#the vale

The Dance of the Dragons oc, she is on team black and was in love with Jacaerys Velaryon. After the war, she married Lord Blackwood and had 5 daughters and 2 sons with him. She died aged 50.

Born: 113 AC.

Died: 163 AC.

Parents: Maegelle Florent and Aelyx Royce.

Her aunt is Rhea Royce, the mother of my “what if?III” oc Baenella Targaryen.

I’ve wanted to do a noblewoman oc for a while and I’m pleased to have done something.

Personally, I could see her going down a darker path in the next book. (She’s already helping the maester poison Sweetrobin…) I could also see her sacrificing herself to take down LF, which would be bittersweet because she’d take down the bad guy but die in the process. It wouldn’t be the first time George has killed a POV character.

I could also see her living, maybe settling down with a minor lord, and learning to be a little less classist. We don’t know until the book comes out. I just find it a bit strange how the fandom acts like Queen Sansa is a given when there are still so many unknowns.

I think it's funny that there are people who think that Sansa as Queen in the North is even one possible ending for her character, let alone the ONLY possible ending.

My biggest opposition to the 'Sansa as Queen in the North' theory isn't actually to do with Sansa at all. As I've said, she's a minor character, and I don't think about her all that much. The future ruler of Winterfell/the North is a major plot point. The way I see it, the only possibilities for it are: Arya, Jon, Bran, Rickon (in order of most to least probability).

Sidenote: writing out this answer inspired me to make a longer post on who actually is going to be Queen/King in the North, so expect that to be coming soon!

But anyway, back to Sansa.

Sansa in the books isn't a major character at all. Her becoming Queen in the North would be as out of place as, say, Davos becoming King of the Seven Kingdoms, or Sam ending the war against the Others. She's in the realm of possibility when you look at the individual elements, but the minute you look at it together and actually read her chapters, it's so obvious that it's not the direction for her character at all.

The first sign that we get is the death of Lady. Because of Lady's death, Sansa is the only Stark kid alive without a wolf. In a story like ASOIAF, so rich with symbolism, that has to mean something. I've seen the theory that it means Sansa is going to die, and, given GRRM's recent remarks, we now know that this is genuinely a possibility. Personally, I think it, if nothing else, shows the severance of her connection with the North. She's the only one who doesn't have a deeper/spiritual connection with the North. Jon, Arya, and Bran are all wargs. The two boys haven't even physically left the North, and Arya, despite being all the way in Braavos, still gets wolf-dreams of Nymeria fucking up the Riverlands (sidenote, it's so sad that the fandom doesn't talk about this more, because it's so fucking cool lol). Another thing that shows Sansa's disconnect with the North is the way that she thinks of her family, specifically Arya. The Sansa-Arya conflict in AGOT looks like sisters squabbling on the surface level, but some of the stuff that Sansa says to Arya is genuinely cruel, and it really sets her apart from the other Stark siblings (including Arya herself, whose responses to Sansa are always pretty mild and standard for a 9-year-old).

At first she thought she hated him for what they’d done to Lady, but after Sansa had wept her eyes dry, she told herself that it had not been Joffrey’s doing, not truly. The queen had done it; she was the one to hate, her and Arya. Nothing bad would have happened except for Arya. (Sansa II, AGOT)

The minute she is faced with an internal conflict that forces her to choose between Joffrey (the South) and Arya (the North), she unhesitatingly chooses Joffrey. She does the same thing later in the book, when Ned tells her and Arya to return to Winterfell. Morally, we can't blame her for this choice. She's an 11-year-old, so it makes sense that she's selfish and slightly delusional. But meta-wise, in contrast to characters like Jon and Arya, who immediately show dislike for the Lannisters, it's pretty obvious that symbolically, they're going to be the ones leading the North in the future, not Sansa. The North is integral to their stories, not Sansa's.

“Arya started it,” Sansa said quickly, anxious to have the first word. “She called me a liar and threw an orange at me and spoiled my dress, the ivory silk, the one Queen Cersei gave me when I was betrothed to Prince Joffrey. (Sansa III, AGOT)

Again, she creates this dichotomy of Arya vs Joffrey and Cersei.

Arya screwed up her face in a scowl. “Jaime Lannister murdered Jory and Heward and Wyl, and the Hound murdered Mycah. Somebody should have beheaded them.” “It’s not the same,” Sansa said. “The Hound is Joffrey’s sworn shield. Your butcher’s boy attacked the prince.”

And we also see how Arya is the one constantly involved with and advocating for the true people of the North -- the smallfolk. Sansa chooses the Lannisters over them consistently, and she also groups Arya herself with them (thus inadvertently validating Arya's connection with the Northeners while simultaneously distancing herself).

They were going to take it all away; the tournaments and the court and her prince, everything, they were going to send her back to the bleak grey walls of Winterfell and lock her up forever. Her life was over before it had begun. (Sansa III, AGOT)

Sansa is also the only POV Stark that we see who does not miss Winterfell. Of course, this changes in ACOK, because she sees the truth of King's Landing and its hostility towards her. But Jon missed Winterfell while at Castle Black, which became his new home pretty quickly. Similarly, Arya missed Winterfell from the beginning. Ned did too, but he's an adult, and he knew for a fact that KL was a dangerous place. I don't see a character who dreads being 'locked up forever' in a place becoming the ruler of that place simply because I think that such a character doesn't deserve it. The character triumphs of every single character in ASOIAF are earned. Everything that they achieve, everything they learn, everything they conquer, it doesn't just fall in their laps. They have to earn it, and that's what I mean when I say that Sansa doesn't deserve Winterfell. She didn't earn it. She dismissed it from the start. Obviously, she longs for it. But she desires her homecoming as a return to safety, not out of a responsibility to the North.

I don't know what Sansa's actual role is in TWOW and ADOS. I don't want her to die, just because even though we have seen other POV characters die before, if she did die, she would be the youngest POV character to get killed. And though that's pretty on brand for ASOIAF, it would be really sad, and right now I don't see any reason why the plot would require her death. That might change in TWOW, so ask me again when that comes out lol.

I think her position in the Vale is incredibly important. The Vale is a strategic location with a large fighting force that has basically gone untouched by the War of the Five Kings. It's similar to Dorne in the sense that it has kept itself out of the fighting since Robert's Rebellion. But we do know that Dorne is up to something. So similarly, I think the Vale is going to be important in TWOW and ADOS. And obviously Sansa is going to be instrumental in whatever the Vale does. But other than that, I can't predict anything about her character. Maybe she'll become the Lady of the Vale? It would fit well with the 'little bird' aspect of her character.