#longspear

Yuki.

Hi anon!

I rarely defend Ygritte, but to be fair, the story as she paints it sounds more like a twisted version Littlefinger and the Tully girls than a flattering invention, and she does emphasize how he never tried again: 

"A boy at a feast, five years past. He'd come trading with his brothers, and he had hair like mine, kissed by fire, so I thought he would be lucky. But he was weak. When he came back t' try and steal me, Longspear broke his arm and ran him off, and he never tried again, not once."

( ASOS, Jon III)

The repetition of "never, not once" is what makes me certain it hurt her feelings, even though she tries to play it cool. Which, you know, I could sympathize with, except she's a self-rightous sexual predator. 

As it is, the guy had a fling with her and was young and inexperienced enough to fail at stealing a willing girl, and she wasn't worth a second try when the first left him seriously injured. Heartwarming stuff.

What I find hypocritical about Ygritte is how she defends rape culture and how "free" she is with her knifey self-defense, when her marital future in that moment was determined by a third party: Longspear. 

Who does she blame? The guy who had his arm broken. 

Seriously, it leaves her - by her own staunchly defended values - with as much agency as kneeler Sansa. At least Sansa had the guts to sneak out and try to keep her betrothal to Joffrey anyway when Ned declared they would head back home. (Misguided as that was.) It's just such a ludicrous carricature of freedom or sexual self-determination, specific to Ygritte. Val doesn't need stealing to enjoy a relationship with Jarl. Munda had the sense to probably plan her "stealing" with Longspear beforehand since no one was woken up by that "epic fight". 

but even still,