Slept On Sansa

Slept On Sansa

Sansa Stark is one of the most slept on, disregarded, and completely despised characters in Game of Thrones. Period! However, she really is a wonderful character. Sansa Stark is the daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. She is also the sister of surprisingly Arya, Bran, Robb, Rickon Stark, and Jon Snow. That is a lot of siblings. Sansa’s picture is the one to the right (Nurdpedia). In the beginning, Sansa Stark is roughly an eleven-year-old girl who lives in the world of realistic fairy tales until reality runs up on her, kicks her in the butt, and knocks some sense into

her. Sansa is completely different from her sister. She is not born a “strong” woman, but she grows into the role. Multiple situations and incidents take place that drives her to be a very independent, “outspoken”, and an overall strong woman. By the end, she is classified as a strong female character. That is growth. Within her growth, we find out what made Sansa that way she was, who Sansa really is, and why people constantly hate on her. 

The first part of assessing growth is looking at where the individual had started from. Sansa is a very girly girl. “Sansa already looked her best. She had brushed out her long auburn hair until it shone, and picked her nicest blue silks” (Martin 140). She cared about her appearance more than anything else because what other quality could a prince be drawn to? This thinking comes from the society around her. Sansa comes from the world of fairy tales and the ideas of damsel in distress. In the pages of 146 and 147, Sansa considers Joffrey as a noble Prince who saved her from the Knights and the hound. He saved her in her moment of need. She was taught that her prince would one day show his love for her when she was in the most of troubles. Sansa embraced that way of thinking instead of challenging society’s expectations like Arya and other women in Game of Thrones. With that being said, when Sansa was younger and as she grew up people constantly compared her to her younger sister, Arya. The comparison of Sansa and Arya is completely sexist. They are both strong women, but with different characteristics. Sansa is a pretty in pink, vibrant, and fairy tale type girl. Arya, on the other hand, is a tomboyish type of girl who loves to get her hands dirty and play with the boys. They are in the same ocean, but reside in different levels. Rhiannon states in her article titled “In Defense of Sansa Stark- Feminist Fiction” that “ the focus on this sort of female character — the oft-cited “strong female character” — seems to suggest that femininity is still bad, and that women can only be strong by adopting stereotypically male roles and attitudes. There’s nothing wrong with Arya declaring that being a Lady does not suit her and forging her own path, but saying that all female characters must take this attitude is as sexist and dismissive as saying that all female characters must be weak and take a backseat in events” (Rhiannon). Also another important part of Sansa’s history is her making multiple bad decisions that made her family members question her and viewers loathe her even more. In the first season, Sansa is plagued with pleading loyalty to either the Starks or the Lanninesters. The Starks are her family, but she is betrothed to Joffrey Lanninester and she does not want to ruin her future. To Sansa, she was following what she knew was right even though her family and the viewers knew that she was making a mistake. Sansa was a naive young woman who had to face adversity to become who she needed to be.

Sansa “Strong Woman”  Stark is one of the greatest characters in Game of Thrones. She has undergone a transformation that produced a better person than expected. Everyone thought that she was just going to stay a girly brat for the entirety of the seasons, but she changed into a respectable woman. She had to mature in a short amount of time to survive. Who Sansa really is is shown in the tenth episode of the first season. The episode is called “Fire and Blood” and it was all that and more. Within that episode, we learned who Sansa really is and that she did not come to play. Sis went hard in that episode. So what happened was that Joffery took Sansa to look at the heads of people he had cut off and put them on sticks. King Joffery forced Sansa to stare at her dead father's head on a stick. She retorted in such a wicked way that made me fall in love with her even more. Joffery said, "After I raise my armies and kill your traitor brother, I'll give you his head as well" (Game of Thrones). Sansa responded with, "Or maybe he'll give me yours" (Game of Thrones). That girl is bad! I love it. She was about to push Joffrey off the bridge when Ser Meryn stepped in and stopped her. Joffrey makes Ser Meryn slap Sansa and, in the words of BB “she took it like a G”. Within those few minutes, Sansa realized a ton of things at once and she started preparing herself for a war that she knew she had to win.  The meme above perfectly ties in to what is happening within Sansa’s life right now (Aww Memes).

She is finally entering the Game of Thrones as a legit character. She realized that fairy tales are not real, Princes are only noble in fairy tales, and living happily ever after only happened in books. It was vital that she learned that now because she would not possibly survive if reality did not roll up. She use to think that her sister was stupid and childish, but she can use some of Arya’s warrior qualities to better herself. Mae Abdulbaki, a film critic who noticed the progression of Sansa said that, “Against all odds, however, Sansa has come a long way since her introduction, her evolution sparking tremendous growth, political power, and leadership. Sansa’s emotional strength, political intelligence, and journey from a pawn of war to helping lead one have made her into a formidable woman” (Abdulbaki). Sansa Stark is a young woman who has and is blossoming into a powerful, courageous, and a well knowledgeable character.

With all this being said, people still feel hostile toward Sansa. She does not fit in with our society's way of thinking about women. She is portrayed as weak, hopeless, and a basic damsel in distress and women today do not like that.  She pushes the readers and viewers into thinking about the history of women. The time stamp of Game of Thrones are not known in real life, but within the years that it resembles women and girls were supposed to be just like Sansa. They were supposed to be quiet, submissive, and vulnerable. We want someone like arya, someone who is not afraid to put herself out there, able to get physically dirty, and challenges the rules placed by society. Mekishana Pierre a writer for Popsugar states,  “A lot of it stems from Sansa seen as the "soft" female character, one of the most classically feminine characters on the show. She likes "girlie" things, she faints, and she cries a lot. But these reasons are incredibly superficial and sexist; as if Sansa's femininity is a weakness instead of it being another reason she's fierce in the same way that Cersei or Dany, who are also very feminine characters.” (Pierre). Pierre puts femininity into perspective. The idea of femininity comes back to bite us all on the butt if we are not careful at accepting it, just like Sansa. If people do not notice her true worth and start believing her as being a strong female character, then they will be missing out on a key woman in the world of Game of Thrones. Sansa was, is, and will forever be a strong warrior woman. Just stay tune and mark my words, Sansa will continue to prevail.