A Clash of Kings — Sansa VIII

Victory court: Joffrey sets Sansa aside for Margaery Tyrell to the cheers of both; Dontos whispers patience, and Littlefinger collects Harrenhal.

The chapter retold

In the glow of victory, Joffrey holds court to formalize a new order — Sansa is publicly set aside as his intended bride in favor of Margaery Tyrell, and the assembled lords cheer both the humiliation and the replacement with equal enthusiasm. Dontos, still playing his long game, whispers patience to Sansa in the middle of the celebration she’s being publicly discarded within.

Littlefinger, meanwhile, collects his reward for services rendered during the war’s chaos — lordship over Harrenhal, a cursed and coveted prize that suits his appetite for titles more than any real intention to live in the place. The chapter reshuffles the board decisively: Sansa’s engagement, the one piece of leverage that kept her nominally protected, is gone, and Petyr Baelish has just been handed one more rung up a ladder he’s been climbing since the book began.

This movement: Valar Morghulis

• Tywin is Hand and savior; the Tyrells bring a queen and a rose-colored future; Sansa is quietly set aside.
• Winterfell is sacked — by Bolton men under Ramsay's flayed banner, not the ironborn; Luwin dies at the heart tree.
• Bran and Rickon split shadows: Rickon east with Osha, Bran north with the Reeds toward the Wall.
• The Fist of the First Men: three horn blasts in the dark, and the dead come with the snow.