Tuesday, July 12, 2016

A Dance with Dragons Victarion I/ The Ugly Little Girl

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

VICTARION I

Moqorro the red priest is foretelling things for Victarion and the men do not trust him They are still heading towards Dany and capturing ships as they go- they kill many of the slavers. In one case Victarion puts seven girls bound for slavery on a fishing boat and sets it afire, and a great wind blows them towards Meereen. Victarion is told by Moqorro that the great horn that Euron gave him is called Dragonbinder, and the horn also has writing that says

Blood for fire, fire for blood. Moqorro tells him that the "The dragons will come to the horn's master. You must claim the horn. With blood."

MY THOUGHTS: 

So what's up with the horn? I'm wondering how Vic will claim it, and who will blow it.

THE UGLY LITTLE GIRL

Arya witnesses eleven priests of the Many- Faced God arrive for a meeting- most arrive by secret passage. They meet for three hours and and divvy up who will give the "gift" to which victims. Afterwards one of the priests meets with Arya - he does not think she can be a Faceless Man. "The price is you. The price is all you have and all you ever hope to have." They set her a test- to kill a man by the water who insures shipments- apparently someone has hired the FM to kill him. After casing the area for a while Arya declares herself ready, and the kindly man takes her to the hall of faces.

"Do they frighten you, child?" asked the kindly man. "It is not too late for you to leave us. Is this truly what you want?" Arya bit her lip. She did not know what she wanted. If I leave, where will I go? 

She goes ahead and they affix a face to her- an ugly girl. The process itself is weird- they cut her face, blood sheets down and they give her something to drink. They put the face over hers and it's leathery but her blood softens it- and then she experiences the last feelings of the girl whose face it was. Her face feels the same to her but to appearances she is the ugly girl. The next day she kills the designated man by slipping poisoned coins to him- he always bites the coins he takes in transactions. Kinda like how the Faceless Man in Oldtown killed Pate in A Feast for Crows. Afterwards they make her an acolyte and send her to Izembaro.

Wear this when you are here," the priest said, "but know that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best you have a new face as well." He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. "A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?"
"No one," she replied. 

MY THOUGHTS: 

In this chapter Arya is truly struggling with who she wants to be, what she wants to do. Her first night with the new face she dreams of her parents. She thinks the priests are her family now, but at the same time she  still recites her kill list. It's hard to see Arya become so hardened she kills a man who has done nothing to her, but she is alone otherwise. And while the show has moved beyond this point, to where Arya has left the FM, here she is just becoming an acolyte.

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