I don’t really participate in any fandom discussions besides the ones on tumblr. And I see lots and lots of hate directed at Tyrion. In my experience the majority of people on tumblr adore Sansa (which is great), but they show that adoration by attacking Tyrion (which is not good at all).
So when you tell me that most of the fandom outside of tumblr sympathizes with Tyrion and fails to recognize Sansa’s horrible situation I will take your word for it. I think it’s understandable in way – Sansa’s character requires more empathy skills than Tyrion’s because most of the people haven’t lived through what she’s been through. I imagine most of the readers have never been taken captive by their family’s enemies, they don’t know what it’s like to be a prisoner of war, they haven’t been forced to marry someone they didn’t choose. While almost all of the readers have at one point felt ugly, undesirable, underappreciated, dispensable and used by their parents.
I think I’m getting a bit off-track… So, okay – there are many people outside of tumbr that I don’t talk to, who defend Tyrion by maliciously insulting Sansa, because they can’t feel for her. Are they wrong? Completely and utterly. But still, I don’t think the best reaction to their wrongness is trashing Tyrion in return. Two wrongs don’t make a right. So I don’t like people trashing Sansa and I don’t like people trashing Tyrion. I don’t care who started it, both sides are wrong.
And can we really measure people’s pain? Can we say that Sansa’s pain is 8 out of 10, while Tyrion’s pain is just 7 out of 10? I don’t think I can do that. I think each pain is unique and personal and immeasurable. We have this young girl, taken away from her family that loves her, put in a cage with liars and murderers and forced to marry a man she considers a monster. We also have this grown up man, who was never an object of anyone’s love, he never ever had a loving family or a loving friend or anyone and he is forced to marry a beautiful innocent girl and see the disgust in her eyes every single day for as long as he lives. Can we really measure that?
And can’t we all just respect the fact that none of them hated the other one? So Tyrion-stans don’t have to hate Sansa, and Sansa-stans don’t have to hate Tyrion.
That’s it, that’s everything.
Add to that all the parallels between Sansa’s arc and Cersei’s…and you really have to sympathize for what both parties are going through. Both because of what happened to Cersei due to her environment and because of Tyrion’s relationship with Cersei.