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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