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[Game of Thrones] OPEN SPOILERS through most recent Season 7 episode. Valar Morghulis.
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ooo I didn't think about that!
Vague book spoilers that really aren't spoilers but ARE book information.
And then she's the perfect assassin to send back to Westeros to just fuck all kinds of shit up.
HUGE eh here. He's fairly a mediocre writer, though certainly imaginative and prolific.
In my mind, the waif's problem was not letting go of her personal beef or identity. That was arya's issue.
Him commenting "a girl is finally no one" doesn't support the waif being arya.
But this is where you swoop in and say "but they're double bluff faking!".
Both sides have merit, but I hope Arya isn't dead and that she still has some story to get through.
Because seriously, if people need to die for being fuckups then WHY ISN'T DRAGONWHORE DEAD YET RARGL!
but
I am just accepting what I'm seeing and figuring it was a weak ending to an otherwise cool plotline. honestly either way doesn't make an incredible amount of sense to me and isn't as great as I was hoping but it's fine, I hope she goes on to be awesome in westeros.
Of course thats bullshit since Arya always had loads of support, but I guess you can argue that in those final moments she had hit bottom and survived.
Sadly, the book isn't far enough along to reveal what the faceless men gimmick is, but perhaps ..
When Sam kills the whitewalker, he says that his identity no longer matters. He's "no one", he's an entity with a singular focus: kill the whitewalker.
Perhaps what Arya lacked so far is focus and willpower. Sure she has her list. But Sandor got taken off it, and the play showed her that Cersei, while being a horrible person is still a person under all that crap.
The list might represent anger, but it doesn't represent a strong will to see it through. Perhaps sexy Jesus knows this. He knows that if Arya were to run into Sandor again, or actually get into a position where she could kill Cersei, she might waiver. And that helps no one.
Perhaps becoming "no one" isn't letting go of your identity (because that seems impossibly hard), I think it might be symbolic for leaving behind your human baggage behind because the many faced god doesn't just go after the wicked, he goes after the noble as well. Killing the former is easy, kill the latter ... not so much.
I think the last action of a faceless man we see highlights this. He tricks a maester in training to procure him a key. He's just a boy whose payment will get him a chance to score with a girl he has his eye on. He's killed because he's a loose end. There's even a hint of sorrow in the faceless man's voice.
In other news:
After rewatching some clips here and there I really really like tormund and davos. I hope they don't get dunked. I know, foolishness..
There is absolutely no way whatsoever that theory is true. It's just Arya, she's just going home having ripped off some training now so she's better at killing.
its a shame because I think all the pieces were there for something really interesting
tv talk- last week's ep #8
But overall the whole Braavos storyline felt too muddled, too mysterious, went on too long, and had too little payoff. Plus everything shot in the House of Black and White was so dark I couldn't see a thing.
Reading her season 5-6 storyline it all makes sense: http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Arya_Stark but watching it I was often at a loss as to what exactly was going on re: character motivations, plot etc.
(Also, I assumed the whole time that Arya's blinding was a part of all Faceless Man training, not a specific punishment for her transgressions. So it didn't make sense to me that Arya was able to blindfight and The Waif unable to. I guess I was just wrong on that. I think I needed a scene pointing out The Waif's lack of such training to really plant the seed that this is what Arya will eventually use as her trump card. I think it would have been a much cleverer reveal if the situation was clearer. Maybe it was clear to everyone but me...)
Like Arya's storyline in the books is a bit more direct about how dehumanized and fucked up Arya is becoming from witnessing ALL this violence. In many ways she's sort of like a child soldier, or like one of Septon Meribald's broken men. One of the reasons she decides to go to Braavos instead of trying to make her way north and find Jon or another surviving relative is that she's afraid that no one would accept her back if they find out all the things she's done, or just that she wouldn't be able to transition back into a normal life. The books have a scene with her interacting with another girl her same age, who's just so innocent and young to Arya that she ends up taking her doll and ripping it up in a rage, because how could anyone possibly be that stupid?
So her moving in with the Faceless Men is, one the one hand, yet another step forward in her ability to survive in a nasty, dangerous world. But it's also her becoming more and more of a depraved killer who puts no value on life at all. At this point the faceless men aren't so much inducting her into that sort of thinking as they are just confirming what she's already accepted.
What the show seems to be missing is any particularly compelling reason why, after seasons of putting Arya on this trajectory, she's suddenly just noping out and heading back to Westeros. And if the point of the trip to Braavos was improving her ability as a survivor, why is that completely undercut by her walking around Braavos with a big ol' "Stab Me" sign on her back?
Hitting rock bottom and taking names would be in keeping with their mysterious origins in the mines.
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I make this bold prediction so that even if I lose I win.
After reading this same comment every week, I kind of hope he kills everyone and is Azor Ahai.
Just for the bitterness.
Man, I wish season 2 or 3 had found a way to incorporate Arya slitting that Bolton soldier's throat. That's probably her most defining moment in the series for me.
I haven't read the books so the following is the ramblings of a mad man...
So either it's a waif no one pretending to be arya or an arya no one pretending to be arya, in either case the identity of arya is dead and just being acted by a faceless man. So then your all trying to reconcile if arya the person is dead, but does that even matter if she's no one, and does THAT even matter as long as the "character" of arya lives on?
And I think that's that the intended book story will be and we got this less complex version for the show.
Turns out "Jaqen" isn't a name but translates to "Assistant Manager" in old Valyrian.
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Seriously, I feel like I'm owed this after having to sit through all his shit for 4 seasons.
ofc there is!
queen herp-a-derp duuuuuuh-nerys stormborn!
Ramsay takes Osha's suggestion
High Sparrow won't make it out of this season, I think that plot hasbeen taken as far as it can go, Euron sucks, he's had about 20 minutes of characterization, the Sand Snakes....
Littlefinger will be involved somehow but he isn't an overt villain, which is what I was talking about.
Subterfuge and sabotage don't make for an interest main villain, it works for Littlefinger because he is off at the sides. Joffrey created an immediate and immense threat, now that's fallen to Ramsay. High Sparrow, even if he were classed as a full villain, isn't going to disable and flay you for kicks.
the High Sparrow has pretty much co-opted the throne at this point. a whisper in Tommen's ear and a proclamation is made, laws overturned. i think there's still a good bit of meat on that bone.
edit: Mainly I am just totally fine with Ramsay dying tonight.
His villainy is apparent to us but it is to an end and his allegiances are to what serves his goals, in the world of GoT they don't know he is responsible for all kinds of stuff and he is as much an ally as just the former master of coin rather than some mastermind. Whereas Ramsay is an open, active, unpredictable threat.
i expect some wailing and gnashing of teeth by the end of this episode tonight but we'll see
I'd argue that Ramsay has to die tonight because he's too great an obstacle otherwise to the advancement of the other plotlines. Probably with a lot of help from everyone's friend, Littlefinger. Whom I'm sure will act honorably in the aftermath.
That's my inner grump talking, though. He's a mostly harmless fellow. He spends most of the day sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of the local country store. No one ever listens when he tells them to stay out of the woods at night.
Just as Arya makes it to Winterfell.
How much force does it take to rip somebody's head off with one hand? Take that number and apply it to everything. How far in the air he can jump if an army tries to dogpile him. How much weight he can carry on his neck via armor to make himself undecapitatable. Steal a valaryian steel weapon from another house and he literally is unstoppable. Hell, throw him solo against the white walkers. He never gets tired, right?
We don't really know what his limits are though. Is he wight durable plus the very good armor of the Kingsguard, does his organic parts need food and water? Would even a Valyrian steel sword be able to cut through his titanium cyber chasis?