Rickon Yelled, "Me! Me Now! I Want To Play!" Little Walder Beckoned Him On, And Shaggydog Started To

Rickon yelled, "Me! Me now! I want to play!" Little Walder beckoned him on, and Shaggydog started to follow. "No, Shaggy," his brother commanded. "Wolves can't play. You stay with Bran." And he did...

...until Little Walder had smacked Rickon with the stick, square across his belly. Before Bran could blink, the black wolf was flying over the plank, there was blood in the water, the Walders were shrieking red murder, Rickon sat in the mud laughing, and Hodor came lumbering in shouting "Hodor! Hodor! Hodor!" (Bran I, ACoK)

Rickon: *laughs hysterically at attempted murder*

Me: "aww, he's so cute 🥺🥺"

Blood Sacrifice?

I’m probably not the first to notice this, but I’ve definitely never come across anything about this either.  In Arya X ACOK we get this scene:

In the godswood she found her broomstick sword where she had left it, and carried it to the heart tree. There she knelt. Red leaves rustled. Red eyes peered inside her. The eyes of the gods. “Tell me what to do, you gods,” she prayed.

For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya’s skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father’s voice. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” he said.

“But there is no pack,” she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. “I’m not even me now, I’m Nan.”

“You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.”

“The wolf blood.” Arya remembered now. “I’ll be as strong as Robb. I said I would.” She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. - Arya X ACOK

I like to refer to this moment as “Arya’s Mufasa Moment” because her father’s voice through the weirwood gave Arya the strength to reclaim her identity.  She gained the courage she needed to make her escape from Harrenhal with her friends before they would be maimed or killed.  Whether that voice was actually Ned, or Bloodraven, or future!Bran, or some other greenseer, or the Old Gods isn’t the point of this post though.

One other aspect of the above quote I want to touch upon before I move on, is how Arya got dizzy when she heard the wolf’s howl after asking the Old Gods for help.  I think it’s pretty much accepted throughout fandom that (or I hope so because it seems kind of obvious) that Arya’s skinchanging abilities were opened more after this chapter.  Arya started gaining more, and more vivid wolf dreams after this chapter, either way.  In fact, in Arya I ASOS, Arya while skinchanging into Nymeria unknowingly protected them by killing the Brave Companions going after Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie in their desperate escape.

So onto my point.

Arya’s Mufasa moment happens in Arya X ACOK, but that was not the first time in that chapter that Arya went to the Godswood:

The afternoon was still young by the time she was done, so Arya took herself off to the godswood. Her duties were lighter as Lord Bolton’s cupbearer than they had been under Weese or even Pinkeye, though they required dressing like a page and washing more than she liked. The hunt would not return for hours, so she had a little time for her needlework.

She slashed at birch leaves till the splintery point of the broken broomstick was green and sticky. “Ser Gregor,” she breathed. “Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling.” She spun and leapt and balanced on the balls of her feet, darting this way and that, knocking pinecones flying. “The Tickler,” she called out one time, “the Hound,” the next. “Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei.” The bole of an oak loomed before her, and she lunged to drive her point through it, grunting “Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey.” Her arms and legs were dappled by sunlight and the shadows of leaves. A sheen of sweat covered her skin by the time she paused. The heel of her right foot was bloody where she’d skinned it, so she stood one-legged before the heart tree and raised her sword in salute. “Valar morghulis,” she told the old gods of the north. She liked how the words sounded when she said them. - Arya X ACOK

Did Arya inadvertently feed the weirwood her own blood from her injured heel while she was praying?  And is that why the next time she prays in front of the weirwood it answers her?  If so, I’m very curious to see if Arya ever goes back to Harrenhal and that Godswood again, in case there is some sort of furthering connection now to that land if this is the case.

Anyway, I just randomly came across this and it piqued my curiosity, so I thought I’d share to see what people thought.  I wish we knew more about weirwoods so we could better determine this.

Here's a little rant. I love thinking about Arya with her siblings because literally any pair of them is perfect:

Arya and Jon: they literally share neurons, easily the smartest people in the room, GRRM hasn't let them attend a council together yet because he knows they'd be too powerful. BUT at the same time they can literally make the worst decisions ever and the other will disagree AND somehow support them at the same time, no questions asked. If Arya had been there when Jon sent all his friends away because Lord Commanders Can't Have Feelings she would have privately smacked him in the head with a roll of parchment, but if anyone else asked she would puff out her chest and tell them off in seven languages. If Jon had been there when Arya kept circling trees in the Riverlands because of her Moth Only Grows On One Side theory he wouldn't have stopped complaining and teasing her the entire time, but if anyone else had made a comment he would have had Ghost following them menacingly for days. They are each other's favourite person in the whole world and I can't wait to see them being badasses together

Arya and Sansa: the "we used to hate each other but now I can't imagine facing this without you" trope. The "we were raised to believe we were too different to ever get along and I've only realised how much I love you when it's too late". The "bickering goes from frustrated to fond". The "sisters by chance but friends by choice". The "I can't stand you but I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you". The "I didn't realise how much I need you by my side until you weren't there". So little content yet, but so many possibilities for the future

Arya and Bran: THESE TWO. THESE TWO. The hearts of pure gold these two have. How many times do you think they would have allowed the other to feel worthless if they'd been there? If Bran had heard Arya saying their mother might not want her back? If Arya had heard Bran calling himself broken? They would have shut that down before the other could even finish the sentence. These kids who lost everything. Someone should have been taking care of them, but it will be alright, because they're going to meet again and you can bet they're going to take care of each other. But also. BUT ALSO. The sheer power these two irradiate. They're the forgotten ones, the underestimated and overlooked, the ones left for dead, the ones NO ONE WILL SEE COMING. And if they work together? Their middle-sibling-partner-in-crime energy is about to take on a WHOLE new level when they come back and literally no one is prepared for it. Least of all me

Arya and Rickon: my head has mixed the Mother Hen Arya energy and the Abandoned Baby Rickon energy and I haven't been able to produce a single coherent thought since. They share so MUCH. No one is going to be able to understand Rickon's impulsiveness and restlessness like Arya. Rickon speaks in the Old Tongue when he's angry to build a wall between him and everyone else? Watch my polyglot baby girl learn Skagosi in weeks to tear that wall down brick by brick. Watch her make sure he gets the childhood that was taken from his siblings. Watch her tell him stories about their parents, about Robb, watch her take him to the Godswood and their mother's little sept and the crypts to speak to them, to make sure he knows he was loved, that they fought to get back to him, that they are a part of him too, even when he can barely remember what they looked like. Watch him follow her around everywhere, hanging to her every word. Watch him learn Water Dancing movements before any Westerosi technique because it's what his Big Sister does and it is therefore the Coolest Thing In The World, watch him climb into her bed whenever he has a nightmare, watch him grow up tall and proud and kind, watch him smile wider and more freely than any of the starklings because my girl made sure of it

Also this is my post and I do what I want, so:

Arya and Theon: the horrors they have seen. They've both been held prisoners by monsters. They both convince themselves that the person they were is gone, that their name is forbidden even in their own minds, that they've crossed too many lines to ever be worthy of love again. They could understand each other so well and it lives in my head rent-free. What I would give to see them become friends as they heal, and afterwards. Give me Arya visiting Pyke and falling immediately in love with Asha, give me Asha trying to hate the daughter of the man who took so much from her family but finding it impossible, give me them becoming thick as thieves and Theon regretting ever introducing them to one another. Give me Arya holding Theon's hand while he talks to Alannys, give me Dagmer Cleftjaw and everyone in his ship taken aback by how much they care about this tiny, badmouthed, caring girl who was supposed to be their enemy. Give me them whispering to one another that maybe they understand their Prince's protectiveness of the Starks, if they're all like her. Give me Theon teaching her how to finger dance because she will try it whether he likes it or not and at least this way there is someone trying to keep her from accidentally stabbing herself. Give me Arya being the first to pull a laugh from Theon, and always being able to do so from then onwards. Give me them becoming a chaotic duo, sharing dirty jokes and cursing loudly and getting into trouble every time they're together, but it's fine because it's the good kind of trouble now, the hide-under-the-table-before-they-find-us and the laugh-until-your-belly-aches-whenever-you-remember-it kind, and it's so damn good to feel that way again

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

i wonder if actors ever get their scripts and are like

well this is fucking stupid

me after i'm posting someone elses funny and then crumble under the notes

i feel like there's a trend i'm seeing, esp in online queer spaces, of being, like, oddly against the idea of people being attracted to each other

like I've been seeing the word “sexualization” tossed around to mean sexual attraction and framed as a bad and disrespectful, bordering on nonconsensual, thing.

recently in a sapphic group I’m in, a teenage lesbian mentioned that she’s attracted to her friend and and keeps getting distracted by her boobs. she was immediately dragged by dozens of grown ass adults telling her this was gross and inappropriate

it would have been one thing to tell her not to stare (she already wasn’t tho tbh), but the general gist of the comments was that seeing someone’s body and feeling attraction is *inherently* inappropriate and unethical

it’s totally fine to be attracted to someone. and you know what, a lot of people like boobs and that’s also fine

basically i just keep seeing stuff cropping up in the queer community with the message that sexual (and i guess now romantic?) desire is bad

and that’s uhhh what’s the word, fucked

on the other hand people are chill with tinder and hooking up and there are a ton of “normalize having sex with your friends!!” posts

people are cool with sex but they are not ok with desire

tinder, i think, feels fine because it’s really not about attraction. it’s about fulfilling a general need for sex and isn’t about the person at all.

being attracted to someone, though — looking at or thinking about a specific person who’s already in your life and wanting to have sex with them — that’s what it seems a lot of people aren’t ok with

there’s a level on which i get it. the person is just existing, they didn’t specifically and intentionally put themselves in a space for sexuality like tinder

but, y’all.

this is how attraction works. you spend time with people, you do things alongside them, you get to know them… and maybe you start thinking they’re hot. maybe you want to fuck them or kiss them. this is literally so totally fucking fine.

the thing that’s disrespectful is when you actually do shitty stuff! don’t say vulgar things to them. respect their boundaries. don’t make them uncomfortable. if you approach them for sex or dating and they say no, accept that. etc

but there’s literally nothing wrong with wanting to fuck someone or wanting to date someone.