“Thirty yards from shore, three black swans were gliding over the water, so serene … no one had told them that war had come, and they cared nothing for burning towns and butchered men. She stared at them with yearning. Part of her wanted to be a swan. The other part wanted to eat one.”
– She likes picking flower and giving them to her dad causes she loves him.
– She likes babies and playing with kids.
– She makes friends with ANYBODY.
– She used to swing her doll around when forced to eat vegetables.
– She gets sad when she thinks about Bran being sad and misses playing with her baby brother Rickon.
– She talks too fast when she gets excited. (Ex. When talking about her old brother Jon)
– She swims like a fish.
– She gets sad when thinks her wolf puppy Nymeria not liking her anymore.
– And she put someone on her hate list cause he stole best friend’s favorite helmet.
– She adopted some random baby at 9 just cause she was scared.
– First thing we hear about her: “Arya is already in love…”
– Causing a “scandal” she names her direwolf after the amazing Rhoynar princess who saved her people by leading them to safety in Dorne, united them as one people, ruled for years as an equal to her husbands and heirs, all while defeating six kings and sending them to the Wall, quelling rebellions, fighting off assassins, and forging Dorne into what it is today
– “The woman is important, too!”
– She threatens to shoe a horse because her Septa says she has hands like a blacksmith’s
– She calls fireflies “lantern bugs” like Aegon the Unlikely in the Dunk and Egg novellas
– She punched Jon for scaring baby Bran when he dressed up like a ghost in the crypts. Then they all laughed about it
– She felt bad that the fleas in her clothes would die when she washed them
– She loves Hodor and Old Nan dearly and is excited to see them again when they have to leave KL
– She misses Hodor’s laughter and Old Nan’s stories and uses them to help guide her on her travels
– She trains Nymeria to fetch things to help her pack faster
– Showering kisses on Jon when he gave her Needle before he left and, “The memory of her laughter warmed him on the long ride north.”
– She fires off a thousand questions when she’s interested in something
– She turns her bullies into friends on the road
– She loves talking and listening to all kinds of people regardless of class
– “You in there?” “No!” she shouted.
– She growls and kicks in her sleep like a puppy when she’s having wolf dreams
– She befriends and defends Mycah even though her sister disparages him for being a butcher’s son
– She water dances in the branches of Heart Tree at Harrenhal
– She feels so bad about sending Nymeria away even though it’s to save her life. And she hopes Nymeria makes friends with other wolves so she won’t be alone
– She’s captain of the S.S. NedCat and gets very defensive when it’s suggested that her father could have loved anyone else
– “Jon Snow had given her Needle. Maybe she had to let them call her Lumpyhead, but she wasn’t going to let them call Jon a thief.“
– She got a flippershake from the King of the Seals
– She caught and kissed Balerion the cat right between the eyes
– She totally ogles shirtless Gendry while he’s working in the forge
– Hunts and scavenges to feed others even when all she has to offer are bugs
– After Hot Pie keeps going on and on about yielding to anyone who finds them: “What if the wolves come?” “Yield.” A+ sarcasm
– She saves Sam in Braavos and offers him food which Jon would be super proud of
– She doesn’t want to cry but cries a lot
– She bickers with Gendry over which direction moss grows in like an old married couple
– She misses Brusco and his daughters and the girls at the Happy Port when she’s no longer pretending to be Cat
– She is constantly trying to protect her pack even though she’s 9-11 and tiny
– She got on a horse so she could be taller than Gendry during an argument
– She worries that a heart tree might be in pain because of it’s anguished face
– She thinks about how Hot Pie would like Braavos because of the good food
– “She would not betray Jon, not even to their father.“
– “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.”
– Ultimate wolves and girls aesthetic
This is just off the top of my head. I could seriously be here all day.
Definitely. The narrative makes such a big deal about what clever players Petyr and Varys are- why not do something much more interesting and do it with a little girl? I mean, we have one who learns a dozen languages and becomes a skilled killer at age 9 while another exceptionally bright kid is becoming a tree wizard, plus a girl who survived fire to hatch dragons so, it’s hardly the picture of unrealistic for a girl groomed to be a lady becomes a good diplomat.
I also don’t just want to see more of the arts or history and whatnot- I want GRRM to EXPLAIN why these are important. Because they are, and the GA for both series just… doesn’t get it. (Even fan faves Tyrion and Arya acknowledging Sansa’s talents in the arts or diplomacy and etiquette isn’t enough.) He needs to show real examples because in spite of their praise for the “realism” of the series, a lot of modern readers are frankly, really naive about how things worked back then and honestly don’t realize or care to see the value of women’s work back then. Embroidery and poetry and sewing might be considered frivolous hobbies today but seeing was absolutely ESSENTIAL to both stay warm and show status, and the arts have always mattered to teach history and ideas as well as to simply create some beauty to feed the soul with. (What do you think people did in peace time when nobody had any wars to worry about?)
Let Sansa keep people warm in the War with her sewing, maybe with other women (like, maybe, including her sister who has learned to sew better?) singing hymns to keep up the morale like in the Battle of Blackwater. Let her excellent knowledge of the Great Houses and smaller ones and the ways wars have been won and lost from all the times she’s listened to songs or pored over her books come in handy more. Let her make big decisions with how to protect her people like in the show (which includes sums. IDC what Arya said, Sansa does a great job in the Vale so I think her poor mathematic skill were exaggerated). Let her excel in the areas her siblings don’t and let her be allowed to shine and contribute in a way that’s presented as equally meaningful to magic or fighting.
the stoneheart storyline began with arya pulling catelyn’s desecrated corpse out of the river. after the freys made a mockery of the her houses customs
the only way this can end is by arya giving lady stoneheart mercy and returning her body to the river with the proper tully funeral rites.
nothing else will do
imagine.
arya hearing about this lady stoneheart and being like ??????? who the fuck is this person ?????
gendry telling arya who she is because somebody has to and it should be a friend
arya bravely approaching whats left of her mother.
“dead things did not frighten her”
stoneheart touching aryas face, saying her name, seeing ned’s eyes
arya cries! stoneheart cries! we all cries!
arya telling her mother that bran and rickon and sansa are still alive
arya finding out that her mother always wanted her back
(these two things will bring them both so much of peace of mind and heart!!!!)
arya: “ive got to save you.” lady stoneheart: “you already have.”
thats all arya wanted!!!! to save her mother!!!!!!
arya giving stoneheart mercy so her mother can finally be at rest – no longer tormented by her anger
arya preparing the body for the funeral herself
arya standing on the shore thinking that ned and robb are waiting for catelyn
arya in riverrun – the place where her mother grew up
arya being comforted by gendry
arya becoming the new leader of the brotherhood
arya realizing she doesnt need her list anymore. it won’t ease the pain of her losses. all she can do is move forward.
arya being reunited with nymeria after this heartbreaking mess and feeling whole because she’s with her other half again
arya heading north with her new crew ready to kick some white walker ass
girl pretending not to care that somebody else wants to ring her boy’s bells for him
girl always saying that boy is stupid although she actually listens to his opinions
the boy smiling and laughing only when he’s with girl
boy and girl wrestling!!!! (what more can i say)
being such a good team even at their young age
boy being grumpy after their argument while girl is like ?????? “why tf was he so angry???”
girl daydreaming about running away with boy and just living in the woods and being super cool like something from a song
girl thinking of boy even though she’s somewhere far away
boy being angry at the dude that separated them
and don’t forget:
shared trauma
child soldiers
found family
mutual respect and trust
food sharing
no man left behind (”the only thing that mattered was that they had gendry”)
history repeats (Robert/Lyanna, but gets it right this time)
girl likes to lead, boy’s cool with following
not afraid to call each other out tho
knight/lady trope subversion
HEIGHT DIFFERENCE
saying the same thing at the same time
“he reminds me?? of my favorite person????”
boy: *is insecure about being a bastard* girl: *doesn’t care because her other favorite person is a bastard*
boy: *is insecure about being poor* girl: *is literally nicknamed for how much she loves and respects commoners*
i.e. genuine but surmountable class angst
boy makes weapons, girl wields them
everyone else Knows (Lem, Tom)
girl: my rough hands are symbolic of my inability to fit society’s prescribed role for me and my guilt over the things i’ve done to survive boy: THOSE SOFT LITTLE THINGS (⊙‿⊙✿)???
i can’t reiterate enough the fact that grrm really sat down at his stone age computer and typed up an ENTIRE LOVE SONG for these two, specific to their dynamic and themes, and placed it at the end of a scene with him seeing her in a dress for the first time and them wrestling, basically saying:
This is for people who are in complete denial over their relationship and see it as “pedophiliac”, “wrong”, “impossible” or “disgusting” (and of course shippers like myself.) If you just don’t ship it, it’s your prerogative. But if you deny its romantic, wonderful, canon existence and label it as wrong, you, my friend, should read this.
How Arya and Gendry are portrayed as having a hinted-at-romantic relationship in the text:
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 