ARYA AS A QUEEN.....PART 1
So, I have been talking a lot about the story foreshadowing Sansa being queen and I feel I am leaving Arya storyline behind, so I want to make good to my other girl. I mentioned before that I believe the fact Arya named her wolf Nymeria to be a big hint about her future as a queen.
Nymeria nipped eagerly at her hand as Arya untied her. She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea. That had been a great scandal too.
A Game of Thrones - Arya I
He was still trying to decide on a name. Robb was calling his Grey Wind, because he ran so fast. Sansa had named hers Lady, and Arya named hers after some old witch queen in the songs….
A Game of Thrones - Bran II
And in A FEAST FOR CROWS when Arya is forced on invent a story for “CAT” the new character she is pretending to be, she chooses Nymeria as the name of the ship who brought her to Braavos. I thought it was interesting that a “Queen” is taking her to Braavos where she is receiving her education in the Game of Faces”
"Just so. Your father was oarmaster on a galley. When your mother died, he took you off to sea with him. Then he died as well, and his captain had no use for you, so he put you off the ship in Braavos. And what was the name of the ship?"
"Nymeria," she said at once.
A Feast for Crows - Arya II
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NYMERIA THE QUEEN..........
According to A WIKI OF ICE AND FIRE, Nymerias was described as a witch queen, which is very interesting since Arya does have magic in her storyline as a Faceless Men assassin. If Arya end up as Queen in the North, she will probably be know in future songs as a Witch Queen too….
George is trying to connect Arya with the role of a queen a few times during the story. So, yes. I do believe this was the first of many of hints that George have left us about Arya ending.
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(art by Steamey on Deviant Art)
ARYA AND AEGON CONNECTION.....
Another point that always got my attention was the fact that Arya fit into a glove the description of the perfect King that Varys used to describe FAegon:
“He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.”
Now, lets pay attention in the way Varys described Prince Aegon and the points he mentions that makes for a good king in his idea.....
“He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry”…..
Arya was born in Winterfell and received a proper High born Lady education. She was educated in history and poetry, just like FAegon. And while she was in Braavos she was forced to learn different languages, she was told she needed to improve her Braavosi and High Valyrian, and the languages from Lys and Pentos.
“A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them.”…..
Because her father, Ned Stark, followed the Old Gods and her mother, Catelyn Stark, followed the New Gods, Arya was educated in both Westerosis religions. She knows the Faith of the Seven but its also fully educated about the Old Gods.
“He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound…..
This has been Arya storyline pretty much after book 1. Arya escaped the city by joining the Nights Watch prisoners. She traveled Westeros by foot, having to hunt her own meals, cook her own meals, she looked for shelter among the common people in the scene where her and the Hound receive help from the old farmer and his daughter. She saw with her own eyes the destruction and misery the war of the 5 Kings brought to the people of Westeros and she understand how devastading war can be for the weak and poor.
“he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid…….
From up here, she could see a small wooded island off to the northeast. 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 had broken her fast on some acorn paste and a handful of bugs. Bugs weren't so bad when you got used to them. Worms were worse, but still not as bad as the pain in your belly after days without food.
A Clash of Kings - Arya V
Fear cuts deeper than swords, Arya would tell herself, but that did not make the fear go away. It was as much a part of her days as stale bread and the blisters on her toes after a long day of walking the hard, rutted road.
She had thought she had known what it meant to be afraid, but she learned better in that storehouse beside the Gods Eye. Eight days she had lingered there before the Mountain gave the command to march, and every day she had seen someone die.
A Clash of Kings - Arya VI
“Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them……
This has been the case of ALL Stark children, which is why we never hear them refer about the North as “mine”. They always call their kingdom “THE North” never “MINE North” or “OUR North”, this is a little detail that George puts in his writing that demonstrates the Stark respect for the Land. They see the North as their duty, not their right.
So, by matching Aegon’s description perfectly with Arya storyline, I believe the author was giving us a hint about Arya final destiny.
I will continue later about how I believe this idea of two queens, one in the south and one in the North can happen. But for now I wanted to present that, in a unconvenciomal way, George may have been preparing Arya to be Queen in a very sneak way.
