My Game of Thrones Dissection, Pt. 1: Or, ‘How Do You Solve a Problem like Sansa?’

April 3, 2012 | Reviews

I finished George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons several weeks ago, but have been too distracted (by Mad Men, mostly) to write a review. I did not just ogle Don Draper in those few weeks, however. I also spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to write the review. I previously quasi-reviewed Game of Thrones via a series of emails with my brother-in-law that my father referred to as “slightly disturbing”, so should I go the more traditional route this time around? In the end, I decided to go with what I call a series of dissections of the books in which I will pick out certain elements that I feel bear examination and discuss them. Spoiler alert: these articles will be filled with specific plot details from the series through book five, so don’t read it unless you have already read the series or you just really want to read this piece. The subject of my first musing/review/rant is on the delicate flower of the Stark family, Sansa.

1. How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sansa?

Oh Sansa, I tried to like you, I really did. We may not have gotten off to the best start; right from the beginning of Game of Thrones you struck me as being utterly superficial, silly, and more than a bit whiny. (Though I suppose it’s hard to look tough when the ass-kicker known as Arya Stark is your sister, she sets the bar pretty high.) Then, my feeling towards you turned even more negative when, oh yeah, you sold out your father for the love of a psychotic little man-child that you just met. Was your previous hand-holding session with Joffrey so good that it was worth your father’s life? Doubtful.

As the series, progressed, however, I started to soften a little bit towards you. At first when Joffrey was cruel to you I had a bit of a “well, she got herself into this mess, she deserves it” sort of mentality, but his Nero/Vlad the Impaler-style lust for torture wore me down. I felt sorry for you. I began to see you as more of an innocent pawn, a young girl who was constantly being manipulated due to her romanticism and youth. I felt sympathy for you, and dearly wanted you to be rescued and end up eating lemon cakes somewhere with the kind-hearted prince of your dreams.

What I came to realize about you, though, is that you are dumb. Really, really dumb. You have no common sense whatsoever. The decisions you make seem to be based on the exact opposite of whatever the obvious evidence around you is telling you to do. Cersei and Joffery proved themselves to be psychotic and vengeful with the whole direwolf incident, but still you assumed they would be merciful when it comes to your father. Tyrion was the only Lannister who showed genuine kindness to you time and time again, but he’s the one that you treated like garbage. (It’s tough being a dwarf.) Perhaps most flagrant though, is the weird amount of trust you put in Petyr Baelish. He commanded your rescue, true, but don’t you think the fact he was obsessed with your mother and kissed you on the mouth may suggest that is intentions with you aren’t entirely honorable? He saved you from being thrown out of a sky cell by your aunt, but you seemed oddly okay with the fact that she happened to have admitted that she killed her husband, Jon Arryn at Baelish’s request before she was thrown to her death. You at least eventually realized Joffrey was sadistic, but with Petyr Baelish you have become a willing co-conspirator. How have you not realized that you should be more careful with you trust at this point? I hope the next installment finds you a bit wiser, but I won’t be holding my breath.