Getty Peter Dinklage arrives for the "Game of Thrones" eighth and final season premiere.
The final season of Game of Thrones airs Sunday, April 14; after seasons apart, it is likely that Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister, who had an arranged marriage back in season 3, will meet once again in season 8.
When season 7 left off, Sansa Stark, played by Sophie Turner, was Lady of Winterfell in her family home with her siblings Arya and Bran. Further south, Tyrion, played by Peter Dinklage, was on a boat heading north to Winterfell with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.
Ahead of season 8, here’s what you need to know about Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister’s marriage:
1. Sansa Was Arranged to Marry Tyrion After Her Wedding to Joffrey Was Called Off
In season 1, King Robert Baratheon pressured Ned Stark into a marriage arrangement between their children, Sansa and Joffrey. Even as Joffrey began to show his dangerous, evil ways, Sansa stayed enamored with him and the prospect of becoming queen one day. After Joffrey ordered Ned’s beheading at the end of season 1, Sansa remained betrothed to him until Loras Tyrell asked Joffrey to marry his sister Margaery in the season 2 finale; Joffrey set Sansa aside at his mother’s suggestion, using the Stark family’s alleged treason as justification.
Although Sansa was no longer tied to Joffrey as his future wife, she remained trapped under the influence of the Lannisters in King’s Landing. When news of Olenna Tyrell’s plan to marry Sansa to her grandson Loras spread to Tywin Lannister, he arranged for Loras to be married to Cersei and Sansa to be married to Tyrion.
2. They Never Consummated Their Marriage
At their wedding (season 3 episode 8), Joffrey walked Sansa down the aisle to Tyrion, in place of the father he had executed. At the altar, he removed the step stool set so that Tyrion could more easily cloak his bride and laughed throughout the uncomfortable ceremony.
At the dinner reception that followed, Tyrion got very drunk and encouraged Sansa to do the same. When Joffrey declared it is time for their bedding ceremony, Tyrion refused and threatened Joffrey at first, but then played along and brought Sansa up to their bedchamber. Alone, Tyrion reassured her that he would not consummate the marriage with her until Sansa wanted him to, to which she asked “What if I never want you to?” His response to that was “And so my watch begins.”
3. Tyrion Was in Love With Shae When He & Sansa Got Married
In season 1, Bronn found Shae, a prostitute, for Tyrion to be with on the night before his battle in the Riverlands. Over time, the two developed a relationship and Tyrion brought Shae back to King’s Landing and she took on the position as handmaiden for Sansa so the two could safely and secretly be together.
Shae was present in Sansa’s bedroom when Tyrion told Sansa the news that they were to be married. Understandably, neither woman took the news well and Tyrion tried to reassure Shae of his love for her in spite of her jealousy. After Tyrion and Shae were married and Shae realized they were not intimate, she unsuccessfully tried to seduce Tyrion once more.
Shae initially refused Varys’s bribe to ship her safely out of King’s Landing; however, once Tywin learned about Shae and her iife was in danger, Tyrion told Shae her never loved her and that she was just a whore to him in order to get her to leave. At Tyrion’s trial, Shae testified against him saying that he and Sansa planned Joffrey’s murder together.
4. Sansa Was Accused of Conspiring With Tyrion to Murder Joffrey
In the moments following Joffrey’s death by poison at his wedding to Margaery Tyrell, Cersei pointed to Tyrion as the person responsible for Joffrey’s death, in part because Joffrey had ordered Tyrion to fill his glass of wine throughout the reception as his cupbearer. In the chaos, Sansa was spirited away to the safety of Petyr Baelish’s ship; when Tyrion was arrested and Sansa was nowhere to be found, it made him seem even guiltier.
While he awaited trial, Tyrion suggested that Sansa would testify on his behalf, and it was then that he learned she had been missing since the wedding and Joffrey’s death. Joffrey and Margaery’s wedding was the last time Sansa and Tyrion saw each other.
5. Sansa & Tyrion Are Technically Still Married
When Petyr Baelish brought Sansa to her aunt Lysa in the Vale, Lysa told her that she and her cousin Robyn would be married once Tyrion was executed for the murder of Joffrey. Tyrion escaped before his execution and Petyr murdered Lysa before she could marry Sansa to her son; however, Petyr arranged for Sansa to be married to Ramsay Bolton, solidifying House Bolton’s hold on Winterfell and control of the North.
After the Battle of the Bastards, Jon Snow took Ramsay captive and left Sansa in charge of his execution. Sansa, finally able to reclaim power over the husband who tortured and assaulted her, uncaged his vicious dogs to eat him alive. Although Ramsay Bolton’s death freed Sansa of that marriage, her marriage to Tyrion was never actually annulled before or after she and Ramsay was married, so if Tyrion and Sansa meet again in season 8, the status of their marriage is a topic they will most likely have to address. Since the marriage was not consummated, however, it is possible that it is considered invalid in the eyes of the Seven.