Aegon and Sansa

[Isobel Harper]

I recently came upon a few threads shipping these two. Strangely, the idea never occurred to me. While I don't ship characters (ever), I saw some interesting posts about the topic. For the most part, this thread is to process the idea more than support it. Overall, I still support the idea of Sansa not marrying again (at least for the rest of the series) and of her gaining her independence and strength alone more than any.

While reading on the topic, I found what I like most about this theory is the thought of them running off R+L style and screwing up both Varys' and LF's plans - a sweet irony considering they are both always trying to outwit and outmaneuver the other. Sansa is still posing as LF's bastard, so if they were to meet and fall in love, it would mean he'd fall in love with her for her, and not for her title which she fears that any man who would seek her hand would be after. We also know that Daenerys will be betrayed for love. Aegon breaking a marriage vow (both characters reveal that they'd be willing to marry the other - Daenerys only in regret of Aegon's death, not knowing about "Young Griff") for another woman would fall into such category. But I digress into assumptions. Shame on me!

The first potential "tease" of this theory is in the Dunk and Egg Series. There's a Tourney at Ashford where Lady Ashford has 5 suitors:

1. Lyonel Baratheon

2. Leo Tyrell

3. Tybolt Lannister

4. Humfrey Hardyng

5. Prince Valarr Targaryen

These suitors would match all of Sansa's, in name and in order, except for the last: Targaryen. Sansa's last suitor would need to be a Targaryen in order for this to match. According to A+S=<3, this would be Aegon.

One user (Thanks, Newstar!) also noted the similarities between Aegon and Sansa, which I'll post and add to.

1. Both Aegon and Sansa are pawn in another's greater plan: Aegon is Varys', and Sansa is LF's.

2. Both Aegon and Sansa are in hiding.

3. Both Aegon and Sansa have dyed their hair to conceal their true, distinctive hair color, which is a giveaway as to their identity (Targaryen silver and Tully auburn).

4. Both Aegon and Sansa have as their mentors men who were in obsessive, unrequited love with one of their parents (Jon/Rhaegar, Petyr/Catelyn).

5. Both Aegon and Sansa's mentors are posing as their fathers.

6. Both Aegon and Sansa have lost both of their parents and many of their family.

7. Both Aegon and Sansa are nobility posing as commoners.

8. Both Aegon and Sansa are second born, having lost their older sibling.

9. Both Aegon and Sansa are connected to water. (This last might be a bit of a stretch?) Aegon feigns to have a mother from Tyrosh, a nation known through out the book for its sailors and seafarers. It seems that Aegon and Jon Connington mostly travel by water via the Shy Maid and never stay in one place for too long. Sansa's mother is from Riverun, an area known for it's rivers.

Any thoughts on this theory? Anything you'd like to add?

[Viserys - The last dragon]

Hm.. I think I've heard this before.. But yeah, very interesting :) I believe so may be the case.

[Ser Duncan The Average]

Lady Ashford had five suitors, but did it specifically say that she married the last of them? Otherwise it could be that she had five suitors and rejected them all and married someone completely different. Either way I hadn't noticed this before, cool little bit of foreshadowing. :thumbsup:

[lidsa]

The problem with this is that he is no longer posing as a commoner, he has come out as (alledgedly) Aegon Targaryen.

In Sansa's mind he would be just another pretty prince - and she hasn't forgotten how her last crush treated her.

And I know it's a little too early to judge Aegon's character, but he seems kind of dismissive of women in general, I wouldn't want such a partner for Sansa.

[Rrachel]

There're are a lot of similarities between both of them indeed. Haven't hear of that ship before

[Le Cygne]

They were not Lady Ashford's suitors. There was a relevant tourney that Sansa watched in this story, however.

Sansa watched:

Sandor vs. Baratheon, Sandor won

Sandor vs. Lannister, Sandor won

Sandor vs. Tyrell, Sandor won (after being a true knight defending him, he yielded the match)

Sandor won the tourney. Also Littlefinger bet against Sandor, and lost.

Sansa was watching it all moist-eyed and eager...

Sansa said, "I knew the Hound would win."...

"Is the Hound the champion now?" Sansa asked Ned.

"No," he told her. "There will be one final joust, between the Hound and the Knight of Flowers."

But Sansa had the right of it after all. A few moments later Ser Loras Tyrell walked back onto the field in a simple linen doublet and said to Sandor Clegane, "I owe you my life. The day is yours, ser."

Also for emphasis, there are callbacks. Sansa looks back at the tourney (her father's tourney) and notes Sandor won:

He had been the champion in her father's tourney, Sansa remembered.

Also one more story note, Sansa pretends to kiss Sandor while kissing an Arryn.

[TheRevanchist]

I think that this theory is quite old. In fact it would make sense for the 'War' to end where it bagan: A Targaryan boy and a Stark girl falling in love with each other. On the other side, it might be very Hollywood-ian for GRRM liking.

[OmnomnomPomelo]

Me too thought about that when finished reading the books back then. Everybody has his/her own possible ends, I have mine too. I could imagine that if King's Landing stands at the end and someone will sit on the Iron Throne it will be "Aegon" and Sansa. If KL will be burnt to the ground and there will be 7 or more kingdoms, then Sansa will be the queen of the Riverlands with seat of Harrenhal with either Aegon Blackfyre or Harry Hardyng. So I imagine a "happy" end only for Sansa.

But also I'd like to see that Arya goes back to Westeros to kill a "dragon" who will be Aegon. And just when Sansa gets closer to Aegon and falls in love with him, BAMM, Arya happened :D

[Ser Duncan The Average]

Sandor vs. Baratheon, Sandor won

Sandor vs. Lannister, Sandor won

Sandor vs. Tyrell, Sandor won (after being a true knight defending him, he yielded the match)

Sandor won the tourney. Also Littlefinger bet against Sandor, and lost.

How on earth did I never notice that? And I have to say, until I read this it had never occurred to me just how awesome it would be to have the hound kill Littlefinger. Now that would be an epic scene.

[Gallivant]

I'd never noticed the parallels between Aegon and Sansa... And once they're listed, it really is very compelling evidence that some kind of connection is being made between them! I don't tend to 'ship' characters so wouldn't necessarily see this as portending to a future romance, but it is certainly interesting and surely has to be deliberate.

[Mithras]

fAegon will marry Arianne. It is known.

[The Wolf Lord's Daughter]

Sansa was also engaged to Robert Arryn and there was no Arryn at the Ashford tourney. And Sansa's not posing as a commoner, she's posing as the bastard of the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, basically the fake equivalent of Jon Snow. And Sansa really isn't connected to water, seeing as how she gets seasick on the boat and has no other connection to any body of water. As for parallels with fAegon, the speech that Varys gives to Kevan as he's dying can easily apply to Arya:

He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid.

Despite this, I don't think Arya and Aegon will fall in love and marry. And I don't think he'll even meet Sansa, tbh. Sansa seems to be moving North while Aegon will be busy securing KL and winning his throne, and then he'll be involved in DoD 2.0 with Dany, where he'll definitely lose and all those close to him will die. So I want Sansa miles away from him.

I see fAegon marrying Arianne in TWOW.

I'd never noticed the parallels between Aegon and Sansa... And once they're listed, it really is very compelling evidence that some kind of connection is being made between them! I don't tend to 'ship' characters so wouldn't necessarily see this as portending to a future romance, but it is certainly interesting and surely has to be deliberate.

Man, I hate this argument. Parallels=/=Romance. Hell, Jaime and Sansa have similarities too:

1.Both are second born siblings.

2.Both had romances/crushes on golden haired Lannisters, whom they later realize are lairs and cheats.

3.Both begin their time at KL full of dreams and idealism (Jaime wanting to be the next Aurthur Dayne and Sansa with her dreams of marrying a handsome prince) and they are both stripped of their delusions, making them somewhat bitter.

4.Both have lost family in the war.

5.Both are taken hostage by people they thought were allies and were badly hurt by those fake allies.

6.Both form connections with/fall for physically ugly people and dream about them (beauty/beast trope).

7.They are both very good looking people.

8.Both let a younger sibling down in a way (Jaime's act far, far, worse than Sansa's)

And this is at the top of my head. A more experienced fan could find many more. So let's ship Jaime/Sansa, after all, they have parallels :stillsick:

[bent branch]

If Aegon ends up on the IT at the end of the novels, then Sansa will be his queen. This will be a marriage of political importance, showing the the "healing" of Westeros, the reuniting of of the north and south. It will also be a marriage of love, because both Aegon and Sansa will be thrilled with each other.

If Aegon marries Arianne, then Aegon, Arianne and all the Martells will deserve to die, because they are too stupid to live.

[Gallivant]

Sansa was also engaged to Robert Arryn and there was no Arryn at the Ashford tourney. And Sansa's not posing as a commoner, she's posing as the bastard of the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, basically the fake equivalent of Jon Snow. And Sansa really isn't connected to water, seeing as how she gets seasick on the boat and has no other connection to any body of water. As for parallels with fAegon, the speech that Varys gives to Kevan as he's dying can easily apply to Arya:

He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid.

Despite this, I don't think Arya and Aegon will fall in love and marry. And I don't think he'll even meet Sansa, tbh. Sansa seems to be moving North while Aegon will be busy securing KL and winning his throne, and then he'll be involved in DoD 2.0 with Dany, where he'll definitely lose and all those close to him will die. So I want Sansa miles away from him.

I see fAegon marrying Arianne in TWOW.

Man, I hate this argument. Parallels=/=Romance. Hell, Jaime and Sansa have similarities too:

1.Both are second born siblings.

2.Both had romances/crushes on golden haired Lannisters, whom they later realize are lairs and cheats.

3.Both begin their time at KL full of dreams and idealism (Jaime wanting to be the next Aurthur Dayne and Sansa with her dreams of marrying a handsome prince) and they are both stripped of their delusions, making them somewhat bitter.

4.Both have lost family in the war.

5.Both are taken hostage by people they thought were allies and were badly hurt by those fake allies.

6.Both form connections with/fall for physically ugly people and dream about them (beauty/beast trope).

7.They are both very good looking people.

8.Both let a younger sibling down in a way (Jaime's act far, far, worse than Sansa's)

And this is at the top of my head. A more experienced fan could find many more. So let's ship Jaime/Sansa, after all, they have parallels :stillsick:

I don't think parallels necessarily equate to "Romance". I don't do shipping - read what I wrote (beyond the first sentence this time). The fact that there are clear similarities in the characters' backgrounds is interesting and might even prove relevant, that's all - likely nothing to do with romance!

[Le Cygne]

Indeed, many of those "parallels" could also apply to Arya. She's shaving her hair while hiding her identity, slight difference. One could make a list of "parallels" Arya shares with Varys...

AryArys (couldn't resist)

[Snark_Tamer]

I've thought that tourney list as Sansa suitors was convincing for a while. It doesn't necessarily need to exclude a fAegon/Arianne engagement if Arianne dies, or, as suggested, Aegon just falls in love with Sansa. Perhaps Sansa has to go to KL for the High Septon to annul her marriage to Tyrion (so she can marry Harry) and there is a Sansa/Aegon moment of magic.

I affiliate Sansa with air, as an element (Arya is water), but other than that, the parallels are interesting.

To throw a fly in the ointment, another Targaryen possibility for Sansa (a true one, rather than a phony) is Jon. Targaryen's DO after all, marry their sisters (and Sansa would really only be a cousin)

[Good Guy Garlan]

I ship these two like fire, and I love the similarities!

My one caveat is that I think Sansa is over the whole romance thing. I could see her becoming more pragmatic and less idealistic, as opposed to Aegon, who I think might be sort of naive because JonCon sheltered him for so long, so their dynamic could be great

[aryagonnakill#2]

It seems strange to me that you would simultaneously point to D&E for foreshadowing of Sansa's suitors, but not look to D&E for Aegons identity.

[Snark_Tamer]

It seems strange to me that you would simultaneously point to D&E for foreshadowing of Sansa's suitors, but not look to D&E for Aegons identity.

Meaning Aegon is really alive but is actually Podrick Payne?

[JonCon's Red Beard]

I like this theory. I wouldn't mind if Sansa and Aegon end up together.

But I believe Aegon will kinda fall for Elia instead.