Arya's Chapter beginning with "The scent of hot bread drifted from the shops..."
In this chapter, Arya made it to a neighboring town after fleeing the King's Landing. The reader learns that she has had some trouble being "on the run," such as having her clothes stolen and finding decent places to sleep without being harassed by other children. After running all the way to Flea Bottom, she heard the ringing of bells signaling the King's Hand was being summoned, which is Ned Stark. When Arya makes it to the summoning, she sees her father confess to treason and Joffrey deciding that Ned had to die anyway. Ned was beheaded and Arya was grabbed from behind by Yoren and from this point we are not quite sure what actually happened to her.
This chapter is infuriating. Not only do we not get another chapter later in the book from Arya's point of view, but Ned also dies! I know this is just the first book of the series, but without reading those, we are left with a serious cliffhanger. This only heightens my frustration with the Lannisters and Sansa as well. Sansa had good intentions to protect her father, but the fact that Joffrey has already made it clear that he is not a nice person makes me wish that she would actually do something about it. Despite all that has occurred in this chapter, this is actually a great protrayal of the phrase "it's a game of thrones, you either win or die." Ned is doing what he can to protect his family and the throne by confessing, even though it goes against his wishes to remain an honorable man. Cersei and Joffrey play the smart move for themselves and killed Ned before he formulated a plan to take over the kingdom from Joffrey. In a way, this is all playing out exactly as it should. Cersei is doing what is in her best interest, along with Sansa, Ned, and all the others back in Winterfell. Now that I think about it, it would have been rather shocking for the book to end with Ned living, Sansa and Joffrey being happily married, and Arya back with her family.
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