The 25 Best Power Players on Game of Thrones, Ranked

24. Sansa Stark

Sansa Stark gets a bit of a bad rap. In the beginning of the series, she was characterized by her yearning for reputation and fortune and attendant inability to see things as they really were. She spent a lot of time pining after Joffrey, and when she finally saw his true colors, it was a too late to save herself. Instead, she relied on Littlefinger to help her get away from King’s Landing, but even that was, at best, the least awful of several awful options, Littlefinger being a known manipulator who cared for no one but himself.

Nevertheless, with time, Sansa’s strategy game improved. She slowly learned some very important lessons, perhaps the biggest of which was never to trust Littlefinger, even a little. She finally learned that one after he sold her off to the Boltons in exchange for a military alliance. By season 7, she’d figured out how to take care of herself, how to lead people and how to spot a deceiver in her midst.

By having Arya execute Littlefinger for his crimes, Sansa demonstrated that she knows the value of the phrase, “The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” And by having it done publicly, she demonstrated that she knows the value of political theater. The lords of the North and the Vale are watching her, and she has to demonstrate that she is a leader worth following. It may have taken her a while to find her footing, but she shows great promise heading in to the final season and has plenty of room to grow.