Sophie Turner’s Sansa Stark has endured one of the most brutal journeys experienced by anyone in Game of Thrones. Her character has suffered two solid seasons of abuse, misery and torture. Her story arc also included a controversial rape scene back in Season 5, that Sansa referenced in the eighth Season.
The moment in the final season’s fourth episode, titled The Last of the Starks, arrived during a conversation between Sansa and the Hound (Rory McCann), who told Sansa she could’ve avoided all the physical and emotional abuse she experienced had she left King’s Landing with him back in Season 2. To which, Sansa responded, “Without Littlefinger and Ramsay and the rest, I would’ve stayed a little bird all my life.”
Many viewers, including Sophie's X-Men tentpole Dark Phoenix co-star Jessica Chastain, had called out the show for associating Sansa's rape with her empowerment.
But in an interview with The Wrap, Sophie has defended the moment, saying, "the rape is absolutely not a plot device to make the character seem stronger."
"I think that absolutely it was not so much the assault — what made her the person she is today, the politician and the manipulator, was the mentality, not the things that she went through. She made a conscious decision to stay quiet, to keep learning, to keep absorbing information from all of these people who are manipulating her or keeping her captive," Sophie said.
She continued, "The sexual assault made her resilient, but by no means has it made her this wonderful character that we see today. It absolutely broke her, and we saw that on screen. But seeing her thriving is so wonderful to see."
In response to Sansa's line in the above-mentioned episode, Jessica, 42, had voiced her concerns about the message behind the dialogue.
“Rape is not a tool to make a character stronger,” Chastain had tweeted, in addition to sharing a GIF of Sohpie, 23, on the Iron Throne. “A woman doesn’t need to be victimized in order to become a butterfly. The #littlebird was always a Phoenix. Her prevailing strength is solely because of her. And her alone.”
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