Jeyne Poole

"Jeyne Poole's mother had five children, all of them girls."

- Sansa Stark

Jeyne Poole is a background character in the first season. She is played by an unidentified extra and only appears in the series premiere. Jeyne Poole is a friend of Sansa Stark and daughter of Vayon Poole, the Steward of Winterfell.

Background
Jeyne is the daughter of a minor house living at Winterfell. Her father Vayon Poole is the Steward of Winterfell, managing the castle's household. She is Sansa Stark's best friend.

Season 1
Jeyne practices needlework with Sansa Stark under the tutelage of Septa Mordane. She attends a feast at Winterfell to celebrate a visit by King Robert Baratheon.

Sansa is fearful that she will not be able to give Joffrey sons, only daughters like her friend Jeyne Poole's mother, but Septa Mordane doesn't think this likely.

Jeyne's father, Vayon Poole, is killed by Lannister men-at-arms in the Red Keep during the purge of the Stark household following the arrest of Lord Eddard Stark for treason.

Appearances
* Uncredited appearance

Behind the scenes
Jeyne is not identified in the script for the first episode, in which she only appears briefly and has no dialogue. She is played by an uncredited extra in this scene. Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss identify the girl sitting next to Sansa during the feast as Jeyne Poole in their audio commentary track on the Season 1 DVD and Blu-Ray set.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels Jeyne is Sansa Stark's best friend and accompanies her South to King's Landing. Jeyne is the daughter of the steward of Winterfell, Vayon Poole. No mention is made in the books of Jeyne having four sisters, which is stated in the TV series, though the books never said Jeyne was an only child. She is described as very pretty, with brown eyes and dark hair.

She attends the Tourney of the Hand with Sansa Stark, and while Sansa mentions her attraction to Ser Loras Tyrell, Jeyne has a crush on Ser Beric Dondarrion.

Following the arrest of Eddard Stark and the purge of the Stark household, Jeyne is temporarily detained alongside Sansa but is later taken away by Littlefinger to an undisclosed location. Later it is revealed she was taken against her will to one of his brothels, where she was trained and beaten.

In A Storm of Swords, after the Red Wedding Littlefinger comes up with the idea to introduce Jeyne as Arya Stark (who is believed to be dead) and marry her to Ramsay, and Tywin accepts it. Jeyne hears terrible stories about Ramsay's cruelty but has no choice but to comply. In A Dance with Dragons, she is sent to Winterfell to marry Ramsay, though Theon Greyjoy, who is now Ramsay's prisoner "Reek", immediately recognizes her as Sansa's friend, having known her since childhood. Though the Boltons are aware of the deception, Jeyne manages to convince the other Northern Lords she is Arya, and Theon advises her not to break character, since if the Northern Lords realize she is an impostor, she will likely be killed by the Boltons, as she will no longer be of any use to them.

Jeyne is repeatedly abused and tortured by Ramsay, who forces her to perform sexual acts with Theon and possibly even his dogs as a form of humiliation, much to the ire of the other Northern Lords. Jeyne begs Theon to help her escape, but he refuses, knowing full well of the consequences should they fail and be caught. Meanwhile, at Castle Black, Jon Snow hears of the wedding and sends Mance Rayder, whose death was faked by Melisandre, to infiltrate Winterfell and rescue Arya from Ramsay, unaware that Arya is in Braavos. Mance enters Winterfell as a bard, "Abel", along with six spearwives. With Winterfell in chaos due to Mance murdering several people to create tension between the Boltons, Freys and Manderlys, Theon and Jeyne manage to escape the castle by jumping off the wall, landing in the deep snow below, although Mance is forced to stay behind after Jeyne screams and gives away their position.

Jeyne and Theon run from Winterfell and reach the camp of Stannis Baratheon. On Theon's advice, Jeyne maintains her façade as Arya so Stannis will send her to Castle Black. Ramsay apparently discovers the escape and sends a letter to Jon, furiously demanding his wife's return, which leads to Jon, still believing it is Arya, deciding to head to Winterfell to confront and kill Ramsay himself to stop him pursuing her, though he is stabbed by his own men before he can leave Castle Black.

In the television series, following the massacre at the Red Keep, Jeyne has not been seen, and so her fate is unknown. Her role in A Dance with Dragons is taken by Sansa. David Benioff and Bryan Cogman claimed in an interview that this decision had been made as far back as the second season, as they believed such as powerful plotline in the North would have been entirely wasted on a character they had all-but excluded from the television series, and better suited for Sophie Turner, whose acting as Sansa was widely praised by the producers. Another reason was that they wanted a Stark to return to Winterfell and be reunited with Theon.