George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire presents us with a lot of tough, ass-kicking female characters. There’s Daenerys Targaryen, also known as Daenerys Stormborn, the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, and one damn strong warrior. There’s Arya Stark, assassin-in-training, the self-titled ghost of Harrenhal. There’s Brienne of Tarth, also known as Brienne the Beauty, one of the only truly noble knights in Westeros. And we have warrior women like Asha Greyjoy and Maege and Dacey Mormont, and tough wildling warriors like Osha and Ygritte. Being a woman in Westeros isn’t easy, but some manage to break through the ranks and establish themselves as formidable forces of nature, skilled with swords, daggers, and dragons.
But there are more ways than one to show strength in Westeros. This woman shows her own strength of character and incredible growth over the series without ever learning how to wield a sword. It’s time to talk about how much I love Sansa Stark. (WARNING: Behind the cut lies spoilers for all four Song of Ice and Fire books.)
Name: Sansa Stark
Why She Rocks: I will admit that I did not like Sansa at all when I first read A Game of Thrones. There didn’t seem much to like. She was naive, shallow, and far too obsessed with stories of knights and ladies and pretty songs and dresses. Basically, she was annoying because she liked girly stuff – unlike her awesome little sister Arya, who wanted to be a knight. She was also completely blind to Joffrey’s cruelty, or excused his behavior as the act of a boy who had too much wine to drink. Sure, I felt sorry for her when Cersei demanded the execution of Lady, her direwolf, but Sansa was still annoying and didn’t DESERVE point-of-view chapters.
Then I carefully read Sansa’s chapter as she watched the tourney and thought she might be interesting, after all. She was oddly calm as she watched the jousting, even when one of the knights died by accident. And then she wound up in close company with Sandor Clegane, the Hound – a huge, brutal, scarred, terrifying man, as he relayed the story of how his elder brother pushed his face into fire and burned his skin. As Sansa listened to this story, she was horrified, scared, and wanting to be anywhere else…but she still gently touched him and tried to comfort him by saying his brother was no true knight. I read this and was impressed. Sansa’s kindness trumped her fear.
Then I saw Sansa spill all of the beans to Cersei about Ned’s plans to leave King’s Landing, and I hated her again. Stupid Sansa, ruining all of Ned’s plans to get them out of that lion’s den. Stupid, stupid Sansa for trusting Cersei and Joffrey over her own father. I didn’t even like her when she begged mercy for her father because it was her own stupid fault for putting him in that position. STUPID SANSA. I HATE YOU.
But then Joffrey cut off her father’s head and everything changed.
Apparently, all a writer needs to do in order to make an unlikable character likable is to kill off the girl’s father. Who knew? You’d have to be made of stone to not feel sorry for Sansa in this situation. Ned Stark’s murder was heartbreaking and tragic for all of the Starks, but Sansa was the only character who was forced to see her father’s death. Poor Sansa.
Ned’s death made me feel very sorry for Sansa. But I was shocked to find myself actually liking her. (Now I’m switching from past to present tense intentionally, to show how I felt about Sansa then and how I feel about her now.) It began when Joffrey orders Sansa to look at her father’s head. She thinks to herself, “He can make me look, but he can’t make me see.” Where did I hear something like that before? Oh yes, from her little sister Arya, whose mantra is, “Fear cuts deeper than swords.” Sansa looks at her father’s head without crying, and when Joffrey threatens to make her a present of her brother Robb’s head, she says, “Maybe he’ll give me yours.” OMG, GO SANSA! Joffrey then orders one of his Kingsguard to hit her, and after the Hound gives her some advice and tends to her wounded lip, we leave Sansa in the lion’s den at the end of A Game of Thrones.
Life gets progressively worse for Sansa in A Clash of Kings. Joffrey continues to have his Kingsguard beat her whenever he gets angry (or whenever it amuses him). The only people who seem to effectively protect her from Joffrey’s wrath are his uncle Tyrion Lannister (because he’s a decent human being) and Sandor Clegane (because he loves her, duh). She learns to be careful, to parrot the lines she was taught to survive, and to trust no one. But she manages to hold onto a different type of strength. During the Battle of the Blackwater, she tries to keep up the spirits of the women waiting for news of the war, thinking of others even when she’s terrified for her life. When Sandor Clegane threatens her at knifepoint and demands that she sing for him (not that I think he would ever actually harm her), she does, and then cups his cheek when she’s done, before calls her “little bird” one last time and flees. (Excuse me while I shed a tear. I have a lot of affection for that very messed-up ship.) Ser Dontos later comforts her with a gift, but Sansa’s grown up enough to know that she needs a ship to take her to safety, not more songs and empty promises.
Life gets EVEN WORSE for Sansa in A Storm of Swords. She’s forced to marry Tyrion, and I know some fans hate her for not seeing that he’s kind to her, but in her defense, the girl is nothing but a pawn for the Lannisters’ game. I have a hard time being upset with her for not falling all over the man she was forced to marry just because he doesn’t rape her. (Besides, she does eventually acknowledge that Tyrion treated her well.) She also later finds out that her mother and brother Robb were murdered at the Red Wedding. As far as she knows, she’s the only Stark left. And when she escapes with Littlefinger and moves to the Eyrie, she manages to find some inner strength and peace by building her own Winterfell out of snow, in a scene that always makes me cry.
Now Sansa is living as Alayne Stone in the Eyrie. She’s proving to be a better mother figure for Robert Arryn than Lysa ever was and may just manage to turn the spoiled (yet neglected) little brat into a decent kid. Of course, because she’s Sansa, and Sansa has rotten luck, she’s still under the thumb of Littlefinger, a man much more interested in perving all over her than Joffrey ever was, and a much cleverer man at that. Still, I can’t help but feel that Sansa is poised to eventually take Petyr Baelish down once and for all after she sees him for what he is.
I hear that Sansa will not be getting any point of view chapters in A Dance with Dragons, and that makes me sad. I still think she’s meant to do something great, though, and the little bird surrounded by monster will break free and enforce some change.
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I stopped reading two-thirds of the way down, because I’m halfway through A Storm of Swords 2: Electric Boogaloo (eight days to finish both it and A Feast for Crows? YES WE CAN!), but as far as I read I completely agree. In A Game of Thrones, I found Sansa profoundly tedious, and yes, it was that scene where Joffrey forces her to look at Ned’s head that changed my mind. By A Clash of Kings, I was actually looking forward to her POV sections.
I’m going to tell you my take on Sansa. This series is all about the ARC of characters, and the ultimate battle between “good” and “evil” and i use those terms loosely since Martin is all about ambiguity here.
Sansa and the Hound are the ones who are going to take the biggest leap of character change in the whole epic. arguably Bran as well, but let’s not split hairs here. Sansa is starting out as one spoiled teenager. She has had her entire world taken away – and there is NO ONE pulling for her but the Hound. and there is an instant connection between them, although it’s odd in the beginning. He sees someone innocent and pure, and a Lady-to-be. She sees him as horribly burned and terribly angry, but she also sees that he is protecting her. My prediction folks, and i’ve read all the books and we HAVE NOT seen this yet, is that Sansa is going to become one of the greatest, quietest, most cunning hero-warriors. Sandor is going to shed his anger via contemplation and meditation (which he must have been doing for a while – hence his blackwater coup where he is afraid yes, but also realizes that NOTHING has made sense in his world for a long time and says, F it.). My prediction is that Sansa is going to ride that cream colored dragon, in white/cream armor (there is a vision that speaks of it) and she is going to come down between The Mountain (Gregor – RS) and Sandor when Sandor just cannot or will not kill his brother. She’s going to land between them, and warg the dragon to look at Sandor, and then back to Gregor. and she is going to KARMICALLY blow him away with dragonfire. melt him right in front of Sandor. and then Sansa is going to pull her helmet off, that red hair is going to spill off, and she’ll give a demure smile and a tip of her head to Sandor who will be standing or kneeling there shellshocked. and that is ALL SHE WROTE. except she’s going to take a bad fall when the dragon is hit with a trebuchet, and sandor is going to nurse her back to health. after all, he says i shouldn’t have left that little bird with a broken leg WAY back on the road trip with arya. and i simply can’t wait. Peter Littlmonster baelish is going to die at the hands of Catelyn, because she is the one that deserves to give it to him OF ALL the folks. He betrayed her, he betrayed Ned, he betrayed her child. go Catelyn, lady stoneheart.
I think Sansa is a great depiction of a girl who believes in the rules of her sexist society – she learns to be elegant and pretty and pleasant and her upbringing tells her she will be rewarded for this. She sticks to trying to follow the rules as things get more and more chaotic and abusive around her, but the habit is hard to kick. She reminds us all that being the perfect woman does not, in fact, guarantee you the (limited) rewards you are promised – it’s a trap. She did what was expected, and she’s still well and truly punished at every turn. I don’t always like her, but it’s a great story.
is there something wrong with liking girly stuff btw? I mean really yes, in society a girl does not need to act like the stereotypical girl, but if they do, is there something wrong/? imo it’s highly misogynistic to dislike people who like girly things and find them annoying because you are basically hating on them for having “femine” like characteristics.
I find it slightly ironic that the blog is called funny feminist, but you hate on a character who is girly, which is actually quite misogynistic.
I “hate” on a character who is girly? HATE?
But there are more ways than one to show strength in Westeros. This woman shows her own strength of character and incredible growth over the series without ever learning how to wield a sword. It’s time to talk about how much I love Sansa Stark.
As Sansa listened to this story, she was horrified, scared, and wanting to be anywhere else…but she still gently touched him and tried to comfort him by saying his brother was no true knight. I read this and was impressed. Sansa’s kindness trumped her fear.
Ned’s death made me feel very sorry for Sansa. But I was shocked to find myself actually liking her.
But she manages to hold onto a different type of strength. During the Battle of the Blackwater, she tries to keep up the spirits of the women waiting for news of the war, thinking of others even when she’s terrified for her life.
I have a hard time being upset with her for not falling all over the man she was forced to marry just because he doesn’t rape her.
Yeah, all of that is just dripping with hate.
okay hate is the wrong word, but you did mention that you were annoyed with sansa in the beginning because she expressed girly characteristics, the being obsessed with knights and ladies, obsessed with pretty dresses and imo that’s misogynistic and said her sister was awesome because she wanted to be a warrior. you saying that she was annoying because she liked girly stuff is mysognistic and I’m not the best with words, but here’s a link that explains why girly is never a valid critism:
http://retrojrpg.thefannish.org/?p=652
I know you never said eww she was girly, but the connotation was more or less the same thing, or atleast that’s the feeling I got.
Ah, I see what you mean.
When I first read A Game of Thrones six years ago, I did have a knee-jerk negative reaction to Sansa because she was girly. That was six years ago, and since then, my thoughts on feminism and women have developed and changed, and now I appreciate Sansa a lot more. “Girly” characters shouldn’t be dismissed outright because of their femininity because “girly” isn’t a negative thing. I thought I made that clear in my post, but perhaps I didn’t.
I probably got overly defensive. since I’ve seen quite a few people who claim themselves as feminists, but then dislike girly girls, or girly attributes so I saw that and got a bit annoyed. sorry about that.
Well I personally didn’t mind her girliness. What I did mind was throwing her sister under the bus just because she was blinded by her infatuation with a sadistic bully. Those are absolutely legitimate grounds to hate a character. Let’s not ignore that, eh?
Meh, I honestly have no patience for people who STILL hold that against Sansa four books later. Yeah, it was a cowardly thing to do, but I blame Cersei and Robert a lot more for that fiasco, and Sansa lost her wolf anyway, so I think she paid for that mistake already. Maybe if Arya hadn’t been stupid enough to attack the crown price for hurting a butcher’s boy, both wolves and Mycah would still be alive.
For the record, I don’t blame Arya, and of course it was a brave thing to do to stand up to a bully, but it was also a very stupid thing to do in that “historical” context.
i agree. This book is RIFE with characters that have made horrible mistakes. either out of naivety, cowardice or stupidity. or even DUTY. But the ARC is one of redemption. there is always hope for redemption. except for joffrey and ramsay. heh.
Yes! I am so excited to have come across your blog and discuss the books that are A Song of Ice and Fire just because none of my friends or family members have read them because they hate me 🙂 I actually haven’t even finished the HBO series just because I’ve been super enthralled by the books (started 2.5 months ago and finally starting A Dance w/ Dragons). I think you made a really good point about Sansa in that she is probably the only character in the entire series that has developed/matured the most (besides Jaime, who finally woke the shit up come the fourth book).
@usha I hear you (I’m pretty girly and get shit from fellow feminists cause of my deep love of fashion and often get a talk about how the industry hurts women and its like, ‘chill! all I said was Giselle looks good on the cover of Vogue’ haha), but I took Lady T’s comment of Sansa being too girly to mean she was immature and naive in such an overt and annoying way (i.e. truly believing all the stories of knights and princesses and thinking thats how things pan out in the real world; not initially seeing how evil Joffery was because he was the crown prince, etc.), not because she likes “girly” things per se (i.e. sewing, pretty dresses, and boys).
Thanks again! Love the blog. Keep up the good work!
Here’s the thing. I’m something of a freak in this fandom, because I liked Sansa from the get-go (not to get all hipster up in here). Because, once upon a time, I was that girl. I was daydreamy and romantic and hell, I even have a younger sis that I don’t get along with. In other words, I related to her.
Nothing in her behavior surprised me, really. Yeah, some of it makes you cringe like whoa. But try recalling one non-cringeworthy moment from your early adolescence, if you haven’t already. Just try.
Yeah, I can’t do it either. =D
I know this girl in real life. Most of the preteen girls I know are like this. (Not all, but some.) In our world, Sansa would be going to middle school, listening to Taylor Swift (and, I bet, the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack), reading “Twilight”, and covering her bedroom wall with Justin Bieber posters. And there is nothing wrong with that (well, apart from the reading of ‘Twilight’–but even that is a great opportunity to educate preteens about what makes a healthy relationship vs. what doesn’t–but I digress.)
BTW, I’m really concerned over the amount of vitriol that’s being spewed in her direction. Seriously? This fandom picks on KIDS now? Geez. They weren’t exactly a bastion of progressiveness before, but DAAAAAMN.
What concerns me is the haterate toward preteen girls in general, and why exactly it’s so prevalent–not just in this fandom but society at large. However, that’s another post.
I have a hard time being upset with her for not falling all over the man she was forced to marry just because he doesn’t rape her.
I think I love you forever just because of this one sentence. Or at least, I want to make you a nacho platter. 🙂
Hell, even TYRION knows it’s not about him. He’s attracted to Sansa, because she is beautiful, and he sees in her a future with a wife and kids and lands of his own where he’s not beholden to his father. (Well, not as MUCH.) He was hurt and said so when Sansa rejected him, but again–he knew it wasn’t necessarily about him. There were small windows of hope, little moments where they shared an affinity, if nothing else. And I think that’s important to remember–because Sansa IS kind.
Side note: despite accepting and growing up according to the standards of a wholly patriarchal society, Sansa’s well on her way to becoming what we would consider a modern woman–in that she is not so keen on a politically arranged marriage, and having to ‘win’ over a stranger that she may not even love. In short, she wants to choose her partner for herself. For Sansa to want such a thing at all is a HUGE ASS DEAL. I love that in her own way, Sansa’s rejecting the norm.)
Also? I totally ship Sandor and Sansa as well. XD (PS: Sandor is totes not dead. He’s just in rehab.)
In our world, Sansa would be going to middle school, listening to Taylor Swift (and, I bet, the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack), reading “Twilight”, and covering her bedroom wall with Justin Bieber posters. And there is nothing wrong with that (well, apart from the reading of ‘Twilight’–but even that is a great opportunity to educate preteens about what makes a healthy relationship vs. what doesn’t–but I digress.)
Ha! That is a perfect description of what modern Sansa would be like.
Or at least, I want to make you a nacho platter.
I accept! Though I think that would get messy in the mail. 😉
Sansa is just great. When I first started reading the books, my early favorites were Jon, Dany, Arya, Tyrion, and Bran. I still love them all (Jon the mostest!) but I have a special appreciation for Sansa and Jaime because of how much they’ve grown and changed over the series.
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Jaime is going to make a total transformation. and i hope to god he and brienne make it together. and take Tommen away from insane Cersei and go far away to start over. even tyrion (and sandor) have praised tommen and think he’s a good child.
Hi there! I found your post about Sansa, when googling a new pet theory of mine, that started developing when I decided Aegons timing in ADWD was very fortunate indeed actually and then evolved when I saw this piece of fanart on DevArts: http://singeroficeandfire.deviantart.com/art/My-NEW-fan-theory-301904411 . For some reason your blog showed up in the results even thought it’s “just” about Sansas development.
Anyways in response to your writing about Sansa: Personally I never DISliked her at all, even in book 1. I just didn’t like her. That’s because as far as I am concerned Sansas screwups politically aren’t her fault, but Catelyns who raised her to be a Disney Princess in Westeros (picking tutors also counts as choosing how to raise someone not just what you do directly). The way she saw through Littlefingers scheme in AFOC shows clearly IMO, that she was never stupid to begin with just very naiive. Once she’s “finished her training” who knows how far she could go, which is what inspired my comment to the picture I linked to.
Great article – Sansa is by far my favorite characer on Game of Thrones. I feel far too invested (it’s just a show!!) in finding out her fate. And by god, if I don’t like her fate in the show, I’ll make one up for her in my head. She’s so sweet, pure and innocent. The way she talks to people, there is never any malice in her. Yet, when she is dealing with the ugly Lannisters, she perfects the icy politeness with the thinnest veneer of sarcasm. She strikes me as intelligent, even though not quick to give her opinions. Her character arc is lovely to me. I feel depressed she ends up with Littlefinger (YUCK!!) so I may have to make my happy ending for her in my mind 😉