Game of Thrones as Myth: Hero’s Journey in Season 6
JON SNOW
At the end of Season 5, Jon Snow was dead, or at least dead enough to require a resurrection. This landed him smack dab in the Apotheosis stage of the Hero’s Journey:
Apotheosis (Stage 10): The hero suffers a death, either spiritually or physically, and achieves a state of knowledge and understanding to equip him upon his return. He now views the world in a radically different way.
In “Home,” (S6/Ep2) Jon Snow is brought back to the world of the living by Melisandre. She immediately announces that he is the Prince that was Promised. One might expect that Jon would now possess the Ultimate Boon.
The Ultimate Boon (Stage 11) is the achievement of the goal of the quest. The hero wins the thing he/she has suffered through so many trials to obtain. The hero must then return to the Common World and use the boon to everyone’s advantage.
Once Jon wakes in “Oathbreaker” (S6/Ep3), Melisandre immediately wants to know what Jon has seen or experienced, essentially seeking some hint of an Ultimate Boon.
"Melisandre: “Afterwards, after they stabbed you, after you died, where did you go? What did you see?” Jon: “Nothing. There was nothing at all.” Melisandre: “The Lord (of Light) let you come back for a reason.”"
Unlike Gilgamesh, who returns from the otherworld with his plant of immortality, Jon appears to have brought nothing back from the land of the dead. If Jon’s ultimate quest is to protect Westeros and defeat the White Walkers, what boon has he found which might help him and all of Westeros survive?
He’s taken on something of a legendary status, which helps rally people around him. And he, like Beric Dondarrion, is now close to immortal, as long as Melisandre is always waiting in the wings to resuscitate him. Also, his death allows him to leave the Night’s Watch without technically violating his vows, but none of those feel like an ‘ultimate boon.’
The boon can appear in many forms, even as self-knowledge, as in Oedipus Rex when Oedipus learns the truth about his birth and parentage. Perhaps Jon’s visit to the other side equipped him with an ability or wisdom to fight the White Walkers that may not manifest until later on. Or Jon might not have won anything at all. Either way, Jon also begins to enter the 3rd Stage of the paradigm (Return) by engaging in the Refusal of the Return.
Refusal of the Return (Stage 12) is when, after having found enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the common world to bestow the boon on his fellow man.
While Jon returns from death with no identifiable boon, he is also certain that he no longer wants anything to do with his original quest. When the pragmatic Ser Davos tries to encourage Jon to keep on fighting, Jon responds:
"Ser Davos: “You were dead and now you’re not . . .” Jon: “I did what I thought was right and I got murdered for it. And now I’m back. Why?” Ser Davos: “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll never know. What does it matter? You go on. You fight for as long as you can. You clean up as much as of the shit as you can.” Jon: “I don’t know how to do that. I thought I did but I failed.” Ser Davos: “Good. Now go fail again.”"
Jon carries his refusal even further by resigning from the Night’s Watch. He feels that he has been beaten, as he tells Sansa in “Book of the Stranger”: “I’m tired of fighting. I fought, and I lost.”
Jon is persuaded to take up the sword again, this time as Sansa’s protector as part of her plan to retake Winterfell from the Boltons. The next stage in Campbell’s monomyth is:
The Magic Flight (Stage 13): If the gods have been jealously guarding the boon, sometimes the hero must risk everything to escape with it.
Since there is no evidence of any boon gathered from Jon’s Apotheosis/Ultimate boon stage, there does not appear to be any special pursuit by the bad guys. Of course, the White Walkers are still held at bay by the Wall, so if they do sense he has attained some special power dangerous to them, the chase may be merely delayed. Let’s move ahead and see if Jon’s storyline employs the next stage:
Rescue from Without (Stage 14): Just as the Hero used guides and helpers to set out on his quest, he also needs powerful guides and rescuers to bring him back to everyday life, especially if the hero has been wounded or weakened by the experience.
"“The hero may have to be brought back from his supernatural adventure by assistance from without. That is to say, the world may have to come and get him.” —Joseph Campbell"
Yes, Jon needs a lot of help along the way, including protection of his body from Ser Alliser by Ser Davos, Dolorous Edd, loyal brothers, Tormund and the wildlings, and his eventual resurrection by Melisandre.
Through the remainder of Season 6, Jon travels with Sansa to collect Northern allies and defeat Ramsay Bolton at the Battle of the Bastards. In this victory, Jon is hailed as the new King in the North and, embracing his quest (or his fate) once again, rallies his bannermen to prepare for the coming threat of the White Walkers:
"The war in the north is over, and I promise you, friend, the true enemy will not wait out the storm; he brings the storm."
Newly recommitted to his quest, Jon now appears to be heading into the next stage, The Crossing of the Return Threshold (Stage 15), where the hero must retain the wisdom gained on his quest while he struggles to return to normal life and learns how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.
Though we know not of any special boon nor seen him use it, we have already seen Jon struggling with how to integrate back into normal life:
"“The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world . . . the hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.” —Joseph Campbell"
What’s next for Jon? His journey currently straddles a number of stages, most of them still open-ended. One of the big questions for Jon’s journey in Season 7 is the nature of the boon he might have acquired during the Apotheosis stage. Did Jon Snow truly come back from death empty-handed, without new knowledge or power? Or did the Lord of Light save him for a reason, as Melisandre thinks? The boon can take many forms, and it may even be a latent ability inside of Jon which death merely awakened. Also, as we learned in the Season 6 finale, Jon Snow’s father is not Ned Stark but rather Rhaegar Targaryen. That may prove a great boon later on.
Looking ahead, the next stage in the Hero’s Journey is Master of Two Worlds (Stage 16): The hero finds a balance between the physical and the spiritual. He must accept the world as it truly is. Jon isn’t here yet—he does not know who or what he truly is, and he must find out before he can find true inner peace.
“The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is.” —Joseph Campbell