Tara McCauley August 24th, 2020 - 3:30 PM
In an Instagram story on Saturday, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner shared a photograph of her Winterfell throne from the series’ finale, including the simple caption: Welcome Home. According to People, Turner’s husband and one-third of The Jonas Brothers, Joe Jonas, reposted the photo of the throne to his own Instagram story adding “and that’s the tea.”
The throne, on which Turner’s Game of Thrones’ character Sansa Stark sat as Queen of the North, is crafted from wood and much less gaudy than the series’ iconic Iron Throne. In 2019, Turner shared a promotional poster featuring of Sansa atop Iron Throne, forged from the swords of conquered kingdoms in Westeros, on Instagram. While the fate of the Iron Throne took center stage in promotions leading up to the final season of HBO’s fantasy hit, the showrunner’s had a different end in mind for Sansa Stark than that promotional photo teased. The wooden throne of Westeros’ Northern capital, Winterfell, became a more emotionally significant seat of power for both Sansa and Turner.
Turner stepped into the role of Sansa Stark, the oldest daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark, at age 13 and proceeded to grow-up alongside the character after playing her for 10 years, via People. As the final season of Game of Thrones approached, Turner said of her character: “thank you for teaching me resilience, bravery and what true strength really is. Thank you for teaching me to be kind and patient and to lead with love” (People). The importance of this role was further commemorated by Turner in 2018, when she got a direwolf, the sigil of House Stark, tattooed on her arm accompanied by the quote “the pack survives” (The Late Late Show). Many fans suspected this choice of body art to be a spoiler about the show’s upcoming final season, but Turner asserted that the tattoo was more of a more personal nature.
Though it remains unclear how Turner came into possession of her Winterfell throne over a year after the Game of Thrones finale, she is far from the only cast member in possession of memorabilia from the mythical realm of Westeros. According to UPROXX, Emilia Clarke (Me Before You, Solo: A Star Wars Story) owns a House Targaryen flag from the set, Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) swiped a Jon Snow statue from the Winterfell crypt, and Turner’s on-screen sister, Maisie Williams (The New Mutants), is still in possession of Arya Stark’s jacket.
The controversial eighth season of Game of Thrones will not be the last fans see of Westeros, with a spin-off about the Targaryen’s, House of The Dragon, already underway at HBO, via The Verge. However, despite her love for the character, Turner told People that she has no plans to return to the role of Sansa Stark. Instead, Turner now proudly owns the wooden throne, intricately carved with Sansa’s house crest, that closed out her character’s ten-year journey on screen.
