Sometimes I find comments out there that go like "Arya would never let herself be kidnapped"...

Have we read the same books? Arya is kidnapped! More than once!

The Red Comet makes them both inadvertently think of the lives they both just lost

“The Red Sword,” the Bull named it; he claimed it looked like a sword, the blade red-hot from the forge. When Arya squinted the right way she could see the sword too, only it wasn’t a new sword, it was Ice, her father’s greatsword, all ripply Valyrian steel and the red was Lord Eddard’s blood on the blade after Ser Ilyn the King’s Justice had cut off his head.

The plaza was beginning to empty. The press dissolved around them as people drifted back to their lives. But Arya’s life was gone.

“Master Mott said it was time I made my first longsword. He gave me a sweet piece of steal, and I knew just how I wanted to shape the blade. Only Yoren came, and took me away for the Night’s Watch.”

Yoren by Lipatov

Was Yoren in violation of his NW oath of neutrality by escorting Arya for Ned? If so, why did he do it?

Ever since ADWD, people have such a weird interpretation of the Night's Watch oath. Here's what the text actually says:

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

Night's Watchmen are forbidden from having families (no wife, no children), banned from being a part of the feudal system (no lands), and forbidden from engaging in warfare for conventional motives (no crowns, no glory). That's it.

Even if we were going to say that the spirit of the Night's Watch oath encompasses neutrality in war between noble houses or kingdoms, which is fair enough, Yoren's actions don't constitute a breach of neutrality - he's not taking up arms for House Stark or House Lannister, he's not providing materiel to either side, all he's doing is letting a civilian child accompany a pre-existing convoy to Castle Black. If anything, I would argue that trying to save Arya Stark is totally consonant with Yoren's obligation to be "the shield that guards the realms of men," because Arya is absolutely part of the realms of men.

One thing about Jon's last speech is I don't think Jon had to concede that it was oathbreaking. Night's Watch neutrality doesn't mean they have to give in to every demand and can't defend themselves. Yoren isn't an oathbreaker because of the Fight at the Holdfast and actually a lot of the criticism the (future) mutineers raise are about conceding too much to demands rather than protecting the Watch's independence. Jon had also used guest right to justify his actions before, most notably arresting Cregan Karstark. So he could have said that Ramsay is directly threatening the safety of the Night's Watch, is demanding that they end their neutrality by arresting claimants to the Iron Throne, and they have a host's obligation to protect their guests. And then maybe a small jump to justifying pre-emptive action.

Arya was a skilled climber and a fast picker, and she liked to go off by herself. One day she came across a rabbit, purely by happenstance. It was brown and fat, with long ears and a twitchy nose. Rabbits ran faster than cats, but they couldn't climb trees half so well. She whacked it with her stick and grabbed it by its ears, and Yoren stewed it with some mushrooms and wild onions. Arya was given a whole leg, since it was her rabbit. She shared it with Gendry. The rest of them each got a spoonful, even the three in manacles. Jaqen H'ghar thanked her politely for the treat, and Biter licked the grease off his dirty fingers with a blissful look, but Rorge, the noseless one, only laughed and said, "There's a hunter now. Lumpyface Lumpyhead Rabbitkiller."

- ACoK, Arya III

Don't think I've made one of these before and I'm tech illiterate so sorry it's so wonky lmao

Feel free to use them! Might make more, who knows

Arya Stark Appreciation Month Day 18 - Mentors

A Game of Thrones, Tyrion II

Benjen Stark emerged from the shelter he shared with his nephew. “There you are. Jon, damn it, don’t go off like that by yourself. I thought the Others had gotten you.”

“It was the grumkins,” Tyrion told him, laughing. Jon Snow smiled.

Stark shot a baffled look at Yoren. The old man grunted, shrugged, and went back to his bloody work.

Benjen Stark emerged from the shelter he shared with his nephew. "There you are, Jon, damn it, don't go off like that by yourself. I thought the Others had gotten you."

"It was the grumkins," Tyrion told him, laughing, Jon Snow smiled. Stark shot a baffled look at Yoren. The old man grunted, shrugged, and went back to his bloody work.

-A Game Of Thrones

Arya having her hair cut is a huge parallel to Dany getting her hair burned when the dragons are born, the difference is the agency of it all. Dany has been on her way all book to get more and more agency so her hair burning is a consequence of her choice to cross the fire and have the dragons, Arya, has lost agency so it’s someone else cutting her hair violently.

I really can’t wait for the moment where she doesn’t have to cut her hair and make the choice for herself what kind of haircut she wants once again (and no the death cult giving her a buzzcut does not count as her picking her hairstyle). because that would mean she would get to choose it and I need that for her (the closest she got was when she was with the brotherhood and got to be a kid once again and her hair was longer because she let it be that way).

It also seems like Yoren is going to kill her when you first read it which is similar to the Hound during the Red Wedding.

Arya and Sansa storyswap

Part 1: Sansa

Part 2: Arya

Part 3: Reunion

---------------------------------------

I've been thinking about an AU where there was no war and i was wondering how gendrya could happen. Then i remembered that Arya tired to get Yorennto bring letters from her to Jon.

"Yoren, as it please m'lord. My pardons for the hour." He bowed to Arya. "And this must be your son. He has your look."

"I'm a girl," Arya said, exasperated. If the old man was down from the Wall, he must have come by way of Winterfell. "Do you know my brothers?" she asked excitedly. "Robb and Bran are at Winterfell, and Jon's on the Wall. Jon Snow, he's in the Night's Watch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one with red eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I'm Arya Stark." The old man in his smelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could not seem to stop talking. "When you ride back to the Wall, would you bring Jon a letter if I wrote one?"

In this AU, Arya could have been trying for years to persuade yoren to take her letters (everytime he came to kingslanding for nights watch recruits) but he kept refusing. So she then realized she could bribe one of the men he was taking to the wall to sneak Jon her letters and that this could be Gendry.

I'm not sure what exactly she would offer him in exchange but i cna easily see them bargaining for it.

Then Gendry could become friends with Jon and him and Arya would reunite some time during the fight against the others or the wildlings invading idk.

Would Yoren have been better off sticking to the Kingsroad, rather than taking the route he did when returning north with Arya, Gendry, and co.?

The whole point of the Yoren storyline in ACOK is that, sadly, Yoren et al. were trapped in a no-win scenario: go off-road and head west, you run into Lorch and then Gregor Clegane. Go up the Kingsroad, and it'll be the Brave Companions or some other band of ravaging outriders.

The fundamental problem is that the Riverlands has become a place where there is no safety for civilians, because that's the way Tywin wanted it. The complete breakdown of the King's Peace is the deliberate, conscious, and foreseen result of Lannister war policy.

"Do you know my brothers?" she asked excitedly. "Robb and Bran are at Winterfell, and Jon's on the Wall. Jon Snow, he's in the Night's Watch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one with red eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I'm Arya Stark...When you ride back to the Wall, would you bring Jon a letter if I wrote one?" She wished Jon were here right now. He'd believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with the forked beard and the wizard in the steel cap.

Arya stood rooted to the spot. "Nothing bad's happened to Jon, has it?" she asked Yoren.

- AGoT, Arya III

May DWC 2023

Day 5: Miracle, Tension

The mood around Ironforge was strange. Of course, that was to be expected after the death of a monarch, but Celedyn had seen kings come and go and this time felt distinctly wrong. 

No one has been particularly surprised to hear High King Modimus had passed on, his health had after all been in decline for some time. But the news hadn’t been met with the typical mourning; the praise of his life, the bold promises by his heir to carry on his noble legacy… in fact Celedyn hadn’t so much as heard news of the date for the prince’s coronation. If one had been set, nobody was gossiping about it, nobody was planning the food or the music or the ale or the regalia for the celebration. 

Everywhere he went, the shoulders seemed hunched, the eyes sharp, the words whispered. People clustered in little packs at the market, too absorbed in their muttered conversations to shop, each little clump casting out suspicious glances to the others around them.

Even when he spoke with his friends, things were strange. They would emphasize unusual words, as if speaking in a code nobody had bothered to teach him; and affixed him with long, expectant stares. They were more touchy with him, not in the warm embrace of affection, they were always grabbing at him, tugging, drawing him from one place to the other in the way one may try to discourage a child from its fascination with a flame, protectively ushering him about, but also prompting him to never quite linger. 

Fights had been breaking out. The first time he witnessed one he had been making his way to one of his favorite bars, still half way down the road when he could tell something was wrong by the sound. Through the windows there was the rage and churn of bodies in motion, his first instinct was that it looked like the walls of the tavern were digesting its occupants. The sick, wet sound of a hammer brought him back to the moment and sent him sprinting, fleet footed on long legs and calling for the guards.

The next time he passed the old building, it was completely boarded shut.

Something was brewing in the deep halls of the dwarves, steaming and rumbling as though the mountain itself was preparing to erupt. A frown touched Celedyn’s features, his mind rolling over the thought that perhaps it was time he moved on. 

@daily-writing-challenge