126 ACOK 53 Sansa IV Fire & Blood

Part 1 of 4 in a cluster of Sansa's Blackwater chapters

Aerys Come Again, Worse Man, Trauma Activated

Setup for Sansa’s “rescue” by Littlefinger, after she declines the Hound’s offer: fear of rape established

Denial: Sana’s attempt to burn evidence, creating smoke that alerts, is a metaphor for the way the lies one in denial tells reveal secret truths the liar is in denial about. Through Sansa, the Hound and Cersei, we see that, designed as self-defense, denial of one’s true emotions creates a cynical philosophy that replaces religion and that belies the very emotions it is designed to hide. Yet, a hostage who is emotionally honest with their captors is beaten. In a delicate and rich chapter, we see the Hound and Cersei as villainous because once victimized and Sansa as in need of emotional self-honesty as an anchor to the lies she must tell to survive. It paints survival as psychological and easily sacrificable to physical survival, if one is not careful. Sansa’s circumstances may make her like the Hound, then like Cersei. The chapter centers on two important conversations 1 The one with the Hound Sansa has been having since her first chapter begins to reveal the defensiveness behind his intentional menacing. It touches on the arc that will culminate in his trial by fire by Beric Dondarrion, and in the irony of his innocence.

2 Initiates the one Cersei will force on her at Maegor’s, revealing Cersei’s philosophy of the sword. The Hound espouses a similar philosophy of the sword in his conversation, connecting the two. Central topics include honest cynical atheism vs false piety and dishonesty as strength.

Important Conversation Between Sansa and the Hound pgs 754-757 She goes up to the roof to breathe, since her room feels claustrophobic, but there has a panic attack related to trauma from her near rape at the bread riots. Sansa would have fallen but the Hound catches her. He asks if she means to become a cripple like her brother, or if she thought she could fly. It implies he’s concerned she may have intended suicide, though he really means to require her to be strong and fight and try to survive instead of just letting herself fall. Sansa is upset by his criticism of her frailty and lies, saying she wasn’t going to collapse, he startled her is all because she thought she was alone. She glances away with guilt about the lie. He takes it personally and says “‘The little bird still can’t bear to look at me, can she?‘ The Hound released her. ’You were glad enough to see my face when the mob had you, though. Remember?” 755 He feels rejected and disrespected. He wants to be her’s, is always rescuing her, and she won’t even look at him. But Sansa’s memory of the bread riot includes the Hound as a the horror, rather than as her savior. She’s not grateful to but horrified by him. “The Hound leapt at them, his sword a blur of steel that trailed a mist as it swung. When they broke and ran before him, he had laughed, his terrible burned face for a moment transformed.” 755 Sansa appraises his face again, as in 30 Sansa 2, concluding that “The scars are not the worst part, nor even the way his mouth twitches. It’s his eyes. She had never seen eyes so full of anger.'” She apologizes for not coming to him to thank him, calling him brave to save her. His bristling sharpens to derision. He says “a dog doesn't need courage to chase off rats. They had me thirty to one, and not a man of them dared face me.” 755 This reflects back on his irritation that Sansa doesn't dare face him. Sansa, now irritated, asks if it gives him joy to scare people. She didn't like his look of triumph at driving off the peasants who would have raped her, either. “No, it gives me joy to kill people.' his mouth twitched.” 755 The Hound's mouth twitching is a tell that he is lying. His mouth twitches whenever he goes against his conscience, as when he leads Sansa up to see her father's head on Joffrey's order.

The Hound, cornered, now tries to baffle and frighten Sansa away from understanding his vulnerability. He doubles down on the lie that he enjoys killing by insisting Ned enjoyed killing, too, and lied saying he didn’t. Sansa hugs herself and reminds him she was thanking him. She’d only meant to be courteous. He cites that as his reason for outrage. “You think it’s all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing.” He places the blade of his longsword against her neck and makes reference to Ser Ilyn beheading her father, says his sword makes him safe because it makes him a butcher. He spits at her feet saying “Let them have their sers. So long as I have this, there’s no man on earth I need fear.” 756 “Except your brother, Sansa thought, but she had better sense than to say it aloud.” Instead, she says “Not even the men across the river?” He says he has contempt for all this burning. “Only cowards fight with fire.” “Lord Stannis is no coward.” “He’s not the man his brother was, either. Robert never let a little thing like a river stop him.” “What will you do when he crosses?” “Fight. Kill. Die, maybe.” Now that he’s conceding, Sansa retaliates for his trying to frighten her, saying “Aren’t you afraid? The gods might send you down to some terrible hell for all the evil you’ve done.” “What evil?” he laughed. “What gods?” This reflects Sansa’s earlier sentiment, expressed to Dontos. She finds herself on the opposing side of her actual belief, now. The Hound says “If there are gods, they made sheep so wolves could eat mutton.” Sansa says true knights protect the weak and that he is awful. The Hound says “I’m honest. It’s the world that’s awful.” She tells her to leave and she does, thinking she fears the Hound but wishes Dontos were more ferocious, too. To reject the Hound, Sansa changes her earlier position on the gods to disagree with him, deciding there are gods and true knights, too. “All the stories can’t be lies.” 757 The Mob Is The Hound Sansa’s experience of being rescued not one of relief but of seeing one monster fight off another. The chapter compares the mob to the Hound. “She remembered the way they had howled,” 755, compared the mob to “a maddened beast” 757 “Everywhere she turned she saw faces twisted into monstrous inhuman masks.” 757 “When they broke and ran before him he had laughed, his terrible burned face for a moment transformed.” 755 In her dream, Sansa cries out for some protector but no one comes. She does not feel the Hound as her protector. He saved her because it’s his job and he says there’s nothing sweeter than killing. Even though he comes to her often, it only seems a combination of coincidence and kingsguard escort.

Implication the Hound Followed Sansa to the Roof “The imp had moved most of the gold cloaks to the city walls and the white knights of the Kingsguard had duties more important than dogging her heels.” 754 Yet the roof top was “dark and thick with shadows.” 754 The Hound might already have been there for the same sense of escape Sansa came for.

The Important Conversation With Cersei at Maegor’s During the Blackwater Starts Here Though Sansa tries to lie about it, Cersei has deduced that fear of wedding Joffrey inspired Sansa to burn the sheets to hide her having flowered. When Sansa continues the lie, saying “I love His Grace with all my heart,‘ Sansa said. The queen sighed. ’You had best learn some new lies, and quickly. Lord Stannis will not like that one, I promise you.’ ‘The new High Septon said that the gods will never permit Lord Stannis to win, since Joffrey is the rightful king.’” 760 This conversation reminds that Sansa really has not imagined the possibility of rescue by Stannis. It isn’t what she prays for. In fact, she has stopped praying and is angry at the gods for sending her a knight as disgusting as Dontos, if they even heard her at all. If they even exist. Cersei tells Sansa love is poison. It seems she had unrequited feelings for Robert and hated him for rejecting her and for looking elsewhere for love, preferring his bastards over Joffrey, since they loved him. However, this seeming is created entirely by what come across as lies.

Cynical Atheism Sansa says she wants the Great Sept of Baelor to burn. It’s where her father was beheaded. The gods never heard her prayers, why should they hear her curse them? 751 Dontos insists the gods sent him to her, proof they heard her prayers. Sansa quibbles, impatient. It seems she wants to resent the gods. Later, rejection of the Hound’s bullying of her leads her to readopt a sort of piety so as not to agree with him.

The Sack When the City Falls Will Be a Rape “The last time King’s Landing had fallen, the Lannisters looted and raped as they pleased and put hundreds to the sword, even though the city had opened its gates. This time the Imp meant to fight, and a city that fought could expect no mercy at all.” 753

Cersei Says Joffrey Takes Out His Shame on Sansa, Since She Saw Arya Best Him “”Joffrey will show you no such devotion, I fear. You could thank your sister for that, if she weren’t dead. He’s never been able to forget that day on the Trident when you saw her shame him, so he shames you in turn.“ 760

Cersei Warns to See Love as Poison (To Set Up She Believes in Rule by Fear?) Bitter about Robert’s absence during her birthings, but denies it. Sees it as weakness that Robert and Renly craved love, citing Robert’s upset when Joffrey always cried when Robert held him where his bastards always loved him. “Do you want to be loved, Sansa?‘ ’Everyone wants to be loved.’ Cersei contradicts Sansa, saying love is poison. ”A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.“ 761

Sansa’s Fear of Rape Established The prospect of rescue by ship reminds of the bread riots when Myrcella sailed. Sansa knew she’d have been raped and now has panic attacks communicated by how trapped she feels and by her cramping menstrually. In Sansa’s nightmare about the bread riots, “The knife plunged into her belly and tore and tore and tore, until there was nothing left of her down there but shiny wet ribbons.” 758

Fear of Rape by Joffrey After the Hound makes Sansa remember the bread riot, she dreams of it, pleading with a thousand monstrous faces that she never did them hurt. In her dream, she calls out for a protector—Dontos, her brothers, her dead father, her dead wolf, for Loras or some hero from the songs—but no one comes and the crowd beats her. She wakes to find she’s gotten her period. “She squirmed away in horror, kicking at the sheets and falling to the floor, breathing raggedly, naked, bloodied, and afraid.” 758 She is still inside the dream at this point, but it dawn on her that she’s blossomed and that this means she can be bedded. “She couldn’t let them see, or they’d marry her to Joffrey and make her lay with him.” 758 Panic at Flowering and the Prospect of Being Deflowered “It took three of them to pull her away” 759 from the attempt to burn every indication she’d blossomed.

Menstrual Foreshadowing Cramps conflated with fear of rape: “She could feel the fear in her tummy, twisting and pinching, worse every day. Nightmares of the day Princess Myrcella had sailed still troubled her sleep...” 753 "Yet none of it (the city’s defenses) made her feel less fearful. A stab went through her, so sharp that Sansa sobbed and clutched at her belly. She might have fallen, but a shadow moved suddenly, and strong fongers grabbed her arm and steadied her." 754 No Tears: Sansa lies to Dontos, pretending it only looks like she’s been crying because the smoke has made her eyes water. 751 When he turns weepy on her, though, she credits the wine and is disgusted. 753 “It took all her strength not to weep. She had been weeping too much of late. It was unseemly, she knew, but could not seem to help herself; the tears would come, sometimes over a trifle, and nothing she did could hold them back.” 754 Difficulty Breathing Makes Her Dizzy. Hint of a thought the Hound mistakes her faintness for suicidal intention The air is so full of smoke it tastes of ash. 750 Prefers roof to her chambers. “The very walls of the room made her feel trapped; even with the window opened wide it felt as though there were no air to breathe.” 754

Spies everywhere Dontos speculates that Moonboy has been Varys’s spy for years, since Varys pays gold for any little tidbit. “I hear all sorts of things as a fool that I never heard when I was a knight. They talk as though I am not there, and the Spider pays in gold for any little trifle.” 751 When Sansa says Joffrey and Cersei think she’s stupid, Dontos says that’s safer. “Queen Cersei and the Imp and Lord Varys and their like, they all watch each other keen as hawks, and pay this one and that one to spy out what the others are doing, but no one ever troubles themselves about Lady Tanda’s daughter, do they?” 753 Brings Shae to mind and the bread riot rapes. The gossip Tyrion bid the High Septon preach in 123 Tyrion 20 Demonized—that Stannis means to burn the Great Sept of Baelor—has spread to Dontos telling Sansa as though it were a scandalous secret. 751 Fire & Blood: The anger that comes from defensive feeling and reasoning that comes from refusing to surrender Obfuscating lies vs hard truths associated with being threatened The truth of the sword The many fires and Sansa getting her period Also in this chapter: Stannis’s siege of King’s Landing, with his tents along the river, foreshadows the Yunkish siege on Meereen. Multiple references to Dontos’s friend who will hire a ship is waiting for the time to be right. 751, 752 The sieging vanguard of Fossoway, Estermont and Morrigen are familiar houses and valiant. It’s Stannis’s Lord of Light that inspires fear. Reference to Arya: Sansa is unguarded now, but still can’t escape. 754