Sansa wasn’t manipulative
It’s interesting that a general consensus in the GoT fandom is that Sansa is conniving, but the only instance we really have of that in the show is how she vouches for Littlefinger in the Vale, summons him to retake Winterfell, and then keeps him close until having him executed. She doesn’t tell Jon about asking him to come in s6, but after he says they need to trust each other, Sansa is done playing games with people she trusts.
Some fans were angry with her in s6-7 for speaking her mind and “undermining” Jon, but Sansa was being forthright. While she was reserved with those she didn’t trust (Littlefinger), she was brutally honest with Jon, telling him things he didn’t want to but needed to hear (Ramsay will kill Rickon), telling him he was making mistakes (“we need more men,” “they respect you they really do, but…”, “it’s a trap”). None of that was a mind game. Sansa wasn’t pointlessly making him question himself, she was trying to help him succeed.
Sansa even spells this out to Arya in s7. She wants Arya to say what she means. She thinks they’re on the same team, she wants honesty which is what she had been offering Jon. So, it isn’t out of nowhere for her to tell Tyrion what she thinks, to tell Dany what she thinks, to tell everyone what she thinks in s8. That’s what she’s been working towards since s6. Instead of being sneaky, she’s pretty Ned-like.
In contrast to fans of other characters, Sansa fans wanted her to be subversive in s8, and I think in our disappointment that she wasn’t, we ignore the fact that just as Sansa rejected Cersei’s bad advice, she rejected Littlefinger’s too. Sansa wanted to work with people rather than use them. In s8, Dany is vouched for by two men that Sansa trusts, and while Sansa refuses to join the Dany cult, her behavior is pretty consisted with what it was in s7.
Sansa doesn’t trust Dany, doesn’t like her, not before she met her, not when she met her, not during their tete-a-tete, but thinking Dany used a man’s stupidity to get what she wanted is very different than thinking that she’s capable of burning a city of innocents. Being a conqueror doesn’t mean you’re prone to fits of anger which involve threatening to burn your advisors or their families alive, and there’s no reason for Sansa to suspect any of that is true when merciful Jon is seemingly in love with Dany. All Sansa has is her intuition; Jon and Tyrion have spent much more time with Dany and they are telling her she’s wrong, so it isn’t unreasonable for Sansa to test the waters and ask about Northern Independence.
Arya played games with Sansa in s7 and (insincerely) threatened her life, Tyrion had grave concerns about Dany but said she would be a good queen (duplicitous), Jon bent the knee and refused to clarify the circumstances (possibly dishonest), Dany threatened Sansa and wanted Jon to live a lie in order to secure her throne (coercion). In the last two seasons, there were a lot of mixed motivations, emotionally compromised decisions, outright manipulation, threats and lies, but Sansa wasn’t the one doing it. She acknowledged and pursued her goals openly. Her mistake was believing that others would speak as honestly with her as she did with them. She was surprised that Tyrion was afraid of Dany. She didn’t know that Jon and Tyrion were telling her to trust a woman that they didn’t trust themselves. And yet, somehow, she is the one perceived as manipulative.
theartofmadeline
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
dailybridgerton
gummygunk
blakekathryn
snowghoul
origamiaround
dededos
