Comments | onborrowedwings: Musings on Ages

onborrowedwings

Musings on Ages - Sansa and Arya

Jan 10, 2013 10:35

I’ll be putting this behind a cut because there could be some triggerish discussion in there. Herein follows some musings on just why GRRM chose to make these two heroines so young and why I’m glad that he did.

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onborrowedwings January 11 2013, 05:54:46 UTC

Something I've been musing on for a long time, partly caused with my own frustration over ages ;)

dk65 January 10 2013, 11:15:34 UTC

This is a brilliant analysis of why GRRM did not put in a four or five-year gap after the direwolves were found. And, had the girls been slightly older, their responses to their social situation might have been different. Sansa, in canon, is delighted by her betrothal--after all, she's only a young girl of eleven, glad to get away from Winterfell, which is (compared to KL) an isolated holdfast in the North. Had she been four or five years older, she might have been less than happy at such a drastic change of circumstance--after all, she might, like her mother, not see her home again after she left it as a bride. Or she might, like Arianne or Barbrey Dustin, have found some young man whom she'd rather marry ( ... )

onborrowedwings January 11 2013, 05:54:16 UTC

Very true! I'd like to think that he would have considered it carefully when choosing their ages - though he later revised it for the tv series (and I agree that 13 and 11 as starting points are a little more comfortable than 11 and 9 while still believable).

There's also the point that all these events occur in their formative years - impacting incredibly deeply on the way their personalities develop and the story as a result.

I'm incredibly glad that Asha was also saved, since she definitely doesn't have age on her side. Believable since it's Stannis with his highly honourable views of the world and because she's a highborn hostage.

kylathelurker January 10 2013, 12:14:59 UTC

My issue isn't with the girls being so young its the fact their men are so damned old! *sobs* Why couldn't Sandor be young by like ten years!? Okay that hissy fit aside ( ... )

onborrowedwings January 11 2013, 05:51:46 UTC

*sigh* I know. I suppose he was trying to keep it in character with the times and also have enough years of hatred and despair in there for Sandor to be the rage filled broken man that we know him to be.

Arya I honestly worry about. The things that she has seen and experienced have marked her indelibly and I wonder if she'll ever be able to fully recover from it. I'm just really hoping that by the end she will not simply be a cold hearted assassin. At the moment I think the only things stopping her are Needle (which she hid) and perhaps Nymeria.

kimberlite8 January 11 2013, 05:38:50 UTC

While I agree there is some armor based their initial age, I do think GRRM mangled the age thing between AFFC and ADWD. Dany should probably spend some more years learning to rule, Sansa learning the game of thrones from LF, Arya learning how to be a faceless man. But then how does he explain why its taking so long for the Others to attack. What do you say about the ages of the Robb and Jon? Robb died when he was 16. Jon is 14 when he joins the nightswatch, 16 when he becomes Lord Commander which stretches plausibility to the point of breaking. Westeros will be literally saved by children. I dont think Sansa will age beyond 16 by the start of the last book ( ... )

onborrowedwings January 11 2013, 05:48:29 UTC

I certainly agree that Jon becoming Lord Commander of the Night's Watch at 16 beggars belief - in the end the only reason it's possible is that there seems to be a severe lack of leadership material in their ranks, haha! 16 is the Westerosi age of majority for men and so Robb dies at their equivalent of 18 - a boy king who was never able to properly rule. It could be said that his age and inexperience is what led to his downfall ( ... )