160 ASOS 17 Sansa II: Hope Chest

Sansa is unable to see through the plan to wed her to Lannister. It seems she cannot hear the word "bridal" through the seamstress's stammering to avoid it. When the seamstress tells her Cersei is having a fabulously beautiful new dress made for her, Sansa tries to figure out how she could mean Margaery, not Cersei. The Tyrell women have welcomed Sansa and she feels herself among friends with them. Invested in her fantasy of wedding Willas, Sansa does not try to guess Cersei's motive. Rather, the chapter ends with Sansa deciding to lie to herself: the new dress must be for the royal wedding, that's all. Sansa comforts herself to her peril.

Sansa might have told Margaery Cersei was having a dress made for her and that been looked into, but Sansa would rather comfort herself, so traumatized has she been by Joffrey that she almost can't lie about it anymore. Unable to take the reigns of her life, Sansa allows things to happen to her.

The Unkiss

When Megga gushes about the prospect of being kissed, Sansa recalls her first and only kiss: the Hound during the Blackwater. Except, he didn't kiss her. Sansa is fantasizing. "He kissed me and threatened to kill me and made me sing him a song." While these might not register to modern readers as romantic, they remind of the Gothic romances Jane Austen's characters read. Sansa is meant to seem to have different feelings for the Hound now that he is gone. When she could smell the vomit on his breath, she only worried he might kiss her, but now that he's a memory, she's more interested in the

Recall that, in her first choral chapter, Sansa romanticized Joffrey as having saved her:

"Leave her alone," Joffrey said. he stood over her, beautiful in blue wool and black leather, hihs golden curls shining in the sun like a crown. He gave her his hand, drew her to her feet."

Later, "She gazed at Joffrey worshipfully. He was so gallant, she thought. The way he had rescued her from Ser Ilyn and the Hound, why, it was almost like the songs, like the time Serwyn of the Mirror Shield saved the Princess Daeryssa from the giants, or Prince Aemon the Dragonknight championing Queen Naerys's honor against evil Ser Morgil's slanders."

Megga says Joffrey has beautiful lips, something Sansa used to think, too. But Sansa is too traumatized to catch on that Megga is prompting her to play a certain role. Megga means for Sanas to say that she wept when she lost Joffrey to Margaery and that her heart breaks that she will never kiss those royal lips. This is the role Cersei would have Sansa play as well, for all to look as it should. But Sansa can only press her lips together and hold her tongue not to tell how often Joffrey made her weep.

Megga's romantic revery:

"Alyn said her favor made him fearless. He says he shouted her name as his battle cry, isn't that ever so gallant? Someday I want some champion to wear my favor and kill a hundred men."

Now, Sansa sees such romanticizations of war as childish and naive.

Sansa's conscience bothers her in regard to Margaery.

Margaery took Sansa hawking in the kingswood, Sansa begs Margaery not to wed Joffrey.

The Songs are also history. Margaery says Loras will protect her as Prince Aemon protected Naerys. Sansa is still concerned, though. Sansa sees Loras on the Kingsguard to protect Margaery from Joffrey as a recipe for war between Tyrell and Lannister. Littlefinger will later tell Sansa he planted the idea among the Tyrells while brokering the alliance. Littlefinger says Olenna realized:

"Ser Loras is as hot-tempered as Jaime Lannister. Toss Joffrey, Margaery, and Loras in a pot, and you've got the makings for kingslayer stew. The old woman understood something else as well. Her son was determined to make Margaery a queen, and for that he needed a king . . . but he did not need Joffrey. We shall have another wedding soon, wait and see. Margaery will marry Tommen. She'll keep her queenly crown and her maidenhead, neither of which she especially wants, but what does that matter? The great western alliance will be preserved . . . for a time, at least."

"Sister":"It's your claim they mean to wed."

When Sansa tells Dontos she no longer has need of rescue, he warns her the Tyrells are no better than the Lannisters. It raises the question of who Dontos serves. Since the Tyrells are being good to Sansa, why

Sansa fantisizes about her future with Willas, raising their children to hate Lannisters. She's careful to reign herself in when she begins to fantasize about Loras, instead, feeling compassion for Willas and wanting to spare him awareness that she'd preferred his brother.

The chapter ends with Sansa thinking of the dress as the one to wear to make Willas fall in love with her, when the seamstress has told her it's on a rush order and will be ready long before the royal wedding. Sansa overlooks her worry, even lies to herself, deciding the new dress must be for the royal wedding.

This chapter lays the groundwork for two upcoming weddings: Sansa's to Tyrion, and the Purple Wedding.

References

Sansa is wary about the gown, much as she was wary about Margaery's invitation to dinner. The two chapters open the same way, with Sansa being worried and not knowing what to think about a political overture.

Purple Wedding foreshadowing in Sansa's awareness that Joffrey could make Loras a kingslayer and battle within the city. Littlefinger will take credit for the idea and suggest it as Olenna's motive for poisoing Joffrey.

Subtle Red Wedding foreshadowing in reference to Sansa's claim to Winterfell.

Comparison of Sansa to Catelyn in her sense that the others are children.

"Which Queen?" becomes a theme leading up to Cersei's rivalry with Margaery in A Feast for Crows