Are Arya and Brienne the same?

 Since the beginning of Game of Thrones, Arya Stark has been a fan favorite. Viewers delighted in her kick-ass attitude and ever-growing sword skills. In similarity, Brienne had also had a kick-ass attitude and ever-growing sword skills. They are alike in many ways, but they are also different in many ways. They are alike by their gender roles, the way they fight, how opinionated they are, and even how brave they are. The way they are different is their sword skills, their love lives, and their femineity. This all matters because in the show the producer wants to show how women can be portrayed in many ways.

First, let’s compare how Brienne and Arya are so much alike. The main reason is they are females. I know that may sound like a huge joke, but it's what they do as females. Arya and Brienne are the most Badass women throughout the seasons of Game of Thrones. The reason I say this is as females, they are supposed to be lady like. Brienne and Arya are on the lowest scale of being lady like. They show the types of gender roles portrayed in the show and shows two different types of femineity that I will explain later in my article.  One thing that they are both awesome at, is that they fight with all their might and want to protect everything that they can. They are both very opinionated. What I mean by this is they will say anything that they want and to whoever they want. They are both extremely brave for what they are doing and how they show it. They also share a similarity by always wanting to put their lives first before anyone else’s. What I mean by this is they both use swords to protect. These are just the few similarities, but now let’s get on with the differences.

Let’s start off with why Brienne is so much more different than Arya by how feminine they are. Brienne has a few more years than Arya, which makes her have a lot more experience than Arya. That’s just the obvious, but there’s a lot more to it than just age. Brienne is this tall masculine woman and was first introduced in Season two. Brienne is the daughter of Selwyn Tarth meaning she is in the Tarth house. There is a certain way Brienne is projected throughout the series. The way she is projected is she is a female that has a ton of male features and takes on a male role. In Juliette Harrisson's article she explains how Brienne is the best example of this. Harrisson states “Brienne of Tarth is, of course, the most obvious example of a woman taking this approach. Although she is keen to remind everyone that she is not a knight, as the position is not open to women, Brienne might as well be, and she served on Renly’s Kings guard, a group usually made up of knights.”  You can really see this role throughout many parts of Game of Thrones. Now let’s get on with why Arya is different than Brienne. Arya looks to be this small, wonderful, adorable girl and we are introduced to Arya in the first season of Game of Thrones. Arya Stark is second youngest of Ned Stark and Catelyn Starks Children. Arya is a huge tomboy but she’s very feminine. In Rochelle Keyhan’s article she explains very well how her femininity is.  Keyhan states “Arya is a tomboy who looks feminine while rebelling against that femininity as she experiments with her gender and how she wants to present it. She regularly asserts that she’s “a girl” when called a boy and demands respect as a girl who can do boy things when she is derided as “just a girl”. She takes no interest in things she’s expected to be focusing on as a girl. She is driven by fairness and fierce loyalty to her family and friends.”

Let's now talk about the difference in Arya’s and Brienne’s love life. In Season two she is in a tournament and ends up destroying Sir Loras Tyrell. Once she defeats Loras, she is crowned Renly Baratheon’s Kings guard. While Brienne is a tough character, she is also a major protector, hence the reason she destroyed Loras. Another thing that she has is a lover. She only wanted to protect Renly was because she was in love with him. Eventually. Another fact that I shall add is even though she may be a self-defense fighter, she has a list of people she wants to kill for revenge even though she’s young. Since Arya is so young, she really doesn’t have a love life like Brienne did. The only connection really seen was in season one episode two. In season one episode two there is a scene where Arya gets caught sword fighting the butcher’s boy. There isn’t a love connection, but she is just a good lover as a friend. She does however have a love for family. In Jordana’s Lipsitz article she states, “I'm putting my money on the part of the roulette board that says "no siree." Arya is a Stark, and she totally wants to be reunited wither her family.” this completely makes sense because in season three episode four Arya tells one of them men that she could be their family, but he didn’t want her to.

The last thing we will talk about is the difference in why these ladies' fight. Loras passes away and she wants to keep her loyalty as a King's guard and moves onto Lady Stark. This happens in Season two episode six and on page 557-573 in the book. In the book she gets down on one knee and asks Lady Stark if she could protect her with everything that she has. On page 562, Brienne states “Then I am yours, my lady. Your liege man, or.... whatever you would have me be. I will shield your back and keep you counsel and give my life for yours, if need be. I swear it by the old gods and new” (Catelyn Pg.562). In this section she swore allegiance to Lady Stark saying she is a loyal protector. After she swore allegiance with Catelyn, she is given a task to go to King’s Landing we go into a scene where she shows this sort of alpha attitude towards Jaime Lannister. What I mean by this is when she goes to get Jaime, she tells him what she’s doing and what he needs to do. She wanted to do anything and everything she could to be a sword fighter. This is what is different from Brienne. I mentioned earlier that Brienne was a loyal fighter, well that’s not the case with Arya. Arya is more of a self-defense type of gal rather than someone who just wants to protect others and kill off others. The first time she was given a sword was in season one episode one when Jon snow gives her the “Needle”. The needle was a sword that she could use to only protect herself rather than to kill off others. Even though she the needle wasn’t supposed to be used as a weapon she used it as a self-defense weapon in Season one. In season one episode nine, Arya uses her needle to stab a stable boy. The only reason she stabs him is because he was trying to capture her for the queen. This just shows how much more Arya is as a self-defense fighter rather than a protector of someone else. Another difference within their fighting is where they received their training from. Brienne received her training by training to be a knight in Westeros while Arya on the other hand was trained from a Bravoosi sword class. 

We have learned a lot of things about these characters throughout this article. We have learned that the differences in Arya and Brienne are femineity, sword skills and even a different love life. We have also learned that Arya and Brienne share the similarities of being awesome, opinionated, and even amazing fighters. These two are the best characters in the show and I hope you find them as interesting as I do.