Sophie Turner subtly responds to claim Sansa Stark was one of Game of Thrones’s ‘most cruel villains’

Sophie Turner has offered a subtle response on social media after her Game of Thrones character Sansa Stark was caught up in a viral online debate.

The discussion was ignited by a tweet from Game of Thrones fan @daenartist, who wrote on Twitter: “One thing I love about the GoT show universe is it’s portrayals of the most heartless and cruel villains. No other show or movie makes you as invested in watching their downfall, it almost feels personal.”

Attached to the message were photos of four characters: Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and Sansa Stark from the original Game of Thrones HBO series, plus Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) from spin-off prequel House of the Dragon.

The tweet has since been liked 14.5k times and quote-tweeted by 8,810 accounts.

Many of those responding took issue with the inclusion of Sansa Stark as one of the show’s “heartless and cruel villains”.

Turner herself seemed to weigh in on the debate by posting a captionless image to her Instagram Stories of Sansa Stark’s final appearance in the series.

The photo showed Sansa sitting on the throne in Winterfell after having avoided downfall to be crowned Queen of the North.

The move delighted fans, with Twitter user @bonsmonet commenting: “I think Sophie Turner saw some shady tweets about Sansa Stark and thought ‘lemme remind these b****** how the show ended’.”

House of the Dragon is set to conclude its first season this Sunday (22 October). Earlier this week, the show’s writers stepped in to explain the controversial ending to episode nine.

‘House of the Dragon’ continues in the UK on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 2am, before repeating at 9pm later that day. It is also available to watch on NOW.