157 ASOS 14 Arya II 17 Would You Deny the King?

When she hears a singer approaching, Arya shivers with fear it's Bloody Mummers or Bolton men and tells Hot Pie to wake Gendry and hide the horses. She prays to the tree she hides behind and thinks maybe the singing men will be as afraid as they are. They aren't, though. The men know somebody is hiding behind the wall. They laugh when Arya threatens to kill them and again when she turns down their offer of paper for the horses, suggesting trading for the skiff, instead. She figured the men were outlaws stealing their horses and taking them for slaves, but Tom's claim they serve King Robert is a claim they serve the peace. It turns out to be both: Arya's pack is being robbed and cared for. But Arya succeeds in her mission to restore her identity when she sees Harwin among the soldiers and he recognizes her as the Hand's daughter, Arya Stark of Winterfell.

The chapter is structured around a set of openly invoked questions: Is it illegal to root in a dead man's garden? According to who? Why would the bloody mummer's be singing? Have you forgotten what friends are? Arya doesn't know how to think about any of these questions and at the same time, knows the obvious about what the law should be and what a healthy civilization looks like. So, when Tom o' Sevens calls her a thief for having horses, Arya knows he's wrong. Except, she did steal them.

Is It Illegal to Root in an Old Man's Garden?

Are the King's men a band of outlaws or are they the law in these parts? How are they both? On the one hand, they set traps for travelers and on the other hand, they look out for the locals. Or, are they just mooching off them? If the king's men can be the law, what does that say about what laws are? Concepts of how to police and what protection feels like will be deconstructed in future chapters. In this one, we're introduced to the idea that bandits might pose as knights, even as direct representatives of dead kings.

The singing announces someone coming to inspect. It's a way of announcing an intention to be known about and a way to claim to be friendly.

"An honest man would come out and show us his face. Only an outlaw would skulk and hide."

But if they're police, they're crooked. That they'll be taking the horses is the entire interaction, though it is awfully nice of them to phrase it as a hot meal. That Arya and her group are "taken in" is not in spite of their not trusting the kingsmen.

Why Would The Bloody Mummers Be Singing?

“Arya didn't think they were kingsmen at all. They looked more like outlaws, all tattered and ragged.” 178

Tyrion whistled to summon the Mountain Clans to parlay, and Tom's singing does serve that purpose. The Wild Hares sang songs of bravery and gallantry to play pretend and Tom's song does that, too. By announcing their unafraid presence openly, the kingsmen present themselves as the law of the land. This positions them to question those they encounter as maybe being outlaws. The whole act of being kingsmen serves their true identity as thieves. Yet, ironically, the kingsmen do good and care for the people. They are outlaws, but knights because mummers. They feel safe in these parts because they are the most dangerous men around. Tom sings to enjoy that and to extend the king's peace.

The chapter centers on the double-edgedness of the social contract and the relationship between those in power and those taken in. While the kingsmen provide food and care for Arya, Hot Pie and Gendry, they also treat them as loot. Arya will be taken to Riverrun to ransom and Hot Pie will be kept at the inn and stripped of his name. Though each would choose their allotted fate, the choice does not happen to be theirs. Still, with the kingsmen they are safe and fed. The societal contract is presented as vital to survival and purchased dearly with one's agency.

Have You Forgotten What Friends Are?

In its current state, riverlands society cannot protect anyone. The lords are absent, at war, and decent folk must resort to thievery to survive. That or live in hiding, hoarding whatever they have. The children are taken in as a way to secure their horses, but also because it's the only thing to do with them. A society in tatters must come together to rebuild. Friendship is the only thing holding anything together. Those who would do good must make friends with untrustworthy men or be set upon them later as gangs of brigands.

The Brotherhood Without Banners is being developed as a complex character. Their introduction in Jaime II, as laying in wait for the travelers sent their way by the non-innkeep, is both plain and muddy. The kingsmen do the same to Arya's pack that the Mountain's men do when they take them to Harrenhal, but with such a different attitude and intention as to make it almost fundamentally different. The Brotherhood will be repeatedly compared and contrasted with the Bloody Mummers who they are definitely better than, who they defend the riverlands from, and who's crops of hanging corpses their own will so problematically resemble.

Introduced as a den of thieves and elaborated on through Arya's perspective as tricksy but gentle and thieving but generous, the Brotherhood Without Banners is established as the center of a conundrum about moral fiber. The kingsmen's offer of food is really bait to steal Arya's horses. The kingsmen took them at arrowpoint from Pate's garden but maintain the illusion of friendship as a means to surround them with swords at the inn. Even before the riders arrive, those at the inn laugh at Arya's presumption to trade the horses for the skiff, since she's overpowered and being robbed.

At the same time, the kingsmen don't kill them or leave them for dead. They incorporate Arya's pack, as though for their own good. This is the opposite of what happened on the road after Lorch burned the holdfast by the God's Eye, when the able men abandoned the children because they could not survive if they had to support them. Gendy even proposed the same to Arya: that they abandon Lommy, Hot Pie and Weasle as dead weight in order to have a chance, themselves. What the kingsmen are doing by feeding them and taking them in, indicates a level of strength closer to the Mountain's men who took them at the village. Yet, they are not penned in a room to be interrogated but sit at table as brothers. Though there's something about it that is clearly bad, Anguy, Lem and Tom are a group not unlike Arya, Hot Pie and Gendry. They're not perfect people but not so bad, either. While they've been taken by thieves, it's somehow more like being welcomed into a refugee camp.

The purpose of the character complexity around the kingsmen at this point in the story is to demonstrate the societal situation a war torn land finds itself in and hilight role of lordship. It will become a silent question: where is the aid from the Tullys? Aren't they the light lords of the riverlands? Why does it take some rogue marcher like Beric Dondarrion to care for the people in crisis? The answer seems presented: The Tullys are wrapped up in the war they started and that caused all this devastation. Lords cause wars and don't protect their people. Yet, the role of lord is always filled by someone or other in any situation.

For example, Sharna's demeanor while sharp and suspicious, is ultimately generous and largely accepting. It's easy to see how she overcompensates and how she is a trustworthy woman. Her situation is one in which she must welcome strangers into her home and feed them, knowing they must be thieves to be alive and have likely killed, too. She does not have the military force to deny anyone who would present a threat, and so treats all misbehavior with dominating sharpness. Her concerns reveal her character. So, when she asks about this hot pie, and makes Hot Pie change his name in Arya's next choral chapter, it is because there hasn't been anything resembling hot pie for a long time, nor will there be. She can't have people talking about hot pie because they need to be grateful for what she can give. Even when King's Landing was starving, it was safe for a little boy to cry wares of hot pies for coppers. And they were there to be had. The level of starvation the riverlands now face is shocking in comparison.

Identity Restored

Arya succeeds in point one of her mission to Riverrun: being known as Arya Stark. With prompting, Harwin recognizes her. For several chapters, Arya's primary goal has been to arrive among those safe enough to reveal herself to so as not to be forever lost into the identity of the lowborn weasle everyone assumes she is.

The theme of mummery's role in Arya's development into a spy and assassin has been growing ever since Ned assured her it was mummers she'd overheard in the dungeons. The way things look figures frequently and importantly, often speaking the truth of the situation.

Arya thinks “King's men would have had horses,” not realizing that the kingsmen are in the process of stealing their own fine horses, partly so as to more closely resemble kings men.

The meaning of names comes into focus in the scene where the kingsmen ask what they're called. Though none of the three gives their birth names, Hot Pie is entirely open about who he is, Arya is entirely cloaked and Gendry presents a middle road. Hot Pie comes out immediately with “Hot Pie.” Tom then asks “And what would your friends be called, Mutton Chop and Squab?” Though Arya says “Squab if you want. I don't care.” Gendry identifies himself as The Bull, though he no longer has his helmet. Arya thinks she could not blame Gendry “for preferring The Bull to Mutton Chop.” Though it's a comedic line, it draws attention to just how little thought Arya is currently putting into her choice of projected identity. Where Hot Pie shares his whole history in his name and Gendry selects a name to speak to his sense of self, Arya puts too little thought into her choice, thinking it does not matter. In this moment, it doesn't. All she's doing is denying information to the kingsmen. It's an early nod towards the idea of becoming no one.

Nobody's Men

As an early instance of the important developing broken man theme, both Arya's pack and the kingsmen represent groups who have served under multiple banners. Hot Pie says they aren't Bolton's.

“We were at Harrenhal before he came, that's all.”

“So you're lion cubs, is that the way of it?”

“Not that either. We're nobody's men.”

The Kingsmen are nobody's men, too. While it will later be openly acknowledged in their name The Brotherhood Without Banners, they introduce themselves as the kingsmen. It suggests they are living in the past so as to avoid an identity crisis. If they aren't identified with their original mission, then they're rogues and outlaws. Harwin identifies Arya as “the Hand's daughter” though Ned was executed some time ago. It's one of many introductions to the important theme of broken men, in which the Brotherhood Without Banners will figure centrally when they begin to hang, under Stoneheart, the type of refugee they currently take in.

Highway Robbery

Tom o' Sevens repeatedly justifies theft by pointing out they're only taking stolen goods from thieves: the horses, the vegetables...Yet, what about trade and economy? Brienne paid a gold dragon each for the three horses they bought at the inn and threw in the skiff. Now, the kingsmen pay Arya a dragon each for her three horses, but only on paper. She would trade for the skiff, instead—though Gendry is right about the direction of the current. They laugh at her. She's not going to be given anything. The three children have already been “taken in,” meaning they aren't free to leave. This will be made even more apparent in the next Arya chapter.

Ironies

Though they thieve and set traps for travelers like the one they tried on Brienne and Jaime, the kingsmen are the law in these parts.

The longsword Arya wields against the kingsmen, thinking it's too big and heavy but that she can kill with it, makes her seem less dangerous. Though Arya could and would kill with the longsword, trying makes her look like she doesn't know how to use a sword at all. In contrast, Tom o' Sevens wears throwing knives on his hip, where they can be seen and suggesting him to be more aggressive than he likely ever bothers being.

Gendry disparages King Robert as old, drunk and dead, not knowing he's his bastard son. Yet, if Gendry's identity had come out with Arya's, the kingsmen would have shown him special respect as an extension of their self-identification as kingsmen.

The kingsmen take in Arya's pack as orphans in need and as loot.

Reveals

Brienne was right not to follow the inn keeper's instructions because they were a trap to steal back the bought horses.

References and Continuity

This chapter ties repeatedly to Jaime II. The question of whether or not the non-innkeep really had a wife is conclusively answered and he'll forever after be referred to only as “husband.” The question of whether the inn was a trap is answered as well. That the skiff Arya would steal is the one Catelyn sent Brienne in adds to the chapter's discursive thematics around theft and family. Primarily, however, it brings up reminders that answer Gendry's questions. Were Arya to acquire the skiff, even in trade for the horses, she'd have to row against the current to reach Riverrun. Yet, she does not think of that before investigating it hopefully and in a tone that names her thief. This references Bran's recent suggestion to steal a boat, how ill-thought through that was, and how related to his warging.

Sharna was suspiciously away making it seem the non-innkeep only said he had a wife. Now, we learn she was helping with the birth of a bastard, most likely Tom o' Sevens'. When Arya first hears him singing, it's “Off to Gulltown to see the fair maid, heigh-ho, heigh-ho...” and he cradles his woodharp “as a mother might cradle a babe.”

The Kingsmen will be repeatedly compared to The Bloody Mummers they war against. An early detail: the riders who arrive represent a mix of former allegiances. There's even a Tyroshi among them, like the Bloody Mummers. Like the broken men they take in, the kingsmen are the scraps of a small army