Learning isn’t Becoming
I have been seeing more people talk abut how Sansa is the New Littlefinger or how she is Cersei 2.0 but I think these statements ignore who she is fundamentally. In part i think these remarks come from the old notion that Sansa is not Stark enough, which was a common thing to say among Sansa haters, and because they thought she was the least Stark they are still trying to figure out who she is. Now I’m not going to spend much time on this because it is silly for people to still believe that Sansa, the person fighting the hardest for Northern Independence, is the least Stark. The second part of this is the fact that we are inundated with the show-runners and the actors telling us that Sansa has taken/learned from those around her. For this point I have to say LEARNING IS NOT BECOMING!!!!
Lets start with Cersei 2.0 because I think this is the easiest to show
In 8x04 we see Cersei talking about leaving the gates open so that as many people as possible can come into the city, but right after that we find out that she is letting people in so that D has to kill more people in order to get to her. Cersei is using these people as a human shield because she thinks that D’s advisors will stop her from burning down the city (which is a whole other discussion). Even later on in the episode Tyrion talks about how Cersei hates the people and they hate her, pushing the idea that she does not care if these people live or die even further.
We see Sansa literally have the same conversation with Royce in 8x02 except she is leaving the gates open to protect the people from the dead. She wants to give as many people as possible, as long as possible to get to Winterfell where they would be safe (safer). I think if Cersei were in this position she would close the gates to protect the people inside and so they would not have to share food with outsides, but Sansa has planed so that she can feed the country folk and protect those who cannot fight and arm those who can. Sansa cares about her people, she wants them to rest and recoup (8x04), she yells at Jon for abandoning his people(7x02), she spends her time planning on how to feed, clothe, and arm the Northeners; it is shown over and over how much Sansa cares and respects the small folks who depend on her. This fundamental personality difference shows that Sansa is not Cersei.
Now she does learn somethings from Cersei, one of the funniest tweets I’ve seen is about how Sansa and Cersei are playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers lol. But what I really think she learned from Cersei is how to portray a cold exterior so that people can not see/use her weakness against her; also how to protect her heart from those who would use her kindness and love against her. I think a lot of people see the outside similarities and assume that they are the same on the inside but based on what the characters are showing us they are not alike.
Now for Littlefinger
I can see how people see this one because of the secret keeping (or lack there of) in 8x04. But Littlefinger used secrets as weapons in order to get more power or to move things in place to eat him more power. He sought out secrets to use against people and he became very good at it. He also did not care who he hurt in the process.
Sansa on the other hand does not use secrets as weapons but as defenders. You can see that she is struggling with the decision on if she should tell Tyrion, but in the end she thinks it will keep her family safe from D by stripping away some of her power. She also does not seek out secrets. Because she really is trying to play a different game that Littlefinger, but she is also not a fool and knows how to use the tools or information that she is handed. She said herself that she will never forget his many lessons, but I say again LEARNING IS NOT BECOMING!!!
Non of these gif are mine.