SPOILERS for Game of Thrones
I was rather ambivalent about Sansa Stark’s final season arc – she got what she wanted almost completely, she kept her eye on the prize and…whatever. I was never one of those “Sansa should be queen of the Seven Kingdoms!” people. Because I didn’t even think Sansa was all that – yes, she survived, and yes, she got smarter, but people acted like she was some kind of strategic genius in politics and war. She was not. She was just someone who survived several ordeals, and someone with the right name. Sansa ends up arguing that the North should be independent and King Bran the Broken is like “meh okay.” So Sansa becomes Queen of the North. How does Sophie Turner feel about that?
Sansa Stark was a huge fan favorite to end up on the Iron Throne. But in the Game of Thrones series finale, Bran Stark is declared king instead while Sansa is crowned Queen in the North. Sansa gets the North finally declared an independent country that will no longer be ruled by the King’s Landing capital. It’s a major victory for her character who has long sought security and independence and has felt a responsibility toward her house and its Northern banners.
But how does actress Sophie Turner feel about her character’s fate? Was she bummed Sansa didn’t end up on the Iron Throne instead?
“I wasn’t bummed at all,” Turner tells EW. “Because ever since the end of season 1, Sansa has not been about the capital or being queen. She doesn’t believe she could rule and doesn’t want to. She knows her place is in the North and she can rule the people of the North and rule Winterfell. She’d probably be capable [of being queen of the Seven Kingdoms] with the help of her family and advisors like Tyrion. But she has no desire to be ruler of all of the Seven Kingdoms.”
Notice that no one within the Westeros world thought “she doesn’t want to be queen, therefore she would make a good queen” like they did with Jon Snow. But yeah, I’m fine-to-meh with Sansa getting what she wanted. She gets to be in charge of Winterfell and basically be head bureaucrat of the North. I kind of feel like she would have greatly benefited from someone we know as her Hand – like Ser Davos, or Brienne. But I guess not. And worse comes to worse, Jon is King Beyond The Wall now, I guess?
Also: Sophie’s Dark Phoenix costar Jessica Chastain had a lot of thoughts!
My theory:
Sansa ends up on the Iron Throne
Arya becomes the hand of the Queen
Daenerys kills Jon Snow
Arya kills Daenerys
Tyrion continues to sh💩t the bed
And I miss all of it because I'm traveling. #gameofthrones @SophieT pic.twitter.com/VxQxkzH6Ah— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) May 19, 2019
And Sophie had some nice things to say on Instagram:
Photos courtesy of Instagram and HBO.
Er, Sophie T said Sansa didn’t want to rule the Iron Throne….not that she didn’t want to rule in the North.
I liked that she became the Queen in the North. Her ending and Arya’s are the only ones that actually made sense to me in last night’s ending.
She had one of the best arcs and ended where she was supposed to, as a queen of the place she really loved and cared about.
The problem with the North being independent is how long before another kingdoms, say Dorn (never conquered by the Targaryens), decides that they too want to be free? Her brother is King so of course he grants her freedom. Down the years someone is going to find it unfair. Sansa has to have an heir, what if she marries the Prince of Dorn? What would the next King after Bran think of the Union of those two regions? It will be interesting to know if the North being Independent is an HBO creation or GRRM’s.
And ultimately Jon ended up paying the price for Sansa to become Queen while he started and ended his life as an outcast. Has the wheel really been broken when the privileged daughter of the Warden of the North ends up being the Queen in the North? It’s like D&D still had to somehow get their Queen Sansa!
Why do people keep diminishing her trauma caused by the years of mental, physical and emotional abuse suffered at the hands of Lannisters, manipulation at the hands of Littlefinger and mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of Ramsay?
Jon decided to kill Dany without even trying to find an alternative. Don’t put that on Sansa.
The same people that call her manipulating and petty and privileged are the ones that call Dany’s genocide a “bad day” and Arya’s extermination of entire houses “justice”. She was never a fighter and she never had dragons, she fought with the weapons she had, which is her intellect and the lessons she learned and she made it possible to be in a position where she doesn’t have to be a victim ever again.
Was she perfect? No. Did she deserve the Iron Throne? No? Did they do Dany dirty? YES.
But being in the North where the Starks have reigned for years and years seemed fitting.
@Gaby
And Jon did not want to be king of anything. He wanted to be a ranger. He took pride in being the watcher on the wall. They gave him back to the wide open spaces and the brotherhood he loved so much. And Ghost.
Sansa wanted to be a Queen when she was a girl with all the flighty and frilly notions of the position but she learned what it takes to be a good ruler, that a Queen must tend to the safety and needs of her people. That inventories of food and supplies matter. She’ll be a good Queen, but she did not want all of Westeros. She wanted her home.
Another mediocre white actress, one good thing about no more GOT is not having to see her sulkily wafting about- although I guess jon snow had her beat in the emo stakes 🙂 oh and we also get king emo! Urgh the starks, if only the Lannisters had won, at least they were interesting.
Sansa hates Kings Landing and didn’t want the Iron Throne so it’s bizarre anyone would ask if she was “bummed.” She got one of the happiest endings! People who don’t like the character are actually pissed that she’s a queen. I’m not. Sansa was the driving force of northern independence from the moment she escaped the Boltons. No one wanted it more than her, she never bent the knee to anyone, and she’ll be a good leader. She would not have been good down south.
In the South, she was chattel, something to own and control because doing so gave them a claim to the North. In the North, people were willing to die for her.
Perhaps Brienne is her representative? Probably not as a separate north, but she still might need to know what the rest of the world is doing. In any case, out of the Stark crew, she was good for the region.
The show ended with the starks, just as the show begin. They were pivotal characters. The starks looked like they were decimated at one point but the starks survived. Bran, Sansa and Arya all got to live the life they wanted.
My biggest Wtf moment was Bran becoming king, but whatever. Jon’s ending doesn’t really make sense either, there was no reason to send him away when the unsullied were leaving anyway, and there doesn’t need to be a night’s watch anymore anyway. Where were the Dothraki going?
Anyway, I’m glad the stark girls survived and the North is independent.
Meh, the ending didn’t say. I was reading some of the reddit guys complaints and most of them are right. Like the unsullied and dothraki not doing anything when their queen dies lol. Wtf. And Bronn suddenly ruling people…
And Bronn owning the most fertile, rich land. I can see him withholding food for kicks. I despise him and his seat at the table.
Yes, esp when he started talking about how rebuilding the brothels were more important than clean water and security; which was pitched as ‘humour’. Bronn is so that kind of character that would actually do that.
The Dothraki pick leaders on strength. Murder the old leader? Okay you’re the new leader. (Hilariously that could have made Jon the new khal). The Unsullied follow orders, they don’t think for themselves. That’s why Grey Worm was waiting for them to pick a king and tell him what to do. Slave habits die hard, unfortunately.
There was no body and no weapon. Jon must have given himself up and confessed although we don’t know how. If he was smart it would have been with his men protecting him. The northerners would have fought Grey Worm if there had been no trial.
Sansa’s ending is the only one that made sense. And maybe Arya’s but I was pretty unimpressed about her story ending as well. She basically sails off to do what? Become a colonizer??
I don’t agree with your assessment, Kaiser. Sansa wasn’t in any position to make tactical and strategic decisions until close to the end of the series, after Jon won at the Battle of the Bastards (thanks to Sansa’s intercession) and Sansa took care of Ramsey Bolton. What Sansa did was watch and learn from the various characters that created situations to which Sansa had to react (Joffrey, Cersei, Ramsey, Littlefinger, Lysa Arryn, etc.). Once liberated from Ramsey, Sansa finally had the opportunity to put the skills that she had developed over six seasons to use, and by all accounts she was pretty successful: with the help of her siblings, she outsmarted and disposed of Littlefinger, she ran Winterfell, she helped depose a leader who murdered nearly a whole city, and–most significantly–she brokered Northern independence. I think she’s a pretty inspiring character, especially when you consider that Sansa started out as a spoiled princess who just wanted to be queen. Well, she saw that dream to fruition, but this time she secured that title through her own works and actions, and not by marrying a man.
Grant, I really like your assessment of Sansa.
Very well said.
People give Sansa a lot of passes because of what she’s been through. While I’ve rooted for her; I also think she’s kind of a horrible person. She was always selfish and petty. Then she developed many of the horrible traits of people like Littlefinger/Cersie/Ramsey: calculating, conniving, and manipulative. She got what she wanted in the end, so whatev. The North/Westeros is still racist against Wildings and others. The world they think they now have won’t be for so long. It’s just any time now before another uprising and on-and-on it goes; the wheels will just keep on turning.
Of course Sophie isn’t bummed, sansa probably had the best ending out of all the characters.
I thought all 7 kingdoms would be independent and just come together like the UN. . .So the Starks rule the 7 kingdoms…ok
I loved Sansa’s ending. It made sense for her and it’s honorable to Cat, who was also considered a great leader, so it was perfect that she be the new queen/leader of the independent North. I loved Sansa’s final scene too. It was one of the few moments of satisfaction for me. I was happy with her and Arya’s endings, although I wish Arya would have taken Gendry with her.
The details on Sansa’s gown were fantastic. Every member of the Stark family was represented in the details of the dress.
The North and her House sacrificed a lot to defend the Seven Kingdoms from the Night King and his army, to be betrayed by the reigning house and monarch (Lannisters). Plus everything she went through: Cersei, Joffrey, witness to her father’s execution, Littlefinger, Ramsey and the Boltons… she endured hell and managed to remain herself despite all of it and realised her family and the North were the only thing that mattered so yeah, of course she fought for the North to be independent once again. She was the only person, besides Ser Davos, who saw Dany for what she was and who did not underestimate Cersei. She belongs on the northern throne.