An alternative way That Scene might not be totally derailing

I want to spend yet another post yammering about That Scene.

It's the people who saw it coming but were still outraged - and specifically the book-readers(!) - that I want to talk about here.

See, I've read the books. I've thought about GRRM's teased "dark and controversial Sansa chapter," and I've come to the conclusion that, in the next book, The Winds of Winter, Littlefinger is going to (try to) rape Sansa.

I don't really think this requires any big stretch of the imagination. First of all, from a simple narrative standpoint, Sansa's not going to be Littlefinger's apprentice forever. Something will happen in TWOW to upset the dynamic between them and make her start plotting against him. It's the next logical place for her story to go.

Does Littlefinger have the proper motive and opportunity? Oh yes he does. He obviously has the hots for her and he's been getting more aggressive throughout A Feast for Crows in demanding kisses from his "daughter." In Alayne I he remarks that a quick peck on the cheek is merely "dutiful," and he full-on kisses her on the mouth in Alayne II. On top of this, he's the most powerful man in the Vale and Alayne, as far as anyone knows, is just his bastard daughter. Nobody's going to care about her because of her station if things go south.

You know, just like Jeyne Poole.

Now, I've seen some people really complain about the changes here because Sansa's "safe" and "happy" in the Vale.

Yeah. "Safe" with Creepy Uncle Petyr, a man not above murdering Sansa's own aunt right in front of her. On top of that, he kicked off a war that got most of her family killed! And despite this, Sansa still can't seem to realize what it is that Baelish wants, namely, her.

Or power. Power would also do nicely. Now that she's in Baelish's clutches, she's his most precious pawn. Dunno for sure whether he values her more than power, but I'm inclined to guess not. Hell, she probably wasn't even on his radar until Cat died.

"Dude she's like 14."
GRRM doesn't care! Drogo raped Daenerys on their wedding night, and Book!Dany wasn't 14 yet! Book!Sansa was stripped and beaten at King's Landing. Et cetera.

Now, if my prediction about what happens to Book!Sansa is right, then there are two underlying beats to the story. 1) she gets sexually assaulted, and 2) she stops trusting Baelish.

Gee, that sounds exactly like what just happened on the show.

Oh, reviewer. So near, and yet so far.

See, That Scene wasn't done to make Sansa want revenge on the Boltons; That Scene was done to make her want revenge on Littleprick for putting her in that situation.

"It's just another stupid use of the stupid Rape as Drama trope."
Yup. What series have you been watching/reading?

See, I think Show!Baelish was telling the truth to Cersei; his plan is to have Stannis and Bolton slog it out, mop up the victors, and take over the North. If Sansa lives, he gets the same deal Ramsay got (and, hey, rebound! - poor taste, but this is Show!Baelish we're talking about). If not, oh well. He got everything else he wanted.

But are the Anti-That-Scene folks actually paying attention to Baelish's plot?

And that's not even mentioning Cersei and Littlefinger, which may have been the dumbest scene I've ever seen Aidan Gillen miserably attempt to act in. I would try to unpack all the idiotic crap packed into this scene, but frankly, I have neither the interest nor the patience required to do so. It was stupid. Moving on...

Oh. Incidentally, that review makes this observation, before spinning off in the wrong direction:

So the opening scene of "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" features Arya Stark washing and cleaning corpses in the House of Black and White. In the process, she washes a corpse's hair, running her fingers through it as the water drains into a bowl below. Later, Arya lies to a little girl, telling her that if she drinks from the pool, she will be healed, when if fact, she will die.
In Winterfell, Myranda washes Sansa's hair, running her fingers through it as the water drains into a bowl below. Later (despite the existence of numerous outside plot threads and characters that could have been invoked to prevent it, including the candle in the window, Brienne and Pod, the Blackfish, Theon, and Sansa herself) Sansa is brutally raped by the man she has been forced to marry.
The connections aren't hard to see, and as soon as you notice them, the theme of the episode emerges. Sansa is the little girl, and also the audience, who have been told a fable for half a season (and more) about her newfound power and agency. Arya is Cogman, Weiss, and Benioff, telling us that fable to soothe us while horror is brought to us in a cup. The lesson, as so many have pointed out, is as follows: Life is unfair, the world is full of awful things, and sometimes the bad guys win.

Well, yeah, but! I don't know how the reviewer could have missed this, but here goes: Arya is Baelish, not the writers, lying to the victim about what's to come. And even then, the parallels only go so far: Sansa had a much, much better idea of what was coming. And as for the "outside plot threats that could have been invoked," yeah, what would any of them have accomplished? The candle in the window and Brienne are the same thing, and we've already seen one memetic badass pointlessly killed off by overwhelming numbers this season. Blackfish? Umwha? Sansa herself; not a chance. In order to tear the Boltons apart from the inside (I think this was her plan, yeah?) she had to be part of the family. As brutal and humiliating as the rape was - and I'm not going to shy away from calling it a rape (like some idiots are doing) just because Sansa knew it was coming and didn't take action to prevent it - she wasn't going to take action to prevent it because it was - somehow - a necessary part of her plan.

Theon? Nope. Now it's true that without the Mance subplot, there's not going to be any further instigation for him to snap back to being Theon instead of Reek. (Unless Brienne gets flayed.) I'm not going to deny that the setting up of all these chips has been infuriatingly clumsy, but think about this: from a Theon Plot perspective - in other words, if all of this was done solely to trigger Theon's character development, the next episode will open with Theon clubbing Ramsay over the head and him and Sansa running for it. I can already tell you from the previews that that's not what's going to happen.

Let me sum up here, guys: you're angry and upset. You were angry and upset after Ned Stark lost his head. You were angry and upset after the Red Wedding. You were angry and upset when Oberyn got the big crunch. Did we quit the show then? I'll admit there's been some really clumsy execution this season both in the writing (Littleprick has a TARDIS, apparently) and in the direction (after watching the Sand Snakes fight, I take back everything I said about the editing improving this season and deny ever having said it). Obviously, there's a point where you'll decide it's not worth it to stick with the show. I haven't reached that point yet.