[TWOW Spoilers] Alayne I, v. 2

[Hos the Hostage]

Food for thought here. BwB is aided by prostitutes. Beric had no reason to give Catelyn the kiss of life. But he did. So, I do not think LF will be very surprised to see LS.

1. Beric promised Arya, on his honor as a knight, that he will return her to her mother's arms.

2. He s weary of the 'life' he led.

3. Harwin begged him

[Modesty Lannister]

1. Beric promised Arya, on his honor as a knight, that he will return her to her mother's arms.

2. He s weary of the 'life' he led.

3. Harwin begged him

All true, but still, there is enough food for thought. When Beric resurrected her, Catelyn was not what we would call a fresh corpse. I somehow do not think that his word to Arya or Harwin's begging would make him step aside and give her leadership over BwB.

[Le Cygne]

Well, Littlefinger uses men and women both, actually. And he is not really involved in this whole brothel business the way he is in the show. He is no pimp but rather a shareholder of some brothels.

He owns brothels, and seems to know quite well what's going on in them. "As it chances, I own this particular establishment"... "Whores love to gossip, and as it happens, I own a brothel or three" ... "our sweet Lord Petyr has friends in half the brothels of King’s Landing" ..."I’d be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually."

And then there's what he does to Jeyne: Lord Petyr leaned forward. “I’ll find a place for her.”... "I was told that you'd know how to please a man. Was that a lie?" "N-no, my lord. I was t-trained."... He could see a spiderweb of faint thin lines across her back where someone had whipped her...

[Colonel Green]

He owns brothels, and seems to know quite well what's going on in them.

Well, sure, they're a business, and a potential source of information. But he doesn't preside over day-to-day operations like he does in the show.

[Le Cygne]

This lemoncake is clearly a boner of LF. For her.

You are right. He's Littlefinger with the smiles that don't reach his eyes in this chapter, too, when he was saying she was beautiful like Cat.

[Modesty Lannister]

He owns brothels, and seems to know quite well what's going on in them. "As it chances, I own this particular establishment"... "Whores love to gossip, and as it happens, I own a brothel or three" ... "our sweet Lord Petyr has friends in half the brothels of King’s Landing" ..."I’d be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually."

And then there's what he does to Jeyne: Lord Petyr leaned forward. “I’ll find a place for her.”... "I was told that you'd know how to please a man. Was that a lie?" "N-no, my lord. I was t-trained."... He could see a faint spiderweb of faint thin lines across her back where someone had whipped her...

And LF is training Sansa for a higher level of the same craft. The fact that she thinks she was the one who thought of the tourney (we do not have that conversation in a form of dialogue) can be actually LF's idea carefully planted in her head. She is just a little girl. She escaped a terrible hostage situation. And here comes this shady guy who managed to kill her main tormentor Joffrey, who mocks all the Lannisters and who killed her aunt for her. He must seem like a better option. And he is telling her how the game is played, he is following her plans, he is telling her she is beautiful, he is boosting her shattered self-confidence. She feels like a member of a team. But, she is just a little girl dealing with one of the best players in the world. It would be unrealistic to expect that she would think or do anything else at this stage. And, as GRRM, tells us, she has proved to be an unreliable POV. So, what we see in her chapter is her interpretation of the situation. However, it is very clear who is leading this game. I am sure Harry will become one of the eight winged knights. Also, I am certain someone is going to die during this tourney. The daggers have been given away. They are all the same. Who says someone will not be found stabbed with a dagger while someone else misses his dagger. And somehow I do not thing that poor guy will be the actual killer.

[Mad Madam Mim]

It's always not about SanSan with you, isn't it?

I agree with all of your points, and this is what I think he's hinting in this chapter, the Jeyne and Sansa parallels (I posted some common wording upthread).

She's even repeating what LF said about Harry (his dimples) as he touches Harry's face, just like LF told her to do. And I do think we are meant to be concerned.

I think he is calling back to the first book pretty heavily in this chapter, what happened with her father and Jeyne. And that's got a lot to do with LF.

But also seems like conflict is about to happen to shake things up. So hopefully this will move her to some sort of reckoning and resolution.

The stuff with Harry is interesting and although Sansa is playing along with Littlefinger's schemes, her inner monologue consistently places the emphasis on Harry needing to like her, she offers us nothing on her thoughts about her needing to like him. She is not doing this for her, she is not acting as a free agent, LF is still ultimately pulling the strings and for the time being she is playing along.

Please, he doesn’t need to love me, just make him like me, just a little, that would be enough for now.

...

Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry

Whilst Sansa does appear overly self congratulatory at times, there are still times when her fragility shows. Her self-esteem with men and relationships has taken a massive knock, she only asks for Harry to just like her, just a little bit. Whilst is could be indicative of a maturing and realistic Sansa, it is actually quite a sad statement about Sansa's diminished expectations in light of the horrors she experienced in KL.

Sansa spends the first half of the chapter trying to seek LF out, suggesting that already over-reliant on him and seeks him out in times of uncertainly. Unfortunately Harry arrives before she has an opportunity to find LF and when she has to finally greet Harry, she does not have LF's guidance and tutelage so she has to do it alone. When confronted with the high-stake situation of meeting Harry on her own, she uses her default 'courtesy is a ladies armour' setting which worked for her in KL, but note it doesn't work here and she is rebuffed rather cruelly by Harry.

What eventually does work with Harry is when she follows LF's guidance to the letter. Sansa was not able to lure him on her own and moving forward this suggests that Sansa is becoming overly dependent on LF and his advice. She repeats LF's words in her head during the dance, like she is citing a 'how to ' guide on flirting in a rather robotic way and again the emphasis is always on Harry needing to like her, her feelings are null and void:

Ser Harrold looked confused. “Please. One dance.”

Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him. “If you insist.”

...

You will never make Ser Harry love you if you don’t have the courage to talk him.

At the end, Sansa is wondering who she will give her favour to and I read this as a much bigger statement about her agency. She has a choice, (and it is not Harry), who will she chose? To me, this was the most powerful and interesting thing posited in this chapter rather with her flirt-o-bot shenanigans.

[Lord Varys]

Oh, I know he has delivered Jeyne to be 'trained' but he has not done that himself.

But if we look at Littlefinger himself he has more of a whore than a pimp himself. He sold his body to Lysa, and his brain repeatedly to the highest bidder. He was Lysa's little toy boy for most of his life, and pretty much owes everything to her.

Harry:

I don't think he is an ass. He does not know who he is betrothed to, and considering his self-importance he was most likely expecting to be greeted by Lord Nestor and Littlefinger himself not two women behaving childishly one of which who is beneath him and supposed to be his bride.

[LongRider]

Argh, what do I read? Mad Mouse is Howland Reed theories!

Howland Reed is too busy posturing as everybody else from Jojen to High Septon. It is known.

Good thing the Elder Brother happens to be tall, or HR would be posturing on QI as well. LOL!

[Le Cygne]

At the end, Sansa is wondering who she will give her favour to and I read this as a much bigger statement about her agency. She has a choice, (and it is not Harry), who will she chose? To me, this was the most powerful and interesting thing posited in this chapter rather with her flirt-o-bot shenanigans.

Flirt-o-bot! I was looking for a word to describe it, that's perfect!

I agree with your points, and that struck me right away as the best part of the whole chapter. Finally, it was about her.

[Ghosts Lunch]

The chapter was originally going to be in ADWD, but was removed very late in the development process. This is almost certainly it's final form, minus a few typos.

No, we don't. Elio explained why he said it might be controversial, and also that that quote had become massively overhyped by the article and in the fandom.

Yeah I reckon this was an unedited version floating around on his word star computer

Quite different from the version floating around at the publishers

And uh, presumably the version sent back to him by Elio after it had been proof-read....

Find it hard to believe either would send it back to him in this format and this is the version slated for ADwD

Mind you massive lol if they did

Nothing wrong with putting a draft up on his website, so I don't have any issues if there are some adjustments

[Ghosts Lunch]

The stuff with Harry is interesting and although Sansa is playing along with Littlefinger's schemes, her inner monologue consistently places the emphasis on Harry needing to like her, she offers us nothing on her thoughts about her needing to like him. She is not doing this for her, she is not acting as a free agent, LF is still ultimately pulling the strings and for the time being she is playing along.

Whilst Sansa does appear overly self congratulatory at times, there are still times when her fragility shows. Her self-esteem with men and relationships has taken a massive knock, she only asks for Harry to just like her, just a little bit. Whilst is could be indicative of a maturing and realistic Sansa, it is actually quite a sad statement about Sansa's diminished expectations in light of the horrors she experienced in KL.

Sansa spends the first half of the chapter trying to seek LF out, suggesting that already over-reliant on him and seeks him out in times of uncertainly. Unfortunately Harry arrives before she has an opportunity to find LF and when she has to finally greet Harry, she does not have LF's guidance and tutelage so she has to do it alone. When confronted with the high-stake situation of meeting Harry on her own, she uses her default 'courtesy is a ladies armour' setting which worked for her in KL, but note it doesn't work here and she is rebuffed rather cruelly by Harry.

What eventually does work with Harry is when she follows LF's guidance to the letter. Sansa was not able to lure him on her own and moving forward this suggests that Sansa is becoming overly dependent on LF and his advice. She repeats LF's words in her head during the dance, like she is citing a 'how to ' guide on flirting in a rather robotic way and again the emphasis is always on Harry needing to like her, her feelings are null and void:

At the end, Sansa is wondering who she will give her favour to and I read this as a much bigger statement about her agency. She has a choice, (and it is not Harry), who will she chose? To me, this was the most powerful and interesting thing posited in this chapter rather with her flirt-o-bot shenanigans.

I had read it differently initially but these are some very good points

[Harry the Hair]

I found this thought a bit disturbing in Alayne's POV:

"Oh, no. Petyr will howl when I tell him what I said."

I may be wrong but I do not recall him ever raising his voice to her, nor do I recall him ever being angry around her. Knowing what he did to Jeyne, could it be that there is some verbal abuse happening off-screen?

Another interesting part of this chapter is LF's Grain Scheme; I doubt he's using it to just piss off Bronze Yohn and make an extra copper here or there. As it happens there is one region in Westeros who's only source of income is just that, the Reach. Could it be that by withholding the Vale's food excess he's trying to get the Tyrells to sell theirs, thus exhausting their supplies and taking away a major source of their income in the not so far away future. Once Margaery can no longer pull the distribution of cookies to the small-folk trick she will lose her influence over them, thus allowing the High Sparrow to punish her without the fear of an angry mob showing up with torches and pitchforks at his doorstep.

[Modesty Lannister]

I found this thought a bit disturbing in Alayne's POV:

I may be wrong but I do not recall him ever raising his voice to her, nor do I recall him ever being angry around her. Knowing what he did to Jeyne, could it be that there is some verbal abuse happening off-screen?

I read it as in "howling with laughter". She was very cheeky with cinnamon and clover. That is a sort of humour that would please LF.

[Mad Madam Mim]

I had read it differently initially but these are some very good points

TBH, so did I. On my first read I was pleased that Sansa was showing growing confidence and social savvy and whilst she still does show her intelligence, perceptiveness and charm within this chapter, on a second read I was disturbed by how much this confidence and behaviour was dependent on LF.

[Le Cygne]

What Pimp Daddy is doing is disturbing.

[Yollo-morghulis]

Well the cliffhanger is, who will wear Alayne's favor?

I guess it will be Uther Shett :D

[Harry the Hair]

At the end, Sansa is wondering who she will give her favour to and I read this as a much bigger statement about her agency. She has a choice, (and it is not Harry), who will she chose? To me, this was the most powerful and interesting thing posited in this chapter rather with her flirt-o-bot shenanigans.

It will be interesting to see the reasoning behind her choice of candidates.

She could do this out of strategic purposes; say bestow it on Lyn in the hope that he'll beat Harry, bestow it on Roland Waynwood just to sow some discord between Harry and the Waynwoods, she could give it to Ser Shadrich (if he is indeed competing in the melee) in the hopes of finding out some more info about him, she could give it to Uther Shett to spare Myranda from his advances.

She could bestow it on someone out of affection; like Ser Wallace because he is just adorable and the poor boy deserves a break, she could give it to the handsome Sisterman, she could give it to Ser Byron, she could give it to Lothor as a thank you for calling Harry an ass.

Personally I would love it if she bestowed it on Sweetrobin; he's the real Winged Knight. It would balance things out; Harry got a dance, Sweetrobin gets a ribbon or something. :P

[Harry the Hair]

I read it as in "howling with laughter". She was very cheeky with cinnamon and clover. That is a sort of humour that would please LF.

Phew, I was scared he'd turn to verbal abuse there for a second.

[Mithras]

I found this thought a bit disturbing in Alayne's POV:

I may be wrong but I do not recall him ever raising his voice to her, nor do I recall him ever being angry around her. Knowing what he did to Jeyne, could it be that there is some verbal abuse happening off-screen?

Another interesting part of this chapter is LF's Grain Scheme; I doubt he's using it to just piss off Bronze Yohn and make an extra copper here or there. As it happens there is one region in Westeros who's only source of income is just that, the Reach. Could it be that by withholding the Vale's food excess he's trying to get the Tyrells to sell theirs, thus exhausting their supplies and taking away a major source of their income in the not so far away future. Once Margaery can no longer pull the distribution of cookies to the small-folk trick she will lose her influence over them, thus allowing the High Sparrow to punish her without the fear of an angry mob showing up with torches and pitchforks at his doorstep.

It is about howling with laughter and the fact that LF laughs so much to Alayne's such bad humour tells us something.