And she did this without (directly) taking a single life. Robb Stark and Jon Snow both at one time or another were crowned the King in the North, a title swollen by the memories of old, yet it was Sansa who returned their House to past glories. Sansa Stark, once the seemingly the gentlest of her family and the most southern with her auburn and Tully hair, turned out to be of tougher Northern stuff than either of her more popular brothers. How fitting it is then that the descendent who took back the autonomy of his lands was The Queen Who Could Not Bend. Aye, Torrhen Stark might’ve saved thousands of his men from being immolated in dragonfire, but he is still The King Who Knelt. A land derived of the First Men, who according to legend fought back the White Walkers millennia ago, it remains the lone kingdom that did not forsake the Old Gods in favor of the precious Seven like their Southron neighbors and it is still the kingdom that mocks its last true king who bent the knee to a Targaryen. It is said that “The North Remembers.” More than just words and wind, this turn of phrase speaks to the long grudges and grievances that linger like ghosts in the largest and emptiest of Westeros’ Seven Kingdoms.
This article contains Game of Thrones spoilers, including the Season 8 episode 6 finale, “The Iron Throne.”
