queenaryastark reblogged
Me: Arya is absolutely my favorite character in asoiaf.
Also me, when an Arya show is announced/rumored:
queenaryastark reblogged
"I sold three cockles to a courtesan," Cat told the sailors. "She called to me as she was stepping off her barge." Brusco had made it plain to her that she was never to speak to a courtesan unless she was spoken to first, but the woman had smiled at her and paid her in silver, ten times what the cockles had been worth. "What did she say to you, Cat?" "She said 'I'll take three cockles,' and 'Do you have some hot sauce, little one?'" the girl had answered. "And what did you say?" "I said, 'No, my lady,' and, 'Don't call me little one. My name is Cat.' AFFC, Cat of the Canals
queenaryastark reblogged
I love how people are only ever interested in defending Arya's right to be weird-looking. It's never defending her intelligence from people who claim she's incapable of thinking for herself, highlighting her importance to the plot and refusing to see her as just a prop, acknowledging how much of her story gets stolen and given to other characters, talking about her trauma or how often it gets erased and overlooked, seeing her as more than just an attack dog/bodyguard, etc. Nope. It's just a "why can't people let Arya be ugly/unconventional looking? :(" post every other week because people are, for whatever reason, obsessed with how Arya is visually perceived. One of the most misinterpreted characters yet the issue is only ever with her being portrayed as "too pretty" or the wrong "type" of pretty. This fandom will entirely rewrite a character's motivations, values, and role in the story to the point that they consider references to canon "hate" but! The true injustice to canon is we acknowledge that she is described as pretty several times. Arya simply existing as her pretty, important, and non-conforming self is too complex and confusing for people to comprehend 😔.
queenaryastark reblogged
Just thinking out loud after coming across the nth iteration of Sansa brushing Arya's hair fanart. For those who love the Stark sisters and draw art of them I always wonder why there is not more art from Arya's perspective.
#Arya Stark#Jon Snow#asoiaf#bc they dont care about arya#if they had arya teaching sansa math they would have to acknowledge that arya isnt stupid and has practical skills that sansa lacks#if they had arya showing sansa the different types of flowers they would have to acknowledge that arya is more connected to flowers#they could have arya and sansa stealing lemon cakes from the kitchens together which fits them both but then they would have to acknowledge#that lemon cakes arent exclusive to sansa but arya likes too#its all very petty
queenaryastark reblogged
Arya being masculinized, adultified, and having her trauma ignored because people think she's "too strong" to be a victim is such a core experience for young girls of color
Tags from @fromtheseventhhell
i brought this up to an old friend of mine & they actually turned it around on me & implied that i was racist for having a problem with jon & arya being darker than sansa / bran / rickon / robb, as if my problem was with them being mixed rather than the blatant obvious reasons they're drawn that way. especially when we have sansa's pov stating
It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon. She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their lady mother in her face or her coloring. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered.
like the bastardphobia is already bad enough, but if you couple it with the desire to overly masculinize characters who they deem are poc then it definitely reeks :3
This is exactly it. As @queenaryastark has pointed out here and here:
But they’re not following their racial bias to it’s obvious conclusion. If Arya, Jon, and Ned are POC, that means Sansa’s vicious attacks on Arya’s appearance is overt racism on her part. Sansa stans are inadvertently presenting Sansa as racist rather than just mean-spirited, classist, and ableist. Are those fanarts meant to push their agendas really worth framing their fav as racist? Oh, yeah. They don’t know how to think anything through to conclusion.
When GRRM uses the word 'coloring' or 'fair and dark' for the white characters he is referring to the hair color of the white characters that populate his world.
When Sansa/Stark fan artists twist this to represent the Stark looking Starks as poc because they are 'tribe like' and 'primitive' (actual words used) or 'ugly' (as per Sansa), then according to this Catelyn and Sansa are racist as well as classist. It's right there in the quote you have where Sansa specifically thinks of Arya as less than her because of her facial features and coloring - this is white supremacist ideology if Arya was a poc!
She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their lady mother in her face or her coloring.
Sansa is already incredibly classist in the books - one of the most classist POV characters in the books and certainly amongst the Starks. But her fans racist headcanons and depictions of the Stark looking Starks would also make Sansa incredibly racist.
That's why these poc headcanons are just instinctive racism - oh, they are 'ugly', 'primitive' and first men descendants? They must be poc as opposed to the most beautiful, blue eyed, whitest white with the fairest skin of all Tully looking Starks i.e mainly Sansa.
They don't stop to think - 'Wait, doesn't this make my favorite character a white supremacist racist?' Or they do think that and don't care. After all these are the same folks who think that Sansa's classism is simply adorable and not a big deal (just like her bullying of Arya) and Jon was just hurt because he couldn't get a kiss from Sansa like Robb did....
There's not even the slightest bit of critical thinking or even superficial low level thinking here at all. All the Starks are clearly white in the books - why are the Stark looking Starks being fanoned as poc? Why are all the Freefolk drawn as white if first men are supposed to be poc? Why is Jon Snow drawn as poc in art with red haired, white Ygritte when they are both first men descendants? Why is Lyanna, who looks the same as Arya, and considered canonically beautiful drawn as white when she also has the Stark look? Etc. Etc.
Not to mention, as the OP points out, the racism and sexism involved when she is headcanoned as poc while also being headcanoned as masculine and a physically strong fighter when she is a skinny little girl picking flowers and playing with babies in the books. As we see in the real world where women of colour in sports are often accused of being men and masculine when they win or are better than their white peers.
To be clear I am not talking about poc artists who want to see themselves represented in their favorite characters, or artists who clearly love canon Arya and Jon and acknowledge the canon versions while experimenting with fanon poc Jon and Arya. Art where ALL the Starks are poc.
I am talking about white artists who - even when it is explained to them by poc for why it's problematic - use skin colour to differentiate between the so called good looking Starks and the 'ugly' ones and then pretend that it's about representation and freedom of art and expression.
Your old friend is either being disingenuous in not understanding why this is problematic or they are white and doesn't care about how this kind of racism is insidious and instrumental in continuing to spread outdated racist stereotypes about poc.
At this point I just block any artist who uses skin colour and skin tone to distinguish between the Stark and Tully looking Starks - it's very, very clear what their intention is and why they were drawn this way when ALL the Starks are white in the books.
queenaryastark reblogged
TUDOR WEEK 2024 Day 3 - Wednesday, 16th of October: Best Tudor What If?
What if Arthur survived his illness and ascended to the throne as King Arthur II?
Rather than dying young, Arthur survived the sweating sickness and continued his life with Katherine of Aragon in Wales. In the seven years that followed, they had two surviving children together, Margret (named for Margaret Pole as well as the prince's grandmother and sister) and Arthur. So as he ascended the throne in 1509 at the age of 22, he already had an heir to continue the Tudor line.
queenaryastark reblogged
Put them on fire Jodie! Everything she said is right, they could not care less, even though they have the power to stop this bullshit and it would cost them nothing, but they willingly choose to just sit back and watch people (Amandla) being ripped to shreds.
queenaryastark reblogged
I know we don't get Arya's POV when she takes on Joffrey at the Trident, however, I would argue that this is Arya's 'No chance, and no choice' moment.
Arya is a skinny little 9 year old. Armed with a stick. Joffrey is 12 and bigger than even Robb Stark. Armed with a sword. There's very little chance she could win against him and yet she knows that she can't stand by and do nothing. She attacks.
The only way she is able to survive Joffrey's attack is by being quick and dodging away from his sword as he swings at her with all his force. Even then the only reason she is not dead or severely injured is because Nymeria gets there at the right time.
Another moment is her with Weasel. The desperation, the survival instincts kicking in and yet she just cannot leave that little girl behind as the flames keep rising all around her - 'No chance, and no choice'
As they were running toward the barn, Arya spied the crying girl sitting in the middle of the chaos, surrounded by smoke and slaughter. She grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet as the others raced ahead. The girl wouldn't walk, even when slapped. Arya dragged her with her right hand while she held Needle in the left. Ahead, the night was a sullen red. The barn's on fire, she thought. Flames were licking up its sides from where a torch had fallen on straw, and she could hear the screaming of the animals trapped within. Hot Pie stepped out of the barn. "Arry, come on! Lommy's gone, leave her if she won't come!" Stubbornly, Arya dragged all the harder, pulling the crying girl along. Hot Pie scuttled back inside, abandoning them . . . but Gendry came back, the fire shining so bright on his polished helm that the horns seemed to glow orange. He ran to them, and hoisted the crying girl up over his shoulder. "Run!"
Little instances of Arya knowing that there is very little chance of her making it, of her winning and yet she has to try and save Mycah, try and save Weasel. Their lives don't mean much to the nobility, but they do to her.
queenaryastark reblogged
Nanna Blondell and Savannah Steyn as Daenerys Targaryen
Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma, and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce. And the next day, strangely, she did not seem to hurt quite so much. It was as if the gods had heard her and taken pity. Even her handmaids noticed the change. “Khaleesi,” Jhiqui said, “what is wrong? Are you sick?” “I was,” she answered, standing over the dragon’s eggs that Illyrio had given her when she wed. She touched one, the largest of the three, running her hand lightly over the shell. Black-and-scarlet, she thought, like the dragon in my dream. The stone felt strangely warm beneath her fingers … or was she still dreaming? – Daenerys III, A Game of Thrones
queenaryastark reblogged
Firstly, why is it that Sansa can only be praised by comparing her to Arya? Secondly, in what world is Arya physically strong and more than Sansa?!
The masculinization of Arya Stark by tradfems in fandom has become so commonplace that I suppose many of them imagine this is how Arya and Sansa are in the books:
In case folks don't know this: ARYA IS TWO YEARS YOUNGER THAN SANSA! She's the younger sibling!
Anyone who has read a Jon POV chapter should know that Arya is a skinny, little girl. Jon specifically makes a small, lightweight, thin sword for Arya to handle.
And Arya … he missed her even more than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair and torn clothes, so fierce and willful. - Jon, AGoT
Arya has been on the run for two years, hunted by Lannister men, a slave put to hard physical work and starved for food.
She spent the rest of that day scrubbing steps inside the Wailing Tower. By evenfall her hands were raw and bleeding and her arms so sore they trembled when she lugged the pail back to the cellar. Too tired even for food, Arya begged Weese's pardons and crawled into her straw to sleep. - Arya, ACoK
Often as not, she went to bed hungry rather than risk the stares. - Arya, AGoT
"Lommy's hungry," Hot Pie whined, "and I am too." "We're all hungry," said Arya. - Arya, ACoK
Arya watched them die and did nothing. What good did it do you to be brave? One of the women picked for questioning had tried to be brave, but she had died screaming like all the rest. There were no brave people on that march, only scared and hungry ones. - Ary, ACoK
I knew we should never have left the woods, she thought. They'd been so hungry, though, and the garden had been too much a temptation. - Arya, ASoS
"An inn?" The thought of hot food made Arya's belly rumble, but she didn't trust this Tom. - Arya, ASoS
Rabbits ran faster than cats, but they couldn't climb trees half so well. She whacked it with her stick and grabbed it by its ears, and Yoren stewed it with some mushrooms and wild onions. Arya was given a whole leg, since it was her rabbit. She shared it with Gendry. - Arya, ASoS
The biggest toms would seldom win, she noticed; oft as not, the prize went to some smaller, quicker animal, thin and mean and hungry. Like me, she told herself. - Cat of the Canals, AFfC
We have the contrast of Arya having to trade some carrots and cabbages they picked from an overgrown garden to get some food and the innkeeper complaining about the lack of lemons to the sumptuous 64 dish feast in the Vale with a 12 feet tall lemon cake made especially for Sansa.
Anguy shuffled his feet. "We were thinking we might eat it, Sharna. With lemons. If you had some." "Lemons. And where would we get lemons? Does this look like Dorne to you, you freckled fool? Why don't you hop out back to the lemon trees and pick us a bushel, and some nice olives and pomegranates too." She shook a finger at him. "Now, I suppose I could cook it with Lem's cloak, if you like, but not till it's hung for a few days. You'll eat rabbit, or you won't eat. Roast rabbit on a spit would be quickest, if you've got a hunger. Or might be you'd like it stewed, with ale and onions." Arya could almost taste the rabbit. "We have no coin, but we brought some carrots and cabbages we could trade you." - Arya, ASoS
Sixty-four dishes were served, in honor of the sixty-four competitors who had come so far to contest for silver wings before their lord. From the rivers and the lakes came pike and trout and salmon, from the seas crabs and cod and herring. Ducks there were, and capons, peacocks in their plumage and swans in almond milk. Suckling pigs were served up crackling with apples in their mouths, and three huge aurochs were roasted whole above firepits in the castle yard, since they were too big to get through the kitchen doors. Loaves of hot bread filled the trestle tables in Lord Nestor’s hall, and massive wheels of cheese were brought up from the vaults. The butter was fresh-churned, and there were leeks and carrots, roasted onions, beets, turnips, parsnips. And best of all, Lord Nestor’s cooks prepared a splendid subtlety, a lemon cake in the shape of the Giant’s Lance, twelve feet tall and adorned with an Eyrie made of sugar. For me, Alayne thought, as they wheeled it out. Sweetrobin loved lemon cakes too, but only after she told him that they were her favorites. The cake had required every lemon in the Vale, but Petyr had promised that he would send to Dorne for more. - Alayne, TWoW
Arya was already a little, skinny girl smaller than Sansa when they left Winterfell. She has been worked to the bone, sleeping rough and gone hungry. Again, by what logic is this Arya supposed to be physically strong and more than Sansa?!
There is this idea that's often pushed where Sansa is some dainty, fragile princess while Arya is this strong executioner henchwoman and it's just so tiresome and toxic.
Arya is also not Brienne! They are two different characters. If you want physically strong warrior types to compare to Sansa, there is already Brienne. Arya is the smaller, younger sister. In canon and logically, it's the taller, bigger, elder sister with access to good, rich food who would be physically stronger.
The Stark looking Starks tend to be slender and quicker compared to the bigger, stronger Tully looking Starks.
He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast. - Bran, AGoT
The biggest toms would seldom win, she noticed; oft as not, the prize went to some smaller, quicker animal, thin and mean and hungry. Like me, she told herself. - Cat of the Canals, AFfC
"Can't you guess?" Jon teased. "Your very favorite thing." Arya seemed puzzled at first. Then it came to her. She was that quick. They said it together: "Needle!" - Jon, AGoT
Arya was always quick and clever, but in the end she's just a little girl, and Roose Bolton is not the sort who would be careless with a prize of such great worth. - Jon, ADwD
This is one of the reasons for why Jon Snow is so protective of Arya Stark - he certainly doesn't see her as some physically strong warrior type, despite gifting her with a sword. He's scared for her because he knows that despite how clever she is, Ramsay can kill, rape and torture her - she's 'just a little girl'.
Arya deserves to be protected, same as Sansa. She is not there to be anyone's henchwoman, she does not have super strength and she is certainly not physically stronger than Sansa.
queenaryastark reblogged
It has reached my ears that Mr. Colin Bridgerton shall be awarded the year’s grand prize when he sweeps Miss Thompson off her pretty little slippered feet.
queenaryastark reblogged
The way Arya Stark is uniting the Mountain clans to fight together -
Galbart Glover’s maester had claimed the mountain clans were too quarrelsome to ever band together without a Stark to lead them. - Asha Greyjoy, The Wayward Bride, ADwD
The way Asha assumes there is no Stark to unite the Mountain clans to fight - but there is! Her being taken by surprise when attacked by the Mountain clans because there is a Stark pushing these different groups to take on the Ironborn and the Boltons - Arya Stark!
"Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned's little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue." "Aye!" shouted Morgan Liddle. "Blood and battle!" Then all the hillmen were shouting, banging their cups and drinking horns on the table, filling the king's tent with the clangor. - The King's Prize, ADwD
The power of Arya Stark, still thousands of miles away in a different continent and yet uniting different, warring mountain clans to band together and fight for her!!
Similar to Jon Snow, uniting together the different, warring Freefolk and convincing them to fight for him against the Boltons. And let's not forget that it's Jon Snow who send Stannis to the Mountain clans in the first place.
Arya Stark and Jon Snow uniting disparate groups under them, to fight for them. Both characters are not actively involved in Northern politics (Arya more so than Jon given Jon's tacit support for Stannis' campaign) and yet continue to influence it to a great degree, changing the political landscape of the North and will be the reason that the North will get rid of the Boltons in the next book.
queenaryastark reblogged
Endgame Speculation For Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys’ arc throughout the novels is heavily rooted in learning the ins and outs of governance and restructing a government to benefit the people. This training would make her the ideal leader to guide Westeros in recovering after the second long night.
queenaryastark reblogged
Daenerys Targaryen Appreciation Month 2021 || Day 27 - Historical Parallel: Daenerys I Targaryen and Elizabeth I Tudor Part 1 (Click Here for Part 2)
queenaryastark reblogged
Anonymous asked:
When some fans say that Arya will never want to be a wife/mother/queen/lady, I remember the amount of a rebellious princess archetype women in media and sigh… even the new My Lady Jane demonstrates it perfectly. Arya will grow up and become whoever she decides to be as an ADULT, not a child.
There is this infuriating idea in the fandom that persists — that Arya will be nine forever.
You can't talk about ships with Arya in them because she's nine.
You can't talk about how pretty she is because she's nine and that makes them "uncomfortable" since "she's just a kid."
You can't talk about her having children because she's nine.
You can't talk about her having a ruling position because she's nine.
Arya Stark will be nine until the end of the series while everyone else will age.
queenaryastark reblogged
Period Drama Appreciation Week 2024 || Day 6 - Favorite time period|| Regency Era