#meaning they are there to establish Sansa is a true queen who can inspire others like no other

[elegantwoes]

For a while now I have been wondering what the overall point was of characters like Sandor Clegane and Dontos Hollard being in Sansa’s story and I think I finally figured it out. While it’s true that both of them are false Florians and have betrayed Sansa in different ways, it should be noted that Sansa’s morals and ideals has sparked something in them to help her in some capacity (i.e Sandor saving her in the bread riot & Dontos helping her escape). Both of them are there to establish Sansa has the ability to inspire knightly valor in others. And if Sansa’s ability to inspire that is strong enough to get two alcoholic, disillusioned, broken men to fight for her, then imagine what Sansa can do with it when she inspires the Knights of the Vale to fight for her cause.

[esther-dot]

I think Bran will be King but give up his “powers” other wise GRRM’s good King is pretty much just “Big Brother/Omnipresent God” which seems just as dangerous as Dany with nukes. D&D really messed up by focusing so much on Daenerys and trying to soften her. If they had invested more in telling Bran/Sansa as real characters and not plot pieces to prop up GA favs then I think the ending would be more satisfying. I hope GRRM doesn’t make the same mistake by over focusing on characters like Tyrion.

(in reference to this post)

IMO, he has already focused too much on Tyrion. 😂 Someone counted the words, but I neglected to save that link so here is someone else’s info about page count:

(link)

Tyrion has more than twice the amount that Bran has. How few chapters they have is routinely pointed to as an argument against King Bran and Queen Sansa (or used to be) because in comparison to the fan favorites, they hardly feature. That seems to be deliberate though because in that GoT book there was a quote (can’t find it right now) that made me think Martin wants Bran’s ascension to the throne to be a WTF moment for the audience, and if that’s the case, he has no intention of changing course. 😬

I have headcanoned that Tyrion will be involved in getting Bran onto the throne, thinking he can do what he wants and use Bran as a puppet king since he is a child, not knowing that Bran is far more than that. Tyrion maneuvers for power for himself, and instead will find himself being subject to a good king’s will, and Bran will proceed to make his life hell. 😈 That’s just how I make myself feel better though 😆

I’m not a fan of a magical king either, but for some reason I’m doubtful Bran ends this series totally divorced from all powers. I haven’t reread or gone looking for proof either way, but this from AGOT makes me curious if it wasn’t placing him above the world of men, above the people who must cleanse themselves of sin, for a reason.

(I feel like someone has written about this quote, but I’m not finding anything at the moment).

He’s supposed to think on his misbehavior, he climbs. He later falls, then he flies. I’m just not sure that he’ll have to give that up in the end when this path is something he’s been set on to save humanity which is established very early on. I mean, he’s in the “tallest sentinel” is this just about the Others, or is this who he will be as king? He’s the watcher, the seer, the knower, it’s not a violent thing, so I’m not sure that he must give it up, especially in light of his youth. If experience ruling isn’t why he becomes king, will his knowledge/wisdom be? And if he garners specific knowledge, and it is essential to the survival of man, it feels like having your cake and eating it too to get rid of it after? IMO, it would be the same as the dragons saving the world and then killing the dragons. What is the message then? It actually was good for the dragons to be born? It’s messy.

Complicating my own feelings about this is that I always read him as a god figure. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was surprised he ended up as king because I didn’t think he’d lose his powers in the end, and just like you, I don’t like that combo. There’s a whole thing about Brans blending together that made me think something goofy was going on with who/what Bran is/would be in the end which @istumpysk mentioned in a recap (link), and was the inspiration for a little Bran fic I did a year or two ago (link). Here’s one of those lines:

It’s so reminiscent of the “I AM” interpretation of god, a being who transcends time, who is in different forms that I thought a big thing would come of that later.

It isn’t only lines like that which gave me the “god Bran” idea, but also the similarities with Dany who thinks of herself as a god, and it seemed to me that Bran was the unassuming “true” god of the two. I know I mentioned how the Starks are each an answer to some facet of Dany, and it felt like empowered Bran would be an answer to the Targaryen delusion of godhood. Of course, it’s possible the idea is to contrast someone who wants power and someone who ultimately refuses it, but it’s also possible that Martin will give us someone who isn’t corrupted by power and manages to use it well. I’m not dedicated to that, but Bran’s power is knowledge, it isn’t a force to subjugate people. I mean, you’re right, the big brother fear is there for us as readers, but in ASOIAF, it feels like knowledge is a good thing, so I really don’t know. There’s just a lot there (that I haven’t explored) between Dany and Bran, parallels/contrasts. In AGOT especially, the idea of flight as freedom for them both…it feels associated. If Bran is the key to defeating the Others, he’d be a “savior” who frees people in response to a false savior who oppresses/kills them...that makes sense to me. Of course, that doesn’t preclude giving up his powers, that’s also very savior-esque. Basically, I’m very confused about it! We feel so far away from his ending.

Anyway, I definitely agree that D&D should have focused more on Bran and Sansa! Their decisions in the last few seasons are even stranger now that we know the endgame. 😩

[agentrouka-blog]

How do you think the motiff of lies play in Sansa's arc ?

That’s a complex mud puddle!

Sansa’s story is all about information being either withheld or falsified or revealed. And, ultimately, that’s where Sansa and songs will meet at the end. A benign power to shape truth and use it to influence reality.

She was taught that the world is inherently fair - it is not - and later that it is inherently unfair - also untrue. She is blatantly lied to. And she blatantly lies to herself, and to others. But she values truth. She truly does.

From the first, we see her as an active participant in this information game, by lying to the Septa to cover for Arya (twice) and by revealing an unpalatable but honest fact about Jon (jealous because bastard), and it establishes that Sansa is a player. A generally benevolent player. It takes an uglier turn when she tries to stay neutral about the Trident Incident and then twists the truth about what happened in her head. But it still shows her manipulating information to create a specific image. (Which is the opposite of Arya who is taught to observe imperically.)

Sansa is the key to making Ned understand Joffrey’s parentage. She understands Littlefinger’s schemes (the Tyrell-Lannister time bomb) and spends a lot of time watching and trying to figure out the true emotion of people, but also comparing them to hypothetical ideals. She sees hurts where they are hidden, or dishonesty, or contradictions, when she tries. When she tries. 

Everything that has happened is leading Sansa to be more and more quietly watchful and observant. Less like Arya, who reads people’s reactions and actions like a book. Sansa reads emotions in the people around her, it is more based on empathy than on clear-headed objectivity. Sansa understands individuals, which enables her to understand how they can interact with each other and the world.

Since every certainty she thought she could rely on is being stripped away, she needs to rely on her own judgment. We rarely see her jump to conclusions or make bold declarations anymore. Some of the information she observed gets no comment at all. Sansa observes and waits. She is starting to very much grow into that by TWOW. It is harder to lie to Sansa directly now, while her own lies have higher stakes, and her own biases and her own protective lies to herself are her biggest blinders. The tension between what she sees and what she wants to see is her big arc.

Songs and whether or not they are real are a blueprint to her understanding of being happy, and they provide means of escape, if only mentally. They provide the image of what she wants to be real. And, I think, this is where all of this is heading.

When Sansa becomes secure enough of herself to mostly lose the blinders, she can use her own powers of perception - and manipulation - to start creating. She can manipulate her enemies, she can protect herself, she can free herself from uncertainties while understanding that there are grey areas.

And she can start translating the things she values into reality. Like when she tells herself to be brave like a lady in a song, she is turning that fiction into reality because it does make her brave.  Same thing with Sweetrobin. She harnesses his admiration for the Winged Knight and infuses him with motivation based on it. It makes him stronger in reality.

Understanding people’s emotions and helping them create a bridge between their desires and their reality, turning songs real by allowing people to act on the emotions they invoke is going to be how she wields power, both on her further path and later as queen. Inspiration and creation. A sort of flexible relationship with truth and fiction. Not lies anymore. But a way of transporting truths that isn’t “cold, hard”. Poetry.

That said, there will be much more pragmatic instances of truth and lies in her story. Trials, revelations and misconceptions will keep being the stepping stones by which we see Sansa grow. But I think she will keep taking on a more and more active and assertive role within them, and lines will blur in a more successful way than the Trident Incident or her mismemories.

[butterflies-dragons]

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

Art credit: Kinuko Y. Craft

Eleanor of Aquitaine, also called Eleanor of Guyenne, French Éléonore or Aliénor, d’Aquitaine or de Guyenne, (born c. 1122—died April 1, 1204, Fontevrault, Anjou, France), queen consort of both Louis VII of France (1137–52) and Henry II of England (1152–1204) and mother of Richard I (the Lion-Heart) and John of England. She was perhaps the most powerful woman in 12th-century Europe.

—Britannica

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) was one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages. Inheriting a vast estate at the age of 15 made her the most sought-after bride of her generation. She would eventually become the queen of France, the queen of England and lead a crusade to the Holy Land. She is also credited with establishing and preserving many of the courtly rituals of chivalry.

—History

This mighty medieval woman outwitted and outlasted her rivals. Ruler of two nations, mother to kings and queens, leader of a crusade: Eleanor of Aquitaine was a savvy power player in medieval France and England.

When reviewing the history of medieval Europe, no woman stands out as much as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Once the most eligible woman in Europe, she became queen of two nations, leader of a crusade, mother of kings, and patron of the arts. Her power and prestige earned her enemies in the 12th century, and her critics authored a black legend founded on gossip and rumor that has fueled ideas about her until the present time.

—National Geographic

Eleanor of Aquitaine [...] she was one of the most kick-ass women of the Middle Ages and, you know, she had her own crusade, or she went on crusade rather and she married two kings and then was the mother of several more, she was a great character.

—GRRM

***

The past April I wrote a very long post about the parallels between Good Queen Alysanne and Sansa Stark.  Consider this post its continuation, so I highly recommend you to read that post first before continuing reading this one. 

As I said before, I discovered that GRRM not only took inspiration from Katharine Hepburn playing Eleanor of Aquitaine in the film ´The Lion in Winter´ for Alysanne’s looks, he also took a lot from Eleanor’s life to write Alysanne, like Eleanor’s second marriage with her cousin Henry II of England with whom she had 8 children (Alysanne/Jaehaerys & their 13 children) and Eleanor’s Court of Love (Alysanne Women’s Courts).

But not only that, I also discovered that Eleanor of Aquitaine shares a lot of similarities with no other than SANSA STARK.

Join me in this new adventure, I assure you, it’s gonna be a blast!

ELEANOR, ALYSANNE AND SANSA

HIGHBORN

Eleanor was born to William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers, and Aénor, Viscountess of Châtellerault, around 1122, in what is now southwestern France.  Eleanor was the oldest of the couple’s three children; she had a younger sister, Petronilla, and a younger brother, William Aigret. Various biographers also report that Eleanor had two bastard half-brothers, William and Joscelin. 

Alysanne was born to Aenys Targaryen and Lady Alyssa Velaryon in 36 AC, at King's Landing.  Alysanne was the fifth of the couple’s six children; she had four older siblings, Rhaena, Aegon, Viserys and Jaehaerys, and a younger sister, Vaella.  Alysanne also had two younger highborn half-siblings, Boremund and Jocelyn Baratheon.

Sansa was born to Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, and Lady Catellyn Tully of Riverrun in 286 AC, at Winterfell.  Sansa was the second of the couple’s five children; she had an older brother, Robb, and three younger siblings, Arya, Bran and Rickon. Sansa also had a bastard half-brother, Jon Snow. 

Take note of how similar these ladies’ half-siblings names are: Joscelin, Jocelyn & Jon.

APPEARANCE

Back in 2006, many years before Fire & Blood, GRRM gave us this description of Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen:

You might consider Alysanne as the Eleanor of Aquitaine of Westeros, and model her on Katharine Hepburn’s portrayal of Eleanor in the film THE LION IN WINTER. Tall and straight, unbowed by time, she had high cheekbones, clear blue eyes. Age left crow’s feet around her eyes and laugh lines about her mouth, but her face never lost its strength. She was a fine archer and hunter in her youth, and loved to fly atop her dragon to all the distant parts of the realm. Alysanne was slim of waist and small of breast, with a long neck, a fair complexion, a high forehead. In old age her hair turned white as snow. She wore it in a bun, pulled back and pinned behind her hear.  [Source] 

There is not a reliable description of Eleanor of Aquitaine true appearance, just various interpretations of her physical features based on old paintings and medieval illuminations that are presumed, by writers and historians, to be of her.  Sometimes she is described and/or depicted as black of ayes and hair, others says she was blonde with blue or grey eyes, and in other cases she had auburn hair with green or grey eyes.  For more details about Eleanor’s appearance, you can read:

Elizabeth Chadwick’s blog entry: “Eleanor of Aquitaine’s Appearance or not”; and,

Michael R. Evans’ book “Inventing Eleanor: The Medieval and Post-Medieval Image of Eleanor of Aquitaine”  

The beautiful art pieces of Eleanor of Aquitaine that I chose to illustrate this post, created by the extraordinaire artist Kinuko Y. Craft, depict a redhead and blue eyed Eleanor. About this choice of the artist, Michael R. Evans tells us this:

Works of fiction are more likely to use modern images of Eleanor, such as Margaret Ball’s ‘Duchess of Aquitaine’, which employs a dynamic painting of Eleanor by the Japanese-American artist Kinuko Y. Craft. The Queen appears on horseback, crowned, with a falcon on her left wrist and long red hair floating behind her. This image matches the modern perception of Eleanor as an active, confident female authority figure. The falcon and the appearance of Eleanor on horseback both recall the Sainte-Radegonde fresco, although Craft states that she was not influenced by it.       

As you can see, we can’t make a true parallel between the physical features of Eleanor, Alysanne and Sansa. But what is a certainty is that GRRM took inspiration from Katharine Hepburn playing Eleanor of Aquitaine in the film ´The Lion in Winter´ for Alysanne’s looks:

So, for the ASOIAF universe created by GRRM:

Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn): Reddish brown hair + blue eyes  

Alysanne: Honey-colored curls + blue eyes

Sansa: Auburn hair + blue eyes

I see a patter here, auburn is by definition a reddish brown color, and if you googled ‘honey colored hair’ you would see a vast variety of reddish brown or reddish blonde hair colors. Enough said.

NAME

Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aénor, Viscountess of Châtellerault, and called Aliénor from the Latin ‘Alia Aenor’, which means ‘the other Aénor’. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl of northern France and Eleanor in English. 

It’s probable that George played with the Aénor/Aliénor pattern when he created Alysanne’s name, that is very similar to his mother’s name: Alyssa Velaryon. 

There is not this pattern in Sansa and Catelyn, Sansa was probably named after the other one Sansa in the whole ASOIAF universe: Sansa Stark, daughter of Rickon Stark, heir to Lord Cregan Stark of Winterfell, and his wife, Jeyne Manderly. She had an older sister, Serena Stark. She married his half uncle Lord Jonnel Stark.  

But the name Alayne it’s a different story. Alayne is certainly closer to Catelyn than Sansa, but most relevant to this post, Alayne is very similar to Alysanne. 

In summary:

Aénor/Aliénor

Alyssa/Alysanne

Catelyn/Alayne (Sansa) + Alysanne/Alayne (Sansa)

EDUCATION

Look at these reports about Eleanor’s education:

Their ducal court had a fine reputation as a patron of the arts. Eleanor’s grandfather, William IX, was known as the “troubadour duke,” famous for his poetry and songs about heroism and courtly love. Poets of the time, especially the famous Marcabru, found hospitality at the court of Aquitaine.

Culture and learning were a family tradition for Eleanor, who received the best possible education of the time. She was taught mathematics, astronomy, history, literature, Latin, and music. She also learned arts and crafts: embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, and spinning. Like any daughter of nobility, she danced and sang, as well as rode horses and went hunting. Like many noble daughters, Eleanor would have been raised to be a nobleman’s wife and was probably not expected to play any role in governing.  

—National Geographic

By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She also learned domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. Eleanor developed skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. 

—Wikipedia

She was well educated by her cultured father, William X, Duke of Aquitaine, thoroughly versed in literature, philosophy, and languages and trained to the rigors of court life when she became her father’s heir presumptive at the age 5. An avid horsewoman, she led an active life until she inherited her father’s title and extensive lands upon his death when she was 15. 

—History

Sounds familiar?

No man ever questioned her wits. Later, it would be said of her that she learned to read before she was weaned, and the court fool would make japes about little Alysanne dribbling mother’s milk on Valyrian scrolls as she tried to read whilst suckling at her wet nurse’s teat. Had she been a boy she would surely have been sent to the Citadel to forge a maester’s chain. —Fire & Blood

It is written that the young king and queen were seldom apart during that time, sharing every meal, talking late into the night of the green days of their childhood and the challenges ahead, fishing and hawking together, mingling with the island's smallfolk in dockside inns, reading to one another from dusty leatherbound tomes they found in the castle library, taking lessons together from Dragonstone's maesters (“for we still have much to learn,” Alysanne is said to have reminded her husband). —Fire & Blood

“If I had not become a queen, I might have liked to be a teacher,” she told the Conclave. “I read, I write, I think, I am not afraid of ravens… or a bit of blood. There are other highborn girls who feel the same. Why not admit them to your Citadel? —Fire & Blood 

For three days she lost herself in the Citadel’s great library, emerging only to attend lectures on the Valyrian dragon wars, leechcraft, and the gods of the Summer Isles. —Fire & Blood

Once the initial frost had thawed, his lordship took the queen hunting after elk and wild boar in the wolfswood, showed her the bones of a giant, and allowed her to rummage as she pleased through his modest castle library. —Fire & Blood

And here is Sansa:

Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. […] It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward. —AGOT  - Arya I

Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. She loved nothing so well as tales of knightly valor. —A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VII

Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces. —A Storm of Swords - Tyrion III

So the singer played for her, so soft and sad that Arya only heard snatches of the words, though the tune was half-familiar. Sansa would know it, I bet. Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly. All I could ever do was shout the words.—A Storm of Swords - Arya IV

The queen took Sansa’s hand in both of hers. “Child, do you know your letters Sansa nodded nervously. She could read and write better than any of her brothers, although she was hopeless at sums. —AGOT - Sansa IV

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, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother’s queen. —AGOT - Sansa IV

“Do you read well, Alayne?” “Septa Mordane was good enough to say so.” —A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI

No one ransomed the northmen, though. One fat lordling haunted the kitchens [...] and the clasp that held his cloak was a silver-and-sapphire trident. He belonged to Lord Tywin, but the fierce, bearded young man [...] in a black cloak patterned with white suns had been taken by some hedge knight who meant to get rich off him. Sansa would have known who he was, and the fat one too, but Arya had never taken much interest in titles and sigils. Whenever Septa Mordane had gone on about the history of this house and that house, she was inclined to drift and dream and wonder when the lesson would be done. —A Clash of Kings - Arya VII

Later, while Sansa was off listening to a troupe of singers perform the complex round of interwoven ballads called the “Dance of the Dragons,” [sung in High Valyrian] Ned inspected the bruise himself. “I hope Forel is not being too hard on you,” he said. —AGOT - Eddard VII

Do you hawk, Sansa?" "A little," she admitted. —A Storm of Swords - Sansa I

The day before last she'd taken Sansa hawking. [...] Sansa's merlin brought down three ducks while Margaery's peregrine took a heron in full flight. —A Storm of Swords - Sansa II

Sansa can ride despite not enjoying the physical exertion of the activity.

Despite it is said that Sansa is bad with numbers and can’t manage a household, Alayne Stone is doing pretty well as de facto Lady of the Eyrie.

As final note on this section, Eleanor’s grandfather Willian IX being called “the troubadour duke” reminds me of Bael the Bard, being kin with the Starks. The Aquitaine court sounds as magical and cultured as what Sansa once thought the Red Keep court would be, full of musicians and poets and courtly love.  

HEIRESS 

Eleanor inherited the largest and richest lands of France at a very young age:

Eleanor’s four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast in the spring of 1130. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France. Poitou, where Eleanor spent most of her childhood, and Aquitaine together was almost one-third the size of modern France. (...)

Eleanor, aged 12 to 15, then became the duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the most eligible heiress in Europe. (...)

The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor. 

—Wikipedia

Eleanor was the daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers, who possessed one of the largest domains in France—larger, in fact, than those held by the French king. Upon William’s death in 1137 she inherited the duchy of Aquitaine. [Source]

Eleanor inherited her father’s title and extensive lands upon his death when she was 15, becoming in one stroke duchess of Aquitaine and by far the most eligible single young woman in Europe. She was placed under the guardianship of the king of France, and within hours was betrothed to his son and heir, Louis. The king sent an escort of 500 men to convey the news to Eleanor and transport her to her new home. 

—Britannica

Eleanor inherited her father’s title and extensive lands upon his death when she was 15, becoming in one stroke duchess of Aquitaine and by far the most eligible single young woman in Europe. She was placed under the guardianship of the king of France, and within hours was betrothed to his son and heir, Louis. The king sent an escort of 500 men to convey the news to Eleanor and transport her to her new home. 

—History

William X [Eleanor’s father] controlled many territories in west and central France including Aquitaine, Poitiers, Gascony, Limousin, and Auvergne. (...)

During the 12th century, monarchies were gaining power and expanding across Europe as alliances formed and linked them together. Powerful aristocracies that fell within their kingdoms still held great influence and needed to be respected. In France the Capetian dynasty ruled a slice of north-central France, the so-called Île-de-France, between the Seine and the Loire. The royal house of France, the Capets, when Eleanor was born, was led by King Louis VI (also known as Louis the Fat).

Much of what is now France was divided up into powerful dukedoms—Normandy, Brittany, and Aquitaine—and large counties—Flanders, Anjou, Lorraine, Champagne, Bourgogne, and Toulouse, some of which were larger and richer than the possessions of the Capetian dynasty. Of the dukedoms, the duchy of Aquitaine was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most influential.

To complicate matters, in 1066 William, Duke of Normandy (also known as William the Conqueror), became king of England. While William was technically a vassal of France on the French side of the English channel, when he was on the other side, he was king of England—the French king’s equal in rank. Who controlled the lands of England and France would lead to many bloody conflicts over the coming centuries as different houses vied for control.

Eleanor played a vital role in these power struggles. Her destiny took a radical turn when her younger brother died in 1130, leaving her the new heiress to her father’s dominions. When her father died unexpectedly in April 1137, while on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Eleanor was thrust into the world of medieval politics in her early teens. 

Shortly before his death, Eleanor’s father had dictated his will and officially named Eleanor as his heir. He appointed King Louis VI as her guardian, and the Capetian king shrewdly saw a way to bring the lands of Aquitaine under his control. He quickly announced the betrothal of Duchess Eleanor to his 17-year-old son, the future Louis VII.

—National Geographic

We can hardly draw a parallel between Eleanor and Alysanne in this regard. Alysanne was never the heir of her father. Alysanne became Queen consort of Westeros due to her marriage with her older brother Jaehaerys.  But this is certainly a strong parallel between Eleanor and Sansa. 

Sansa Stark, despite the many discussions about the legitimacy of her claim to the North and the secret will of Robb Stark, is considered the heir of the ancestral lands and domains of House Stark, she is called ‘the key to the north’ by Tywin Lannister, the man behind his royals grandsons, King Joffrey and King Tommen Baratheon.  The North is the largest region of Westeros, and Sansa Stark’s claim to Winterfell and the Wardenship of the North is coveted by many lords in order to gain political power and influence.  

If Eleanor of Aquitaine was the most eligible single young heiress in Europe, we can say the same about Sansa Stark in Westeros.  The same way Eleanor played a vital role in Middle Ages European power struggles, Sansa Stark plays a vital role in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros power struggles.  If Eleanor was thrust into the world of medieval politics in her early teens, the same is happening to Sansa Starks in the ASOIAF Books.

As I wrote in an unpublished meta:

It is also very interesting that while Sansa is in the south, we witnessed her objectification numerous times, by every character she interacted with. She’s not only being valued in golden dragons, she has been practically transformed into a stone castle, Winterfell, and the North itself, since the one controlling her would obtain all her lands and power. Or, to use the euphemism used in the Books, she is “the key to the north.”

Sansa reflects about this particular objectification in ASOS and elaborates inside her mind one of the saddest lines in ASOIAF, especially for a girl who yearns to be loved and always dreamed of getting married: “No one will ever marry me for love” (because everyone only wants her claim to Winterfell).

I think Sansa Stark being the most eligible single young heiress in Westeros has been explained in the Books twice already, during the development of Sansa’s arc, and in a more subtle and romantic way in “The Hedge Knight” tale.  

As I explain in yet another unpublished meta of mine about the Ashford Tourney:

(…) I think the repetition of this pattern in the list of men [Ashford Tourney Champions / Sansa’s Suitors] is accentuating the importance of Sansa and her claim to the North in the political scene of Westeros. After all, all of Sansa’s betrothals were arranged to gain political power through her claim to the North, which is the largest region of Westeros. 

Tyrion Lannister, married Sansa following his father’s orders to take control over the North: "The girl's happiness is not my purpose, nor should it be yours. Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark." (…) “When you bring Eddard Stark's grandson home to claim his birthright, lords and little folk alike will rise as one to place him on the high seat of his ancestors. You are capable of getting a woman with child, I hope?"

Joffrey Baratheon, when King Robert proposed Joffrey and Sansa’s betrothal, he was trying to reenact his own betrothal to Lyanna Stark, that was part of the so called Southron Ambitions Theory.

Willas Tyrell, his grandmother Olenna Tyrell secretly arranged his betrothal with Sansa in order to expand their power over another great region of Westeros: “Jonquil, Jonquil, open your sweet eyes, these Tyrells care nothing for you. It’s your claim they mean to wed.” The Lannisters discovered this secret betrothal (thanks to Dontos and Littlefinger) and Sansa ended up married to Tyrion and Cersei betrothed to Willas.

Harrold Hardyng, when Petyr Baelish proposed Harry and Alayne/Sansa betrothal, he was trying to gain more political power to further his own agenda. “When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon... and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back... why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa... Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell”.

See? Tywin Lannister and Petyr Baelish, and even Olenna Tyrell, were acting exactly like Eleanor’s guardian, King Louis VI of France, betrothing her with his son and heir, the future Louis VII, as a way to bring the lands of Aquitaine under his control.

FIRST MARRIAGE

Eleanor became Queen consort of France due to her first marriage to his cousin Louis VII.  This marriage lasted 15 years and only produced two daughters:    

Louis and Eleanor were married in July 1137, but had little time to get to know one another before Louis’ father the king fell ill and died. Within weeks of her wedding, Eleanor found herself taking possession of the drafty and unwelcoming Cîté Palace in Paris that would be her new home. On Christmas Day of the same year, Louis and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of France. 

—History

The wedding was celebrated in Bordeaux on July 25, 1137. Seven days later, Louis the Fat was dead, leaving the teenagers Louis and Eleanor to rule as king and queen. The two were coronated at Bourges Cathedral later that year on Christmas Day. Despite the marriage, the lands of Eleanor’s family would not come under the control of the Capetian dynasty. According to the terms of her father’s will, Queen Eleanor first had to give birth to a son, who then had to reach the age of majority and become the new duke of Aquitaine before the lands would officially pass to Louis’s family. (…)

The marriage was not a fruitful one. The couple did not have many children. Eleanor only gave birth to two daughters: Marie, countess of Champagne, in 1145, and Alice (or Alix), countess of Blois, around 1150. By most accounts, the marriage’s failure to produce a male heir led to greater tensions between husband and wife. 

—National Geographic

The marriage was not a bed of roses:

Louis and Eleanor’s first years as rulers were fraught with power struggles with their own vassals – the powerful Count Theobald of Champagne for one – and with the Pope in Rome. Louis, still young and intemperate, made a series of military and diplomatic blunders that set him at odds with the Pope and several of his more powerful lords. The conflict that ensued culminated in the massacre of hundreds of innocents in the town of Vitry — during a siege of the town, a great number of the populace took refuge in a church, which was set aflame by Louis’s troops. Dogged by guilt over his role in the tragedy for years, Louis responded eagerly to the Pope’s call for a crusade in 1145. Eleanor joined him on the dangerous – and ill fated – journey west. The crusade did not go well, and Eleanor and Louis grew increasingly estranged. 

—History

In 1142 Petronilla, Eleanor’s sister, fell in love with the married count of Vermandois, who was married to Eleanor of Champagne, daughter of a powerful French family. The count set aside his wife and married Petronilla. Critics saw Eleanor’s hand in the affair, which may have been a love match, but could have served a strategic purpose of strengthening the bonds between the Capetian crown and the House of Aquitaine.

Petronilla’s marriage led to a war between Louis and the count of Champagne in 1142. In 1143 Louis ordered the burning of the small town of Vitry-en-Perthois, killing as many as 1,500 people. The church condemned the actions of the French crown, which caused the pious Louis deep shame. He vowed to mount a crusade to atone for it. (…)

A series of disastrous military decisions resulted in the failure of the Second Crusade. In 1149 Louis and Eleanor boarded ships to sail back to France in defeat. For Louis VII, the Crusade was a twofold disaster: He had been away from his kingdom for two years, involved in expensive military campaigns the results of which were humiliating, and his marriage had completely broken down.

—National Geographic

As you can see Eleanor’s first marriage was not a successful one, it produce not male heir and it was full of political and religious conflicts.  All of that resulted in Eleanor’s decision to seek an annulment.     Alysanne only married one man, her older brother Jaehaerys, but she married him twice.  The first time Alysanne and Jaehaerys eloped to Dragonstone and the marriage remained unconsummated.  That period was the happiest time of her romantic relationship with her husband; she called that time, and Idyll:

“Queen Alysanne, for her part, was in no haste to return to court. “Here I have you to myself, day and night,” she told Jaehaerys. “When we go back, I shall be fortunate to snatch an hour with you, for every man in Westeros will want a piece of you.” For her, these days on Dragonstone were an idyll. “Many years from now when we are old and grey, we shall look back upon these days and smile, remembering how happy we were.” 

—Fire & Blood

The period after their second wedding and coronation as King and Queen of Westeros were not as happy as their days at Dragonstone.  

Alysanne’s older siblings, Aegon and Rhaena, incestuous marriage originated several problems and conflicts with the Faith of the Seven and their more fervent followers, because the Faith condemned the Targaryen’s brother and sister incest customs.  That’s why Alysanne and Jaehareys’ mother, Queen Alyssa, originally planned other betrothals for them.  But Alysanne and Jaehaerys eloped and kept their first wedding in secret until Jaehaerys came of age and they were crowned as King and Queen of Westeros.  Later the Doctrine of Exceptionalism was invented as justification of the Targaryen’s incest customs.  Jaehaerys and Alysanne kept the Great Septon and the Faith’s followers in line thanks to a huge propaganda campaign and their dragons.      

Sansa Stark first marriage involved no love between bride and groom. Sansa was forced to marry Tyrion Lannister as a way to give her new husbands’s family, control and power over the North.  The marriage was unconsummated and of course produced no male heir or any children, the bride ran away, and Tyrion Lannister was accused of regicide, ruining Tywin Lannister original plans for northern domination.

Sansa’s first marriage caused no problems with the Faith of the Seven, but she is in need of the High Septon’s help to gain the annulment of her marriage with Tyrion Lannister.  

MARRIAGE ANNULMENT

Eleanor requested the annulment of her first marriage with her cousin Louis VII of France more than once:

After several fraught years during which Eleanor sought an annulment and Louis faced increasing public criticism, they were eventually granted an annulment on the grounds of consanguinity (being related by blood) in 1152 and separated, their two daughters left in the custody of the king.

—History

From 1147 to 1149 Eleanor accompanied Louis on the Second Crusade to protect the fragile Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, founded after the First Crusade only 50 years before, from Turkish assault. Eleanor’s conduct during this expedition, especially at the court of her uncle Raymond of Poitiers at Antioch, aroused Louis’s jealousy and marked the beginning of their estrangement. After their return to France and a short-lived reconciliation, their marriage was annulled in March 1152.

According to feudal customs, Eleanor then regained possession of Aquitaine. 

—Britannica

After the couple returned to Europe, they met with Pope Eugene III who tried to reconcile them—even threatening excommunication. It was no use, the union was doomed: On March 21, 1152, a group of bishops at Beaugency declared Eleanor’s marriage void for reasons of consanguinity. In line with tradition, the daughters remained with their father, and Eleanor retained her duchy in Aquitaine. 

—National Geographic 

On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. […] Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.  

—Wikipedia

Alysanne never pursued the annulment of her marriage, but she had a lot of tensions and problems with her husband King Jaehaerys, especially because their different views on matters of succession and the sexist and severe treatment that Jaehaerys gave to her daughters.

Sansa Stark is in need of a marriage annulment.  The fact that Eleanor obtained the annulment of her first marriage gives me hope that Sansa will get an annulment for herself and then marry another cousin of hers, willingly this time.  

Sansa won’t be able to plead consanguinity, as Eleanor did, as a ground for her marriage annulment, but she can allege the no consummation of her first marriage with Tyrion Lannister as the ground for the termination of that forced marriage.

GRRM has discussed with a fan the possibilities for Sansa’s first marriage annulment here.

INCEST

Eleanor married two of her cousins: King Louis VII of France and King Henry II of England.  She obtained the annulment of her first marriage with King Louis VII of France on the grounds of consanguinity.  Ironically enough, Eleanor was more closely related to her second husband, Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, future Henry II of England, than she had been to her first husband Louis VII of France. Rumours of sexual affairs with two uncles surrounded Eleanor, first with Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, and brother of Eleanor’s father; and later with Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and father of Eleanor’s second husband.

Alysanne married her older brother Jaehaerys Targaryen.  When Alysanne was pregnant for the first time, she suffered an attempt of murder at Maidenpool, perpetuated by three women, followers of the Faith of the Seven that reject incest:

“Doctrine of Exceptionalism had won over most of the pious in the realm, but not all. Some of the women who tended Jonquil's Pool believed that the pool's sacred waters would become polluted if the queen, pregnant with the king's "abomination", were to enter the waters. While she was inside, Alysanne was attacked by three of these women with daggers.” 

[Source]

Sansa Stark was not directly involved with incest.  As it was mentioned before, the first Sansa Stark married her half uncle Lord Jonnel Stark.  Sansa’s paternal grandparents were cousins: Lord Rickard and Lady Lyarra Stark.  

Sansa also have two cousins, Robert Arryn and Jon Snow, which are subtly and not so subtly linked with her with romantic undertones:

Robert Arryn was named after Robert Baratheon and Jon Snow is the secret son of Rhaegar Targaryen.  Robert and Rhaegar fought to death for the love of a Stark girl, Lyanna, the mother of Jon.

Robert Arryn and Jon Snow are surrounded by bird imagery. Robert with Falcons (Arryn sigil) and Robins (Sweetrobin), also with Winged Knights; and Jon with Crows (Night’s Watch/Black Knights) and dragons (winged creatures).

Robert Arryn idolizes Artys Arryn, The Falconknight (usually mixed with the Winged Knight); and Jon Snow idolizes Aemon Targaryen, The Dragonknight.

Sansa thinks about Jon in the Wall and recalled that in the songs the men of the Night’s Watch are called the Black Knights of the Wall.

Alayne is organizing a Tourney to elect the members of Robert Arryn personal guard, named the Brotherhood of the Winged Knights.  

Robert Arryn and Jon Snow are surrounded by weirwood imagery.  Robert and his weirwood throne and Jon with the Old Gods (literally weirwoods) and Ghost (weirwood’s coloring).

Robert Arryn and Jon Snow are the last males of their respective paternal houses. And both of them will face blonde threats to their claims.

Lysa Arryn intended to betroth Sansa with her son Robert Arryn.

Robert Arryn is infatuated with Alayne Stone (Sansa Stark in disguise) and constantly expressed his desire to marry her.  Alayne rejects him every time alleging her bastard status.

Sansa modeled her bastard persona on her bastard half-brother (cousin) Jon Snow. And she is acting as a foster mother for her cousin Robert Arryn.

Sansa’s first crush was a young knight of the Vale of Arryn, Waymar Royce, whose physical features are pretty similar to Jon Snow’s (grey eyes, brown hair, slender bodies, also both Brothers of the Night’s Watch).

The Pact of Ice and Fire could be fulfilled with the marriage of two cousins with Stark Blood. Like Jon and Sansa.

The original outline planned a romance between two cousins with Stark Blood. Like Jon and Sansa (Originally Arya, discarded by GRRM at Balticon 2016).

SECOND MARRIAGE

Eleanor became Queen consort of England due to her second marriage to his cousin Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy.

This marriage with the future Henry II of England was way more fruitful than Eleanor’s first marriage.  The couple had 8 children, five sons and three daughters.

As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords —Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy —tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."

Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. 

—Wikipedia

Duchess Eleanor was only 28, and it did not take long for suitors to begin to pursue her—for her lands and her mind. Theobald V of Blois, six years Eleanor’s junior, tried to kidnap her (he would later marry her daughter, Alice). Eleanor had her eye on a different suitor. From her court at Poitiers, she sent for him in secret. His name was Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou. (…)

Less than three months after her divorce from Louis, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, nine years her junior, on May 18, 1152. Genealogy shows that the pair were more closely related than Eleanor and Louis, but that did not stand in the way of the union. Henry and Eleanor were masters of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and the Aquitaine, and serious rivals to Louis.  

In 1153 Henry crossed the English Channel and was able to secure his position on the throne from the sitting king of England. By the time he and Eleanor were coronated in December 1154, she had already given birth to their first son, William, in August 1153—and was pregnant with their second child. In one bold stroke, the lands of Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, and other important French territories came under the control of the English king and queen. Eleanor’s children, as well as her lands, gave her much security. 

—National Geographic

Within two months of her annulment, after fighting off attempts to marry her off to various other high-ranking French noblemen, Eleanor married Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. She had been rumored to have had an affair with her new husband’s father, and was more closely related to her new husband than she had been to Louis, but the marriage went ahead and within two years Henry and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of England after Henry’s accession to the English throne upon the death of King Stephen.

Eleanor’s marriage to Henry was more successful than her first, although not lacking in drama and discord. Henry and Eleanor argued often, but they produced eight children together between 1152 and 1166. The extent of Eleanor’s role in Henry’s rule is largely unknown, although it seems unlikely that a woman of her reputed energy and education would have been wholly without influence. Nonetheless, she does not emerge again into a publicly active role until separating from Henry in 1167 and moving her household to her own lands in Poitiers. While the reasons for the breakdown of her marriage to Henry remain unclear, it can likely be traced to Henry’s increasingly visible infidelities. 

—History

Two months later she married the grandson of Henry I of England, Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. In 1154 he became, as Henry II, king of England, with the result that England, Normandy, and the west of France were united under his rule. Eleanor had only two daughters by Louis VII, but to her new husband she bore five sons and three daughters. The sons were William, who died at the age of three; Henry; Richard, the Lion-Heart; Geoffrey, duke of Brittany; and John, surnamed Lackland until, having outlived all his brothers, he inherited, in 1199, the crown of England. The daughters were Matilda, who married Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria; Eleanor, who married Alfonso VIII, king of Castile; and Joan, who married successively William II, king of Sicily, and Raymond VI, count of Toulouse. Eleanor would well have deserved to be named the “grandmother of Europe.”  

—Britannica

Take note that even as a “divorced” woman, Eleanor still was the most eligible heiress in Europe, and suffered various attempts to kidnap as a way to marry her.  This kidnap/marriage attempts against Eleanor reminds me of the Wildling beyond the Wall marriage customs.  

The period that started with Alysanne’s second wedding to her older brother Jaehaerys was very similar to Eleanor’s second marriage with Henry II of England:

Henry was in conflict with his uncle Stephen of Blois for the Throne of England.  Jaehaerys was in conflict with his uncle Maegor I for the Iron Throne.  

Henry and Eleanor had 8 children. Jaehaerys and Alysanne had 13 children.

Henry often traveled to different parts of his realm, and while he was away, Eleanor assumed the role of regent and other political duties.  Alysanne’s relationship with Jaehaerys was always very close. She was his most trusted counselor and his right hand: Alysanne remained in the Red Keep, presiding over council meetings in the king’s absence, and holding audience from a velvet seat at the base of the Iron Throne. —Fire & Blood

Eleanor outlived most of her children.  Alysanne outlived most of her children.

Eleanor arranged marriages for her children and grandchildren.  Alysanne arranged marriages for her children, especially her daughters.

Henry was an unfaithful husband. Jaehaerys was not unfaithful but he was very sexist and constantly wronged her daughters, granddaughter and children from his granddaughter in favor of his male children and grandchildren.  

Henry and Eleanor got estranged with time and lived separated for long periods after their quarrels. Jaehareys and Alysanne got estranged with the time and lived separated for long periods after their quarrels.

Eleanor supported her sons’ rebellions against her husband Henry II, and got imprisoned for it.  She would remain a prisoner until Henry II’s death in 1189. Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s quarrels happened mostly because their different views on matters of succession and the sexist and severe treatment that Jaehaerys gave to her daughters.

Eleanor died around age 80; she outlived Henry.  Alysanne died at 64, leaving Jaehaerys a widower.

Sansa Stark has not married a second time yet.  She is betrothed, as Alayne Stone, to Harrold Hardyng, often called Harry the Heir, cousin and heir presumptive of Lord Robert Arryn and would ascend to rule of the Vale as "Harrold Arryn" should Lord Robert die without issue.

Sansa Stark is not a mother yet neither.  But GRRM has planted seeds about her fertility and future motherhood, as I earlier speculated in this post. There I talked about Alayne’s location: “The Vale of Arryn was famously fertile and had gone untouched during the fighting”;  and Sansa being a half-Tully girl. Tully members are famously fertile; Cat, Lysa and Edmure manage to conceive at the first attempt with Ned, Petyr and Roslin.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Some of Eleanor’s greatest contributions were:

Eleanor of Aquitaine is said to be responsible for the introduction of built-in fireplaces, first used when she renovated the palace of her first husband Louis in Paris. Shocked by the frigid north after her upbringing in southern France, Eleanor’s innovation spread quickly, transforming the domestic arrangements of the time. 

—Britannica

While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.

—Wikipedia

Eleanor was also an excellent diplomat envoy and a magnificent patron of arts, as it will be explained later.

Some of Alysanne’s contributions to the politics and the welfare of the people of Westeros were:  

She helped Jaehaerys to create Westeros’ first unified code of laws.

Alysanne procured clean water for the people of Kingslanding: Queen Alysanne served each of them a tankard of river water at the next council meeting, and dared them to drink of it. The water went undrunk, but the wells and pipes were soon approved. Construction would require more than a dozen years, but in the end “the queen’s fountains” provided clean water for Kingslanders for many generations to come. —Fire & BloodQueen

Alysanne proposed a “New Gift” for the Night’s Watch: The notion did not please Lord Alaric; though a strong friend to the Night’s Watch, he knew that the lords who presently held the lands in question would object to them being given away without their leave. “I have no doubt that you can persuade them, Lord Alaric,” the queen said. And finally, charmed by her as ever, Alaric Stark agreed that, aye, he could. And so it came to pass that the size of the Gift was doubled with a stroke. —Fire & Blood

Alysanne aprocured the promulgation of the Widow’s Law: To rectify these ills, King Jaehaerys in 52 AC promulgated the Widow’s Law, reaffirming the right of the eldest son (or eldest daughter, where there was no son) to inherit, but requiring said heirs to maintain surviving widows in the same condition they had enjoyed before their husband’s death. A lord’s widow, be she a second, third, or later wife, could no longer be driven from his castle, nor deprived of her servants, clothing, and income. The same law, however, also forbade men from disinheriting their children by a first wife in order to bestow their lands, seat, or property upon a later wife or her own children. —Fire & Blood

Alysanne also procured the abolition of the lord’s ancient right to the first night: And so it came to pass that the second of what the smallfolk named Queen Alysanne’s Laws was enacted: the abolition of the lord’s ancient right to the first night. Henceforth, it was decreed, a bride’s maidenhead would belong only to her husband, whether joined before a septon or a heart tree, and any man, be he lord or peasant, who took her on her wedding night or any other night would be guilty of the crime of rape. —Fire & Blood

Sansa is not in a Queen position yet, but the possibilities for her ending the books as a monarch are big. We have books evidence and foreshadowing here and here. We also have the Sansa’s TV adaptation endgame as Queen in the North to support this hypothesis, and GRRM counting Sansa as a major character and also saying the endgame for the major characters would be the same in the Books.

Sansa was already betrothed with the heir to the Iron Throne once, but Joffrey Baratheon was a bastard disguised as a prince; so every time I remember that GRRM wrote a passage when someone called the Red Comet a sign of glory for Sansa’s betrothed, the dragon’s heir, I can’t stop thinking about Sansa being betrothed to the true dragon’s heir, and that that person is a prince disguised as a bastard.    

But let’s talk about how good Sansa could be as a Queen.  Tyrion Lannister, always praised by GRRM himself for his wits, has something to tell us about the matter:  

Tyrion led Sansa around the yard, to perform the necessary courtesies. She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. His cousin Ser Lancel had been brought down by Ser Kevan, the first time he’d left his sickbed since the battle. He looks ghastly. Lancel’s hair had turned white and brittle, and he was thin as a stick. Without his father beside him holding him up, he would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. She would have made Joffrey a good queen and a better wife if he’d had the sense to love her. He wondered if his nephew was capable of loving anyone.

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion VIII

Despite the popular belief, Sansa Stark actually thinks about the welfare of the smallfolk:

Halfway along the route, a wailing woman forced her way between two watchmen and ran out into the street in front of the king and his companions, holding the corpse of her dead baby above her head. It was blue and swollen, grotesque, but the real horror was the mother’s eyes. Joffrey looked for a moment as if he meant to ride her down, but Sansa Stark leaned over and said something to him. The king fumbled in his purse, and flung the woman a silver stag. The coin bounced off the child and rolled away, under the legs of the gold cloaks and into the crowd, where a dozen men began to fight for it. The mother never once blinked. Her skinny arms were trembling from the dead weight of her son. (…)

From both sides of the street, the crowd surged against the spear shafts while the gold cloaks struggled to hold the line. Stones and dung and fouler things whistled overhead. “Feed us!” a woman shrieked. “Bread!” boomed a man behind her. “We want bread, bastard!” (…)

Tyrion called to her. “Are you hurt, Lady Sansa?” Blood was trickling down Sansa’s brow from a deep gash on her scalp. “They … they were throwing things … rocks and filth, eggs … I tried to tell them, I had no bread to give them”. 

—A Clash of Kings - Tyrion IX

In the Show they translated this Sansa’s line of dialogue to this one: “I would have given them bread if I had it.”  

But I think the most telling evidence of how good Sansa could be as a queen is this one:

“The night’s first traitors,” the queen said, “but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning.” As they left, she turned to Sansa. “Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you’ll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.”

“I will remember, Your Grace,” said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

This is a stark contrast (pun intended) between ruling by fear and violence and ruling by kindness and protection.  And we all know that Sansa’s true nature will lead her to choose love over fear.  

WIDOWHOOD, REGENCY AND DEATH

When Eleanor became a widow, she not only regained her freedom after 16 years of imprisonment, she also got independency and power over England. She acted as regent in the absent of her son, King Richard I, she also acted as diplomat envoy for England and remained a huge influence in the political scene of Europe:

Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England." On 13 August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192 and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars – William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter de Coutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by Henry VI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release.  

—Wikipedia

After Henry’s death in July 1189, Richard the Lion-Hearted became king, and Eleanor gained her complete freedom. Her son restored her lands that had been seized after the 1173 rebellion. Richard appointed her to a government position, and Eleanor traveled the English countryside securing loyalty oaths to her son and his kingdom.

Even in her late 60s, Eleanor continued to follow and often direct the political events of her lands. In 1191 she arranged a marriage for Richard to Berengaria of Navarre. While Richard was crusading in the Holy Land, Eleanor wielded influence over the men ruling in Richard’s absence, including his younger brother, Prince John. Moreover, accused of having ordered the murder of Conrad of Montferrat in the Holy Land, Richard was imprisoned by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. Eleanor turned to the pope, Celestine III, to help arrange her son’s release and also secured funds for his ransom.

In her 70s, Eleanor sought to strengthen the bonds between the Plantagenets and the Capets. In 1200 she traveled to the Pyrenees to escort her granddaughter Blanche to marry the son of the French king in a continuing effort to maintain the power of her family.

—National Geographic

On her release, Eleanor played a greater political role than ever before. She actively prepared for Richard’s coronation as king, was administrator of the realm during his Crusade to the Holy Land, and, after his capture by the duke of Austria on Richard’s return from the east, collected his ransom and went in person to escort him to England. During Richard’s absence, she succeeded in keeping his kingdom intact and in thwarting the intrigues of his brother John Lackland and Philip II Augustus, king of France, against him.

In 1199 Richard died without leaving an heir to the throne, and John was crowned king. Eleanor, nearly 80 years old, fearing the disintegration of the Plantagenet domain, crossed the Pyrenees in 1200 in order to fetch her granddaughter Blanche from the court of Castile and marry her to the son of the French king. By this marriage she hoped to ensure peace between the Plantagenets of England and the Capetian kings of France. In the same year she helped to defend Anjou and Aquitaine against her grandson Arthur of Brittany, thus securing John’s French possessions. In 1202 John was again in her debt for holding Mirebeau against Arthur, until John, coming to her relief, was able to take him prisoner. John’s only victories on the Continent, therefore, were due to Eleanor.

She died in 1204 at the monastery at Fontevrault, Anjou, where she had retired after the campaign at Mirebeau. Her contribution to England extended beyond her own lifetime; after the loss of Normandy (1204), it was her own ancestral lands and not the old Norman territories that remained loyal to England. 

—Britannica

Henry II died in July 1189 and their son Richard succeeded him; one of his first acts was to free his mother from prison and restore her to full freedom. Eleanor ruled as regent in Richard’s name while he took over for his father in leading the Third Crusade, which had barely begun when Henry II died. On the conclusion of the crusade, Richard (known as Richard the Lionheart) returned to England and ruled until his death in 1199. Eleanor lived to see her youngest son, John, crowned king after Richard’s death, and was employed by John as an envoy to France. She would later support John’s rule against the rebellion of her grandson Arthur, and eventually retire as a nun to the abbey at Fontevraud, where she was buried upon her death in 1204. 

—History

Alysanne died before Jaehaerys, but, as it was said before, during their life together she helped him to codified the laws of Westeros, she procured the promulgation of important laws in favor of women rights and gave fresh water to the people of Kings landing.

Alysanne also acted as Jaehaerys representative in an important royal progress through the north, charming all the northern houses, specially the warden of the north, Lord Alaric Stark, and the men of the Night’s Watch, procuring the “New Gift” for them.

Alysanne, in open disagreement with her husband, was in favor of her daughter Daenerys and her granddaughter Rhaenys to be Jaehaerys’ heir to the Iron Throne, following the order of birth, not their sex.  

Again, Sansa is not in a Queen position yet, but she has the education and charms to become a great monarch. Her knowledge of history, heraldry and courtesies would also make her a great diplomat and negotiator.    

THE COURT OF LOVE

And we finally arrived to the section that will make you realize how much of Eleanor we can find in Sansa. After reading this part of Eleanor's story, I decided to write this post as a continuation of my Alysanne/Sansa post. And after doing some more research on GRRM's words on how much Eleanor has influenced their ASOIAF women, I think I made a good decision.

Eleanor was born in the South of France, in a court that was exactly like the Southern courts that Sansa read in her beloved songs and that she wished to live in:  

Their ducal court had a fine reputation as a patron of the arts. Eleanor’s grandfather, William IX, was known as the “troubadour duke,” famous for his poetry and songs about heroism and courtly love. Poets of the time, especially the famous Marcabru, found hospitality at the court of Aquitaine. 

—National Geographic

Now, lets read one of my favorite Sansa’s passages, one that tell us about her innocent dreams and wishes for a young and handsome singer that would make the walls of Winterfell alive with romantic music:

Once, when she was just a little girl, a wandering singer had stayed with them at Winterfell for half a year. An old man he was, with white hair and windburnt cheeks, but he sang of knights and quests and ladies fair, and Sansa had cried bitter tears when he left them, and begged her father not to let him go. "The man has played us every song he knows thrice over," Lord Eddard told her gently. "I cannot keep him here against his will. You need not weep, though. I promise you, other singers will come."

They hadn't, though, not for a year or more. Sansa had prayed to the Seven in their sept and old gods of the heart tree, asking them to bring the old man back, or better still to send another singer, young and handsome. But the gods never answered, and the halls of Winterfell stayed silent.

But that was when she was a little girl, and foolish. She was a maiden now, three-and-ten and flowered. All her nights were full of song, and by day she prayed for silence.

—A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

Somehow, Eleanor’s story is in reverse, because when she married Louis VII of France and moved to Paris, in the North, she found her new home staid and cold:    

Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners. […] Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.

—Wikipedia

Within weeks of her wedding, Eleanor found herself taking possession of the drafty and unwelcoming Cîté Palace in Paris that would be her new home.

—History

By many accounts, Eleanor was a bright and vivacious woman. Life at the Capetian court did not entirely meet the expectations and tastes of the young bride who was used to the court of Aquitaine’s embrace of troubadour poetry, sophistication, extravagance, and a greater freedom of manners. The Parisian court and northern France were more reserved. 

—National Geographic

Years later, when Eleanor was Queen of England, she decided to return to her own lands and stablished her own court in Poitiers, when she became a magnificent patron of arts:

In The Art of Courtly Love, Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely. 

—Wikipedia

In this marriage, Eleanor was also able to become a patron of the arts, and at least four writers dedicated their work to her. She famously established the so-called Court of Love at Poitiers between 1168 and 1173. Along with her daughter Marie (from her first marriage), popular accounts describe Eleanor’s court as a flowering of culture where music, poetry, and chivalry took center stage. 

—National Geographic

During her childbearing years, she participated actively in the administration of the realm and even more actively in the management of her own domains. She was instrumental in turning the court of Poitiers, then frequented by the most famous troubadours of the time, into a centre of poetry and a model of courtly life and manners. She was the great patron of the two dominant poetic movements of the time: the courtly love tradition, conveyed in the romantic songs of the troubadours, and the historical matière de Bretagne, or “legends of Brittany,” which originated in Celtic traditions and in the Historia regum Britanniae, written by the chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth sometime between 1135 and 1138. 

—Britannica

Eleanor’s time as mistress of her own lands in Poitiers (1168-1173) established the legend of the Court of Love, where she is reputed to have encouraged a culture of chivalry among her courtiers that had far-reaching influence on literature, poetry, music and folklore. Although some facts about the court remain in dispute amidst centuries of accumulated legend and myth, it seems that Eleanor, possibly accompanied by her daughter Marie, established a court that was largely focused on courtly love and symbolic ritual that was eagerly taken up by the troubadours and writers of the day and promulgated through poetry and song. This court was reported to have attracted artists and poets, and to have contributed to a flowering of culture and the arts. But to whatever extent such a court existed, it appears not to have survived Eleanor’s later capture and imprisonment, which effectively removed her from any position of power and influence for the next 16 years. 

—History

Now, after reading about Eleanor’s Court of Love, tell if she doesn’t sound exactly like Sansa?  And this give me hope about Sansa, once in a position of power and in her own lands, establishing a similar court full of poets and singers to promote chivalry and courtly love, just like in her little girl’s dreams and wishes.

Another customs from the Middle Ages that GRRM introduced in the Books, in line with themes of chivalry courtly love, are the jousting tourneys and the title for the queen of love and beauty.  The subject was discussed in this post:

That being said, what they did have in the twelfth century was the idea of the Court of Love, which developed under the aegis of one of my personal favourite medieval figures, Eleanor of Aquitaine, first queen of France, and then queen of England. Eleanor was the daughter and heiress of the duke of Aquitaine, whose court was known as a centre of arts and culture, particularly music and poetry. When she was in charge, she patronized many poets, musicians, and artists, and they of course reciprocated by referring to her as the queen of love. Her daughter, Marie, Countess of Champagne, followed suit, and is best known for having commissioned Chrétien de Troyes to write a romance about Queen Guinevere and thereby introducing the world to Sir Lancelot of the Lake.

—poorshadowspaintedqueens

Eleanor being called the queen of love and beauty by poets and musicians gives me hope about Sansa being crowned queen of love and beauty sometime in the Books. 

Alysanne also favored arts and introduced them again in the Red Keep:

Queen Alysanne looked back on the short-lived glories of her father’s court fondly, however, and made it her purpose to make the Red Keep glitter as it never had before, buying tapestries and carpets from Free Cities and commissioning murals, statuary, and tilework to decorate the castle’s halls and chambers. At her command, men from the City Watch combed Flea Bottom until they found Tom the Strummer, whose mocking songs had amused king and commons alike during the War for the White Cloaks. Alysanne made him the court singer, the first of many who would hold that office in the decades to come. She brought in a harpist from Oldtown, a company of mummers from Braavos, dancers from Lys, and gave the Red Keep its first fool, a fat man called the Goodwife who dressed as a woman and was never seen without his wooden “children,” a pair of cleverly carved puppets who said ribald, shocking things.

—Fire & Blood

But I think that GRRM took inspiration from Eleanor’s Court of Love to create Alysanne’s Women Courts:

Since holding the first of her women's courts during the first royal progress Alysanne and Jaehaerys made, the women's courts became an important part of every subsequent royal progress. Only women and girls were allowed to join Alysanne during these courts, regardless of their status of birth. Alysanne encouraged them to speak freely and openly about their fears, concerns, and hopes.

The first of Alysanne's women's courts was held in 51 AC at the town of Duskendale, when King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Queen Alysanne made their first royal progress. In 52 AC, during Jaehaerys's second royal progress, Alysanne held a women's court at Gulltown, and another at the Gates of the Moon. The things she heard from the women during these two women's courts resulted in her plea to Jaehaerys to protect the widows of the Seven Kingdoms from being cast aside by the children of their late husbands from earlier marriages. In response, Jaehaerys promulgated the Widow's Law.

In 53 AC, when Alysanne was unwilling to join Jaehaerys on his royal progress due to her pregnancy, Lady Jennis Templeton accompanied the king's retinue in order to hold women's courts at Riverrun and Stoney Sept.

In 58 AC while visiting the North, Alysanne held a women's court at White Harbour, where more than two hundred women and girls came before her. When she eventually arrived at the Wall to visit the Night's Watch, she held a women's court in a brothel at Mole's Town. Following their return to King's Landing, Alysanne brought to Jaehaerys's attention the stories she had heard in her women's court at Mole's Town, concerning the right to the first night. As a result, Jaehaerys abolished the lord's right to the first night. These policies, influenced by Alysanne, came to be called Queen Alysanne's laws by the smallfolk. 

[Source]

As you can see, these women’s meeting with Alysanne resulted in the promulgation of laws to protect women’s rights against sexual abuse and domestic violence.  And let’s also remember that Alysanne, in open disagreement with her husband, was in favor of her daughter Daenerys and her granddaughter Rhaenys to be Jaehaerys’ heir to the Iron Throne, following the order of birth, not their sex.  

The most prominent dissenter was Good Queen Alysanne, who had helped her husband rule the Seven Kingdoms for many years, and now saw her son’s daughter being passed over because of her sex. “A ruler needs a good head and a true heart,” she famously told the king. “A cock is not essential. If Your Grace truly believes that women lack the wit to rule, plainly you have no further need of me.” 

—Fire & Blood

Now tell if this not sound pretty similar to:

The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.”

“I will remember, Your Grace,” said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

Sansa Stark is Good Queen material. Tyrion Lannister And GRRM agrees.

Queen Alysanne was also fond of singers and gallant knights:

Three of the brothers had been singers before taking the black, and they took turns playing for Her Grace at night, regaling her with ballads, war songs, and bawdy barracks tunes. 

—Fire & Blood

Though his castle was small and modest compared to the great halls of the realm, Lord Dondarrion was a splendid host and his son Simon played the high harp as well as he jousted, and entertained the royal couple by night with sad songs of star-crossed lovers and the fall of kings. So taken with him was the queen that the party lingered longer at Blackhaven than they had intended.

—Fire & Blood

One of the Knights of Legends that Sansa idolizes, Ser Ryam Redwyne, crowned Queen Alysanne as the queen of love and beauty:

On the field, the highlight of the competition was the brilliance of Ser Ryam Redwyne, the youngest son of Lord Manfryd Redwyne of the Arbor, Jaehaerys’s lord admiral and master of ships. In successive tilts, Ser Ryam unhorsed Ronnal Baratheon, Arthor Oakheart, Simon Dondarrion, Harys Hogg (Harry the Ham, to the commons), and two Kingsguard knights, Lorence Roxton and Lucamore Strong. When the young gallant trotted up to the royal box and crowned Good Queen Alysanne as his queen of love and beauty, the commons roared their approval.

—Fire & Blood

Back to Sansa, let’s read one of my favorite pieces from last year, written a month before the Show final episode, an interview to GRRM to talk exclusively about the Stark Sisters, Arya and Sansa Stark:

I wanted to read you one of the earliest passages that you wrote about the two of them, if that’s okay.

Sure.

“It wasn’t fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother’s fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn.”

So what was the glimmer of an idea for these two sisters?

Well you’re taking me back a long, long way. That’s a pretty early chapter …  I first began in 1991. I wrote about a hundred pages of it before I got distracted by Hollywood stuff, and then I put it aside for like two years before I got back to it. Those words you read were actually part of the first hundred pages that I was doing there. When I was writing these, and I was creating a family for Lord Eddard Stark … I knew I wanted it to be a fairly large family, with a number of children. I suppose I cheated a little by not having three children who died in infancy in there, which was true of the actual Middle Ages. They had a terrible time with kids who died very young.

So I created Bran and in the very first chapter, I wrote where they find the direwolf pups in the snow. Bran is the viewpoint chapter there, and Robb and Jon and Theon are all with him, they’re the boys who rode out with their father to see the man beheaded. The fact that the boys went out was a reflection of what a patriarchal society it was, as medieval societies often were. I was following history in that regard … But I wanted some girls, too.

And when I actually got to Winterfell in the later chapter, I knew I wanted to deal with the role that women and young girls had in this kind of society. So to show the contrast, [we] have two sisters who were very, very different from each other. The Middle Ages was very patriarchal. I’m a little weary of over-generalizing, since that makes me seem like an idiot — but generally, women didn’t have a lot of rights. They were used to make marriage-alliances; I’m talking high-born women now, of course. Peasant women had even less rights. But I was focusing on a noble family here as the center of the book.

At the same time, this is also the era where courtly romance was born: the gallant Knight, the fair lady, the princess, all of that stuff. That became very big, initially in the courts of France and Burgundy, but it spread all over Europe, including England and Germany.  And it still has its roots in a lot of stuff that we follow today. I mean, in some sense the Disney Princess archetype — the whole princess mythos — that we’re all familiar with is a legacy of the troubadours of the romance era of medieval France.

Sansa completely bought into that, loved everything about that. She dreamed of jousts, bards singing of her beauty, fair knights, being the mistress of a castle and perhaps a princess and queen. The whole romantic thing.

And then to have Arya, a girl who did not fit that — and who, from the very beginning, was uncomfortable and chafes at the roles that she was being pushed into. You know, who didn’t wanna sew but wanted to fight with a sword, who liked riding and hunting and wrestling in the mud. A “tomboy” we would call it, I guess. But that phrase, of course, didn’t exist in the Middle Ages, so I don’t think I ever use it in the books, but you know what I mean. So that was the roots to create these two characters who were very different from each other, and who then necessarily chafed against each other in the context of the books.

—GRRM - RollingStone - 2019

Do I need to tell more? It seems to me very obvious that GRRM has translated Eleanor’s Court of Love into Sansa’s love for songs and stories, courtesies and profound beliefs on chivalry and courtly love:

Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. She loved nothing so well as tales of knightly valor. 

—A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VII

Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces. 

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion III

Also, take note that Sansa loves her courtesies, they are her armor.

But there is more to say about Eleanor of Aquitaine and her influence in the creation of ASOIAF women, especially women profoundly linked and similar to Sansa Stark. Let’s see:

While promoting Fire & Blood, GRRM told us this about Eleanor of Aquitaine:

Question: A lot of your female characters are very empowered and motivated, which other fictional or historical female characters did you drawn inspiration from, if any?    

GRRM: Ahhh, well, there was a lot of them, Eleanor of Aquitaine of course was a major one, she was one of the most kick-ass women of the Middle Ages and, you know, she had her own crusade, or she went on crusade rather and she married two kings and then was the mother of several more, she was a great character. There’s also a lot of the... If you read the Italian History, a lot of the... During the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance period, there were a lot of very powerful and bloody women who controlled various city-states in Italy, and did some amazing things.     

—In conversation: George R.R. Martin with Dan Jones FULL EVENT

We already know that Alysanne was called by GRRM, the “Eleanor of Aquitaine of Westeros”:

Alysanne was the queen, consort, and sister of King Jaehaerys I, the Old King, and like him she lived a long life. Since you pictured him as an old man at the end of his reign, I figure it would be most appropriate to do her the same way, rather than as the young woman she was when Jaehaerys first ascended the Iron Throne.

You might consider Alysanne as the Eleanor of Aquitaine of Westeros, and model her on Katharine Hepburn’s portrayal of Eleanor in the film THE LION IN WINTER. Tall and straight, unbowed by time, she had high cheekbones, clear blue eyes. Age left crow’s feet around her eyes and laugh lines about her mouth, but her face never lost its strength. She was a fine archer and hunter in her youth, and loved to fly atop her dragon to all the distant parts of the realm. Alysanne was slim of waist and small of breast, with a long neck, a fair complexion, a high forehead. In old age her hair turned white as snow. She wore it in a bun, pulled back and pinned behind her hear.

Her relationship with King Jaehaerys was always very close. She was his most trusted counselor and his right hand, and often wore a slimmer, more feminine version of his crown at court. Beloved by the common people of Westeros, she loved them in return, and was renowned for her charities. [Source] 

But Alysanne is not the only woman linked and similar to Sansa that was modeled from Eleanor.  GRRM has also said that he took inspiration from Eleanor of Aquitaine to create Catelyn Stark and Brienne of Tarth:  

Interviewer: One of the strongest female characters is Catelyn Stark, in my point of view.

GRRM: Well, I wanted to make a strong mother character. The portrayal women in epic fantasy have been problematical for a long time. These books are largely written by men but women also read them in great, great numbers. And the women in fantasy tend to be very atypical women… They tend to be the woman warrior or the spunky princess who wouldn’t accept what her father lays down, and I have those archetypes in my books as well.

However, with Catelyn there is something reset for the Eleanor of Aquitaine, the figure of the woman who accepted her role and functions with a narrow society and, nonetheless, achieves considerable influence and power and authority despite accepting the risks and limitations of this society. She is also a mother… Then, a tendency you can see in a lot of other fantasies is to kill the mother or to get her off the stage. She’s usually dead before the story opens… Nobody wants to hear about King Arthur’s mother and what she thought or what she was doing, so they get her off the stage and I wanted it too. And that’s Catelyn.

—Adrias News - 2012

So Catelyn Stark is “the figure of the woman who accepted her role and functions with a narrow society and, nonetheless, achieves considerable influence and power and authority despite accepting the risks and limitations of this society”.

Catelyn Stark, Sansa’s lady mother and role model, the symbol of strength she turned to when she pleaded for her father's life:

Sansa quailed. Now, she told herself, I must do it now. Gods give me courage. She took one step, then another. Lords and knights stepped aside silently to let her pass, and she felt the weight of their eyes on her. I must be as strong as my lady mother. "Your Grace," she called out in a soft, tremulous voice.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa V    

Catelyn Stark, the woman whose name Sansa wanted to take as her new identity:

What should you be called?" "I . . . I could call myself after my mother . . ." "Catelyn? A bit too obvious . . . but after my mother, that would serve. Alayne. Do you like it?" "Alayne is pretty." Sansa hoped she would remember. 

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI

Catelyn Stark, the mother that Sansa didn’t forget and that reminds inside her to preserve her true identity:

I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. 

—A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

That Catelyn Stark is the kind of woman that Sansa Stark will become and surpass in the future. To quote GRRM: “one of the most kick-ass women of the Middle Ages Westeros”.

Here you can read more about Catelyn Stark and Eleanor of Aquitaine parallels.

And this is what GRRM said about who inspired Brienne of Tarth:

“I enjoyed Xena the Warrior Princess a lot but I did not think it was an accurate portrayal of what a women warrior was or would be like, and I sort of created Brienne of Tarth as an answer to that.

I was inspired by people like Eleanor of Aquitaine and not so much Joan of Arc, but the queens of Scottish history, from Lady Macbeth on down - strong women who didn’t put on chain-mail bikinis to go forth into battle, but exercised immense powers by other ways.” 

—Pajiba - 2014

That quote was from the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2014.  During that event, and even before, there were reports about GRRM saying that: “Brienne is Sansa with a sword”.     

Since there was no primary source for this quote (I just found a broken link not longer available), just the fan reports we found in reddit and westeros.org, with the help of some friends, we decided to ask the man himself. We contacted him via email. 

And he answered us. 

More or less the question was this:

I recently came across a quotation that’s been attributed to you, but unfortunately the original source is no longer available, and I wanted to confirm it’s something you’ve actually said in the past. In 2014 at the Edinburgh Book Festival, multiple fans quoted you as saying that Brienne of Tarth is “Sansa with a sword,” with regards to certain personality traits. Is that an accurate quotation?

And George’s answer was this:

I don’t remember saying that, but it could be. It has been six years. GRRM

¡My friends and I are still ecstatic!

And as I said before, this beautiful quote “Brienne is Sansa with a sword”, also reminds me of this interview:

Game of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: 

Interviewer: Is there any character who is morally beyond reproach?      

GRRM: Beyon reproach? You mean like good, so good? Probably not.

Interviewer: I was thinking Brienne.    

GRRM: Maybe, yes, certainly. She’s up there. She’s very idealistic. At least in the beginning, but you know her journey still has a way to go, and my world has a way of testing one’s ideals, so we’ll see by the end.

That Brienne description sounds pretty much like Sansa, right?

So there you have it, I just love that Catelyn, Brienne and Sansa belong to the Eleanor of Aquitaine’s kick-ass women club.

BAD REPUTATION ¡KICK-ASS REPUTATION!

As you can imagine, through all these years, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for being the woman she was, had also gotten a bad reputation:

At times portrayed as a frivolous young woman or a manipulative schemer, Eleanor was a savvy player on the political stage—unafraid to exercise the power she held; her reputation may have been damaged by her boldness, but her influence on the political and cultural events of the 12th century remains undiminished. 

—National Geographic

She has been misjudged by many French historians who have noted only her youthful frivolity, ignoring the tenacity, political wisdom, and energy that characterized the years of her maturity. “She was beautiful and just, imposing and modest, humble and elegant”; and, as the nuns of Fontevrault wrote in their necrology, a queen “who surpassed almost all the queens of the world.” 

—Britannica

Indeed, while researching for this post I found awful reports about Eleanor, trying to disqualified her and her achievements, and trying also to demystify her figure calling most of the facts attributed to her, fantasies and fiction.  In a state where we don’t even have a reliable source about Eleanor’s true physical features, I think it is more probable that we only knew a few things about her, and knowing so little, she still is “one of the most kick-ass women of the Middle Ages”.

Thanks the Gods, Alysanne never suffered of this bad reputation “phenomenon”, the way other women from Fire and Blood had.  You just have to read the things that were told about the first Rhaenys and Rhaena to know that they were the subjects of misogyny and bad propaganda as a way to diminished them and exalt other characters.

I’m not saying that Alysanne didn’t deserve to be called the “Good Queen”, but Jaehaerys used her for his Targaryen supremacy propaganda campaign, and, as you may have already realized, most of the time Alysanne was the real author of the best initiatives and laws of Jaehaerys’ rule:

“Words are wind,” he told his council, “but wind can fan a fire. My father and my uncle fought words with steel and flame. We shall fight words with words, and put out the fires before they start.” And so saying, His Grace sent forth not knights and men-at-arms, but preachers. “Tell every man you meet of Alysanne’s kindness, her sweet and gentle nature, and her love for all the people of our kingdom, great and small,” the king charged them. 

—Fire & Blood

But Catelyn and Sansa were not freed of this bad reputation “phenomenon”. Catelyn and Sansa are two of the most hated and insulted characters of ASOIAF, no matter how many times the author himself has defended them of unjust critics and baseless judgments. Just like Eleanor, Catelyn and Sansa are called frivolous, manipulative, schemers; but also, and at the same time, useless and whiny.  It’s ridiculous.

Following the "Creating Characters" panel, Linda and I mentioned to George that some people gave Sansa and Catelyn a lot of grief, claiming they "whined" too much.

George was quite adamant that he disagreed with those readers. He pointed out that the problem is that readers often don't seem to make a distinction between internal thought and external speech in a way that an author might prefer. Specifically, in terms of "whining", to him whining is a verbal act -- you actually have to speak to whine. Cat doesn't do that, though -- all her dark, depressed thoughts are kept to herself. Yes, the reader is aware of them, because they read her POV, but she absolutely does not burden other characters with them. Basically, everyone has bad times among the good times, and they think negatively then but just having negative thoughts isn't whining.

[Source]

There you have it haters, GRRM wants for you to know that you can’t read.

So, let’s just change this bad reputation tag for a better one: ¡KICK-ASS REPUTATION!

And to finish this really long post, I will leave you with what I wrote about the l’Armure necklace that Louis Vuitton gave to Sophie Turner for the 71st annual Emmy Awards:

The dazzling piece in question is titled the l’Armure necklace, from Louis Vuitton’s “Riders of the Knights” collection. Made with white gold, 640 diamonds and 305 baguette-cut diamonds, it took over 1,175 hours of work to complete. “The design is inspired by medieval armor,” Louis Vuitton’s jewelry designer Francesca Amfitheatrof told Vogue. [Source]

The Riders of the Knights collection achieves an immersive aesthetic drawn from medieval codes of chivalry and heraldic crests. (…)

With this new collection, the House pays tribute to the powerful vision that impelled so many medieval heroines to transcend their limitations and forge their own destiny. These women made a lasting mark on the man’s world they inhabited, shaping their fate. They are the very embodiment of determination and independence, values that reflect the Louis Vuitton woman. [Source]

Louis Vuitton literally gave Sophie her own armor in the form of a white gold and diamonds necklace, in a very similar fashion to Michele Clapton giving Sansa her Needle necklace and her armor belt and dress, that armored her against all the claimers of her body and ancestral lands.  

A beautiful and symbolic way to honor the character Sophie played for about 10 years, Sansa Stark, a medieval heroine that prevailed against the patriarchal Westerosi society, never abandoning her feminine strength and courage, while still believing in chivalry and inspiring true knights along her path. 

¡The Queen in the North!    

¡The Queen in the North!    

¡The Queen in the North!    

¡The Queen in the North!    

[kolhearted-archived]

FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY STUFF

This wouldn’t be me if it had some sort of fancy banner, so you’re just gonna get my wall of text, lol. 

So when I decided to create a blog for Kol, I didn’t have any idea — ANY IDEA — what I was getting myself into. I was happily RPing in the Disney rpc with my Toy Story muse, and had amazing friends over there, lots of muse, and was really happy with where I was, RP-wise. 

But I’d just gotten back into The Originals, and had seen Kol’s comeback, and his story began to click for me. I needed that extra backstory — of seeing him, narratively, from the storyteller role and not just as an antagonist — to be able to really understand the potential of his character. We had a character who was introduced as a dark force, unpredictable, who was willing to get his hands dirty to achieve his goals. Originals fleshed out what he looks like from the other side of the story: his motivations, his relationship with his family, and what he is ultimately searching for. 

So I decided to make a Kol blog, but I was expecting it to be, like, not a big thing, you know? I was going to make him my “weekend blog” and I was going to have fun on him, but he wasn’t going to be my main muse. But as soon as I started digging into him, and realized how much room I had to grow and develop with a character who had SO MUCH untold story?? I fell really hard, and really fast. Soon, Kol was the only blog I was logging into. And faster than I realized it could happen, there were people who were responding to my version of him! I was being validated and galvanized to just keep going. 

I found this weird middle ground where I wasn’t apologizing for the horrific things Kol had done, but I wasn’t focusing on them, either. I was worried about making this blog because I don’t write viciousness that well. I don’t want a character who is in CONSTANT fight mode. I didn’t want every single interaction to be Kol hunting someone, Kol hurting someone. 

The last four years has been a series of ups and downs, character-wise. There have been things I’ve tried that have worked really well, and stayed with my portrayal of Kol! And there have been things that really needed to be brought back to the drawing board. Everything has been important and it’s definitely made me a stronger writer. 

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who’s stuck it out, through huge changes on my blog, through me backing away from Kol for times when my inspiration was low, through personal ups and downs which played with my strength as a writer. The opportunities I have are because I have people willing to try things out with me. I appreciate you all so much. 

lots of thank you notes under the cut

@seesgood: I want to make this long but I’m going to try to make everyone’s short and sweet. Thank you for taking a chance on a really new blog and being down to figure out what a Caroline/Kol interaction should look like. Thank you for being my Grove sister and I wouldn’t be half the Kol I am without you. 

@herstolenson: Thank you so much for finding a way to work Matty into Kol’s life so flawlessly, and thank you for giving our muses the time they needed to figure out what they wanted from this dynamic. Thank you for always being there when I’m having a rough day and just need to whine, and thank you for making Matty <3

@outlawiism: Thank you for always following me no matter where my muse takes me. Thank you for being there almost from the very beginning of my indie career, and thank you so much for the genuine support I’ve always felt whenever I talk to you! Thank you for being the Glitter Queen™ and giving so many people reasons to smile. I am always so humbled to be your friend. 

@hauntedgilbert: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explore the Kol/Jeremy dynamic the way I had so desperately wanted to! Thank you for talking me through Jeremy’s side of things so we could figure out what was happening in any situation. Thank you for always being down to make something crazy, just because it’d be fun. Thank you for all of the AUs and angst that you brought along the way!

@fiercerebekah: Thank you for being there from like the VERY beginning! Thank you for showing me what an “established” blog looks like, and the real fun that can come from sitting with a muse for an extended amount of time. Thank you for the shenanigans you’re always willing to offer up, and for always letting me know what Rebekah’s thoughts are about what Kol does.

@ladamedemartel: Thank you for bringing different aspects to a character who did not originally have that many layers. Thank you for introducing us all to Aurora and allowing us to interact with her! Thank you for always being so fun to talk to, to debate with, and to bounce ideas back and forth.

@hardcoreproved: Thank you for creating the bizarre and delightful ship that is Kol/Bubbles. Thanks for figuring out what that would look like with me, and the why and the how! Thank you for always being one of the single most patient partners, and always know that even when I’m elsewhere and just bobbin along, I see what you’re making with Bubbles and I’m just like “that’s my girl!!!”

@portectorisms: Thank you for bringing some consistency to my blog!! We’ve been following each other forever, and the times we interact are always so much FUN and honestly, I want to make it more of a thing. Whether we have one thread or one hundred, though: thank you so much for your constant encouragement and support. 

@grawpiish: Thank you for being so encouraging, and for reminding me how long it’s been that we’ve been in each other’s orbit! Thank you for writing an amazing character, creating depth where there wasn’t any in his canon. Thank you for giving me chances to practice my graphics skills, and thank you for reaching out again so we could reconnect!

@hiddensteel: Thank you SO MUCH for the moments I see you popping in to interact with my posts, to offer advice or support or encouragement. Thank you for writing with my smaller muses, even though I neglect them for so, so long. Thank you for writing an amazing Sansa and giving her the love she so deserves. 

@asundrop: Thank you for being one of the first people to really challenge how soft a character could be with Kol. Thank you for dealing with him with a more tender touch, for seeing the scars that are around him and what his potential really is. Thank you for being a rock and a pillar in my RP life, because you, Polli, are a constant for me. 

@anditsxsorrows: Thank you for crreating such a wonderful portrayal of Nik, and sharing it with us. Thank you for the sheer amount of time we’ve been in each other’s orbits, and the ups and downs, character wise, we’ve seen each other’s blogs through. Thank you for sticking with Nik so long and providing such a wonderful pathos to his character. You are an inspiration!

@predictableisnotbad: No matter how much time has passed since we’ve last spoken, you’re always so ready to jump back in and have fun. Thank you for your dedication to Alice, and the depth you’ve brought out in her. Thank you even more for being a constant source of support for me, even and especially when I feel like I don’t deserve it. You are a special and kind light and I am so grateful that you are around. 

@oliverqxeen: Thank you for your friendship, because it means way more to me than I can ever really say. Thank you for being a source of constancy and support when my anxiety gets bad, or when I back off because my nerves and my thoughts are telling me things that aren’t real. Thank you for always being funny, and for really giving so many people the permission to push against canon if it doesn’t make sense. Thank you for being such an amazing writer and a friend that I don’t deserve. 

@yovrstruely: Thank you for always being there, in one form or another! Thank you for always showing how much fun it can be to RP, and for always being true to your muses. Thank you for dancing back into my life, and for offering advice whenever I ask for it. You make the dash feel a little less like I’m yelling into a void sometimes!

@prlman: Thank you for not taking the fact that I know virtually and literally nothing about your muse as a reason why we shouldn’t interact. Thank you so much for sitting down with me and figuring out a way for our muses to meet, for their universes to collide and crossover, and for making Elio one of the very first baby vamps in Kol’s new sire line. I’ve gotten to know Elio a bit better over time — though I still haven’t read or watched his source material, oops — but you’ve provided so many opportunities for us over the years and I so desperately appreciate it. 

@relishingvampirism: Thank you for always supporting my blog. You like and comment on so many of my posts, and really make it feel like someone’s watching and gives a care. Honestly, I constantly feel like I don’t deserve it. You make me feel so seen and I appreciate it so damn much. I see it. 

@crimscnmalice: Thank you for every moment I’ve run to you to ask for help and you’ve been there. Thank you even more for the times when I didn’t need something and we were able to just talk about life, about our geography, about our characters and what it’s like to find yourself and your creative well in a muse. Thank you for everything you do for the RPC, and a little more selfishly, everything you’ve done for me. You are an amazing person and I am so grateful when you turn your attention to me. 

@zcldrizes: Thank you for your constant support, no matter what blog I’m on! Thank you for your enthusiastic encouragement with my portrayal, because getting that “stamp of approval” from a blog I admired so much felt like the sun was shining on me. Thank you for all you’ve done for the GOT RPC and the RPC in general. Every muse I’ve seen you pick up is done with such depth and care. Thank you for letting me be a small part of the world you’ve built for your muses. 

@tocxmply / @killthebxy: Thank you so. damn. much. And I can’t even begin to count the reasons why. Thank you for showing me just how far a crossover could handle going while still being IC with the brotp that is Kol and Jon. Thank you for humoring me on Becky ( but I want to talk more about Kol rn ) and everything you do. But beyond all of that, thank you so much for always being someone so willing and ready to be a source of positivity in the RPC. Your cloak of protection is something I will always remember. Your messages to people are always thoughtful and personal and I feel so humbled being in a place with someone as light and good as you. 

@atomiism: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explore Kol as a sire. Thank you for your amazing Ray, and giving me even the littlest chance of writing with him, because as soon as we started plotting, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Thank you for the moments together that we’ve gotten, and please know that I cherish each and every reply we get done. 

@fire-hoes: Tagging you over here, but honestly this counts for any blog. Thank you for your enthusiastic support and encouragement you’ve offered me over the years. You made me feel like I was a part of something real and really special and I always felt so honored and grateful whenever we talked. Thank you for your support that spans muses for both of us, and always being up to trying something new. You are one of my true constants around here, and I am so, so, so, so grateful for you. 

@itsgclden: Thank you for all of the time you’ve put into Rapunzel, because every time I see your posts, I just get so excited and sit down and read. Thank you for being willing to find ways for Kol and Rapunzel to interact. Thank you for the light you spread on the dash. Thank you for caring so much about someone who is so special to me, because I always feel like they’re in good hands. Thank you for being a real-life Rapunzel and spreading light and happiness. 

@livevl: Thank you for encouraging me no matter what blogs we’re currently on. Thank you for always being one of the first people to remind me that there’s someone in my corner always, and that you like what I’m dong here. Thank you for being that special kind of person who reaches out and says a kind word, because there aren’t a lot of people who think to do that, and it really matters. You make it feel less isolating on here. You are so damn good, so damn special, and so damn talented. I always feel a great pressure of gratitude when I think that I have the support of someone as amazing as you. 

[thousandeyesand-one]

Tagged by @naomimakesart

■What are your top 3 favorite houses of Westeros?

HOUSE TARGARYEN. I mean Hello! 👀

HOUSE STARK. The Ice to my favorite fire house!

HOUSE DAYNE. Extremely underrated & unexplored I would love to know more.

■If you could live during one era in GRRM’s universe what era would it be? (Age of Heroes, Valyrian Empire, Conquest of Westeros, Dance of Dragons etc.)

I'd probably be like either a weirwood & live through all of these eras lol or I'd be a child of the forest secretly surviving since dawn age at the isle of faces or something! Coz I can't choose one era 😜

■What is your favorite episode/scene from the Game of Thrones TV series?

Battle of the Bastards, Loot train attack, Tower of Joy, First look at Ser Arthur Dayne 💜 basically every time arya is on screen. But I guess S05E04 holds a special place in my heart that whole episode was about Subtle hints at jon's Parentage/Subtle-mild hints at Jonerys future magical babies/ & had perhaps my most fav scene in the show of dany & Ser Barristan Selmy bonding over Rhaegar! 

"Rhaegar never liked killing, he loved singing."

■What ruler do you think brought about the most change in Westeros, be it good or bad?

Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the Conciliator. Alysanne Targaryen, the Good Queen. I think they were the Obama's of the 7k literally inherited the realm from Maegor who almost crumbled the dynasty & the realm but they rebuilt it to last for two more centuries. While you asked Good & Bad I'd like to mention for 99% of good that Baehaerys did there was 1% of bad done by him too. The Iron Precedent of 101 A.C. that establishes male inheritance over female which single handedly caused DOD, Blackfyre Rebellions & is still a problem! If only Jaehaerys would've listened to Alysanne & made daenerys the heir! Listen to your wives Men! Make it a habit!

■If you could ask GRRM one question what would it be?

In a shitty, patriachial world like Westeros, where it is more than clear that men have build & sustained their kingdoms & legacies through Acts of War or Revenge or Want & Need to secure power. Why are women like Daenerys, Arya & Cersei criticized as would-be Mad or psychotic/Too far gone or Already Mad characters?

■If GRRM could write a short novel/series about one other family or historical time (besides the Targaryens) in his universe what would you want it to be about? (My choice would be Nymeria’s Journey!)

Good choice Naomi!👌

I would like to learn more about The Daynes man House Dayne! They are so peculiar, mysterious & any reader of asoiaf knows theres more to that house that is important for the endgame than what we know! More about this family dating back to the Dawn age & the era of the rule of Kings of Torrentine. More about Ashara Dayne & her eldest brother who is still unnamed what is his name? How did he actually look like if his son has valyrian features? was he a snack just like his younger brother?.. you know.. important questions like those needs to be answered!

■What was your first introduction to ASOIAF/Game of Thrones? Did someone tell you about it, did you see it online or did you come across it at a store/shop?

My cousin told me about the book series but I was busy with my studies at the time so I couldn't pick it up. But then the show happened & he told me about it too so I watched the first season before reading the books. Then I picked up my Jaw from the floor after watching S01 & straight away bought those books. & THAT'S HOW MY LIFE ENDED!

■What’s one thing that bothers you about GRRM’s series?

I think it's the doylism that bothers me. It has always bothered me I am a Tolkien nerd & that man wrote stories beyond human capacity & error. Middle earth is as fantasy as fantasy can be & even though J. R. R Tolkien was inspired to write his stories by the service he did in military during war his story isn't a doylist one, maybe mild references here & there but nothing as serious as asoiaf. I feel like doylism complicates everything in this story! (P.S I also never was much of a history student Biology was Life!)

■What’s one thing you unabashedly love about GRRM’s series?

The impossibly, irrevocably, unattainable & unfair high expectation of men (selective men) that GRRM has created. I mean good luck to myself on getting in a relationship or getting married coz you aint never gonna be Ser Arthur Dayne awesome or Rhaegar Targaryen & Jon Snow Broody, Melancholy sexy!

■What are your feelings about the prequel series in development at HBO right now for the Long Night?

I really really love Bran Stark & how he is connected to the rich 8,000 or longer history of Kings of Winter & the actual nature of this world, all the stuff that predates back to Dawn Age. First Long Night is something I would definitely love to watch, Fingers crossed am sure I'll like it! Also because valyria came into existence right after the First Long Night so this series only gives me hope for a Valyrian Freehold Prequel THAT WHICH I TRULY WANT!

Now tagged by @chillyravenart

Here goes..

■Which Westerosi castle would you like to live in?

Starfall, Dorne. Duh!

■Would you rather be a rich and influential lord, born into wealth and privilege or would you rather be someone who wields power from the sidelines, like Littlefinger?

I'd rather be born rich & influential because I know myself I won't be another cuckoo Lord or lady of the 7k. Plus it seems like anyone like Little Finger or varys who rises from sidelines have to sell their souls to the Satan with zero sense of humanity & everything being a race for power.

■Pick one: platinum hair or purple eyes?

I'll take purple eyes because I have jet black hair & purple eyes just compliment the fuck out of black hairs!

■Based on a tag I made once, based on your physical features, which part of Westeros/which house do you belong to?

In dorne probably House Martell.

■Who do you think will actually defeat the Night King?

I think Bran is the one who is truly going to defeat Night King.

■Three people you think will die in season 8?

Night King, Cersei & Varys. Can I add a fourth? Melisandre too.

■What would you name your dragon/direwolf?

My Dragon would be called Tzarax & my Direwolf would be called Amaris which means Child of the moon. She'd be an albino without red eyes maybe golden eyes!

■How must Ser Pounce be avenged?

Ser Pounce's daughter should train to be a faceless assassin & return all badass with many faces of cats & avenge Ser Pounce roaming around the red keep biting the hell out of anyone because Valar Mewghulis. All Men must be biten.

■Whose POV chapters are your favourite? (If you haven’t read the books... skip this and hang your head in shame lol jk jk jk)

My fav POV chapters are Bran, Dany, Jon, Arya. In that order!

Hang your head in shame lmao👏😂

■Your favourite ASOIAF/GOT antagonist? 

Varys. This dude is going to burn in the seventh hell for all the bs he has unleashed upon just about everyone he has ever come across. I would name LF too but unfortunately it seems Varys outlived him so yeah The Spider & his webs are deadly as they come.

My Questions are:

1. What is that one moment or situation in asoiaf or GOT Tv show that inspires you positively?

2. YOUR ONE TRUE SHIP?

3. What is your favorite, ride or die character? CHOOSE ONE, ONLY ONE!

4. If you were to be the Ruler of Westeros & name Seven fighters to your Kingsguard who would they be? (They can be from the current generation of asoiaf or any fighter from any era, choice is all yours!)

6. Your own House sigil, house color(s) & house words?

5. What are your views about Robert's Rebellion?

7. Which is that one Character you wish had more screen time on the show (or) had a POV in the books?

8. Imagine Red Keep School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, which houses would the sorting hat sort these characters into? { Arya, Jon, Daenerys, Bran, Tyrion, Robb, Jaime, Cersei, Sansa, Rickon, Gendry, Joffery, Margaery, Brienne, Pod, Tormund, Hound, Missandei, Greyworm, Bronn, Sam & Gilly }

9. How do you prefer to watch the Final season? With a partner or spouse / alone by myself with no one to bug me / go to a watch party or bar episode events.

I'm Tagging @chillyravenart @naomimakesart @beautifuloutkasts @drakhus @phoebemaybe @mamadragon-daenerys @blue-roses-and-red-rubbies @northernlights37 @tomakeitbeautifultolive @toaquiprashippar @daenerys1417 @submarinesofpacific @crystalmusezz @ anyone who would like to do this i'd like to know your answers!

10. Nobody knows for sure how this story ends, but what is your ideal end to this story?

[trinuviel]

Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 1)

As a book reader and a fan of Sansa Stark, Game of Thrones is often an intensely frustrating experience because many of the adaptational choices do her character a real disservice, not just once or twice but consistently. Thus it is very tempting to compare and contrast the books with the show. However, since I intend for this to be a character analysis based on the show, I’ll try to refer to the books sparingly and rather focus on analyzing what is on the screen instead of ranting about what was excluded.

Sansa is very much an internal character – she lives in her head, something that becomes even more pronounced when she becomes as hostage because though she is actually very observant, she cannot speak her thoughts openly. She is also a very passive character for a large part of the story because she is a prisoner. She is at the mercy of other people and she has very little agency herself. Thus, her character is difficult to transfer to the screen where she very much is viewed from the outside. The audience isn’t in her head and that can make her more difficult to read. It is a character that requires an actor that is strong with non-verbal cues and fortunately, young Sophie Turner has developed into just such an actress.

DIFFERENT FROM HER FAMILY

Sansa is very much a child that conforms to the expections that accrues to her gender and her social status. She is a conformist and obedient child and yet she is also a bit of an “outsider” within her own family. This “outsider” status is visually articulated from the very beginning of the story. When we first meet the Starks, Ned, Catelyn and all they boys are outside in the castle courtyard. On the other hand, the audience meet Sansa and Arya in an indoor space, engaged in the art of embroidering, which is coded as exclusively feminine. However, Arya quickly leaves the confines of the sewing circle and runs outside to engage in archery with her brothers. Sansa’s difference from her family is further emphasized when the Starks line up to meet the King. All of the Starks are clad in fur-decorated cloaks. However, unlike the cloaks of her parents and her siblings, Sansa’s cloak is of of a light blue colour that matches her dress. Visually, she sticks out like a sore thumb.

From the very start, Sansa is singled out as different from the rest of the Stark through purely visual means. It isn’t something that the show (or even the books) delves very deep into but part of Sansa’s isolation within her own family is tied to her gender. Like all other highborn children, boys and girls are educated differently in the Stark family. The distinction between inside and outside spaces encapsulates the gender divide in the very first episode. 

The lives of highborn girls are proscribed by a number of restrictive social conventions – almost all highborn women in Westeros are forced to engage in compulsory femininity. This is not a problem for Sansa since her interests and talents conform to the social restrictions placed upon her gender. Arya, on the other hand, doesn’t conform. She rebels and engages in activities normally reserved for boys. In that sense, Arya shares something with her brothers that Sansa doesn’t. In fact, Sansa’s feminine world is very much cut off from the sphere her brothers inhabit. Thus, Sansa conforming to gender norms also marks her as a bit of an outsider in a family of four boys and one tomboy. Therefore, it shouldn’t be that surprising that Sansa is eager to leave Winterfell – even if it is her safe and loving home. She desperately wants to find a place where she “fits” in a way she doesn’t “fit” in at Winterfell.

NAIVITY AND ROMANTICISM

Her conversation with her mother before the banquet is the first real introduction to Sansa as a character. This conversation tells us that she is dazzled by the royal glamour; she wants to make a good impression on Joffrey. She gushes about Joffrey’s looks, asks about when they’ll be married, etc. She’s in a hurry to leave WF and rush into adult life. She’s got stars in her eyes.  

It is clear that Catelyn doesn’t share Sansa’s enthusiasm for getting married quickly. She tries to point out that getting married would mean Sansa leaving her home, to which Sansa replies that Cat had to leave her home to come North. Catelyn doesn’t have a rebuttal to this comment – because it is true. Sansa (as well as Arya) would always have to leave home when they marry.

Sansa’s naïve enthusiasm for getting married, leaving home and becoming queen is in a sense framed as something silly: she acts like a starry-eyed girl who thinks she’s starring in the Westerosi equivalent to a Disney story. However, I do think we ought to look at the way Sansa buys into this whole “fairytale” isn’t about her being silly, vain and frivolous. A big part of her season 1 arc is about how this ideology of courtly romance that Sansa espouses is a trap, a pretty lie that serves to make lull girls like Sansa into passively accepting their fates as a genteel form of human livestock. The sad fact is that Sansa has absolutely no influence on her betrothal. Robert summarily decides upon it in a sentimental moment where he mourns the losses of the past. Even Ned passively accepts Robert’s fiat – none of the adults seems to consider whether this is a good match, both in terms of personality and politics. Hell, Ned has no idea what kind of boy Joffrey is and whether he’ll make a good husband for Sansa. He doesn’t even seem to question it until confronted by Arya in ep03!

It is a shame that the show completely erases all references to the songs and romances of Westerosi culture; elements, that along with the ideology of knighthood, constitutes the core of the culture of Courtly Love and Chivalric Romance. It is a world where princes and kings are noble and brave, where queens and ladies are beautiful and gracious and where knights are honourably defend the weak and helpless. Through popular songs and literature (like the stories about Florian and Jonquil, Aemon the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys, etc.), Sansa has been conditioned to romanticize and idolize knights, etc. unquestioningly. By removing this aspect of Sansa’s character almost entirely, the show has effectively removed the context for Sansa’s ideals, which informs her worldview and her behavior. It is indirectly represented but it is easy to overlook if you haven’t read the books and if you aren’t conversant with the Medieval culture of Courtly Love that serves as GRRM’s inspiration for this part of the cultural fabric of Westeros.

Ironically, Sansa isn’t the only family member who is eager to leave Winterfell. The scene between Sansa and Catelyn is followed by a scene between Jon and Benjen, where Jon hotly argues that he is ready to join the Night’s Watch. “Father will let you if you ask him”. Benjen advises patience – arguing that Jon doesn’t know what he’s giving up. This gif set perfectly illustrates the parallels between Jon and Sansa. Jon is an outsider in a very different way than Sansa – as a highborn bastard, he is set apart from his trueborn siblings (especially by Catelyn) but he is also privileged because he is the bastard of a High Lord. However, he is just as idealistic as Sansa when it comes to his destination. The difference is that Jon’s disillusionment is quick and permanent whereas Sansa’s disillusionment is  slower process, partly because various people are actively trying to keep her trapped in the illusion, which is something that I’ll explore later on.

The interesting part is, that both Sansa and Jon look to establish their worth outside of Winterfell. Sansa by becoming queen and Jon by proving himself at the Wall. I’d argue that this is partly caused by them not “fitting” easily into the family. Jon because of his birth and Sansa because her interests and talents isolates her from her siblings. Arya occupies an outsider status as well, but in a different manner. Life is sometimes difficult for her because she doesn’t conform to gender norms. However, she shares interests and talents with her brothers and Ned secretly indulges her. So despite Arya’s struggles with the performance of compulsory femininity, she isn’t isolated within the family because her siblings value her interests in a way that the Starklings don’t do with Sansa’s embroidery and songs. It isn’t stated directly but the audience is shown Arya and her brothers bonding over weapons practice straight after Arya rejects the sewing circle that Sansa is part of. Arya doesn’t care for embroidery and it is such an exclusively feminine activity that I doubt that the boys holds it in any kind of value either. [This makes Jon’s compliment of her homemade dress in season 6 extra meaningful!] I think that it is notable that Arya doesn’t want to leave her home. She’s happy at Winterfell, despite the gendered restrictions that are laid upon her.

GRRM created Sansa as a source of conflict within the Stark family. The Starklings simply got on too well. However, his choice to make the contentious Stark a traditionally feminine girl in a family of boys and one feisty tomboy has had the unfortunate side-effect of tapping into a of more or less subconscious misogynistic discourse when it comes to the audience’s reception of Sansa’s character. Like all the other characters in this story, Sansa has her flaws. She makes mistakes and she pays dearly for them (though she also pays for the mistakes of others). However, a LOT of the criticism that is levelled at her character draws on deep-seated patterns of misogynist thought. For a large number of readers, Sansa’s greatest sin is being a feminine girl and those of her traits that are coded as conventionally feminine are often judged negatively, fx her romanticism, her love of pretty things, etc.

To be continued...

[occupyvenus]

I know this topic has been talked about enough, but after reading one comment on this post by @jonsasnow​ I had to put some of my thoughts out there.

Here’s the comment:

The reason I didn't like her trying to crack down on those families is that she seems to have forgotten a couple seasons ago she was part of the treasonous house and she was loosing everything for the "sins of the father" I was hoping to see her show compassion and realize that the situation those two young people were in wasn't different from the situation she herself had been in and remember how she had suffered.

I don’t understand where people get the idea that Sansa wanted to treat those children like she was treated in Kings Landing. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO INDICATION THAT SHE WANTED TO PUT THEM IN THE SAME OR A SIMILAR SITUATION. THERE SIMPLY ISN’T.

Alys and Ned would have probably been put in a similar position as Theon, not Sansa. So let’s look at those two examples of taking the enemies childrens as wards, shall we?

Sansa and Theon were both “hostages”, they were both put under the control of the enemy. But that’s were the similarites between their expiriences end.

Theon was treated kindly, generously and with respect. Of course there’s his line “Yes, my captors were so very kind to me. You love reminding me of that. Everyone in this frozen pile of shit has always loved reminding me of that. You know what it's like to be told how lucky you are to be someone's prisoner? To be told how much you owe them?” and this contradiction is one of the themes that make Theon such an interesting character, but it’s a fact that his life in winterfell was pretty good, no matter how cruel and unfair the circumstances that put him there were. He grew up next to the stark children, was educated and treated with decency. Let’s take a look:

Getting a new haircut together with Jon and Ned Starks heir, Robb. Before attending a feast, sitting next to all of Ned Starks true born children (sorry Jon). Probably the best possible outcome for being a hostage. 

Sansa on the other hand was beaten, isolated, humiliated and forced into a child-marriage. She wasn’t just hold a hostage, she directly was physically and mentally punished for her brothers war. Here’s what Sansas life in Kings Landing looked like:

Being threatend with a crossbow, just before having her clothes ripped of and being beaten by a kingsguard. Probably the worst possible outcome for being a hostage. 

DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE? As similar as their positions were, the consequences they faced were vastly different. So why is everyone assuming the Ned and Alys would suffer the same fate as Sansa did? WHY?

Of course it’s fucked up to take children as wards == hostages and to punish them for their fathers crimes, no matter how they are treated afterwards. But it was a common practice to ensure someone’s loyalty and establish control over potential traitors. It’s cruel, but there are sound reasons behind doing it. I mean, Arya just killed of all adult male freys (I know she didn’t butcher innocent children), but what was the line she used? “Keep one wolf alive and the sheeps are never save” I don’t think this is going to happen since the starks and Jon are our heroes, but theoretically, what would stop Ned or Alys from taking revenge on the starks one day for killing their family members in battle? Taking away a houses means to rebel again in the forseeable future simply is a good way to ensure stability and prevent blood feuds. That’s the ugly reality of living in a feudal society. Let’s be happy we don’t have to deal with that anymore (at least in most parts of the world). 

Jon even does something similar in the books himself with a bunch of wildling children, for fucks sake. Yes - in the books - kind, merciful Jon takes like a hundred children as hostages. He does so to make sure the wildlings stay in line. There is the ugly reality of acutally using the leverage, when necessary and this is something Jon has to deal with in the books. Another night’s watch brother (or was it some northern lord? or Stannis? or one of stannis’s men? I don’t remember...) questions wether Jon could go through with hurting or killing those children if the free folk “broke their contract”. Jon assures him that he’s willing to kill them if he has to. Yes, that happened. It didn’t make it in the show, but still. Words are wind, but still.

I get that the show has to simplify things, like not having our hero take children as hostages, saying that he’s ready to kill them, and it’s actually really nice to have a mercyful action depicted as wise instead of  “stupid” and “naive”. (The way they normally like it on their nihilistic, blood-loving show.) I agree with Jons decision, if only for the grander themes it represents. I like him being a progressive force who challenges unjust westerosi conventions. I really do. I like people fighting against the fucked up society that the seven kingdoms are. I’m for everything that shakes up the feudal system. Punishing explicitly the ones responsible for crimes and treason, without it falling back onto their remaining familiy members is an humaniatirian ideal I can get behind. Go, Jonny, go!

Good job, Jonny. Show them a better way. 

But what I don’t get is that Sansa is again treated like an evil bitch who “doesn’t show any compassion towards children who are in the same position she was in”. I’m honestly too lazy to look up book quotes, but lords were expected to treat “child hostages” well, when put in charge of them. They weren’t supposed to mistreat them like Sansa was by the Lannisters. You weren’t supposed to hurt them without a “justified” reason. (Justified as in the moral code of westeros, not modern standards. Feudalism is fucked up.) There always is the risk of people abusing their position of power, but taking away their casltes and lands isn’t synonymous with Ned and Alys being treated like shit by ~evil queen~ Sansa.

There is no real proof to back this neither, but who says that she wouldn’t have kept those two in winterfell as wards and made sure they are treated as good as possible? Who says she didn’t see taking their lands as a “necessary evil”, but looking back at her own experiences, would have still made sure they weren’t abused and mistreated as she was? Who says she wouldn’t have ensured their personal well-being and safety after punishing their houses for treason? It’s entirely possible and isn’t contradicted by anything she said in the episode. Jon is the one who brought up death as the punishement for treason, not her. I repeat, I’m with Jon on this one. Giving those kids a chance to prove their loyalty was kind and mercyful. It’s a decision that inspires people in a way, a good king should.

But acting like Sansa was being a stone-cold, compassionless bitch who forget what happened to her, wants other people to suffer like she did and is about to turn into Cersei 2.0 because of it, has no textual evidence and is rooted in the good old tradition of shiting all over her character just because. Wether you actively hate her or disguise it as being “disappointed” with her for not learning from her experiences.

I’M SO TIRED OF SANSA’S CHARACTER BEING CONSTANTLY PUT DOWN TO ELEVATE JON AS WOKE WESTEROS-SUPER-JESUS! THEY ARE BOTH GOOD PEOPLE, EVEN WHEN THEY DISAGREE. GET THAT IN YOUR STUPID HEADS!

[trinuviel]

Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 5)

This is the fifth part of my analysis of Sansa Stark’s character arc in Game of Thrones. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). This post will focus on how certain events and certain people serve to re-establish Sansa’s romantic illusions after they had been temporarily dashed. Sansa puts her blinders back on but only because she is persuaded to do so.

A REAFFIRMATION OF THE CHIVALRIC CODE

The Tourney of the Hand continues the next day and this time Ned is in attendance. On this second day of the tourney, Sansa’s faith in the chivalric code and the pageantry of the court is reestablished by the actions of Ser Loras Tyrell and Sandor Clegane, i.e. The Hound.

Sansa is singled out by Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, who gives her a single red rose. This can be seen as a less formal equivalent to the conventional naming of a Queen of Love and Beauty by the winner of the tourney. This is most likely a dream come true for Sansa and her reaction shows that she is extremely flattered.

That tradition is in itself inspired by the ideals of Courtly Love as they are described in the Chivalric Romances, that probably inspired GRRM for the literary culture of Westeros with the stories the Sansa loves so much - such as Florian and Jonquil as well as Aemon the Dragonknight and Queen Naerys. Thus, receiving this rose is a very special experience for Sansa – he honors her with a token of admiration, just like the knights honor their lady loves in the romances she loves so much. She is literally living out one of her fantasies and the the Knight of Flowers, with his good looks and beautiful armor, is embodiment of Sansa’s girlish fantasies.

Sansa is immediately charmed by Ser Loras but after the experiencing Ser Gregor’s brutality the previous day, she is terrified that the dashing Knight of Flowers may come to a sticky end. Thus she clings to her father’s arm, whispering: “Don’t let Ser Gregor hurt him”. I find this line rather sweet because it shows that despite her anger at Ned for killing Lady, she still has a child’s faith in her father – and that is something sweet and precious.

Like the day before, Petyr Baelish insinuates himself into a conversation with Sansa, attempting to sour her experience of the chivalric pageantry.

Baelish: Ser Loras knew his mare was in heat. Quite crafty of him.

Sansa: Ser Loras would never do that. There’s no honour in tricks.

Baelish: No honour but quite a bit of gold.

Like the day before LF points out that things are not what they seem and that people have sordid motives for their actions. He manages temporarily to sour the whole experience for Sansa. Just look at her face after he makes his remarks! Neither does Ned look pleased with Baelish’s interest in Sansa and his attempts to disclose the sordid reality beneath the festive façade of the pageantry.

Sadly, LF is right. Loras is using underhanded means to stack the odds in his own favour – even his gift of the rose is undertaken with ulterior motives (It is a chance for him to make eyes at his lover, Lord Renly Baratheon, who is seated behind Sansa). This, however, doesn’t make Sansa’s genuine joy in getting a token from a dashing knight any less real to her. Unlike her little walk with Joffrey, that ended so disastrously, the formalized pageantry of a tourney can be considered as a somewhat safe space for Sansa to indulge in her romantic fantasies of noble knights and fair maidens. The danger lies in her transferring said ideals and fantasies to other aspects of her life at the royal court. Sadly, she is too young and too innocent to recognize the difference.

Despite Baelish’s attempt to sour Sansa’s experience of the tourney, events conspire to reaffirm her belief in the chivalric ideals. When Ser Gregor attacks Ser Loras in a fit of rage, the Hound jumps to Loras’ defense and Loras then declares Sandor the winner of the tourney. Thus, Sansa’s faith in the chivalric ideals is restored. Look at how she jumps to her feet, applauding the Hound fervently. Evil (Ser Gregor) has been overcome and valour (the Hound) has been rewarded.

Ironically, it is a non-knight who saves Ser Loras; one who detests the whole institution. Furthermore, it is very likely that Sandor only intervened because it gave him an excuse to cross swords with his detested brother. Most likely, he didn’t really care about saving Ser Loras. Sansa is, however, aware of none of this. In the end, the tourney is just a piece of pretty theatre – the appearance does not match the reality but Sansa hasn’t realized this yet. Or rather she allows herself forget the ugliness that she witnessed the day before in order to revel in the fantasy she lived out on the second day of the tourney.

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

I want to talk about Sansa’s appearance at the tourney – more specifically, her dress and her hairstyle in relation to the motif of the rose. Ser Loras gives Sansa a red rose as a piece of stylized gallantry that is conventionally associated with chivalric pageantry. It is a piece of flattery but also a piece of theatre, where Loras plays upon the trope of the noble knight and the fair maid: a trope that is popular in the songs and stories that are part of the chivalric culture. The irony is Loras’ gift just a piece of theatre. He’s simply playing a part that is but a cover for his real object of affection, which he cannot acknowledge due to social taboo: homosexuality is not accepted in Westeros.

Sansa debuts a new dress at the Tourney of the Hand – and it marks a curious deviation in Sansa’s sartorial iconography because it features roses. This is the only costume of Sansa’s that incorporate roses as a decorative motif, which is interesting in itself. She wears it multiple times after the tourney but it introduced at an event where she is gifted a red rose, with all its romantic connotation, in a piece of chivalric gallantry that subtly invokes the conventions of Courtly Love.

In several ways, Sansa’s rose dress represent at sartorial mid-point between the fashions of the North and the fashions of King’s Landing, both in terms of colour and in terms of silhouette. This is the first time that Sansa wears a colour that diverges from the blue and grey colours that costumier Michele Clapton chose to associate with Northern dress:

We have a lot of blues and grays, murkier colors that seemed right for the harsh northern climates. The Starks represent a warm family unit, so the blues of their costumes are rather warm. But within the family, the various personalities are reflected in what they wear. For example, Sansa is in a slightly cooler blue. – Michele Clapton

Early on, we see that the Stark women dress sensibly for the climate with high necklines and embroidered collars and fine linen undershirts that can be seen above the neckline. The dresses of the young girls are decorated with knotted and embroidered pieces of cloth at the neckline.

Sansa’s early dresses are also not closely fitted to her figure. They are the dresses of a child.

The lavender dress marks an important change. The colour itself occupy a mid-point between the blues of Sansa’s northern roots and the dusty rose that many of the Southern ladies wear (and that Sansa will wear at the end of the season). The neckline is significantly lower and the more elegant roses have replaced the decorative, embroidered knots at the neckline. This dress thus represents a merging of Northern and Southern styles. Unlike Sansa’s previous dresses, this dress is more closely fitted to her body. It isn’t the dress of a child but rather of a young girl, blossoming into maidenhood.

It is a beautiful dress and it is among one of my favorite costumes from the series. Apart from the delicate roses at the neckline, the dress is embellished with vines and leaves that trails down from the shoulders, along the sides, leading to embroidered direwolves.

The last element is hard to see on screen but according to this website, Sansa’s lavender dress is decorated with both roses and direwolves. The direwolf is self-explanatory since it is the Stark sigil. The roses, on the other hand, is an interesting motif because it is a symbol that usually is associated with House Tyrell in the world of Westeros. However, in the books, roses are associated with Stark maids on several occasions – and there are sexual connotation to all of these examples:

There’s the story of Bael the Bard. He was according to legend, a King-Beyond-the Wall who stole away and impregnated Lord Brandon Stark’s only daughter, leaving behind a single blue winter rose.

Sansa herself is associated with roses when she acts under the guise of Alayne Stone. The singer Marillion writes a song called The Roadside Rose, which he intimates is about her. The same man later tries to rape her.

The most famous Stark maid associated with roses is Sansa’s tragic aunt Lyanna Stark, who Rhaegar Targaryen named Queen of Love and Beauty with a crown of blue winter roses at the ill-fated tourney at Harrenhal.

I don’t know if this association between roses and Stark maids from the books provides the inspiration for this particular costume as I haven’t been able to find any quotes from Michele Clapton about this dress. However, I do find it very interesting that the hairstyle that Sansa’s sports at the Hand’s Tourney repeats the rose motif of the dress since the two pairs of coiled braids at the top of her head bears a stylized resemblance to roses.

On this basis, I’d definitely argue that the visual association of Sansa with roses (and possibly the romantic and sexual connotations of the flower within the textual universe) is deliberate. Whether this association has any particular significance is another question.

A “LOVE” TOKEN

I mentioned in an earlier post that Sansa was aware that Joffrey disliked her after the incident with Arya, Mycah and Nymeria. She’s quite right: Joffrey doesn’t like Sansa anymore, he doesn’t want to marry her and he certainly doesn’t want to do something nice for her when Cersei demands it (s01ep03). It takes him a few weeks but after the tourney, Joffrey seeks out Sansa in order to charm her (s01ep06). After the customary greeting (a curtsey from Sansa and a bow from Joffrey), he goes on to apologize to Sansa.

Joffrey: I fear I have behaved monstrously in the past few weeks.

He presents her with a necklace with the Lannister sigil.

Joffrey: With your permission?

Sansa: It is beautiful…

Sansa: … like the one your mother wears.

Joffrey: You’ll be queen someday. It is only fitting you should look the part. Will you forgive me for my rudeness?

Sansa: There’s nothing to forgive.

Joffrey: You’re my lady. One day we’ll be married in the throne room. Lords and ladies from all over the Seven Kingdoms will come, from the Last Hearth in the north to the salt? Shore of the South. And you will be queen over all of them.

Joffrey: I’ll never disregard you again. I’ll never be cruel to you again. Do you understand me? You’re my lady now… from this day on… until my last day.

Then he takes her face in his hands and kisses her.

Notice how Joffrey uses a slightly formalized language. He uses the language and conventions of courtly love to win back Sansa’s regard, calling her “his lady” and giving her a love token. He uses these forms in bad faith but Sansa doesn’t know that. She accepts his apology and his gift in good faith because she has been raised to believe in the best in people. She believes in honour and that things are what they seem. That’s her fatal flaw: she wants the illusion and since no one is willing to listen to her fears and worries, she decides to believe in the illusion when Joffrey reverts back to the script of her romantic fantasies (like he acted before the mess on the Kingsroad). Thus helped along by Joffrey’s mendacious performance, Sansa convinces herself that all is well and that she loves her betrothed. After all, he seeks her out to talk to her, to address her concerns – something that the adults in her life don’t. Where Ned and Septa Mordane ignore and dismiss her worries, Joffrey lays them to rest – and Sansa is thus persuaded that her instincts are wrong.

To be continued…