Game of Thrones: Jon Snow’s journey to season 8

Game of Thrones season eight is soon upon us and so is winter. This is Jon Snow’s journey so far up until his reveal as Aegon Targaryen as well as the impending invasion of the Night King and the army of the dead.

Game of Thrones takes place in a brutal world created by George R.R. Martin and in it is Westeros. This sizable environment is quite brutal as no good deed goes unpunished. In a land where do-gooders are scoffed at and killed off, Jon Snow aims to aid Dany Targaryen and give unto the seven kingdoms a more pleasant world to reside. We ended season seven open-ended with the reveal that Jon Snow is a true-blooded Targaryen and heir to the Iron Throne.

Winter is coming: Enter the bastard of Winterfell

Jon Snow is introduced in the first Game of Thrones episode “Winter Is Coming” and an introduction to the Stark family. Lord Ned Stark leads his people in Winterfell and is quite the authoritarian when it comes to deserters of The Night’s Watch. Jon Snow is known as his bastard son, but was raised by Eddard (Ned) Stark without acknowledgement from Catelyn Stark, Ned’s wife.

More from HBO

• Hacks season 3 gets exciting release update: Here’s what we know
• Blue Beetle gets disappointing Max release update
• Friends snags No.1 spot on U.S. streaming services – and we’re not surprised
• Will there be a Steven Universe revival? Rebecca Sugar says “if there’s a huge amount of public demand”
• Industry season 3 is not coming until 2024: Here’s what we know about the release

The Lord of Winterfell never told her who Jon’s real mother is, not even Catelyn. This is interesting because this is where the foreshadowing begins in season one and comes full circle in the season seven finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf.”  From the onset the audience sees how a capable fighter Jon is along with his drive, spirit, and a destiny quite lush with adventure, turmoil, romance, pain, and death. So much for labels, right?

Jon Snow’s rise in The Nights Watch

Jon decides to make way to join The Night’s Watch in order to besmirch his bastard name sake as this culture of isolated community bears witness to rid those of their past transgressions. It’s Westeros’ way of making a fresh start.

Jon Snow was able to rise through the ranks at The Wall, but during his course towards leadership, he was met with extreme opposition in a form of mutiny. As fair and somewhat compassionate as he was, his own people still tried him and thus was met with the consequence of execution. Apparently, some of the men of The Nights Watch had an axe to grind with Snow’s beliefs and when he decided to take sides with the Wildlings beyond The Wall, that didn’t help matters much either.

It’s interesting how anti-diverse some of the people of Game of Thrones can be and how much it hits home with ties to real world circumstances.

It was a wonder if he ever would gain notoriety among his own as he decided to change the rules of which some of the incumbents did not approve of. His best friend at The Wall was Samwell Tarly. Jeor Mormont was the Lord Commander of The Night’s Watch that groomed Jon for command, so obviously some people saw great potential in his spirit, ambition, and drive.

It came as no great surprise that Jon would side with the Wildlings considering what he had witnessed at Craster’s Keep. Craster would abandon newborns for the White Walkers and with cruelty it was no wonder Jon decided to leave the Night’s Watch. However, as with anyone in real life, there are people who hearts are good and bad. It was an only a matter of time that Jon would snuff out those who weren’t aligned with him and take up arms with those who weren’t opposed. An attempt to snuff out his life was met with his resurrection, which was telling of a destiny that was in alignment with The Mother of Dragons.

The White Walkers lay siege

Let’s fast forward to Jon Snow teaming up with the Wildlings at their last stand against the wights and the White Walkers at the fishing village of Hardhome. It was a day that one could never truly forget as these creatures laid siege to the village’s walls and overrunning the community in full force.  The Night King and his lieutenants watched over the siege, but one of them made way to the village.

It encountered Jon Snow who had been wielding the Longclaw sword. Being a seasoned fighter, Jon took on the White Walker and realized as he parried its attack, the sword didn’t shatter. A White Walker’s weapon is apparently magical and most weapons that block it, is met with its demise. Jon was able to find an opportunity to strike down his opponent with the Valyrian steel- made weapon resulting in a shattered piece of ice. It was then that Jon Snow realized that these icy beasts could be bested.

There is also lore indicating that Dragon Glass, which is specific to Dany’s Dragonstone island, can also cause a White Walker’s demise. This likely is due in part that these dastardly beings were created via this volcanic rock in a spell cast by The Children of The Forest. I found it quite coincidental to find an ample supply of this on Dany’s island kingdom with three dragons under her liege. With a tie-in like this, it seems that this was a sign that Dany was destined to fight along Jon Show against the White Walkers.

Battle of the Bastards

This was very much a well talked about portion of Game of Thrones where Jon Snow and his loyalists take on Ramsay Bolton and his army. Apparently, Ramsay assumed control of the north as king and deemed Jon’s desertion of the Night’s Watch was deserving of punishment. Jon challenged Ramsay to a one-on-one duel, but Ramsay refused and wanted to go to war.

The significance of this Game of Thrones battle was that so many people died on the field that a wall of corpses just kept piling up on top of each other, leaving many almost immobile. It was then that Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish charged the Knights of the Vale towards the remainder of Ramsay’s army and defeated him. Ramsay is imprisoned and his bloody body is handed over to his own canines. The satisfaction of poetic justice crossed Sansa Stark’s face as Ramsay was devoured by his own pets. This put in motion the control of the north via the Starks.

An Alliance with Dany Targaryen

As I draw to the end here, this is where it gets interesting. Jon Snow was on his crusade to convince the world of Westeros the existence of the White Walkers and the army of the dead. So many years have passed that even though people recognize their name, they were seen as myths.

Jon Snow and his cohort Sir Davos Seaworth take a trip to Dragonstone to meet with Dany to share with her the impending doom beyond the wall. He attempted to convince her that she and others in power that they have bigger fish to fry as the looming doom to the north could lay an icy waste to Westeros. To Jon, it is irrelevant who sits on the Iron Throne as a Westeros-like apocalypse is on the horizon.

Jon eventually convinces Dany by showing her ancient depictions of the White Walkers on a cave wall. The drawings were depicting it as The First Men and The Children of the Forest coming together against a common foe. The same foe that’s making their way into Westeros currently. So this wasn’t The White Walkers’ first rodeo. It was enough to move Dany to join Jon Snow in his crusade against a much greater threat.

Later on in the season, Jon Snow and his cohorts made their last stand against the White Walkers and the dead on a frozen lake north of the wall. In a stunning display, Dany appears with her dragons and wipes out a good chunk of the dead. A rescue attempt was made due in part that their mission was to capture just one of the dead intact and to bring it back to King’s Landing in order to prove to Cersei what they too will be up against.

There’s also a matter of one of Dany’s dragons having been killed by a well-aimed icy javelin on the part of the Night King. The beast is then recirculated into the dead’s ranks as a powerful entity able to pierce the massive wall with its new icy breath. It would appear that Game of Thrones has a lot of moving parts here.

There was quite a reveal regarding Jon Snow’s relation to Dany Targaryen via Bran Stark’s (the Three-Eyed Raven) vision. It’s interesting to know that Jon Snow is heir to the Iron Throne and it can be speculated that he could rule Westeros.

With Dany and Jon on the same side and with a similar agenda to make the world a better place, this could bode well for the kingdoms. However, I couldn’t help but think the shock value between the two should they found out they are related by blood.

Game of Thrones season eight is set to debut April 14. How do you think Bran’s reveal about Jon Snow’s true lineage will have an impact on the kingdoms, the warring factions, and Jon and Dany’s post-consummation outcome? What kind of turning point will this have on the show and the direction it could go?