tortured and forced to live in kennels isn't enough to cause you to "wake up" to your plight, not sure how witnessing a rape is going to do it. so if the writers truly use that for theon's "awakening", it doesn't ring true to me and makes the rape gratuitous and lazy. having her rape serve as his reason to come full circle is awfully convenient for him.

and sansa certainly doesn't need a final straw to be broken. from losing her direwolf down to all the other shit she's gone through that i highlighted above, she was already on the way to calling her own shots. you saw it with her scenes with brienne and miranda. so again, her plotting and accepting her fate and limited power as a woman in that world (as cersei and others have often done) and submitting to ramsey should have been enough. there was no reason to make her rape about theon at all.

and i'm not trying to ban rape from tv, but i think the writers can do much better. i was more disappointed that they went that route than angry. she has so many more reasons to make a play during the upcoming battle at winterfell than being raped by ramsey bolton.