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From Pawn to Player: Rethinking Sansa XXI


Milady of York

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THE FROM PAWN TO PLAYER RESOURCES



RE-READING SANSA CHAPTER BY CHAPTER ANALYSES


A Game of Thrones: Sansa I, Sansa II, Sansa III, Sansa IV, Sansa V, Sansa VI, Sansa's Development in AGOT, Symbolism/Foreshadowing in AGOT-ACOK Sansa I.
A Clash of Kings: Sansa I, Sansa II, Sansa III, Sansa IV (with excerpts from Tyrion IX), Sansa V, Sansa VI, Sansa VII, Sansa VIII, Symbolism/Foreshadowing in ACOK, Sansa's Development in ACOK.
A Storm of Swords: Sansa I (with excerpts from Tyrion I), Sansa II, Sansa III (with excerpts from Tyrion III), Tyrion IV, Analysis of Sansa III and Tyrion IV, Sansa IV, Tyrion VIII, Sansa V, Sansa VI, Sansa VII, Symbolism/Foreshadowing in ASOS, Sansa's Development in ASOS.
A Feast for Crows: Sansa I, Alayne I (Sansa II), Alayne II (Sansa III), Symbolism/Foreshadowing in AFFC, Sansa's Development in AFFC.




RETHINKING SANSA ESSAY COLLECTION


Thread I, Thread II, Thread III, Thread IV, Thread V, Thread VI, Thread VII, Thread VIII, Thread IX, Thread X, Thread XI, Thread XII, Thread XIII, Thread XIV, Thread XV, Thread XVI, Thread XVII, Thread XVIII, Thread XIX, Thread XX.

PROJECTS

FEMALE INFLUENCES

FEMALE INFLUENCES II: ON MOTHERHOOD

MALE INFLUENCES

MALE INFLUENCES II: A CLOSER LOOK AT LITTLEFINGER AND THE HOUND

Introduction
1. Different Scents, Different Intentions
2. No True Knight, No True Champion
3. The Hound and the Mockingbird Climb up the Ladder
4. Ancestry Pride and Contempt
5. Bloody Cloaks and Bloodied Hands

Conclusion


EXAMINING THE 'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' MOTIF IN ASOIAF

Beauty and the Beast Artworks:

Official "Beauty and the Beast" Project Illustration by Bubug.

a. ORIGINS, HISTORY AND SYMBOLISM OF BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
1. Origins of the Tale in Ancient Greece and Rome (Milady of York): Part 1, Part 2:, Part 3.
1.a
On the symbolism of Psyche's tasks (Milady of York)
1 .b From Apuleius to Villeneuve.The transformation of Cupid and Psyche into Beauty and the Beast (MIlady of York)
2. The tale in other early civilisations
2.a An analysis of Beauty and the Beast elements in the Epic of Gilgamesh (Fiekie): Part 1 and Part 2
3. Medieval retellings of the tale across Europe up to the Renaissance:
3.a Northern Europe (Elba the Intoner): East of the Sun and West of the Moon
4. Modern retellings:
5.a Retellings by Villeneuve (Lady Lea): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
5.b Retelling by Beaumont (DogLover): Comparative Analysis of La Belle et la Bête and A Song of Ice and Fire

b. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST IN POPULAR CULTURE
1. TV series (Brashcandy): Beauty and the Beast-The Original Series: An analysis
2. Films:
2.a Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Caroh99)
2. b La belle et la bête (Doglover): Comparative Analysis of La Belle et la Bête and A Song of Ice and Fire
3. Influences in Literature (Elba the Intoner): The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
4. Music (Bgona): Music to dream and think about Part A, Part B, Part C

c. THE BEAST IN ASOIAF:
1. The Two Faces of the Beast:
1.a. The Hound (Milady of York):The Two Faces of the Beast I: By Fire Transformed, The Making of the Hound, The Two Faces of the Beast II: The Road to the Hound's Deathbed Confession.
1. b. The Kingslayer (Danelle): The Beast in ASOIAF: Jaime Lannister
2. Infirmity and Deformity: A Symbolical Reading of the Beastly Figures in ASOIAF (Mahaut).


d. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AND A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE
1.Awakening the Beast (Brashcandy): Awakening the Beast: Female Sexuality and Empowerment in Sansa's Arc.
Awakening the Beast II: The Courtship of Mr. Lyon.
2. Analysing the father figures (Milady of York):
Baelish vs. Stark: Parallels in Littlefinger's interplay with Eddard and Sansa
3. On Martin's inversion of Beauty and the Beast (Tze)
4. The inspiration for "I'm no ser (Milady of York)


MINI-PROJECTS

Mini-series on Feminist Messages in ASOIAF

Women in Power

Courtly Love, Knighthood and Singing

Arthurian Legends

B&B Gothic Romance Expansion

The Pawn to Player Cracked Pots Collection

STANDALONE ANALYSES, POSTS AND ESSAYS

LINKS TO RELEVANT TOPICS:

On Feminism

In defense of Sansa Stark (from feministfiction.com)
Feminism 101 (See here for detailed links)
Feminism is for everybody - Bell Hooks
Feminism: A Very Short Introduction - Margaret Walters
Info on Whipping girl: A Transsexual woman on Sexism... - Julia Serano
Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power - Audre Lorde
Defining Black Feminist Thought - Patricia Hill Collins
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - Laura Mulvey
When the woman looks - Linda Williams
Excerpts from The Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
Gender is burning - Judith Butler
Women on the market - Luce Irigiray
The Laugh of the Medusa - Helene Cixous
Understanding patriarchy - Bell Hooks
List of feminist literature - Wikipedia
Feminist bibliography
Feminist literary criticism and theory
Feminist perspectives on power
2nd and 3rd wave feminism: continuities and discontinuities
Third wave feminism: A critical Exploration - Ed. Gillis, Howie, and Munford
Sexism - Marilyn Frye
Oppression - Marilyn Frye
Sexual Pleasure as Feminist Choice - Patricia McFadden

Related board topics:

Ragnorak: Foreshadowing and Symbolism in Sansa's snow castle
Apple Martini: Arya and Sansa's Musical Nomenclature

The Pawn to Player: Rethinking Sansa Collected SSM

Le Cygne: GRRM on Writing and Romance

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Here we go again, messieurs et mesdames, be welcome to the twenty-first edition of the Pawn to Player: Rethinking Sansa threads.

Our purpose of dedicating our time, effort and what knowledge each one of us possesses to the critical analysis of Sansa’s personal development throughout the books published to date remains as unwavering as ever after fifteen months since the creation of Pawn to Player, as is our commitment to keep bringing to the readers’ attention important aspects of her personality, her interactions and relationships with other male and female characters, her life experiences and the issues she’s faced during her long journey, such as love, sexuality, family, and agency.

The product of such dedication has now been collected and neatly showcased in the Resources section above, organised by themes and with clear headings so it’d be easier for interested readers to find a specific analysis on a particular topic. It’s a large collection to which more will be added in the upcoming days, and of which we are greatly proud.

Because we stick to the belief that this collection not only has been and will continue to be of much help to open-minded people avid for credible analyses, but also because it is an example of what collective and organised effort can achieve. Sir Winston Churchill used to say that “continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.” And he was right; effort is essentially the secret ingredient of the success of the Pawn to Player: Rethinking Sansa threads over the long months of summer and winter. Effort and persistence of men and women of vastly different backgrounds and occupations and educational levels, from housewives to achieved careerists, young people still in college and mature people with many a graduate degree, taught about literature in Oxford or just avid book lovers, married and single, native speakers and non-English speakers… all of whom have brought distinct opinions to the community of ASOIAF fans, and who in most cases only have in common a sincere desire to understand and learn more about someone that, to us, is a remarkable character in a remarkable series.

Those are the people that have made it possible for these threads to achieve their characteristic quality and created an environment that encourages critical thinking, where readers can pursue their interests and present their well laid out ideas for fellow fans to ponder on and discuss in peace. Such persistence and dedication deserves a word of acknowledgement and recognition by the legions of lurkers and regular readers that usually follow the Rethinking Sansa threads without participating and/or supporting the members, especially those that use these threads as a source of ideas that are bounced off of content presented here first or who start a parallel discussion that would be welcome here when it happens to be the same topic debated at the time. We would appreciate it a great deal if long-time readers and lurkers added their thoughts and comments to the discussions, and dispelled the notion that they wouldn’t bring anything to the discussion, because the contrary is true. We therefore warmly encourage everyone to post if they have a thought to add; tell a presenter that they’ve enjoyed an analysis, elaborate on points they disagree with, expand on a point they think needs further explanations, or just show respect and public appreciation for the work of people that have spent long hours doing research for the benefit of everyone, for every fan out there that cares about the books written by George R.R. Martin.

Happy posting to all of you!

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All of these PtP threads have been mightily impressive, but I have to say that the summary of links shown above is truly dazzling. I'm looking forward to many happy hours of perusing my favorite subject!

Thank you heartily to everyone who maintains and contributes to these wonderful topics! It's awesome - like a hot dog.

:bowdown:

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All of these PtP threads have been mightily impressive, but I have to say that the summary of links shown above is truly dazzling. I'm looking forward to many happy hours of perusing my favorite subject!

Thank you heartily to everyone who maintains and contributes to these wonderful topics! It's awesome - like a hot dog.

:bowdown:

Glad to know you've been enjoying the threads NLG :) We have some upcoming projects and essays we're very excited about, and as Milady said in the OP we encourage all our readers to join in the conversation. Discussion on previous analyses from past threads can be continued in this thread too.

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Thank you so much for these incredible threads. The summary of links is awe inspiring. Can't wait to read the new insights in this new thread and contribute when I can. Once again thanks to all the contributors for your incredible analysis into this remarkable character in this remarkable series

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:bowdown: Wow, is all I have to say to this.

I'm currently going through the re-read threads with both Sansa and Arya and there are no words on how much I appreciate these threads.

Insights, details, and essays that truly go in-depth with these fascinating characters (I seriously love Sansa and Arya equally and hope that they team up in the future because together they'd be unstoppable).

Ladies and gentlemen, please keep up the good work!

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:cheers: I also want to offer my congratulations to brashcandy and Milady, who have done an incredible job at ensuring the longevity of this project while maintaining such high quality. And thanks to everyone who's contributed, providing not only entertaining reading, but insight into such an amazing character. I have certainly developed a deeper appreciation of Sansa since I started reading the threads (and will continue to read and reread). I have learned so very much.

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Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on our work; your words and encouragement are much appreciated.

And now we start another of our mini-projects: a new section titled B&B Gothic Romance Expansion, which is an off-shoot of the mega project on the Beauty and the Beast motif in ASOIAF. It will feature three analyses by PtP members on works of literature by Charlotte Brontë, Daphne du Maurier and Angela Carter, which are all classified as belonging in the Gothic Romance literary sub-genre.

Sansa's storyline has intriguing elements of Gothic fiction, where romance and horror are central features of the plot. As one definition outlines, this type "revolved around conflict and mysteries. It made the heroine choose between two male characters for love. One is bright, sunny, cheerful and charming. The other was dark, mysterious, secretive, and brooding; often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they were usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and haunted castles and houses.” The imperative of this project expansion is to examine the parallels between Sansa’s experiences and those of the heroines in the mentioned stories, thereby highlighting not only the links between ASOIAF and classic literature but also shedding insight on Sansa’s development, and the challenges that accompany her growth towards awareness and action.

Mahaut will be the first presenter in this project, with an essay on The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter to follow shortly.

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As announced by Milady (whom I thank for her betareading), here is my little essay. I hope you'll enjoy the reading :)

Bluebeard and the woman in process

1. Summary

Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber is essentially a retelling of the tale of Bluebeard in which a young girl marries a wealthy aristocrat older than her. However, The Bloody Chamber is a first person narrative told from the standpoint of the main character, Bluebeard’s surviving wife, which gives the reader a female perspective that is mostly ignored in the original tale.

The protagonist of this retelling is an unnamed and talented 17 year old pianist who has been raised by her mother (also unnamed), a music teacher at the Conservatoire of Paris, since her father died in a war.

For my mother herself had gladly, scandalously, defiantly beggared herself for love; and, one fine day, her gallant soldiers never returned from the wars, leaving his wife and child a legacy of tears that never dried, cigar box full of medals and the antique service revolver that my mother, grown magnificently eccentric in hardship, kept always in her reticule, in case-how I teased her-she was surprised by footpads on her way home from the grocer’s shop

Although she does not love him, the young girl accepts the proposal of her suitor, a Marquis older than herself (he has silver streaks in his hair) who has already been married three times. She accepts probably out of curiosity about the prospect of marriage and sex, but also because she may be in search of a paternal figure after her father’s death as is hinted in this quote:

“Are you sure you love him?”

“I’m sure I want to marry him,” I said.

And would say no more.

The wedding is a simple affair at the Mairie as the Marquis’s third wife died very recently. However, the wedding night is postponed until the Marquis and his new wife arrive to his estate in Brittany. Once home, the Marquis takes his bride to her new room where he undresses her and stares at her naked body, but does not go further. The young bride feels both stirred and disgusted by her husband’s actions.

He stripped me, gourmand that he was, as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke-but do not imagine much finesse about it; this artichoke was no particular treat for the diner nor was he yet in any greedy haste. He approached hid familiar treat with a weary appetite. And when nothing but my scarlet, palpitating core remained, I saw, in the mirror, the living image of an etching by Rops from the collection he had shown me when our engagement permitted us to be alone together… the child with her sticklike limbs, naked but for her button boots, her gloves, shielding her face with her hand as though her face were the last repository of her modesty; and the old, monocle lecher who examined her, limb by limb. He in his London tailoring; she, bare as a lamb chop. Most pornographic of all confrontations. And so my purchaser unwrapped his bargain. And, as at the opera, when I had first seen my flesh in his eyes, I was aghast to feel myself stirring.

At once he closed my legs like a book and I saw again the rare movement of his lips that meant he smiled.

No yet. Later Anticipation is the greater part of pleasure, my little love.

And I began to shudder, like a racehorse before a race, yet also with a kind of fear, for I felt both a strange, impersonal arousal at the thought of love and at the same time a repugnance I could not stifle for his white, heavy flesh […]

This moment is interrupted because the Marquis has some business to do. Left to herself, the bride plays the piano to pass the time. But the instrument is out of tune and, aghast, she goes to the library instead. It is there, due to the books, that she discovers her husband’s taste for sadism. Upon his return, the Marquis finds her browsing his books and, excited by her discovery, he forcibly beds her for the first time. Shortly after these events, the Marquis has to leave his wife on a business trip, interrupting thus their honeymoon. Before his departure, he hands over his wife all his estate’s keys and warns her not to use the one that leads to “his enfer.”

During the Marquis’s absence, the bride meets the blind piano tuner who has just tuned her instrument. She also visits her new estate thanks to the keys her husband left her; and despite his warning, she visits the forbidden room where she discovers the fate of her three predecessors.

The opera singer lay, quite naked, under a thin sheet of very rare and precious linen, such as the princes of Italy used to shroud those whom they had poisoned. I touched her, very gently, on the white breast; she was cool, he had embalmed her. On her throat I could see the blue imprint of his strangler’s fingers. The flame of the candles flickered on her white, closed eyelids. The worst thing was, the dead lips smiled. Beyond the catafalque, in the middle of the shadows, a white, nacreous glimmer; as my eyes accustomed themselves to the gathering darkness, I at last-oh, horrors!-made out a skull; yes a skull, so utterly denuded, now, of flesh, that it scarcely seemed possible the stark bone had once been very richly upholstered with life. And this skull was strung up by a system of unseen cords, so that it appeared to hang, disembodied, in the still, heavy air, and it had been crowned with a wreath of white roses, and a veil of lace, the final image of his bride,

[…]

The metal shell of the Iron Maiden emitted a ghostly twang;

[…]

With trembling finger, I prised open the front of the upright coffin with its sculpted face caught in a rictus of pain.

[…]

She was pierced, not by one but by a hundred spikes, this child of the land of vampires who seemed so newly dead, so full of blood… oh God! How recently had he become a widower? How long had he kept her in this obscene cell? Had it been all the time he had courted me, in the clear light of Paris?

Like in the traditional tale, the husband returns early and discovers his wife’s disobedience and then he sentences her to death by decapitation. But in the end she is rescued, not by a male relative, nor by the young piano tuner. It is her mother who, feeling that something was wrong, comes to the rescue and shots Bluebeard with her late husband’s revolver.

You never saw such a wild thing as my mother, her hat had been seized by the winds and blown out to the sea so that her hair was her white mane, her black lisle legs exposed to the thigh, her skirts tucked round her waist, one hand to the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my father’s service revolver

[…]

On her eighteenth birthday, my mother had disposed of a man-eating tiger that had ravaged the villages in the hills north of Hanoi. Now without a moment’s hesitation, she raised my father’s gun, took aim and put a single, irreproachable bullet through my husband’s head.

2. The young bride / Sansa

2.1. From Object to Subject

In her essay The Woman in Process in Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber’,” Athleen E. B. Marley describes the young girl as oscillating between “girlhood and womanhood,” between “a patriarchal view and her own definition of herself” and “uncertainty on the one hand and growing confidence on the other.” Interestingly enough, this description could also be applied to Sansa. Both girls begin their journey in a similar way: they are inexperienced girls that know little about men, were raised in a sheltered environment and make an advantageous marriage. Unlike The Bloody Chamber’s bride who asserts her own will in her husband’s choice (she is the subject of her story at that point), Joffrey is imposed on Sansa. Sansa and Joffrey are the object of the political alliance between their fathers, but also a projection of Robert’s own fantasy to marry a daughter of the Stark family.

“Come south with me, and I’ll teach you how to laugh again,” the king promised. “You helped me win this damnable throne, now help me hold it. We were meant to rule together. If Lyanna had lived, we should have been brothers, bound by blood as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have a son. You have a daughter. My Joff and your Sansa shall join our house together, as Lyanna and I might once have done.”

However, in spite of many warning signs, both girls assert their will to marry their betrothed in a similar way:

“Are you sure you love him?”

“I’m sure I want to marry him,” I said.

And would say no more.

(The Bloody Chamber)

“I don’t want someone brave and gentle, I want him. We’ll be ever so happy, just like in the songs, you’ll see. I’ll give him a son with golden hair, and one day he’ll be the king of all the realm, the greatest king that ever was, as brave as a the wolf and as proud as the lion.”

(A Game of Thrones)

At that point, none of the girls mention that they want to marry for love. They both make a terrible mistake and become the object of their husband/betrothed sadistic desires. But the point here is that these girls make a choice for themselves and thus try to establish themselves as subject of their own story. In addition, they both learn from their mistake: the bride in The Bloody Chamber by marrying the piano tuner to live a modest and quiet life. Sansa in wishing for someone to love her for herself rather than her claim. Hence, the girls are “women in process,” as the reader can see them evolving from young naïve girls to informed women who make their own choices. However, in Sansa’s case, history seems to repeat itself as Littlefinger tries to shape her development to turn her into the object of his own desires. But this time Sansa is more aware of what is happening around her, and subtly resists Littlefinger’s advances (“lies and Arbor gold”).

When it comes to young women, the Marquis and Littlefinger (the Bluebeard figures) make the same mistake: they consider the young bride and Sansa as blank pages. These two men want to write their own story for these two women, thus stealing their female standpoint. In AFFC, Littlefinger goes as far as dictating Sansa’s clothing in trying to turn her into his own creature (Sansa is too Tully in her aunt’s dress). But, as Athleen E. B. Marley points out, Carter’s protagonist is not a blank page; her adventurous mother acts not only as a model but also as a saviour. Additionally, by teaching her to play the piano, the mother gives her daughter the opportunity to have a career, because the young woman opens a music school at the end of the tale. And Sansa is no blank page either. Despite being at Littlefinger’s mercy, she refuses to acknowledge him as the father figure he claims to be (“I am not your daughter; she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard’s daughter and Lady Catelyn’s, the blood of Winterfell.”). Her past relationship with her parents still shapes her current personality, just like her past relationship with Sandor Clegane seems to shape her blooming sexuality.

In their respective ways, both women have established their own female and subjective view of themselves, despite the attacks from the Bluebeard figures. Sansa hasn’t taken any action yet against her captor, but her thoughts on her relationship with Littlefinger are pretty clear as it has already been discussed in several of Milady of York’s essays (mostly here and there).

2.2 Looking for a model

In The Bloody Chamber, it is strongly hinted that the protagonist may suffer from an Oedipus complex and may be looking for a father figure:

[…] and, one fine day, her gallant soldiers never returned from the wars, leaving his wife and child a legacy of tears that never dried […]

He was older than I. He was much older than I; there were streaks of pure silver in his dark mane. [...]

I was seventeen and knew nothing of the world; my Marquis had been married before, more than once, and I remained a little bemused that, after those others, he should now have chosen me.

In Carter’s tale, the Marquis even becomes a substitute father as he provides himself his bride’s trousseau.

This is vaguely similar to Sansa’s and Littlefinger’s situation, as Littlefinger imposes himself both as a lover (the kisses) and a father figure in finding her a suitable husband (his real intentions regarding that marriage are still unclear). But Sansa seems to be quite clear as to who her parents and potential love interests really are, as it has already been discussed. And Littlefinger does not fit into any of these categories.

However, he is not without interest. After witnessing the failure of her father’s and Septa Mordane’s teaching, Sansa may also be looking for a new model. And Littlefinger seems to provide a successful way to play the game of thrones. He manages to save his skin in tricky situations, such as Marillion’s trial or in thwarting the Lords Declarant; which results in admiration (“He’s so bold”) and imitation (“Lies and Arbor gold”) on Sansa’s part. Thus, Littlefinger is appealing as a mentor figure, but not as a father nor a lover.

Bluebeard/Littlefinger

Littlefinger is certainly not as physically impressive as his more popular counterpart, but these two characters do share some similarities: they bother to wear a beard, and both target women as object of their sexual fantasies. Bluebeard has a string of wives and Littlefinger lusts after the Tully women. They both rob their victims of their own free will and turn them into the object of their fantasies. They impose on their female victims a masculine and objectified view of themselves, thus denying these women the status of subject of their own story. Furthermore, Bluebeard still seems to be a respectable gentleman despite the suspicious demise of his three previous wives; he is still a desirable match for the fourth bride who does not seem to care about the fate of her predecessors. Littlefinger also has a long career in crime, but has managed to keep it more or less secret so far, so he is still “respectable” despite his questionable professional activities and past crimes, and nobody suspects his part in the deaths of Jon Arryn, Ser Dontos and Lysa Arryn. Just like Bluebeard, he ends up killing his wife, unbeknownst to all except Sansa. Hence his personal motto: “Clean hands, Sansa. Whatever you do, make certain your hands are clean.” However, Sansa being aware of his crimes makes her a serious potential threat to him about which he does not seem to think much.

Conclusion: The adventurous mother and the father’s weapon

In Carter’s tale, it is the mother who rescues her daughter from Bluebeard thanks to her late husband’s gun. Since AGOT, we have seen that whenever her children are concerned, Catelyn can be as adventurous as Carter’s character. And this is a detail that may impact Sansa’s fate because, being unable to do the rescue herself, Catelyn sent her daughter an honorable knight in the person of Brienne, who happens to carry what remains of Ice, the sword of Sansa’s father. Will this sword play a role in a possible rescue of Sansa? Why not. Based on the potential foreshadowing contained in Sansa’s reaction to the melting of Ice (”Sansa clutched his [Tyrion’s] arm. ‘What has Ser Ilyn done with my father's sword?’”) and in Jaime Lannister’s words to Brienne (“So you'll be defending Ned Stark's daughter with Ned Stark's own steel, if that makes any difference to you.”), that sword might still play an important part in Sansa’s storyline in the upcoming book.

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Very nice work Mahaut :) This is one of my favourite stories in the collection. I'll have more to say over the weekend, but I just wanted to underscore the fact that the protagonist marries a blind piano player, someone who literally cannot subject to her the kind of objectification she suffers under the Marquis's gaze. We've discussed before how "the look" is such an important element in Sansa's relationship with her suitors, and the discomfort she feels when LF looks at her is made clear throughout their interactions. This of course is contrasted with Sandor Clegane, who insists on Sansa looking at him, empowering her in the dynamic between them.

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<snip>

In Carter’s tale, it is the mother who rescues her daughter from Bluebeard thanks to her late husband’s gun. Since AGOT, we have seen that whenever her children are concerned, Catelyn can be as adventurous as Carter’s character. And this is a detail that may impact Sansa’s fate because, being unable to do the rescue herself, Catelyn sent her daughter an honorable knight in the person of Brienne, who happens to carry what remains of Ice, the sword of Sansa’s father. Will this sword play a role in a possible rescue of Sansa? Why not. Based on the potential foreshadowing contained in Sansa’s reaction to the melting of Ice (”Sansa clutched his [Tyrion’s] arm. ‘What has Ser Ilyn done with my father's sword?’”) and in Jaime Lannister’s words to Brienne (“So you'll be defending Ned Stark's daughter with Ned Stark's own steel, if that makes any difference to you.”), that sword might still play an important part in Sansa’s storyline in the upcoming book.

Mahaut, I was able to do a quick read at work and look forward to rereading it tonight when I have more time and freedom to really focus. I do just want to quickly comment about "mother as savior."

Regarding your quote "we have seen that whenever her children are concerned, Catelyn can be as adventurous as Carter’s character":

Absolutely! Catelyn has demonstrated that protecting her children is paramount (hence her descent into madness when she thinks she's lost them all and her resurrection as Lady Stoneheart) and places herself in harms way by grabbing the dagger intended for Bran. I've often wondered if Lady Stoneheart will also play an active role in Sansa's escape/rescue. The interesting twist is it's LS who takes Brienne captive and nearly has her hanged, only offering a reprieve on the condition she kills Jaime. And the foreshadowing of Ice playing an important role seems very likely.

Great work!

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Brilliant, Mahaut!

After reading your essay, I have a mental picture of Littlefinger being thwarted in an attempt on Sansa, and subsequently being hanged by Lady Stoneheart. Somehow, I think it more apt that he perish at the hands of Cat's revenant than Cat's daughter. After all, he *did* teach Sansa the value of keeping her hands clean.

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Hi everyone! First of all, I just need to thank Brash and Milady for these wonderful projects and keeping this thread going in such a meaningful way. The list of resources that Milady put together are so impressive and what makes it even more so is that every piece brings something new.

And now to Mahaut's essay. This was wonderful Mahaut. I really enjoyed reading it. I love the twist that Carter added of having the mother save her daughter rather than some male relative. I agree that there are hints in Sansa's story that suggest that Brienne and even Lady Stoneheart will play a part in "rescuing" Sansa, though my greatest hope is that Sansa learns to rescue herself. Also, another parallel is how both these girls (and the girl in the original Bluebeard tale) have their eyes "opened" in a shocking and horrifying moment - Sansa when she witnesses her beloved father's beheading and the girl when she opens the door to the forbidden room and sees the former wives dead bodies.

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Nothing useful to add or contribute, but I'd like to thank Milady of York for this sickly organised OP who will let me read a lot of useful insights from a lot of really smart users. It's like having a library of quality posts.

When spring comes and the Seven Kingdoms will be at peace, come at the Crossroad Inn and I'll buy you a pint :)

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