Unless you have been living on the other side of the wall, you've probably heard some chatter about Sansa changing course from the books on Game of Thrones. Whereas, in the books, an Arya Stark stand-in comes to Winterfell in order to marry Ramsay Bolton nee Snow, we now know that Sansa is marrying Ramsay in her place in the TV version. Cool. Now what? Thankfully, "Sons of The Harpy" answered that question with a brief little interlude between Sansa and Littlefinger, but to put it bluntly, Sansa now has political ambitions where none were once available. And that's awesome.
At this point, we've begun hanging onto Starks for dear life. Arya is our crown jewel, so much so that we'll cheer her on as she sweeps floors with the Faceless Men in order to become an assassin... some day. Sansa was a character who acted as little more than a the whiniest King's Landing resident who wasn't actually the King (Joffrey, may he rest in the opposite of peace). But as her story became more complicated — she was married to Tyrion and dreamed of escaping the Lannisters — Sansa became a better character. She was learning and becoming more interesting (character development and all that). We couldn't just let her disappear into another story that had her being shoved around like a semi-complacent rag doll.
Joining her with Littlefinger and allowing her to almost co-pilot with him as he steered her towards her fate (hey, she made her own decision about Brienne — it's a start) allowed her to become slightly more autonomous. Now, though she's marrying Ramsay Bolton against her choosing, Littlefinger sheds light on the possibilities he's just opened before her: More likely than not, Stannis Baratheon is going to take Winterfell and when he does, he'll have to make the last living Stark Wardeness of The North.
Look, like Sansa, I don't believe that anything will be that easy for a Stark — the people who attract death like blood attracts sharks in water. But even if that's so, Littlefinger is convinced that Sansa can get Ramsay to do whatever she wants — the Cersei Power Plan, if you will.
None of this is perfect (unless Littlefinger's best case scenario actually comes true and Sansa rules Winterfell sans Boltons), but the writers have given Sansa and her portrayer Sophie Turner a great gift here: An entry into the Game of Thrones, however tiny.
With Cersei bringing out religious zealots to run King's Landing for her, the Sand Snakes attempting to start a war by killing Myrcella, Melissandre running Stannis' show, and Dany fighting the Sons of the Harpy in Meereen, it's only fitting that our girl Sansa get a piece of that pie. She may not be destined to rise to the top, but I will take every bit of this climb.
Image: Helen Sloan/HBO; Giphy
