Arya Month 2022 || Day 26: Lyanna Stark Lyanna Lives And Is Very Close With Her Niece Arya.

Arya Month 2022 || Day 26: Lyanna Stark – Lyanna Lives and Is very close with her niece Arya.

Arya’s time in Harrenhal is actively ignored and disregarded by certain circles in the fandom because that arc doesn’t fit with the agenda they have for their preferred fanon. Why? Because we see Arya being strategic, observant, self-possessed, intelligent, cunning, courteous, hard working, political, and able to read people and then adjust her behavior while dealing with them. She survives and escapes Harrenhal under the Lannisters and then the Boltons using her intelligence, not her minimal ability to use a sword. 

In particular, even among fans of Arya, she is regarded as constantly discourteous with a sassy comment always at the ready. In reality, she struggles but tries to remember her courtesies in AGOT. In ACOK, doesn’t struggle as much, especially by the time she gets to Arya X, where courtesy seems second nature. Her biggest struggle with courtesy comes from remembering to call Roose “my lord” in one scene in her ninth chapter, which seems to be something GRRM causally set up as a clue that by the time ADWD rolled around, he realized who Arya was.  Otherwise, she’s begging pardons, editing out insults from messages, and following through with the “yes, my lords” and “no, my lords” and “at once, my lord”. 

It’s also significant that she served as a page and cupbearer since that’s part of the typical leadership training of highborn children. Aegon V, Edric Dayne, and Rhaenyra I also served those roles, for example. This allowed her a place at council meetings where politics and war strategy were discussed. 

Nymeria lives because at nine years old Arya was already capable of accepting difficult truths and making hard choices. 

She didn’t want to lose her wolf, she didn’t want to drive her away and she certainly didn’t want to throw stones at her. But when it is made clear to her that for Nymeria to stay would almost certainly mean her death, Arya accepted it and made the hard but brave decision to have Nymeria abandon her. She could have buried her head in the sand, clung to Nymeria and hoped that her father would stand between them and the Queen, but instead she picked up stones and threw them at her beloved pet, betraying her trust for her own good.

Now, Nymeria is alive, Nymeria is free, and Nymeria is a queen.

Arya takes more after her mother in personality while Sansa takes after her father's.

Sansa and Ned are more gentle and we don't really see them using physical force that much. Hell, they even try to save others from harm even if it was cause them harm in return. Ex) Ned giving Cersei a chance to run away with her kids because he knows that she and her children will possibly die if Robert finds out the truth but instead he is the one who is executed. Sansa telling Maragery the truth about Joffrey which becomes one of the reasons for Joffery's death but Sansa is framed for it.

Catelyn and Arya are not afraid to speak their minds and are pretty stubborn when they have their mind set on something. Catelyn who frees Jaime Lannister because even if having Jaime has a captive gives the North and its allies a advantage, she will do whatever it takes to get her daughters back. Arya refusing to give up her love for Needle despite her parents telling her that it's no such thing for a lady, even refusing to get rid of Needle when she joins the faceless men because it's the one few connections she has to her identity as Arya Stark, the girl with wolf blood.

You even look like her.

JON SNOW APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳Day 14: Arya → Women in Jon’s life reminding him of Arya

Jon could see fear and fire in her eyes. […] She is no older than I am. Something about her made him think of Arya, though they looked nothing at all alike. “Will you yield?” he asked, giving the dirk a half turn. And if she doesn’t?

***

Ygritte […] looked plump as she crouched there, but most of that was layers of fur and wool and leather. Underneath all that she could be as skinny as Arya.***

[Ygritte] wasn’t wed and her weapon of choice was a short curved bow of horn and weirwood, but “spearwife” fit her all the same. She reminded him a little of his sister Arya, though Arya was younger and probably skinnier. It was hard to tell how plump or thin Ygritte might be, with all the furs and skins she wore.

***

“If you kill a man, and never mean t’, he’s just as dead,” Ygritte said stubbornly. Jon had never met anyone so stubborn, except maybe for his little sister Arya. Is she still my sister? he wondered. Was she ever?

***

“[…] And yes, I will take your women too. I have no need of blushing maidens looking to be protected, but I will take as many spearwives as will come.“ “And girls?” a girl asked. She looked as young as Arya had, the last time Jon had seen her.

***

She looked enough like Arya to give him pause, but only for a moment. A tall, skinny, coltish girl, all legs and elbows, her brown hair was woven in a thick braid and bound about with strips of leather.

***

“My uncle declared for Stannis, in hopes it might provoke the Lannisters to take poor Harry’s head. Should my brother die, Karhold should pass to me, but my uncles want my birthright for their own. Once Cregan gets a child by me they won’t need me anymore. He’s buried two wives already.” She rubbed away a tear angrily, the way Arya might have done it. “Will you help me?”

***

“You’re not scared?” The girl smiled in a way that reminded Jon so much of his little sister that it almost broke his heart. “Let him be scared of me.”

***

Why not? thought Jon. They are all convinced she is a princess. Val looked the part and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.

***

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 …