The promised prince
Jon Snow may not have been the chosen one, but he was one of the heroes
In Game of Thrones ‘s final season, we watched a number of characters quickly turn the other cheek: Daenerys Targaryen went the way of her Mad King father; Arya Stark decided to give up revenge; Sansa Stark went from victim to queen; Cersei Lannister surrendered.
But it may have been Jon Snow whose journey had the most unlikely conclusion. Despite eight seasons of being pegged as “the prince that was promised,” in the end, Jon didn’t kill the Night King, take the throne or find prestige of any sort. Though he showed all the signs: the heartbreaking past (as a bastard son with unknown lineage); a relentless need to prove himself; the best intentions and morals; deeply-rooted angst; a literal return from death; a very visible destiny weighing heavy on his shoulders; and, oh yeah, he’s a man.
Heroes of his kind are compelled by an inner sense of goodness and an inherent desire to set everything right. James Joyce referred to this type of character as the “monomyth;” Joseph Campbell, in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces , described their typical journey: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
He comes home, in other words, after saving the world. We’ve seen an array of fictional figures who have followed this trope: Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Neo/Thomas Anderson, etc. Except Jon didn’t get a decisive victory, a power to bestow or a ticket home.
In the series finale, after witnessing the brutal vengeance Daenerys laid upon Westeros, and then some quick deliberation with Tyrion Lannister, Jon realized he didn’t have a choice as to what he should do. Despite his love for her, while holding her tight and telling her she’d always be his queen, Jon stuck his dagger into Daenerys’s heart, the life and villainy slowly leaving her eyes. As her last living dragon came to scream over her corpse and melt the throne down behind them, Jon fell to his knees in tears.
After being held prisoner, once Bran Stark was declared king by a makeshift election council, Jon was given his sentence: Banishment to the Night’s Watch, and the order to never take a wife or have children. If that sounds particularly harsh, it is.