Identity Out the Window/No Longer Mercy (Spoilers Extended)

Background

I recently posted about an SSM regarding the "Queen" in TWOW, Mercy I. This chapter has such an interesting history as GRRM has moved its placement around several times and rewritten the chapter as well. In this post I wanted to discuss Arya's identity in the chapter as Mercy.

If interested: Let's talk about Braavos in The Winds of Winter

Mercy (appears ~88 times in the chapter)

In this chapter (that was supposed to occur after the 5 year gap: check out this great post on how this chapter was originally supposed to be: Mercy: She woke with a gasp, not knowing who she was, or where by Seamus_Hean3y), Arya's identity is Mercy (an actress in a play):

Half-light filled the room, grey and gloomy. Shivering, she sat up in bed and ran a hand across her scalp. Stubble bristled against her palm. I need to shave before Izembaro sees. Mercy, I’m Mercy, and tonight I’ll be raped and murdered. Her true name was Mercedene, but Mercy was all anyone ever called her… -TWOW, Mercy I

If interested: Some "in the background" Thoughts on TWOW, Mercy (no one ever discusses her murder)

Arya (appears 2 times in the chapter)

Arya spends the entire chapter with the name Mercy until this part where it switches to Arya:

“Walk?” His fingers were slick with blood. “Are you blind, girl? I’m bleeding like a stuck pig. I can’t walk on this.”
“Well,” she said, “I don’t know how you’ll get there, then.”
“You’ll need to carry me.”
See? thought Mercy. You know your line, and so do I.
“Think so?” asked Arya, sweetly.
Raff the Sweetling looked up sharply as the long thin blade came sliding from her sleeve. She slipped it through his throat beneath the chin, twisted, and ripped it back out sideways with a single smooth slash. A fine red rain followed, and in his eyes the light went out.
“Valar morghulis,” Arya whispered, but Raff was dead and did not hear. She sniffed. I should have helped him down the steps before I killed him. Now I’ll need to drag him all the way to the canal and roll him in. The eels would do the rest.

and then she basically thinks on how she will miss being Mercy:

“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” she sang sadly. A foolish, giddy girl she’d been, but good hearted. She would miss her, and she would miss Daena and the Snapper and the rest, even Izembaro and Bobono. This would make trouble for the Sealord and the envoy with the chicken on his chest, she did not doubt.

She would think about that later, though. Just now, there was no time. I had best run. Mercy still had some lines to say, her first lines and her last, and Izembaro would have her pretty little empty head if she were late for her own rape.

which I found interesting because GRRM has stated that:

Mercy's identity is "gone out the window"

and:

and by gone, I mean the following chapter she can no longer have that identity obviously

Thoughts

• Method to Madness

GRRM has stated there is a "method to his madness" with these chapter names when asked:

- I asked whether he would comment on his choice to call these chapters “Ser Barristan” instead of continuing with the titles from ADWD, and he replied that he has “a method to his madness” for promoting characters with descriptors to named characters but that he didn’t want to say more.

- He was asked about how some chapters had titles instead of names. He said something along the lines of "There's a method behind my madness, but I'll leave it to you guys to figure out." He said that when an unnamed character becomes named, it means something.

If interested: TWoW Barristan II: A Combination of Fan Summaries, Etc.

• Next Chapter Name?

Since Arya started her training, she has had chapters that have been named:

- Cat of the Canals (AFFC, Arya III)

- The Blind Girl (ADWD, Arya I)

- The Ugly Little Girl (ADWD, Arya II)

so the next chapter name will obviously not be Mercy, it will be whatever identity she has post Mercy (whether that is another assassination/gift or something else or even Arya).

If interested: The Braavos Info Dump in TWoW

TLDR: The word "Arya" isn't mentioned in TWoW, Mercy until the last several paragraphs, when she kills Raff the Sweetling (Think so?). The word "mercy" is mentioned ~88 times, while Arya is only mentioned twice (in those last few paragraphs). The next chapter will be called something different (she's previously been Cat of the Canals, The Blind Girl, The Ugly Little Girl). Nothing crazy, but I find it fascinating how GRRM does things like this to show a character's depth.