In universe, a man like Sandor would never be paired with a man like Sansa. With Sansa/Sandor and Jaime/Brienne, for instance, we see these dynamics as subversive both within the universe of ASOIAF and outside of the universe, to the reader and to the audience at large. Actual subversion works on a textual level and on a meta-narrative level. It’s not “being subversive by subverting what’s already subversive to fool the audience”. Perhaps that is how D&D adapted Game of Thrones, but that isn’t how GRRM writes his characters. People seem to think that being a “subversive” author means gunning for shock value and torture porn and constantly upsetting the audience or making them feel stupid. So this is an actual example of GRRM subverting a stereotypical fantasy narrative or fantasy trope, with two instances of romantic, or at least intimate, dynamics that are “Beauty and the Beast” romances but put a subversive spin on the traditional story. Brienne is also called jokingly a “Beauty”, framed specifically as an insult to her. Brienne is a “beauty” on the inside because of her kind personality, but largely reviled as “ugly”, at least according to patriarchal standards, while Jaime is considered to be a golden beauty, yet he’s also a Lannister, a Lion of the Rock, and he’s done horrible things. And with Jaime and Brienne, I tend to see it as a reversal between personality and image. He’s not an innocent and wholesome person either. Sandor “the Beast” is not an innocent, handsome man who was cursed to transform into a Beast, but quite literally facially disfigured as a result of abuse. We see, for example, that in the bond between Sandor Clegane and Sansa Stark, or Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, GRRM is clearly playing around with the “beauty and the beast” trope. The problem is that good writing isn’t just about subverting reader’s expectations unnecessarily, it’s about taking a commonly held trope and disrupting it in some way, or negating it altogether. Some people argue that GRRM sets us up to think that Dany is Azor Ahai, only to switch who Azor Ahai truly will be later on, to “subvert reader’s expectations”.
Daenerys being Azor Ahai is inherently subversive
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