So I made a Facebook post today teasing a lesson I’m developing. It went a little something like…
There will be spoilers. Turn back if you’re not up-to-date on Game of Thrones.
Seriously.
I’m about to spoil some stuff, hardcore.
You were warned.
Here’s a gif of Pentagon Jr nodding you off.
I have always been fascinated with fan communities, with fanfiction, with how people try to interpret stories on the fly and develop crazy theories for what a serialized story will do. With Game of Thrones it’s been particularly interesting because up until some point last season, there were books the series was essentially following.
But now the show-runners are off in space, with only outline notes from George RR Martin. Clearly they have notes from Martin, though, as they made us fond of Dickon Tarly and then cooked him alive, and they took Viserion from us this week. An oddity that someone pointed out to me is that Viserion was the first character we saw from birth to death (to evil rebirth) entirely on the show.
I’ve been reading some fan theories, and I’ve also been sort of browsing some of the fan complaints.
First, a fan theory that is interesting but isn’t consistent with Martin’s universe: the “Brandon Stark is the Night King/time travel” theory. This doesn’t work because of the internal logic of GoT to this point. Bran can look into the past, and we have reason to believe he can look into the future. And during his visions of the past, he can impact people (like Hodor). He can perhaps even worg into things in his visions.
But he cannot literally traverse time. For Bran to be the Night King, he’d have to go back and worg permanently into the First Man who was turned into the Night King in this scene:
The man who is transformed here, the first White Walker, the Night King, is very clearly not Brandon Stark.
So that’s one fan theory with a great deal of steam behind it that violates the internal logic of the story.
But what is more confusing to me is how people can misinterpret Jon Snow at the end of this last episode. Jon Snow throughout the saga that has been GoT so far has been on hero’s journeys that run in concentric circles, all of which also form a gigantic hero’s journey (the wheel, if you will).
The hero’s journey, for anyone not familiar with Campbell’s work, looks like this (big ups to the creative commons image here):
So let’s not worry, for now, about doing all the smaller journeys on this wheel (I think we can, but I’m sort of tired and want to get this post done with something interesting, so we’ll start basic).
Let’s look at Jon Snow
- The ordinary world: when we meet Jon, we get the vague sense he might be one of our protagonists, but the real major figure of the early episodes is Jon’s (not real) father, Eddard Stark. And even after Eddard dies, Jon is less the hero than his brother Robb with the two Bs.
- Jon’s call to adventure is when Ned is beheaded. Just like all the Starks. Just like… everyone, really. Either that moment or the death of Robert (or perhaps, if you want to be super-specific the moment Bran is shoved out the window by Jaime) is what calls everyone in this story to adventure. Even Dany, is a way.
- Jon’s refusal is when he chooses to join the Night’s Watch anyway instead of staying to be a part of the war to come.
- In the Night’s Watch, Jon is mentored by Jeor Mormont, the Lord Commander. It was tough love, for a bit, but in the end Jeor gives Jon his family’s most prized possession, the sword Longclaw, which he’s refashioned to have a wolf instead of a bear on the pommel. Ironically just this past episode Jon tries to give the sword back to Jorah, Jeor’s son, only for Jorah to proclaim himself unworthy of the blade.
- Jon goes into the north, beyond the wall, for his first time, crossing the threshold. There he comes to understand the Wildlings, a group he’ll later bring back to the known North and make a part of his army as King Jon.
- During the tests, allies and enemies stage Jon returns, lots of weirdness happens with the Night’s Watch, lots of people don’t like him, but when Jeor is killed, Jon becomes reluctant Lord Commander and is second guessed over and over for his alliances with the Wildlings and doubted when he talks about the White Walkers (and later the Night King)
- The approach occurs at Hardhome, when Jon finally comes face to face with the Night King and realizes that there is no way even his initial plan of involving the Wildlings is going to save them from this threat. He realizes in this moment that it’s the living vs. the dead (something that he’d be reminded of in this week’s episode by Baric).
- The ordeal: Jon dies. And he’s brought back. But you can’t skip ahead in the cycle, even though there is a resurrection moment (that’s on the nose). Jon was still in the ordeal until almost the very end of this week.
- The reward: this is where Jon is now. This is why some people might not understand why he refused to “bend the knee” but is now willing to call Dany “my Queen.” If you read my post about Jon Snow a few weeks ago, you know the basics of what I’m about to say here, but in the most general sense, Jon is playing a different game than the others (maybe not Dany now– we will have to wait and see how much this moment changed her; her hero’s journey might be fun to map some other night). He didn’t refuse to bow to Dany because of his pride as King of the North, he refused to bow to Dany because he was concerned with stopping the Night King and wasn’t at all interested in the war with the Lannisters. He knows that Dany wants the throne, but Dany is now willing to join Jon in his fight against the White Walkers and the Night King. He got his reward for his foolish fellowship of the ring expedition to capture a wight. He has his ally. So he’s giving her what she wanted, because IT DOESN’T MATTER TO HIM. Jon doesn’t want to rule. He wants to survive. He wants to fulfill his oath to defend the living from the perils beyond the wall, even if he died once and is technically off the hook for devoting his “life” to the Night’s Watch.
So far he’s been consistent. Let’s see where the rest of this goes.
Also, I think anyone who believes that GoT isn’t Jon Snow’s story first and foremost is misunderstanding the narrative. Yes, other characters matter, and yes, at times it looked like it was Dany’s story, but this season has proven Dany needed an adjustment. Jon is the one who has never actually been wrong, or in the wrong. It’s kind of amazing that out of the whole group of characters Jon and Davos are the only ones who haven’t somehow or another done something awful at some point.