Apr 11
Spidey Super Stories #12 (1975)
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Spidey Super Stories #12 (1975)
Is there gold hidden in the village?
Is there silver? Gems? Is there food?
Where is Lord Beric? Where did he go?
How many men were with him?
How many knights? How many bowmen?
How many? How many? How many?
How many? How many? How many?
Is there gold in the village?
—Arya XIII, A Storm of Swords
Through Arya’s story in the Riverlands, we can see how child soldiers are affected by war. This helps to explain Addam’s actions in his story arc as a child soldier too.
Addam never exhibits overtly violent behaviour. Apart from the Battle of the Gullet, where Addam fought to defend his home, there’s restraint in his actions via how he uses his dragon primarily as a deterrent and not as a weapon. Except for Tumbleton. Suddenly he starts showing heightened aggression and his actions could be compared to war crimes. Such behaviour isn’t uncommon in child soldiers who are severely traumatized. More specifically, both Arya & Addam are led to fear being viewed as “traitors”, because of the outcome it would lead to.
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.
[…]
The ones chosen were questioned in full view of the other captives, so they could see the fate of rebels and traitors.
— A Clash of Kings, Arya VI
Even executions became a source of coin. Henceforth, Celtigar decreed, traitors, rebels, and murderers would be beheaded within the Dragonpit, and their corpses fed to the queen’s dragons.
[…]
Fresh heads began appearing daily upon the spikes above the city gates.
— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons
It is very ironic that Arya becomes so afraid of death, because of her time in Harrenhal, yet she is presently part of a death cult. Similarly, Addam, who was stationed at the Dragonpit, had to bear witness to the daily executions of those marked as traitors. When he is falsely condemned for treason because of the actions of others, he aims to clear his name from the accusations, but ends up dying anyway.
Even grown adults would be psychologically affected by the daily violence they witness at Harrenhal/the Dragonpit, and Arya & Addam are only just children. So it’s not surprising that their minds quickly develop a fear response that makes them more comfortable with violence.
In fact, Addam & Arya as child soldiers exhibit a common trait of reenacting the source of their trauma. For Arya it was about the Tickler at Harrenhal and for Addam it is about the dragonseeds’ betrayal at Tumbleton.
ARYA:
A man the others called the Tickler asked the questions. His face was so ordinary and his garb so plain that Arya might have thought him one of the villagers before she had seen him at his work. “Tickler makes them howl so hard they piss themselves,” old stoop-shoulder Chiswyck told them. He was the man she’d tried to bite, who’d called her a fierce little thing and smashed her head with a mailed fist. Sometimes he helped the Tickler. Sometimes others did that. Ser Gregor Clegane himself would stand motionless, watching and listening, until the victim died.
The questions were always the same. Was there gold hidden in the village? Silver, gems? Was there more food? Where was Lord Beric Dondarrion? Which of the village folk had aided him? When he rode off, where did he go? How many men were with them? How many knights, how many bowmen, how many men-at-arms? How were they armed? How many were horsed? How many were wounded? What other enemy had they seen? How many? When? What banners did they fly? Where did they go? Was there gold hidden in the village? Silver, gems? Where was Lord Beric Dondarrion? How many men were with him? By the third day, Arya could have asked the questions herself.
[…]
No one ever survived the Tickler’s questioning; no man, no woman, no child. The strongest lasted past evenfall. Their bodies were hung beyond the fires for the wolves.
— A Clash of Kings, Arya VI
It was the easiest thing in the world for Arya to step up behind him and stab him.
“Is there gold hidden in the village?” she shouted as she drove the blade up through his back. “Is there silver? Gems?” She stabbed twice more. “Is there food? Where is Lord Beric?” She was on top of him by then, still stabbing. “Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights? How many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many? Is there gold in the village?
”Her hands were red and sticky when Sandor dragged her off him.
— A Storm of Swords, Arya XIII
ADDAM:
Tumbleton went up in flame: shops, homes, septs, people, all. Men fell burning from gatehouse and battlements, or stumbled shrieking through the streets like so many living torches. Outside the walls, Prince Daeron swooped down upon Tessarion. Pate of Longleaf was unhorsed and trampled, Ser Garibald Grey pierced by a crossbow bolt, then engulfed by dragonflame. The Two Betrayers scourged the town with whips of flame from one end to the other.
[…]
The sack that followed was as savage as any in the history of Westeros. Tumbleton, that prosperous market town, was reduced to ash and embers. Thousands burned, and as many died by drowning as they tried to swim the river. Some would later say they were the fortunate ones, for no mercy was shown the survivors. Lord Footly’s men threw down their swords and yielded, only to be bound and beheaded. Such townswomen as survived the fires were raped repeatedly, even girls as young as eight and ten. Old men and boys were put to the sword, whilst the dragons fed upon the twisted, smoking carcasses of their victims. Tumbleton was never to recover; though later Footlys would attempt to rebuild atop the ruins, their “new town” would never be a tenth the size of the old, for the smallfolk said the very ground was haunted.
— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons
Most devastating of all was the dragon. Seasmoke came swooping down again and yet again, breathing flame. A hundred tents were soon afire, even the splendid silken pavilions of Ser Hobert Hightower, Lord Unwin Peake, and Prince Daeron himself. Nor was the town of Tumbleton reprieved. Those shops and homes and septs that had been spared the first time were engulfed in dragonflame.
— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons
Their sudden burst of violence is written to mirror the actions of the characters they are lashing out against. With how their lives have devolved into chaos, what they are doing here is seeking a sense of control.
Arya is repeatedly made to feel helpless to save the people around her. Then she encounters the Tickler just after the Red Wedding. Finally, she has a chance to at least do something. So she reacts accordingly.
In Addam’s case, he’s had to spend months in the same place that the executions for traitors are held. Hugh & Ulf betray their side at Tumbleton, and as a result, Addam gets accused of being a traitor too. His efforts to retain control over his life result in him going after the actual traitors, but in doing so, he implicates himself in the same violence.
Blocking isn't enough, I want him dead
Apparently, people complained about the Tickler as the sign says it's no longer as rough as last season. Chester Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
(n.d.)
"Is there gold hidden in the village?" she shouted as she drove the blade up through his back. "Is there silver? Gems?" She stabbed twice more. "Is there food? Where is Lord Beric?" She was on top of him by then, still stabbing. "Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights? How many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many? Is there gold in the village?" Arya page 1033
The fight breaks out and Arya goes postal on the Tickler repeating his interrogation line, "Is there gold?" over and over as she stabs him. It’s so intense that even Sandor thinks she should turn it down a bit. This was another one that, while I thought the principal was sound, really didn’t turn out very well. I rushed it and ended up having to fix a lot of it in post.
A quick thought I just had was whether Arya's "Is there gold?" has any parallel with Tyrion's "hands of gold."
