Game of Thrones showrunners reveal which character has changed the most
Nearly every character on Game of Thrones has undergone a substantial journey across eight seasons, but which of the twenty-some series regulars has shown the most growth and change?
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had an answer to that question during a recent interview with EW.
Would it be Arya Stark, who progressed from an innocent girl to a face-shifting killer? Jaime Lannister, who evolved from an arrogant sociopath, shoving a boy out of a window, to a one-handed warrior willing to risk everything to keep his word? Perhaps it’s the Hound, who transitioned from the king’s subservient henchmen into an empathetic ronin?
Nope.
“Sansa,” declared Benioff. “She started out so naive and was forced to undergo the most brutal possible education into the world but emerged from it and became this powerful figure and kind of against all odds. I don’t think too many people watching the first season had any expectation that Sansa would become the woman that she became. And part of that is the story and part of that is Sophie Turner and the phenom she turned out to be as an actress. We knew when we cast Sophie that she was this really good child actor but we had no idea she’d become the force that’s she’s become. So if I had to pick one, I’d pick Sansa.”
Weiss agreed with Benioff’s choice, though added that Bran Stark has, obviously, undergone quite a transformation as well — though Bran’s case is a bit unusual as the bulk of his evolution is due to magical influence after he abruptly became the Three-Eyed Raven, a repository and accessor of unfathomable quantities of information, rather than standard character progression.
Our final season coverage of GoT continues this Sunday with a recap and new interviews.
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