#jonsa foreshadowing

Ciao my Jonsa folks! (and those lurking, or just curious!), here I am with another instalment of the mythology series pertaining possible parallels between myths and the couple formed by Jon and Sansa in the world of asoiaf.

As always, the premises still stand — no I am not an expert, yes it's all for fun and because of my curiosity, and yes if you are an expert and know better I'll appreciate your input — and for this cycle this time we go to Egypt and to one of my favourite mythological parallels of the Jonsa ship.

Put your seatbelt on, it's going to be a ride! (again)

Isis and Osiris, the dutiful, resilient wife and the ‘ghost’ king — a ghost wolf, as big as mountains (Egyptian mythology vs. GRRM Asoiaf)

All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. And then they were on the other side (...) — Alayne II, AFFC

Jon fell to his knees. (...) "Ghost," (...) When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … — Jon XIII, ADWD

As always, I cannot stress enough, these pieces of art are not mine, nor do I claim them as such, they are amazing pieces shared online and they belong to their creators, my only merit, if it is even that, is having collected them to make this series of metas more aesthetically pleasing!

So, let's hop onto the story of Osiris and Isis.

As with most myths the story itself varies locally, and marginally during the ages in which it has been transcripts but some details remain the same; for example we should differ the roman-greek transcription of this myth as it is influenced by details that are not egyptian in truth, while a full record of the entire myth by egyptian hand has gone lost, we have myriads of stories, funerary spells, etcetera that depict variants of this same myth, or add details necessary for the purpose of the text in which is featured the story. This makes the myth of Osiris and Isis one of the most detailed and cohesive of egyptian myths that arrived to us.

The myth touches a series of problematics that could be (read: are) featured in asoiaf as well, and primarily not only the matter of resurrection [some time I'll really, really have to wrap up my series of metas about resurrected characters in asoiaf] but also that of succession (who should succeed the previous king? His brother or his son?). And I think we can all see how this features perfectly in asoiaf with the character of Jon as Osiris (as what we have now — up until the moment Jon gets killed by his sworn brothers Aegon could've been a candidate as well, but since Jon has been betrayed by his sworn brothers and killed and we know he will be resurrected...well he remains the sole candidate for this role).

So...let's see why Osiris and Jon fit almost like a glove.

Osiris, the wise and just king and Jon the “king hidden under the snow”

Name yourself in your heart and know who you are. — Awakening Osiris, N. Ellis, A new translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead

“(...) kings are a rare sight in the North” Robert snorted “More likely they were hiding under the snow! Snow, Ned!” — Eddard I, AGOT, GRRM Tyrion Lannister had claimed that most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, but Jon was done with denials. He was who he was; Jon Snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. For the rest of his life—however long that might be—he would be condemned to be an outsider, the silent man standing in the shadows who dares not speak his true name. — Jon IX, AGOT, GRRM

So, Osiris was a foreign king who came to Egypt bringing with himself a new set of law and skills that he taught the egyptians who loved him and respected him.

So far so good: Jon is born from a foreign dynasty (the Targaryens) and the Starks who are a beloved dynasty in the North, he is loved by his sworn brothers to the point they name him, at seventeen, Lord Commander of the Nights Watch. He, himself teaches some of his brothers how to fight.

Osiris was beloved because he was just, smart and honorable. Jon is beloved for those same things — he has done some fucked up shit, like forcing Gilly to swap the babies — but as those characteristics breed love and loyalty, they also breed disloyalty and envy.

Osiris' own brother, Seth, betrayed him — made him a casket precisely build with his measurements — and then tricked him into entering it, closing the lid and ensuring he died before setting the corpse and casket into the Nile's currents.

Another check: Jon's own sworn brothers (the brothers he chose over Robb, though he chose fakeArya over them) betray him — convince him to join them outside with tales of his own uncle news, fashioned exactly to appeal perfectly to Jon's nature and love for his family, just like the casket was fashioned precisely with Osiris measurements — and kill him leaving him to bleed out in coldness.

Osiris later gets resurrected even if his own body pieces are scattered around all of Egypt, he is sewn back together by his sister-wife, and returned to life under the full moon (which, coincidentally is pretty much linked forever with wolves and werewolves, men turning into wolves in that very night and the Starks' sigil is the direwolf and all of them are wargs, why Sansa is said to have changed into a wolf with bat-like wings and flown away) and has to walk in the kingdom of the dead of which he is now the king.

Anyone thinking of Sansa sewing a cloak exactly like Ned Stark's and gifting it to Jon thus claiming him as a Stark and sewing back his identity as a northerner after all he wanted to do once reawaken was to hide away? No? Only I?

Jon, we know, will get resurrected by Melisandre and imo (but yes, you'll have to wait until I finally post my series of metas about resurrection in asoiaf) that means Jon will return but not all of him will return, only his most pure, primordial nature will return with him.

A wolf protecting his pack, which was the identity he chose (Arya over the NW) when he died... and who is en route to him? Sansa, as the show has suggested they'll be the first two Starks to reunite.

Also, is entirely possible Sansa calling his name or singing (as one of his fonder memories of Sansa is her singing softly to herself as she brushes her direwolf's fur) will bring him back to himself more, transforming him from a dead-man walking, to a living person again.

In the show it's Sansa who gives Jon purpose after he chooses to leave the NW and the whole of Westeros to its fate. She's the one who makes him fight again and the hidden (or not so hidden) motive for all of his actions in the last seasons.

Isis the bird of prey Queen mother of Egypt and Sansa Stark the “little bird”

To pronounce the name of the dead, is to make them live again. — The Blind assassin, M. Atwood

She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still...with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. (...) There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. — Alayne II, AFFC, GRRM   He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest. — Jon XIII, ADWD, GRRM

Isis is a figure that assumed more and more importance and influence as the centuries passed as, in the first centuries of egyptian culture she was mostly unknown and obscure, though the priests of the temple of Re, consacred to the god of the Sun developed her myth and she turned out to be the matriarch of the egyptian pantheon and one of its primal figureheads.

She was the sister-wife of Osiris and sister of Seth and Nephthys.

She is highly linked with queenship and kingship to the point the hieroglyph associated with her is also the same that spells the word ‘throne’ — “The girl's happiness is not my purpose, nor should it be yours. Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark.” Tyrion III, ASOS — she's often depicted with a crown with the solar disk and/or the horns of a cow (a symbol of motherhood and fertility), she could depicted as a series of animals scorpions, sow or cows but especially a bird.

Sansa, while being the first of Ned's children to be called ‘wolf-girl’ (Sansa I, AGOT) is called by Cersei ‘little dove’ and by the Hound ‘little bird’ (both are denigratory) and the bird imaginary doesn't stop there, in fact after she escapes KL, the people around the known world (story of it reaches even Braavos!) say she killed the king with a spell and then turned into a wolf with the wings of a bat and flew away from the Red Keep.

Also, Arya when she learns of this rumor comments on how Sansa knows only song, and songs in Egypt like in any other ancient culture, were highly connected to magic and religion.

What did Isis bring with herself when she followed her husband to Egypt? She was known to support her husband wholeheartedly (“Jon is our king” and bookSansa supporting Robert as lord of the Eyrie, helping her cousin through the snow and peril as she feels Jon and Ghost) she taught women to sew (what is Sansa shown doing in the very first appearance? Stitching the same way she'll stitch back the northern independence cause), brew beer and bake (all feminine traits) and she could change into a bird. She's also heavily connected to motherhood and the fact that she hides her son until he is of age to take back the throne not in her own name but in her son's name — "Balon Greyjoy thinks in terms of plunder, not rule. Let him enjoy an autumn crown and suffer a northern winter. He will give his subjects no cause to love him. Come spring, the northmen will have had a bellyful of krakens. When you bring Eddard Stark's grandson home to claim his birthright, lords and little folk alike will rise as one to place him on the high seat of his ancestors. You are capable of getting a woman with child, I hope?" Tyrion III, ASOS — She was the perfect queen for egyptians, content to stay in the shadows of power, letting the men take the limelight but capable of using her wit and female diplomacy skills to guard both husband and son should the need arise. The same way Sansa is using her wit and her diplomacy skills to make sure Robert is loved by the knights of the Vale as @elegantwoes has analyzed in her post about the various purposes her arc in the Vale has (and her parallels with Cat in that aspects), especially with the Winged Knights, pertaining the way nobility sees her and her role, x.

[On a footnote, I think it's highly important the way Jon connects some of the things that have been said to him to his siblings when he thinks of them. For example he thinks of them in the order of succession so Robb, Bran and Rickon as the three trueborn sons of Ned Stark first and then he thinks of the girls, Sansa and then Arya. He nestles things that had been said to him and will have a very important impact on his life after his death between important siblings. He says this: «He thought of Robb, with melting snowflakes into his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing softly to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skin of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell. I want my bride back...» this is, imo, a passing of the baton, between the one he'd think of first, and who will get it last. Robb was supposed to get Winterfell over him (who too wanted Winterfell and be its lord) and became KitN but it was not meant to last, and the baton is passed to Bran who he remembers doing what he does best, climbing up the towers agiler than any of them (metaphorically surpassing obstacles they'd never even approach) and what does he associates with kingship and lordship over Winterfell? Maester Aemon: “kill the boy and let the man be born” which could intertwine nicely with him discovering Robb's will and him choosing still to pass Winterfell over the Sansa (“Winterfell belongs to my sister, Sansa” and showJon giving Sansa ladyship over Winterfell through the lord's chambers “You're the lady of Winterfell” which she remains even after he's named king). Then we have Rickon (I don't want to address his breathless laughter, because no, Jon, you might have foreseen your own death but I'm refusing to believe you're foreshadowing Rickon's death. No. I am in denial over it, sue me) and in a full circle we have the girls. Jon has always favored Arya over all of his other siblings and in fact he dies thinking of Arya who he has chosen over the NW neutrality, he considers her, as his sister “his heart” the point is that between thinking of Sansa and Arya, Jon interposes Ygritte. Ygritte who resembles Arya but with whom Jon falls in love because of her similarities with Sansa, her red hair, her singing and her easy smile what is Sansa doing in his memory? (I've spoken of how Ygritte is only a vessel for Sansa in Jon's arc, go check it out if you are interested, x and x and the parallels with courteous love here) Singing softly to herself brushing Lady's coat.

While, instead for Arya he remembers her with her hair all tangled up like a bird nest (I discussed a bit how Jon and Sansa want the same thing which differ from what Arya wants and where her journey is headed, x) so if above between Robb and Bran the baton is passed from the oldest to the younger, here the journey is the opposite, with the baton being passed from the younger (Arya) to the older (Sansa). Jon has been thinking more of Arya than Sansa, thought some would think it was a coping mechanism not too think too much of the sister he had some strange sort of attraction to... I mean Sansa does embody everything Jon wishes of in a partner, but I am digressing; anyway he's thinking and being spurned into action thinking of Arya yet he interposes Ygritte between them and in a full circle as between Robb with melting snowflakes in his hair and Bran doing what Bran does best, approaching and surpassing obstacles they would not approach, the same thing happens between Arya and Sansa, he thinks of Arya with her hair all tangled and of Sansa doing what Sansa does best taking care of others (Lady — as the Lady) while singing like a maid from a song. We see the pattern, do we not? Then, after Arya he thinks of what spurned him in action, word of what had happened to Mance and the death of the spear wives and Ramsay wanting ‘Arya/his bride’ back).

Is Jon supposed to end up saving a ‘bride’ from her ‘husband’ beyond what he did for Alys Karstark? I did say that Ghost fighting the black dog during Jon I, AGOT might foreshadow Jon defending Sansa from the Hound but we have also another possible contender, a contender GRRM had meant for a triangle with Jon Snow from his first draft: 🥁 Tyrion Lannister, Sansa's husband 🥁]

Nephthys the Goddess of decay and death and Arya Stark acolyte of the Faceless Men

I believe life is an education meant to teach us the need to be better people. — R. E. Goodrich

A bruise is a lesson, she told herself, and each lesson makes us better. Syrio stepped back “You're dead now” — Arya IV, AGOT, GRRM

Nephthys was the goddess of death, decay and birth and she was the youngest daughter of Geb and Nut (parents of Osiris and Isis as well as of Seth) and she was also the goddess of the rivers (and a good portion of Arya voyage after she leaves KL, is in the Riverlands where she starts to understand the way common folk are condemned and destroyed by the plays and games of the nobles). She is considered the mother of Anubis which is either conceived, in some myths, with her husband Seth or after an adulterine intercourse with Osiris, whom she deceived by wearing her sister and his wife's face, looking like Isis!

And who is an acolyte of the Faceless Men in Braavos as of now?, wearing another skin and face?

«I can become someone else, speak in their voice, live in their skin. I can even become you. (...) all I need to find out is your face» — Arya Stark to Sansa Stark in s7e6, GoT.

In another myth, instead, Osiris rapes her and that would be the source of animosity between Seth and Osiris.

While in the beginning her egyptian name — Nebhtet — has been translated as “Mistress of the House” wrongly assuming her as a goddess of the homely hearth (and this reminds me of Arya baking in the books and baking the death-pie in the series), the most probable and correct translation would be instead “Mistress of the Temple” which refers to her sacerdotal duties (which reminds me of Arya's own ambitions and her role as an acolyte of the Faceless Men in Braavos)

Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?" — Eddard V, AGOT

Nephthys was considered a very important member of the pantheon, on the same level as her sister; which again reminds me of the crypts trailer in which Sansa, Jon and Arya are all on the same place of honor, all three of them with statues of their own.

Also...Ned says this to Arya, a little bit before he is executed:

“Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you … and I need both of you, gods help me” — Arya II, AGOT

And one of the funeral inscriptions of the V dynasty recites in the pyramids:

Rise and fall. Descend with Nephthys, and sink in the darkness with the Boat of the Night. Rise and fall. Rise with Isis, arise with the Boat of the Day.

She was considered important and unsettling, but not for that less beloved and she was the protectress of the act of dying as she gave strength to the dying to pass onto the next life. The demons of the afterlife trembled before Isis and Nephthys both, and often the goddesses were associated and considered as a unit, working together — the same way Sansa and Arya will work together, the harpist and the water dancer holding the hidden dagger.

By some recent studies it appears that Nephthys is considered as Seth's wife, but not the Seth antagonistic of the myth of Osiris' death, but the benign version of the western oasis in which he is co-regnant with his wife.

Nephthys does hold an important role in the myth of Osiris resurrection as she is the one helping her sister — and crying along her — to get back all the dismembered pieces of Osiris and also helps the sister to raise Horus, working as a unit.

Legality of ascension to the throne, Osiris is killed, Horus rises, part I

Osiris is killed, as we've seen, by his own brother, Seth, grown envious of him. At first Seth simply fashions a casket with Osiris measurements and then closes the lid assuring himself Osiris dies and sends his body down the Nile. When he discovers Isis has found the body he dismembers it and scatters all pieces around all of Egypt thus claiming the throne as Osiris' heir. In the meantime Isis helped by Nephthys has found all pieces of Osiris' body — save for his manhood — and has resurrected him on the night of the full moon. Once resurrected though, Osiris can no longer be king of Egypt as he is dead, and claims his throne as king of the Afterlife. But, before doing so, he sires a true born son from his wife, Isis, Horus — a god with the head of a falcon — whom Isis goes into hiding with as Seth governs Egypt.

When Horus is old enough to reclaim the throne he battles his own uncle, Seth, for the throne and to avenge Osiris' murder; ending up victorious and becoming king of Egypt; but during the fight his left eyes is poked out — I've lost count of the metas about how Jon will possibly lose an eye and end up having a scarred face after all is said and done — and magically comes alive.

Though Horus won the throne, there was still the matter of whom legally owed the throne. Seth affirmed the throne belonged to him as Osiris' brother and Horus' uncle; while Horus affirmed the throne was rightfully his as Osiris' son and heir. Ultimately it was decided that the throne belonged to Horus thus the line to the throne did not move horizontally between brothers, but vertically between sire and heir.

C'mon, anyone who has read asoaif know this (⬆️) is one of the subjects that has been confronted by the books.

[A note, we're talking only of trueborn children, as the baseborn or bastardborn ones are not considered in the line of succession if not after all true born heirs, vertically or horizontally have died]

Robert was the undisputed king of the Iron throne (legally) at the beginning of AGOT as he has won the realm through conquest and has been offered the crown; when he dies he thinks Joffrey, as his son, will inherit the throne but Joffrey is a bastard, thus Robert does not have trueborn heirs at which point his heir is Stannis, his brother, because Robert died without trueborn children.

Stannis thus reclaims the Iron throne, just as Joffrey does, and he names Shireen, his only child, as his heir going as far, for now, as to have his people swear to put Shireen on the Iron throne if he dies before he takes it.

BUT, Renly, Robert and Stannis' youngest brother, reclaims the throne as well, wrongfully, as he is the youngest (thus he cannot come before Stannis and Shireen, as the line of succession moves horizontally only after vertically it has extinguished).

At the same time in the east Viserys, as Aerys only surviving son, reclaims the Iron throne as his as he is Aerys' heir. When Viserys dies childless the Targaryen line moves horizontally to his sister, Daenerys and to the children she would bear (which would've put Rhaego forward on the line to the throne even before the mother as Viserys' nephew, as the line to the Iron throne passes women over in favor of the males).

In the meantime, in hiding, Aegon reclaims the Iron throne as a claimant because he is the heir of Rhaegar the crown prince to the Iron throne and if his identity is confirmed it puts him before both Viserys and Daenerys in line for the Iron throne, as that would mean that he and any heir he might sire would have to die before the line of succession move horizontally toward Viserys and then Daenerys.

In the same way, Jon as Rhaegar's son — a man raised in Westeros by the most honorable man of the 7K and a man who has protected the Realm from the wights threat — may come before Daenerys in case of Aegon's death, in four cases:

if he's trueborn —› thus after Aegon, who is older, and his possible children; Jon would be the next in line as things stand in the Targaryen line.

if he's legitimized and named by Aegon in an attempt to remove Daenerys from the line —› in the same way as Robb put Jon's claim to Winterfell and the North above Sansa and Arya's by legitimizing Jon as a Stark; thus Jon still does not come before either Bran or Rickon, but he can come before the girls.

if he's offered the throne and declared by the lords over Daenerys despite his bastardy —› the lords of Westeros would sooner accepted a man they do not consider a foreign, who appeases both to the Targaryen loyalists by being Rhaegar's son and the lords who stood against the Targaryens by having the support of Ned Stark's children (for one of whom he has been killed) and having being raised by Ned Stark in Westeros; while Daenerys is a barren woman (which holds a very big influence in the political game of Westeros) who was raised in exile and comes like an invader with dothraki and unsullied and dragons and whose ‘destiny’ is to give her enemies ‘fire and blood’.

Even by being baseborn, with Daenerys being barren he is the only Targaryen/bastard Targaryen who can continue the line, or if he has already sired a true born son to his name.

Similarly in the North Bran, as he is alive, is the rightful king in the North after Robb, as Robb died childless. After him comes Rickon if he abdicates or dies childless, and after Rickon (same as before) comes Sansa as the oldest female of the line and any child she might bear (especially if male) and if she dies childless or abdicates then comes Arya as the youngest daughter. Only in case Arya dies childless or abdicates it's Jon turns as the son of Lyanna Stark thus as a cousin, but he would need to marry either a Stark or another kin (a Karstark — Alys Karstark is already married — for example) to legitimize his right to Winterfell.

This is talking legally speaking. Realistically speaking the one that became king was the one who won through conquest and was recognized as such by the lords and ladies of the kingdom (this is the way Robert became the rightful king of the Iron throne, making of the Targaryens nothing but claimants).

I think that Jon could actually embody — just like Sansa with LF and the Lady Stark-Bael-lord Stark retelling (x)— both Osiris, the dead and resurrected king, and Horus the prince hidden by his mother (by his mother's side — he was hidden and protected by Ned, Lyanna's brother) coming to reclaim his throne from the ambitious and cunning uncle (aunt). Which is why it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up fighting Daenerys (to defend his family, the Starks and Aegon — because, what kind of man watches his brother burn and does nothing?) and then abdicate (like Osiris did) to favor Bran or to accept the lords naming Bran in his place as he might end up banished from the South and in the North, or if he chooses the name Stark over Targaryen thus coming automatically and legally after Bran.

BUT,

The not so small detail of Jon being resurrected from death associates him primordially and almost inseparably with Osiris more than any other character, and Sansa by embodying Isis' characteristics (as I've explained before) might end up being his wife or as I've said many times the untold reason for everything he does even if the romance between them remains always in hiding instead of in the light, told to us only through their thoughts; and wouldn't it be typical of Jon to abdicate because “I died, I was passed over” to one of his siblings?

Also, there is the matter of both Bran and Rickon being alive and in hiding, one of whom is being collected by Davos, means the will making of Jon king in the North will be neutralized by the true born heirs being still alive and Horus could be Bran —

The Rise of Brandon of House Stark, Osiris is killed, Horus rises, part II

Guess you weren't expecting that!, or perhaps you were.

Horus, in the myth, is a disabled God (he loses his eye during the battle against Seth) but his disability has also empowered him magically (his eye has become a magic symbol of healing). Brandon is the prince to Winterfell, after Robb's death he's the rightful king in the North by law, and he calls himself Bran the Broken, because he is disabled as he has lost the use of his legs and yet in his disability he has found power, as being forced to not be able to move of his own volition has sped forth his training in learning how to harness the natural ability he has, as a Stark, to warg and green-seeing.

Horus is Osiris' son and the prince of Egypt who has been usurped by his uncle. In the same way, if Jon accepts the will Robb made, which makes of him a Stark and the new king in the North he is unwittingly usurping Brandon's — his cousin's — claim to the North. Though this remains to be seen, as Jon has more than once ‘abdicated’ in a way i favor of Sansa, who is a female and legally doesn't carry the Stark name anymore (though the marriage with Tyrion was a sham, Jon has no way to know this, and the argument that Sansa is now lady Lannister is used countlessly to convince him to take Winterfell); it's difficult to imagine he won't do the same for Brandon who legally comes before him anyway; in the same way as Jon has refused Winterfell and defended Sansa's claim to it as Bran and Rickon's heir, Osiris abdicated his own right to the throne of Egypt to put forward his own son, Horus as claimant and heir; possibly Jon will use the same excuse — having being killed, having been dead and thus passed over — to abdicate in favor of Brandon thus in a way getting everything he had wanted to begin with.

In fact the theme of Jon abdicating in favor of his true born siblings his desires is the foremost theme in Jon's arc since the very first chapter of AGOT.

In Bran I, AGOT Jon advocates for the Starklings to keep the direwolf pups even when everyone wants to kill 'em, and the count only comes correct because he counts himself out.

Bran saw his father's face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own. Their father understood as well. "You want no pup for yourself, Jon?" he asked softly. "The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark," Jon pointed out. "I am no Stark, Father." — Bran I, AGOT

The result?, Jon gets a pup of his own, Ghost, an albino who carries the colors of the Heart Tree (the white and the red), a gift from the Old Gods to reward Jon's selfless act.

Later, Stannis offers to free Jon of his vows to the NW and make of him a Stark and the rightful lord of Winterfell. To Jon's knowledge he is the last male Stark of the line, as Robb is confirmed dead and Rickon and Bran are believed dead. Arya is presumed dead as well and only Sansa remains of the true born children of Ned Stark, with a new name that speaks of an allegiance that would make the lords of the North grimace. She's Lady Lannister.

Yet, Jon defends Sansa's claim to Winterfell above his own.

I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decided to live his life on the Wall. I could name him Robb. Val would want to keep her sister's son, but we could foster him at Winterfell, and Gilly's boy as well. Sam would never need to tell his lie. We'd find a place for Gilly too, and Sam could come visit her once a year or so. Mance's son and Craster's would grow up brothers, as I once did with Robb. He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought. — Jon XII, ASOS

You can't be the Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born, he heard Robb say again. And the stone kings were growling at him with granite tongues. You do not belong here. This is not your place. When Jon closed his eyes he saw the heart tree, with its pale limbs, red leaves, and solemn face. The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said . . . but to save the castle Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman's hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods. — Jon XII, ASOS

"How can I lose men I do not have? I had hoped to bestow Winterfell on a northman, you may recall. A son of Eddard Stark. He threw my offer in my face." Stannis Baratheon with a grievance was like a mastiff with a bone; he gnawed it down to splinters. "By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa." "Lady Lannister, you mean? Are you so eager to see the Imp perched on your father's seat? I promise you, that will not happen whilst I live, Lord Snow." — Jon I, ADWD

“(...)Which would you have as Lord of Winterfell, Snow? The smiler or the slayer?" Jon said, "Winterfell belongs to my sister Sansa." "I have heard all I need to hear of Lady Lannister and her claim." — Jon IV, ADWD

So, if we go by the tradition set in Bran I, AGOT; Jon should end up getting his own version — a rightful version — of what he wanted. Then it would come into play also his parentage, at which point Jon would have a claim to the whole of Westeros and the North at his back, ralling after him.

In the end, if Jon ends up abdicating as he did before to Bran who is the northern true king as of now, and who might be named king of the whole realm because of his foreshadowed sacrifice of his own magic — which is what makes him feel able to be empowered again and not useless — this might mean that in reward Jon might did got Winterfell, the wife and the children. And who else shares in the same dream in the same way and is foreshadowed as much as Bran to become queen, but Queen in the North? Sansa Stark.

The similarities with Horus do not end there.

Horus has the head of a falcon, and one of the translations of his name means “He who is distant”, “he who is/climbs above”; Horus was also associated with the sky and his eyes begun to be considered as the sun and the moon — Brandon's sisters, the sisters he strives to find and defend, are associated with the moon and the sun and their foreshadowed protector, Brienne, bears on her sigil the sun and the moon; the same Brienne the show has at the end as Lady Commander of the Kingsguard — the eye he lost was given back to him, in the myth, by the God Toth (the God of knowledge and science and writing) but Horus refuses it and gifts it to his father, Osiris, instead to sustain his strength as king in the Afterlife, which makes me think of Bran giving independence to the North under Sansa, as the show suggested, thus banishing Jon (who would be a threat as Rhaegar's son) thus loosing part of what is supposed to be his (the 7K he would be named to) and giving Jon in the meantime everything he wanted.

Also, Horus took the form of falcon and Brandon is the winged wolf.

"You will never walk again, Bran," the pale lips promised, "but you will fly." — Bran II, ADWD

The moon was a crescent, thin and sharp as the blade of a knife. A pale sun rose and set and rose again. Red leaves whispered in the wind. Dark clouds filled the skies and turned to storms. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and dead men with black hands and bright blue eyes shuffled round a cleft in the hillside but could not enter. Under the hill, the broken boy sat upon a weirwood throne, listening to whispers in the dark as ravens walked up and down his arms. "You will never walk again," the three-eyed crow had promised, "but you will fly." Sometimes the sound of song would drift up from someplace far below. The children of the forest, Old Nan would have called the singers, but those who sing the song of earth was their own name for themselves, in the True Tongue that no human man could speak. The ravens could speak it, though. Their small black eyes were full of secrets, and they would caw at him and peck his skin when they heard the songs. The moon was fat and full.  — Bran III, ADWD

Notice this chapter is followed by Jon VII (in which Jon is battling with himself and the fact that Jeyne posing as Arya is in Ramsay' clutches), the choice Jon will make in the end will cause his death (moving against Winterfell to save Arya).

The mention of the passing of time, the crescent moon becoming full and fat makes me wonder... under which moon was Jon assassinated?

If it follows the myth of Osiris whatever the moon he has been assassinated under (possibly a dark moon?), he should be resurrected under the full moon, or under another type of moon but remain ‘indisposed’ to return to himself once he find himself back with a Stark, since he will return possibly in his purest form — a defender of the Starks. So when he meets Sansa...I wonder if they'll meet or she'll awake him back under a full moon. But this is speculation.

It is foreshadowed Brandon will reject magic, the magic that gives him power, and his dark master to save the realm (and one of Horus epithets is also ‘savior of Egypt’) remaining nothing but Bran the Broken, which is more than enough to be chosen to become the new king; in the same way as Horus gave his now healed eye to Osiris to give him strength in his new life.

We know Bran will end to be king of the six kingdoms — as that is a major detail that will remain the same as per Martin own affirmations — just in the same way as Horus became king of Egypt.

By this interpretation the Starklings would serve different the tropes of different mythology figures of the same myth:

Osiris — Jon

Isis — Sansa

Arya — Nephthys

Bran — Horus

Could Rickon be used by Stannis against Jon and maybe even Sansa? And thus fulfill, if unwillingly, the part of Seth? I dislike this very much tbh, but it's a possibility that could happen (Stannis trying to unthrone Jon and his authority as Ned Stark only alive son, after he learns Robb has named him heir, by using Rickon whose Davos has been sent to retrieve); after all in some of the myths Isis fights with Horus because she asks that Seth is spared (as he is her brother still) and it comes to the point that Horus even beheads her, to then heal her and reconcile with her.

Though I am more confident of the brothers of the NW serving as a Seth stand in.

So...this turned to be not only Jonsa, but about Arya and Bran as well. Hope you enjoyed the read, let me know what you think of it, and, as always if anyone knows better, has a different opinion etcetera feel welcome to leave your input!

You can find my other mythology metas here:

Cersei vs Daenerys — Venus decoded

Sansa and the mythological figures she embodies (Persephone/Kore, Isis, Medusa, Gunnlöd, Psyche) — the Myth of Sansa Stark

Jonsa mythology — Jonsa foreshadowing, part VIII: Love and Psyche

Jonsa mythology — Jonsa foreshadowing, part X: Orpheus and Eurydice

[Also, as an afterthought, should I expand on the Sansa/Octavian Augustus parallels I realized at the end of the meta about the similarities between Daenerys' story and Cleopatra's? (x)]

Hi there!

I think it might happen in an epilogue? I wouldn't say that there is nothing there, but it's difficult to say what is Jonsa foreshadowing: (like the whole brother-sister dynamic, Gendry almost getting involved with a whore who definitely is another or Robert's bastards, Gendry defending Ary@ etc.)

I agree that Ary@ is not attracted. She is a child after all. We can safely say, that she likes Gendry though. So, I wouldn't say there is no chance it will happen. If it happens though it should happen when Ary@ comes back from her travels and settles down and I would actually like that for her.

"Sansa stared hard at his ugly face…wishing that some hero would cut off his head."

–Sansa VI, AGOT.

And Jon executing him in the show!!!

+Bonus:

The Match That Was Promised 

So, after receiving a couple of lovely anons about some mythology parallels, my interest was piqued and my curiosity started to burn so I literally fell into the rabbit-hole of the possibility of mythology connecting to Jonsa and which characters can be connected to what myth...so yes, a new series of meta was born.

This is what happens when I am left unsupervised, just saying —

Anyway, one of the first metas I wanted to do was this one, connecting the history of Love and Psyche (which can be found inside the Golden Ass — Metamorphosis by Apuleius) and Jonsa especially considering my theory that while several women will fulfil part of Cersei prophecy, in the end Sansa will be the younger, more beautiful queen mainly because Cersei is an envious, spiteful creature and Sansa will end up, most probably, with everything Cersei wanted and no reason to hide (which will be, imo, what the ymbq prophecy is all about ‘to cast you down and take all you hold dear’).

So, without further ado, aside from the usual premises — no, I am not an expert, yes this is all for fun and yes, if you are an expert and know better please feel welcome to leave your input — let's hop onto this and let's see what we get out of it!

The History of Love and Psyche — the prophecy of the younger, more beautiful queen (Apuleius Metamorphosis vs GRRM Asoiaf)

The princess and the hidden winged god — The princess and the hidden dragon ‘prince’.

“Sweet one,” her father said gently, “listen to me. When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake. That boy is no Prince Aemon, you must believe me.” — Sansa III, AGOT

As always, I cannot stress enough that these pieces of art do not belong to me, so credit to the artists. I just collect them on the net and put them together to make the meta aesthetically appeasing to my tastes, hope you enjoy!

First of all, let's brush up our knowledge of the myth itself.

Love and Psyche (Apuleius, Metamorphosis — the golden ass) history of love and healing and trust

So, the story goes this way, Psyche was the daughter of a king, a princess, and she was so beautiful that she was compared to the goddess Venus, whose beauty she was believed not only to compare but to surpass as well (shrines were risen for her, and she was venerated as the Venus of the earth, no matter the girl modesty, who seemed to be against this), Venus, capricious and spiteful, furious for the comparison and the hubris, ordered her son, Cupid to make the beautiful Psyche fall in love with the ugliest, most hideous man on earth to whom she was to be married with all haste by her people. 

But Cupid, saw Psyche and distracted by her beauty accidentally pinched himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her, thus he instructed the wind (Zephirus) to take her to his enchanted palace of which she would be the mistress as his woman. 

Cupid, for her own safety, joined her only by night and prohibited her to see him — falsely posing as her ugly, monstrous husband — and while she had everything she desired, she still felt lonely as she was essentially alone but for the nights, and she couldn't even see her own husband's face. Cupid, so taken he was by his love for her, was moved by her pleas and let her invite her sisters to her palace for a visit, in fact before this meeting her whole family believed her dead because she had ‘disappeared’, so that she might feel less alone. 

The sisters convince Psyche to discover the truth behind the ‘kind husband’ she seemed to have, to see the truth of his ugliness with her own eyes and spurned by them, Psyche disobeyed Cupid's order and one night took a lantern and shed light to her sleeping husband's face, troubled by his ethereal beauty and in awe she let one drop of melted candle befall on his shoulder rousing him from his sleep. 

Betrayed and angered by her behaviour Cupid left her and flew away, to confess to his mother his indiscretion and betrayal of her order; Psyche, meanwhile, distraught searched for her husband left and right and ended up speaking to Venus herself. 

The woman took the chance immediately to extract her revenge and took the girl as her own servant and slave, mistreating her and imposing of her four terrible, apparently impossible quests. But Psyche beloved by her husband was helped by his servants — ants helped her in her first quest to sort through seeds; a reed counselled her to mow the wool in the night while the men-eater sheep slept and finally an eagle drew water from the Styx for her — at last Venus sent her to retrieve for her a ointment of beauty held by Proserpine. 

Convinced she was to fail she almost flung herself from a tower, but at last she managed to collect the ampoule but was warned not to open it. Her curiosity piqued Psyche opened the ampoule only to fall into an enchanted sleep.

Meanwhile Cupid, sad and missing his wife, went in search of her and found her, he woke her and to protect her from his mother he brought her to Mount Olympus where he convinced Zeus to let her drink the nectar of the gods, making of her a goddess and marrying her publicly before all the Gods. 

How does that fit the Jonsa ship?, well it does. 

I have already spoken of how Cersei fits part of the traits of Venus (x), and if we put in perspective Cersei as Venus (as well as Daenerys does the same with the eastern-values coded Venuses), Tyrion as the hideous man Psyche/Sansa was supposed to fall in love... well, it does start to resemble a pattern.

Let's make a check list to see if we got all the possibilities straight:

spiteful Venus-symbolised character —› Cersei Lannister ☑️

very beautiful, younger woman who is a ‘younger, more beautiful described as modest and polite, collected and courteous’ version of Venus-symbolised character —› Sansa Stark ☑️

said girl is also a princess —› Sansa Stark as princess in the North to her brother, Robb Stark, king in the North ☑️

the Venus-symbolised character decides to ‘punish’ the younger princess and does so by asking her son to have her fall in love and marry an hideous monster —› Joffrey Baratheon, Cersei's son, gives Sansa away in marriage to the Imp ☑️

The ‘son’ is distracted by the girl's beauty and ends up hitting himself with the love-arrow and falls in love with her, then steals her instead of letting her be married and fall in love with the hideous, monstrous man —› Jon and Sansa are both connected with the custom of “stealing” in respect to love, and with Jon being Rhaegar (Cersei' idolised crush) and Lyanna (her unbeatable rival) son could actually fit also the ‘son’ trope, especially Cupid is in some myths depicted as the son of Nyx (the dark-haired goddess of night) ☑️

he remains hidden from her, only sharing her bed during the night and she cannot know his true identity for her own safety from his ‘spurned’ parent —› Jon's real identity is unknown to Sansa, and it might remain for a bit even after Jon learns of it, for safety reasons (Robert's fury would've known no boundaries; and who knows how Daenerys, his aunt, might react to it in the books) as if Sansa doesn't know she cannot be held accountable for it ☑️ 

the princess discovers the truth out of her own curiosity —› Sansa will discover Jon's identity (probably out of her own manoeuvring to understand why Jon's acting strange) ☑️  

Cupid runs back to the ‘spurned’ parent and confesses his ‘treason’ in hope to obtain the trust and absolution of said parent —› Jon might use the rightly timed revelation of his parentage to obtain Daenerys' trust ☑️

The spurned parent (either Cersei or Daenerys — by what happened in the show I might be more inclined to say Daenerys, but by the books I'd be more inclined toward Cersei) asks of the girl (searching for her lost husband) a series of quests and sacrifices —› if we go by the show Daenerys does ask plenty of Sansa, her hospitality as well as her troops without a care of how they are physically, it wouldn't surprise me if either Daenerys or Cersei could try to use Sansa's marriage to Tyrion to close her in a corner and demand of her fealty; Cersei could also impose any kind of request on her, if they ever were to meet again with Cersei having the upper-hand because of the role she thinks Sansa played in the murder of Joffrey ☑️

the family of the girl believes her dead or unreachable —› Sansa Stark is supposed dead and disappeared after Joffrey's death ☑️ 

Psyche manages (with help she gets thanks to her being beloved by her husband's people and her husband) to bring to fruition the quests set before her (I will digress on them later). 

at last Cupid, in love with his wife, finds her when she's in peril, saves her (wakes her) and brings her to safety to go to Zeus (the father of the gods — Ned?, will he asks Ned's statue if what he's doing is correct? Possibly, surely Ned's memory is going to come in play if we ever get a more romantically involved Jonsa) — and his pleas are so endearing to him that he sanctions his favoured nephew's/grandson marriage (in some myths Eros is one of Zeus' cousins/nephews and in others he's his grandson; in any case Zeus is the father of the Gods and thus is the ‘head of Eros' House’ to say it in an asoiaf manner; the same way as Ned was).  

—› It's also possible that Jon might ask his aunt to facilitate his protection of Sansa against Cersei, but I sincerely doubt this other possibility. Also, Ned fits better as he is often representing the Father of the Seven Gods of the Faith of the Seven. —› Jon saves Sansa (and the rest of his siblings) from a threat that will have them all put to death (and death is eternal sleep) in the show, and in the books we have evidence that this will be repeated as Jon dies the ultimate Stark protector (as he is killed because he chooses to run to his sister, Arya's aide), he will probably serve a similar purpose even toward Sansa in the books once he has reawaken from death.

So, to me it looks like a pattern, does it to you?

Let's see if other quotes (both from book and show, but if they are taken from the show I'm taking earlier seasons since back then Martin was still pretty much involved so we can consider them canon) can further this conviction of mine.

A princess of maidenly majesty and a spurned goddess

So, in the myth Psyche is the daughter of a king, a princess, of the land of the west, so beautiful and maidenly majestic that there was no other beauty that could surmount her on earth (in their lands) and this spurned the people of the city to be devout to her and come to see her and love her, admiring her beauty and showering her in tokens going to the point they venerate her, to the point they stopped venerating Venus and started venerating her, though Psyche felt her beauty as a curse as she was alone (as no one seemed to love her for herself but love her divine beauty) still the fact that men had forgotten her and preferred another to her, had Venus in a rage. 

There was sometimes a certain king, inhabiting in the west parts, who had to wife a noble dame, (...) yet, the singular passing beauty and maidenly majesty of the youngest daughter, did so far surmount and excel them two, as no earthly creature could by any means sufficiently express or set out the same (...)

Now, that Sansa is the daughter of Ned Stark (descent and father to kings) and of lady Catelyn Tully (a noble lady of a great House) it's known thing, she's also a princess to her brother, Robb Stark and she fits this trope of maidenly majesty perfectly, also:

(...) Psyche will all of her beauty received no fruit of her honour. She was wondered at of all, praised of all, but she perceived that no king nor prince, no any of the inferior sort did repair to woo her (...) the virgin Psyche sitting at home alone, lamented her solitary life, and being disquieted both in mind and body, although she pleased all the world, yet hated she in herself her own beauty.

There are a couple of passages that remind me of these, but some of it comes from the show as well. We know that Martin was very much involved in the first few seasons of the series so I feel like by citing some of the scenes of the earlier seasons of the show we are also speaking of canon, as they were supervised and accepted by Martin. 

For one, the scene of Sansa at the docks with LF, with Shae and Ros speaking behind them, and Ros asking Shae to defend Sansa and protect her from her enemies, telling the other woman that she was born in Winter town and that the day Sansa was born they rang the bells from sunrise to sunset, which always suggested to me how beloved Sansa as Ned Stark's daughter was, on the principle of her being Ned's daughter, and because of her charming nature as well. We usually focus more on people of the north loving Arya but I think that is intention by GRRM because it's something both Arya and Sansa focus upon and it will come back in with a whiplash when Sansa reaches the North and finds that love and belonging she had been searching South, there where she had been before. 

For second the scene during the Battle of  the Black waters, when Cersei asks Sansa, in bookTyrion fashion, what she's doing and when Sansa replies she's praying, Cersei demands, nastily “You're perfect, don't you?”; which always struck me as strange, since in the books this conversation happens before the siege and it's between Tyrion and Sansa and there is none of the nastiness the show gave us, though I think, again that it was intentional to set up Sansa and Cersei as the younger and older queen. 

The thought made Sansa weary. All she knew of Robert Arryn was that he was a little boy, and sickly. It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love. — Sansa VI, ASOS

This quote makes me think of Psyche, sitting alone and lonely, and feeling unloved personally even if they love her ‘divine beauty’/‘claim’. 

—› also, Lysa herself can also fulfil part of the role of Venus, as she herself is envious and spiteful and jealous of Sansa because she feels like Sansa is stealing her husband; in the same way as Cersei was fearful that Sansa might be the younger, more beautiful queen of the prophecy. And she too tries to marry Sansa to someone that doesn't fit the premises of the promise Ned made Sansa (Robert Arryn).

Lysa was as lonely as she was (...) I am not going back to sleep, Sansa realized. My head is all a tumult.  — Sansa VII, ASOS

I guess this doesn't need explanation really, Sansa's head is in tumult like Psyche's. 

No prayers are answered here, she often thought, though some days she felt so lonely she had to try (...) The Eyrie was such a lonely place that she was eager for any bit of news from the world beyond, however trivial or insignificant. — Alayne II, AFFC

Also, Sansa has long since learned to see how people don't wish to know her but just exploit her claim and her position and the perception they have of her as a weak link, as when she thinks of Margaery's retinue and of how they are putting up a farce, but they don't actually wish to know her in truth. 

Sansa's wish for love, is also remarkably similar to Psyche wishing to be loved for herself and not for her divine beauty; also, I always associated Psyche hating her beauty with Sansa begrudging her own naïveté:

“The night’s first traitors,” the queen said, “but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning.” As they left, she turned to Sansa. “Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you’ll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.” 

“I will remember, Your Grace,” said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me.

— Sansa VII, ACOK

They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They've never seen a battle, they've never seen a man die, they know nothing. Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father's head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them. — Sansa II, ASOS

“You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent.(...)” — Sansa I, AFFC

Cersei, in a first moment, believes Sansa's is the younger, more beautiful queen of the prophecy and I have already digress as to why I think Sansa in a sense will be it, because she will achieve everything Cersei wanted without the need to hide it, while the others might, instead fulfil other pieces of the prophecy (x), and I think it's so also because of this specific quote:

"Please," she finished, "you have to let me marry Joffrey, I'll be ever so good a wife to him, you'll see. I'll be a queen just like you, I promise."  — Sansa IV, AGOT

Can I take a moment to appreciate that to Sansa her first wish is that of love over that of power?, how are displayed her priorities as she begs Cersei?

being a ‘ever so good wife’ to Joffrey (love)

being a queen (good) just like Cersei (power and love)

Love comes first. No wonder Sansa will probably end up being truly the younger, more beautiful queen.

I feel like Cersei' reaction in the show at this heartfelt declaration gives us quite the introspective tumble in Cersei's mind:

See how perturbed she is by it?, imo it is another nudge to Sansa ending up with everything Cersei wanted for herself, without having to hide. 

Anyway, back on track. 

The beautiful maiden condemned to be married and fall in love with an hideous, monstrous looking man 

In asoiaf is more complex than Venus simply condemning Psyche and her family for her hubris (though that comes in place as well, as it becomes a matter of how dare the Starks turn from loyal bannermen to the king, Joffrey, to rebelling kings?), in the end the result is the same, though. Cersei's son, Joffrey gives Sansa away as bride to his uncle, the Imp, who is rendered even more monstrous by the scar on his face.

"I won't ask for whom." His mouth twisted oddly; if that was a smile, it was the queerest she had ever seen. "This day may change all. For you as well as for House Lannister. I ought to have sent you off with Tommen, now that I think on it. Still, you should be safe enough in Maegor's, so long as—" — Sansa V, ACOK

"My lady," Tyrion said, "you are lovely, make no mistake, but... I cannot do this. My father be damned. We will wait. The turn of a moon, a year, a season, however long it takes. Until you have come to know me better, and perhaps to trust me a little." His smile might have been meant to be reassuring, but without a nose it only made him look more grotesque and sinister.

Look at him, Sansa told herself, look at your husband, at all of him, Septa Mordane said all men are beautiful, find his beauty, try. She stared at the stunted legs, the swollen brutish brow, the green eye and the black one, the raw stump of his nose and crooked pink scar, the coarse tangle of black and gold hair that passed for his beard. Even his manhood was ugly, thick and veined, with a bulbous purple head. This is not right, this is not fair, how have I sinned that the gods would do this to me, how? — Sansa III, ASOS

Sansa is married off to the Imp, while albeit gentle from time to time (and I've already discussed how this ‘kindness’ is basic human decency and even there he somewhat falls short in a previous ask that compared Jaime and Brienne bath scene and Tyrion and Sansa wedding night scene, x) is monstrous looking and has done monstrous things, Martin himself describes him as a villain. And, who marries her off to the Imp?, Cersei is there when Sansa prepares for her wedding to show her off and Joffrey, Cersei's son walks Sansa down the aisle, making sure Sansa is married off to Tyrion in the same way as Venus asked Cupid to have Psyche fall in love and marry an hideous and monstrous looking man.

When the moonstones hung from Sansa’s ears and about her neck, the queen nodded. “Yes. The gods have been kind to you, Sansa. You are a lovely girl. It seems almost obscene to squander such sweet innocence on that gargoyle.” “What gargoyle?” Sansa did not understand.

Can we take a moment to speak about this?, Cersei is spiteful that she herself is supposed to be marrying again and with someone she doesn't want — she even begs her lord father not to make her do it again, not that he cares — and takes her victories where she can. The use of the word ‘almost obscene’ makes us see the satisfaction in her, Sansa will never be the younger, more beautiful queen and Cersei can focus on keeping Margaery in her place without worrying about Sansa. And she even japes at her expanses.

—› What more the use of the term ‘gargoyle’, an hideous creature whose scary face is used to inspire fear used in respect to Tyrion hints toward two things: a) Tyrion being the monstrous man Sansa should marry and love if Cersei had her way (to keep her un-rebelling) and b) Tyrion ending up being the one who pushes Daenerys down the last step of the stair she is already descending (as there are gargoyles on the walls of Dragonstone, together with wyverns and dragons).

Cersei Lannister ignored the question. "The cloak," she commanded, and the women brought it out: a long cloak of white velvet heavy with pearls. A fierce direwolf was embroidered upon it in silver thread. Sansa looked at it with sudden dread. "Your father's colors," said Cersei, as they fastened it about her neck with a slender silver chain. A maiden's cloak. Sansa's hand went to her throat. She would have torn the thing away if she had dared. "You're prettier with your mouth closed, Sansa," Cersei told her. "Come along now, the septon is waiting. And the wedding guests as well."

And reality hits Sansa, until that moment she was unaware she was supposed to marry Tyrion, they ambushed her and Cersei was the one to tell her of her ‘condemnation’ to marry the Imp (just like Venus was the one who condemned Psyche)

“No,” Sansa blurted. “No.” “Yes. You are a ward of the crown. The king stands in your father’s place, since your brother is anattainted traitor. That means he has every right to dispose of your hand. You are to marry my brother Tyrion.” My claim, she thought, sickened. Dontos the Fool was not so foolish after all; he had seen the truth of it. Sansa backed away from the queen. “I won’t.” I’m to marry Willas, I’m to be the lady of Highgarden,please . . . “I understand your reluctance. Cry if you must. In your place, I would likely rip my hair out. He’s a loathsome little imp, no doubt of it, but marry him you shall.” “You can’t make me.” “Of course we can. You may come along quietly and say your vows as befits a lady, or you may struggle and scream and make a spectacle for the stableboys to titter over, but you will end up wedded and bedded all the same.” The queen opened the door. Ser Meryn Trant and Ser Osmund Kettleblack were waiting without, in the white scale armor of the Kingsguard. “Escort Lady Sansa to the sept,” she told them. “Carry her if you must, but try not to tear the gown, it was very costly.”

Doesn't this make you think of a sacrifice? The ‘sacrifice’ Psyche became to make sure Venus' ire was quenched? It does to me.

“I’ll go.” Cersei smiled. “I knew you would.”

(...)

Joffrey himself was waiting for her on the steps of the castle sept. The king was resplendent in crimson and gold, his crown on his head. "I'm your father today," he announced. "You're not," she flared. "You'll never be." His face darkened. "I am. I'm your father, and I can marry you to whoever I like. To anyone. You'll marry the pig boy if I say so, and bed down with him in the sty." His green eyes glittered with amusement. "Or maybe I should give you to Ilyn Payne, would you like him better?" Her heart lurched. "Please, Your Grace," she begged. "If you ever loved me even a little bit, don't make me marry your—" — Sansa III, ASOS

So, Cersei and Joffrey (Venus and Cupid) marry Sansa to the hideous looking Imp, and he later abuses emotionally (as I've said in the post linked above when I consider the bath scene of Jaime and Brienne and the wedding night of Sansa and Tyrion, so I won't digress further here).

The stealing of Psyche ~ the maiden and the thief, or the maiden is the thief?

In the myth Cupid distracted by Psyche beauty ends up pinching himself with his own arrow and falls helplessly in love with Psyche, thus, refusing to have her marry the hideous looking man, he has his servant, the wind (Zephyr) steal her away from her wedding and brought to his enchanted palace.

Both Jon and Sansa are connected with the theme of the custom of stealing in the thematic of love, and what more... they both are connected with bird imaginery: Jon as a crow (and his red-head crow wife, but I digress) and Sansa as a little bird/little dove.

 She ran her fingers lightly across his stomach. "I feared you'd do the same once. Fly back to the Wall. You never knew what t' do after you stole me." Jon sat up. "Ygritte, I never stole you." "Aye, you did. You jumped down the mountain and killed Orell, and afore I could get my axe you had a knife at my throat. I thought you'd have me then, or kill me, or maybe both, but you never did. And when I told you the tale o' Bael the Bard and how he plucked the rose o' Winterfell, I thought you'd know to pluck me then for certain, but you didn't. You know nothing, Jon Snow." She gave him a shy smile. "You might be learning some, though." — Jon III, ASOS

First, Jon is again connected to the bird imaginery and flying away from Ygritte, then Ygritte claims he has stolen her to which he replies he hasn't and Ygritte tries to convince him he has, and ends up admitting he might be learning something. Spoiler alert: that knowledge won't be used on Ygritte.

"I look forward to a spirited discussion." Ser Roland swung down from his horse, turned to Alayne, and smiled. "I had heard that Lord Littlefinger's daughter was fair of face and full of grace, but no one ever told me that she was a thief." “You wrong me, ser, I am no thief!” Ser Roland placed his hand over his heart. "Then how do you explain this hole in my chest, from where you stole my heart?" — Alayne I, WOW

Dawn stole into her garden like a thief. The grey of the sky grew lighter still, and the trees and shrubs turned a dark green beneath their stoles of snow. — Sansa VII, ASOS

All the while Sansa is disguising herself as LF's baseborn daughter and LF's personal sigil is the mockingbird, again with the bird imaginery (and Sansa has just fled KL, and people already are saying she flew away from the keep as a wolf with bat-like wings). I've already spoken about the romantic hue given to the quote from Sansa VII, ASOS in a previous ask, x; and of how it hints to both Jon and Sansa and their possible romance coming in the coming books, tho, as I've stated more than once, I wouldn't be surprised if Martin keeps it mostly inward and leaves the finale open (like in the show) for a further development beyond the Dream of Spring.

Also, as I have discussed previously (x) Sansa is foreshadowed to help her cousin Jon (of whom she hears the grief of death — and probably shall hear his awakening as well but I am digressing) leading him by the hand and talking him through peril and winter, thanks to stories of knightly valour.

Will Sansa be stolen from Baelish (and whoever he means to marry her to, to forward his plans) and his plans, thanks to Jon? She already is, and all the while Jon isn't even near her, yet.

As I've said in a previous ask (x) Jon is already saving Sansa from LF and his plans for her. LF is trying to isolate her, become her sole relator of news and her only informant, if he is the one giving her what information he wants, he controls what she knows and thus what she does. But he has underestimated Sansa and the loyalty of the Royces to the Starks the their cause (why they were furious they couldn't join Robb and his cause and loved Ned), in fact Sansa learns from Randa that not only Jon is alive, but that he has also made Lord Commander of the NW, and this happens shortly after she thinks she would flee both LF and Petyr (the mask and the man) if she only had somewhere to run to, someone to run to as she thinks that Lysa, who was supposed to keep her safe tried to kill her instead, so no place is safe...and boom here strides Jon Snow, newly named lord commander of the NW, and also “Winterfell belongs to my sister, Sansa” — to quote show Sansa: someone better offering (not that she knows of, yet) a better chance for Sansa survival and happiness and safety; someone she cares for “it would be so sweet to see him once again”, someone who literally died for a Stark girl (Arya — Jeyne) and will be ready to fight for the Starks again.

The hidden spouse

I've lost count of how many fics I've read with this trope I adore, and Jon marrying Alayne to gather the help of the Vale for Stannis or for himself, and while I adore them, I think in canon the point shall be the reversal.

Jon is an hidden Targaryen, an hidden ‘prince’ (depending on wether he's true born or not, which remains to be seen) and no one but his parental figure is aware of it, for safety reasons Sansa (and Jon himself) is unaware of his true identity. It wouldn't surprise me if Jon learned the truth about his parentage and did not reveal it to Sansa immediately, mostly a) so that it could be used politically to free the North of whatever vow Jon might take b) for safety reasons, if Sansa didn't know she cannot be held accountable for the truth of Jon's parentage (it wouldn't surprise me if Jon considered that to protect her brothers Sansa could out him and his parentage — in a parallel way as to Ned inability to trust Cat with the safety of Jon when her children were put in danger — though I am inching more to a Jon wanting to keep Sansa's slate clean, though he is a bit brooding so he might brood about the possibility of Sansa not loving him anymore if he isn't her brother and her true brothers come along, alive and well — it'd be the kind of angst Martin would write).

If we see his feelings develop for Sansa, inwardly that will be especially in the beginning, and he kept that secret from her, and is even unaware of it himself still, we'd see a besotted knight with his lady sister (who fits his every wish) love, but whose identity is absconded from either only Sansa or both of them.

If his name ends up to be Aemon which can be linked both to an old Gaelic version of Edmund (meaning wealthy/fierce protection) and an ancient egyptian version of Amon (meaning hidden one) ... and he fits both the meanings:

“Sweet one,” her father said gently, “listen to me. When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake. That boy is no Prince Aemon, you must believe me.” — Sansa III, AGOT

With all of textual evidences linking Jon with Aemon Dragonknight (and Sansa with Naerys), bigger clue we could not find.

The betrayal of trust

In the myth Psyche (feeling lonely albeit loved) convinced by the sisters (who are envious of her love for her husband) violates her husband' prohibition and out of curiosity she breaks his trust and learns the truth of his identity.

As opposed, to defend him and their family, show Sansa ‘betrayed’, tho I already disproved it as a betrayal of trust (x) I don't recuse to Jon it might feel that way initially, the secretive nature of Jon's parentage.

In the book it might be reserved, Jon using the knowledge of his parentage without telling Sansa before which would made her feel betrayed about it (as she felt betrayed by him basically giving away her birthright — a birthright bookJon defended — Bran's birthright to a foreign conqueror).

If only the show (or the book) ended in a marriage (like the myth) we'd have the perfect parallel.

The quests — healing and love transcending any kind of adversity

So, Psyche has violated Cupid's prohibition and the god has flown to his mother and confess his crimes against her (because he feels betrayed).

Psyche, distraught over her husband's departure, searches for him everywhere and ends up in Venus' service, ready to do anything to get her husband back:

If you look outside the walls of your city, you'll find thousands of Northmen who will explain to you why harming Jon Snow is not in your interest. — Sansa Stark, s8e6 GoT

Venus puts her through a series of quests to pay for her crime and earn forgiveness, and she's helped to fulfil them all by her husband's servants and friends.

And by considering each quest I swear we have to laugh because they are literally built for Sansa— or can be applied to Sansa as well.

Sort through mixed seeds of grain, successful thanks to the help of ants —› Sansa is the de facto lady of the Eyrie now in the books and she ensuring the the Eyrie and its court survive winter, that means that they must prepare their store, and it's not a chance that in the show she's basically the only one whose shown to worry about the state of the stores for winter and the comfort of the soldiers who will fight for them. Why do I speak of the soldiers as well?, why because of this:

Soldiers crawled over the city walls like ants with torches, and crowded the hoardings that had sprouted from the ramparts. — Sansa IV, ACOK

Around the walls the hosts of Lords Declarant were stirring, emerging from their tents like ants from an anthill. If only they were truly ants, she thought, we could step on them and crush them. — Alayne I, AFFC

The gaunt outlines of huge catapults and monstrous wooden cranes stood sentry up there, like the skeletons of great birds, and among them walked men in black as small as ants (...). — Jon III, AGOT

Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war. He watched as a swarming mass of riders charged a shield wall, astride horses no larger than ants (...) — Jon VII, ACOK

Jon watched the riders go from atop the Wall—three parties, each of three men, each carrying a pair of ravens. From on high their garrons looked no larger than ants, and Jon could not tell one ranger from another. He knew them, though. Every name was graven on his heart. — Jon VI, ADWD

—› Might I also point out a contrast?

The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many …It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he'd built it himself. — Daenerys X, ADWD

Interesting, isn't it? I wonder what it might mean —

Anyway, back to this:

Sansa: the men we have left are exhausted, many of them are wounded. They'll fight better if they have time to rest and recuperate. Daenerys: how long do you suggest? Sansa: I can't say for certain, not without talking to the officers.

—› may I point out that this (☝🏽) is something Daenerys as queen should've done?, and if she hadn't she should've had her men, the people in her retinue do it in her stead, to make sure of the condition of her armies beyond the number and decide how to move forward? Had she listened to Sansa Rhaegal would've had more time to recuperate and maybe he would've been able to avoid being killed, because his reflexes would've been better, more camaraderie would've been born between the diverse troops which compose her army, and she would've had more time to move politically against Cersei, which could've unseat her without the need to military attack KL, or they could've had time to find an alternative solution. As we say in Italy ‘you've done thirty, do thirty-and-one’, you've waited several years to take the throne, wait a bit more. If you want to be more than a conqueror and an invader you have to give the people time to see you as such.

Daenerys: I came north to fight alongside you, [you claim to be the queen of the North as well, fight for it should be only your duty, especially after its king bent the knee] at great cost to my armies and myself, now that the time has come to reciprocate, you want to postpone. [no, she wants to win with less losses as possible, something that should be foremost in your mind — but I've already digressed on how her armies are only a mean to an end for Daenerys and I won't digress further here] Sansa: it's not just our people, is yours. You want to throw them into a war they're not ready to fight. Daenerys: the longer I leave my enemies alone, the stronger they became [so do you!!!!!] — s8e4, GoT

I won't digress on how Jon backing Daenerys theatrically against the safety of his own people is out of character for him and hints toward pol!Jon, only the show has not shown his inner thoughts; I won't digress on how Jon backing Daenerys theatrically against the safety of his own people is out of character for him (just look at him thinking of the rangers and knowing their names by heart even when he knows he might be sending them to their deaths, c'mooooooon!). I won't do it. Not here, anyway, but it is pretty blatant, in my opinion.

Those aren't the only evidences given to us by the show either, Sansa worries for the state of the stores during winter, she worries for how to feed everyone, she worries that the soldiers have the warmest armours they can have (but this last bit connects better with the second task set on Psyche).

So between the hint given by the text and what the show showed us, is very possible that Daenerys or Cersei (whoever has the upper hand in that moment over the Starks) might demand allegiance and military solidarity of them, even when the northmen are exhausted and not ready. But most that anything, the fact that Sansa thinks of the lord Declarants and their troops as well as defending soldiers as ants crawling around and the connection with ants helping Psyche sorting the seeds, make me think that Sansa might have to use the knights of the Vale not only to take back the North, but also to try and keep it whole and safe as Daenerys and Cersei wage war against one another (or Aegon as well).

gather an hank of wool from a golden men-eating sheep, managed thanks to an helpful reed who tells her a secret the allows her to fulfil the task —› can you hear me laughing all the way where you are?, because I am, this is that obvious. I mean, an helpful reed tells her the secret to hank the wool from the men-eating sheep is to do so during the night, when the sheep is more docile and less prone to attack. Howland Reed is possibly the only man in existence aware of the true identity of Jon Snow, and we all know he has kept that knowledge silent for decades, and that he and his family are loyal to the marrow to the Starks. Wouldn't Howland Reed (if Jon failed to tell her) tell her the truth about Jon's parentage and hidden identity, to make sure the North, and House Stark survive unscathed?; also wool, again an hint toward taking care of her people, Sansa is all about her duties and she has shadowed Cat Stark in her lady endeavours, she knows what are her duties.

But listening to people you'd rather not listen to is one of your responsibilities as Lord of Winterfell — Maester Luwin

Sansa: I listen to their complaints which is my responsibility as the lady of Winterfell.

—› The last seasons of the show might have butchered entire plots and characters, but this (☝🏽) this is Sansa, without any single doubt.

And it has textual evidences as well in the books:

Sansa was made of sterner stuff. A great lady knew how to behave at tournaments. Even Septa Mordane noted her composure and nodded in approval. — Sansa II, AGOT

"No, it gives me joy to kill people." His mouth twitched. "Wrinkle up your face all you like, but spare me this false piety. You were a high lord's get. Don't tell me Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell never killed a man." "That was his duty. He never liked it." — Sansa IV, ACOK

“Now, don't you have some duties to perform?" She did indeed. She saw to the mulling of the wine first, found a suitable wheel of sharp white cheese, and commanded the cook to bake bread enough for twenty, in case the Lords Declarant brought more men than expected. Once they eat our bread and salt they are our guests and cannot harm us. The Freys had broken all the laws of hospitality when they'd murdered her lady mother and her brother at the Twins, but she could not believe that a lord as noble as Yohn Royce would ever stoop to do the same. — Alayne I, AFFC

"You are never an intrusion, sweetling. I was just now telling these good knights what a dutiful daughter I had." "Dutiful and beautiful," said an elegant young knight whose thick blond mane cascaded down well past his shoulders. — Alayne I, AFFC

Still, it would not serve. On the valley floor autumn still lingered, warm and golden, but winter had closed around the mountain peaks. They had weathered three snowstorms, and an ice storm that transformed the castle into crystal for a fortnight. The Eyrie might be impregnable, but it would soon be inaccessible as well, and the way down grew more hazardous every day. — Alayne II, AFFC

It was clever. The tourney, the prizes, the winged knights, it had all been her own notion. Lord Robert's mother had filled him full of fears, but he always took courage from the tales she read him of Ser Artys Arryn, the Winged Knight of legend, founder of his line. Why not surround him with Winged Knights? She had thought one night, after Sweetrobin had finally drifted off to sleep. His own Kingsguard, to keep him safe and make him brave. And no sooner did she tell Petyr her idea than he went out and made it happen. — Alayne I, WOW

She knows by heart both the duties of a lord and a lady, she knows the duties of a warden and his lady wife, of a king and his consort (as she was educated to be the future queen); she knows the duties the head of an House must perform as well (as the history of Westeros has told us that at times women have had to carry on their family lines and act as Heads and take husbands to give them their name). She knows them by heart. And she's born to fulfil them, it's what she has always done and tried to do.

fill a crystal vessel with the water of a spring that feeds the Styx and Cocytus with the help of an eagle —› now, Sansa is, in the last book, acting de facto great lady of the Eyrie and is the parental figure of Robert Arryn (whose banner displays a falcon — another bird of prey same as the eagle) and we know she is diplomatically creating a situation in which she is perceived as a defender of her cousin (creating the Winged Knights) as well as a better option than plotting and not trustworthy LF (especially since it's very possible that the Royces already know of her true identity); also, one of the Houses of the Riverlands, House Mallister, has displayed on their banner an eagle, and they were loyal to Robb's cause, right now its Head and his heir are prisoners of the Freys in Seagard, in the northern Riverlands, and which could provide (if they ever manage to break free — Blackfish what are you doing?) for Sansa Stark, Cat Tully's daughter and the sister of king Robb Stark safe passage home to the North.

—› also, Petrek Mallister, the heir to Seagard, is a good friend to Edmure Tully (Cat's beloved brother) and has, between his many interests, also that of hawking (a skill we've seen Sansa also possesses, as she's gone hawking with Margaery in KL) again a skill of conjecture between man-and-bird-of-prey. Will Sansa get their help and their loyalty out of love for Robb and Catelyn/Edmure? It's possible.

Retrieving a beauty treatment from the queen of the underworld, Proserpine, managed thanks to the help of a speaking tower —› at last, seen that Psyche had fulfilled all tasks Venus had set on her, the goddess gives her one last task, that the girl herself is convinced to fail to the point she almost throws herself off a tower.

The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. — Arya XIII, ASOS

But the tower stops her from killing herself and tells her not only how to find the entryway to the Underworld, but also how to get around Charon and Cerberus, but especially how to behave toward the underworld Queen, Proserpine.

My point is, some of the Freys (whose banner are the twin towers) have been sent away from the Twins, because they were considered too loyal to Robb and his cause. Will one of them flock to Sansa Stark's side and help her? Is not absurd to believe, since their own kin have shunned them because they were too loyal to Robb. Will the ‘speaking tower’ help her get through the Twins (Charon and Cerberus) guarding the rivers (as they did in the myth) and back North?

Proserpine and her trick

Proserpine, the goddess of the underworld, is the roman version of the greek Persephone/Kore, but that, in this myth takes a bit of the darkness of her husband (as I've said already in my meta about Sansa and the myths she might embody Persephone had a very dark side, to the point we used to say that it was better to end up before Hades during spring and summer — when Persephone was not there to fulfil her duties as queen — then in fall and winter, when she was and would give the punishment as she saw fit — the Erinni, who are the personification of vengeance are her daughters and answer to her; also in some myths Persephone/Proserpine is considered Zeus' daughter with Styx, the personification of the river of hate and this is the personification Apuleius goes with).

Appearing gentle and humouring the human wife of Cupid, Proserpine lets her retrieve the ointment, but warns her not to open it. Psyche, filled with curiosity opens it, intent on using it if necessary, and ends up falling into a death-like sleep.

The more dark version of Proserpine I have always associated with Melisandre, why?, because Proserpine often was invoked for necromancy and Melisandre, who is a sorceress who uses blood-magic; and Proserpine was known for her role in delivering punishments to those who came in the Underworld.

We know, by the show, that Mel will have a hand in returning Jon Snow from death, and most possibly will try and manipulate him and possibly Sansa to bring forth her visions like she did with Stannis. It wouldn't surprise me if Melisandre would try to deceive Sansa.

The death-like sleep, a reversal, an healed love

In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, after she has fallen into the death-like sleep Cupid manages to wake her with a kiss and by rousing her. I have said more than once that it wouldn't surprise me if in the books, once Jon returns from death he will, similarly as lady Stoneheart and Beric Dondarrion, as well as, imo, Daenerys Targaryen be single-minded focused on one purpose, the one with which he has died in mind. Defending the Stark girl(s). Which will make him play dirty (and we all know how much bookJon is capable of playing dirty when necessary, he's a menace) to make sure they survive and are happy.

In the show we're shown how Jon has lost his identity since waking up from death, he kills his assassins and then proceeds to abandon everything to ‘get warm’ which is extremely out of character of the man who chose his duty to the North as the blood of Winterfell over the woman he had ‘fallen in love’ (it's called Stockholm syndrome, btw) and it's only when Sansa finds him that Jon has a new purpose.

Sansa: where will you go? Jon: where will we go, if I don't watch over you father's ghost will come back and murder me. — s6e4, GoT

Jon has already found his purpose. Keep Sansa safe.It's only when Sansa points out that Winterfell is theirs, and Bran and Rickon's and Arya's and that they will never be safe if they don't take it back, that she'll do it alone if he won't help that he decides to move for Winterfell. This hints, imo, the possibility that in the book resurrected Jon will move for Winterfell in an attempt to save fake Arya, only to come up short when it's actually Jeyne, then when he meets with Sansa he will shift all of that defence and protectiveness he woke up with, to Sansa. Cue in possible romantic feelings and we probably will see Jon starting to slowly come back to himself as if Sansa is rousing him (singing him — courteous love both of them wish for, as I've said numerous times) back to his hold self, something he will have to hold onto when everything he thought he knew about himself come crashing down with the truth of his parentage.

A reversal of Cupid rousing Psyche and then taking her back to Olympus where she drinks the ambrosia, the nectar that gives her immortality and makes of her a goddess (a pregnant one at that). Kind of like, possibly, Sansa might end up giving Jon the Stark name (his own ambrosia, granting him immortality as a Stark, one way or another — either by fame, and decree, as hinted by the crypt teaser where Jon's statue is put along the one of Sansa the qitn and Arya the hero of Winterfell, on the consort's side of Sansa — or by marrying him and making of him a Stark through marriage as both of their arc also hinge on the fact of having children to inherit Winterfell who look like their siblings).

The trust between Cupid and Psyche is healed, because of love, because of the length Psyche went for that love, and because of Cupid's inability to stay away from Psyche.

And the show did give us a mutated (less obvious because of the lack of inner thoughts) version of this ending:

[yes, I totally forgot to have the gif dissolve in black when they enter and they finish in the first gif, but I am too lazy now to change it, my bad]

So, yes, I would say that the myth of Cupid and Psyche does seem to hold some parallel with Jonsa. What do you all think?, as always thank you for bearing with me until the end of this meta, hope you enjoyed!

You can find my other mythology essays here:

Cersei vs Daenerys — Venus decoded

Sansa and the mythological figures she embodies (Persephone/Kore, Isis, Medusa, Gunnlöd, Psyche) — the Myth of Sansa Stark