Game of Thrones: Will Jon and Sansa Stay Allies?

Or are they pawns in Littlefinger's final game?

By Jim Vejvoda

SPOILERS for the Season 6 finale of HBO's Game of Thrones follow.

As the houses of the North pledged their allegiance to Jon Snow, aka the White Wolf, in a callback to Robb Stark's similarly triumphant moment a few seasons ago, Sansa Stark remained seated through it all with a pointed look -- one conspicuously noticed by the ever-scheming Petyr Baelish.

Might Littlefinger's final ploy be to ultimately turn these two Starks against one another and pave the way for his own usurpation of power? He did admit to Sansa, after all, that his dream was to sit upon the Iron Throne with her by his side.

"Sansa, she does love her brother, you know? And they've had a conflicted past," said Game of Thrones co-showrunner David Benioff in HBO's Game of Thrones Season 6: Inside the Episode #10 (seen below).

The producer continued, "Over the course of this season they've come to really rely upon each other, but she doesn't really trust him completely. She didn't tell him about the meeting with Littlefinger, she didn't tell him that she summoned the Knights of the Vale, There's definitely a little hint of conflict there. We see that come out in Episode 9 where she''s at the war council where no asks her opinion despite the fact that she knows Ramsay better than one. So I think there's a little bit of anger about that and a little bit of jealousy, and that relationship will be crucial to watch."

"We see the second 'King in the North!' scene with Jon and I think it was important to us that it evoked in that first 'King in the North!' scene. Very different circumstances, different environment. They're at Winterfell instead of a military encampment," said Benioff. "In some ways, the evocation of the first one is meant to be a little worrisome because it was a very triumphant moment when Robb is named King in the North but it didn't go so well for the previous King in the North so I think we have to be a little worried for Jon and at the same time it's a pretty big reversal and, you know, for a character who was dead at the beginning of the season to be declared king at the end of it. He's done well. He's done well in ten short episodes."

But will Jon Snow remain the King in the North? As he himself told Sansa earlier in the episode, "I'm not a Stark." "You are to me," replied Sansa.

Jon's own words to Sansa would seem to indicate that his reign in the North may be short-lived due to Sansa's more immediate claim to the throne: "You're the Lady of Winterfell. You deserve it. We're standing here because of you. The battle was lost until the Knights of the Vale rode in. They came because of you."

Then we learned in this episode that, as many fans have long suspected, Ned Stark was not actually the father of the bastard Jon Snow. No, Jon's the son of Ned's beloved, dying sister Lyanna Stark (and presumably, although the episode didn't fully confirm the long-held fan theory, Rhaegar Targaryen).

If Jon is actually Rhaegar Targaryen's son -- and with another Targaryen, Daenerys, finally sailing towards Westeros with dreams of fiery conquest -- how long will Sansa's shaky trust in Jon last? And will Littlefinger exploit these doubts to tragic effect? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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