WhenThe Winds of Wintereventually releases, it can finally put an end to Jon Snow’s 14-year (and counting) spell in limbo. After being killed at the end ofA Dance with Dragons, and then withThe Winds of Wintertaking so long, Jon’s fate has not yet been revealed. The final lines of his book story state that he only felt the cold, and that’s apt for a character who has been frozen in place for over a decade.
Of course, one (of many) reasons we can be so confident of a resurrection is because ofJon Snow’s death inGame of Thronesseason 5, and then his return in season 6. The year-long gap between those events is nothing compared to what it’s been in the books, but it does highlight what George R.R. Martin might have planned - and what the story needs to avoid. There are varioustheories around Jon’s resurrection inThe Winds of Winter, including that his consciousness survives within Ghost, but however it happens, there needs to be a tangible impact.
What GRRM Has Said About Death & Resurrection In ASOIAF & Game Of Thrones
Beric Dondarrion & Lady Stoneheart Highlight His Approach
Among the many rules Martin has in hisA Song of Ice and Firebooks, and certainly one of his more consistent, is that someone being brought back to life changes them. As early as 2000, afterCatelyn Stark returned as Lady StoneheartinA Storm of Swords' Epilogue,the author was clear that"death does change a person."[viaWesteros.org]
It’s something Martin has explored with two notable characters: the aforementioned Lady Stoneheart, and the person who gave his life for hers, Beric Dondarrion.This is very clear with Cat - orUnCat - because it’s such a radical changein both appearance and character. She is visibly scarred, her hair is brittle and white, and she can barely speak. More stark, though, is just how little Stark of her is left: she’s less a person, and more a vengeful spirit, consumed by gaining retribution on the Freys, Lannisters, and Boltons who wronged her and her family.
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Jon Snow will almost certainly be resurrected in The Winds of Winter, and there could be a major difference to Game of Thrones with how he looks.
Beric is a different case, because he comes back so many times - six, in total, which, to be fair to him, even he admits is a bit much. Every time Thoros resurrects Beric, the Lightning Lord comes back lesser. He loses core memories, like who he’d loved or places he’d lived, and even worse, he loses some of his humanity. Speaking toTimeback in 2017, Martin said the following about Beric, resurrection, and Jon Snow:
Time: “And Jon Snow, too, is drained by the experience of coming back from the dead on the show.”
Martin: “Right. And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice, now we’re getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.”
Jon Snow’s Resurrection Didn’t Change Him Enough In Game Of Thrones
The Differences Should’ve Been Clearer
I can see the idea of Jon Snow being drained after coming back from the dead but, honestly,Game of Thronesnever went far enough with the ideafor my liking. When you look at the kinds of comments Martin has made about resurrection, and then see how Jon was, well, mostly still Jon on the show, the two things don’t quite marry up. And that’s a real shame, because Jon being changed more would’ve been a compelling idea.
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When Jon returned, he was tired, and even reluctant to rejoin the fight… but rejoin the fight he did. He was also even more reckless, to the point it seemed, at times, he may have had a death wish… but he battled to survive. He did what he thought was right, he (mostly) did what was honorable, and for the most part - certainly to the eye test - he was pretty much the exact same character.
Showing Jon having lost some of his humanity, maybe becoming a darker character, would’ve been a fascinating choice as a means of testing him and paralleling Dany’s own descent into villainy.
Granted, Jon’s case isn’t as extreme as Beric’s: it’s one resurrection against six, so it may not go as far as a fire wight (though, maybe… thisshouldbe a pretty dark book). And unlike Lady Stoneheart, there was better preservation of his body, which allowed for his appearance to go largely unaltered. But there still could’ve been much more. Showing Jon having lost some of his humanity, maybe becoming a darker character, would’ve been a fascinating choice as a means of testing him and paralleling Dany’s own descent into villainy, but it wasn’t really present in his arc.
Why The Winds Of Winter Will Likely Change Jon Snow Much More
Martin Has Already Set It Up
Martin’s comments alone are enough to give me optimism thatThe Winds of Winterwill handle Jon Snow’s resurrection better thanGame of Thronesdid. It’s very clearly baked into how he approaches characters dying and coming back to life, which isn’t something he’ll have happen lightly. And if there’s a broader point of foreshadowing in Beric and Cat being different, then surely it’s Jon.
The POV nature of the novels is also crucial here, because we can be inside Jon’s mind and get a clearer picture of how he sees things differently now, perhaps even realizing it himself.
There will also be the benefit of time. By that, I mean time on page, yes; Martin’s novel will be epic, and have more room to explore it. But also time between events in-universe. In the show’s chronology, Jon’s return happened swiftly. In the book, he could be dead for longer, which would suggest being less himself when he comes back, because more of him has slipped away. The POV nature of the novels is also crucial here, because we can be inside Jon’s mind and get a clearer picture of how he sees things differently now, perhaps even realizing it himself.
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If the theory about Jon warging into Ghost just before his death is true - and I’m a big believer in it - then that, too, could be a factor in Jon being different. Spending so long inside a direwolf should change him; it should make him more wolf-like, losing some of his humanity. When he returns to his human body, Jon being someone who is more fierce and aggressive, more instinctive, or even more bloodthirsty, would fit closely with what Martin has already set up.
“They say you forget,” Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his own death. “When the man’s flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, butevery day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is leftand only the beast remains.” - A Dance with Dragons, “Prologue.”
It’s possible Jon’s resurrection inThe Winds of Winterwill involve a sacrifice, rather than just a spell from Melisandre. That could be how Shireen Baratheon dies; it could be Gilly’s son; it could be someone else. But if an innocent life is given to bring Jon Snow back, is that something he’d accept without changing? It’s another aspect that could fundamentally alter him, lending even more weight to the idea that, one way or another, Jon isn’t going to be the person we’ve known when he returns.
