Lets Update The Kill List!

Let’s update the Kill List! 

Blood Sacrifice?

I’m probably not the first to notice this, but I’ve definitely never come across anything about this either.  In Arya X ACOK we get this scene:

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

I like to refer to this moment as “Arya’s Mufasa Moment” because her father’s voice through the weirwood gave Arya the strength to reclaim her identity.  She gained the courage she needed to make her escape from Harrenhal with her friends before they would be maimed or killed.  Whether that voice was actually Ned, or Bloodraven, or future!Bran, or some other greenseer, or the Old Gods isn’t the point of this post though.

One other aspect of the above quote I want to touch upon before I move on, is how Arya got dizzy when she heard the wolf’s howl after asking the Old Gods for help.  I think it’s pretty much accepted throughout fandom that (or I hope so because it seems kind of obvious) that Arya’s skinchanging abilities were opened more after this chapter.  Arya started gaining more, and more vivid wolf dreams after this chapter, either way.  In fact, in Arya I ASOS, Arya while skinchanging into Nymeria unknowingly protected them by killing the Brave Companions going after Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie in their desperate escape.

So onto my point.

Arya’s Mufasa moment happens in Arya X ACOK, but that was not the first time in that chapter that Arya went to the Godswood:

The afternoon was still young by the time she was done, so Arya took herself off to the godswood. Her duties were lighter as Lord Bolton’s cupbearer than they had been under Weese or even Pinkeye, though they required dressing like a page and washing more than she liked. The hunt would not return for hours, so she had a little time for her needlework.

She slashed at birch leaves till the splintery point of the broken broomstick was green and sticky. “Ser Gregor,” she breathed. “Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling.” She spun and leapt and balanced on the balls of her feet, darting this way and that, knocking pinecones flying. “The Tickler,” she called out one time, “the Hound,” the next. “Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei.” The bole of an oak loomed before her, and she lunged to drive her point through it, grunting “Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey.” Her arms and legs were dappled by sunlight and the shadows of leaves. A sheen of sweat covered her skin by the time she paused. The heel of her right foot was bloody where she’d skinned it, so she stood one-legged before the heart tree and raised her sword in salute. “Valar morghulis,” she told the old gods of the north. She liked how the words sounded when she said them. - Arya X ACOK

Did Arya inadvertently feed the weirwood her own blood from her injured heel while she was praying?  And is that why the next time she prays in front of the weirwood it answers her?  If so, I’m very curious to see if Arya ever goes back to Harrenhal and that Godswood again, in case there is some sort of furthering connection now to that land if this is the case.

Anyway, I just randomly came across this and it piqued my curiosity, so I thought I’d share to see what people thought.  I wish we knew more about weirwoods so we could better determine this.

Canon Arya Stark Appreciation Week - Day Two: Favorite familial relationship

She’d tell him, “I missed you,” and he’d say it too at the very same moment, the way they always used to say things together. She would have liked that. She would have liked that better than anything.” (A Clash of Kings, Arya I)

In the books:

Wex stole after the two, a woman and a boy. He must have stayed downwind, so the wolf would not catch his scent.“

"He knows where they went,” Lord Wyman said.

Davos understood. “You want the boy.”

“Roose Bolton has Lord Eddard’s daughter. To thwart him White Harbor must have Ned’s son … and the direwolf. The wolf will prove the boy is who we say he is, should the Dreadfort attempt to deny him. That is my price, Lord Davos. Smuggle me back my liege lord, and I will take Stannis Baratheon as my king.” - Davos, ADwD

GRRM interview:

He was asked where is Rickon and what will happen to him (a reader who forgot a part of ADWD it seems). GRRM said Rickon will appear in TWOW.

GRRM about Osha, SSM, Deeper than Swords: 26 Mar 2014 (its around the 56 min mark)

Q: Can you think of instances in seeing these portrayals, the actor’s take that gave you a new perspective?

GRRM: When Osha comes back in the books, it’s possible, I haven’t actually gotten to it yet that she will be influenced by what I’ve seen, that I will write a more interesting character.

Unicorns in TWoW, SSM: Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Startalk: 17 May 2019

Unicorns will appear in TWOW and GRRM will have a “unique” take on them

GRRM SSM,  8 Sept 2014

Q: Let us quote J. K. Rowling, queen of fantasy: “Fantasy has its own laws. Some things are prohibited. No sex near unicorns. ”

A: There are unicorns in my next book, and probably sex not far from unicorns. There’s a lot of sex in “The Iron Throne” despite the dragons.

GRRM notes while writing season 4 of GOT, Vanity fair article:

Speaking of which: Martin leaves a little note for the producers when writing about Ramsay’s flesh-eating hounds, whom we see hunting down a girl for sport.

[N.B. A note for future reference. A season or two down the line Ramsay’s pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves, so we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes]

This is the alignment of houses in the North:

Houses supporting the Boltons: Frey, Dustin and Ryswell. Manderly (Fake), Umber, Locke, Hornwood, Stout, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates  - all most probably not loyal to the Boltons

Northern houses with Stannis Baratheon, fighting to free Arya Stark: Mountain clans - Flints, Norreys, Wulls and Liddles, Glover, Mormont, Umber, Karstark (Fake)

Note: Manderly has promised that he will be leige lord to Stannis if Davos gets him Rickon. Many of Roose’s bannermen (Umber is seen talking to Manderly, Stout consults with Umber etc.) maybe aware of what Manderly is planning and know about Rickon Stark.

House Glover is also interesting. Sybelle Glover declares for Stannis after he defeats the Iron Born at Deepwood Motte. Robett Glover is plotting with Manderly at White Harbor with respect to Rickon.  Arya Stark helps free Robett Glover and other Northmen at Harrenhal. Galbart Glover is in the Neck with Robb’s decree legitimizing Jon Snow and naming him KITN.

This is the current weather in the North in ADwD:

“Lord Stannis is lost in the storm,” said Lady Dustin. “He’s leagues away, dead or dying. Let winter do its worst. A few more days and the snows will bury him and his army both.” - A ghost in Winterfell, ADwD

—

The first flakes came drifting down as the sun was setting in the west. By nightfall snow was coming down so heavily that the moon rose behind a white curtain, unseen. -  The Turncloak, ADwD

—

The yard was a white wilderness, full of half-heard sounds that echoed strangely amidst the storm.The icy trenches rose around them, knee high, then waist high, then higher than their heads.They were in the heart of Winterfell with the castle all around them, but no sign of it could be seen.They might have easily been lost amidst the Land of Always Winter,a thousand leagues beyond the Wall. - Theon, ADwD

—

Lord Bolton unrolled the parchment. “His host lies not three days’ ride from here, snowbound and starving, and I for one am tired of waiting on his pleasure.” - Theon, ADwD 

—

“The gods have turned against us,” old Lord Locke was heard to say in the Great Hall. “This is their wroth. A wind as cold as hell itself and snows that never end. We are cursed.” -  A Ghost in Winterfell, ADwD

—

By the ninth day of the storm, every camp saw the captains and commanders entering the king’s tent wet and weary…and report their losses for the day.

The fifteenth day of the march came and went, and they had crossed less than half the distance.

On the twenty-sixth day…the last of the vegetables was consumed…On the thirty-second day, the last of the grain and fodder. - The Sacrifice, ADwD

—

Justin Massey looked up from his horsemeat. “The cold count last night reached eighty.” He pulled a piece of gristle from his teeth and flicked it to the nearest dog. “If we march, we will die by the hundreds.”

“We had eight hundred horses when we marched from Deepwood Motte. Last night the count was sixty-four.” That did not shock her. Almost all of their big destriers had failed, including Massey’s own. Most of their palfreys were gone as well. Even the garrons of the northmen were faltering for want of fodder - The Sacrifice, ADwD

—

“Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks.” - The King’s Prize, ADwD

—

We had expected to find the king at Winterfell. This same blizzard has engulfed the castle, alas. Beneath its walls we found Mors Umber with a troop of raw green boys, waiting for the king’s coming.” - The Sacrifice, ADwD

—

The snow was following heavily outside.“Wind’s from the south,” Yarwick observed. It’s blowing the snow right up against the Wall.See?

He was right.The switchback stair was buried almost to the first landing, Jon saw, and the wooden doors of the ice cells and storerooms had vanished behind a wall of white - Jon, ADwD

This is the state of things in the North before actual Winter hits, which happens at the end of ADwD. Winter is not coming anymore, it is here in the books. This is Arya warging Nymeria in the Riverlands:

Her nights were lit by distant stars and the shimmer of moonlight on snow, but every dawn she woke to darkness. 

——

“What three new things do you know, that you did not know before?”

“I know that some men are saying that Tormo Fregar will surely be the new sealord,” she answered. “Some drunken men.”

“Better. And what else do you know?”

It is snowing in the riverlands, in Westeros, she almost said. - The Blind Girl, ADwD

—

The castle dominated the broad fertile valley that maps and men alike called Blackwood Vale. A vale it was, beyond a doubt, but no wood had grown here for several thousand years, be it black or brown or green. Once, yes, but axes had long since cleared the trees away. Homes and mills and holdfasts had risen where once the oaks stood tall. The ground was bare and muddy, and dotted here and there with drifts of melting snow. - Jaime, ADwD

And finally KL:

“On the window seat a raven loitered, pale, huge, its feathers ruffled. It was the largest raven that Kevan Lannister had ever seen. Larger than any hunting hawk at Casterly Rock, larger than the largest owl. Blowing snow danced around it, and the moon painted it silver.

Not silver. White. The bird is white.

The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons.

"Winter,” said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. - epilogue, ADwD

Just a reminder that Rickon Stark and his direwolf are important and will be important in TWoW. One of the richest and most powerful houses in the North is backing Rickon Stark as Lord of Winterfell. Without Bran there, Rickon is the rightful heir to the North. Other Northerners in play include the Mountain clans marching for Arya Stark and the folks who know of and have Robb’s decree. And various Northern houses and clans are doing their own plotting to put a Stark in Winterfell.

Also a reminder that Stannis is stranded in a snow storm 3 days from Winterfell.

Marching from the Vale all the way to Winterfell in these harsh snowstorms,  with a Vale army - who have no experience with the harsh conditions of the North - is near impossible.

Davos, Rickon, Shaggydog and Osha are certainly going to get to WF faster than Sansa and an army. Rickon has an actual Direwolf - the symbol of house Stark. House Stark follows male-preference primogeniture law of inheritance.

The Vale have their own problems brewing with winter here. Aegon has landed in the Stormlands, there is trouble in the Riverlands and KL is in chaos. Is the army going to abandon the Vale and go North in the harshest Winterstorms, experiencing huge loss of lives just to get Sansa to Winterfell?

The show is not the books. Nonsensical show plots don’t belong in the books. I will let just leave GRRM’s own words here:

In a convention panel this year, George said on the record that he had no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline, which now makes sense perhaps.

Arya Stark and the old black tomcat, by Jonathan Burton, for The Folio Society’s illustrated collector’s edition of A Game of Thrones

The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, cold-eyed mousers twitching their tails, quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies’ cats all combed and trusting, ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps. One by one Arya had chased them down and snatched them up and brought them proudly to Syrio Forel… all but this one, this one-eared black devil of a tomcat. “That’s the real king of this castle right there,” one of the gold cloaks had told her. “Older than sin and twice as mean. One time, the king was feasting the queen’s father, and that black bastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin’s fingers. Robert laughed so hard he like to burst. You stay away from that one, child.” He had run her halfway across the castle; twice around the Tower of the Hand, across the inner bailey, through the stables, down the serpentine steps, past the small kitchen and the pig yard and the barracks of the gold cloaks, along the base of the river wall and up more steps and back and forth over Traitor’s Walk, and then down again and through a gate and around a well and in and out of strange buildings until Arya didn’t know where she was. Now at last she had him. High walls pressed close on either side, and ahead was a blank windowless mass of stone. Quiet as a shadow, she repeated, sliding forward, light as a feather. When she was three steps away from him, the tomcat bolted. Left, then right, he went; and right, then left, went Arya, cutting off his escape. He hissed again and tried to dart between her legs. Quick as a snake, she thought. Her hands closed around him. She hugged him to her chest, whirling and laughing aloud as his claws raked at the front of her leather jerkin. Ever so fast, she kissed him right between the eyes, and jerked her head back an instant before his claws would have found her face. The tomcat yowled and spit. –A Game of Thrones, Arya III

No, but all this "Arya is naturally violent' is doubly hilarious coming from the same folks who think that Sansa is going to speak politely and thank everyone and sing songs and become leader of the North!

The North is a violent and brutal place. We are introduced to it with Ned making his 7 year old son watch a beheading and Jon Snow warning Bran to not look away from a man getting his head cut off...

“And don’t look away. Father will know if you do.”

Bran kept his pony well in hand, and did not look away. - Bran, AGoT

Ned then wants his 3 year old toddler to play with a direwolf because winter is coming...

“Is he afraid?” Ned asked.

“A little,” she admitted. “He is only three.”

Ned frowned. “He must learn to face his fears. He will not be three forever. And winter is coming.”

“Yes,” Catelyn agreed. The words gave her a chill, as they always did. - Catelyn, AGoT

Jon Snow gifted his nine year old, much loved, little sister a sword as a going away present! This is a world where ten year olds have been Lord commander of the wall.

The Mountain clan chiefs pay Jon Snow a visit and are only reassured when he promises to behead his child hostages if the Freefolk step out of line. Ned Stark took Theon Greyjoy as a child hostage. Jorah Mormont fled Westeros in fear of Ned Stark's punishment for being a slaver.

The Mountain clans with Stannis are not bothered that he is making human sacrifices to the Lord of Light - they just think that he is making human sacrifices to the wrong God and that the sacrifices should have been made to the Old Gods instead.

This is Big Bucket Wull:

Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue.

“Aye!” shouted Morgan Liddle. “Blood and battle!”

We are seeing the comeback of direwolves, wargs, skinchangers and greenseers. Bran is warging Hodor and probably eating Jojen paste, Jon is going to spend time in a wolf, Arya is going to be leading Nymeria and her wolf pack, wild child Rickon grew up with Osha on cannibal island and shaggydog is eating unicorns. They are all bad-ass wargs and have bad-ass Wolf Dreams. Jon, Arya and Bran are all central, important characters in the series and they have all engaged in morally grey acts.

Ghost, Nymeria, Shaggydog and Summer will come back in a big way and play important roles - as stated by GRRM again and again in interviews. The Stark-Direwolf bond is very important.

"I heard the same thing from my cousin, and she's not the sort to lie," an old woman said. "She says there's this great pack, hundreds of them, mankillers. The one that leads them is a she-wolf, a bitch from the seventh hell." - Arya, ACoK

GRRM mentioning hanging Chekov's wolfpack on the wall to use it in the future.

Plus,

Speaking of which: Martin leaves a little note for the producers when writing about Ramsay’s flesh-eating hounds, whom we see hunting down a girl for sport.

[N.B. A note for future reference. A season or two down the line Ramsay’s pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves, so we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes.] - Script notes

And this is what happens if Northern houses refuses to fight for their leige lords:

And when Lord Umber, who was called the Greatjon by his men and stood as tall as Hodor and twice as wide, threatened to take his forces home if he was placed behind the Hornwoods or the Cerwyns in the order of march, Robb told him he was welcome to do so.

“And when we are done with the Lannisters,” he promised, scratching Grey Wind behind the ear, “we will march back north, root you out of your keep, and hang you for an oathbreaker.” - Bran, AGoT

And this is how Robb Stark got the support of the GreatJon

Yet Robb only said a quiet word, and in a snarl and the blink of an eye Lord Umber was on his back, his sword spinning on the floor three feet away and his hand dripping blood where Grey Wind had bitten off two fingers.

“My lord father taught me that it was death to bare steel against your liege lord,” Robb said, “but doubtless you only meant to cut my meat.” Bran’s bowels went to water as the Greatjon struggled to rise, sucking at the red stumps of fingers… but then, astonishingly, the huge man laughed. “Your meat,” he roared, “is bloody tough. “

And somehow after that the Greatjon became Robb’s right hand, his staunchest champion, loudly telling all and sundry that the boy lord was a Stark after all, and they’d damn well better bend their knees if they didn’t fancy having them chewed off. - Bran, AGoT

He got the GreatJon's support because Greywind chewed off his fingers and not by speaking politely, with good manners and saying thank you.

This is how Lyanna Mormont addressed King Stannis:

Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK. - Jon, ADWD

No being polite or charming. Just the brutal truth.

This is Wylla Manderly:

“A thousand years before the Conquest, a promise was made, and oaths were sworn in the Wolf’s Den before the old gods and the new. When we were sore beset and friendless, hounded from our homes and in peril of our lives, the wolves took us in and nourished us and protected us against our enemies. The city is built upon the land they gave us. In return, we swore that we should always be their men. Stark men!” - Davos, ADWD

Alys Karstark, who got on a horse in the harshest winter, made it all the way to the wall to ask that the son of Ned Stark help her. Marrying a Thenn from beyond the wall to save her house. Jon compares her bravery to Arya Stark and calls her 'Winter's Lady'.

Alysanne Mormont attacking the IronBorn, killing people and winning back the North:

Alysane Mormont, whose men name her the She-Bear, hid fighters inside a gaggle of fishing sloops and took the ironmen unawares where they lay off the strand. Greyjoy’s longships are burned or taken, her crews slain or surrendered. The captains, knights, notable warriors, and others of high birth we shall ransom or make other use of, the rest I mean to hang …

“Aye.” Alysane stared at Asha for a moment. “I have a son. He’s only two. My daughter’s nine.”

“You started young.”

“Too young. But better that than wait too late.” A stab at me, Asha thought, but let it be. “You are wed.”

“No. My children were fathered by a bear.” Alysane smiled. Her teeth were crooked, but there was something ingratiating about that smile. “Mormont women are skinchangers. We turn into bears and find mates in the woods. Everyone knows.” Asha smiled back.

“Mormont women are all fighters too.” The other woman’s smile faded. “What we are is what you made us. On Bear Island every child learns to fear krakens rising from the sea.” The Old Way. - ADwD

Lyanna Stark, daughter of the North, standing up for her father's men, participating in tourneys and wielding a sword being compared all the time to Arya Stark

Frey Pies.

Lot of battle and violence that is going to happen in TWoW as Stark supporting Northern factions goes to war with the Boltons. No one is going to be asking the Boltons nicely to give way. War and violence is necessary and is happening. Lots of people are going to die. Lots have already died. Brutal sacrifices are necessary. From the TWoW sample chapter things are not going too well for house Umber.

That's not even counting the brutal Old Kings of Winter - Theon 'Hungry Wolf' Stark, Brandon 'Ice Eyes' Stark

In the aftermath of his victory King Theon raised his own fleet and crossed the narrow sea to the shores of Andalos, with Argos's corpse lashed to the prow of his flagship. There he took a bloody vengeance, burning scores of villages, capturing three tower houses and a fortified sept putting thousands to the sword in the process. The heads of the slain the Hungry Wolf claimed as prizes, carrying them back to Westeros and planting them on spikes along his own coasts as a warning to other would be conquerors.

"When the Warg King's last redoubt fell, his sons were put to the sword, along with his beasts and greenseers, whilst his daughters were taken as prizes by their conquerors."

A World of Ice and Fire, The North, The Kings of Winter

The Boltons were scared of the Old Kings of Winter, Bran's visions shows human sacrifices as part of a pact with the Old Gods/Children of the forest, Brandon Ice Eyes hung the entrails of slavers from heart trees and Stark vassals feared these kings.

And we get closer and closer to the brutal Long Night, described as such by Old Nan:

“Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods” - Bran, AGoT

It's why 'Winter is coming' is the house motto for house Stark. It's what everything is heading towards. Brutal cold and harsh sacrifices and violence - lots of violence.

To then decry this violence and the hard core fantasy aspects of these books to espouse some kind of ridiculous notion that polite charm and songs and decorum is what is going to win the day and all the characters who engage in violence = bad, especially female characters who kill or wield hard power = bad, shows such a fundamental lack of understanding of ASoIaF as a book series.

And again, it's funny that it's the same folks who believe in Stark/Northern exceptionalism and keep shilling for Northern independence who keep decrying violence despite the feudalistic/medieval violence inherent in the North and talking about asoiaf as some kind of pacifist manifesto where one of the most pro-status quo character in the series is going to bring about hope and change and peace by maintaining decorum, talking politely and being charming. Because after everything, everything we have read about the North, that's what's going to work and that's what GRRM is apparently heading towards ....