Okay but what about 11 year old Sansa running up to Jon and giving him a hug. And he’s mystified because they barely talk, let alone show each other affection. But then she’s like, “Thank you for the direwolves. I’ve named mine Lady and I love her so much.” And then she runs away, back to her lessons with Septa Mordane or whatever, and Jon’s left just standing there, grinning to himself like an idiot.
Does someone know a Jonsa fanfic where Sansa arrives in Castle Black and Jon is still in his wolf-coma? Ghost bonding with Sansa while Jon is warging on him…?
So to get back on my book Jonsa bullshit, I can’t stop thinking about the earliest chapters and right now, specifically Jon’s first pov chapter. I know the “Sansa looked radiant” phrasing has been talked about, but I’ve felt for a while now there was an interesting parallel/contrast between Jon’s thoughts about Robb and Myrcella, and Sansa and Joffrey and wanted to articulate it here.
To begin with, Jon’s first pov is riddled with his feelings of bitterness and jealousy. He’s not able to sit with his trueborn siblings, and is instead put beyond the royal family’s notice. We know Jon usually doesn’t experience this isolation so it hits him in a deeper way. We know that he resentfully thinks about how he can be happy that he’s a bastard now since it enables him to get drunk like he wouldn’t be able to at the high table. I suppose his feelings are so keenly rendered, people often forget that sitting in the shadows wasn’t the norm for Jon. His outsider status is at the forefront, and I don’t think the reader could possibly get this much of a sense of it, had his first chapter been before his isolation from the royal family and his siblings. It’s all important to set up Jon’s decision to join the Night’s Watch. To be clear, you can argue that this jealousy is all in the same vein, but here I’m going to show why I see it differently, and that there is more than just one kind of jealousy happening here for Jon. Jon only really devotes considerable thought to two of his siblings’ escorts when his trueborn siblings enter the feast: Robb and Sansa’s.
The first thing I really want to look at are Jon’s observations on Robb, escorting Myrcella:
Close behind came Robb, in grey wool trimmed with white, the Stark colors. He had the Princess Myrcella on his arm. She was a wisp of a girl, not quite eight, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net. Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him. He decided she was insipid. Robb didn’t even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool.
Now, we know it is well established throughout the series that Jon is jealous of Robb. He secretly and shamefully imagines what it would be like to one day inherit Winterfell, and he feels a lot of guilt because he of course doesn’t want anything bad to happen to his siblings. But the jealousy is there.
He also has camaraderie with Robb. I think what we see here is influenced by both. The first part is that Jon is envious of Robb’s position, and by extension, I think he feels that Myrcella’s admiration of Robb (likely crush?) comes from this position (and it probably does!). Also by extension, he is jealous of the way Myrcella looks at Robb. She’s seven, so don’t get me wrong: I am not saying he’s attracted to Myrcella or has romantic feelings for her in any way. I simply think that Jon recognizes the way Robb receives this attention by virtue of his status, and wants it for himself, so he begins thinking derogatorily of Myrcella. And because of his camaraderie with Robb, he’s disappointed that Robb doesn’t see what Jon sees.
Then, of course, there are his thoughts on Sansa and Joffrey:
Sansa, two years older, drew the crown prince, Joffrey Baratheon. He was twelve, younger than Jon or Robb, but taller than either, to Jon’s vast dismay. Prince Joffrey had his sister’s hair and his mother’s deep green eyes. A thick tangle of blond curls dripped down past his golden choker and high velvet collar. Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey’s pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell’s Great Hall.
I would note here that Jon does not know Joffrey at all. A lot of people tend to forget because the narrative later definitively confirms Joffrey is The Worst, but there’s truly no reason to think Jon could know this about him. The fact that he is isolated further shows this, there’s pretty much zero chance he’s able to interact with Joffrey before this scene. His perception is based on superficial things, just as it is with Myrcella. And before someone argues Jon just sees them for who they are, I think it’s well established that Myrcella is just a little girl utterly undeserving of Jon’s ire. He may see through Cersei, but he admires Jaime, who’s going to cripple his brother for life shortly thereafter. He’s clocking 50% accuracy at best on these Lannisters.
And if these thoughts on Sansa and Joffrey echo Robb and Myrcella, then we have every reason to believe Jon’s impression of Joffrey is formed at least in part from jealousy. He observes Joffrey is taller than both him and Robb, to his vast dismay. Some might argue it’s merely the age difference but the wording here is super dramatic: his vast dismay. It bothers him deeply that Joffrey is taller, and I’m not convinced the slight age difference can account for such dramatic language. The fact that he mentions Robb, someone else he is jealous of, also helps establish this is influenced by Jon’s jealousy. For some reason, Jon feels competitive with Joffrey. And if Robb doesn’t measure up to Joffrey, what hope does Jon have? So if Jon is jealous of Robb’s position, what is Jon jealous of with Joffrey? To put it another way: what does Joffrey have that Jon wants?
For a moment, let’s look at the observation of Arya and her escort Tommen:
Arya was paired with plump young Tommen, whose white-blond hair was longer than hers.
That’s it. One sentence. Compared to what can stand as a full paragraph of Joffrey with Sansa. Why spend so much more thought on Sansa’s escort as compared to his favorite sister’s? For another comparison: Jon’s thoughts on Myrcella versus his thoughts on Sansa. Jon decides Myrcella, all dreamy over Robb, is insipid for her admiration. We all know that Sansa is similarly besotted with Joffrey in the beginning and yet she doesn’t receive the same ire. (I would also note here that, whenever Jon does think of Sansa’s dreamier qualities, he thinks of her with more fondness and respect than her other siblings’ think of her romanticism). Instead, Jon thinks Sansa looks radiant. GRRM uses “radiant” in a romantic context in multiple instances: Jaime describes Cersei as radiant, in a Song for Lya the main character finds his redhead love interest radiant, and the author himself talked about “falling in love” with Elizabeth Taylor in one film and how radiant she was in that film.
Bonus: when Jaime describes Cersei as radiant in AFFC, he’s even thinking of her with jealousy and being with other men:
"How is Cersei? As beautiful as ever?"
"Radiant." Fickle. "Golden." False as fool's gold. Last night he dreamed he'd found her fucking Moon Boy.
This is specifically a callback to ASOS when Tyrion tells Jaime about Cersei’s affairs: “Cersei is a lying whore, she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know.” This shows support for Jaime and Jon as foils and the potential of Jonsa as a more wholesome counterpart to Jaime and Cersei.
In other words, his thoughts on Robb and Myrcella vs. Sansa and Joffrey are similar enough for both to evoke jealousy, and different enough to suggest it is a different type of jealousy. This suggests that Jon is jealous of Robb’s position as heir, and he may be jealous of Joffrey because he gets to walk with the radiant Sansa on his arm. I would say this is further supported by two other pieces of evidence. The first: the chapter just before Jon’s is Ned’s and it is at the end of Ned’s chapter that King Robert suggests the betrothal of Joffrey and Sansa. To transition immediately into a Jon chapter that demonstrates Jon’s jealousy so clearly--especially as it is Jon’s introductory pov--could be a coincidence, but it could also mean something. The other piece of evidence is how, in Arya’s later chapter, she remarks as the girls are sewing that Jon says Joffrey looks like a girl. Arya says this as the discussion of a potential betrothal and Joffrey crushing on Sansa comes up. It is possible, then, that Jon said this about Joffrey when he and Arya were talking about Joffrey and Sansa, specifically, so Jon’s words came back to Arya. And of course, Sansa says “poor Jon, he gets jealous because he’s a bastard.” Not to mention, Arya and Jon have a “don’t tell Sansa” thing, so Jon could have easily told Arya not to repeat something like that in front of Sansa. Yet, it appears he didn’t. Did he hate Joffrey so much (with so little evidence!) that he didn’t think to say “don’t tell Sansa”? Or did he want Sansa to hear those words?
I also think that thematically speaking, these two different kinds of jealousy make a more complete picture of Jon’s desires, what he feels he will never have or deserve, and the insecurities that follow him throughout the series. If these are two different kinds of jealousy, we see both pieces of what Jon wants most but feels he cannot have: he cannot be a Stark or Lord of Winterfell (represented by Robb) and he cannot marry a woman and have a family (represented by Sansa). Now, I know the pre-canon crush theory makes people a bit uncomfortable, and it makes me a bit too, what with the fact that Jon is 14 and Sansa is 11. But essentially, my thoughts are this reflects a chaste and either a nearly or entirely subconscious thing for Jon. I don’t think it’s a coincidence either, that these thoughts are occurring when Jon is getting drunk, so more subconscious feelings could be coming out. Of course, we may never know for certain, but these are my thoughts on what might be implied in the chapter.
