#the tourney favor was actually a plot point in my wip fan fic

[thebluelemontree]

Hey Bluelemons. As a fellow Mya/Lothor shipper, what do you think will happen between them in Winds? And could help from Sansa be the straw that will make Lothor turn over to Sansa's service instead of LF's?

Oh, I am so rooting for them!  I am always happy to talk a Mya/Lothor thing.  There’s definitely potential there for something to happen between them and Sansa is positioned to be the catalyst.  She totally ships it because reasons.      

The connection between Sansa and Mya was set up way back in AGOT when we met the latter through Catelyn’s POV.  Mya tells her about her love Mychel Redfort and that he’s promised they will marry after he is knighted.  Right away, Catelyn relates her to Sansa in personality but sees how this dream will be inevitably crushed by reality:

“Mychel’s my love,” Mya explained. “Mychel Redfort. He’s squire to Ser Lyn Corbray. We’re to wed as soon as he becomes a knight, next year or the year after.”

She sounded so like Sansa, so happy and innocent with her dreams. Catelyn smiled, but the smile was tinged with sadness. The Redforts were an old name in the Vale, she knew, with the blood of the First Men in their veins. His love she might be, but no Redfort would ever wed a bastard. His family would arrange a more suitable match for him, to a Corbray or a Waynwood or a Royce, or perhaps a daughter of some greater house outside the Vale. If Mychel Redfort laid with this girl at all, it would be on the wrong side of the sheet.

And we know he did.  What’s interesting is that Mya is near 20 years old, but her innocence and optimism is exactly like that of Sansa’s at 11.  Coupled with her age, it’s not hard to guess that she’s probably not a virgin.  It’s because Mya is so in love and implicitly trusting that Mychel would never abandon her that she consented to a sexual relationship with him.  Mychel really had no right to make such a promise being raised with the knowledge that his father would make that decision for him.  Mya is the one who assumes all the social risks and has the most to lose.  Myranda points out this was a cruel thing for Mychel to do and I agree.  When we see her again in Alayne II, she’s become closed off and bitter in her heartbreak after learning Mychel was wed to Ysilla Royce.  The fact that she’s had pre-marital sex is a source of salacious gossip.  This was a girl who had sex with one partner who she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with.  Now she’s slut-shamed with the bastard stereotype of being morally loose.  It’s so unfair.   

This is the second time in her life Mya has been profoundly affected by an irresponsible, careless man.  Sansa and Mya are connected in a generational way to their fathers that cemented their friendship when they were fostered by Jon Arryn.  Mya remembers being loved briefly by her father before he abruptly exited her life, not even bothering to give her the advantages of official acknowledgment.  Again, she loved him, trusted he would be there and he left.  So it’s no wonder why Mya has enormous trust issues now regarding relationships with men.

“Men come and go. They lie, or die, or leave you. A mountain is not a man, though, and a stone is a mountain’s daughter. I trust my father, and I trust my mules. I won’t fall.“ She put her hand on a jagged spur of rock, and got to her feet. “Best finish. We have a long way yet to go, and I can smell a storm." 

Myranda says her father tried to make another match for Mya, but she refused to hear of it.  She’s now leaning toward cynicism and becoming hard as a stone to protect herself from being hurt again.  This passage is very much like Sandor placing his trust in his sword and posturing about never having to fear any man.  There are also parallels to another passage, and they have some other significant character traits in common, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of the question.  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) The point is Sansa has direct experience dealing with the essence of Mya’s hurts, both in her own shattered innocence and dreams as well as Sandor’s.  And she was able to put dents in his cynicism.  I don’t see why she couldn’t do the same with Mya.

As of TWOW, we can see that the old wound has reopened with the return of Mychel Redfort at the tourney:

“She was reading her little lord a tale of the Winged Knight when Mya Stone came knocking on the door of his bedchamber, clad in boots and riding leathers and smelling strongly of the stable. Mya had straw in her hair and a scowl on her face. That scowl comes of having Mychel Redfort near, Alayne knew.”

Here’s my interpretation of the details given.  Unless Mya jumped into a pile of hay right before entering the room for some reason, the straw in the hair and stable smell is probably referencing the old cliche of “rolling in the hay.”  Stables are often used as a choice place for a tryst.  I get why Mya is scowling from personal experience.  Sometimes in heartbreak, we become emotionally compromised and against our better judgment reconnect intimately with people that hurt us.  We just want so badly to feel close to that person again that sometimes selfish assholes seeking an easy lay will take advantage of that.  Mychel was obviously Mya’s first in many ways, and she was left reeling.  In the end, she feels worse for being with him (hence the scowl) because it doesn’t change the fact that he’s married to Ysilla, she’s now relegated to a tawdry cliche and reminded again that a bastard girl shouldn’t have expected more.  This looks bad for Mya being open to another relationship possibility, but it might just be the reason she finally closes the door on Mychel.  At least we know, Mya actually isn’t as hard as stone as she claimed before.  She still has a soft, vulnerable heart underneath.  

I don’t know if GRRM will go this route, but where there is sex, there is a possibility of a pregnancy subplot.  I would imagine that Mya does have access to moon tea through Myranda, but there’s no telling if she uses it or not.  Just a thought...   

As for Lothor, Sansa senses that he is quite fond of Mya.  Not that he ever said so directly, but:

“She’s half mule herself, that one. I think she’d leave us all to starve before she’d put those animals at risk.” He smiled when he said it. He always smiles when he speaks of Mya Stone.”  

^^^ I love that.  Alayne II is such a pivotal chapter for Sansa developing a more mature understanding of love and relationships.  She’s still somewhat caught up in her old way of thinking.  At first, Sansa does the social class arithmetic to see if they would pair well on that level, but she also wonders how Mya would feel personally about Lothor.  What would she think about his plain looks and him being a bit older?  And what is it about her that attracts him most?  She’s shipping it, but she’s still focused on the superficial.

"Do you think Ser Lothor likes her as she is, in mail and leather?” she asked the older girl, who seemed so worldly-wise. “Or does he dream of her draped in silks and velvets?”

“He’s a man. He dreams of her naked.”  

Sansa is thinking about this the wrong way.  It’s not Mya’s aesthetic that attracts Lothor.  He’s into her as a person and that makes him desire her.  Is that not Sansa’s expressed wish, to be loved for herself?  This is true about most relationships in ASOIAF.  People just want who they want.  It’s irrelevant if they are conventionally attractive or unattractive, or if they defy or typify gender roles.  That insight is another reason for Sansa to take action because it’s meaningful to her and helps her to understand her own desires.  Lothor likes Mya’s stubborn feistiness.  He likes that she loves her animals more than most people.  I’m sure he’s heard the gossip too, but it doesn’t seem like her not being a virgin bothers him one bit.  She’s got grit and courage similar to his own.  The reason he probably hasn’t made a move is that she’s been giving off a strong vibe of not wanting any suitors and he may believe she wouldn’t want him.  He’s older and not the gallant pretty boy that Mychel is.  But tourneys are bristling with that romantic and sexual energy.  If Sansa is going to play matchmaker, the timing is perfect.   

Sansa’s experience with Lothor is that he’s a quiet, reserved man.  But he’s strong, honest, steadfast, and loyal.   He has no apparent vices or skeletons in the closet.  How could you not love him for seeing Harry’s rudeness and dubbing him “Harry the Arse?”  He and Sansa have developed a warm, affectionate friendship that I think speaks well of his character.  He confided in her once that he sought out his knightly kin in Brownhollow, but was rejected by them.  He seems to be a man adrift, without home or family.  Everything he has, he’s earned himself the hard way.  His knighthood came from acts of valor during the BotBW, not from tourney performance.  That seems to be an important distinction GRRM is making between true knights and “knights of summer.”  Lothor’s service to Littlefinger is more a matter of trying to earn a living and lack of better opportunities.  There’s no sense that Lothor is any more loyal to LF than what’s expected of an employee to their employer.  There’s some reason to be concerned as Lothor does know some of LF’s treasonous crimes and secrets.  There’s probably going to be risk and danger in Lothor switching sides; however, Sansa has a sense that what Lothor really wants is a home and family.  He’s mature and wanting to settle down.  He’s not an irresponsible boy playing at manhood.  I don’t know how much better he could be set up to be the balm for Mya’s broken heart and trust issues.  The author is shipping this so hard!

So how could Sansa influence Mya to consider Lothor and in the process win his loyalty?  Well, it is a tourney, and I would expect he will be competing in the joust.  I’m 99% sure that LF has fixed the lists to ensure Harry is among the winners and Lothor is probably part of ensuring that happens.  One possibility I thought of is if Sansa has a heart to heart with Mya about there still being good and loyal men in the world.  There’s one that is standing on the sidelines and worthy of giving a chance.  As much as it’s tempting to be cynical about love and relationships considering her own situation with Harry, at her core, I think Sansa is still that romantic and optimistic.  I don’t see why she wouldn’t seize on this opportunity to see it happen when the reasons are so personally meaningful to her.  Perhaps she could persuade Mya to give him her favor, and that could result in upsetting some of the expected outcomes.  As Jorah told Dany, sometimes a lady’s favor drives a man to want to best all the competition.  It changes the way he feels about himself and he wants to win for her.  I, and I think Mya too, would be very satisfied to see Mychel Redfort unhorsed by him.  Please, George, make it happen!