Going Over Sansa VI, A Game of Thrones

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:01]Okay, let's talk about Sansa 6. Now, I know I've been um past couple chapters I've been complaining about filler and how, you know, the exciting story near the end is of course Danny primarily, but also people, you know, the Catalin and Tyrion stories are are quite exciting near Game of Thrones, while Arya, Sansa, and Bran um you know, kind of are just there because they haven't had chapters in a while. and even Jon, not much really happens with Jon at the end. He kind of has his climax early.

[00:00:34]Um, but for filler, as as filler chapters go, Sansa 6 is pretty peak. Uh, it's it's really quite nice in the sense that Sansa has a full transformation to prepare us for events that will that, you know, for her going forward. She has changed completely and it's a very uh fit uh interesting uh end to her chap to her character uh for her to go forward. Now I do have to say um the promise of how cool Sansa's story is going to be is not really fulfilled in A Clash of Kings or the first heart half of a storm of swords.

[00:01:20]people kind of get upset that we're primed that Sans is this changed person who's going to do things and then she just kind of doesn't do anything. Um, now what I what I appreciate about Sansa 6 and the transformation of Sansa is that Sansa was always a parallel character to Arya.

[00:01:42]But, you know, originally Sansa was just going to be a villain. she was going to choose Joffrey, have his child choose his side and um switch sides and be an enemy in the same sense that Tyrion kind of switches sides and becomes an enemy of his family. And that original plan, which is detailed in the in the outline, is abandoned. Um and Sansa is instead paralleled with Arya um as both protagonists, but differently. you know, Arya is the genderbending um uh character who's living outside of traditional agency, you know, becoming a boy, uh becoming lowborn, learning to fight, doing all of the things that women don't do in this society. while Sansa I is how it's changed is now acting with her agency within society like how how do how are ladies supposed to act and what power can they achieve while working within the rules of the society so you have Arya working outside the rules Santa working in the rules and the names of their direwolves uh imitating this Santa lady you know how do ladies act. Well, what do you know uh you know um all of the things that Septimane and her mother uh say to her, you know, let let um courtesy be her armor and things like that. While Arya is working outside Nimriia, the the feminist queen that her direwolf is named after is, you know, she's breaking all of the norms and uh choosing agency in that way. and it becomes a really cool parallel in that respect. Um, now I will say, you know, I don't think it necessarily delivers too much in in A Clash of Kings, but this chapter on its own is pretty awesome, you know, especially considering it's filler. Um, and not needed, you know, it doesn't really advance the story at all. We're hearing about some things in King's Landing that we don't really need to hear about it, but we the Sansa story comes full circle. She was told a bunch of stuff when she was young about knights and chivalry, and here it all shatters and she she um becomes a completely different person. Sansa in the tower room at the heart of Magor's hold fast, Sansa gave herself to the darkness. She drew the curtains around her bed, slept, woke weeping, and slept again. When she could not sleep, she lay under her blankets, shivering with grief. Servants came and went, bringing her meals, but the sight of food was more than she could bear. The dishes piled up on the table beneath her window, untouched and spoiling until the servants took them away. Again, this beginning is clearly supposed to be a parallel to um Ned that he was in the dungeon and he sacrifices his life to save Sansa. Now she's metaphorically in the dungeon. It's super dark. She's choosing to be there.

[00:05:00]Um um of course in in all of this darkness, I guess her her third eye doesn't awaken. Sometimes her sleep was leen and dreamless and she woke from it and she tried uh work from it more tired than when she had closed her eyes. Yet those were the best times for when she dreamed she dreamed of father. See this is again like Ned had all those crazy dreams. Um and I suppose this is also parallel Ricken and going down into the into the crypts and being in darkness. So she's having she's having all of the crypt dreams, all of the father dreams as well.

[00:05:38]um which is kind of lost. Sansa has dreams in a Game of Thrones and those dreams Sansa kind of doesn't have dreams later on while all the other characters do.

[00:05:50]Waking her sleeping, she saw him. Saw the gold cloaks fling him down. Saw Illan striding forward unshathing ice from the scabbard on his back. Saw the moment. The moment when she had wanted to look away, she had wanted to.

[00:06:06]Her legs had gone out from under her and she had fallen to her knees. Yet somehow she could not turn her head and all of the people were screaming and shouting and her prince had smiled at her and he'd smiled and she'd felt safe but only for a heartbeat until he said those words and her father's legs. That's what she remembered his legs the way they jerked when Sir Ellen when Sir Ellen won the sword. So in a parallel to Arya, Arya is not shown the death of her father um and is spared that by Yuran. Sans is not something kind of lost in the um in the show where there's so much focus on Arya. Look away. Look away. You forget Sansa is not looking away and she's forced to look throughout this chapter.

[00:07:01]um to change her.

[00:07:04]Perhaps I will die too, she told herself. And the thought did not seem so terrible to hear to her. If she flung herself from the window, she could put an end to her suffering. And in the year, And in the years, the singers would write songs of her grief. Her body would lie on the stones below, broken and innocent, shaming all those who had betrayed her. Sansa went so far to cross the bed chamber to throw open the shutters. But then her courage left her and she ran back to bed sobbing. It's kind of one of these um common uh juvenile thoughts of suicide. You know that that that'll show them then they'll then they'll be sorry if I kill myself.

[00:07:46]This is a pretty common uh adolescent thought.

[00:07:52]The serving girls tried to talk to her when they brought her meals, but she never answered them. Once Grand Master Pel came with a bo box of flasks and bottles to ask if she was ill, he felt her brow, made her undressed, and touched her all over while her bed made held her down. When they left her, uh when when he left, he gave her a potion of honey water and herbs and told her to drink a swallow every night. She drank it right then and went back to sleep.

[00:08:21]So Pycel goes and touches her all over. I mean, in one respect, you can be like, okay, he's checking her maiden head. She's he's checking to see if she has an appendicitis. She's checking for soores and that kind of stuff, but also people, you know, you're supposed to think by a big creep guy, creepy guy because he's touching her all over. Um, you know, it's supposed to be left uh a little, you know, weird and ambiguous about how much of a of a creep Pycel is here. Um, I mean, you know, his the bed maids are there holding her down.

[00:09:00]She dreamt of dreamt of footsteps on the tower stair, an ominous scraping of leather on stone as a man clung slowly towards her bed chamber, step by step.

[00:09:10]All she could do was huddle behind her door and listen, trembling as he came closer and closer. It was ill and in pain she knew, coming for her with ice in his mind, coming to take her head.

[00:09:25]Danny later has dreams that are very similar about people coming up steps to um to kill her. Um I think the A Dance with Dragons begins with this this idea of people coming up steps So this um you know there's a lot of conflation of all the different dreams that people have um all the main characters.

[00:09:55]There's no place to run, no place to hide, no way to bar the door. Finally, the footsteps stops stopped and she knew he was just outside standing there silent with his dead eyes and his long pocked face. That that was when she she realized she was naked. She crouched down trying to cover herself with her hands as the door began to swing open.

[00:10:13]Creeping creaking the point of the great sword poking through. Um this is, you know, I think dicks are swords and swords are dicks here. Um, she's scared in that sense as well of of uh she awoke murmuring, "Please, please, I'll be good. I'll be good. Please don't." But there was no one to hear.

[00:10:42]When she finally came for when they finally came for her in truth, Sansa never heard their footsteps. It was Joffrey opened the door, not Sir Illan, but a boy who had been her prince.

[00:10:55]She was in bed curled up tight, her curtains drawn, and she could not have said it was noon or midnight. The first thing uh she said was the first thing she heard was the slump of the door.

[00:11:07]Then her bed hangings were yanked back and she threw up a hand against the sudden light and saw them standing over her. I suppose in the sense that like Sir Illen is representing death. Sir Ellen, you know, is representing whites, all this, the dead men representing death. But then who is actually death?

[00:11:25]Well, death is actually Joffrey.

[00:11:30]You will attend me in court this afternoon, Joffrey said. See that you bathe and dress as beffits my betrothed.

[00:11:38]Cedric Leane stood at his shoulder in a plain brown dubblelet and green mantle, his burned face hideous in the morning light. Behind them were two knights of the king's guard and long white satin cloaks. So, um, interesting satin.

[00:12:02]So, in a in a feast for crows, Aries Oakarts has wool cloaks and silk cloaks, but here's a satin cloak, but you know, the idea is they're wearing something more ceremonial. Satin.

[00:12:17]Sansa drew her blankets up to her chin to cover herself. No, she whimpered.

[00:12:21]Please leave me be. If you won't rise and dress yourself, my hound will do it for you, Joffrey said. I beg you, my prince. I'm king now, dog. Get her out of bed. This is a fun little thing here.

[00:12:33]Um the titles for Joffrey are very are subtle here, but they're they're kind of um fun and interesting later on.

[00:12:43]Dog, get her out of bed. Ted Kugane scooped her up around the waist and lifted her off the feather bed as she struggled feebly. Her blanket fell to the floor. Underneath she only had a thin bed gown to cover her nakedness.

[00:12:55]"Do as your bid, child," Kane said.

[00:12:57]"Dress." He pushed her toward her wardrobe almost gently.

[00:13:04]Sansa backed away from them. "I did as the queen asked. I wrote the letters. I wrote what she told me. You promised you'd be merciful." Again, they're pushing this idea that the letters she wrote are I mean, George is pushing the idea that the letter she wrote is somehow significant. It has no significance. You there's an entire chapter about this and then Rob receives it and it's it's irrelevant. The the letter is irrelevant. It's brought up in a Clash of Kings as if it was some really important thing that Sansa came to to her and informed her of the pl of the plan. And it it wasn't. It wasn't.

[00:13:39]Um, I wrote what she told me. You promised you'd be merciful. And this is this is I do like about the Joffrey Sansa J the Sansa and Arya stories is the exploration of what mercy is? Um, is mercy uh really being nice to people or is is mercy a reason to be a tyrant? So there's this idea of giving the gift of mercy. Oh, so you're just killing people and calling it mercy. Um, I'm doing this for their own good. You know, I'm doing this in in in the name of goodness. And how how the idea of mercy can be can be twisted. Um, that and it happens in both stories.

[00:14:29]Please let me go home. I won't do any treason. I'll be good. I swear it. I don't have traitor's blood. You don't. I only want to go home, remembering her courtesies, she lowered her head. As it please you, she finished weakly. This will come back as it please you.

[00:14:48]It does not please me, Joffrey said.

[00:14:51]Mother says, I'm still to marry you. So, you'll stay here and you'll obey. So I guess you know Cersei is thinking that they can pull in the north still and stop war if she if she has this marriage. Cersei is all of a sudden the voice of reason here trying to stop war.

[00:15:12]Um she didn't want Ned killed. She still wants this marriage to happen to try to to try to stabilize the kingdom and pull in I mean and get control of the north and all of this.

[00:15:24]I don't want to marry you, Sansa wailed.

[00:15:26]You chopped off my father's head. He was a traitor. I never promised to spare him. Only that I'd be merciful, and I was. If he hadn't been your father, I would have had him torn or flayed. But I gave him a clean death.

[00:15:39]So, um, really this is all bull. Obviously, had he not killed her, they would have had a hostage exchange for Jamie. um be a very very different situation.

[00:15:54]But Joffrey is crazy and doesn't understand anything.

[00:15:57]Um but we're getting into we'll get into some interesting aspects of Joffrey's character. I think this is really one of the one of the best chapters in getting into who Joffrey is rather than just him. You know, he is obviously just a savage a savage jerk, but it some of his actions are explained by this chapter.

[00:16:23]Um, Sansa stared at him, seeing him for the first time. He was wearing a padded crimson dublet with lions of with lions and cloth of gold cape with a high collar that framed his face. She wondered how she could have ever thought him handsome. His lips were were as soft and red as worms he found after a rain. And his eyes were vain and cruel. "I hate you," she whispered. So, and this is the um interesting thing here again paralleling Sansa. Arya is that Arya went through her lessons with with Syria Fel about the difference between seeing and watching, you know, and which is the yogi thing. Um you you can observe you can observe so much just by watching this is this idea that there's a difference between looking and seeing right um Sansa saw him for the first time really seeing him for the first time before she was just looking. And so a spell has been broken and now she has the ability to to see things like like like Arya can. But she also has the ability to turn it off, which is and reverse it later on, which is um which is clever. I wish they would have uh pushed this idea more with Sansa later on. They um of course this is also like how they start how George started the John character that he saw things that other people didn't see and that idea kind of went away. And then Arya is supposed to see things that other people don't see. And then Sansa here is supposed to see things that other people don't see or can or can turn it off at will.

[00:18:10]Joffrey's face hardened. My mother tells me that it isn't fitting that a king should strike his wife. Sir Marin.

[00:18:18]So this is hilarious again like like you know as if this is somehow morally better. But this this gets into some brilliance here. Okay. Because we think of world leaders as not being murderers because they command people, they command armies to kill for them as if the blood isn't on their hands. And it's so brilliant that in such in such a concise way, George R. Martin like strips this bear that you know he says oh it's not it's not fitting that that I should strike you so sir Marin's just going to strike you for me and it's it it does it strips it strips the whole thing it strips the whole thing bare like leaders don't of course world leaders have blood on their hands just because you order somebody else Um, it's a it's a very it's a very funny thing because in this situation, I'm sure in Merit Transmind, he is he his his conscious is clean because he's just doing what Joffrey says.

[00:19:32]Joffrey's conscious is clean because he's having like Sir Marin Trent do it.

[00:19:37]So, where does where does the where does the morality fall? like it. Um, it's it's really it's a really brilliant metaphor.

[00:19:48]The night was on her before she could think, yanking back her hand as she tried to shield a face and backhanding her across the ear with a gloved fist.

[00:19:56]Wolf.

[00:19:59]Sansa did not remember falling. Yet the next she knew she was sprawled on one knee amongst the rushes. Her head was ringing. Sir Marin Trance stood over her with blood on the knuckles of his white silk glove. Oh, it's a glove. I mean, not metal glove. At first, I was like like mailed, but no, it's a silk glove.

[00:20:20]So, will you obey now or shall I have him chastise you again?

[00:20:28]Sansa's ear felt numb. She touched it and her fingertips came away wet and red. I I don't know how they cut how her her ear got cut open there with a I as you command my lord your grace Joffrey corrected her I shall look you look look for you in court he turned and left this comes back my lord your grace some some George does make mistakes all the time where people call people my lord that they be should should be saying my prince or my grace or all that. The these mistakes happen all the time, but this chapter I because it's pointed out.

[00:21:10]Um, it everything is going to be intentional in this one. In this chapter, George screws up. Don't don't don't get me wrong, but it's not a screw- up when it's in this chapter. At least I don't think. I hope not. Sir Marin and Sir Aries followed him out.

[00:21:24]That's Aries Oakart. But Sirander Clegane lingered long enough to yank her roughly to her feet. Save yourself some pain, girl, and give him what he wants.

[00:21:34]What? What does he want? Please tell me.

[00:21:36]He wants you to smile and smell sweet and be his lady love. The hound rasped.

[00:21:41]He wants you to hear he wants to hear you recite all your pretty little words the way the septa taught you. He wants you to love him and fear him. And here, this is this is um only mentioned here in this chapter, but the whole little bird thing, at least Sansa's interpretation of why the hound calls her little bird is that it's like a like a um like a parrot that they're just reciting and repeating what comes back. And that this is how a lot of people are in life with with their morality is they don't really think or think for themselves and think about their morality. They're just they just recite what they've been taught when they were young and go through life like that. Um, and so the hound does had called her little bird once before. And she assumes here that it's because she's just dumbly reciting everything she's been told in life and is not thinking for herself. And this is the first time she's beginning to think for herself.

[00:22:55]He wants you to love him and fear him.

[00:22:59]After he was gone, Sansa sent back sat back into the rushes onto the rushes.

[00:23:04]Against the rushes are not not probably in the real made middle ages, but you know, it's obviously like like uh plant reads that they throw in into the corners of the room or on the floor and then they kind of slowly get pushed into the corners. But they're probably actually just mats in real life.

[00:23:31]um staring at the wall until two of her bed maids crept timidly into the chamber. "I will need hot water for my bath, please," she told them. "And perfume and some powder to hide this bruise." The right side of her face was swollen and beginning to ache, but she knew Joffrey would want her to be beautiful. The hot water made her think of Winterfell, and she took strength from that. The idea is that, you know, she she mentioned before that the Winterfell has all the hot springs in the hot water.

[00:23:58]She had not washed since the day her father died, and she was startled how filthy the water became. Her maids slleed the blood off her, scrubbing the dirt from her back.

[00:24:14]um slle slle like in the medieval sense you'll often hear about like water flowing into a moat through a slle but in this in this situation it's it's they're taking like buckets of water and rushing them off like washing her with like a like a a drench or a rinse. So they're taking a bucket and dumping it on her and that's the slooing.

[00:24:42]um scrubbed the dirt from her back, washed her hair, and brushed it out until it sprang back in thick autumn cur auburn curls. Sansa did not speak to them except to have them command except to give them commands. They were Lannister servants, not her own. She did not trust them. When the time came to dress, she chose the green silk gown that she had worn to the turnney. She recalled how gallant Joff had been to her that night at the feast. Perhaps it would make him remember as well and treat her more gently.

[00:25:20]Some cope here fallen back.

[00:25:23]She drank a glass of buttermilk and nibbled at some sweet biscuits as she waited to settle her stomach. It was midday when Sir Marin returned. He had dawned his white armor, a a shirt of enamelled scales chased with gold, a tall helm with a golden sunburst crest crest greaves and gorgette and gauntlets and boots of gleaming plate. A heavy wool cloak clasped with a golden lion.

[00:25:50]Oh, now he's got a Now he's got a a wool cloak this time.

[00:25:58]His visor had been removed from his helm to better show his dower face, pouchy bags under his eyes, and wide a wide sour mouth, rusty hair spotted with gray. "My lady," he said, bowing, as if he had not beaten her bloody only three hours past. His grace has instructed me to escort you to the throne room. "Did he instruct you to hit me if I refuse to come?" "Are you refusing to come, my lady?" He looked at her without expression. He did not give so much of his glance at the bruise he had left her.

[00:26:31]He did not hate her, Sansa realized.

[00:26:33]Neither did he love her. He felt nothing at all. Nothing for her at all. She was only a thing to him. And this is the thing about Marin Trant. Like Marin Trant, even though she says, "Oh, you're you're you're no true knight." But because she's about to say, "You're no true knight." But Marin Trant is doing is the true knight in the sense that he's doing everything required as a king's guard. He is doing exactly what he is told. He is 100% loyal. He in that sense I'm sure in his mind he's a true knight. Um because he is he is he is obedient you know a true soldier um not thinking for himself.

[00:27:17]and and he's passing his morality. He's passing his moral code. He's he's writing it off and just saying, "I just follow the king. That's that's my that's my um and that's my moral code." And there's a lot of people out there, I mean, specifically people that like join the military that are like, "Well, I'm just gonna I'm gonna fight fight for my country and I'm going to do whatever they they they say my country is good.

[00:27:42]Therefore, anything they tell me to do is good."

[00:27:46]Um it's very very simple moral code here. Um in a sense Sansa was that too.

[00:27:53]She was just repeating what she was told not thinking for herself. So you know this is this awakening that like she has to decide for herself what morality is.

[00:28:05]No, she said rising. She wanted to rage to hurt him as he'd hurt her to warn him that when she was queen, she would have him exiled if he if he ever dared strike her again. But she remembered what the hound had told her. So all she said was, "I shall do whatever his grace commands." "As I do," he replied. "It's very simple. Marin Trant is a very simple man."

[00:28:30]"Yes, but you are no true knight, sir Marin.

[00:28:38]Yeah. I mean, what is true knight? Is true knights I mean, is a true knight someone who's not a knight at all? It's someone who has their own who who has moral code who does things to protect people. Um, and then has to determine what is the action that protects people.

[00:28:55]I mean, what what what George is roughly saying here, I'm sure George is a is a utilitarian or a secular humanist, and he's talking about doing doing what is good for the most people or doing what's good for people in general, saving them, you know, and so a true knight is is trying to protect people and save people, which is essentially utilitarianism or or secular humanism or but um and so I think this is what Sance is in the what is a true knight? Brienne talks about this too.

[00:29:29]What is a true knight? Because we know what a knight is, you know. What's a true knight?

[00:29:38]Sandra Clegane would have laughed at that. Sansa knew.

[00:29:42]Other men might have cursed her, warned her to keep silent, even begged for forgiveness. Sir Marin Trant did none of these. Sir Marin Trant simply did not care.

[00:29:54]The balcony was deserted, save for Sansa. She stood with her head bowed, fighting to hold back her tears while below Joffrey sat the iron throne and dispenseed what it pleased him to call justice. So now she understands that like what the king does is not justice just for the sake of it. You know, he's not defining morality just because he's the king. which also means the state does not like what what George is saying is the state does not determine what morality is. So who determines what morality is? Some people would say, "Oh, God." But in this world, there aren't any gods. So the so this but it's clearly not the state. So who determines what morality is? Well, people have to decide for themselves.

[00:30:44]Nine cases out of 10 seem to bore him.

[00:30:47]Those who allowed his counsel to handles. Those he allowed his counsel to handle, squirming restlessly, restlessly while Lord Baish, Grand Master Pyel, or Queen Cersei resolved the matter. When he did choose to make a ruling, though, not even his mother could sway him.

[00:31:06]A thief was brought before him and had and Sir Illen uh had and he had Sir Illan chop his hand off right there in court is because he's just cruel. He just wanted to see the violence. And this is getting into things of like why was Ned killed? Why was Ned killed?

[00:31:24]Two knights came to him with a dispute about some land and he decreed that they should duel on the marorrow to the death. He added they clearly probably there was there was probably a solution here that was not related to that didn't mean violence. But now he's saying you should go battle. That would be like violence.

[00:31:48]A woman fell to her knees and pleaded for the head of a man executed as a traitor. She had loved him, she said, and she wanted to see him decently buried. If you loved a traitor, you must be a traitor, too, Joffrey said.

[00:32:05]So, this is the interesting things, right? Like, if you love your country or if you love your family and you're going to war, you must be evil, too.

[00:32:15]You know, you can feel good about killing the enemy in war, right? Why are they in war? Well, they're in war usually because they love their country or they love their family and their family is going off and they need to do that sort of thing. But, oh well, I guess you're a traitor, too. You know, guilt by association, which is how people justify all the killing in war, right? Guilt by association.

[00:32:43]Um, but when we get into this violence talk, we kind of say like why, you know, Cersei and Vars, they wanted Ned spared because they wanted peace.

[00:33:02]But now we're looking at what does Joffrey want? And every time something is put in front of him, he chooses violence, right?

[00:33:11]the thief situation. Hand cut off. Two knights come before him. I guess they they're they're going to fight. This woman comes before him and she's uh she's arrested.

[00:33:25]But it especially with the two knights, like Joffrey wants war. He thinks war is cool. That's the whole thing, right?

[00:33:35]Like he wants Ned dead. one because yes, he just wanted to kill Ned and he wanted to see that violence on a on a on a micro scale, but he also wanted to he also wants war on a macro scale. He wants violence. That's where he is. So, a lot of people wonder like, who is this woman?

[00:33:53]Um, some people are like, "Oh, is the man that was executed Ned?" Probably not.

[00:34:02]They would have said something. Um, was is this Wila? Is this, you know, no, it's uh it's pro just some other person that was executed in Ned's party. It's strange that this woman is there. Maybe one of Ned's men found a lover in the city and she came came in. Um, as for her fate, we also don't know. the they empty the dungeons a few times. I mean, they empty the dungeons right before Yurin has just emptied the dungeons and then when Tyrion is in power, they empty the dungeons again when Alistister Thorne arrives. But there is a question of what happens to this woman? Nobody, you know, do is did she just die in the dungeon? Is she still down there? Did she get released when when everybody was emptied for the wall? Um, where do you what do you do with women? What do you do with women criminals if they can't go to the wall?

[00:35:10]Frogfaced Lord Slint sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet dublet and a shiny cloth of gold cape, nodding with approval of every time the king pronounced the sentence again. No morality of his own, but of course he just goes along with everything for greed. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Sir Ellen Behead, wishing he she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. Of course, here we get the hints that that Sir Illen Payne, I mean, I'm sorry, Lord Slint, Jenna Slint was in on the execution that he'd been that Joffrey or Littlefinger had come to him.

[00:35:53]Littlefinger was not was not surprised.

[00:35:55]Slint was not surprised that there was some sort of conspiracy between the three men to go against Faris and Cersei.

[00:36:07]But a voice inside her whispered, "There are no heroes," she remembered. uh she had remembered what Lord Peter had said to her here in this very hall. "Life is not a song, sweetling," he told her.

[00:36:16]"You may learn that one day to your sorrow.

[00:36:19]In life, the monsters win."

[00:36:22]she told. Oh, in life the monsters when she told herself. That was the hound's voice. She'd heard the cold rasp metal on stone. Save yourself some pain, girl.

[00:36:33]Give him what he wants.

[00:36:41]So, I mean, he's saying life is not a song, like don't be naive. She's taking it a step further and being like, now life sucks like the monsters always win.

[00:36:52]The last case was a plump tavern singer accused of making a song that ridiculed the late King Robert. Joff commanded them to fetch his wood harp and ordered him to perform the song for the court.

[00:37:01]The singer wept and swore he would never sing that song again but for the but the king insisted and it and it was a sort of funny song all about Robert Robert fighting a pig.

[00:37:12]The pig was a boar who' killed him. In some verses it almost sounded as if it were about the queen. And of course, this is this idea that really it was Cersei that killed him because of the the the strong wine. But of course, like, you know, she laughs at the idea that she later on that she could be a skin changer to take to take over this to take over this boar. Of course, the boar is one eyed and everything. Makes you think maybe the boar was being controlled by the Thread Crow or or Blood Raven or something. But when the song was done, Joffrey announced that he'd decided to be merciful. The singer could keep either his fingers or his tongue. He would have a day to make his choice. Janice slint nodded.

[00:37:59]Definitely. I definitely keep my fingers. Like given these situations, I don't know. I I think I'd keep my fingers versus my tongue. It's a hard choice. Maybe. Maybe. It depends. Is it just one hand?

[00:38:12]No, it's Is it all 10?

[00:38:14]I would definitely I would definitely keep my fingers over my tongue.

[00:38:21]That was the final business of the afternoon, Sansa saw with a relief, but her ordeal was not yet done yet. When the Herald's voice dismissed the court, she fled the balcony, only to find Joffrey waiting for her at the base of the curving stairs. The Hound was with him, and Sir Sir Marin as well. The young king examined her critically, top to bottom. You look much better than you did. Thank you. Your grace, Sansa said hello words. They made him nod and smile again. She's careful here.

[00:38:50]She says, "Your grace."

[00:38:52]"Walk with me," Joffrey commanded, offering her his arm. She had no choice but to take it. The touch of his hand would have thrilled her once, but now it made her flesh crawl. "My name will be here soon. This is uh some foreshadowing of events of a uh the class of kings, Joffrey said as they s slipped out of the rear of the throne room. There will be a great feast and gifts.

[00:39:19]What are you going to give me? I I had not thought, my lord. Oh, your grace, he said sharply. You're truly a stupid girl, aren't you? My mother says so.

[00:39:32]So, she makes the mistake here and he calls her out.

[00:39:37]She does. After all that happened, his words should have lo lost the power to hurt her. Yet somehow they had not. The queen had always been kind to her. Oh yes, she worries about our children, whether they'll be stupid like you, but I told her not to trouble herself. The king gestured, and Sir Marin opened a door for them. "Thank you, your grace," she murmured. So now she gets it right, "Your grace." The hound was right, she thought. "I'm only a little bird," repeating the words they taught me. So, here she's fully she's fully realizing that the system the system sucks and she shouldn't have been um that I mean in its entirety that she was told a bunch of lies about chivalry and honor and the goodness of kings and goodness of of royalty and the upper class. and she repeated it and now she realizes that she was that was a mistake and that she needs to think for herself.

[00:40:39]The sun had fallen below the western wall and the stones of the red keep glowed dark as dark as blood.

[00:40:47]"I'll get you a child as soon as you're able," Joffrey said as he escorted her across the practice yard. If the first one is stupid, I'll chop off your head and find a smarter wife. When do you think you'll be able to have children? Sansa could not look at him. He shamed her so.

[00:41:04]Septterdain says most most highborn girls have their flowering at 12 or 13.

[00:41:09]Joffrey nodded this way. This is again foreshadowing.

[00:41:14]You know, you've got to remember the uh what what I mean. It's interesting because this was originally George's plan that he wanted her to have Joffrey's to marry her and have Joffrey's children. So, we still have the elements of the plan in here, but there is a breakaway of her personality um being very very different like her her clearly not buying into their crap and being being a villain. I mean, maybe you know it's still open. I suppose you could say that she would then have a choice like she would learn to love her child and then choose the child or something. But um it's it is it is interesting that that the exact same um outline that is still here that he's going to marry her and she's going to have his child.

[00:42:21]Um, Sansa jerked back away from him, trembling. Suddenly, she knew where they were going. No, she said, her voice, frightened, gasp. Please don't make me.

[00:42:34]I beg you. Joffrey pressed his lips together. I want to show you what happens to traitors. Sansa took her head her shook her head wildly. I won't. I won't. I can have Sir Marin drag you up, he said. You won't like that.

[00:42:48]You'd better do what I say, Joffrey reached for and Sansa cringed away from him, backing into the hound. Do it, girl. Sandra Kane told her, pushing her back towards the king. His mouth twitched on the burned side of his face, and Sansa could almost hear the rest of it. He'll have you no matter what, so give him what it he'll have you up there no matter what. So give him what he wants.

[00:43:11]So you can see this twitching. Clearly, this is making um the Hound upset because the Hound does think for himself. He does not have um or at least he's awakening at the same time.

[00:43:28]She forced herself to take King Joffrey's hand again. Now she's calling him king. She's submitting here. The climb was something out of a nightmare. Every steepness, every step struggle as if he were he were pulling her feet out of an ankle deep mud. And there were more steps than she would have believed. A thousand thousand steps and horror waiting on the ramparts. From the high battlements of the gate house, the whole world spread out below them. Sans could see the creep of Bor and Bennia's hill where father had died.

[00:44:02]At the other end was the street of the sister. The street of the sister stood the fire black. Um on the the other end of the street of sisters stood the fire black and ruins of the dragon pit.

[00:44:19]So I mean you we can tell here that um this chapter was written around the same time as the Arya chapter.

[00:44:28]uh you know we get the very we get um them mentioning the uh the great sept and the street of sisters which are which again like we we hear about the sweet of street of sisters in a clash of kings but it it just kind of disappears as something referenced you know but because he had written this around the same time as as Arya we're we're getting the same the same sites um so on the other end demonstrated sisters stood the black and fire ruins of the dragon pit. To the west, the swollen red sun was half hidden behind the gate of the gods. The salt sea was swirling at her back um and to the south was the fish market and the docks and the swirling torrent of the blackwater rush.

[00:45:24]So, you know, again, I guess there's no like again like it doesn't seem like there's walls between the kid the like in a Game of Thrones. It doesn't seem like there's walls to the fish market and the Blackwater Rush. It seems like there's walls on three sides of the city in a Game of Thrones. And then George decides to retcon that and add a add another wall because Arya is thinking, "Oh, maybe I can swim across the Blackwater Rush to get out of the city because I can't go out any of the gates." Um, so here is it seems to be the same. She's she's looking over at the whole city and um she can see like the the walls and the gates, but then when she looks south, she just sees the river.

[00:46:18]So there's, you know, there's no wall in front of the river because if there were wall in front of the river, she probably wouldn't be able to see the the black water.

[00:46:28]She turned uh that way and saw only the city. Streets and alleys and hills and bottoms and more streets and more alleys and the stone of distant of distant walls.

[00:46:40]Yet she knew that beyond them was open country, farms and fields and forests and beyond that north and north and north end stood Winterfell. I mean she looks the other direction and she sees the walls. So I guess there's just no walls in in a Game of Thrones around uh along the river.

[00:46:56]What are you looking at? Joffrey said, "This is what I wanted you to see right here."

[00:47:04]A thick stone parapet projected protected the outer ridge of the ramperts reaching as high as Sansa's chin with krenellations cut into every uh five feet for archers. Um, you know, as you know, the ramps of of the wall is the is the little wall on top of a of a fort or and then the krenellations are up and down that you shoot arrows out of.

[00:47:30]Um, the heads were mounted between the krenels along the top of the wall impaled on iron spikes so they faced out over the city. Sansa noted them the moment she stepped out on the walkway. But the river, the bustling streets, and the setting sun were ever so much prettier. Little bit of uh little bit of Sansa in there. Ever so much prettier.

[00:48:00]He can make me look at the heads, he told herself, but he cannot he can't make me see them. And there's serial Fel. It's as if she had dancing lessons with Serial Fel. But yes, this is the the parallel parallel story of of of Arya here that while Arya is trying to see things that that other people don't, Sansa is trying not to see things.

[00:48:26]This one is your father, he said. This one here, dog, turn it around so she can see him. Sandra Clegane took the head by the hair and turned it. The severed head had been dipped in tar to preserve it longer.

[00:48:39]Santa looked at it calmly, not seeing it at all.

[00:48:43]It did not really look like Edid Stark, she thought. It did not even look real.

[00:48:50]Maybe it probably actually really does look like Edard Stark, but she's changing it, right? How How long do I have to look? Joffrey seemed disappointed. Do you want to see the rest? There was a long row of them. If it please you, your grace. if it please your grace.

[00:49:06]See, it's like his desires. It's not about her desires. It's about his desires.

[00:49:13]Joffrey marched her down the walkway, past a dozen more heads, two empty spikes. I'm saving those for my uncle Stannis and my uncle Vanley, he explained again like, why is why is uh Stannis being targeted here?

[00:49:31]He hasn't done anything yet.

[00:49:34]This this war with Stannis has come out of nowhere.

[00:49:40]The other heads have have been dead and mounted much longer than her father.

[00:49:44]Despite the tar, most were long past being recognizable.

[00:49:48]The king pointed to one and said, "That's your scepter there." But Sansa could not even have told that it was a woman. The jaw had rotted off her face, and birds had eaten one ear and most of the cheek. Oh, poor Septa or Poor Septa Moa um Mourdain.

[00:50:06]Sansa was wondering what happened to Septa Mordane, although she supposed known all along.

[00:50:11]Why did you kill her? She asked. She was gods sworn.

[00:50:15]She was a traitor. Getting killed by association.

[00:50:19]Why do we, you know, why do we kill why do we kill lots of people in war? Why do we kill all these soldiers and and these these civilians? Ah, well, you know, guilt by association, right? Joffrey looked pouty. Somehow she was upsetting him. You haven't said what you mean.

[00:50:36]You haven't said what you mean to give me for my name day. Maybe I should give you something instead. Would you like that? If it please you, my lord, Santa said. Boom. Right there.

[00:50:49]The ultimate insult. If it please you, my lord. Now, when I say like George definitely knew that this was intentional because he just right here it's your grace and he corrected her earlier in the chapter. So here he this is her insult here. If it pleased you my lord Sansa says Joffrey misses it. When he smiled she knew he was mocking her.

[00:51:13]Your brother's a traitor too you know.

[00:51:15]He turned Septane's head around. I remember your brother from Winterfell.

[00:51:20]My dog called him the lord of wooden swords. Didn't you dog? Did I? The hound replied, "I don't recall." He's like, "I don't give a fuck."

[00:51:30]But it's true. They played with wooden swords all the way back. Joffrey gave her petulant shrug. Your brother defeated my uncle Jamie.

[00:51:38]Mother says it was treachery and deceit.

[00:51:40]She wept when she heard.

[00:51:43]Yeah, because you know, Cersei does, you know, love Jamie. Um, women are all weak, even her, though she pretends she isn't. She says, "We need to stay in King's Landing in case my other uncles attack." My I guess she means my other uncles. He means the uh the Baratheon uncles, but I don't care. And that's the thing. He wants war. That's the Joffrey always wanted war. After my name day feast, I'm gonna raise a host and kill your brother myself. That's why I That's what I'll give you, Lady Sansa. Your brother's head.

[00:52:26]A kind of madness over Turker then. And she heard herself say, "Maybe my brother will give me your head." Joffrey scowlled. "You must never mock me like that. A true wife does not mock her, Lord. Sir Marin, teacher."

[00:52:40]This time, the knight grasped her beneath the jaw and held her head still as he struck her. He hit her twice, left to right and harder right to left. Her lips split and the blood run down her ran down her chin to mingle with the salt in her tears. "You shouldn't be crying all the time," Joffrey told her.

[00:52:57]"You're more pretty when you smile and laugh." Sansa made herself smile, afraid that he would have Sir Marin hit her again if she did not. But it was no good. The king still shook his head.

[00:53:08]"Wipe off the blood. You're all messy."

[00:53:11]The outer parapet came up to her chin, but along the inner edge of the walk was nothing. Nothing but a long plunge to the bailey 70 or 80 feet below.

[00:53:22]So before she she starts the chapter thinking about her own death and suicide and now she's shifting this to hatred and revenge.

[00:53:33]All it would take was a shove, she told herself. She was standing right there.

[00:53:38]Right there.

[00:53:41]He was standing um he was standing right there. Right there. Smirking at her with those fat worm lips. You could do it.

[00:53:47]She told herself. You could do it right now. It wouldn't even matter if she went over with him. It wouldn't matter at all.

[00:53:55]Here, girl. Sandra Clegane knelt before her between her and Joffrey. He totally sees what's going on.

[00:54:04]With a delicacy surprising in such a big man, he dabbed at the blood welling from her lip, her broken lip. The moment was gone. Sans lowered her eyes. "Thank you," she said when he was done. "She was a good girl and always remembered her courtesies."

[00:54:20]And so there it is. Like that last sentence is everything is that she is going to is what is being set up here. I'm not necessarily saying that this is what's executed, but what's being set up here is that Santa is it needs to remember her courtesies and work within the system uh in order to achieve power and to get her to get her um desires like her agency is within the system while Arya's agency is outside the system. Um, and it's it's really, you know, considering that this chapter is completely unnecessary, it's really just quite it's quite good. It's great dialogue. It's a great exploration of the of the Hound.

[00:55:08]It's a great exploration of Joffrey.

[00:55:10]It's a great exploration of Sansa. It's a great exploration thematically. So, uh, yeah, this is a real this is a this is a bravo bravo to George and spinning something that was completely not necessary into something that's really really quite good. Um, especially considering coming off the last Sansa chapter, which was a wet blanket. Yeah.

[00:55:32]So, anyway, that's Sansa 6. Um, thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.