#Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories

[atopvisenyashill]

bunch of tags i’ve been trying to add but i’m lazy but i will soon bc they’re thematically relevant and i want to obsess over them-

he’ll have to close an eye - there’s a lot of bitches in this series who lose eyes alright

rhymes with freak - all the theon prophet stuff. i think i’ve tagged all of it but i’m not sure

you have to know your name - i like to refer to this as “ironborn wildin out”

fairy tales in asoiaf - i wanted to include both things considered fairy tales in asoiaf as well as fairy tale references

mythology in asoiaf - ditto for this

courtly and chivalric love - idk why i didn't start this blog with this tag tbh that one's on me. is chivalric a word. is there another word i'm thinking of here.

knighthood and oath keeping - this tag is all fucked up because i tag it like 12 different ways

echoes of sansa and arya - i'm populating that tag rn!!! i did retag some stuff with it though

mother alyssa dolorosa - i might tweak this tag slightly but there's so much crying mom holding her dead oldest son stuff in this series i gotta have something. the "alyssa" part is for the alyssa arryn story btw

jon and the aemons - i have retagged this one but i want to add more to it, i don't have enough maester aemon stuff

robb stark ultimate dead girl haunting the narrative - very proud of myself for adding that one haha

some tags that i want to be very tumblr 2012 about since i already have that sansa/arya tag so whatever-

aligon, from the song under my skin by jukebox the musical (it’s in my playlist lol) - the beating of your heart is making me bleed from within

laenyra - fond and more than fond. maybe its boring whatever!

rhaenyra & jacaerys - haven’t even retagged yet

rhaenyra viserys & daemon - i’ve tagged it just haven’t given it a ✨special tag✨yet

theon & robb - samesies

lyanna & jon - haven’t retagged yet, no special tag yet smh

dunk & brienne - that one is just going to be "dunk and brienne parallels" but i've tagged it really inconsistently so it's kind of fucked up

[aradeia]

Between a crazy spring semester and writing my MA thesis this fall, I didn't get to read for fun too much this year unfortunately. But here are my five favorite books of the few I did get to in 2022:

(1). The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. One of the best myth retellings I've ever read. Atwood presents Penelope as an unreliable narrator with an agenda of her own (this is an Odyssey retelling after all!). She then counters Penelope's version of events with the maids' point of view. Penelope's relationship with the maids, as well as her relationship with Helen, were the highlights of the book for me.

(2). A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I know, I know. Game of Thrones. I blame beloved House of the Dragon for making me finally pick this one up. I'm so glad I did. I love Martin's characters. They're so well designed; each point of view character provides a different critique of chivalric society and the fantasy genre. Martin does a good job bringing each characters' story to a satisfying end in this one (especially Daenerys, Sansa, and Catelyn). The execution of the honorable Ned Stark is a shocking subversion of tropes.

(3). Carrie by Stephen King. I felt so bad for Carrie! I related to her very strongly. The most interesting relationship in this book for me was Carrie and Sue Snell. Between them was the complicated and ugly female bullying story I wanted to explore–– especially after the simplistic, boring story I'd gotten from Stranger Things 4. I wish Carrie and Sue had interacted more (I think it would have made Carrie's death scene more impactful for me), but Sue got replaced by her boyfriend Tommy in the narrative. Heteronormativity strikes again.

(4). A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner. So fun, and I love Sophos! I found it really compelling that Sophos had to come to the realization that there was no nonviolent solution before him if he wanted to stay alive. He lost innocence in this way. In retrospect, that kind of character development reminds me of what I love most about Game of Thrones. Also, Sophos' relationship with Helen/Eddis is wonderful. I love that Helen helps to deceive him, because it's for the good of her country. I don't often come across stories about women in power who are not guided first by their personal loves and interests. (Thinking of Cersei Lannister here. Also Rhaenyra Targaryen by the end of dragon show.)

(5). Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I love the characters! I love Sophie, and Howl, and most of all, Calcifer! I hadn't read this book as a kid or watched the movie, so it was all new to me. I think my favorite part about this story was the decision to present old age as liberating for Sophie. Becoming old allowed Sophie to shed her inhibitions, grow more confident, and more powerful in her magic. I like that story, especially for young girls, who are told that becoming old is the worst thing that can possibly happen to them. It's not!

Even though I didn't get to read so much this year, I still read some pretty compelling stories and met really fascinating characters– my favorite part of reading. Definitely getting back into the A Song of Ice and Fire universe has been a big deal for me. It's replaced Star Wars in my heart, I can't believe...

Here's to hoping I get to read more next year!

[artemisia-black]

Man Sirius will have a field day if he finds out Aeliana reads smut wouldn’t he? Well maybe not a field day, but that’s easy teasing fodder lol. But then they’re both romantics at heart and if that comes out it will be so sweet. I really love that Aeliana loves the stories about knights. It reminds me of Sansa Stark and her love of romantic stories and songs, often tragic and bittersweet ones.

Thanks for reading ♥️♥️

Sansa Stark is one of my inspos for Aeliana- girly but really tough (not that women aren’t but in media it’s often one or the other).

He will 💯 tease her but I always hc him as bit of a romantic underneath his gruffness.

The chivalric knight is a bit of a theme.

In earlier chapters, Sirius says the following:

Oh, my sincere apologies for not acting the chivalric knight.’ ‘As recompense, Should I compose a poem about the beauty of your eyes and how I would die for you?’ Sirius shot back, heat crawling across his skin as he sketched a mock bow at her

And later Arcturus says:

‘But your son fell on his sword like a chivalric knight of old and claimed all the blame.’ Arcturus looked heavenwards before continuing

In many ways Sirius does have the traits of a chivalric knight, he is a fighter for what he believes in, is a member of a brotherhood, swears an oath to protect people ( refers to looking after Harry as his duty), and has a spirit of adventure.

So given Aeliana is partial to that already… he is certainly her type haha

[minasmorghul]

heyyy Im absolutely in love with you genderbent starklings AU. Can u show us more about artos and his relationship with the rest of the starks🥺🥺🥺

Hi!!! I'm so glad you liked it!!!

So for Artos, I kind of had two varying ideas I think can both be explored to some degree and keep very true to how aspects of Arya play out in the books; but honestly I do think in a way, you can't 100% capture the Essence, so to speak, of Arya and Sansa without them being informed by them being a girls in a patriarchal feudal society.

On one hand, playing with Artos trying to embody Arya's gender-nonconformity would be a really interesting path to explore since usually in the books we think of Arya as presenting more masc, vs Sansa being more femme, ie. Arya's sense of alienation stems from her rejection of gender roles whereas in her eyes, Sansa embraces them so effortlessly.

So I think an Artos that is more interested in "feminine" pursuits, and maybe he has a genuine needle, so to speak and prefers to spend time with his mother and sisters as opposed to his father and Symeon and Theon, would be an interesting parallel to draw to Arya's gnc-ness. In this kind of path Artos is definitely a momma's boy through and through, which would probably draw a clearer parallel between Arya being very much similar to Catelyn in personality.

On the other hand, a stalwartly "Northerner" Artos compared to Symeon being squired with the Blackfish would be interesting too, because Symeon, to capture Sansa's brand of idealism and romanticism, her belief in chivalric romances, would need to narratively fulfill a role thematically equivalent to Sansa being the beautiful maiden of song-- Symeon now being the gallant knight.

Meanwhile, the northerners seem more stoic and practical, and Artos might seem cynical about Symeon's ambitions, and Symeon's insistence that life is beautiful or that laws are just or the likes. Symeon is definitely very much Ned's mini-me in that respect, but with Catelyn's sense of being courteously charming, whilst Artos has Catelyn's protective, almost hotheaded nature but with Ned's kind of seriousness in expression.

With Ned and his daughters we see him being somehow clumsily indulgent to them both, even if he does seem to understand Arya better on the surface level in that he hires a swordmaster to teach her (but still insisting that these are just "hobbies" she'll grow out of to eventually marry a lord and have children) whilst he seems totally out of his depth with Sansa. I think he might understand Artos and Symeon a bit more by virtue of being boys he can connect to on that regards.

I think a lot of what will inform Artos's dynamic with his siblings will be what his future path is considered to be as he's the spare to Symeon being the heir. Maybe the castellan or steward of Winterfell? In which case, his parents might betroth him to Jeyne Poole and encourage him to apprentice with Vayon. Maybe the Night's Watch?

I feel that Artos, like Arya has no real desire for like, extolling "traditional" forms of power/authority as regarded by polite society: he's a little unpolished, he's a little reckless, probably a wild wolf like Brandon and Lyanna. I don't think he and Symeon would be quite so antagonistic towards each other as Arya and Sansa are painted as being (both because I feel like their on-page interactions depict their relationship at the lowest point it's ever been due to outside influences and because fans really overblow it into accusations of child abuse and stuff). But I do think they're siblings who bicker a lot. Artos probably makes fun of Symeon with a fake voice and all, for being all puffed-up about becoming a knight, while Symeon is elbowing Artos because he's mouthing off in front of important guests.

With Jonelle, I think ironically Artos's dynamic really does depend on whether we follow Artos as having Arya's personality transplanted onto him directly, or we follow Arya's relationship to gender as part of his story arc. With Arya's personality, I think ironically Artos would be less close in a gender-swapped AU than Arya is with Jon in canon, mostly because as Jonelle is a girl and therefore far less of a threat to the claim of Catelyn's children on Winterfell, there's less of that sense of "oh well, my mom doesn't like him which makes him the perfect person to hang out with!!!" in Arya's kind of contrarian, very typical 9 year old way. Jonelle is no longer the outcast Jon is, while Artos might have a chip on his shoulder for all the reason 9 year olds do, but it's not the chip on Arya's shoulder that has to do with her anger over her inability to conform to gender roles.

Whereas an Artos who is also like Arya of canon gender non-conforming would spend more time with his mother and sisters. Catelyn might want him to pursue squirehood or spend more time with men-at-arms and soldiers, knowing the world would be cruel to him for being gnc. While Ned probably still sees Artos being able to spend time with the Septa and the ladies-in-waiting and his mother and sisters as being a "phase" he's interested in but will eventually grow out of.

Now I'm thinking of Artos as being a bit similar to Vaegon Targaryen in that he doesn't really embody the perfect warrior masculinity his older brothers project.

I rambled on for way too long about this with no sense of cohesion lol

[g0lightly]

My post-canon longfic where an older Sansa and Brienne fall in love amid a series of chivalric romance tropes leading up to a second dance of dragons just got 10k words longer. It's a romance, yes, but it's ultimately a story of two idealistic characters in a world that forces them to fight for their ideals. My goal is for this work to be a queer exploration of the themes of love and duty.

Sansa is now Robb’s fraternal twin. Otherwise, this fic is canon compliant. The story begins in 302 AC, making Sansa 19 and Brienne 21.

After Jaime’s death, Brienne takes over the Hound’s helm and persona in her grief. To restore his honor and legacy, she resumes her mission to find Sansa; along the way, she enters a tourney at the Eyrie as the Hound to win some much needed coin to continue on through winter. At the Eyrie, Lady Alayne Arryn begs the stranger in the Hound’s helm for help escaping a doomed marriage. Brienne temporarily sets aside her mission to help the lady escape north to reunite with her family. Petyr Baelish then announces that the Hound has abducted Sansa Stark, who has been in disguise as his bastard daughter Alayne, and advertises a large reward for her safe return. All this as Tyrion uses his previous marriage to Sansa as an attempt to take the Vale for the mountain clans and Daenerys, ultimately leading to a second dance of the dragons as the Long Night looms over a years-long winter. Soon all the singers of Westeros would sing of Harrenhal’s Hounds, their witch queen, and the “abduction” that started it all - but life is not a song. In this story, it is far sweeter.

[kellyvela]

Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories: Symeon Star-Eyes & Prince Aemon the Dragonknight.

Do you have any notion what happens when a city is sacked, Sansa? No, you wouldn't, would you? All you know of life you learned from singers, and there's such a dearth of good sacking songs." "True knights would never harm women and children." The words rang hollow in her ears even as she said them. "True knights." The queen seemed to find that wonderfully amusing. "No doubt you're right. So why don't you just eat your broth like a good girl and wait for Symeon Star-Eyes and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight to come rescue you, sweetling. I'm sure it won't be very long now." —A Clash of Kings - Sansa V

Unbeknownst, Cersei made a prediction about Sansa Stark's true knights.

Sapphires instead of eyes??? Here comes the maid of Tarth:

Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. —A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VI

Jaime watched her eyes. Pretty eyes, he thought, and calm. —A Storm of Swords - Jaime I

Tarth is called the Sapphire Isle for the blue of its waters. —A Storm of Swords - Jaime III

"Her name is Brienne," Jaime said. "Brienne, the maid of Tarth. —A Storm of Swords - Jaime VI

Prince Aemon Targaryen, the Dragonknight??? He was always there, hidden under the cloak of the surname Snow and surrounded by Aemons:

My grandfather named me for Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who was his uncle, or his father, depending on which tale you believe. Aemon, he called me …" "Aemon … Targaryen?" Jon could scarcely believe it. —A Game of Thrones - Jon VIII "Maester Aemon was named for the Dragonknight." —A Clash of Kings - Jon I "I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out. —A Storm of Swords - Jon XII

"Maester is not a name. You could call him Aemon, though." Gilly thought about that. "Dalla brought him forth during battle, as the swords sang all around her. That should be his name. Aemon Battleborn. Aemon Steelsong." —A Feast for Crows - Samwell IV

Be a good girl, Sansa, and wait for Brienne the Maid of Tarth and Jon Snow the Black Knight of the Wall to come rescue you, sweetling. I'm sure it won't be very long now.

[apiratecalledav]

It’s great to see you posting Game of Thrones and Gendry/Arya again! I’ve been wondering if you ship Sansa with anyone?

Aw, thanks! 😊

Unpopular-ish opinion time but I’m not gonna lie, Podrick Payne is my ideal match for her, especially in the show. What did Ned want for Sansa? “Someone who’s brave and gentle and strong.” That’s totally Pod. He’s also polite, sweet, thoughtful, hardworking, loyal, and determined. And apparently some kind of sex god? He’s got no issues with kickass women and he would be completely cool with Sansa being in charge. 

I see a lot of focus on why Sansa deserves someone like Pod but we shouldn’t overlook that she’d actually be good for him, too! On his end, I think he’d appreciate how patient/compassionate she is… We’ve seen how he sometimes struggles to get the hang of things in new situations and Sansa would be very sympathetic to that. I’d imagine that she would help him work on his confidence, too. She would also just really appreciate all the things he’d do (or try to) for her and that would make him really happy. 

I’m not getting my hopes up that they will actually get together but I do think they’d work out pretty well from a narrative standpoint, too:

Character development-wise, it would really highlight how much Sansa has grown up. At first, all she wanted was her beautiful prince. After Joffrey, she had a crush on Loras, a gorgeous, highly popular and lauded knight. When she was young and naïve, she fully believed that a prince and a knight would turn out to be just like the leading men of her favorite songs and stories. But Joffrey was a monster and Loras, though generally very nice and a good person, was not quite as honorable as Sansa was day dreaming (“Ser Loras wouldn’t do that, there’s no honor in tricks!”). Podrick’s position does not have the kind of romanticized splendor of a prince or a knight but he does have the chivalrous disposition that Sansa had hoped to find in Joffrey and Loras. And while Pod has certainly grown up to be very handsome, it’s not in the male-model-pretty-boy sort of way that Joffrey and Loras were. Sansa understands the value of substance over style and has learned to see the best in people who deserve it, like Tyrion and Sandor. Podrick might appear awkward and incidental but Sansa would look at him and see the most pure soul in Westeros. And he would treat her better than Joffrey ever would and love her the way that Loras couldn’t.

The irony. Sansa once wanted to marry Joffrey and be his queen. She didn’t marry him but now has power in her own right and might even end up a queen. Sansa also once wanted to marry a knight-in-shining-armor. I think it’d be awesome if she married a squire/knight-in-somewhat-dented-armor instead… and he’d be her consort. 

He’s distantly related to Illyn and of course House Payne serves the Lannisters so it would be nice to see some bridge-building and changes to the way things have always been.

I feel like he’s her best, somewhat realistic opportunity to marry for love, something I believe she deserves. Sansa is finally in a position to choose her own husband and I think there’s a chance that marriage alliances might not be as necessary after this last, unifying war. If she marries again, I hope it’s for no other reason than because she wants to spend her life with him. Podrick would be a fine choice and not just because he’s close in age and they already know each other. He’s not a lowborn “nobody” but he’s not a player in the game, either and I think that’s perfect. I assume he has some education so he wouldn’t be completely out of his depth at Sansa’s side but he also has no chance of outranking her, either. Basically, he’s respectable enough that I think people would deal with it but he also wouldn’t bring any issues to Sansa’s position and power or with their children’s titles/inheritance (maybe even allow for them to be called Stark?).

So… yeah. Team… Podsa? Sandrick?? Ponsa? Sanpod? Sapodanick? Ok, I’ll stop. 

P.S. They look so right on either side of their Auntie Brienne. Insert that “good shit” meme. 

[bookjonsa]

Some thoughts on Sansa and Jon, by Tze

Sansa and Jon are, as far as I can tell, the only two Starks we never actually see interact in "present" time, and I don't think that's a coincidence from a literary standpoint. Everything we know of their past interactions comes via someone's reminiscences, so each is present in the other's life, but only in the past, never in the present. If Jon and Sansa meet in the future, it will doubtless come across to readers, in a very real way, as their very first meeting. Given the changes they've both undergone since their last meeting, that type of dynamic makes a certain amount of literary sense.

At the beginning of the series, Jon and Sansa seemed to sit at two opposite ends of the "Stark" children's cultural spectrum: Sansa is viewed by other characters as the most culturally "southern" of the children, (and she did initially seem to value "southern" courtly culture more than Northern culture), while Jon is viewed as the most culturally "Northern" of the Starks because he does not associate with southern-based institutions. Sansa was the Stark child most heavily and explicitly associated with the Faith of the Seven (she was always with her septa and she's the Stark child we see actually worshiping in the sept the most), while Jon was, at the beginning of the series, the most heavily associated with the Old Gods (given that he's the only one of the children who does not keep the Faith at all, not to mention Ghost's physical resemblance to a weirwood tree). Of the boys, Jon looks the most like Ned, while Sansa looks the most (out of the girls) like Catelyn---superficially, readers were encouraged, in the beginning, to associate Sansa and Jon with two different "regions", one with the South and one with the North.

In AGOT, Sansa and Jon occupied two very different, inherently non-overlapping worlds, and each person's understanding of how "the world" worked implicitly contained no real "place" for the other. By that I mean: Jon loved to fight, occupied a world in which fighting was the primary activity, and at the beginning had a great deal of difficulty interacting with people incapable of fighting. Look at his initial attitude toward Tyrion as well as the other Watch recruits, for example. Sansa is the one Stark child inherently incapable of fighting. She loved knitting, dancing, listening to singers, things that Jon had no use for---there was no room for Sansa in Jon's "world".

And Sansa's "world" contained no real "place" for Jon. She believed that knighthood and its accompanying (southern) chivalric code were the celebrated foundations of the world, and interpreted everything she saw through that cultural lens. Sansa knew her "world of chivalry" clearly viewed a bastard like Jon with suspicion, and because of that, I think Sansa probably had difficulty holding what seemed like two contradictory notions in her head: on the one hand, Jon was her brother, raised along with her and someone she never seemed to have any open conflicts with (unlike Arya, for example), and on the other hand, as the occupier of a "place" (bastard) that her social code condemned.

Now, I think it's worth noting that, although bastards have far lesser status in Westerosi society, there are "places" that can be carved out for them nonetheless, especially for paternally-acknowledged highborn bastards like Jon: we're told that bastards have served in the Kingsguard, a bastard (Sam Stone) serves as Master-At-Arms for House Royce of Runestone, a bastard ends up on Cersei's Small Council, at least one bastard served as Hand of the King, bastards freely join the Citadel and the Faith, etc., etc. But the issue with Jon is that Sansa, during AGOT, pretty clearly viewed knighthood as the central aspect of a man's worth. To "properly" occupy an honored place in "Sansa's world", Jon would have to first be a knight---not just a fighter, but an actual anointed knight, with all of the accompanying chivalric duties and responsibilities. (Look at how she thinks about Jory vs. how she thinks of Alyn in AGOT for an illustration of this.) Jon clearly had the fighting ability to attain knighthood, but unlike the other Starks, he has never kept the Seven at all. Knighthood was never a real possibility for him, as it was for Robb/Bran/Rickon, and presumably Sansa recognized that. I think it was difficult for her, especially early on, to really find a positive place for Jon in her understanding of the world, because he obviously couldn't be a septon, he couldn't join the Citadel (she would have recognized Jon wasn't exactly a bookworm), he was not in line for lordship, and he wasn't going to be a knight . . . but deep down she loved him nonetheless. So what was he? Where did he fit? How could she believe that knighthood and chivalry were the cornerstones of her society while simultaneously having a relationship with her non-knight bastard brother? I think this is why Sansa was, in the beginning, so very, very keen on pointing out Jon's exact relationship to her: her half-brother, a bastard. I think deep down Jon really confused her, and this was her way of repeatedly clarifying to herself exactly who Jon was, of seeking a measure of control over a relationship that must have confuzzled her greatly, because its very existence contradicted her understanding of how the world was supposed to work.

Because while Jon and Sansa seemed to have the most "distant" relationship of the Stark children, it's pretty clear that Jon and Sansa did always love each other deep down. At the Wall, Jon mentioned that he missed Sansa. In ADWD, when he thinks of his lost siblings, right before he starts making plans to head to Winterfell, an image of Sansa brushing Lady's coat and singing is included. And even in AGOT, though Sansa rarely thought about Jon, when he did enter her thoughts we saw her seem to subconsciously want Jon to occupy a "positive" position in her understanding of the world order. We know from Jon that Sansa tried to teach him how to talk to girls, and though he mentions that she always called him her "half"-brother, there's no indication she tried to ignore or insult him, as other trueborn children might have done to a bastard. Her love for him was clearly not as "free" as Arya's love for him was---Sansa's world of chivalry and knighthood was a stumbling block to such a relationship, so it's easy for readers to overlook that she did love him. But even in AGOT, look at her reaction to Yoren:

She had always imagined the Night's Watch to be men like Uncle Benjen. In the songs, they were called the black knights of the Wall. But this man had been crookbacked and hideous, and he looked as though he might have lice. If this was what the Night's Watch was truly like, she felt sorry for her bastard half brother, Jon.

It's easy for readers to focus on her calling Jon her "bastard half brother" here, but if we look a little deeper, we notice how she also thinks to herself that the singers called the Watch "the black knights of the Wall". This is important because we know what a huge premium Sansa was putting on the idea of knighthood. Though religion seemingly prevents Jon from attaining knighthood, Sansa seemed to subconsciously look for a loophole there, and found one in the songs: her beloved singers could "grant" Jon a sort of honorary knighthood as a member of the Watch, so that is the route her thoughts took.

(And here we also see that Jon and Sansa, though superficially incredibly divergent, actually did look at the world in somewhat similar ways: each believed in the stories and songs, in honor---just different stories and different methods of honor. Each believed Benjen Stark was the prototypical Watchman. Jon believed all Watchmen were true and honorable, Sansa believed all knights were true and honorable. They each had specific ideas about how a specific place was supposed to be (the Wall and the South), and each of them had those ideas dashed by reality.)

As ASOIAF has progressed, we've seen Jon and Sansa slip into each other's roles, into each other's shoes. Jon becomes a Lord in ASOS, the same book in which Sansa ceases "being" a Lady. Robb disinherited Sansa at the same time (if the will says what many suspect it does) that he declared he wanted Jon to inherit. Becoming Alayne meant Sansa became a bastard, just like Jon, (and Jon could very well have been declared trueborn by Robb's will, which would mean that Sansa "became" a bastard and Jon "became" a trueborn Stark). Sansa began her story by loving singers, and has progressed toward disliking them (Marillion), while Jon initially seemed to have no use for singers . . . until he met the singer Mance Rayder. The Littlefinger/Lysa/Sansa dynamic played out almost as a vicious, over-the-top caricature of the Ned/Catelyn/Jon dynamic, with Sansa forced to literally stand in a (heavily skewed and sensationalized) version of Jon's shoes: Catelyn saw Jon as a living representation of another woman that she feared Ned loved more than her, and Lysa saw Sansa as a living representation of Catelyn, the woman that Lysa (rightly) feared Littlefinger loved more than her. Sansa seemed to have a much closer relationship with her mother than with her father (the exact opposite of Jon), but "Alayne" had a much "closer" relationship with Littlefinger than with Lysa---Sansa takes on with Littlefinger (a much skeevier version of) the relatively close father/child relationship that Jon had with Ned.

In her final chapter of AFFC, Sansa thinks to herself:

She had not thought of Jon in ages.

Or so Sansa tells herself. But I think there's a pretty good chance Sansa had actually been subconsciously thinking about Jon ever since she took on the Alayne Stone identity, because Sansa seems to be subconsciously patterning her "Alayne Stone" persona around Jon Snow. Sansa wants "Alayne" to be 14 years old, because "She had decided that Alayne Stone should be older than Sansa Stark". How old was Jon the last time Sansa saw him? 14 years old. She becomes worried at the prospect of dancing, because she seems to think that, for some unexplained reason, Alayne Stone might not enjoy dancing:

What would she do when the music began to play? It was a vexing question, to which her heart and head gave different answers. Sansa loved to dance, but Alayne...

Dancing is a pretty popular activity among women of all social classes and we know it's an activity very close to Sansa's heart, given that she was able to dance even at her own terrible wedding. But then in ADWD we discover that Jon does not appear to enjoy dancing---he refuses to dance with Alys, and Alys teases him about it when she brings up previous dances they were forced to dance together at Winterfell. If Sansa is subconsciously patterning "Alayne" on Jon Snow, then the fact that she's concerned that Alayne might not enjoy dancing makes quite a bit of sense, given that Jon's apparent dislike of dancing seems like the sort of thing Sansa would have picked up on. (In other words, if "Alayne" is patterned after Jon Snow, then the "real" reason Sansa fears Alayne won't like dancing is because Sansa knows Jon, on whom Alayne is molded, dislikes dancing.) Sansa thinks of Alayne as "bastard-brave", and since she barely knows Mya, what bastard does Sansa want Alayne to be as brave as? The obvious answer is Jon. And we see "Alayne" take on the type of caregiver role with Sweetrobin that the other Stark children (Bran and Arya, especially) seem to have associated with Jon, a role that Sansa herself seemed to take on with people like Beth Cassel and Jeyne Poole in Winterfell, but not with her own younger siblings.

He was only her half brother, but still... with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again.

This is Sansa's thought process once Myranda Royce tells her about Jon's new position as Lord Commander of the Watch. If I'm correct and she's had Jon on the brain throughout AFFC, then this right here actually serves as a breakthrough for her, because Sansa goes from subconsciously longing for Jon to explicitly longing for Jon. And her thought process here is a pretty useful distillation of how far Sansa's come from AGOT, a semi-culmination of her ideological journey thus far: the main issues she once had with Jon---that he was a bastard, that he didn't "fit" the world of knights and chivalry that Sansa loved---have been essentially nullified. She starts out with the "old" Sansa's thought patterns ("He was only her half-brother"), but then she immediately (and pretty substantially) switches gears and starts openly longing to see Jon again, expressly thinking about how she's now a bastard too. The ideological barriers between them are basically gone.

Indeed, Sansa's entire arc had been bringing her closer and closer, ideologically, to the forces (winter, the North, and the Old Gods) represented by Jon. Sansa started out in AGOT preferring the Faith of the Seven, loving knighthood, loving the south, and losing her direwolf. By AFFC, we see her (far) more heavily associated with the Old Gods, favoring a non-knight (the Hound), and in an overall sense, switching gears from the epitomization of a "summer's child" to (IMO) someone on the path to becoming a "winter's child". Jon and Sansa become the Starks who we see most heavily drawing their inner strength from the cold and the snow: Jon mentions on more than one occasion that Ghost loves the snow, we see Jon frequently seeking out the cold (not the heat) at the Wall. We see Sansa literally drawing strength from the snow and the cold at the Eyrie. In the beginning of AGOT, Sansa wanted only to be a queen in the hot south. By AFFC, we see her building a scale model of Winterfell and drawing spiritual strength from the forces of winter.

Given the way Sansa seems to have been sliding more and more "toward" Jon as her arc has progressed---given the way her arc has been bringing her closer to him both ideologically and thematically---I wonder what implications Jon's stabbing (and the potential future that stabbing could bring for him) have for Sansa's future. Because the myth of Persephone looms large over both Jon and Sansa, and given what happened to Jon at the end of ADWD, I'm very, very curious what GRRM has in store for Sansa's arc, especially now that winter has come.

Both Jon and Sansa encounter "the pomegranate": Sansa is offered a literal pomegranate by Littlefinger, while Jon's rulership arc in ADWD was confronted at every turn by the Old Pomegranate, Bowen Marsh. The pomegranate, in Greek mythology, is what causes Persephone to become Queen of the Dead in perpetuity, and it's the reason winter comes in the first place---winter, in Greek mythology, being viewed as Demeter's grief at her separation from her daughter when Persephone descends every year to rule in the Underworld. The pomegrante causes Persephone to undertake two disparate roles, to become a creature of two separate worlds: she is both the Goddess of Spring and the Queen of the Underworld simultaneously (and concurrently), she rules in both the sunlight and the darkness. That idea---of a person moving between two contradictory spheres of existence, of a person gaining strength by a capacity to move between the darkness and the light---is a theme GRRM has played around with in other works, so there's an excellent chance he's exploring it in ASOIAF as well.

Both Jon and Sansa choose to reject "the pomegranate": Jon rejects the Old Pomegranate's demands for the future of the Watch, Sansa rejects Littlefinger's attempt to have her eat an actual pomegranate. But look at what happened to Jon in ADWD: he refused to acquiese to the Old Pomegranate's wishes, but the Old Pomegranate would not quietly accept rejection, choosing to physically attack him: there's been a lot of speculation on these boards that the attack on Jon will lead to some death-based transformation, that he (like Persephone) might find himself transformed (and possibly occupying a new leadership role) because of the Old Pomegranate. GRRM apparently had some Sansa chapters prepared for ADWD, but he pushed them back to TWOW. I'm very curious about what those chapters contained.

Because winter has now come, and in winter, Persephone rules over the dead. Sansa's arc has tracked Persephone in some pretty substantial ways: at the beginning of AGOT, when summer was in swing, she was the Stark most heavily associated with the warmth and frivolity of the South, just as Persephone was the flower-loving Goddess of Spring; Sansa was forced to marry, against her will, a man heavily associated with worldly wealth (in Greek mythology, Hades is associated with wealth because gold, silver, and jewels are drawn from beneath the ground, and Hades of course rules the Underworld). As winter approaches, Sansa loses her childlike innocence and naivete. And winter has now hit Westeros, and will presumably hit with a vengeance during TWOW---so what will Sansa become in the winter? Where winter is a time of imprisonment for Persephone, with spring/summer freeing her to walk the warm world above, it seems that summer was a time of imprisonment for Sansa, and winter might end up freeing her. And the story of Persephone ends with Persephone holding dominion over the dead during the winter. This might be a hint toward our pomegranate-associated characters' future, especially given the heavy associations both Jon and Sansa have with the living dead. (With Jon, those associations are obvious---he's a living man who wears black, his direwolf is named Ghost, he's fighting wights. With Sansa, the associations are less obvious but no less profound: Sansa's direwolf is dead (and since the Starks "are" their direwolves, Sansa is both alive and dead simultaneously because part of her is dead while part of her lives on), Littlefinger associates her with Catelyn reborn (and Catelyn has literally become the walking dead), not to mention the Hound: "The Hound is dead" we are told, and this "dead man" of course hated fire---I doubt it's a coincidence that this description of the Hound, as a walking dead man who hates fire, sounds quite a bit like a wight.)

And then there's this bit from AFFC:

All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains.

It's easy to forget sometimes that AFFC and ADWD were originally meant to be one super-book. Could Sansa have been "sensing" Jon's "death" here? Is the "ghost wolf" Ghost? Or is there a hint here for Sansa herself? She's become a Stone, and she's been told that a stone is a mountain's daughter. The cold winds are howling, and she thinks the cold winds are becoming a ghost wolf---is Sansa, she of the dead direwolf, en route to her own eventual death and resurrection?

[trinuviel]

Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 13)

I’ve previously written a series of essays that analyse Sansa Stark’s narrative arc in Game of Thrones - during season 1 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) and during season 2 (Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10) and now during season 3 (Part 11, Part 12).

One of the important themes in Sansa Stark’s narrative arc in season 3 is her political importance. In season 2, Theon Greyjoy conquered Winterfell and when Bran and Rickon Stark managed to escape him, he killed a pair of peasant boys to deceive people into thinking that the two Stark boys are dead. Thus, in the eyes of Westeros, Sansa is now Robb Stark’s heir apparent to Winterfell and that makes her a very important piece on the political chessboard. If Robb dies without an heir, Winterfell goes to Sansa and whoever manages to secure her in marriage - and there are several power players who are interested in her: Petyr Baelish, the Lannisters and now the Tyrells who are emerging as a new power in King’s Landing with Margaery set to become Queen, her courting the goodwill of the common folk and her family not only supporting the Lannisters militarily but also feeding the starving populace of King’s Landing.

In my previous post, I looked at how Olenna and Margaery Tyrell’s initial interest in Sansa was solely motivated by some nasty rumours about Joffrey that worried them as Margaery is set to marry him. However, in episode 4 Lord Varys encourages Olenna Tyrell to take a further interest in Sansa after he learns that Baelish has plans to spirit Sansa away from King’s Landing. Varys approaches Olenna Tyrell and he broaches the idea of a marriage alliance between Sansa Stark and House Tyrell. He says he wants to help Sansa but his main motivation is to keep her out of the hands of Petyr Baelish. 

This is the first time that Sansa is referred to as the Key to the North in the show, but it will not be the last. 

As previously stated, Sansa is Robb’s heir apparent and as such her political value is very high - and Varys seeks to keep the Key to the North out of the hands of Petyr Baelish whom he deems to be one of the most dangerous men of the realm. Thus, Sansa becomes a political pawn in the shadow war between Varys and Baelish, between one who wants to serve the realm and one who only serves himself.

COURTED BY THE TYRELLS

The scene between Varys and Olenna is immediately followed by a scene where Margaery seeks out Sansa as she’s praying at a tree stump, the sad remains of  Godswood in King’s Landing. The segue between the two scenes makes it clear that Olenna has sent Margaery to charm and befriend Sansa once again since Olenna managed to alienate the girl during their lunch in episode 2, a scene that I covered in my previous post.

Margaery approaches and uses her status as the future Queen to send away the Lannister soldiers that guard Sansa so they can have a private conversation.

Margaery: What did you pray for?

Here Margaery whispers to create an atmosphere of intimacy between them.

Sansa (smiling): I can’t tell you.

It is important to note that even while Sansa is genuinely friendly here, she doesn’t really trust Margaery. Even when Margaery presses her again on this subject, Sansa refuses to reveal anything about her personal feelings and hopes. Sansa is understandably wary about the Tyrells after the upsetting luncheon where she found out that they weren’t really interested in being kind to her for her sake but that they only sought out her company because they wanted something from her - and Olenna was pretty aggressive with her. So now Margaery has her work cut out for her.

Margaery tells jokes and anecdotes, making Sansa laugh. With these little secrets and inconsequential stories from her childhood she creates a sense of intimacy and companionship – as if Sansa is indeed a treasured friend, which is something that is incredibly enticing for a girl as lonely and abused as Sansa is.

Margaery: I want us to be friends.

Here the camera cuts to a close-up of Sansa, looking at Margaery with an almost incredulous smile on her face. She almost can’t believe that anyone would want to be her friend anymore. Sansa is THAT isolated in King’s Landing. 

Margaery goes on to paint a very attractive image of Highgarden, featuring all the things that Sansa loved before she came to experience the hard truth beneath the glamour of the capital. When Sansa doubts that Cersei will let her leave King’s Landing, Margaery invokes her future status as Queen Consort, implicitly promising that she’ll make sure Sansa can leave King’s Landing after the royal marriage. Then, Margaery mentions the real reason for her seeking out Sansa:

Margaery: And if you were to marry my brother Loras… your place would be at Highgarden, wouldn’t it?

Sansa’s smile grows bigger as Margery is now offering her an escape from her abusers at court. But Margaery offers even more than just an escape, she offers the promise of family. 

This is where Sansa becomes visibly overwhelmed, smiling through unshed tears as Margaery offers not just an escape from her torment but also friendship, family and sisterhood - things that Sansa has been without for too long. It is interesting that Margaery uses the same lure as Petyr Baelish: the promise of family. However, Sansa choosing Margaery’s offer doesn’t mean that she’s abandoning her family. It simply means that she’s choosing the less dangerous option of gaining protection and getting out of King’s Landing. Not only is it very dangerous to flee secretly, she has also been explicitly warned about Baelish by a person she trusts (Shae). In contrast, Margaery offers the protection of House Tyrell through marriage and the Tyrells are on the rise. They hold considerable political power as they are feeding King’s Landing and Margaery is set to be Queen. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Tyrells can secure her safety and happiness without exposing her to additional danger - unlike what Baelish offers.

This scene really highlights Sophie Turner’s stellar acting. She has a wonderfully expressive face and she manages the delicate balance between smiles and tears beautifully. Thus, Margaery successfully cultivates Sansa’s friendship and gratitude through a carefully deployed charm. What remains to be seen is whether Margaery’s friendship is a genuine offer.

In the very next episode we see Sansa and Margaery bonding as they watch Loras at weapon’s training. Once again Margaery assures Sansa that she’ll be able to influence Joffrey to let Sansa marry Loras and leave King’s Landing for Highgarden. 

Sansa: Joffrey won’t let me leave. He’s got too many reasons to keep me here.

Margaery: And only one to let you go. Because it will please me.

However, I do think that Margaery is somewhat over-confident here because she doesn’t really know just how much of a monster Joffrey is because Sansa never told the Tyrells that Joffrey didn’t just kill her father and forced her to look at his severed head, but that he also has her publicly beaten by his King’s Guard.

This scene is immediately followed by a scene where Loras has sex with the squire Olyvar who is also in Baelish’s employ - and Loras lets slip that he is set to marry Sansa. This piece of secret information is subsequently conveyed to Baelish by Olyvar - and therefore Sansa’s new dream is already set to be crushed since Baelish has his own plans for her and that leads him to inform Lord Tywin of the Stark-Tyrell marriage plot.

“I FEEL LIKE I’M IN A DREAM”

Margaery is not the only Tyrell who tries to charm Sansa. Her brother Loras also courts Sansa, rather awkwardly, in the gardens of the Red Keep in episode 6.  The setting is lush and romantic but their interactions are rather stilted and awkward, mostly because Loras is very uncomfortable whereas Sansa is all happy and soft-eyed.

For her this betrothal seems like the fulfillment of all her girlish dreams: a handsome knight for a husband who understands the codes of chivalric romance - like when he singled her out at the Hand’s Tourney and presented her with a red rose in season 1, thus enacting a tableau from the romantic songs that Sansa loves so much.  

Sansa: I feel like I’m in a dream.

Sansa is, as said, all wistful and soft-eyed. This is, in a sense, a return to her earlier, girlish self since it seems as though those romantic dreams that she once entertained will come true – but it is also leavened with the prospect of a safe harbor from her tormentors as well as the promise of family and friendship that Margaery presented her with.

It is a scene that I feel very ambiguous about. One the one hand, I think that it is important that we get to see a hopeful Sansa since it will be so much more heartbreaking for us when her hopes are so cruelly crushed. Then there’s the contrast between the lush, romantic setting and Loras’ visible discomfort. While the betrothal represents both an escape as well as a fulfillment of her dreams to Sansa, it represents something very different to Loras since he is homosexual. On the other hand, the way the writers reduces Loras to a gay stereotype is downright offensive.

The placement of this scene was initially a bit puzzling to me since it takes place AFTER Olenna already has agreed to marry Loras to Cersei instead of Sansa! In fact, this very scene begins with Tyrion and Cersei watching Loras and Sansa as they lament their upcoming marriages, Cersei to Loras and Tyrion to Sansa.

Loras is clearly unaware of this development since he wouldn’t be courting Sansa if he was. Thus, from a Watsonian perspective, the placement of this scene doesn’t make much sense. However, I think that the placement of this scene within the narrative is due to Doylist reasons – it is designed to tug at the heartstrings of the audience. We already know that Sansa’s hopes will be crushed, that she won’t escape her tormentors and this lends a certain poignancy to the scene in terms of audience reception.

The thing that kind of ruins this scene for me is the fact that the writers decided to use Loras’ homosexuality as a punchline for a number of stereotypes about gay men as effeminate, i.e. excessively invested in subjects that are usually considered explicitly feminine. Thus they represent him as being pedantic about his jeweled accessories as well as have him wax poetic about his very detailed boyhood dreams about a large and lavish wedding. 

This reduction of Loras to a gay stereotype is rather galling since it is not only a crude way to approach the representation of homosexuality but also has no foundation in the source material where Loras’ sexuality is never represented as effeminate. In the books, he embodies the ideals of manhood in his society in that he is a brave and accomplished warrior. This kind of crude joking at the expense of a character’s sexuality undercuts the poignant aspect of the scene, not to mention that it is simply a downright offensive representation of a homosexual man.

To be continued...

(GIFs not mine)

[jedimaesteryoda]

#MeToo in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire has become one of the most popular and highly acclaimed fantasy series today. Martin’s magnum opus fits in the pantheon of high-fantasy alongside Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

It became increasingly popularized after it was adapted into the award winning series on HBO “Game of Thrones.” What helped to make the book series unique when compared to other high-fantasy stories was its deconstructive nature. Viewers of the show note its showing of nudity and gore, which one usually doesn’t see in fantasy on-screen. Many fantasy writers who set their books in a medieval setting, Tolkien included, portray medieval society as idealized and harmonious, but Martin chooses to display some of the harsh realities of a medieval world from the injustices of a society with a rigid class structure to the brutal realities of warfare with atrocities committed by both sides. For all intents and purposes, I am going to be focusing on the book series, and not the show based off it.

The subject I am going to focus on is how the series relates to #MeToo. #MeToo was originally a movement found by social activist and community organizer, Tarana Burke, in 2006 that promoted “empowerment through empathy” among women in underprivileged communities of color who suffered sexual abuse. Tarana was inspired to use the term after a 13 year-old girl confided in her that she had been sexually assaulted, and Tarana had been unable to respond, wishing she had replied simply “Me too.” In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano used the hashtag to spread awareness about sexual harassment and assault during the time victims of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weintein’s sexual abuse started coming out. The hashtag exploded with women coming with their stories of sexual harassment and assault both online and in public. A number of powerful male figures ended up getting outed by the victims of their sexual indiscretions from Hollywood stars and media moguls to politicians and Supreme Court Justice nominees.

I know at first glance for people who just see the show, #MeToo sounds like a weird subject given the amount of sex and cases of sexual assault on-screen (I blame Benioff and Weiss for scenes like Jaime and Cersei in the sept) and some in the text. However, numerous female characters, including point-of-view (POV) characters, are subject to moments that would fit in with #MeToo. The reader gets to see the threats faced by women in a highly patriarchal, restrictive society across age and class lines, and see how instructive it can be with regards to sexual abuse cases in real-life. There are plenty of cases in the series, but I am going to focus on a few. 

Sansa Stark

Let us start with the POV character Sansa Stark, especially since the iconic phrase “Me Too” was inspired by the sexual abuse of a young girl. Sansa starts the series as a naïve, eleven year-old girl, who like many girls her age, even in the real world, has dreams of romance and lives in a dream world. She is in love with her betrothed, Joffrey, and has a rivalry with her less-than-conventional sister, Arya. However, her dream world later turns into a nightmare world with Cersei initiating a coup, and her betrothed beheading her father, and having her beaten when she displeases him. Throughout the series, Sansa suffers from numerous acts of sexual harassment, sexual assault and attempts at sexual assault.

As father of the realm, Joffrey took the place of Lord Eddard Stark. Sansa stood stiff as a lance as his hands came over her shoulders to fumble with the clasp of her cloak. One of them brushed her breast and lingered to give it a little squeeze.

-A Storm of Swords, Sansa III

"A king can have other women. Whores. My father did. One of the Aegons did too. The third one, or the fourth. He had lots of whores and lots of bastards." As they whirled to the music, Joff gave her a moist kiss. "My uncle will bring you to my bed whenever I command it."

Sansa shook her head. "He won't."

"He will, or I'll have his head. That King Aegon, he had any woman he wanted, whether they were married or no."

-A Storm of Swords, Sansa III

"Don't be sad, Sansa, once I've gotten Queen Margaery with child I'll visit your bedchamber and show my little uncle how it's done."

-A Storm of Swords, Sansa IV

When Joffrey is unclasping her cloak for her wedding, he takes the opportunity to grope her. When they dance, he forces a kiss on her, and tells her that he would make her his whore. Essentially, he tells her that he plans to not simply sleep with, but rape her whenever he wished. He also makes rape jokes in public to Sansa’s face. Sansa doesn’t retaliate or reprimand him for an obvious reason: he has his Kingsguard beat her whenever she opened her mouth against him or displeased him. Another reason is the same reason no one else present in those situations reprimands him: because he is the king, the head of state, one of the most powerful people in the Seven Kingdoms. However, he is also still a minor under Westerosi laws, and until he comes of age, governance is given to two people: the Regent and the Hand of the King. The Hand, his grandfather Lord Tywin Lannister, has a fearsome reputation that discourages others from reprimanding his grandson for his behavior, and the same could be said for the Queen Regent, his mother Cersei, who would never approve of people reprimanding her son in any way. Neither of the two adults who could reprimand Joffrey really care about Sansa either. Sansa on the other hand has no power as a ward and hostage, or rather prisoner, in the royal court of King’s Landing. None of the adults are willing to help her with the only exception being Tyrion. Essentially, Sansa has little to no protection from Joffrey’s unwanted sexual indiscretions.

Sansa is later rescued from King’s Landing, and is taken to the Vale in hiding by Lord Petyr Baelish, also known as Littlefinger. While no longer having to put up with Joffrey’s sexual indiscretions, Sansa isn’t any safer with Baelish.

"I told you that nothing could please me more than to help you with your castle. I fear that was a lie as well. Something else would please me more." He stepped closer. "This."

Sansa tried to step back, but he pulled her into his arms and suddenly he was kissing her. Feebly, she tried to squirm, but only succeeded in pressing herself more tightly against him. His mouth was on hers, swallowing her words. He tasted of mint. For half a heartbeat she yielded to his kiss . . . before she turned her face away and wrenched free. "What are you doing?"

Petyr straightened his cloak. "Kissing a snow maid."

-A Storm of Swords, Sansa VII

"I did not expect you back so soon," she said. "I am glad you've come."

"I would never have known it from the kiss you gave me." He pulled her closer, caught her face between his hands, and kissed her on the lips for a long time. "Now that's the sort of kiss that says welcome home. See that you do better next time."

"Yes, Father." She could feel herself blushing.

-A Feast for Crows, Alayne II

Petyr, a man aged in his late thirties, forces a kiss on a thirteen year-old girl more than once. The first time she made it clear to him she didn’t like it, and he continues in spite of it. He is Lord Protector of the Vale with the household of the Eyrie under his control, and she has hardly any friends at court. I’m not even mentioning that he is essentially sexually grooming her throughout their relationship. Sexual grooming is the practice where an adult influences a child so they can be able to draw them into a sexual relationship. There are six stages according to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner.

Stage 1: Targeting the victim

The offender targets a victim by sizing up the child's vulnerability—emotional neediness, isolation and lower self-confidence. Children with less parental oversight are more desirable prey. Petyr clearly targeted Sansa since they met. Sansa loses her father, her mother is far away and later dies, had her only friend Jeyne taken from her. She is isolated at the Red Keep with no real friends, and the constant abuse from the Lannister family lowered her own self-confidence.

Stage 2: Gaining the victim's trust

The sex offender gains trust by watching and gathering information about the child, getting to know his needs and how to fill them. In this regard, sex offenders mix effortlessly with responsible caretakers. Petyr knows that Sansa is a romantic, and fond of chivalrous knights and uses Ser Dontos as a go-between under the guise of one. Petyr is a member of the Lannisters’ small council, who are her guardians for the first three books.

Stage 3: Filling a need

Once the sex offender begins to fill the child's needs, that adult may assume noticeably more importance in the child's life and may become idealized. Gifts, extra attention, affection may distinguish one adult in particular. Petyr knows that Sansa wants a knight who will protect her, and so uses Ser Dontos to pretend to help her, acting as a “true knight.” He also acts as her protector and savior, taking her away from King’s Landing, and hiding her from the Lannisters. He acts as her guardian as well, knowing she lost her father.

Stage 4: Isolating the child

The grooming sex offender uses the developing special relationship with the child to create situations in which they are alone together. This isolation further reinforces a special connection. Petyr takes her away from King’s Landing to a ship where they share a small cabin, his tower that he rules, and later the Eyrie. As the Lord Protector of the Vale, the Eyrie is under his control.

Stage 5: Sexualizing the relationship

At a stage of sufficient emotional dependence and trust, the offender progressively sexualizes the relationship. Desensitization occurs through talking, pictures, even creating situations in which both offender and victim are naked. When teaching a child, the grooming sex offender has the opportunity to shape the child's sexual preferences and can manipulate what a child finds exciting and extend the relationship in this way. The child comes to see her/himself as a more sexual being and to define the relationship with the offender in more sexual and special terms.

Petyr kisses Sansa in the godswood, and later, kisses her again when they are at the Gates of the Moon. When teaching her about relationships, he also tells her that “young girls were always happiest with older men. ‘Innocence and experience make for a perfect marriage.’”

Stage 6: Maintaining control

Once the sex abuse is occurring, offenders commonly use secrecy and blame to maintain the child's continued participation and silence, particularly because the sexual activity may cause the child to withdraw from the relationship. Children in these entangled relationships confront threats to blame them, to end the relationship and to end the emotional and material needs they associate with the relationship. The child may feel that the loss of the relationship and the consequences of exposing it will humiliate and render them even more unwanted.

Petyr maintains Sansa’s silence through the fact he is providing her a place to hide and protection. If she wanted to run away, where would she go? She is a fugitive wanted for regicide with a large reward posted for her capture, and Petyr’s plan made her an accessory to regicide. Her home of Winterfell is burned and all her family believed dead with the North having come under the rule of the Boltons who are backed by the Lannisters. The need for protection he provides and the potential loss of a sanctuary or place to call home is her reason for not leaving. She was also present when Petyr pushed Lysa out the moon door to her death, again, making her an accessory to murder. Though, he likely won’t, he could always threaten to turn her over to the Lannisters, which would be a death sentence. In other words, Sansa has nowhere else to go, and at Littlefinger’s mercy. She can’t appeal to anyone to stop his acts of sexual assault.

Of course, Petyr wasn’t the first person in the Vale to make unwanted sexual advances to Sansa, that dishonor goes to a singer named Marillion.

"Alayne." Her aunt's singer stood over her. "Sweet Alayne. I am Marillion. I saw you come in from the rain. The night is chill and wet. Let me warm you."

The old dog raised his head and growled, but the singer gave him a cuff and sent him slinking off, whimpering.

"Marillion?" she said, uncertain. "You are . . . kind to think of me, but . . . pray forgive me. I am very tired."

"And very beautiful. All night I have been making songs for you in my head. A lay for your eyes, a ballad for your lips, a duet to your breasts. I will not sing them, though. They were poor things, unworthy of such beauty." He sat on her bed and put his hand on her leg. "Let me sing to you with my body instead."

She caught a whiff of his breath. "You're drunk."

"I never get drunk. Mead only makes me merry. I am on fire." His hand slipped up to her thigh. "And you as well."

"Unhand me. You forget yourself."

"Mercy. I have been singing love songs for hours. My blood is stirred. And yours, I know . . . there's no wench half so lusty as one bastard born. Are you wet for me?"

"I'm a maiden," she protested.

"Truly? Oh, Alayne, Alayne, my fair maid, give me the gift of your innocence. You will thank the gods you did. I'll have you singing louder than the Lady Lysa."

Sansa jerked away from him, frightened. "If you don't leave me, my au—my father will hang you. Lord Petyr."

"Littlefinger?" He chuckled. "Lady Lysa loves me well, and I am Lord Robert's favorite. If your father offends me, I will destroy him with a verse." He put a hand on her breast, and squeezed. "Let's get you out of these wet clothes. You wouldn't want them ripped, I know. Come, sweet lady, heed your heart—"

-A Storm of Swords, Sansa VI

Let’s go through what happened step-by-step. He starts by coming onto her in a creepy, no-so-subtle way, and she replies that she’s tired, basically signaling that she isn’t interested. He then directly propositions her, and responds by inappropriately touching her leg. He then gropes her thigh, which alone is an act of sexual assault. She responds by telling him to stop, and he acts like he doesn’t care. She protests that she is a virgin, and he continues to press, saying that she would like it if she lost her virginity to him. Desperate, she then resorts to threatening him as a way to get him to stop, saying he would be hanged if he tried to force himself on her. He responds by saying that his patrons are the ruling Lady and the young Lord of the Eyrie who hold him high in their esteem, protecting him from punishment and retribution by her father. He then escalates by groping her breast, and is clearly intending to rape her. He doesn’t see it that way; like so many rapists, he is telling himself as well as her that in spite of what she says, she actually wants it and she would like it. It was only Ser Lothor Brune’s intervention that stopped him. Of course, Brune’s protection is selective as he isn’t able to stop Littlefinger’s advances given Littlefinger is his employer, and only protected Sansa that night on Littlefinger’s orders.

Sansa found herself in situations many girls unfortunately find themselves in. Many young girls have been preyed upon by older male figures who have charge over them from male guardians to schoolteachers. The younger they are, the more vulnerable they are, and the more easily they can be threatened and manipulated into staying silent regarding their abuse. Sexual grooming contains one of the largest power imbalances since it is between an adult and a child. There are plenty of cases: serial predator Robert Kelly and Aaliyah (27 and 15 respectively), President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Bridgette (15 and 40, she was his high school teacher) and Jerry Lee Lewis and his cousin, Myra Brown (23 and 13, she still believed in Santa Claus).

Let’s look at the issue in the case of an older, more powerful woman.

Cersei Lannister

Cersei is a POV character by the fourth book, and isn’t a character one would usually call sympathetic. She is narcissistic, cruel and abusive with no qualms about killing innocents, even children. She even went so far as to have Sansa’s direwolf killed for something her sister’s direwolf did. We know that she hated her royal husband, Robert, as he was blatantly unfaithful, not even keeping his affairs discrete, and on their wedding knight he whispered his late betrothed’s name into her ear. However, we later learned of another reason she had to hate him.

use her as a man would use her, the way Robert would use her when the drink was in him, and she was unable to bring him off with hand or mouth.

Those had been the worst nights, lying helpless underneath him as he took his pleasure, stinking of wine and grunting like a boar. Usually he rolled off and went to sleep as soon as it was done, and was snoring before his seed could dry upon her thighs. She was always sore afterward, raw between the legs, her breasts painful from the mauling he would give them. The only time he'd ever made her wet was on their wedding night  . . . For Robert, those nights never happened. Come morning he remembered nothing, or so he would have had her believe. Once, during the first year of their marriage, Cersei had voiced her displeasure the next day. "You hurt me," she complained. He had the grace to look ashamed. "It was not me, my lady," he said in a sulky sullen tone, like a child caught stealing apple cakes from the kitchen. "It was the wine. I drink too much wine." To wash down his admission, he reached for his horn of ale. As he raised it to his mouth, she smashed her own horn in his face, so hard she chipped a tooth. Years later at a feast, she heard him telling a serving wench how he'd cracked the tooth in a mêlée. Well, our marriage was a mêlée, she reflected, so he did not lie.

The rest had all been lies, though. He did remember what he did to her at night, she was convinced of that. She could see it in his eyes. He only pretended to forget; it was easier to do that than to face his shame. Deep down Robert Baratheon was a coward. In time the assaults did grow less frequent. During the first year he took her at least once a fortnight; by the end it was not even once a year. He never stopped completely, though. Sooner or later there would always come a night when he would drink too much and want to claim his rights. What shamed him in the light of day gave him pleasure in the darkness.

-A Feast for Crows, Cersei VII

Robert was an alcoholic, and there were times when he got drunk and then forced himself on his wife. The first year of their marriage was marked by Robert’s marital rapes at a frightening frequency of once a fortnight or every two weeks. She couldn’t divorce him, since this is a society where the concept of divorce doesn’t exist, and annulment was also out of the question since neither her husband nor father would allow it. Robert was also king, and being the ultimate authority she couldn’t have him arrested. She didn’t turn to her father given even though he was one of the most powerful lords in Westeros, he was on the other side of the continent, and even so, he had arranged the marriage, and was more concerned with his grandchildren sitting the Iron Throne and the glory of his house than his daughter. She didn’t tell her brother Jaime either given she knew he would respond by trying to kill Robert and that would mean Jaime would die as well.

Even being a powerful figure like the Queen of Westeros who was the daughter of a powerful lord, and the sister of the best swordsman in the Seven Kingdoms couldn’t protect her from the dangers of rape. Essentially, she was trapped in her abusive marriage. The only way out was by murdering her husband (admittedly not the only reason she had Robert killed, there were clearly other reasons as well).

"Please. Have you given any thought to what Joffrey will do when I tell him you murdered his father to bed his mother?"

"It was not like that!" Lancel protested, horrified.

"No? What was it like, pray?"

"The queen gave me the strongwine! Your own father Lord Tywin, when I was named the king's squire, he told me to obey her in everything."

"Did he tell you to fuck her too?" Look at him. Not quite so tall, his features not so fine, and his hair is sand instead of spun gold, yet still . . . even a poor copy of Jaime is sweeter than an empty bed, I suppose. "No, I thought not."

"I never meant . . . I only did as I was bid, I . . ."

-A Clash of Kings, Tyrion VII

"Did you force her [Cersei]?"

"No! I [Lancel] loved her. I wanted to protect her."

-A Feast for Crows, Jaime IV

Cersei’s relationship with sexual abuse is made complicated by the fact the she abused her position as queen to take advantage of her teenaged cousin and Robert’s squire, Lancel. She proves to be a victimizer as well as victim. It is something not as commonly seen, as it is usually a powerful man using his power over a woman below him in the power structure, but there are cases where the genders in this situation are reversed. Lancel was consenting, but he was no older than sixteen and he was very inexperienced as opposed to Cersei, a woman in her thirties who has more experience. This is shown is his comments on their relationship in A Feast for Crows, where Lancel says that he “loved her” and “wanted to protect her.” Those aren’t the words of a mature man, but a vulnerable, inexperienced teenage boy. She slept with him for both sexual gratification, and as a way to manipulate him into being her pawn, exchanging sex for loyalty. In this world, it would be a clear case of statutory rape, but even if one overlooks the fact that sixteen is considered the age of maturity in Westeros, she is also guilty of professional exploitation and workplace harassment. A CEO would risking losing his position if he did that with an intern, and with one US President, Bill Clinton, it got him impeached.

We saw a similar case in the real-world with Asia Argento, herself one of Harvey Weinstein’s victims, being accused by a young actor, Jimmy Bennett, of sexual assaulting him in a hotel room when he was 17 years-old.

It’s not the only time Cersei commits sexual assault.

She wondered what it would feel like to suckle on those breasts, to lay the Myrish woman on her back and push her legs apart and use her as a man would use her, the way Robert would use her when the drink was in him, and she was unable to bring him off with hand or mouth.

Those had been the worst nights, lying helpless underneath him as he took his pleasure, stinking of wine and grunting like a boar. Usually he rolled off and went to sleep as soon as it was done, and was snoring before his seed could dry upon her thighs. She was always sore afterward, raw between the legs, her breasts painful from the mauling he would give them. The only time he'd ever made her wet was on their wedding night.

 . . . 

Cersei cupped the other woman's breast. Softly at first, hardly touching, feeling the warmth of it beneath her palm, the skin as smooth as satin. She gave it a gentle squeeze, then ran her thumbnail lightly across the big dark nipple, back and forth and back and forth until she felt it stiffen. When she glanced up, Taena's eyes were open. "Does that feel good?" she asked.

"Yes," said Lady Merryweather.

"And this?" Cersei pinched the nipple now, pulling on it hard, twisting it between her fingers.

The Myrish woman gave a gasp of pain. "You're hurting me." "It's just the wine. I had a flagon with my supper, and another with the widow Stokeworth. I had to drink to keep her calm." She twisted Taena's other nipple too, pulling until the other woman gasped. "I am the queen. I mean to claim my rights."

"Do what you will." Taena's hair was as black as Robert's, even down between her legs, and when Cersei touched her there she found her hair all sopping wet, where Robert's had been coarse and dry. "Please," the Myrish woman said, "go on, my queen. Do as you will with me. I'm yours."

-A Feast for Crows, Cersei VII

Cersei in this scene is intent on re-enacting her assaults at the hands of Robert, only this time she is the victimizer. One can clearly see this with the line “I am the queen. I mean to claim my rights,” and blame her actions on “just the wine,” using the same terminology she used to describe Robert’s rapes as well as Robert’s excuses for the rapes. She starts when Taena is asleep, and unable to give consent. Taena does give what would appear to be consent when awake, but is she in any position to refuse? Taena had hardly any agency in that situation at all as Cersei clearly wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer, and she is the Queen Regent, the head of government, while Taena is there only at her pleasure. Cersei has Taena’s life and likely that of her family in her hands, and Taena also knows how harsh and unforgiving Cersei can be.  

Cersei’s assault of Taena shows that one doesn’t necessarily need to be a man to engage in harassment, and even women can engage in it against other women. There is a case where HSBC executive Eileen Hedges, a heterosexual married woman who like Cersei rose to a high-powered position in a male-dominated environment, systematically harassed her subordinate, Jill. When Jill threatened to quit, Eileen responded that she had Jill’s career in her hands and could respond by telling her potential employers of her affairs at HSBC, hurting her chances of finding work outside her current job. Behavior like the kind Eileen displayed also happens since the people who witness it are afraid to come forward given they could face retaliation as well.

Being a victim of abuse doesn’t stop her from being an abuser. As someone who hasn’t had much control over her life with her father and husband making choices for her, she gets to be the one in control in this situation, and exercise power over another individual. Sexual assault ultimately is about power with regards to who can perpetrate it against whom.

Instances among the Smallfolk

The two people I’ve mentioned, Sansa and Cersei, are both highborn ladies, the daughters of powerful lords who were Wardens. We so far have talked about sexual assault and harassment only through the experience of members of the upper class. When it comes to smallfolk, they are generally more vulnerable to rape than highborn. Highborn ladies of ruling families have swords to defend their honor as well as chivalry while lowborn women don’t.

"Aye. My mother was a washerwoman at Cider Hall till one of milord's sons raped her. Makes me a sort o' brown apple Fossoway, the way I see it."

-A Dance with Dragons, The Lost Lord

Franklyn Flowers’s mother worked at Cider Hall, and was raped by one of her employers. She likely wasn’t able to press charges against him, given the judge who would be presiding over the case would be her liege, the Knight of Cider Hall, who was her attacker’s father. The other judge she could appeal her case to would be the Fossoways’ liege lord, Lord Tyrell. Both her attacker and his father undoubtedly knew Lord Tyrell personally, and Tyrell likely wouldn’t have wanted to alienate his bannerman by punishing his son. It would have been Fossoway’s word against hers, and there is a good chance Tyrell would have been likely to either dismiss the case or acquit him. The Knight of Cider Hall, by virtue of being her liege, is also her landlord, and her rapist could potentially retaliate by having his father evict her family, leaving them unemployed and homeless. He could also visit her home with some of his castle’s garrison to intimidate them.

Warning Spoilers for The Winds of Winter ahead

“I have not been raped, if that is what you’re asking,” the old woman said. “Some of the serving girls have been less fortunate. Married or unmarried, the men make no distinctions. “

“No one’s been doing any raping,” insisted Young John Mudd. “Connington won’t have that. We follow orders.”

Chain nodded. “Some girls was persuaded, might be.”

“The same way our smallfolk were persuaded to give you all their crops. Melons or maidenheads, it’s all the same to your sort. If you want it, you take it.”

-The Winds of Winter, Arianne II

When the Golden Company occupies Mistwood, Lady Mertyns states that serving girls at the castle are raped by some of the mercenaries. Mudd replies to the accusations of rape by denying them, and Chain does the same by saying they were “persuaded.” Well, how hard would it be for an armed man who won’t take “no” for an answer to persuade a defenseless serving girl? Their attackers are literally armed, and could just force the girls at the point of a sword or a dagger. If the girls tried to have their attackers charged, their case wouldn’t be brought to who would usually be the judge in this case, Lady Mertyns, who would undoubtedly have been sympathetic towards them, but the Golden Company who has the estate under occupation and thus, final authority. The officers in the Golden Company would be the ones hearing the case, and if the comments of the serjeants are anything to go by, it would just be dismissed. That is without saying that the girls, like many victims of rape and sexual assault, would have to deal with the fear of retaliation by their attackers and their cohorts for coming forward.

Conclusion:

With all these #MeToo situations in A Song of Ice and Fire, the factor in common that played a huge role in how sexual abuse was perpetrated and the abusers were able to get away with it was power dynamics. The perpetrators of sexual abuse are either powerful men (or women in Cersei’s case) or protected by powerful individuals and/or institutions whether it be the feudal hierarchy or the Golden Company. In Sansa and Cersei’s cases, their abusers were the most powerful figures in a feudal society: kings. No king has ever been arrested for anything. The smallfolk women were preyed upon by either a well-connected, highborn man like Fossoway or mercenaries serving in the company that controlled the area. Just to give one example in how power dynamics works, in the case of Marillion, Sansa was posing as Petyr’s bastard daughter, Alayne, and in the Vale, as the bastard daughter of the smallest of lords, the singer with the support of House Arryn has more power and influence between the two. However, there is a good chance Marillion wouldn’t have tried it if he knew who she actually was. As the trueborn daughter of House Stark and (supposed) heiress to Winterfell as well as niece and cousin to the Lady and Lord of the Eyrie respectively, the power dynamic shifts in her favor.

This is a pattern we can often see in the real world, especially in situations of workplace abuse. Serial abuser Harvey Weinstein was protected by his status as a powerful Hollywood mogul with high-profile connections going as far as the Clintons while the women he preyed upon were generally young actresses whose careers he could threaten. Roger Ailes was the Chairman and CEO of Fox News and Fox News Television Stations where news anchors like Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Andrea Tantaros worked (all of whom were harassed by him). Sexual abuse and harassment is very much about power, as in many cases, the abusers have the connections and status to shield them from potential consequences for their actions while the abused are usually deficient in these things when compared to their abusers. It is often perpetrated by powerful individuals against their subordinates, people below them in the corporate hierarchy. The victims are almost never people above the abusers in the corporate hierarchy who could potentially threaten their careers. And like in Westeros, heads of state in the modern world have been abusers, including US Presidents. 

The women in the book series were afraid to come forward out of not just the fear of their claims being dismissed by authority figures, but potential retaliation from their attackers and their associates best exemplified by Sansa knowing she would be beaten by Joffrey’s Kingsguard if she did. Tantaros complained about Ailes’s sexual harassment to executives, and it only resulted in her facing retaliation by being demoted and then taken off the air. Eliza Dushku confronted her “Bull” show co-star and lead, Michael Weatherly, over his uncomfortable behavior such as comments about her appearance, a rape joke and a comment on a threesome. It ended up in her character being written off the show and her being fired. Danielle Hartley, who worked as an assistant to Larry Wallace, senior aide for then California Attorney General Kamala Harris, accused him of sexual harassment only to be transferred to another department. Weinstein threatened a number of his victims that he could use his connections and clout as a Hollywood mogul to prevent them from finding work in Hollywood along with threats of violence. People who witness it are afraid to come forward as well. One employee in the HSBC harassment case, Mike Picarella, came forward (anonymously) to protect Jill from Eileen’s harassment, and it just resulted in the executives, looking out for one of their own, destroying his career. He not only lost his job at the bank, but was practically blacklisted from the industry with him having trouble finding work in his field, not even able to get a job as an operations manager at a retirement home.

In short, while the medieval Westeros and modern-day real world are two completely different settings with regards to technological advancement, society and forms of government, both suffer from some of the same shortcomings. They are patriarchal societies where sexual abuse is commonplace, and in too many cases, tolerated. People (mostly men) take advantage of power imbalances to target others for sexual harassment and abuse, relying on their position, wealth and/or connections for protection.

[gnostic-heretic]

DANG I AM SO LATE thank you @felicja-j for reminding me that @kyuhu tagged me in this meme! >:3

Three fandoms:

hetalia

Uhhhhh asoiaf ??? i’m not really into the /fandom/ but it’s like the only thing i’m invested in atm, other than hetalia.

UUUUHHHHHHHH hh i was talking as far as past fandoms go about harry potter and h*mest*ck JUST YESTERDAY but if i had to reveal my indulgences, i’d rather pick HP

The first character you loved:

RUSSIA! back in 2010, when i first got into hetalia, he immediately caught my attention. 

arya because i can relate a lot of my childhood experiences to her. 

i guess my first favorite character was ron, and he has kind of remained one of my favorites all along. :>

The character you never expected to love so much:

switzerland, to be honest... i came into the fandom feeling “meh” about him and now i love my horrible milka man so much

SANSA i started the books being so, so irritated by sansa but now she’s become one of my absolute favorite characters.

i don’t know man, but while i was so very lukewarm about cedric when i first read the books, now i do like him. not “so much”, but he went from “meeehhh” to “actually, this is a good guy?? damn”

The character you relate to the most:

if you follow me and didn’t know i’d answer POLAND in A HEARTBEAT WYD

i can’t really say i relate to ONE character, not really... they’re all such wildly different people with different traits i relate to. i’d love to say i would pick arya, but to be honest, i’m finding that the more i read the more i find myself relating to sansa out of all the pov characters, her extreme idealism and love for stories, songs, romance... i also have to say tho that ser loras is gay goals

I MEAN i’m a luna lovegood man i relate to her so much because i was always the odd person ever since i was a child... i wanted so desperately to believe in something that no one else could see or know, and i have always loved magic and the supernatural so much... that said one big reason why i’m a ron man is that i also relate to that feel when low self esteem and always feeling out of place and awkward.

The characters you’d slap:

oh blease there are so many characters in all of those who could use a (METAPHORICAL) good slap sometimes

Three favourite characters:

Poland, Lithuania, IT’S A TIE BETWEEN BELARUS, UKRAINE AND HUNGARY y’all cannot ask me to choose like this it’s cruel

daenerys, ser loras and sansa... i am basic i know shoosh

luna, ron and hermione are my 3 big ones lol 

Character you liked at first, but don’t like anymore:

i mean it’s not like i don’t like him but i used to be really into aph america and rusame and now i guess i just don’t care as much as i used to! i still think america is a good old sport tho

MMmmMmMmMm i’ve mentioned that my first fave was arya and i still do like her a lot but the more i read the more her story is taking a course i don’t 100% enjoy... although i guess i started the first book liking ned and catelyn stark a lot as some sort of righteous chivalrous medieval power couple (i’m a stark man HAS ANYONE NOTICED YET LOL) but as i went on reading they both fell flat for me.

eeeehhh if we wanna go #deep i used to be a huge fan of tonks when she was first introduced. i HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE what jkr has done to her, she wasted her character potential so much, if you like the remus/tonks storyline you do you but personally i just felt bitter and really pissed off about it and about jkr fitting every and any female character in her stupid books into a “wife and mother endgame” storyline but that’s none of my biz

Character you didn’t like at first, but do now:

wasn’t i asked the same question above fdhgjfhd i guess..

prussia, surprisingly, it’s not like i like, him, but, 

on the same line tyrion is still :// but i now enjoy his chapters way more than i did at first, when i was just tempted to skip loll

cho chang because i always thought the romantic subplot in gof/ootp was TERRIBLE and terribly executed, AND now that i am an Adult i still think her plot was terrible HOWEVER i can see the depth in her character and i believe she deserved so much more than the shallow teenage crush/love interest role that jkr gave her. i still think harry/cho endgame would have been a much, much more interesting choice than harry/ginny endgame which was an even worse and more rushed romance subplot. at least would’ve given us a chance to know more about cho’s personality, passions, struggles, seeing a couple of teenagers OVERCOME something like the death of a dear friend instead of sweeping it under the rug or reaching a breaking point but wyd. Anyway cho chang deserved better 2k18 

Three OTPs:

LIETPOL hunukr rombela my holy trinity

i don’t really do asoiaf shipping tbh but... i did (SPOILERS) hope for loras and renly to be gay king and his gay knight for a hot moment... and i do enjoy FOR NOW margaery tyrell and sansa’s interactions a lot... pls @ grrm let them be gay (spoiler i know they won’t be gay but a gay can dream) also as a completely crack ship i’d love to see cersei and catelyn lol just because they’re such polar opposites and yet so similar it owuld be really interesting to see them interact

ron/harry is my otp, and we were robbed, we were so robbed, luna/hermione and luna/ginny are my other big ships in this fandom but for all these 3 otps there’s like zero GOOD fan content and i die all the time. y’all and your drarry ARE WEAK!!!!! 

i tag whoever wants to do this tbh :0

[beeblackburn]

Do you have a favorite character? Do you have a favorite non-pov character?

Thanks for the question!

Favorite POV character: Sansa Stark. No contest. I love her characterization, her genre archetype, her chapters’ themes, her inner monologue and her fascinating journey throughout the books. 

I love her characterization and, hell, I even appreciate it in A Game of Thrones. Yes, she was a snob and a brat who wanted things to be nice, the knights to be chivalrous, the queens to be graceful and the princes to be sweet, but she’s eleven at that time and all that idealism and naivety only made Ned’s execution all the more heartbreaking, opening the trapdoor underneath Sansa and causing her to fall into that horrific reality of King’s Landing.

Also, it’s really nice to have a classic princess that still has substance. In fact, I think Sansa was my first of the archetype to be given a rich density of character. I know, by now, Sansa’s genre archetype is old hat and has been done time and time again, given a more deconstruction-conscious fantasy market, but Sansa still calls to an inherent part of me that I’ll get to later on below.

Her chapters’ themes? Internal resistance, idealism, abuse, survival, story-and-song thinking, lies, knighthood, femininity, navigating the rules of high society and patriarchy, empathy, romanticism, the eventual disillusionment from reality and kindness-under-pressure… they’re universal (and even relevant to this day) and I can always return to them whenever I reread a book.

Her internal monologue is super crucial to the heart of Sansa’s characterization because A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords constantly play in her head. Passages and pages can turn as her mind whirls and the gears in her mind start to work. Anyone who tells you that Sansa is just a passive pawn clearly doesn’t read hard enough because she’s making active resistance in her mind against the Lannisters and thinking over the political implications of letters sent to her, trying to figure out if they can be trusted and which one she can take up while being safe.

She has an amazing character arc that takes her from a naive, head-in-the-clouds girl to an abused political prisoner actively resisting her captors in her mind to a woman taking control of a castle’s household under the guise of being bastard-born, all while trying to hold onto her humanity and retain a measure of kindness when she’s exposed to more and more horrors in the upper class of society.

Also, I personally think she has one of the best supporting casts in the story, all of the characters in her story pertaining to and enriching her narrative going from Cersei, Loras, Jeyne, Margaery, Olenna, Tyrion, Dontos, Littlefinger, Lysa, Myranda, Mya and Sandor, all of them challenging, adding, compounding upon her worldview, complicating her ideals and turning into her a fascinating person who’s increasingly seeing the strings of political theater and is going to start utilizing them with purpose.

Lastly, her want for there to be true knights? Breaks my heart because I constantly struggle with my ideals like that too. There are good values worth standing up for, but not everyone’s going to live up to them… but that doesn’t make the effort itself worthless. If the world fails us, then we should endeavor to live up to those ideals ourselves. There are monsters, abusers and indifferent people in the world, but the best we can do is hope to outlive them, hope to do it while being better than them.

In short, I will always be here for “He was no true knight.” and “If I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me.”

Favorite non-POV character: Stannis Baratheon. Let’s see, grumpy, pragmatic, bitter, deadpan, grim, strict, yet fair, meritocratic-leaning with an inferiority complex towards his older brother who he thinks outdoes him everywhere that matters? GEEZ, STANNIS, I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE PRETTY MUCH ME IN ASOIAF. 

But yeah, I love Stannis’ characterization so much. It’s such a multi-faceted portrait ranging from his strength (meritocratic ideology, drive towards justice, willingness to commit to good kingship) to his weaknesses (pettiness, willingness to commit to past grudges, bitterness and tactless manner of speech) and it’s such a rush to see him when his weaknesses outweigh his strengths in A Clash of Kings to later have the pendulum turned around nearing the end of A Storm of Swords.

And his character archetype is actually what I’d consider some of GRRM’s most subversive genre work. On the surface, he looks the Evil Overlord, complete with living at a grim island full of gargoyles, housing pirates, sellswords and a mysterious sorceress. He looks like the Evil Uncle because he’s rebelling against his “nephew’s rightful crown.” But the truth is far more complex, Stannis himself actually being the Cape, the man who wants to right the wrongs of Westeros, who wants to deal justice against the Lannister’s incestuous reign, who only came upon Dragonstone because he was doing his duty to his older brother.

His chapters’ themes… oh boy, they hit at me. Justice, duty, wounded pride, bitterness, past grudges, mockery from empathy, choosing from lawful or good, meritocracy, good kingship, the choice between valuing the individual or the many and complicated relationships with religion and gods… Stannis just hurts to read.

It is legitimately fist-pumping to read his character arc because it’s a rush. From a bitter, resentful, petty lord sitting at a dreary rock to a man who’s lost one of his central battles as claimant and who is torn between careening further into the abyss or committing to rising above the loss to a savior protecting the realm in truth rather than in title to a truly fascinating and worthy king who’s learning from the past, willing to take advice from all wells of knowledge and take charge to fight against the “only enemy that matters.”

And I tend to love Stannis’ supporting cast. I know we all love Davos, but I even love Melisandre because she brings an interesting facet to the philosophical/theological dialogue between the Dragonstone trio. Davos and Melisandre are constantly in conflict, externalizing the duality raging in Stannis’ heart and how he wants to conduct himself as king. And Stannis’ court also helps, being a bunch of (mostly) unlikeable, fanatic, squabbling lords and knights... who nevertheless help protect the Wall, ordered by their king, from the Free Folk attacking it.

There’s a lot of Stannis I keep coming back to, to be honest. It’s just inspiring that, amid all the destruction, death, rot and chaos of Westeros... there’s one man who’ll stand steadfast and fight for Westeros’ best interests because he’s the man you want against the Others when they come to bring the night that never ends. My One True King.

In short, I’ll always be here for "Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!" and "Then we will make new lords."

Hope this satisfies!

[kellyvela]

Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories: Prince Aemon the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys.

. . .it was almost like the songs, like the time. . . Prince Aemon the Dragonknight championing Queen Naerys's honor against evil Ser Morgil's slanders.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa I

"I love him, Father, I truly truly do, I love him as much as Queen Naerys loved Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. . . "

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa III

She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of. . . valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother's queen.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

She called for the heroes from the songs, for. . . Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa IV

He sang of. . . Prince Aemon the Dragonknight and his love for his brother's queen. . . They were beautiful songs, but terribly sad. Several of the women began to weep, and Sansa felt her own eyes growing moist.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

Aegon the Unworthy had never harmed Queen Naerys, perhaps for fear of their brother the Dragonknight . . .

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa II

[kellyvela]

Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories: Jenny of Oldstones and the Prince of Dragonflies.

. . . He sang of. . . Jenny of Oldstones and the Prince of Dragonflies. . . —A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

[kellyvela]

Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories: Florian and Jonquil.

"I love him, Father, I truly truly do, I love him as much as. . . Jonquil loved Ser Florian. I want to be his queen and have his babies." —A Game of Thrones - Sansa III

She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil. . . —A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

The songs about Florian and Jonquil were her very favorites. —A Clash of Kings - Sansa II

She called for the heroes from the songs, for Florian. . . but no one heard. —A Clash of Kings - Sansa IV

He sang of Jonquil and Florian. . . They were beautiful songs, but terribly sad. Several of the women began to weep, and Sansa felt her own eyes growing moist. —A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

. . . He sang of . . . of fair Jonquil and her fool. . . —A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

[kellyvela]

Sansa Stark - Love songs & Chivalric stories: Serwyn of the Mirror Shield and Princess Daeryssa.

. . . it was almost like the songs, like the time Serwyn of the Mirror Shield saved the Princess Daeryssa from the giants. . . —A Game of Thrones - Sansa I