THE UNKISS – A KISS THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED - PART 1.
(Art credits are in the ALT texts.)
This is probably my main theory, that I have not seen discussed, anywhere.
But if you encountered this theory anywhere else, please, please, let me know. :)
ABOUT THE UNKISS - THE KISS THAT HAPPENED
As everybody knows, Sansa has a very complex relationship with the Hound, which starts in AGoT, and develops in ACoK. It culminates in the famous Blackwater scene (ACoK Sansa VII). Sandor, incredibly drunken, exhausted and stressed out of the battle, frightened by the fire, humiliated by Tyrion, leaves the battlefield. Thus, he loses his job, his career, reputation, and I’d say partly his identity. (Since house Clegane’s story goes back to his grandfather, who saved the life of a Lannister lord, thus given the Clegane keep, fields and blazon.) Sandor loses all, as he himself states it, goes to Sansa and offers her to take her with himself.
"I could keep you safe," he rasped. "They're all afraid of me. No one would hurt you again, or I'd kill them." He yanked her closer, and for a moment she thought he meant to kiss her. He was too strong to fight. She closed her eyes, wanting it to be over, but nothing happened. "Still can't bear to look, can you?" she heard him say. He gave her arm a hard wrench, pulling her around and shoving her down onto the bed. "I'll have that song. Florian and Jonquil, you said." His dagger was out, poised at her throat. "Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life."
No kiss happens here, but later in ASoS and AFfC Sansa remembers three times, the Hound kissed her. This is the so called “unkiss”.
Martin himself made some comments on it.
You will see, in A STORM OF SWORDS and later volumes, that Sansa remembers the Hound kissing her the night he came to her bedroom... but if you look at the scene, he never does. That will eventually mean something, but just now it's a subtle touch, something most of the readers may not even pick up on.
File this one under "unreliable narrator" and feel free to ponder its meaning..
Well, I definitely feel free! So, I was thinking…
Sandor’s behaviour towards Sansa is a mixture of care, protection, gentleness, attraction, and… impetuosity, anger and violence too… It’s mixed, and we only see him from Sansa’s POV, we cannot see Sandor’s thoughts or feelings. It’s left in the dark, as many things between them, and I think for a very important purpose.
Sandor’s mixed behaviour divides the fandom, and it leads into two types of interpretations on the unkiss. Those, who do not like Sandor’s character, think that Sansa’s traumatized by him, especially in the Blackwater scene, and she tries to phrase it as romantic, to cope with it. On the other hand, those, who consider themselves Sansan fans, likes to think, that Sansa eventually gets attracted to him, and fantasizes about him this way.
Well, I think neither. If the unkiss would be Sansa’s coping mechanism, she should use it regarding Joffrey too, or the other members of the Kingsguard, who were waaaaay more traumatizing towards her, than Sandor ever had been. But we don’t see her misremember regarding any of the other characters. So then? Is it a sexual fantasy of a teenage girl? Well, I myself have been a teenage girl once, and I can tell you, teenage girls can make a very sharp distinction between reality and fantasy. Yes, they fantasize, but they don’t mix it up with reality. And again, Sansa’s not getting mad, we see no other cases where she misremembers this way.
So for me, the only reasonable answer is, that this kiss ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
But wait! What did Martin say? „Sansa remembers the Hound kissing her the night he came to her bedroom... but if you look at the scene, he never does.” But if you look at THE SCENE, he never does. In other words, he never does it, in THAT SCENE. And my idea is, that he actually did it… in ANOTHER SCENE. But there’s no other scene, where the possibility of a kiss appears, right? No. There’s no written scene. I think Martin hid that scene, on purpose.
THE HIDDEN SCENE
We assume, that we see every important scene of the POV characters, but that’s not necessarily true… We’ve seen missing scenes before, which we only got to know about in later chapters in remembrances or discussions about what happened. Sometimes the information is held back for a few chapters. Sometimes for a whole book (e.g. when Cersei gets Osney to kill the high septon) or for two books (e.g. that Cersei got Pycelle to lie about Margery and the moon tea.), and most certainly there are hints already placed that will only be unfolded In the upcoming volumes.
Let me give an example of a hidden scene. In AGoT Daenerys VIII. Dany says to Jorah: “"Help him," Dany pleaded. "For the love you say you bear me, help him now."” Yet, we see no scene, where Jorah confesses his love for Daenerys. But from his reaction, we immediately see that Dany did not go mad, or imagined Jorah to be in love with her, he really confessed. Martin simply does not show us that scene. Hiding scenes, memories and thoughts is something he does regularly and on purpose. The big difference between Dany and Jorah’s and Sansa and Sandor’s case is, that the latter pair has no chance to talk about what happened afterwards. They parted ways after the Blackwater battle, and Sansa has no one to talk about it afterwards, since everything happenned only between the two of them.
So jumping back to Dany and Jorah, where could be that scene in the timeline, where Jorah confessed? We see them interact way before the battle, and we see them interact after the battle. I think, this confession could have taken place somewhere in between. More precisely, the night before the battle. Why? The answer is easy. What do men need before a battle? They go there to kill other men, and they, themselves will probably be injured or killed as well. Jon notes in ACoK Jon I: „ Some men want whores on the eve of battle, and some want gods.” They all need something to comfort them, before a battle. Well, I think Jorah needed Dany. And I think Sandor needed Sansa. He needed comfort even more, for he already seen the fires set by Tyrion and Stannis, and he, as a leader must have known, that wildfire will be used in the battle. We know, he only fears fire. We see Sandor and Sansa meet some days before the battle, on the top of Maegor’s Holdfast in ACoK Sansa IV. And we see them interact during or nearly at the end of the battle. We don’t see them interact on the night before the battle (the eve of the battle). My theory is that they met, we’re just not allowed to see the scene. Why? I’ll get to that later.
That seems to be the only possible timing, for another reason too: Sansa’s having her first period, just after she had a conversation with Sandor on the top of Maegor’s Holdfast, only some days before the battle. Though still very young in our modern day terms, that makes her a woman according to Westerosi customs, just as Cersei says in the same chapter. If Sandor really kissed her, it is the first time, he could do such a thing, never before, for kissing a child even in Westerosi traditions is unacceptable.
AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
I think the timing also could explain why Sansa remembers the Hound to come to her during the Blackwater battle. There’s no mental breakdown, no fantasies becoming real memories.
She’s an unreliable narrator, for sure. But she’s always been one, nothing has changed. I’ll give you some examples on that too.
In AGoT Sansa I. and Eddard III. happens the famous incident, where Nymeria bites Joffrey in defense of Arya, Joffrey lies about the whole story, Sansa does not back up Arya’s story, Cersei demands the death of a direwolf, but only Lady’s left there, since Arya chased away Nymeria to save her. Robert doesn’t really hold his ground to Cersei, and at the end Ned takes the task of killing Lady, because he thinks she deserves better than Ilyne Payne. It’s pretty complex, but it’s also very interesting to see, how Sansa remembers the whole incident. In ACoK Sansa II. Sansa remembers Lady’s death: “Father had killed her, on account of Arya.” But later, in Sansa III. she says to Joffrey: "Lady never hurt you, but you killed her anyway. "No, your father did," Joff said…” In my opinion, this means that she sums up the core of the story, according to her momentary focus. She doesn’t make up new things, she sums them up.
Thinking about these examples, I find it quite possible, that she actually smashes up two events, that took place very close to each other in time: the night before the battle (the eve of the battle) and the night of the battle. The two encounters would be basically about the same thing: Sandor’s feelings towards her, expressed in darkness. Smashing up the two encounters also makes it more romantic for Sansa. Yes, I think, she romanticises what happened, but not by making up new memories, but by altering them a little bit. A kiss that happens “while green fires fill the skies” sounds quite dramatic, don’t you think? :)
GRRM says: ''Unreliable narrator'' is the key phrase there. (…) And what does that reveal about her psychologically?”
Well, my answer is, that she’s not a data-person. That’s quite clear: she’s rather artistic: the songs, dancing, the sensibility for visual beauty: she’s that kind of person, who remembers stories and feelings, instead of details. She herself admits, that she’s not good with numbers. Plus, she’s a teenage girl. Honestly, I think, that’s all, that’s what these memories reveal about her, and not some mental breakdown, or madness.
But this is just a first part, and there’s gonna be a lot more. Stay with me for the upcoming parts. :)
Fort Part 2. click here:
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For my previous topic, click here:
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