Sansa Stark, The Virgin Queen Of The North

But you see it’s not me, It’s not my family In your head, in your head they are fighting With their tanks and their bombs And their bombs and their guns In your head In your head they are cryin’ In your head

- The Cranberries

Man had some problems

Her life story is very interesting--both of Henry’s sisters are just as fascinating and entertaining as he is! I know Philippa Gregory wrote a book on Margaret (Three Sisters, Three Queens), but I’ve heard it’s not as good as her other ones. Plus she hasn’t written a book about Mary, though she appears in The Other Boleyn Girl. 

Give Margaret Tudor her own show 2k19

Mr. Pokee

Season 2 New Characters

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/sanditon-season-2-casting-news/?fbclid=IwAR2-2spEovIWBpjkfnTvqw9lydF6Bdgtn2kalCJdMUKKLFmgFspCSosa5x8#

Mordred is coming to Sanditon!

Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire and other heroines of the French wars of religion

Between 1562 and 1598, France was torn by civil and religious conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants. During this period, women distinguished themselves as spies, propagandists, political leaders or negotiators. Some of them even fought weapons in hand.

Agrippa d’Aubigné tells in his Universal history of Marie de Brabançon, widow of Jean de Barres, lord of Neuvy. In October 1569, the lady found herself besieged in her home by the king’s lieutenant who had 2,000 men and two cannons. She personally defended the most dangerous breach with a pike in her hand. Shamed by her example, her soldiers fought bravely. Observers recounts that they saw her defending the breach several times with her weapon. She nonetheless had to surrender in mid-November, but was allowed to walk away freely by the king’s command. Another lady noted for her military acumen was Claude de la Tour, dame de Tournon who defended her city against the protestants in 1567 and 1570. They couldn’t, however, breach her defense and had to leave.

Ordinary women also found themselves on the frontline. The city of La Rochelle was besieged between 1572 and 1573 and the townswomen fought in the defense. Brantôme tells that the besiegers saw a hundred women dressed in white appearing on the walls. Some of them performed support functions while others wielded weapons. Their bravery was confirmed by another account who tells that the women acted as “soldiers or new amazons” and that their courage led a street in La Rochelle to be called the “Ladies’ Boulevard”. Agrippa d’Aubigné similarly shows the women fighting with sword and gun. Brantôme adds that he heard that one of these women kept at home the weapon with which she fought and that she didn’t want to give it to anyone.

Another valiant lady was Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire (c.1528/30-1588) who came from a prestigious military family. She married the lord of Miremont, gave birth to three daughters, but was widowed and had to defend her lands. Agrippa d’Aubigné tells that Madeleine led a troop of 60 cavaliers against her enemy Montal, lieutenant of the king. When she fought, Madeleine charged ahead of all others, with her hair unbound in order to be recognized by both friends and foes. In 1575, Montal lured Madeleine and her troops away from the castle and planned to seize the place. The lady returned, charged at the enemy and routed their cavalry. Montal was wounded in the ensuing fight and died a few days later.

Letters written by Madeleine have been preserved and reveal another aspect of her character. They show a modest, polite woman, who cared for her husband’s illegitimate children and treated them like her own. 

Bibliography:

Arnal J., “Madeleine de Saint-Nectaire”

Bulletin de la Société des lettres, sciences et arts de la Corrèze

D’Aubigné Agrippa, Histoire universelle

Lazard Madeleine, “Femmes combattantes dans l’Histoire universelle d’Agrippad’Aubigné”

Pierre Jean-Baptiste, De Courcelles Julien, Dictionnaire universel de la noblesse de France

Viennot Elianne, “Les femmes dans les « troubles » du XVIe siècle”

Yet another Sansa stan being an Alicent Stan lmao you guys need to stop being so predictable. I don't even hate her show version but the way you peeps love to latch on to a passive redheaded character who accepts her suffering in a feminine woke submissive way is getting comical at this point xD. Stan whoever you want, just keep your same old 'too-powerful-for-their-own-good' Targ takes to yourself thank you

The way you people finds ways to shame and denigrate female characters for how they handle and process patriarchal violence and abuse is absolutely astounding, and imply that there's good victims and bad victims is absolutely ridiculous. None of these characters ''accept'' their suffering. That's such an incredibly disgusting thing to say. They are young girls that live in a society that restricts and limits them, and preys upon them and these are victims to men in power that use that power to use and abuse them as they see fit. That's why (alongside a plethora of other reasons, of course) you're not going to see me shame Rhaenyra for getting groomed by her grown male uncle, or Cersei for getting abused by Robert or Daenerys for being abused by her brother for years and sold to and SAed by a grown man.

All of these characters were stripped of any real choice and power and were forced into submissiveness and passivity by their violently patriarchal society for years and years, and the most meaningful part is seeing them break out of it. Stop making weird connotations to people emotionally connecting to victims of abuse who were regulated and constrained by people that have power over them, and had to survive by enduring and pretending. Like of course this is a narrative that I would be emotionally engaged with considering how much I personally relate to a lot of aspects to it in regards to my own life and experiences, and so many other people see differing aspects of these characters and their hardships, how they endured, who they became and how they broke away from all of the limitations, and it means something to them in regards to their own lives, and that's an absolutely beautiful thing.

Sansa, for example, attempted to kill herself, attempted to push Joffrey off the tower, constantly made digs at him when she could, bolted away and refused to kneel when she was forced into marriage and continuously aimed to get out at the right time. She never ''accepted'' her suffering. She did what she had to do to survive, but there was always steel underneath even as she was only eleven/twelve. There was a lot of power to that, and there was also a lot of power in all of the moments of her faking and enduring these horrors and continuing on pretending regardless. Also, Alicent strode in, interrupted and boldly declared war at her current enemies' wedding. All of these women are forced into horrible positions, had to endure, and break away from it or take control of their lives in their own time. Even if they hadn't endure, or didn't break away from it at the end, they definitely wouldn't be ''worse victims'' for it like you seem to imply. My other issue with the other side of the HoTD fandom is how you all try to dictate who people are and are not allowed to like and what takes people are and are not allowed to have based on your own personal narratives. Also, the ''too powerful for their own good'' isn't just my Targ take, it's the whole conundrum that GRRM explicitly stated he wanted to explore with that family. Like wow I'm talking about what this man wanted his readers to talk about. Big problem. Anyways, if you don't want to see my takes, don't go to my account. Block me instead of immediately checking my account and sending hate in my inbox whenever I make a new post.

It’s interesting looking at the series’ original outline and then comparing it to what the series eventually morphed into. There’s a huge difference between how Arya in book one is written versus how someone like Sansa, Daeneryes, Jamie, or Tyrion are written in later books. Arya in GOT initially comes across as the stereotypical girl-dresses-as-boy/girl-wishes-she-was-boy trope that we see waaaay too often in fiction, especially fantasy fiction (it was everywhere in the 80′s and 90′s to the point where anything feminine in fantasy was seen as unfemminist somehow). I’m so glad the series matured and the characters with it so that we got the complex and rich story that we have with complex and well rounded characters, the types you don’t always see in fantasy. 

When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same.

Its honestly sad that antis can’t understand that this line is Sansa’s character. They spend so much time debating the specifics of how spoiled, bratty, bitchy, selfish, and treasonous she is, when the reality of her character is so completely different.

She’s a young girl who, even after all these tragedies have happened to her, can look out upon a garden and be taken away by how completely beautiful it is. Despite how profoundly depressing her life has been for years at this point, despite seeing her family murdered in front of her, she instantly jumps to see how the snow has made a wonderland outside her door.

And then she thinks I do not belong here 

She sees all of this beauty around her, and doesn’t think she belongs; she doesn’t think she deserves something so perfect. A far cry from the narcissistic and power hungry bitch that her antis paint her to be, she can’t even include herself in the good she sees outside. 

Yet she stepped out all the same

That line says everything you need to know about Sansa. She thinks she doesn’t belong with beautiful things anymore; that she is too damaged, traumatized, or wrong to fit in with a world of whites and greys and blacks. But she steps out all the same. She so desperately wants to be a part of this world, to be a part of the beauty she sees in it. Her snow castle is her part of making something beautiful, of just being a part of the wonder she sees. 

It’s just amazing to me that you could read this chapter and miss so much of Sansa’s nature. The raw innocence in which she approaches the failed Godswood is so indicative of her character, and its a shame antis can’t see it. 

Got controversial opinion (i guess?!)

This is insane!? I cant believe how many people are going up in arms about the portrayl of some of these charecters in the latest episode. This was outstanding and a great culmination and rep of a lot of these charecters story lines. Danerys has been slowly slipping into the deep end for a long while and the unsullied are trained to follow their specified leader (which is stregnthend by the fact they chose her). Tyrion (while clever and smart) is a man who is heavily influenced by his moral compass and emotions, as well as his own sense of honor. Of course hes going to try to save everyone he can in a way that dosent involve him betraying danerys, thats what hes been doing for the longest time. Johns not a man whos being represented as a hero right now, hes a man who fucked up BIG TIME and is only now seeing past the tosy eyes lenses of love. Im truly sorry to all the people who feel as if they have been wronged by writers. Its hard seeing a charecter(s) who you have loved for years, identified with, and gave you hope die or turn against the very ideals and characteristics that made you love them, but please dont blame these feelings on the writers and start shouting blasphemy. This was the natural culmination and it was great. Have a nice day, and i wish you luck for next sunday.