A Story of the Ultimate GOT Foil: Arya Versus Dany

Please note that there are multiple spoilers for the hit series, Game of Thrones, throughout this post. If you are not caught up with the show, or haven’t started it, might be worth skipping over this!

Also worth noting, that these are my own thoughts and speculations.

Mmmk, now let’s talk four instances of how Dany’s a foil for Arya in Game of Thrones!

To start off with: What is a foil, in the literary sense?

Wikipedia defines a foil as: a character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In some cases, a subplot can be used as a foil to the main plot.

I’ve been noticing for a while how Arya and Daenerys (I’ll shorten to Dany) are a foil to each other. There’s a lot of foils in Game of Thrones, but I’ll keep to Arya and Dany since they’re fun!

Now, the real question is: Could Dany’s story be a subplot to Arya’s? Meaning that Arya has been the main character this whole frickin’ time? And GRRM has only been trying to throw us off by highlighting Dany and Jon’s stories so much, as a foil to Arya and Gendry’s.

I think there’s plenty of foil-y evidence to say it’s a possibility.

So let’s compare the two characters and why Arya (and Gendry) might be more fit to rule the Seven Kingdoms than Dany (and Jon).

Arya and Dany both lost their father to the Lanister’s and were forced to flee their home in order to survive. Game of Thrones is ultimately about both of them (and plenty of other characters, though maybe less so) finding their way back home.

Throughout the entire story, both have been slowly working toward their revenge plot against those who wronged their family. But while Dany’s plan has always been to take the Iron Throne back with an army as her revenge, Arya created her kill list, choosing instead to empower herself at a more personal level.

In other words, while Dany found a way for others to fight for her, Arya learned to defend herself (and Gendry/Hotpie/Starks) throughout her journey. Although they both ultimately have the same goal: Kill Cersei. How they’re going about that is completely different. And I think after Season 8 Episode 3, we all might agree that Arya’s the real MVP in the series, dragon-less and all.

Arya and Dany are both in love with bastard (at least initially) hunks who have a claim to throne.

Technically, Roberts Rebellion makes Gendry the heir to the Iron Throne by half-blood. Which is the reason Cersei had all of Robert’s bastards murdered in Season1. If he turns out to be the legitimate son of Cersei and Robert, as some have speculated, he could be fully in the running for the Iron Throne without needing to be legitimized.

Dany is trying to reclaim the throne. But Jon is still her predecessor there. But when both Gendry and Jon reveal their true identity in the same episode to these two leading ladies, Arya and Dany react completely opposite.

Dany immediately jumps the gun and thinks of the worst possible outcome: I can’t be with Jon because he has a claim to the throne and he’ll take it from me. Meanwhile, the one thing that has always stopped Arya and Gendry from ending up together is Gendry’s lowborn status, which in this episode suddenly vanishes. And when Arya finds out, she literally freezes, and then, you know…goes for it!

I loved how the creators did something very subtle to support this foil: Both Gendry and Jon call Arya and Dany by their first names as a form of telling them they are equals.

But while Jon does it, in a way, to uproot Dany, who already told Jon she doesn’t want to be called Dany, Gendry does it to finally refer to Arya in the way she wants. He FINALLY calls Arya by her first name instead of mi’lady right before they kiss!

While the equality between the couples distances Dany from Jon, it’s what finally allows Arya to have the courage to pursue Gendry (because at the point she knows that he can put his whole “you’d be mi’lady” thing aside).

Let’s not even get into the whole one of these involves incest, the other doesn’t.

A song of ice and fire.

One of my favorite foil scenes between these two ladies happens in Season 8 Episode 1, and they are back to back scenes. The first is Dany and Jon taking a ride on their dragons. They land in Jon’s old hunting grounds, and they have an exchange. Jon mentions that it’s cold, and Dany replies somewhere along the lines of “Keep your queen warm, then.” I LOVE the example of juxtaposition between this scene and the next Arya and Gendry scene. Where Gendry says Winterfell isn’t a bad place to grow up if it wasn’t so cold, and Arya responds by saying: “Stay close to that forge then.” It’s something so subtle, but it works to show how different these two woman are from each other.

Furthermore here, we can look at Arya and Dany’s weapons of choice. Although we could say that Jon might just be a Song of Ice and Fire because he fights with both dragon fire and Valeryian Steel, which is also known as frozen fire, and is the son of a Stark and a Targaryen, we could also venture to speculate that since Jon fights with dragon fire now, he’s out of the running to be the ice part in a Song of Ice and Fire.

But Arya, who also fights with Valeryian Steel (frozen fire) can still be fully considered Ice. And Dany of course Fire, since she fights with her dragons.

During The Longest Night/Battle for Winterfell, Dany seems like the likely hero, while Arya, who is the unlikely hero, ends up being Azor Ahai (I would say).

This one is simple, while Dany failed to defeat the Night King with her dragon, Arya succeeded like the assassin she’s studied to be her whole life. Literally becoming the Protector of the Realm. And some (like me) would venture to say, The Prince(ss) Who Was Promised. Could it be a way to foreshadow what will happen in the end?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we haven’t gotten a single scene yet with Dany and Arya together.

So, while a Song of Ice and Fire has been said to be the story of Dany and Jon, I think it would also make a lot of sense for it to be about Arya (Ice) and Gendry, the Smith (Fire).

Or at that rate, between Arya (Ice) and Dany (Fire), who are the ultimate foil in the story. Considering that it really was these two ladies who saved Winterfell, anyway, there could be something here GRMM has set up beautifully.