Sansa is the oldest female child in a rich, highly religious family isolated in a rural-ish setting. She's raised with clear-cut gender roles, and expectations which leads her to become a people pleaser. She has a rich inner life and imagination, and dreams of something"better". If she was American she would be that perfect suburban golden girl who only dates boys from her church, but dreams of moving to New York because she thinks it will be like any of the early to mid-2000s Anne Hathway movies.

For me, Sansa was ruined when it became clear the show was playing her as a young Cersei 2.0: cold and calculating and controlling, a player of the game, disabused (literally) of love but having struggled and attained the crown and sceptre This ruined Sansa for me because i think the books are laying the foundation for Sansa to be TEMPTED to become a Cersei 2.0 who rules through her children, with the bonus for Petyr that he rules through her, but that Sansa's love will become the actual foundation for her happiness The showrunners seem to have put together the plot to the point that she eliminates Petyr, clumsy as it was, but didnt grasp that Sansa truly dreams of love, not of a crown... much like Daenerys, whose motivations were likewise flipped

Sansa’s entire ‘arc’ in the show is torture p0rn. The show revels in hurting her in ever conceivable fashion, as if punishing her earlier ‘stupidity’ (read: the entirely expected worldview of a sheltered little 11 year old from a remote part of the world who’s never been given reason to mistrust anyone). It’s honestly creepy, the amount of pleasure the show takes in breaking her heart over and over again, as if it resents her for having come from a well adjusted family that loved her.

the thing about jeyne poole is that her story shows the reader not only how girls are mistreated in this world, but how being of lower birth also affects you. the way she was discussed by the council was like they were talking about selling off a cow. i think she's very necessary to sansa's story to show the reader that even though sansa's going through so many horrible things, she's still sort of privileged. also, every time sansa experience's something terrible, it kind of makes her more empathetic and compassionate, which i find interesting and wish was shown in the show instead of giving us cersei 2.0.

YES! Exactly! That whole message of "it's good that I was abused and assaulted by all these horrible people - it was all just a boot-camp for becoming the badass I am today!" BLEEUURRGHH. As an actual SA survivor, I can say *that's not how it works.* I might've moved past the trauma (with the help of therapy) and made a good life for myself now, but I've NEVER thought of my past traumas as 'valuable life lessons that made me a stronger person,' because THERE ARE BETTER AND WAY LESS AWFUL WAYS OF ACHIEVING THAT. The destructive, life-scarring way should NEVER be held up as the most 'interesting' or 'morally character-building' way to do it.

It is not the trauma, that makes you stronger, it is the healing. I do think it is possible to have a strong character with part of the story of how they became strong is trauma and do it responsibly. But in order for this you need to show the healing process and how it relates to the particular strength of that person.

I was a big Sansa fan, both in the show and books. I was constantly waiting for Sansa's moment of glory where she would finally gather all the learning she had accumulated from the likes of Ned, Little Finger, Cersei, Olenna, Tyrion and so on to become a major player. It never came. She never got the chance to do anything seriously cool or to push the plot in an interesting fashion. Watching her get crowned should have been amazing, but it was just watching the conclusion to a storyline we simply never got. It's horrible to think that she'll probably be remembered as that character who got sexually assaulted by Ramsay in one of the most controversial plots, than anything she managed to do in her own right. They utterly fucked up.

The Little Bird was smart. The Little Bird knew how to read a room. The Little Bird was resourceful. The Little Bird survived even though flying around among struggling giants. The now grown bird should be proud. Instead she lost it all to the people that harmed her by looking at herself with their eyes and agreeing with them that "she was only a stupid little girl".

I've always been frustrated with book fans who despised Sansa. Yes, her naivete can be irritating, but she's *just a kid!* Unfortunately, Benioff and Weis also seem to have a very surface-level understanding of the character and ruined her in the show. In fact, I'd say that they had a very superficial understanding of most of the characters. That could be masked in the early seasons when they had the strong foundation of the books to build from. As they moved into uncharted waters, this became quite clear.

The whole unearned "She's the smartest person I've ever met" line was a perfect example of characters "telling" us information as opposed to the writers "showing" us through a characters actions. It's as if D and D thought they were writing Cersei as a smart character (hint, she's not) and that by them making Sansa Cersei 2.0, the audience would immediately think, "O, she must be smart then". It's was all just so incredibly disappointing and frustrating.

The erasune of Jeyne Poole impacts negatively in both Sansa´s and Arya´s storylines

There is a great line in the books that goes something like this: Tyrion ask Sansa to trust him or something similar and she replies " Even a little Lion has claws".

the one thing that also didnt enjoy that strayed from the books is generally sansa's agency being split by like everyone , a lot of sansa's realing in of joffrey despite his abuse was exchanged for margery and joffrey scenes, sansa tricking everyone into thinking she was doing nothing but praying at the godswood but actually she was planning her escape with the help of dontos which she almost did entirely by herself, her not understanding how to wield a dagger in the show is laughable since she keeps a dagger on herself at all times in kingslanding and while she sleeps, the franticness of trying to burn her bloody period mattress in the fire while the battle was happening and the paranoia of all of cersei's handmaidens were practicly spying on her day in and out was also cut, her being courteous to her abusers despite having inner rage could not be properly expressed no wonder her character was badly done ,since the first season they barely allowed her to express any type of agency other than naiviety and victimization,the first times i read the books i was not impressed with her character but the more older i got and i actually analysed her text she became my favourite character next to arya,jon and brienne, the vale plot in the books is one of my most anticipated plots for winds of winter

I hated that trauma made me strong line too. No, trauma fucks you up. Healing from trauma can help make you strong, but imagine how strong you would be if you hadn't experienced trauma and had a strong sense of self early on. My trauma did not make me strong, before I started healing it just led me into more traumatic situations. Sometimes it still does, because I'm not fully healed.

Your analysis is spot on! And how could she say that to Sandor, who wishes someone had saved him from his own abuse that scarred him for life, in every way.

In the books the first chapter of Sansa being in the Vale she builds a snow castle (winterfell) and to me shows she is still a child. Longing for home and her family. I felt happy she could finaly do something that made her feel happy (though it resulted in something a bit more dramatic, couse ofc.) but that moment was quite heartfelt.

Sansa's story in the show was so missplaced. It literally made no sense. Like, why would she marry Ramsey? She wouldnt. If the plan was to marry him and wait for Stannis, then why not join Stannis in the first place and take the Vale knights with her. So dumb

It’s one thing to let the horrors of the world change you. It’s another to experience them and still believe there’s good in the world. Sansa very much embodies the later; the Battle of the Blackwater really highlights why I think she’s important. She’s a calming and hopeful presence when a drunken Cersei wishes violence upon them all. Sandor threatens to kill her if she didn’t sing, but instead of a song of heroes and glory, she sings a hymn of mercy leaving Sandor in tears and sparing her.

I watched the show before reading the books, and going back to the show after reading the books, I was shocked at how off Sansa's characterization seems from her very first appearance in the show. The book depicts her as soft-spoken, demure, almost obsessively courteous in her interactions with others. In the show, she's depicted as snarky and shrill? It's pretty clear that D&D really didn't get her book characterization and so wrote her to just be a Generic TeenTM. I feel like GRRM told them she was meant to become a queen or ruler at the end, and the only way they could envision her doing that was through the "suffering turned me into a badass" arc you bemoaned here. It's such a shame because I really feel that Sansa's character and arc give many of the answers to the series's central questions: the power of mercy in the face of violence, that kindness can win out over cruelty, that being loved makes you more powerful than being feared, that the ability to rule is not equivalent to the ability to commit violence, and more. The show really did not understand those messages, though, and Sansa's characterization suffered for it. Loved your video and analysis! You've earned a subscriber here, and I can't wait for the Sansa psychological analysis video.

It always baffled me that Weiss said she was his favourite character while the show never seem to have understood her at all

I stopped liking Sansa at some point after she reunited with Jon, it’s like her character did a complete 180 and became someone she wasn’t. That smug smile and constantly thinking she’s smarter than everyone, literally giving me Cersei vibes was so irritating. This isn’t the character I was following for years, and it didn’t feel like a good direction to go for her. Sansa not telling Jon about the Knights Of The Vale seemed so uncharacteristic of her to me, it’s like D&D just needed an excuse to make the Battle Of The Bastards happen the way it did and so they had Sansa just not tell Jon. It didn’t feel like something the real Sansa would do, she put one of her only remaining family members in mortal danger just so she can have a girl boss moment…it’s like what?

I feel strongly that it was a mistake aging the characters up so much in the show, and Sansa's character suffers the most from this. The showrunner prioritized filming torture porn and actual porn over telling a good story with characters that make sense.

I like how you mention that Sansa's scenes are framed by the men around her. Sansa's 'role' across the show entirely seems to be her own objectification. This holds true in two senses: she acts as a character foil for the benefit of the story (this is a good thing), and she's a political pawn for several powerful families (this gives her objectification in-universe plausibility; it's not good, but things are often bad at the start of a story but are expected to change). Sansa is a character foil to her sister (illustrating various degrees of expressiveness), to her father and later Sandor (revealing different ways and times in which a person can be gentle), to Littlefinger (depicting varying degrees of honesty), etc. I think the reason people don't like Sansa is because she starts off very low on expressiveness. We don't know her subjective self, because she needs to hide it as a prisoner of war (and likely doesn't know herself anyway given that she's a child). This seems to indicate the obvious end point for Sansa's character; we should learn who she is while she discovers who she is herself, but the show never does this. The show instead has Sansa integrate the traits of her abusers, which I'm very happy to hear you call out. To dig a little deeper into the framing idea: In terms of cinematography, the camera seems to look voyeuristically toward Sansa when she's with a man, but shows her perspective more often when around women such as Cersei (about whom Sansa is deeply curious). It's also no coincidence that all of these men, including the most villainous ones, had their roles in the show changed or expanded as a result of being fan favourites. People really liked Tyrion, Littlefinger, Sandor, etc. These men are shown through their own perspectives expressing themselves almost every time they appear, and successfully accomplishing their goals. All of these men are only able to do this because of their scenes with Sansa. For Sansa though, the same character development is not given. The writers saw her correctly as the vehicle for the advancement of other characters that any good character rightfully is, but forgot that she is a character herself and that relationships should build both characters, not just one. As an example of what might have changed this: imagine if we had a two minute scene in the second season depicting Sansa's loneliness while she does something she knows how to do well, like knit a little cloth sigil of Winterfell. Even if most people would find a superficial reading of the scene boring, it would have been a good way to depict Sansa's desire to express herself while cloistered in imprisonment, as well as how few options for expression she has. Also, I like the attention to the Dreadfort/Winterfell error. It made me realize the symbolic significance in Sansa being imprisoned in her own home instead of Ramsay's. Ironically, I actually think this is good writing.

Great choice for the worst moment of characterization/message in Sansa's story. I particularly see how it would resonate with you as a therapist. From my perspective as a woman, I found the worst moment to be Sansa walking away after feeding Ramsay to his dogs with a little satisfied look on her face. It so perfectly summed up the message of her arc: to be a strong female character, you have to lose your stereotypically female attributes of kindness, love, forgiveness. You can only be strong if you act like a man, and a brutal one at that. (You can see this play out in Sansa's costuming, too; it became all armor-like dresses and metal.) What a terrible disservice to kindness, and to women. What a terrible disservice to young Sansa, whose dog Lady was the sweetest and gentlest, reflecting who she was as a person.

The other thing I didn't like about what the writers did with Sansa was her hostility towards Dany. In the beginning it was completely understandable but after Dany proved her word, that she did come to Winterfell to defend it, the North and Westeros as a whole Sansa still mistrusted her. The writers turned her (and Varys) into a mouthpiece to justify the "Mad Queen" arc rather than have a legitimate reason for Sansa to not want Dany as queen other than Dany being too eager. The only reason I can think of for Sansa knowing Dany would go evil for no reason is that Littlefinger leaked the Season 8 scripts and Sansa got the chance to read them.

I like how they rushed the final seasons of the show because Dave and Dan wanted to work on their Star Wars project and then after how bad the final season turned out Disney fired them anyways 💀

That scene COULD have worked if it was done in a way that made it clear this was a bad rationalization of her abuse, like hearing "I was beat as a child and I turned out fine" from someone who is DECIDEDLY NOT FINE, but the show's ability to do things like that was long gone by season 8.

Oh definitely same on the trauma part. As someone that was traumatized and assaulted as a child, it made me feel better when, in therapy, i could accept at no point was i BETTER for going through it. I was significantly fucked up actually in a fair amount of ways, especially in how i tried to use it as an identity. It wasnt. I am my identiy, what i love, who i love, who i acceot love from. The trauma didnt make me stronger, the love of the people around me brought me BACK to where i could have been naturally if i hadnt been abused like that.

I might be alone on this one, but I lost all respect for the show and the show runners specifically in that moment. Season 8 might have been bad, but bad writing can happen to any writer. But writing something like this? Pretty disgusting on just a human level.

I think the biggest flaw is that they hide away all her true feelings and intentions just to surprise the audience, when it would have been more compelling to watch her take these actions on screen.

I relate a lot to Sansa character wise and in my personal life and I would like to say this: I was dissatisfied with Sansa's arc, and specifically this answer to the hound, not because it was acknowledged that all of those horrible experiences also made her grow up as a character, but because it was the perfect moment for her to break crying for her lost childhood, imagining what would have been if she had taken other choices, and maybe reflect that it was all of this traumatic situations that ended giving her the key to the knights of the vale, so in a way, yes, it is a good moment to thank the gods they put her on the position to save what remained of her home and family but not the way that she did. The show felt flat, as you very well point out, because they reduced her to her trauma, a complex answer from a complex character would have better suited Sansa and the feel of the show: not happily agreeing that Trauma empowered her, but crying realising that she was where she needed to be when it came to it. I also wish they showed her more as the daughter of Catelyn (loving, caring, still true in some ways to her most idealistic self, but strong and full with political intelligence) in defiance to what the world had tried to break her into: a resentful Cersei or a cunning Little Finger. At the end in the show she just felt a template of what others made out of her. All the subplots of her undermining Jon and having doubts about Arya didn't feel quite right to me either.

I stopped watching the show immediately after the Sansa rape scene. It was complete male gratification, not at all from her point of view. It made me feel genuinely sick how they wrote a scene that wasn't even in the books about a child and didn't even focus on her pain but the camera panned to who was abusing her. Disgusting. I was on the edge of quitting it for a while because of how they'd portrayed women and just vulnerable people in general in the past, but that was genuinely the last straw. I can't stand people who say it got worse in the last season, that the writing "spoiled" the show. No. The writing was rotten to the core and spreading starting season 2. The writers unfortunately have a certain view of the world, and that bled into their writing/directing/show running.

I think in the books Sansa is a conformist. She believes that if she submits to authority, always does her duty and generally conforms to the oppressive society she was born into things will work out. Jeyne Poole shows this privilege by what happens to her. She's sold for the only value she has, to be a sex slave. Sansa who despite her privilege is also treated as a sex worker, just one of higher value. It shows that despite this privilege and despite her conformity and submission to duty and authority she is still reduced to being a sexual object. She's now with Harry the heir, at a party, flirting, with an older, sexually active, possibly intoxicated, adolescent boy without the shield of her high value status. To him she is a bastard and there are many comments about bastards being naturally lusty. Things are not looking good for her. Her coping mechanism may well stop working. Arya contrasts this by fighting back against patriarchy. Acting and even passing as a boy. Yet she too is now being seen as a sexual object and is starting to conform by seeing her sexuality as a weapon. I think it's easy to like someone who is actively fighting back against oppression and objectification. It's harder to like someone who at least initially, is submitting to the oppression and by her submission becomes part of the hierarchical structures of oppression. Although really they are just two different survival strategies. One active, the other passive. Both trying to cope with an unfair society. Yet both (probably) failing. I think that's the lesson. There is no right way to deal with being reduced to an object, in the end no matter how hard you try to avoid your designated role in society you're still going to eventually have to face it. The only way to really be free from it is to change society.

For me the points that showed me that they didn’t understand Sansa’s story (or the point of ASOIAF- it’s an anti-war story) were: the omission of the “not kiss” between Sandor and Sansa. Sandor goes to Sansa broken, ready to flee because ‘fuck the king’, and willing to SA Sansa. He asks her for a song since he’s always called her “little bird” and sees her as a pretty bird in a cage (which is GRRM playing with the ‘spoiled privileged teen girl’ trope). He grabs Sansa and Sansa begins to sing a song for The Mother. The Mother’s song is a song for peace. A song for mercy. A song sung as a prayer for the avoidance/ending of a war. This pretty song expected of an innocent high-born girl is enough to stop Sandor in his tracks and reconsider hurting Sansa. It’s the starting of Sandor’s arc to process his trauma and heal. He does rail against it a bit but the change has started until finally after he’s wounded and Arya abandons him he accepts a quiet life of peace as a monk on the Quiet Isle. Sandor’s arc is a story of a broken and traumatized man who is thought of as a savage and mad dog. But this song of peace and innocence starts him off not on a redemption arc but an path for healing. It’s important for Sansa that Sansa uses the tools expected of her station to protect herself. She’s not girlbossing her way out of something. She says over and over “that a lady’s courtesy is her armor”, and it’s an important contrast to Arya (who is girlbossing her way through planetos with a weapon named for a tool expected of a nobelwoman). Sansa never desired to be a warrior like Arya, she finds pleasure in being a high born lady…and theres nothing wrong with either path. GRRM is showing that characters like Sansa aren’t damsels in distress because they like the “trappings” of their station, rather Sansa’s story shows that she can use those tools to protect herself while becoming politically astute to maneuver. The other thing is that at her wedding to Tyrion, Sansa never kneels to allow him to place the cloak on her. Instead Tyrion has to stand on a jester’s back to do so. Sansa refusal to kneel is her act of rebellion disguised by her courtesies because in this scenario she’s not expected to. At no point in the scene do Tyrion, The Septon, Jeoffry, Cersei demand she kneel for her husband. Sansa uses societal expectations to fight back a bit, turning the situation to mock solely Tyrion. Had she knelt she would have been lumped in with the way kingdom sees Tyrion. Instead she makes a statement at the wedding that she’s a child being forced into a political marriage without people notice her openly defy the system and the Lannisters. It grows the alienation between them and keeps Tyrion in people’s crosshairs while she fades to the background as the poor girl who was forced to marry The Imp. Which also allows her some cover to keep sneaking out to see Dontos. As Tyrion, still smarting from the humiliation at the wedding, allows her space because he’s trying to Nice Guy his way into Sansa’s heart.

Making Sansa also go through Jeyne pools storyline was ridiculous especially since Jeyne exists in the show. D & D really shouldn’t have been given control of the story they bamboozled George and did everything to his story he was worried about.

I was also very bothered by this scene. It's this glorification of trauma as if horrible situations are something to be desired and proud of because they make us stronger. Sure, it's great if someone can heal from their trauma and it's amazing if they grow from it but it should never be glorified in that way or depicted as the only way for someone to grow. What happened to her way horrible and should never have happened, but to frame it as something she needed to grow is sending a horrible message.

The thing that was horrible about GOT was that being a straight up sociopath was considered a good thing where as in the books Sansa’s biggest feature later on was her compassion. Same with dany. In the show aryas brutality is portrayed as a good thing when in the books it’s portrayed as troubling

I have to admit that while watching the show I didn't like Sansa at the beginning and then I just felt really bad for her and just wanted her to be happy and safe but she never was a character that I really liked in the show, when I read the books I loved her character since her first chapter, even when she was defending Joffree, her inner thoughts are super well written and you can see how her personality was shaped by her lifestyle, I admire her strength in the worst situations and she is shown to be very kind after leaving kings landing, the way she interacts with Robbin is so sweet and the book also shows how she learned from the bad experiences and how she doesn't trust little finger and feels uncomfortable with him but she can't go anywhere else and she is really trying to learn how to manipulate like him so that she can get something useful to her despite being in a bad situation

Sansa has always been my favorite. She brings a very interesting point of view of a tragic place to be amongst war. All the abuse, the beatings, the manipulation and all while having her father killed and, consecutively, hermother, and all male siblings (it's believed Theon killed Bran and Rickon), Arya is missing and could well be dead in Sansa's mind. There's only Jon, north of the wall, so far away from Kings Landing. And yet what people see is "stupid girl you killed ned how could you believe one of the most experienced person in the whole game of thrones from decades while you were 11 coming from a far country-ish northern frozen land!! its your fault!" It's pretty sad how shallow the show portraited her and all the "cerseification" of Sansa in the later seasons. I'm excited to see how the develops in the next books! Great video, I looove Sansa content!

16:14 Good point. I definitely agree with that. There is enough trauma in a poor young girl's life without what happened to Sansa in the story.

THANK YOU. I have so many issues with how the show wrote (but not portrayed persay, the actors were phenomenal) most of these characters for TV, and Sansa is at the top of my most wronged characters list. Especially as a victim of CSA myself, and with intimate knowledge of these books (it's one of my biggest hyperfixations) I KNOW the gratuitous amount of sexual violence was unnecessary, bordered on voyeurism, and weren't even in the books at all in the first place. It bothers me every time I see the show or hear people talk about the story while only having knowledge of the show. I think that at the end of the day, it really shows how, in my opinion, George is remarkably talented at writing characters of all genders and D&D simply do not know what to do with a young girl like Sansa.

“My audio is messy because I have a lot of bunnies-“ FORGIVEN

Sansa doesn't even go to Winterfell in thet books. That plot line goes to Jayne Poole, her friend from Winterfell. There was no reason to even show that arc. They did it just for the SA plot line, and that says all you need to know about D^D. She turns the corner in the books and begins to become a strong character without this abuse.

I knew as soon as they removed Jeyne Poole they were going to have major issues later on. I didn't anticipate that they would put Sansa in Jeyne's place, but I sensed trouble coming. Sansa is meant to be a deconstruction of the Disney fairy-tale princess. She is not a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination when we meet her. She is a selfish, petty 11-year old who - at first - has no interest in growing past her narrow frame of reference. But so what? This is the mindset of a privileged child. It's not damning. I wouldn't have wanted her as a playmate at 11, but that doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean the whole character should be written off. I hesitate to comment on Sansa's character arc after KL from the perspective of a reader . It's too undercooked in the books at this point. I can't be sure what will happen in the Vale. She's in a bad spot of another kind, but at least at this stage she isn't as trusting as she was. There is growth, but it is slow. But I have hope for her, because Martin has shown that he has a deft hand in developing his characters. The show messed so many things up. It started out well...but it just *fell apart*. It's not just Sansa, but she is one of the characters it is clearest with. (I'm looking at you, ShowTyrion. WTF were they thinking, making him this quasi-white knight character?)

Thank you! This is the line I was hoping you were going to criticize! It absolutely burns me up when abuse is portrayed as having been needed, or on some level, a good thing. The attempt to justify it in this way sends very unhealthy messages to victims and perpetrators alike!

The term I've heard for Ramsey's treatment of Theon is, "Torture porn", and I believe it applies to Sansa especially. She doesn't suffer in order to learn or overcome. She suffers in order to indulge the viewer in a very dark place, enjoying the spectacle of pain. .

After reading the books and watching the show I found Sansa to be one of the most relatable and heart breaking. The rigidity of the gender roles she was brought up in promised her a life with a prince that was beautiful and full of honour, but the reality of her situation was the opposite. It’s heartbreaking to watch her try to cling to some sense of normalcy or to return to the rigidity of her imposes gender roles because MAYBE if she did the world would go back to normal and she would get her happily ever after. It feels like her story mirrors that of so many young women who are promised a beautiful happy life with a husband and kids if they just follow orders and do what they’ve be told only to be smacked in the face with the cold reality of that promise way to late in life to do anything to change it.

They also made Littlefinger appear incompetent because he wouldn't just give her to the Boltons unless it served him in some way it didn't. So it made more sense to send her to the only place she would be most protected, which is... House Mormont. Even though they have a very small army. They are honorable and knowing the best means to protect Sansa is to keep her identity a secret, it is very likely no one would transmit her wherabouts to the Boltons so long as Littlefinger cleverly disquises her and only reveals her identity to the Mormonts who again are an honorably people and had proudly served the Starks. And to have her grow into her own character, you could have it be an issue for Mormont to house her because their forces are so small in number. If work came out, they wouldn't be able to protect her for long and they would be putting themselves in danger especially since she isn't the next in line to the throne at Winterfell. This gives Sansa the opportunity to stand up for herself and show she has agency by being the commanding personality necessary for the Mormonts to maintain their pledge of honor towards the Starks. They are not just honoring their pledge to the Starks, they are honoring her as the rightful Stark.

Excellent analysis. The wedding night scenes were when it was clear that the two Dave’s were lost and out of control.

Just watched a few videos about Fiona Apple and how her sensitivity is a power and a gift. Really, Sansa is a fictionalized version of Fionna. I also recall actresses that have played as Disney's live action princesses, and i like Dakota Fanning saying that there's strength in femininity and softness (Aurora) and Lily James said something similar for Cinderella. I love seeing people accepting there are strengths in these, and it would have been cool to see it on the show. Hopefully a future adaptation will.

I didn't make it to that scene of Sansa talking to Sandor, as i quit the show after her wedding to Ramsay. I can't imagine book Sansa saying those words at all. It's crazy to look back and think of how initially I was excited for Sansa to go to Winterfell, as I thought, "wow this is going to be so different. the northern lords are going to react very differently to actual Sansa Stark being there than fake Arya in Jeyne Poole. Sansa will have a much higher leg up. She doesn't need to marry Ramsay at all." All throughout the eps leading up to the wedding and the wedding ep itself I kept expecting the northmen to turn on the Boltons and put their weight behind Sansa, even thought at the wedding they were going to be killed there in a similar payback to the red wedding that the boltons helped orchestrate, but of course none of that happened. They gave us Sansa's earlier storyline as you said, dialed up to 10, and had her act like Jeyne does in the books throughout the whole thing, and not how Sansa, a highborn lady would have reacted. I cant tell you how disappointed I was.

Yes, thank you! A video that was much-needed! Yeah, Sansa is a great underrated character, and I can't wait to know what happens next to her in the books. While yeah, she starts perhaps a little annoying in the books, later, as her story progresses, and we see and understand where her story and character arc is going, you realize she has and will have an amazing story and that yeah, she's a fantastic character and well developed. And yeah, I especially love that Martin didn't make her into a bad-ass fighting boyish girl, but made her a smart feminine character that knows how to make people follow her due to her kindness, unlike Cersei who just uses and manipulates men, so Sansa and her type of character, is something we don't get much in these type of series, and which sadly isn't liked very much by a lot of the male audience.

There's also the fact book! Sansa actively wants to marry Willas Tyrell (Margaery's eldest brother, who had a bad leg and a passion for falconry) because it would give her a way out of King's Landing and she doesn't care if he's a cripple. Show! Sansa also wants to escape but it looks like she's still swooning over Loras' pretty face and is oblivious to what is going on. I understand they had to cut Willas and Garlan because it would have made the show too intricate (still a shame, I liked Garlan the Gallant), but it led to a huge mischaracterisation of Sansa.

In essence, the argument the show is making is that Lady Catelyn was a little bird for the entirety of her life until maybe the last few chapters of it because for all that time, until maybe the last few chapters of it, she didn't go through anything half so traumatic as Sansa. I believe D&D wrote that line, whether consciously or subconsciously, to excuses what they ended up putting her through unnecessarily, as if to say, _"Look, everyone, what we did was actually great, because we made her into a Queen! Can we get a, 'Hell yeah'"?_

Just subbed due to coming across your tywin video, ended up devouring the cersei one all this morning. Loved that i got this early

Thank you so much for the new ASOIAF video! Hope to see a character analysis for the next! ❤

They missed a potentially beautiful moment for her and Sandor. For her to see his change of character and being free of his “scary” facade, and for her to finally be vulnerable with him, when he really did care for her all along. Such a bummer. I do think the near-miss rape scene, while deeply disturbing, was an important one. It was a moment for Sansa to see how truly in danger and disposable she was to her captors, and what should have been an important character relationship moment with her and Sandor, because I do think they will get a reunion in the books, and it will be very different. Sansa and her entire arc, I feel, was meant to highlight the shortcomings of Ned and Catlyn as parents. They essentially raised Sansa to be a pawn, and Ned continues to do so after seeing glimpses of what Joffrey was and even being called out by Arya. They put her in danger and she didn’t have the tools to comprehend how or why. From her perspective, she played the role she was taught to the T. I personally love Sansa’s chapters in the books. It reminds me very much of how I viewed the world as a little girl. With no understanding of how cruel and sick people can be. What a beautiful world to live in, if only it were real. I do think Dan and Dave HUGELY missed the mark with her, particularly toward the end. I think she will either die young, but with her child-like world view intact, or be one of the few examples that purity and innocence doesn’t have to be stamped out by society.

I remember hearing or reading Martin comment on why he created the character of Sansa. The other Stark children were all decent likable kids and Martin felt they needed to have at least one child who was less likable, so he created Sansa. She was also not supposed to survive the story.

Girlboss Salsa was such a disappointment. Each Stark child is supposed to find a different sort of strength, and Salsa's arc in the books is about her learning to be subtle, to fight from a position of weakness and make a difference by taking advantage of people seeing her as weak and stupid. But I guess that's just too hard to write. So instead we just get smug, emotionless Salsa. She becomes so boring. Her chapters are so great in the books, and Sophie Turner did such a great job showing the subtlety of her character. I wish she would've gotten the opportunity to play a better end-game Salsa, I think she would've done a great job of it.

In the books she is a sweet and kind, sheltered young girl who is slowly shown the realities of the world.

I like that she never used her trauma to as an excuse, she never let it be all that she is.

At least in the books she is learning to flirt and she is enjoying that. She's getting a little bit of power. So if she turns into a girl boss it will at least have some foundation. She's not JUST there to prove how hard this world is on children, even when there is not a war. That's only part of it. BTW that's also demonstrated by the other Stark kids and several other characters too.

I actually really like Sansa. She was just a naive girl that dreamt of what she had been told she must dream. She slowly started go see the real world and how she was more capable of doing things and using power. By the end of the war, after many deaths, assaults etc, she just wants peace for HER people, the north. She is queen and wants to rule peacefully. As I see it, the series just starts her story. Now she must rule and go through all the trauma she endured, let love inside her again, as we all know she desires and grow.

I have not payed attention to that conversation, but when you pointed it out, I completely agree. It seems that the implication is that all the horrible things she endured made her the strong woman she is and then in retrospect "may be they were not so bad" - a concept that I totally disagree. What a good catch, I guess this is the "therapist eye". You are right, Sansa in the books is much more interesting. Recently I was rereading them and one thing jumped at me - how much she equates physical beauty with everything that is good in a person. She is offered at one point a marriage with the heir of Higarden, which at that point is the only way out for her, but the only thing that she can think about is "how much better would be to marry Loras, sincere is so pretty and his brother has only on leg", Same with Tyrion - her biggest concern is his looks, not that he is a Lanister and/or possibly a horrible person. Of course in that society the value of a woman is put in her beauty, so it is understandable, but still shallow. Her mother Catlyn is the same way - when she talks with Brianne, in her head she thinks "there is nothing worse for a woman than being ugly" - and this is after all the bad things in her life, really woman - how about your husband being abusive, how about your kid dying, how about not being able to have kids, ... I was thinking also that the way Aria grew up such a rebel and wanting to do things no woman usually does may be due to her understanding that she is not pretty. I mean the fact that she knows from her mother (not that Catlyn would ever do that intentionally, but for a smart kid there are ways to get things that are never said) the importance of it, shaped her to become this person.

How the show treated Sansa made me stop watching it and took a long time to begin again. Your video is 10/10 cause that's exactly how I thought about what happened to her character.

THANK YOU!!! That "I would have stayed a little bird" was so upsetting and disturbing. And that's without taking into consideration the way Sandor speak to her, the words he uses. THE ICKS!!! 😖

4. Little bird. I think D&D wanted to say something like she would not be the same person today without the trauma, the wizened skin, the cynicism etc. This is undoubtedly true, and for believers in standpoint theory she could now relate to the hound and other abused commoners now she had her own experiences. I do think D&D fluffed it with poor writing, which maybe cheapened the line, and minimized the abuse, maybe it was Sophie's delivery, but even so someone relating their own story down in the pub, without the expectation of a team of pro writers would also definitely fluff these sorts of stories, minimize bits, need longer to explain others and it would depend on the patience and skill of the listener as much as the storyteller (and when I disclosed that I was studying psych undergrad, I heard all the abuse tales and every one was surprisingly honest and blunt if not 100% articulate and fully formed). From this perspective, if we imagine Sansa had not prepared any speech for the hound, we could likely imagine she would give an unthoughtful brush-off or face-saving BS answer. He is not the therapist after all, and she may not have worked through her trauma with a therapist guiding her into the correct lingo to use or framing to see the world.

Every day you release ASOIAF content is a good day 🥰

The show's problem is they clearly wanted the character to go from victim to master schemer but had no idea how to write a character like that. Instead of creating a smart character they just gave her the trappings of a smart character and had other character tell the audience she was a smart character.

Going to be honest, I never saw her statement of without the trauma she wouldn't have grown up as a wholesome ending. I saw it as relatable, real, sad, but true to those who have been through trauma. It's a real mindset that most of us go through when we're really starting to face what we've been through and question "who would I have been if I didn't go through this? What would have changed?" As someone who grew up in a cult, as someone who almost killed someone in self defence and justified rage at 15, as someone who was sexualized starting at age 11 and wasn't pulled out, saved, shown what normal was til the age of 20/21, I related to this. This spoke to me not because it was wholesome. But because it was real. It was something that showed where she was in healing, and it pushed me to answer the questions I'd already been asking myself a long the exact same lines. I agree that the show ruined Sansa. It ruined all of the characters. But while we didn't get to see the emotional internal story, we got to see what she was outwardly put through. Those of us that her part of the story is supposed to resonate with didn't need much more, we could easily infur the rest because on various levels, we were there. It was triggering, it wasn't an okay place to be, but being able to watch her come out the other side, helped some of us come out the other side. Book is still better, but this sticks with me.

I think that your problems with Tyrion in the show is colored by the relationship that they have in the books. I didn’t see any romantic feelings that show Tyrion had for Sansa.

The title made me nervous, but I totally agree with everything you said in this vid

18:44 y'know when I said this to a therapist they said, "Your trauma didn't make you who you are. Your trauma tried to kill you and who you are won." Thanks for calling out that nonsense.

You read WAAAY more into the "little bird" conversation. What I took away from it was that Sansa recognizes, at this point, that she was a VERY sheltered and protected child who would likely STILL be as sheltered, naïve and foolish at that point if she hadn't been forced to learn the harsh lessons of misplaced trust. She was telling the hound that WITHOUT experiencing those traumas, she might have never understood the dark side of human nature and would likely still be a "foolish little girl" in a young woman's body. THAT is the "little bird" she referenced. I, like you, suspect that this impression was left accidentally by these two showrunners because I don't believe they are clever enough to have formed such a complex thought. At least by the poor writing they showed as soon as the show past the point that the author had written to.

I like what you said in the end of this video. How Sansa could have been the beating heart of the show if David and Dan bothered to understand Sansa as a character and what the overall point is of the book series, because chances are that is what GRRM is setting her up to be. Sansa is introduced as someone who loves stories and songs and has a very black-white view of the world. She is supposed to be like the reader who reads A Game of Thrones for the first time and expects things to go in a specific way. Sansa, just like the reader, is suprised by the Ned's death and now has to relearn how the world works - JUST LIKE THE READER. While Sansa has many storylines to her name: a political arc, an autonomy arc, and a romance, but the number storyline is what lesson Sansa will learn by the end of this book series when it pertains to songs, truth and lies. In the beginning Sansa said, "All she wanted was for things to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs." We all know how this isn't true but what many in this fandom fail to realize is that Littlefinger's line: "Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow." Is as equally inaccurate. Thinking everything in the worlds is pretty, rainbows and amazing is wrong, but by the same extent thinking there is no hope, only monsters win, and if you wish to succeed you need to lose your moral compass is just as wrong. What Sansa will learn in the end will be something more in the middle of these two extreme takes. It will be a bittersweet lesson. And that will be no doubt one of the core message of the Song of Ice and Fire book series. Very few characters have a storyline that pertains to the title of the book series, but Sansa being one of them, shows just how important she is to the book series. In my opinion GRRM is setting Sansa up as the heart of the story.

Think you missed that in part a fictional SA or abuse of women is there for the white knight to contrast with. In this story the two most scarred people, Tyrion and the Hound, have not given in to their trauma, retain their humanity for it's own sake, and are subtly (or not) guiding her to safety, which Sansa is not quite ready to accept. Sansa wedding night was in the books, it wasn't a creation of D&D, it was Jayne Poole, so having made the choice to put Sansa in there she is simply following the Jayne storyline. In the books, she is manipulating littlefinger to get her to safety, and he is happy she is creating this obligation that he can later call on, ie the death of Aunt Lysa.

I'd love to sit down with you and discuss Sansa because, whilst i agree with most of what you say, i actually love her story, she's my favourite character. I interpret that 'i would still be the little bird' line differently to you. What would be her impetus to change if she'd just continued to rely on the kindness of others? Maybe something else would have happened but there's a chance it wouldn't either. Is the 'going through hell made me who i am ' so unrealistic? I think she had to go through two hells because, in the first, she thought she might be rescued, she then was only to end up in hell again. It was at this point that she realised the only way out of hell was to drag herself out. I'm also ok with the depiction of violence, in so much media violence is portrayed as something heroic (Logan and Deadpool are major examples of this), to have a site portray how horrific violence really is isn't a bad thing. Was Sansa singled out for violence? She was paired with Theon who was just as much a victim as she was but, whilst Theon found some kind of peace, he never escaped being a victim, Sansa did. Ultimately I love Sansa's character because she (and maybe Arya) are the only charecters in the entire show that learn anything, i don't think that Sansa learning due to get treatment diminishes hey achievement.

Ugh I feel like there were certain traits that were overlooked or over simplified in this breakdown of interactions. The biggest one being her last interaction with the Hound, he was one of her big protectors so saying he would have kept her from all the hardships she was dealt after he left would be the equivalent of keeping her from all the things that forced her to grow up. Without the things she went through with Littlefinger and Ramsay( to a lesser extent even though the show used him to fully develop her drive to save herself) she would have had no reason to reject her “courtesy” and learn how to think for herself and adapt. I.E. she would have sat in her pretty little cage and sang the songs she was taught instead of taking wing and realizing she was a bird of prey and capable of so much more. With that said some of the other problems I felt had an alternative way to interpret are as follows: She is treated more like an object than a character in the show but in the books she really isn’t all that much better until Littlefinger has her. Her problem was she never learned and adapted to accommodate it, especially when you compare her to her younger sister. Her time in kings landing up until the Blackwater was spent continuously “arming herself in courtesy” like her septa taught her, making Cersei disgusted by her lack of personality and Joffrey making her the punching bag of the king’s guard. Knights were supposed to be gallant and the fair maiden always got her happy ending. Tyrion stepped in multiple times on her behalf and not once took part in his sister and nephew’s torture of her. Their marriage was forced and clearly she could not see past his name of Lannister, he was paying for the crimes of his sister and her hellspawn, and given one of his main characteristics is being lecherous it would have been odd NOT to want her. Show time with Littlefinger is probably what did the most damage to her character, she doesn’t get half the lessons that made her character evolve. In The Vale she grew up a lot, learning how to take charge of situations while simultaneously transitioning from pawn to player in the game of thrones. The Ramsay pairing was a stupid move for the show, it’s not anything he character arc called for and was extremely OOC for Littlefinger. There WAS a need to include the Bolton’s post Red Wedding but the choice of Sansa was ridiculous.

I'm looking forward to that Deep-Dive (Though if you're going to do one for each of the Stark kids, I guess you'll go from oldest to youngest?) The problem with Sansa, in my opinion, is that she is the character with the most change, even within the same books. There are setups in the first book that lead to nothing, because GRRM himself changed his mind about the character's fate when writing the sequel. That is why there are things in the first book that may be difficult to analyze when looking at the big picture. Although this applies more to foreshadowing, not necessarily to the psychology of the character, the transition from the original Sansa and her new version seemed to be almost indistinguishable.

Wait a minute, if Sansa started the series as 11, and is currently 14 at the Eyrie, does that mean all the ASOIAF books only cover a period of less than 5 years????!!!

I find it so creepy the way all these older men think they have the right to creep on this child, just because they were each a little bit nice or in the case of the Hound or Dontos, honest with her about her predicament. Her rank and her lady's armor is not really protecting her.

It seems like Sansa was born too late. She would have been much happier growing up during the reign of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

Right on. Thanks for sharing.

I took what Sansa said to the hound more and something she said is a coping mechanism for herself, in her own head. I'm just speaking as someone who's gone through similar traumas and have told myself that I'm okay with it because it's made me who I am today. I've told myself that obviously to make myself feel better about it. I can look back and understand that's what I was doing now but that's how I saw the character doing it in the show, not a glorifying of what she had been through. I also kind of took it as her saying it to the hound to make him feel less guilty for possibly "abandoning her" to such a fate.

I watched this scene as it aired and cringed at it immediatly, exactly for the reason you described. Watching her character state something so twisted and cruel about herself saddened me so much.

I think for the little bird scene, it isnt attempting to say that one cannot grow up without experiencing trauma. I think it's trying to express that in Sansa's eyes, the world is full of horrors beyond the imagining of most. And she believes being unaware of these horrors is itself a type of childish naivety. Her point I think is that in her opinion she needed to experience these horrors to be fully aware of their existence and their true nature. She sees this knowledge and awareness as being a strength that she has come to value. As for why she might think these things, it could be that shes right considering the particular world in which the story takes place. Or it could be as simple as a coping mechanism. Refusing to see herself as a victim because doing so would only invite more predation from the evil and the Ill intentioned. The latter of those actually has real world study back it up. Victims are more likely to become repeat victims because they present as easy targets for predators. And a good way to avoid that is to consciously try to give the opposite impression.

Her character arc would've been to go to Winterfell and OWN everyone there bc now she knows how to play the game. She makes Ramsey fall in love with her, recruits her agents amongst the ranks, and then has her enemies killed one by one. Putting her right back as a victim who needs saving yet again ruins her character arc. This is storytelling and character 101.

If it weren't for season 7 and 8, we would have stayed little birds forever.

Great video! I think a show you would really like if you haven’t watched it is the bear on FX! Great characters and arcs in that one and really popular rn

What an excellent analysis. I too absolutely hated that conversation in Season 8 between Sansa and Sandor. I look forward to exploring some of your other ASOIAF videos that explore the various characters. I am one of those self described annoying people who absolutely adore the book series, and as such have some very specific complaints about the television show. At the same time I also recognize that I still love the television show in spite of what I see as where it failed to grasp and thus portray some of the primary themes of the book series. For instance, one example is that I feel that the book series is doing an excellent job of exploring the downside of revenge, where the television show glorified it. A good example of this was the portrayal of Ellaria Sand. In the books she is calling out the Sand Snakes for wanting to perpetuate a cycle of revenge. While on the television show they had her wanting to cut Myrcella Baratheon up into little pieces for revenge over Oberyn’s death. Or the badass way they showed Arya taking out her revenge on the Freys, while it feels like her training as a Faceless Man in the books will take her into some dark places that she will be confronted with by the end. In general I loved the show and even felt that there were times that they made some improvements over the books in specific scenes. But I do think that spectacle and shock won over the deeper meanings of many aspects of what the books are trying to do.

I thought Sansa's character in the show was very important. Cersei called her "little dove" and although the dove doesn't fly as high or strong as fast as the Eagle or Hawk, the dove is the mirror that shows us how horrible we all really are.

I've always really liked Sansa since the show, but came to like her even more after reading the books. I got so, so sick of the show audience seeming to dismiss Sansa for her femineity and perceived softness. She's just as much a young wolf as Arya.

I dont agree with the part of 'little bird'. She started a naive joung girl that tried to please people (lanisters) to adapt. And was mistreated and exploited for that. If she never left kingslanding, she would have never rebelt/learned to stand her ground/ self-worth/or build an army. And would have stayed a little bird. Although she could have had many roads to season 8, this was her path. In stead of acting like a victim, she used trauma as her weapon to make her stronger. Every person that hurt her in the past, she learned from and used it next to protect herself. I think of all tv characters, sansa is 1 of the best portrayed. Her character is immense complex, but mayby not for everyone to be understood. Her character feels natural, shes a survivor from the start and as she gets older and more traumatized, she adapts en empowers herself.

Sansa's chapter in the book always woke in me the desire to smack catelyn and the Septa, because those stupid ideas of knightly knights, pretty equals good came from somewhere! But the moments where i liked the character was when she was kind to others despite her own pain. I think in the books her lesson will not be as in the show: might is right, kill or be killed (or as others said here cersei 2.0) but: it's what people DO that matters, not their speeches or their looks or titles!

I’ve been binge watching your videos! Love the analysis. I think part of the perception of Sansa also has to do with sexism & made a lack of media literacy in some viewers? People complain she’s whiny and helpless and “Betrayed her family” and lacks agency when that’s the point. She’s a child, she’s a hostage, she is helpless, not ever situation can be talked out of, Joffrey isn’t opposed to killing her despite her value as a hostage. She can’t pull the same moves as Olenna Tyrell or Margaery or Robb Stark & some fans won’t acknowledge it.

There is a feeling that Sansa may become more important in proceeding books, for example she maybe lined up to marry the not dead afterall Prince Aegon Targaryen. Personally Im still hoping for Ned Stark and his ancestors to come back as white walkers....

I have not read the books (but I will) so my thoughts on Sansa in the HBO adaptation (upon seeing this title) were that it would have been nice if she had a ladies’ maid/companion so that there would have been a vehicle for us to learn more about her. I had completely forgotten about Jeyn! The show got so bad towards the last seasons, that I have not rewatched it. I wish I had ditched it after Season 3 in favor of the books. Thank-you for your analysis.

Good analysis I do think ppl miss that due to Ned seeing how his father, Rickard’s, Southern Ambitions ultimately led to devastation to the Starks + his PTSD from Robert’s Rebellion and falling out with Robert over Elia Martell’s and her childrens’ murders + his promise to hide/protect Jon, lead to Ned overcorrecting and hiding his family from the world. Unlike how he was sent to the Eyrie for fostering, Ned did not do that with any of his children- Bran and Jon should have been sent (or in the process of arranging fostering) to at least other Northern Houses by the time GOT starts (yes, even noble bastards would be fostered). This contributes to all the Stark children being woefully unprepared to deal with political maneuvering compared to their peers like Margery, Joeffrey (yes he’s a little shit and ineffective, but J’s at least suspicious), and Danny. Danny often raised points to Viserys that the people who took them in did so because they wanted something not because they believed V was the true king of Westeros. And throughout her journey in the books she does display caution and shrewdness born from a child who has been on the run for all of her life. But the Stark kids? Ned did not prepare them to be on their toes, did not instill reasons to distrust others and stick close to their family. This is why Sansa is so naive in the beginning due to her seeing KL as the fantasies sung in songs. And why it takes her some time to shake off the rose color glasses to become more astute in self-preservation and maneuvering. And it’s why Cersei and LF are big influences for her because she starts to learn how to play the game, with hints that she’ll move from pawn to a piece that absolutely will dominate/remove C and LF from the board. It’s why Arya, despite being more distrusting, still blunders by not reporting to Ned what she overheard in the dragon crypt in KL because she lacked the information gathering/connections she’d eventually learn in Bravvos. It’s why Robb has extreme anxiety over leading the North in his father’s stead, not because he’s 15 but because he is stressed about managing all of the nuances between the Northmen (Ubers won’t march behind Glovers, etc.) in a way that will make them respect him. It’s why he decides to send Theon away from him despite protests and it’s why he failed to see the growing plot of the Red Wedding. I’m over simplifying a lot but Ned did his kids dirty by not prepping them to be politically motivated and keeping them removed from anything outside of the Winterfell bubble. We were robbed of much in GoT, but I mourn for Sansa’s arc in the Vale. We could have had Sansa learning to run circles around LF and ultimately gain power over the Vale through her manipulating Sweet Robin and getting rid of LF . Because then if everything played our the same, minus the Ramsey storyline, Sansa’s ending would have felt more earned

IMAGINE if Sansa and Ramsei got along and actually became friends.

The perspective that Sansa gives where she talks about Ramsey and Little Finger and how she wouldn't be who she is without them is something that people often do who experience trauma. It's sort of a way to cope. I don't think we're supposed to view it as the writers glorifying trauma (at least that's not how I take it), but more of a glimpse into Sansa's mind and how she deals with the horrible things that have happened to her. When people have been through terrible things, they often ask "Why me?". This is just to show one way that those feelings are handled and how Sansa views them.