#ary@

Hi there!

It's the PoV trap.... Sansa even believes it herself. Ary@ and Bran think that Sansa's insterests are stupid and at least Ary@ even tells that to Sansa. It is even something Sansa is accustomed to, in a way. She expects it: Arya gave her a look like she was so stupid. (AGOT, Sansa I)

It doesn't get better in King's Landing: Joffrey calls her stupid, Cersei calls her stupid, the Hound calls her stupid until she partly believes it herself.

Dontos chuckled. "My Jonquil's a clever girl, isn't she?"

"Joffrey and his mother say I'm stupid." (ACOK, Sansa IV)

Later her aunt Lysa calls her stupid as well. If you look at what they think is stupid it is telling though. Usually Sansa is ridiculed by her enemies for being kind and friendly.

"Take him to Maester Frenken." Lancel was one of them, yet somehow she still could not bring herself to wish him dead. I am soft and weak and stupid, just as Joffrey says. I should be killing him, not helping him. (ACOK, Sansa VII)

This is also the reason why Littlefinger's grooming is especially effective when he tells Sansa that she is clever.

So, PoV trap and internalized criticism on Sansa's side make people believe that she is really stupid, when she is not. She's just not clever in a Tywin way, but in her own way.

Now, why do people think Ary@ is smart. Ary@ has one huge advantage over Sansa. Her dislike of the Lannisters make her suspicious from the very start. Since we as readers already know that Jaime pushed Bran out of the window, we know already that there is something terribly wrong with Jaime, Cersei and Joffrey, and this makes Ary@ look smart. We forget that it is her bias that lets her see it, not her intelligence (and this is not saying that she is stupid, she is not). You can't expect a girl of nine to really understand though. When Ary@ overhears Illyrio and Varys she is at her wit's end and has absolutely no idea what they talk about. When she is at Harrenhal she could just whisper Tywin's name into Jacquen's ears and she misses the opportunity, because the broader context is not entirely clear to her (and how could it be, she's nine). In addition Ary@ is rather judgmental and she calls a lot of people stupid, like a lot... And that might also influence how people see her.

Neither Ary@ nor Sansa are particularly stupid though if you look close. Their strengths are different. Ary@ is at her best when it comes to question people's motives. Sansa is best when it comes to motivate people.

On the way back to his chambers, he came upon his daughter Ary@ on the winding steps of the Tower of the Hand, windmilling her arms as she struggled to balance on one leg. The rough stone had scuffed her bare feet. Ned stopped and looked at her. "Ary@, what are you doing?" 

"Syrio says a water dancer can stand on one toe for hours." Her hands flailed at the air to steady herself.

Ned had to smile. "Which toe?" he teased.

"Any toe," Ary@ said, exasperated with the question. She hopped from her right leg to her left, swaying dangerously before she regained her balance. 

...

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."         

Ary@ screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa." She folded up her right leg and resumed her balancing. (AGOT, Eddard V)

Ary@’s future is not being a queen. Ary@’s future is balancing.

Ary@ hopped from the high branch to one beneath it, her hands out for balance. A water dancer never falls. Lightfoot, her toes curled tight around the branch, she walked a few feet, hopped down to a larger limb, then swung hand over hand through the tangle of leaves until she reached the trunk. The bark was rough beneath her fingers, against her toes. She descended quickly, jumping down the final six feet, rolling when she landed.                 

Gendry gave her a hand to pull her up. "You were up there a long time. What could you see?" (ACOK, Arya V)

Justitia has to be blind. She sees nothing.

Gendry was too stubborn to make one for her, so she had made her own by breaking the bristles off a broom. Her blade was much too light and had no proper grip, but she liked the sharp jagged splintery end. Whenever she had a free hour she stole away to work at the drills Syrio had taught her, moving barefoot over the fallen leaves, slashing at branches and whacking down leaves. Sometimes she even climbed the trees and danced among the upper branches, her toes gripping the limbs as she moved back and forth, teetering a little less every day as her balance returned to her. Night was the best time; no one ever bothered her at night.                 

Ary@ climbed. Up in the kingdom of the leaves, she unsheathed and for a time forgot them all, Ser Amory and the Mummers and her father's men alike, losing herself in the feel of rough wood beneath the soles of her feet ...Through the leafy canopy she could see the bone-white branches of the heart tree. It looks just like the one in Winterfell from here. If only it had been . . . then when she climbed down she would have been home again, and maybe find her father sitting under the weirwood where he always sat. (ACOK, Arya IX)

This is also a nice scene that is call back to the scene with Eddard. Ary@ is balancing during the night when she sees nothing and she thinks about her father who used to sit under the weirwood tree when he had passed a sentence.

Many of her other duties had remained the same, but as she went about them she stumbled over furnishings, walked into walls, dropped trays, got hopelessly helplessly lost inside the temple. Once she almost fell headlong down the steps, but Syrio Forel had taught her balance in another lifetime, when she was the girl called Ary@, and somehow she recovered and caught herself in time.  (ADWD, The Blind Girl)  

Hi there!

I think that the dragons as a weapon against the Others are a red herring. We know from "Fire and Blood" that Alysanne's dragon was not happy at the wall and that it was affected by the cold. Dragons are fire made flesh and they are as dangerous as the Others.

Bran is probably the key to save humanity. I think he will leave Bloodraven his evil mentor and will influence things in a positive way from that time onwards.

I also think that the key to defeat fire and ice is a balance between the two magical powers of Ice and Fire that threaten humanity. I've long thought that Aegon V was the one to wake the Others when he tried to wake dragons. If there is Ice magic in the world (a magic by the Children that has gone wrong I think) there must also be Fire magic in the world. They are connected like two ends of a scales. And together they unbalance the world. I think it will be Bran's duty to restore balance by drying both sides of magic. My fav idea (which I used in a fic) is that the dragon will burn the weirwood net and that the dragons in turn will be killed by weirwood arrows (Theon maybe?). It means that Bran will have to sacrifice his magic or most of it, but it will be worth it.

I'm undecided as to who will kill Dany. She probably will still have Drogon at the end and she will burn King's Landing. There is foreshadowing that Ary@ will bring her a poisoned cup, but there is also foreshadowing for Jon doing it. I sincerely hope it will be Ary@ because a) her arc of becoming an assassin must be there for a reason and b) I'd hate for Jon to become a kinslayer, and I hate, hate, hate the trope of "man has to kill his lover". So fingers crossed it will be Ary@. I think it's possible that Ary@ will be found out and that Jon takes the blame to save her.

And I don't think the North will kneel either.

Hi there!

Yes, hints have been dropped early on.

For Sansa this is pretty telling:

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."

Ary@ screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa." She folded up her right leg and resumed her balancing. Ned sighed and left her there. (AGOT, Ned V)

And for Jon maybe this:

Jon trembled. "I will never father a bastard," he said carefully. "Never!" He spat it out like venom. (AGOT, Jon I)

or this:

"Likely they were too shy to come out," Ned jested. He could feel the chill coming up the stairs, a cold breath from deep within the earth. "Kings are a rare sight in the north."

Robert snorted. "More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!" The king put one hand on the wall to steady himself as they descended. (AGOT, Eddard I)

And for Ary@ there is this:

"It won't be so bad, Sansa," Ary@ said. "We're going to sail on a galley. It will be an adventure, and then we'll be with Bran and Robb again, and Old Nan and Hodor and the rest." She touched her on the arm. (AGOT, Sansa III)

There is much much more, if you look for it. I suggest you go over to @istumpysk's blog and look up her reread of AGOT!

Hi there!

Yes, it is quite interesting that we have so many Stark PoVs and in regard to Sansa, all agree that she is a romantic at heart, that she's a lady, trusting and kind.

"Lady," he said, tasting the name. He had never paid much attention to the names the children had picked, but looking at her now, he knew that Sansa had chosen well. She was the smallest of the litter, the prettiest, the most gentle and trusting. She looked at him with bright golden eyes, and he ruffled her thick grey fur. (AGOT, Ned III)

"Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. She loved nothing so well as tales of knightly valor. Men would say she had my look, but she will grow into a woman far more beautiful than I ever was, you can see that. I often sent away her maid so I could brush her hair myself. She had auburn hair, lighter than mine, and so thick and soft . . . the red in it would catch the light of the torches and shine like copper. (ACOK, Cat VII)

So there is magic beyond the Wall after all. He found himself thinking of his sisters, perhaps because he'd dreamed of them last night. Sansa would call this an enchantment, and tears would fill her eyes at the wonder of it, but Aryq@ would run out laughing and shouting, wanting to touch it all. (ACOK, Jon III)

Back in Winterfell, Sansa had told him that the demons of the dark couldn't touch him if he hid beneath his blanket. (ASOS, Bran IV)

I mean, you could argue that the girls were around each other without either parents or siblings. But it is telling, that none of the Stark PoVs safe Ary@ remembers Sansa being particularly mean to Ary@, while they all agree that Sansa loves songs and knights - even if they think it's stupid like Ary@ and Bran (and I wonder where Bran got the idea that the kissing stories are stupid?).

My idea is that the sisters were definitely discouraged to fight openly by their parents and by the septa. This is why we see many of their insults (and they both use them) in their heads.

Hi there!

I really think that we have to put the writing of ASOIAF into its contemporary setting. When GRRM started his books, the only acceptable female heroine was a gnc girl who hated stitching and was drawn to (the more 'valuable') activities of boys.

Female characters, even main characters, were the love interest of the hero - or the pseudo love interest to be pushed away by the 'cool', 'not like other girls' heroine.

I actually think it was quite courageous from GRRM to make a feminine girl one of his heroes - not to mention Catelyn.

Today our perspectives have changed a little. We see that one aspect of demanding that women can do the same activities as men caters to the idea that male coded activities are somehow "better", "more worthy" (cue in D&D making Lyanna Mormont the spokesperson of that attitude).

In reality women should demand both: That women of course can do the same things as men, and that female coded activities are not worthless.

So, feminists should support both, Ary@ and Sansa. Ary@ who has difficulty finding her way because her wishes do not align with society's expectations and Sansa who experiences the downside of a patriarchal society and has to learn that the idea that women are protected by the men is a lie.

I agree therefore. From a modern perspective you can relate to both. I would even say that not relating to both shows a flawed idea about feminism.

If our solution to patriarchy is to de-validate feminine women we just play the game that still keeps women small. Sry, not sry.

Hi there!

Indeed!

No one ransomed the northmen, though. One fat lordling haunted the kitchens, Hot Pie told her, always looking for a morsel. His mustache was so bushy that it covered his mouth, and the clasp that held his cloak was a silver-and-sapphire trident. He belonged to Lord Tywin, but the fierce, bearded young man who liked to walk the battlements alone in a black cloak patterned with white suns had been taken by some hedge knight who meant to get rich off him. Sansa would have known who he was, and the fat one too, but Arya had never taken much interest in titles and sigils. Whenever Septa Mordane had gone on about the history of this house and that house, she was inclined to drift and dream and wonder when the lesson would be done. (ACOK, Ary@ VII)

And here she knows Karstark

The battle-axe is for Cerwyn, and the white sun on black is Karstark. They're northmen. My father's men, and Robb's. She didn't like to think what that might mean. (ACOK, Ary@ IX)

And here she knows Manderly:

She might have risked it even if they'd worn the Umber giant or the Glover fist, but she did not know this pitchfork knight or whom he served. The closest thing to a pitchfork she had ever seen at Winterfell was the trident in the hand of Lord Manderly's merman. (ASOS, Ary@ X)

Got you, GRRM, lol!

I mean, you probably could argue that Ary@ was too afraid to think clearly.