Sophie Turner thinks Sansa will stay single, and powerful, on 'Game of Thrones'

Romance is not at the top of Sansa Stark’s to-do list when Game of Thrones returns on Sunday.

That’s how Sophie Turner, who plays the Winterfell noblewoman, sees it, considering all the abuse Sansa has endured during her tumultuous passage from adolescent yearning for a fairy-tale life to clear-eyed adulthood on the HBO drama.

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“I think Sansa might just be done with relationships at this point,” Turner tells USA TODAY. “She knows she’s stronger and better on her own.”

Sansa's tribulations are epic: She withstood physical violence, threats and humiliation at the hands of one-time fiancé King Joffrey and had to watch her father be decapitated by the bratty boy king. During and after the engagement, she suffered mistreatment from his cruel mother, Cersei. She was forced to marry Cersei’s brother, Tyrion, although the gentler Lannister soul — it's all relative — was the least of her problems.

Sansa later fled King's Landing as a suspect in Joffrey’s murder, manipulated along the way by the scheming Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, whose unrequited love for Sansa’s late mother appears to have transferred to her daughter. 

When Sansa lied to spare Littlefinger a murder charge, how did he reward her? By turning her over to the Bolton family, whose patriarch was behind the deaths of her mother and brother, and whose son, the evil Ramsay Bolton, raped her on their wedding night, one of many sadistic acts visited upon the young woman. 

After the torrent of abuse — which drew protests from many fans — Sansa has grown into a strong, self-reliant young woman who saved her half-brother Jon Snow’s forces at the Battle of the Bastards and gained sweet revenge against Ramsay, serving him to his brutish hounds. 

That provides some satisfaction, but now her focus is on gaining a level of respect she feels has been unfairly denied, Turner says. Dating doesn’t seem high on Sansa's list.

“I don’t think she needs anyone in her life. If she falls in love, she falls in love, but she’s definitely not looking,” Turner says.

Besides, with all the death, deception and brutality in Westeros, where "swipe kill" on a dating app might be more common than right or left, there’s not much of a field for Sansa to play. 

“I can’t think of too many eligible bachelors in the Seven Kingdoms at the moment that aren’t murderers or psychos, except for her siblings, and I’m not sure she’d be down with that,” Turner says.

Sansa wouldn’t, but as Thrones fans know, that’s not out of bounds for others in Westeros, where social norms are just another thing to be violated.

Season 7 of Game of Thrones premieres Sunday at 9 ET/PT on HBO.