the main female character arya admires in the books is nymeria of ny sar. the first time she is mentioned is in arya's thoughts and it directly refers to how she "led her people". she was a leader before anything else. when valryia approached her city nymeria began a long, dangerous journey to safety. it was challenging but she stayed the course. when she arrived in westeros mors martell fell in love with her bc of her strength of character. she became the princess of dorne and lady of sunspear. she burned her ships so that none could turn back. she commanded armies, united dorne, and sent kings to the wall in chains. she put down rebellions and fought off invasions. nymeria ruled dorne for nearly 3 decades and continued to do so long after mors died - in her own right. she married two more times and had several children. she was "strong willed and indomitable".

nymeria is hardly a figure who represents indifference towards politics or prioritizing personal freedom over duty. things arya is frequently accused of representing herself. nymeria bore more responsibility than just about any other female character in the entire asoiaf historical canon. she didn't just bend to westeros' ideals either. when she married mors they combined their sigils and names; joining the sun and the spear. her eldest daughter ruled after her as was the custom of the rhoynar. she fought to secure her position and changed the culture. as arianne puts it: "she burned as bright as any man"

that is why she is arya's role model

she named her direwolf, the extension of her soul, after nymeria for a reason. arya takes nymeria as one of her own alias in harrenhal. she uses it again while creating her backstory as cat of the canals. this is not a meaningless connection. nymeria's story has been relevant to arya's from the very beginning. arya is forced to endure a difficult journey just like her hero. arya values her people and assumes responsibility for them bc "the pack survives". arya is willful and determined. even her wolf reflects her namesake as she has united all the wolves of the riverlands into a gigantic pack.

too often arya is interpreted as a character who wants to be free of responsibility above all else. she does not. both nymerias are proof of that. neither is a lone wolf. arya doesnt want to conform to the bogus ideal of being ladylike, but that doesnt mean she is an outlier who needs to be removed from the equation. nymeria of ny sar wasn't. arya can achieve an equal standing to the men in her realm. she can forge a new path for women in the north like nymeria did in dorne. at least she can try. but only if she stays and fights for it.

In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. "Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed. For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said. "But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan." "You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you." "The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. - Arya X, ACoK

Arya is so rarely associated with faith and prayer in this fandom, yet when she prays to the Old Gods for guidance, they respond and restrengthen her sense of self. Arya of Winterfell! Daughter of the North! She is a direwolf and done with wooden teeth! ✨🤍🩶🐺✨

Arya thought that was stupid. Harren and his sons had died in Kingspyre Tower, that was why it had that name, so why should they cross the yard to haunt her? The Wailing Tower only wailed when the wind blew from the north, and that was just the sound the air made blowing through the cracks in the stones where they had fissured from the heat. If there were ghosts in Harrenhal, they never troubled her. (Arya, ACOK) High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. "No harm can ever come to those as sleep here," the singer said. Arya thought that must be true; the hill was so high and the surrounding lands so flat that no enemy could approach unseen. (Arya, ASOS) Cossomo the Conjurer instructed her in sleight of hand. He could swallow mice and pull them from her ears. "It's magic," he'd say. "It's not," Cat said. "The mouse was up your sleeve the whole time. I could see it moving." (Arya, AFFC)

just a couple examples of arya being presented with something that those around her interpret as magical/supernatural only for her to point out the reality with careful observation

“How many guards does my father have?” she asked him as they descended to her bedchamber. “Here at King’s Landing? Fifty.” “You wouldn’t let anyone kill him, would you?” she asked. Desmond laughed. “No fear on that count, little lady. Lord Eddard’s guarded night and day. He’ll come to no harm.” “The Lannisters have more than fifty men,” Arya pointed out. (Arya, AGOT)

arya was the only team stark player who did the math in kings landing. ned becomes so blinded by duty and mercy that he fails to truly appreciate this very simple truth that arya can very easily recognize: they are outnumbered. 

it also tracks with arya taking note of numbers and having a good head for mathematics in general. from counting flowers to roofs and guards, prisoners, hearths and weirwood stumps, ect. 

and this:

Many of the captives were wounded. If any halted, one of the riders would trot up and give him a lick of the whip to get him moving again. She tried to judge how many prisoners there were, but lost count before she got to fifty. There were twice that many at least. 

She could go where she would. The garrison numbered no more than a hundred men, so small a troop that they were lost in Harrenhal. […] But now there were only a hundred men left to guard a thousand doors, and no one seemed to know who should be where, or care much.

“Gendry, there’s a hundred northmen. Maybe more, I couldn’t count them all. That’s as many as Ser Amory has. Well, not counting the Bloody Mummers. We just have to get them out and we can take over the castle and escape.” (Arya, ACOK)

when the northern prisoners are brought to harrenhal arya sees that they equal, if not outnumber, the men holding the castle. the conditions were ripe for harrenhal to be taken and (like in king’s landing) thats exactly what happened. the fact that arya is already paying attention to this kind of stuff at 9/10 years old is pretty significant and it really shows her leadership potential. 

ARYA STARK APPRECIATION MONTH || Day 1: Nature ↳ She wished she could take off her clothes and swim, gliding through the warm water like an skinny pink otter. Maybe she could swim all the way to Winterfell. – Arya IV, ACOK

RONJA RÖVARDOTTER (1984) dir. Tage Danielsson

Interesting how George could’ve easily left Arya out of the Northern plot altogether considering she wasn’t physically there, and yet he went out of his way to have her name be used and have an impact in the North…

Wargs have no fear of man, as wolves do.

The Maiden of the Tree

she spun away and said to him

no featherbed for me

I'll wear a gown of golden leaves

and bind my hair with grass

but you can be my forest love

and me your forest lass

GENDRY + foils

Arya Forever Baby!!

This is legitimately one of the most insane things I’ve read on this site.

Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody. This Mycah was the worst; a butcher’s boy, thirteen and wild, he slept in the meat wagon and smelled of the slaughtering block. Just the sight of him was enough to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his company to hers. (Sansa I, AGoT)

She recognises that there are class differences and loves and respects people regardless. Are we actually supposed to see this as…a crime of some sort? She recognises the class lines, starting with the way even Jon was treated, and befriends people no matter what walk of life they’re from. That’s why she made friends with Gendry, Hot Pie, Lommy and took care of (as best as she could) Weasel/the crying girl. That’s why she enjoys people like these:

Only Braavosi were permitted use of the Purple Harbor, from the Drowned Town and the Sealord’s Palace; ships from her sister cities and the rest of the wide world had to use the Ragman’s Harbor, a poorer, rougher, dirtier port than the Purple. It was noisier as well, as sailors and traders from half a hundred lands crowded its wharves and alleys, mingling with those who served and preyed on them. Cat liked it best of any place in Braavos. She liked the noise and the strange smells, and seeing what ships had come in on the evening tide and what ships had departed. She liked the sailors too; the boisterous Tyroshi with their booming voices and dyed whiskers; the fair-haired Lyseni, always trying to niggle down her prices; the squat, hairy sailors from the Port of Ibben, growling curses in low, raspy voices. Her favorites were the Summer Islanders, with their skins as smooth and dark as teak. They wore feathered cloaks of red and green and yellow, and the tall masts and white sails of their swan ships were magnificent. (Cat of the Canals, AFfC)

Because of the way Mycah was treated—which is not her getting off with a warning, her punishment was HER FRIEND DYING BY THE HOUND’S SWORD, you know, for standing up to the Crown prince.

The hurt and pain she feels is directed to the people she used to love speaking to in Winterfell:

Arya hated it. She hated the sounds of their voices now, the way they laughed, the stories they told. They’d been her friends, she’d felt safe around them, but now she knew that was a lie. They’d let the queen kill Lady, that was horrible enough, but then the Hound found Mycah. Jeyne Poole had told Arya that he’d cut him up in so many pieces that they’d given him back to the butcher in a bag, and at first the poor man had thought it was a pig they’d slaughtered. And no one had raised a voice or drawn a blade or anything, not Harwin who always talked so bold, or Alyn who was going to be a knight, or Jory who was captain of the guard. Not even her father.

“He was my friend,” Arya whispered into her plate, so low that no one could hear. Her ribs sat there untouched, grown cold now, a thin film of grease congealing beneath them on the plate. Arya looked at them and felt ill. She pushed away from the table. (Arya II, AGoT)

She still thinks of Mycah a while after the fact.

But why exactly is Arya’s care for people constantly being weaponised against her? How even is this immaturity? Is this person forgetting that Arya was starving on the road with smallfolk of all kinds? That she was forced to eat bugs and worms or drank water to keep her stomach from hurting? Is this really immaturity?

On Gendry's age

Today I read this in the tags of a post I reblogged:

@sunflowersansa I generally agree with the rest but I felt a bit called out on this point as a Gendrya shipper. Short answer: No, Gendry is not older than Jon and Robb.

Many fans have a somewhat out of phase perception of this, in my opinion it's because they have in mind the image of Joe Dempsie who is 10 years older than Maisie Williams (and this is very evident in the first seasons).

This is the generally accepted timeline of events that Gendry is one year younger than Jon and Robb, Dany's age, and four years older than Arya:

The wiki does this calculation taking into account the observations of Ned, Arya and Brienne, but these are only hypotheses of the characters, Gendry does not confirm it (provided that he knows how old he is). Also right after the thought of Ned, Thobo interrupts to tell him that the lad is strong for is age, so I think we can assume thet he look older than he is.

At the end we don't know how old Gendry is. According to the most generally accepted calculation of dates he should have been 13 in the first book. Gendry can easily be at least a year younger than that since Robert could not enter the capital until the end of 283. Perhaps Gendry was a child of the celebrations for the victory of the Rebellion. In my head I usually place him around Joff's age.

Having said that I love this ship but I don't expect or don't want anything explicit to happen between them while they are so young. That doesn't mean I don't hope for a hug after their reunion, or maybe holding hands. If their story ends with Arya's first consensual kiss, my lil' shipper heart will be more than happy.

In the end I think that within Arya's story Gendry's role is mainly to contribute to her reflection on the concept of injustice and classism as well as giving her a companion to interact with. Gendry's journey parallels Arya's in many ways.

Forgive me, the original post had little to do with this thing, but I wanted to write my thoughts about this.

Asoiaf ship meme - Gendrya edition

Thanks @melrosing for the idea, and for unlocking a memory for me!

Adult Gendry and Arya totally discussing about moss.

Arya Stark + Horror Themes