#she rightly sees the problem and at least tries to address it when nobody else did

[lightdancer1]

See the further irony is:

That in using 'Mall Goth Sauron' as the take on Dark Willow over 'misogynist has character randomly killed for LULZ' it also allows for greater accountability on the one hand and for Season 7 to thematically focus on repairing all this damage in the midst of facing an enemy of shadows reliant on lies to further itself. The only way to break the Druj is the absolute Truth in a very Zoroastrian sense. Characters don't get to neatly skip past accountability for their actions, and this would spiral over into further later seasons with the essential reality that in an otherwise lower-level setting this one random girl from California is a Dark Phoenix-tier reality warper and the most powerful person on the planet, or the universe.

And the questions of how that power could and should be employed on the one hand and that Willow is essentially a Doctor Strange type who beats up Gods and Eldritch Abominations for her regular line of work where her counterparts deal with the more 'street level' crises would in turn be the logical conclusion of where the show ends. She doesn't do as much physical fighting for the same reason that Stephen Strange never uses magic to go punch the Hulk in the face, her narrative role is ultimately that of Sorceress Supreme of Earth, with literally nobody in an ancient established war anticipating that this one random ginger from California was and is the new Sorceress Supreme and that if they had had such awareness the realities are that this power would and could have taken worse forms.

Unfortunately for the world, the reality too is that it is a shy computer geek who has a not at all subtle dark side and the usual teenage anxieties and insecurities given the equivalent of being able to reliably actually do things other people might dream of but can never do.

But again as long as Dawn Summers being a good thing is a narrative convention that's established memory magic is a poor choice to show the corrupting effects of reality-warping. It's a case of 'yes as established in canon all of this is true for that one season but then they decided to retcon it, so the fans are not obligated to care about it any more than the canon does about this itself.'

#willow rosenberg #tara maclay #dawn summers #you will never convince me as long as Dawn Summers is a plot device that 'memory magic unforgivable' is anything but bad writing #it was the choice used but there are other equally toxic things that could have been done instead #the basic theme of 'very powerful person decides things for another in an abusive fashion' works just as well without it #Tara's growth arc in refusing to tolerate abuse even from the person who brought her out of her shell can stand perfectly fine #it works even better with a budding Sauron than abruptly deciding 'wholesale memory rewrites good retail unforgivable.' #killing Tara off also denies her any sense of closure or ability to get that closure with the person who does this #the entire element here with the way things went down is bad writing from Point A to point Z #and it's also easily forgotten but Tara wasn't in fact intended to be Willow's love interest #she was replacement Willow for sympathy points #her entire arc as such became Willow X Tara but it was a choice from actor chemistry #So in giving Tara a role besides 'Willow's Girlfriend' it arguably does better by her character #tara x willow #btvs #and yes yes the 'scale changes things' argument is true but only to a point #it's really no different to introduce Dawn than what Willow did #if the retail is wrong so is the wholesale and the decisions to make this that point of no return is an avoidable mistake #plus honestly imagine a Season 7 Tara going 'sweetie no' and a Season 7 Willow dealing with those consequences in real time #equally one can have Tara's cold turkey approach stick exactly as it was #and serve as her role in the time bomb because she's a product of an abusive family and not an infallible moral guide #she rightly sees the problem and at least tries to address it when nobody else did #but unfortunately her solution was pouring gasoline on the fire and then vacating the range where the fire would burn #still further between that and Willow being human enough to resent being told to take that pain and do it going it alone #there'd be plenty of reasons for a surviving Tara and Willow to spend season 7 broken up as is #Tara would not at all be wrong to be wary and not want to touch reformed Sauron with a 400 foot pole #Willow equally would resent someone whose bad advice helped create the problem and who evades any recognition thereof #good old fashioned drama with entirely human motives

[trinuviel]

Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 3)

This is the third part of my analysis of the character of Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones. (Part 1, Part 2) 

“WAR IS EASIER THAN DAUGHTERS”

Things are understandably tense among the Starks when they arrive in King’s Landing and Ned clumsily tries to soothe Sansa’s broken heart by giving her a fancy doll.

Sansa reacts by being a bit of a brat but try to look at it from her point of view: her father killed her beloved pet on the whim of the king and queen – and he gives her doll! A toy is not a replacement for a pet and Ned ought to have known that. What’s even worse is that she hasn’t played with dolls for a while and Ned doesn’t even know that. It is such a heartbreaking scene because it highlights how little Ned actually knows his eldest daughter. After Sansa has left, he makes a rueful remark to Septa Mordane about “war being easier than daughters” but that isn’t quite true, which the next scene exemplifies: Here, Ned goes to talk to Arya, explaining things and telling her that KL is a dangerous place and that the Starks have to stick together:

Ned: Sansa was dragged before the king and queen and asked to call the prince a liar.

Arya: So was I. He is a liar!

Ned: Shh darling, listen to me. Sansa will be married to Joffrey someday. She cannot betray him. She must take his side even when he’s wrong.

Arya: But how can you let her marry someone like that?

Notice that Ned has NO answer to Arya’s question! He is effectively shamed into silence by his 11 year-old daughter because he has no good answer as to why he has allowed the betrothal to stand after what happened on the King’s Road. Even when he knows that Joffrey is a vicious little shit, he still intends for Sansa to marry him. It is only when he falls out with Robert in ep06 that he finally wants to break the betrothal. I know it is unpopular to criticize the sainted Ned Stark, but as a parent, he fails Sansa. Firstly, he allows his fondness for Robert to blind him and he uncritically accepts a betrothal when Robert suggests it in an off-handed manner in the crypts of WF. Secondly, he lets the betrothal stand even after he suspects the Lannisters of murder, even after he learns Joffrey’s true nature. You might say that he cannot go against the king but that is not true. He adamantly opposes Robert, and rightly so, when he wants to have Daenerys assassinated. However, he never goes against Robert when it comes to Sansa - not when her wolf is to be killed and not about whether her future marriage is in her best interest – not until he cannot be blind to Robert’s faults any longer.

I want to go back to Ned’s comment about “war being easier than daughters”. As already noted he doesn’t seem to have any problems relating to Arya and he makes the effort to explain things to her and warn her that King’s Landing is a dangerous place. He makes no such effort with Sansa; he simply leaves her in the care of her septa. Never once does he try to temper her naïve romanticism and his interactions with her are superficial, and that is so very sad because Ned and Sansa actually share many similar character traits. No one tries to temper Sansa’s naivety with the truth – in fact, several people actively try to reinforce her romantic blinders – and thus she is eventually forced to finally face the truth in the most brutal and traumatic manner possible.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the relationship between Ned and Sansa. Suffice it to say, that several factors may have been in play to create a situation where Ned doesn’t really know his daughter and instead of dealing with his unease, he buries his head in the sand and lets someone else deal with her. Gender is definitely a major factor here. I have already noted how Sansa inhabits an exclusively feminine space that Ned isn’t comfortable with. One of the reasons he relates so well with Arya is that she’s a tomboy who likes the masculine pursuits that falls within Ned’s purview as a parent and as a lord. Furthermore, Sansa has always been an obedient child and that may have led to her being a bit overlooked in a large family because she didn’t need special attention.

TRAPPED BY THE PATRIARCHAL ORDER

One of the scenes from season 1 that I find the most interesting is the scene where Sansa and Septa Mordane before the Iron Throne, discussing Sansa’s future as Queen Consort. Here Sansa demonstrates that she actually does know that being queen isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. This scene also establishes that she doesn’t really have anyone to confide in – someone who’ll take her worries seriously.

(video, timestamp: 18:16)

Septa M: Someday your husband will sit there (IT) and you will sit by his side.

Septa M: And you will present your son to the court. All the lords of Westeros will gather here to see the little prince.

Sansa: What if I have a girl?

Septa M: Gods be good, you’ll have boys and girls and plenty of them.

Sansa: What if I only have girls?

Septa M: I wouldn’t worry about that.

Sansa: Jeyne Poole’s mother had five children – all of them girls.

Septa M: Yes, but that is highly unlikely.

Sansa: But what if?

Septa M: Well, if you only had girls, I suppose the throne would pass to Prince Joffrey’s little brother.

Sansa: And everyone would hate me.

Septa M: Nobody could ever hate you.

Sansa: Joffrey does.

Septa M: Nonsense. Why would you say such a thing? That business with the wolves? I’ve told you a hundred times – a direwolf is not…

Sansa: Please shut up about it…

[…]

Sansa: My grandfather and uncle were murdered here, weren’t they?

Septa M: They were killed on the orders of King Aerys, commonly known as the Mad King.

Sansa: Why were they killed?

Septa M: You should speak to your father about these matters.

Sansa: I don’t want to speak to my father, ever.

Septa M: Sansa, you will find it in your heart to forgive your father.

Sansa: No, I won’t.

Let’s unpack this exchange because there are two very important things going on here:

Firstly, Sansa knows that as queen her most important job is to produce a male heir for the throne – and she knows that she has absolutely no control over whether she’ll birth boys or girls. It is a real and legitimate worry on her part. How does her septa respond to those worries? She brushes them off? Sansa has to press her again and again to even acknowledge that her future may not be so bright after all – even if she is to be queen. Sansa also knows that she will be the one blamed if she doesn’t produce a son – because that is how patriarchy works. Once again the septa brushes away her worries and fears as insignificant.

Secondly, there’s the issue of Joffrey. Sansa states that he hates her. She’s actually quite perceptive but once again the septa denies both Sansa’s experience and her worries – she actively tries to dissuade Sansa from trusting her own instincts! Furthermore, she goes on to dismiss Sansa’s feelings about the loss of Lady and berates her anger against her father. Sansa speaks from a place of hurt but the person responsible for her well-being won’t even address her feelings. Septa Mordane doesn’t want to talk about the unpleasant aspects of life with Sansa and refers her to her father, who hardly interacts with his daughter in a meaningful manner.

Notice how the adults responsible for Sansa either ignore, dismiss or invalidate her feelings, worries and fears!

It is no wonder that she lets herself be convinced that what she perceives and feels are wrong – and that Joffrey and Cersei are not the vicious and petty people that she experienced on the King’s Road. Sansa’s tendency to block out or re-write her experiences and perceptions can thus be understood as a coping mechanism. She’s trapped in a situation (her betrothal to Joffrey) that has turned sour and no one will listen to her and take her worries seriously.

Ned and Septa Mordane probably act out of a misguided desire to shield her but it does her more harm than good. Like the septa, Ned doesn’t really address Sansa’s feelings of loss and anger when it comes to Lady. He clumsily tries to give her a doll but a toy is a poor replacement for a beloved pet. He doesn’t even try to talk with her. Yes, she is a bit rude and standoffish but he doesn’t try and his behavior is thrown into sharp contrast when it is compared with how he interacts with Arya. Sansa is left alone with her hurt, her fears and her questions because the adults in her life won’t talk to her about difficult and unpleasant things.

You get the feeling that Sansa exists on the periphery of Ned’s life. She’s a girl so her education has primarily been entrusted to her mother and the septa. She’s an obedient child so she generally doesn’t need special attention. Yet when she does need special attention, Ned utterly fails her. However, in the end he does sacrifice his precious honour to save her life. That at least is something. Maybe Ned couldn’t really refuse Robert’s offer of a betrothal but neither he nor Cat talk seriously with Sansa about what her future entails. She is simply left to her own devices or in the care of a woman who constantly invalidates her legitimate fears and worries. Apparently, it is far easier for all the adults to leave Sansa to seek refuge in her romantic fantasies. She’s less troublesome that way.

To be continued...

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