full image - Repost: (Spoilers TWOW) The Debate over Arya's face misses a much more important point. (from Reddit.com, (Spoilers TWOW) The Debate over Arya's face misses a much more important point.)
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"The Merling Queen has chosen a new Mermaid to take the place of the one that drowned. She is the daughter of a Prestayn serving maid, thirteen and penniless, but lovely.""So are they all, at the beginning," said the priest, "but you cannot know that she is lovely unless you have seen her with your own eyes, and you have none. The Blind Girl, AFFC.I always found this an interesting exchange. The Kindly Man is noting the difficulty offering a confident claim about the appearance of a thing you have not seen for yourself. Of course, he seems to have missed that Arya--who is always giving things away--has just given away her ability to see through the eyes of cats. But putting his own blindness aside, he does make a good point which we readers should also apply. None of us have seen the characters in the book with our own eyes and so we must rely on the description provided by characters in the book to get a sense of what a character looks like.This is approach works pretty well when you have a wide enough pool of opinions and there is consistency within that pool. For example, Sansa is pretty much universally regarded as extremely beautiful, while Brienne is universally not (Put down the pitchforks. I did not write the books.). But what do you do when the opinions vary on what a character looks like as is the case with Arya? Well, you probably pick a side, then argue about it those who picked the other side because the text is kind of all over the place on Arya's appearance.There is the "horseface" camp, the "burgeoning beauty" camp and waaay over there in the corner by my lonesome is the "it doesn't matter" camp. No matter where you land on it, you have a good base of text to support your position. So, before I get into why Arya's appearance matters about as much as the color of this dress, let's look at the text for both sides.Arya HorsefaceArya's face is important to the story. we know this because it is one of the first things the author tells us about her.It wasn't fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn. Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near. It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward. Arya I AGOT.So early on the author tells us that Arya does not have the Tully beauty, she has the Stark look of brown hair and a long solemn face; a horseface if you will. I suppose you could dismiss Jeyne's unkind comment as the teasing of a jealous bully. Doubtless someone is typing that already. And if Jeyne were the only one teasing Arya this way, you probably could. Problem is, it goes beyond Jeyne. Well beyond.She had never cared if she was pretty, even when she was stupid Arya Stark. Only her father had ever called her that. Him, and Jon Snow, sometimes. Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. To her sister and sister's friends and all the rest, she had just been Arya Horseface. The Blind Girl, ADWD.I am not sure who "all the rest" are. Sansa and Jeyne are the only named people. Theon seems to recall Arya was called Horseface.Her name, she had to know her name. "Arya Underfoot. Your sister used to call you Arya Horseface." The Prince of Winterfell, ADWD.Clearly the name happened often enough that Theon--who likely did not spend much time in needlepoint class--took notice. And Sansa did not seem to hide it. All we readers have to go on is Arya's own recollections and she tells us Sansa, Sansa's friends--so Jeyne with at least one more person and all the rest. Sounds like significant number. And it is probably all children. I can't imagine an adult in Winterfell would be so crass as to insult the Lord's daughter. Well, maybe the Septa would. So, it is probably children whose opinions should not be counted. Doubtless someone is typing that right now. Except, Arya's feelings about her appearance and her level of beauty goes beyond what children say."Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her.""Lyanna was beautiful," Arya said, startled. Everybody said so. It was not a thing that was ever said of Arya. Arya II AGOT.Note that Arya is "startled" by hearing Eddard compare her appearance to Lyanna. Lyanna is according to Arya universally regarded as beautiful. In all the years she was around to hear how beautiful Lyanna was, she similarly never heard anyone say that she looked like Lyanna or that she was beautiful. According to Arya, only her father and Jon said she was pretty. King Robert arrived at Winterfell, looked upon all the children and he made no comment regarding any resemblance between the two. And Lyanna was very much in his thoughts.Then the children had been brought forward, introduced, and approved of by both sides.No sooner had those formalities of greeting been completed than the king had said to his host, "Take me down to your crypt, Eddard. I would pay my respects." [...]Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. Robert had loved her even more. She was to have been his bride."She was more beautiful than that," the king said after a silence. His eyes lingered on Lyanna's face, as if he could will her back to life. Finally he rose, made awkward by his weight. "Ah, damn it, Ned, did you have to bury her in a place like this?" His voice was hoarse with remembered grief. "She deserved more than darkness …" Eddard I.Is it odd that Robert who admired Lyanna so much did not offer any comment about Arya favoring her? Maybe or maybe not. Our author is not shy about others commenting on resemblances in family."I see you have arrived safely, Lord Stark," Renly said."And you as well," Ned replied. "You must forgive me, but sometimes you look the very image of your brother Robert.""A poor copy," Renly said with a shrug. Eddard IV.And"Snow, the boy is called," Pycelle said unhelpfully."I glimpsed him once at Winterfell," the queen said, "though the Starks did their best to hide him. He looks very like his father."Her mother said she could be pretty if she would clean herself up. Cersie IV, AFFC.And the dozens of examples of people commenting on Freys looking like Freys. Whether it means something or not, our author chose not to have Robert comment on Arya looking like Lyanna.Finally, there really can't be any dispute that Arya has the Stark look of a long solemn face. Whether that facial feature set is attractive is totally subjective but there is some text to suggest that while not a bar to being attractive, having a long horsey face isn't the most desirable trait. Brienne is described as having a horseface.And she was ugly besides, with a freckled, horsey face and teeth that seemed almost too big for her mouth. Brienne I, AFFC.Ed Tollet has a long face. As do the Waynwoods Sansa meets in the Vale.Ser Roland was the oldest of the three, though no more than five-and-twenty. He was taller and more muscular than Ser Wallace, but both were long-faced and lantern-jawed, with stringy brown hair and pinched noses. Horsefaced and homely, Alayne thought. Alayne I, TWOW.This quote also seems to indicate Sansa does find horseface features to be homely. So, her calling Arya Horseface might indicate that she's not just being mean. She's being mean and honest.So, it seems team horseface has a leg to stand on, four actually. But what about team burgeoning beauty?Lyanna 2.0The textual evidence for Arya growing into a beauty does exist. Beyond Eddard's statement about Arya looking like Lyanna, several others offer kind words about Arya's appearance. Lady Smallwood."I'm sorry, my lady." Arya suddenly felt bad for her, and ashamed. "I'm sorry I tore the acorn dress too. It was pretty.""Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave." Arya IV ASOS.As noted above, Eddard says Arya looks like Lyanna, who by all reports is beautiful.There are a few other instances which due to Arya's age and a very important reddit rule, I dare not discuss in detail, so I'll just say:Pot shops in King's Landing Arya IV AGOTThe Peach Arya V ASOSThe Oarsman in Arya XIII ASOSQuill's offer in Cat of the Canals, AFFCWhen she arrives in Bravos, the Kindly man offers many statements regarding her appearance."Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty?" Arya II, AFFC."A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own." The Ugly Little Girl, ADWDSo maybe this is evidence of Arya growing into a beauty. And if you can set aside the fact that the Kindly man is an expert liar and manipulator who does nothing with Arya that does not advance his own goals (We will get back to this), this might be strong evidence in favor or Arya being beautiful.But of course, what Team Lyanna 2.0 always references is Bran's observation of Lyanna while in the Weirwood net.The rest of his father's words were drowned out by a sudden clatter of wood on wood. Eddard Stark dissolved, like mist in a morning sun. Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn't be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. "You be quiet, stupid," the girl said, tossing her own branch aside. "It's just water. Do you want Old Nan to hear and run tell Father?" She knelt and pulled her brother from the pool, but before she got him out again, the two of them were gone.After that the glimpses came faster and faster, till Bran was feeling lost and dizzy. He saw no more of his father, nor the girl who looked like Arya... Bran III, ADWD.This is hard to dispute. GRRM made a clear and unambiguous choice to have Bran see Lyanna and comment twice that she looked like Arya. Really no reason to question this at all. We should all have total faith in what Bran sees while in a Weirwood. It's not like the visions can't be trusted right?"I saw him." Bran could feel rough wood pressing against one cheek. "He was cleaning Ice.""You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw.""A man must know how to look before he can hope to see," said Lord Brynden. "Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Id.We have yet to fully learn how the Weirwood network works. Nor do we have a full grasp on what Weirwood paste does the perceptions. If it works anything like Shade of the Evening did on Dany, there is no reliable way to tell if anything Bran saw was accurate. Perhaps in his longing for Arya, he saw her image where she wasn't. It has happened before.A cloud of ravens was pouring from the cave, and he saw a little girl with a torch in hand, darting this way and that. For a moment Bran thought it was his sister Arya … madly, for he knew his little sister was a thousand leagues away, or dead. And yet there she was, whirling, a scrawny thing, ragged, wild, her hair atangle. Bran II, ADWD.Whether you find yourself on team horseface or on team Lyanna 2.0, there is textual evidence for or against your position. Neither side is without some merit. I have not picked a side in this debate. I want both sides to acknowledge the merit the other side holds. Also, I think the debate serves as a distraction from what is truly important about Arya's face. And I would like to offer where the focus actually should be.Ability rather than Appearance"If there are rocks to starboard and a storm to port, a wise captain steers a third course." The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC.Team Horseface is rocks to starboard and Team Lyanna 2.0 is a storm to port, so why not steer a third course as Asha suggests? Instead of each side trying to beat down the other, perhaps we should realize why both sides are correct. Arya is a horseface to some, and a beauty to other's because Arya possesses the special telekinetic ability to change her face. I put forward that Arya's face operates like a mood ring. Her face changes ever so slightly based on how she feels. This subconscious telekinetic ability is what the House of Black and White is trying to unlock. It is no different than how Blood Raven is trying to unlock Bran's telepathy, Qhorin was trying to unlock Jon's warging, and Littlefinger is trying to unlock Sansa's [Reddit rule]. I believe GRRM has set this up very early just as he set up the debate as a distraction.I think there is something to the idea that Arya's face reacts to her moods or perhaps level of confidence. In Arya's opening chapter she tells us very clearly how she feels inferior around Sansa and Septa Mordane and Sansa's friends and her mother. Arya's face then adjusts to the influences around her. Essentially, she looks bad because the feels bad.I do not think it is a mistake that GRRM has Arya escape a place where she feels inadequate only to join someone who makes her feel good about herself."A shade more fun than needlework," Arya gave back at him. Jon grinned, reached over, and messed up her hair. Arya flushed. They had always been close. Jon had their father's face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her. Arya I, AGOT.GRRM then repeats this scenario in Arya II only this time it is Eddard who gives comfort and support to Arya following a difficult moment with Septa Mordane. And in addition to Eddard saying Arya looks like Lyanna, he drops this clue about the importance of Arya's facial abilities.Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you … and I need both of you, gods help me."Sansa very much is the sun. She has red hair that shines. The sun shines and at times, it is red (work with me here).Sansa already looked her best. She had brushed out her long auburn hair until it shone, and picked her nicest blue silks. Sansa I, AGOT.This leaves Arya as the moon. And if the moon is famous for one thing, it is that the face of the moon can change. GRRM often tells us that Arya's face reacts to the stimulus around her. She makes a face when she is upset. Her face flushes when she is happy. She bites/chews her lip when she is thinking or hiding something. It is possible that Arya does the most in terms of expressing her feelings with her face than most other characters. I have not done a line by line but it feels right. Correct me if I am wrong.Furthermore, Arya is repeatedly put into situations where she is asked to wear another face. And this is well before she ever gets to Bravos.Afterward he told her that from there to Winterfell she'd be Arry the orphan boy. Arya I ACOK.Arya dared not say her true name, but Arry was no good either, it was a boy's name and they could see she was no boy. "Weasel," she said, naming the first girl she could think of. Arya IV ACOK.She bit her lip, groping for another name. Lommy had called her Lumpyhead, Sansa used Horseface, and her father's men once dubbed her Arya Underfoot, but she did not think any of those were the sort of name he wanted. "Nymeria," she said. "Only she called me Nan for short." Arya IX ACOK....she who had been Arya of House Stark, Arya Underfoot, Arya Horseface. She had been Arry and Weasel too, and Squab and Salty, Nan the cupbearer, a grey mouse, a sheep, the ghost of Harrenhal . . . Arya II, AFFC.Arya wears many names and that is important when one considers this..."I do. My time is done." Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.Arya's mouth hung open. "Who are you?" she whispered, too astonished to be afraid. "How did you do that? Was it hard?"He grinned, revealing a shiny gold tooth. "No harder than taking a new name, if you know the way." Arya IX ACOK.Here we have GRRM connecting changing names with changing faces. And this is a good time to dive into why Jaqen wanted to take Arya to Bravos."To change my face.""Show me," she blurted. "I want to do it too.""If you would learn, you must come with me."Arya grew hesitant. "Where?""Far and away, across the narrow sea." Id.Jaqen tells Arya that she can learn to change her face but she must travel to Bravos to learn. Turns out Jaqen is only half true; Arya does need to travel to Bravos to learn to change her face, but changing faces is not easy. Changing one's face as he did is hard and rare as Arya learns later. It is not something everyone can do. Even many of the servants of the House of Black and White seem to lack this ability.The kindly Man is using a glamour."Let us see." The priest lowered his cowl. Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. "Kiss me, child," he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle.Does he think to scare me? Arya kissed him where his nose should be and plucked the grave worm from his eye to eat it, but it melted like a shadow in her hand.The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen was smiling down at her. "No one has ever tried to eat my worm before," he said. "Are you hungry, child?" Arya I, AFFC.Others use artifice such as weeping sores of the kind the Waif said she could give.After three hours of wine and words, the priests took their leave … all but the kindly man, the waif, and the one whose face bore the marks of plague. His cheeks were covered with weeping sores, and his hair had fallen out. The Ugly Little Girl, ADWD.Some seems to use hair dyes and a fake nose.The stern face never smiled; his eyes were pale, his lips full and dark. The handsome man had a beard of a different color every time she saw him, and a different nose, but he was never less than comely. Arya II, AFFC.Presumably the men Arya sees have served the House of Black and White much longer than she. Why then have they not learned to change their faces as Jaqen did if it is easy? Why do they not make use of the face wearing ritual Arya undergoes later? Well, I think the answer is because face changing is easy if you have the required telekinetic abilities as Arya and Jaqen do. I also think the entire face changing "ritual" is mummery used to help Arya change her own face. So let's look at the show they put on for her."Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with. Keep your eyes closed." She felt his fingers brushing back her hair. "Stay still. This will feel queer. You may be dizzy, but you must not move."Then came a tug and a soft rustling as the new face was pulled down over the old. The leather scraped across her brow, dry and stiff, but as her blood soaked into it, it softened and turned supple. Her cheeks grew warm, flushed. She could feel her heart fluttering beneath her breast, and for one long moment she could not catch her breath. Hands closed around her throat, hard as stone, choking her. Her own hands shot up to claw at the arms of her attacker, but there was no one there. A terrible sense of fear filled her, and she heard a noise, a hideous crunching noise, accompanied by blinding pain. A face floated in front of her, fat, bearded, brutal, his mouth twisted with rage. She heard the priest say, "Breathe, child. Breathe out the fear. Shake off the shadows. He is dead. She is dead. Her pain is gone. Breathe." The Ugly Little Girl, ADWD.So how is this mummery? Arya did experience something and had a reaction to it. But was the experience her wearing a new face? I think it was not because a couple of things about this event bring to mind Bran and Dany.Dany has experiences in the House of the Undying that are not real. She lost ability to track time. She moves through a physically impossible space. She has visions of things that are not really before her. They seem real to her due in no small part to the Shade of the Evening which acts as a psychotropic drug."One flute will serve only to unstop your ears and dissolve the caul from off your eyes, so that you may hear and see the truths that will be laid before you." Daenerys IV, ACOC.Bran is taken into a dark cave well beneath the earth and fed Weirwood paste."Your blood makes you a greenseer," said Lord Brynden. "This will help awaken your gifts and wed you to the trees." Bran III, ADWD.Like Dany, he is told this will open his eyes. And while on this drug, he too sees things that may or may not actually have been. Some theorize he is traveling through time; I think he is traveling through the memory of the Weirwood net.The House of Black and White also has access to a psychotropic substance in the form of the candles.Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels. If they are afraid, the candles soothe them. When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit, I smell hot bread baking, I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf, I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said, to see what he would say."You lie," he said, "but you may keep your secrets if you wish, Arya of House Stark." Arya II, AFFC.In each situation, you have a telepathically talented POV, taken to a strange closed off place and who is exposed to a substance to unlock telepathic gifts so the organization running the show can make use of the POV. And while Bran floats in the memory of the trees, Arya floats in the memory of the faces. Arya connects to the memory locked in the face. The exposure to the memory combined with the expectation that her face will change, allows her to begin to unlock her talent.Arya was not given a face; she was given the opportunity to change her own face. Her faces changes because Arya believes that it can. And what is it that GRRM tells us about the connection between power and belief?Varys smiled. "Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less." Tyrion II, ACOK.What say you fine redditors? Should we focus on what Arya's face can do rather than what it looks like? Is the House of Black and White trying to do for Arya what the Warlocks and Children are doing for Dany and Bran respectively? As always, constructive feedback and polite disagreement are always welcome.TL;DR: Crowning a winner in the "Horseface" vs. "Lyanna 2.0" debate is fruitless because both sides are correct. Our attention and efforts are much better served by focusing on all the early clues that Arya holds an innate telekinetic (or magical if you prefer) ability to change her face. Arya is both horseface and a beauty because she can change her face to reflect what she believes about herself. And this is why possible agents of the House and Black and White (Syrio, Jaqen and Weasel) took an early interest in her and stayed near her through the first three books.
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