LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!

To be noble in Westeros is to seek a brutal death. The prevalent ethos espoused by Game of Thrones is one of amorality. It suggests that people aren’t black and white in their moral sensibility, but rather that their willingness to do good or bad depends on how the outcome of their action might benefit them.

As a result, protagonists easily contained in hero or villain silos are in short supply. Such characterization changes from situation to situation. Jaime Lannister can push Bran Stark off a tower in one episode and then give up his personal ambitions to try to save his brother, Tyrion, in another.

If a character does possess a measure of nobility or exhibit something that resembles the qualities of a traditional hero – such as Ned Stark – it’s portrayed as tragically naive. He is ultimately beheaded for expecting others to be as honest as he is. Similar fates meet most of the Stark children who either die or suffer mightily for their morality.

Meanwhile, there’s Ned’s son-who-is-not-really-his-son: Jon Snow. Jon constantly finds himself in desperate situations that result from his trying to do the right thing, and is only still among the living thanks to a magical resurrection. While everything around him tries to corrupt him, his motivation is never rooted in self- interest, but rather in those he loves and the realm itself. He’s good despite an abundance of violence done to and around him.

This may seem at odds with what I claimed to be the ethos of the show, but Jon Snow remains essential. Unlike most narrative forms of entertainment, the hero is the foil to the villain in Game of Thrones; and in this series, the villain is the overwhelming amorality that governs the land. Jon’s selflessness accentuates the cruel, vindictive and deceitful characteristics of those who “play the game.” He represents everything that the show dismisses as naive. And as such, he is its saving grace.

Because a world without a hero like him would lack drama. The stakes wouldn’t exist without something to give an audience hope. And for as much as Game of Thrones tries to extinguish all semblance of optimism, it’s necessary to have something for viewers to root for ... before inevitably eliminating it in the most soul- crushing way imaginable.