From Naïve Optimism To Mature Resilience

At this point in my A Storm Of Swords re-read I’ve reached Sansa VI, and have noticed some really interesting similarities between it and Sansa I from A Game Of Thrones that I’ve never noticed before. These two chapters are full of parallels and foils, and really show just how much Sansa has grown as a character. In some places these chapters are exact opposites, and in some places they’re near exact parallels, but I think both the parallels and the foils all go to show how different a person Sansa has become. Some of these parallels/foils are superficial, like surroundings and settings, and some are much deeper themes, like Sansa’s attachment to how life is presented in the songs, and how she reacts to the differences between that romanticism and how life really is. I think it’s useful to break down every similarity between these two chapters, because even the most seemingly insignificant ones reveal interesting things about Sansa’s past arc and where her future arc is heading.

Settings & Surroundings

In Sansa I from AGOT, she remarks just how colorful, vibrant, and beautiful everything around her is:

“It was a glorious day, a magical day. The air was warm and heavy with the scent of flowers, and the woods here had a gentle beauty that Sansa had never seen in the north.”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

But in Sansa VI from ASOS, everything is so dreary, depressing, and lifeless:

“An old flint tower stood outlined against a bleak grey sky,”

“The Fingers were a dismal place, she’d heard, and there was something forlorn and desolate about the little tower.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

This small difference reveals a lot about what Sansa’s worldview has become. In AGOT she is young, naïve, and just wants everything to be beautiful and perfect, like it is in the songs. But by the time she reaches ASOS, she has lived through the death of her father, brothers, and mother, and is a shell of who she used to be. She has now seen war tear her family apart, and her years as a political prisoner have robbed her of her youthful optimism. Though many people view it as positive character development that Sansa has grown out of her naïve and trusting nature, a lot of times people ignore what an absolute tragedy it is that someone who used to be so bright and hopeful has had depression and abuse turn her into someone who’s quiet, lonely, and buried by grief.

Another thing I love about this difference in settings is that the Sansa from AGOT expected that day to be wonderful, and had it all turn sour on her so quickly and unexpectedly – a turn of events that was a complete contrast to the beauty around her just like it was a complete contrast to her worldview and expectations. On the other hand, Sansa from ASOS expects nothing but tragedy out of life, so when Sansa VI ends with Lysa trapping her in her soon-to-be marriage to Sweet Robert, it is consistent with her expectations just as it is consistent with the gloomy environment she’s in.

Beauty & Appearance

In Sansa I from AGOT, Sansa looks her most beautiful:

“Sansa already looked her best,”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

But in Sansa VI from ASOS, Sansa feels sickly and imagines she looks nearly like a corpse:

“I must look as haggard as a corpse,”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Much like the beautiful verse dreary settings of these chapters, I think Sansa’s appearance is another way GRRM uses to reveal how drastically her mindset has changed. In AGOT she is full of life, having not experienced any true tragedy yet. By the time she’s sailing to the Fingers, on the other hand, she has suffered years of abuse, and is mourning the loss of her family. Every time another loved one dies, she allows grief to define her just a little more than the last time, and now she is so full of despair that it’s working its way through her, inside and out. At this point, she feels as though she may be lost in grief forever, unable to recover from her losses, especially since she still holds herself responsible for Ned’s death.

What I really love about how Sansa views herself as haggard and worn out, is that it doesn’t seem like anybody else notices. Now I wouldn’t expect anyone in this chapter to just straightforwardly tell Sansa she resembles a corpse, but if she looked as rough as she thought she did, it seems like someone would mention that she looks tired or in need of rest, but no one does. Though I could be reading more into this than GRRM meant, I think Sansa assuming she looks awful when she most likely still looks beautiful is a wonderful external representation of how she always views herself as damaged, stupid, or worthless, when in reality she’s brought happiness to even the most self-loathing people she’s encountered (the Hound, Tyrion, etc.).

Nervous Happiness Verse Nervous Dread

I won’t spend too much time on this next foil since it’s fairly similar to the first two, but I still think it’s worth calling attention to – in Sansa I from AGOT, she mentions her stomach fluttering from nervous excitement:

“Just thinking it made her feel a strange fluttering inside, even though they were not to marry for years and years.”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

But in Sansa VI from ASOS, her stomach flutters out of fear:

“Sansa had been sick for most of the voyage, sick with terror,”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Just like the previous parallels/foils I’ve mentioned, this just goes to show how different Sansa’s mindset is between these two books. Once the great unknown was a source of excitement for her, but now it’s just another opportunity for things to go horribly wrong as they always do.

Affection For Joffrey Verse Fear Of Joffrey

Again, this is a foil I won’t spend much time on since it continues the running theme of all the positives in Sansa’s life turning into negatives, but I’ll still mention it. In AGOT, Sansa is still enamored by Joffrey and excited for a royal life they might share together:

“The touch of Joffrey’s hand on her sleeve made her heart beat faster,”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

But in ASOS she just happy to finally be free of him, even if she’s still fearful of what’s to come:

“At least I am safe here. Joffrey is dead, he cannot hurt me anymore.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Lady & The Guard Dog

This next parallel is one of my favorites, and an interesting reminder of some of Sansa’s more subtle losses. When thinking of everything she’s lost, typically Ned, Cat, and her brothers come to mind, but I think even though Lady was a direwolf, and not a parent or sibling, her death is still heartbreaking, and a traumatic experience that has stayed with Sansa through all of her chapters. Lady’s death took a piece of Sansa and she spends much of Sansa VI (ASOS) trying to fill that hole with the guard dog at the Fingers:

“Sansa said, feeding a piece of bacon to Lady under the table. The direwolf took it from her hand, as delicate as a queen.”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

“Sansa sat bored and restless by the fire, beside the blind old dog. He was too sick and toothless to walk guard with Bryen anymore, and mostly all he did was sleep, but when she patted him he whined and licked her hand, and after that they were fast friends.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Lady was so important to Sansa, her well-being, and her identity, in a way a lot of the general audience never fully realized. Throughout the books, the direwolves function as the life-support for the Stark children, both physically and emotionally. Greywind is an essential aspect to Robb’s dominance in battle, Ghost helps to save Jon in the Frostfangs and helps entrust him to the wildlings, Nymeria functions essentially as a body-guard to Arya in the Riverlands and Arya’s warg dreams are the only reprieve from misery she finds after escaping the Red Wedding, and Summer sustains Bran by bringing him food, and helps him cope with his injuries. While all the Starklings have their wolves to comfort them, Sansa is all alone. Not only did Lady’s death take a piece of Sansa’s identity, it also took a piece of her heritage and her home. Sansa seeking comfort in the guard dog to replace Lady is in many ways her trying to reconnect herself to her home and to her family. Things like this are a big reason I find it so frustrating when people malign Sansa as “not a true Stark” because of her lack of a direwolf – though Sansa does find happiness in the escapism of becoming Alayne Stone, she is still deeply attached to her identity as a Stark, and yearns to fill that void every chance she gets.

Adventure Verse Familiarity

In Sansa’s first AGOT chapter she’s enchanted by all the new experiences she knows are coming, and still has a sense of wonder about her:

“…it was a day for adventures,”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

But in ASOS, all she wants is to go home:

“But… my lord, you said… you said we were sailing home.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

In the previous parallels I’ve mentioned, they mostly show how Sansa has gone from hopeful to grief ridden or joyful to depressed, but I think this is the first parallel that’s more complicated than Sansa going from positive to negative. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to adventure, and there’s also nothing wrong with just wanting to go home. This change isn’t purely good or bad, it’s just different, but only if you take it at face value. Sansa wishing to go home to Winterfell actually says a great deal about how much she’s grown and matured as a person. The Sansa from AGOT had such grand expectations, and when reality didn’t live up to those expectations she rewrote reality. This coping mechanism is especially evident when considering how much she feared Joffrey and loathed Cersei after the incident at the Trident and the death of Lady, but by the time they reach King’s Landing, she had re-remembered the events of that day in a way that still allowed her to idealize Cersei and adore Joffrey. But after all she’s been through, the Sansa in ASOS has matured enough that she no longer has to cope by repressing reality. Though it may seem like she’s just longing for comfort by begging to be taken to Winterfell, returning would actually cause her a lot of pain. Seeing Winterfell again would mean confronting the place where she last saw Catelyn and Robb alive, and where Bran and Rickon died. Gone is the innocent girl who romanticized affliction; Sansa is now a strong woman who confronts reality but still remains attached to her ancestral home.

Joffrey & Littlefinger

In both chapters Sansa is led around a new place by someone who will soon become her abuser. In AGOT Joffrey rides with her, showing her the woods surrounding the King’s Road, and in ASOS Littlefinger takes her on a tour of the Fingers. In the chapters to come, both will quickly turn into her abusers. Littlefinger molests and treats her inappropriately constantly, and Joffrey torments her over Ned, Robb, and Catelyn’s deaths, while also having her beaten repeatedly. The most interesting thing about this parallel is how GRRM deconstructs the knight in shining armor trope. While most fantasy stories would have the hero rescue Sansa, GRRM embraces the actuality of what it would really be like as a young women in a highly patriarchal and abusive society.

The Way They Were In The Songs

Despite how much she’s changed, in both AGOT and ASOS, Sansa still clings to her standard of how things are in the songs:

“All she wanted was for things to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs.”

- Sansa I, A Game of Thrones

“…the Vale of Arryn was beautiful, all the songs said so.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Though Sansa has given up on life ever being nice or pretty in ASOS, she’s still attached to life as it is in the songs. Though it seems like this means this aspect of her personality hasn’t changed, I think there’s a difference between her love of songs in AGOT and her love of songs in ASOS. AGOT Sansa had a naïve optimism born form having never experienced true tragedy, while ASOS Sansa has a mature optimism born from the need to believe that one day she will recover from the grief and trauma her life has become. In AGOT her optimism and romanticism was a weakness, since it often led her to deny hard realities, but in ASOS her optimism is a resilience that leaves her as one of the emotionally strongest characters in ASOIAF.

Another thing I love about how Sansa VI mentions her love of the songs, is that it also has this quote from Littlefinger:

“A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

Though most of the fandom holds it against Sansa that she loves how the romanticism of the songs, I think GRRM really means for us to see this as one of her strengths. Sansa cares for the songs because she understands the importance and power of hope and honor and human emotion better than most in ASOIAF.

Stark Identity

This last theme is my favorite, and in my opinion one of the most interesting things GRRM has done with Sansa’s character. In both chapters Sansa is hiding from her Stark identity. In AGOT she is losing herself to the idea of being a Lannister/Baratheon, and getting to be queen. She enjoys distancing herself from her Stark name because she’s trying to fit in at King’s Landing and with the Houses of the South. But in ASOS she really begins her AFFC arc of fully losing herself in her Alayne Stone identit because she’s relieved for the chance to forget what she’s been through. It hurts so much to be a Stark, because of all they’ve lost, so when she arrives at the Fingers, and doesn’t even have a real Godswood to comfort her, she takes the first chance she can to run from all that pain. In AGOT, she is childish and naïve and that’s what causes her to want to escape from her Stark heritage, but in ASOS she welcomes her identity as a Bastard since she is just so relieved that for once she might be left alone:

“At least I am safe her. Joffrey is dead, he cannot hurt me anymore and I am only a bastard girl now. Alayne Stone has no husband and no claim.”

- Sansa VI, A Storm of Swords

In all of ASOIAF, Sansa has one of the most interesting character arcs. She subverts so many tropes, and I just wish the fandom could love her the way I know GRRM does.

#good stuff #there's a tendency for ppl to seperate early books/show sansa from late books/show sansa #because they like the latter but not the former #but the sansa of asos could never exist without the sansa of agot