Sansa and Varys in Season 8: Worse Than Poor Writing

I keep seeing the same meme where Rhaenyra says "there has never lived a Stark who forgot an oath" and then they show Sansa swearing to Jon that she won't tell his secret, and it just made me realise how strange the writing process behind that moment is.

Yes, character does a lie and is dumb and whatever, but why was it written that way? What was the thought process behind it in the writers room? Why did they explicitly want Sansa to immediately betray her brother and break an oath? It can't be to make her unlikable, since they want us to cheer when she becomes the Queen in the North at the end of the show. It's not a lesson for her or anything since it has zero consequences that impact her. It barely even impacts the plot, since the reveal doesn't significantly change anything in the story. You could argue it explains why Dany goes mad, but that still comes out of left-field and it doesn't make sense why people knowing Jon is Aegon would make her want to slaughter innocents, if anything it would make their joint reign stronger and their line even more legitimate, and it’s absolutely not a threat to her since Jon actively does not want the throne and supports her and they are already clearly in love. The reveal eventually gets Varys killed, sure, but at that point it was just getting rid of characters and I don't see how Varys could have impacted the plot much if he had lived.

So, why make Sansa an oathbreaker? They could have even just had Jon not ask them to swear oaths of secrecy, so it's not a big deal if she tells. Or they could have Tyrion and others trying to break Dany and Jon up because they want some better political match for her or something like that, and so Sansa actually saves their relationship and alliance by telling Tyrion that Jon is actually the rightful king, so Dany actually needs him for legitimacy. There are easy ways around this. Hell, you could even just have Arya spill the beans, since she cares little for honour and secrecy and politics, or have Sam or Bran say it, or have Dany accidentally spill the beans (showing her lack of constitution, showing some slide into madness) or anything like that.

It's just so obvious that they wanted people to know Jon was a Targaryen (though it's unclear if it's public knowledge or not) and already had Sansa and Dany being unfriendly towards each other because that's all women can be in their minds, and so they just threw this decision onto her character with little regard for how it changes our perception of her. It's honestly impressive how little of a shit they gave the final seasons. It would be actually easier to give it a moment of thought and write something just a little better, it's like they went out of their way to make it as poor as they did.

Honestly, with the only significant consequence of that action, it does seem like the main reason for Sansa lying was to just kill Varys.

They wanted Varys killed off because he had no use in the rest of the show, so they just did a degrees of separation of how the information could get to him (Jon to Sansa, Sansa to Tyrion, Tyrion to Varys) and then made him do a coup and killed him. But the problem is they ruin so many characters by doing that, making Jon dumb for revealing it for no reason, making Sansa unlikable for breaking her oath, making Tyrion be a traitor by telling Varys. A competent writer would have found a better way to do this.

If only there was some kind of Spymaster, some kind of Master of Whisperers, some guy who is known for his disguises and his mysterious ways of attaining information and his web of spies and his utilization of children to sneak about and listen in and his power of manipulating people into doing what he wants. OH WAIT.

Simply have Jon and Dany discuss his parentage in that Winterfell room before the battle, Dany mentions loudly that Jon is Aegon Targaryen, rightful king of Westeros. Then have Jon reassure her that he doesn't want it, and she is calmed. Camera zooms out the window to reveal some peasant child perched on the rooftop listening in, and they scurry away and we see them informing Varys.

Then in the crypts, there we can have the scene of Varys discussing it with Tyrion that was originally set on the boat in the following episode, since he is closer to Jon than Dany. On the way south, change it so Varys travels with Jon instead (which makes Dany suspicious) and on the kingsroad have Varys talk openly with Jon about betraying Dany, and Jon pretends to go along with it. He reveals to Davos he plans to betray the traitor Varys, he's just going along with it to keep Varys from betraying him)

At sea, Dany's fleet is actually surprise attacked by Euron because someone from the council leaked their route to the enemy somehow (rather than them being dumb and forgetting) and so Dany is paranoid at who in the council may want her dead, and Tyrion knows, and so he betrays Varys to try and remain in Dany's good books, protecting himself politically, though it does make her trust him less in the long run, since he didn't tell her before now. When Varys and Jon arrives, Varys is arrested before Jon can betray him, Dany already knows, and so when Jon tries to explain he was going to betray Varys, Dany finds it harder to believe, and THAT is when she does become suspicious of him. It works so much because it totally would sound like he's just lying to save his skin. That is when Varys is executed. This all makes Dany’s paranoia much more reasonable, it also keeps Varys interesting as a character, it shows more politicking and deceit and intrigue in the story, and most importantly it does not ruin the characters of Tyrion, Jon, and Sansa in the process.

But if you really just wanted Varys dead and didn't want to put that much effort into it... simply just kill him in the Long Night. Why not? Add another body to the pile. He doesn't do anything afterwards anyways, and not a single named character actually dies when the undead break out of the crypt.

In fact, you could make it really effective; have him talk with Sansa and Tyrion about how he manipulated Sansa back in Season 1 for the Lannisters, and how he manipulated Tyrion and the Lannisters to undermine them and prepare the realm for Dany. He lays out his sins and he goes on about how he is doing it all for the realm, the greater good, and that now both Sansa and Tyrion are in their right places, he is no enemy to either of them, but neither of them believe him and think he's just trying to save his skin. Cue the undead attack in the crypts and Varys fights the undead, puts himself in their way, and essentially dies saving both Sansa and Tyrion, redeeming himself in their eyes and proving that he does put the realm before himself.

There are just so many ways you can make a plot point like that just... work. Many are just much easier than what they did in the show. Like I said, it's like they went out of their way to make it as poor as they did.