[ghostinwinterfell]

source

[timeforwolves]

Strange Love by Halsey // A Dance with Dragons, JON XIII

[theecarcrash]

babies serving stark realness so ned can cry and smile in a corner

[frodo-of-the-nine-fingers]

childhood friends to complete strangers

[timeforwolves]

A Game of Thrones — ARYA I

[timeforwolves]

this is an insane lineup of thoughts

[bookhousestark]

ARYA STARK APPRECIATION WEEK 2024 ↳ Day 3: Overlooked traits

Natural leader

They rode north, away from the lake, following a rutted farm road across the torn fields and into the woods and streams. Arya took the lead, kicking her stolen horse to a brisk heedless trot until the trees closed in around her. Hot Pie and Gendry followed as best they could. Wolves howled off in the distance, and she could hear Hot Pie's heavy breathing. No one spoke. From time to time Arya glanced over her shoulder, to make sure the two boys had not fallen too far behind, and to see if they were being pursued.

A Storm of Swords, Arya I

Fond of nature

"When we were crossing the Neck, I counted thirty-six flowers I never saw before, and Mycah showed me a lizard-lion."

A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Merciful

“[…] Do you want the water?" "Aye." The man swallowed. "And the mercy. Please."

When she came back, the archer turned his face up and she poured the water into his mouth. He gulped it down as fast as she could pour, and what he couldn't gulp ran down his cheeks into the brown blood that crusted his whiskers, until pale pink tears dangled from his beard.

A Storm of Swords, Arya XII

Feminist

"The Lannisters are proud," Jon observed. "You'd think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother's House equal in honor to the king's." "The woman is important too!" Arya protested.

A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Empathetic

She thought of Mycah again and her eyes filled with tears. Her fault, her fault, her fault. If she had never asked him to play at swords with her …

A Game of Thrones, Arya II

Left-handed

Arya took her right hand off the grip and wiped her sweaty palm on her pants. She held the sword in her left hand. He seemed to approve. "The left is good. All is reversed, it will make your enemies more awkward.”

A Game of Thrones, Arya II

Learned

It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household.

A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Observant

"Learn three new things before you come back to us," the kindly man had commanded Cat, when he sent her forth into the city. She always did. Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Braavosi tongue. Sometimes she brought back sailor's tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching. Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of this trade or the other. And every so often, she would learn some secret.

A Feast For Crows, Cat of The Canals

[bookhousestark]

CANON BRAN CHALLENGE ↳ Parallels with Ned Stark

"I never asked for this cup to pass to me." "Perhaps not," Catelyn said, "but Brandon is dead, and the cup has passed, and you must drink from it, like it or not."

Catelyn II, A Game of Thrones

Bran had never asked to be a prince. It was knighthood he had always dreamed of; bright armor and streaming banners, lance and sword, a warhorse between his legs. Why must he waste his days listening to old men speak of things he only half understood? Because you're broken, a voice inside reminded him. A lord on his cushioned chair might be crippled—the Walders said their grandfather was so feeble he had to be carried everywhere in a litter—but not a knight on his destrier. Besides, it was his duty.

Bran II, A Clash of Kings

[theecarcrash]

mama and her little girls

[kaellecappuccino]

[arya-jon]

JON SNOW and ARYA STARK parallels (1/?)

What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms … or the memory of a brother's smile?

Jon VIII, A Game of Thrones

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. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can’t have this.

Arya II, A Feast for Crows

Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand. The Night's Watch takes no part. He closed his fist and opened it again. What you propose is nothing less than treason. He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. 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 … “I think we had best change the plan,” Jon Snow said.

Jon XIII, A Dance with Dragons

[jagdstaffels]

‘i want my bride back.’

[madeforsecrets-deactivated20260]

Come back!

Even as a shadow,

even as a dream.

[madeforsecrets-deactivated20260]

when arya gives water to the dying karstark men in ASOS, it’s one of the clearest moments that shows she’s growing into a leader. she instinctively steps into authority, and her disgust at the violence inflicted on those men immediately leads the BWB to choose to end their suffering, without even needing to issue commands.

she’s leading the very men her father once sent out to do justice, an action that in itself led the mountain to start terrorising the riverlands. she’s trying to right the wrongs being done to the smallfolk as a direct result of the war her mother and her brother are participating in. and in the process, she chooses mercy over senseless vengeance even though the men in question were the worst of the worst. this is arya acting as ned, catelyn and robb’s narrative heir.

and once she returns to the riverlands, she will choose mercy again, which will be highlighted in her confrontation with LSH, who is herself terrorising the riverlands in the name of vengeance. and after LSH’s death, arya will be the one to unite the people of the riverlands in a way neither ned, robb, nor catelyn ever could, just like nymeria united all the wolves of the riverlands into a single pack.

arya is poised to assume leadership of the BWB, reintegrating them into society and restoring their original purpose as protectors of the smallfolk. she is poised to lead the people of the riverlands, who have suffered more than anyone else in these wars, and she knows it all too well. and in doing so, she will repair the damage left by ned, robb and LSH/catelyn. she will keep her people safe.

[madeforsecrets-deactivated20260]

These things always come in threes.

[madeforsecrets-deactivated20260]

For those who deny that Jon and Arya carry meaningful romantic undertones and overtones, my question is: why does Martin place such extraordinary narrative weight on their bond above every single other relationship they have?

Genuinely. Why them? Both have other siblings and meaningful relationships, yet Martin consistently elevates this one connection as central to their arcs. That cannot reasonably be dismissed as incidental. Martin is a meticulous Hugo award-winning writer known for long-term foreshadowing and narrative payoffs. Sustained symbolic focus always serves a purpose in his work.

It also cannot just be about family love. Martin portrays sibling bonds clearly elsewhere through duty, protection, and shared history. Robb, Bran, Sansa, and Rickon all matter, yet none receive the same symbolic repetition, emotional prioritization, or narrative framing given to Jon and Arya. If the goal were only to show the strength of family, the emphasis would be broader and more equal. Instead, one relationship (Jon and Arya) is singled out again and again.

Bran does not think of Arya with the same intensity Jon does, and neither Bran nor Sansa centers one another in their inner lives the way Jon and Arya consistently do. The former is how Martin typically portrays family bonds. So why does he write Arya and Jon differently?

In literary analysis, patterns signal intent. Martin rarely repeats something this consistently without expectation of payoff. So once again I ask people who deny all romantic subtext: if there are truly no deeper undertones, what exactly is all this emphasis building toward? Why spend so much time and page space singling out this one dynamic, and writing it differently than all other Stark sibling povs?

what’s most bizarre to me is that we do know GRRM originally planned for them to be in love. they were on his mind in that way. so even the smallest romantic hint between them should raise at least a few eyebrows. it should make us wonder whether he might still be heading in that direction, especially in a fandom that loves theorising as much as this one. and yet, the undeniable romantic undertones that feel obvious to any unbiased reader just get brushed aside by asoiaf readers for… reasons.

[maplebalderdash]

Arya, sometime after ✨