**This post is dark and full of spoilers**
This week’s Game of Thrones was jam-packed with a lot of callbacks to earlier seasons. After the North and all of their allies defeated the Night King and his army, many people were thinking back on their lives and how they got to where they are today.
One of thepeople doing this was Lady Sansa Stark, the Lady of Winterfell. We’ve seen Sansa grow over the seasons from a timid young girl into a powerful and strong woman. She went through absolute hell to make her way back to Winterfell and regain her family’s home. She was not only Cersei Lannister’s captive, but she had to watch her father decapitated by Joffrey—by far the evilest King to rule the Seven Kingdoms on her watch. Additionally, she lost her mother and brother at the hands of the Lannister’s war. She was raped by Ramsay Bolton, who later killed her other brother. And, she had to stand by while everyone referred to her as a weak, simple little girl.
Now, being back home and taking back her power, Sansa is stronger and smarter than ever. She has survived by keeping her mouth shut and abiding by whoever held her’s rules—but always had a plan in the back of her mind to get back home. She survived just like her sister, Arya, did—but, with less killing.
In a conversation during Episode 4, Sansa sits with The Hound, and the two look back on the times they had spent together in King’s Landing. The Hound wanted to rescue Sansa and take her out of the city—away from Cersei and theLannisters, but, Sansa didn’t go. Instead, she ended up escaping with Littlefinger.
The Hound pointed out that if she had left with him when he said, she wouldn’t have been raped and abused. But, her response was one that took many fans by surprise—she was almost grateful for her sexual assault and abuse, stating it made her a stronger, “more empowered woman.”
Many people online were quick to point out that this is a huge misogynistic decision of the show’s writers—who, are all males. Making a woman a strong character is one thing, but having a woman “appreciate” her rape and assault as a catalyst for being strong? That’s a slap in the face to women everywhere.
https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/1125238082905739269
https://twitter.com/mariagh27/status/1125465740251996161
Pretty BS #GamesOfThrones is saying Sansa is smart, strategic, & now experienced because she was raped. I hated whole scene. She was not “broken in hard.” They keep messing up trauma with her. She has power & strength. All the women on the show do. Need female director. pic.twitter.com/zZkUqy3XBM
— 🅱️ethany Khan (@BethanyKhan) May 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/clichebicthe/status/1125398350034030593
I will never stop being angry about last night’s ep of #GameofThrones. First they had Sansa say being ridiculed, manipulated, and raped was a good thing. That is so fucking disgusting that I don’t even have the words for it.
— ziggy spook addams (@mutantqueer) May 6, 2019
DID THOSE BITCHES REALLY MADE SANSA SAID SHE’S GLAD SHE GOT RAPED BECAUSE IT BUILT HER CHARACTER?????
— bubbles (@Longing2Belong) May 6, 2019
No one:
Sansa Stark: I don’t regret being raped. It made me strong.
Me:
(Where were the female consultants/writers? They wouldn’t have greenlit that mess.) #GoT up in the misogyny to end the series.Shame. pic.twitter.com/6IIBhfHhWZ
— Veronica Percy (@RonniPercy) May 6, 2019
Although I did enjoy last night’s episode as a whole, when Sansa essentially said that she had to be raped, tortured, and mentally abused to not be a little bird anymore, I wanted to vomit. Like, god forgive a woman cannot mature and grow intellectually w/o being fucking tortured
— Meg Sylvester (@megcsylvester) May 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/khalesus/status/1125400879253864454
Hey GoT writers, sexual trauma does not constitute as character development and Sansa could have developed into the badass she is without us having to see her raped on screen (or at all) and my defense is the fucking source material!
— accidental axolotl (@thefaithasaurus) May 6, 2019
when Sansa was all “being raped and abused and manipulated made me a stronger person” #GoT pic.twitter.com/JiP4PSWHmA
— bailey gesserit (@been_herde) May 6, 2019
Hopefully the in the remaining episodes, DB and David went and asked somewomen their advice on the lines they give their female characters.
