Hecate7

That would be okay if she had a place to store prisoners, and guards. But she's out in the open and she has to make people bend the knee before someone comes back with reinforcements.

Yes, you do. You can make mistakes and still have rights, and besides, she's right. Lyanna didn't have a vote in whether she married Robert. The only way to marry her choice was to run away.

She sent Brienne away so that Littlefinger couldn't request trial by combat.

We were actually shown the scene where Cersei picked him.

But in what way is anyone besides Cersei and Tommen responsible for Tommen?

Because they died before they could mention it.

None of this 20th century stuff actually applies, though. Sansa is Lady of Winterfell ruling in Jon's place. Arya can't handle that, but it's the deal. Sansa has given Arya no friction whatsoever about doing "what's expected." She hasn't tried to marry Arya off, hasn't lectured her about hair or clothes or fighting. Hasn't said a word about Arya's "way." It's Arya who's gone on the attack here, and it's completely inappropriate. It's like storming into the CEO's office because you're their younger sister who works in accounting and you're not going to be trifled with. It's thoroughly inappropriate. Sansa didn't get on with the siblings because she didn't wear pants, and boys have to pick on girls for that. Arya not being a boy had to pick on Sansa twice as hard in order to feel like one of the boys. Sansa really didn't do anything except what she was supposed to do, unless she rolled her eyes at Arya doing things Sansa wouldn't have been allowed to do, or yelped because something got thrown at her again. Arya is giving Sansa a raft of shit because she's always done so, it's always been the dynamic. Sansa sits pretty and tries to look okay while Arya gives her a raft of shit, and is eventually disciplined because she yelped unbecomingly. In a way, Arya is who taught Sansa how to handle the abuse she later got from everyone else. Arya was Sansa's first bully.

George is making a whopping great assumption that just because those bullies stopped bullying HIM, they "grew out of it." They didn't. They just stopped bragging to him of their exploits. I'm sure they had terrified wives, exes, and siblings on into their twilight years. GRRM is simply being deliberately naive about this. There are bullies who do grow out of it, but they are much milder sorts--just throwing their weight around to be dominant or testing the limits of what they can get away with. The "unpleasantness with the cat" is an example of a deeply deranged mind. Margaery would have been in an impossible situation had she broken her marriage contract with Geoffrey. See Robb Stark. There is no graceful way to break up with people like Geoffrey or Cersei. As Sansa shows, being Joffrey's ex could be just as deadly as being his wife, and Olenna wasn't about to abandon Margaery to either fate. Cersei might not have given the order to kill all of Robert's bastards in the books, but she did on the show, and it's like her to do it. Remember who made a giant fuss about Bran until Jaime threw him out the window, and who demanded that Jaime kill or maim Arya? Cersei wasn't the slightest bit sentimental about teenagers.

Gendry was a teen-aged boy when Cersei targeted him. So I don't buy that. And I also don't buy that GRRM wrote a boy who was maybe going to grow out of it. What he did to Tommen, and what he did to animals, showed a sociopath who was very dangerous and was NEVER going to "grow out of it," because he was incapable of empathy in the books, too. Even if he were going to "grow out of" or get bored with terrorizing others, it wasn't going to happen soon enough for Margaery. Olenna wasn't "targeting" a teen, she was rescuing her granddaughter.

Tyrion did his best to get Shae to safety, and she turned around and came back. She rejected his protection AND falsely testified against him and Sansa. Instead of trying to explain, she grabbed a knife the next time she saw Tyrion. In both the books and on the show it was obvious she had spied on him for Tywin.

Absolutely. If there is one person Arya does love, it's Jon Snow. Sansa protected Arya, never the other way around. She's older. That's how it works. And in their culture, her birthright is indisputable and does give her the right to the household. There is no question of anyone expecting her to share power with her sister, or give her the Lord's chamber. Sansa moved aside for Jon Snow even though she has the better right, because she is not a snob, and she could see that Jon had the people on his side. She is not taking power from him, even though it is her right. She offered to move aside for Bran immediately, because Bran is Lord of Winterfell. These are lordly households and it's a feudal society. It's pointless to try to judge them by today's standards of snobbishness vs not. Sansa hasn't had Jon, Arya, or Tyrion's reasons to fraternize with lower ranking people. She does not see them as her equals because she isn't supposed to.

And don't forget setting her up to be dangled out the Moon Door.

Arya was always like this. She never liked Sansa, even before the events of King's Road. Much of the stuff Arya "got away with" was picking on Sansa. Mud in the eye, a stain down the front of the dress, a bed full of sheep shit...and Sansa's objections and occasional eyeroll at Arya's shortcomings was always treated as "just as bad." So what opportunity did Arya ever have to develop any empathy for her? Any concern or caring? When was she ever encouraged to? Sansa's concerns were by definition stupid to Arya. Arya has a conscience, but it only covers things like a sense of honor and being kind to animals and responsible for her servants like Mycah and Gendry. Sansa doesn't fit in the picture because although Arya wants to be a fighter, she never put Sansa in the picture as "lady to be protected." She also doesn't have a lot of empathy, and she has even less of it for Sansa. Sansa can't do the things Arya can do, and that inspires disgust and annoyance in Arya, not protectiveness or concern. Sansa can do a lot of things Arya can't--make clothes, ration food, keep track of groups of people...and this inspires annoyance, too, not admiration or respect. Arya never really saw Sansa as anything but competition. They really aren't in competition for anything now, but the habit is still there. It hasn't been replaced with anything.

I want Joanna Lumley.

Damn. You have something there.