Sketch, Erase, Repeat.

“…When the river meets the bay, the currents and the tides wrestle one against the other, and many strange and wondrous things are pushed toward us, to wash up on our shores. Driftwood is the least of it. We have found silver cups and iron pots, sacks of wool and bolts of silk, rusted helms and shining swords… aye, and rubies.”

That interested Ser Hyle. “Rhaegar’s rubies?”

“It may be. Who can say? The battle was long leagues from here, but the river is tireless and patient. Six have been found. We are all waiting for the seventh.”

- A Feast for Crows, Brienne VI

I forgot to bring this up in my combined reading post last week… I feel like this is more evidence that Elder Bro has something up his sleeve, that he is (along with his brothers) gonna make some big move at a certain point.

He explains later in the chapter that he was a knight who fought for Prince Rhaegar in the Battle of the Trident – in fact, that is where he “died”. He claims that he never really had a taste for knighting… but hey, he claimed LOTS of things in this chapter, didn’t he? Fact is, though he has clearly found his “purpose” on the QI, he was trained from boyhood to be a knight. He says that the only reason he fought for the crown was because the lord he served decided it so, implying that EB really had no real allegiance to Rhaegar. That may be so, OR he could have just been trying to throw Brienne off the scent like he did with Sandor and Sansa.

Going back to the passage quoted above, and the statement in bold… What’s the significance of the “seventh” ruby? It is REALLY a ruby, or some sort of code for something else? And he says they are “all” waiting for it. Could the QI be harboring a bunch of secret Targ loyalists? Are the six “rubies” they’ve already found other men who “died” on the Trident and washed up on the QI? Is the “seventh ruby” perhaps Aegon? Last we saw of him, he was getting ready to seige Storm’s End… which is quite a long way from the QI, but you never know.

Anyway, just curious if anyone else has any thoughts on this?

If the 'rubies' really are men that "died", his motivation for saving Sandor isn't just his duty by the Seven, it's something more. (And has Sandor been enlightened as to what that might mean?)

Even though Stranger fighting against being gelded has been taken to mean that Sandor (though at rest) still has some of his ferocity, it's evident when Brienne takes notice of him that Sandor has been lamed.  GRRM seems to have a loose understanding of wounds and the way they heal (Sandor’s scarring being one example), so maybe it’s possible that he will heal even further and regain smoother mobility. Or he may retain a limp and it becomes Chekhov’s limp, rearing its ugly head at a crucial moment. 

I’m sure many in the sansan community believe he will serve Sansa in some way (as sworn shield, consort, etc), but that seems a bit too narrow, considering the scope of the entire story. 

But then again, maybe EB was vaguely referencing The Seven, and how we are all waiting for Death/The Stranger.

sketcheraserepeat replied to your post: I just love how GRRM got to write one episode for…

Not sure if I am remembering this correctly, but I thought I’d read somewhere that, coincidentally, every episode George wrote, Sandor and Sansa had an interaction. Does anybody remember that?

Me:

This would have been a really intense scene if there had been proper build up prior to it.

This would have been a really intense scene if it wasn’t a repeat of a scene from four chapters ago.

This would have been a really intense scene if I cared about the characters more.

This would have been a really intense scene if it wasn’t an over dramatic mess of miscommunication and out of character angst. 

I have, it’s a favorite interview. I’ve also answered this question before, but not for a long time, so you get it again, this time with extra quotes and sources.

So, first and foremost – Sansa is not to blame for her father’s death. The only ones to blame are Joffrey, who gave the order; Ilyn Payne, who obeyed without question; and almost certainly the man who convinced Joffrey to go against the plans of Cersei and Varys and the small council to allow Ned to confess treason and take the black, the man who made sure Ilyn Payne and Janos Slynt were ready and waiting for the execution.

However, Sansa did unfortunately have a part in the events that led up to Ned’s execution. As did many others, not in the least Ned himself – because, after all, he did tell Cersei he knew of the true parentage of her children, and told her he would be telling Robert as soon as he returned from his hunt, and told her to flee with her children before Robert killed them all. Ned also made plans to send his daughters to safety, preparing a ship for them to travel back to Winterfell (because, unlike the common paradigm, Ned was not stupid, just… outwitted, and too merciful). However, when Robert returned several days later, deathly wounded, Ned did not tell him (he didn’t want to break his heart in his last moments on earth), only modified his will to refer to Stannis and not Joffrey. The next morning (an hour before he was informed Robert had died), Ned told Arya and Sansa that he was sending them away from King’s Landing by noon. He allowed Arya to have one last lesson with Syrio (who was coming with them), but told Sansa she could not see Joffrey before they left. And Sansa fled, crying, and went to Cersei:

She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father. She had never done anything so willful before, and she would never have done it then if she hadn’t loved Joffrey as much as she did. […] The king had been her last hope. The king could command Father to let her stay in King’s Landing and marry Prince Joffrey, Sansa knew he could, but the king had always frightened her. He was loud and rough-voiced and drunk as often as not, and he would probably have just sent her back to Lord Eddard, if they even let her see him. So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly… only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor’s Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside. –AGOT, Sansa IV

She was not privy to all of Ned’s plans regarding Stannis, the gold cloaks, etc… but she knew more than just that her father planned to spirit her and Arya away from King’s Landing. She knew when they were to leave, on what ship, how many men would be in their escort, who would have the command, where Arya was that morning, etc… all of which was useful to Cersei in planning and timing her move.–GRRM

Because Ned did not tell his daughters why he needed them to leave King’s Landing, because he did not tell Sansa that Cersei was an enemy, because Sansa trusted the queen and was desperate to stay with Joffrey, Cersei was able to draw out all of the information she knew. You can imagine the conversation: “Oh, you’re leaving, my dear?” “Yes, Father is making me go, you have to make him change his mind, I love Joffrey and–” “Yes, of course, sweetling, but tell me, how has your father said you will be traveling?” “Oh… there’s a Myrish ship, the Wind Witch, it’s leaving today–” “Surely your father isn’t sending you on a ship with foreign sailors, all alone.” “No, Septa Mordane and Jeyne and Arya are going too, and there’s to be a troop of ten men for our protection, led by–” “And where is your sister now, dear Sansa?” “Arya’s having a lesson with her dancing master in the Small Hall, even though she gets to bring him with us! It’s not fair…”

And after that interrogation disguised as concern, Cersei took Sansa prisoner. At the very moment Ned was making his stand in the throne room, Sansa was under armed guard in Maegor’s Holdfast. Even if, somehow, Ned had been able to escape Cersei’s coup, Janos Slynt’s betrayal, and Littlefinger’s dagger, somehow managed to get out of the Red Keep with a few men, Sansa would have already been a Lannister hostage.

As it was, because of Sansa’s information, Cersei’s men killed Syrio Forel, and killed the Stark men at the Wind Witch and set up a trap for Arya. As it was, after Ned was taken prisoner, he was quite prepared to die. He was not going to capitulate and betray his word, to tell the world the lie that he was a traitor, that he’d lied about Joffrey’s claim to the throne… until Varys reminded him about Sansa:

“So what is your answer, Lord Eddard? Give me your word that you’ll tell the queen what she wants to hear when she comes calling.”“If I did, my word would be as hollow as an empty suit of armor. My life is not so precious to me as that.”“Pity.” The eunuch stood. “And your daughter’s life, my lord? How precious is that?”A chill pierced Ned’s heart. “My daughter…”“Surely you did not think I’d forgotten about your sweet innocent, my lord? The queen most certainly has not. […] Lord Eddard, tell me… why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones? Ponder it, if you would, while you wait upon the queen. And spare a thought for this as well: The next visitor who calls on you could bring you bread and cheese and the milk of the poppy for your pain… or he could bring you Sansa’s head. The choice, my dear lord Hand, is entirely yours.”

–AGOT, Eddard XV

So, to save his daughter, one of his children who he loved more than life itself, Ned came to Baelor’s Sept, to confess his “treason”, take the black, and be sent to the Wall. And Sansa was there too, proud that because of her desperate plea for her father’s life, because of the love of her dearest Joffrey, because of the kindness of Queen Cersei, because she’d been a good girl and done as she’d been told and written Cersei’s letters to her mother and Robb to ask them to stop the fighting, that her father would be safe, and everything would be all right. Until the moment Joffrey smiled at her, and called for Ilyn Payne.

Afterwards, alone in the room in Maegor’s Holdfast, Sansa became suicidal with grief and guilt, knowing how her trust had been betrayed. Afterwards, Joffrey told her that Cersei had said she was stupid, and Sansa realized that the queen’s kindnesses and promises to help had only been lies. Afterwards, Sansa understood:

Serena and David really brought the source material to life! I loved Serena’s expression at 1:57-2:00 and David’s at 2:38-2:40. Neither more than a few seconds long, but they spoke volumes. I think they did a wonderful job.

A rage post, brought to you by an enraged eighteen (almost nineteen!) year old feminist who goes to a liberal arts school in Virginia and gets pissy when people tag their hate and/or leave Sansa off their lists of “strong women.”

Let’s take a look at bb girl’s early life: she was raised in a relatively secluded area, where her parents and septa were her main influences. Her mother raised her to be a perfect lady and her septa never broke her delusions of grandeur or of southron court life. So, she believes in songs and stories and true knights and fair maidens and kind, gentle princes because that is what she was taught, and had never come across anything different from that.

The story opens, and Sansa is eleven. What were you doing at eleven? What did you believe in? What horrors had you been exposed to? Were you already aware of the deep flaws, complexities, and corruption in your national government? Did you know all the main political players and the people and corporations who controlled them? No? Yeah, neither did Sansa. Because she was a child. Just like you were waving your flag all up on Flag Day and lining up in the Library of Congress to smear your sticky fingers all over the Declaration of Independence, Sansa is mad excited to go to King’s Landing and meet some important people and wear some pretty dresses. Because she is a child. 

She’s offered the opportunity to marry Joffrey, who is lying to her face and courting her and acting like her kind, gentle prince. WHO THE FUCK WOULD SAY NO TO BEING A PRINCESS WHEN YOU’RE ELEVEN? NO ONE. THAT’S WHO.

Whence she is thrown into a shitty situation, being manipulated by a multitude of people while being completely unaware of this massive conspiracy that would essentially cause something of a small revolution. AND SHE STILL FUCKING HANDLES HERSELF LIKE A PRO. 

But she’s a child—she makes mistakes, she trusts the wrong people. AGAIN, EVALUATE YOUR LIFE AT ELEVEN. Please tell me how awesome your skills at judging major political operatives who were subverting the power for decades.

PAUSE. 

SANSA STARK IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR NED’S DEATH.

LATHER

RINSE

REPEAT

Because Ned fucked that up for himself. He told Cersei his plan, and expected her, with no track record of being honorable, to be honorable. Ned had unrealistic expectations of the decency of humanity. And then he died. 

But, prior to that, Sansa went before the entire court and tried to bargain for his life, even though such actions could have gotten her killed, thrown in the black cells, beaten, tortured, or sexually assaulted. AT ELEVEN. SHE WAS ACTING LIKE A HUMBLE MOTHERFUCKING QUEEN AT ELEVEN.

“Or maybe he’ll give me yours.“ 

She never cracks. Ever. She endures constant verbal and physical abuse, manipulation, emotional trauma, and she never cracks. She keeps her head up, and refuses to let the Lannisters and the rest of the court break her. She is the epitome of bending without breaking. AT TWELVE, OKAY. TWELVE. She knows her time is running out, that her political worth may disappear any day, that her life is in the Lannisters’ hands. That she may flower any day at that Joffrey would marry her and be able to legally rape and beat her. That she would bear his children and be forever tied to him. That her children would be born of terror and rape, and that she’d love them anyway and her life would likely be short and she would die at Joffrey’s hand, leaving her children to be molded in his image. AND SHE DOESN’T FUCKING BREAK. AND SHE IS TWELVE YEARS OLD.

She is kind. She saves Ser Dontos, at risk of her own life. She reaches out to the Hound. She never ever stops being a lady. She is kind and true because a lady is kind and true. She is able to stick to her morals while staying alive, which is more than Robb and Ned could say. She becomes a player in the game while not compromising who she is.

BLACKWATER. JUST ALL OF IT. ALL OF THE BLACKWATER. Again, Sansa keeps her shit together and acts like the queen of motherfucking everything. Cersei tells her if the city falls she’ll kill her? NBD. Cersei splits, leaving Sansa with some women who are freaking the fuck out? Sansa can handle it. Sandor Clegane comes to her room, drunk and terrified and emotionally unstable? SANSA STARK CAN FUCKING HANDLE IT. 

AND THEN SHIT, WITH THE CONTINUING OF THE GOING-DOWN.

And then our poor bb girl gets forced into marriage with Tyrion Lannister. She assumes she’s about to be forced into having sex. And she keeps her chin up and offers it to him. AT THIRTEEN. I will not go into all the kinds of awful that is that scene. But she keeps it together. 

AND REWIND, BECAUSE IM LAZY: the wedding scene. She doesn’t kneel. She doesn’t kneel to the lions. If they’re gonna put that cloak around her, she’s not gonna make it easy for them. She will not bend the knee to them. She will not confront the farce they are making of this. She will not give them the satisfaction of seeing her reaction to this. 

Sansa also doesn’t let people shame her. They try and make a mockery of her, but our flawless queen doesn’t let them have an inch of satisfaction. She will prove that she is a maiden fair. That she will not break. That she will be coming back for everything, because she is of the North and the North remembers.

SO SHE KEEPS HERSELF ALIVE. SANSA, INCIDENTALLY, IS PROBABLY MORE ALIVE THAN YOUR FAVES. BECAUSE SHE HAS MASSIVE SKILLS. BECAUSE SHE LEARNS, AND OBSERVES, AND IS PERCEPTIVE AS SHIT AND ADAPTS AND SURVIVES. IT’S FUCKING DARWINISM, GUISE, AND SANSA IS THE FUCKING FITTEST, SO STFU. 

In re: Alayne. SEE ABOVE. BB girl endures further sexual abuse, and survives. She learns to manage a keep and is humbled by her new position of a bastard. SHE KEEPS FUCKING LEARNING. SHE IS REALLY FUCKING SMART. BECAUSE SHE WAS AT FIRST A LITTLE GIRL WITH A HEAD FULL OF SONGS AND NOW SHE IS RUNNING THE FUCKING EEYRIE AND IS COMPETENT. ALSO, SHE IS ALIVE. THERE IS A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE AND SURVIVAL. SEE: DARWINISM.

ALSO, SWEETROBIN. Sansa is a champ, okay? Just a fucking champ. She loves. She has a huge capacity for love and kindness. She has matured so much from the little girl she was at eleven. At fourteen, she is a mature, capable, kind young woman, with room for even more growth.

“If I was a queen, I’d make them love me.”

This meta isn’t supposed to be about how Sansa would be an awesome queen. I’ve already written a fuckton about that. BUT THIS, OKAY. THIS.

In conclusion, Sansa Stark is a really fucking strong person. PERSON, OKAY, NOT JUST WOMAN. Don’t give me shit about how because she doesn’t confront her abusers or enters and stays in abusive situations that she’s weak. No. Just motherfucking no. You do not degrade Sansa’s means of survival. She has made horrible, horrible choices to stay alive, and has not compromised who she is at heart. She has come out of adversity, not twisted and heartless like Littlefinger, but kind and noble, stronger and smarter. She isn’t a fighter. She does not hold a sword. Her weapons are words, her armor her courtesy. And she stays alive. SHE IS FUCKING STRONG, AND SHE IS FUCKING BRAVE, in order to go through day after day of abuse and manipulation. 

Commissioned by SketchEraseRepeat to do some outfit designs for character :)

“The Hound”

13th Level (Man-at-arms 12 / Brother of the Kingsguard 1)

The right side of his face was gaunt with sharp cheek-bones and a grey eye beneath a heavy brow… his hair thin, dark. He wore it long and brushed it sideways, because no hair grew on the other side of that face. The left side of his face was a ruin. His ear had been burned away; there was nothing left but a hole. His eye was still good, but all around it was a twisted mass of scar… Down by his jaw you could see a hint of bone where the flesh had been seared away. — A Game of Thrones

There is only one man who wears a helm carved like a snarling hound, and they say his looks improve with the visor down. Sandor Clegane is as vicious as he is ugly, able to kill a knight or a butcher’s boy with equal ease. The Hound has no friends and no love. He does however, have very powerful patrons.

Sandor is an impressive warrior, so much so that Queen Cersei entrusts him to bodyguard her son. Cersei chose well, though his manners could do with a little polish. This grim and terrifyingly efficient guardian would say he works for the heaviest purse and the winning side, but a hound is a strange emblem for a man purely moved by mercenary reasons. Dogs can be strong or weak, fast or slow, but the one characteristic they all share is loyalty.

Sandor has no reason to develop any such quality. At best cold, at worst murderous, the Cleganes are not renowned for their sense of honour. Sandor’s older brother, Gregor Clegane, is the reason for Sandor’s ruined features. When Sandor was seven, he took one of his brother’s toys — a gift Gregor was too old to play with or value. Gregor, a full grown squire at the time, discovered the theft. He found his little brother, picked him up, and twisted his face into a brazier full of hot coals in retaliation, leaving Sandor permanently scarred. The boys’ father hushed the matter up and Gregor was knighted four years later. From that time on, the Cleganes barely acknowledged each other.

At the Hand’s tourney, when Gregor is unhorsed he flies into a murderous frenzy, and it is the Hound who steps forward saving Ser Loras and forcing Gregor to back off. Sandor matches strength with control, and ferocity with restraint. When the king commands them to cease, Sandor instantly goes to one knee, though it gives his brother a potentially fatal advantage. This is not the act of a man looking out for himself, but of a man who knows what loyalty really means. Sandor is ready to lay down his life for the king he respects, yet sneers at the concept of chivalry. No one knows better than Sandor Clegane how false the vows of knighthood can be.

Brave, strong, and loyal, Sandor consistently demonstrates the qualities of a good man behind the attitudes of a bad one. By the double standards of Westeros, it’s a winning combination. Beat a hound badly enough and it will learn to bite first in self-defence, but somewhere under all that anger is a worthy beast despite its uncertain temper. Desperate to protect himself, the Hound covers his decent nature by snarling at the world, as though he sees is better qualities as a weakness others will exploit. His underlying need for some kindness or recognition is revealed when he confides the secret of his disfigurement to Sansa Stark. Sansa is a child, innocent and reckless, with no great amount of common sense. No one knows why Sandor tells her his secret, possibly not even himself. Perhaps some part of him is desperate to make her understand the world behind the banners and trumpets of court and kings, to see the killer beneath the bright armour of a knight before she suffers a similar fate.

Sandor makes Sansa look at his destroyed face and admit that a terrible wrong was done to him. Once, long ago, the brutal Hound was an innocent child, just like everyone else. This is important, because no one else has admitted it in all Sandor’s life. He needs to hear it from someone with no connection to his situation, and yet, even this is a greater vulnerability than Sandor can admit. Having revealed so much of himself to another person, he threatens to kill her if she tells anyone.

Still, even after so threatening a bark, the Hound does not bite. After the death of her father, when Sansa is abused and tormented by Joffrey, Sandor shows her occasional deep kindness. Beaten by Joffrey’s knights, she is forced to recognise that vows do not a true knight make, the very same conclusion Sandor reached when he was seven. He never beats her at the prince’s bidding. He is no storybook hero to risk all for her, but neither is he a brute to punch her with mailed fists. Sandor Clegane is a killer, not a torturer; he kills because he is ordered to, not because he needs to inflict pain. It is this that marks the difference between Sandor and his brother.

Sandor is a complex man, hardened by a world more ugly than he could ever be. He laughs at foolish ideals all the time, particularly those of Sansa, at least until they are torn to shreds in front of her. Once she has lost everything, he tries to show her the lessons he had to learn alone: how to survive, how to keep going when dreams are dead. He tries to protect her and help her to protect herself. In that way, he is almost like a true knight — or a loyal hound.