If the enduring image from Game of Thrones’ recent Season 5 finale of Kit Harington’s Jon Snow laid on the ground and poked full of holes dealt by his traitorous brethren, has left you angrier than any of the show’s other major shock moments, then your mood may soon improve. Evidence has surfaced leading some to believe that the actor’s days of knowing “nothing” are probably not over. Here's why Jon Snow might be back.
Game of Thrones fan site Watchers on the Wall has stumbled upon what could be seen as photographic proof indicating that Harington’s character, Lord Commander Jon Snow, still has a part to play on the global hit television phenomenon. A reader of the site happened to share a flight with some of the cast to one of the show’s primary shooting locations in Belfast, Northern Ireland and took some photographic evidence that the actor was on the flight.
Photos snapped of Harington (shown in the tweet above) show his hair clearly grown to Jon Snow levels, tied in a convenient bun. Seeing as Harington was contractually obligated to keep his hair at such a length during his GOT tenure, this has sparked speculation that said tenure is far from done.
As of late, the length of Harington’s hair has become a follicular focal point for fans who have been hopeful that Jon Snow will manage to survive his Julius Caesar-esque stabbing in the Season 5 finale. In January, Harington was seen sporting uncharacteristically short hair; after the airing of the finale, this seemed to solidify the notion that Jon Snow was history. However, Kit Harington was spotted a few weeks back at Wimbledon, once again sporting Snow-esque tresses. Now, coupled with the idea that he’s back in Belfast just as Game of Thrones gets ready to shoot Season 6 has given the “Jon Snow is alive” camp some heavy ammunition.
The roughshod nature of this speculation is something that’s new for hardcore Game of Thrones fans, since George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels usually provided a reliable framework of events to come in the television series. However, the show has quite literally caught up to the point in the novel series where Martin also left our beloved bastard of Winterfell lying on the ground bloodied and betrayed. Yet, it could be argued that the creative teams have invested too much time hinting that something greater is in store for Jon Snow in the books and in HBO's television show to abruptly kill him.
Please head out now if you want to avoid any potential spoiler alerts and conspiracy theories.
The dominant theory about Jon’s true parentage, claims that he is not the inexplicable product of Ned Stark’s uncharacteristic infidelity, but rather, the love child of a secretly-wed Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark (identified as “R + L = J”). Given the symbolic fiery dragon and snow-inhabiting direwolf iconography used by their respective families, such a theory would indicate that Jon is actually the amalgamated eponymous “song of ice and fire” of the entire series and could somehow be resurrected to become the true leader of the land.
With the Red Witch, Melisandre last seen skulking about at Castle Black, armed with the knowledge of resurrection she learned a few seasons back from Thoros of Myr, we could see certain things aligning. One theory states that the advice Stannis gave Jon last season to “kill the boy” will indeed occur, with our hero dying and rising, not as the boy, Jon Snow, but as the reincarnation of the mythos’ “chosen one” archetypical hero who will combat the coming darkness known as Azor Ahai.
Then again, Harington could simply have been visiting the set or filming a funeral scene. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to confirm anything about these intricate angles until Game of Thrones Season 6 premieres in April of 2016. Of course, if, by some miracle, George R.R. Martin manages to get his next novel, The Winds of Winter published before that time, then the wait for answers might just come a bit sooner.
