i really do like to imagine that in the end sansa and arya are a tag team ruling winterfell. sansa’s insanely good at the politics of ruling and arya is good at the logistics of ruling and they split the job right down the middle, sansa dealing with the nobles, the court and the politics, arya dealing with the nitty gritty logistics of running the region, the household, and the smallfolk. both are equally kind and equally intimidating, but in different ways. nobles tend to name lady stark as their favorite of the wolf sisters and the smallfolk, especially members of the household name lady arya, but everyone knows that the sisters hate to be pitted against each other and they would never speak such things within earshot.
though decisions are together on all family matters, sansa “swings the sword”. she was never trained in combat like arya was, but she is lady stark and the northern custom holds that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword, and besides, arya lost her taste for killing after she saw what became of her mother and had to give her the gift of mercy.
the matter of heirs is solved fairly cleanly, as gendry has no desire to ever bear his father’s name or lead his father’s lands, and he agreed to marry arya, take her name, and give the stark name to their children.
