long before trauma builds on trauma, as Arya witnesses the destruction of her family and the brutal execution of her father. Yoren may cover her eyes, but she knows what is happening.
But Arya is the daughter of Ned Stark, raised by men-of-war who have been in Condition Yellow since the Battle of the Trident and almost certainly much earlier. When Arya resists the role of court lady that her sister Sansa so readily accepts, the men of her family respond with surprising adaptability. They bring her, reluctantly and as gently as they can, into their warrior world.
The gifting of Needle and her training by the Braavosi fencer Syrio Forel are perhaps the most symbolic of Arya’s entry into Condition Yellow. While the wages of war are not yet fully upon her, she is being slowly hardened to a dangerous world. The physical instruments of combat are real, tangible coping devices. Arya will later come to rely on her internal strength, but initially, the sword and the training to use it represent the budding seeds of her new outlook on life. Arya best displays her commitment to Condition Yellow and her departure from the traditional female role in her world in the scene where Jon Snow reminds her that the best swords all have names. “Sansa can keep her sewing needles,” Arya replies, in her television incarnation. “I have a Needle of my own” (“The Kingsroad”).
The razing of worldview and reconstruction of perspective happen quite literally for Arya. She reacts to her trauma by abandoning her identity and reinventing herself from the roots up no less than ten times, assuming identities ranging from her wolf Nymeria, into whose skin she can slip, to Arry, an orphan boy and street urchin, to Beth, the blind beggar who ultimately carries out her first assassination for the Faceless Men. In this case, the measure is also practical, as she is the heir of a noble house, easily recognized and relentlessly hunted.
Arya’s trauma rips her world away. Cast out on the streets of Flea Bottom, she recreates herself as capable, warlike, alert. Surrounded by death, she dedicates herself to its study; murdering, impulsively at first with the King’s Landing stable boy, then deliberately and with decreasing difficulty, first through Jaqen H’ghar, and later by her own hands and Nymeria’s teeth. Her raison d’etre , which had once been balancing her adventurous ways with the traditions of her home and family, is replaced by her chanted prayer: the list of names of the victims she swears to avenge herself upon: “‘Ser Gregor,’ she’d whisper to her stone pillow. [. . .] ‘Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei.’” ( A Clash of Kings ).
Arya emerges from the crucible of her trauma horribly changed. Even by the harsh standards of Westeros, her childhood has been ripped away. She is shaken to her roots.
Still, the coping mechanisms she develops to grapple with PTSD strengthen her. She is more capable and powerful than she was before the incidents that transformed her. By the close of A Dance with Dragons , she is well on the path of establishing herself as a dedicated and able professional assassin: street-smart, intuitive, remorseless, and deadly.
Condition Yellow has become integrated into Arya’s character. She is enfranchised: no less traumatized for the transformation, but no weaker either.
Theon Greyjoy and Condition Black
“Only a fool humbles himself when the world is so full of men eager to do that job for him.”
—A C LASH OF K INGS
Those in Condition Black generally engage coping mechanisms that most external viewers would perceive as negative. Those who move into permanent Condition Black as a result of PTSD are actively self-destructive, usually in one of two ways. Some freeze up, go catatonic, and fail to react to future traumatic events, essentially letting the world have its way with them. Alternately, those in Condition Black may actively engage in self-destruction
But Arya is the daughter of Ned Stark, raised by men-of-war who have been in Condition Yellow since the Battle of the Trident and almost certainly much earlier. When Arya resists the role of court lady that her sister Sansa so readily accepts, the men of her family respond with surprising adaptability. They bring her, reluctantly and as gently as they can, into their warrior world.
The gifting of Needle and her training by the Braavosi fencer Syrio Forel are perhaps the most symbolic of Arya’s entry into Condition Yellow. While the wages of war are not yet fully upon her, she is being slowly hardened to a dangerous world. The physical instruments of combat are real, tangible coping devices. Arya will later come to rely on her internal strength, but initially, the sword and the training to use it represent the budding seeds of her new outlook on life. Arya best displays her commitment to Condition Yellow and her departure from the traditional female role in her world in the scene where Jon Snow reminds her that the best swords all have names. “Sansa can keep her sewing needles,” Arya replies, in her television incarnation. “I have a Needle of my own” (“The Kingsroad”).
The razing of worldview and reconstruction of perspective happen quite literally for Arya. She reacts to her trauma by abandoning her identity and reinventing herself from the roots up no less than ten times, assuming identities ranging from her wolf Nymeria, into whose skin she can slip, to Arry, an orphan boy and street urchin, to Beth, the blind beggar who ultimately carries out her first assassination for the Faceless Men. In this case, the measure is also practical, as she is the heir of a noble house, easily recognized and relentlessly hunted.
Arya’s trauma rips her world away. Cast out on the streets of Flea Bottom, she recreates herself as capable, warlike, alert. Surrounded by death, she dedicates herself to its study; murdering, impulsively at first with the King’s Landing stable boy, then deliberately and with decreasing difficulty, first through Jaqen H’ghar, and later by her own hands and Nymeria’s teeth. Her raison d’etre , which had once been balancing her adventurous ways with the traditions of her home and family, is replaced by her chanted prayer: the list of names of the victims she swears to avenge herself upon: “‘Ser Gregor,’ she’d whisper to her stone pillow. [. . .] ‘Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei.’” ( A Clash of Kings ).
Arya emerges from the crucible of her trauma horribly changed. Even by the harsh standards of Westeros, her childhood has been ripped away. She is shaken to her roots.
Still, the coping mechanisms she develops to grapple with PTSD strengthen her. She is more capable and powerful than she was before the incidents that transformed her. By the close of A Dance with Dragons , she is well on the path of establishing herself as a dedicated and able professional assassin: street-smart, intuitive, remorseless, and deadly.
Condition Yellow has become integrated into Arya’s character. She is enfranchised: no less traumatized for the transformation, but no weaker either.
Theon Greyjoy and Condition Black
“Only a fool humbles himself when the world is so full of men eager to do that job for him.”
—A C LASH OF K INGS
Those in Condition Black generally engage coping mechanisms that most external viewers would perceive as negative. Those who move into permanent Condition Black as a result of PTSD are actively self-destructive, usually in one of two ways. Some freeze up, go catatonic, and fail to react to future traumatic events, essentially letting the world have its way with them. Alternately, those in Condition Black may actively engage in self-destruction
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