>specifically because EVERYONE knows that she isn't actually Arya
What have you been smoking? Do you have any source for this, or are you just making stuff up to support your righteous indignation?

>because he essentially declared himself to be in open rebellion against
the very allies who put him into power in the first place.
Tywin Lannister is dead, and I think he said that not once in the history of Westeros have the Lannisters ventured that far North, unless my memory fails? So he cast aside the weakened,…

That would mean adding a new forgettable side character to the Bolton storyline and a massive slew of forgettable side characters into the Sansa storyline, all of which would confuse viewers. GoT already has one of the biggest regular casts ever, I think. It's neater this way

She was merged with Jeyne. It is her story now. She is now also the character whose (far more brutal) rape in the books was the catalyst for change in Theon's story arc. The show actually played it down quite a bit, you know, at least there weren't dogs. It was a very significant scene for Reek, his awakening in a…

It focused on THEON because he's also an important POV character like Sansa, and witnessing a familiar girl Theon grew up with get brutalized by Ramsay is the shocking, character-changing thing that spurs Reek into finding himself again, breaking Ramsay's mental hold and rising to resist. It's a pivotal, crucial point…

Oh my god lel. EVERY SINGLE MAIN CHARACTER, give me a break. Unless you mean that "consenting to an arranged marriage" is rape in every case? In which case, still, what about Margaery, Brienne, Ellaria Sand, Yara Greyjoy, Myrcella, Arya? Ygritte? Melisandre? Are you actually expecting anyone to take your arguments…

>western European
You have trouble with reading comprehension, don't you?

Right but that's how Westeros works. Highborn women pretty much grow up expecting that they'll marry whoever the family needs them to marry. With luck, it'll be someone nice, but it just as well might not be, and it'll still be your duty to marry them and birth sons. I mean, Ned Stark pretty much inherited Catelyn…

"The North" wouldn't have protected her, though. She agreed to marry Ramsay of her own free will. He has marital rights over her now. Consummation is part of that, she knew that when she said "I take this man", she can't just deny him on a whim and walk out.

Tyrion is a Lannister throughout. People comment on how he's the one who truly takes after Tywin the most, despite his looks.

And also, how is it "completely ignoring Sansa's role in the narrative", pray tell? What is her role in the narrative, according to you? Avoiding all bad things henceforth forever?

>Everyone, including Ramsay, knows he can't do to her what he did to Theon.

You may want to change that to "people", as in people in general, not just "white people". India, for example, considers light skin an upperclass trait, as does a great part of Asia.

"Or I'll make you hurt me", after she's seen the ruin formerly called Theon, the effects of the "punishment" Ramsay inflicted on the Prince of the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy's son and heir? Are you for real?

Right, you mean when she follows Littlefinger's instructions on how to act to the letter and it works, as he said it would? After Harry's humiliated her in public and she whines to Baelish about how horrible he his? After LF has given her clear, detailed instructions on exactly how to act, right down to refusing her…

Sansa in the books is about to be married off to a sort-of-legit heir to an important Lordship of Littlefinger's choosing (not hers) as a pawn of his political machination plan, a man who she knows nothing of, who humiliates her in public, who has a commoner lover he was planning to wed before Sansa came into the…

IS it a major deviation from the books, though?

I have to wonder a bit why all the furor over the rape scene tends to completely gloss over Theon's storyline and complain because the scene gave some importance to how it affects him. Reek is a POV character, after all. His arc is important, and an integral part of it is witnessing a familiar character from his past,…