as much a warrior as aegon himself

Queen Rhaella and her darling princess᪥

I cannot help but laugh at this post when OP only recently has made it clear that they think it would have been better had Arya just stood aside and let Joffrey physically harm Mycah.

There is no doubt that Arya comes from a privileged background. It is also true that had everything not gone to shit, she would have never known the hardships a common man truly has to face. But to diminish Arya's virtue of looking above class, above a person's station to something as just "having fun" is so mournfully wrong. It almost sounds as if Arya has just been playing at a facade of caring about the people of Winterfell. As if she derives some sort of sick pleasure from her place of privilege by playing at being a common girl.

It is in Arya's nature to make friends wherever she goes. It is in Arya's nature to want to know a person for who they are. She throws snowballs at hedge knights and soldiers bc she is a kid and that's what kids do. She names the babies of the kitchen maids bc she cares for them. She chooses the company of a butcher's boy because she enjoys spending time with him. She stands up for Mycah because that's what friends do. She is shocked at the inaction of her father's men over Mycah's death bc even though she is somewhat aware of her social standing, she is yet to fully understand the cruelty of a classist society. The colors of black and white blur a little bit here and is completely erased by the time she is on the road and sees just how much destruction the people of her class can bring upon the lives of the small folks (just like op has said).

I don't think I would have loved Arya as much as I do had she not come in between the crown prince and her friend. I would have not cared of her as much as I do had she not from the very beginning rebelled against the status quo in her own way. Westeros is in dire need of a re-evaluation of the power that has been given to the so called nobles who are not so noble in their treatment of the weak. So when a little girl comes between a butcher boy and the crown prince, the merit of the action shouldn't even be up for a discourse. After all Arya's birth would have provided her no protection had it been Jaime who had found her that day in the woods. Her birth then would have been nothing compared to Joffrey's supposed status as the crown prince.

Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark + parallels (1/?)

IGN: I know that Tyrion is your favorite character, right? Who’s your second favorite? George R. R. Martin: Maybe Arya or Dany. 

In the plaza before the Great Pyramid, the Meereenese huddled forlorn. The Great Masters had looked anything but great in the morning light. Stripped of their jewels and their fringed tokars, they were contemptible; a herd of old men with shriveled balls and spotted skin and young men with ridiculous hair. Their women were either soft and fleshy or as dry as old sticks, their face paint streaked by tears. "I want your leaders," Dany told them. "Give them up, and the rest of you shall be spared." – ASOS Dany VI

Every one of the Meereenese that Dany captures when she conquers Meereen are Great Masters. The text is explicit about that. She allows them to choose which 163 of their leaders to give up; so not only were all of the men that she killed slaveowners, but they were the leaders among the slaver class of Meereen. So the highest of the highest, essentially.

Furthermore, in ADWD, the families that target Dany are all Great Master families:

"You have no lack of enemies, Your Grace. You can see their pyramids from your terrace. Zhak, Hazkar, Ghazeen, Merreq, Loraq, all the old slaving families. Pahl. Pahl, most of all. A house of women now. Bitter old women with a taste for blood. Women do not forget. Women do not forgive." No, Dany thought, and the Usurper's dogs will learn that, when I return to Westeros. It was true that there was blood between her and the House of Pahl. Oznak zo Pahl had been cut down by Strong Belwas in single combat. His father, commander of Meereen's city watch, had died defending the gates when Joso's Cock smashed them into splinters. Three uncles had been among the hundred sixty-three on the plaza. "How much gold have we offered for information concerning the Sons of the Harpy?" Dany asked. – ADWD Dany I – "If I knew who they were—" "Zhak and Pahl and Merreq. Them, and all the rest. The Great Masters. Who else would it be?" – ADWD Dany IV – "I am not deaf, Magnificence. I will obey." Skahaz drew a parchment scroll from his sleeve. "Your Worship should have a look at this. A list of all the Meereenese ships in the blockade, with their captains. Great Masters all." Dany studied the scroll. All the ruling families of Meereen were named: Hazkar, Merreq, Quazzar, Zhak, Rhazdar, Ghazeen, Pahl, even Reznak and Loraq. "What am I to do with a list of names?" "Every man on that list has kin within the city. Sons and brothers, wives and daughters, mothers and fathers. Let my Brazen Beasts seize them. Their lives will win you back those ships." – ADWD Dany V

Worse than being wealthy and neutral in the face of oppression, they were the ones who created and managed the institution of slavery in Meereen, most directly profited from it, and stood to lose the most from Dany's antislavery war. This is why ADWD consistently reinforces that the people helping the Sons of the Harpy, sieging Meereen by land and sea, and chafing against Dany's rule, are these Great Master families. These families are huge too, not simply four-member nuclear families (a misconception that the fandom seems to have). For example, three of Oznak zo Pahl's uncles were among the 163 Great Masters that Dany executed.

She reached for the pomegranate seed

knowingly, irreversibly.