The word spoiler is in the headline and I just placed it in bold type as the third word in this first sentence so if you somehow don’t get it, well, that’s your problem. Now, onto the topic at hand, last night’s “Game of Thrones” and that wonderful finale that once again has people throwing their arms in the air, declaring they are done with the show as it hasn’t delivered the Disney-fied version of the fictional world they so desire. Seriously, I’ve seen such complaints on the Internet as people are complaining the show is just too bleak… I guess they didn’t watch the first four seasons or perhaps their parents edited them down and told them, “No, Ned Stark didn’t die, he just lives with a family in the country now where he can run free and have a good time,” just before tucking them into their race car bed. For the rest of us, I think last night’s season five finale delivered in a lot of ways, leaving plenty of questions in the air for next season… and so we wait, though not without plenty of fan speculation to hold us over.
The main speculation surrounds that of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), chopped down by his own men with the final blow delivered by Olly (Brenock O’Connor). I’d been told Snow wasn’t a fan favorite, though he’s always been a personal favorite of mine so I wasn’t exactly excited to see him die, but at the same time I respect a story that makes bold decisions and doesn’t regret said decisions. If you want to keep an audience on its toes then you have to be willing to make sacrifices and in the case of “Game of Thrones”, with the number of characters therein, those sacrifices are often character sacrifices and it would appear Jon Snow has met his end… or has he?
There are several suggestions as to what could come of Jon should he not actually be dead and over at Vanity Fair they have them all. He could “warg” into his Direwolf (nah), Melisandre (Carice van Houten) could bring him back from the dead (perhaps), the Night’s King could bring him back as a White Walker (I don’t see that happening), the Night’s Watch could burn his body to prevent him from becoming a White Walker and the fan theory that Jon is the son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Eddard’s sister Lyanna Stark would be proven, which then means he has the same blood as that of Daenerys and will therefore be resurrected as she was in the fire.
Now I’m not here to deny any of these as possibilities and while Harington says Snow is dead and the episode’s director, David Nutter, says he’s “deader than dead”, there is always the likelihood he’ll be back. After all, the confirmations by Harington and Nutter are only confirming Snow is dead, not that he won’t be back. “I can say emphatically that Jon Snow is definitely dead,” Nutter said, but when asked if he might be resurrected by Melisandre he adds, “That’s not my concern.”
That said, I’m of two minds here. First off, I think fan speculation surrounding a show that essentially doesn’t return for another nine months, or whatever it is, is the equivalence of pissing in the wind. However, the more I’ve read the more fun the speculation becomes. After all, a couple of the theories as to how Jon may actually be able to be resurrected would be more than just a matter of bringing back a major character, they would actually service the story.
Just imagine, Jon is tied to a burning pyre and from the flames he walks out naked, alive and ready to take names. After all, who else is going to wield Longclaw and you damn well better not say Sam or I will come right through this screen and… ahhhh, why I oughta…
Of course, his resurrection may run the risk of answering too many questions. Would the path for Westeros be more or less set, waiting for the inevitable, which is either Snow or Daenerys ruling Westeros or both of them side-by-side? I ask this fully realizing this is one series that never goes according to plan so it would be alarming if there was any way of even predicting what may or may not happen, but would it be a letdown if it any one moment we realized we actually did figure it all out beforehand?
It’s currently expected the series will run about seven seasons and, from what I’m told, book readers and those that haven’t read the book are all, more-or-less, on the same page now. The good thing about that is we won’t have to hear so much “but that’s not in the book!” bitching, but all of that said, I have a few polls I thought I’d offer up to see just where everyone stands and what you may want or expect going forward.
