Interview roundup: Sophie Turner on Sansa’s journey in Season 5

While there’s definitely room for argument, it’s safe to say that the ongoing story of Sansa Stark is one of the plotlines fans are most anticipating going into the new season of Game of Thrones. For years now, Sansa has been a prisoner, more or less, at King’s Landing, manipulated by one faction or another and unable to act according to her own will. At the end of last year, the character signaled that she was ready to exert some control over her life, and over Littlefinger, her guardian/super-creepy sort-of suitor.

Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, has been doing her part to whet fans’ appetites for the coming season with a stream of interviews. In a newly posted interview at Entertainment Weekly, Turner engaged in some MILD SPOILERS about Sansa’s journey in Season 5.

“It’s definitely a dark season for her. She just escaped King’s Landing, and she goes back to a place where she becomes somewhat of a prisoner again. Despite being a prisoner again, she plays it out very differently this time compared to before. She tries to take command and begins to manipulate the people who are keeping her prisoner—which is nice.”

One of the many interesting things about Sansa’s story this year is that not even book-readers like me, long the smirking keepers of plot secrets, know what’s going to happen to her. When it comes to Sansa, the show will almost surely outpace the books this season, so when Turner says that she’ll be a prisoner again, we have no idea what she could mean (although we have a few ideas as to where it might happen). All the same, it’s good to hear that Sansa isn’t going to be passive about her imprisonment, since that worked out incredibly poorly for her the first time around.

Turner also weighted in on Sansa’s complicated relationship with Littlefinger, which has apparently reviled and endeared fans in about equal numbers, if Turner’s interactions with fans on Twitter are any indication. Turner said that Sansa and Littlefinger wouldn’t make a good match romantically, but they might make a good power couple. “They have this weird balance and trust and distrust with each other, and she can somewhat manipulate him, and he can her,” she said. She expounds on the topic in a lengthy, wide-ranging interview over at Red Bulletin.

The thing about Littlefinger and Sansa, I think, is that they seem like a very weird, kind of messed up couple to a lot of people, especially from an outsider’s perspective.  It is not really a wholly messed up relationship though, it is more the fact that the only way for her to get what she wants is to express her sexuality a bit. Like we saw with the change of costume and the change of hair and everything. Littlefinger has got to keep her on her toes as well. It is kind of like this tag team going back and forth one-upping each other. But they are also like a force to be reckoned with together, I think.

Back in Season 1 (or 2, or 3, or most of 4), it would be unthinkable to characterize Sansa’s relationship with Littlefinger as a give-and-take, and the fact that Turner can do so with a straight face now shows how much the character has changed. The notion that Sansa may use her sexuality to manipulate Littlefinger is another indication that she’s graduated to a new level, although one can’t help but be a little nervous for her. Badass black dress or not, Sansa is stepping into a dangerous arena.

And on the topic of sexuality, let’s segue into one of the more entertaining parts of the Red Bulletin interview, in which Turner talks about the alleged inequity between guys and girls when it comes to nudity on the show. Turner, who’s working a little blue here, doesn’t think the nudity gap is too big of a deal.

There are a whole lot more dicks in our show than there is in any other series! We just don’t think about it because the ratio is a tiny bit off. The reason we have more female nudity in my opinion, is because in those days women used this to manipulate people. Even though we have characters like Daenerys or Brienne who can fight, we still have a lot of women who don’t have the authority to do anything. So they use their bodies to get what they want. I mean that’s what they did back then. In order to gain power they have their sexuality and that’s about all the say that some of these women have. So I think that they can use that to kind of get what they want. They are very aware of that and some women can’t just go around slashing a sword around!

Despite the presence of a great many textured female characters, Game of Thrones has taken heat in the past for leering over women’s bodies in a way that it doesn’t do for men. Turner’s contextualization is interesting food for thought, although it’s unlikely we’ve seen the last of that debate.

Both interviews with Turner are well worth reading, especially the one with Red Bulletin, which touches on a wide variety of topics in great detail.

• Published on 04/07/2015 at 5:33 PM CDT
• Last updated on 04/07/2015 at 5:37 PM CDT