"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Monday, September 23, 2019

Favorite Characters: Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones)


I’ve brought up before how Sansa initially seemed positioned as the Stark daughter we’re primed to dislike.  While spunky Arya swordfights her way into our hearts, prim and proper Sansa doesn’t have the nerve or the interest to hold our attention.  As the series goes on, however, I find Sansa to be a fascinating character with a lot of strength to her that isn’t immediately apparent (Sansa-related spoilers.)

First of all, in the running for Characters Who Have Terrible Things Happen to Them, Sansa makes quite a solid showing for someone who doesn’t get horrifically killed.  Like Arya, she’s present at her father’s wrongful execution, but unlike Arya, she’s forced to watch while standing on the same raised dais as her father while her fiancé orders his death.  Sansa was initially so happy to be engaged to Joffrey, and through much of season 1, he still maintains a semblance of the pretext that he’s a courtly prince who will make a fairytale husband for Sansa, but this is where Sansa loses the last of her illusions about Joffrey and he unequivocably drops the mask.

For the next two seasons, Sansa is tortured – much of it psychological, but some is physical as well – by her sadistic betrothed, who views her as his plaything.  She’s also, it’s worth noting, essentially held hostage by the royal family as the daughter and sister of traitors, with her father beheaded and her older brother at war against the crown.  Every conversation is a minefield, and she’s forced to sit at meals with the family who took her father’s head and pretend she agrees with what they did.  One word that’s any less than groveling, and she’s likely to be killed, and that’s before considering Joffrey’s cruel whims and penchant for punishing her to entertain himself.  Even when, at Tywin’s behest, she’s married off to Tyrion (Joffrey at this point having swapped her out for Margaery,) she’s not given any of the security that being married is supposed to provide – Joffrey still plagues her, threatening her with rape and other violence, making it clear that, despite her marriage to Tyrion, she still belongs to Joffrey.

It’s only by playing along with a reprehensible game that Sansa is able to survive this.  By bowing and scraping, tiptoeing to try and escape Joffrey’s notice, and dutifully calling her father and brother traitors, she’s able to stay alive.  This is a very different skill set than Arya’s, one that bears none of the immediately-apparent strength and dignity, but it’s what she has to do, and she does it.  After surviving so much, bending until she nearly breaks, it’s understandable that she falls in with an ally who turns out to be untrustworthy – given how much Sansa has been through, she’s not in the habit of turning away from those who offer her protection.

I won’t get into the further horrors she suffers after throwing her lot in with Littlefinger (they’re copious,) but the Sansa of the later seasons continues on her path of being sadder but wiser.  I’m speaking carefully here, because I don’t want to imply that her victimhood is what’s made her strong, not at all.  Rather, it’s about having been forced to rely on that strength to stay alive, combined with finally encountering people she really can trust and learning only to accept help on her own terms, not others’.  I love seeing her reunite with Jon and, especially, taking on more of a role of ruling at Winterfell.  She demonstrates intelligence, practicality, and a strong devotion to the people of the North.  She learns to lead, to feel after so much degradation that her voice is worth something, and after all she goes through, that’s wonderful to see. Not that it’s all smooth sailing from there – it’s Westeros, so she’s still in mortal danger every couple of weeks or so, and not everyone is eager to accept her rule – but it’s great to see how she comes out at the other end of so many trials.

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