Chapter 15: Sansa

Sansa and Joffrey spend some time together, alone.

Characters Present:

• Septa Mordane: Septa to the Stark girls.
• Sansa Stark: Betrothed to the Prince. Daughter of Eddard Stark & Catelyn Tully. Auburn hair, young, girly, obedient, dreams of Princes and Knights and Romance.
• Lady: Sansa’s incredibly well behaved direwolf.
• Arya Stark: Sansa’s younger sister. Tomboy. Dirty and wild. Takes after the Stark side of her family in looks and attitude.
• Nymeria: Arya’s direwolf. Wild, like Arya.
• Sandor Clegane: Guardian of the Prince. Has a burned face.
• Queen Cersei Lannister: Queen Bitch is more like it. Sansa respects her because she is beautiful and queenlike.
• Prince Joffrey Lannister: whiny little 12 year old. Terrible, even for a 12-year-old boy.
• Ser Ilyn Payne: headsman to the king. Creepy AF.
• Ser Barristan Selmy: Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, councilor to the King. Previously councilor to King Aerys Targaryen.
• Renly Baratheon: Younger brother to the king. Handsome. Probably too handsome to enjoy the company of women. Lord of Storm’s End and councilor to the king.
• Mycah: A friend of Arya’s. Son of a butcher. Has a freckled face and thick red hair.

Location: The Inn at the Crossroads, Ruby Ford

What Happens:

Septa Mordane, Sansa, and Lady eat breakfast. The septa does not approve of Sansa feeding Lady from the table, and is annoyed that Arya has not joined them. Sansa covers for Arya but is privately annoyed that Arya is not a nice, docile, little sister. She wishes that Arya would be more like Princess Myrcella. Septa wants Sansa to remind Arya to dress nicely today, as they will be riding in the wheelhouse with the Princess. Sansa plans to tell Arya, but reminds Mordane that Arya will dress the way she always does.

Sansa goes to find Ayra, who is trying to groom Nymeria. Nymeria is not having any of that frilly nonsense and Ayra is struggling to get the mats out. They argue a bit. Sansa is excited to be invited to ride with the Princess and Queen. Arya would rather ride and talk to the common folk and hang out at the ford looking for rubies. Sansa doesn’t understand her sister, and Arya doesn’t really understand Sansa. Sansa mentions that she hates riding because you get dirty and sore.

Sansa tries to reason with Arya, saying that Arya can not refuse the queen. Arya ignores Sansa, and says that she doesn’t like the Queen, and that Myrcella is a little baby.

Sansa, feeling humiliated, turns to go back to the inn. She is upset because she wants everything to be nice and pretty, like they are in the songs. She reflects upon her relationship with Arya and Jon, thinking it would be easier if Arya were a bastard like Jon. She also contemplates how Arya and Jon look alike.  

Once Sansa gets back to the Inn/Camp, she is distracted from her thoughts by the arrival of Renly Baratheon, Ser Barristan the Bold, and Ser Ilyn Payne. Renly’s good looks capture Sansa’s attention, while Ser Ilyn Payne frightens her. Sandor Clegane laughs at her a bit, frightening her some more. As she begins to cry a bit, the Queen sends Joffrey to her. “Her prince” tells them to leave her alone, and Sansa thinks he is beautiful. (Gag.) Joffrey tells her that Ser Ilyn Payne had his tongue ripped out with hot pincers by the order of Aerys Targaryen.

Because of the arrival of Renly and Barristan, the Queen is unable to entertain Sansa today, and sends her off with Joffrey. Joffrey suggests riding, and Sansa remarks that she loves riding. Joff wants to leave the “dogs” behind, meaning Lady and Sandor Clegane. Sansa asks if that will be safe, and Joff annoyingly tells her that he fights with real steel and shows her his “longsword” named “Lion’s Tooth.”

The pre-teens ride around for a while, Joff being reckless. When they needed to eat, the Prince found a hold fast and demanded the people fetch food for him and his lady. They drank wine and Sansa became a bit drunk. Eventually, they find themselves at the Ruby Ford, where Robert Baratheon (Joff’s “father”) killed Rhaegar Targaryen.

At the Ruby Ford, Arya and her friend Micah are playing with wooden sticks, pretending to be knights. Joff is an asshole and uses his sword to torment Mycah. He presses his sword into the butcher boy’s face. Arya reacts to this and hit Joff with a stick. Sansa is too slow to stop it. When Joff slashed at Arya with the sword, Nymeria steps in to protect Arya and bit Joff in the arm.

Sansa goes to comfort Joff, who treats her with contempt.

Characters Mentioned, not present:

• Eddard Stark: Lord of Winterfell.
• Princess Myrcella: Daughter of Queen Bitch Cersei and King Robert. (On paper, anyway.)
• Jon Snow: ½ brother to Sansa (on paper). Looks like a Stark.
• King Robert: Is hunting with Eddard Stark. King of the Seven Kingdoms. Killed Rhaegar Targaryen at the Ruby Ford by smashing his chest in with a Warhammer. Now is trapped in an unhappy political marriage and is addicted to alcohol and women.
• Jaime Lannister: Joff’s “uncle.” He killed King Aerys during the rebellion. Known as “Kingslayer.”
• Serwyn of the Mirror Shield – character from a song
• Princess Daeryssa – character from a song
• Prince Aemon the Dragonknight – character from a song
• Queen Naery – character from a song
• Ser Morgil – character from a song

Thoughts:

This is such a sad chapter. Sansa is so naïve and young, and such a girl. She is just such a pre-teen girl, with the dreaming of handsome knights and imagining that life will be like the songs. I don’t know what to think about Sansa. She’s just so fanciful and girly. The conversation between her and Arya, with Sansa’s thoughts interspersed is so interesting to me. Sansa just does not understand Arya at all. Arya doesn’t really understand Sansa, because even though she knows Sansa, she still tried to “sell” the day to her. I honestly think that riding around, talking to people, looking for rubies, etc, sounds MUCH nicer than sitting in a stuffy wheelhouse that doesn’t even have windows! But that’s me. I’m sure if it were raining or something the feather pillows and lemon cakes would be nice for a little break. Yuck. Could you imagine the smell?

• It’s interesting that Barristan and Renly brought Ilyn with them. I wonder what they are meeting with the queen about. I had forgotten how early we meet these people.
• Lizard-lion! Such a fun word for what I imagine is just an alligator. Speaking of gaters, I saw this the other day. It’s cute!
• Joffrey is such an asshole. Fighting with the kids, getting Sansa drunk, then saying that he is going to tell his mother! What the hell. Such a little jerk.
• Arya is pretty badass. First she says, casually, that she doesn’t like the Queen. Then she has no qualms about hitting the Prince in the head with a stick, throwing rocks at him, and finally throwing the Prince’s sword into the river. Why are only Tyrion and Arya willing to stand up to this kid?
• I love that Sansa feeds Lady from the table. We also saw Jon Snow feeding Ghost from the table. She also corrected Septa Mordane on the direwolf vs dog issue.
• Haha, Clegane said that the “Starks use direwolves for wetnurses.” Nice.
• Joffrey SANG to Sansa as they traveled to the Ruby Ford. Why wasn’t THAT in the show.

Links to Previous Recaps

• Prologue
• Bran I
• Catelyn I
• Daenerys I
• Eddard I
• Jon I
• Catelyn II
• Arya I
• Bran II
• Tyrion I
• Jon II
• Daenerys II
• Eddard II
• Tyrion II
• Catelyn III