Jon Snow has a weird future ahead of him, in Game of Thrones season 6, Winds of Winter , and beyond. For years, his path has seemed relatively clear. He would rise up in the Night’s Watch despite his stint among the wildlings, and lead them to a better place against the Others / White Walkers. Because of the R+L=J theory, astute readers have always suspected he isn’t destined for the Night’s Watch forever, and his death has freed him from his oath. And what lies ahead remains a mystery… a mystery culminating in one question. Will Jon Snow be King of the Seven Kingdoms one day? Spoilers for everything ever written follow.
King Jon Snow, Lord Of The Seven Kingdoms?
So the rest of this article is predicated on two assumptions—that Jon Snow does end up getting resurrected in some way or other, and that he really is the son, not of Ned Stark and an unknown woman, but of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. These are both pretty likely assumptions. Now another phrase comes to mind—Rhaegar’s own prophecy, shortly before he abducted and/or eloped with Lyanna. “The dragon must have three heads.”
Jon Snow is almost definitely going to be a head of the dragon, if Rhaegar’s prophecy is true. Somehow or other, he’ll end up at the side of his aunt Daenerys or his half-brother Aegon Targaryen, after Howland Reed—the only man who knows—reveals the secrets of the Tower of Joy. Jon Snow will be a dragonrider.
It would be an obvious (too obvious? Hard to say) parallel for Daenerys to end up marrying both Jon Snow and Aegon Targaryen, the likely other head of the dragon. After all, Aegon the Conqueror had two sister-wives—why shouldn’t Daenerys the Would-Be Conqueror have two brother-husbands? She won’t bear any more children, but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little more fun, does it?
If Daenerys ends up marrying Jon—that’s right, I’m speculating about the marriage of two characters who have never met, who have barely even heard of each other—then yea, he’ll probably end up as King of the Seven Kingdoms…. But not the holder of the Iron Throne, or what’s left of it. That will be Daenerys herself.
Regardless, his role will be martial, and rooted in the North. If Jon becomes a dragonrider, he’ll be the most powerful force against the White Walkers. He’s the only person outside of the wildlings and the Night’s Watch (now that he’s free of his oath) who knows anything about the North… its geography, its conditions, the nature of the Others. He’ll be an invaluable asset.
And he may well be king, but he won’t rest easy, and I don’t know if he’ll ever sit the Iron Throne in his own stead. For the return of Targaryen rule is likely to be brutal, and quite probably short, once the Others are gone.
