"I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me." Sansa/Petyr Parralels

[Guerillacropolis]

I'm making my way through my first re-read, and also watching the HBO show as it airs. So I'm seeing Sansa at two completely different parts of her arc, but I'm beginning to notice subtle hints that foreshadow her deep connection to Littlefinger.

After she sees her dad be-headed, Sansa's former life is irrevocably shattered. She had all these romantic notions about marrying a prince and growing up to be a queen and seeing all of her dreams of knighthood, chivalry and love come to life. It's only when her father is murdered (after being the courteous, obedient young lady doesn't work out and she can't save him like she thought she might) that she is forced to confront the fact that life doesn't always follow the rules she's been taught.

The Hound offers her advice, to show no anger or hatred, but instead to behave however the Lannisters, including Joffrey, expect her to. When Joffrey finishes insulting her, echoing his mother's alleged doubts about the intelligence of their future offspring, Sansa replies "Thank you, Your Grace," and thinks, The Hound was right, I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me.

Obviously, the animal metaphors run deep in A Song of Ice and Fire. We have the Hound, Cat(elyn), the Young Wolf, plus all of the animal imagery associated with most of the seven families and the heraldry, but very importantly Petyr's self-styled crest of the mockingbird.

So even though Sansa doesn't even consciously realize it yet, she is going to have to use her guts and wiles to survive just like Petyr Baelish did after his own childhood illusions were shattered.

He, Lysa and Catelyn would play games together, even kissing games, and keep in mind that both of these girls were older, Catelyn the oldest. So when Petryr falls in love with Catelyn, and she's expected to marry Brandon Stark, he humiliates himself in a duel and loses Catelyn completely, especially in his own imagination.

I don't know if Petyr realized the duel to Brandon was futile, and it was all some kind of terribly defiant declaration of love, or if part of him believed he could've beaten Brandon (perhaps it was a bit of both). But after that day, Petyr finally began to become Littlefinger, and had rely on his charisma, duplicity and intelligence instead of acting gallant or noble.

[AliceRose]

From wikipedia: Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians.

"I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me."

[AliceRose]

Sansa is a warg, but Lady is dead, the Starks children warg into a direwolf, the symbol of their father's house, Alayne has a new father now, she will warg into a littele bird who mimick the songs of other birds

[Vale of Tears]

From wikipedia: Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians.

"I am only a little bird, repeating the words they taught me."

Very interesting, I totally missed that how it correlates....hmmm makes you think