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Sansa's Ultimate Fate


TyrionTLannister

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I've suspected for years, and suspect still to this day, that Sansa's storyline will have a bittersweet fairytale ending of a dark kind. I very much DO NOT CLAIM I'm right or that I have any knowledge you guys don't, this is just my honest gut feeling after several re-reads and lots and lots of late night pondering with coffee. Your theories and ideas sound great to me and I'm amazed on the amount of proof and citations you have and i have nothing like that to offer. Here are my best guesses:

Sansa will meet her magical true knight - that'll be Sandor Clegane, though, and he'll die in Sansa's arms after slaying a dragon. 

Sansa will be a queen - too bad it has to be the queen of a kingdom with collapsed infrastructure ridden with pestilence, famine and disarray.

Sansa will be a fine lady like her mother like she always dreamed - That just happens to include a husband she marries out of duty and children she gives birth to and cares for out of duty. Maybe she will indeed learn to love her husband in time (like Ned and Cat) but there will not be a passionate lovestory.

And I honestly do believe there will be songs telling about Sansa's life, just like the ones she adored when she was a child: an imprisoned maiden, a forbidden love, an enchanted hero, a magical castle, a dragon and all of that you can possibly name. Too bad that when those songs are sung, she'l know all the dirty details and bloody facts and she'l hate those songs from the first syllable to the last note.

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They had not seen any sign of the man since leaving Lord Brune’s castle, but that did not mean he had given up the hunt.

It may be that I will need to kill him, she told herself one night as she paced about the camp. The notion made her queasy. Her old master-at-arms had always questioned whether she was hard enough for battle. "You have a man's strength in your arms," Ser Goodwin had said to her, more than once, "but your heart is as soft as any maid’s. It is one thing to train in the yard with a blunted sword in hand, and another to drive a foot of sharpened steel into a man's gut and see the light go out of his eyes." To toughen her, Ser Goodwin used to send her to her father's butcher to slaughter lambs and suckling pigs. The piglets squealed and the lambs screamed like frightened children. By the time the butchering was done Brienne had been blind with tears, her clothes so bloody that she had given them to her maid to burn. But Ser Goodwin still had doubts. "A piglet is a piglet. It is different with a man. When I was a squire young as you, I had a friend who was strong and quick and agile, a champion in the yard. We all knew that one day he would be a splendid knight. Then war came to the Stepstones. I saw my friend drive his foeman to his knees and knock the axe from his hand, but when he might have finished he held back for half a heartbeat. In battle half a heartbeat is a lifetime. The man slipped out his dirk and found a chink in my friend's armor. His strength, his speed, his valor, all his hard-won skill . . . it was worth less than a mummer's fart, because he flinched from killing. Remember that, girl.” (AFFC Brienne IV)

This scene from a Brienne chapter seems to foreshadow how Sansa will die. Brienne’s former master-at-arms told her a story about a promising young man who managed to disarm and bring down an enemy in battle but briefly hesitated in taking his life, which gave his enemy the opening to pull out his blade and kill him with it. I think this points to Sansa managing to disarm and bring down Littlefinger but hesitating in killing him, allowing Littlefinger to pull her own knife from her cloak and use it to stab her in the belly. Brienne also mentions that she had to burn her bloodstained clothes, which could point to Sansa burning her bloodstained cloak. The mention of Lord Brune could be a clue that Lothor Brune will be involved in Sansa’s death. Just to strengthen the connection, we get a scene later in the chapter that foreshadows Sansa being stabbed in the belly:

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She knocked aside his arm and punched the steel into his bowels. “Laugh,” she snarled at him. He moaned instead. “Laugh,” she repeated, grabbing his throat with one hand and stabbing at his belly with the other.

"What will you do now, my lady?”

“Cover him.”

“About the girl, I meant. The Lady Sansa.” (AFFC Brienne IV)

Brienne repeatedly stabs Shagwell in the belly, killing him. When she is asked what she will do now, she replies that she'll cover his corpse, not realizing that she was actually being asked about Sansa. This could be a way of creating an association between Shagwell in this scene and Sansa. So Shagwell being fatally stabbed in the belly could point to Sansa being fatally stabbed in the belly. 

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A slick stone turned under Jaime’s foot. As he felt himself falling, he twisted the mischance into a diving lunge. His point scraped past her parry and bit into her upper thigh. A red flower blossomed, and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood before his knee slammed into a rock. The pain was blinding. Brienne splashed into him and kicked away his sword. “YIELD!”

Jaime drove his shoulder into her legs, bringing her down on top of him. They rolled, kicking and punching until finally she was sitting astride him. He managed to jerk her dagger from its sheath, but before he could plunge it into her belly she caught his wrist and slammed his hands back on a rock so hard he thought she'd wrenched an arm from its socket. (ASOS Jaime III)

In a physical struggle between the two of them, Brienne manages to bring Jaime down with her on top of him, and Jaime pulls her knife from its sheath and almost plunges it into her belly. This could foreshadow that Sansa will manage to bring Littlefinger down with her on top of him during a physical struggle between the two of them, and that Littlefinger will pull her knife from her cloak and plunge it into her belly. 

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Arya grabbed it with two hands, but as she lifted it someone grabbed her arm. The flagon slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. Wrenched around, she found herself nose to nose with the squire. You stupid, you forgot all about him. His big white pimple had burst, she saw.

“Are you the puppy’s puppy?” He had his sword in his right hand and her arm in his left, but her own hands were free, so she jerked his knife from its sheath and sheathed it again in his belly, twisting. He wasn’t wearing mail or even boiled leather, so it went right in, the same way Needle had when she killed the stableboy at King’s Landing. The squire’s eyes got big and he let go of her arm. Arya spun to the door and wrenched the Tickler’s knife from the wall.

The squire had pulled the knife out of his belly and was trying to stop the blood with his hands. (ASOS Arya XIII)

The squire grabs Arya's arm with one hand and holds a blade in his other hand, but does not immediately kill Arya, and this allows Arya to pull his knife from its sheath and stick it in his belly. This could foreshadow that Sansa will grab Littlefinger's arm with one hand and hold a blade in the other, but will hesitate in killing Littlefinger, which will allow Littlefinger to pull her knife from her cloak and stick it in her belly. 

After stabbing the squire, Arya moves away and picks up a knife, which could foreshadow that Littlefinger will pick up the knife that he loses in the struggle (and subsequently put it to Sansa's throat).

Shortly afterwards, the squire pulls the knife out of his belly, which could foreshadow Sansa doing likewise after Littlefinger leaves her to die. 

Just so you know, the chapter from which this scene is taken happens to heavily foreshadow the circumstances surrounding Sansa's death and contains quite a few references to Sansa.

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"I says, come." He grabbed her arm, hard.

Everything Syrio Forel had ever taught her vanished in a heartbeat. In that instant of sudden terror, the only lesson Arya could remember was the one Jon Snow had given her, the very first.

She stuck him with the pointy end, driving the blade upward with a wild, hysterical strength.

Needle went through his leather jerkin and the white flesh of his belly and came out between his shoulder blades. The boy dropped the pitchfork and made a soft noise, something between a gasp and a sigh. His hands closed around the blade. "Oh, gods," he moaned, as his undertunic began to redden. "Take it out."

When she took it out, he died.

The horses were screaming. Arya stood over the body, still and frightened in the face of death. Blood had gushed from the boy's mouth as he collapsed, and more was seeping from the slit in his belly, pooling beneath his body. His palms were cut where he'd grabbed at the blade. She backed away slowly, Needle red in her hand. She had to get away, someplace far from here, someplace safe away from the stableboy's accusing eyes. (AGOT Arya IV)

The stableboy grabs Arya's arm before Arya stabs him in the belly, which could foreshadow Sansa grabbing Littlefinger's arm before he stabs her in the belly. The stableboy drops the pitchfork he was holding after he is stabbed, which could foreshadow Sansa dropping the blade she is holding after she is stabbed.

Arya also mentions that the stableboy's palms are cut where he grabbed at the blade, which could foreshadow Sansa's palms being cut in the struggle, just like her mother when the catspaw attacked her. Like mother, like daughter.

Arya later thinks of the stableboy's palms being cut, and a lot of emphasis is put on this detail, suggesting that it's important:

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She could almost see the stableboy standing against the wall, his hands curled into claws with the blood still dripping from the deep gashes in his palms where Needle had cut him. He might be waiting to grab her as she passed. He would see her candle coming a long way off. Maybe she would be better off without the light … (AGOT Arya IV)

The following quotes further suggest that Sansa's hands will be cut:

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Sansa dug her nails into her hand. She could feel the fear in her tummy, twisting and pinching, worse every day. (ACOK Sansa IV)

In the chapter where Sansa imagines that she is stabbed in the belly, Sansa digs her nails into her hand, which could point to her hands being cut around the time that she is stabbed.

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Sansa. Catelyn's nails dug into the soft flesh of her palms, so hard did she close her hand. (ASOS Sansa III)

After she thinks of Sansa, Catelyn digs her nails into her hand, which could point to Sansa's hands being cut.

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"Are they?" Catelyn said sharply. "What god would let this happen? Rickon was only a baby. How could he deserve such a death? And Bran . . . when I left the north, he had not opened his eyes since his fall. I had to go before he woke. Now I can never return to him, or hear him laugh again." She showed Brienne her palms, her fingers. "These scars . . . they sent a man to cut Bran's throat as he lay sleeping. He would have died then, and me with him, but Bran's wolf tore out the man's throat." That gave her a moment's pause. "I suppose Theon killed the wolves too. He must have, elsewise . . . I was certain the boys would be safe so long as the direwolves were with them. Like Robb with his Grey Wind. But my daughters have no wolves now." (ACOK Catelyn VII)

Catelyn shows Brienne the scars on her hand, reminisces on how the catspaw would have killed her and Bran if not for the direwolves, and points out that her daughters no longer have direwolves. This scene is quite interesting in light of this theory. Just like Catelyn, Sansa will be attacked in a bedchamber by a man acting on behalf of a Lannister, and will cut her hands in the struggle. However, unlike Catelyn, Sansa won't have a direwolf to protect her, as Catelyn points out, so her life will be tragically cut short.

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Warning: None of this will make sense if you haven't been reading the thread up to this point.

There is some evidence that Littlefinger will cut Sansa's thigh in the physical struggle between the two of them.

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A slick stone turned under Jaime’s foot. As he felt himself falling, he twisted the mischance into a diving lunge. His point scraped past her parry and bit into her upper thigh. A red flower blossomed, and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood before his knee slammed into a rock. The pain was blinding. Brienne splashed into him and kicked away his sword. “YIELD!”

Jaime drove his shoulder into her legs, bringing her down on top of him. They rolled, kicking and punching until finally she was sitting astride him. He managed to jerk her dagger from its sheath, but before he could plunge it into her belly she caught his wrist and slammed his hands back on a rock so hard he thought she'd wrenched an arm from its socket. (ASOS Jaime III)

Jaime cuts Brienne's thigh as he is falling to the ground and shortly brings her down as well. After a brief physical struggle, Brienne is sitting astride him, and Jaime pulls her knife from its sheath and almost plunges it in her belly. This is exactly what will happen between Littlefinger and Sansa, only Littlefinger will actually succeed in stabbing Sansa in the belly.

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Boros slammed a fist into Sansa's belly, driving the air out of her. When she doubled over, the knight grabbed her hair and drew his sword, and for one hideous instant she was certain he meant to open her throat. As he laid the flat of the blade across her thighs, she thought her legs might break from the force of the blows. Sansa screamed. Tears welled in her eyes. It will be over soon. She soon lost count of the blows.

...

A short time later, a serving girl brought a platter of cheese and bread and olives, with a flagon of cold water. "Take it away," Sansa commanded, but the girl left the food on a table. She was thirsty, she realized. Every step sent knives through her thighs, but she made herself cross the room. She drank two cups of water, and was nibbling on an olive when the knock came. (ACOK Sansa III)

Boros slams a fist into Sansa's belly and Sansa worries that he means to slit her throat, which could foreshadow Littlefinger stabbing Sansa in the belly and considering slitting her throat. It would make sense for the rest of the scene to contain further clues about the circumstances surrounding Sansa's death, and that does seem to be the case here. Boros hits her thighs with his blade, which could point to Littlefinger cutting Sansa's thigh with his blade. And Sansa later thinks that every step she takes sends knives through her thighs, which could point to Littlefinger cutting her thigh with his knife.

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Sansa twisted sideways, hysterical with fear, and one foot slipped out over the void. She screamed. "Hey-nonny, hey-nonny, hey-nonny-hey." The wind flapped her skirts up and bit at her bare legs with cold teeth. She could feel snowflakes melting on her cheeks. Sansa flailed, found Lysa's thick auburn braid, and clutched it tight. "My hair!" her aunt shrieked. "Let go of my hair!" She was shaking, sobbing. (ASOS Sansa VII)

As Lysa is trying to throw Sansa out the Moon Door, the wind bites at Sansa's legs with cold teeth. This could point to Littlefinger cutting Sansa's leg as he is trying to kill her.

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Women swarmed over her like weasels, pinching her legs and kicking her in the belly, and someone hit her in the face and she felt her teeth shatter. Then she saw the bright glimmer of steel. The knife plunged into her belly and tore and tore and tore, until there was nothing left of her down there but shiny wet ribbons. (ACOK Sansa IV)

Before Sansa is stabbed in the belly in this dream, women pinch her legs, which could point to Littlefinger cutting her leg with his knife before he stabs her. 

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Earlier in this thread, I proposed that Sansa will manage to bring Littlefinger down with her on top of him, but will hesitate in killing him with the blade in her hand, giving Littlefinger the opening to pull out her knife from her cloak and stab her with it.

This raises the question, where will Sansa get the blade with which she will hesitate killing Littlefinger? Well, I proposed earlier in this thread that Sansa will bite Littlefinger's hand in the physical struggle between the two of them and soon disarm him. So I think Sansa will pick up the blade that he drops with the intention of killing him/defending herself, as this scene from Sansa's very first chapter suggests:

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Joffrey slashed at Arya with his sword, screaming obscenities, terrible words, filthy words. Arya darted back, frightened now, but Joffrey followed, hounding her toward the woods, backing her up against a tree. Sansa didn’t know what to do. She watched helplessly, almost blind from her tears.

Then a grey blur flashed past her, and suddenly Nymeria was there, leaping, jaws closing around Joffrey’s sword arm. The steel fell from his fingers as the wolf knocked him off his feet, and they rolled in the grass, the wolf snarling and ripping at him, the prince shrieking in pain. “Get it off,” he screamed. “Get it off!”

Arya’s voice cracked like a whip. “Nymeria!”

The direwolf let go of Joffrey and moved to Arya’s side. The prince lay in the grass, whimpering, cradling his mangled arm. His shirt was soaked in blood. Arya said, “She didn’t hurt you . . . much.” She picked up Lion’s Tooth where it had fallen, and stood over him, holding the sword with both hands. (AGOT Sansa I)

Nymeria, a direwolf, manages to disarm Joffrey after biting his forearm, and Arya then picks up the blade he drops and holds it before him. This could foreshadow that Sansa, a "direwolf", will manage to disarm Littlefinger shortly after biting his hand, and will pick up the blade he drops and hold it before him.

Note that Joffrey and Nymeria roll on the ground just before Arya picks up the blade he drops, which could foreshadow Sansa and Littlefinger rolling on the ground just before Sansa picks up the blade he drops, just like Jaime and Brienne in the following scene which foreshadows how Littlefinger will manage to fatally stab Sansa.

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A slick stone turned under Jaime’s foot. As he felt himself falling, he twisted the mischance into a diving lunge. His point scraped past her parry and bit into her upper thigh. A red flower blossomed, and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood before his knee slammed into a rock. The pain was blinding. Brienne splashed into him and kicked away his sword. “YIELD!”

Jaime drove his shoulder into her legs, bringing her down on top of him. They rolled, kicking and punching until finally she was sitting astride him. He managed to jerk her dagger from its sheath, but before he could plunge it into her belly she caught his wrist and slammed his hands back on a rock so hard he thought she'd wrenched an arm from its socket. (ASOS Jaime III)

I'd also like to point out that Brienne kicking away Jaime's sword in the above scene could foreshadow that Sansa will manage to disarm Littlefinger by kicking away his blade. 

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Sansa will die because she hesitates in killing Littlefinger, unable to follow her father's advice that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword:

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"He does," his father admitted. "As did the Targaryen kings before him. Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

"One day, Bran, you will be Robb's bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is." (AGOT Bran I)

As Lady of Winterfell, she will order Littlefinger's execution, but find herself unable to carry it out herself when she's left with no other choice, in direct violation to the ancient First Men belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword, and this will cost her her life.

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Then something stirred behind her, and a hand reached out of the dark and grabbed her wrist. Sansa opened her mouth to scream, but another hand clamped down over her face, smothering her. His fingers were rough and callused, and sticky with blood. “Little bird. I knew you’d come.” The voice was a drunken rasp. 

Outside, a swirling lance of jade light spit at the stars, filling the room with green glare. She saw him for a moment, all black and green, the blood on his face dark as tar, his eyes glowing like a dog’s in the sudden glare. Then the light faded and he was only a hulking darkness in a stained white cloak. (ACOK Sansa VII)

In the scene where the Hound hides in Sansa's bedchamber during the Battle of the Blackwater, Sansa observes that the fire from outside is reflected in the Hound's eyes. This could foreshadow that the fire from the Winterfell godswood will be reflected in Littlefinger's eyes when Sansa finds him in her room.

Such an image would go a long way towards making the scene all the more powerful. You know, Littlefinger, with fire in his eyes and a blade in hand, about to kill Sansa in her own bedchamber. It would definitely be a memorable moment. 

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The Titan of Braavos. Old Nan had told them stories of the Titan back in Winterfell. He was a giant as tall as a mountain, and whenever Braavos stood in danger he would wake with fire in his eyes, his rocky limbs grinding and groaning as he waded out into the sea to smash the enemies. "The Braavosi feed him on the juicy pink flesh of little highborn girls," Nan would end, and Sansa would give a stupid squeak. But Maester Luwin said the Titan was only a statue, and Old Nan's stories were only stories.

...

But dead ahead the sea had broken through, and there above the open water the Titan towered, with his eyes blazing and his long green hair blowing in the wind. (AFFC Arya I)

The Titan of Braavos has eyes that burn with large fires to light the way for ships that are passing through. The sigil of Littlefinger's House is the Titan of Braavos, so this could foreshadow that the fire from the godswood will be reflected in Littlefinger's eyes.

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Arya swung at the prince again, but this time Joffrey caught the blow on Lion's Tooth and sent her broken stick flying from her hands. The back of his head was all bloody and his eyes were on fire. Sansa was shrieking, "No, no, stop it, stop it, both of you, you're spoiling it," but no one was listening. Arya scooped up a rock and hurled it at Joffrey's head. She hit his horse instead, and the blood bay reared and went galloping off after Mycah. "Stop it, don't, stop it!" Sansa screamed. Joffrey slashed at Arya with his sword, screaming obscenities, terrible words, filthy words. Arya darted back, frightened now, but Joffrey followed, hounding her toward the woods, backing her up against a tree. Sansa didn't know what to do. She watched helplessly, almost blind from her tears. (AGOT Sansa I)

Joffrey's eyes being "on fire" in this scene at the end of Sansa's first chapter further foreshadows that the fire from the godswood will be reflected in Littlefinger's eyes. (For what it's worth, this isn't just some random connection. This scene happens to heavily foreshadow the circumstances surrounding Sansa's death, so try to keep an open mind.)

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The way I see it Sansa's fate has three options:

  1. The Good: she becomes queen by right or by marrying Aegon; in a Henry VII/Elizabeth of York parallel 
  2. The Bad: she dies 
  3. The Ugly: she loses all character development and simply gets married off 
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