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\nThe dance, Arya\u2019s Grief, captures my reflection and also my actual self as there are two sides to every person: what the internal self is going through vs. the performance of the external self. The dance captures the distance one goes through in order to get up and live with grief. In this dance, the \u201cmonster\u201d tormenting or saddening the dancer is grief itself. \u201cThe monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment \u2013 of a time, a feeling, and a place. The monster\u2019s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy\u2026giving them life and an uncanny independence\u201d (Cohen 4). Arya feels this immense \u201cfear, desire, anxiety\u201d in this \u201cfantasy\u201d world of Westeros when she loses her brother and mother as she is just about to see them after a long time of separation. The monster\u2019s body is essentially Arya\u2019s, the dancer\u2019s, body. The body quite literally gives life and independence to grief, fear, and anxiety as grief literally takes refuge in Arya\u2019s sorrow.
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\nWe first see the dancer in the mirror reflection curled up in a ball. The reflection, which is the internal self (the monster, the grief) inside the body, \u201cinhabits the gap between the time of upheaval that created it and the moment into which it is received, to be born again\u201d (Cohen 4). Grief works exactly by inhabiting the \u201cgap between the time of upheaval that created it,\u201d which is at the Red Wedding, and \u201cthe moment into which it is received,\u201d Arya swearing to avenge the deaths of her mother and brother by killing Lord Frey for what he has committed, only to be \u201cborn again,\u201d as pain is a human condition and grief will be born again in time of another loss that Arya experiences. The whole dance sequence represents this timeline of the mourning at hand and Arya\u2019s desire to get up and continue with her life but her inability to literally stand up, but once she does, only to fall down again as grief is \u201cborn again.\u201d
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\nGame of Thrones, as a T.V. show with elements of horror, \u201cviolates our assumption that we live in a predictable, routinized world by demonstrating that we live in a minefield\u201d by unexpectedly killing off their main characters (Pinedo 21). Arya\u2019s grief that is uncontained and exploding at times but also calm and painful, demonstrates that \u201cwe live in a minefield\u201d as our lives could be overturned by death at any moment. By performing grievance through a dance, there is an element to my haunted media project that is a bit \u201cself-indulgent, and, like so much else on social media\u2026performative\u201d (Garber). I wanted to take this aspect of grieving and literally turn it into an actual performance as a means to physicalize how grief possesses a person in mourning.
\n\tIt\u2019s also curious to see that her grief, due to the deaths of her family members, allows viewers of the series to be more empathetic to her taking the lives of other people. \u201cHer gruesome murder of Ser Meryn in a brothel is the execution of a sadistic pedophile. Her elimination of Walder Frey and his sons rids the world of treacherous murderers. There is at least a strong utilitarian justification for the elimination of most of her victims. The explanation for these choices of Arya\u2019s is forcefully presented without it becoming a justification\u2026She relentlessly repeats the names of those for whose death she prays. This is not presented as a healthy state in which to be, but it is made understandable. We\u2019re intended to empathize with Arya and share her hatreds\u201d (Silverman 7). As everyone\u2019s grieving process is different, Arya\u2019s becomes the one of vengeance. Vengeance is also a form of reaching out to the dead as murdering in the name of a deceased person is also a way (at least in Game of Thrones) to come to terms with the passing away or the murder of a loved one. By showing \u201cArya\u201d walking off at the end of the dance sequence, she continues with her life but the monster, grief, is \u201cready to stalk again\u201d (Cohen 5). Grief always escapes and never truly goes away, seen by how \u201cArya,\u201d despite her strength to continue with her life and rise up after the \u201cRains of Castamere\u201d song, is still grief ridden, knowing grief is ready to stalk again in the future.
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\nIn order to focus on the performative aspect of grievance and how our digital media comes to play with it, the camera is reflected in the mirror, showing how grievance, though inside us, is expressed differently when our digital media comes to interfere (or help) with it. There is an aspect of grief that technology has brought that makes people feel the need to express that they are in grievance or let others know just how affected they are by the death of a loved one. Those who do not post or express their grievance outwardly are criticized or seen to not be as affected, while those who also choose to express a lot through social media are also criticized for their grievance is seen as a mere performance. Either way, people have different ways of going about grieving that as long as they are not negatively harming anyone in their lives, different ways of grieving should be understood and accepted. <\/p>\n