This new GRRM interview is just hilarious to me. Truly. Because for so many years, Sansa stans (not just Sansa stans who were Dany haters, but neutrals too) would tell us Dany stans that Dany was clearly going to die and Sansa was clearly going to live and rule.
Their idea was that "Sansa's arc is about politics, so clearly the conclusion is that she's gonna end up alive and ruling something". We Dany stans would challenge this by pointing out that, so far, Sansa's arc hasn't really been that much about politics, she's learning a few things, but so far, her political experience has been organizing parties and arranging chairs, and she has zero ruling experience whatsoever. We would also point out that Dany is the character who has a a political and ruling arc, to which they would answer that "Dany's arc isn't really about ruling, it's about the Long Night, she's going to die sacrificing herself".
One of their most popular theories (that was accepted as practically fact by huge portions of the fandom) was that the three heads of the dragon (Dany, Jon and Tyrion) would die in the Long Night, while the Starklings (Bran, Sansa and Arya) would be the rebuilders/rulers of the new world. Which doesn't make any sense: why would GRRM kill off the three characters with political/ruling arcs (Dany, Jon and Tyrion) and leave the characters who don't have any ruling arc (Sansa, Arya and Bran) to be the ones in charge of rebuilding everything? Sometimes, the theory would change: maybe Jon will survive, maybe Tyrion will survive, but Dany is always dying, no matter what their theory is. And this wasn't just coming from Sansa stans who were Dany haters, the majority of neutral Sansa stans would always treat Dany's death (and Sansa's survival) as a given, as obvious, and would refuse to consider any alternative.
And even words from GRRM himself wouldn't change their minds. When we Dany stans pointed out that in ASOIAF's original outline, Dany lives, they'd say that "well, clearly GRRM has changed his mind, because ASOIAF is so different from the original outline". When we would point out that GRRM has actually said in interviews that the broad strokes of the outline will remain that same, including who lives and who dies (see here the interview), they'd ignore it. They would also ignore the other plenty of times where GRRM said the ending of the show and the books are not the same, or the time where a fan said they wanted Dany to die and GRRM answered with "tsk tsk". Nothing could convince them that their Dany dying theory wasn't set in stone.
Now, after so many years of being told by Sansa stans that Dany dying and Sansa living were foregone conclusions, we have an interview in which GRRM states that the people who die in the show are not the same as the ones who die in the books (which he has already said before, so very strong chance that Dany will live, especially considering that, as far as we know, the original outline still stands), and that he was going to kill Sansa, and that he still might do it (he said maybe he will let her live, but gave no certainty).
I can't help it, guys. After years of hearing their theories about Dany dying and their smug confidence that their fave would have a good ending, I can't help being petty. I don't care if people think I'm mean for "celebrating" the idea that GRRM was going to kill Sansa, because after so many years of "Dany dies" theories coming from Sansa stans and their absolute certainty that this was going to be the case, I think I have the right to be a little petty and find a little joy in this.
