Neverborn

Looking back at season 7, I think tyrion is the most likely candidate. He seems to get used to this role lately.

Logical for D&D I guess.

Well, technically sansa didn't beat LF, bran did. And I also don't see what LF achieved in the last 3 seasons that required him to be kept alive. But what ever. D&D will have their "reasons" and we will know in 2019.

Invented by D&D is just my point why I think it is unlikely that D&D will kill her of in season 8. Why would they invent their own stuff to give sansa something to do through the later seasons (despite limitid episodes and more important characters they could write about), if they don't need her to play some part in the endgame?

Neither would I. I just think that D&D simply wouldn't give that amount of screentime to a character that dies without a real impact to the endgame (because lets be real: sansa dying would have almost no impact to the plot of season 8). And because I don't see D&D giving screentime and character development to her simply to tell her story arc faithfully (cough stannis cough).

True. But with robb that was the case from the start (show only) and not just invented later. With sansa it was basically a 180 degree turn between season 3 and season 4 in both the way she was portrayed on screen, her amount of screentime and the way D&D talk about her character in behind the scenes and interviews. She basically was just an afterthought in the early seasons and suddenly got an extended role in the later. Why should D&D turn her from a minor to a major character if she dies without any importance? And with robbs extended role in comparision to the books: I think part of that is also that they liked robb more than catelyn, so they gave robb parts of cats arc. That isn't really comparable since both died at the same event. They just shifted the main focus of the red wedding to the character that suited them more.

I think the biggest hint that sansa will survive (at least in the show) is the fact that D&D actually invested some time / development in her character arc. Sure GRRM might plan to build sansa up first so her death is more shocking / impactful (also I think that would actually be quite cheap storytelling). But D&D clearly don't think / write this way. Just take a look what happens with characters / story arcs that have no significance to the endgame (dorne, fAegon, stoneheart, rickon). Just look what happened to stannis . If D&D don't need a character for their endgame he gets killed of or at the least isn't honoured with character development / screentime until he reaches the point where his death serves another characters arc (ohhh, rickons powerfull dialogs in season 6 ). Sure D&D also build up some characters to make their death more impactful (karsi, shireen), but they don't put that over the arcs of more important characters. With sansa it is actually the other way around: they push back undeniable more important characters (jon, arya) to establish sansa as a "badass" (if she actually is one is another question). Like when they needed jon to fuck up the botb to have sansa "save" him. Here some examples from season 7: Cogman stating that he intended the jon sansa conflict in e2 to illustrate how jon doesn't include sansa in his plan so she needs to argue in public. Sansa warning jon about cersei attacking the north (which seemed moronic at this point) in e1 and jon ignoring her warning (guess what happens in season 8 ). Tyrions "she is more intelligent than she lets out" in e3. Sansas "ruling skills" from e3 (veeeery subtle D&D). Both D&D and sophie turner were quite vocal about sansa now being a "big player" / politician in their interviews (classic D&D tell-don't-show-principle). It can all be summarized in D&D not being able to establish a character as important / intelligent without hurting another characters arc or dumping him down. And in regards to sansa we have multible examples of other more important characters (jon, arya, littlefinger) being dumped down / pushed aside to establish sansa as a "player of the game". Now both GRRM and D&D could simply build her up to fall deeper. But personally I think that GRRM is to talented and D&D not talented enough for that. If that is their goal than D&D might give her an emotional moment with arya before it happens (stannis & shireen style). But they wouldn't sacrifice so much screentime on a character that dies of without any impact to the endgame or the story in general. Regardless how things play out in the books (or what the outline says): we have to keep the D&D-logic in mind when we make predictions for show sansa.