Arya has already shown her developing ability to shape change in Bravos – the cat scene in her last chapter – so it is most probable that she will be able to unite and re-unite with Nymeria and perhaps a host of other animals and people as well. Jon, also a warg, is possibly and probably the son of Lyanna and Raegon  so he is likely to branch out into Dragons as well….assuming that Melissandre revives him from his multiple stab wounds. What intrigues me about the end game of the Arya-Sansa relationship is that I can envisage Sansa going down a Littlefinger designed path to be a kind of Cersei Light and on the “other” side that Arya is on as the final acts play out. Will it be Arya who has to dethrone Sansas’ claim on Winterfell?

***Spoilers***

@Roger

Here’s the thing, Arya and Sansa will most likely never realize their warging potentials (assuming Sansa has any, which I doubt, Robb seemed to not have any either). Arya has Nymeria dreams but I think distance has put an end to that career for certain.

But Jon has displayed Warging abilities, he’s met actual wargs, which would have benefitted Bran greatly since he’s figuring out everything for himself. But Bran has “invented” warging in a human body. I highly doubt anyone else can do that, and even if they could I think there are huge morality issues that GRRM doesn’t actually have to address when it’s only Bran doing that because Bran is a child.

I think Bran’s story revolves more around connecting the current era with the past, the old world, the green men and the magic that seems to have died with the last of the dragons. Bran is living heritage. I don’t know if Rickon will exhibit the same abilities, I think we’ll just have to wait for Dance to see.

-and as far as your comment on a previous post about my assessment of Jaime, I don’t recall ever saying that Jaime only wanted to join the Kingsguard because he admired Arthur Dayne (maybe I did but I don’t know where I said it, context would help me in my rationale) but he seems to have a bit of idol worship when it came to him and Barriston. It’s extra crushing when he realizes that he’ll never be like them because his motivations were impure and in the end, for nothing considering what a ho-bag Cersei is.

I gotta say, I’d be disappointed if Anya, Jon and Rickon become every bit the wargs Bran does after Bran sat around getting dreams about it for two books, then disappearing for a book and a half to get control of those powers. Obviously all the Stark children have/had the potential (Sansa is unproven but she didn’t exactly get a lot of time to prove it). But it’s Bran’s whole story (god knows his knowledge of Jamie and Cersei as well as the assassin send after him was totally trivialised).

agreed

**spoilers**

I have a mind to see if she picks it up on her own. I’d like to see if she falls slowly into the pit of theory madness or if it all snaps into place one day.

She might have a leg up though, Elena is watching the series as well and we’re thinking the show will eventually overtake our progress in the novel.

I can agree that Arya was, in her way, very willful. But I also see what you’re saying about being a good daughter and perfect lady. As a child myself I was very obedient, especially since my mother was divorced and always busy trying to keep us going. I guess I felt the need to try and make things easier for her. But I was also a tomboy to the bone, and lonely and awkward and never good at much except reading and being alone, so I relate to Arya very much!

Ooo, good point. I know an excellent essay about it, and I like pointing people at it (Tower of the Hand) but I like to be sure they’re ready for it. So mum’s the word!

(veiled spoilers)

@Raquel

If your fave theory is the one I assume it is, I really don’t think it’s ever a good time. I still regret stumbling across that one on the message boards, bright-eyed and innocent after my first read through of game of thrones. It would have been so much cooler if I had figured it out for myself!

“It’s hard for me to believe that any child who would have been allowed to do that—for surely if Arya and the boys were allowed to do what they wanted, Sansa would have been, too—would choose not to without any reference to the others around her. ”

I’m guessing you were something of a wild child yourself, eh? As someone who was decidedly not, I don’t really agree with you on this. It depends on one’s personality I suppose, but children can feel a very strong impulse to be good, to do what their parents expect of them, for its own sake. Sansa is a model child in every way, and she is proud of it. I don’t think that stems from jealousy; I think she would be horrified if Arya or her brothers or anyone else tried to get her to be any less than the perfect lady. And I wouldn’t say that Arya was *allowed* to do whatever she wanted, she just did what she wanted despite the best efforts of her mother.

Ah yes, Arya’s resemblance to Lyanna is pronounced, and I, too, was sad to see her react with shock. But “Horseface” is all she’s known until now, and for that Jeyne Poole gets another kick in the rear from me.

I also wanted to slap Sansa. YOU shan’t be wanted, you little lying minx! It’s your OWN fault that Lady’s dead, not Arya’s! GRRR!! I also wondered if Ned would giver her that same lecture, but maybe he knew his words wouldn’t be wasted on Arya. I like to think that.

Damn I got misty eyed when she blamed herself, and hated everyone for Mycah’s sake. They moved on because they knew they should, but Arya’s a child trying to deal with these huge griefs, losing her friend and her direwolf. I loved Ned for letting her keep her sword, and for bringing her Syrio!

@Rachel

I’ll be back with more, but for now I wanted to ask, when would be a good time to introduce her to our fave theory?

How I love reading these review from a different point of view than my own.
I’ve personally totally overread the part of Ned relating Lyanna to Arya and that she got killed since she got a touch of the wolf in her.
Totally different from Robert’s POV who sees her as a precious girl that he loved and wanted to marry as seen in the crypt and that basically was a victim.

I think that is the power of GRRM making us see things first from one side and the other one. It forces you to really make up your own mind of what is happening. Can you actually believe what a certain character is saying or not?

Also is it the wolvish/wild thing that makes her a Stark or the looks? Catelyn is from the south, she probably is more used to a fancier lifestyle so when Sansa is trying to be more of a lady that might resemble herself more. Making the link of the mother’s girl, while the wilder Stark is Daddy’s girl.

I’ve always wondered if losing the direwolf, the sigil of her house, might mean that Sansa might also mean losing the Starkness (if that’s even a word). I mean she did lie about what happened with Joffrey and Mycah, which is something a Stark with their high sense of honour would not easily do in my mind.

@ chirios – i think you mistake what i mean when i talk about making it a game. life is a game. sometimes people need incentives to play, and sometimes they need incentives to play in a way that will not be patently self-destructive. what ned is doing (as i read it) is giving arya a reason to play in a non-destructive way, BECAUSE he knows the situation is deadly serious. i am a big believer in Aristotle’s idea that eventually habit becomes character. he just has to get her in the habit of not hating her sister, and eventually that will become part of her psyche.

He’s not actually trying to turn it into a game. He’s being serious. The whole situation is ridiculously dangerous. He understood before he came to Kings Landing that he didn’t belong there, but that was just a logical understanding. He didn’t truly believe it until he got to the council meeting. He wants to make sure that Arya and Sansa trust each other, and look out for each other.

As for Lyanna – at this point the only point of view about what happened to/with her has been offered by Robert and he’s *very* biased. He’s pretty much the *only man* in the entire series who hated and despised Rhaegar, and that says a lot in a series like this.