Kit Harington Explains How Death Changes Jon Snow

Everyone in my real life treats me like some kind of Game of Thrones expert, just because I write about the show obsessively. And this week, everyone has asked me the exact same question regarding the resurrection of Jon Snow:

"So how is he different now?"

And to every last one, I’ve had to say: “I have no idea.”

But LO! Entertainment Weekly is here, with today’s excerpt from tomorrow’s forthcoming deep dive into the hard work the show put into keeping Jon Snow’s resurrection under wraps. And the question they put to Kit Harington is the same one everyone keeps asking. “How does death change Jon Snow?”

I do believe this requires a spoiler alert.

Spoilerly, it’s the biggest damn thing you kept form me
Spoilerly, suddenly, you want to tell me at all
Spoilerly, ten months later and now you wanna call
Spoilerly-y-y-y

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Let’s let the man tell you himself:

At first, I was worried that he’ll wake up and he’s the same, back to normal — then there’s no point in that death,. He needs to change. There’s a brilliant line when Melisandre asks: ‘What did you see?’ And he says: ‘Nothing, there was nothing at all.’ That cuts right to our deepest fear, that there’s nothing after death. And that’s the most important line in the whole season for me. Jon’s never been afraid of death, and that’s made him a strong and honorable person. He realizes something about his life now: He has to live it, because that’s all there is. He’s been over the line and there’s nothing there. And that changes him. It literally puts the fear of god into him. He’s seen oblivion and that’s got to change somebody in the most fundamental way there is. He doesn’t want to die ever again. But if he does, he doesn’t want to be brought back.

So this puts the kibosh on theories that Jon’s resurrection had something to do with Jon warging into Ghost before he died, and therefore keeping his consioucness safe inside his furry friend. As we’ll hear in an upcoming conversation between Jon and Melisandre, Jon went to the other side, and there was nothing.

It does leave me with one *huge* question though. If Jon was honorable before because he didn’t fear death, does that mean the young man who was so proud to be told he was just like Eddard Stark will no longer feel the need to be so damn honorable and righteous all the time? Will we see him decide to veer from the path that Ned and Robb walked, a path that led to their permanent deaths? Will a sudden discovery of political savvy and cunning lead Jon Snow to perhaps finally be the leader that Winterfell, the North, and all of Westeros perhaps never knew it wanted, but needs?