[lungorthin-doodling-things]

In which needle is a small sabre

[ubegese]

For me and the other 5 Beric fans

[sansa-stark-is-me]

Old Nan quite literally lives rent-free in every Stark child’s brain like the original Northern horror podcast. It’s hilarious because she wasn’t even trying to be scary that was just her bedtime routine. Other Westerosi kids got lullabies; the Stark kids got: “Once, my sweet summer child, the Others came and the sun died and everyone you love turned into ice-zombies anyway, sleep tight :)”

And the thing is… it sticks. Every single Stark kid, no matter where they are, no matter what trauma they’re experiencing, will suddenly remember one of her nightmare fables at the WORST possible moment.

She turned Winterfell into a place where the past is alive, where the Long Night is not a myth but a warning, where names like “the Last Hero” or “the Night’s King” sit in the back of your skull until the moment you realize maybe she wasn’t making anything up at all. Old Nan didn’t traumatize them accidentally she prepared them. In her own crooked, spooky way, she gave every Stark child the education they actually needed to survive the story they were about to enter.

[sansa-stark-is-me]

The way Robb Stark and Jon Snow keep making catastrophic choices because of their love for siblings who aren’t actually in the danger they think they’re in, and yet those choices shape their entire arcs, lead them to their deaths, and then leave their siblings to carry the grief they thought they were carrying.

Robb sleeps with Jeyne because he believes he’s already failed Bran and Rickon that Theon’s betrayal, his own misplaced trust, murdered his little brothers. He breaks his marriage pact because he thinks there’s nothing left to salvage, nothing to honor. He’s mourning two boys who are alive.

"I took her castle and she took my heart." Robb smiled. "The Crag was weakly garrisoned, so we took it by storm one night. Black Walder and the Smalljon led scaling parties over the walls, while I broke the main gate with a ram. I took an arrow in the arm just before Ser Rolph yielded us the castle. It seemed nothing at first, but it festered. Jeyne had me taken to her own bed, and she nursed me until the fever passed. And she was with me when the Greatjon brought me the news of . . . of Winterfell. Bran and Rickon." He seemed to have trouble saying his brothers' names. "That night, she . . . she comforted me, Mother."

Jon breaks his vows because he thinks Arya is being forced into marriage with Ramsay Bolton. He throws away everything the Watch stands for, everything he’s sworn, because he thinks he’s the only one who can save her. He rides for a girl who isn’t even Arya.

"He's to marry Arya Stark. My little sister." Jon could almost see her in that moment, long-faced and gawky, all knobby knees and sharp elbows, with her dirty face and tangled hair. They would wash the one and comb the other, he did not doubt, but he could not imagine Arya in a wedding gown, nor Ramsay Bolton's bed. No matter how afraid she is, she will not show it. If he tries to lay a hand on her, she'll fight him”

He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … I want my bride back …

Yarwyck and Marsh were slipping out, he saw, and all their men behind them. It made no matter. He did not need them now. He did not want them. No man can ever say I made my brothers break their vows. If this is oathbreaking, the crime is mine and mine alone.

“I have my swords, thought Jon Snow, and we are coming for you, Bastard.”

Robb’s grief is the engine of his destruction. Jon’s guilt is the engine of his destruction.

Robb is murdered at a wedding he only attends because he was trying to fix the mess he made while grieving the brothers he didn’t lose. Jon is murdered by men who think he has betrayed the Watch in the name of the sister who didn’t need rescuing.

And in the end, the siblings they loved so much Bran, Rickon, Arya are the ones left to mourn them instead. Their fierce, overwhelming love for their siblings kills them, while the siblings they tried to save have to live with their ghosts.

[perditty]

“I was told Your Grace had need of me,” Ser Justin said, from one knee. “You will escort the Braavosi banker back to the Wall. Choose six good men and take twelve horses. Oh, and take the Stark girl with you, as well as Alysane Mormont. Lady Arya should have a female companion. Deliver her to Lord Commander Snow on your way to Eastwatch." Stannis tapped the parchment that lay before him. “A true king pays his debts.” - Theon I, Twow

"Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk." "I sold three cockles to a courtesan." "Which one was this, now? The Queen o' Cockles, was it?" "The Black Pearl. She said 'I'll take three cockles,' and 'Do you have some hot sauce, little one?" "And what did you say?" "I said, 'No, my lady,' and, 'Don't call me little one. My name is Cat.' "Look, the Sealord's box. That must be the Westerosi envoy. Have you ever seen such clothes on an old man? And look, he's brought the Black Pearl!" She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. - Arya, Affc, Adwd, Twow

He is a man of the Night's Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince.

Theory: In the Winds of Winter, Arya will encounter Jeyne Poole in the course of an apprenticeship with the Black Pearl, who moves in Braavos' high society. The meeting will drive Arya to reclaim her identity.

[inwinterhell]

Just some random thoughts here but I feel like when people speculate about who (if anyone) Arya will confide in about her time at the house of black and white, Samwell Tarly isn’t mentioned enough. He already met her as Cat of the Canals, and his story so far is the only one besides her own to majorly involve the faceless men. Besides, he’s already keeping a secret for Bran, even from Jon, so it shows that he’s willing to keep his mouth shut.

I honestly feel like he’s such a good person for her to tell because he’s not someone who knew “Arya Stark” before the war, but he does know her as someone who helped him at one of his lowest moments. Depending on what happens to him at the Citadel, he also might be one of the only ones with a connection to her family that truly understands her experience. Idk how likely this is geographically, but I don’t think the chances are zero. It would be cool to see a relationship form between them.

And yes I am assuming Arya comes home and reclaims her identity. She is going to come home and reclaim her identity.

[malleefies]

Frames I from my Stark siblings Sinking Town meme!!

[ilynpilled]

ASOIAF POVs by EtceteraArt

[winterosiee]

“Why am I so angry? he asked himself, but it was a stupid question.

Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father's heir.”

A beautiful comm of Jon snow as the King of the North by rin_the_cap on Twitter 💗💗

[sapphicstarklings]

[circuslollipop]

arya week day 6: nature

idk i just had this image of her in my head in the riverlands picking some of the same flowers she'd picked for ned earlier :(

[underfoote]

Arya Week 2025 | Day 4 | Mythological Allusions

"And Arya, well [...] I think she must be dead too." When she said that, it felt as though a giant hand were squeezing her chest.”

Catelyn VII, A Clash of Kings

It was her mother she wanted.

Arya XII, A Storm of Swords

"She don't speak," said the big man in the yellow cloak. "You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers."

Epilogue, A Storm of Swords

Aid-giving, swift Hermes was sent to me By Zeus, my sire, and each divinity To bring me back to earth from Erebus That you might feast your eyes on me and thus Cease your dread wrath against the gods

Hymn to Demeter

Arya and Lady Stoneheart as Frederic Leighton’s The Return of Persephone by @laurellerual. Commissioned with @mercyalayne.

[inwinterhell]

One of my asoiaf hot (probably not-so-hot on tumblr) takes is that not a single young stark pov chapter (Arya, Sansa, Bran) should be cut or condensed. I don’t care how much their chapters meander or take away from the main plot; they are some of the strongest written characters in the series and I love all of them.

[arte072]

Arya Week 2025: Day 3 | Leader and Protector

"This is the Inn of the Kneeling Man, my lady. It stands upon the very spot where the last King in the North knelt before Aegon the Conqueror to offer his submission. That's him on the sign, I suppose." - ASoS, Jaime II The painted sign above the door showed a picture of some old king on his knees. - ASoS, Arya II "Who in seven hells is she supposed to be?" "The Hand's daughter." Harwin went to one knee before her. "Arya Stark, of Winterfell." - ASoS, Arya II

when Harwin (a guard of House Stark) kneels before Arya at the exact same spot Torrhen Stark knelt before King Aegon? *chef's kiss* ✨💋🤌

[forlya]

aryaweek2025

Day 2: pack and desertion

“you ride like a northman, milady… your aunt was the same ... lady lyanna”

commission down by b23.tv/hELZTrN

[forlya]

aryaweek2025

Day 2: pack and desertion

“you ride like a northman, milady… your aunt was the same ... lady lyanna”

commission down by b23.tv/hELZTrN

[thepinkpaint]

She wished somehow they could come to the Wall before Winterfell, so Jon might muss up her hair and call her “little sister.” She’d tell him, “I missed you,” and he’d say it too at the very same moment, the way they always used to say things together. She would have liked that. She would have liked that better than anything.