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queenaryastark · 3 months ago

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Arya has something close to a fish motif, though it's not nearly as strong as her wolf and cat ones.

Jon chuckled. "Perhaps you should do the same thing, little sister. Wed Tully to Stark in your arms."

"A wolf with a fish in its mouth?" It made her laugh. -- Arya I, AGOT

Arya swung down from her horse. They can't hurt me, they're dying. She took her cup from her bedroll and went to the fountain. "What do you think you're doing, boy?" the townsman snapped. "They're no concern o' yours." She raised the cup to the fish's mouth. The water splashed across her fingers and down her sleeve, but Arya did not move until the cup was brimming over. When she turned back toward the cages, the townsman moved to stop her. -- Arya V, ASOS

Jon used to say that she swam like a fish, but even a fish might have trouble in this river. -- Arya IX, ASOS

Who are you?"

"No one." She stank of fish. "I used to be someone, but now I'm not. You can call me Cat, if you like. Who are you?" -- Sam III, AFFC

Cat always stank of brine and fish by the time they pushed off for home again. She had grown so used to it that she hardly even smelled it anymore.

You come work with me, Cat," urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo's hand. "I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish." -- Cat of the Canals, AFFC

"You were a cat, they tell me. Prowling through the alleys smelling of fish, selling cockles and mussels for coin. -- ADWD

This one is less directly mentioning fish, but I think Arya’s connection to water is somewhat relevant:

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. -- Arya V, ACOK

all the stark kids have wolf motifs. jon, bran and sansa have bird motifs. arya has a fucking cat motif. but you're telling me that NONE of catelyn tully's 7 billion children have a fish motif?????

I'm gonna need baby rickon to swim all the way from skagos in twow. davos is gonna have to call him fish boy

#arya stark #asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 3 months ago

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lol, not surprised 🤣

I wonder if the asoiafuniversity mods have any regrets over normalizing sexism. It's 2025, and their regressive views on femininity are still running strong in the Stansa fandom.

#asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 3 months ago

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I wonder if the asoiafuniversity mods have any regrets over normalizing sexism. It's 2025, and their regressive views on femininity are still running strong in the Stansa fandom.

#asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 4 months ago

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Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn. Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near.

Jon grinned, reached over, and messed up her hair. Arya flushed. They had always been close. Jon had their father's face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her. - Arya I, AGoT

#Arya Stark #Jon Snow #asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 4 months ago

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POC!Arya and POC!Sansa according to fanartists:

why are artists who draw the stark family poc so afraid of drawing sansa dark skinned. why do you guys only draw arya and the boys dark skin, whilst reinforcing how masc and unconventionally attractive arya is. and on the other hand, draw sansa and lyanna very fair skinned and beautiful, whilst equating that beauty to whiteness.

i've yet to see a dark skinned sansa. and i've yet to see a dark skinned arya not be weird, and not push weird stereotypes on how you guys perceive dark skin and ethnic features.

#arya stark #sansa stark #asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 4 months ago

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One of the truest things I've ever said.

thinking about that one post saying jon would set sansa on fire to keep arya warm >>>>>>>

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queenaryastark · 4 months ago

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Once in a while I come across certain posts that really give us an insight into how certain stans think and it explains so much about this fandom.

Like the way a certain stan group gets triggered when Arya's canonical appearance is discussed.

Arya is canonically pretty.

Beauty is, of course, subjective - even for the characters in asoiaf. What Gendry finds pretty about a girl may not be the same for someone like Joffrey Baratheon. What Alys Karstark finds attractive about a boy may not be the same for Sansa Stark. What a Northerner may find attractive may not be the same for a southroner.

There are characters who mention that Arya is pretty.

“Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her.” “Lyanna was beautiful,” Arya said, startled. Everybody said so. It was not a thing that was ever said of Arya. "She was,” Eddard Stark agreed, “beautiful, and willful, and dead before her time.” - Arya, AGoT (Eddard)

“I look like an oak tree, with all these stupid acorns.” “Nice, though. A nice oak tree.” He stepped closer, and sniffed at her. “You even smell nice for a change.” Arya, ASOS (Gendry)

“I’m sorry I tore the acorn dress too. It was pretty.” “Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave.” Arya, ASOS (Lady Smallwood)

Lord Smallwood, she knew, remembering Acorn Hall so far away, and the lady who’d said she was pretty. Arya , ASOS

”Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty?“ - Arya, AFFC (Kindly Man)

“Wear this when you are here,” the priest said, “but know that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?” “No one,” she replied. - The Ugly Little Girl, AFfC (Kindly Man)

She had never cared if she was pretty, even when she was stupid Arya Stark. Only her father had ever called her that. Him, and Jon Snow, sometimes. - The Blind Girl, ADwD (Jon Snow)

So we have, in canon, Ned Stark, Jon Snow, Gendry, Lady Smallwood and the Kindly Man call Arya or describe Arya as pretty or nice.

On the other hand we have a bully like Sansa who thinks only Southron girls like Margaery are beautiful and actively keeps wishing at every turn that others were her sisters instead of Arya.

Why couldn't Arya be sweet and delicate and kind, like Princess Myrcella? She would have liked a sister like that. - Sansa, AGoT

Sister. Sansa had once dreamt of having a sister like Margaery, beautiful and gentle, with all the world's graces at her command. Arya had been entirely unsatisfactory as sisters went. - Sansa, ASoS

Keep in mind that Sansa assumes Arya is a bastard because she looked 'common' like Jon and therefore Sansa would think of Jon as ugly as well. We have never seen other characters call Jon ugly either.

The sycophantic Septa Mordane is a terrible teacher and very clearly dislikes Arya. And then there is Catelyn having her own biases and wanting Arya to be a mini Sansa in order to be considered pretty.

In contrast we have both family members (Ned and Jon) and unbiased outsiders (Gendry, Lady Smallwood and the Kindly Man) who think that Arya is pretty. This is not something that's made up, it's not fanon, it's not headcanons, it's not speculations or assumptions.

Arya's appearance is important to the character and her story. In her very first chapter we read about her self-esteem issues and feeling as if not being able to fit in. Always compared to Sansa and found wanting. So much so that in the next book, she even doubts her mother's love for her. She's surprised when Ned compares her to Lyanna. Even as far as book 5, she is defensive about how she looks - the effects of being bullied about her appearance. And yet, in each part of her journey (WF, KL, Riverlands, Braavos), the author writes in a character who thinks she is pretty.

Arya is the classic 'Ugly Duckling' story of a swan amongst ducks, a Stark amongst Tullys (in terms of appearance) - Ned's only child to look like a Stark. Arya looks like Lyanna. She does not have the Tully auburn hair and blue eyes, no. Does not make Arya ugly, just different.

These Arya/Lyanna parallels interspersed throughtout the books are important as Arya makes her way back North. There are also parallels between the girls of the North - Arya, Lyanna Mormont, Wylla Manderly, Alys Karstark. These are deliberate parallels about a certain type of proactive young leaders in the North.

As Arya gets older and grows into her looks while progressing in her story, GRRM is also setting her up with marriage plots just like with Sansa. Catelyn arranges an alliance for her with a Frey bastard. Gendry falls for Arya and we have a bit of a romcom with these two. There's an entire subplot up North that revolves around 'Arya's' marriage with a Bolton bastard.

So why shouldn't book fans in general and specifically Arya fans discuss Arya's appearance? Why shouldn't they write fanfiction with pretty Arya? Draw fanart with pretty Arya? Call out the racism when certain stans who think that Arya is ugly draw or reblog art of the canonically white Arya in darker tones to highlight Sansa's white skin because she is beautiful? Call out the sexism when canonically petite Arya is drawn as a giant next to delicate, pretty Sansa?

99% of the time, discussions of Arya's appearance - like now - only happens in response to a triggered Sansa stan obsessed about 'beauty'.

But Nah. Apparently these are not the reasons.

Apparently Arya fans only discuss or talk of Arya being pretty "as a kind of f u to sansa".

Imagine the entitlement, the cope, the absolute brain worms, the hardcore stanning so much so that these stans can't even imagine Arya fans discussing anything about Arya unless it has something to do with Sansa!

Like look at this utterly nonsense post!

For these stans, their world revolves around Sansa so much so that they really think one cannot discuss Arya separate from Sansa and can't talk about Arya's journey and Arya's relationships unless it has to do with Sansa.

I mean, that's the way they think. That's why for them Arya is a forever side prop for Sansa and everything Arya should somehow revolve around Sansa.

That's why they go on and on about 'Sun and Moon' and 'Stark sisters' foreva' because they want Arya tied permanently to Sansa instead of Arya being the main character having her individual story of growth and leadership in asoiaf.

Imagine saying with your whole chest that an Arya fan discussing a canon aspect of Arya is actually just the fan saying 'fuck u' to Sansa...

The rest of everything in that post is also crazy in terms of the lack of self awareness. Stuff like this:

They don't see anything wrong in this? The fact that beauty is necessary to be an 'ideal' sister for Sansa is true but why are they so proud that Sansa is a superficial and shallow person who places more worth on appearance than the humanity of the person?

Isn't this what got Sansa in trouble in the first place because she trusted the likes of Cersei and Joffrey and then later Margaery because of their beauty?

If Sansa will only accept Arya as her sister if Arya is beautiful, what does that tell us about Sansa?

I have never seen ANYONE, not any of the Arya fans on here who discuss Arya and enjoy her character state that Sansa will be threatened by Arya's beauty.

Because WHY?! Why would that be important in the grand scheme of things for Arya? Why is that important in Arya's story of self love, gaining acceptance amongst her pack, knowing her own self worth, the relationships she forms with characters like Gendry or uniting once again with loved ones like Jon Snow and becoming a leader of the North.

Does anyone think that Arya will be celebrating that poor Jeyne Poole lost her nose to frost bite when they meet again? Or will Arya and Jeyne have more important things to talk about?

Arya fans - for whom Arya is their favorite asoiaf character - never come up with elaborate nonsense like this. For an actual Arya fan, Sansa is just one of many side characters in Arya's story and there are other more important characters - Jon, Bran, Nymeria, Daenerys, Gendry, Cat/LSH, Winterfell, Rickon etc. before we even come to Sansa.

It's the Sansa stans who loudly proclaim that they love Arya so much who get triggered by mentions of Arya being pretty and see it as a threat to Sansa's beauty.

There is no other fandom group in asoiaf so obsessed with beauty like Sansa stans. The entire thesis of the most popular Sansa ship - the Jonsa crackship - is that 10/11 year old Sansa is so beautiful, 14 year Jon simply can't resist her. He called her 'radiant' dammit!! SanSan is all about 'Beauty' and the Beast.

And this is why Sansa is such a self-insert for her fandom. When Arya fans discuss Arya's canon appearance, it's Sansa stans who feel threatened about the characteristic they love best about their fave and hence assume that Sansa will be threatened and then project that onto Arya fans.

It gives us insight into their mind. This is why they get triggered anytime Arya fans bring up that Arya is pretty. They really think that saying Arya is pretty is a fuck you to Sansa, because their mind simply cannot accept that Arya being pretty is ABOUT ARYA!

And finally it's funny that the so called 'neutral' bnf reblogged this with such tags as:

Are they talking about themselves and their fellow Sansa stans? Because the only people projecting these fantasies about Sansa being threatened by Arya's beauty are these Sansa stans themselves. No one else.

As an Arya fan the only thing I want from any Arya/Sansa reunion is genuine remorse from Sansa about how she treated her little sister, including siding with Joffrey against her, throwing Arya under the bus again and again and snitching Ned's plans to Cersei that got the girls trapped in KL. I want actual character growth and an apology from Sansa. Acknowledgement that she was wrong.

And that's about it. Who the eff cares about which sister is more beautiful and being jealous and all that - the kids have grown beyond all that. Sansa and Arya may love each other as sisters but are too different to get along or enjoy each other's companies. They have their different paths and journeys and individual stories to deal with. And that's what fans should be discussing about.

Sansa stans need to stop getting triggered about mentions of Arya being canonically pretty in the series.

#Arya Stark #asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 4 months ago

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Just to actually answer anon's question: No. No, Arya did not give voice to any strain of misogynistic criticism toward Sansa. Arya is as feminist as a 9 to 11 year old can be in Westeros.

Did Arya give voice to a certain strain of misogynistic criticism of Sansa?

Eh. She's a kid reacting to not fitting in with the other girls around her. She doesn't conform to gender norms, and for that she's punished. It's not really surprising that Arya lashes out at Sansa--she's like nine. What is depressing is grown adults who adopt those same talking points.

I also don't think that Arya and Sansa will end up believing the other is less of a lady or less of a heroine by the end of the books, even if I suspect these core aspects of their characters--Sansa's femininity, Arya as a tomboy--will remain the same.

#arya stark #asoiaf

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queenaryastark · 5 months ago

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Them: Arya hates Sansa so we all should hate that bitch.

Arya:

Arya never looked back. She wished the Rush would rise and wash the whole city away, Flea Bottom and the Red Keep and the Great Sept and everything, and everyone too, especially Prince Joffrey and his mother. But she knew it wouldn't, and anyhow Sansa was still in the city and would wash away too. When she remembered that, Arya decided to wish for Winterfell instead. - Arya I, ACOK

Arya sipped at her tankard cautiously, between spoonfuls of pie still warm from the oven. Her father sometimes let them have a cup of beer, she remembered. Sansa used to make a face at the taste and say that wine was ever so much finer, but Arya had liked it well enough. It made her sad to think of Sansa and her father. - Aria II, ACOK

When she thought of seeing Robb's face again Arya had to bite her lip. And I want to see Jon too, and Bran and Rickon, and Mother. Even Sansa . . . I'll kiss her and beg her pardons like a proper lady, she'll like that. - Arya VII

Winterfell is burned and fallen, Arya reminded herself. Old Nan and Maester Luwin were both dead, most like, and Sansa too. It did no good to think of them. - Arya I, AFFC

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. - Arya II - AFFC

Arya wants her sister back as much as she wants her parents and her brothers. Pretty sure if Arya read so many of Sansa's antis comments, she would try to stick them with Needle for daring to think like that.

#taking your tags bc 👌🏽#you can tell from their writing that George created Sansa to cause problems lol #cause the most you could say is that Arya called Sansa stupid which doesn't even happen on page #there's a reason people invent fanon to try and pretend their conflict is mutual #i'd be curious to see screenshots of people talking about Arya not liking Sansa though #and btw people theorizing that they won't get along after they reunite doesn't count #please free me from people using Arya as a prop for Sansa!#I love Arya down but she's a fictional character and her emotions don't dictate my feelings towards other characters #Arya loves her mother but I'm still going to criticize Cat for her favoritism and contributions to her self-esteem issues 🤷🏾‍♀️#Sansa is a fictional character and people are allowed to dislike her and have criticisms of her actions #thanks for proving that Arya isn't the problem though ☺️🫶🏾

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