Few characters on Game of Thrones are as divisive as Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). In general, fans fight each other over events or decisions, but Sansa? It’s another field entirely. The daughter of Ned Stark (Sean Bean) and Catelyn Tully (Michelle Farley), she has always been ‘different’ from her brothers, with bigger dreams of being a princess or queen, living at Court, and having a life of luxury and tranquility.

From being ‘weak’, she was one of the strongest voices against Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), facing both with courage when the time came. In the ‘War of the Queens’, which marked the Targaryen clash against the Lannister, we can easily argue that Sansa already had the throne of the North and was also in the clash. The difference? She didn’t want the Iron Throne. She won the game, she won the North, she won her Crown and Peace, the great victor of the game.

Her arrival there was not easy, nor free from controversy.

The ‘Princess’ Stark

Sansa was Ned and Catelyn’s first daughter, treated like a princess by the two who already had Robb (and Jon Snow), so when she was born, Ned was beside himself with pride and joy, sending the bells ringing in celebration.

Raised like all girls from important Houses in Westeros, Sansa would have a role in society: marry a great Lord and have children. To achieve this, she learned to speak languages, pray, and embroider, revealing a unique talent as a designer. She was the exact opposite of her sister Arya (Maisie Williams), who liked playing with her brothers more and was attached to Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

In the series, it’s never said in exact words, but clearly, Sansa was the only one of the siblings to follow her mother’s example and mistreat the bastard Jon Snow, with both later mentioning that she was annoying and snobbish to him.

Sansa’s ultimate dream is to one day be Queen and mother of princes because she imagines it to be a fantasy world. Unfortunately, it’s a case of ‘be careful what she wishes for’ because when Robert Baratheon decides that she will marry his son, Joffrey Baratheon, Sansa is the only one happy with the arrangement. No one, not her parents, brothers, the prince’s mother, or even the groom himself, thought it was a good idea. And from then on, Sansa’s life became hell. With tragic consequences for others.

A stupid girl who doesn’t learn

Many criticize Sansa’s loyalty as she betrayed her own family long before arriving in King’s Landing. The truth is that a 12-year-old girl, dreamy and unprepared, was educated to put her husband on a pedestal and obey him, so from the moment she was ‘promised’ to Joffrey, both the Lannisters and the Baratheons became her family.

It could be argued that by making the wrong decisions, in the view of the Starks’ defenders, Sansa was doing what she was taught: putting Duty before Love. As the bride of the future King, she owed her loyalty to him. Ned never condemned her for her errors in judgment; he knew exactly that the challenges were greater than she could face, but he lost his mind for it. Literally.

Arya never forgave Sansa, but because she promised her father, she didn’t include her on her list. Robb and Catelyn also did not judge the girl, clearly subjugated by the Lannisters. And Sansa paid for her mistakes: physically and psychologically. Joffrey’s sadism had her as a preferred victim; no one particularly liked her, but she was useful in Westeros politics and was used and abused as a chess piece.

Insecure, Sansa missed opportunities to escape, trusted the wrong people, and distrusted the right ones, but she learned the hard way. She was forced into a marriage with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) that wasn’t worse because he had integrity. After more than a year as a prisoner, she bets on a dangerous alliance with Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) to survive and shows that her mantra – I’m a stupid girl with stupid dreams who never learns – is outdated.

The long road to early redemption

All the Starks suffer throughout the seasons of Game of Thrones, but it is Sansa who experiences daily danger most closely and could be executed by Joffrey or Cersei at any second. She is so alone that she is even used by those who sympathize with her, the Tyrells, who include her through no fault of their own on the list of suspects for having killed Joffrey.

Escaping Westeros with the help of Littlefinger, Sansa crosses the country in an encounter with the most dangerous of players. Before him, Cersei, in a mixture of pity and contempt, also passed on some teachings to her, but the main ones Sansa learned on her own or by observing others. With Littlefinger, it was different; she trained her to read people, to strategize. With Littlefinger, whom she underestimated and used everyone mercilessly, Sansa learned to read people, but that’s what she suffered from with Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon).

Forced into a marriage with the man who killed her brother and mother, Sansa believed in Littlefinger, but not even when she saw a destroyed Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) did she realize the danger to which she was exposed. Joffrey’s sadism didn’t come close to what Ramsay was capable of. She was raped and tortured by her husband, but she didn’t let him break her soul like she did to Theon. It was the last and most valuable survival lesson she would ever have.

Of all the Game of Thrones characters, only Sansa Stark was close to and under the control of the worst of the worst in Westeros. Joffrey, Cersei, Littlefinger and Ramsay, the quartet from hell. Daenerys Targaryen didn’t even make Sansa sigh, and rightly so.

On the run and reunion with Jon, the Sansa Stark that no one expected

The hatred people feel for Sansa has a lot to do with how she wasn’t nice to Jon Snow, nor as much as her dislike of Daenerys. I share this aversion, let me warn you.

Before meeting Jon, who should have been her first goal but was led astray by Littlefinger, Sansa found an unexpected soulmate in Theon. Until then, Sansa had blamed Theon for Bran and Rickon’s ‘deaths’, as well as betraying Robb, so whatever Ramsay did to him was deserved. Little by little, she realizes that she can only count on him to escape her sadistic husband, but there is no longer Theon, only Reek. Under pressure, he confesses that his younger brothers are more alive, and Sansa finally realizes all his regret for betraying the Starks. However, terrified and traumatized, he dares not betray Ramsay to help her. Worse, it even disrupts the ongoing plan she was following to call Brienne of Tarth to rescue her. Until Theon has to choose, and he chooses Sansa.

Unexpectedly, he kills Ramsay’s lover and jumps to his death with Sansa, and they manage to stay alive, although pursued. There’s nothing Theon won’t do to save the young Stark: jumping walls, killing, fleeing through snow and frozen waters, even offering himself as bait to distract the Boltons. When the world seems lost, Brienne appears and saves them both.

The only alternative – finally! – is going to meet Jon (who she doesn’t even suspect had been murdered, much less that he would be resurrected), but Theon knows that Jon won’t have the same empathy for him as his half-sister (in fact, cousin). Knowing that Sansa was now safe with Brienne, en route to Jon Snow’s protection, it was time to say goodbye. The farewell is as sad as her reunion with Jon Snow, five seasons later.

Retake Winterfell, lead the North to independence

The reunion between Sansa and Jon is one of the most moving and beautiful moments in all of Game of Thrones, a genuine affection and brotherhood. Maintaining the coherence of a lifetime in which they had a tumultuous relationship, Jon and Sansa butt heads, with her leading him from the moment she sees him. It is Sansa who urges him to recover Winterfell, seek alliances, and fight for the North. Something even more difficult after so many defeats and suspicious attitudes from Sansa (married to a Lannister and then a Bolton), and a bastard leading the house, the two are received with a lot of suspicion.

Sansa and Jon may want the same thing, but they’re at odds on how to achieve it. She wants to maintain the Starks’ superior position, almost arrogant, while Jon wants to be more conciliatory. The main problem is what happens before the confrontation in the Batalha of the Bastards.

The Starks have fewer men than the Boltons, and Sansa knows Jon is good, so Ramsay will use his integrity against him. The two fight on the eve of the battle because she feels ignored by her brother, and she gives a single piece of advice, which is the best of them, but indecipherable to Jon: don’t do anything that Ramsay forces you to do. Obvious, but as we know, exactly what Jon ignores and almost loses the fight.

For some reason, which not even the showrunners offer an alternative, Sansa omits from Jon that she has Littlefinger and an army that would give victory to the stand-by Starks and that she asked him for help. Thus, Jon starts the fight at a disadvantage, and Sansa appears by surprise, effectively turning the battle in the Starks’ favor. They win, and Jon is elected King in the North, something that bothers her.

Sansa forces Jon’s hand twice in his choice against Daenerys

The two continue butting heads until, obsessed with fighting the Night Walkers, Jon leaves Winterfell, against Sansa’s advice, to find Daenerys Targaryen. He leaves his sister in charge; she’s the Queen in training! Sansa forces Jon’s hand twice in his choice against Daenerys

Only two people in the entire franchise seemed immune to Daenerys Targaryen: Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister. Surprise: both could lose their status to the Mother of Dragons. In Sansa’s case, to make matters worse, Jon handed the North over to Daenerys without even consulting her, creating a serious problem for them with the other houses, justifiably angry with him. Up until this point, they are completely unaware that no one has a chance against the Night King and that he actually ‘needs’ Dany.

This phase of history is confusing on all sides. Daenerys starts to act more suspiciously every day, Jon makes rash decisions, and Sansa keeps many secrets from him and her brothers. At this point, Arya and Bran have already reappeared, too. The fact that Dany offered help and Jon responded by kneeling to her generates many fights because, eventually, she would have demanded it anyway, so it is inefficient to argue that she would have accepted the North’s independence. At no point did she consider being Queen of the Six Kingdoms, and nothing she did afterward suggests that she didn’t want the North. Either way, Sansa was pissed.

She shows her dislike openly, exposes Dany to constant embarrassment, and remains distant from Jon. When Sansa is approached by Daenerys, in a second falsehood to try to win her over, Sansa decides to come clean. She wants independence for the North. Would Dany leave them alone? The silence was all Sansa needed for reassurance. Daenerys Targaryen is not a Queen she would support, she is just another Cersei Lannister.

Farewells and surprises, Sansa manages to survive

In the great battle of Winterfell against the nightwalkers, Sansa seemed to be one of the unlikely ones to survive. Without fighting skills, Sansa hides in the crypt with Tyrion, Varys, and the women, but they are surprised by the undead attack and the uncertainty of the outcome of an unbalanced fight. Sansa survives and does not lose her leadership; on the contrary, she is even more firmly at the head of House Stark. Unfortunately, she loses the only person who understands exactly what Ramsay Bolton inflicted on his victims: Theon Greyjoy returns to the North to fight for the Starks and protect Bran. The connection with him is undeniable. In the book, he dreamed of one day being able to marry Sansa, so I feel justified in having assumed that – if he escaped – they would be together. Sansa no longer wanted sex or children, but she and Theon would have a rebuilding relationship. It would have been beautiful, but Game of Thrones is not a story of happy endings…

The Queen of the North

For anti-Sansa, her final betrayal is the worst of all. Jon Snow reveals his true identity (Aegon Targaryen) to her and Arya, under the request of total secrecy in order not to create problems with Daenerys Targaryen. What does Sansa do immediately?

The sequence of events triggered by Sansa’s unilateral decision that Daenerys could not reach the Iron Throne cost the lives of thousands in King’s Landing as much as Cersei Lannister’s resistance. An increasingly isolated (and unbalanced) Dany felt justifiably insecure about the fact that in Westeros, they would prefer Jon (Aegon) as king over her, making her entire arduous and bloody road to King’s Landing useless. And we know she simply “lost” control.

But the fact is that after destroying the capital, Daenerys is determined to “liberate” all of Westeros from the Houses that are currently in charge, at least those that are not on her side. The first stop? back to the North.

At this point, Daenerys is without Tyrion or Varys as advisors; she is, in fact, more isolated than ever. She pleads with Jon to stay with her, but Jon decides for his family. That’s right, despite Sansa’s betrayals and her having provoked the Targaryen Queen’s wrath, Jon sacrifices himself for Sansa. Whoever loves Jon doesn’t accept his choice. Sansa decidedly did not deserve that trust.

The result? Upon saving his brothers, Jon is sentenced to death, later saved but sent into exile, with a reputation as a traitor and murderer. Unfair in my book. Bran was elected King of Westeros, and Sansa secured the independence of the North, which crowned her as Queen.

Sansa Stark’s arc, with all its stumbles, is one of the best and most complete in Game of Thrones. She achieves her dream of reigning, but not without pain and loss. She is no longer the innocent girl, nor is she a passive and unprepared woman. Politically skilled, she is effectively a great Queen. I regret that she was not Hand of the King, her brother, for Sansa is so cunning that even Bran was useful to her, both in eliminating Littlefinger and securing her commanding position in Jon’s absence.

Do you love or hate Sansa Stark? How do you think she will be in the Snow series?

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