GoT Season 6 Critique: Sansa Lacks Agency
Oct. 30th, 2022 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerSansa Stark has interesting character development across seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones. She grows from being a person who's always being pushed around by others' decisions into someone who understands how the Game of Thrones, aka politics in Westeros, is played and starts to assert her own agency. But does she really gain agency over her own role in the world, or is she the literal sophomore— a "wise fool"; a person who's learned a little about playing the Game of Thrones but is still being manipulated by people vastly more skilled than her?
In public appearances after season 6 the showrunners were adamant that Sansa has gained agency. The thing is, the facts of the story they wrote do not support that opinion. It's clear in season 6 that Sansa is not (yet) in control of her own destiny but is merely getting results that are a combination of what others (particularly Petyr Baelish) choose to give her for their own selfish reasons and, frankly, dumb luck. Season 6 spoilers after the cut.
The big bone of contention, obviously, is Petyr Baelish riding to the rescue during the Battle of the Bastards in S6E9. Without Petyr and the thousands of soldiers of the armies of the Vale, Jon Snow's armies would've been defeated. Sansa herself would have been killed or captured— and, if captured, quite possibly tortured to death by the sadistic Ramsay Bolton.
People who argue Sansa had agency— including the showrunners— point to Petyr's arrival in the nick of time as Sansa's success. But really it's not. Not in terms of the facts shown in the story, anyway. In S6E4 Petyr proposed allying the Vale's armies to her to recapture Winterfell, but Sansa spurned him. She said no. Baelish came anyway; but that was his choice, made against her expressed wishes and for his own reasons. Neither Sansa nor people arguing for her agency can credibly point to that and call it her success.
Moreover, if Sansa did somehow know or suspect that Petyr and the thousands of soldiers would arrive, she gave Jon Snow terrible, absolutely terrible advice. She encouraged Jon to march on Ramsay's forces in Winterfell despite being outnumbered at least 3:1 and suffering the tactical disadvantage of attacking an enemy with castle defenses. If she knew that Petyr and his armies were coming, she should've told Jon to wait a day. If she didn't... well, she shouldn't have encouraged him to attack. She was making a foolish, foolish decision to encourage attack with essentially zero chance of success.
In public appearances after season 6 the showrunners were adamant that Sansa has gained agency. The thing is, the facts of the story they wrote do not support that opinion. It's clear in season 6 that Sansa is not (yet) in control of her own destiny but is merely getting results that are a combination of what others (particularly Petyr Baelish) choose to give her for their own selfish reasons and, frankly, dumb luck. Season 6 spoilers after the cut.
The big bone of contention, obviously, is Petyr Baelish riding to the rescue during the Battle of the Bastards in S6E9. Without Petyr and the thousands of soldiers of the armies of the Vale, Jon Snow's armies would've been defeated. Sansa herself would have been killed or captured— and, if captured, quite possibly tortured to death by the sadistic Ramsay Bolton.
People who argue Sansa had agency— including the showrunners— point to Petyr's arrival in the nick of time as Sansa's success. But really it's not. Not in terms of the facts shown in the story, anyway. In S6E4 Petyr proposed allying the Vale's armies to her to recapture Winterfell, but Sansa spurned him. She said no. Baelish came anyway; but that was his choice, made against her expressed wishes and for his own reasons. Neither Sansa nor people arguing for her agency can credibly point to that and call it her success.
Moreover, if Sansa did somehow know or suspect that Petyr and the thousands of soldiers would arrive, she gave Jon Snow terrible, absolutely terrible advice. She encouraged Jon to march on Ramsay's forces in Winterfell despite being outnumbered at least 3:1 and suffering the tactical disadvantage of attacking an enemy with castle defenses. If she knew that Petyr and his armies were coming, she should've told Jon to wait a day. If she didn't... well, she shouldn't have encouraged him to attack. She was making a foolish, foolish decision to encourage attack with essentially zero chance of success.
