I'm going to post something I just posted in another thread, because I think it's directly related to the discussion here:
"...just wanted to say that I think, from a characterization standpoint, GRRM is playing a very long game with Sansa, more-so than with any of the Stark children. In other words, I think her character's trajectory, and where it's leading, is harder to predict than the others. I believe this is why many readers dislike her story, or see it as pointless, because it's kind of hard to imagine where it's supposed to be headed until later in the series (really not until AFfC). But I think the payoff from all of this is that, by the end, she's going to be just as (if not more) important than her siblings when it comes to the Stark's resurgence -- which I think is inevitable, and to a point is what the Stark family's whole arc is about. She's the only Stark that's really going to be playing the game of thrones, which to me is very important, despite many who think it will be meaningless in the ultimate struggle at the end (realistically, the Stark's destruction is partially due to their lack of power in the political spectrum). And, as others have said, she'll be unique in this because she's able to play the game effectively without losing some sense of honor or loyalty. Sansa's being trained in her own specific "style" of combat: Arya's being trained as an assassin, Bran's being trained as a magician, Jon's being trained as a commander, and Sansa's being trained as a politican. In the end I think they're all going to be working towards the same cause (whether they realize it or not), which is the revival of the Starks. This is also why I think that the younger, more beautiful queen that is prophesied to overthrow Cersei won't be Daenerys or anyone else, but Sansa."
Edited by Francis Buck, 04 May 2012 - 08:58 PM.