Woman Crush Wednesday- Women of Winterfell
It’s Woman Crush Wednesday #WCW and even if it’s not being followed as much, what better time than to spotlight some warrior women worthy of girl crushing for us girls to look up to ahead of the final season of Game of Thrones.
‘Women of Winterfell’ wasn’t just used to enhance the alliterative title, when it comes to #GoT, there are some inspiring female characters to draw from and especially in the Stark sisters.
Why Sansa Stark is a warrior woman
*plot spoilers for those out of the coma*
Sansa, one of the daughters of Ned Stark, is part of the direwolf House Stark. She is one who follows the typical female interests of sewing, wanting to marry someone worthy, to be ‘a wife’. A gentle young girl with good in her blood. Some feminists may actually resent what she stands for as she’s perfectly fitting the traditional gender role but when you see her foiling her sister from the same family, it raises the question, how much of it is expected of her or just in her interests like many females of the ‘time’.
What should please feminists is how she deals with her life as it doesn’t end up the perfect way she thought it would. This girl goes through tragedy and that unravels many more for her where she could have given up, but maybe a testament to the strength of her family and House, she fights through. It may not be with swords like many in the series, but it’s arguably a tougher fight, having to mentally keep it together, find hope, deal with evil adversaries, having to literally ‘love’, praise and join her foes. Sansa for me is one of the best warriors because if people were honest and looking at many of the other characters, it’s hard to see how you could do what she did and not just lose all control. But you probably wouldn’t have survived very long. She knew what she had to do and even with uncertainty, she played the game so well to get back to her pack.
The scenes when she reunites with her family, her sister Arya, her brothers, Jon Snow and Bran (minus Robb Stark and Ned Stark sadly) is one of the most satisfying as you’ve been through her journey, her awful struggle; yearning for her to keep on going hoping to get there even when it looked dire at points but it showed the wolf she is. The direwolf pack had the strength to find each other and had meaning. If you have that, then you can fight the good fight well. Sansa made some crucial, defining decisions that saved her family when she was able to save Jon Snow in the devastating battle by bringing in a support army, she got control of Little Finger who if left could have ruined a lot and just all through her journey, cleverly played the role with the Lannisters and survived to level things and to save her family.
And the other warrior woman of Winterfell is my favourite character, Sansa’s sister, Arya Stark.
Why Arya Stark is a warrior woman
From the first moment of meeting her in the series, I fell in love with Arya. The girl I resonate with traits I love seeing in a girl. Sansa began as the typical girl that may annoy some but Arya was the mischievous, playful, clever and not giving a damn girl. She’s unafraid to get dirty, play with the boys and beat them. She thrives on that and knows there is value on being a part of the ‘man’s world’ and she picks up the sword. She’s just fearless and wants to show up and be a part of what boys can do and she shows this. She doesn’t let limits discourage or stop her. This is why she ends up being one of the best vengeful characters creating some of the MOST SATISFYING scenes too.
I loved seeing her way of surviving having to also deal with the tragedy of losing her father, someone she looked up to, taught her and made her feel safe. You saw again, the strength of that Stark blood and the honour of her father to fight through and right those wrongs and giirl did she right those wrongs. She has the bloodthirst but she has it contained and importantly savoured for who deserves it. Her clever, quick-thinking got her through the wild and took her all the way back to her family. She and Sansa with both of their differing personalities came together bound by that blood and warrior womanhood they each had that is a testament to them as individual women also.
Arya or Sansa for the throne? Or a joint sisterhood throne would make a killer team anyway. One of the most poignant scenes for me is of Arya and Sansa after reuniting and having worked together to take out Little Finger looking down at their territory praising each other on their plot. This scene shows who they are and how they admire one another, how they got to each other, their respect and understanding of family and their sisterhood whilst playfully snarking. Arya contently admits she could not be the lady of Winterfell like her sister could and tells Sansa, ‘I never could have survived what you survived’.
Sansa responds, ‘You would have. You’re the strongest person I know’.
You ready for #GameofThrones? 😮🗡️🐎🏰














