Full disclosure time: I actually didn't like Game of Thrones. I watched absolutely all of it during the pandemic, which wasn't that long ago, but I could barely tell you anything about it now, except that Tyrion drinks and he knows things (which I saw on about a bajillion T-shirts before I saw where it came from.) I didn't like that every single old white man looked like every single other one, making them nigh impossible to tell apart. I didn't like that Jon Snow looked like my friend Pete trying to do a math problem. And I REALLY didn't like that almost every single direwolf died, especially since my mom has a Siberian Husky named Lady, that I felt the need to call and talk to on the phone after every dead dog episode (what, you don't talk to your pets on the phone? Weirdo.)

So why did I decide to cosplay Sansa? Two reasons: one, in 2024 there was this October 31 Day Costume Challenge going around that my friend Beth took part in, and one of the prompts was "Dog pic". I'd long been wanting to include Lady in a costume somehow, I just thought I'd do Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, since I have a sexy Red Riding Hood costume already. But then, in early 2025, I was stuck recovering from major surgery at my mom's house, which meant I had a lot of free time on my hands, and an internet connection. As I watched the snow pile up on our patio, inspiration struck. I found a decent enough costume for a decent enough price on CosplayWare, but what actually sold me on their version was they had a REALLY fantastic Sansa Stark wig...that, sadly, they informed me was out of stock after I had already placed my order. I was able to find a really cheap red wig on Amazon that isn't nearly as good (way too red, and the braid isn't accurate) but was, as I said, really cheap. For a backyard costume I was fine with it. The costume took longer to get to me than I expected, which unfortunately meant the snow was gone by the time it arrived, and I didn't have all of my makeup with me so I'm much more bare-faced than usual, but it was a still nice step in my road to recovery to pose with "my" dog in costume. Pro-top: huskies will work for fortune cookies.