Some "in the background" Thoughts on TWOW, Mercy (Spoilers Extended)

This post isn't an attempt to summarize the chapter, but more just looking over the details and events "in the background" that take place in the chapter.

Some thoughts on lesser discussed parts of TWOW, Mercy

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Arya's Forgotten Dream

What happened with Nymeria and checkov's her wolfpack in Arya's dream?

The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils… or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her heels, hard on the scent of prey.

…

Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already. There had been blood in it, though, and a full moon overhead, and a tree that watched her as she ran.

We get so little info about it, and we only know that:

• wolves running through pine forest looking for prey

• violence/death/blood

• full moon/watched by a weirwood tree (especially since its possible that Bloodraven is watching Arya in Braavos as well).

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Arya's boots

Her books are cracked and old:

Her boots were lumps of old brown leather mottled with saltstains and cracked from long wear, her belt a length of hempen rope dyed blue. She knotted it about her waist, and hung a knife on her right hip and a coin pouch on her left. Last of all she threw her cloak across her shoulders. It was a real mummer’s cloak, purple wool lined in red silk, with a hood to keep the rain off, and three secret pockets too. She’d hid some coins in one of those, an iron key in another, a blade in the last. A real blade, not a fruit knife like the one on her hip, but it did not belong to Mercy, no more than her other treasures did. The fruit knife belonged to Mercy. She was made for eating fruit, for smiling and joking, for working hard and doing as she was told.

Which may not mean anything, but it should be noted that she kept Daeron's boots:

"Dareon is dead. The black singer who was sleeping at the Happy Port. He was really a deserter from the Night's Watch. Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots."

"Good boots are hard to find." -AFFC, Cat of the Canals

Which may not mean anything, but there is this Mel quote:

"The bones help," said Melisandre. "The bones remember. The strongest glamors are built of such things. A dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of fingerbones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. The wearer's essence does not change, only his seeming." -ADWD, Melisandre I

Which has numerous options if it ever ends up meaning anything, but the below quote should be kept in mind as well:

**"Mummers change their faces with artifice," the kindly man was saying, "and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These arts you shall learn, but what we do here goes deeper. Wise men can see through artifice, and glamors dissolve before sharp eyes, but the face you are about to don will be as true and solid as that face you were born with. Keep your eyes closed." She felt his fingers brushing back her hair. "Stay still. This will feel queer. You may be dizzy, but you must not move." -ADWD, The Ugly Little Girl

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GRRM goes out of his way to discuss the Braavosi Climate (lemongate)

“Seven hells, this place is damp,” she heard her guard complain. “I’m chilled to the bones. Where are the bloody orange trees? I always heard there were orange trees in the Free Cities. Lemons and limes. Pomegranates. Hot peppers, warm nights, girls with bare bellies. Where are the bare-bellied girls, I ask you?”

“Down in Lys, and Myr, and Old Volantis,” the other guard replied. He was an older man, big-bellied and grizzled. “I went to Lys with Lord Tywin once, when he was Hand to Aerys. Braavos is north of King’s Landing, fool. Can’t you read a bloody map?”

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Raff's Companion

We don't know who Raff's companion is exactly, but I think it can be deduced that he is one of the Mountain's Men:

“How long do you think we’ll be here?”

“Longer than you’d like,” the old man replied. “If he goes back without the gold the queen will have his head. Besides, I seen that wife of his. There’s steps in Casterly Rock she can’t go down for fear she’d get stuck, that’s how fat she is. Who’d go back to that, when he has his sooty queen?”

The handsome guardsman grinned. “Don’t suppose he’ll share her with us, afterward?”

“What, are you mad? You think he notices the likes of us? Bloody bugger don’t even get our names right half the time. Maybe it was different with Clegane.”

If you are interested: Fate of the Mountain's Men

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A Few More Thoughts on the Overall Chapter

• Arya is acting in this play, but she is currently serving as an acolyte to the FM after her successful assassination as a novice. What is her role as an acolyte in service to Izembaro?

• After killing Raff, there are bound to be some consequences. Especially between the Westerosi envoy and the Sealord

• This chapter was definitely written with an older Arya in mind. The sexual nature of the chapter can be pretty hard to read knowing Arya's current age. That said wrt the future of her plotline, GRRM has stated that he will revisit Gendry/Arya, Arya will have her moon blood and he could write numerous chapters about Arya's adventures in Braavos (I wouldn't mind a stand alone novel) in addition to have been working on her chapters very recently (as of summer 2020).

• It should also be noted that numerous of the guards in Braavos to escort Harys Swyft could have possible been involved in the rape of Tysha

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There are numerous ways Arya could return to Westeros but it could take some time.

Im sure I missed a couple and there are some amazing details that go into the chapter that might not ever be more that worldbuilding such as Black Swan's valyrian blood and the keyholders of the Iron Bank, etc.

But I plan on doing this with the other 10ish chapters available at some point as well.

TLDR: Just some thoughts on some of the extraneous details of Arya's first chapter in TWOW.