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.

Arya bonded with a Kat substitute, yes. But she hated Sansa long before any prince appeared on the horizon, and long before there was Mycah or Needle. If Arya had a handful of mud to throw, she'd throw it at Sansa, before she ever had any reason. She loathed Sansa's enjoyment of poetry and pretty dresses, her talent with her needle, and her ability to do what Kat and their Septa wanted her to do the way they wanted her to do it. She had a real need to destroy any small joy Sansa took in life, especially if it was related to appearance or creativity. She hated her traditional femininity, and it could even be argued that she rejected traditional femininity because she disliked Sansa so much she didn't want to be like her in any way. Baelish is obviously trying to set something up between the girls. I'm not sure why he would want Arya to kill Sansa, but that seems to be what he's setting up.

Not duhing you, duhing Arya here, who of course knows perfectly well that yes, Lady Stark is the proper form of address here, and yes she does have to use it in public but not in private with her sister.

ARYA hates Sansa because she is feminine. I'm not talking about the audience.

Robb wouldn't have had to ask. She'd have just done it, and she wouldn't needle him about it either. And if she had, he'd have done exactly what Sansa did: say "yes," with just enough of a smile to show it was probably a joke, but not enough of a smile to resolve all the tension, because that's the North's sense of humor right there. Ned had it, too. So does Arya, actually. In public, not a joke, yes Arya does have to call her Lady Stark. Duh. In private, no of course not but who didn't already know that? Arya is weirdly angry with Sansa. Since they're both very important to the story, I'm hoping Arya does NOT kill Sansa. Baelisch seems like he's trying to manipulate her into doing just that. I'm vaguely worried about it. But honestly I am more worried about how Jaime is going to punish Bronn. Hopefully Bronn has already fled as fast and as far as he can, to Tyrion's side, because I can't think of a punishment that would satisfy Cersei that won't also tank Bronn's usefulness to Jaime.

She doesn't need fighting skills. She has Brienne, and if Arya weren't nuts, she'd have Arya too. I don't see Sansa marrying a Southerner again, unless she decides to remarry Tyrion, which I don't think is really going to happen.

I thought Sansa sounded like she was joking when she said yes. But I'm pretty sure Arya wouldn't have had a problem with calling Robb Lord Stark, nor would she have snarked about it. She's acting as if Sansa is somehow usurping Ned, and maybe that's because she's never had the chance to really grieve or to confront the fact that Sansa is head of the family. And before she'd even gotten the chance to process that, Bran showed up and declined when Sansa offered to step aside for him. So Sansa is STILL head of the family, even if Jon Snow is King in the North. She is Lady Stark. Jon Snow is not a Stark. Arya having a problem with this is purely Arya's own issues with Sansa. She's going to have to realize that this IS her family now. But her own first impulse is to start spying on Sansa and gathering reasons to kill her. Not promising. I think Arya unconsciously blames Sansa for the deaths of Ned, Kat, Robb, and Rickon. Sansa doesn't need Jon to die, in order to be Lady of Winterfell. She already is Lady Stark.

Sansa already avenged herself. I suppose people who want to hate on her for being ladylike and non-fightery want to call her a murderer for it, but I was rather pleased that she did it. She avenged Rickon, too. I doubt Arya would waste a blink of sympathy on Sansa--Sansa's just mini-Cersei to Arya. She's not on the list, but that's only because she's family. Imagine a younger brother saying to an elder brother the things Arya's been saying to Sansa. In fact, Sansa's birthright entitles her to rule Winterfell. She gracefully stepped aside for Jon, and Arya gives her absolutely no credit for that. She gives her no credit for offering to step down for Bran, either. Everything is Sansa's fault because Sansa wears dresses.

I don't think she'd think too much about it one way or the other. Just one more thing Sansa did wrong--get herself raped.

All of Sansa's dreams have always centered around her memories of Winterfell and being a Lady. She has always wanted to a queen or a lady of a great keep, and her skills are ALL what a lady in charge is expected to do. She has no fighting skills nor any wanderlust. She is currently running Winterfell and doing a great job of it. To make Arya lady of Winterfell, Sansa has to die. It should take more than just Sansa being dead to make Arya happy. Arya has never daydreamed about inventories or fabric or food. She has never had reveries about any of that. It's all travel and excitement with her. Sansa dreams of safety, Arya of adventure, even when you'd think she had more adventure than a person could stand. Arya is not an administrator or a "running things" kind of person. She's more of a cop.

When did Arya's fantasies ever involve "running things?" Particularly running a castle? I think the story has been very specifically showing us that that isn't her. I think she would hate it a lot, particularly since Arya running things would mean that everyone else is dead. I'd like an ending for her that isn't dependent on killing Sansa or taking away from Sansa everything that she wants, that isn't dependent on marriage or children, and that doesn't subvert the training we've seen her getting. Arya's more of a cop or a detective than an administrator.