i am once again thinking about the GOT AU where sansa stark volunteers—demands, really—to go to negotiate with danaerys in jon snow's stead. she knows a hostage trap when she sees one. she volunteers to spring it for their newly-reunited family to save their newly-independent and united kingdom.
the problem with jon going himself was always that it ended with him either dead or having bent the knee to the targaryens once again. there were no other outcomes. no one else in the north wants either of those outcomes.
it would have been a cool move in a narrative sense for sansa, too:
choosing to do something selfless on the heels of her selfish and odd-but-recognizably-trauma-driven decision to NOT tell jon or their allies about her calling on armed forces from the vale to fight the boltons.
heading south again, paralleling her original journey but through a mirror darkly because she knows exactly how dangerous it is, and it's bringing up all of her trauma.
having real authority to negotiate, as a measurable marker of her change in status, fortune, and skill
hell, it would be smart for them to send arya with her, in disguise, for security purposes, and then you have the two least-aligned starks forced to grow closer by proximity and cause. sister road trip, anyone?
plus, sansa and her retinue are the most interesting group to throw into the dragonstone mix. sansa, reuniting with her ex-husband, tyrion. podrick, reuniting with his ex-boss, tyrion again. brienne, forced into proximity with the brother of the man she's kind of in love with. sansa, reuniting with theon.
sansa just also has more political backbone and appetite than jon does. she won't bend the knee on the north's behalf. and the strong positive emotional reactions she'd elicit from danaerys' council would put her on a much better negotiating footing than jon had.
it has the added benefit, on top of all of this, of being pretty much sansa's second-worst possible personal nightmare, just under being sent back to king's landing itself.
