#braavos

… she had even lost most of her barbaric accent, but the kindly man was not content. He was insisting that she improve her High Valyrian and learn the tongues of Lys and Pentos too.

Day 19: Intelligence, skills and learning - Braavosi

She’s WATER dancing (big thanks @peachcollective for pointing out Arya’s connections to water and why it’d be a crime not to do her for mermay!)

goodqueenaly:

I like to imagine in my speculation on TWOW how things might just continue to go sideways for Justin Massey.

Justin’s first order, after leaving Stannis’ camp, will be to “deliver her [i.e. “Lady Arya”, really Jeyne Poole] to Lord Commander Snow on [Justin’s] way to Eastwatch”. Easy enough, Justin probably thinks (especially since he himself has no reason to doubt Jeyne’s purported identity - more on that in a moment), he’ll get a warm reception from the pro-Stannis Lord Commander Snow for having his “sister” returned … but uh oh, I think Justin will hear on the way there that Jon has been murdered by his black brothers and Castle Black is in chaos between the Night’s Watch, free folk, and queen’s men. No use bringing Jeyne-as-Arya to her “brother” if that person is not just dead but the victim of an assassination/de facto coup; the same Night’s Watch members who so recently violently killed Jon probably wouldn’t look too kindly on his “sister” showing up at their doorstep. Oh well, Justin might think, better take Jeyne-as-Arya with me instead and figure out what to do from there.

So Justin might then skip to his second order from Stannis: to collect Stannis’ loan from the Iron Bank in Braavos and hire at least 20,000 sellswords with the money. Easy enough, Justin might think; even if he himself failed to convince Stannis to grant him a title or lands to impress the free companies, he is still prepared to “[g]o to them with both fists full of golden dragons”. But, uh oh - I think Justin is going to fulfill Stannis’ prediction that “[i]n Braavos you may hear that I am dead. It may even be true”. Negotiating payment by the Iron Bank on Stannis’ loan and debt agreement might be a good deal harder with the main signatory dead (and his legal heir being an underage girl thousands of miles away with no knowledge of the agreement). Even if he could convince the Iron Bank that would-be Queen Shireen will make good on her father’s word to pay back the Iron Throne’s debts, would he be able to convince sellsword companies to risk their necks for the sake of an 11-year-old girl, heir to a dead pretender, in faraway Westeros?

But then, perhaps, good news for Justin! (Or what he might believe is good news, at least.) I think that as he’s deciding what he’s going do in Braavos, he’ll run into the real Arya Stark (because there is absolutely no way in my mind that Arya, who has had such a strong theme of personal identity throughout her storyline but especially during her time in Braavos, would not have any opinion on seeing Jeyne Poole, a girl who literally grew up with her, be referred to as “Arya Stark”) Well, now maybe Justin decides to cut his losses and try to return to Winterfell with the real Arya. If Stannis is dead (so he thinks) and it’s a losing proposition to make good on his claim to Westeros, he, Justin, might as well take what he can get - and a restored Kingdom of the North, with the rightful (again, so he thinks) Stark heiress, is not a bad concession prize for a landless knight with no hope of reclaiming his ancestral territories. (Ir’s incredibly creepy and gross to speculate whether Justin would imagine himself as Arya’s future husband, but given Justin’s previous marital ambitions with both Val (as the “wildling princess”) and Asha (as the would-be heiress to the Iron Islands), the thought might be in his mind.)

But, uh oh … what Justin Massey doesn’t know, and can’t know until he shows up, is that he doesn’t have the last best Stark. No, far from it - Winterfell is going to be the center of a factional dispute over which of the suddenly reemerged Stark heirs has the senior claim to the North. Justin Massey might have the real Arya Stark, but now he has to contend with elder sister Sansa and legitimated elder brother Jon and legitimate younger brother Rickon (and maybe even Bran too). As an underage girl, Arya has at best a hotly disputed claim over her siblings (and that’s without Arya herself I think probably being way more interested in reuniting with her family than in trying to fight with them over who gets their butt on the high seat of Winterfell). Plus, even if he could convince the factions that Arya was the superior choice, Justin might find out that the freaking apocalypse is nigh; rather bad timing to claim a castle when otherworldly eldritch slaver ice monsters are knocking at the door.

Justin Massey: perpetual loser.