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whitewolfofwinterfell · 5 years

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After the season 8 premiere ‘Winterfell’ I am so conflicted as to what the hell is going on with Jon. Everything about him seems so off and all I can think is that there are two possibilities: 1. political!Jon is real or 2. the show is suffering permanently from poor writing (which I admit is a very real possibility).

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for season 8 episode 1 and is anti-Jonerys. Generally, it explores my conflicted feelings about Jon’s character arc and assesses the possibility of political!Jon. I don’t really support or oppose the theory, I’m more open to the possibility of it but doubtful. Ultimately, I still have no clue what to think or believe, all I know is that 8x01 has only added to my confusion regarding Jon’s behaviour and this post is me working my way through those thoughts and feelings.

Generally speaking, the problem with Jon in season 7 and the first episode of season 8 is that he is a central character of which the main plots (the war against the dead and the parentage reveal) are built upon, yet I can’t seem to get a grasp on his character at all. What is he thinking? What is he feeling? It all seems so ambiguous and vague. Even the parentage reveal fails to give us any insight at all into what the hell Jon thinks or feels about it. The question is this: is this deliberate and purposeful writing because political!Jon is real? Is it merely poor writing? Or is it something else altogether? Let’s explore this in more detail.

The problem with political!Jon is that it doesn’t have much merit since Daenerys allowed Jon to mine the dragon glass, provided him with men to do that, supported his idea to get a wight to take to Kings Landing, risked her safety and her dragons to rescue Jon and the others (losing Viserion in the process), vowed to fight in the Great War and pledged her forces to fight alongside before Jon made any admission of bending the knee.

However, there are too many things that can be interpreted as suspicious and vague regarding Jon’s behaviour. If Jon didn’t bend the knee for political reasons that means he did it purely out of admiration and/or love for Daenerys, but this doesn’t hold up. Firstly, Jon’s feelings for Daenerys were developed insanely quickly without much basis. I won’t go into great detail, because many other people have in the past and I’d only be repeating them. But in episode 5 of season 7 Jon still referred to Dany as being a “stranger” and despite their goodbye being the perfect moment to emphasise Jon’s growing feelings for Daenerys, they had him leave Dragonstone without even a backward glance at Dany (this is particularly odd, when you consider the fact that Jorah, who we know for a fact is in love with Dany, looked back at her). Even if Jon was in love with Daenerys when he bent the knee, he had nothing to gain from doing it. Daenerys was clearly romantically interested in him and she’d also agreed to be his ally, so he could’ve remained her ally without bending the knee and even pursued a sexual/romantic relationship with her all without bending the knee. By bending the knee, Jon unnecessarily relinquished his crown and pledged his armies to fight for Daenerys in the battle for the Seven Kingdoms (if they survive the Great War); two negative outcomes that Jon wouldn’t have had to endure if he hadn’t of bent the knee.

This is the reason there’s so much debate regarding whether Jon is truly in love with Daenerys or manipulating her for military/political gain. The debate has mostly come to be regarded as largely a ship war in disguise, but it’s much more than that. Personally, I don’t care about ships, this issue is about Jon for me. Jon is one of my favourite characters and I’m very confused because something doesn’t add up here. Despite the emphasis on Jon as a main character, it’s so unclear as to what his actual motivations are and his decision to bend the knee isn’t supported by any logic that I can find.

If political!Jon is untrue why are there still so many ambiguities surrounding Jon’s motives? In the new episode Sansa plainly and directly asked him, “Did you bend the knee to save the north or because you love her?” It’s a simple question with a simple answer, yet we don’t get to see Jon’s response. Why not? This whole debate about Jon’s motives could have been put to bed in a second but instead the writers decided to cut to another scene and leave us hanging. The assumption from most fans (I assume?) is that Jon bent the knee because he admired Daenerys and wanted to offer himself up to her as a gesture of goodwill to solidify their alliance. But if that’s true, why hasn’t the first episode of season 8 shown us that? Why is it that Jon is still tiptoeing around the subject of Daenerys and why he bent the knee? If he loves her, why not just say that? There are no negative repercussions that could come from admitting it; after all Daenerys is a queen and he’s a king (or at least used to be), so nobody has the authority to tell them it’s wrong. In fact, Davos, Tyrion and Varys explicitly discussed the benefits of Jon and Daenerys entering into a political marriage. By all accounts, Jon having romantic feelings for Daenerys is not a negative thing. The Northern people may not look upon it favourably, but when push comes to shove, they don’t have any say in the decisions that are made by Jon and Daenerys as rulers and people in positions of authority. Plus, with the upcoming war, the Northerners being a little pissed off that Jon is romantically involved with Daenerys is hardly at the top of their problems. Even if Jon doesn’t wish to disclose his romantic feelings for Daenerys to everybody, why not Sansa? Despite their ongoing conflict, Sansa has made it very clear that she is in Jon’s corner. She explicitly tells him she has faith in him just before she asks why he bent the knee yet he doesn’t answer her question. Why not?

For the sake of proving how vague Jon has been in episode 1 about his feelings towards Daenerys and reasons for bending the knee, let’s take a look at exactly what he said about it in 8x01:

I have brought those allies home to fight alongside us. I had a choice, keep my crown or protect the North. I chose the North. The problem with this is that we know it’s not true. In 7x05 when Jon declared himself a king, Dany didn’t argue and even understood Jon’s reasons for not bending the knee to her. When Daenerys told Jon they’d defeat the Night King together in 7x06 she didn’t make any demands of Jon or attach any terms or conditions to her alliance. To make it clear once again: Jon did not need to bend the knee to save the north.

I told you we needed allies. SANSA: You didn't tell me you were going to abandon your crown. I never wanted a crown. All I wanted was to protect the North. I brought two armies home with me, two dragons. This is more repetition of what he said in the Great Hall. We know it’s true that Jon has never particularly cared about being a king and that his only concern is defeating the dead. The issue stands: Jon didn’t need to give up his crown to ‘protect the North’, so once again this isn’t getting to the core of the issue, which is why did he bend the knee to Dany?

Do you think we can beat the Army of the Dead without her? I fought them, Sansa. Twice. You want to worry about who holds what title, I'm telling you it doesn't matter. Without her, we don't stand a chance. Do you have any faith in me at all? Here Jon attempts to explain his reasons for bending the knee as being purely for survival - Daenerys has dragons and armies and they need them, simple. But as I keep saying, we already know he didn’t have to bend the knee to get Daenerys’ armies and dragons.

She'll be a good queen. For all of us. She's not her father. This is the first time Jon explicitly speaks positively of Daenerys as a person outside of discussing how important her armies and dragons are. It’s the only snippet of dialogue that supports the idea that Jon really did bend the knee out of admiration and belief in Daenerys as a queen.

Daenerys is our queen. SAM: She shouldn't be. That's treason. There’s not much to say about this. It’s not exactly heartfelt, it’s Jon stating what he regards as fact. Daenerys is a queen and what Sam is saying is treason. These are hardly the words of a man in love who believes in her abilities to be a queen and desires for her to sit on the Throne (if there’s a throne left at the end of the war, that is).

So despite Jon bending the knee to Daenerys what we see in the new episode is still a lot of ambiguity as to how he really feels about her. Jon is still talking very informally and impersonally about a woman he is supposed to love. The nicest thing he can conjure up when defending her to Sansa is “She’ll be a good queen, she’s not her father”. It’s hardly a glowing statement that reflects Daenerys’ good qualities and all that she’s done as queen. Why not tell Sansa that she lost one of her dragons rescuing him and the others beyond the Wall? Why not tell her about the hundreds and thousands of slaves she freed including Missandei? Why not tell her that she allowed Jon to mine the dragon glass without any conditions attached? Jon has plenty that he could tell Sansa (and everyone, for that matter) to support Daenerys, help make her arrival in Winterfell smoother and attempt to win over the Northerners, but he doesn’t. Instead all we get are these vague diplomatic statements about needing allies to fight in the war. In the meantime, Jon stands idly by and watches as Dany has to endure hostilities from all directions and Sansa openly makes snarky comments towards Dany. He does nothing to defend or support Dany as his ally and lover. He doesn’t even attempt to tell his own sister to give her a chance and go easier on her. Even if Jon doesn’t want to get caught between his sister and lover, wouldn’t anybody else in his position ask their sister to kindly back off?

Jon’s less than supportive actions towards Daenerys support political!Jon but there are plenty of other open ended clues and hints that can be used to support it (and I’ve read many fantastically written metas about it over the months). The biggest possible clue in 8x01 is the rather strange use of the word faith, when Jon asks Sansa, “Do you have any faith in me at all?” The word trust would be more appropriate in this instance since the word faith implies blindly trusting someone without knowing their motives. The fact that Jon then doesn’t answer Sansa’s question about whether he bent the knee out of love or a desire to save the North further supports the fact that Jon’s reasons for bending the knee were not solely due to admiration or love for Daenerys.

Based on intuition alone I’m inclined to believe that political!Jon is real, but I still have reservations. This is mostly because Jon bent the knee and slept with Daenerys after he’d already gotten what he needed from her, but also because in the long term, Jon has nothing to gain from playing Daenerys this way. When Sam told him that he is the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms Jon’s immediate reaction is to condemn it as treason. Yet if he really is manipulating Daenerys that is also treason. Would he be so concerned about committing treason against Daenerys if he’s already doing so? Furthermore, if Jon is using her and Daenerys does survive the Great War, how will Jon ever end this manipulation? How can he guarantee that he won’t get discovered before the war? It doesn’t make sense for him to take such a huge risk whereby Dany might find out he’s manipulating her and have him executed (along with his entire family, if she chooses) and not fight in the war, to get something that he already had from her anyway. And getting sex involved in a political alliance is actually messier and more complicated than if Jon had chosen to keep his relationship with Daenerys strictly political.

However, there is a flip side to this whereby political!Jon is still feasible. Despite Jon already having Dany’s allegiance before bending the knee, bending the knee still helped to secure the alliance. Daenerys may not have demanded anything from Jon at the exact moment she agreed to fight with him, but who’s to say she wouldn’t have demanded it later on? Or who’s to say she wouldn’t have changed her mind and concluded that it wasn’t worth risking thousands of her soldiers and potentially her remaining dragons fighting a war, to then not even have Jon’s support in taking the Seven Kingdoms if they were to survive? Maybe Jon realised that Dany wouldn’t have been happy to fight alongside him in exchange for nothing and so he bent the knee as a gift of sorts to seal the deal. Furthermore, cultivating a romantic relationship with her allows Jon to control her in a way that he wouldn’t be able to if he was only an ally. This way Jon is able to get closer to Dany in an intimate way and have a stronger hold over her. There’s a reason Tyrion has been shown numerous times to have a concerned expression on his face whenever he sees the romance between the pair - he’s concerned how it will impact Daenerys’ decision making. Tyrion already struggles to keep Dany in check, but if she’s in love who’s to say she won’t take Jon’s advice above his? We also know that Jon very much has tunnel vision - he doesn’t care about the fight for the Seven Kingdoms, he doesn’t care who sits on the Iron Throne, he doesn’t care about titles, he doesn’t even care about his own crown(!) - all he cares about is destroying the Night King and his army. As far as Jon is concerned, the Great War could be lost and with it mankind destroyed, but even if the war is won, the chances of him surviving are slim. Therefore, perhaps Jon is thinking that he’ll never have to deal with the aftermath of initiating a fake romantic relationship with Dany. If Jon is only thinking short-term, all he has to do is maintain the pretence of loving Dany for a little while longer until they go to war and after that one or both of them will be dead and it won’t matter. This would also explain why Jon is keeping his plans secret, because if he takes the secret to his grave no one else will be implemented and therefore cannot be punished.

But my indecisive brain can’t commit to this theory, since I have another issue with it in that I’ve had problems aligning it with Jon as a character, meaning the Jon Snow we’ve known from seasons 1-6. Jon is known for being a straight-talking, honest character that is immune to the political bullshit the rest of the characters get so twisted up about. He’s a character that follows his heart, is loyal and true, and although he has a history of lying and keeping secrets as others have pointed out, the situation with The Wildings is vastly different than his current situation. On the surface Jon doesn’t seem like the kind of man that would be capable of using sex as a weapon and manipulating someone into falling for him for political gains. This is a man that refused to sleep with someone because he was still in love with his dead girlfriend. Would he really sleep with someone with the intention of hurting them? Furthermore, even though I don’t think Jon is in love with Daenerys I do think he likes her, that he sees good in her and even holds affection for her, so he wouldn’t want to hurt her that way.

On the other hand, it’s easy to become fixated on the old Jon and forget that he endured one of the most life-changing traumas a person can ever experience - he died and was resurrected. To assume that Jon is the exact same person post-season 5 that he was pre-season 5 is, in my opinion, silly. I’m pretty sure that dying puts things into perspective a little and if there’s one thing Jon’s murder taught him, it’s that regardless of whether you thinking you’re doing the right thing, if people don’t agree with your decision, they won’t thank you for it. In fact, they may even killed you for it. Jon came back in season 6 with a stronger desire than ever before to end the Night King and his army. When he was made King in the North, he aligned his desire to kill the dead with his duty to the North as their king and has stated on multiple occasions that he will never give up on the North and that he will do anything to kill the Night King. For someone so adamant, so focused, so determined in this one goal, isn’t it possible he would go to extreme lengths to achieve that goal? Isn’t it possible he would act against his conscience and his morals and manipulate Daenerys if it’s for the greater good of the North and the world at large? In assuming that Jon wouldn’t manipulate Dany because he’s too moral and good completely undermines just how dedicated Jon is to stopping the Army of the Dead. He quite literally sailed south to Dragonstone knowing his family’s deathly history of doing the same, he went against the advice of every single person in his vicinity - his family, his friends, his advisers, his allies - to meet with a foreign invader, the Mad King’s daughter, who as he himself said in 7x05 could have easily executed him or had him burnt alive. He risked his life, his crown and the security of Winterfell just by going to Dragonstone, all for the purpose of the possibility of securing valuable resources and allies for the upcoming war. If he was willing to ignore the advice of everyone and ignore his own survival instincts to go to Dragonstone based on the slim chance Dany might give him what he wants, isn’t it also feasible that he would act against his conscience and woo Daenerys knowing it will guarantee him her full loyalty? It’s not completely unbelievable that Jon would do this, particularly when there’s been so much emphasis on Jon repeating Ned and Robb’s mistakes. Perhaps Jon realised somewhere along the way that attempting to gain Daenerys’ loyalty through his usual methods of honesty and honour wouldn’t be a sufficient enough guarantee. And lets not forget that the risk of not having Daenerys’ allegiance in Jon’s eyes will result in the loss of the Great War. Would Jon really take a chance on that? Would he place all of his faith in hoping that Daenerys - who is a stranger to Jon in season 7 - will blindly agree to fight with him, particularly when it means she will likely lose many soldiers and her dragons and possibly even the battle for the Throne?

It’s a stretch, I know, even I can see that, but the point is, it’s not impossible. Honestly, at this point I can’t decide either way whether I believe in political!Jon. My intuition tells me that something is not quite right with Jon (and hasn’t been since season 7), that his feelings for Daenerys are not all they seem and that they are not as genuine or strong as hers are for him. With Daenerys I can see, hear and feel the love pouring out of her in every scene she shares with Jon, but not so much with Jon. This could be down to other issue that I haven’t discussed yet which is poor writing and a lack of on-screen chemistry (between Kit and Emilia). Perhaps all of these “clues” that point to political!Jon aren’t really clues at all are are merely misconceptions by some viewers and fans due to the ambiguous nature of the writing and Kit and Emilia’s less than adequate romantic chemistry. Honestly, at this point I hope that Jon isn’t supposed to be in love with Daenerys because if he truly is supposed to be head over heels in love with her I’m embarrassed for Kit that this is the way he’s playing an in love Jon. He barely emotes around Emilia, even his “longing stares” are void of any kind of love or affection. In comparison to Emilia who is clearly portraying a character who is in love, Kit is completely stagnant. At all points throughout the development of the Jon/Daenerys romance it’s felt like there’s been an imbalance between the two characters, with Daenerys always being the focal point of the relationship and being clearly more infatuated with Jon than he is with her. In their scenes there always seems to be much more emphasis on Dany’s expressions, reactions and emotions. We saw a clear progression of Dany’s feelings developing for Jon in season 7 and in 8x01 we see that she’s clearly smitten with him. During the waterfall scene, the comparison between their reactions are striking. Daenerys is outwardly grinning from ear to ear throughout the scene, meanwhile Jon gives at best a barely-visible half smile. And I know that Jon is generally not a very expressive character, but compare that to his interactions with Ygritte and it becomes suspicious.

Ultimately, everything about Jon - his behaviour, his actions, his emotions, his words - don’t match up to what the narrative is telling me is happening. It’s telling me that Jon is in love with Daenerys and that he bent the knee because he’s committed to her and believes she will be a good queen. But I don’t see any conviction from Jon in supporting this (the only time I kind of saw it was the pit scene in 7x07). I see a man that is withdrawn, hesitant and indifferent, not a man that is in love and has absolute faith in his lover and ally to the point that he is willing to defend her against those that are unfair or harsh towards her.

Admittedly, it’s easy to conclude that myself and political!Jon theorists are reading too deeply into things that are actually insignificant and meaningless, but GOT is rife with subtext, hidden meanings and secret plots which reveal themselves at the optimal time (e.g. Littlefinger’s execution last season), so I find it hard to believe that one of the biggest plots from season 7 and 8 - Jon bending the knee and his romance with Daenerys - is going to play out exactly as it’s being presented to us. It becomes even more suspect when I take into consideration all these niggling questions and inconsistencies that just don’t seem to add up. My other theory is that everything is exactly as simple and obvious as it appears and that Jon is in love with Daenerys and bent the knee because of his feelings for her, but that season 8 will dismantle that as dark!Dany rises and Jon comes to see her for who she really is. Personally, 8x01 gave me a lot of vibes that this could happen, but that’s a separate topic that I may discuss another time (let me know if you’re interested in me sharing my thoughts on this).

For now, I’m reserving my judgement on political!Jon because I don’t feel strong enough confirm or deny it. But after watching 8x01 and reflecting on it, I can’t help but feel that there are a lot of question marks hovering over Jon right now and that everything he’s doing and saying when it comes to Dany feels half-assed and non-committal. The good thing is that whichever way it plays out, I’m happy with it, because I think either option makes sense. If political!Jon is confirmed, I can understand exactly how that fits within some of the ambiguities in Jon’s characterisation in season 7 and the glimpses we’ve seen from 8x01. Likewise, if political!Jon is denied, I can understand how that fits within the context of the unflinchingly honest and honourable Jon Snow, who is the embodiment Ned and Robb, and stays true to his honour and follows his heart regardless of where it may lead him.

If you read this to the end, thank you! I don’t know how you did it because this is just a jumble of confusion that fell out of my head and onto my laptop haha. Please feel free to share your thoughts and theories, I’d love to hear them, but please lets all try and be kind and respectful to one another, regardless of whether we have a difference in opinion.

#got meta #got spoilers #game of thrones #got s8 #anti-jonerys #political!jon #political jon #jon snow #got theories #got thoughts #mine #my meta #i think this is the first got meta i've ever written properly #i've been too scared of being crucified by the fandom in the past lol #but here it is

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