Sansa as Rapunzel, the maiden trapped
Goddd I love the how this series uses and then subverts all the traditional archetypes associated with high medieval romantic literature. Like, GRRM just fucking LOVES to pull apart these patterns and prototypes and muck them all up and rub em all over your face like “here’s what this bullshit would be like in a more realistic world, turns out arthurian legends have really fucked up patriarchal politics and everything is super shitty lol.”
Sansa is the princess in the tower. Literally in the first book, more metaphorically in the second, locked up as a hostage, waiting for her prince to come, dreaming of someone to rescue her. She’s starts off as such a romantic, casting herself as the tragic heroine (and the pathetic Ser Dontos as her Florian) in some kind of heroic romance narrative. She’s naive and childish and idealistic and her character arc in the first book/season is all about her learning that the real world ain’t nothing like your songs and stories babe. The real world beats the romanticism and idealism out of her (your golden prince is a vicious petty shit, your white knight is a killer and a thug), but she wises up fast (girl is anything but stupid, haters to the left) and she survives and adapts and learns to lie with a smile. Gentility is her armour and courtly manners are her sword. When her white knight offers to rescue her she says no.
She isn’t a passive princess waiting in a tower anymore. She learned how to play the game and she’s gonna play it hard.
