The final episode of Game of Thrones was controversial, but one plot line most people seemed to appreciate was (spoiler alert!) Sansa Stark—played by Sophie Turner—being crowned the Warden of the North. Because she’s one of the few characters whose story didn’t end in gut-wrenching tragedy, some have wondered if Sansa might make an appearance in one of the many spinoff shows GoT writer George RR Martin has said are in development. But that probably won’t happen. In a new interview with Sky News this week, Turner said she’s pretty much done with Sansa for now. As she put it, revisiting her character would “just be more trauma.”
“I think it’s time to say goodbye to Sansa,” Turner said, “I’m ready-ish to say goodbye to her, I think my watch has ended. I just think it’s been 10 years of my life and the best 10 years of my life by far, and I finished in a very happy place with Sansa and it’s time to let her go.”
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Sophie Turner started filming Game of Thrones when she was 14 years old, and the show has followed her into adulthood. She previously shared that the show caught her in a rough part of adolescence: She battled depression and frequently turned to her co-star and close friend, Maisie Williams, who played her sister Arya Stark. After the show ended, she took some time off to focus on her mental health.
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“I actually am still on my break,” she said. “I took a break off of work to focus on my mental health because I thought it was important.”
Turner commemorated the end of the show with an epic tattoo that showed a direwolf and the text, “The pack survives.” It seemed like a very final gesture, but who knows how things will change as the spinoffs take shape. So far, we only know about a prequel in the works, and it takes place thousands of years before Game of Thrones—so we definitely shouldn’t plan on seeing Sansa.
Stand up, Sansa Hive—we finally have a Queen. Game of Thrones took its final bow last night, closing out its eight-year run with a final episode that left many fans scratching their heads.
To recap: Daenerys flattened King’s Landing and was inches from taking the Throne, Jon stabbed her, Drogon burned the Iron Throne to the ground, and then a counsel of Westerosi leaders picked the first chosen King of the Seven (now Six) Kingdoms, and they landed on…Bran Stark. Despite that bizarre and underwhelming choice, there was at least one positive development from it: Sansa Stark is now the Queen of the North, something her fans—a.k.a. those of us who have our heads screwed on straight—deserved to see.
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New members of the Sansa Hive aren’t welcome here—I’ve been a Sansa stan for as long as I’ve watched the show, and throughout those years, I’ve endured Game of Thrones “fans” calling Sansa whiny, weak, and spineless. For some reason, the eldest Stark sister was polarizing.
But on last night’s final episode, she proved why everyone should have been stanning this whole time. Case in point: When Tyrion first suggested that the counsel choose a king or queen and her uncle Edmure Tully embarrassed himself by standing up and pontificating about his accolades, Sansa cut him off with a command, “Uncle. Please sit.” It was the only moment in the episode that made me audibly gasp for air.
In that same scene last night, Sansa was the only member of the counsel to vote against Bran, asserting without contest that the North would recede from the Seven Kingdoms and become and independent state once again, with her ruling in Winterfell. That’s not the only savage way she called out her little brother:
Sansa’s rise to power was a slow burn; but once she grabbed it, she held on with an iron grip. Even when Lady Stark was stripped of her name, her autonomy, and everything she knew and loved, she was still—to borrow a phrase Turner herself used to describe Arya—was always “that bitch.” There was the time she bitch-slapped Robin Arryn in the face. Or when she sniped at Septa Mordane in season one with one of her greatest one-liners: “Oh wait, I just realized I don’t care.” She’s the Stark who always reminded us that “the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” and speaker of truths such as, “No one can protect me. No one can protect anyone.”
Sansa has been especially good at putting mediocre men in their place and making them feel mortified for even breathing around her. This season she told Tyrion, “I used to think you were the cleverest man alive.” That didn’t even sting half as badly as her takedown of Lord Baelish in season seven: “No need to seize the last word, Lord Baelish. I’ll assume it was something clever.” Sansa and Arya conspiring to kill Littlefinger at the end of last season was probably the most satisfying moment in Game of Thrones history for me—a feeling so blissful, I wish it could have been recreated in last night’s episode. But could anything really feel as rapturous as Sansa being crowned Queen? Answer: Hard no.
To the rest of the Sansa Hive, it’s been a pleasure stanning so ruthlessly alongside you. In my opinion, the Sansa Hive is the most passionate (and therefore the scariest) of all the Game of Thrones fandoms. We’re the scrappy ones, the ones who are always ready to drive our claws through your extensions and drag you by the hair.
I’ll miss our Queen’s severe wintry lewks, her cascading orange braids, and her devastating one-liners that made Ariana Grande look timid. And I want to thank Sophie Turner for bringing her wonderful energy to play Sansa (lest we forget the video of her chugging wine on the jumbotron at Madison Square Garden). Screw Bran—Sansa Stark is the Queen we’ve always deserved. Step on me, ginger legend!
This post contains spoilers for the finale of Game of Thrones. Consider yourself warned.
Listen, I’m one of the many people with a lot of notes on the Game of Thrones finale—well, and the past two seasons, really. But one thing this show has almost always gotten right is the hairstyles and that remained true through the last moments of HBO’s epic series.
Over the course of eight seasons, the incredible stylists on the show have woven hidden meanings into the hairstyles of characters like Cersei and Daenerys. Perhaps the character who had one of the most dramatic character arcs on the show is Sansa Stark, and the changes she underwent were often reflected in her hair.
Sansa’s hair often reflected the women she was emulating during certain moments of her life, from her mother Catelyn’s simple, yet beautiful braids to the more elaborate styles worn by Cersei during the early seasons in King’s Landing. “Sansa’s hair is constantly reflecting the people she’s learning from, or mimicking, or inspired by at the time,” Sophie Turner explained to Refinery29 in 2017. “When she’s Cersei’s prisoner, and she’s kind of absorbing all her manipulative techniques, it’s reflected in her hairstyle, and when she’s finding the spirit of Margaery in herself, she wears her hair like Margaery.”
But tonight, Sansa stood up for herself and her kingdom by refusing to bend the knee to her brother, Bran, and securing freedom for the North with her as the queen. In the closing moments of the show, we see Sansa make her way through the lords of Winterfell to be crowned and her hair is noticeably down—simple and without braids.
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She is no longer modeling herself after others. Instead she has truly come into her own as Sansa Stark, the Queen in the North.
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It’s a truly memorable moment for a character who has grown from a petulant child to a true leader, after suffering as much as almost any character on a show filled with agonizing pain. Fans on social media were equally moved.
“She never wears her hair down. Sansa has always used her hair to look like the people she’s trying to emulate, as well as trying to communicate non-verbally,” one fan tweeted. “By wearing her hair down, I feel like she’s showing that she’s her own person and she can speak for herself now.”
All hail the Queen in the North—long may she reign.
Abby Gardner is a contributing writer at Glamour. You can follow her pop culture musings on Twitter @abbygardner or in her weekly newsletter, We Have Notes.
In a new Sunday Times magazine article, Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner touched on mental health, her relationship with her now-husband Joe Jonas, and the series finale of GoT, which airs Sunday (May 19) on HBO. Specifically, she dropped a rare hint about how everything will wrap up for her character, Sansa Stark—and to be honest, it’s hard to know what to make of it.
Fans are still in shock from last week’s episode, which had a massive twist that left viewers reeling and wondering how it will all end (no spoilers here about all that, but feel free to read more on that here). As the end of the series approaches, Turner told the UK-based paper that the ending of the 8-year long television show was “satisfying” for her. However, there’s a huge “but” in there for the rest of us.
Stark’s long been considered a contender to take the throne—as is Daenerys, Jon Snow, and Arya. And while she’s definitely not giving anything away with her statement on the ending, it does leave us wondering. “It’s a great ending, from my perspective, it’s very satisfying,” she toldThe Sunday Times magazine. “But I think a lot of people will be upset too.”
We might not know exactly what’s happening, but at least one person outside of the cast does: Turner told the outlet that she spilled the beans to Jonas—much to his chagrin.
“I’ve just told Joe. But he’s so mad at me—he loves the show!” she said. “Well, I have to tell someone, otherwise I’ll burst.”
This isn’t the first time Turner’s dropped hints about tonight’s episode. She told 60 Minutes earlier this year that “some people will be satisfied, others not so much.”
Luckily, we only have to wait a few more hours to find out exactly what’s going to go down in Westeros.
Warning: Some spoilers for this season of Game of Thrones ahead.
Sansa Stark has been rising in the Game of Thrones power rankings for weeks—seasons, really. Once a privileged young girl of Winterfell who didn’t care to focus on much outside of herself, Sansa has become a true force in the Seven Kingdoms. She’s my personal choice to sit on the Iron Throne when this saga wraps up in three weeks.
And now, a new theory (from Hollywood Life) suggests that Sansa will actually be the one to kill Cersei Lannister as focus returns to King’s Landing after the defeat of the Night King.
The most popular guesses as to who might take down the queen are her brothers, Jaime and Tyrion, or Arya. This is thanks to the prophecy from Maggy the Frog, which Cersei heard as a child. In the books it says, “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.” Valonqar means “little brother,” which at first glance would mean Tyrion. But it could apply to Jamie, too, considering he’s the younger twin. Notably, thought, that specific part was left out in the show. And then, of course, Cersei sits high on Arya’s kill list.
Cersei Lannister and Euron Greyjoy in King’s Landing.
But it would be super cool if it was Sansa, especially since Arya just had a big moment in killing the Night King.
Don’t forget that Maggy’s prophesy also includes this bit: “Queen you shall be…until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.” Sounds like Sansa, no?
So, how might this all go down? The dagger that Arya gave to her older sister during the Battle of Winterfell plays a big part. “Stick ’em with the pointy end,” Arya says, in a callback to the same advice Jon Snow gave to her in season one. While Sansa has never trained to be a physical fighter like Arya, she has learned a lot about politics and manipulation by Littlefinger and Cersei herself. The theory points out that, in season seven, Sansa admitted to “learning a lot” from Cersei.
“What if it’s actually the person she least suspects? It would be satisfying as hell to watch Sansa kill Cersei with Arya’s dagger,” Avery Thompson writes for Hollywood Life. “Sansa learned so much from the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Cersei helped shape Sansa into the woman she is today. But just like Arya, Sansa harbors a hatred for Cersei. Cersei had a hand in having Sansa’s father, Ned, killed, which Sansa had to watch from just inches away. She helped keep Sansa in King’s Landing and away from her family for years.”
The motive is definitely there—and thanks to the dagger from Arya, Sansa now has the means. But will she take her shot when the opportunity arises? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The final character posters for Game of Thrones gave fans a lot to talk about ahead of the season 8 premiere, especially Sansa Stark. Sansa (played by Sophie Turner) sits on the Iron Throne in a navy outfit that has added fuel to a popular theory about Sansa’s allegiances at Winterfell this season. (Specifically, its scale and fur motifs are references to her Tully and Stark lineage, implying that she’s more interested in restoring her family’s status than buddying up with Daenerys Targaryen to give her the Iron Throne.)
Nothing’s for certain until the show premieres on April 14, but Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton confirmed to Glamour that Sansa’s season 8 wardrobe is “absolutely” a reflection of her loyalties on the show. The scaly fabric seen in her season 8 poster is “reference in the fabric to her mother’s family sigil the fish.” Then, “the fur cape at her neck [pays] respect to her father’s family, the Starks.”
Compare this symbolic final season outfit with the dresses she wore eight years ago, and you’ll recognize how far Sansa has come over the past seven seasons. Where her early looks were heavily influenced by the people around her, her final season outfits represent a fully realized individual. “I think you can see that she is influenced throughout her journey until she finally comes into her own style in season 7,” Clapton says. “The look is a culmination of her difficult story.”
Sansa Stark in a season 8 outfit that combines imagery of House Tully (the scale-like leather dress) and House Stark (the fur cape).
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The Sansa audiences see in the final season is a hardened version of her younger self. At the beginning of Game of Thrones, Sansa relocates from Winterfell to King’s Landing. The journey saw her adopt colorful styles worn by Cersei, and later, Margaery, as she tries to assimilate to her new home. “The ‘Little Bird’ initially copied the style of Cersei, when she first arrives in Kings Landing,” Clapton says.
At King’s Landing, Sansa often mimicked Cersei’s early hair and clothing.
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Later, she starts adopting the dress style worn by Margaery Tyrell.
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Her departure from King’s Landing in season 4 and gradual journey north to Winterfell leads to dramatic changes in her appearance. As she encounters more difficult circumstances, her dresses get darker and more subdued. “She then retreats to the cut of her mother’s costume, a refuge, showing how she feels, wounded and scared, but she can’t speak it,” Clapton says. “She tells of her pain through embroidery and color.”
Littlefinger, master manipulator and her companion for much of that journey, has a profound impact on these outfits. The patterns in Sansa’s dresses and her pin are close to his own, to show that she’s paying close attention to his tactics. (Which, as fans know, will help her take control later on.) “This was supposed to imply that she now understands that she can learn and take from those that hurt her,” Clapton says. “She copies Littlefinger’s look not because she’s impressed by him, but that she needs him.”
By the time Sansa has returned to Winterfell and reunited with her surviving family members, her outfits carry subtle cues referencing her long journey home. “She suffered at the hands of Joffrey, her mother’s sister, and Ramsey [Bolton]; this influences the design of the belt in season 7 that wraps around her body, protecting her. The wrap over front and laced dress, the shorter length and the stitched, quilted heavy cloth—all tell of protection and the ease of movement if needed.”
As Sansa journeys north with Littlefinger, her outfits begin to resemble his.
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Finally, back at Winterfell, Sansa’s look is all her own. It combines elements of House Tully and House Stark imagery.
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Sansa’s outfits aren’t the only barometer for her influences and relationships on the show. Sophie Turner revealed that her character’s hair styles also mirror the people around her. “Sansa’s hair is constantly reflecting the people she’s learning from, or mimicking, or inspired by at the time,” Turner toldRefinery29 in 2017. “When she’s Cersei’s prisoner, and she’s kind of absorbing all her manipulative techniques, it’s reflected in her hairstyle, and when she’s finding the spirit of Margaery in herself, she wears her hair like Margaery.”
