It was her secret appeal to Littlefinger that saved the day. In the Battle of the Bastards, she showed herself to be a better military tactician than Jon, knowing that Ramsay Bolton wouldn't fall into the trap that Jon intended to set. While Sunday's episode had Sansa retreating - at Arya's wise orders - to the crypts, Sansa does have an eye for military strategy that relies on evaluating the psychology of her opponent. Underestimating Cersei will be a huge liability in the upcoming fight for power. In the season premiere, Sansa tells Tyrion that she once considered him to be the most clever man she knew, but he's now basically a dummy for believing the Lannister forces were en route. Sansa proved her smarts as the only major character who immediately doubted Cersei's pledge of support in the fight against the dead - and that included the Lannister brothers who should know Cersei better than anyone. "You're the strongest person I know," Sansa told Arya then, a statement that Arya demonstrated well when she killed the Night King. When Jon Snow dismisses Sansa's skepticism of Daenerys, saying that the Lady of Winterfell thinks she's smarter than everyone else, Arya responds: "She's the smartest person I've ever met," of Sansa, which is a super nice sisterly compliment, but also calls back to how Sansa described Arya in the previous season. "Many underestimated you," Tyrion Lannister tells her in the premiere. The show's writers have been dropping hints this season that Sansa is not to be overlooked. "I'm a slow learner, it's true," she tells Baelish in Season 7, before his execution. Sure, she trusted the wrong people in previous seasons (although you could argue she had little choice but to accept Petyr Baelish's help in escaping King's Landing).
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Over eight seasons, Sansa has become well-versed in the treachery, lying and harm those with power are capable of rendering. That's not exactly the attitude exhibited by, say, Daenerys, who has shown signs of Mad King-y tendencies. As she told Arya in Season 7, beheading and executing people may seem satisfying but that's not how you keep factions together when you're trying to fight a war. Instead, she is a stable and more-than capable leader, one who doesn't fly off the handle when faced with criticism and cares more about her people and family than exacting revenge. We wouldn't have blamed Sansa if those horrors - which we won't recap here because they are plentiful and terrible - turned her into a vengeful ruler. The Lady of Winterfell has arguably suffered more than any other major character (certainly more than any other living one) and has proven to be a resilient survivor. She paid a very heavy price for her naivete. When we first met her in Season 1, she was an innocent girl who wanted to hang out in King's Landing, marry Joffrey and become queen. Taking the throne would be a full-circle moment for Sansa. And just leave Bran Stark in Winterfell ("there must always be a Stark in Winterfell" after all).
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Arya Stark could have a cool, secret solo assassin gig. Brienne of Tarth, the most trustworthy person around, could be in charge of Sansa's Queensguard. Maybe Tyrion will end up as Sansa's Hand, or even her husband (we did see some sparks fly in Sunday's episode). So could Jon Snow, or if he survives, he could abdicate, hand the reins over to Sansa and spend the rest of his life brooding over his terrible dating track record.
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Several things would need to go down for this to happen: Jaime Lannister could kill his sister/former lover, Cersei. But another, less obvious contender is worthy of consideration: Sansa Stark. Game Of Thrones has been playing up the bona fides of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Cersei Lannister as potential rulers of the Seven Kingdoms. With the army of the dead and their in-need-of-moisturizer leader, the Night King, no longer a concern, let's get to the business at hand: Who will sit on the Iron Throne? This post contains spoilers for Game Of Thrones, Season 8.