GEORGE IS REWRITING LYANNA’S STORY INTO SANSA STORYLINE.
Rereading the books, I started noticing that not only Sansa and Lyanna Stark carry a lot of parallels in their storylines, but that also George is deconstructing Lyanna’s storyline using Sansa as a mirror. I think https://asoiafuniversity.tumblr.com/post/159345122025/sansa-and-lyanna-story-parallels best described the difference between Sansa and Arya parallels with Lyanna. Arya shares a lot of looks and personality parallels, while Sansa share STORY parallels to her aunt Lyanna.
Now, there is a lot of little parallels in the course of the books, like both Sansa and Lyanna defending people from bullies, or crying as they listening to a beautiful sad song, or how they both feel dead before their times or how they both are kept in towers during part of the story, but I am focusing on parallels in their love storyline.
Marriage Alliance with House Baratheon
First we start the story with an alliance between House Baratheon and House Stark, Sansa is betrothed to the heir of House Baratheon, just like her aunt Lyanna Stark was once betrothed to Robert Baratheon. In both cases the alliance will never be formed, and the betrothal will fail and just like Lyanna’s this union will bring tragedy for House Stark.
"Come south with me, and I'll teach you how to laugh again," the king promised. "You helped me win this damnable throne, now help me hold it. We were meant to rule together. If Lyanna had lived, we should have been brothers, bound by blood as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have a son. You have a daughter. My Joff and your Sansa shall join our houses, as Lyanna and I might once have done." This offer did surprise him. "Sansa is only eleven." (A Game of Thrones - Eddard I)
"Sweet one," her father said gently, "listen to me. When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake. That boy is no Prince Aemon, you must believe me." (A Game of Thrones - Sansa III)
Northern Wolves dying in the South and returning North
(SANSA AND LADY BY ARANTZA SESTAYO)
I haven’t noticed this one, but once again (https://asoiafuniversity.tumblr.com) notices that Ned was the one who took Lyanna dead body back to Winterfell, to be buried at home and he made sure the same happened with Sansa’s wolf (which was a part of her) and ordered some of his men to carry the body of the dead wolf back to the North.
Eddard: “The wolf is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher.“......“Choose four men and have them take the body North. Bury her in Winterfell.” (A GAME OF THRONES - EDDARD III)
And Lady’s death brings back memories of Lyanna....
When the order is given to kill Lady, Sansa pleads with Ned, which immediately brings him memories of Lyanna.
He remembered Rhaegar's infant son, the red ruin of his skull, and the way the king had turned away, as he had turned away in Darry's audience hall not so long ago. He could still hear Sansa pleading, as Lyanna had pleaded once. (A Game of Thrones - Eddard IV)
Both Sansa and Lyanna receive flowers in a Tourney….
(Behind the scenes GOT season 1)
Later, by the time our characters arrive in Kings Landing we have The Hand of the King’s Tourney. If you read the books you know that no one was formally named The Queen of Love and Beauty, like Lyanna had been named during the Tourney of Harrenhall, yet the entire event is centered around Sansa. First, we have Ser Loras, the Knight of Flowers, who wears an armour covered in blue flowers, giving Sansa a rose and telling her she is beautiful. Later we have Lord Baelish telling Sansa that she has her mother ‘s look and tells her Catelyn was HIS queen of beauty. For last, we have Sandor Clegane the champion of the lists after protecting Loras from the Mountain, having been named champion by Loras, escorting Sansa home. Sansa was the Queen of Beauty and Love of the Tourney, only the author deconstructed the events in tiny little pieces. Again, George is literally giving us a puzzle with tiny small pieces that we must put together to get this story right.
There was an old thread on reddit/ASOIAF that pointed out how Sansa was the Queen of Love and beauty in the Hand’s Tourney
(https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/2ws1de/spoilers_all_why_was_there_no_queen_of_love_and/) Shame that the author deleted his name but we still some of his conclusions here.
Here is a very interesting little detail George left for us about Lyanna and Sansa receiving flowers during important tourneys. When Prince Rheagar gave Lyanna a crow of Blue Rose, he was wearing a black armor with red rubies. When Ser Loras gave Sansa a red rose he was wearing a silver armour with blue sapphires. So we had Rheagar using a red armour, giving Lyanna a blue rose and now we have Ser Loras, wearing a blue armour, giving Sansa a red rose. It was AEJON TARGARYEN who noticed such detail in the asoiaf.westeros.org forums.
(Contributions (https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/149028-sansaarya-and-lyanna-parallels/) member https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/profile/134833-aejon-targaryen/)
Rhaegar armour is Red and he gives Lyanna a blur rose...
(by Omar Castile)
The Targaryen prince armored all in black. On his breastplate was the three-headed dragon of his House, wrought all in rubies that flashed like fire in the sunlight. (A Game Of Thrones, Eddard I) Yet, when the jousting began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. The crow prince wore the armour he would die in:gleaming black plate with the three-headed dragon of his House wrought in rubies on the breast. (A Game Of Thrones, Eddard XV)
Ser Loras wears a blue armour and gives Sansa a Red Rose
Ser Loras wears a blue armour and gives Sansa a Red Rose
When the Knight of Flowers made his entrance, a murmur ran through the crowd, and he heard Sansa's fervent whisper, "Oh, he's so beautiful." Ser Loras Tyrell was slender as a reed, dressed in a suit of fabulous silver armor polished to a blinding sheen and filigreed with twining black vines and tiny blue forget-me-nots. The commons realized in the same instant as Ned that the blue of the flowers came from sapphires. (A Game of Thrones - Eddard VII)
Both Sansa and Lyanna choosing love instead of duty….
By the end of the book 1, we have Sansa running to Cersei Lannister to try to save her betrothal with Joffrey. Ned Stark sat down with Arya and had that important talk with her about wolf blood because he saw some shades of Lyanna in her and was afraid that this similarity could lead Arya to a path of tragedy, YET, he is completely blind by the fact that Sansa also has a lot of Lyanna in her. Lyanna did not revolt against her father because he didn’t let her have a sword, she did because of love, because she wanted to marry for love. That’s what Sansa was doing, she is madly in love with Joffrey and doesn’t want to lose him. Lyanna wanted to marry for love but was being forced to marry someone she didn’t like it; Sansa on the other hand is madly in love with Joffrey and doesn’t want to marry someone else that her father may find for her. Sansa is a very obedient girl and usually does what others expect of her, but love is the trigger of her wolf blood, she cannot give up on love, just like her aunt Lyanna Stark.
"Who cares about your stupid dancing master?" Sansa flared. "Father, I only just now remembered, I can't go away, I'm to marry Prince Joffrey." She tried to smile bravely for him. "I love him, Father, I truly truly do, I love him as much as Queen Naerys loved Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, as much as Jonquil loved Ser Florian. I want to be his queen and have his babies.(A Game of Thrones - Sansa III)
"It was for love," Sansa said in a rush. "Father wouldn't even give me leave to say farewell." She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father. She had never done anything so willful before, and she would never have done it then if she hadn't loved Joffrey as much as she did. "(A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV)
I don't think people realize how important was this moment for Sansa, she has always tried to be an obedient high born Lady, yet, when it comes to love, she becomes a wolf girl.
Both become betrothed to men who fathers bastards….
After leaving King’s Landing and going to the Vale, Sansa now is betrothal to Harrold Hardyng, and I was actually surprised at how very few readers saw it the clear parallels between him and Robert Baratheon. A vulgar man, who like to sleep around and father several bastards wherever he goes….
"Robert will never keep to one bed," Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm's End. "I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature." (A Game of Thrones - Eddard IX)
"Harry the Heir?" Alayne tried to recall what Myranda had told her about him on the mountain. "He was just knighted. And he has a bastard daughter by some common girl."(A Feast for Crows - Alayne II)
Both Robert and Harry are heirs of their Houses and considered to be very handsome men, which would make both Lyanna and Sansa very envied maidens…..
I remember Robert as he was the day he took the throne, every inch a king," he said quietly. "A thousand other women might have loved him with all their hearts. What did he do to make you hate him so?" Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. "The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister's name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna." – ( A Game of Thrones, Eddard IX)
"And another on the way by a different wench. Harry can be a beguiling one, no doubt. Soft sandy hair, deep blue eyes, and dimples when he smiles. And very gallant, I am told." He teased her with a smile. "Bastard-born or no, sweetling, when this match is announced you will be the envy of every highborn maiden in the Vale, and a few from the riverlands and the Reach as well." – ( A Feast For Crows, Alayne II)
There is actually way more parallels between Robert Baratheon and Harry, which is why I have no doubt that Sansa betrothal with Harry the Heir will fail, and she will run away to the North, looking for Jon Snow at the Wall, pretty much as it happened in the season 6 of GOT. And just like her aunt Lyanna, Sansa will fall in love with a Targaryen Prince but we also have to remember that Lyanna and Rhaegar had a secret marriage and hardly no one in Westeros knew about this marriage. Which means………
If Sansa is re living Lyanna’s love story she also will have a secret marriage with Jon Snow…. As we saw it by the end of Game of Thrones, hardly anyone in Westeros will find out about Jon secret identity, so he will probably still finish the story as Jon Snow, the bastard son of Ned Stark, what would explain why Sansa and Jon would have to have a secret marriage. Sansa now as QITN has the power to annul her marriage to Tyrion Lannister and marry Jon in secret. If you notice, Jon and Sansa are repeating Lyanna and Rhaegar story, Ned and Catelyn story AND Jaime and Cersei story but with a twist, its Sansa who is the Lady of Winterfell and can make Jon the Lord of Winterfell by marriage, its Sansa who is the QITN by the end of the story and has the power to annul her marriage to Tyrion and be free to marry the man she loves.
BUT if Sansa marries Jon is secret how can she explain her future children? And there are MANY children in Sansa’s future according to the books? Remember that I told you that Sansa and Jon also have a lot of Jaime and Cersei on them? How did Cersei was able to hide away her children with Jaime? Well, she married another man and hided her children behind this marriage.
"Sansa might someday be queen. Her sons could rule from the Wall to the mountains of Dorne. (A Game of Thrones - Catelyn II)
I will stop here, but I am now convinced that Sansa will marry both Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. Her children by Jon will be trueborns, but seeing by all Westeros as bastards, while her children with Tyrion will be bastards but seeing by Westeros as the trueborns. Her children by Jon will have the Stark look, yet her children with Tyrion will have the Tullys looks.
In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya. (A Storm of Swords - Sansa II)
I know that many dislike the idea of Sansa and Tyrion consummating their relationship, but I do think George left a lot of hints about this ending in the books and that may explain why the tv show softened Tyrion behaviour during their Wedding Night (I really wish TV Tyrion had happened in the books too), in the tv show Tyrion doesn’t force Sansa to strip naked, doesn’t touch her boobs and gropes her or makes her cry, he stop her when she starts to take her clothes and its pretty decent to her; I also love the scene after the Red Wedding when he tells her how much he admired her mother and tells Sansa that her mother would like to see Sansa carry on bravely with her life. Again, in the books, Tyrion is a loser that only laments that Sansa is not opening herself up to him.
Its also important to point out that its Tyrion who convinces Jon Snow to Kill Daenerys in the end to save Sansa, at that point Jon is determinate to keep on following Dany and its Tyrion who makes clear that Sansa life is in danger and that she will never bend the knee to the Queen of Ashes. In the end both Tyrion and Jon are the heroes in Sansa’s song. And again, I believe every little scene and dialogue from the final seasons, are hints about the end of the story.
Anyway, I will write more later, but Sansa’s fans should be excited by the next book, if we ever get to read it……












