JustinMoir

I can’t decide if recent science fiction has left me too technologically nihilistic, but at this point sentient AI and its ramifications feel like an inevitability

Something that I think is understated is the amount of empathy developed by Dungeons and Dragons. As people fall into the characters they inhabit and engage with I’ve noticed surprisingly genuine emotional connections form between players, their creations, and each other.

The strange thing in the case of Arya is that she seems to be exempt from the consequences of revenge. Every other character that seeks out revenge is implicated in the cycle of violence that revenge begins and begets – Robb’s revenge leads to his death at the hands of the Freys who themselves are seeking revenge against him, Danerys’ journey to avenge her family causes her most loyal friends to turn against her as she becomes numb to the violence requires to continue it, etc. But Arya just succeeds. Training and debatable “plot armour” aside, every act of vengeance only benefits her, bringing her closer to home, to family, to safety rather than away from it.