Episode 90: A CLASH OF KINGS, SANSA II: "Beauty and the Beasts" 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 ninetieth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Beauty and the Beasts: An Analysis of ACOK, Sansa II” in which the princess in the tower is sought out by two brave knights who want to spirit her away to freedom. Well, neither of them are knights. And both are completely fucking drunk. Just like Dany, Sansa can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to rescuers!

This episode is brought to you by our Small Council: 

• Hand of the King WolfmanZack 
• Grand Maester Timbob
• 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
• Lord Gene, Master of Coin
• Archmaester June, Healer of the Lesser Poxes
• Ragged Michael, Warden of the North
• Nelson the Hammer, Prince of Dragonstone
• Scarlett the Other Red Woman and Mistress of Whisperers
• Lord Micah: Warden of the West and the Kraken’s Bane
• Lord James: the Jim that was Promised
• The High Bearded Priest
• The Blue-Ringed Octoling
• Lord Jake, Assistant (to the) Hand of the King
• Lady Xena Valyrian
• Hedrigal, Captain of the Air Ship Arrogance
• His Grace’s High Inquisitor Frank
• Ser Jasper the Cruel, the King’s Justice
• Laurence, Prince of Dorne
• Richard, Sealord of Braavos
• Kelly, Warden of the East and Mistress of (Old) Bay of Crabs
• Steven the Steadfast, Master of Hounds
• The Blue Winter Rose Knight of Highgarden
• Lady Stephanie
• Lord Wryinn
• Lord Anonymous
• Lord Carlos
• Lord Andrew the Restless, a Priest of the Drowned God
• The King's Cook, Nolly (No-lee) Olly (Oh-lee), Master of Cannoli
• Ser Sourcedelica 

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

Ser Josh Snow, a Sworn Sword patron, asks:

Hello Stannis bros,

I was wondering, of all your theories for the remainder of asoiaf, which would you be most glad to be wrong about? Mine personally is Jon will completely lose emotional contact with his Stark siblings after his resurrection.

So, thank you Ser Josh Snow for the question. If you’d like to have your burning ice and fire question answered here on the NotACast pod-cast, you are welcome to join our patreon as a Sworn Sword of higher patron. Additionally, our latest patreon-only episode Rise Again: A Complete Analysis of the Greyjoy Rebellion is out now for all of our $5/above patrons! You can ask us questions, find all 22 bonus episodes, get show notes and early access for all episodes over at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF. 

Yes indeed! But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Sansa Stark, she had just attended the Tourney of gnats, saved Dontos Hollard’s life and witnessed the entry of Tyrion and his band of ruff riders into King’s Landing. Let’s see what happens to Sansa in this synopsis of ACOK, Sansa II.

Synopsis

Come with me if you want to live, so says Arnold Schwartzenegger and a letter that Sansa Stark clutches. Well, more accurately, the letter says:

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home

She’s read the letter a hundred times, having found it beneath her pillow, but she doesn’t know how the letter arrived or who placed it there. 

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home.

Maybe Sansa should give the letter to Cersei to prove her loyalty to Joffrey? But then again, the bruise that Ser Merwyn Trant left on her stomach after punching her with a mailed fist points decidedly against going to Cersei. 

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home.

On one hand, Sansa prays that a true knight has come at last to save her. Maybe it was one of the Redwyne twins, maybe Ser Barristan or Beric Dondarrion who Jeyne Poole loved.

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home.

On the other hand, it could be a cruel joke on Joffrey’s part. Or maybe it was a designed trap to have Sansa reveal her disloyalty. Would Ilyn Payne be waiting for her in the godswood with Ice in hand? 

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home.

The door opens, and a serving girl comes in, asking if Sansa wants a bath. No, but she’ll take a fire in the hearth all the same. Sansa wonders if the serving girl had read the note. Maybe she planted it? Cersei had serving girls changed every fortnight to prevent them from becoming sympathetic and friendly to Sansa. So, Sansa thinks this is unlikely.

When the hearth fire is burning, Sansa dismisses the servant who gives her a sly look, because she’s probably a spy for Cersei or Varys. When she’s gone, Sansa burns the letter.

Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home.

Sansa walks over to the window and sees that Ser Preston Greenfield is manning the dry moat tonight. And while, yes, she did have freedom of the castle, questions would be asked of her as to why she’s out and about at this time. So, she gets into bed, but she doesn’t sleep. She waits.

If only she had someone to tell her what to do. She missed Septa Mordane, and even more Jeyne Poole, her truest friend. The septa had lost her head with the rest, for the crime of serving House Stark. Sansa did not know what had happened to Jeyne, who had disappeared from her rooms afterward, never to be mentioned again. She tried not to think of them too often, yet sometimes the memories came unbidden, and then it was hard to hold back the tears.

Sansa was even missing Arya these days. She assumes that Arya was back at Winterfell with Bran and Rickon which, sad to say, not the case, Sansa. 

But then Sansa hears a disturbance outside. Men shouting, but she’s not sure of what they’re saying. Then she hears horses. So, she creeps just to keep it on the down-low on over to the window, and then she sees men running with spears and torches. She wonders if she should get back into bed as all the news has been bad of late with everyone outside of the Red Keep killing and robbing each other. Mm, those damn peasants killing and robbing each other outside of the Red Keep. The nobles would never stoop to such levels, in the Red Keep, would they?

Go to bed, Sansa thinks.

She turns away from the window but not to bed. She runs to her wardrobe, wondering if she’s mad as she changes into clothes. She sees torches on the wall and wonders if Stannis and Renly have finally come to put Joffrey down. She runs out of the room but not before grabbing a kitchen knife and hiding it under her sleeve.

If it is some trap, better that I die than let them hurt me more, Sansa told herself.

Well, that’s a sad line I never noticed before. Hm.

She moves into the night, passing by Lannister soldiers and gold cloaks getting ready for battle. She sees Preston, and then to her horror, she sees Joffrey too. Fortunately, he doesn’t see her as he shouts for crossbow and sword. She keeps moving, not looking behind her so as not to get caught or followed by Joffrey.

She climbs serpentine stairs and reaches the top out of breath. She runs down a hallway, catching her breath against a wall when she feels something at her leg. She jumps but only finds a black tom cat with a chewed off ear who proceeds to spit before darting off.

She arrives at the godswood, and it’s quiet with the sounds of war in the distance. Sansa thinks Lady would have liked being here and how natural and peaceful the godswood was. But there was something else about the godswood:

There was something wild about a godswood; even here, in the heart of the castle at the heart of the city, you could feel the old gods watching with a thousand unseen eyes.

Huh. A thousand unseen eyes. Maybe one more!? That’s some interesting language!

Sansa had been a believer in the Faith of the Seven -- mostly on account of the sensory trappings of it all: statues, pictures, burning incense, septons with robes and crystals, the rainbow lights when the light caught the inlaid altar. All the jewels and colors. Hey George, am I to understand you may have grown up Catholic?

Yet she could not deny that the godswood had a certain power too. Especially by night. Help me, she prayed, send me a friend, a true knight to champion me.

Sansa feels her way around the godswood, wondering if she should call out or something, but then a voice calls out to her.

“I feared you would not come, child.”

Sansa spins around and sees a heavy dude wearing a dark gray wool cloak. She’s not sure who he is at first until a ray of moonlight falls on his face.

“Ser Dontos,” she breathed, heart-broken. “Was it you?”

Dontos says, yes, it’s a-me Ser Dontios-o! Sansa smells the wine on him and shrinks away from him. She grabs her knife and tells him to stay back. Also, why the fuck are you here, Dontos?

“Only to help you,” Dontos said, “as you helped me.”

Sansa asks if he’s drunk, and he does a bit that I’ve never done with my wife where he’s like “I only had like one drink, I promise, babe.” Dontos states that they’ll have the skin stripped off his back if he’s caught, and Sansa wonders what they’ll do to her if she’s caught. She thinks of Lady, knowing that her direwolf could smell out lies, but Lady was dead. Ned killed her. She holds the knife out, telling Dontos to tell it true. Who sent him?

“No one, sweet lady. I swear it on my honor as a knight.”

Sansa doesn’t exactly believe this. Dontos had been stripped of knighthood by Joffrey. He was only a fool now. She prayed for a knight to come, but the gods only sent a drunken fool. Dontos agrees with her assessment.

“I know it’s queer, but .. all those years I was a knight, I was truly a fool, and now that I am a fool I think … I think I may find it in me to be a knight again, sweet lady. And all because of you … your grace, your courage. You saved me, not only from Joffrey but from myself.” His voice dropped. “The singers say there was another fool once who was the greatest knight of all …”

“Florian,” Sansa whispered. 

Dontos wants to play the Florian archetype to Sansa’s Jonquil archetype. He falls to his knees, and Sansa lowers the knife. She thinks she’s crazy for trusting this guy, but he’s her only option. She asks how Dontos will get her out of the Red Keep, and he says that the hard part is getting out of the castle. But then they’d take a ship. He’ll just need to find the coin, maybe a master will give him the coin, if you know what I mean.

Okay, well Sansa wants to leave the Red Keep and King’s Landing now. But not so fast. Dontos needs to figure out a plan when the hour is right. Also, Sansa, can you please put the knife away. Thanks. When she puts the knife away, Dontos rises to his feet, stating that he watched bad things happen to Ned, but Sansa helped him when he was powerless. And sure, he’s not some storied hero like Ryam Redwyne or Barristan the Bold, but he was a knight back in the day. His life is hers. He swears it in front of the godswood.

He swore. A solemn oath, before the gods. “Then … I will put myself in your hands, ser.”

She wonders how she’ll know it’s time to go, maybe he’ll put another letter on her pillow? Unlikely. Sansa needs to come to the godswood as often as she can, and Dontos will come when able. The godswood is the only safe place as the “stones have ears.” Additionally, Dontos will appear to be cruel and mocking towards her in public. But he’s just playing a role to prevent the both of them from getting dead.

Sansa says she understands, but Dontos needs to get gone now. And so does Sansa. They can’t be seen together.

Nodding, Sansa took a step … then spun back, nervous, and softly laid a kiss on his cheek, her eyes closed. “My Florian,” she whispered. “The gods heard my prayer.”

Sansa runs back in the direction of her room, her head swimming with thoughts of Florian the Fool and Jonquil and how that song was her favorite, and then Sandor Clegane steps right in her path and blocks her before she can get down the serpentine steps.

“It’s a long roll down the serpentine, little bird. Want to kill us both?” His laughter was rough as a saw on stone. “Maybe you do.”

Sansa tries to excuse herself, but his hand squeezes her wrist tight. Sandor asks what Sansa is doing up here, and Sansa says um, she was at the godswood? Praying! Yes, praying for her dad’s soul and for Joffrey. Sandor isn’t in the mood to believe her, but he loosens his grip on her arm, before very gallantly telling her that she’s almost a woman now tall with tits and all. But she still sings songs like some bird. 

“Sing me a song, why don’t you? Go on. Sing to me. Some song about knights and fair maids. You like knights, don’t you?”

Sansa’s pretty fucking freaked out, and doubly-so when Sandor reveals that he’s real fucking drunk. But no matter; he’s going to do the escort Sansa back someplace while saying things at her. It’s a bit at this point. 

Back at the drawbridge, Sansa notices that Ser Boros Blount is manning the bridge, and Sansa feels scared. This kingsguard knight hits her. But Sandor says that she shouldn’t be afraid of Boros. He’s a toad. But Boros accosts Sansa and Sandor when they approach, calling Sandor a “ser” before Sandor helpfully tells him to “fuck your ser.” Sandor’s no knight. Boros asks Sansa what she’s doing up, and Sansa lies again but better this time, saying she went to the godswood to pray for Joffrey. Yeah, Sandor puts in. It’s too loud to sleep. What’s up with that?

Well, it seems the peasants thought they could partake in Tyrek Lannister’s wedding feast. So, Joffrey, brave King Joffrey, led a sortie to chase them away.

“A brave boy,” Clegane said, mouth twitching.

Let us see how brave he is when he faces my brother, Sansa thought.

SanSan (hi, Chloe) moves on from the drawbridge and up the stairs to her room. And it’s there that Sansa asks Sandor why he lets people call him a dog. Because Sandor likes dogs better. Besides, grandaddy Clegane was kennelmaster to Tytos Lannister, and he and his dogs saved Lord Tytos Lannister from a lioness. Three of the dogs died, and his grandpa lost his leg, but he got a keep and lands in the exchange.

“The three dogs on our banner are the three that died in the yellow of autumn grass. A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he’ll look you straight in the face.” 

Sandor cups Sansa’s chin and tells her that dogs do more than birds can do for her. But he never got his song.

“I … I know a song about Florian and Jonquil.”

Ah, well Sandor’s not down with what the kids are listening to these days. But he will get a song from Sansa one of these days. Sansa says she’ll gladly sing for him.

Sandor Clegane snorted. “Pretty thing, and such a bad liar. A dog can smell a lie, you know. Look around you, and take a good whiff. They’re all liars here … and every one better than you.”

And that is ACOK, Sansa II! Hey, Emmett, what would your reaction be if I told you that Sansa is growing on me in this read?

Depth

As you’ve said, Jeff, it feels like each POV arc in ACOK really takes off with their second chapter, after the first chapter sets the stakes and reminds us who everyone is and what they’re about. From the very first lines of Sansa II--“come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home”--George is setting up the throughline that will dominate Sansa’s story for the next book and a half, as well as providing the perfect crucible for her character arc. How she responds to this opportunity speaks both to her growing maturity and her desire to regress into childhood (much like her little brother Bran at Winterfell). But it also speaks to the dichotomous nature of the two main supporting characters in Sansa’s ACOK storyline: Dontos Hollard and Sandor Clegane, the not-knights.

Does George write Sansa well? Well, yes, he does. But is he an effective writer in giving Sansa a unique voice and unique character and plot conflicts that make for a good story? Okay, so, here I’ll continue my tradition of mea culpas about Sansa. In that past, I used to say yes to the above but within the context of Sansa being the annoying #WorstStark. Now that I’m older, wiser, much more ... mature, I was wrong.

In re-reading this chapter and many of the chapters upcoming in her ACOK and ASOS arc in preparation for this episode, I see a better story than the one I thought I had read previously. Dismissing Sansa as the annoying damsel in distress character does a disservice to the story George is telling with Sansa. She is in distress, but the internal character conflict of being alone and stranded in the hostile social setting and environment she once viewed as the ideal place for her has become a nightmare! This is a point you brought up, Emmett, back in our analysis of AGOT, Sansa V, and I think this chapter hammers it home for me. And it all starts with Come to the godswood tonight if you want to go home. Salvation? A trap? A joke? Unclear at the start, but it’s a masterful refrain introducing us to the new nightmare reality that is Sansa’s life in the Red Keep. 

• The fateful letter
  • Something I like about Sansa’s chapters in ACOK and ASOS is how they work in context with Tyrion’s, Catelyn’s, the ones more versed in directly using power
  • Sansa is shut out of the decision-making process, so she’s left with the front-facing image of power, whether it’s attempting to be seductive or bleeding her dry for all to see. The conspiracies shape her, not the other way around
  • This puts her in a reactive position, which is not to say she’s a passive character; George constantly zooms in on her decisions, what she does with what little she has, in preparation for gradually widening her scope when she gets to the Vale
  • Take this letter. It’s a mystery she can’t possibly solve, given what little she has to work with. Even when she learns it was Dontos who sent it, she doesn’t have enough information to figure out who his patron is.
  • But George still takes time to show us Sansa trying to figure out what’s up with this letter, and so we get to see Sansa starting to understand how this works
  • Let’s run down what Sansa knows here:
    • She can’t trust the note
    • She can’t trust her maids
    • She can’t trust Joffrey
    • Cersei would 100% reward her for this
    • It might be genuine, though!!
  • She runs through the risks and opportunities with admirable clarity, sensibly holds back when there’s a guard in the way, and risks it when he leaves
  • She’s still caught between ideals, though: she knows the Lannisters killed her father and can’t be trusted, but she also desperately wants to please the people who can and have hurt her. There’s no one left to protect her, she has to do it
  • This isn’t an expression of weakness so much as a desire for control, every bit as much as Arya’s murder list; it’s just in a different form for a different situation
  • Above all, Sansa knows how much she doesn’t know
• Detente with Dontos
  • We get some great noirish imagery as Sansa flees the castle for the godswood
  • That’s an interesting tone to incorporate with all the chivalric themes of this chapter, hinting at the truth: Dontos isn’t a paladin, he’s a spy
  • But he plays the part of a paladin well, to give him credit!
  • He tells her that she won his heart when she saved his life, that she gave him purpose, that he was reborn in her grace and mercy...he knows the script
  • This is precisely the sort of language that Sansa loved: chivalry as transformation, the elevation of the mundane to divine through poetry
  • What gives her pause is that he had to get reeling drunk to play the part
  • In the wake of her golden prince and golden queen turning out to be monsters, she’s a little wary of someone who comes in singing of love and roses
  • But she still wants to believe, and she’s out of options, so trusting Dontos is neither a surrender to childhood nor a leap to adulthood: it’s both
  • It’s hoping children’s stories will save you from the abyss, which is only more and more common these days
  • To give Sansa credit, there are real adult stakes and decisions involved here: she needs to wait, stay quiet, let Dontos play his part. All of that requires self-mastery
  • On the other hand, there are things still flying over her head, like his creepiness
  • Above all, Sansa wants to be home, and the godswood feels like home and family to her; hence her running into Arya’s cat along the way
  • She’s coming to love her father’s gods as well as her mother’s because the former reminds her of Winterfell and the cradle of her childhood innocence
• Showdown with Sandor
  • Sansa’s running back to her room like Charlie Bucket with his golden ticket, only for Slugworth to jump out of the darkness to pour cold water on her dreams
  • Sandor is Dontos’ perfect mirror image, a not-knight who scorns the imagery of chivalry but secretly longs for it deep down, hence his connection with Sansa
  • Sandor is far more aggressive, insulting, and frightening than Dontos, and immediately begins hitting on Sansa in his own way
  • In part, he’s infuriated by her insistence on believing in songs and stories, taking out his cynicism on her because she shows him it’s a choice
  • At least she’s trying to get out, which is more than he’s doing drinking himself to death every night
  • He’s hurting her, he’s mocking her, he’s clearly a villain! Yet his nudge is “oddly gentle,” and he bolsters her confidence against Boros
  • So how are we to understand Sandor’s perspective on Sansa? He can’t seem to decide whether he wants her to toughen up or hold on to her innocence
  • When he tells her that everyone in the city can lie better than her, is that a compliment or an insult?
  • He broke his own rule for her in Sansa I, so above all Sansa is a catalyst for transformation in him

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

Sansa will get another letter to analyze at length from Margaery at the start of ASOS, which will also lead her to a garden where she can speak unheard by Varys (or so it appears). George builds in these signposts to show us how Sansa’s relationship to intrigue is changing.

Riot Watch, Part 5 I want to say! Once more we get mention of starvation and resulting unrest in the city streets, ready to blow come the bread riots in Tyrion IX, which will again sweep Sansa and Sandor together.

Sansa is prepared to kill herself lest she suffer more when the city is taken, which is a grisly bit of foreshadowing of how Cersei will prepare to kill her if they lose the city to Stannis.

In the ADWD Epilogue, it’s noted that the High Septon had insisted that no girl spend more than seven days in the queen's service, lest Cersei corrupt her. It’s obviously not direct foreshadowing of what’s to come, but I wonder if it’s an ironic callback to Sansa’s servants being cycled out every two weeks. Cersei only gets a week with her servants. She’s that much less trustworthy than Sansa and/or much more capable of manipulating people into busting her free.

Sandor Clegane demands a song from Sansa, and Sansa states that she’ll happily sing for him at some point in the future. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Sandor is going to demand this again at the Battle of the Blackwater, and Sansa will sing for him -- though not gladly. Sandor was right that Sansa was lying about that part!

Theory/Discussion

How does our perception of this chapter change coming back as rereaders, knowing that it was not Dontos on his own but Littlefinger who prompted this meeting and all that followed? 

• This is such a fun topic!
• Varys, having the reputation for being the spymaster and my favorite character and all, sometimes overshadows Littlefinger, and that’s precisely how Littlefinger (and George) would have it.
• Because despite Varys’ subtleties, he’s not so subtle with his moves, only with his endgame.
• Let’s trace a little bit of the Dontos/Littlefinger relationship.
• As we talked about back in Episode 57 (AGOT, Sansa V), Dontos Hollard was seen briefly chatting with Littlefinger.
• Then Dontos shows back up in ACOK, Sansa I with Sansa saving him
• Hard to say when exactly Dontos becomes one of Littlefinger’s agents, but I’d wager it occurs after events from ACOK, Sansa I as I don’t think Littlefinger would let a valuable asset endanger himself or Littlefinger’s mission by participating in the tourney of gnats.
• Now Dontos is back in ACOK, Sansa II, telling Sansa that he’s working totally solo and only interested in playing the part of Florian the Fool
• Still, looking closely, we really should know that Dontos was working with someone, and if we look even closer, we can see Littlefinger.
• Dontos swearing on his honor as a knight that he’s working alone signals that he isn’t given that he isn’t a knight
• It’s a fun little trick that George likes to pull in his writing where he has the POV realize something, but then they get lost in their head before losing that train of thought and not following up with that observation.
• This happens with Sansa where she picks up that Dontos isn’t a knight any longer after he swears he’s working alone on his honor as a knight, but then doesn’t follow up with that train of thought
• So, he’s working with someone. Littlefinger as is confirmed in ASOS. And there’s an opaque clue in this Sansa chapter when compared against a Sansa chapter from AGOT.
• Littlefinger and Sansa have a conversation in Sansa III where Littlefinger learns something integral about who Sansa is:
• Sansa had no choice but to explain about heroes and monsters. The king's councillor smiled. "Well, those are not the reasons I'd have given, but …" [Littlefinger] had touched her cheek, his thumb lightly tracing the line of a cheekbone. "Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow." 
• So, when Dontos frames his relationship to Sansa in the fairytale archetypes of Florian and Jonquil, we’re seeing Littlefinger turning that information he knows about Sansa into manipulation to get Sansa to trust his agent. I’m positively sure Littlefinger told Dontos to use that story to frame their relationship.
• Now, let’s get into speculation territory about the timing of Dontos approaches Sansa!
• We can’t know for certain, but I think Littlefinger sent Dontos to Sansa at this juncture in ACOK, because of what occurred in last week’s Tyrion chapter.
• Remember that Tyrion had offered Harrenhal to Littlefinger in exchange for bringing Lysa Arryn and the Vale back into King’s Landing orbit. 
• This was Littlefinger’s response: Littlefinger steepled his fingers and gazed into Tyrion's mismatched eyes. "Give me a fortnight to conclude my affairs and arrange for a ship to carry me to Gulltown."
• Compare this to Dontos talking about how he would get Sansa out of King’s Landing: Ser Dontos raised his face to her. "Taking you from the castle, that will be the hardest. Once you're out, there are ships that would take you home. I'd need to find the coin and make the arrangements, that's all."
• I speculate that Littlefinger possibly wanted to get Sansa out of King’s Landing much earlier than how it occurs chronologically in the story -- after the Purple Wedding.
• Maybe even just as he departs King’s Landing for the Vale at this early middle point in ACOK!?
• Unfortunately for Littlefinger and much, much more unfortunately for Sansa, Tyrion was dealing with Littlefinger in bad faith as Littlefinger finds out in ACOK, Tyrion VI.
• So, the “rescue” is postponed to a later, more favorable time.
• What I find fascinating about this is the window into how Littlefinger’s mind works
• As a former dreamer, as a corrupted believer in the stories and songs, he’s perfectly positioned to understand how to manipulate Sansa’s desire for the dream to stay real
• He has to get Sansa and Dontos to play the roles in that story in order to get her to come along, but all the details are wrong: Dontos isn’t a knight, he’s lecherous instead of romantic, he’s a sad gross drunk instead of the charming life of the party, and he’s lying to his teeth to her the whole time so he can sell her for drinking money
• This isn’t incidental to Littlefinger’s scheme, it’s the entire point. He wants to brandish the dream before Sansa before snatching it away, killing Dontos before her eyes
• This further deconstruction, in his mind, will break her down psychologically into her component parts and allow her to rebuild her in his image, grooming his perfect daughter-wife. Ugh.
• There’s also a metaphor for storytelling here, a reflection on George’s own process

Conclusion

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  • Matt, Warden of the Sanguine Shore
  • And our newest high lord: Prince Matthew of House Targaryen - Proud Soy Boy of Summerhall, Defender of the 5th Book. Warden of the  Shy Maid Chapters, and Swing Dancer with Dragons.
• Join us next week as we jump back to the Riverlands, where Arya and her companions are trying to get by without any adults. It’s going about as well as you might expect.