Ignoring the feminist slant, which I think once again clouds the actual character discussion, I think Arya is far from a "psycho killer who kills with glee". Nor do I agree with this assessement:
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It’s tempting to believe that her polite chatter and swig of blackberry wine is evidence of a soft heart still lurking beneath her assassin’s gaze, that we can root for Arya because beneath the literal and figurative masks she wears to destroy her enemies, she’s still just a babe in the woods. But Arya hasn’t become empowered. She’s learned how to abuse power, adapting the techniques of the Faceless Men and putting them to her own purposes.
Arya is "just a babe in the woods" in the sense that she's young. But even as she sat and drank with these soldier "boys", the camera lingered on their armor, their weaponry, their sitting stance, etc. Arya was in control of that meeting, as she slid on another face, this one of her own making. I wouldn't be surprised if episode 2 opened up on her riding away from a camp full of poisoned men.
And make no mistake, just because you abuse your power, doesn't make you any less empowered. Arya has power in her convictions, her determination and in the skill she was taught. By any means, Arya at the start of Season 7, is one of the most powerful and most scary characters in the show.
But I think the discussion of what kind of person Arya has become, is actually besides the point. In fiction, given the setting, what Arya is working on is Old Testament reckoning. Just like medieval Europe should not be judged by modern ideas of laws or ethics, what Arya is doing should not be judged by 21st century Western sensibilities. What Arya is doing is righteous and necessary.
In Westeros, the power is balanced on certain agreements, you uphold the old traditions, your word is your bond, names and lineage have meaning, etc. These are things that are necessary to keep the peace and developing a kind of logic behind rule. When you break your word, when you violate the trust and you desecrate almost holy traditions, like killing a guest in your home, then you need to die. Not just because there's no real justice system, the Lords are the law after all, but because the scales need to be balanced. Every one of Arya's targets are bad people, oath breakers, rapists, murders, regicides, war criminals, etc. That the Starks themselves are no longer entirely clean, does not change the wrath the Lannisters and their allies have coming their way. What Arya is doing is something people will sing songs about centuries later. It's something you will tell your children to remind them not to be bad.
That is in a sense what makes Arya so fascinating. She's the dark result of that generic fantasy book plot. The young farm boy, prince, apprentice sets out on a journey against a great evil. Only this is GRRM's universe, so instead of fighting a dark lord with the light of your conviction, Arya has molded herself into a thing of terror to kill people that perhaps aren't as evil as you might think.
Arya is the satisfying payoff of following a small, weak character for 7 seasons/books in a series and finally getting to see that story begin to pay off. She's the seed that was planted and now the baddies are reaping the whirlwind. She is a power fantasy that we can all cherish, whether you want to look at that from a character perspective or gender politics.
This post has been edited by Seduce Goose: 22 July 2017 - 05:16 PM
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Gorefest, on 19 July 2017 - 03:42 PM, said:
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