Sansa is Super-Awesome-Fantastic!

[Lady Blackfish]

[quote name='bacchys' post='1602778' date='Nov 29 2008, 00.52']So such political acumen as she displays is probably learned from Eddard, not Hoster.[/quote]
They have different enough styles/philosophies though. I'm sure all her knowledge about the north comes from him, but her thought patterns differ too much to be totally learned from him. She really reflects a riverland mentality, she depends on (*witnessed*) agreements and expects most people to be basically self interested (though she underestimates their ruthlessness). This makes sense for someone who comes from a land that is surrounded by potential enemies, plentiful enough to be desirable and not powerful enough to depend on might making their right.

[quote name='bacchys' post='1602778' date='Nov 29 2008, 00.52']She's watched- at some distance- what others have done, and she thinks she knows how they have acted and how they made those decisions.[/quote]
Agree.

[quote name='bacchys' post='1602778' date='Nov 29 2008, 00.52']We've actually had her memories of childhood, and it may simply be that she's a prodigy when it comes to ruling, but she's displayed a level of acumen that is unexpected in someone her age[/quote]
Prodigious is exactly it, IMO. Targaryens are just superhuman, they are inclined toward greatness in some direction or other, and Dany is meant to come off as simply a born leader. She's exceptional, regardless of gender, it's in her blood. She's gifted with dragons and occasional invincibility to fire too, I don't think she can quite compare fairly to other women in the series, not totally anyway, not without bringing some meta commentary into it.

[Daena the Defiant]

Not to respond to anyone in particular, but what I say when I mean that Ned (and Catelyn) should have attempted to give their daughters a greater grounding in reality is not to say that they need to raise them to be super-spy Machievellian political ingenues, but simply to have them appreciate the broader themes of their feudal government - people will primarily act out of self interest, you are very desirable little girls and be wary of overly obsequious people, expect loads of heavy duty flattery, try not to display too much of yourself to strangers, etc.

Catelyn was raised to be the Lady of Riverrun, so she was presumably given a more detailed education about the factious relations between the Riverlords, her role as Lady Paramount between her own vassals and the Iron Throne, plus some vague military science - in her case it was just enough to understand it and to seek the counsel of those better trained than her.

As the Heiress of Riverrun, she would have required a more expansive education in realpolitik and day-to-day government which Sansa and Arya would not require.

BUT - as a woman and a man who came of age of the Robellion, with attendant tales of Lannister chicanery, coupled with Lysa's "accusations" regarding Jon Arryn, Catelyn and Eddard were either amazingly naive when they send their daughters to court, (especially Sansa, who had everything progressed normally would be expected to blossom into a luminary at court, with her own clique ), or they were, I daresay, negligent.

And I still say that it was very much part of their future roles as ladies and feudal lands and chatelaines of large households that they might be expected to govern in some capacity, if only for a limited time. They are very important little girls, and their parents' social strata is fairly high. I am not so sure that Sansa's likely fate would have been to be Lady of Last Hearth or something.

They are Lord Hoster's granddaughters as well as Lord Eddard's girls, after all.

[Lord Renly]

[quote]I am not so sure that Sansa's likely fate would have been to be Lady of Last Hearth or something.[/quote]

Well, Sansa's quite talented at courtly accomplishments, so maybe not. That would be a waste, if they did it. But I was speaking more of Stark children in general. It seems that marrying bannermen or their heirs is ordinary.

[b]Edit:[/b]

[quote]BUT - as a woman and a man who came of age of the Robellion, with attendant tales of Lannister chicanery, coupled with Lysa's "accusations" regarding Jon Arryn, Catelyn and Eddard were either amazingly naive when they send their daughters to court, (especially Sansa, who had everything progressed normally would be expected to blossom into a luminary at court, with her own clique ), or they were, I daresay, negligent.[/quote]

They had relatively short notice of the trip to KL, though. And once they received Lysa's accusations, they were afraid not to engage Sansa to Joffrey (though I think that was very shortsighted of them). So they had little time to prepare the girls, and little reason to do so [i]before[/i] they knew the girls would be going to KL.

Though in my opinion they should have put off sending the girls to KL, especially Arya (since her talents lie in other directions and she'd be a better northern lady than a courtly southern one). They could have engaged Sansa to Joffrey without sending her to court right away.

[Lady Blackfish]

Daena,
I should probably let this lie since the topic's dying but I still am not sure we can say that the girls weren't exposed at all to rules of governance, just that they weren't pushed all too hard to absorb it. I do think the Stark children were sheltered, I wouldn't want to argue too much the other way (and I think their experiences during the Robellion only made Ned and Cat want to indulge their childhoods more, deep down).