arya wasn’t naive for asking mycah to play. she wasn’t wrong for treating a poor person like a human being. nor for defending him. despite being a butchers boy he deserved to be protected. the fact that he is seen as disposable trash by a bunch of tyrants is literally a social construct that can and should be challenged. thats why arya is a hero for fighting back against this classist oppressive system.

its also how she was raised. its not like arya’s “”modern”” attitude came out of nowhere. ned believed in getting to know your men and letting them know you. its a fundamental part of his legacy that arya honors. its why she’s going to be the leader the north and its people deserve. 

but arya was naive about one thing: that all men will stand up for whats right. they won’t. this is the hardest realization for her but she looks at the fallout from the trident with eyes wide open. (unlike some other character i wont mention) arya understands now, not that she shouldnt befriend the smallfolk, but that the world is very dangerous and if she wants justice she’ll have to get it herself. 

Canon Arya Stark Appreciation Week: Day 7- Supernatural+ The Ghost in Harrenhal

Arya Stark Week Day 7: Supernatural

Arya Stark Week Day #7 - Supernatural 

Canon week  day 7 (supernatural): skinchanging/warg

She was no little girl in the dream; she was a wolf, huge and powerful, and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and bared her teeth in a low rumbling growl, she could smell the rank stench of fear from horse and man alike. The Lyseni’s mount reared and screamed in terror, and the others shouted at one another in mantalk, but before they could act the other wolves came hurtling from the darkness and the rain, a great pack of them, gaunt and wet and silent.

Canon Arya Stark Appreciation Week 2018: Day 7- Supernatural

Arya + three precious gifts from the supernatural

Canon Arya Stark Week || Day Seven: Supernaturual ↳ The Fire in this Wolf lives

Last day of Arya Stark Week

Hey, guys! Tomorrow is the last day of the theme week. Thank you to everyone who contributed, be it with creations or reblogging. I’ve loved everything. Tomorrow’s theme is “Supernatural” - as always, be as vague or abstract with it as you want!

Arya Stark Week Day # 6 - Historical figures

Lyanna Stark and Arya Stark, two remarkably similar women of House Stark. 

Arya Stark Week Day #6 - Historical figures

Arya has many parallels with Homer’s version of Odysseus, a main character who is a significant player in the epic The Iliad and has his own adventures in The Odyssey, another famous epic by Homer. 

Both Arya and Odysseus are warriors and leaders. Both have a lot of interactions with the supernatural, arguably more so than most of the other characters in their stories. They both travel by sea. Each hero wants to go home but is prevented from doing so by the plot. Both are separated from those they love. The horrors of war as the norm for these adventurous and cunning protagonists. That is another quality they share; both are extremely intelligent. More than that, the trajectories of their harrowing and heartbreaking tales are quite similar. Hopefully the ending they find will be similar too. 

In the HBO show, Arya made it home. If her story continues to parallel that of Odysseus in GRRM’s books, she will arrive at Winterfell in that version too, though it will be at the very last moment. It is worthy of note that Odysseus left home after his return once more. I can very much see Arya leaving to be a Batman of Westeros, after the war.  

Cleop(Arya)

I definitely see Arya as a Cleopatra figure both physically and mentally. Everyone is always so focused on the discourse of Cleopatra’s beauty (“She was the most beautiful woman in the world, that’s why Mark Antony and Caesar loved her!” “Um actually, she was supposedly just average-looking.”) that they completely bypass the fact that she was a genius. She had political ambition and cunning for days, and her mind and spirit are what ensnared so many.

Maybe she was pretty; maybe she wasn’t. Who cares? The reason Cleopatra got so far in life is because of her brain. Until only recently, Arya didn’t have the advantage of using her looks for manipulation. It’s not until Dance that men are finally noticing (and commenting on) her beauty. Up to this point she has had to use her smarts and wiles to navigate through a ruthless world. And not to mention she’s a princess of an established dynasty, like Cleopatra was, and she echoes one of the other counterparts of both herself and Cleopatra: Lyanna, who is infamous in Westeros for both her “was she, wasn’t she?” beauty and the love of two famous men, Robert and Rhaegar.

A few more similarities: both women were descended from legendary figures, Cleopatra from Ptolemy I Soter and Arya from Brandon the Builder. Both women were polyglot, with Cleopatra speaking approximately 10 languages and Arya can speak the Common Tongue, Braavosi, High Valyrian, and the languages of Lys and Pentos. They both also cared for the plight of their common folk, and both are depicted as long-faced. 

Arya Stark Week Day 6: Historical/Literary Counterparts

Arya’s parallels with Odysseus

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Arya’s journey fits quite well with the steps of the hero’s journey. As a result, there’s more than one literary counterpart I could have chosen but the gifset I have linked to at the beginning is a favourite because it captures well exactly how many parallels there are between Arya and Odysseus.

Arya is the Odysseus of ASOIAF.

Think about it. They both go on long, long journeys, and they both spend those journeys desperately wanting their home and their loved ones. They both undergo tests and trials, and are exposed to magical elements during these tests. These tests thwart their attempts to return home.

Odysseus sees his mother while in the underworld, she gives him guidance from beyond the grave. Likewise, Arya hears her father’s voice while in the godswood at Harrenhal.

Like Odysseus and his mother, Arya hearing from her father who she had lost gives her the strength to keep going. It spurs her on to keep fighting, and to remember who she is. Arya and Odysseus also both receive help/guidance from the gods, the old gods in Arya’s case.

They both spend time with an alternate identity, although Arya’s experience with this is far more extensive. They also have a disguise in common. Arya is Blind Beth, a beggar girl, and Odysseus also poses as a beggar upon his return to Ithaca. Odysseus’ choice reflects his cunning, which is another thing he has in common with Arya. Odysseus didn’t survive solely via intervention from the gods, he also used his intelligence, just as Arya does in her many trials in ASOIAF.

There is a moment where they are both getting close to home, only to be thrown off course yet again. For Arya, this is her journey to her mother and Robb. The Brotherhood without Banners planned to return her to them, and Sandor’s abduction of Arya, seeming at first to be a setback, brings her the closest yet to reuniting with family, It is the Red Wedding that prevents her return, a cruel intervention. The intervention Odysseus experiences does not kill family, but Aeolus’ wind still rips his return to his loved ones away, taking him far from Ithaca.

The quest to the Underworld brings Odysseus to the brink of death, and we can anticipate that Arya’s counterpart experience in the House of Black and White will put her in some real physical danger. Her story is not yet complete, but more parallels between these characters are only to be expected as Arya completes her hero’s journey, particularly the completion of a final challenge in Westeros before she is returned to her rightful place as a Stark in Winterfell.

Most importantly, she will reunite with the family she has longed for ever since leaving King’s Landing, just as Odysseus did at the end of a journey that took him so far from home.

Canon Arya Stark Appreciation Week: Day Six (Historical Figures)

It was different when there was a Stark in Winterfell. But the old wolf’s dead and the young one’s gone south to play the game of thrones, and all that’s left us is the ghosts.

Arya Stark Week - Day 6 - “Literary Parallels” (Edward Elric - Fullmetal Alchemist)

Canon Arya Stark Appreciation Week 2018: Day 6- Historical Counterparts, Visenya Targaryen

Canon Arya Stark Week (2018) || Day One: Elements ↳ Calm as still water.