#so will bran learn that he's just a pawn in a bigger game

[trinuviel]

Winterfell’s Daughter. On Sansa Stark (part 13)

I’ve previously written a series of essays that analyse Sansa Stark’s narrative arc in Game of Thrones - during season 1 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6) and during season 2 (Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10) and now during season 3 (Part 11, Part 12).

One of the important themes in Sansa Stark’s narrative arc in season 3 is her political importance. In season 2, Theon Greyjoy conquered Winterfell and when Bran and Rickon Stark managed to escape him, he killed a pair of peasant boys to deceive people into thinking that the two Stark boys are dead. Thus, in the eyes of Westeros, Sansa is now Robb Stark’s heir apparent to Winterfell and that makes her a very important piece on the political chessboard. If Robb dies without an heir, Winterfell goes to Sansa and whoever manages to secure her in marriage - and there are several power players who are interested in her: Petyr Baelish, the Lannisters and now the Tyrells who are emerging as a new power in King’s Landing with Margaery set to become Queen, her courting the goodwill of the common folk and her family not only supporting the Lannisters militarily but also feeding the starving populace of King’s Landing.

In my previous post, I looked at how Olenna and Margaery Tyrell’s initial interest in Sansa was solely motivated by some nasty rumours about Joffrey that worried them as Margaery is set to marry him. However, in episode 4 Lord Varys encourages Olenna Tyrell to take a further interest in Sansa after he learns that Baelish has plans to spirit Sansa away from King’s Landing. Varys approaches Olenna Tyrell and he broaches the idea of a marriage alliance between Sansa Stark and House Tyrell. He says he wants to help Sansa but his main motivation is to keep her out of the hands of Petyr Baelish. 

This is the first time that Sansa is referred to as the Key to the North in the show, but it will not be the last. 

As previously stated, Sansa is Robb’s heir apparent and as such her political value is very high - and Varys seeks to keep the Key to the North out of the hands of Petyr Baelish whom he deems to be one of the most dangerous men of the realm. Thus, Sansa becomes a political pawn in the shadow war between Varys and Baelish, between one who wants to serve the realm and one who only serves himself.

COURTED BY THE TYRELLS

The scene between Varys and Olenna is immediately followed by a scene where Margaery seeks out Sansa as she’s praying at a tree stump, the sad remains of  Godswood in King’s Landing. The segue between the two scenes makes it clear that Olenna has sent Margaery to charm and befriend Sansa once again since Olenna managed to alienate the girl during their lunch in episode 2, a scene that I covered in my previous post.

Margaery approaches and uses her status as the future Queen to send away the Lannister soldiers that guard Sansa so they can have a private conversation.

Margaery: What did you pray for?

Here Margaery whispers to create an atmosphere of intimacy between them.

Sansa (smiling): I can’t tell you.

It is important to note that even while Sansa is genuinely friendly here, she doesn’t really trust Margaery. Even when Margaery presses her again on this subject, Sansa refuses to reveal anything about her personal feelings and hopes. Sansa is understandably wary about the Tyrells after the upsetting luncheon where she found out that they weren’t really interested in being kind to her for her sake but that they only sought out her company because they wanted something from her - and Olenna was pretty aggressive with her. So now Margaery has her work cut out for her.

Margaery tells jokes and anecdotes, making Sansa laugh. With these little secrets and inconsequential stories from her childhood she creates a sense of intimacy and companionship – as if Sansa is indeed a treasured friend, which is something that is incredibly enticing for a girl as lonely and abused as Sansa is.

Margaery: I want us to be friends.

Here the camera cuts to a close-up of Sansa, looking at Margaery with an almost incredulous smile on her face. She almost can’t believe that anyone would want to be her friend anymore. Sansa is THAT isolated in King’s Landing. 

Margaery goes on to paint a very attractive image of Highgarden, featuring all the things that Sansa loved before she came to experience the hard truth beneath the glamour of the capital. When Sansa doubts that Cersei will let her leave King’s Landing, Margaery invokes her future status as Queen Consort, implicitly promising that she’ll make sure Sansa can leave King’s Landing after the royal marriage. Then, Margaery mentions the real reason for her seeking out Sansa:

Margaery: And if you were to marry my brother Loras… your place would be at Highgarden, wouldn’t it?

Sansa’s smile grows bigger as Margery is now offering her an escape from her abusers at court. But Margaery offers even more than just an escape, she offers the promise of family. 

This is where Sansa becomes visibly overwhelmed, smiling through unshed tears as Margaery offers not just an escape from her torment but also friendship, family and sisterhood - things that Sansa has been without for too long. It is interesting that Margaery uses the same lure as Petyr Baelish: the promise of family. However, Sansa choosing Margaery’s offer doesn’t mean that she’s abandoning her family. It simply means that she’s choosing the less dangerous option of gaining protection and getting out of King’s Landing. Not only is it very dangerous to flee secretly, she has also been explicitly warned about Baelish by a person she trusts (Shae). In contrast, Margaery offers the protection of House Tyrell through marriage and the Tyrells are on the rise. They hold considerable political power as they are feeding King’s Landing and Margaery is set to be Queen. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Tyrells can secure her safety and happiness without exposing her to additional danger - unlike what Baelish offers.

This scene really highlights Sophie Turner’s stellar acting. She has a wonderfully expressive face and she manages the delicate balance between smiles and tears beautifully. Thus, Margaery successfully cultivates Sansa’s friendship and gratitude through a carefully deployed charm. What remains to be seen is whether Margaery’s friendship is a genuine offer.

In the very next episode we see Sansa and Margaery bonding as they watch Loras at weapon’s training. Once again Margaery assures Sansa that she’ll be able to influence Joffrey to let Sansa marry Loras and leave King’s Landing for Highgarden. 

Sansa: Joffrey won’t let me leave. He’s got too many reasons to keep me here.

Margaery: And only one to let you go. Because it will please me.

However, I do think that Margaery is somewhat over-confident here because she doesn’t really know just how much of a monster Joffrey is because Sansa never told the Tyrells that Joffrey didn’t just kill her father and forced her to look at his severed head, but that he also has her publicly beaten by his King’s Guard.

This scene is immediately followed by a scene where Loras has sex with the squire Olyvar who is also in Baelish’s employ - and Loras lets slip that he is set to marry Sansa. This piece of secret information is subsequently conveyed to Baelish by Olyvar - and therefore Sansa’s new dream is already set to be crushed since Baelish has his own plans for her and that leads him to inform Lord Tywin of the Stark-Tyrell marriage plot.

“I FEEL LIKE I’M IN A DREAM”

Margaery is not the only Tyrell who tries to charm Sansa. Her brother Loras also courts Sansa, rather awkwardly, in the gardens of the Red Keep in episode 6.  The setting is lush and romantic but their interactions are rather stilted and awkward, mostly because Loras is very uncomfortable whereas Sansa is all happy and soft-eyed.

For her this betrothal seems like the fulfillment of all her girlish dreams: a handsome knight for a husband who understands the codes of chivalric romance - like when he singled her out at the Hand’s Tourney and presented her with a red rose in season 1, thus enacting a tableau from the romantic songs that Sansa loves so much.  

Sansa: I feel like I’m in a dream.

Sansa is, as said, all wistful and soft-eyed. This is, in a sense, a return to her earlier, girlish self since it seems as though those romantic dreams that she once entertained will come true – but it is also leavened with the prospect of a safe harbor from her tormentors as well as the promise of family and friendship that Margaery presented her with.

It is a scene that I feel very ambiguous about. One the one hand, I think that it is important that we get to see a hopeful Sansa since it will be so much more heartbreaking for us when her hopes are so cruelly crushed. Then there’s the contrast between the lush, romantic setting and Loras’ visible discomfort. While the betrothal represents both an escape as well as a fulfillment of her dreams to Sansa, it represents something very different to Loras since he is homosexual. On the other hand, the way the writers reduces Loras to a gay stereotype is downright offensive.

The placement of this scene was initially a bit puzzling to me since it takes place AFTER Olenna already has agreed to marry Loras to Cersei instead of Sansa! In fact, this very scene begins with Tyrion and Cersei watching Loras and Sansa as they lament their upcoming marriages, Cersei to Loras and Tyrion to Sansa.

Loras is clearly unaware of this development since he wouldn’t be courting Sansa if he was. Thus, from a Watsonian perspective, the placement of this scene doesn’t make much sense. However, I think that the placement of this scene within the narrative is due to Doylist reasons – it is designed to tug at the heartstrings of the audience. We already know that Sansa’s hopes will be crushed, that she won’t escape her tormentors and this lends a certain poignancy to the scene in terms of audience reception.

The thing that kind of ruins this scene for me is the fact that the writers decided to use Loras’ homosexuality as a punchline for a number of stereotypes about gay men as effeminate, i.e. excessively invested in subjects that are usually considered explicitly feminine. Thus they represent him as being pedantic about his jeweled accessories as well as have him wax poetic about his very detailed boyhood dreams about a large and lavish wedding. 

This reduction of Loras to a gay stereotype is rather galling since it is not only a crude way to approach the representation of homosexuality but also has no foundation in the source material where Loras’ sexuality is never represented as effeminate. In the books, he embodies the ideals of manhood in his society in that he is a brave and accomplished warrior. This kind of crude joking at the expense of a character’s sexuality undercuts the poignant aspect of the scene, not to mention that it is simply a downright offensive representation of a homosexual man.

To be continued...

(GIFs not mine)

#game of thrones #sansa stark #winterfell's daughter #character analysis #margaery tyrell #loras tyrell #sophie turner

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

House Stark and the Northern Fool Fallacy

“Maybe you are just a Northern Fool.”

~Tyrion Lannister, right before Jon Snow upstages all of his influence over Daenerys Targaryen

If you believe the Starks are less intelligent than any other group of characters, you’re wrong and you’re buying into  the show’s propaganda.

The popular conception of House Stark (and the North at large) is that of a simple, hard people that are stubborn, honorable, and stupid.

Are the Starks actually less intelligent? Do they have trouble connecting dots? Can they not trace chains of events? Do they struggle with building winning strategies?

“No” to all of this. The Starks simply play the game differently than the others...but the constant underestimation of their wits has not only been shown to be untrue by the actions and reasoning methods of the Starks, it’s been shown by the contents of the series itself to be an inaccurate caricature.

The most unfortunate part (or fortunate if you’re looking to be surprised and enjoy when characters exceed your expectations as a viewer) of this misreading of House Stark is that it’s lead a lot of the general audience to believe that Jon Snow is stupid and hasn’t thought through the political ramifications of his interactions with Daenerys Targaryen.

This is one of the ironies of the show. The general audience - which largely sees the Starks as stupid or foolish - are themselves being guided wrongly into a false position even though we’re shown more than enough to KNOW that the Starks aren’t stupid. They simply value life and justice differently than the other houses.

There are specific examples of characters underestimating the Starks supplemented by specific examples of historical events portraying the Starks as unthinking barbarians which are so blatantly false that viewers should also understand that the Starks are not stupid - and yet that myth persists. 

We can essentially knock down these lies character by character:

Ned Stark the Fool / The Play in Essos

One of the most gut-wrenching and significant moments of the entire series has been warped into largely a comedy act in Essos.

The saddest part might be that Ned Stark is now quite often considered a stupid character. He may have made mistakes but what he “stupid”? Let’s look at the fiction followed by the fact.

The Portrayal

Portrayed as an unwashed Northerner who doesn’t understand the line of succession. Viewers get that he wasn’t power hungry and didn’t speak like an idiot. Yet somehow the view of Ned being stupid persists. 

The Truth

Ned figured out the Gendry / Robert connection. He also figured out that Cersei’s children were not Robert’s. Ned’s reality in trying to uphold the proper line of succession and rightfully deny Joffrey the throne is the exact opposite portrayed in the play in Essos (which is the popular narrative in Westeros, one can then gather).

What was Ned’s great mistake?

His refusal to drag children from their beds in the night. His refusal to be like Tywin Lannister. Was this stupid? Did he not understand this was playing with fire? No. He told Varys that his madness in telling Cersei was that of mercy. He was betrayed by Littlefinger (who preferred Joffrey to stay on the Throne to Stannis). A series of events led to Ned’s beheading. None originated from Ned’s stupidity.

In fact, the Starks are exceptionally skilled at snuffing out bullshit. Take Benjen, for instance. Tyrion is offering empty platitudes. Benjen knows what he really thinks, even if Tyrion initially won’t say it.

Benjen knows what NED taught him, that everything before the word “but” is horseshit. Benjen can see right through Tyrion. It’s a small example but one that reinforces the idea that the Starks as a bunch are extremely perceptive people who, while choosing not to play the games the other houses play all the time, understand when someone is feeding them bullshit.

Ned’s Execution

The way in which Ned was executed, including what his daughters perceived at the time, became important (rather stupidly so) in Season 7 with Arya temporarily believing that Sansa had taken part in Ned’s betrayal.

Ned, perhaps the most dignified person in the show’s history, did not blubber or plead. He even lied to the world in backing Joffrey’s claim with the hope that it would save Sansa’s life.

Portrayal

This is the Sansa that Arya seems to remember. And it’s a mistaken memory. Arya seeing events this way (the play sort of echoes how she described Sansa in Season 7) completely colors how she treats Sansa and leads her to question Sansa’s loyalties to Jon. 

Looks pretty stuipd in retrospect, right? Yet one of the biggest popular theories before Season 7 was Starkbowl. The idea that Sansa had been around Littlefinger and Cersei too much. That she was too dark now. Too jaded by her life events.

Truth

You, the viewer, saw Sansa’s anguish. You saw how much it crushed her in the coming episodes. You saw her look at the doll Ned had made for her with regret and sadness at Blackwater. You saw her fight to take back Winterfell, mentioning her father nearly every step of the way.

It’s a bad look for Arya to have acted like this towards Sansa. The interesting part was, she echoed so many of the foolish things that viewers seem to have believed (or maybe even hoped for) all the way through Season 7 / Episode 7.

Sansa Stark

Little bird. Stupid little girl with stupid dreams that never learns.

Littlefinger, through Season 6 when Sansa reunited with Jon, had been the closest thing to a lasting friend that Sansa had after leaving Winterfell. She was used as a pawn, manipulated, sold, basically treated the same way Daenerys had been without receiving the same measure of sympathy. 

She’s constantly ridiculed and left without agency up until her escape with the Boltons. Her greatest crime was naively believing the the world wasn’t terrible and that people meant it what they told her. Then her father died. She lived as a prisoner at the hands of Cersei and Joffrey. Her ONLY respite was a temporary friendship with Margaery.

Her other “friend”, Baelish, still treated her like a stupid little girl. His plans to win the North and the Iron Throne centered on using her as a pawn. He never truly respected her.

One of his lessons was that she’s a poor liar. She proved this wrong when she lied for him regarding his murder of her Aunt Lysa. 

He began treating her more as a mature adult after that but he never stopped manipulating and underestimating her.

He believed he had her in his clutches. He didn’t at first understand that he couldn’t wedge the bond formed between Sansa and Jon. When Jon choked him and LF observed Sansa longing for Jon as he departed Winterfell, he abruptly switched to trying to wedge Sansa and Arya.

LF thought Sansa could be turned. Littlefinger thought surely she couldn’t break free of his machinations. MAYBE betrayal and treachery are actually NOT tactics that are as effective as a casual political philosopher might believe?

Then this happened:

Sansa knew all along during Season 7 what he wanted. She couldn’t just have his head hacked off while he carried influence. His scheme to drive apart Sansa and Arya allowed her the timing to have him executed. She may have questioned Arya at points. Arya sure acted aggressively towards Sansa after their reunion. But she never took her eyes off the bigger picture: that LF was as threat to their home and family and at some point he had to go.

Robb Stark

Perhaps my least favorite characterization of a Stark is Robb.

Portrayal

Another unwashed Northerner. He’s shown running around proclaiming himself as the Rightful King (itself a lie). It doesn’t show Robb possessing anything that can be described as honor or cunning.

This is to be expected. It’s war propaganda. The Lannisters would never publicize the fact that they COULDN’T OUTMATCH ROBB ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

This portrayal of events is the EXACT opposite of how things happened.

Truth

The fact of the matter is that Robb captured Jaime Lannister at Whispering Wood not because he had a direwolf or slew 1,000 Lannisters single-handedly. He won because he outwitted them. He laid a trap and both Tywin and Jaime fell for it. 

Tywin was forced to acknowledge Robb’s intellect and the devotion he inspired from his men after he continually got his ass kicked by the Young Wolf.

Tywin, the same guy who had routinely talked down the threat of the Young Wolf in the build-up to the war, found himself begrudgingly accepting the fact that he would have to rely on political maneuvering and deceit in order to end this war because, when it came to traditional means, he was no match for Robb.

That’s pretty damn significant. And yet the portrayal of events is a complete fiction...

What did Robb in?

Even more than the Freys and Boltons, Robb was defeated because he chose justice for slain Lannisters rather than forgive the actions of Rickard Karstark.

This event, and the beheading of the head of House Karstark, more than even breaking the betrothal to one of Walder Frey’s daughters, put Robb in a position where he was forced to choose between justice and military benefit.

The easy call would be to keep Karstark alive. To somehow keep his forces in the fold. Instead, Robb did what he thought was right and he died for that. I don’t blame Sansa for saying that Ned and Robb made stupid mistakes and lose their heads for it because in the end, Robb and Ned DID make stupid mistakes.

The difference seems to lie in how much House Stark was forced to suffer for their mistakes compared to other houses.

Jaime and Cersei tried (and failed) to kill Bran which is the event that really sparked the War of the Five Kings.

Robert became fat, lazy, and continued his philandering and behaved like a teenager all the way up until his death. His neglect of Cersei (driving her back into the arms of Jaime) essentially caused a powder keg politically which exploded into the War of the Five Kings.

Tywin stupidly bedded the person Tyrion loved (or at least believed he loved) and unnecessarily included her testimony when a conviction was a foregone conclusion which motivated Tyrion to murder him with a crossbow. His house suffered immeasurably and the best chance for its survival now lies with Tyrion, the child he hated.

Olenna underestimated Cersei entirely. She completely misread what Cersei was capable of and her house was destroyed for it.

Ramsay Bolton stupidly castrated Theon and continually tortured him physically and psychologically which eventually led to Theon helping Sansa to safety and his ultimate destruction at the hands of Jon and Sansa at the BoTB.

Roose Bolton first stupidly thought that his hold on the North could survive the ultimate betrayal of House Stark when he murdered Robb at the Red Wedding. He stupidly believed Ramsay could be trusted with political power and with responsibility and believed that Sansa Stark’s presence would help his cause rather than ultimately lead to the destruction of his house.

Littlefinger stupidly believed that Sansa was incapable of turning against him. He believed she was nothing more than a pawn to be used in his games. He believed that she would love him and give him the affection that Catelyn never did. We all know what happened to him.

The point is that not all the characters are stupid. The point is that the Starks are not. They make mistakes and are punished severely. They suffer consequences for their actions - but they are completely operating at the same intellectual level that any of the other supposed “experts” are operating.

So why do I care and why do I think it matters?

I care because I love the Starks, first off. Their house represents the one with the healthiest worldview, in my opinion. Only the Tyrells are really shown to have had much a healthy intra-family dynamic compared to the other houses. Yet the Tyrells were all to willing to form alliances, play games of deception, betrayal, and murder, and ultimately the Tyrells fell.

Where am I going with this?

Jon Snow, as a player of the game and a member of House Stark (if not in name yet) is most assuredly not a Northern Fool.

Jon Snow is the character that I believe holds the most significance for the survival of Westeros and the improvement of the Realm after the Great War’s conclusion.

Season 7 may have featured more mentions of “Northern Fool” than any other season and viewers bought this lie hook, line, and sinker. D&D love their setups and if you believe Jon isn’t always thinking how to do what’s, isn’t always thinking about how his actions might affect his family and the people he loves, and is simply acting on his gut all the time, I have news for you: You don’t know Jon Snow.

Portrayal

“Maybe you are just a Northern fool.”

~Tyrion, S7 / E3

What better moment encapsulates how others view the North as a whole than this one?

If my suspicions are proven correct, that Jon Snow’s arc in Season 7 is centered entirely on his MISSION to bring Daenerys North at any cost, then he will have played the game absolutely masterfully while maintaining the image of the Northern Fool.

His enemies’ (and potential allies) misreading of his capacity for real politik puts him at a ridiculous advantage. Yet we’ve seen Jon play the political game. We’ve seen him observe and learn lessons.

He very quickly thought of how to earn Mance’s trust and gave the Night’s Watch invaluable intelligence regarding their plans. He couldn’t have done this as a dimwit incapable of quick-thinking and deceit.

People try to twist Jon’s murder as the result of his foolish bravery...yet my take (obviously) is very different on the matter. He knew it would be an unpopular position. He knew it put him at risk. He sought Aemon’s advice specifically because of this. Aemon gives the famous “kill the boy” speech which was Aemon’s way of saying “stop trying to please everybody and do the right thing”. In essence, isn’t that what the Starks just do?

It’s why they inspire their subjects, rather than continually finding themselves putting down their subjects. Say what you will about Robb’s assassination as contrary evidence to this, but Robb was killed because he brought justice to the Karstarks. Roose Bolton was a schemer that was simple trying to accumulate power, and House Umber felt betrayed by Jon’s granting the Wildlings lands in the The Gift. Which one of those events were caused by House Stark trying to do something other than the right thing in an intelligent, if not difficult way?

Which brings me back to Jon Snow.

Am I to believe that he hasn’t thought about how his alliance with Daenerys Targaryen will be perceived by the Northern Lords? 

Am I to believe he didn’t consider the repercussions of announcing at the Dragonpit at the behest of Cersei Lannister’s demand?

Am I to believe he initiated a physical relationship with her, which by Tyrion’s look alone are foreshadowed as terribly complicated from a political standpoint, because he was just head over heels in love and it had no strategic purpose?

Am I to believe that Jon Snow isn’t hiding something when his mission to Dragonstone in the first place was to specifically get Daenerys to come North to fight the Night King?

Am I to believe that he isn’t skeptical of Cersei Lannister while knowing what she’s done to House Stark and also not even originally considering her as part of his mission when he departed for Dragonstone?

All of those questions I posed to myself are answered with a resounding “NO” on my part. Each one could basically be a meta individually but the bigger point is that if I answered “YES” to all of those, it would require that Jon Snow not have a thinking, planning, strategic bone in his body. That he’s like Forrest Gump drifting in the wind like a feather and simply lucky to be taking part in so many historic events.

My viewpoint is that Jon operates similarly to the other people in his life. He acts deliberately and with an eye towards a larger purpose. He may not always make the most advantageous choice but he’s not the type of person to throw his kingdom to a foreign queen because he wants to sleep with her. 

When people call Political Jon a character assassination on Jon Snow, I have to answer that the idea that he would give the North to Daenerys without any other consideration or counsel from his own people or family the TRUE character assassination. It’s a viewpoint that paints Jon as stupid and it’s a characterization of multiple House Stark members that just falls flatly on its face when held up to scrutiny. 

Think less of Jon if it turns out that he used Daenerys’ affections for him to get her to come North if you will but I will not fault the guy when he thinks it’s the difference between the extinction of men and it’s possible salvation.

Just don’t tell me Jon Snow is stupid and don’t tell me that House Stark consists of anything less than intelligent, capable leaders.

You might have believed that Jon and the Starks are dumb. You’ll be surprised at the end of the series. You believed the false narrative the show put out there. You fell for it. You will wonder how the Starks survive since the show said they were stupid. I will say....

#house stark #jon snow #robb stark #ned stark #sansa stark #arya stark #political jon theory #political jon meta #the north remembers