1. Sansa Saves the Day
Season 6 has really given the power to the women of the Seven Kingdoms. Dany, Yara, Arya, Cersei, The Waif, Olenna, Brienne of Tarth and Melisandre to name but a few, but no female character has seen such a major shift like Sansa Stark has.
Formally an abused, belittled and cruelly dictated wife to two of the Realm’s nastiest residents, as well as a pawn in the most untrustworthy scoundrel’s long game and an accused assistant to murder, Sansa has had a pretty torrid time. But in this season she fulfilled her true destiny and became a steely, noble and pragmatic young woman. A warrior. A heroine.
Her knowledge of the enemy (Ramsay Bolton) and his vast army at Winterfell, her awareness of his cruel mental manipulation, and her ability to call upon a ill companion (“Littlefinger”) made her the most important member of Jon Snow’s small but mighty united front.
The entirety of the battle sequence in the penultimate episode is some of the best television ever captured and screened; that is a fact. “Battle of the Bastards” is landmark viewing. It is pure cinema in every creative and aesthetic aspect, but the manner in which Sansa Stark – the formally frightened and manipulated – saves her brother and the remaining soldiers by calling upon the Knights of the Vale is just mesmeric.
The note she penned and sent was indeed to Petyr Baeslish who for once made good on his word and the Eyrie stands tall alongside the Starks once again. With their aid, Jon and his men take back Winterfell. The Bolton army is beaten. The flayed man is pulled down and the direwolf sigil swings proudly from the banners once more.
Jon takes his time repeatedly beating Ramsay, but he stops at the call of his young sister. It is her turn to seek revenge for all the trauma and horror she has succumbed to at his filthy hands. She ties him to a chair and places him neatly in Winterfell’s hound keep – the location where he had Lady Walda and his baby brother killed.
The Bolton has previously bragged that he hadn’t fed his loyal dogs for a week. They are starving and ready to gorge on whatever meal they can get their paws on. Luckily enough, dinner is served.
Sansa beautifully tarnishes her husband’s name and importance in a profound and powerful statement in which she claims he and everything about him will “disappear”. Then the sombre tone turns to a brutally brilliant one as a growling mutt strolls in and starts to smell flesh and blood. Ramsay attempts to reason with his animal but there is no use.
The hound lunges forward and sinks its teeth right into Ramsay’s face; shredding his skin, puncturing his eyes. Teeth thrashing and chomping as Sansa walks away, it is a truly disgusting and horrifying way to go, and that’s all too fitting for the most twisted bastard in the Realm.
His death is beyond satisfying, but what’s more important and wonderful is the strength – both physical and mental – that Sansa now possesses. Jon Snow might have been named King in The North, but she knows just how critical she is to such a claim.
