from a literary perpective, Why did GRRM bothered to add them? Why does Arya remember so much about Ned's rulership style even when she's not meant to rule and is not the one he was giving those lessons to? I feel like GRRM would not add stuff like that just to waste page space.
She loved him for his justice, not his politics. The argument that she was "always interested in ruling" is just headcanon. She observed him, yes, but that doesn’t mean she wanted his role.
I agree with you that Arya has not shown a desire to rule, but that's no reason to dismiss her. Once again, if that was the case, you would agree with me that only Bran and Jon are the options to rule Winterfell since they're the only Stark siblings to express a desire to do so, but since it seems like you're advocating for Sansa who not once has expressed any desire to rule, I have no option but to, again, assume that you're just being hypocritical and using double standards to fit your personal wish.
If anything, the times she did lead a group (like in A Clash of Kings) only showed how much she struggled with it. She doesn’t want that burden. The problem isn’t that I "don’t want her to care about it"—it’s that she doesn’t care about it.
False. She does struggle with the burden, but it's evident she naturally takes it. That she doesn't care about it is false, she evidently cares if she's willing to make herself responsible for other people's safety despite having zero obligation to do so.
Arya is happiest when she’s on the road, with Needle, or with Nymeria, not when she’s in a castle ruling over people.
False. So very false. Arya's happiest memories are about her time at Winterfell. She did enjoy some travels but always with Winterfell as her home. Her whole story is about her desperately trying to put an end to her travels and going back home, and her happiest time since her life went to hell was her time as Cat, a time when she had a relatively stable life, with a stable job and food and a roof. And even the she was ready to ditch the whole thing as soon as she saw a chance to go back to her family:
And the singer should be on the Wall. When Dareon had first appeared at the Happy Port, Arya had almost asked if he would take her with him back to Eastwatch, until she heard him telling Bethany that he was never going back.
And that’s okay. She’s not meant to be Queen in the North, because that would go against everything she’s been built up to be.
False. As I've stated a few times before, having a position of authority, queen or some other noble role, would fit perfectly with a female character designed taking after feminists who fought for women to have equal opportunities as men. Arya obtaining a role that is normally forbidden to women seem like what her character is designed for.
Sansa being Queen in the North has far more buildup than Arya ever ruling anything.
How so? She has never expressed any desire to rule (no, being a queen corsort is not the same as being a ruler). She's never had any big responsibility. She's never shown leadership over powerful people. She still can't understand a lot of thing around her and can't even face ugly truths. She's learning about politics but she hasn't made any political move yet. And she's learning about reading people and being observant but so is Arya.
I'm not saying Sansa can't end up as queen or in a position of power, but what exactly makes you think she's so much more like than her siblings to become the ruler of the north? Preferably, I would prefer you used arguments that didn't rely on double standards.
Arya’s entire arc is about rejecting nobility and traditional power structures, while Sansa’s is about learning how to navigate them.
False. As I've said quite a few times already, Arya has never rejected nobility or traditional power. What she rejected was the role forced on women.
Even the way they survive is different—Arya through direct action and violence,
False. Arya survived as long as she did mostly because of her being extremely observant, adaptable, and easily underestimated.
It was the scariest thing she'd ever done. She wanted to run and hide, but she made herself walk across the yard, slowly, putting one foot in front of the other as if she had all the time in the world and no reason to be afraid of anyone. She thought she could feel their eyes, like bugs crawling on her skin under her clothes. Arya never looked up. If she saw them watching, all her courage would desert her, she knew, and she would drop the bundle of clothes and run and cry like a baby, and then they would have her. She kept her gaze on the ground. By the time she reached the shadow of the royal sept on the far side of the yard, Arya was cold with sweat, but no one had raised the hue and cry.
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Two of the guardsmen were dicing together while the third walked rounds, his hand on the pommel of his sword. Ashamed to let them see her crying like a baby, she stopped to rub at her eyes. Her eyes her eyes her eyes, why did …
Look with your eyes, she heard Syrio whisper.
Arya looked. She knew all of her father's men. The three in the grey cloaks were strangers. "You," the one walking rounds called out. "What do you want here, boy?" The other two looked up from their dice.
These are only a few examples of her surviving because of her intellect.
Sansa through political maneuvering. Sansa is already acting as a politician in later books/show,
How is Sansa acting as a politician?
and she has the strongest claim among the Stark siblings.
False. Bran is the one with the strongest claim. If we talk about what the characters know, Sansa might be the one with the biggest claim in Littlefingers point of view, but if we ask regular northeners they would say Arya has the strongest claim, And Stannis would say Jon does, And Manderly would say Rickon does. Saying Sansa has the strongest claim is factually wrong.
At the end of the day, dismissing Sansa completely while insisting Arya has foreshadowing just feels like selective reasoning rather than a solid argument.
You seriously don't realize that this is exactly what you are doing but swapping Arya and Sansa?
but the key difference is that Sansa wants it. As a child, she dreamed of being a queen,
No she doesn't. Show me one quote where Sansa expresses a desire to rule. Not to be a queen consort which was mostly related to the glamour, show me she genuinely wants to govern.
As she grows, she realizes the weight of responsibility,
Show me one quote when Sansa realizes what a huge responsibility ruling is and accepts it
but that doesn’t mean she won’t take it on. She will want to serve the North and protect it from a foreign ruler
because her entire arc is about returning home and realizing that’s where she belonged all along.
Just like the arcs of every single Stak kid. Again, double standards everywhere.
and since her marriage to tyrion was never consummated, it could be declared null and void under Westerosi law. Maybe Rickon won’t die like in the show, but Bran will likely remain the Three-Eyed Raven and won’t rule. And no, I didn’t dismiss Arya’s connections to the North—I just never saw them as foreshadowing her becoming queen, because that simply doesn’t fit her arc. Arya represents the smallfolk more than the nobility. She is not a ruler or a leader—she is a lone wolf, free, wild, and drawn to adventure. Keeping her in a castle, whether as Queen of Winterfell or worse as a lord’s wife, would take away what makes her Arya.
Sorry but this is still dismissing Arya. And dismissing all the other Stark kids. You're twisting canon story and characters in order to support your wish of Sansa as queen.
Arya loves her family—she’s always yearned for connection like you said—but that doesn’t mean she’s suited for ruling or that she wants it.
What would being "suited for ruling" be for you?
Loving your pack and wanting to govern are two completely different things.
Yet you want a character who has never said she wants to govern to become a governer. Make it make sense.
She admires her parents’ love, sure, but that doesn’t mean she wants to settle into a traditional role.
Just because she doesn't want to be a submiissive wife does not mean she would have a love life. I doubt GRRM wrote all the romantic build up between her and Gendry only to say romance doesn't matter to her at all.
And yes, I do think she’d fight a war and then leave for an adventure.
Evidence?
Nymeria is her role model
Nymeria doesn't roam though, she made one travel out of necessity and then settled in one place. And ruled it.
.Arya connects with the Faceless Men and the idea of shedding identities because she doesn’t want to be boxed in.
She doesn't connect to it at all, she's clearly staying with the FM because she feels she has no better place to go. I'm starting to think you didn't eve read her chapters.
Also, dismissing the show’s Arya as entirely separate from the books is wrong. While D&D mishandled her arc, Arya leaving to explore isn’t something they pulled out of nowhere—the books already set up her love for adventure and discovery.
If you claim this, the point me the textual evidence that supports Arya leaving to explore. Prove that it doesn't come out of nowhere.
Also, for Arya to become Queen in the North, that would mean Sansa, Bran, and Rickon all have to be out of the picture. She’s the youngest sibling, and by Westerosi standards, she has the weakest claim to the throne. Plus, I think people often see being a king or queen as the “happy ending” of a character arc, and that’s just so wrong. The happiest any character in ASOIAF can be is away from the game—away from the burden of ruling.
It's funny you say this when you're perfectly fine taking almost all the Starks out of the picture so that Sansa, a character with a weaker claim and who does not want to rule, can be queen. It's so disingenuous of you to pretend to care about anything other than you own wishful thinking.
I saw a post on TikTok saying Arya is the Stark sibling with the most foreshadowing in the books to become Queen in the North. And I completely disagree. Her whole arc and purpose as a character is about being a warrior, about freedom, and about rejecting traditional roles like nobility, marriage, and ruling. That’s just not who she is.
Unlike Nymeria—who Arya sees as a role model—Arya isn’t patient or interested in politics or mind games. That doesn’t mean she’s not smart or that she can’t play the game. She absolutely can. But she’s just not interested in it. She’s more of a "let’s settle it with a sword" kind of girl—and I love her for that. I wouldn’t change her for the world.
Also, for Arya to become Queen in the North, that would mean Sansa, Bran, and Rickon all have to be out of the picture. She’s the youngest sibling, and by Westerosi standards, she has the weakest claim to the throne. Plus, I think people often see being a king or queen as the “happy ending” of a character arc, and that’s just so wrong. The happiest any character in ASOIAF can be is away from the game—away from the burden of ruling.
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❄️ An Anime of Ice and Fire 🔥
Part 50 - Gendry
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I strongly disagree that "lady Arya" would be a disservice to her character for a number of reasons.
1. Reducing her to just an assassin is what I would consider a disservice. What would be the point of making her one of the very few noble characters who cares about the smallfolk if she won't end up in a position of power that allows her to help them? What would be the point of training her in various intellectual skills that would allow her to navigate politocal situations if she's only meant to go stab-stab at people? Her training, education, and skillset is way to sofisticated as to end up as a mere murderer.
2. She is not a warrior. She could be, if she eventually finds another water dancing master and trains for a few years, and I can see her learning to use a bow and arrow within the story, but with the training she has right now she's no warrior at all. All her kills relied on her being quick, intelligent, and easily underestimated precisely because she's too physically weak as to openly confront someone.
3. Arya already is a lady and will always be simply because she's the daughter of a lord. While it might be traditionally associate with certain traits, "lady" is not a personality, it's merely a title of nobility that Arya will always have.
4. Being a lady does not have to mean Arya has to be traditionally ladylike like Sansa, we have in-universe examples of women who were nobles AND had unconventional, fulfilling lives, like the Mormont women or Nymeria who was a war commander and a ruler. If there's a precedent, what would stop Arya from being her real unconventional self while staying in nobility.
4. Arya's never showed any true desire of abandoning nobility, she contemplated other choices a few times but if was only when she felt she had no way to return home. Going back home and to her family has always being her goal. And she also showed interest in positions of nobility when she asked Ned whether she could be a high septon or build castles or be a king's councillor. What sets her apart from most ladies is not a desire to be a commoner, it's a desire to be treated as an equal to men.
5. Vanishing Arya from nobility when she never wanted that is a kind of sexist message in my opinion. Arya's character was modelled after feminists GRRM knew, and feminism was not build so that women who oppose restrictive gender norms have to abandon society, they strive to change society to make woman have a bigger place in it. I think Arya should challenge Westeros' sexism not be chased away by it.
6. Despite popular belief, Arya craves stability, which is why going back home has been her goal throughout the books and why she's staying with the FM, she might have enjoyed travelling a a holiday of sorts but she does not enjoy wandering around permanently or being away from the people she cares about.
7. Being a noble does not mean Arya can't interact with all sorts of different people and travel around, she travelled with Ned to white Harbor and when she remembers Ned's lessons about rulership she thinks about all the people who travelled through Winterfell she met.
I'm not claiming to have the absolute truth, just listing my reasons for disagreeing. I'm also not saying Arya will be queen or that she can't have the ending you said or have a tragic ending, I just think her, Bran and Sansa are the most likely characters to get a positive ending. Mostly because they've been through hell for the whole story and their chapters seem like pure build up.
Where do you think book Arya's arc is heading?
i have never once posted about arya so this is definitely bait but yum yum im a hungry fish
one thing off the bat i think any "lady arya" ending would lowkey be a disservice to her character. she's the warrior maid! she's a tomboy! she's an assassin! she's incredibly well traveled for her age and has spent the most time rubbing elbows with the smallfolk! her storyline is about exploration, underdogs, and many faces, that she both meets and adopts.
it really depends on how apocalyptic the targ invasion and long night ends up being. i don't really see her being the master of arms to queen in the north sansa, but i also don't see her becoming queen in the north herself. a roaming hedge knight/bounty hunter/wolf pack leader seems more likely, and its in line with how her storyline has gone so far. but honestly im no grrm and i don't think my ideas are for sure going to happen, i just really hate a lot of popular arya endings
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himbo!gendry/dumb!gendry? i don't know him...
Look with your eyes, Arya wanted to shout at the men below. "Can't they see we're no lords or knights?" she whispered. "I don't think they care, Arry," Gendry whispered back. And she looked at Ser Amory's face, the way Syrio had taught her to look, and she saw that he was right.
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The air was full of birds, crows mostly. From afar, they were no larger than flies as they wheeled and flapped above the thatched roofs. To the east, Gods Eye was a sheet of sun-hammered blue that filled half the world. Some days, as they made their slow way up the muddy shore (Gendry wanted no part of any roads, and even Hot Pie and Lommy saw the sense in that), Arya felt as though the lake were calling her. She wanted to leap into those placid blue waters, to feel clean again, to swim and splash and bask in the sun. But she dare not take off her clothes where the others could see, not even to wash them.
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"If there's people, there's food," Hot Pie said, too loudly. Gendry was always telling him to be more quiet, but it never did any good. "Might be they'd give us some." "Might be they'd kill us too," Gendry said. "Not if we yielded," Hot Pie said hopefully.
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Hot Pie agreed. "They told Yoren to open the gates, they told him in the king's name. You have to do what they tell you in the king's name. It was that stinky old man's fault. If he'd of yielded, they would have left us be." Gendry frowned. "Knights and lordlings, they take each other captive and pay ransoms, but they don't care if the likes of you yield or not." He turned to Arya. "What else did you see?"
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Gendry squinted up at the sun. "Evenfall will be the best time to sneak in. I'll go scout come dark.""No, I'll go," Arya said. "You're too noisy."Gendry got that look on his face. "We'll both go." "Arry should go," said Lommy. "He's sneakier than you are."
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"He's going to die, and the sooner he does it, the better for the rest of us. We should just leave him, like he says. If it was you or me hurt, you know he'd leave us." They scrambled down a steep cut and up the other side, using roots for handholds. "I'm sick of carrying him, and I'm sick of all his talk about yielding too. If he could stand up, I'd knock his teeth in. Lommy's no use to anyone. That crying girl's no use either." "You leave Weasel alone, she's just scared and hungry is all." Arya glanced back, but the girl was not following for once. Hot Pie must have grabbed her, like Gendry had told him. "She's no use," Gendry repeated stubbornly. "Her and Hot Pie and Lommy, they're slowing us down, and they're going to get us killed. You're the only one of the bunch who's good for anything. Even if you are a girl."
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But Jaqen H'ghar still smiled. His garb was still ragged and filthy, but he had found time to wash and brush his hair. It streamed down across his shoulders, red and white and shiny, and Arya heard the girls giggling to each other in admiration. I should have let the fire have them. Gendry said to, I should have listened. If she hadn't thrown them that axe they'd all be dead. For a moment she was afraid, but they rode past her without a flicker of interest. Only Jaqen H'ghar so much as glanced in her direction, and his eyes passed right over her. He does not know me, she thought. Arry was a fierce little boy with a sword, and I'm just a grey mouse girl with a pail.
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"Never mind about Ser Lyonel." He drew her aside by the arm. "Last night Hot Pie asked me if I heard you yell Winterfell back at the holdfast, when we were all fighting on the wall." "Everyone was yelling stuff," Arya said defensively. "Hot Pie yelled hot pie. He must have yelled it a hundred times." "It's what you yelled that matters. I told Hot Pie he should clean the wax out of his ears, that all you yelled was Go to hell! If he asks you, you better say the same."
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"Maybe there won't be a lot of them.""If there's two, that's too many for you and me. You never learned nothing in that village, did you? You try this and Vargo Hoat will cut off your hands and feet, the way he does." Gendry took up the tongs again. "You're afraid."
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She heard them coming long before she saw them. Hot Pie was breathing heavily, and once he stumbled in the dark, barked his shin, and cursed loud enough to wake half of Harrenhal. Gendry was quieter, but the swords he was carrying rang together as he moved. "Here I am." She stood. "Be quiet or they'll hear you." The boys picked their way toward her over tumbled stones. Gendry was wearing oiled chainmail under his cloak, she saw, and he had his blacksmith's hammer slung across his back. Hot Pie's red round face peered out from under a hood. He had a sack of bread dangling from his right hand and a big wheel of cheese under his left arm. "There's a guard on that postern," said Gendry quietly. "I told you there would be."
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By midday Hot Pie had begun to complain. His arse was sore, he told them, and the saddle was rubbing him raw inside his legs, and besides he had to get some sleep. "I'm so tired I'm going to fall off the horse." 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."
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Dusk was settling as they stopped to rest the horses once more and share another meal of bread and cheese. "I'm cold and wet," Hot Pie complained. "We're a long way from Harrenhal now, for sure. We could have us a fire—" "NO!" Arya and Gendry both said, at the exact same 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.
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"What about Hot Pie?" Gendry pointed. Hot Pie was already on the ground, curled up beneath his cloak on a bed of damp leaves and snoring softly. He had a big wedge of cheese in one fist, but it looked as though he had fallen asleep between bites. It was no good arguing, Arya realized; Gendry had the right of it. The Mummers will need to sleep too, she told herself, hoping it was true. She was so weary it was a struggle even to get down from the saddle, but she remembered to hobble her horse before finding a place beneath a beech tree. The ground was hard and damp. She wondered how long it would be before she slept in a bed again, with hot food and a fire to warm her.
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"Aye, and good for you." The man smiled. "It's not every day I meet a lad with such a tasty name. And what would your friends be called, Mutton Chop and Squab?" Gendry scowled down from his saddle. "Why should I tell you my name? I haven't heard yours."
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"Gendry," she called, her voice low and urgent. "They have a boat. We could sail the rest of the way up to Riverrun. It would be faster than riding, I think."He looked dubious. "Did you ever sail a boat?""Then there's oars to row.""Against the current?" Gendry frowned. "Wouldn't that be slow? And what if the boat tips over and we fall into the water? It's not our boat anyway, it's the inn's."
honestly the fact that gendry is street smart and also happens to be very intelligent on his own, is hardworking and very loyal, has a quick wit, and has a good set of survival skills is why he really works well as arya's partner and most trusted friend. also he's not a pushover and i think that's very important as well.
(i'll be willing to argue that since he was an apprentice under tobho mott, he must know how to read and write some words, or at least know his numbers... not saying that he received the same level of education that arya did; that would be ridiculous, but i believe that he must have at least a little grasp of it)
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