A warning to those not up to speed with Game Of Thrones: major spoilers lie ahead.
Ah, Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington). The Bastard Of Winterfell; The Snow Of Winterfell; The Prince That Was Promised and most recently Aegon Targaryen, the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. He is a man who has led armies to victory, killed a white walker, defeated death itself and sat atop a dragon.
I could go on listing the names and victories of one of Game Of Thrones’ most revered heroes, but frankly, I can’t be bothered. Because Jon isn’t as great as everyone thinks he is. There, I said it.
Before you come for me with your pitchforks and Valeryian steel swords, hear me out. Jon Snow owes everything – his knowledge, his skills, his life – to the incredible women he surrounds himself with. As brilliantly pointed out on Twitter, every single time Jon does something brave, clever or even just interesting enough to write home about, there’s a woman standing in his shadow who helped him get there.
Let’s take a look at the evidence. Here’s how the women of Game Of Thrones has given Jon a leg up and watched him take the credit:
Daenerys Targaryen
Obviously. I’ve actually lost count of how many times Dany (played by Emilia Clarke) has saved her nephew/boyfriend’s life. How about when he decided it was a good idea to capture a wight and ended up in an unwinnable battle, Dany and her dragons pitched up to save the day. That ended with one of them dying, if you remember.
In the Battle of Winterfell when Jon was once again surrounded by wights, Drogon swooped in and sets them all on fire freeing him up to go and protect Bran – which he didn’t do, by the way. He decided to take on the ice dragon – another fight he can’t possibly win on his own.
Sansa Stark
Another battle, another Jon Stark cock-up. After meticulously planning his tactics for the Battle of the Bastards he ended up leading the Northern army into almost certain death, when they were completely surrounded by Bolton’s forces.
And then who showed up? His little sister Sansa (Sophie Turner), along with the Vale army in all their slow-mo glory. She didn’t even tell him about her plans to bring extra man power onto the battlefield, probably because she knew Jon would have ruined it.
Arya Stark
I know what you’re going to say, Jon gave Arya Needle, henceforth setting her on her path to be Westeros’ greatest assassin. And yes, that’s true, but he pretty much sat back and let her get on with it for the rest of the eight series.
(As far as we know) he had little to do with Arya’s epic move to put an end to the wights once and for all, and spent the whole Battle of Winterfell flying around on a dragon and then nearly getting killed by a dragon. If it wasn’t for Arya’s drop-knife tactic, which she famously taught herself, Jon would be an ice cube.
Melisandre
Another clear choice, as the Red Witch literally brought Jon back to life after he was stabbed to death for being a traitor.
Say what you want about Melisandre (Carice Van Houten) and her witchy ways, but she turned out to be one of the real MVPs of the Battle of Winterfell after she gave Arya the inspo she needed to go and stab the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) right in his belly. Technically, that little speech about the eyes stopped Jon from being eaten by Viserion.
You’re welcome, sir.
Ygritte
RIP to a real one. Jon would’ve been murdered by wildlings all the way back in season two if it wasn’t for his girlfriend beyond-the-wall. Ygritte (Rose Leslie) is also the originator of the truest sentence ever spoken in Game Of Thrones history: ‘You know nothing Jon Snow.’
When she first took him to the Lord Of Bones in an effort to get him in front of Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds), the wildlings were ordered to kill him. ‘He’s the Bastard of Winterfell, Ned Stark’s son! Mance will want him,’ she cried, saving his bacon.
Not to mention all that time she spent making sure Jon kept ‘warm’ and didn’t freeze to death.
Catelyn Stark
‘It should have been you,’ the Stark matriarch (Michelle Fairley) famously told Jon after her son Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) got pushed from the top of a tower. While it’s not exactly a fair sentiment, it’s an understandable reaction from a grieving mother confronted with her husband’s bastard son.
Turns out she was kind of right though. In season three, she told Talisa about the time Jon fell ill with the pox after she had prayed he would die. ‘I knew I was the worst woman who ever lived, a murderer,’ she explained.
He obviously lived, but perhaps only because Cate prayed super hard to all seven gods and didn’t take it upon herself to kill the baby herself.
Gilly
Ok, this one is a little tenuous, but Gilly (Hannah Murray) deserves a shout-out for discovering Jon’s true parentage. In season seven’s Eastwatch, Gilly read that Rhaegar Targaryen once annulled a marriage to an unknown woman so he could marry someone else in a secret Dorne ceremony. As we’re all aware now, the new bride turned out to be Lyanna Stark, making Jon not only a legitimate child born in wedlock, but also next in line to the Iron Throne.
When Sam (John Bradley) went on to tell Jon that he is a Targaryen in the first episode of season eight, he said: ‘Bran and I worked it out. I had a High Septon’s diary and Bran had… whatever Bran has.’ LIES.
No one would know Jon is a Targaryen if it wasn’t for Gilly and that. Is. Final.
Game of Thrones continues this Sunday at 9pm on HBO in the US and will be simulcast on Sky Atlantic here in the UK. Seasons one to eight are currently available to stream on NOW TV.
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