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savsfm · 4 years ago

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madelaine petsch, twenty-three, cisfemale, she/her. — SAVANNAH WALSH was just spotted out and about in los angeles with their signature VINTAGE DENIM OVERALLS. the paparazzi tried to be subtle, but the ACTRESS caught them snapping pictures and DARTED INTO THE NEAREST SHOP. they jetted off to A SECLUDED, PRIVATE BEACHFRONT before getting asked about HER UPCOMING SERIES FINALE this time, which kinda coincides with their notorious WARY attitude towards fame, doesn’t it?

HELLO hello , i’m bay & this is my sweet lil savannah ! actress , sports fanatic , dog lover , confirmed adhd ball of energy ( as far as you know ) . if she had a label , it’d be the benevolent , and . . . well , let’s just get right into this !

· ☆ . 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚜 !

full legal name : savannah raine walsh . –– her mother had a hand in her middle name , and boy was that woman a hippie . age : twenty three . gender : cis-female . nicknames : sav , savvy , little walsh ( when in context with her older brother ) pronouns : ( she/her ) occupation : actress ; sophie turner career claim . inspiration : listen . . . there’s a reason i chose sophie . also jane sloane . details : growing up with just her father and her brother , for the most part , sav was very much the tomboy type , and despite her father’s history in the mlb , the walsh kids often spent time away from him and lived a relatively normal life . this made sav’s climb to fame a bit more of an adjustment , but people seem to love the down - to - earth way she has about her . after wrapping an iconic fantasy series ( think game of thrones ) and starring in a blockbuster ( think dark phoenix ) , everyone seems to be wondering what’s next for america’s favorite sweetheart .

· ☆ . 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 !

micah “mickey” walsh came from nothing . he was a natural born athlete with the drive of a kid who had nothing to lose and everything to gain , and he could’ve stepped right out of high school and onto a minor league baseball diamond , but his parents –– loony as they seemed –– insisted he go to college first , and he spent four years playing for vanderbilt , where he met his wife marnie . they fell in love , hard and fast , and by their senior year , they were throwing together a shotgun wedding in order to say their vows before her baby bump began to show .

the first few years were a whirlwind with mickey never giving up his dreams of having a family and having a professional baseball career. two years in , he was called up to the big leagues , and thus began the ICONIC career of mickey walsh , second baseman and a monster at bat . after three years in the mlb , the walsh family grew , and when SAVANNAH RAINE was born in chicago , illinois , wrigley field filled to capacity celebrated .

three years later , mickey was traded to the boston red sox , and the walsh family moved again . for some time , things were well , and they appeared to be living the dream . mickey loved boston , and boston loved the walshes , so much so , that contract after contract was renewed at fenway . when savannah was five , however , tragedy struck and her mother fell ILL . by the time sav was six , she’d succumbed entirely to her illness , leaving her and her brother , luke , to grow up without a mother .

the walsh family was devastated , mickey taking indefinite time off from his career to be with his children . his parents moved to boston shortly there after to help out with things around the house . mickey tried to keep a happy way about him , but after a season out , everyone could tell he was itching to get back , if only for the DISTRACTION of the game . . . so luke & sav grew up darting around fenway park . they attended every home game , stayed up to watch all of the away games , and they genuinely loved it . babysitters chased after them in exhaustion , and their grandparents did the most they could to raise them right .

savannah was always a FIERY little thing , and it had nothing to do with the red locks she’d inherited from her mother . she was joyful and playful , kind and a lot for any one person to handful . she asked too many questions and had QUITE a knack for theatrics . most of all , though , from a young age , she was simply good . . . and she really never expected to get into acting .

all of that energy had to go somewhere , though , and seeing as she was dramatic as is . . . she was enrolled in dance classes and school theatre projects . she took a liking to acting , starring in school plays and toying around writing her own short films . in high school , savannah was everywhere . . . spread far too thin . but hey ! keeping busy is what this girl lives for !

at sixteen , she enrolled at an acting camp during the summer in los angeles , and this is when she found out that her family and friends weren’t simply full of shit , like she’d assumed . she had talent , and she could make a career of acting . . . and unlike others , her rise was a bit too quick . she spent the summer going to auditions , and her BREAKOUT role was one of her first . . . v much a sansa on game of thrones type of deal .

sav finished off high school through a personal tutor and online schooling , but NOT going to college , for either of the walsh kids , was never an option . so she wagered a gap year from her father , so she could film seasons 2 & 3 of her show . other seasons were filmed during summer months , on breaks , and on long weekends . she SPED through her degree at new york university , and graduated in 3 , freeing up time to act full time .

there’s a GENUINE way about her that just . . . captures people , when she isn’t in character . in interviews , on talk shows , on red carpets . . . she’s just blatantly very soft , very sweet . skeptics think it’s an act , but anyone who KNOWS savannah knows that the only thing she fronts for the camera is constant energy . ya girl is tired . . . all the time , but will never admit to it !

after one of the most watched television series finales of all time and a franchise film –– along the lines of x-men/marvel –– stunning the box office , savannah is taking a moment to SLOW DOWN , because she’s never exactly done so . . . right now , she’s trying to figure out where to take her career next with a pile of scripts sitting at home and the world of the silver screen at her fingertips .

· ☆ . 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 & 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜 !

like i said , miss savannah is very outgoing , very bubbly . she’s good with people . . . but let it be known that she’s an introvert at heart . my girl is queen of leaving parties early .

definitely the lost-in-a-daydream type , and she’s always been a bit of a QUIET hopeless romantic . less grand gestures and magnificent romantic adventures , more of just . . . a genuine believer in love . which . . . CERTAINLY lines up with the way her life threw her for a loop , just after nineteen , and one (1) nate carpenter absolutely turned her world upside down . it took all of one chance meeting , and sav was completely smitten . despite the fact that their dads kind of sort of ?? hate each other , they are happily planning on spending the rest of their lives together , dipping out of Famous People Things by 9:30pm at the latest .

painfully honest . . . maybe a little too honest. if she’s not careful , she can occasionally say too much and put her foot in her mouth . no amount of media training can REALLY rein it in . . . so her publicist is well paid and honestly . . . she has a hell of a time keeping spoilers to herself , so a lot of interviews regarding big plot lines are often with castmates aksdjfha

has a dog named hercules ! not named after the greek hero . . . or the disney movie . . . but rather named after the massive beast in the sandlot . her hercules is a mutt she rescued as a pup . they’re not really sure what he is . . . only that he’s kinda big and definitely has some german shepherd in him .

sports fanatic af . her dad played professional baseball , and now he coaches for the new york yankees . her brother is a household name for hockey fans . . . and , well , catch her in a bright blue dodgers jersey with the name carpenter on the back , every baseball season !!

she hasn’t TOTALLY grown out of her tomboy-ness . she still wakes up early to go surfing , still does far better in beat up converse than she does in HEELS , insists on the thrill of doing her own stunts , curses like a damn sailor , and loves a good worn in denim . queen ! of ! rocking ! overalls !

thinks about her mom a lot , but tries not to do to the fact that it just fuckin . . . makes her sad and anxious . the grief , she can handle , but the nerves ? her mother died of breast cancer , and savannah STUBBORNLY refuses to get tested to see if she’s got the genetic marker for it .

still visits her grandparents in boston often

has a very .. . strange relationship with fame . she knows it’s fleeting , and she doesn’t really care for her private life being prodded into . in fact , that’s the worst part of it all . it’s taken a toll on her self - esteem , here and there , but for the most part. . . . she tries not to let it get to her . if she could do the acting thing without the fame , she honestly would .

ok that is . . . my girl savannah . i hope y’all love her as much as i do bc i am vERY EXCITED ok !! HIT ME WITH A LIKE & I’LL COME SWOOPING IN FOR PLOTTING !!

#luxuria:intro #* / . . . INTRO . / *#this is a DAMN mess y'all

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readingloveswounds · 5 years ago

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twenty questions

tagged by @studygreenbean and @beingxorganised (thank you both!)

rules: answer 20 questions, then tag 20 bloggers you want to get know better.

1. Name: Sophia

2. Nicknames: Sophie, Soph

3. Zodiac Sign: taurus

4. Height: 5′3 im short :(

5. Languages Spoken: english, french, italian

6. Nationality: american

7. Favorite Season: fall

8. Favorite Flower: dogwood flowers

9. Favorite Scent: fresh bread

10. Favorite Color: blue, green, and purple.

11. Favorite Animal: cats, probably. or otters.

12. Favorite Fictional Character: this is a hard question - i’m going to do a throwback and say Eugenides from The Thief (and subsequent books) by Megan Whalen Turner.

13. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: all of them, but for different times and moods

14. Average Sleep Hours: it depends! about 7.5-8 on average, I think.

15. Dog or cat person: cats!

16. Number of Blankets you sleep with: minimum one top sheet and then a comforter. potentially other blankets as well. I like being cocooned, even in summer.

17. Dream Trip: chateau de chenonceau. But it’s probably going to be a while for that one.

18. Blog Established: february this year!

19. Followers: 111

20. Random Fact: I started fencing (the sport) at age 8, though I have never officially competed.

tagging: @techstudyblr, @caffeinated-phd, @hormestudy, @onedaystudy, @coffeeandbookworld, @uneflaneuse96, @sonicscw, @illya-studies, @sabruhtus, @silencent19, @la-buona-vitaaa, @doinastudies, @nadiastudiesx, @asorceria, @blackgrad, @aster-study, @study-just-because, @morbid-longing, @study--blues, @literachures, and of course anyone who wants to do it!

#sorry if you've been tagged a billion times in this #and obviously no pressure to do it <3 #about me

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christinapotter09 · 6 years ago

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ok, let me explain....

I never had a ship from GoT, and I have watched the series from episode 1 of season 1, read half the books and was always watching for the plot.... But recently, some videos on youtube started showing up in my related (probably because I’m crazy for Sophie Turner in the upcoming Dark Phoenix movie as I’m a huge fan) and I saw a couple of videos of Sansa and Jon and I was like hmmm

and naturally, I went to Ao3 and read a couple of stories, good one shots and some multichap and I was like...

AND THEN I saw something about prompts on tumblr, and I knew where my next place should be, so I came back to my mama site and checked the jonsa tag and I was like....

and I found out about the subplots and the pol!jon and the hints about Dany (which I never liked to be honest, I want either Cersei or Sansa to take the throne and be done with it lol) but I put the pieces together and....

WE’RE CANON AND I LOVE JONSA AND I HATE IT THAT I HAVEN’T BEEN ON THE SHIP BEFORE, WHAT THE FUCK WHERE HAVE I BEEN? truth is season 7 was so tiring and season 6 was ages ago so I guess I missed the jonsa (although I loved their scenes I never read in to them) so yes, I just stumbled on the ship’s deck but my sword is drawn and I’m ready to fight, shipmates!

*for the King Crow and the Little Dove!!!* For JONSAAAAAAA

#jonsa #jon x sansa #sansa x jon #sansa stark #jon snow

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mariedemedicis · 4 years ago

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Greetings Your Grace! Which actors on the sh*w do you like the most and which do you like the least? I personally think Mrs. Turner makes quite a good Sansa, but I do agree that Miss Merchant would be an outstanding choice for Daenerys, and I also like your casts for Mel and Margaery a lot! Also, do you have any casts for Arya? I think Miss Williams is an excellent actor, but do I picture Arya rather differently

I can’t be that objective about the show because I really have only seen a handful of eps from season 1 years ago when my friend was trying to get me into it (which did not work lol), it took five more years before I picked up the books on my own. Of course I know a good amount about what the show has done based on cultural osmosis and my dash but yeah, just an fyi.

Also the nice thing about fancasts is that you can pick people who fit the aesthetic visually whether or not they’re a good actor (like say a model who isn’t in the acting industry).

For example, in one of my college classes, I had a classmate who perfectly looks like how I imagine Millie Chant from the Chrestomanci books. I can’t really do anything with that, ya know, since obviously I’m not going to doxx her. But it’s still pretty cool.

The other thing is that obviously a real adaptation is constrained by age and such. With fancasting, at least, how I see it, you can have actors who are wildly apart in age (or even potentially no longer alive) playing opposite each other.

So I recognize that that’s a standard that a real adaptation can’t possibly compete with.

Credit for Mel has to go to @argelladurrandon who originated Dilraba Dilmurat as Melisandre. If you search her gifs here, you can see a bunch of Mel gifsets!

I don’t think Sophie Turner is a bad actress and I like how tall she is, which is very fitting for Sansa, but aside from height, she’s not really how I picture Sansa at all.

I reblogged a gifset once (this one) where she was fancast as Elizabeth I and it made me think she would be a really fun Elizabeth for a movie set while Mary I is queen, which for some reason is a Elizabeth angle we haven’t seen a movie for.

Thank you! Marta Gastini particularly as she was in Borgia: Faith and Fire just perfectly suits my image of Margaery.

Whenever I talk about Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys, people take that as license to trash Emilia Clarke which is both annoying and frustrating because I think she’s very talented and already got enough shit from the writers.

I like Tamzin because I thought she was amazing on The Tudors and to me she looks closer to the Dany in my head and also when she was first cast as Dany for the original pilot, she wasn’t too far from Dany’s age. Obviously still aged up but closer in age than Emilia.

If I was recasting Emilia, I think I’d make her someone like Margaery, though of course she’s also too old for Margaery.

Yes, Maisie is very talented but not quite the Arya in my head either! Some of that is also down to costuming choices the show made for her but not only.

Finding long faced kids is really hard and generally I am very pro-casting unknowns for kid characters.

So Arya. Anuk Steffen in Heidi (2015) is not the right era or dress whatsoever but really has the right vibes for Arya. I think it was @bitchfromtheseventhhell who I first saw using her. Another good one I think is Pan’s Labyrinth era Ivana Baquero, especially for like oak tree dress Arya. (I tried refacing her but her face is so far from Maisie’s that the result was horrific.)

Hmm okay so I guess I haven’t really much answered your first question.

I think Harry Lloyd was excellent since he’s fairly close to my mental image of Viserys as well as a good actor.

Oh man this is really hard because like take Peter Dinklage, he’s an amazing actor but he’s both too old and too handsome to be an accurate Tyrion.

Alexander Siddig would have been amazing if they’d given him anything to do besides die. I wish I could have seen him playing off an Arianne. 😔

I won’t even talk anymore about the Dorne plot destruction that the show did because those are some of my favorite arcs from the books and I’ll get angry.

Some more worsts. They had two Daarios, neither of which looks a thing like the book description which is absurd because they didn’t even tone him down but instead made them drab and grey. I don’t think this role would have required much in the way of acting but the visuals were a 0/10.

I love Gwendoline Christie but come on, she looks nothing like Brienne. Wrong age is like the least of the issues there.

And Missandei and Jorah too. Nathalie Emmanuel is a far cry from a nine or ten year old and if they hadn’t done that weird bullshit murder plot with Irri and Jhiqui, the writers could have improved on GRRM’s writing of them, and had them share friendship moments with Dany.

Jorah is honestly what the fuck. He looks nothing like Iain Glen and I hate how they made him a lovesick puppy instead of a creep. David Harbour would have been a great visually accurate Jorah.

Also Beric is early-mid twenties. That’s why it’s supposed to be so funny that Sansa calls him old, geez.

And Sandor is not even thirty yet.

I went to look at a cast list for you and I truly don’t know what a lot of the more minor show characters even look like so this is the best I can do.

I do have a fancasting page, badly in need of an update actually so I don’t wholly endorse everyone on there though some I’m quite proud of, which you can find on my navigation page.

Is the ‘Your Grace’ address because my username has queens in it? It’s true that for some reason GRRM decided that the King of the Seven Kingdoms would have a form of address equivalent to a Duke but the Valois queens were Queens of France so the proper address is Your Majesty (or if we’re being strictly technical Votre Majesté). 😜

#asks #answers #anonymous

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astraeagreengrass · 4 years ago

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The Queen's Husband - The Looks [2]

Here are some more outfit inspirations from The Queen's Husband, this time from chapters 2, 3 and 4!

THE CROWNS

“I thought you shouldn’t lie when you’re wearing that” he pointed to the crown atop your head, a heavy adornment made of white gold and diamonds.

The Queen hardly ever wears the royal crown. It’s heavy and uncomfortable - and much too extravagant in her opinion. On a regular day, she wears a headpiece called circlet, which it’s basically a thin, wider crown, similar to a diadem, that falls to the upper or middle part of the forehead. It was most notably worn by noble women during the Middle Ages.

1. Crystal Tiara Wedding Crown from Etsy

2. Elie Saab Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2017

THE ENGAGEMENT DRESS

The Queen proposes to Steve on a beautiful summer morning. After much insistence from Wanda, she wore a layered pink gown that resembled the petals of the rose courtyard. Steve later said she looked beautiful. Wanda said he’d never said yes if she hadn’t worn said dress.

1. I couldn’t find a source for this dress, but I saw it here.

THE ENGAGEMENT RING

“The oval stone was the same shade as the velvet cloth - midnight indigo, dark as the depths of the ocean that crashed in Ergona’s shore. Dozens of tiny diamonds surrounded it, twinkling lazily in the warm firelight glow. Even more diamonds made up the ring band - an opulent jewel, made of the finest gems dig up from western mines and handcrafted by the greatest jewelers at the Duke of Arvenia’s disposal”

Not gonna lie, the Queen’s engagement ring is totally inspired by Kate Middleton’s engagement ring - was Princess Diana’s engagement ring as well. The ring on the left was posted on a moodboard I did for chapter 3 (my collage skills have thankfully improved since then) as is very similar to Kate’s.

1. Kate Middleton’s engagement ring, made by G. Collins and Sons.

2. Engagement ring from Etsy

THE WEDDING GOWN

“Your bridal gown was a magnificent alabaster piece made of thick fabric, with long sleeves, elongated neck and a train. Mother-of-pearl buttons fastened it to your front and silver embroidery drew intricate patterns from the hem to the shoulders, covered by thick a fur shawl. It was a garment made for heavy winter, not autumn, but you insisted on it since it was your mother’s wedding dress. The only addition were the mother-of-pearl clasps, shaped like stars - a nod to Steve’s shield.”

I tried my best to describe the Queen’s wedding gown from the pictures of Sansa Stark’s wedding dress in the fifth season of Game of Thrones, but since my knowledge of fabrics and textures is extremely limited I think that paragraph is far from my best piece of writing 😂

The front clasps on Sansa’s dress are designed like wolf’s claws - a nod to her heritage (and another example of Michele Clapton’s brilliant work as costume designed) - but I imagined the Queen’s to be shaped like stars because of Steve’s shield.

1/2. Sophie Turner in Game of Thrones (2011)

3/4. Pictures found here

#the queen’s husband #fashion #visuals #fanfic visuals #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers fanfiction #corneliabarnes

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raviposting · 5 years ago

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the true deserving queen of Westeros, Sansa Stark

Bwahahah honestly I’m fine with her being Queen in the North I’m a big stan of it and just getting rid of monarchy in the 7 Kingdoms LMAOOO but I feel you on this considering the canon of the show

Why I like them gosh. So much??? She’s so strong and has gone through it all while being intelligent and genuinely kind. She’s not naive anymore, but she hasn’t become cruel despite everything that has happened to her and I love that about her.

Why I don’t So there’s nothing really that makes me not like her? There were things that got me frustrated for sure - her not defending Arya in the Arya v Joffrey conflict, her being so into Joffrey, etc., but...they’re flaws, not anything that make me not like her. She was also 13 (11 in the books). Her being like that can be frustrating, yeah, but also significantly less horrendous to me because they’re coming from a literal child. Of course she’d act this way, of course she’d get manipulated so easily - not saying that every kid would be like this (ie Arya had less of that) but still, her age needs to be taken into account, as well as the fact that a lot of times grown adults were manipulated by the same people. So I tend to cut her slack on those. She’s a kid, and she responded accordingly to a lot of these situations.

Favorite episode (scene if movie) Oh gosh The Purple Wedding episode! It was amazing, because she only had what, two lines? And yet she got through so much emotion through just her facial expressions. It was a great testament to Sophie Turner’s acting and a great example of how to write a character who has an internal monologue and not a lot of dialogue - something that D&D forgot for Sansa, Dany, Bran, and Jon later on but you know, still. This episode was amazing.

Favorite season/movie Ooooh hard. Maybe season 3 or 4? Or 5??? idk man

Favorite line “Or maybe he’ll give me yours....your grace.”

Favorite outfit HMM she’s had so many great outfits so this is hard. Objectively I do rather like her wedding dress to Tyrion as awful as that wedding was; also her QITN outfit was *chef’s kiss* amazing

OTP Sansa/Margaery in modern AU times (slash overall), Sansa/Theon in show canon, Sansa/Some Peace and Quiet and Happiness in book canon

Brotp So overall I’d say her and Robb, even though we barely ever get to see their dynamic. It’s one that I really love to think about and I think they were probably extremely close. For show/book canon of what’s actually spoken about more slash shown, either her and Arya or her and Jon, although a specific fandom has made it hard for me to look at gifsets for one of those combinations. But despite fandom and show canon at times, I love these two dynamics a lot.

Head Canon I’m gonna just go ahead and assume in show canon Podrick comes to Winterfell again and he and Sansa strike up a romance and she marries him. She deserves a dude who’s sweet and kind and would treat her well, and that’s Podrick :) I also like to HC that she and Tyrion are still good friends, and that they exchange letters and visits from time to time

Unpopular opinion Sansa Stark is not weak or to blame for the events of GOT! People have softened on their opinion of her over the years but you still get people blaming her for season 1 situations like Ned’s death (because you know, Ned didn’t walk up to who he thought was a murderer and say “HEY I KNOW YOUR SECRET THAT I’M PRETTY SURE YOU KILLED TO COVER UP” ) or saying that she’s weak because she doesn’t...what, pick up a sword and physically fight? It ignores the other types of bravery and strength and just dismisses her because she doesn’t physically fight

A wish I wish she had been with someone at the end of the series. Not romantically, necessarily, but just someone she loved. I would have loved Arya staying with her, or had Theon lived him, or maybe Brienne as a show of loyalty or Podrick with the sense of some bond forming there, IDK. Anyone I would have taken anyone haha. Because I love her and I understand Winterfell is her home and by extension everyone there are people she loves and will care for/fight for/die for but like..we as an audience didn’t see the people who we know love for/care for/would die for Sansa there with her. We can assume those people would, sure, but I would have loved to see at least one familiar face.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen The show did a....lot in terms of things I didn’t want to happen for Sansa. But I guess death wasn’t one of them so..that?

5 words to best describe them Brave, strong, kind, intelligent, beautiful

My nickname for them My ASL teacher in HS would call people “honey bunny baby head” as a term of endearment, and I’ve adopted to calling Sansa that in my tags for her :)

Send me a character! // My fandoms

#long post for ts #sometimes i forget how passionate about her i am and then i get these asks lol #janie gets asks #Anon

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lizziiebennet · 5 years ago

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Having some Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie + Lommy feels with these quotes:

Myfanbase.de: If you could choose two other characters from “Game of Thrones” to have their own spin-off with your character Arya, who would it be? Why would you choose them and what kind of show would it be?

Maisie: That would be Hot Pie and Gendry. Ben and Joe were great fun to work with (so was Eros as Lommy, but I can only have two!) It could be their further adventures and we could travel around Westeros getting into trouble……sounds a bit like season two!

Access Hollywood : Joseph Dempsie who plays Gendry — you worked so well together at the end of Season 1. Are you friends in real life?

Maisie: Yeah, all of us are – me, Joe, Ben [Hawkey] and Eros [Vlahos] — who play Hot Pie and Lommy. We all got on really well… We always went out to dinner… [and] to the cinema. We’re all sort of like brothers to each other and they all had a laugh and we all went and played mini golf together.

At Evening with “Game of Thrones” event, March 2013:

Lot of the actors on set are saying its (season 3) their favorite season so far. Why is that you think?

Maisie: I don’t know. I met some really great people and I was with Joe and Ben again…

Interview with WiC (WinterisComing.net), March 2013:

The actress refers to this coming season as her “favorite season to film.” This year, Arya encounters a colorful new batch of characters, but she was happiest to see the return of her costars Joe Dempsie (Gendry) and Ben Hawkey (Hot Pie) during filming.

“I think it’s nice to just come back and see Joe and Ben again. I have so much fun with those guys; they’re so funny and they keep me entertained all the time.”

Myfanbase.de: Who are you closest to on the set?

Maisie: I get along very well with Ben Hawkey , Eros Vlahos and Joe Dempsie , who plays Gendry . I am also good friends with Sophie Turner and Isaac Hempstead Wright , although we do not see each other on the set due to our different storylines.

HBO connect Q&A, May 2013:

Joe, what’s your favorite part about playing Gendry in Games of Thrones?

Joe: My favorite part so far, has been hanging out with Ben Hawkey and Maisie Williams. It allowed to indulge my inner child again because they keep you on your toes. They’re pretty energetic and wake you up pretty quickly! It’s great to mess around like a kid with those two

Blinkbox event, 2013:

Having spent so much time together on the show, is it weird now that you’ve taken separate paths after your journey together?

Maisie: It’s strange because we were with Ben [Hawkey] and Eros [Vlahos] in series two and then Eros left, then Ben left, and then [a genuinely sad tone enters Maisie’s voice] you left…

Joe: It’s not my fault! [Maisie laughs]

Joe: It’s been tougher for Maisie, because Arya’s whole storyline is based upon forming really close attachments to people and then them getting wrenched away from her. It kind of mirrors that in real life, doesn’t it?

Maisie: It was nice to be with Ben and Eros and have someone your own age on set, but people have gone… It’s like that in real life, too, because we don’t see each other as much as we used to.

Today interview, 2014:

“It’s such a strange show to be on that year-to-year as it’s completely different,” she said. “But I still talk to Ben Hawkey (Hot Pie) on Facebook all the time, and we get on so well. It’s such a shame we’re not on set together anymore. Joe Dempsie (Gendry) as well, I see him at events and things."

#maisie williams #joe dempsie #ben hawkey #eros vlahos #gendrya #its the third time i had to repost because tumblr doesn't make it appear #anyway #sorry #i'm having season 2 & 3 feels these days #they seem to have so much fun back then #here for a arya gendry and hot pie spinoff

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tabloidtoc · 5 years ago

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Life & Style, March 23

Cover: Angelina Jolie destroys Brad Pitt’s world

Page 1: Photo Flash -- Jennifer Aniston and her dog Clyde urging people to vote

Page 2: Contents, a correction to the story about Keanu Reeves being engaged

Page 4: The Top 10 Dolce & Gabbana Looks -- Lupita Nyong’o, Blake Lively, Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Garner, Sofia Vergara

Page 5: Elle Fanning, Margaret Qualley, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Greta Gerwig

Page 6: Twinning -- Mariah Carey vs. La La Anthony, Cobie Smulders vs. Elizabeth Banks, Bella Hadid vs. Hailee Steinfeld

Page 8: Adam Levine was forced to apologize to fans after showing up late to a concert in Chile and putting on a lousy and disrespectful show when his band Maroon 5 finally did show up

Page 10: Heidi Klum wants to be treated like a bigger star than Sofia Vergara on America’s Got Talent which means a bigger dressing room and a driver and she gets to keep her seat next to Simon Cowell even though Sofia has been the highest paid actress on TV for the past eight years, Jessica Simpson’s slimdown secrets

Page 12: Amber Heard just wants to move on with her life but Johnny Depp’s lawsuit makes it nearly impossible

Page 13: Justin Bieber’s big comeback is a bust and he expected his tour to sell out within hours and he couldn’t have been more wrong, Sofia Richie’s father Lionel Richie isn’t fond of her boyfriend Scott Disick but her mother Diane Alexander loves Scott despite the 15-year age difference, VIP Style -- Dak Prescott (pictured), Lebron James and Anthony Davis, Tiffany Haddish (pictured), Bob Saget and Kelly Rizzo, Jerry Harris, Brooke Shields and Martha Stewart (pictured), Jhene Aiko, Naomi Watts (pictured)

Page 14: The Week in Photos -- Kanye West and daughter North at Yeezy Season 8 fashion show

Page 16: Justin Bieber scares David Beckham on Ellen DeGeneres

Page 17: Jimmy Fallon and Tom Brady and Julian Edelman

Page 18: Coyote Peterson brought a baby wallaby to Stephen Colbert, Janina Gavankat held on tight to Ben Affleck at the premiere of The Way Back, Today’s Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker and Carson Daly and Natalie Morales and Peter Alexander and Jenna Bush Hager took a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando

Page 19: Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner out in LA, Celine Dion and Montreal Canadiens mascot Youppi

Page 24: Stars Behaving Badly -- Brooke Burke took her top off while sailing in the Dominican Republic, Justin Bieber grabs himself on the Miami set of his new video, Rachael Ray

Page 26: Say What?! Robert Pattinson reminiscing about landing the part of beautiful Edward Cullen in Twilight, Kaia Gerber, Drew Barrymore, Gwyneth Paltrow on daughter Apple, Chris Pratt on the habit that annoys wife Katherine Schwarzenegger

Page 28: Chris Pratt and Katherine Schwarzenegger expecting

Page 29: How Jimmy Fallon saved his marriage, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have dramatically different ideas on what the perfect date night is

Page 30: Cover Story -- Brad Pitt’s amazing year culminating in an Oscar rubbed ex Angelina Jolie the wrong way -- she thinks he’s using his divorce and his drinking issues and their kids to drum up support and she’s not buying it and doesn’t think the courts should either and she wants full custody of their children

Page 34: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez’s wedding is off -- one year after their engagement J.Lo puts the brakes on her big day with A-Rod

Page 36: George and Amal Clooney leading separate lives -- after more than five years of marriage George and Amal seem to be at a breaking point

Page 38: Inside Queen Elizabeth and Prince Harry’s private sit-down -- over a four-hour lunch at Windsor Castle Harry and his grandmother finally clear the air

Page 42: Who Lives Here? Meg Ryan

Page 44: Entertainment

Page 45: Star Review -- Quincy Brown, As Seen On-Screen -- the olive-green jacket Peter Weber wore during the hometown dates on The Bachelor is Cole Haan’s Diamond Quilted Snap Jacket for $298

Page 48: Fashion 4-1-1 -- Winnie Harlow’s spring footwear collection with Steve Madden, Olivia Palermo’s first RTW collection

Page 49: Elizabeth and James lands at Kohl’s

Page 50: Style Crush -- Kristin Cavallari

Page 52: Diva or Down-to-Earth? Down-to-earth Ariel Winter carries her own packages, diva Gigi Hadid employs a styling crew

Page 54: Social Stars Posts of the Week -- Kylie Jenner and BFF Stassie Karanikolaou, Debra Messing and her dog Henry, Alec Baldwin and his kids, Hailee Steinfeld on Sesame Street

Page 55: Guy Fieri, Jon Bon Jovi and Prince Harry, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani and her son Apollo, Tan France

Page 56: Horoscope -- Pisces Reese Witherspoon, They’re Not Together But They Should Be -- Pisces Brooklyn Beckham and Virgo Kaia Gerber

Page 58: Made Ya Look -- Joe Manganiello and Ozzy Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne at Ozzy’s Global Tattoo + Album Listening Party

Page 60: What I’m Into -- Stassi Schroeder

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bighound-littlebird · 5 years ago

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The Alarm that Never Sounded: GOT's treatment of the SanSan Romance

by Miodrag Zarkovic

Originally posted here.

When adapting female characters from ASOIAF into the TV show "Game of thrones", David Benioff and Dan Weiss aren't unlike Robert Baratheon: if they can't disrobe it, they're bored with it. Their rendition of Melisandre, for example, isn't an intimidating and imposing practitioner of dark and supernatural powers, but rather a seductress who's able to make people obey her only if she rewards them with sex (Stannis, Gendry) or gold (Brotherhood without Banners). One more example would be their rendition of Margaery Tyrell, who was turned from a teenage girl with a perfect facade and somewhat mysterious foundation, into a promiscuous lady willing to do anything – even have sex with both her brother and her husband simultaneously, as she proposes to the latter in Season 2 – in order to achieve her personal political ambitions that are literally limitless.

With that in mind, Sansa Stark never had a chance to be properly adapted in the show created by D&D. Now, the word 'properly' has a rather wide range of possible meanings, and this essay will attempt to examine at least some of them, but, for now, let's say that the most obvious aspect in which TV Sansa was shorthanded is her screen time. In "A Clash of Kings", the book that was the basis for the Season 2 of GoT, Sansa's POV chapters, along with Tyrion's, are the only ones that depict what's happening in King's Landing, the capital of The Seven Kingdoms and the center of political power in the story. This goes for the first two thirds of "A Storm of Swords" as well, e.g. until the moment Sansa escapes from King's Landing. In short, her chapters couldn't help but be of paramount importance in the narrative sense. In the show, however, Sansa's significance is greatly decreased, and not only because the show doesn't follow the "POV structure" of the novels, but because she's reduced to nothing but a prized captive for the Lannisters.

Yes, TV Sansa is a minor, and she's played by a minor, named Sophie Turner. Her age, due to the laws that forbid the usage of underage children in explicit sex scenes, prevented D&D from using Sansa in a way they adore. And her age couldn't be drastically changed without drastic consequences on her overall arc which is, in ACOK at least, built around her first period. That's why, for example, D&D couldn't cast Natalie Dormer – one of their favorite ASOIAF characters, by the way, because they did alter Margaery to suit the actress, instead of the other way around – in the role of Sansa, because Dormer, while certainly looking younger than she is, could never pass as a minor.

And that would probably be the only thing that makes Sansa off-limits for Natalie Dormer, or some other actress D&D adore, to play her in D&D's adaptation. Everything else would've been doable. Had George R. R. Martin not put her first period in the books, Sansa's age, promiscuity, vocabulary, even wardrobe, would've been changed accordingly to suit D&D's vision of a progressive Westerosi woman, which means the first three would've been amplified, while the fourth one – wardrobe – would definitely be reduced and freed from all the unnecessary parts. She'd probably even hook up with some rogue brute at some point; when she'd find the time for him, that is; after she's done with Joff, Tyrion, Lancel, and god knows who else, she'd certainly figure out cynical killers can occupy her bed just as good as other available men can.

Speaking of cynical killers – enter Sandor Clegane. One more character that, alas, couldn't be played by Natalie Dormer, and therefore not of particular interest to D&D. Sandor in the novels is a truly memorable fellow, who slowly but steadily grows in readers' eyes as the story progresses. At the beginning, he's nothing more than a merciless brute used only for killing people Lannisters want dead. Very soon, however, a reader finds out there might be some traces of soul under that rough surface. More and more we find out about Sandor, more and more intriguing and understandable he gets. Even – more likable.

Now, what makes him likable? The stories Littlefinger tells to Sansa?! Of course not. The stories Sandor himself keeps telling to Sansa are what fleshes him to the extent that was probably impossible to predict at the beginning of the series. Through his conversations with Sansa, we find out every important thing there is to know about him. Later on, when he hangs up with Arya, Sandor is already a fully developed character, whom we aren't discovering any more, but rather following. And he became like that precisely through his exchanges with Sansa.

The show went the other way, and a pretty odd way, at that. D&D decided it was better for Littlefinger to deliver the story of how Sandor's face got burned, and that decision carries some very serious consequences in regards to characterization. For example, Littlefinger appears as someone who does know the secrets of King's Landing, but, at the same time, as someone who doesn't hesitate to share those secrets with persons he doesn't have any control over. Yes, he warns Sansa not to tell anyone about the story; but, he warns her because, and here comes the funny part – Sandor is going to kill her.

Now, why isn't Littlefinger afraid Sandor's going to kill him? After all, isn't that the logical question because it's Littlefinger who offers Sandor's secrets to others? It seems there are only two possible answers: 1) Sandor is not that scary and dangerous as Littlefinger claims, or 2) Sandor is a dangerous fellow, but Littlefinger is the bravest individual alive, because he goes around telling the secrets of people that physically can literally eat him for breakfast; and he isn't shy even, because he doesn't fail to warn Sansa how dangerous is the situation he himself dares so boldly.

Whatever conclusion a viewer draws from there, something is going to be radically changed from the source material. Quite possibly, in fact, a lot of things are going to be altered. After the said scene, both Littlefinger and Sandor are drastically different than their book origins. And the characters we ended up with in the show, are not nearly as complex and intriguing as their book counterparts. This is especially true for Sandor, who's nothing if not scary and dangerous. He is supposed to frighten the living hell out of everyone who isn't his older brother. If you take that away from Sandor, you're only left with his tender side.

But, even his tender side was almost entirely removed from the show. This time, not only by Littlefinger, but also by Tyrion: in the throne room, when Joff orders Kingsguards to undress Sansa, Sandor stands there silently. His face expression suggests he isn't pleased with what he sees, but that's it. He doesn't stand up to his king with firm "That's enough" as in the book. It is therefore on Tyrion exclusively to deny Joffrey the pleasure of torturing the girl whose only crime was that she saw him in a moment of unflattering weakness. As in the books, TV Tyrion enters the room with his sellsword and he defends Sansa from Joff, but the important difference is that in the show it looks like Tyrion is the only one both willing to oppose Joffrey and capable of doing it. In the novel, we can sense that Sandor is ready to do the same thing, only, in his case, it comes with a much bigger risk, which is not without importance.

So, in this particular case, Sandor was sacrificed for the sake of TV Tyrion. TV Littlefinger, however, wasn't forgotten in that regard, because, once again, he's fed with lines that originally belong to Sandor. In the finale of the second season, it is Littlefinger who tells Sansa to look around and see how much better than her all those liars are. Just as the last time around, this change serves neither Littlefinger nor Sandor: the former's creepy-mentoring side is exposed much earlier than it would be logical, while the latter is robbed of yet another moment in which he shows how much he cares for Sansa and how protective he is toward her.

Sansa is a case on its own, as far as wrong adaptations are concerned. She's in the league with her mother Catelyn Stark, as two Stark women that were literally butchered in the show. The thing two of them have in common is the nature of their complexity: opposite to other female characters in ASOIAF, like Dany or Arya or Asha or Brienne or Cersei, Cat and Sansa aren't interested in hurting their enemies with their own hands, or, in the case of Dany, with her own dragons (this goes for Cersei, too, even though she's the one ordering the suffering of others, not committing it: her aggression is always personal, as we can sense in the first three novels). And, what's more, Sansa isn't interested in hurting anyone, actually. Cat does have an aggressive side in her; it's female aggression all the way, but aggression it is. Sansa, on the other hand, almost never desires other people to suffer in any way. There's only one noticeable exception: Joffrey. She does think on one or two occasions how nice it would be if Robb put a sword in Joff, and, by extension, she wishes Lannisters are defeated in the war against her family. However, we have to consider the situation she finds herself in at those moments – imprisoned by the Lannisters and at Joff's 'mercy' all the time; small miracle she wishes them ill. I've never been a girl arrested by the grave enemies of my family, but if I was, I'd definitely pray for their most horrible deaths every single night. And, we have to remember that, after Joff's death, she fails to feel happy over it, even though she tries to a little.

Therefore, it maybe isn't a stretch to say Sansa is probably the one character that is most unlike the author himself. Other major characters, especially POV ones, do resemble Martin at least partially. For males, it's obvious: even though GRRM never fought in a war, nor had any military training whatsoever, men are men; even in our day and age, no male is a complete stranger to war; while depicting all those dramatic battles and duels was quite an achievement (which no personal experience would make any easier, truth be told, because in ASOIAF the combat as a phenomenon is illustrated from any number of angles, each among them presented with an abundance of details), ultimately it was in himself where Martin could find a lot of answers about his male characters, whose position in a society is never independent from their combat prowess or lack of it. Female characters, on the other hand, had to be trickier, just like they always are for male authors – let's admit it, they are not that good in creating great females, just like women writers usually don't produce male characters that are a match to their female characters nor to the male heroes created by male authors. In our day and age, these "gender rules" are rarely spoken of, but they continue to exist, due to gender predispositions that are nowhere as strong as in the mind of an individual. There are exceptions, as in good male characters created by women and vice versa, but they are in a clear minority compared to underdeveloped or unrealistic characters whose only "fault" was that they didn't share the sex with an author. And in that regard, ASOIAF could very well be unparalleled: it is perhaps impossible to find any other story that features nearly as many memorable male and female characters both, as ASOIAF does (truth be told, that fact alone should be enough to inspire analysts and scholars to look at ASOIAF at a different, more demanding light, and not as a genre piece).

Martin's girls, however, aren't completely unlike the man who came up with them. Most of them are willingly participating in "men games", e.g. power-plays and/or wars, which makes for a precious connection to a male mindset of the author. They are thinking and behaving as women (or, in the case of Arya, and Dany to an extent, as girls), but all of them are interacting with something that, in all its glory and misery, can roughly be called "a man's world". Some of the most beautifully written chapters in the series are delivered from female POVs – The Red Wedding and Cersei's "Walk of Shame" come to mind right away; but, in a thematic sense, those and other female chapters don't differ too much from male POVs.

Except for Sansa's chapters, which unmistakably belong to something we can roughly call "a woman's world". Chapters of both male and female POVs in ASOIAF are often rich with testosterone, but Sansa’s ones are almost entirely driven by estrogen: look no further than her captivity in King's Landing, that actually is, as already said, focused around her first period – that decision solely should bring a lot of respect for Martin, because he had to know going that road is never easy for a male writer.

And the funniest thing is, it all fits. Sansa's storyline is distinctive in tone, but not odd. It is a legitimate part of the general plot of ASOIAF. In fact, as her story progresses, Sansa becomes more and more important for The Game, even though she showed no clear inclination to participate in it so far, but at the same time, Martin keeps Sansa away from all those "male" aspects he decorated other female characters of his saga.

And on top of everything, we're presented with her love story, a romance with no other than the man who, prior to discovering some delicate feelings for Sansa, could pose for an ideal brute of Westeros. At the beginning of the story, Sandor Clegane could be perceived as the exact opposite of Sansa. As someone who has no business whatsoever in her world, just like she has none in his. But, with some craft wording and master subtlety, Martin succeeds in illustrating the flood of emotions that go both ways in their relationship. Those emotions are never easy, nor appropriate, let alone allowed – even by Sansa and Sandor themselves! – but they're hard to be denied.

The complexity of their multilayered characters, of their respective positions in a society and in an ongoing war, and of their relationship that resists all known clichés, represent some of the strongest evidence that ASOIAF is much more than a genre piece. There's a lot in these novels that escapes genre boundaries, but nothing more evidently than SanSan. Stuff like that is not your usual fantasy element, no matter how flattering fantasy can be as a label (Homer, Shakespeare, Tolkien – to name just a few all-time greats that created unforgettable stories with supernatural aspects in them). Any author who comes up with that kind of love story involving those kind of characters – and with a legion of other characters, and with no less than four different religions, and with themes of honor, redemption, identity, bravery, equality, ancestry, legacy, freedom, revolution... – deserves to be analyzed not as a genre writer.

Now, one can only imagine what kind of enigma Sansa and Sandor were for Benioff and Weiss. And it pretty much remained unsolved, because, when faced with all the complexity of these two characters, Benioff and Weiss decided to remove it almost entirely, along with their relationship that is reduced to occasional and odd mentioning of 'little bird'. TV Sandor was simplified to a one-note brute that goes around TV Westeros and lectures people about the pleasures of killing, a one-note brute he never was in the novels, not even in the beginning of the saga. TV Sansa, on the other hand, was denied her book complexity by shutting down all her layers, one by one. For example, Benioff and Weiss completely removed her decision to go behind her father's back and inform Cersei of his plan. They simply refused to go down that road. They did something similar to Catelyn, whose infamous line to Jon they didn't remove entirely, but did replace it with a much softer one. It is pretty safe to assume that Cat's and Sansa's complexity did bother Benioff and Weiss from the get-go.

What's also removed from the show is Sansa's agency, primarily represented in the novels by her secret meetings with Dontos, a disgraced knight she herself saved from Joffrey. In the show, we got only the saving scene; it was filmed and executed clumsily, but it was there at least. However, until recently, nobody could be sure Sansa did save Dontos, because the man disappeared afterwards (he was briefly seen as joggling balls in "Blackwater" episode, in the scene in Cersei's chambers, but he was unrecognizable for the vast majority of audience). It is reported, though, that Dontos will be returning in Season 4, so yes, Sansa did save his life after all. But, even when he returns, Sansa's attempts at escaping will be two seasons younger than they should've been at that point, and it's hard to see a way D&D can remedy that neglect.

Show-lovers often defend D&D in regards to Sansa, by saying her personality is a difficult and tricky one for portraying on screen, because even in the books she's introverted. Now, maybe she isn't the most extroverted character ever, but she's pretty far from reclusive, as she does communicate with the outside world a lot at the beginning of the series, before she's imprisoned. And even while in captivity, she can't help but communicate with Sandor and Dontos. What's more, around two of them she is her true self, which provides a wide array of possibilities for a good and informative dialogue that, in an adaptation, could compensate for the lack of inner thoughts. With Dontos, she's open not only because she saved him, but also because he explicitly offers his help (and, truth be told, it is he who enabled her to leave King's Landing eventually, so, even though he wasn't exactly honest with her concerning his motivations, her trust wasn't as misplaced as it may seem at first). And with Sandor, she's open for no particular reason – other than those subtle, emotional forces, that both of them can't help but follow and eventually become the closest and most intimate beings to each other.

The way Martin incepted and developed the barely visible, but undeniable romance, between Sansa and Sandor, is nothing short of literary brilliance. With so few words and interactions, he managed so much. The vast majority of readers are aware of restrained attraction they mutually feel, even though they didn't share a single physical aspect of the romantic relationship.

Martin is indeed a master of subtlety, as evidenced by what looks like the endless amount of carefully hidden clues that point to any number of narrative puzzles, realization of which do make an entire story much richer than if taken at face value. And he's never more subtle than with two romances: Rhaegar/Lyanna and Sandor/Sansa. Now, the respective nature of subtlety of those two romances is rather different. With Rhaegar and Lyanna, a reader is – through Robert's retelling – offered a version that is actually the very opposite of what probably happened, and only later a reader can pick up clues here and there, and finally figure out the story of a fatal attraction between the two. But, the clues are presented throughout the text, so much that, even if you don't decipher everything after the first read, at the end of "A Game of Thrones" – the first book of the series – you'll probably sense that Robert's view on events wasn't exactly accurate.

The story of Sansa and Sandor is a very different one. Their relationship is never as much as addressed, even by themselves. Sandor isn't a POV character, and he's not exactly open to people, so his silence on the matter isn't unexpected. But, Martin didn't address their romance even in Sansa's chapters, which are typically packed with inner thoughts of the POV character. It looks like Martin decided to do it the harder way and make their romance somewhat a mystery even for Sansa, which, in hindsight, does seem to be the most logical way: what teenage girl would be fully aware of a romance that "inappropriate", and experienced in those dire circumstances?! As a result of that decision, the readers got a completely fascinating depiction of a romance, that can be described as a train you hear from miles away: at first, you can't even tell is it a train or some similar sound, but slowly, with every second, you're more and more certain that your ears didn't trick you, and very soon the train is so loud that it is the only thing you can hear at all. In the novels, a reader may find something strange at first, when Sandor shares the secret of his burned face with Sansa. Some alarm may be turned on deep inside. And it becomes more apparent each time two of them share a page, with a culmination during the Battle of the Blackwater Bay, when Sandor, after he decides to desert the Lannisters, visits Sansa in her room and offers to take her home to Winterfell.

It might be the only instance in the entire series where Sandor did ask anyone's approval, which does speak volumes about his feelings for Sansa. Considering the manner in which Martin described this romance, Sandor's actions on that day was as good as a confession of his deep attraction to her. Sansa, on the other hand, doesn't have a single moment which could be pointed at as a prime evidence of her undeniable love for The Hound, but this doesn't mean her feelings toward Sandor aren't palpable. It's one more mastery of the writer: through her frequent (and skewed, but in a telling way) memories on the last time she saw Sandor, he was able to show her feelings resonating more and more inside her.

In the show, Martin was denied a chance to do the same thing, even though he wrote the "Blackwater" episode in Season 2. Thanks to the already destroyed storyline, and to god knows how many changes, and to D&D's decision to remove from the final cut some scenes Martin referred to with his scenes, the one between Sansa and Sandor near the end of that episode, served more as a greeting to book-fans who like SanSan in the source material, than as a goodbye between two not unlike souls who shared much, and could have shared a lot more, and maybe are going to if they meet again. In that scene, Rory McCann was visibly better than usual as Sandor, and Sophie Turner was as good as usual, but, just like with anything ASOIAF, the scene doesn't have nearly the same impact and importance if taken out of context.

The exact context of their SanSan is yet to be fully revealed in the books, too. Because of the already mentioned subtlety – a quality that seems to intimidate showrunners Benioff and Weiss, who, in their turn, do retaliate with their on-screen war on subtlety (just recall what they turned other romances into; for example, the romance between TV Jon "Not The Brightest Kid In The Block" Snow and TV "I Know Everything And Therefore I Can't Stop Talking" Ygritte) – Sansa's and Sandor's love story is by no means an open book. Their romance has its own share of mystery, one of which may be: what inspired those two persons to feel so strongly for each other? Personally, I always thought their mutual attraction isn't only based on a "beauty and the beast" model. There is that, but in their case it goes deeper. If that was the engine behind his emotions, Sandor had more than enough opportunities to find a beauty for his beast long before Sansa entered his life. With Sansa, I'd say their mutual attraction is rooted in their personalities. For example, if you take away Sandor's aggression, he also isn't interested in hurting others. He's naturally talented for violence, and he lives in a society that respects that kind of talent, and that is why he's violent for a living, but at the end of the day, the suffering of others isn't any kind of reward for him. Possibly, because he isn't interested in other people that much. Though, when he is interested in someone, the interest is as strong as they come.

(We don't know at this point, but it's not a stretch to imagine that his reaction to the news that his hated brother was killed wasn't unlike Sansa's reaction to Joff's death. "Am I glad he's dead? Well, not exactly, even though I wanted him killed.")

Sansa may very well be like that, too. That would be one of the possible explanations of her AGOT actions. Like the rest of the Starks, Sansa is a complex character that has some issues of her own, without which neither she nor the other Starks would be such memorable characters as they obviously are; it is the fact that they are both willing and strong enough to fight those issues, that Starks stand out for. Without going into details (as if I could!), I expect that in the remaining novels Sansa is going to face the reasons that made her go to Cersei that damned night and with the consequences of that action. And whatever comes out of that soul-searching will be inevitably combined with her claim to Winterfell that Littlefinger brought up in AFFC. And that combination is going to elevate Sansa's arc to even bigger and more important levels than so far, even though so far she was the one Stark that was most engaged – unwittingly, but still – in the bloody dynastic war for the Iron Throne.

And she'll have to cross paths with Sandor Clegane, one way or another. Their relationship was so meticulously built up, it simply has to get some sort of a closure. What that closure is going to be is impossible to predict, because we are talking of one George R. R. Martin, a writer who managed to shock us as he pleased more than a few times.

What is also impossible, is to take anything that did or didn't happen in the show as any indication at what the closer may or may not be. There isn't a storyline in GoT that wasn't drastically changed, and weakened in the process, but Sansa's arc, along with her relationship with Sandor, is among the biggest victims of D&D's inability to adapt.

Whether you happen to like what Benioff and Weiss put in the show, or don't, you'd be advised not to recognize any significance in their decisions for further developments in ASOIAF. Just like show-lovers tend to remind everyone else, GoT and ASOIAF are two entirely separate beasts. And book Sansa and book Sandor, along with everything Martin has in his store for them, can be really glad about it.

#sansa stark #sandor clegane #game of thrones #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #meta #books vs show #long post

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trinuviel · 6 years ago

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Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 16)

I’ve previously written a series of essays that analyse Sansa Stark’s narrative arc in Game of Thrones - during season 1 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) and during season 2 (Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10) and now during season 3 (Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15). This post is the 16th installment in this series.

The central aspect of Sansa Stark’s season 3 arc is her political importance as Robb Stark’s heir apparent. This makes her attractive and valuable to a number of different power players in King’s Landing where she’s held hostage at the royal court. After a lot of secret plotting by Petyr Baelish, Lord Varys, the Tyrells and Tywin Lannister, it is Lord Tywin who secures the Key to the North by wedding Sansa to his son Tyrion. In my previous post, I analyzed the wedding ceremony itself. However, a Westerosi wedding involves more than a ceremony in the sept - so in this post I’ll take a closer look at the wedding feast and the wedding night, both events that are awkward and unpleasant for Sansa.

THE WEDDING FEAST

The wedding feast at the Red Keep is a merry affair – for everyone but the bride and groom. Sansa appears numb and Tyrion proceeds to get thoroughly drunk.

After Tyrion displays an astonishing lack of table manners, Sansa leaves their table. When Joffrey notices this, he immediately leaves his chair and proceeds to corner Sansa and threaten her with rape.

Joffrey: Soon you’ll have a Lannister baby. (…) I suppose it doesn’t really matter which Lannister puts the baby into you. Maybe I’ll pay you a visit after my uncle passes out. How’d you like that?

Sansa doesn’t respond.

Joffrey: You wouldn’t? That’s all right. Ser Meryn and Ser Boros will hold you down.

This is yet another example of the numerous rape tropes that appear in Sansa’s narrative arc (x). This one is called Droit de Seigneur:

Droit du seigneur, literally "the lord's right", also known as ius primae noctis ("law of the first night") and other names, is an alleged legal right that the lord of medieval estates or fiefdoms has to take the virginity of his serfs' maiden daughters (or at least gets first refusal). It is a popular trope in fantasy or medieval European settings, especially of the Crapsack Worldflavour. Usually invoked by the Feudal Overlord as one of his many Kick the Dog moments.

Subtrope of I Have You Now, My Pretty and a way to establish that Aristocrats Are Evil. If it's the Dung Ages, expect the lord to say "Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me." (TvTropes)

After issuing his threat Joffrey leaves Sansa and immediately calls for the traditional Bedding Ceremony where the bride and groom are stripped of their clothes by the guests and carried to the bridal chamber. Joffrey does this to humiliate Sansa, just like he threatened her with rape in order to scare her. Tyrion may tell Joffrey that Sansa is no longer his to torment but in reality his ability to protect Sansa against the King is rather limited.

Tyrion refuses the ceremony but Joffrey insists.

Joffrey: Get rid of her gown. She won’t be needing it any longer.

Now Sansa crosses her arms in a defensive gesture. Tyrion reiterates that there’ll be no bedding ceremony and when Joffrey once again presses the issue, Tyrion threatens to geld him. Total silence reigns until Tywin diffuses the situation. Tyrion then proceeds to make vulgar jokes about his upcoming wedding night while Sansa remains silent. He and Sansa leave while he continues to make a drunken spectacle of himself.

THE WEDDING NIGHT

After this rather embarrassing exit from the wedding feast, the camera cuts to the bridal chamber, which Sansa and Tyrion immediately enter. Sansa fidgets nervously whilst the visibly inebriated Tyrion makes straight for a flagon of wine. An awkward silence reigns until Tyrion begins to talk about Sansa’s astoundingly long neck. Then he asks how old she is, to which Sansa replies that she is 14 years old.

Let that sink in for a bit. She is only 14 years old and several characters have previously stated that she is a child! Yet Tywin has pressed it upon Tyrion that he needs to get this young teenage girl pregnant so that the Lannisters can claim Sansa’s home through a Lannister-Stark child. This displays Tywin’s ruthless nature as pregnancy is dangerous for both mother and child for girls that young. It is actually a poor investment to get a child bride pregnant as the risk is high that both mother and child may die – and that is poor use of a politically important heiress.

Tyrion: Well, talk won’t make you any older.

Sansa has been visibly nervous, even scared, ever since she entered the bridal chamber, which is primarily expressed in the way that Sophie Turner fidgets with her hands that she keeps firmly clasped in front of her chest.

I have a lot of issues with this entire scene but I mainly object to the way the show frames this scene is the fact that it is primarily centered on Tyrion, especially on his inner struggle with the attraction he has for Sansa. This is primarily conveyed through the camera work, which almost exclusively focuses on Tyrion’s gaze. The scene is very much about Tyrion looking at Sansa and desiring her - and thus Sansa’s experience of the wedding night is almost entirely suppressed though it is her that is the victim in this forced marriage and that a physical consummation would indeed be a case of marital rape since Sansa doesn’t want to have sex with Tyrion.

Since the camera work and the editing carry a LOT of meaning, it would be instructional to view a video of the scene before I begin to dissect it.

youtube

After Tyrion’s quip about “talking won’t make Sansa any older”, he states:

Tyrion: My lord father has commanded me to consummate this marriage.

This prompts Sansa to reach for the wine. Then she walks to the bed and start to undress. It is at this point that the camera work and the editing shifts the focus almost entirely onto Tyrion and his act of gazing at Sansa as the visual expression of the fact that he is indeed physically attracted to his child bride.

This particular sequence is completely devoid of dialogue and it starts with a shot of Sansa before the bed with her back towards the camera.

This is immediately followed by a reaction shot of Tyrion, looking on.

When it comes to cinema and television, the camera functions as the eye of the audience but reaction shots like this one serves to anchor the audience within the POV of Tyrion.

Then the camera slowly pans left, across Sansa’s body (in an extreme close-up) as Tyrion walks across the room, still not taking his eyes off her as she undresses. He moves to stand behind a perforated screen, still observing her.

Then we get a close-up of her back, partially seen through the screen that Tyrion stands behind, which once again serves to anchor the camera and the audience within Tyrion’s POV.

We are seeing what he’s seeing, hidden behind the screen, which put both him and the audience in a voyeuristic position. In fact, filming a character looking at someone/something through a perforated screen/or a transparent fabric is a common visual technique to lend a voyeuristic aspect to a scene - and the voyeurism is really marked here since Sansa is in the process of undressing.

Then the camera slowly pans up over Sansa’s body, followed by a close-up of Tyrion’s face.

Once again, this reaction shot grounds the eye of the camera in his gaze – and thus the audience is inhabiting his POV, making Sansa the object of the gaze of both Tyrion and the audience. This focus on Tyrion’s gaze effectively silences Sansa in her experience of the events of this scene. She isn’t presented to the audience as a subject of her own experience but solely as an object for Tyrion’s desiring gaze. This is something that I’ll return to later in this post.

The camera lingers on Tyrion’s face here until he begins to step back, then we get another close-up of Sansa’s upper body, still seen through the screen before the camera slowly pans right as Tyrion moves across the room again - still with his gaze firmly fixed on Sansa while she undresses.

The we get a medium shot of Sansa as she finally removes the wedding gown, leaving her standing in her white shift.

This shot is followed by yet another close-up of Tyrion’s face, capturing his reaction to the sight of the partially unclothed girl.

This shot is then followed by the a close-up of Sansa’s face.

The first close-up of her Sansa that isn’t anchored in Tyrion’s POV since she began undressing! This is the first opportunity the audience is given to empathize with her experience rather than Tyrions! The sequence that I’ve outlined above is 40 seconds long! That is a very long time in terms of cinema and during these 40 seconds Sansa has been positioned solely as the object of Tyrion’s (and the camera’s) gaze. Her individuality ignored in favour of her status as an alluring object for Tyrion’s desiring gaze. This close-up of her face is accompanied by an audible exhale on her part - and this is the first time that we get any kind of insight into her state of mind during after she started to undress!

This is a deeply uncomfortable, even frightening, experience for her - but the show pays more attention to Tyrion and his attraction to her than her state of mind!

On her exhale, she lifts her head and her eyes flutter a bit - and then she hesitatingly lifts her hand to draw down the shoulder strap of her shift. Sophie Turner makes the most of this incredibly brief moment to wordlessly express how utterly nerve-wraching this experience is for her.

Then the camera immediately put the focus back on Tyrion with a OTS (over the shoulder) shot that once again anchors the audience within Tyrion’s POV - as he tells her to stop undressing.

Tyrion: I can’t. I could, I won’t.

Sansa: But your father…

Tyrion: If my father wants someone to get fucked, I know where he can start. I won’t share your bed.

After this very clear rejection from Sansa, we get a close-up of Tyrion, looking slightly hurt. This is followed by an OTS shot of Sansa which includes the blurry outline of Tyrion’s and as he raises his goblet.

Once again, the audience is firmly anchored in Tyrion’s POV as he salutes Sansa with the words of the Night’s Watch who famously swear to remain celibate:

This is a marked change from the books where Tyrion responds to Sansa’s word by saying “that is why the gods made whores for imps like me” (ASoS, Sansa III). By changing this line, Tyrion is made to look nobler than he really is and the implied celibacy of the words is plainly ridiculous since Tyrion keeps Shae as his mistress.

After this line, Tyrion turns around and crashes drunkenly asleep on a chaise-long, leaving Sansa to her own devices.

A DISSERVICE TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL AND TO SANSA

In the books, Tyrion and Sansa’s wedding night is represented in a vastly different manner. Not only do both of them strip naked but Tyrion actually gropes Sansa’s naked breast as well as bluntly telling her that he desires her to which she responds with fear.

She climbed onto the featherbed, conscious of his stare. A scented beeswax candle burned on the bedside table and rose petals had been strewn between the sheets. She had started to pull up a blanket to cover herself when she heard him say, "No."

The cold made her shiver, but she obeyed. Her eyes closed, and she waited. After a moment she heard the sound of her husband pulling off his boots, and the rustle of clothing as he undressed himself. When he hopped up on the bed and put his hand on her breast, Sansa could not help but shudder. She lay with her eyes closed, every muscle tense, dreading what might come next. Would he touch her again? Kiss her? Should she open her legs for him now? She did not know what was expected of her. (ASoS, Sansa III)

Tyrion only makes his offer of staying out of their marriage bed because he cannot bring himself to rape a child when he is directly confronted with Sansa’s intense fear. However, for some reason the show decided to downplay just how terrified Sansa actually is during this scene in the book. While she IS visibly nervous, nothing in Sophie Turner’s acting choices don’t convey the sheer terror that Sansa experiences in the books. This serves to make Tyrion look especially noble when he eventually refuses to consummate the marriage.

One of the the main reasons why the show changed the wedding night scene is the fact that Sophie Turner was a minor at the time of shooting and any kind of nudity between the two actors/characters would have been illegal!

That, however, doesn’t explain all of the changes. The really insidious change is the fact that the show visually frames this entire scene from Tyrion’s POV. This means that the scene is primarily about him and not about the child hostage that has been forced into an unwanted marriage. This is especially galling since in the books, the wedding night is described SOLELY from Sansa’s POV.

When the visual language of show anchors the POV in Tyrion’s unspoken feelings, the show effectively suppresses Sansa’s experience because the audience isn’t really given an opportunity to assume her POV, to empathize with her feelings.

Sophie Turner makes the best of the extremely brief moments where she’s allowed gets to convey Sansa’s experience of that night - but these moments has a lesser narrative weight compared to the time and the visual focus the show gives to Tyrion’s experience. The show changes a scene that originally was about Sansa’s fear and helplessness - and rewrites it to primarily focus on Tyrion’s sexual attraction to his new child bride, feelings that he’s been trying to suppress and deny when other characters have accused him of being interested in Sansa. Shae is becomes incredibly angry when she thinks that Tyrion is sexually attracted to Sansa - both out of jealousy but also out of love for Sansa (x). In a later episode, Bronn crudely suggests the Tyrion does indeed want to fuck Sansa to which Tyrion responds thusly:

He’s essentially blaming other people for the fact that he is sexually attracted to her. It is other people who “put evil notions in his head”, not him being sexually attracted to a child. This is a marked change from the books where he very bluntly tells Sansa that he desires her:

She covered her breasts with her hands. "I've flowered." "A child," he repeated, "but I want you. Does that frighten you, Sansa?" "Yes." (ASoS, Sansa III)

Not only does the show suppress Sansa’s experience of the wedding night in direct contradiction of book canon where this whole ordeal is described SOLELY from her POV. It does so with the express purpose to portray Tyrion as being much more noble than he actually is in the source material - and that impacts Sansa’s story and character negatively because these changes prop up his character at the expense of hers.

I honestly hate the way this marriage is framed in the show because the changes that the showrunners have made to the source material only serves to prop up Tyrion’s character in order to make him more sympathetic than he is in the books where he IS seduced by the thought of being Lord of Winterfell, where he sexually desires a child (she is 12 in the books!) and where he never even bothers with telling Sansa of their upcoming marriage - and she has to find out when she’s in her wedding dress and on her way to the sept.

The entire way this marriage is framed in the show does Sansa’s character a great disservice! From the suppression of her POV during the distressing wedding night, to the way her distaste for the marriage and her groom is presented as shallow (x), to the the clumsy bonding scene in between Sansa and Tyrion in episode 10 – not only does all of this her character a great disservice, it is also designed to prop up Tyrion’s character, which I find absolutely INFURIATING!

It is incredibly gross to suppress her POV during a terrifying experience since she is a not only a child too young for marriage and sex but also a political hostage forced into a marriage that she never consented to. The fact that this marriage is not only designed to rob her of her home but is also predicated upon the violent extermination of her family makes the show’s framing of the marriage and Sansa’s reaction to it absolutely INFURIATING!

In short:

To be continued...

(GIFs not mine)

#game of thrones #sansa stark #winterfell's daughter #character analysis #tyrion lannister

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