How exactly did Sansa and Theon survive that high jump from Game Of Thrones season 5 finale? George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire was acclaimed long before HBO adapted them, but the TV show turned it into a major franchise. It's now part of Game Of Thrones' legacy that the original, unaired pilot was terrible, being leaden with clunky exposition and unlikeable characters. Thankfully, around 90% of the episode was re-shot and a groundbreaking TV series was born.
Thanks to its combination of great acting, shocking plot twists and bloody violence, Game Of Thrones became a global smash. Sequences like The Red Wedding or The Battle Of The Bastards became instantly iconic, and the show had no shortage of fantastic characters. Sadly, a major issue with later seasons is that they overtook Martin's books, with season 6 onwards containing mostly original material. Even the biggest fans of the series will admit the last few seasons featured a noticeable dip in quality of the writing, with the final season being roundly criticized for rushing to wrap things up without letting the story breathe.
While Game Of Thrones may have ended in 2019, the franchise is set to continue with prequel show House Of The Dragon. The show's season 5 finale was a bloody affair, including the death of key characters like Stannis and Jon Snow - though the latter proved somewhat temporary. It also ended on a cliffhanger for Theon Greyjoy and Sansa Stark, who both escape from Winterfell. Both had been physically and psychologically tortured by the vicious Ramsay Bolton, but after being too terrified to help Sansa - who was forced in marriage with Ramsay - Theon helps her make a desperate escape.
A big issue is that they jump from the walls of Winterfell, which are said to be 80 feet high. They jump but their fates aren't revealed until Game Of Thrones season 6 where they are seen fleeing from Winterfell. Since neither Theon nor Sansa is limping or injured the fall obviously wasn't too bad, but no attempt is made to explain their seemingly miraculous survival; viewers are left to draw their own conclusions as to how they made it.
While Game Of Thrones overtook the novels, it seems the long-gestating next book The Winds Of Winter might hold the answer. In a sample chapter from the book published on Martin's website way back in 2011, Theon recounts his escape from Winterfell to Stannis - who is still alive at this point in the books - and how he survived the leap. In the books, Theon jumped with Jeyne Poole instead of Sansa, and the chapter reveals "The outer wall of Winterfell was eighty feet high, but beneath the spot where he had jumped the snows had piled up to a depth of more than forty. A cold white pillow." So basically, Theon and Jeyne's fall was broken by soft snow, which was (presumably) the logic Game Of Thrones showrunners worked when it came to Theon and Sansa's survival too.