The future of Sansa's Unkiss

[Balerion the kitten]

As I'm sure people know the Unkiss was a kiss Sansa remembers between her and the hound during the battle at Blackwater, but didn't actually happen.

GRRM has said Sansa is an unreliable narrator. He's also said

You'll will see, in A STORM OF SWORDS and later volumes, that Sansa remembers the Hound kissing her the night he came to her bedroom... but if you look at the scene, he never does. That will eventually mean something, but just now it's a subtle touch, something most of the readers may not even pick up on.

Never mind how weird it is that she's making up (and believing) something that never happened, but why is GRRM saying it will become more important in the future?

Here's Sansa's memories of the kiss.

Megga couldn't sing, but she was mad to be kissed. She and Alla played a kissing game sometimes, she confessed, but it wasn't the same as kissing a man, much less a king. Sansa wondered what Megga would think about kissing the Hound, as she had. He'd come to her the night of the battle stinking of wine and blood. He kissed me and threatened to kill me, and made me sing him a song.

As the boy's lips touched her own she found herself thinking of another kiss. She could still remember how it felt, when his cruel mouth pressed down on her own. He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak

Notice how the events change. It went from kissing, threatening and a song. Then it went a song, a kiss, and then him leaving.

And also the fact that the second time she mentions it it becomes much more vivid. And a little bit more sexual.

So as time goes on could these events become exaggerated. For example, could she start thinking that they full on made out or worse, had sex?

Could this be what GRRM meant when he said we'll find out more about this in later volumes and that it will eventually mean something?

[direpoodle]

I think it's important in terms of her development as a character. As she gets older, she's starting to get romantic and sexual feelings and she's focusing them on Sandor. It's demonstrating her growing maturity, but I think also showing that she has some feelings for Sandor as she remembers what happened more favourably than if it were someone else, perhaps forgetting how threatening the situation was. I also personally believe that Sandor is not dead and the significance of the unkiss is that they will reunite and her memory of the unkiss will impact how she treats him.

[Balerion the kitten]

I think it's important in terms of her development as a character. As she gets older, she's starting to get romantic and sexual feelings and she's focusing them on Sandor. It's demonstrating her growing maturity, but I think also showing that she has some feelings for Sandor as she remembers what happened more favourably than if it were someone else, perhaps forgetting how threatening the situation was. I also personally believe that Sandor is not dead and the significance of the unkiss is that they will reunite and her memory of the unkiss will impact how she treats him.

If that does happen then the question is how will he feel about her remembering a kiss that didn't happen? And would he even feel the same way?

[lidsa]

I don't think it's the Hound that will be important, but specifically the misremembering thing.

Idk if Sansa will ever see Sandor again (fingers crossed though), but I think she will misremember more and more things in the future in order to justify whatever decisions she will make.

[Mithras]

I think the only outcome of the Unkiss might be the waste of useful pages in the remaining volumes which could otherwise be used to solve the important mysteries.

[ReleaseTheHound]

I just think it's interesting the mention of him leaving her his cloak when there are many references to cloaks being items of protection

[ArabellaVidal]

I think it's partly because of Sansa's developing coping mechanism which allows her to create a new background when LF coaches her to become Alayne. It also highlights her sexual awakening, similar to Jon's holding a blade to Ygritte's throat signal's his. The unkiss and its development into the figure of her husband climbing into her bed and, of course, the cloak of protection that she willingly wraps around herself can also mean a symbolic marriage, both the mainland Westerosi kind(cloak) and the wildling kind (steel). Ygritte does in fact tell Jon that she is his because he "stole" her when he bared steel at her throat even though he let her go when he couldn't kill her. (She reminded him of Arya and arguably Sansa may have reminded the Hound of his sister).

This scene and its misremembrance is crammed full of meaning and symbolism. The bloody cloak itself has sexual meaning and if, in fact, she still has the cloak with her dyed green, like she dyed her white dress black that Arya threw blood red orange juice at, then that misremembered encounter takes on further significance. To answer the OP's question, it seems that she might consider herself already wedded and bedded before her marriage to Tyrion if she considers that she needs that background to use as a shield or as a weapon in the future of her arc.

[Balerion the kitten]

I don't think it's the Hound that will be important, but specifically the misremembering thing.

Idk if Sansa will ever see Sandor again (fingers crossed though), but I think she will misremember more and more things in the future in order to justify whatever decisions she will make.

That's something I can see happening with Sansa's character.

Especially with all the false friends surrounding her. Her memories and thoughts might create and overlook certain things. Even now she's turning a blind eye to the danger she's in and is happily skipping about the vale.

[Nerevanin]

After reading the previous posts, I'm surprised by people interpreting it as Sansa's developing sexuality. Which I'm not saying is wrong, I just never thought of it that way.

Actually, I always thought that the unkiss and the whole "unreliable narrator" thing were supposed to mean that after she misremembered what had happened that night she might misremember something else of bigger importance. Or it doesn't have to be necessarily she remembering wrongly something that happened in the past but she not noticing something, not recognizing someone or misinterpreting something. In a thread I suggest that the Blue Bard is in fact Marillion spying for Littlefinger and that the Marillion who Sansa saw in AFFC was either unharmed (as his hand and eyes were covered, one can't be sure if he had or hadn't fingers and eyes) or it was someone else but Sansa didn't notice it. Crackpot, I know, but I imagine that Sansa's lapsing memory might somehow influence the future events.

[ArabellaVidal]

After reading the previous posts, I'm surprised by people interpreting it as Sansa's developing sexuality. Which I'm not saying is wrong, I just never thought of it that way.

Actually, I always thought that the unkiss and the whole "unreliable narrator" thing were supposed to mean that after she misremembered what had happened that night she might misremember something else of bigger importance. Or it doesn't have to be necessarily she remembering wrongly something that happened in the past but she not noticing something, not recognizing someone or misinterpreting something. In a thread I suggest that the Blue Bard is in fact Marillion spying for Littlefinger and that the Marillion who Sansa saw in AFFC was either unharmed (as his hand and eyes were covered, one can't be sure if he had or hadn't fingers and eyes) or it was someone else but Sansa didn't notice it. Crackpot, I know, but I imagine that Sansa's lapsing memory might somehow influence the future events.

It's not a memory lapse. It's a developing ability to fabricate a new past and believe it to be true.

[plectrum]

He's specifically said that they unkiss is there to a) establish her as a somewhat unreliable narrator, and b) set the stage for a more important memory lapse in the coming books. As far as what that means specifically, I could only guess that she makes poor decisions in the next book based on faulty memories of some kind. I wouldn't want to guess more specifically than that though.

[Balerion the kitten]

It's not a memory lapse. It's a developing ability to fabricate a new past and believe it to be true.

Not only this but the fact that it's becoming more detailed in her mind.

First time she just mentions being kissed by the hound, second time she's saying she still remembers how it felt. Adding on "cruel mouth pressed down on her own".

This is when it starts to get a little worrying.

[Nerevanin]

It's not a memory lapse. It's a developing ability to fabricate a new past and believe it to be true.

I'd say that it is a memory lapse. She doesn't remember what happened, for a reason she misremembers the event. She didn't do it on purpose. Maybe she wished / wishes Sandor kissed her but that doesn't justify her belief that he really kissed her. Maybe she somehow forces herself to "remember" more details about it and thus she creates her "new past" but I highly doubt that that is the main purpose of the whole affair. What's would be even the purpose of Sansa herself creating new past for herself while there is only one person, and that's she, who knows the alternative past? Maybe it might help her to get used to Alayne but I don't know, that's just seems a bit vague to me.

I agree with plectrum that she might do some poor choices because of her unreliable memory.

[The Ned's Little Girl]

He's specifically said that they unkiss is there to a) establish her as a somewhat unreliable narrator, and B) set the stage for a more important memory lapse in the coming books. As far as what that means specifically, I could only guess that she makes poor decisions in the next book based on faulty memories of some kind. I wouldn't want to guess more specifically than that though.

If memory serves me (and increasingly, it doesn't :lol: ) the important unreliable memory he was setting the stage for was the UnKiss itself. The set-up for the mis-memory was the 2 different names for Joffrey's sword (Lion's Paw vs Lion's Tooth).

I don't think the UnKiss can semantically be described as a memory "lapse" either, i.e. Sansa didn't repress or leave anything out; she added something else in. I have read the argument that the UnKiss is an example of Sansa blacking out and therefore is a clue that she is actually the person who poisoned Joffrey. That would be a memory lapse. Her mis-memory of the UnKiss can't really be described as such.

[Ser Leftwich]

As for unreliable memory, Sansa might think that her action of telling Cersei about Ned's plans to leave might have been the cause of Ned's death. IIRC, we never hear from Sansa as to if she thinks she caused it.

Though we readers know she didn't, she might believe that she did.