I put my new Jon Snow Pop on my desk today, in the glorious blue light that illuminates my backdrop.
So read this, which Julie found and put on her FB wall.
I identify well with Jon Snow. I’m not as handsome or broody, and I am a different kind of warrior, but in a universe where the only people of color are being saved by an Aryan Targaryen, Jon Snow best represents the Indigenous viewpoint (you thought the Dothraki were the indigenous people, right? They are, too, but Khal is gone, so walk with me and think about Jon for a second).
Jon is a mixed-blood in terms of the GoT universe and its politics: we know now what people suspected forever, that he’s half Targaryen himself, but he’s also half Stark. And the Starks are northerners, real salt-of-the-snowy-earth types. Jon is even moreso, though. Jon is so not a Dragon that no one realizes he’s a dragon other than us, the audience, who could see it coming from a mile away.
I need you to remember the following things about Jon Snow to follow where I’m going:
- He was raised secret-Luke-Skywalker style, but as a bastard, a second-class person in a noble but not overly noble family
- Because of that, even more so than Dany, who though she was treated very, very poorly was still subjected to understanding– apparently since she was old enough to think– that she was of superior stock, that she SHOULD have status. Jon was resigned to his place.
- Jon never aspired to leadership. He never aspired to much of anything but to be good at what he did. He’s always been pragmatic
- Jon is arguably the smartest person on GoT, though we know him best from being told that he “knew nothing” by another group that could be argued as Indigenous (the Wildlings) who didn’t accept him for a long, long time
- Jon resigned himself to life as a member of the Night’s Watch, taking the black without protest and without the level of angst that the others who took the black with him exhibited
- But Jon seemed rebellious. And in a way, he was. His rebellion indicates his wisdom: Jon Snow doesn’t suffer stupidity well. When he thought he had a better idea, he went with it. He’s a survivor.
- He rose to some prominence, did his away mission as a red shirt, scored some major street cred and came home.
- He has, at almost every step, known his enemies when he saw them.
- He’s faced off with the colonizing horde that is coming for everyone he knows and cares about. He’s looked into the eyes of the true “white devil” in the Night King
- He was appointed leader of the Night Watch because he was the best choice
- He did all the right things, but because people didn’t like some of his choices, they killed him
- But the ancient witch who understands prophecy didn’t leave him dead, so he’s baaaack
- He didn’t want to be King in the North, but he understands how to be responsible and how to survive
- In the moment where he faced off with Ramsey Bolton, Jon understood, as his brother Rikkon did not, how to survive with your back to an enemy (why didn’t Rikkon think to zig-zag? Silly young Starkling).
- Jon went to see Dany, knowing it was strategically the wrong decision in the war of the seven kingdoms
Here’s the kicker
16. Jon is the one who realizes that the war of the seven kingdoms is window dressing. The “war”– the fight that matters, the fight for survival– is with the Night King
So how is that an indigenous hot take, you might be asking.
The first one is that as a mixed-blood who practices survivance on a daily basis, I, like Jon Snow, have to know my enemies. There are petty battles, but the person who can stab you in the back isn’t usually the person who will kill you. It’s the power that is massing under the surface of all the people who are fighting for attention that is dangerous.
The second way is that Jon is matter-of-fact. He’s not disrespectful (though he is taken as such by his peers), but he knows what matters to him and what is important enough to worry about. The most powerful example of this was Dany asking him to bend a knee. Jon won’t. Not because he’s worried about being King (which is what Dany is consumed by in classic colonist style, a point that almost destroys her otherwise beautiful feminist story). He could care less. But because he cannot allow his army, as it were, to be tasked with waging part of the war of the seven kingdoms, in Jon’s mind it’s now the war of the six kingdoms and he and his people are fighting the actual war for life.
The third way is that Jon isn’t obsessed with the right “political” move or with taking people’s prejudices to heart. He makes his own reads. Sir Davos, the right hand of Stannis (who was a rival, though Stannis also helped Jon) is now Jon’s trusted adviser. His supposed savior, Littlefinger, is given no regard because Jon knows that his word is worthless. Jon reached out to the Wildlings. he reinstated the families who had betrayed his idiot brother Robb.
Lastly, Jon reminds me of my own self image in that whether this is Indigenous of me or just a personal thing, I too pick my hills to die on. Jon died on his. And now he’s back to die on another. I should be so lucky, but deep down I respect the fact that Jon Snow was willing to die for what he knew was right.
That might not seem like much for a hero. It’s what we have always expected of the hero in our stories. But if we look at the real world, there are far more Circe Lannisters and Danys and Night Kings and Olenna Tyrell’s and Euron Greyjoys than there are Jon Snows. We need more people– even in our fantasies– who don’t play by the rule book that was written to benefit the few.
The few have gamed us to the brink. Now they could all flow over the wall and destroy us. Or, I guess, they are actually trying to wall us in and destroy us.
Winter is coming. Or it came, a little less than 200 days ago. Its time to learn to fight snowblind.