Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
Its also not clear Littlefinger has any bad intentions.
Well, he is aware of the danger of sweetsleep, just like Sansa is. Maester Coleman told them both that only a little and not often is doable, and even then he was opposed to it. Roberts health is not Petyrs priority, and that is very clear. The only reason to even bring up that it is dangerous for Robert and that Petyr goes ahead with this is to show us that Petyr disregard Roberts safety. From the perspective of Robert, yes Petyr has bad intentions. From Petyrs pov his intentions are fine, of course.
Sansa then learns that Robert should not have any more in at least half a year but forces the maester to give him the dose anyway. Wether she believes or trusts the maester is another matter.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
Well that's a matter of opinion and I will disregard it.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
aware of what? sweet sleep is poison. I assume she knows that. But it also has medicinal properties.
It has, but is is only used with high restriction and lethal medicines should NOT be used because someone want a boy to be presentable for their own scheme to work when there are better medicinal options.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
What? Why is the boy important at all?
He is her cousin, maybe her only living relative besides Jon [ETA as far as she knows]. She may not like him but I doubt she would want him harmed, and as we see in her thoughts regarding the descent and the sweetsleep, she is convinced that it is the only way. Her motives seem to be to follow Petyrs wishes more than anything else. Also, the boy needs to live for a while longer for the plan to work, so his health is important.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
For Robert.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
That's true. There's also no reason she should care about Robert Arryn.
She should care that he survives at least a while for the sake of the plot, if not for him being her cousin. Given the maester tried to refuse to give him sweetsleep and stresses that it is too soon, asks about nose bleed, and says this must be the last time for at least half a year, we can assume Robert's health and life is at risk. We also know from this passage that it will not be the last time in half a year, Robert will be given sweetsleep at the feast too, when they reach the ground.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
Its not acute. It builds up over time. by definition that's not acute.
It is acute in high doses, but he is not a grown man and that requires smaller dosages for the same effect. How do you know how much time must pass before another dose is given? The maester definitely seems to think that half a year is a minimum, if not even too soon, for the next dose, and he had already been given too much in the maesters opinion. The master does not say it builds up over time, he says it stays in the system and that could mean that three doses can kill even if they are destributed over time, if there is not enough time in between. We don't know how it affects the system enough to say that the dilution makes it much less toxic. With a medicine as dangerous as this, normal procedure should be to take caution against any risk of poisoning, better safe than sorry.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
nah, that's if taken all at once. It'll take years for the toxins to build up enough for Robert Arryn to die from the sweet sleep. But he'll probably died from something else before that anyway.
Who knows how a small boy will react to it. Nobody has said it takes years to build up as you say, we only know that three pinches is lethal, not how the interval affects the response.
Lord Littlefinger, on 15 April 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:
oh maybe. mostly I think petyr just wants him to sit down and shut the fuck up and be lucid for presentation from time to time.
Yes that's true, but Petyr may accidentally kill of his lord, so is Petyr careless with giving a lethal drug combined with two other sedatives given regularly to Robert or does he mean to slowly poison the boy?
Raksha the Demon, on 15 April 2012 - 06:25 PM, said:
Sansa's dialogue with the maester and her own thoughts on the matter are troubling; to me they shows that Sansa is in danger of moral corruption from Littlefinger, but has not yet crossed the line.
There's no indication that she believes Robert's life is in danger, no indication that Sansa knows that three pinches of sweetsleep will kill someone. Her thought about what is best for Lord Arryn not necessarily being best for the boy also does not mean that Sansa understands that Robert is being tranquilized to the point of killing him; since being poisoned/killed is definitely not 'best' for Lord Arryn - and Robert is Lord Arryn.
It could be that Petyr had told Sansa that the maester was a hypochondriac who couldn't see the necessity of presenting Lord Arryn awake to his Vale-lords.
Also, if little Lord Arryn is unconscious for days when they descend the Eyrie; the Vale-lords might get testy, remove the boy from Littlefinger and evict Littlefinger from his Lord Protectorship; and then who will protect Sansa from arrest by Cersei's agents for kingslaying? Sansa might be stopping herself from questioning Littlefinger's designs, sub-consciously or otherwise.
Yes, Sansa probably knows nothing of how the sweetsleep works, but she has been warned by the maester about how dangerous it is, not that it takes three pinches to kill though.
At my first reads, my interpretation was that she thinks it's the only way for Robert to get down off the mountain, but when I read it now again I was also worried about her rationale in this situation.
The part I bolded is what I tried to express in my post before, but I'm not very good at expressing myself. She probably thinks that Petyrs way is the only way to keep herself safe. Another point is that she believes Robert may be going mad, and from her experience with unstable people like Joffrey and Lysa, this could cause her to be irrational. I don't think she would help kill Robert conciously, but she may make decisions to save herself from another mad ruler unconciously.
My interpretation is that she is convinced that Petyr is right in his assement of the situation so far, and she thinks that there is no other way. But, she seems to be aware of the danger to Robert's health, I just don't think she realises how much danger he is in. For Petyrs plan to work out (the plan that she is told of, his true motivations aside), Robert needs to stay alive until she is married to Harry the heir, or Petyrs title as protector will be challenged and since they are no longer safely up in the Eyrie they can't keep the lords away. They must keep Robert alive until the marriage is settled at least. I don't think Petyr really wants Harry to inherit, because he would loose his title and probably have to return to Harrenhal, something he does not want to do, so I think Harry would have an "accident" (if the marriage happens at all) in a torney or some other way, soon after the marriage and an heir is under way. Sansa who is beginning to learn the game could have decided to follow through with the marriage depending on what kind of person Harry turns out to be, and then act. I doubt she really is playing Petyrs game, and her true identity is still there as we saw when she was building the snow-miniature of Winterfell.
I don't think much of this will happen though (except perhaps the marriage and Robert's likely death), I don't think there is enough time left, since you know
winter is coming... So I think things will not go according to anyone's plan.
Edited by Eaeron I, 16 April 2012 - 05:43 AM.