Game of Thrones theorycrafting: the Jon Snow blood stain in “The Red Woman”

With magic and prophesy rising like a red tide in the Game of Thrones universe, it’s no surprise that the Rorschach-like pattern of Jon Snow’s blood in the snow of the Castle Black courtyard has been subjected to wild speculation. And why not? The stain, seen in the “The Red Woman” just after Jon’s murder, is the Westerosi equivalent of the white chalk outline at a film noir murder scene, and Ser Davos is the grizzled gumshoe detective.

The producers give us a fleeting glimpse of the stain after Jon’s perforated body is lifted away. Then they linger on a reaction shot of Ser Davos staring at the nightmarish sight on the ground. The man is obviously startled, slapped with a combination of trepidation and awe. So what does Ser Davos see?

The most common take is that the stain looks like some version of a dragon. That reinforces the theory that Jon Snow has Targaryen lineage. Lots of people see direwolves and dragons, or a man riding a dragon, in the frozen streams of blood.

Fair enough. I’ve seen some of the suggested dragon shapes, but I also see something else. And it looks to me as if Jon has bled out a Stark dire wolf and a Baratheon stag. I’ve outlined them in the image below.

Not only do the stains resemble the dire wolf and stag heads, but their position and angle are similar to how we see both animal symbols positioned on the sigil astrolabe in the opening credits.

Seeing the Baratheon symbol in Jon Snow’s blood would have special poignancy for Ser Davos, considering his former relationship with Stannis and Shireen. Could Jon Snow possibly be the product of a Stark/Baratheon union? It doesn’t seem possible…though of course we are dealing with a primarily David Benioff-DB Weiss universe now, not a GRRM one.

Or it could just be a meaningless blotch.