'Game of Thrones' Season 6 girl power! Sansa 'more powerful'; Yara playing the 'long game'

Cast members Sophie Turner and Gemma Whelan talked about their respective characters in “Game of Thrones” Season 6 in recent interviews. Turner pointed out how powerful Sansa has become this year and Whelan teased that Yara was playing a long game to win her rightful position in the Iron Islands.

[Spoiler alert]

“What doesn’t kill her only makes her stronger,” Turner (Sansa Stark) said in an interview posted on Making Game of Thrones. Sansa has mostly been a victim these past few years and has been running away from her problems. However, this time she is taking on her enemies. She is bitter and determined, Turner teased, and she is in a way becoming a leader alongside her brother Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

Turner said that her character has been silently learning how to play the game from “master manipulators.” Sansa still has a lot to learn and the actress pointed out that the transformation in her character has been slow and gradual. She said that at the moment her character is both “vulnerable” and at the same time “more powerful.”

In “Game of Thrones” Season 6 Sansa’s main task is to try and unite all the Houses in the North against the Boltons. Turner described the process as “frustrating” because most of the Houses in the north consider the Starks to be “irrelevant.” The big problem that the people in the north see is that Jon is a bastard and Sansa is technically a Bolton.

Meanwhile, Yara (Gemma Whelan) is facing her own challenges. She is being hunted by her uncle Euron (Pilou Asbæk). In an interview posted on Making Game of Thrones, Whelan said that many fans tweeted her asking why Yara keeps running away from threats. The actress pointed out that her character is able to anticipate how things will play out, like in a chess game, and she is playing the long game.

Whelan teased that her character plans several movies ahead, and this makes Yara a “brilliant candidate to lead.” Yara is set to travel to Meereen to join forces with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). With the potential of the these two strong women coming together, and the rise of Sansa, “Game of Thrones” Season 6 appears to be all about women power.