When we first met Sansa and Arya Stark as two squabbling teenagers in the ramshackle, wind-swept, stony towers of Winterfell we noted two distinctly different personalities at play. For Sansa was a spoilt brat. She was short with her aides; she barked at her father and she lied, to protect Joffrey, condemning an innocent animal to a bloody fate. Sansa had all the markings of a girl that hadn't experienced the gritty reality of Game of Thrones, she was comfortable.
In Arya the audience sympathised. Here was a charming girl of smiles with an acerbic tongue and seemingly endless energy.
We enjoyed her touching relationship with Jon Snow [one of the few Starks to constantly show him loving attention]; we shared her hatred of Joffrey and we could almost feel the great warmth emanating from the scenes with Syrio Forel.
Arya was our favourite Stark daughter.......right until poor dead Ned lost his head.
'What!' I hear the book readers cry. 'We still love Arya!'
Yes, she seems a firm favourite amongst those wretched people who have read the books.
But might you naysayers cease spoiler-posting for one moment and reconsider your character loyalties?
For in the world of Game of Thrones, as in our world, life is such a precious thing. Arya seemingly has no qualms with extinguishing precious life. She even seems to get some sort of 'kick' out of doing so. Like a garden weed suffocating the surrounding plants.
Note her vile expression of glee when she pierces the neck of a defenceless soldier who had long since surrendered.
Or the cold, expressionless countenance of a psychopath as she eyes up another kill in the most recent episode.
Arya has no contemplation of whether she has the moral right to take life, neither does she consider the grieving families she is leaving behind in her reign of terror. She is almost robotic. Like a terminator with a blocked nose and a bowl haircut.
If poor Ned looked down upon her now, would he be proud? I'm not so sure.
Arya supporters will point to the fact that everybody she's killed hitherto had it 'coming to them'.
Debatable.
When she stabbed a young boy on escaping King's Landing, was that a proportionate response to evade capture? The dutiful boy was merely trying to stop the escape of a reported traitor.
Even the murder of the Lannister soldier and Rorge is questionable. Shouldn't these men have faced trial for their crimes? Who made Arya judge, jury and executioner?
She even has the audacity to plot the murder of The Hound, the man keeping her alive, because this dog was ordered to kill a butcher's boy [who supposedly tried to kill Joffrey].
Was The Hound's crime any worse than those committed by Arya?
Increasingly we see a figure not only demented with her indifference towards death but laden with double standards too.
Yet, I like Baelish. How can I dislike Arya for showing no regard towards murder but praise Littlefinger?
I believe it is explained by age.
We all hate the precocious do we not?
I remember walking through those glass doors into Starbucks to get my usual vanilla latté one morning. I was stuck behind a middle class couple and their child [who looked like Robyn of The Vale] perusing the cake counter.
No matter. No rush.
The bespectacled mother was analysing the poppy seed biscuits and clucking in thought.
...No problem.
At the till she then turns to little Robyn, a boy no more than seven years old, and asks him if he would like a cappuccino.
Little Robyn nodded.
I almost fell back into the newspaper stand in disbelief.
I bit my lip with irritation. Kids that age should be drinking chemically-enhanced, borderline-poisonous Panda Pops from the Wacky Warehouse, not cappuccinos.
It tapped into a mindset i'm sure many of us share: there is something sickening about the young abandoning their youth and acting decades older.
The absolute worst show on television is the Junior Apprentice. Twelve year olds in ill-fitting suits, whipping out Blackberries and talking about cash-flow and profit forecasts.
Go and find some conkers for the love of God.
And this is the problem with Arya.
Her response to Ned's execution hasn't been consistent with the reaction of a young teenager. The way she values life lacks the innocence and fragility of a youthful mind. She is a cappuccino. There's something deeply unlikeable about that.
The only Stark to have witnessed the horror of Ned's execution was Sansa [for Yoren made Arya look away].
As Arya's likeability plummeted after that fateful scene, Sansa's rose.
Unfortunate Sansa has had to suffer far greater than Arya. Not only did she witness her father being slaughtered, but throughout the series she has been forced to look upon Ned's head on a spike; endure public beatings from Meryn Trant and Joffrey; face attempts on her life; she's been threatened with rape; she had to marry Tyrion against her will and more recently, she narrowly avoided being flung out of the Moon Door.
In response to this, Sansa routinely cries, breaks down and shows the humility, heart and vulnerability one would associate with a young lady in such a situation.
She displays a certain humanity.
And in spite of all these horrors and all the emotional breakdowns, Sansa still finds the inner strength to carry herself with such a grace and dignity befitting a true lady of her title.
Sansa isn't going around stabbing little boys to death, or making lists of who to torture. She is the smile of defiance, a Lady Diana of Game of Thrones. Westeros' Rose.
And who didn't shed a tear when Sansa entered the Eyrie winter gardens? When she witnessed the snow of the North, her home, for the first time since her mother, father and brother were butchered?
I cried my eyes out of course.
You'd have needed a cold heart of stone to resist weeping.....or the personality of Arya.
Nobody could begrudge unfortunate Sansa a happy ending, not even the heartless book readers.
To weather the storm of hateful thunder, lightening and heavy rain and remain the rose is true testament to Sansa when so many lesser characters would have become weeds.
Whatever happens from this point onwards, Ned and Catelyn's oldest daughter can hold her head up high - I've no doubt they would be proud.
~ If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to follow www.twitter.com/gotrowettblog for updates and alerts on new entries ~
In Arya the audience sympathised. Here was a charming girl of smiles with an acerbic tongue and seemingly endless energy.
We enjoyed her touching relationship with Jon Snow [one of the few Starks to constantly show him loving attention]; we shared her hatred of Joffrey and we could almost feel the great warmth emanating from the scenes with Syrio Forel.
Arya was our favourite Stark daughter.......right until poor dead Ned lost his head.
'What!' I hear the book readers cry. 'We still love Arya!'
Yes, she seems a firm favourite amongst those wretched people who have read the books.
But might you naysayers cease spoiler-posting for one moment and reconsider your character loyalties?
For in the world of Game of Thrones, as in our world, life is such a precious thing. Arya seemingly has no qualms with extinguishing precious life. She even seems to get some sort of 'kick' out of doing so. Like a garden weed suffocating the surrounding plants.
Note her vile expression of glee when she pierces the neck of a defenceless soldier who had long since surrendered.
Or the cold, expressionless countenance of a psychopath as she eyes up another kill in the most recent episode.
Arya has no contemplation of whether she has the moral right to take life, neither does she consider the grieving families she is leaving behind in her reign of terror. She is almost robotic. Like a terminator with a blocked nose and a bowl haircut.
If poor Ned looked down upon her now, would he be proud? I'm not so sure.
Arya supporters will point to the fact that everybody she's killed hitherto had it 'coming to them'.
Debatable.
When she stabbed a young boy on escaping King's Landing, was that a proportionate response to evade capture? The dutiful boy was merely trying to stop the escape of a reported traitor.
Even the murder of the Lannister soldier and Rorge is questionable. Shouldn't these men have faced trial for their crimes? Who made Arya judge, jury and executioner?
She even has the audacity to plot the murder of The Hound, the man keeping her alive, because this dog was ordered to kill a butcher's boy [who supposedly tried to kill Joffrey].
Was The Hound's crime any worse than those committed by Arya?
Increasingly we see a figure not only demented with her indifference towards death but laden with double standards too.
Yet, I like Baelish. How can I dislike Arya for showing no regard towards murder but praise Littlefinger?
I believe it is explained by age.
We all hate the precocious do we not?
I remember walking through those glass doors into Starbucks to get my usual vanilla latté one morning. I was stuck behind a middle class couple and their child [who looked like Robyn of The Vale] perusing the cake counter.
No matter. No rush.
The bespectacled mother was analysing the poppy seed biscuits and clucking in thought.
...No problem.
At the till she then turns to little Robyn, a boy no more than seven years old, and asks him if he would like a cappuccino.
Little Robyn nodded.
I almost fell back into the newspaper stand in disbelief.
I bit my lip with irritation. Kids that age should be drinking chemically-enhanced, borderline-poisonous Panda Pops from the Wacky Warehouse, not cappuccinos.
It tapped into a mindset i'm sure many of us share: there is something sickening about the young abandoning their youth and acting decades older.
The absolute worst show on television is the Junior Apprentice. Twelve year olds in ill-fitting suits, whipping out Blackberries and talking about cash-flow and profit forecasts.
Go and find some conkers for the love of God.
And this is the problem with Arya.
Her response to Ned's execution hasn't been consistent with the reaction of a young teenager. The way she values life lacks the innocence and fragility of a youthful mind. She is a cappuccino. There's something deeply unlikeable about that.
The only Stark to have witnessed the horror of Ned's execution was Sansa [for Yoren made Arya look away].
As Arya's likeability plummeted after that fateful scene, Sansa's rose.
Unfortunate Sansa has had to suffer far greater than Arya. Not only did she witness her father being slaughtered, but throughout the series she has been forced to look upon Ned's head on a spike; endure public beatings from Meryn Trant and Joffrey; face attempts on her life; she's been threatened with rape; she had to marry Tyrion against her will and more recently, she narrowly avoided being flung out of the Moon Door.
In response to this, Sansa routinely cries, breaks down and shows the humility, heart and vulnerability one would associate with a young lady in such a situation.
She displays a certain humanity.
And in spite of all these horrors and all the emotional breakdowns, Sansa still finds the inner strength to carry herself with such a grace and dignity befitting a true lady of her title.
Sansa isn't going around stabbing little boys to death, or making lists of who to torture. She is the smile of defiance, a Lady Diana of Game of Thrones. Westeros' Rose.
And who didn't shed a tear when Sansa entered the Eyrie winter gardens? When she witnessed the snow of the North, her home, for the first time since her mother, father and brother were butchered?
I cried my eyes out of course.
You'd have needed a cold heart of stone to resist weeping.....or the personality of Arya.
Nobody could begrudge unfortunate Sansa a happy ending, not even the heartless book readers.
To weather the storm of hateful thunder, lightening and heavy rain and remain the rose is true testament to Sansa when so many lesser characters would have become weeds.
Whatever happens from this point onwards, Ned and Catelyn's oldest daughter can hold her head up high - I've no doubt they would be proud.
~ If you enjoyed this piece, be sure to follow www.twitter.com/gotrowettblog for updates and alerts on new entries ~
