The 30 most heartwarming moments on Game of Thrones

6. Sansa and Theon share a hug in the snow (“The Red Woman”)

SARAH: One of the most interesting aspects of Theon’s arc is how his attitude towards women has altered over time. The Theon Greyjoy of the earlier seasons saw himself as cock of the walk when in the company of women. They were objects of lust to him, to be used for his sexual gratification and discarded when he no longer had need of them. What a bro.

This disregard for women extended to those closest to him. When Theon returned to the Iron Islands and learned that his more capable sister, Yara, was to be trusted with responsibilities that he had been passed over for, he was jealous and angry. He didn’t consider why Yara had earned her father’s approval. She was female, and in Theon’s opinion, that meant that he should have been treated as her superior in all things. Although we don’t see any interaction between Theon and Sansa prior to her return to Winterfell, it’s likely that he felt this way about her and Arya, who had been raised alongside him as surrogate sisters.

When Theon and Sansa meet in Season 5, he has fully become Reek, Ramsay Bolton’s beaten, broken slave, and lost almost all sense of himself. It is then Sansa who becomes the focal point of Ramsay’s evil desires, and she suffers immense physical and psychological abuse at his hand. But she refuses to break. Ramsay may have had control of her body, but he never had her mind, as she explained to Myranda shortly before she and Theon escaped. Theon may have never left Reek behind had he not been so motivated by Sansa’s determination to keep her sense of self.

Sansa may be mentally strong, but her confidence fades when it comes to physical endurance. Theon takes on the role of protector when they escape from Winterfell, leading her across the freezing river and holding her close as they catch their breath in the snowy bank. And as sweet as their loving hug is by itself, it also reminds us of how much Theon has changed, because the old Theon would not have treated any woman with so considerately. That Theon died at Ramsay’s hand, and like a true Ironborn, he rose again a better man.

KATIE: Sansa and Theon’s hug says so much in such a short amount of time. This moment is later overshadowed by Sansa and Jon’s reunion, but it offers the calm before yet another storm. It’s the first genuinely loving touch either had felt for years.

We saw in Season 1 that Theon and Robb’s had a brotherly relationship, so we can assume that Theon shared at least a semblance of a sibling bond with the other Stark children. Sansa and Theon have family history between them, and I think Theon feels guilty for his inability to protect Sansa from Ramsay, to say nothing of the part he played in bringing about the downfall of House Stark. For Sansa’s part, men have not offered her tenderness, to say the least. As Sarah observes, men treated Sansa much the same way as Theon treated women prior to his torture and imprisonment. While Theon was never as brutal as Joffrey or Ramsay, nor as manipulative as Littlefinger, he did regard women to be less important.

But Sansa demonstrated a strength that Theon must have admired and envied in equal measure. She survived Ramsay in a way he couldn’t, and in doing so she showed him that Ramsay was not invincible. He was only a man, and, well, all men must die. Sansa proved to Theon that you can come out of an abusive intact, at least where it counts. No matter how broken or bruised, you can still maintain your own sense of self.

No one else will ever quite understand what Sansa and Theon endured as Ramsay’s prisoners. But in their embrace, they confirmed their shared experiences, pain and relief at having escaped it all. In a situation such as theirs, what you need is someone who understands because they know, someone who will believe you and heal with you. After being so alone for so long, Sansa and Theon found that briefly in each other.