Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for all broadcast seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones, all published volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, references to interviews, set reports, informed by wild speculation, and both fire and greenseer visions.
Aside from the many reasons
why Jon Snow can't be permanently dead in George R. R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO's
Game of Thrones, there has been a mountain of circumstantial evidence that Jon Snow and the actor who portrays him, Kit Harington, will be back for season six of the hit show. We know this from our little birds abroad and Twitter's Kit Harington Hair Watch. This is despite the many official denials to the contrary from the actor himself and the producers (
even to the President of the United States). Most importantly, Harington has been spending A LOT of time around the Game of Thrones "Northern" shooting zone in and around Belfast for someone who's character is dead and gone. Most intriguing is
a recent report that has him on set for a giant battle that pits various Stark-loyal Northern armies and Wildlings against the armies of House Bolton, presumably for control of Winterfell. As far as I know, this is the first actual report of Harington witnessed seen on set. So, the crow is now out of the bag.
Let's assume for a moment that Jon Snow is coming back and participate in the that time-honored past time of
A Song of Ice and Fire fans: speculation. On a side note, has any other major property been subject to as much fierce theorization and speculation as this one? The richness of Martin's imagined world, the slow pace of his output, and the advent of the Internet has meant that his books have been picked apart and analyzed in an unprecedented way. The only twist or surprise in the remaining books would be if they included anything that hasn't already been generated by his collective readers. After all, there are more of us than there are George R. R. Martins and we've been at it for almost twenty years. So, let's speculate about Jon Snow's motives and actions once he does come back to us and how that may tie in with some of our other characters who are up North.
Let's check in for a moment with some of our characters at the Wall at the end of last season. As you may recall, at the end of season five of Game of Thrones, Jon Snow was murdered by his Night's Watch brothers for his Wildling sympathies and for bringing the Free Folk through the Wall. We also have two important characters who are now free from the Stannis story: Melisandre and Davos. Both are conveniently at the Wall in a position to join the Jon Snow story should there be one. Moreover, if Snow does not come back, what exactly are these characters doing at the Wall? If Jon Snow is actually dead, narratively speaking, the Wall is filled with characters with which we have little investment in themselves. Are we going to spend a season with Dolorous Edd? We've spent a lot of time with Davos and Melisandre but neither one of them are characters that have agency of their own or can anchor a storyline. Without a Jon Snow resurrection they are both rudderless.
Melisandre is frankly the most likely source of Jon Snow's resurrection given both the fact that followers of the Lord of Light CAN do this as we have seen previously on the show and given her strange fascination with Jon Snow. This interest in Snow is important because as much as Melisandre is considered the show's sexpot (due to her habit of constantly bringing the girls out), her character is only ever shown to be interested in sex when it is the context of using sorcery to achieve some tactical goal and only ever with someone of "royal blood."
The show makes implicit that she had a late realization that it was not actually Stannis who was her prophesied Azor Azai which is why she so unceremoniously abandoned him and headed for the Wall of all places. While the books have not made it past this point in the story, they do underscore this idea as Melisandre finds herself unable to see Stannis in her fire visions but instead Jon, or "Snow." It is important to note that in the show, Winterfell seems to loom large in her visions of the future. She has foreseen herself walking along it's battlements with the Bolton flag lowered into the dirt. I'm convinced this will happen by the end of next season.
Davos' role in the Jon Snow story is a little more difficult to predict as his prime motivation has been serving Stannis throughout the series and he would have little reason to team up with a fire-resurrected and Melisandre-aligned Jon Snow. It is worth noting that in the books, Davos is at a very different point in the story. He had been dispatched by Stannis on a diplomatic mission to one of the Bolton-opposed Northern Lords and ultimately on a mission to locate Rickon Stark who has been said to be hiding out with the Stark loyalists of House Umber. The actors playing Rickon and Osha are apparently returning this season and the Umbers are said to be participants in the big Northern battle against the Boltons, so it is possible Davos may embark on this mission in the show possibly on behalf of Jon Snow. Davos may align himself with the Stark-loyal Northern houses as a way to get revenge on the Boltons for defeating Stannis. It's the kind of fudge that they do on the show from time to time to get all the pieces in place.
And what about Snow himself? You've been murdered by your brothers in the Night's Watch and brought back by a red-headed zealot, what are you going to do? The good news for the character is that "now his watch has ended." His murder and resurrection frees him from his vows and allows him a lot of room to get involved in the larger story. Narratively, Martin had to kill him to get him out of his vows and set him loose. So, if Jon Snow can do whatever he wants, what does he do?
Does he go on a rampage, killing his former Night's Watch brothers? Probably not. He may be resurrected but he is not immortal, and will still see the value in the organization. Melisandre would likely spirit him out under the cover of night perhaps to his Wildling allies.
The books offer some clues but the murder of Jon Snow in
A Dance of Dragons is motivated a little differently. Not only is book Snow killed for his Wildling plan, but for the fact that he is willing to abandon his position and waste Watch men and resources on a personal mission to free his sister from Ramsey Bolton's clutches after receiving a raven supposedly from the former Bastard of Bolton. This is an interesting difference in the two interpretations of the character. HBO Jon Snow does not have this knowledge but it probably won't be long before he gets it and when he does, he won't have any Night's Watch vows to stop him from rallying the North against the hated Boltons. As far as most Northerners are concerned, he will be the last adult male Stark. He also has an army of Wildlings who will have grown to like and respect him for his honor and his actions at Hardhome. Jon Snow will be powerfully motivated to retake Winterfell in his "brother" Rickon's name. It looks like we may see a little scouring of the Shire next season. According to the report from Watcher on the Wall, this great Northern battle takes place in episode nine, so Melisandre's Winterfell stroll could be one of the last moments of the season, proving her power and foresight.
Then what does Snow do once he has reclaimed Winterfell for his brother? Perhaps he sets his sights south toward the other house that betrayed the Starks: the Freys. Now, in the books, another character is exacting a campaign of vengeance on the Freys: Lady Stoneheart. For those who don't know, Lady Stoneheart is Catelyn Stark, who was resurrected by another Lord of Light follower, Thoros of Myr. She takes over the band of outlaws known as the Brothers Without Borders and uses them to terrorize the Freys. She's been often rumored for the show but has never appeared and frankly, resurrecting two major characters in the same manner in the same season seems unlikely. I doubt we will get her if we get Jon Snow back. But perhaps Snow can fulfill some of her role in the larger story.
Let's not forget that Sansa and Theon are also in the outskirts of Winterfell at the end of last season. We know from set photos that Theon ends up in the Iron Islands but Sansa's location is a mystery. Does she end up back at the Eyrie like book Sansa? That journey would be a major plot to add and unlikely unless somehow she connects with Brienne and Pod, who would seem to be heading south to reconnect with their book stories. Is it too much to hope that Sansa reconnects with Jon and Rikkon and gets to return to Winterfell? If we do have a big Stark Reunion, will something horrifying happen immediately after? Either way, I'm excited as Game of Thrones moves into an exciting phase of the story and it looks like the Starks are on their way back up after years and years of suffering and torment. I think we, as the audience, have earned something heartwarming, at least until the White Walkers come and destroy everything.
Patrick Garone
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