Defending the Stark Girls- Part 2
(I pray this is my last rant, apologies in advance)
So… I’m weak, I watched the last episode when it was leaked, so I’ve had time to ponder, and mentally prepare myself for the hate my girls were bound to receive. And boyyyyyy, has it rained down on them. Our darling girls have been through a lot, guys. And though I know, thats no excuse to pardon any sort of abusive behaviour, y’all need to remember that before you judge them too harshly. They are not perfect. They are scared, they are naive, and they have been alone until now. Their harsh lives have hardened them in ways neither can begin to understand; so of course allowing one another to get to close or be vulnerable is a foreign concept, one that would make them seem weak in an impossible situation wherein they have to be stoic, desensitised and cautious.
The Stark girls were never especially close, there was always a sense of hostility and general bickering, ya know? Allow me to paint a word picture:
Arya, in typical Stark fashion, has a wild nature. Throughout the duration of the show she has shown she is more wolf than girl. We know she detests material desires and societal conventions; she would prefer being a knight to being a lady. Now all she remembers is her sister being the embodiment of these things. Her last memory of Sansa is seeing her standing beside Cersei, seeing her cry but not seeing her flail and scream and faint. Yoren shielded her, stopped her from running to Ned, and stopped her from seeing her fathers head come of the block, or Sansa break.
Anyone will know how trauma can distort the way we see things, however, through it all, Arya never once blamed Sansa for standing alongside them until she read that letter. Yet another ploy of Little Fingers that’s poised to divid sides, even at a cost to Sansa’s happiness, proving just how little he cares about anything other than the Game. Both Girl’s know he’s up to no good and are playing him right back, unfortunately at a cost to one another.
Now, if we think back to Arya’s reaction to Hot Pie telling her Jon is the King in the North, we get a grasp of how ignorant she has been to the happenings in Westeros. She knew after the Red Wedding that the Bolton’s had bargained for patronage of Winterfell, and to her knowledge, they still held it. That’s why she was heading south. But when she heard her family were home? Her little loyal heart returned to the stomping ground.
Now, I don’t think our girls have had time to sit around the fire and swap stories about their hardships, nor have they probably had the heart to. They aren’t sensitised to one another yet, nor are they certain of who the other has become. It’s shown as much at Sansa’s expression at Arya fighting and finding the faces in her satchel. Meanwhile, Arya is sceptical of Sansa and sees her as the spoilt, untouched girl she was years ago. Which we know is far from true.
Arya and Jon were the closest. Can you possibly blame her for protecting him fiercely? She has learned to view things in black and white- she see’s Little Finger whispering in her sisters ear and everyone else’s. She knows he was playing sides during the war of 5 kings, and rightfully questions his loyalty. He’s a threat, and he has his claws in Sansa, therefore, she is a threat. (Though I think if Catlyn and Rob could see it was Cersei’s words in Sansa’s letter, Arya will wake up to it soon too, or she already knows Little Finger planted it to create a break.)
In the Game of Faces, we see Arya unlike we’ve ever seen her. It’s unsettling and feels wrong. It’s because she’s playing the game. No matter how betrayed she felt, her loyalty to family would never bring her to kill Sansa. Ned wouldn’t want that. (And seriously, guys? You should of known this as soon as she mentioned wearing dresses… It’s Arya fucking Stark! She doesn't want power, she doesn't want to be a lady, she wants to fight. [x]) She doesn’t stop playing the game until she hands’s Sansa the knife. She lies through her teeth. She doesn’t want to be anyone but Arya Stark. It’s why she left Bravoss. It’s why she came home. It’s why she is so defensive of Jon’s title. She is a Stark, and she doesn’t want to see another dead one.
Neither could have endured what the other survived. Arya is impulsive and has the political prowess of a dishcloth. She would have perished in the harsh conditions of the capital. Sansa is arrogant and hotheaded, there is no way she would have merged herself with commoners, let alone have made it out of King’s Landing the way Arya did. Both have a sharp tongue, bother are stubborn, both are Starks.
My point? PROTECT AND SERVE ARYA AND SANSA STARK. Let them become the formidable force they’re meant to be.
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
izzy806
