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One Game of Thrones Character Who Made No Right Decisions Whatsoever

One Game of Thrones Character Who Made No Right Decisions Whatsoever
Image credit: HBO

House Stark is known for two things: outstanding honor and questionable decision-making. This one Ned Stark’s offspring is the prime example of the latter.

Summary:

  • Sansa Stark was a naive girl who was twice sold off to monstrous sadists who tormented her for years.
  • After being freed from Ramsay, Sansa almost doomed the North by not telling Jon Snow about the Vale reinforcements.
  • Later, she kept trusting Littlefinger who had already proved treacherous and almost killed her own sister.

In some ways, Game of Thrones resembles a classic sitcom where most problems could have easily been avoided if characters communicated with each other properly or simply used their brains to assess the situation before making rash decisions.

This is specifically the case with many of the Starks: while this House prides itself in its honor and traditions, its members often opt for the worst options available to them. But even among the Stark family, one person shines as the true beacon of terrible decision-making, and even their character growth doesn’t help them start thinking.

Sansa Stark’s Early Arc Is Painful to Watch

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Lord Stark’s eldest daughter, Sansa starts the show as a naive young girl with a true lady upbringing. Sansa is happy to learn her responsibilities, excited to visit King’s Landing, and she’s waiting for her prince. She’s even fortunate enough to meet said prince almost immediately: it’s Joffrey Baratheon, the heir to the Iron Throne.

Sadly, things go to Seven Hells really quickly. Joffrey turns out to be a little monster who grows up to become a sadistic and murderous tyrant, and Sansa’s life as his future bride is insufferable. Having spent the longest time in his captivity, the girl finally escapes after her tormentor is dead but entrusts herself to the wrong man.

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Her journey with Petyr Baelish begins. Littlefinder is a deranged Machiavelist who charms Sansa with his promises of safety and family reunion, but what he really does is marry the girl off to an even more monstrous lordling than Joffrey. Ramsay Bolton proves that even Sansa’s previous groom wasn’t too terrible of a person.

Sansa Stark’s fate is unfathomably cruel: ever since leaving Winterfell, her home, she’s always but a plaything for inhumane sadists who do with her as they please. No one can really blame her for it, though, as the poor girl was taught to be a caring lady, not a domestic abuse survivor or a badass man-killer. But what happens next?

Sansa Stark Never Learns to Make Decisions

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It’s quite late into the show that Sansa is finally free from anyone’s captivity and enters her girl boss arc — at least, that’s how it was intended. In reality, the girl still makes terrible decisions at every turn, both before and after Ramsay’s death.

The Battle of Bastards might have looked good on our screens, but it was nothing if not Sansa almost killing Jon Snow for no particular reason. Having already reached out to the Vale, Sansa for some reason didn’t tell her brother that reinforcements were incoming, and that led the latter to believe his army was alone against Ramsay.

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Hundreds if not thousands were butchered during the battle, and Jon himself almost died by the time the Vale army arrived to save the time. All those sacrifices were unnecessary and potentially deadly considering the White Walkers’ threat, and there was no reason for Sansa to withhold such crucial information from Jon. Yet she did.

Then again, it was a new mistake — but Sansa Stark never learned from her past experience, either. Even after having been sold out to the Boltons by Petyr Baelish, she continued to trust him. Littlefinger almost made the two sisters kill each other, and if not for Arya’s wisdom, House Stark would have been in shambles once more.

Some people never learn. Sansa Stark was definitely one of those people… At least, if we were to take Game of Thrones' final seasons’ writing seriously, which we don’t.