From Pawn to Player: Rethinking Sansa IX

[Candor]

Sansa's maiden status is pretty much a plot line all by itself at this stage in the story. There is her marriage to Tyrion, fruit imagery, flower imagery, her talk with Cersei when she gets her moon blood, her moment on the rooftop with Sandor, her story about her mother losing it to LF,burning her mattress, this LF scene, the potential for Lolly's fate in the riots, her attack by Marililion, and more. It's going somewhere, I'm sure of it. There is so much build up around it, I'm quite positive it will be a big deal. It's going to be very much about her and her choice.

It really has become its own plotline, I agree. Another is Sansa's chasteness of soul. We've staged discussions on her actions, and what point on the grayscale she sits out, and where she has potential to fall or rise to. It hinges on a great deal of things, the most pressing being the situation with Sweetrobin and his "treatments." I am really on pins and needles to see where GRRM intends to go with that. Will Sansa keep her good essence, or will she too gain some dark along the way?

[Pod The Impaler]

A lot of the speculation of a Sansa / Sandor Clegane marriage, and whether that is socially acceptable or not seems to ignore a few practical realities:

- Who the hell is going to object to her marrying beneath her station? Her parents ? Jon Snow ? Arya ? Bran or Rickon who are both far from adulthood?

- The fact that Clegane was never a knight is something for people to gossip about, but the man is a reknowned killer, and was in the Kingsguard, so nobody is seriously going to rub that in his face. And it is stated that in the North, knighthood is hardly a matter of concern, and there of plenty of lords' heirs who fight and rule and have never had a "Ser" attached to their name either.

- And anyway, consider how both of them are essentially outlaws, enemies of the Iron Throne now.

But here's the most important consideration of social standing:

There is a war on, and those boundaries of social class bends and breaks according to the needs of war.

War takes many nobles and casts them down to be nothing. More than anything, war is also responsible for the raising up new nobles. It is corrosive to social stasis and rules. This is not peacetime - social respect and acceptance flows primarily from the use of force.

As of now, Sandor is on minus, due to being a deserter and a wanted fugitive.

Again, depends on who wins the war, and who's left alive.

[brashcandy]

And with that, it's time for a new thread. Gosh, golly folks, can you believe we're heading to double digits? :) And it's great that we can kick off a new one with the presentations on men coming up.