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Sansa's Letter to Robb

posted 6 years ago by Alerra (244)
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I was just rewatching parts of the earlier seasons, so this has started to nag at me. It may be a plot hole, given that it's what drives Littlefinger's machinations in Season 7. Or it may just be an inconsistency.

Robb takes Sansa's letter with him when he goes south. We know this, because he later shows it to Catelyn when the two of them meet up. The only way it would have gotten back to Winterfell would have been if Ser Rodrick took it back with him when he returned north. Which is plausible, I suppose, but it seems more likely that Robb or Catelyn disposed of the letter at some point. Because it seems rather odd that Robb would give Ser Rodrick a private letter addressed solely to Robb to take north just so it would end up in the Winterfell library.

Also, the Ironborn set fire to Winterfell when they abandon it. And while the castle is stone, so not all of the rooms would have been torched, one thing they do beforehand is slaughter all the ravens. So if they go to all that trouble to kill the ravens, the library might be one of the rooms they would make sure to destroy, to remove all written evidence of their actions. So even if Ser Rodrick had brought the letter north, it may have ended up being destroyed anyway.

Littlefinger would have known about the fire, so he would have looked into whether the library had been destroyed. But it still doesn't explain why the letter would have been at Winterfell in the first place.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 6 years ago

Well done Holmes, a brilliant piece of deduction and one that hadn't occurred to me at all ! The most consistent thing about HBO's Game of Thrones is the plot holes which are numerous and at times gigantic.

For instance when Daenerys tells Daario2 that she won't take him with her to Westeros because she will probably need to forge an alliance by marrying and so can't take a lover with her. And yet she sees no problem in taking Tyrion the notorious imp, the kin slayer and King slayer, drunkard, whore monger and escaped criminal with a death sentence on his head back to Westeros as her Hand of the Queen !

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

There's no contradiction in her treatment of Tyrion and Dario, they were both of use to her in their way and she used their abilities to her best advantage. She'll use any husband in any way that benefits her cause as well, and if he resents that then he has no business being involved in politics.

As to Sansa's letter, obviously the writers are never going to bother with explaining its history. My theory is the Little finger had a paid spy in Robb's camp, someone who was just keeping eyes on things and letting Little finger know anything that might be useful. There had to be such a person, and maybe that person saw the letter lying around and sent if off, why not if it could fit on a ravens leg? LF saved it because it might be useful someday, and sure enough it was.

[–] grhqofb5 (327) 6 years ago

Maybe they used one of those carrier-eagles to get the letter to Winterfell.

[–] JoeCinema (89) 6 years ago

"I'll check Maester Luwin's records. He kept a copy of every raven's scroll".

[–] Kawada_Kira (7269) 6 years ago

I'm rereading the books now and was just at that part a few days ago, the part where Sansa sent the letter to Robb. In the book it's explained that Sansa sent multiple letters. One to Robb, one to Catelyn, I think one to Lysa, and there may have been another, I forget. But when Catelyn returned north from the Vale and met Robb at Moat Cailin, Robb showed Catelyn the letter Sansa had sent to him. And he said that he had left Sansa's letter to Catelyn back at Winterfell, because he didn't see any reason to bring it with him on campaign. So, Sansa's letter to Catelyn (virtually identical to the letter to Robb) would still have been at Winterfell.