⚠️ Spoiler Alert ⚠️
In Game of Thrones, everyone hated Sansa Stark in the early seasons because of all the mistakes she made while she was still young and naive. Born as a princess of the North in Winterfell, she was raised to be a graceful lady and ready to be the wife of a prince. Believing in the classic fairytale dream of palace life, she always chose Joffrey Baratheon’s side over her own family back then. She didn’t see the thorns around the throne, ignored all the warning signs, innocent, and blindly in love with someone she didn’t truly know.
Until she realized: the one you love can betray you. Her fantasy shattered the day her father, Ned Stark (my favorite character), was executed before her very eyes on the orders of her own fiance, Joffrey himself. In that moment, Sansa understood one thing: in Westeros, a smile is a blade, and a sweet word is poison in disguise.
Season after season, she learned the crown is not a gift, but a weight, forged in wounds and loss. Living as a “guest prisoner” under the Lannisters in King’s Landing taught her the art of wearing masks. From Cersei, she learned the value of keeping your face steady when your heart is on fire.
Surrounded by the court’s toxic games, she memorized the sly dialect of politics. Praise as a spyglass, bowing as a way to buy time. Yet a thread of innocence still clung to her, until Littlefinger arrived with promises of protection that led her straight into the jaws of Ramsay Bolton. Ramsay’s cruelty didn’t just scar her, it smelted the last of her softness into steel.
When the northern winds returned, she no longer waited to be saved. She stood firmly on her own feet. Her flaws were seeds in her character development: from naive and lost in fairytales, she grew into a political player, cold, patient, and precise in every move.
Back home in Winterfell with Jon Snow, Sansa was no longer just a survivor. She was a tactician and made moves Jon never saw coming, like summoning the Knights of the Vale to turn the tide at the Battle of the Bastards. A silent checkmate against Ramsay Bolton that proved she could win a war without lifting a sword.
When Jon left for the South, the North became hers to guard, and Littlefinger tried to play his old song. Whispers meant to pit her against Arya, hoping sister would against sister. But Sansa was done being anyone’s pawn. She played along, letting him believe the hook was set deep.
Then, in the Great Hall of Winterfell, she turned the game inside out: “You stand accused of murder and treason. How do you answer these charges… Lord Baelish?”
One of the biggest plot twist in GOT history. That one sentence shattered his entire deck of cards. The master manipulator was caught in his own snare, Arya’s blade sealing his fate while Sansa stood as judge. Fear no longer part of her vocabulary.
One of my favorite moments is when Littlefinger tries to defend himself:
“I’ve loved your mother since the time I was a boy.”
“And yet you betrayed her.”
“I loved you.”
“And yet you betrayed me.”
Once again, betrayal showed up wearing the face you trusted most.
And in the end, when the wars were over, she claimed the North’s independence from the Iron Throne and was crowned Queen in the North. Once, she thought a crown was a jewel. Now she knew, it is a weight, carried only by those with an unbreakable spine, a mind sharp enough to cut glass, and a heart brave enough to survive a world that would rather see you burn than rule.
