Game of Thrones: Why Sansa Stark could win it all

Where most "Game of Thrones" fans were horrified by beheing of beloved Ned Stark and blamed it on a ruthless king, Columbia University business professor Bruce Craven saw a lesson in failed leership.

rrner Stark was simply too proud to just to cutthroat nature of King's Landing as it became mired in a scramble over royal succession. His execution set into motion battles, intrigues, romances and resurrections that will culminate this Sunday with show's highly-anticipated final season.

In AP's weekly "Wealth of Westeros" series, we'll be delving into latest plot twists and analyzing ecomic and business forces driving story. We examine show's central question in Part 1: Who will win Iron Throne?

RE | Ultimate Game Of Thrones Threat Rankings: Who Can Be A Game (-of-Thrones)-changer In Season 8?

judgment of Craven and or acemic minds may surprise you: Sansa Stark, Ned's eldest daughter. Sansa has grown from a once-helpless princess with dreams of lemon cakes into a wily strategist. She has endured marris that were degring and abusive, finding ways to apt and survive that her late far could never man.

"She's h probably closest involvement with widest array of different leers," said Craven, who has written a new business book, "Win or Die: Leership Secrets from Game of Thrones ."

Sansa has learned from Littlefinger's manipulations. She's seen pitfalls from what Craven calls Cersei's "transactional" approach to leership. And she's seen her kinsman Jon Sw's idealism transform him from a brooding teenr into a military commander capable of challenging zombie army of Night King.

This education might be ultimate vant, even if she lacks firepower of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons or Valyrian steel sword wielded by Jon Sw.

"She doesn't have dragons. She didn't learn to become an assassin," ded Craven, who mits his prediction is just a hunch. "Everything she's gone through, part of me wants to see her lever that in some unpredictable way."

Sansa does enjoy a major edge in terms of resources, said Mark Wright, research director at Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. From U.S. Civil War to World War II, victorious armies have often gained a decisive edge by having best equipment, stable supply lines and multitudes of soldiers. Her perceived rivals for throne are running close to empty militarily and ecomically.

Thanks to her feeble cousin Robin Arryn, Knights of Vale are under her command. Her troops are freshest and arguably best provisioned, given Vale's rich soil that provides for wheat, corn, barley and enviously large pumpkins. Her rivals have suffered destruction of ir farmland and depletion of ir armies after years of warfare and occasional scorched-earth dragon attack.

"I think it was Napoleon who said an army marches on its stomach," Wright said.

t everyone, however, is convinced that Sansa will rule. betting markets have picked Bran Stark, her mystical and disabled bror. He might also seem like an unexpected pick. Bran has ability to journey through time. This gives him an oracular power, but it has extinguished his former emotional warmth for cold prophecies. He seems too detached from humanity to sit on Iron Throne or establish personal connections that a ruler would need to rally a weary populace. But to ecomists, his popularity on betting markets matters a lot.

market is closest thing public has to a three-eyed raven. It can forecast future by distilling wisdom of crowds. stock and bond markets do this daily. He has charisma and can't fight, and show suggested last season that he's longer even a Stark. But Boyle Sports gives him 4/5 odds. He's top pick on Bova, too. And on Oddschecker. And Gambling.com.
But of course, markets can be wrong. So can experts.

Carolyne Larrington, a professor of medieval European literature at Oxford and author of "Winter is Coming: Medieval World of Game of Thrones ," doesn't think Sansa wants to sit on Iron Throne, any more than her far did. Inste, she sees Daenerys as most likely choice, with her dragons and Dothraki hordes. Larrington said show, once kwn for its moral shes of gray, has become more clearly a fight of good vs. evil as it nears its end.

"I think that's why y'll play it safe, and give it to Daenerys," she said.

Craven credits Daenerys with having developed superior leership skills: She inspires people by walking into flames and surviving. She frees slaves and tries to rule for benefit of ors. Plus, she has dragons. She is " queen we chose," in words of her interpreter and viser, Missandei. It's a surprisingly positive lesson from a show that has relentlessly crushed so many beloved characters.

"All leership that goes forward successfully against odds — with exception of Cersei — involves leers that are motivated by helping or people," Craven says. "ir leership isn't strictly about ir own achievement or standing at top of org chart."

Let's hope that leership style works against army of Night King.