#this should encapsulate my thoughts on this whole thing pretty comprehensively actually

[dialux]

Gloriana

“If I am ever queen, I will make them love me.”

“Ye may have a greater prince, but ye shall never have a more loving prince.”

Sansa Stark and Elizabeth Tudor have numerous parallels between them, starting with their physical resemblances, ending with the strangely similar arcs their lives appear to take. 

As far as I can see, there are four areas under which to divide comparisons: physical, personality traits, parallel events, and predictions for the future of the book series. 

Under a cut because this got long.

Physical- 

Sansa had red hair, and so did Elizabeth. 

This is actually really interesting, because Elizabeth made a pretty conscious choice to maintain her status as a red-head (despite wearing wigs for so much of her life; she dyed the majority of them red)- this was because the red hair was one of very few physical traits inherited from her father, and it emphasized the legitimacy of her claim to the throne. Sansa, of course, has her own issues with red hair: it’s a marker of her beauty, and actively does her best to hide it in the Vale because the red hair represents her true self.

Both were considered attractive, and both were pursued by people who wanted them for their name/title.

Sansa’s encounters with the Tyrells- as a young, noble girl who’s got the correct name but not really anything else- can be paralleled to Elizabeth’s dealings with Thomas Seymour. Both of these events resulted in dire consequences for them: Sansa’s used by the Tyrells/Littlefinger to bear the poison that kills Joffrey, and Elizabeth was imprisoned and questioned over her relationship with Thomas- and how deeply she was involved with his treason- very harshly.

Character- 

Elizabeth’s vanities were noted through her court- she lived during an extravagant period, loved fashionable things, and wore rich gowns. Sansa’s love for clothes, jewelry, and pretty things informs the majority of her personality for almost the entirety of the first few books. She still uses this ability in the Vale to subtly manipulate those around her into believing her to be a true bastard.

They’re both capable of jealousy, pettiness, and small-minded behavior.

I would argue that Sansa would find ordering the death of her cousin a horrifying prospect, but, you know, we’ll probably find out the truth of that soon enough with Robert Arryn. Elizabeth, of course, ordered the death of her cousin, Mary, upon receiving indubitable information of her plotting against Elizabeth.

Both women were highly educated for their station- not to mention intelligent- with an innate grasp of politics and maneuvering. 

Romanticism. 

I’m sure there’s gonna be disagreement here, saying Elizabeth wasn’t a romantic- but. Hear me out: “I do not want a husband who honors me as queen, if he does not love me as a woman.” This woman is so romantic that she’d rather remain unmarried- in a time when that is absolutely unheard of for queens- than to marry a man who doesn’t value her for herself. She was pragmatic, for sure, but when reality didn’t intrude? When she worked through ingrained distrusts and cynicism? Then, then, Elizabeth was a romantic.

See: “She had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear,” vs. “My mortal foe can no ways wish me a greater harm than England’s hate.”

Learned distrust becomes a very well-honed tool in both women’s repertoire; however, this isn’t an instinctive tool for either. It’s learned, but almost unwieldy.

See: “Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted her his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father's head. Sansa would never make that mistake again,” vs. “Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.”

Events-

Edward Seymour vs. Petyr Baelish. Also: Philip II vs. Petyr Baelish.

All three of these men exploit Elizabeth/Sansa in a sexual manner, from Edward’s “playful romps” in Elizabeth’s bedroom to Philip II’s attempts to marry Elizabeth upon the realization that Mary was infertile to Petyr’s manipulation of Sansa based on her appearance.

Both lost their parents at an early age. Their mothers’ deaths were deeply violent, and the death of their brothers left them in deep danger.

Interestingly enough, Elizabeth and Sansa were both disinherited from taking their birthright- Elizabeth by her father’s declaration that she was a bastard, and Sansa by Robb’s will.

Elizabeth was taken to the Tower, imprisoned and questioned by Mary’s gaolers to determine whether she was loyal to her sister or to the Protestant faith. She spent years dancing the delicate line of convincing Mary that she wasn’t plotting against her while still keeping her Protestant supporters. Sansa spends years attempting to convince Joffrey/the Lannisters that she’s loyal to them, while she’s still loyal to the Northern cause.

For both women, their virginity was of great importance. It acts as a central tenet in Sansa’s arc, and Elizabeth’s title was literally the “Virgin Queen.

Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors; Sansa, currently, believes herself to be the last of the Starks.

Future-

I believe Sansa’s future- her endgame- to revolve around rallying the North and various other realms to better equip the Heads of the Dragons against battling the White Walkers. She might not lead an army, or wield a sword, but she will provide a safe haven; she will coordinate the relief/triage afterwards, and rule the North while she does so.

Taking a last stand, inspiring scores of followers to fight against a common enemy, an enemy that seems overwhelming and terrifying and unstoppable- these are what Sansa could do, what her character seems set up to do. This is also what Elizabeth did in pushing back the Spanish Armada, in defeating a force that’s immense and (seemingly) inevitably triumphant- through a combination of luck, cunning, and skill, which is likely the only way the people of Westeros will be able to defeat the White Walkers.

Under Elizabeth’s reign, England flourished under the Elizabethan Era. Under Sansa- no matter whom she marries, or if she does marry at all- the North will finally have a chance to recover from years of Ironborn raids and White Walker destruction.

TLDR: Sansa’s a beautiful, intelligent, queen-in-training who has been taken advantage of by numerous people. So was Elizabeth. And, in the end, we can only hope that Sansa remains on the trajectory that we’ve seen her on for so long, and rules the North- as its queen or warden or, more simply, its lady- as well as Elizabeth did Britain.

[bomberqueen17]

retelling canon events in fic

so i have-- ok i am in ADHD hell today and can’t keep a single fucking thought in my head so this is going to be wildly scattered and i’m going to not know how to make it into a question like i meant to ask-- but-- anyway maybe i’m not looking for an answer i’m looking for reassurance

so for a near-future chapter of Fit For Pearls, the plot bit I want to go with is that Ciri and Geralt decide, since they’re in Nilfgaard, to look up Cahir’s family, and tell them what happened to him.

framing device in narrative-- i decided that nilfgaardian nobles are pretty inbred, we know that (Morvran is related to Emhyr on both his mother’s and father’s side, that’s canon), so it’s perfectly reasonable for Morvran also to have been related in some way to Cahir. (Cahir was Vicovaran, yes, and his mother’s mother was a Nordling, but his father was at court in Nilfgaard, it’s not unreasonable that somewhere somebody’s mom was Nilfgaardian.) So, Morvran has been tapped to escort Ciri and Geralt to his great-aunt’s house or whatever, and so as they’re telling their story, he’s mildly tipsy and listening to this somewhat distractedly.

But like---- it’s probably fair to assume that a whole lot of readers have not read the books and so I should just go ahead and summarize basically 1/3 of the plot of everything from Time of Contempt thru Lady of the Lake, and it wouldn’t likely make any sense unless I tell it pretty comprehensively?

I asked in one of my Discords and the consensus there was that people who did read the books would likely be delighted, so I’m sort of asking here for people who didn’t read the books, that would probably be fun to read and not tedious, right? To have the story of the Hansa, more or less, summarized?

The only unfortunate thing is that I can’t have Jaskier be the one telling it, because-- but oh!! this is post video-game!!! Surely he told Ciri all about the incident where Geralt accused Cahir of being a traitor one too many times, Cahir snapped and started punching him so he started punching back, and Milva settled it by yanking off her belt and absolutely beating the shit out of both of them, which is the greatest mental image in all of fantasy literature and I feel like Netflix has pre-emptively robbed us of it entirely by establishing their Cahir as an actual monster. (😭 the entire point of cahir is that he’s such a fucking dork and it’s such a futile sacrifice but he has literally no choice if he wants to keep his honor but above all else he is such a fucking dork) (also, arguably, the entire overarching point of the Witcher books is that war is a huge fucking futile waste of everything and it absolutely fucking sucks. which like. Cahir encapsulates beautifully.)

OKay well I’ve just solidified in my mind how I’m writing this, so, I don’t really have a question at all, so instead have this snippet from a scene that will almost certainly be deleted, from a no-room-at-the-inn road trip scenario I mentally outlined for the sequel but won’t use: [yes i wrote it mostly as an excuse to describe boobs] [yes i should put in a snippet of what i’m actually writing but listen it’s not coherent yet]

Morvran woke in the morning to Luliana standing beside the bed, bare-breasted, sorting out the hem of her shirt. She noticed him blinking at her from his floor blanket-nest, made a minimal effort to cover her breasts, but then shrugged and smiled ruefully at him. He smiled ruefully back, and then yawned and rolled over so he wouldn’t stare. She had lovely, full breasts, heavy and round, fuller at the bottom than the top, very pleasant to look at, but that wasn’t the deal they had so he wouldn’t look. “Is he awake?” Ciri said very quietly. “Just now,” Luliana said. “I— if you want to get changed he’s not about to stare at you, it’s fine.” “Mm,” he said, and pulled the blanket over his head. He was hard as a fucking rock, but he was used to waking up like that and it wasn’t… necessarily situational. But it was going to be rather a few minutes before he could get dressed. Fewer if he could manage not to think about it. “I worried you’d snore,” Cirilla said. “Mm,” he said. “No. Only ‘f’m sick.” He didn’t need to tell her how he’d trained himself to sleep silently. There was a lot of clothing rustling, and he could well imagine it was Cirilla naked now, which wasn’t helping him make his situation go away. Why, he wondered despairingly, not for the first time, had Luliana told him Cirilla’s nipples were pink? He had never needed to know that. It was information he’d been better off without. “It’s safe now,” Luliana said, “if you want to come out.”