When Game of Thrones viewers last saw Sansa Stark, she seemed to be regretting her decision to allow Jon Snow to be named King in the North while she sat quietly at his side. After turning the tide of the Battle of the Bastards by arriving in the knick of time with the Knights of the Vale, the eldest Stark daughter shared a suspicious look with Littlefinger as her half brother-turned-cousin accepted his new title.
Now, Sophie Turner — who plays Sansa — has spoken to Vulture about what fans can expect from her character when the HBO drama returns for its seventh season.
At the end of the season, Sansa gets a taste of power — and it’s the first time that she’s had that ever, really. She feels like it’s deserved because she did so much for Jon and the North, so when she saves the day and doesn’t get any recognition for it, it was like she had that first taste of power and then was immediately stripped of it. She was stripped of the respect that she really feels she deserves. She was trying to give her input to Jon and trying to be a collaborative leader, but it’s difficult when it’s a patriarchy and when there’s sexism. It would be a real adjustment for Jon to listen to her and do what she says. So she was looking to Littlefinger like, oh, you’re right. Maybe that pretty picture you painted of me on the throne and you by my side isn’t such a bad one.
The 20-year-old actress went on to talk about what the final scene of the ninth episode — a sequence in which she watched happily while her former husband Ramsay Bolton was eaten alive by his dogs — means for Sansa going forward.
There’s the smile as well, her walking away after killing Ramsay. That’s also quite interesting. You wonder if it’s just a smile because it’s her first kill, because this man is out of her life, or whether she’s going to get a taste for it…Now it’s really starting to feel like there is a dark side to her. She’s playing the game now, and very ruthlessly. When she wants something, she’s going to go out and get it.
Read more at Vulture.com.
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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com