I had some problems with my connection, so there is a continuation of my graphicmob.
#08 Deny
#09 Ygritte and Jon
#10 Margery Tyrell
#11 king Joffrey
I wish they did not delete that sandor scene. I think just like joff the tyrells are giving Sansa a false sense of hope and security so she is back sliding a bit. Lets see if marg cuts her off after the. Wedding like in the books.
It’s just so freaking weird to see these consecutive scenes of Sansa and Tyrion getting advice and encouragement from their BFFs about the sex they’re going to have to have with each other as if this situation is almost just supposed to be kind of funny and awkward. As if the arrangement of this marriage doesn’t mean that any other life Sansa might have hoped to ever have is over now. As if it doesn’t mean that now she’ll never be able to experience and enjoy having sex with someone she can actually trust, as opposed to a Lannister who regardless of his own moral character is still a Lannister who would reluctantly marry her before giving up what he has by defying his father, and therefore can never entirely have her trust.
And what’s also bothersome is how the conversation between Sansa and Margaery is full of these suggestions that their situations are necessarily comparable just because Margaery will be willingly marrying Joffrey. For Sansa, there can be no “making the best of this” and taking control of her own situation like how Margaery was able to see the advantage in marrying her brother’s gay lover and now knows how to take advantage of the Lannisters because she has a support system and protection from her own family in such a dangerous situation. Canon!Margaery I’d think would appreciate the difference and would probably find some more practical way to comfort her than telling her to try to be open-minded.
Especially since, for fuck sakes, Tyrion is quite understandably not comfortable with this either, even if he is attracted to Sansa. Even ignoring all the other factors that make this conversation ridiculous, is it at all reasonable to put this expectation in Sansa’s mind that Tyrion will totally be on his game with her and just might sweep her off her feet with his legendary skills in the sack? Give me a goddamn break.
It seemed like her advice was supposed to be empowering for Sansa somehow, but it really wasn’t anything that would realistically be of any help for her to hear. Is she supposed to take comfort in the idea of one day having a son who will be heir to Winterfell, which implies the eventual defeat of Robb in the war and the Lannisters assuming control of the North through this marriage? IS SHE SERIOUSLY SUPPOSED TO GIVE A CRAP RIGHT NOW ABOUT WHAT TYRION LANNISTER COULD BE LIKE AS A LOVER? SERIOUSLY??
Which is why it’s so hard to believe that this is a scene GRRM actually wrote himself. Unless it was actually the best he could possibly do with what had been decided in the writers’ room needs to be established in this episode given the direction D&D intend to take this storyline. After all, I’m sure he can only do so much to bandage up their overall catastrophe.
“Look on the bright side,” says Margaery, “when you have to submit to marital rape with one of your enemies for no other reason than so he can get you pregnant and take your home kingdom, maybe at least the sex won’t be so bad, you never know.”
I really really want to throttle this show sometimes.
HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE THAT GRRM WROTE THIS EPISODE?
Queen you shall be, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
I actually had to stop watching the episode for a moment after this scene because I was crying because it was so painful seeing Sansa this happy for a moment.
I swear to God if Sophie never gets nominated for anything…
She’s to be queen now, she’s beautiful and rich and everyone loves her.
Would you like to watch me?
She is so sweet in this dress) I could not resist … but all my drawing skill left on her hair … I hope you like it. And I’m suck in proportions.
Maybe I should try the traditional painting with Margaery?Oh, I hope it is better now - I corrected “anorexic” hand)
Margaery smiled confidently. “It’s brave of you to warn me, but you need not fear. I shall have the finest knight in the Seven Kingdoms protecting me night and day, as Prince Aemon protected Naerys. So our little lion had best behave, hadn’t he?”
Whelp, it looks like dear old Margaery knows how to play the game a lot better than Sansa ever could.
UM EXCUSE ME?!?
They’re both playing the game and both doing it flawlessly GOD WHY DON’T PEOPLE GET THIS?!
I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me, I love Sansa’s personal strength and tenacity, but she doesn’t have the head, or the heart, for the political mind games that everyone is playing.
Sansa’s version of the game is just poorly hiding her feelings.She’s not even hiding them very well, everyone knows she hates Joffrey, as long as she doesn’t speak out against him, no one really cares.
Sansa’s capability is certainly not yet comparable to Margaery’s, but that’s because their situations so far are hardly comparable at all. Sansa is only trying to survive right now, long enough for the right moment to finally act comes along. Margaery is plotting to not only become queen, but to make that happen on her own terms and in a way that does not endanger her, which she only has a chance of accomplishing because she has resources Sansa doesn’t have being separated from her family and all on her own.
Sansa isn’t necessarily trying to be a manipulator or a political player and doesn’t think of herself that way. In fact, I think she often feels quite helpless for having to resort to feigning loyalty to her enemies as the only way to protect herself as best she can. After all, this isn’t a society in which there’s supposedly any such thing as “female strength,” but one where girls are taught that men will protect them, and when there isn’t any knight coming to save her it feels sort of dishonorable for her to have to learn this kind of self-preservation. The Hound is the first to ever suggest to her that there are actually things she can do as a woman to try to make things easier for herself, but even he’s a long way from being able to call himself honorable for the way he uses his own kind of strength. They’re both characters with an incomplete sense of identity because they haven’t learned how to use what they can do in ways they can actually be proud of.
It doesn’t even matter if Sansa’s performance isn’t truly fooling anyone. The important thing is it makes her seem compliant, cowardly, harmless, and sort of dumb that all she does is repeat the same empty obedient praises of her king all the time. After a while she probably comes to seem like a very pitiful and dull broken record and her captors hardly even pay any attention to her anymore. Through the entire hell she goes through with trauma after trauma that would easily wear anyone down, she stays determined and consistent. She never breaks, never stops being a perfect lady, never loses her composure even for a moment with any public display of her grief, never behaves unpredictably. So the Lannisters don’t worry much about her, and that’s to her advantage.
That’s why Littlefinger sees potential in Sansa. He pretty much says at one point that she’s clearly much wiser than Cersei for knowing that she isn’t a player now, just a pawn, and not trying to fight back when she has nothing to fight with yet.
Sansa’s just adapting as best she can, using whatever she has and very carefully making it up as she goes along. It just so happens that whenever she needs to say something to avoid suspicion or punishment, her instincts are generally always spot-on. It’s easy to miss just how clever she’s being when she manages something like getting Joffrey to spare Ser Dontos’s life (when nobody else has ever actually been able to convince him to do something he doesn’t want to do), because I don’t think Sansa herself realizes how adept she really is at handling people. But all this time of being in the game as a pawn is teaching her little by little how to do it right when she’s finally in it as a player, and with the kind of guidance Margaery grew up with and still has available to her, Sansa could be just as dangerous as her someday if not even more.
