#I'm just saying: Stannis is getting bullied and he deserves it

[leupagus]

Am I writing this largely because I enjoy the idea of Sansa and Stannis constantly hissing at each other like two belligerent cats? Listen,

x

By the first week of the siege, Sansa was forced to admit — if only to herself —that warfare was far less exciting than she'd imagined. When she had been told of Robb's victories in the Riverlands she had always pictured him triumphant upon a fearsome destrier, sword held high as he cut down his enemies before him. Then he'd been killed and she had lived through the Battle of the Blackwater, waiting either rescue or slaughter by the very man who was now her ally. That had not been exciting, precisely, but it had not been this dull and plodding affair. A far cry from the valiant knights and noble battles she'd read when she was a girl; but she'd had precious little turn out the way she'd been taught.

She slept at the camps near the front lines, in the same soldier's tent she and Brienne and Podrick had shared for the past four months. Stannis had made all sorts of ridiculous protests about "ladies" and "danger" until she'd had to remind him, once again, that her eight thousand men gave her the freedom to dictate her own movements.

"All very well while we're waiting out here, my lady," he'd growled in response, after his requisite glare at her flawless logic, "But when battle joins, you'll be nothing more than a nuisance."

"In which case, I'll be quickly killed and you can have Rickon installed as Lord of Winterfell instead," she'd replied, "as you were hoping to do in the first place." That had shut him up, at least, and he'd gone back to scowling at Winterfell's walls.

Every night when she returned to the camp, she stopped at Stannis's tent and joined the conference with their commanders and lieutenants. It was then that she learned about the waging of war: how men were best deployed, how training was maintained even in the midst of a siege, how sickness was kept at bay so that it did not kill more soldiers than did the battles. Stannis disliked her presence there, too, but she was rapidly coming to understand that he would only be truly happy when she was out of his life for good. Possibly not even then. He did not seem a man much given to smiles.

The men did not share Stannis's view, at least; as she walked through the lines each morning and night they stood to bow to her, and press the back of her hand to their foreheads as she remembered they had done to Mother so long ago.

"They say that the old gods have brought you back to us," Lord Reed told her one day, as he accompanied her on her daily walk to the winter town. "That they were angered when the Starks were driven from Winterfell, and that they're drawing you all back here one by one. They say that Robb Stark may come back from the dead, such is the rage of the gods, and avenge all who wronged your house."

Joffrey had been diligent in recounting every detail of what had happened to Robb's body after Roose Bolton had killed him. She repressed a shudder to think of it and held more tightly to Reed's arm, grateful for the warmth of him at her side. "I hope they are not disappointed if all they get is me and Rickon."

Reed chuckled. "They're well-satisfied, my lady," he said. They walked into the winter town just as the sun broke over the mountains. "You're a sight prettier than the Young Wolf ever was, that's certain."

The winter town was where her real work was done each day. It was the custom every winter for the smallfolk of the North to leave their hides holdfasts and journey here, bringing what they could cart or carry. The winter town would eventually house nearly one in three of every soul living in the North, seeking shelter together to endure the cold.

The Boltons had not bothered to do their duty, laying in no provisions and building no new housing. Up until now it had mattered little; even as the winds had begun to blow, few smallfolk had dared to come take shelter under the banners of the flayed man. The town itself had been all but abandoned, until word of the Starks' return had begun to spread throughout the North.

Now the winter town seemed to double in size with each passing day despite the ongoing siege of the Keep. Sansa had her hands full in directing builders, organizing kitchens, allocating what resources they had to feed and shelter everyone. In this she was aided by any number of friends and allies: those servants and household members who had first escaped during Winterfell's seizure by the Ironborn, or who had endured that but had fled the Boltons' brutal takeover; the households of her lords who had come to support the siege; even Lady Umber and her formidable staff lent a hand before she returned to Last Hearth. Her most steadfast assistants were Rickon and Shireen, who at first had joined her out of boredom but were now her little lieutenants, breathlessly updating her on all events of the previous night as she joined them for breakfast each morning. She received aid also from her men in the armies, assigning their builders to fortify the town in much the same way they were fortifying the siege camp.

Her lords approved of this; Stannis, of course, did not.

"You seek another threescore soldiers?" he demanded one evening.

The siege had now dragged on near a month. Bolton's men showed signs of distress, Lord Flint reported with no small satisfaction; they would not last much longer. But this had brought a fresh concern, and Sansa had broached it during their evening conference.

"We need to build up the palisades along the eastern side of the winter town," Sansa insisted, pointing at the map spread out along the table, with the various pieces representing the various companies all arrayed neatly atop. Stannis's wooden flaming hearts were outnumbered by Sansa's wolf heads two to one, though many of hers appeared hastily-carved from whatever spare wood was at hand. She reached for a flaming heart on the far side of the Keep, well away from the siege. "It need only be for—"

"Give me that," Stannis snapped, snatching it back. "Those men are covering the huntsman's gate, should any of Bolton's forces be cowardly enough to attempt escape rather than stand and fight."

"And you anticipate that happening in the next day?" she demanded, resisting the urge to lunge for the piece the way she used to with Robb when he had teasingly stolen her embroidery, holding it just out of reach. "There must be fifty or sixty men out of twelve thousand that can be spared."

"Why are the palisades in need of building up in the first place?" Stannis demanded, as Lord Glover opened and then shut his mouth to reply to her. "This winter town of yours is folly — you cannot grant entry to every farmer and tinker who pleads for shelter."

Sansa gaped at him in outrage, though even as she did so she was heartened to hear the murmur of her lords at such a comment. "That is precisely what is done, and has been for every winter since before Bran the Builder set stones to build Winterfell!" She glared at him. "This is a refuge, Your Grace."

"This is a siege, my lady," he retorted, looming over her. She thought longingly of the beautiful heeled shoes Margaery wore; she needed only a few inches to match Stannis's height, and see what good his looming did him then. "The smallfolk congregate here at their own risk!"

"My people congregate here because they believe I will keep them safe, and I will do so. With or without Your Grace's help!"

"Without, if it pleases my lady!"

Half-ready to club him over the head with the nearest chair, Sansa grabbed the flaming heart out of his hands and waved it in his face. "What are these men supposed to do, if Bolton and his soldiers escape out this way?"

Stannis looked too near a fit of apoplexy to reply, so it was Lord Cerwyn who cleared his throat and answered, "They are charged to report back, my lady, with some following at a safe distance to see where they go."

"It's perfectly obvious where they'll go," Sansa snapped. "Lord Bolton will make for the Dreadfort."

"Of course he will," said Stannis, finding his voice at last, though he did not try for the wolf's-head piece again. "That doesn't mean—"

"I know three dozen local boys who could hide along the route from the huntsman's gate to the eastern road and bring back reports, without clomping about the forests in full armor," Sansa said, slamming the piece down at the winter town. "And they might be able to bring back some food, while they're at it. Unlike your soldiers, they know how to hunt in the Wolfswood without frightening off half the game."

A few days later, she had her men.

[nymerias-heart]

I also think the final battle will happen in harrenhal. It makes the most sense. If the battle were to happen and end in the North, then people would call it 'the north's problem', when it's supposed to be the living vs. the dead. So It kind of has to be Brought into the south, so then it would nó longer just be a story or some tale to the southerners, it would be a problem they will ALL have to face. I also don't see how Daenerys could possibly get any of her armies North without them all dying. The North will be hit the hardest by the weather and attacks from the others. I fully expect it to happen in the south. So we will see some northern evacuation happening. Also, having the war in the south is just a lot more convenient for George. He doesn't actually have to give any pages over to the armies travelling North whether it's Daenerys, aegon, riverlords, Knights of the Vale, the lannister armies or even the dornish and tyrells. Its not like any of them would survive in the North anyways, seeing as how its going for Stannis. I'm 98% sure the war will happen(end) in the riverlands. I also think a lot of the armies mentioned above would already at some point be in riverlands/crownlands region. A trip from there to harrenhal wouldn't take them months and wouldn't kill off half their armies as it would if they tried to go north.

Catelyn being brought back from the dead has to have happened for a reason. She needs to have some form of impact on the story. And I don't think killing Freys and getting revenge for them will be the reason. So I'm really curious to see what exactly she'll do/cause to happen. Do you think she'll live long enough not only to see Arya again but also an evacuated bran and Rickon. And sansa from the vale. Ooh how would undead cat react to undead Jon and vice versa👀👀👀. Imagine the stark kids having to see what their mom has become 😬😬😬. How do you think they would react to that? Aryas the only one who has any inkling that catelyn could be alive, but even she has no idea.

The idea of a large part of the riverlands being converted to the Lord of light, really appeals to me because I want to see how melisandre will react to it. Also, how she'll react to Thoros, a drunk old priest, being able to bring a person a person back from the dead several times. Another reason I like it, is because when the war does happen we will see a mix of religions: Lord of light, the seven, the old gods, the drowned God, the horse God?? (what's the name of the one the dothraki believe in?) and other smaller groups of people who worship different gods. I want to see how they would all act around each other, I'm assuming there would at least be small fights constantly breaking out. And I want to see how the high septons will all react to it. I'd want to see what George would write Arya doing in this situation, seeing as she's been the character most exposed to the many different religions of asoiaf. The old gods from her father, the seven from her mother, the Lord of light from Thoros and the brother Hood and most importantly the many faced god (which is basically every single religion/God/deity).

Yeah, I agree, arya isn't going to spend another book in Bravoos, there would be no point to it. I'm betting she'll have about 3 more chapter there maybe. She has too much unresolved plot in westeros. Do you think she would come back not only with Justin Massey and the sell swords but also the wildlings which were taken as slaves before landing in Bravoos?

I have no idea how Arya and Jeyne would react to seeing each other again. It's 100% not going to be them crying as they happily reunite. Jeyne and sansa (but primarily jeyne) bullied arya. And no I'm not saying jeyne deserved any of the stuff that happened to her but that happening doesn't change how she treated Arya and the relationship(I wouldn't call it a relationship but don't have any other word for it) they have as of now. Jeyne isn't a good memory for Arya. This is another thing I really want to see. Like, how is George going to write it? How will he have them react to each other? Will we see jeyne blaming Arya for what happened to her? (seeing as it was Arya she was forced to pretend to be) will we see them growing closer? (for them to grow closer jeyne 1000% needs to apologise to Arya, even if they were children, as we see from Aryas own pov she hasn't forgotten any of it and it has affected her). I once seen a post about Arya killing jeyne and taking her face and that is like one of 10 things I'm positive would not ever happen. Even if jeyne treated Arya horribly, she does not deserve to die.

Three people have/will be resurrected in the books and I just realised all three had a connection to arya.

Obviously Lord Beric has died and been resurrected a couple of times but the reason he gets killed by Sandor is because of Arya's accusations against him about Mycah, the reason why Beric fought Sandor. As we know Beric gets killed and is resurrected by Thoros. You could say Arya played a part in his death(5th/6th death).

Then we have Catelyn, who was killed at the red wedding. She didn't die because of anything Arya did but the only reason she ever got resurrected was because, Arya while warging in Nymeria, pulled her out of the river and left just before the brotherhood arrived. Beric then proceeded to give Catelyn the kiss of life. If not for Arya, I don't think Catelyn would have ever been resurrected.

Then we have Jon, who was killed because he decided to fight Ramsey, after receiving the letter from him. The part of the letter that stuck out the most to him was 'I want my bride back' as Jon repeats it another 3 times and 'stick them with the pointy end' is his last dieing thought (the last thing he said was ghost, the last thing he thought about was Arya and the last thing he felt was the cold).

I don't really have a point to make, other than that it's really interesting how there have been/will be 3 ressurections (counting Beric as one) in the series and Arya is connected to all 3. Playing either a part in the person's death or in their ressurection.

Do you think George wrote it this way on purpose? Will it mean anything in the future books?