It was a glorious day, a magical day. The air was warm and heavy with the scent of flowers, and the woods here had a gentle beauty that Sansa had never seen in the north. Prince Joffrey’s mount was a blood bay courser, swift as the wind, and he rode it with reckless abandon, so fast that Sansa was hard-pressed to keep up on her mare. It was a day for adventures.
AGOT 15 – SANSA I (GRRM)
POV character Sansa Stark 1
Chapter (AGOT) 16 / 73
Chapter (ASOIAF) 16 / 344
Summary
The Stark sisters are invited to ride with the queen and the princess. Sansa is looking forward to that, because her betrothed, Prince Joffrey, might also be there. She is looking for Arya and tells her to dress up. Arya refuses and says that she will ride up the river to look for rubies that were once on Rhaegars armour, when Robert killed him.
Sansa contemplates how different she and her sister are – the whole journey down the swamp-covered “Neck”, Arya had adventures while Sansa hated it. Sansa tries to convince Arya, but her sister does not want to come and leaves Sansa. When returning she witnesses a scene with three men, that arrived. The council sent a honor guard consisting of Ser Barristan Selmy (Lord commander of the kingsguard), Lord Renly Baratheon (the king’s brother) and Ser Ilyn Paine (the king’s justice). She is so afraid of the last one that she bumps into Sandor Clegane. In the end prince Joffrey calms her.
The queen postpones the day with Sansa and her daughter and asks Joffrey to entertain her. Sansa is overjoyed as she thinks a day with the prince is even better. She still is full of fantasies about gallant princess and their mighty deeds. In the end the prince proposes to take a ride – alone, without his “Dog” (the Hound) and her wolf.
They follow the river, explore caves and track a shadowcat. They dine and afterwards Joffrey heads to the old battlegound. There they find a girl and an older boy sparring with wooden swords – Arya and the butcher’s son Mycah. Joffrey is angry that the boy fought with a “sword” and fought with noble lady. Joffrey threatens Mycah and Arya hits him with her wooden stick so hard, that it breaks.
Mycah manages to flee, but Joffrey now starts to fight Arya, while Sansa is shouting to stop it. When Joffrey cornes Arya, the wolf Nymeria interferes and bites the prince into the sword arm. Arya tells him to stop and afterwards hurls Joffrey’s sword “Lion’s Tooth” into the river. When Arya and Nymeria are gone, Sansa wants to take care of Joffrey, but he denies it, showing pure hate in his eyes.
Thoughts
- The whole existence of the Inn at the crossroads and its significance always gave me the feeling how vast the country is, it is THE Inn (not the only one, but the most important one) – everybody knows it, it is one of the main stops if you travel and around is is nothing.
- She had bruises on her arms and shoulders too, dark purple welts and faded green-and-yellow splotches, Sansa had seen them when her sister undressed for sleep.
Nicely hidden reference to Aryas training with Needle. - Arya is described as having the “Stark-face” – the only one except Jon (do we know how Rickon looks?). Whatever. Eddard has somehow a soft spot for his little tomboy – it is said because she reminds him of his sister. BUT, what if it is also because she is the only of his (real) children that has the Stark features.
- Barristan and Renly show a good camaraderie here – mocking each other. This is really nice. Still, I am wondering (as always) why Barristan was not on his King’s side until now.
- Book vs. series:
- This (I think) is exactly the scene why my Joffrey always resembles Draco Malfoy/Tom Felton. It is so similar to how Draco is injured by Buckbeak and everything afterwards and how the hippogriff should have been executed.
My Song of Ice and Fire 
