Game Of Thrones How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

Game Of Thrones: How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

Contents

Game of Thrones brought Jon Snow back to life in season 6, but he’s still dead in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. How will he return?

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Game Of Thrones How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

Jon Snow returned from the dead in Game of Thrones, but his resurrection will likely be a little bit different in George R.R. Martin’s next A Song of Ice and Fire book, The Winds of Winter. Among all the deaths in both books and show, Jon Snow’s is one of the most momentous. Branded a traitor by his Night’s Watch brothers, Jon Snow is stabbed to death by a group of mutineers at the very end of Game of Thrones season 5 (and towards the end of the fifth A Song of Ice and Fire book, A Dance With Dragons). There are various differences between the two events – from motives to who’s involved – but the end result is Jon Snow dying.

Of course, when Jon’s death happened on Game of Thrones, not many expected it to stick. While the show had killed off big characters before, it was always at a time when their death served a greater purpose to the story than them being kept alive. This didn’t quite fit for Jon Snow, who was theorized to be the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (which proved to be true), and not just an important character but quite clearly the main protagonist of the series, whose hero’s journey we were all following. It wasn’t much of a surprise, then, when in Game of Thrones season 6, episode 2, Melisandre brought Jon Snow back to life. She called on the powers of the Lord of Light to do so, knowing it was possible thanks to Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion, but ultimately it was all pretty straightforward.

Jon’s resurrection in the books has to happen for the same reasons it did in the show. Indeed, the fact Game of Thrones brought him back all but confirms he’s a major part of the books’ ending too, no matter how else things might diverge. However, it’s also likely that how Jon comes back from the dead will be quite different in the books, especially as Martin presumably won’t make things so simple or painless.

What Happens To Jon Snow After His Death

Game Of Thrones How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

One commonly held theory about Jon’s fate is that, upon his death, he warged into his direwolf, Ghost. Jon’s warging abilities aren’t as overt as Bran’s, but he has been shown to possess the ability through wolf-dreams, and his final thoughts hint towards this happening: “‘Ghost,’ he whispered. Pain washed over him… When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold.” Ghost being his very last word, along with Jon not feeling the cold, suggests that his consciousness has passed into the direwolf.

Unfortunately, Game of Thrones cut much of the Starks’ relationships with the direwolves out (largely to do with the CGI involved), but it’s so explicit in the books that this does make sense. It also means Jon can and will be dead for longer, or rather his body will, while he exists within Ghost. This itself links back to the prologue of A Dance With Dragons (chapters Martin uses to establish key themes and ideas, such as the comet in A Clash of Kings), where we follow a warg called Varamyr Sixskins, who had previously recognized Jon as a fellow warg. Melisandre sees it herself, with this line of a vision of Jon: “Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again.” Heck, he’s called Ghost for a reason, after all. It’s possible that the prologue of The Winds of Winter could even be from the point-of-view of Ghost/Jon.

Melisandre Will Still Resurrect Jon Snow (But Differently)

Game Of Thrones How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

Of course, while Jon Snow’s mind still may be alive, there’s still the question of it coming back into a revived body. That’s where Melisandre presumably comes in. As it stands, Melisandre resurrecting Jon remains the most likely option, not least because of how this has been established with worshippers of the Lord of Light already. It’s certainly possible that she achieves it in a similar way to the TV show, which is that she does a spell with a bit of vague chanting and it eventually works. But while that was fine for the show, which had to expedite things for the story, the books can take a little more time and offer some greater depth. And with that, they can also go darker, with one possibility incorporating the burning of Shireen Baratheon. This is one of three “holy s**t” scenes Martin told Benioff and Weiss will happen in the books, but how it does so will be quite different. Since Melisandre and Shireen didn’t travel from the Wall with Stannis, and he’s already camped out close to Winterfell ahead of the Battle of Ice with Ramsay, then Shireen won’t be burned ahead of that conflict.

See also  Jumanji 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Making Of The Original Movie

One option is that Melisandre straight-up sacrifices Shireen to bring Jon back; this would not only tie into the Azor Ahai prophecy (where Shireen’s greyscale represents waking dragons from “stone”) but would be interesting for Jon’s arc, as he’d have to live with the guilt and conflict of what it took to bring him back. Another possibility is that it happens much, much later in The Winds of Winter, with Stannis sacrificing Shireen to defeat the Others, with the unexpected consequence that it brings back Jon Snow, who becomes the real Azor Ahai instead of Stannis. This means that Stannis can still burn Shireen, which is thematically important, but it also serves the narrative function of bringing Jon back. The problem is that it might be too late in the novel, given how long it would mean Jon is MIA (or warged into Ghost) for. Martin has a lot more time than the show, but Jon Snow still needs to be back in action to help setup big events for The Winds of Winter’s conclusion and then A Dream of Spring.

But if not Shireen – assuming that comes when Stannis makes his final play, with Shireen representing his Nissa Nissa – then what other dark route could Jon’s return take? There is another option for a sacrifice, which comes in the form of the child of Gilly and Craster, who is believed by most at the Wall to actually be the son of Mance Rayder and Dalla, Aemon Steelsong. While readers know Jon switched the children (a plotline that’s totally missing from Game of Thrones), few at the Wall do, and there’s no indication that Melisandre does. The reason Jon did this was to protect the child from Mel in the first place, worried that she would try to sacrifice him as in the stories they’ve heard about her, and believing that since Gilly’s son has no King’s blood, he’s of no use and thus won’t be sacrificed once the truth is revealed.

However, with Jon Snow dead, then there’s less stopping Melisandre sacrificing the child to either a) bring Jon back to life, or b) bring Stannis back, since the so-called pink letter states he is dead. Obviously the child she is burning won’t really have King’s blood, but it would be a great narrative irony if Jon returns all the same (whether because of the sacrifice or not, since Mel is shown to be stronger at the Wall anyway). It’d also lead to that aforementioned conflict in his arc, where he returns but then learns of Mel’s actions, and has to live knowing that despite everything he did to protect the child, they died bringing him back. This can lead to him banishing Melisandre and Selyse from Castle Black, and then sets up the later attempted sacrifice of Shireen, which also won’t work as expected. In both cases it’s a cruel tragedy, but thematically and narratively works and fits with Martin’s sensibilities.

Bran & Bloodraven Could Be Involved In Jon’s Resurrection

Game Of Thrones How Will Jon Snow Be Resurrected In The Books

As well as Melisandre, the other involvement to consider in Jon Snow’s resurrection is that of Bran Stark and the Three-Eyed Crow (known as the Three-Eyed Raven in Game of Thrones). Not only does Bran have a close familial link to Jon, but they’re also both wargs, while Bloodraven is (or was) the son of a Targaryen King. The exact motivations of Bloodraven are yet to be fully revealed (and may be quite nefarious in the end), but there are at least suggestions of their involvement or even just interest in Jon Snow’s storyline. Geographical proximity makes for part of it, as their storylines are easier to intwine since Jon’s at the Wall and they’re North of it. But there’s the chance that Bloodraven has warged into Lord Commander Mormont’s raven, speaking to Jon at key moments in his story.

See also  Forza Horizon 5 8 Best Cars For Drag Racing

With both powerful wargs, it’s likely that they will attempt to reach out to Jon-as-Ghost in The Winds of Winter. With him warged into the wolf, then his mind would be more open for Bran to sense, and thus he could serve as a spiritual guide for Jon while he isn’t in his own body, helping him find a degree of control in it and perhaps playing a part in finding a way back. But there’s also a suggestion they too could help resurrect Jon Snow. From The Winds of Winter’s preview Theon chapter, Stannis intends to kill Theon to appease the Northern Lords, and his sister Asha convinces him to do it before the heart tree. This is ostensibly supported by ravens, who say “the tree, the tree” and “Theon, Theon, Theon”. It’s possible this is Bran and Bloodraven working to save Theon, but it also introduces the idea of a sacrifice to the heart tree that could itself play a part in Jon’s resurrection. Whatever the end result, Bran and Bloodraven will surely be involved in some capacity here, unlike in Game of Thrones.

Death Should Change Jon More In The Books Than The Show

In A Song of Ice and Fire, when people come back from the dead, they’re supposed to be markedly different. Martin has even went as far as referring to Beric Dondarrion as being like a fire wight, with the idea that he loses something of himself each time he’s brought back. The same goes for Lady Stoneheart, who is very different to Catelyn Stark. Game of Thrones never fully reckoned with this – Beric loosely touched upon it, but the idea wasn’t truly explored, and few notable changes were exhibited in Jon beyond his being more reckless in battle. The Winds of Winter, though, will deal with it, and while that’ll partly be through the continued story of Stoneheart, it’ll more be through Jon Snow. More important and indeed interesting than his resurrection is just how coming back from the dead will change him in the books.

Key to how Jon Snow will be different upon his return from his death are the words of Haggon, another skinchanger and mentor of Varamyr Sixskins, who remembers what he told him: “They say you forget. When the man’s flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.” Couple that with what Martin himself has said – that characters who return from the dead are “worse for wear… some aspect of the spirit is changed or transformed, and they’ve lost something.” This suggests the Jon Snow we see after his resurrection will be less himself – less purely noble and good – and more wolfish, more prone to violence, more inclined to giving in to his own desires, which, ultimately, can lead to him claiming the thing he’s secretly wanted most of all: to be Jon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, King in the North, and then you can have that undercut by the gut punch of the R+L=J reveal. Daenerys and Tyrion are both taking darker turns in their own character arcs, and it makes a lot of sense for Jon Snow to do so too. Jon will return like in Game of Thrones, but he’ll be a very different character for it.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/game-thrones-jon-snow-death-resurrection-grrm-books-winds-winter/

Movies -