Arya Had Named Her After The Warrior Queen Of The Rhoyne, Who Had Led Her People Across The Narrow Sea.

“Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea.”

I love that this is the first detail that we get about Nymeria from Arya’s perspective. The show made Arya’s icon Visenya, and while I’ll agree it was a good opportunity for a lore dump, I feel like Nymeria gets to the core of Arya’s character in a way Visenya just doesn’t. Yes, Nymeria was a warrior. Yes, she and her people eventually fought against Valyria, but the thing Nymeria is known for is her ten thousand ships:

“Legend tells us that Nymeria took ten thousand ships to sea, searching for a new phome for her people beyond the long reach of Valyria and its dragonlords. Beldecar argues that this number was vastly inflated, perhaps as much as tenfold. Other chroniclers offer other numbers, but in truth no true count was ever made. We can safely say there were a great many ships. Most were river craft, skiffs and poleboats, trading galleys, fishing boats, pleasure barges, even rafts, their decks and holds crammed full of women and children and old men. Only one in ten was remotely seaworthy.” -TWOIAF

This is the most blatant historical parallel of the pack mentality that Arya holds dear to in she entire story. It didn’t matter if the ships were seaworthy, it didn’t matter who was in them; the Roynar were her people and she was getting them out of there.

Like,

“Gendry and Hot Pie were city-born, and in the city smallfolk walked. Yoren had given them mounts when he took them from King's Landing, but sitting on a donkey and plodding up the kingsroad behind a wagon was one thing. Guiding a hunting horse through wild woods and burned fields was something else.

She would make much better time on her own, Arya knew, but she could not leave them. They were her pack, her friends, the only living friends that remained to her.”

Of course Nymeria is Arya’s hero!!

Yes, the name of Arya’s wolf does show her gender non-conformity and her rejection of a traditional “lady’s” role. However (and imo more importantly), it shows that, to Arya, “warrior” is synonymous with “protector.”

Maybe on the morrow she would tell him about the cat that had followed her home last night from Pynto's, the cat that was hiding in the rafters, looking down on them. Or maybe not. If he could have secrets, so could she.

A Dance with Dragons, The Blind Girl

okay so twice recently i've seen random people in the wild like "yeah people don't eat rice around here." so i think we need to have a poll on rice consumption

if you're a no-ricer maybe say where you're from/other explanation because i would like to know................................

I think its really funny when people get mad at the pro-hairy pussy posts on this site (yes including posts hating on bald pussy) and take an angle of “wow everyone is being so weird about shaving now and its so wrong to judge peoples choices like this” because like. Okay. Either you dont fuck or go outside, or you have been doing whats expected of you so long you have no idea how people who dont make the same choice as you are mistreated. Because so many people ESPECIALLY MEN are still convinced simply having body hair is unhygienic and will shame and dehumanize anyone who has it in the most vile and unnecessary way. Like youre seeing so many of these vehement bush or die posts BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE PUSHING BACK AGAINST THAT NOTION its not happening in a vacuum but once again tumblr users are out of touch with what actually happens on planet earth

If you like shaving: congrats, there are millions of people who would not accept you any other way

Jaime and Brienne in ASOS and AFFC

Jaime’s great-grandmother Rohanne and Brienne’s great-grandfather Dunk in “The Sworn Sword”

I think the reason Viren’s redemption works is that he ultimately got nothing out of it. The popular idea of a villain redemption is a bad guy changing their ways and eventually being accepted by their former enemies, often becoming one of the heroes themselves. But that wasn’t the case with Viren. Soren didn’t forgive him. Ezran didn’t forgive him. He wasn’t welcomed with open arms. He was locked in the dungeon, presumedly for life. And when he atoned for his past through a heroic final act, no one except Soren even knew about it. And that still didn’t earn him forgiveness.

But that’s how we know that Viren truly changed. For seeking the right path, he received nothing but rejection and death. And he was okay with that. He understood these were the natural consequences of his actions. He accepted what he had done was wrong. His sacrifice was sincere, a servant dying for his kingdom, a father dying for his son. He wasn’t seeking forgiveness, or glory, or power.

Because he had changed.