Learning that a major quality died in a Game of Thrones time of year finale should n’t storm you . But exactly who died in last Sunday ’s episode very well might . Is this quality really as dead as them seem , though ? Here are all the reasons watcher and playscript lecturer alike have organize that [ REDACTED ] may yet be around .
[ SPOILERS AHEAD . ]
In case you do n’t make out but are top-notch - concerned in spoiling the season 5 Game of Thrones finale for yourself , here :
Jon Snow had a tough night — if you count being repeatedly stabbed in the bowel by his fellow phallus of the Night ’s Watch for allowing the wilding through the wall “ bad . ” The episode ended , much like his final chapter in 2011 ’s most late Quran volume , A saltation with firedrake , with Jon Snow alone and bleeding out onto the glacial ground .
patently , fans lost their minds when they got to this part of the news report in either medium , and immediately the theories start vanish as to how — and why — this late end of a dear GoT character could be undone . Here , we examine all these theory , and why they do and do n’t mold to do the most important question of our meter : Is Jon Snow coming back ?
POSSIBILITY #1: He’s just still alive.
The instance for : The first thing to note is that both the Word and the TV series cut off away before Jon Snow is decidedly drained . Yes , he ’s been prod in the catgut multiple times , and but narration convening suggests that until we ’ve pick up the cold idle body , there ’s always a chance of the treasonable Watch appendage missing his vital organ and Jon needing a few calendar month to recover . Additionally , Game of Thrones is not a show to shirk showing the full aftermath of lineament ’ demises ( see Joffrey ’s demise panorama in time of year 4 for an lesson of how to show a case dying beyond a shadow of a incertitude ) . This time , though , the show ignore by before we could know for certain that Jon was dead .
The casing against : While Game of Thrones the show relies on coincidence more than the books do — a necessity of narration thriftiness more than anything — generally , both variant of the stories have invalidate give case that much “ circumstances . ” Jon living through all those stab wound just does n’t seem plausible , and despite the magic and dragons and ice zombies , Game of Thrones does essay to stick to realness in all other respect . Plus , as that final tantrum show , Jon lost a circle of blood .
POSSIBILITY #2: He warged into Ghost.
The vitrine for : In the book , Jon Snow has warged into his direwolf Ghost — which is to say transferred his consciousness , in display case you ’ve forgotten the term — on several occasions , and most reader get into that when Jon was stabbed , he straight off sent his mind into his animal companion . As the book proved with Orell , who sent his mind into an eagle when his body was kill , there is unquestionably precedent for a skinchanger ’s judgment to experience on past his forcible body ’s demise . Indeed , this is what most bookreaders believe has pass to Jon .
The case against : While it may seem likely in the books , the show has well-nigh never shown Jon Snow warging into Ghost , and if this is what has happen it will effectively come up out of left landing field for TV viewers . It would be squashy storytelling , and whatever problems you may have with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss , that ’s not a trouble they often are shamed of . Besides , it seems unlikely that the Koran and the show would have dissimilar solutions to this monolithic event , although it ’s certainly potential .
POSSIBILITY #3: Melisandre will resurrect him.
The case for : In both the show and the book , the red priestess of R’hllor is at Castle Black when Jon Snow is stabbed . Both iterations of Game of Thrones have had lengthy subplots show that the priests of R’hllor have the power to resurrect the dead via Thoros of Myr , who has continually brought Ser Beric Dondarrion back to life , as Arya visualise . This is a immense game element that so far seems to have had no story shock , and is almost certainly waiting to pay off down the line of descent — and Jon ’s Resurrection of Christ seems the most obvious candidate . Besides , both the books and the show went to nice length to ensure R’hllor priestess Melisandre would be at Castle Black during Jon ’s demise . true , Melisandre has not yet used this resurrection exponent , but she does know it ’s possible , having met Thoros on the show .
The case against : Again , it seems somewhat improbable that the show and the books would have two different solutions to such a major consequence , and Melisandre has n’t touch Thoros in the book , and on the face of it does not know about the resurrection mogul of her carmine fire god . Maybe she ’ll experience a novel vision in the flames , of maybe she actually learned about this power in R’hllor Sunday School and merely has n’t mentioned it . But at the mo , there ’s no reason to mistrust she ’s aware of her potential ability to bring Jon back to life .
POSSIBILITY #4: Jon Snow will be reborn in fire.
The casing for : The persist theory of Jon Snow ’s parentage is that he ’s the undercover boy of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark , whom Ned take on and keep secret to forbid Robert Baratheon from killing in his attempt to free the earthly concern of Targaryens . As we saw in the first season , Targaryens have a peculiar kinship with fire in that Danaerys was capable to enter Khal Drogo ’s funeral pyre and come forth unscathed . If the Watch performs normal procedure and gives Jon the normal ceremony , his body will be burned as well ( although this is just a sure thing , seeing as he was slay as a treasonist by his fellow Watch members ) . At this level , his Targaryen blood line could recoil in — and perhaps even his presumed destiny as Azor Ahai — and not only keep his eubstance from burn , but actually institute him back to life as well . It certainly would n’t be the most howling result in the serial .
The case against : The fire itself resurrecting Jon is a bit more actual than GRRM usually is . It ’s not impossible , but Dany ’s “ spiritual rebirth ” in the flaming of Drogo ’s funeral pyre was metaphorical . Neither we nor the characters in the serial publication truly understand the fervidness magic at work in the Targaryen line of business or R’hllor ’s priests , but from the evidence give so far , there seemingly call for to be an agent at oeuvre , like Thoros of Myr ( or , presumptively , Melisandre ) to resurrect someone from the dead . Perhaps Jon ’s body will be combust , and perhaps the flames may inspire Melisandre to essay to resurrect him , but this would still fall under “ Melisandre uprise Jon ” as oppose to the fire doing all the work .
POSSIBILITY #5: Jon Snow will come back as a White Walker.
The case for : Plenty of people fare back to life after they die up north , even if they come back wrong . While it seems completely idiotic that Jon would issue forth back as a mindless Isle of Wight — no matter what his circumstance , it seems improbable that his future persona would be as a bare minion of the White Walkers — given Jon ’s clear-cut grandness to the chronicle , he would need to have some color of agency to fulfill his tale responsibility .
Besides , in the heroic instalment “ Hardhome , ” the leader of the White Walkerss very much singled Jon out with the ultimate “ COME AT ME BRO ” facial expression . This imply some sort of relationship , even if Jon is unaware of it — does the Night ’s King front at Jon as his ultimate antagonist , or could it have been something more ?
The causa against : There are a draw of effective “ maybes ” in the above paragraph , even for an article devote only to theories . Besides , people have to pass away north of the Wall to become a wight , and , at least according to the show , there needs to be a much more elaborate ceremonial occasion to create a White Walker . Jon die very clearly in Castle Black . fundamentally , there ’s really no in - book or in - show evidence to support this theory .
POSSIBILITY #6: Something else crazy happens.
The case for : This is still a fancy serial , with illusion and dragons and ice zombies . There ’s a ton about the world of Westeros that neither we nor the characters cognise about yet , and GRRM could have some other method of bring Jon Snow back to life that we have n’t think of yet . It could have something to do with his parent — whether it be Stark , Targaryen , or something else exclusively — it could need the White Walkers , the magic of the north , the direwolves , Bran and his new powers … there are many possibilities .
The case against : George R.R. Martin is not a sorry author . He ’s almost certainly not pass away to displume a deus x machina to save Jon at the get-go of the next book , and the boob tube show will likely take after suit . And he ’s especially not run short to spring something out of nowhere when he ’s grow Chekhov ’s gunman , like magical resurrection , in earlier books .
POSSIBILITY #7: He’s just dead.
The case for : Besides the problems with each of the theories list above , there ’s one tremendous real life obstacle to them : The fact that actorKit Harington unequivocally says Jon Snow is deadand that he ’s not derive back to the series . That seems as unequivocal as can be . Furthermore , Harington was famously unable to cut his pilus while he was engage by the show , and EW also reports that he ’s cut his long locks — as unclouded a sign that Jon Snow ’s story is done as anything .
Besides , allow ’s await at the show ’s track platter . Every time a traditional hero from the Stark family unit emerges , his desire to do the correct thing gets him killed . This was on-key of Ned and Robb — why would n’t Jon Snow also compensate the same price for endeavor to bring the Watch and the Wildings together to band against their great foe ?
The bottom line is that Game of Thrones has done this before — on several occasion — and with a few minor exceptions , dead is dead .
The case against : Come on . Come on . I know George R.R. Martin has a exhaustively justified reputation killing off major characters , but at a sealed point even it becomes laughable . Having Jon die — permanently — for the same reason of his don and brother is superfluous ; there is nothing Jon ’s death adds to the narrative that the former deaths do n’t . We already know no character in A Song of Ice and Fire is safe , and do n’t need it demonstrated again .
More significantly , for both the show and the TV series , we ’re approaching the end game . Only two more books and two more season are forthcoming , which mean a sight is expire to happen in these persist episodes and chapters . While obviously some case are going to die along the way , it ’s not unwarranted to trust the part who have made it this far in the account have done so for some specific design — and it does n’t seem like Jon has served that use yet . Perhaps his one goal was to bring some of the wilding south of the Wall , but there were other ways for them to achieve this — Jon Snow was n’t strictly necessary . And as much focus has been localize on Jon Snow in the story so far , it seems quite reasonable to believe he has a corking purpose ahead of him .
By this same token , the character of Jon Snow has not study his lawful blood yet , which , in almost any other fantasy serial , would make him much immortal . Again , we cognize that Martin have intercourse disrupting the storytelling traditions of fantasy , but this goes beyond killing Ned ( the original primary character ) or Robb ( the son who sets out to retaliate his father ) . A character fail to achieve a goal is part of a story being told , but exit a secret unresolved is abnegate the basic katharsis that fictitious character demand to develop and reader / witness require to be satisfied ( not “ well-chosen , ” heed you , but “ satisfied ” ) . It vocalise ridiculous , I know , but I intend denying readers the chance of Jon Snow memorise his parentage might be too cruel for George R.R. Martin — at least in the sense that it ’s the variety of thwarted anticipation that wee-wee readers genuinely disgruntled with the story , as play off to upset with the history ’s event .
And last but not least , the history itself gives several clues that Jon ’s role is not yet over . The most famous prophecy in A Song of Ice and Fire is of path that “ the flying lizard has three heads , ” which readers assume to mean Daenerys , Tyrion and Jon Snow ( for details onwhy Tyrion and Jon may be considered “ dragons , ” see this ) . If Jon Snow is 100 % beat , he ca n’t be one of the dragon ’s three heads , which seems extremely unlikely that he , Daenerys and Tyrion are the three character the books have pass the most time covering . Additionally , if Jon Snow is n’t part of this triumvirate , who is ? Neither the show nor the books have proffer even a hint of an choice .
IN CONCLUSION:
Hell if I know . What I do know is this : TV viewer are now almost exactly at the place the Word of God readers have been since we finished the last chapter of A Dance with Dragons in 2011 . You know as much as we do , and vice versa . From this point , we ’ll really be go through the show ( and the books ) together , with no idea what ’s coming next . Whether Jon Snow returns next season , disappears until next year , or is never see again , we ’re all in this together now . And even if Jon Snow failed to bring the Night ’s Watch and the Wildings together , bring Game of Thrones Word readers and tv set show watchers together is no small exploit .
reach out to the writer at[email protected ] .
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