Nerd Rage: Sansa Stark Edition

Tuesday 19 May


OKAY KIDS SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN CAUSE THIS BLOG IS GOING TO BE A WILD RIDE FROM START TO FINISH. I AM CURRENTLY AN UNEMPLOYED, ANXIETY-FUELED BALL OF NERD RAGE AND SEXUAL FRUSTRATION, SO HERE COMES ALL THAT RAGE, THANK YOU GAME OF THRONES AND A PROBABLY TORN MENISCUS.

So, you guys know how much I love Game of Thrones. Like, I fucking love Game of Thrones. This show was integral to recovering my self-worth throughout my sophomore year, and watching and then reading this series was truly an epistemically transformative experience. I'm not the same person that I was in October 2013. It means a lot to me. I'm so happy that there exists a series that fuses magic AND politics and has problematic female leads (talk shit about Cersei Lannister to me and I will cut you) and also subverts fantasy tropes and has SO MANY FEMALE CHARACTERS (I'm looking at you, LOTR, like really Tolkien do you actually hate women?) and more generally so many damned good and flawed and deep characters that I care about a lot. I finished Harry Potter back in the day and thought that I probably could never get more invested in a series than I was in that.

I was wrong. Nowadays, I care mostly about politics, cheese, hiking, and Lannisters.

I Made a Margaery Tyrell Costume By Hand
I'm Not Fucking Around

I started Season Five with all my friends and I was SO EXCITED—despite the fact that my beloved Dorne storyline has been perverted (probably another subject for another post) and left a bad, bad taste in my mouth, I was at worst mildly peeved. The characterization of Loras Tyrell gets to me, as do the inconsistencies with Jaime Lannister, but this season was going SO WELL. All of the episodes have been really quite strong thematically, the lore and worldbuilding that's being done is super exciting (Volantis!!! The Tourney at Harrenhall!!! Greyscale!!! R+L=J!!!! Hell, we even got to see Valyria!!), LANNISTERS ARE EVERYWHERE, and all of the actors are performing spectacularly and are a genuine pleasure to watch (even with the same old monologues we've heard since season 3)—there are hints of Anne Boleyn in Natalie Dormer's performance of Marg and that pleases me especially.

I was pleasantly surprised—last season left me kind of bitter with the altar scene debacle with the Lannister twins, the continued deviations from the books, and I went fucking bananas after Lady Stoneheart failed to appear. It seemed like I could enjoy the show and not have to worry about the inconsistencies between show and book and I was having a damn good time with it.

And then Sunday happened. And this show I love broke my crooked heart.

Nothing with Ramsay Snow-Bolton is ever okay. I get that. Jeyne Poole's storyline in A Dance With Dragons is horrifying, and it's arguably the worst part of the book. It beats the cannibalism by a long shot. I didn't think that the show would portray that, given the Harrenhall changes to Arya in Season 2. I was hoping they'd cut it altogether and maybe have like Theon save Shireen to gain back his agency or something, and that Sansa's biggest threat would be Petyr Baelish in the Vale.

But by episode two, it became abundantly clear that they were going to put Sansa Stark in Jeyne Poole's place. At this point, I was more worried for Sansa Stark than I was for my five finals. With all the actors talking about some "traumatic scene," my hopes were not high, and with the final scene of this episode all the excitement I had was fucking crushed.

The rape of Sansa Stark is something that I am not willing to forgive. It strips her of all the agency she gained by the end of last season; hell, it strips her of the agency that she gained this episode when she told Myranda to fuck off because Winterfell is her home and she isn't afraid. Pursuing this storyline at all for Sansa Stark means that they cut out all of the growth and rich development that she undergoes in the Vale as Alayne Stone, and replaces it with this shit. Something awful was bound to happen to her, because she's in an enemy camp and she's just married another one of the sadists in the Game of Thrones universe. But the writers didn't have to write this of all things for her.

I didn't think they would rape Sansa Stark. Sansa Stark, who is fourteen at the oldest using a barely legal actress. What the everloving fuck. It's been argued that this rape is treated with the gravity it deserves, but that doesn't make it okay. At all. After last season, when they most unceremoniously shat upon the character development of both the Lannister twins (the ultimate blonde problematic faves) in that godawful sept scene and the fan backlash that resulted from that, I didn't think they would rape Sansa Stark and probably mishandle the aftermath just like they did last season.

I especially thought they wouldn't rape Sansa Stark just to more fully lead to the development of male character Theon Greyjoy. Granted, Theon's storyline isn't good either. But did Sansa Stark's rape have to be the impetus for him to develop? Is that the worst pain that they can inflict upon a man? Did they really have to rape Sansa Stark? OF COURSE NOT. I AM LIVID. LIVID.

I am tired of watching you abuse female characters, Game of Thrones. I am sick and tired of having female characters raped and abused just to develop storylines that can be handled in less sexualized ways. I am tired of having rape and violence against women used as a plot device. I am tired of seeing rape used as a shock factor to make an already gritty show so much worse. I am tired of seeing violence against and the rape of women that have so much more to offer (and should matter on its own) being used to further the development of male characters. I am tired of hearing "it could have been worse," "it was a choice," and "she'll have to get through it" when it comes to rape on TV and on film.

You can't keep perpetuating abuse and violence and rape in a show like this that's so near and dear to people, and then be shocked when they are desensitized to the very real and salient issues of rape and sexual assault. I know that it's probably not an epidemic, but it hardly shines a light into the dark void of a society that already has problems respecting the autonomy that each individual has over their body. It's not a matter to be taken lightly. I am sick and tired of having to watch shit like this over and over on a show that I love when it doesn't add a goddamn thing to the story except for man pain. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of having to explain why I'm tired of it and why I'm still so profoundly bothered and consistently negatively affected by it whenever it comes up in media. This matters. Especially to me.

I'm one angry fan, and I'm sure that most people will say that I'm overreacting and that it's not that big of a deal because it's a fucking TV show, but the more I thought about it the angrier I got and I had to say something. I don't get angry unless it's election season or the United States makes a monumentally stupid policy directive, so this is pretty exceptional. This is something that matters to me on a very personal level and I've been pretty quiet about it for awhile—but lately this thing that matters to me also has started to matter to a lot of other people and that's really encouraging.

I also probably tore my goddamn meniscus walking in the fucking rain and almost everyone I know is in Europe or working right now, so I don't have anything else to do since I can't hike or converse with people or do other assorted nerd things. Life is hard as an unemployed research nerd, believe me.

Thank you for reading. Really. Thank you. :)

PS: I'll do an April recap soon, I just don't know when. Things got ridiculous at the end of this year and I'm trying to get my shit together.