first-harmonic

To expand, though, my preference for book!Sansaery mostly hinges on my preference for book!Margaery, whom we know is distinguished from the show in two ways. Firstly, the Tyrells are generally just much more mysterious, as we're kept more in the dark about their motivations thanks to the lack of Tyrell/Reach POV. Secondly, despite this general lack of Tyrell stuff, we get the sense that book!Margaery is more of a cog or pawn in the wider Tyrell scheme headed by Olenna and Mace, as opposed to the more active or agentic and masterfully seductive version we get in the show, whose characterisation is broadly reminiscent of AFFC Cersei's assessment of her as this lascivious seductress — largely on account of her being like 15/16.

Other things include her closeness to Loras, which I think becomes even more compelling if we also attribute it to a shared experience of navigating sexuality within the very perilous context of Westerosi politics. There's also her gaggle of handmaidens and ladies that she keeps around, though this isn't abnormal for a highborn lady and makes sense as a safeguard for her reputation.

Similar (kind of) to how you can easily read Sansa's affinity for knights, princes and all things courtly love as some super strong #comphet, I see the ambiguity around book!Margaery and what little nuggets of info we get about her in the text lend themselves to interpretations of her own queerness. For example, I can see Osney Kettleblack's constant failure to seduce her as being due not only to her having common sense and him being bum ass Osney, but also to a lack of interest in men. And I wonder about her success in executing the Tyrell scheme. Of course, she's Olenna's acolyte and has likely been groomed from young to be shrewd and cunning, but it kind of reminds me of how I (a lesbian) find it easier to flirt with guys I have zero interest in (over girls that I am). So I think that an interesting possibility is the degree to which already being disengaged from her "target" (Joffrey) in that sense might contribute to the ease with which she seems to carry out her family's plans. Although I do appreciate that her approach is more about using a certain doe-eyed and gentle charm, and less about seduction and sex appeal as in the show. Still though.

This old Margaery meta by @roseroadkingsroad discusses her sexuality at length, but essentially, I think that such an interpretation of the textual tidbits about Margaery is a nice way to "fill in the blanks" about a character whose characterisation is a bit of a blank-ish slate and whose personal feelings and motivations we aren't really privy to because of the text's more distal focus on the Tyrells. However, if Littlefinger is to be believed, we at least know that book!Margaery doesn't necessarily desire the crown (or her virginity, he also says) on a personal level, contrasting with the show's "I want to be THE queen" Margaery.

Tying this together, I like the interpretation of a Margaery who is shrewd but more as an "executor" than a mastermind, and is also little cognisant of her own sexuality but easily separates these personal feelings from her sense of responsibility to her house. Ultimately, I think Sansa's convergence with this version of Margaery lends itself well to a specific doomed romance dynamic that I find so juicy.

Specifically, that's one that entails Margaery having to reckon with the conflict of personal (gay) feelings and duty that has lain dormant but arises as she gets closer to Sansa, whose sincerity is disarming. This kind of internal conflict is a little different to the one GOT Margaery might have to deal with, i.e., where in the show it would be personal feelings versus the personal desire for the throne. In addition to better aligning with the broader series' theme of "duty versus love", I like how this version illustrates how highborn women in Westeros are time and time again used as leverage by family and/or other external players, as required by the great game. I think this is important because it's something that is easy to overlook or not treat as seriously due to GOT Margaery's characterisation — which I sometimes see projected onto the book version in r/asoiaf and other spaces (combination of Natalie Dormer being as charming as she is and the blank slate Margaery, I suppose) — as well as the general appreciation for the Queen of Thorns and Mace the Ace as characters.

Simultaneously, Sansa has to reckon with her own gay feelings as she gets closer to Margaery and realises that there *might* have been another reason why she was so attracted to Margaery's brother, who happens to practically her twin. Ok, maybe now I'm the one projecting because I vividly remember doing this myself when I was 12, but with my friend and her big brother, whom everyone else also had a crush on.

Starting with Margaery, this experience could have allowed her to get a taste of things beyond duty, responsibility and the role she's been primed for all her life, which she may or may not have previously sought out. And I can imagine her having to forsake it opening up a new perspective or raising questions, i.e., about her role within the Tyrell family and her relationship with her grandmother and father in particular, that might have previously been unquestioned. Although I don't see her resenting Olenna for it, and she ultimately stays on the path laid out for her, seeing things in maybe a new light has got to be really sad for her. Considering the Tyrells seem like such a well-oiled machine, the addition of a small conflict like this could be interesting. Generally, I wonder what GRRM has in store for the Tyrell family, e.g. whether Misters Perfect Willas and Garlan are everything they seem, and whether the whole family are indeed absolutely aligned on everything.

Anyways. And so there's some realisations of feelings as they try to make sense of these internal conflicts, and then we get to the tender and soft — but of course, clandestine — relationship that I imagine develops from their existing friendship in the books. But we know that, sadly, it can never be quite just that because it's belied by so much deceit and self-interest. So for a while Margaery has to wrestle with her unexpected guilt due to her manipulation of Sansa as they grow closer. But everything obviously comes to the forefront for Sansa when Margaery leaves her in the lurch at the wedding and thereafter. This outcome is obviously quite poignant as is, but it's the effects of the whole experience of a relationship on their individual development.

As for Sansa, the disillusionment she feels in the books after the plans collapse becomes even more heart-breaking if you add to the mixture the idea of her gay awakening — specifically by this girl she absolutely idolises and has latched onto as her only friend in King's Landing — as amounting to yet another worldview-shattering experience. It's like, just as she learns about this scary but somehow also liberating thing about herself and finds a friend-maybe-more-than-friend in Margaery, she has to unlearn dreams about what could be between two ladies (in the sense of attraction, not that she would be ignorant of society's attitudes towards it). Which is made sadder by the fact that it's very similar to her having to unlearn about knights, princes and chivalry after Joffrey, the Kingsguard, and the whole King's Landing experience.

(As yet another aside, I don't agree with the popular take that she has to wholly reject idealism in favour of cynicism à la other ASOIAF characters, but that's a different conversation. For now, I mean "having to unlearn" in the sense that Sansa, at this point, is probably in a pretty rueful mood and kicking herself over being so fanciful. And gay. Fanciful and gay.)

That being said, I do also love my less tragic or toxic and/or more idealistic and romantic book!Sansaery portrayals even if I think that Margaery forsaking Sansa would be more realistic. So that would be your Sansa and Margaery having a ball in Highgarden (Sansa's probably married to Willas), kissing in fields, hanging out with the hawks and puppies, floating along the Manderly on a pleasure barge, eating lemon cakes etc etc. Some people might find this boring or argue that this is a projection of the comparatively bigger shipping crumbs and dynamic in the show (hello iconic Natalie Dormer "pretty girls" line), which I can see in some ways. But I guess I just like Sansa x Happiness + fictional gays having a happy little romance and not being hurt — or I guess being as little hurt as possible in patriarchal, feudal and heterosexual society — so I do love this approach too.

Hmm, I think that's everything I have to say on that for now! Haha, this really felt like a thesis defence. Sorry if this reads more as a commentary on book!Margaery and a comparison with GOT (which you're probably very familiar with as a book reader), but yeah, it's mostly about the potential Sansa has with book!Margaery.

On another note, you're absolutely right about it being so hard to find book content. I do appreciate GOT Sansaery as its own thing (I mean Sophie Turner and Natalie Dormer are just brilliant) and enjoy the brilliant content for it, but book lovers are gonna book love, and there's just so little in comparison! And so I hope to cater to that niche by maintaining this blog and (hopefully) writing, which I have slowly but surely got back into. I also have a few fic recommendations if you're interested, but I had to remove them from this since I exceeded the character limit. Let me know!