The Stark sisters, the Lannister twins and the Greyjoys; the siblings of Game of Thrones who stood by each other through thick and thin.
Throughout the seven seasons of Game of Thrones, we have met siblings who would readily slit your throat if anyone dared to attack their brother/sister. We have also met siblings who couldn’t stand the sight of each other, a brother who would readily sell his sister to the Dothrakis, and then we met Jaime and Cersei. While telling a story of battles won and lost, George RR Martin finely explored the real kind of relationships siblings share with one another.
In season one, it was fairly obvious that Jon Snow and Robb Stark favoured little Arya more than Sansa. Arya was playful and much like the Stark brothers she had her interest in swords and crossbows. She was even a better shooter than Rickon. Meanwhile, Sansa always had her interest in gowns, having the perfect hairdo, tiaras and in a nutshell, she wanted to become a lady more than anything else in the world. Naturally both Robb and Jon clicked with their sister Arya more than the elder sister Sansa. However, when Robert Baratheon first entered Winterfell, Sansa and Jeoffrey slightly tried to get each other’s attention with a flirtatious smile. It was Robb Stark’s stern glare towards Jeoffrey that convinced us at that very moment that he would never play favourite when it came to protecting any of his sisters.
Years later, Jon Snow and Sansa Stark meet. The episode Battle of the Bastard happened and our respect for Jon Snow had reached a whole new level when he punched Ramsay Bolton until his nose bled. Yes, later the two quarreled openly in front of strangers, but wasn’t that the most real brother-sister moment we could ever witness on screen? Neither Jon Snow, nor Sansa Stark ace the art of being diplomatic, while the former lean on the policy of honesty even while dealing with Cersei Lannister, one of the shrewdest queens on the show, the latter takes steps based on what she experienced personally. But finally, regardless of all the quarrels, you can trust Jon Snow to put Sansa in charge of Winterfell while he is gone.
The seventh season must have been the most satisfying experience for viewers who grew up admiring the Stark family. The reunion of Sansa Stark and Arya Stark finally happened. If anything, the Stark women proved that it needs more than a falsely planted letter to create a misunderstanding between them. Of course, they may still find each other annoying, (as confessed by Sansa herself), but even a cunning man like Petyr Baelish, who could easily fool two families into believing that they are enemies for eternity, could not stand in their way.
A somewhat similar connection was also noticed between Cersei and Jaime. Jaime’s friendship with Brienne Of Tarth had changed him. The Lannister had once pushed a little Bran Stark off a tower, raped his sister in the presence of his dead son, but suddenly when he was helplessly drowning in the river none of us wanted him to die. That’s how the makers of Game of Thrones have been playing with our emotions.
When a changed Jaime came back home to Kings Landing, Cersei never had to be told about how he was slowly drifting away from her as a lover, brother, let alone read a secretly planted note about him. Her intuitions were enough. In the seventh season, you could almost see the madness in her eyes, when she came to know that Jaime had secretly met with Tyrion. At the end of this season, she almost ordered her puppet bodyguard, The Moutain, to kill him for not following her command but it was that one last shred of emotion for him that stopped her from making such a brutal call.
Now let’s talk about the Greyjoys, Yara and Theon. The latter couldn’t be more consumed with guilt for not saving Yara from Euron. You may call him a coward for jumping off the ship, but what other choice did he have right then? Euron would have definitely slit her throat if he would have stepped forward. Yara may not be in the best of conditions right now, but at least we know that she is alive. Now all Theon needs is a good plan to rescue her. If Tyrion Lannister could secretly make it to Kings Landing without being beheaded why couldn’t Theon?
While spinning a television series around the families killing other families to win the game of thrones, it remains remarkable how George RR Martin finely manages to show such real kind of bonding shared by siblings.
