Episode 51: A GAME OF THRONES, SANSA IV: "Princess in the Tower" SHOW NOTES!

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish. 

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn. 

Welcome to the fifty-first episode of the Not A Cast entitled: “Princess in the Tower: An Analysis of AGOT, Sansa IV,” in which Sansa Stark is locked up at the very top of Maegor’s Holdfast with Jeyne Poole before being manipulated once more by Cersei, who really is just the worst. 

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: Hand of the King WolfmanZack, Grand Maester Timothy W, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Mark N. Lord Travis, Master of Ships and Warden of the Waves, Ser Keith J, Master of Whisperers, Lord Philip the Merciful, Master of Laws, Jancy O, Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch and Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes, Ragged Michael, Warden of the North, Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone, and Lord Gene, Master of Coin. Thank you councillors very much!

Spoiler warning: All published books - 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

Question

Announce our next patreon-only episode: “The Shadow of a Crown: Jon Snow and Young Griff” with special guest Grant AKA Heathen_King on twitter.

Lady Commander of the Night’s Watch Jancy O asks:

Happy New Year Gentlemen,

Hope you are both well and have enjoyed some winter celebrations. 

So Sansa, I must confess that she has never been one of my favorite characters. Thank you for encouraging me to rethink her arc. You inspired me to re listen to the Sansa episode on Radio Westeros and to begin listening to the Girls Gone Canon character episodes too.

My question: Do you think George is commenting on or referencing any real world stories, films, fairy tales, tropes, etc with Sansa? Sometimes elements of her story spark images of Disney Princesses and chick lit for me but I can't quite pin down my thought process and you seem to have a way of drawing out parallels that I have yet to achieve. 

Thanks for all the great listening over the holidays!

Synopsis

And here is the synopsis for AGOT, Cersei I!

Jeff.

Okay, fine. The title is “The Princess in the Tower”, so I assume we’re reviewing Arianne’s final AFFC chapter?

Jeff.

I will never go off schtick. I will never stop. But … alas, it’s neither a Cersei chapter nor an Arianne chapter. It’s a Sansa one. And here is it’s synopsis.

It’s been three days since shit went real bad for Team Stark in King’s Landing. But Sansa is alive. And now they’re coming for her. Bit of an ominous start. It’s not going to get better for poor Sansa.

Sansa gets into her Stark colors by donning a gray, wool dress fringed with embroidery around the collar and sleeves. All the same, she’s not feeling quite herself. She’s clumsy putting her clothes on without servants. And yeah, sure, Jeyne Poole was there, but she was useless and just sobbing about her father, because … well, she has no idea. But her father is probably well, she tells Jeyne. But Jeyne hadn’t responded the way Sansa wanted. She began crying harder -- like a child in Sansa’s mind. Damn, Sansa. Read some subtext here.

Sure, Sansa had cried too when everything went bad on that first day. She was inside Maegor’s Holdfast, and she heard all the sounds of battle and killing in the castle below. And she’d realized that yeah, she had grown up around the sound of fighting all her life, but this was real. And that scared her. And why oh why were all the soldiers and knights screaming and begging for mercy. It wasn’t like the songs one bit.

She’d spent the day crying and pleading for information through the locked door in the castle. She’d asked for Ned, Septa Mordane, for even Robert but especially for Joffrey. But no one answered. In fact, the only time the door opened was when Jeyne had been tossed into her room.

They’re killing everyone! Jeyne had shrieked.

And then we get the full report: Sandor Clegane had taken out the door to the Tower of the Hand with a warhammer. There were bodies up and down the stairs to the Tower of the Hand, and there was blood everywhere. 

Sansa had attempted to comfort her friend, and they even slept in the same bed, cradling each other like sisters. But would day 2 be any better? No. Fuck, no. Worse. Sure, the fighting was done. But now Lannisters were prowling about like traitor assholes, and it was quiet. Too, too quiet. The quiet of the grave. The only sound was Jeyne sobbing.

But they did eat: some cheese, bread, milk. Then some chicken and greens for lunch. And then for dinner a beer and barley stew. But much as Arianne will find out when we get to her “Princess in the Tower” chapter in like 4 years, the servants who brought them food refused to speak with her. And she was still trapped in her room, unable to leave.

And then the bell rang, its tone deep and long. And the ringing never seemed to stop. Other bells joined from the Great Sept of Baelor and other places in King’s Landing. And Sansa knows what it means: King Robert is dead. Weirdly, she can’t say why she knows this, but she knows it in her heart. But how did he die? Did some enemy storm the Red Keep and murder him? Was that what all the fighting was about? Well, Sansa. You’re not quite right. But you’re not wrong either.

Sansa gets into bed, thinking that if Robert is dead, then Joff was the king. She hopes the “enemies” hadn’t killed Joffrey too. She hopes Ned isn’t dead either. Asleep now, Sansa dreams of being the Queen with Joffrey as the King seat next to her. She had a crown on, and everyone said their courtesies and … well, Sansa, your dream may not be exactly right. But it may not be exactly wrong either as we’ll find out in TWOW next week, ADOS the week after that and GoT S08 in April.

Anyhow, back to the start of the chapter. Ser Boros Blount, an ugly-ass motherfucker who deserves to be banished to Cleveland, Ohio is the kingsguard knight who has come for Sansa. Sansa Stark lies to Boros about how handsome he is, and Boros says you look fetching too. Oh, and BTW, you’re going to Cersei. Have fun!

Outside of her room at long last, Sansa sees Lannister red cloaks guarding the door. She smiles at them and tries to say good morning to them -- which, y’know as much as every red cloak in King’s Landing during Ned’s coup attempt deserves to business end of Stannis justice, they probably found that awfully disconcerting. 

Oh, and then there’s a small backstory note that Sansa had been escorted to Maegor’s Holdfast by Ser Arys Oakheart at the behest of Cersei who wanted to keep her safe. Curious that.

Anyhow, Sansa thinks they’re going to trapse on down to the royal apartments in Maegor’s Holdfast to visit with Cersei, but no. They’re leaving that part of the castle. Outside, Sansa watches as a man is lowered down into the depths of the dry moat. Sansa averts her eyes, not wanting to know if it was someone she knew. Finally they come into the small council chambers to find Cersei, Creepyfinger, Pycelle and Varys. Hm, I don’t know about this. Not getting a good feeling about what’s about to go down.

Regardless, Cersei is looking fetching as always with a black silk gown and a hundred red rubies sewn into her bodice cut in the shape of teardrops. Tears of joy. And Cersei smiles a sad, sweet smile at Sansa. 

Sansa, my sweet child. I know you’ve been asking for me. I’m sorry that I could not send for you sooner. Matters have been very unsettled, and I have not had a moment. I trust my people have been taking good care of you?

Sansa, not being one to forget her courtesies, lets Cersei know that she’s been treated ever so well. But no one will tell us what’s going on. Us? Cersei asks. Ah, yes, we put Ned Stark’s steward’s daughter in with Sansa. They didn’t know what to do with her, Boros says. Well, Cersei ain’t happy about that. Why don’t you ask next time, you big ugly idiot. Besides, Cersei doesn’t want Jeyne spreading some awful tales about what’s been about in the Red Keep. 

Yeah, about that, Sansa puts in. Jeyne’s scared. Is it alright if she sees her dad? Pycelle has the decency to look away probably ashamed. Wait, is Vayon Poole okay? He’s only a steward. The dude doesn’t even carry a sword. Cersei looks around at the councillors and does her I won’t have Sansa fretting needlessly bit. She asks what they should do about Jeyne.

Lord Petyr the godless coward who will die like a chumps leans forward. “I’ll find a place for her.” 

But not in the city of course. That would be too obvious or something. Cersei orders Boros Blount to fetch the girl and bring her to Littlefinger’s apartments to take her to see her father. And now my blood is boiling. Deep breath, Jeff. You can do this.

Boros slithers away like a grease slug to be a monster, and Sansa is confused about what’s happening and what’s become of Jeyne’s father. Sure, she’d promised herself she’d be lady-like like Cersei and strong as Catelyn, but she was scared now and on the verge of tears. She stands up for Jeyne one last time, asking where they’re sending her and telling everyone that Jeyne has done nothing wrong. But Cersei’s all like oh, Jeyne is upsetting you, and Littlefinger will take good care of her, and I just want to roundhouse kick the entire small council but especially that goddamn Creepyfinger. You can probably already tell that we are going to have much and more words about this whole episode towards the end of this podcast.

Anyways, Cersei wants to talk with Sansa. So, Sansa grabs a seat and observes everyone. Varys wrings his hands. Pycelle refuses to make eye contact. But Creepyfinger, that motherfucker who should be set adrift on a leaky boat bound for the shores of Delaware, stares at Sansa, and Sansa thinks that the way he’s leering at her makes her feel like she’s not wearing any clothes. Motherfucker. Sansa is eleven. Damn you, fuck you, die. 

I’m sorry. Littlefinger is under my skin again, Emmett. How does this always happen?

Deep breaths. Anyways, Cersei lies about how she and Joffrey love her, and Sansa is all in a daze. She forgets Littlefinger, because nothing else matters. Cersei lies again, talking about how she thinks of Sansa as her own daughter, and yadda yadda, lies, and oh, sorry, bad news, but your dad, he’s a fucking traitor. Sorry about that.

Pycelle finally makes eye contact and does his Lannister toady song and dance routine about how Ned swore to protect Joffrey and Tommen, but then he tried to steal Joffrey’s throne.

No, Sansa blurts. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t!

Cersei grabs a letter spotted with dried blood and hands it to Sansa. It’s the letter that Ned planned to send to Stannis; you remember the one: about how Stannis is the one true king? Sansa gets panicky and starts talking about how this is all a mistake, and that her father would never do that. Robert was his friend.

It would have broken Robert’s heart to know that Ned had written such a letter, Cersei says. But it’s all so awful, because it puts the Lannisters in a terrible position. Sure. Sansa is innocent of everything, but she was now the daughter of a traitor, and how could Cersei marry her beautiful Joffrey to a traitor’s daughter, and now my blood is up again … 

Ahem. 

But Sansa loves Joffrey. It’s unfair what’s happening. And what the hell happened to Ned? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were taking everything from her. Oh, but Cersei knows that Sansa loves Joffrey. Why else would she have come and told Cersei of Ned’s plans to send Arya and Sansa back to Winterfell aboard that ship? Oh boy. Go ahead and re-listen to our analysis of Sansa III, because we ain’t relitigating this matter too much. 

Well, yeah. Sansa did that because of her love for Joffrey. Usually she was a good girl, but she felt like Arya when she slipped away to tell Cersei of her father’s plans. Sansa did not want to go back to Winterfell to marry some hedge knight, and she tells the council as much. Interestingly, Sansa had first thought to go to Robert, but she’d reconsidered after thinking about how much Robert frightened her. So, she went to Cersei instead. And Cersei had listened and thanked her and then ordered Ser Arys to escort her to that tower chamber high atop Maegor’s Holdfast. A few hours later, the slaughter had begun.

Please, Sansa says, you have to let me marry Joffrey. I’ll be ever so good a wife to him, you’ll see. I’ll be a queen just like you, I promise.

Jesus. I fucking hope that never becomes to case for Sansa. Regardless, Cersei turns to the small council to get their opinions of the matter. Varys does his song and dance about true love and innocence and some such. Pycelle talks about a child born of traitor’s seed will naturally betray everyone. Sure, she’s nice now, but in ten years, she could be leading treasons against Joffrey. What? No. Sansa wouldn’t betray Joffrey. Oh, but you might, Varys says. Blood runs truer than oaths Varys says. Hm, about that, Varys. Care to say more? No? Of course not.

Oh, but Littlefinger has things to say. Sansa sooooooo reminds him of Catelyn, because Littlefinger is totally not a brooding thirty-something acting like a fuckin’ teen about his lost love for Catelyn, right? Yeah, right. It’s the hair, the eyes for Littlefinger. She looks like Catelyn did at her age. You been staring much, Littlefinger. God, just die already. 

Cersei pretends to be troubled and does a bit about how she wishes that Sansa was not like Ned. And Joffrey loves her so, so much. But the blood will run true, and Sansa will probably betray Joffrey -- just like Arya set Nymeria on Joffrey. You know, I just want to stop for a moment and just get angry about how much everyone is lying to Sansa and manipulating her. It’s fucking evil, man. There’s no ifs/buts about it.

But I should stop digressing and finish out. Ahem, again. Sansa tries her best I’m not like Arya. I’m good. She tells them to ask Septa Mordane if they don’t believe her. Gut. Punch. Cersei studies Sansa and pretends to be convinced by Sansa. 

My lords, it seems to me that if the rest of her kin were to remain loyal in this terrible time, that would go a long way toward laying our fears to rest.

Precisely, Pycell puts in. Ned has three sons. Mere boys. Littlefinger says. They should be more scurred of Catelyn and the Tullys. Lol, y’all are going to choke on that come the end of this book. 

Cersei asks if Sansa is literate. She is. Well, then you should write to Catelyn and Robb. Let them know that Ned is a dirty, dirty traitor. Sansa is confused, not knowing what she might say. Oh, don’t worry about that, Sansa, Cersei says. They’ll tell her what to say. All everyone has to do is keep the king’s peace.

It will go hard for them if they don’t, Grand Maester Pycelle says like the coward who Varys’ little birds will murder the shit out in ADWD.

Cersei adds that Catelyn will probably fear for Sansa, but you should allay her fears, let her know that you’re being treated well. And everyone should come to King’s Landing to swear fealty to Joffrey when he takes his throne. And then you’ll get to wed Joffrey!

Oh wow. What a fucking deal. Sansa’s head is swimming. She might be down for that, but could she see her dad first? Ha, no. Cersei is disappointed. Ned’s a traitor. They told her that how many times now? You don’t want to see him. Sansa’s eyes begin to water, and she starts sputtering about the well-being of her father. Is he alive? Has he been hurt? Oh, not to worry, Sansa. Eddard has not been harmed. His fate is in the king’s hands. Oh wow. Sansa hadn’t thought of that. Joffrey is the king now. If he loved her, he wouldn’t harm Ned. Perhaps he might exile him to the Free Cities, but then Sansa would be married to Joffrey, and she could get him back and get him a pardon.

But what if Robb or Catelyn called the banners or refused to pledge fealty to Joffrey? What if they became traitors too? 

I’ll … I’ll write the letters, Sansa tells the council.

Sansa ends up writing four letters to Catelyn to Robb, Bran and Rickon in Winterfell, to Lysa Arryn and to Hoster Tully. She signs each of them and seals them with her father’s direwolf stamp.

Sansa is returned to her apartments later that night. Jeyne is gone. At first, she’s relieved, but it’s much colder without Jeyne there -- even after she lights a fire in the hearth. She pulls a book of Jonquil and Florian the Fool and another book of Lady Shella, and the Rainbow Knight, of Aemon and his doomed love for Naerys.

It was only later as she was falling asleep that she realized she forgot to ask about Arya.

And that is AGOT, Sansa IV: a chapter designed to make me feel very mad online and mad on behalf of Sansa! SANSA! C’mon, George, you can’t make me feel those kinds of emotions for Sansa of all people, can you?

George can.

What’d you think, Emmett?

Depth

If Eddard XIV and Arya IV taken together represented the most explosive challenge yet to the songs-and-stories worldview whose fall from grace is the primary subject of this first book, then Sansa IV is a desperate case for the defense. In the face of terror and chaos, Sansa tries so hard to hold on to the remaining fragments of her world, and this interplay of imprisonment and struggle for control will define her story for the next several books. In the process, she’s wrong about a lot of things, and she has some real obvious levers for Cersei to press, but as we said about Sansa III, every beat fits the arc. Sansa III was the liminal state, and now the walls are closing in around her. In Sansa V, she’ll try to save her father from the trap’s jaws, and in Sansa VI, she’ll reckon with her failure as the book-long project of deconstruction is complete.

• “They’re killing everyone”
  • Unlike her father and sister, Sansa doesn’t see the bloodshed, but she hears it
  • It’s a necessary intermediate step before the horrorshow of Ned’s execution, as well as following up on Arya’s nightmarish run through the Red Keep
  • GRRM pointedly has her note that the stories (and training) don’t work like this--no screaming nor begging for mercy when battles go down in the songs
  • No screaming because the violence is flamboyant, performative, and exciting
  • No begging for mercy because you don’t have to; the merciless don’t win
  • There you can see the flipside of GRRM’s loving critique of songs and stories
  • On the one hand, he’s saying the songs and stories are deceptive, and therefore haven’t prepared Sansa to deal with the likes of Cersei and Littlefinger
  • On the other, the author believes in the values of mercy and compassion and self-sacrifice that are embedded (however dishonestly) in those same songs
  • That’s the outline of Sansa’s education: realizing that the world doesn’t back up the songs, and deciding she has to make it so, countering screams with mercy
• Courteous armor
  • So that’s the challenge; how does the faithful acolyte of songs respond?
  • The chapter opens with Sansa trying to take control, even as “they came for her” emphasizes how little control she actually has:
    • She chose a simple dress of dark grey wool, plainly cut but richly embroidered around the collar and sleeves.
  • Grey for Stark, plain to be modest but richly embroidered because, again, Stark
  • As we’ll see in Sansa V, Sansa can function within court fairly well in terms of surface-level signifiers, hence knowing mourning clothes when she sees them
  • What separates her from the adults she’s dealing with in this chapter is that they know they’re dealing with signifiers, and they know what’s being signified
  • For Sansa, at this point, the signifiers are all there are. She doesn’t realize what’s being covered up by the niceties--that courtesy is politics, and politics is war. 
  • That’s what leads to this hideously ironic statement: 
    • "I'm certain your father is well," Sansa told her when she had finally gotten the dress buttoned right. "I'll ask the queen to let you see him." She thought that kindness might lift Jeyne's spirits, but the other girl just looked at her with red, swollen eyes and began to cry all the harder. She was such a child. 
  • In reality, far from being a child, poor Jeyne has had to grow up far too quickly in the worst way possible, and that’s far from over
  • Sansa’s courtesy doesn’t avail her with Jeyne, nor with her guards
  • Sansa again uses courtesy to navigate when Boros Blount shows up:
    • Ser Boros was an ugly man with a broad chest and short, bandy legs. His nose was flat, his cheeks baggy with jowls, his hair grey and brittle. Today he wore white velvet, and his snowy cloak was fastened with a lion brooch. The beast had the soft sheen of gold, and his eyes were tiny rubies. "You look very handsome and splendid this morning, Ser Boros," Sansa told him. A lady remembered her courtesies, and she was resolved to be a lady no matter what.
      
      "And you, my lady," Ser Boros said in a flat voice. "Her Grace awaits. Come with me."
  • Soon, Sansa will know that Boros is unworthy of courtesy, and she relies on it not to avoid awkwardness but to try and keep safe
• The good queen
  • All of these themes come to a head with Cersei, because she knows exactly how to unlock Sansa in this regard, and she doesn’t hold back:
    • “I think of you almost as my own daughter. And I know the love you bear for Joffrey.”
  • It might seem strange to rank anything here as an act of cruelty next to the wanton bloodshed we’ve seen in these last few KL chapters, but what Cersei does to Sansa and Jeyne in this chapter is just so heartless
  • She starts off speaking so sweetly and sadly…
    • "Sansa, my sweet child," she said, "I know you've been asking for me. I'm sorry that I could not send for you sooner. Matters have been very unsettled, and I have not had a moment. I trust my people have been taking good care of you?" 
  • ...but the claws quickly come out
    • “Us?" Cersei seemed puzzled.
      
      "We put the steward's girl in with her," Ser Boros said. "We did not know what else to do with her."
      
      The queen frowned. "Next time, you will ask," she said, her voice sharp. "The gods only know what sort of tales she's been filling Sansa's head with."
      
      “Where are you sending her? She hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s a good girl.”
      
      “She’s upset you,” the queen said gently. “We can’t be having that. Not another word, now. Lord Baelish will see that Jeyne’s well taken care of, I promise you.”
  • That reveals Cersei’s real interest in keeping Sansa as a pawn and preventing her from understanding what’s happening so she’ll cooperate
  • It’s this hideous moment in which Sansa’s courtesies barely prevent her from realizing what happened to Vayon Poole, and she’s got a good heart here:
    • “Where are you sending her? She hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s a good girl.” 
  • How does Cersei win her back? With love. A lie about love. And it works.
  • This is part of Cersei’s “love is poison” worldview, that love makes you weak and so is to be used only as a weapon or tool of manipulation. See also Ned, Lancel, the Kettleblacks...and Jaime. 
  • Her councillors back her up, volleying back and forth, Varys for the defense and Pycelle for the prosecution, all to keep Sansa distressed and desperate to please
  • Littlefinger has his own agenda, which is why he always circles back to Catelyn
  • In the end, Sansa keeps pushing for her family to survive and for them to be reconciled with the Lannisters, which shows GRRM pushing past the pitch letter
• “The lost and the dead” (ASOS Catelyn I) 
  • Worth pausing specifically to talk about Arya and Jeyne here, because I think they’re meant to be linked
  • They are the silent sisters of Sansa’s story, vanished early on and sundered ever since, like Lady a stripping away of the world around her she knew at home
  • Cersei can just so casually vanish people, as with Robert’s bastards
  • This is a subtler kind of horror than what we saw in the last couple of chapters, but no less effective
  • This is Sansa seeing how people in power actually work

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

As the title indicates, GRRM will expand on many of these chapter’s tropes at length with Arianne Martell in “The Princess in the Tower,” one of Emmett’s favorite chapters in the series

Sansa hearing the sounds of fighting over at the Tower of the Hand but not actually seeing any of it is mirrored later in Catelyn hearing the Whispering Wood erupt into battle around her. Mother and daughter get a lot of parallel experiences in which Sansa represents the innocent entering maturity and Catelyn represents the weary perspective of adulthood (see, for example, how similar the Sansa-Sandor “I’m honest, it’s the world that’s awful” dialogue in ACOK is to the Catelyn-Jaime “so many oaths, they make you swear and swear” dialogue a few chapters later)

Speaking of Catelyn: Cersei’s rubies looking like bloody teardrops in the council scene links to the unforgettable face of Lady Stoneheart, as well as Lysa, Lyanna, etc. It’s a motif, I dare say!

Varys’ Blood runs truer than oaths reminds me of Illyrio’s Some contracts are writ in ink, and some in blood from ADWD. The context of Illyrio’s line is that Tyrion is questioning why the Golden Company would fight for the red dragon when they’d spent their entire existence fighting against the red dragon on behalf of the black dragon. Given that the Blackfyres hadn’t come into George’s mind at this point and seems to have been retconned, I wonder whether Martin might have re-read this line from Varys from AGOT and then gave that Varys line some additional contextualization via Illyrio/Varys and the Blackfyres in ADWD.

We get a little more context at the very end of ADWD on what Littlefinger was up to w/r/t Sansa. Those creepy looks Baelish gives Sansa can be understood in a little better and even more horrific context:

Varys and Littlefinger had worked out the terms, and Ned Stark had swallowed his precious honor and confessed his treason to save his daughter's empty little head. I would have made Sansa a good marriage. A Lannister marriage. Not Joff, of course, but Lancel might have suited, or one of his younger brothers. Petyr Baelish had offered to wed the girl himself, she recalled, but of course that was impossible; he was much too lowborn. (ADWD, Cersei II)

Theory/Discussion

Will Littlefinger’s treatment of Jeyne Poole come back to bite him? 

• Jeyne is being sent out of the Battle of Ice by Stannis under Justin Massey’s care
• She might stay at Castle Black or accompany Massey to Braavos; either way, she’s hanging around the margins of the struggle for the North, and Sansa’s coming home
• We could be in for a tearful reunion between friends...and the truth coming out
• Could be one of the reasons Sansa turns on the mockingbird, along with Ned of course

Conclusion

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