Game of Thrones: The Virgin Diaries (Sansa’s Spotlight)

Before we begin this week, I’d like you all to time travel back to sixth grade, okay? Just think about all the crazy things going on in your head at that time. Think of how desperately you wanted to hit puberty, or how terrified you were of hitting puberty, or how embarrassed you were that you’d already hit puberty. Think of all the Disney movies you’d watched, or the stories you’d heard from older siblings, about love and life and prom.

Think of alllll the promises you’d been made about life. Imagine you’ve been promised that you get to marry Daniel Radcliffe himself (We all make mistakes at eleven okay this is a very exciting thought to you.) and that you just got your very own dog whom you love very much.

Now your dad gets a big deal promotion to work with Daniel Radcliffe’s dad and you get to move in where Dan Rad lives! And there are huge parties that you’re always invited to and everyone knows you and Dan are gonna get married and kiss and stuff. And then one day you’re hanging out with the sweet tiny love of your life when your stupid sister messes everything up and her dog attacks Dan and your dad gets mad at YOU for the whole thing and then you get locked in a weird room with your best friend from school but she can’t seem to keep her shit together and there are like bombs going off and people dying outside and you just want to know what happened to Dan, right? Because he’s SO TINY how will he survive? Your only true friend is your livejournal, because your dad killed your dog last week when your sister’s attacked TinyRad and ran away. Because your dog was basically a pitbull and she scared DanRad’s mom.

Public Service Announcement: Sansa is eleven. NEVER FUCKING FORGET THAT SHE IS ELEVEN GODDAMN YEARS OLD. THIS IS BASICALLY WHAT MARTIN HAS DONE TO SANSA AND I DON’T SEE HOW PEOPLE CAN HATE HER.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

In case you’re a little behind, here’s last week’s post.

How “cool” and “courageous” were you at this age, huh?

Overall Impressions this week:

This week a lot happened. Like it seems like everything happened.
Here are my chapter titles:
Arya Chasin’ Cats and Monsters/ Eddard: Tryna Get out of King’s Landing/ Catelyn’s Climb/ Eddard and the Quest for the Whorehouse/ Daenerys: Viserys is a Bunghole/ Bran Learns to Ride and Definitely Doesn’t See his Dog Eat a Person/ Tyrion in Prison/ Eddard (This chapter doesn’t get a subtitle I was too bored)/ Catelyn and her Crazy Sister (Also Tyrion’s Battle)/ Jon Black-Snow/ Tyrion Moves the Reader to Tears/ Eddard: This Again?/ Sansa is Sent Back to Winterfell/ Cersei Says the Thing/ Daenerys and the Sweet Smell of Justice (Spoiler Alert it smells better than Horse Heart)/  Eddard “Oh my God please die already” Stark/ Jon and the Hand of Ghost/ King Robert Dies and then Joff Takes the Throne and then Everything Goes to SHIT/ Arya runnin for her Life/ Sansa: the Once and Future Queen

I feel like that says everything you need to know about my reading experience this week.

Total Chapters Read: 20
Jon’s A Bastard: 9 (Record for lowest mentions!)
Winter Is Coming: 3
Mentions of Dragons: 18 (YEAH BUT WHERE ARE THE DRAGONS, GUYS. WHERE ARE THEY?)
Actual Dragons: A stagnant 0
New Characters Introduced: 35 (another record)

Character Analysis from Game of Thrones

Character Name: Sansa Stark

Direct Characterization (What has the author of Game of Thrones told you about this character?)

Art by BuBug on Deviantart

• Sansa is a dreamer. She often talks about life as though it were an epic song or fairytale, and gets disappointed when things don’t turn out the way she expected.
• Sansa wants to marry Joffrey. She believes a woman of good breeding/high standing marries a man of equal or better standing and gives him heirs. Joffrey is good because he’ll be king one day, and he looks the way a prince ought to. Plus his uncle(father but she doesn’t know that) is all golden armor and knightly actions and stuff and she respects that and hopes Joffrey will grow up just like him.
• Sansa is very beautiful and she looks more like her mom than her dad.
• Sansa follows rules and does all the things a proper lady should do. She remembers her courtesies even when she is scared. She’s good at needlepoint, and gets very upset when her sister ruins the dress that the Queen gave her.
• Sansa is pretty selfish–she doesn’t often think of how her sister feels or try to comfort her. (BUT I MEAN COME ON SHE’S ELEVEN AND HER SISTER IS A BRAT COVERED IN DIRT SMUDGES AND SANSA IS TRYING TO BECOME A PRINCESS.)

Indirect Characterization (What can you infer from the characters actions and interactions with others in Game of Thrones?)

Art by haniutek on Deviantart

• Sansa is pretty immature, but in an age-appropriate way. She thinks short-term and focuses largely on herself and how to get what she wants.
• Sansa doesn’t feel very loyal to her family. She’s happy to leave Winterfell while the rest of her family doesn’t like to dwell far. She is the only Stark kid who makes Jon feel alientated. She definitely gets frustrated easily with Arya. She wants to marry Joffrey and become part of the Lannister family instead of her own.
• Sansa is a bit of a coward. King Robert scares her and she gets nervous pretty easily–but she knows she can’t show her feelings if she’s going to be a queen. Like at the tournament, when she was nervous or scared of the dead knight, she didn’t leave unlike her friend Jayne. She follows whoever is in charge and will keep her safe.
• Sansa is naive about the world around her. She believes that good actions are rewarded and bad are punished, and really thinks her life will be somewhat like a fairy tale.
• Sansa is very determined. When she gets an idea in her head, she sees it through to completion.

Description of Character in Game of Thrones

Sansa is eleven. ELEVEN. OKAY? She is eleven. She grew up in Winterfell with her family until her father was chosen to be the hand of the King and then she moved to Kings Landing. She was eleven when they moved alright. Do not forget lest ye be swayed by those who talk shit of young Sansa. She has long red hair and sparkly green eyes. She’s fair skinned and soft–she’s great at needlework but wouldn’t know how to yield a sword if her life depended on it (as it probably will at some point.) She COULD have a powerful ally in her sister, but like Arya is so damn embarrassing that it’s honestly not even worth it to Sansa to try.

I am so glad Martin allows Sansa to be an adolescent girl. She acts in a way that is completely natural for her age, and even though obviously we WANT our fictional characters to be flawless, there’s no realistic way to be that at eleven. She is being set up to be let down based on her high expectations of the world, and her disappointments are already mounting in the first book and it’s so sad but I’m going to guess it hardens her eventually (it would have to otherwise it would likely kill her and we all know she’s still on the show so….)

Conclusion of the week: Arya can protect herself. Sansa needs protection, and I will provide it until my last dying day.
Tune in again next week for the thrilling conclusion to #GoTmonth, and follow along on twitter with the hashtags #sweetsummerchild, #jensnow, and #GoTvirgin.

Shoutout to the “Middle School Matters” blog, where I found this week’s character analysis template.

Fanart Credits: Bubug and Haniutek, both at Deviantart.

Jen Schiller
Staff Writer
@Jenisaur