Sansa Stark a warrior just like Arya Stark in her own way

Sansa Stark a warrior just like Arya Stark in her own way

By: Camren Bozeman

Published: February 12, 2020

Publisher: UNIV 375

Why is Sansa one of the most hated and Arya the most loved out of the Stark family by the fans?

There is a conflict when it comes to Sansa and Arya Stark. They are the only two girls out of the Stark children. One daughter who wants to be a married and take care of her family while the other daughter would much rather fight than go the traditional route. Sansa would be considered today a girly-girl while Arya would be considered a tom-boy.

 At the end of season one when Arya got her hair cut to look more like a boy. Arya and Sansa were night and day, Arya was more into fighting and archery while Sansa was into knitting. There have been times when Arya has been called a boy but is quick to correct people and tell them that she is a girl despite the way she acts. So, in a sense Arya is breaking all gender roles at that time by not following the normal traditions, which sets her up to be one of the most loved characters.

Don’t get me wrong I do think Sansa made some terrible decisions at first, but I don’t think her intentions were bad throughout the series/book.

You have a thirteen-year-old girl who has known nothing but becoming a queen, having kids, and taking care of her family. When presented with the opportunity to become queen Sansa took that chance with Joffrey. Seeing Joffrey was love at first sight for Sansa, that was going to be the man she spent her life with, which is technically what she had been raised to do.

 It wasn’t until then when Sansa started to become the most hated character. To most people they felt like the death of her father was partially her fault. I feel as a young girl that was brought up to serve her husband/man she felt the need to stand be Joffrey because that was now her family. Although she did learn her lesson the hard and I am pretty sure she would have done anything to have Joffrey she still had rules that needed to be followed. Sansa’s age itself should have signified why she made the decisions she did, she was young and in love to someone who she thought was a handsome prince.

On the other hand, you have an eleven-year-old girl who was raised in the same family but has a different point of view. I wouldn’t consider Arya any less of a strong character because she was raised in a family that taught them how to be a “lady”.  That wasn’t the case for Arya, she wasn’t good at knitting, dancing or any of the other things that was considered lady-like. She would constantly get picked on because of the way she acted by her brothers or other people in Winterfell because she was good at things that boys should have only been good at.

I can see why people feel as if Arya was better out of the Stark daughters because she didn’t seem to care what people thought about her being more of a tomboy and if she did, she had no problem correcting them.

All this happening with the sisters has me questioning, would the sisters do anything to harm each other? Was Sansa secretly on Arya’s “hit list”, although we don’t know for sure there was a point where the hostility was shown on the show.

Throughout the series you can see the development Sansa has had. She chose her words carefully, but you could see at times she would make snarky comments.

Sansa could possible one of the most misunderstood characters in the series because of her actions. As the book and series progressed Sansa seemed to become a more liked character. The series premiere of season 8 Tyrion said to Sansa “Many underestimated you. Most of them are dead now,” which just shows how much improvement she has made.

Sansa is very observant, she learns from people around her. She learned from her mother how to take care of a family and believe it or not she even learned from Cersei. There were things Joffrey did that Sansa didn’t understand. Cersei actions led Sansa to keep her friends closer but her enemies closer.

All of this goes back to Sansa being up to make hard decisions at a young age. She has grown up to become a strong minded and powerful woman.

In one season Arya had lost her eyesight, she eventually gets it back, but she had to go through some painful encounters. As I have said before Arya is no less than a feminist than Sansa, they are just portrayed in two different ways. Arya knew she wanted to be a fighter. Her journey to become an assassin was a struggle. Fans looked Arya as their favorite character because in a way she set different standards for how women were supposed to act at that time.

It was at one-point Arya basically a hit list for people that had her or her friends and family. She had intentions on training and in some way bringing them down.

Arya was more of the type to use things that she had learned such as fighting more than her feminine charm. She would be dressed in more of an armor than a dress throughout the series.

The last thing that I am going to bring up is the ultimatum that every body is questioning, Sansa vs. Arya. Sansa could never see why Arya would rather train to fight than knit. The same goes for Arya with her thoughts on Sansa. I have talked about them separately for the most part because they are two completely different individuals.

Watching the first few episodes of the first season I just knew that Sansa and Arya were going to end up turning on each other. Coming to realize that they both know that the actions they took were only because it seemed to be what was best for them.

Overall, Sansa’s decisions were a bit questionable I do feel as if she developed into a smart woman and she deserved so much more credit than what she got. For Arya I feel like her breaking down those gender barriers from the jump was a good move because it defined who she was going to be throughout the series and the book.