The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy. I will remember, Your Grace, said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear.
I strongly disagree with the idea that Sansa never wanted to rule, and so her being QitN instead of finding romance and having a family is an all-bitter-and-no-sweet ending for her.
No, Sansa was never power hungry. She never wanted power for power’s sake. But I think the show made it pretty clear in the last two seasons that she does want to rule. She cares deeply about the people of the North, and she’s good at ruling. Really, really good at it. She feels comfortable and fulfilled in that role; she has positively flourished in it. It’s something that has brought her obvious satisfaction and fulfillment.
I do agree that Sansa also very much wanted love and a family, but those weren’t the only things she wanted. I think it’s clear that she also wanted a rewarding and fulfilling vocation as ruler of a kingdom she cares deeply about. She now has one of those things, and there’s no reason to believe she won’t eventually have the other. Being Queen in the North and having a loving family life aren’t mutually exclusive.
Sansa Stark gets to spend the rest of her days as the Queen in the North. She completed Robb Stark’s mission, she freed the North and all its people, and they chose her to lead them. Even with a Stark on the Throne in Kings Landing, she never forgot what the people of the North asked of her family, and she made sure to give it to them. It was never about who sat on the Iron Throne for the people of the North, and Sansa knew it. She lived it, she fought for it. The North will forever be a free and Independent Kingdom, ruled by a Queen they chose, because of Sansa Stark, daughter of Lady Catelyn and Lord Eddard Stark, sister of King Robb Stark and King Jon Snow, the Red Wolf, the Lady of Winterfell, and the Queen in the North. She will sit upon her throne, with direwolves carved into the wood, in her family home, and for the rest of her days she will be the Queen she was always meant to be, and history will remember her as the Queen who finally freed the North.
All hail Queen Sansa, of House Stark. Long may she reign.
