title: Carrom

text: Carrom boards are available in various board sizes and corner-pocket sizes. There are smaller boards and boards with larger pockets. Boards with larger pockets are used by beginners for easier gameplay. On traditional carrom boards, the corner pockets are only slightly larger than the carrom men, but smaller than the striker. On boards with larger pockets, it is possible to pocket the striker, resulting in a "" as in pool. This results in a "due". On a due, the player has to return one previously pocketed carrom man to the board. The standardised association and federation size is a 74 × 74 cm (29 × 29 inch) square playing surface with 5–10 cm (2–4 in) borders. Other play-area sizes are not used in tournaments and competitions.


title: Carrom

text: A popular variant of the game called "duboo" is played mostly in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan. In duboo, the size of the board is larger(2.50 x 2.50 feet) and the striker is slid instead of flicked.


title: Carrom

text: American carrom is a variant developed around 1890 in the United States by Christian missionaries to Asia, who brought the game back with them. Concerned with young boys loitering around pool halls (where gambling was common), a Sunday school teacher named Henry L. Haskell altered the game for Western tastes. Much of the game is the same, but the striker's weight is reduced and the carrom men are smaller. Generally, instead of disks, carrom men (including the striker) are rings, originally of wood but today commercially made of light plastic. In addition, as an alternative to using the fingers to flick the striker, some of the American carrom boards use miniature cue sticks. American carrom boards also have built into the corners, rather than circular holes in the board, to make pocketing easier. While traditionally made boards vary widely, current commercially produced American carrom boards, by the Carrom Company of Michigan, are squares measuring 28 inches (71 cm) to a side, are printed with checkerboard and backgammon patterns, among others, and are sold with dice, skittles, etc. to allow other games to be played on the same board. These boards may also be printed with the circular pattern for playing crokinole.


title: Carrom

text: Carrom was introduced to Japan in the early 20th century. Carrom became popular as , but fell in popularity in the Shōwa period. However, carrom is still popular in Hikone, Shiga under the name Hikone Karomu (Hikone carrom). The Hikone carrom board has larger pockets (not unlike those of pichenotte), the discs are arranged in a ring (also like in Pichette), each player is given twelve discs instead of nine, and the queen (known as the "jack") is pocketed last (similar to Eight-ball or Black ball).


title: Carrom

text: Since 2008 there is a Mexican variation called fichapool or colloquially, "fichapúl" (from Spanish "ficha"). The men (12 each side) as the strikers, are plastic rings. As the South African fingerboard, it has larger pockets.


title: Carrom

text: Bangladesh Carrom Federation was formed in 1990. Although carom is widely practised and popular all over Bangladesh, the reason for its lack of success at the international level may be that the game is played at different levels at the roots level.


title: Carrom

text: Several companies made copies of Haskell's carrom game board. The Transogram Company made a version in the 1950s and called it "Skooker". Coleco made reproductions in the 1980s with names like "Carom-playing Games Board" with up to 202 derived replication games. Some variants in the 1970s were called "101 Games Board" and "Carom-playing 166 Games Board". An ice-box manufacturer made "Combinola" and "Crokinola" variants.


title: Carrom

text: The are films depicting carrom such as the 2003 Hindi film "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S", the 2010 Hindi film "Striker" and the 2018 Tamil film "Vada Chennai".


title: Lotus Temple

text: The Lotus Temple, located in Delhi, India, is a Baháʼí House of Worship that was dedicated in December 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it has become a prominent attraction in the city. Like all other Bahá’í Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all, regardless of religion or any other qualification. The building is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, with nine doors opening onto a central hall with a height of slightly over 34 meters and a capacity of 1,300 people. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and has been featured in many newspaper and magazine articles.


title: Lotus Temple

text: The architect of the Lotus Temple was an Iranian, Fariborz Sahba who now lives in La Jolla, California, after living some years in Canada. He was approached in 1976 to design the Lotus Temple and later oversaw its construction. The structural design was undertaken by the UK firm Flint and Neill over the course of 18 months, and the construction was done by ECC Construction Group of Larsen & Toubro Limited at a cost of $10 million. The major part of the funds needed to buy this land was donated by Ardishír Rustampúr of Hyderabad, Sindh (Pakistan), whose will dictated that his entire life savings would go to this purpose. A portion of the construction budget was saved and used to build a greenhouse to study indigenous plants and flowers that would be appropriate for use on the site.


title: Lotus Temple

text: Rúhíyyih Khánum laid the foundation stone for the Lotus Temple on 17 October 1977 and dedicated the temple on 24 December 1986. For the dedication, there was a gathering of 8,000 Baháʼís from 107 countries, including some 4,000 Baháʼís from 22 provinces in India. The temple was opened to the public on 1 January 1987 and more than 10,000 people visited that day.


title: Lotus Temple

text: The Baháʼí Faith teaches that a Baháʼí House of Worship should be a space for people of all religions to gather, reflect, and worship. Anyone may enter the Lotus Temple irrespective of religious background, gender, or other distinctions, as is the case with all Baháʼí Houses of Worship. The sacred writings of not only the Baháʼí Faith but also other religions can be read and/or chanted, regardless of language; on the other hand, reading nonscriptural texts is forbidden, as are delivering sermons or lectures, or fundraising. Musical renditions of readings and prayers can be sung by choirs, but no musical instruments can be played inside. There is no set pattern for worship services, and ritualistic ceremonies are not permitted.


title: Lotus Temple

text: All Baháʼí Houses of Worship, including the Lotus Temple, share certain architectural elements, some of which are specified by Baháʼí scripture. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, wrote that Baháʼí Houses of Worship must be nine-sided and circular. While all current Baháʼí Houses of Worship have a dome, this is not regarded as an essential part of their architecture. Baháʼí scripture also states that no pictures, statues or images be displayed within the House of Worship and no pulpits or altars be incorporated as an architectural feature (readers may stand behind simple portable lecture stands).


title: Lotus Temple

text: Inspired by the lotus flower, the design for the House of Worship in New Delhi is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides. The temple's shape has symbolic and inter-religious significance because the lotus is often associated with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. The nine doors of the Lotus Temple open onto a central hall 34.3 meters tall that can seat 1,300 people and hold up to 2,500 in all. The temple has a diameter of 70 m. The surface of the House of Worship is made of white marble from Penteli mountain in Greece, the same marble used in the construction of many ancient monuments (including the Parthenon) and other Baháʼí buildings. Along with its nine surrounding ponds and gardens, the Lotus Temple property comprises 26 acres (105,000 m²; 10.5 ha). An educational centre beside the temple was established in 2017.


title: Lotus Temple

text: The Lotus Temple is situated near Okhla NSIC and Kalkaji Mandir metro station is just 500 meters away. It is in the village of Bahapur in New Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, near Nehru Place.


title: Lotus Temple

text: Of the temple's total electricity use of 500 kilowatts (kW), 120 kW is provided by solar power generated by solar panels on the building. This saves the temple ₹120,000 per month. It is the first temple in Delhi to use solar power.


title: Lotus Temple

text: As is the case with other stone monuments such as the Taj Mahal, the Lotus Temple is becoming discoloured due to air pollution in India. Specifically, the white marble is turning grey and yellow due to pollution from vehicles and manufacturing in the city, among other sources.


title: Lotus Temple

text: By late 2001, The Lotus Temple had attracted more than 70 million visitors, according to Manpreet Brar, a CNN reporter. The permanent delegation of India to UNESCO stated that the Lotus Temple had received over 100 million visitors by April 2014.


title: Lotus Temple

text: The Lotus Temple has become a major attraction for people of various religions, with up to 100,000 visitors on some Hindu holy days. Estimates for the number of visitors annually range from 2.5 million to 5 million. CNN's Brar stated in 2001 that it was the "most visited building in the world". The Lotus Temple is often listed as one of Delhi's main tourist attractions.


title: Lotus Temple

text: The Temple has received a wide range of attention in professional architectural, fine art, religious, governmental, and other venues.


title: Lotus Temple

text: By 2003, the Baháʼí World Centre Library had archived more than 500 publications which carried information on the Lotus Temple in the form of articles, interviews with the architect and write-ups extolling the structure. The following are major examples of publications featuring articles on the temple listed chronologically, and excerpted quotations:


title: Lotus Temple

text: In 2006, some former employees of the Lotus Temple made a complaint to the police that the trustees of the temple had been involved in various crimes including spying, religious conversion and producing false passports. The trial judge directed the police to arrest nine specific trustees, but the Delhi High Court later stayed the arrests.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Guenther Steiner (born 7 April 1965) is a motorsport engineer and team manager who holds dual Italian and American citizenship. He is the current team principal of the Haas Formula One Team (since 2014), and the previous managing director of Jaguar Racing (2001–2003) and technical operations director of its subsequent incarnation, Red Bull Racing.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Born in Merano, South Tyrol, the son of a butcher, Steiner studied engineering; however, without completing his degree, he then moved to Belgium, where he began his career as a mechanic in the World Rally Championship for Mazda Rally Team Europe from 1986 to 1988.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: From January 1989 – 1990, Steiner worked as the assistant team manager for Top Run Srl. He acted as head of reconnaissance, and later as a technical manager, at Jolly Club from 1991 to 1996.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: In 1997, Steiner managed Prodrive's Allstar Rally team, winning the European Rally Championship with Krzysztof Hołowczyc, and in 1998 M-Sport recruited him as project manager. In 2000, he was promoted to director of engineering, where he worked under the Ford World Rally Team alongside drivers Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz; ultimately, securing consecutive runner-up finishes in the 2000 and 2001 seasons.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Steiner switched to Formula One in 2001 when Ford's official Formula One full-works team, Jaguar Racing, appointed him as their new team principal. Niki Lauda headhunted Steiner for the job of managing director. According to Steiner, ""[Lauda] asked, 'are there any talented people at Ford?' And the reply was 'there's Günther.' The guy lied!"" Assuming the role on 3 December, Steiner was responsible for the engineering side of the team at Milton Keynes, while the director of strategy John Allison handled administrative tasks.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Steiner reorganised the team and reduced costs during his tenure. However, Jaguar underperformed in the 2002 season, with lead driver Eddie Irvine claiming only eight championship points while teammate Pedro de la Rosa failed to score, and parent company Ford dismissed Lauda on 26 November before making 70 team members redundant.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: On 5 December, Jaguar announced Steiner had been replaced by project manager David Pitchforth as part of the restructuring. Spokesman Nav Sidhu said, "he has relinquished his responsibilities as MD but has done nothing wrong. This organisation is in significantly better shape now than when he joined. Günther has clearly laid down the engineering baseline that David will now aim to take on to the next level."


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Although Jaguar's new management offered Steiner another role in the team, he ultimately declined, and spent the 2003 season on garden leave before replacing Wiet Huidekoper as technical director at Opel Performance Center in November of that year.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: After Red Bull purchased Jaguar Racing in November 2004, Steiner was invited to join Red Bull Racing. Opel's plans to withdraw from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at the end of 2005 motivated his return to the Milton Keynes team. His appointment as technical operations director was confirmed on 13 January 2005.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Steiner and team principal Christian Horner jointly led the outfit to improved results in the 2005 season, but when Red Bull poached championship-winning technical director Adrian Newey from McLaren, team owner Dietrich Mateschitz approached Steiner to help establish a NASCAR team in the United States. Feeling the F1 team had become overcrowded, Steiner consulted his wife and agreed to move to Mooresville, North Carolina, where he served as Team Red Bull's technical director from 1 April 2006 to April 2008.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Steiner remained in Mooresville after leaving Red Bull, where he founded the manufacturing company Fibreworks Composites in January 2009.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: While the US F1 Team was in development, Steiner met Joe Custer and Gene Haas of Stewart-Haas Racing, who had declined to invest in the project, at a steakhouse. He proposed they themselves enter F1 by ordering a customer car from an established constructor, but delays in securing approval prompted them to apply for entry as a privateer team. Steiner, described as "the prime 'doer'" by motorsport publication "Autosport", recruited the core staff, interviewed every team member, and developed partnerships with outsourcers Dallara and Ferrari. On 14 April 2014, he was officially announced team principal of the fledgling Haas F1 Team.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: With their entry in the 2016 season, Haas became the first American constructor to compete in F1 in 30 years. The team took eight points at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix with a 6th-place finish by driver Romain Grosjean, becoming the first American entry, and the first constructor overall since Toyota Racing in 2002, to score in their debut race. Haas completed the season with an 8th-place finish in the 2016 constructor standings and 29 points, all scored by Grosjean.


title: Guenther Steiner

text: Steiner holds Italian and American passports, and lives in Mooresville, North Carolina with his wife, Gertraud and daughter. Being a native of South Tyrol, he speaks German and Italian, along with English.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: The Scorpion and the Frog is an animal fable which teaches that vicious people cannot resist hurting others even when it is not in their own interests. This fable seems to have emerged in Russia in the early 20th century.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I am sorry, but I couldn't resist the urge. It's in my nature."


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: The earliest known appearance of this fable is in the 1933 Russian novel, "The German Quarter" by Lev Nitoburg. The fable also appears in the 1944 novel, "The Hunter of the Pamirs", and this is the earliest known appearance of the fable in English. "The Hunter of the Pamirs" is an English translation of the 1940 Russian novel, "Jura" by Georgii Tushkan, but the fable does not appear in the original Russian. The fable appears in the final chapter of "The Hunter of the Pamirs", but does not appear at the corresponding location in "Jura".


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: In the English-speaking world, the fable was made famous by the 1955 film "Mr. Arkadin". It is recounted in a soliloquy by the movie's villain, played by Orson Welles. In an interview, Welles mentioned that the fable is Russian in origin.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: A likely precursor to this fable is the Persian fable of "The Scorpion and the Turtle". This earlier fable appears in the "Anvaar Soheili", a collection of fables written c. 1500 by the Persian scholar Husayn Kashifi. The "Anvaar Soheili" contains fables translated from the "Panchatantra", a collection of Indian fables written in Sanskrit, but "The Scorpion and the Turtle" does not appear in the "Panchatantra", which suggests that the fable is Persian in origin.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: In the "Scorpion and the Turtle", it is a turtle that carries the scorpion across the river, and the turtle survives the scorpion's sting thanks to its protective shell. The turtle is baffled by the scorpion's behavior because they are old friends and the scorpion must have known that its stinger would not pierce the turtle's shell. The scorpion responds that it acted neither out of malice nor ingratitude, but merely an irresistible and indiscriminate urge to sting. The turtle then delivers the following reflection: "Truly have the sages said that to cherish a base character is to give one's honor to the wind, and to involve one's own self in embarrassment."


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: The moral of this fable is thus stated explicitly, and not left to interpretation. Another important difference is that the scorpion does not anticipate drowning. In some later versions of this fable, the turtle punishes the scorpion by drowning it anyway.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: "The Scorpion and the Frog" is sometimes attributed to Aesop as its true author is unknown, though it does not appear in any collection of Aesop's fables prior to the 20th century. However, there are a number of ancient fables traditionally attributed to Aesop which teach a similar moral, the closest parallels being "The Farmer and the Viper" and "The Frog and the Mouse".


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: A common interpretation of this fable is that people with vicious personalities cannot resist hurting others even when it is not in their interests.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: The Italian writer Giancarlo Livraghi has commented that while there are plenty of animal fables which warn against trusting vicious people, in none of these other fables is the villain irrationally self-destructive and fully aware of it.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: To a social psychologist, the fable may present a dispositionist view of human nature because it seems to reject the idea that people behave rationally according to circumstances. The French sociologist Jean-Claude Passeron saw the scorpion as a metaphor for Machiavellian politicians who delude themselves by their unconscious tendency to rationalize their ill-conceived plans, and thereby lead themselves and their followers to ruin. The psychologist Kevin Dutton saw the scorpion as a metaphor for psychopaths, whose impulsive and vicious personalities frequently get them into unnecessary trouble, often hurting the people they depend on, such as their own families.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: When the villain of the movie "Mr. Arkadin" recounts this fable, he uses the word "character" in lieu of "nature", and he concludes by saying "let's drink to character". For director Orson Welles, the word "character" had two meanings: it could mean one's natural instincts, but also how one chooses to behave. The scorpion couldn't resist its natural urge to sting, but it also chose to be honest about it to the frog. Orson Welles believed that this frankness gave the scorpion a certain charm and tragic dignity.


title: The Scorpion and the Frog

text: Since the fable's narration in "Mr. Arkadin", it has been recounted as a key element in other films, including "Skin Deep" (1989), "The Crying Game" (1992), "Drive" (2011), and "The Devil's Carnival" (2012). In addition, references to the fable have appeared in comics, television shows, and in newspaper articles, some of which have applied it to the relationship between big business and government and to politics, especially the bitter nature of Middle Eastern politics such as the Arab–Israeli conflict and in Iran.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Robert Ben Lobban Wallace (born 15 May 1970) is a British politician and former soldier who has served as Secretary of State for Defence since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wyre and Preston North, formerly Lancaster and Wyre, since 2005.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Before becoming an MP, he was a Conservative list Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland from 1999 to 2003. He stood down in 2003 and moved to Lancashire as he sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England. Following election as an MP and after serving as a backbencher for nearly five years, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Justice, Ken Clarke, from 2010 to 2014. Wallace was then made a whip from July 2014 to May 2015. Following the 2015 general election and the formation of the majority Cameron government, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Northern Ireland Office. In 2016, he was appointed Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime by Theresa May, holding the position until she left office in July 2019. A supporter of Boris Johnson, Wallace was promoted to the senior cabinet role of Secretary of State for Defence, after Johnson became Prime Minister. He continued the role under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace was born on 15 May 1970 in Farnborough, Kent. His father was a soldier in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards and served in Malaya.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace was educated at Millfield, an independent school in Somerset. While at school, he attended a young officers’ course for the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, and after leaving school was interviewed by the Regular Commissions Board, then spent some time as a ski instructor with the Austrian National Ski School in the village of Alpbach in Austria.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: After training as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in June 1991 Wallace was commissioned into the Scots Guards as a second lieutenant, with a short service commission. From 1991 to 1998, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize, and Northern Ireland. In April 1993, he was promoted to lieutenant, and also in 1993 was mentioned in dispatches, for an incident in Northern Ireland in which the patrol he was commanding captured an entire IRA active service unit attempting to carry out a bomb attack against British troops. In 1996 he was promoted to captain.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace was on duty on the night of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was a member of the party sent to Paris to bring home her body.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In June 1998, Wallace transferred from the Active List to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers as a captain, thereby ending his active service and beginning a period of call-up liability. He later explained that he had decided against seeking to become a regular officer and to continue after the age of thirty, as the part of the work he had really enjoyed was commanding soldiers, and this was likely to diminish after that point.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace is a member of the Royal Company of Archers, a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's bodyguard in Scotland. As such, he took a turn standing vigil over Queen Elizabeth's coffin as she lay in state in Westminster Hall on 15 September 2022.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace entered politics after leaving the army, citing as a reason for this decision the experience he had commanding men from some of the UK's most economically deprived areas, which he averred could be improved by promoting a more aspirational society. Wallace became a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, as a list MSP for North East Scotland. He stood down in 2003, as he sought selection for a Westminster constituency in England. Wallace was the Scottish Conservatives' shadow health spokesman during that time.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: From 2003 to 2005 he was overseas director of the aerospace company QinetiQ, the UK's former Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace was elected as Member of Parliament for the Lancaster and Wyre constituency at the 2005 general election. He gained the seat from Labour with 22,266 votes and a majority of 4,171 (8.0%). The constituency was abolished for the 2010 general election, and Wallace was elected for the new seat of Wyre and Preston North with 26,877 votes and a majority of 15,844 (30.9%). He was re-elected at the 2015, 2017, and 2019 general elections, with majorities suggesting he now held a safe seat for his party.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: From 2005 to 2010, Wallace was a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons. From 2006 to 2010 he was also the Shadow Minister of State for Scotland and was Chairman of the British–Iran Parliamentary Group from 2006 to 2014. On 13 November 2008, Wallace received the Campaigner of the Year title in the "Spectator"/Threadneedle Parliamentarian Awards, for his work promoting transparency of MPs' expenses.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace faced local criticism after it was revealed that in 2008 he made the fourth-highest expenses claim of any MP, claiming £175,523 on top of his £63,000 salary. However, he defended this by arguing that his constituency had an electorate that was nearly 20% larger than the average one in England.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Following his re-election to Parliament in 2010, Wallace was appointed as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the then-Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, and later minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, Kenneth Clarke. On 4 September 2012, Wallace turned down a position as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury during the cabinet reshuffle to remain Clarke's PPS. He voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In July 2014, as Clarke returned to the back benches, Wallace was again offered a job in Government as a whip. This time he accepted.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Also in 2014, he became an early supporter of a future leadership bid by Boris Johnson, who was not then in parliament.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In May 2015 Wallace was promoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Early in 2016, with the approach of the European Union referendum, Boris Johnson was wavering between Leave and Remain, and Wallace advised him strongly to support Remain, as taking the Leave side would mean being allied with "clowns". Wallace himself supported the Remain side before the referendum. After it had been won by Leave, David Cameron resigned as party leader. Johnson at once launched a leadership campaign run by Wallace and Lynton Crosby. However, a week later, after Michael Gove had decided to stand as well, Johnson withdrew.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: The new Prime Minister, Theresa May, promoted Wallace to Minister of State for Security in the Home Office. He voted for her Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019, and against any referendum on a Brexit withdrawal agreement.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In December 2017 Wallace’s ministerial portfolio was extended to include economic crime. He was Security Minister during the terror attacks of 2017 and the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Wallace was appointed to the Privy Council for his role in coordinating the government response to the 2017 Westminster attack.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 24 July 2019, Boris Johnson became Prime Minister and immediately appointed Wallace as Secretary of State for Defence, to replace Penny Mordaunt, who was left out of the new government.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In August 2019, Wallace was overheard discussing Johnson's controversial prorogation of parliament with Florence Parly, the French Armed Forces minister. He suggested that the reason for the prorogation for five weeks was to prevent MPs from blocking the government's Brexit plans, rather than the government's official position that it was to introduce a new legislative agenda. 10 Downing Street responded to his comments by admonishing him and stating that he had "misspoken". This prorogation was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court on 24 September 2019.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 13 October 2019, in a NATO meeting, Wallace defended the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. He commented, "Turkey needs to do what it sometimes has to do to defend itself". His comments were condemned by other delegates at the meeting.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 12 January 2020, in an interview with "The Sunday Times", Wallace said that the UK "must be prepared to fight wars without the US", one of the UK's key allies. He stated that the upcoming defence review "should be used to make the UK less dependent on the US in future conflicts". His comments were made in response to US President Donald Trump's "America First" isolationist policies. Wallace also said that the next defence review would be the "deepest review" of Britain's defence and foreign policies since the end of the Cold War in 1991.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace said the US put Britain in a "very difficult position" following the withdrawal of most US troops from Afghanistan. Soon after the withdrawal of US troops had started, the Taliban had launched an offensive against the Afghan government, quickly advancing in front of a collapsing Afghan Armed Forces. Wallace said the UK would be ready to work with the Taliban should they come to power provided they adhere to certain international norms.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 16 August 2021, during an interview on LBC about the US Afghanistan withdrawal, Wallace was asked by an LBC interviewer, "Why do you feel it so personally, Mr Wallace?" He replied with emotion, "Because I'm a soldier ... because it's sad, and the West has done what it's done and we have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations". On 26 August, Wallace was accused of abandoning Pen Farthing, who ran an animal sanctuary in Kabul and was seeking permission for a private jet to be given clearance by the Ministry of Defence to get 71 people and more than 100 animals to the UK. The next day, he gave clearance for the $500,000 private plane to land at Kabul Airport. Wallace said Ministry of Defence staff had suffered abuse from some of Farthing's supporters.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: In a phone call with Saudi Arabia's vice defence minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Wallace discussed ways to strengthen defence relations with Saudi Arabia, particularly military exports. In December 2021, he met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss cooperation in various fields, especially defence.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Upon the 40th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War in 2022, Wallace declared Britain's determination to "stand up to bullies", sparking a crescendo in "dialectic tension" vis-à-vis the relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina. The Argentine government decried these declarations as "belligerent threats" and "denigrating references".


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: He met Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu on 11 February 2022. The following day, Wallace said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was "highly likely", and British citizens were being told by the Foreign Office to evacuate while commercial means were still available. Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said Wallace's comparison of diplomatic efforts with Russia to the appeasement policies of the 1930s was unhelpful, saying now is the wrong time to "offend our partners". In February 2022, Wallace was filmed saying that the Scots Guards "kicked the backside" of Nicholas I of Russia in the Crimean War, and could do so again.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 21 March 2022, clipped footage of Wallace in a prank call by Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus was released online. The duo, who are suspected by critics of links to Russian security services or of being Russian state actors, impersonated the Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal saying that Ukraine wished to promote its own nuclear deterrent to protect itself from Russia, a false claim made by the Russian government during the Russo-Ukrainian War and the invasion of Ukraine. Wallace was believed to be on a Microsoft Teams call with the duo for ten minutes. That day, Wallace announced plans to reduce the established size of the British Army by almost ten thousand.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Following the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis, Wallace was seen as a contender to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and thus Prime Minister, but he ruled himself out from entering the contest on 10 July. In a statement on Twitter, he said his focus was on his current job and "keeping this great country safe". He later endorsed Liz Truss in the election. Following the election of Truss as Prime Minister, Wallace was reappointed to his post on 6 September. He went on to retain his post when Rishi Sunak became prime minister on 25 October.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: On 7 November, Wallace announced that the competition to build a new national flagship yacht would be scrapped with immediate effect.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace married Liza Cooke in 2001; the couple have two sons and a daughter. His wife worked as a part-time parliamentary assistant in his office until 30 April 2019. They met when she was a researcher in the Scottish Parliament and Wallace was an MSP. He is separated from his wife.


title: Ben Wallace (politician)

text: Wallace lives in Lancashire and London. Outside politics, he lists his recreations as skiing, sailing, rugby and horse racing. He is a member of the Third Guards club.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Joan Blondell (born Rose Joan Bluestein; August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on a film career, establishing herself as a Pre-Code staple of Warner Bros. Pictures in wisecracking, sexy roles, appearing in more than 100 films and television productions. She was most active in film during the 1930s and early 1940s, and during that time co-starred with Glenda Farrell, a colleague and close friend, in nine films. Blondell continued acting on film and television for the rest of her life, often in small, supporting roles. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "The Blue Veil" (1951).


title: Joan Blondell

text: Near the end of her life, Blondell was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Opening Night" (1977). She was featured in two more films, the blockbuster musical "Grease" (1978) and Franco Zeffirelli's "The Champ" (1979), which was released shortly before her death from leukemia.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Rose Joan Blondell was born in New York to a vaudeville family; she gave her birthdate as August 30, 1906. Her father, Levi Bluestein, a vaudeville comedian known as Ed Blondell, was born in Poland to a Jewish family in 1866. He toured for many years starring in Blondell and Fennessy's stage version of "The Katzenjammer Kids". Blondell's mother was Catherine (known as "Kathryn" or "Katie") Caine, born in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York (later Brooklyn, New York City) on April 13, 1884, to Irish-American parents. Joan's younger sister, Gloria Blondell, also an actress, was briefly married to film producer Albert R. Broccoli. Joan also had a brother, Ed Blondell, Jr.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Joan's cradle was a property trunk as her parents moved from place to place. She made her first appearance on stage at the age of four months when she was carried on in a cradle as the daughter of Peggy Astaire in "The Greatest Love". Her family comprised a vaudeville troupe, the Bouncing Blondells.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Joan had spent a year in Honolulu (1914–15) and six years in Australia and had seen much of the world by the time her family stopped touring and settled in Dallas, Texas when she was a teenager. Using the name Rosebud Blondell, she won the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant, was a finalist in an early version of the Miss Universe pageant in May 1926, and placed fourth for Miss America 1926 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in September of that year. She attended Santa Monica High School, where she acted in school plays and edited the school yearbook. While there, she gave her name as Rosebud Blondell, and when she attended North Texas State Teacher's College (now the University of North Texas) in Denton in 1926–1927 where her mother was a local stage actress.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Around 1927, she returned to New York, worked as a fashion model, a circus hand, a clerk in a store, joined a stock company to become an actress, and performed on Broadway. In 1930, she starred with James Cagney in "Penny Arcade" on Broadway. "Penny Arcade" lasted only three weeks, but Al Jolson saw it and bought the rights to the play for $20,000. He then sold the rights to Warner Bros., with the proviso that Blondell and Cagney be cast in the film version, named "Sinners' Holiday" (1930). Placed under contract by Warner Bros., she moved to Hollywood, where studio boss Jack L. Warner wanted her to change her name to "Inez Holmes", but Blondell refused. She began to appear in short subjects and was named as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell was paired several more times with James Cagney in films, including "The Public Enemy" (1931) and "Footlight Parade" (1933), and was one-half of a gold-digging duo with Glenda Farrell in nine films. During the Great Depression, Blondell was one of the highest-paid individuals in the United States. Her stirring rendition of "Remember My Forgotten Man" in the Busby Berkeley production of "Gold Diggers of 1933", in which she co-starred with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, became an anthem for the frustrations of unemployed people and the government's failed economic policies. In 1937, she starred opposite Errol Flynn in "The Perfect Specimen". By the end of the decade, she had made nearly 50 films. She left Warner Bros. in 1939.


title: Joan Blondell

text: In 1943, Blondell returned to Broadway as the star of Mike Todd's short-lived production of "The Naked Genius", a comedy written by Gypsy Rose Lee. She was well received in her later films, despite being relegated to character and supporting roles after 1945, when she was billed below the title for the first time in 14 years in "Adventure", which starred Clark Gable and Greer Garson. She was also featured prominently in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945) and "Nightmare Alley" (1947). In 1948, she left the screen for three years and concentrated on theater, performing in summer stock and touring with Cole Porter's musical, "Something for the Boys". She later reprised her role of Aunt Sissy in the musical version of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" for the national tour and played the nagging mother, Mae Peterson, in the national tour of "Bye Bye Birdie".


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell returned to Hollywood in 1950. Her performance in her next film, "The Blue Veil" (1951), earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She played supporting roles in "The Opposite Sex" (1956), "Desk Set" (1957), and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957). She received considerable acclaim for her performance as Lady Fingers in Norman Jewison's "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), garnering a Golden Globe nomination and National Board of Review win for Best Supporting Actress. John Cassavetes cast her as a cynical, aging playwright in his film "Opening Night" (1977). Blondell was widely seen in two films released not long before her death – "Grease" (1978), and the remake of "The Champ" (1979) with Jon Voight and Rick Schroder. She also appeared in two films released after her death – "The Glove" (1979), and "The Woman Inside" (1981).


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell also guest-starred in various television programs, including three 1963 episodes as the character Aunt Win in the CBS sitcom "The Real McCoys", starring Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Also in 1963, Blondell was cast as the widowed Lucy Tutaine in the episode, "The Train and Lucy Tutaine", on the syndicated anthology series, "Death Valley Days", hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Lucy sues a railroad company, against great odds, for causing the death of her cow. Noah Beery Jr., was cast as Abel.


title: Joan Blondell

text: In 1964, she appeared in the episode "What's in the Box?" of "The Twilight Zone". She guest-starred in the episode "You're All Right, Ivy" on Jack Palance's circus drama, "The Greatest Show on Earth", which aired on ABC in the 1963–64 television season. Her co-stars in the segment were Joe E. Brown and Buster Keaton. In 1965, she was in the running to replace Vivian Vance as Lucille Ball's sidekick on the hit CBS television comedy series "The Lucy Show". Unfortunately, after filming her second guest appearance as Joan Brenner (Lucy's new friend from California), Blondell walked off the set right after the episode had completed filming when Ball humiliated her by harshly criticizing her performance in front of the studio audience and technicians.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell continued working on television. In 1968, she guest-starred on the CBS sitcom "Family Affair", starring Brian Keith. She replaced Bea Benaderet, who was ill, for one episode on the CBS series "Petticoat Junction". In that installment, Blondell played FloraBelle Campbell, a lady visitor to Hooterville, who had once dated Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) and Sam Drucker (Frank Cady). That same year, Blondell co-starred in all 52 episodes of the ABC Western series "Here Come the Brides", set in the Pacific Northwest of the 19th century. Her co-stars included singer Bobby Sherman and actor-singer David Soul. Blondell received two consecutive Emmy nominations for outstanding continued performance by an actress in a dramatic series for her role as Lottie Hatfield.


title: Joan Blondell

text: In 1971, she followed Sada Thompson in the off-Broadway hit "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds", with a young Swoosie Kurtz playing one of her daughters.


title: Joan Blondell

text: In 1972, she had an ongoing supporting role in the NBC series "Banyon" as Peggy Revere, who operated a secretarial school in the same building as Banyon's detective agency. This was a 1930s period action drama starring Robert Forster in the title role. Her students worked in Banyon's office, providing fresh faces for the show weekly. The series was replaced midseason.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6311 Hollywood Boulevard. In December 2007, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective of Blondell's films in connection with a new biography by film professor Matthew Kennedy, and theatrical revival houses such as Film Forum in Manhattan have also projected many of her films recently.


title: Joan Blondell

text: She wrote a novel titled "Center Door Fancy" (New York: Delacorte Press, 1972), which was a thinly disguised autobiography with veiled references to June Allyson and Dick Powell.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell was married three times, first to cinematographer George Barnes in a private wedding ceremony on January 4, 1933, at the First Presbyterian Church in Phoenix, Arizona. They had one child, Norman Scott Barnes, who became an accomplished producer, director, and television executive known as Norman Powell. Joan and George divorced in 1936.


title: Joan Blondell

text: On September 19, 1936, she married Dick Powell, an actor, director, and singer. They had a daughter, Ellen Powell, who became a studio hair stylist, and Powell adopted her son by her previous marriage under the name Norman Scott Powell. Blondell and Powell were divorced on July 14, 1944. Blondell was less than friendly with Powell's next wife, June Allyson, although the two women later appeared together in "The Opposite Sex" (1956).


title: Joan Blondell

text: On July 5, 1947, Blondell married producer Mike Todd. Her marriage to Todd was an emotional and financial disaster that ended in divorce in 1950. She once accused him of holding her outside a hotel window by her ankles. He was also a heavy spender who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling (high-stakes bridge was one of his weaknesses) and went through a controversial bankruptcy during their marriage. An often-repeated myth is that Mike Todd left Blondell for Elizabeth Taylor, when in fact, she had left Todd of her own accord years before he met Taylor.


title: Joan Blondell

text: Blondell died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California, on Christmas Day, 1979, with her children and her sister at her bedside. She was cremated and her ashes interred in a columbarium at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. She was 73.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa Stark, later Alayne Stone, is a fictional character in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. Introduced in "A Game of Thrones" (1996), Sansa is the eldest daughter and second child of Lord Eddard Stark and his wife Lady Catelyn Stark. She subsequently appeared in the following three novels: "A Clash of Kings" (1998), "A Storm of Swords" (2000), and "A Feast for Crows" (2005). While absent from the fifth novel "A Dance with Dragons", Sansa will return in the forthcoming book, "The Winds of Winter".


title: Sansa Stark

text: In the television adaptation "Game of Thrones", she is portrayed by English actress Sophie Turner. Sansa's character development has received critical praise. Turner and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Turner also received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa Stark is the second child and the elder of the two daughters born to Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn Stark, the ruling liege of the North. She was born and raised in Winterfell with an older brother Robb, a younger sister Arya, two younger brothers Bran and Rickon, as well as an older bastard half-brother Jon Snow. Through her mother, Sansa is also first cousin to Robert Arryn, the lord paramount of The Vale; and the niece of Edmure Tully, the lord paramount of the Riverlands. She was once betrothed to Crown Prince Joffrey Baratheon, and is still legally married (though never consummated) to Tyrion Lannister by the end of "A Dance with Dragons".


title: Sansa Stark

text: Raised as a noblewoman, Sansa embodies the traditional femininity stereotype expected by the Westerosi society, and is widely praised as a courteous and lovable young maiden. Sansa has been described as tall, slim, womanly and classically beautiful, destined to be a lady or a queen. Inheriting from her mother, Sansa has the Tully features of blue eyes, high cheekbones and thick auburn hair, but later has her hair dyed dark brown while hiding in the Vale under the guise of "Alayne Stone", the alleged bastard daughter of Petyr Baelish. Sansa's interests are music, poetry and singing, and she excels in embroidery works. She fantasizes of becoming like the damsels of romantic tales who will find a prince, knight, or gentleman to fall in love with. She once owned a direwolf cub named Lady, which was killed in place of her sister Arya's direwolf Nymeria, after the latter fled after attacking and wounding Crown Prince Joffrey.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa is 11 years old at the beginning of "A Game of Thrones" and nearly 14 at the end of "A Feast for Crows". The most naive of the Stark children at the start of the series, Sansa chooses the treacherous Queen Cersei over her father and finds herself abused by her then fiancé Joffrey, and used as a pawn in the machinations of House Lannister. However, as the story progresses, she matures and becomes more of a strategic player of the political game.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa Stark begins the novel by being betrothed to Crown Prince Joffrey Baratheon, believing Joffrey to be a gallant prince. While Joffrey and Sansa are walking through the woods, Joffrey notices Arya sparring with the butcher's boy, Mycah. A fight breaks out and Joffrey is attacked by Nymeria (Arya's direwolf) after Joffrey threatens to hurt Arya. Sansa lies to King Robert about the circumstances of the fight in order to protect both Joffrey and her sister Arya. Since Arya ran off with her wolf to save it Sansa's wolf is killed instead, estranging the Stark daughters.


title: Sansa Stark

text: During the Tourney of the Hand to honour her father Lord Eddard Stark, Sansa Stark is enchanted by the knights performing in the event. At the request of his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister, Joffrey spends a portion of the tourney with Sansa, but near the end he commands his guard Sandor Clegane, better known as The Hound, to take her back to her quarters. Sandor explains how his older brother, Gregor, pushed his face into a brazier of hot coals, for playing with one of Gregor's wooden toys.


title: Sansa Stark

text: After Eddard discovers the truth of Joffrey's paternity, he tells Sansa that he is sending her and Arya back to Winterfell. Sansa is devastated and wishes to stay in King's Landing, so she runs off to inform Queen Cersei of her father's plan, providing Cersei with the information needed to prevent her and Arya's departure from King's Landing. After Robert dies and Eddard is arrested for treason, Sansa begs Joffrey to show mercy on her father and he agrees, if Ned will swear an oath of loyalty, but Joffrey executes Eddard anyway, in front of Sansa. Sansa is now effectively a hostage in King's Landing and finally sees Joffrey's true nature, after he forces her to look at the tarred head of her now-deceased father.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa is a hostage in King's Landing, and has learned to be outwardly loyal to King Joffrey to avoid severe physical abuse.


title: Sansa Stark

text: At the celebration for Joffrey's name day, she ostensibly saves the life of Ser Dontos Hollard, when he shows up late and inebriated, begging Joffrey to spare him, in turn winning Dontos' loyalty. Sansa is routinely beaten by Joffrey's guards. After her brother has won a battle against Joffrey's maternal family, she is publicly beaten and has her clothes torn. Tyrion Lannister intervenes on her behalf, and Sandor Clegane gives her his cloak to cover herself. Later, Sandor Clegane saves Sansa from a riot in King's Landing.


title: Sansa Stark

text: During the Battle of Blackwater Bay, all of the highborn ladies in King's Landing seek refuge within a doubly secure, moated chamber within the Red Keep. There, Queen Cersei drunkenly mocks and berates Sansa, then flees when the tide of the battle falls, while Sansa stays to give comfort to the ladies before retreating to her own quarters. There she finds a drunken Sandor Clegane, who offers to take her away from any imminent danger and the Lannisters themselves. She declines, but he insists she sing for him, at dagger point, then rips his cloak off and gives it to her a second time before fleeing the city. When Sansa awakens, the battle is over. House Lannister has won, but her betrothal to Joffrey is soon ended, so as he may marry Margaery Tyrell whose family just helped turn the tide of battle. However, Joffrey informs Sansa that he still has use for her when married, and to "expect a nightly visitor for a long while".


title: Sansa Stark

text: In the third book, Sansa is invited to dine with Margaery and her grandmother, Olenna Redwyne. The two women seek to learn the true nature of Joffrey Baratheon now that he and Margaery are betrothed. In turn, Olenna suggests that Sansa should marry her grandson Wilas Tyrell. Sansa reveals the marriage plan to Ser Dontos, who warns her of the Tyrells; however, Sansa develops a close friendship with Margaery and is excited about becoming a part of her family. However, when Tywin learns of the marriage plot he schemes to have Sansa's brother Robb Stark killed, knowing that would leave Sansa to inherit Winterfell and the North. He then commands his son Tyrion Lannister to marry Sansa. Tyrion is initially opposed to the marriage, but is eventually enticed by the prospect of becoming Lord of Winterfell, and so agrees to marry her.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa is shocked one morning to learn that she is being fitted for a gown to marry Tyrion that day. Joffrey taunts Sansa and acts on behalf of her father to give her away during the ceremony to add further insult. Sansa ignores Tyrion and refuses to bend as he attempts to put his cloak around her, a marriage ceremony custom in Westeros. In turn, Joffrey commands Ser Dontos to act as a stool so that Tyrion can cloak his bride in spite of his short stature. At the banquet, Sansa dances with many lords, who offer words of comfort; however, Joffrey merely threatens to rape her. Tyrion intervenes and states a desire to castrate Joffrey. After the wedding ceremony, Tyrion chooses not to consummate the marriage due to Sansa's lack of desire in him. It is not long before many in King's Landing come to know that the marriage was never consummated.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Not long after Sansa's marriage, Joffrey and Margaery are wed and afterward a grand feast. At the wedding, Joffrey is poisoned. As Joffrey begins to choke to death, Cersei orders both Tyrion and Sansa arrested, but Sansa manages to flee in the chaos. Once in her room, she gathers her belongings and notices that one of the amethysts from her hairnet, a gift from Ser Dontos, is missing. Sansa immediately realizes that the prince had been poisoned and starts to doubt Ser Dontos' rescue plan. Understanding that she will be implicated in the murder of Joffrey, she chooses to flee King's Landing with the knight anyway. Ser Dontos is later killed by Petyr Baelish, who reveals that he is the mastermind behind nearly all of the capital intrigue. He reveals that he was the one who sent Dontos to her and that Olenna took the amethyst from Sansa's hairnet.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Baelish smuggles Sansa to safety in the Vale of Arryn, where she poses as his bastard daughter Alayne Stone. She is taken to her aunt Lysa Arryn, now married to Baelish. Lysa declares that Sansa must marry her sickly boy Robert, heir to the Vale. Petyr Baelish and Lysa are wed; however, Lysa becomes jealous when she witnesses Baelish kissing her niece. Lysa later attempts to murder Sansa, but she is saved once again by Baelish, who kills Lysa.


title: Sansa Stark

text: After Lysa's death, Sansa becomes mistress of the Eyrie and still pretends to be Baelish's illegitimate daughter, Alayne Stone. Baelish successfully pacifies the lords of the Vale, who suspected Baelish's hand in Lysa's death. Afterwards, Baelish reveals to Sansa his plans to eventually marry her to the heir to the Vale, Harrold Hardyng, and his long-range plans to reveal her true identity and reclaim the North. Sansa acts as a mother figure to Robert Arryn, caring for him after the death of Lysa. By now she has lost much of her naivety, as well as trust for Baelish.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa appears in several adaptations of "A Song of Ice and Fire". She is a main character for eight seasons of the HBO television series, "Game of Thrones" (2011—2019), and the graphic novel series, "A Game of Thrones" (2011—2014). She has also appeared in the video game "" (2018) based on the television series interpretation of the character.


title: Sansa Stark

text: In the television series, Sansa is adapted by D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. She first appears in the series two years older than her book counterpart, and her storyline diverges significantly from the fifth season onwards. However, there are also numerous differences from the beginning of the series.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa is first seen with Arya at Winterfell, during their embroidery lesson with Septa Mordane. Following the arrival of Robert Baratheon and his escort at Winterfell, he insists to Ned that Joffrey and Sansa should be married in order to join their houses. Sansa, who is desperate to leave Winterfell, begs Catelyn to make Ned agree to the engagement.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Joffrey is bitten by Arya's direwolf Nymeria while bullying Mycah the butcher's boy and Arya. Sansa, an eyewitness, claims to be ignorant of the event at the inquest. As retribution for Joffrey's injury, Cersei convinces Robert to have Sansa's direwolf, Lady, killed in place of the now-missing Nymeria.


title: Sansa Stark

text: After arriving at King's Landing, Sansa attends the Hand's Tourney where Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish tells Sansa and Arya the story behind Sandor "The Hound" Clegane's gruesome facial burns. As time passes, Sansa wears her hair like a southerner and is more flippant with Mordane, expressing fears she will fail to give Joffrey a male heir.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Following Ned's initial resignation as Hand of the King, Sansa is devastated to hear she must return to Winterfell. She likens Joffrey to a lion and says he is nothing like Robert Baratheon. This statement inspires Ned to investigate the Baratheon family line, prompting him to realise that Cersei's children are bastards fathered by her twin brother Jaime Lannister, not Robert Baratheon.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Following Robert's death and Ned's arrest for treason, all Stark servants in King's Landing are executed. Cersei exhorts Sansa to write Robb and Catelyn, imploring them to swear fealty to Joffrey. At court, Sansa pleads for her father's life; all agree on the condition Ned confesses his treason and swears fealty. Sansa is present at the Great Sept of Baelor and is horrified when Joffrey orders Ned's execution, fainting as Ned is beheaded.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Grieving the death of her father, Sansa is forced by Joffrey to look upon the spiked heads of both Ned and Septa Mordane. She begs to return home, but he informs Sansa that they are still to be married, and she will stay and obey. Joffrey promises to present Robb's head also, to which she retorts that Robb may give her Joffrey's head, instead. While on the catwalk, Sansa moves to push Joffrey to his death but is stopped by Sandor Clegane, who offers practical consoling advice.


title: Sansa Stark

text: As the War of the Five Kings progresses, Sansa's position in King's Landing becomes increasingly perilous. On Joffrey's name day celebration, Sansa saves an inebriated Ser Dontos Hollard from execution, by convincing Joffrey to instead make Dontos his fool. While at the celebration, Tyrion offers his condolences for Ned's death, in response to which Sansa insists her family are all traitors, and she is loyal to Joffrey. Later on, when her eldest brother Robb wins a battle against the Lannisters, Sansa is publicly beaten and humiliated in front of the court by Joffrey and Ser Meryn (on Joffrey's orders), as payment for her brother's crimes.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Tyrion Lannister enters the court and rescues Sansa. Despite being a dwarf, Tyrion takes pity on Sansa's situation and offers to have the engagement called off. Sansa maintains her facade that she is loyal to Joffrey, which impresses Tyrion to the point he believes Sansa might just survive King's Landing.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Tyrion has his lover, Shae, positioned as Sansa's handmaiden. Sansa and Shae form a friendship in which Sansa is able to vent about her hatred of the Lannisters without fear of being betrayed. Sansa is present when the royal family bids farewell to Joffrey's sister, Myrcella, on her departure to Dorne to form an alliance between the Lannisters and the Martells. While returning to the Red Keep, a riot breaks out in the streets of King's Landing, amidst which Sansa finds herself caught in the fray. Three peasant men chase Sansa and attempt to rape her before she is rescued and returned to the castle by Sandor Clegane.


title: Sansa Stark

text: The following morning, Sansa has a nightmare of the incident and wakes up in a bloodstained bed. Sansa has her first period, thus meaning she can now bear Joffrey's children. Sansa and Shae attempt to conceal this, which involves Shae's threatening to kill a witness handmaiden if she tells anyone. However, Sandor Clegane sees the blood, and both Cersei and Joffrey are informed.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Cersei invites Sansa to her chambers to share some of her wisdom and experience as a wife and a mother. Cersei reminisces that her husband Robert was not interested in her childbirth. Cersei explains to Sansa that while Sansa may never love Joffrey (and vice versa), she will love his children. Cersei warns Sansa that the more people she loves, the weaker she will be. Therefore, Sansa should only love her children, as it is the only love she has no choice in.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Before the Battle of the Blackwater, Joffrey forces Sansa to kiss the blade of his sword, while bragging he will kill Stannis himself. Sansa taunts Joffrey by remarking he must be battling in the vanguard, which he would not be. Joffrey promises that she will lick Stannis's blood, and later her brother Robb's blood off his sword. During the battle, Sansa takes refuge with Cersei, Shae, and the other women and children of King's Landing. A drunk Cersei declares to Sansa and the women that if the city falls, they will all be raped while the city is sacked. Cersei continues her taunting by also telling Sansa that tears are not the only weapons women have; the greatest weapon they own is between their legs. Following Cersei's departure from the refuge with Tommen, Sansa leaves to hide in her bedchamber, where she finds Sandor Clegane. Sandor, about to leave King's Landing, offers to take Sansa home. Sansa declines, insisting Stannis would not harm her. After the battle is won by the Lannister-Tyrell forces, Loras Tyrell asks Joffrey to take his sister, Margaery, as his bride. Joffrey accepts the proposal, which annuls his marriage with Sansa. Sansa, while pretending to be devastated, is secretly delighted she no longer has to marry Joffrey. However, Petyr Baelish warns that while Sansa is no longer engaged, Joffrey would have greater rein to abuse Sansa, especially now she is a woman. Petyr assures Sansa he will help get her home, in which Sansa once again displays a facade, asserting King's Landing is her home. Petyr advises Sansa that everyone in King's Landing is a liar and that they are much more cunning than her.


title: Sansa Stark

text: With her engagement to Joffrey annulled, Sansa does not have to worry about spending the rest of her life with him, but is with lesser protection from tormentors. Petyr Baelish, an old friend of her mother's with a reputation for being sadistic and cunning, tells her that he can smuggle her out of the city, but she is reluctant. Sansa finds a friend in Loras Tyrell, who is kind to her and whom she hopes will ask for her hand. His sister, Joffrey's new fiancé, Margaery, is also kind to her and takes her to dine with her grandmother, Olenna Tyrell, who asks her for her opinion of Joffrey. Sansa reveals Joffrey's true, cruel personality, but Margaery and Lady Olenna merely pass it by as a trivial matter, saying there is nothing to be done to change a man's character, especially a king's. Sansa's affection for Loras grows; she is unaware that Loras is gay and, while he likes her and enjoys spending time with her, he can never love her. Margaery proposes the idea that Loras will marry Sansa, meaning Sansa can leave King's Landing, which delights Sansa. However, when this plan is reported to the Lannisters, they fear that the Tyrells will pose an even greater threat with a member of House Stark as one of their allies and quickly end the idea of the engagement, by betrothing Loras to Cersei and engaging Sansa to Tyrion, which both Sansa and Shae are against. However, the day of the wedding, Tyrion promises not to harm her and, as she prepares to consummate the marriage, Tyrion realizes how unhappy Sansa is and tells her that she doesn't have to consummate it unless she wants to. When Sansa asks Tyrion what would happen if she never wants him in her bed, he quips, "And so my watch begins."


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa and Tyrion do form a somewhat friendly relationship, as he is kind to her and treats her well, and she soon realizes there are worse Lannisters to be wed to. However, their cordial relationship suffers a crushing blow when Sansa receives news of Robb and Catelyn's deaths at the Red Wedding, an event orchestrated by Tywin Lannister, Tyrion's father.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa, still distraught over the death of Robb and Catelyn, is approached by Dontos Hollard, a former knight whom Sansa had convinced Joffrey to make his fool instead of executing him. Dontos gives her a necklace, claiming it was his mother's. However, the necklace turns out to be a fake; one of the gems contains the poison which Lady Olenna Tyrell uses to poison Joffrey at his wedding to Margaery Tyrell. In the commotion, Sansa is taken by Dontos, to Baelish's boat in Blackwater Bay. Baelish smuggles Sansa from King's Landing after revealing the nature of the necklace and has Dontos killed with a crossbow.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Lord Baelish, with Sansa posing as his niece Alayne Stone, pass through the Blood Gates to the Eyrie and to the keep of Lysa Arryn. Lysa initially invites them with open arms, revealing she knows exactly who her niece is, and they are welcome to be housed. It is soon revealed however, Lysa mistrusts the relationship between Sansa and Baelish accusing Baelish of violating Sansa and accusing him of never loving her. Later in the keep, Sansa strikes Lysa's son Robin and Baelish appears. Baelish then proclaims his undying love for her deceased mother, Catelyn, and he shares a kiss with a stunned Sansa, with Lysa watching from above. Sansa is immediately summoned to Lysa's throne room, where she believes she had been summoned for striking her son. Lysa reveals she had observed the kiss, and though defending herself and Baelish's actions against her, Lysa holds her to the Moon Door, a trap door that leads hundreds of feet down into the mountains below. Baelish intervenes before she gets the chance to execute Sansa and pushes Lysa to her death instead as he proclaimed his love for her sister. Then Baelish later claimed to the lords of the Vale that she committed suicide. Sansa is called to give testimony, and although she reveals her true identity, she supports Baelish's story. She then joins Baelish and her cousin Robin Arryn on a tour of the Vale.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Baelish brokers a marriage between Sansa and Ramsay Bolton, now the heir to the North after the death of Robb Stark. Though Sansa is reluctant to marry Ramsay, as his father Roose had personally murdered Robb, Baelish persuades her by claiming that the marriage will give her the opportunity to avenge her family. On the way to Winterfell, they encounter Brienne of Tarth, who had sworn to Catelyn Stark to take Sansa to safety and tries to convince Sansa to come with her; Baelish has her chased off by his men, but Brienne follows Sansa to Winterfell regardless. Though initially charming, Ramsay's sadistic nature becomes apparent when Sansa discovers that he has captured and enslaved Ned's former ward Theon Greyjoy, and forced him to assume the identity of his serving man, Reek. Sansa and Ramsay wed in front of the Godswood. That night, Ramsay rapes Sansa, and forces Reek to watch. Over the next few days, Ramsay continues to rape and beat Sansa every night, and keeps her locked in her bedchamber. Sansa begs Reek to help her signal her northern allies by lighting a candle in the broken tower. Reek, wishing to spare Sansa from Bolton's wrath, instead tells Ramsay. He proceeds to flay the maid who had told Sansa of the signal, and forces Sansa to look at her corpse. Furious, Sansa confronts Reek, and goes so far to claim that he deserved be tortured by Ramsay. Theon agrees but reveals that he had failed to capture Sansa's brothers Bran and Rickon, and killed two farm boys in their place. Theon's revelation causes Sansa's anger towards her former friend to cool down somewhat. While the Boltons prepare to battle Stannis Baratheon's advancing forces, Sansa signals to Brienne, unaware that she has left to kill Stannis. When help does not come, Sansa attempts to return to her room but is caught by Ramsay's paramour Myranda, who threatens to mutilate Sansa. Finally snapping, Theon throws Myranda to her death, just as the Bolton forces return. Fearful of Ramsay's reaction, Theon and Sansa jump from Winterfell's battlements into the snow.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa and Theon are captured by Bolton soldiers in the forest outside Winterfell, but Brienne and her squire Podrick Payne arrive in time to rescue them and kill the Bolton soldiers. This time, Sansa accepts Brienne's loyalty. While Theon returns to the Iron Islands, Sansa, Brienne, and Podrick journey on to Castle Black, where she reunites with her half-brother Jon Snow, who has just resigned as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Sansa tries to persuade Jon to help her drive the Boltons out of Winterfell; although Jon initially refuses, he changes his mind after Ramsay sends a letter to Jon in which he gloats that he holds Rickon Stark captive and threatens to kill the Starks and the Wildlings Jon has let through the Wall if Sansa is not returned. Before Jon and Sansa leave Castle Black, Baelish arranges a meeting with Sansa in Mole's Town. He insists that he was unaware of Ramsay's nature and offers the support of the Knights of the Vale, also mentioning that her great-uncle Brynden "Blackfish" Tully has captured Riverrun from House Frey. Sansa sends Baelish away, declaring that she never wants to see him again, but sends Brienne to the Riverlands to convince the Blackfish to aid the Starks.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Although Jon and Sansa are only able to win over a handful of Northern lords, Jon insists that they must march on Winterfell, despite Sansa's objections. Sansa sends a letter to Baelish asking for his aid, and the Vale forces arrive at Winterfell in time to defeat the Boltons, though too late to save Rickon. Ramsay is captured and Sansa has him fed to his hounds. In the aftermath of the battle, Sansa apologizes for not telling Jon about Baelish and the Knights of the Vale. Jon forgives her and asks that they trust each other completely from now on. While in the godswood, Baelish tells Sansa the North will rally behind her and confesses his ambition to rule Westeros with Sansa at his side, but Sansa rebuffs his advances. Later, the Northmen and Valemen declare Jon the new King in the North.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Jon travels to Dragonstone to negotiate with Daenerys Targaryen for her support against the White Walkers, leaving Sansa as regent in his absence. Soon after, Bran and Arya return to Winterfell. Littlefinger seeks to drive a wedge between Sansa and Arya by letting Arya find Sansa's letter to Robb asking him to bend the knee to Joffrey, causing Arya to confront Sansa. Sansa sneaks into Arya's quarters and comes across the "faces" Arya has taken from the various people she has killed on her travels; Arya catches Sansa and tells Sansa of her ability to assume people's identities with the faces before she threatens her.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa later receives an invitation to King's Landing, where Jon intends to present Cersei, who is now Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, with proof of the White Walkers' existence. Refusing to return to King's Landing, she sends Brienne as her representative.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa shows Littlefinger the letter she received from Jon following the meeting in King's Landing, in which Jon states that he had pledged his support to Daenerys Targaryen. Littlefinger continues his manipulation of Sansa by claiming that Jon has betrayed the North, Sansa should seize power from Jon, and suggests Arya intends to murder her to become Lady of Winterfell. Sansa summons Arya to the great hall and begins an accusation of treason and murder, before directing the accusation towards Littlefinger. With help from their brother Bran (now known as Three-Eyed Raven), Sansa and Arya reveal that they are aware of Baelish's numerous crimes, including the murder of Lysa Arryn, orchestrating the murders of both Jon Arryn and Eddard Stark, and manipulating the Starks and Lannisters to war. Baelish tries to plead for his life, but Sansa refuses and sentences Littlefinger to death. Arya executes him. The Stark sisters later resolve their differences and acknowledge that the Starks must stand together to survive the winter. They remember their father telling them, "The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives."


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa welcomes Daenerys and her court, including Tyrion, to Winterfell. Tyrion declares that the Lannister troops will be marching north as well to defend against the dead, but Sansa is skeptical; her fears are confirmed when Jaime Lannister arrives in Winterfell and he reveals Cersei's treachery. Sansa wishes Jaime dead for attacking Ned in King's Landing, but spares him when Brienne vouches for him. Sansa suspects that Jon's decision to pledge to Daenerys as queen is due to his love for Daenerys. Sansa is wary of Daenerys but when speaking with her in private, Daenerys assures Sansa that her love for Jon is also genuine and they reach common ground. However, the situation becomes tense when Sansa asks of the North's independence after Daenerys has conquered Westeros. They are interrupted by Theon's arrival, who has come to help defend Winterfell.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa watches the battle against the dead from Winterfell's battlements, but when the Dothraki are easily overrun, Arya orders Sansa to seek refuge in the crypts with the other non-combatants. The Night King reanimates the dead around Winterfell, including the Starks buried in the crypts, but the undead fall when Arya kills the Night King, allowing Sansa, Tyrion, and the others in the crypts to survive. Sansa is present for the funeral for those fallen in battle, including Theon, who was killed defending Bran. She places a Stark pin in Theon's armor before he is cremated to honor him as an ally of the Starks.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa is reunited with the Hound at the victory feast. The Hound declares that Sansa would not have experienced the horrors she faced had she fled King's Landing with him, but Sansa acknowledges that her experiences made her wiser. At the war council, Sansa and Daenerys disagree over giving the Northern army time to recover before marching on King's Landing. After the council, Sansa and Arya tell Jon they don't trust Daenerys but Jon defends Daenerys. Jon confides he is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark after swearing Sansa and Arya to secrecy. Sansa reveals this to Tyrion.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Daenerys takes King's Landing, but lays waste to the surrendered populace during which Cersei is also killed. Jon tries but fails to dissuade Daenerys from further destruction and ultimately assassinates her. When Jon is arrested by the Unsullied, Sansa camps the Northern army outside the city and travels to King's Landing to convene a council to determine the fates of Jon, Tyrion, and Westeros. Tyrion suggests Bran be crowned king, to near-unanimous approval. Arya and Sansa abstain, and Sansa asserts to Bran that the North has sacrificed too much to remain part of the Seven Kingdoms, declaring the North's independence. Sansa, Arya, and Bran bid farewell to Jon, who is exiled. Sansa returns to Winterfell and is crowned Queen in the North.


title: Sansa Stark

text: As her storyline has progressed, Sansa has received critical scrutiny and praise for the development of her character and her emergence from a naive girl to a strong young woman. "Rolling Stone" ranked Sansa as No. 4 on a list of the "Top 40 "Game of Thrones" Characters", saying that Sansa is "often overlooked in favor of her killer kid sister", but that her "quiet, innate political shrewedness and emotional strength have enabled her to survive", and calling her "the show's best-kept secret". In "The Wrap" ranking of the 48 best "Game of Thrones" main characters in the first five seasons, Sansa was ranked at No. 4, ahead of the more popular Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister, stating that "Sansa has been kind of great in Season 6, turning into the sort of badass we always hoped but never thought she actually could become".


title: Sansa Stark

text: Writing for Mic, Julianne Ross said that Sansa is "often cited as one of the most reviled characters on "Game of Thrones"", and "not coincidentally, she is also one of the most classically feminine characters on the show." Ross criticized the heavy hatred for Sansa, particularly in contrast to her sister Arya, opining that this is because "she doesn't fit the narrow 'strong female character' mold we're used to rooting for." In an MTV article, Crystal Bell regarded Sansa as the most relatable character in the series. "She's often despised for having no agency", Bell wrote, but she is hated for her passivity as a woman as it "denotes weakness" and "she is the epitome of femininity" in the series. Bell felt that Sansa's greatest strength is her "unwavering resilience".


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sansa received acclaim in Season 6 of the show, during which she began her quest to retake her family home and exact revenge on those who wronged her. Megan Garber of "The Atlantic" praised the show's decision to have Sansa be the one orchestrating Ramsay's death in "Battle of the Bastards", saying that "in the end, it was Sansa making the decisions about who would be the victim." Bennett Madison of "Vanity Fair" wrote: "As far back as King's Landing, Sansa's between quietly protecting herself ... learning how to game the system, and slithering through situations that would have gotten the best of the show's more flashy or impulsive characters." In "Battle of the Bastards", she was "defiantly, gloriously correct in her convictions" and "saved the day with her foresight and savvy".


title: Sansa Stark

text: In an interview with "The New York Times", actress Sophie Turner said that "[Sansa is] no longer a pawn in anyone's game; she's no longer a prisoner...she's the one taking charge and doing her own thing, which is very exciting". Turner later told "Time" magazine about how gratifying it was to watch Sansa's development during Season 6 and defended the show on the criticism of its cruel treatment of women: "In my opinion, "Game of Thrones" is not sexist, and it's accurate to medieval time. The show puts social boundaries on the women, and they break out of these boundaries."


title: Sansa Stark

text: In the episode "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", Sansa's rape was the main subject of controversy for the season's deviations from the books. The majority of professional criticism concerned the showrunners' decision to have Ramsay rape Sansa, with most critics describing the scene as gratuitous and artistically unnecessary. "This grim scene was difficult for the show to justify," said Charlotte Runcie of "The Daily Telegraph". Joanna Robinson of "Vanity Fair" added, "this rape scene undercuts all the agency that’s been growing in Sansa since the end of last season. [...] I’d never advocate that "Game of Thrones" (or any work of fiction) shy away from edgy plots out of fear of pushback or controversy. But edgy plots should always accomplish something above pure titillation or shock value and what, "exactly", was accomplished here?" Christopher Orr wrote in "The Atlantic", "I continue to be astonished that showrunners Benioff and Weiss still apparently believe that their tendency to ramp up the sex, violence, and—especially—sexual violence of George R.R. Martin’s source material is a strength rather than the defining weakness of their adaptation." Myles McNutt of "The A.V. Club" wrote, "The issue with the show returning to rape as a trope is not simply because there have been thinkpieces speaking out against it, and is not solely driven by the rational concerns lying at the heart of those thinkpieces. It’s also that the show has lost my faith as a viewer." Writers from "Vanity Fair", "The Mary Sue" and "The Daily Beast" all disapproved of the decision to use Sansa's victimization as a motivating agent for Theon, saying that the scene undermined Sansa's character development: "Was it really important to make that scene about Theon's pain?" wrote Joanna Robinson of "Vanity Fair".


title: Sansa Stark

text: Other critics responded positively to the scene. Sean T. Collins of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "[B]y involving a multidimensional main character instead of one introduced primarily to suffer, the series has a chance to grant this story the gravity and seriousness it deserves. Sarah Hughes of "The Guardian" wrote: "I have repeatedly made clear that I’m not a fan of rape as a plot device – but the story of Ramsay and Sansa’s wedding was more than that. [...] The writers are walking a very fine line here. They handled it well tonight, telling a gothic tale of innocence sacrificed". Alyssa Rosenberg of "The Washington Post" wrote that the scene "managed to maintain a fine balance, employing a dignity and care for the experiences of victims that "Game of Thrones" has not always demonstrated."


title: Sansa Stark

text: Some critics questioned why this scene in particular should generate outrage when similar scenes have not. Sara Stewart of the "New York Post" pointed out that the rape and sexual abuse of both female and male characters is typical for "Game of Thrones": "Why are we suddenly so outraged about the rape of Sansa Stark, when this show has served up a steady diet of sexual assault and violence against women since its first season began?" Cathy Young of "Reason" magazine, writing in "Time" noted what she calls a lack of complaint in response to the sexual mistreatment of male characters in earlier seasons, specifically the literal emasculation of Theon Greyjoy and the sexual assault of Gendry.


title: Sansa Stark

text: Robinson wrote in "Vanity Fair", "if we can say one positive thing about that scene it's that Allen nailed his performance. Theon's horror mirrored our own and the camera—focusing on his reaction—let our minds fill in the blanks." Turner defended the scene as an artistic challenge for herself as an actor, saying, "When I read that scene, I kinda loved it. I love the way Ramsay had Theon watching. It was all so messed up. It's also so daunting for me to do it .. [it is] so emotional for her."


title: Sansa Stark

text: Some viewers, including U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, announced that they would stop watching the show because of this scene. According to "Business Insider", this scene and increased use of streaming services are likely reasons why ratings dropped from 6.2 million viewers for this episode to 5.4 million for the next episode, "The Gift."


title: Sansa Stark

text: Sophie Turner has received several award nominations for her portrayal of Sansa including an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019. For her performance in the series she earned the Glamour Award for Best UK TV Actress in 2016 and 2017, and an EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2016. Other nominations include the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series by a Supporting Young Actress in 2012, and the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015.


title: Mizkif

text: Matthew Rinaudo (born February 16, 1995), better known as Mizkif, is an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber. He is a founding member and co-owner of gaming organization One True King.


title: Mizkif

text: Rinaudo was born on February 16, 1995, and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. He graduated from college with a degree in finance.


title: Mizkif

text: Rinaudo began streaming in 2016. He streamed to a relatively small community until 2018 when he gained popularity for serving as a cameraman for fellow streamer Paul "Ice Poseidon" Denino.


title: Mizkif

text: In May 2019, Rinaudo, along with fellow streamer Esfand, received a seven-day ban from Twitch after the pair made inappropriate comments towards a female streamer at PAX East.


title: Mizkif

text: In March 2020, Rinaudo garnered attention after he made over $5,600 during a sleeping stream. In an interview with "Wired", he stated, "Most streams can be very draining. This stream was the opposite. It was very easy. It was honestly a nice break from my normal routine of playing games all day."


title: Mizkif

text: Rinaudo was the third most watched Twitch streamer during the 2020 United States presidential election, trailing fellow streamers Trainwreckstv and HasanAbi.


title: Mizkif

text: On October 11, 2020, Rinaudo, along with fellow Twitch streamers Asmongold, Esfand, Rich Campbell, and Tips Out, announced the launch of their new gaming organization One True King.


title: Mizkif

text: On December 21, 2019, Rinaudo held a charity stream for St. David's Children's Hospital in Austin, Texas. His community raised over $5,000, which Rinaudo would later use to purchase toys for the hospital's patients.


title: Mizkif

text: In June 2021, Rinaudo, along with fellow streamer Ryan "Simply" Reeves, rappelled down 600 Congress, a 32-story building in Austin, Texas, for a Make-A-Wish fundraiser event titled "Over the Edge". They raised over $20,000 USD during their companion charity stream, funded by donations from viewers.


title: Mizkif

text: Rinaudo began dating fellow Twitch streamer and wildlife rehabilitator Maya Higa in 2019. On September 14, 2021, Rinaudo announced on Twitter that he and Higa were no longer in a relationship.


title: Mizkif

text: Rinaudo has a heart condition known as viral myocarditis. He has also publicly spoken out about his struggles with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).


title: Mizkif

text: On September 19, 2022, Rinaudo was accused by fellow Twitch streamer Trainwreckstv of downplaying and covering up an incident where his roommate and fellow streamer CrazySlick allegedly sexually assaulted female streamer AdrianahLee. Later that day, streamer Ice Poseidon, whom Rinaudo worked with during his early streaming career, published a set of comments made by Rinaudo from 2018 to 2019, characterized as racist and homophobic. The following day, as a result of the aforementioned incidents, Rinaudo was placed on leave by One True King.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous" (), was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza. His father's abrupt abdication and departure to Europe in 1831 left the five-year-old as emperor and led to a grim and lonely childhood and adolescence, obliged to spend his time studying in preparation for rule. His experiences with court intrigues and political disputes during this period greatly affected his later character; he grew into a man with a strong sense of duty and devotion toward his country and his people, yet increasingly resentful of his role as monarch.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Pedro II inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, but he turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew to be distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, zealously guarded freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth, and form of government—a functional representative parliamentary monarchy. Brazil was also victorious in the Platine War, the Uruguayan War, and the Paraguayan War, as well as prevailing in several other international disputes and domestic tensions. Pedro II steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests. A savant in his own right, the Emperor established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture, and the sciences, and he won the respect and admiration of people such as Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was a friend to Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: There was no desire for a change in the form of government among most Brazilians, but the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état that had almost no support outside a clique of military leaders who desired a form of republic headed by a dictator. Pedro II had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the monarchy's future prospects, despite its overwhelming popular support. He did not allow his ouster to be opposed and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy. He spent the last two years of his life in exile in Europe, living alone on very little money.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: The reign of Pedro II thus came to an unusual end—he was overthrown while highly regarded by the people and at the pinnacle of his popularity, and some of his accomplishments were soon brought to naught as Brazil slipped into a long period of weak governments, dictatorships, and constitutional and economic crises. The men who had exiled him soon began to see in him a model for the Brazilian Republic. A few decades after his death, his reputation was restored and his remains were returned to Brazil with celebrations nationwide. Historians have regarded the Emperor in an extremely positive light and several have ranked him as the greatest Brazilian.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Pedro was born at 02:30 on 2 December 1825 in the Palace of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Named after St. Peter of Alcantara, his name in full was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga. Through his father, Emperor Dom Pedro I, he was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza (Portuguese: "Bragança") and was referred to using the honorific "Dom" (Lord) from birth. He was the grandson of Portuguese King Dom João VI and nephew of Dom Miguel I. His mother was the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, daughter of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor. Through his mother, Pedro was a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and first cousin of Emperors Napoleon II of France, Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Don Maximiliano I of Mexico.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: The only legitimate male child of Pedro I to survive infancy, he was officially recognized as heir apparent to the Brazilian throne with the title Prince Imperial on 6 August 1826. Empress Maria Leopoldina died on 11 December 1826, a few days after a stillbirth, when Pedro was a year old. Two and a half years later, his father married Princess Amélie of Leuchtenberg. Prince Pedro developed an affectionate relationship with her, whom he came to regard as his mother. Pedro I's desire to restore his daughter Maria II to her Portuguese throne, which had been usurped by his brother Miguel I, as well as his declining political position at home led to his abrupt abdication on 7 April 1831. He and Amélie immediately departed for Europe, leaving behind the Prince Imperial, who became Emperor Dom Pedro II.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Upon leaving the country, Emperor Pedro I selected three people to take charge of his son and remaining daughters. The first was José Bonifácio de Andrada, his friend and an influential leader during Brazilian independence, who was named guardian. The second was Mariana de Verna, who had held the post of "aia" (governess) since the birth of Pedro II. As a child, the then-Prince Imperial called her ""Dadama"", as he could not pronounce the word "dama" (Lady) correctly. He regarded her as his surrogate mother and would continue to call her by her nickname well into adulthood out of affection. The third person was Rafael, an Afro-Brazilian veteran of the Cisplatine War. He was an employee in the Palace of São Cristóvão whom Pedro I deeply trusted and asked to look after his son—a charge that he carried out for the rest of his life.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Bonifácio was dismissed from his position in December 1833 and replaced by another guardian. Pedro II spent his days studying, with only two hours set aside for amusements. Intelligent, he was able to acquire knowledge with great ease. However, the hours of study were strenuous and the preparation for his role as monarch was demanding. He had few friends of his age and limited contact with his sisters. All that coupled with the sudden loss of his parents gave Pedro II an unhappy and lonely upbringing. The environment in which he was raised turned him into a shy and needy person who saw books as a refuge and retreat from the real world.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: The possibility of lowering the young Emperor's age of majority, instead of waiting until he turned 18, had been floated since 1835. His elevation to the throne had led to a troublesome period of endless crises. The regency created to rule on his behalf was plagued from the start by disputes between political factions and rebellions across the nation. Those politicians who had risen to power during the 1830s had by now also become familiar with the pitfalls of rule. Historian Roderick J. Barman stated that by 1840, "they had lost all faith in their ability to rule the country on their own. They accepted Pedro II as an authority figure whose presence was indispensable for the country's survival". When asked by politicians if he would like to assume full powers, Pedro II shyly accepted. On the following day, 23 July 1840, the General Assembly (the Brazilian Parliament) formally declared the 14-year-old Pedro II of age. He was later acclaimed, crowned, and consecrated on 18 July 1841.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: Removal of the factious regency brought stability to the government. Pedro II was seen nationwide as a legitimate source of authority, whose position placed him above partisanship and petty disputes. He was, however, still no more than a boy, and a shy, insecure, and immature one. His nature resulted from his broken childhood, when he experienced abandonment, intrigue, and betrayal. Behind the scenes, a group of high-ranking palace servants and notable politicians led by Aureliano Coutinho (later Viscount of Sepetiba) became known as the "Courtier Faction" as they established influence over the young Emperor. Some were very close to him, such as Mariana de Verna and Steward Paulo Barbosa da Silva. Pedro II was deftly used by the Courtiers against their actual or suspected foes.


title: Pedro II of Brazil

text: The Brazilian government secured the hand of Princess Teresa Cristina of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. She and Pedro II were married by proxy in Naples on 30 May 1843. Upon seeing her in person, the Emperor was noticeably disappointed. Teresa Cristina was short, a bit overweight and though not ugly, neither was she pretty. He did little to hide his disillusionment. One observer stated that he turned his back to Teresa Cristina, another depicted him as being so shocked that he needed to sit, and it is possible that both occurred. That evening, Pedro II wept and complained to Mariana de Verna, "They have deceived me, "Dadama"!" It took several hours to convince him that duty demanded that he proceed. The Nuptial Mass, with the ratification of the vows previously taken by proxy and the conferral of the nuptial blessing, occurred on the following day, 4 September.