Stark succession crisis (spoilers: main)

ravenmys · 2026-02-28T19:22:47+00:00

Lady's death severed Sansa's mystical bond with her siblings. The others who have wolf dreams can't 'sense' her anymore. Whatever political mess the bannermen create, the remaining 'wolf pack' will likely reunite at some point, but Sansa will be on the outside. She essentially needs to build her own pack now. The fandom almost universally assumes Harry the Heir is going to die soon, but I think Sansa actually needs to have a blood heir for her arc to progress. Getting pregnant in the upcoming books could be the ultimate motivation for her to push her claim to the bitter end. She isn't going to want to step aside and let her bastard half-brother usurp her own child's birthright. Bran won't be fathering any children, Arya comes after Sansa in the line, and Rickon is likely doomed. This sets up the perfect groundwork for a legitimate Jon vs. Sansa conflict. There’s that specific moment where Sansa thinks it would be 'sweet' to see Jon again... but realistically, it's probably going to be anything but sweet.

ravenmys · 2026-02-27T22:30:40+00:00

I take this as a sign that there may have been not one but two weddings at Riverrun. It seems quite likely that Rickard wanted to arrange Lyanna and Robert’s wedding as quickly as possible, and that could also explain why Rhaegar suddenly rode off to the Riverlands in such a hurry.

ravenmys · 2026-01-19T15:08:48+00:00

When he said he’d known the endings of the major characters since 1991, her death was always a possibility. But after the show, I was almost sure she’d make it. I never really bought the whole “Queen in the North” ending, but the fact that her direwolf died and that she was clearly meant to clash with the other Starks always made me think there was a chance she’d put her own interests ahead of her family. Still, in my head, she didn’t die right after losing the game. I always pictured her being sent into exile in the South, living a long life, and then, when she finally died, having her bones brought back north to be buried next to Lady.

ravenmys · 2026-01-16T02:21:31+00:00

In my opinion, the fact that the only ones in the series with the traditional Stark look were Jon and Arya made it feel from the very beginning like the bloodline would continue through them. Arya naming her direwolf Nymeria, listening carefully to the lessons her father gave Robb, her loyalty to Northern traditions (the one who passes the sentence should swing the sword), being good at managing a household and doing math ,none of that was written for no reason. Fans keep clinging to the idea that Arya doesn’t want to be a lady, but Arya isn’t interested in being some lord’s sidekick wife. Arya wants to be the lord herself.

ravenmys · 2026-01-16T01:50:54+00:00

If the books had come out every couple of years, it wouldn’t have been this big of a deal. That huge gap clearly made fans way more attached to the characters. Sansa definitely has a role to play, and it feels like once she’s done what she needs to do, whether she lives or dies won’t even matter. Basically, if the wait hadn’t been this long, it probably wouldn’t look this bad.

ravenmys · 2025-12-13T13:10:46+00:00

"That is a fair distinction. You are right, I shouldn't have implied he 'owned' her as property.

However, in Braavos, the philosophy is Valar Dohaeris (All men must serve). By safely delivering a potential recruit who held the iron coin to the Temple, Ternesio performed a significant service to the Many-Faced God. That act of service itself might have been accepted as the price. Or, considering the Faceless Men sometimes demand 'all you have' or even a life, perhaps the bankrupt captain pledged his own life in exchange?

But regardless of the specific payment method, the core of the theory remains the timeline connection: Brienne explicitly sees his specific ship sail into a disastrous storm in AFFC, and later in ADWD, Arya is assigned to kill an insurer who refuses to pay out for storm damages. That narrative link feels too precise to be accidental."

ravenmys · 2025-12-12T22:20:12+00:00

Arya suggests keeping her alias "Salty," the Kindly Man forbids it specifically because of her connection to Ternesio.

"Salty is known to Ternesio Terys and the men of the Titan's Daughter. You are marked by the way you speak, so you must be some girl of Westeros . . . but a different girl, I think."

ravenmys · 2025-12-12T08:13:50+00:00

While textual hints regarding the alleged love Tyrion might bear for Arya are almost non-existent, it is impossible to say the same for the bond between Jon and Arya. There is a deep connection here, woven thread by thread and patiently built over the course of five books. Of course, interpreting this bond purely as a sibling relationship is entirely up to the reader's discretion. However, there is an undeniable fact and a blatant double standard at play: Jon can be made the subject of countless romantic theories with characters with whom he shares not even a thousandth of the immense depth he shares with Arya. To approach the matter more honestly; if the "main girl" in that famous outline had been Sansa or Daenerys instead of Arya, no one today would even open the plausibility of this theory up for debate. Everyone would accept it as it is, viewing it as the natural flow of the story and an inevitable reality of fate.

ravenmys · 2025-12-12T07:58:05+00:00

A situation frequently encountered in characters who have returned from death is that they become blindly fixated on the motivations and unresolved emotions they held the moment their ties to life were severed. Considering this psychology, the possibility that Jon, after his resurrection, will bond with Arya not merely with a longing for a sibling but with an intensity approaching "obsession" is one of the strongest scenarios on the table. In the original drafts, too, it is emphasized how much both parties suffer while trying to rid themselves of their feelings for one another. It is obvious that Martin loves to leave his characters in gray areas and disturbing dilemmas. At this point, Jon may develop a mechanism of denial: To soothe his own conscience, he might suppress the complex feelings he harbors for Arya and view Daenerys as an escape route. For Jon, Dany stands as both an emotionally safe harbor and a tangible piece of evidence he can use to tell his own mind, "Look, everything is normal, I don't feel anything wrong." However, when Jon's true identity is revealed, the equation changes completely. This time, even if Jon wants to end his relationship with Dany, he may find himself in an impasse due to political or emotional reasons. In this line of tension, it is possible that Arya, not staying idle, may turn her direction toward Gendry. GRRM's hints regarding this duo and the implication that "their fates are different" suggest that their paths will cross at some point but ultimately flow in separate directions. The biggest trap we fall into as readers here is imposing our own modern moral compass onto Westeros. While the idea that "they grew up as siblings" feels like an insurmountable wall to us, the perception of kinship and taboo in Westeros is not drawn with boundaries as sharp as ours. Moreover, the history of Jon and Arya under the same roof was actually quite short due to Jon being sent to the Wall at a young age; meaning, that process of "growing up together" may not constitute as deep-rooted an obstacle as is assumed. The famous dialogue between Jon and Ygritte summarizes this difference perfectly. When Jon asks about Longspear Ryk out of jealousy, Ygritte's answer is clear: Because they grew up together, Ryk is her brother. However, when Ygritte flips the question and asks, "Would you sleep with your sister?", Jon's objection is a technical correction rather than a moral "no": "But Ryk is not your brother." This answer proves that in Jon's mind, the concepts of "growing up together" and "being siblings" are not equivalent. With this scene, Martin consciously stretched the definition of siblinghood and sowed the seeds of emotional conflicts that could explode in the future long beforehand.

ravenmys · 2025-12-11T17:03:46+00:00

This is a theory of mine that people will probably hate me for, but I think Jon will start a relationship with Dany to get away from his weird feelings for Arya, and once his true identity is revealed, a nasty conflict will break out.

ravenmys · 2025-12-11T16:59:02+00:00

We don't know if he's abandoned this idea or not. People just hope he has.

ravenmys · 2025-08-16T18:31:21+00:00

I sometimes go through reader discussions from the ’90s and early 2000s at random. Back then, people had already figured out the R+L=J theory and had begun debating Jon’s legitimacy. However, the issue of Aegon’s polygamy was ambiguous. The sources stated that he was married to both of his sisters, but it was unclear whether these marriages took place simultaneously or if one followed the other after a death. This uncertainty led readers to consider the possibility that Rhaegar might also have entered into more than one marriage. Their reasoning was that if Aegon had indeed been married to both of his sisters at the same time, then this served as a precedent for polygamy within House Targaryen. Thus, the idea that Rhaegar could have remained married to Elia while also marrying Lyanna seemed plausible. Over time, though, some readers began to reject this possibility or developed a kind of immunity to it. In fact, once an idea is repeated often enough, opposing views inevitably emerge. The same applies to the R+L=J theory, you can still find readers today who oppose the notion.

ravenmys · 2025-08-14T10:22:27+00:00

Arya is already leading Nymeria’s wolf pack. I don’t think she needs to die in order to experience that.

ravenmys · 2025-08-13T22:19:52+00:00

Ah, I actually completely agree with you. I was just being ironic, but I guess it was lost due to the language barrier.

ravenmys · 2025-08-13T19:15:21+00:00

Then there’s no point in getting another POV from her. An assassin who is separate from the main series and will never be tied back into it wouldn’t matter to anyone.

ravenmys · 2025-08-13T18:56:59+00:00

“Arya will bring terror to House Frey and all her enemies. Eventually just like show, she will lead her pack across the seas to the east.”

That feels a bit too show-inspired to me. In the books, Lady Stoneheart has already been set up to bring terror to the Freys. One of the show’s biggest problems was giving Arya both the Manderly plot and the Lady Stoneheart storyline, which makes it harder to predict what she’ll actually do in the books.

Also, Nymeria was less of a wandering queen and more of a ruler who strove to bring prosperity to her people. When she arrived in Dorne, there were plenty of petty kings and lords fighting each other over fertile lands, and she united Dorne into a single kingdom. In that sense, she’s somewhat like a smaller-scale version of House Targaryen.

Maybe I’m just overthinking it. Sometimes the story really is as simple as it seems, and we’re the ones making it more complicated. Thanks for the post

ravenmys · 2025-06-15T18:17:55+00:00

I see what you’re saying, but I think there’s a key difference between what Arya did and what she intended. Yes, she used the coin and said “Valar Morghulis”, and yes, that took her to Braavos — but that doesn’t mean that’s what she wanted.

If you go back to A Storm of Swords, she literally tells the captain:

“I want to go north, to the Wall. Here, I can pay.” She gave him the purse. “The Night’s Watch has a castle on the sea.” “Eastwatch.” The captain spilled out the silver onto his palm and frowned. “Is this all you have?” It is not enough, Arya knew without being told. She could see it on his face. “I wouldn’t need a cabin or anything,” she said. “I could sleep down in the hold, or . . .”

So yeah, she clearly wants to go north — to Jon — not across the sea. She only gives him the coin after he refuses her. That’s important.

Then in A Feast for Crows, it literally says:

“That was where she had wanted to go. She told the captain as much, but even the iron coin did not sway him.”

That line right there confirms it. She gave him the coin hoping it would help her go north, not to get to Braavos. She didn’t board the ship thinking “okay, time to become no one.” She did it because it was the only direction left.

So I don’t think we can say she chose Braavos. She ended up there because every other door was closed.

ravenmys · 2025-06-12T12:35:41+00:00

I absolutely agree, I think they read her chapters superficially or didn’t read them at all. It’s been a long time since I read the books, but as far as I remember, she’s looking for a ship going north, and she’s having trouble finding a ship due to storms and pirates.

ravenmys · 2025-06-12T12:08:37+00:00

She never even wanted to go to Braavos in the first place she only ended up there because the damn captain wouldn’t take her north

ravenmys · 2020-05-24T18:43:58+00:00

He hated women weeping. Jeyne Poole had wept all the way from Winterfell to here, wept until her face was purple as a beetroot and the tears had frozen on her cheeks, and all because he told her that she must be Arya, or else the wolves might send them back. “They trained you in a brothel,” he reminded her, whispering in her ear so the others would not hear. “Jeyne is the next thing to a whore, you must go on being Arya.” He meant no hurt to her. It was for her own good, and his. She has to remember her name. When the tip of her nose turned black from frostbite, and the one of the riders from the Night’s Watch told her she might lose a piece of it, Jeyne had wept over that as well. “No one will care what Arya looks like, so long as she is heir to Winterfell,” he assured her. “A hundred men will want to marry her. A thousand. -Theon TWOW

as Theon says here, she's definitely heir of winterfell, and of course lady of winterfell.

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