Arya Stark Vs. Sansa Stark

Published August 23, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey guys,

Long time listener – first time writer. I discovered you in the middle of Westworld and have been along for the ride throughout Taboo, American Gods, and now Game of Thrones (along with all of your movie reviews). I can’t recommend your podcasts highly enough.

I’ve noticed in this week’s episode, aside from some illogical items north of the wall, the main gripes for most viewers are the Arya/Sansa interactions. Why can’t Arya notice that Sansa is telling the truth about being forced to write the letter? Why is Arya being such an asshole? Etc. I’d like to offer an alternative view.

Arya knows that Sansa was coerced. She even says Jon would forgive Sansa because she was a scared little girl all alone with the wicked Lannisters. Sansa’s empty words in the letter are not the problem: the problem is that she put pen to paper out of fear.

Sansa is a survivor driven by fear. She endures trauma and cowers, manages to survive, and gets through it. Throughout all of the monstrous things that have happened to her, Sansa’s choices have been based on fear (not telling King Robert the truth about Nymeria attacking Joffrey, standing by Joffrey’s side, not leaving Kings Landing with the Hound, marrying Tyrion and Ramsey, fleeing the purple wedding and Winterfell).

Arya, however, is a fighter driven by anger. She speaks her mind and doesn’t back down. Every person she has killed was motivated by anger (the Frey’s, the Waif, Meryn Trant, Polliver and company at the Inn, even the stableboy in season 1 – she accidentally stabbed him while turning and saying “stay away” in an angry tone). Side note: Arya did start to run for Ned on the executioner’s block but was stopped by Yoren.

(Mid script P.S- I haven’t read any spoilers)

Now onto where this may go. When Arya unveils the letter, she notices Sansa is full of fear. Will the northern Lords have sympathy for her? Is my sister trying to ruin my name and strip me of my status? I believe this is enough fear to..drum roll..make Sansa plan to kill Arya. That’s right, Sansa has turned heel (not Arya). She has learned a lot from Cersei indeed.

This is all music to Littlefinger’s ears of course. He has sewn discord amongst the sisters. He then tells Sansa that Brienne (another fighter like Arya who doesn’t fear anything) is honor bound to protect both her and Arya. Remember that Sansa took keen notice of Arya and Brienne’s sparring session…maybe fast growing friends? Would Brienne take Arya’s side? What’s the best way to remove Brienne from the situation? Oh, look, a convenient invitation to King’s Landing.

(By the way, who sent the invitation to Sansa? Cersei? Daenerys? Wouldn’t Jon Snow, the King of the North and representative of Winterfell, get the invite for the summit? Or better yet, not an invitation at all since he is already “in the loop” of attendees? My theory is that Littlefinger sent the invitation to Sansa knowing that she would send Brienne away.)

While Sansa is sending her away, Brienne mentions that the northern lords may not take Sansa’s side since Littlefinger has been talking to them behind her back. (We know that he has). As you see her staring down, Sansa starts to question her reasoning for sending Brienne away if she won’t have the lords backing. So everything is set up for Littlefinger to get his way. Sansa wants Arya dead, and in the middle of a sister fight with Brienne gone, Littlefinger will rally the lords and take Winterfell. However, he underestimates Arya.

When Sansa is snooping into Arya’s bag and gets caught, the first thing she says is that there’s hundreds of men who are loyal to her. She thinks Arya wants her to kill her because she wants to kill Arya. However, Arya doesn’t want to kill Sansa. Arya wants Sansa to stop making decisions based on fear and being manipulated by others. After her dont-fuck-with-me monologue, Arya hands Sansa the catspaw dagger. In a truly hypocritical way, Arya is using intimidation and fear to tell Sansa to stop being intimidated. This world doesn’t let girls decide what they’re going to be. But Arya decides who she wants to be; no one can influence her (i.e. the sneaky archery practice story..what she was doing wasn’t wrong, the rules were wrong). She knows Littlefinger is behind this and is telling Sansa – Use this dagger to stop being manipulated into fear.

If Sansa is smart (or talks to Bran) and catches Littlefinger, then we will have a nice poetic end. However, that’s not the Game of Thrones I’ve come to know and love. Sansa may find out too late, after she tries to kill Arya. One of those 3 is bound to kick the bucket soon. Either way, Arya is not the villain. She is just trying to show Sansa the error of her ways before Sansa becomes the villain. Or I could be completely off; high probability of that too! Take care.

P.S. – I have nothing but well wishes for Big D and his family. Hope you can get back to entertaining the masses soon big guy! Awesome job on the solo review Gene. Also, sorry for the length. If this is fortunate enough to make the show cut, feel free to butcher it down to a reasonable length! – Ryan S

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