Last summer, we took a look at four major Game of Thrones characters to see if their experiences fit into the classic Hero’s Journey model developed by Joseph Campbell: Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Brandon Stark. We discovered that all four of their journeys fit into Campbell’s paradigm. But with Season 6 over and done with, where are our heroes now? Are they farther along in their journeys now?
What is the Hero’s Journey? It is a basic narrative pattern common across all cultures and time that seems to be shared by all heroic characters. With this in mind, mythologist Joseph Campbell designed a paradigm, also known as the monomyth, to identify the universal stages of the Hero’s Journey.
You can brush up on the structure and stages of Joseph Campbell’s famous 17-stage Hero’s Journey paradigm and Christopher Vogler’s more modern 12-stage version here. It is important to remember that the Campbellian Hero’s Journey paradigm is highly flexible, so not all stages need appear in order or appear at all. Joseph Campbell sums up the monomyth concept below:
"A hero ventures forth from the world of the common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from his mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons upon his fellow man."
What have the events of Season 6 done to the journeys of Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, and Bran? At the end of Season 5, everyone but Bran was close to the transition between Campbell’s Stage 2 (Initiation) and Stage 3 (Return). Have our heroes progressed through Campbell’s next stages, stayed in place, or gone off the monomyth rails? And if each hero is still advancing through the expected stages, what can we expect for them in Season 7? Let’s take a look.
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
Next: Queen of Meereen, Mother of Dragons, etc.
DAENERYS TARGARYEN
Like Jon Snow, Season 5 left Daenerys Targaryen locked into the Apotheosis stage of her journey.
Apotheosis (Stage 10): the hero suffers a death, either spiritually or physically, and achieves a state of knowledge and understanding to equip him (her) upon his (her) return. He (she) now views the world in a radically different way.
Lost in the wilderness, Daenerys has been captured by the Dothraki and carried off to Vaes Dothrak. Her disappearance is a form of spiritual death, and she hovers in the Apotheosis stage for much of the early season. But her journey busts loose again once she emerges naked from the flames of the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen in “Book of the Stranger” (S6/Ep4).
"“Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new.” —Joseph Campbell"
Charging into the Ultimate Boon (Stage 11), Dany wins two of the prizes necessary to achieve her ultimate quest of conquering Westeros: a massive Dothraki army and a huge fleet to carry it in. Once she takes the Iron Throne, she plans to “use the boon to everyone’s advantage” by building a society free of slavery and royal oppression for her newly conquered subjects.
Our Dragon Queen is, of course, as certain of her destiny as always. “I take what is mine,” she says in “Blood of my Blood.” And she does not experience The Refusal of Return (Stage 12). Like Jason once he has won the golden fleece, all she wants to do is get home with her prizes.
Like Jon Snow, Dany receives a lot of assistance along the way as per Rescue from Without (Stage 14): Dany is helped by Jorah and Daario in her spectacle at Vaes Dothrak. And her dragons, counselors, and soldiers are instrumental to her defeat of the Masters at Slavers Bay.
What’s next for Dany, now that she has her army, fleet, and dragons sailing across the Narrow Sea? This is potentially Magic Flight (Stage 13) territory, where Dany must escape with her boon. Her pursuer might appear in the form of Euron Greyjoy and his Ironborn fleet, who may intercept her before she can reach Westeros and continue her quest.
TYRION LANNISTER (ANTI-HERO)
Of the four journeys considered here, Tyrion’s was the most static throughout static during Season 6. We left him happy in his Ultimate Boon stage at the end of Season 5, for he had achieved the goal of his quest, which was to find someone to believe in. As he tells Daenerys in “Hardhome”: “I’d given up on life until Varys convinced me you might be worth living for.”
Once Daenerys vanishes into the wilderness, Tyrion is left with Varys, Gray Worm, and Missandei to try to govern Meereen, deal with the dragons, handle the Master’s rebellion, and play drinking games, which he does with varying degrees of success until Daenerys returns in “Battle of the Bastards” (S6/Ep9). Tyrion’s Ultimate Boon stage is further reinforced when his beloved Daenerys makes him The Hand of the Queen in “The Winds of Winter”:
"For what it is worth, I’ve been a cynic for as long as I can remember. Everyone is always asking me to believe in things: family, gods, kings, myself. It was often tempting until I saw where belief got people. So, I said ‘no thank you to belief.’ And yet, here I am. I believe in you."
Tyrion’s journey appears to stop just short of Part 3 of the monomyth paradigm, which begins with Refusal of the Return. Tyrion probably won’t experience this stage, because Daenerys is his holy grail and he isn’t trying to stop her from returning to Westeros. Tyrion’s journey will most likely accelerate into high gear once he arrives in Westeros (a very literal return) and confronts Cersei and Jaime.
Next: Over the river and through the Wall
BRANDON STARK
Brandon Stark’s character has some catching up to do. Left out of Season 5 entirely, Season 6 found him a much older-looking boy with many hours of the Three-eyed raven’s greensight training under his belt. When we left Brandon at the end of his Season 4 journey, he was deep in the Belly of the Whale and Road of Trials stages, essentially the middle of Part 2 (Initiation) of the monomyth cycle.
Bran spends much of Season 6 continuing his metamorphosis in the Belly of the Whale stage:
"“The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died. This popular motif gives emphasis to the lesson that the passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation. Instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again.” —Joseph Campbell"
Bran also continues to endure his Road of Trials (the series of tests the hero must undergo before transformation):
"“Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is the favorite phase of the myth-adventure . . . The hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper he met before his entrance into the region . . . Dragons have now to be slain and surprising barriers passed—again, again and again. Meanwhile there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land.” —Joseph Campbell"
But does Bran progress? He does suffer many trials, such as witnessing his father’s less-than-heroic win over Ser Arthur Dayne at the Tower of Joy, and other disturbing greensight visions. Due to the nature of Bran’s situation and the lack of a love affair with the only available female around, Meera, it seems as though Bran will skip The Meeting with the Goddess stage (or it will appear later).
But Bran experiences the Woman as Temptress stage, if we consider woman as a metaphor for the temptation that threatens to derail the hero’s quest. Bran is continually trying to remain too long inside his own gift. During his visit to the Winterfell of the past in “Home,” Bran is frustrated when the Three-Eyed Raven yanks him back to the present:
"Three-eyed raven: “Time to go.” Bran: “Please. Just a little longer.” (The Three-eyed raven delivers Bran back to the cave.) Bran: “You finally show me something I care about, and then you drag me away.” Three-eyed raven: “It is beautiful beneath the sea. But if you stay too long, you’ll drown.”"
Bran’s next stage is Atonement with the Father (Stage 9). Here, the hero must confront someone with the ultimate power over his life, often a father figure. (The confrontation between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Star Wars is a great example of this stage.)
The idea of atonement offers interesting possibilities for Bran. He has lost his biological father (Ned), and at first glance it appears that the Three-Eyed Raven has taken that role in his life. “I was here waiting for you,” he tells Bran in “Oathbreaker.” But the Three-Eyed Raven seems more like a “supernatural helper” (Mentor archetype) than a figure that has “ultimate power” over Bran’s life whom he must confront. For that, we must look to Bran’s archenemy: the Night King.
Bran seems to be running through a lot of stages at once, perhaps because the story must make up lost time after Season 5. We all expect a much bigger confrontation between Bran and the Night King in the future, so this atonement stage may only be resolved in the final battle, as it is in the Star Wars example.
One can also say that Bran has entered 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.
Bran’s journey involves obvious womb-imagery. He enters the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave in the Belly of the Beast stage, and ultimately emerges from it amidst fire, blood, and violence. On Game of Thrones, Apotheosis is often violent, such as Jon Snow being stabbed or Daenerys walking out of a burning building. (Also see Tyrion rolling out of a feces-smeared crate.) As Bran is forced into a premature rebirth in “The Door,” the Three-eyed raven admits the unfortunate situation:
"Three-Eyed Raven: “The time is come . . . for you to become me.” Bran: “But, am I ready?” Three-eyed raven: “No.”"
Despite his incomplete training, Bran may have reached the beginning of the Ultimate Boon (Stage 11)–the goal of his quest—which is to gain the wisdom and knowledge needed to help defeat the White Walkers. Bran’s new status is confirmed by Benjen in “Blood of my Blood”:
"Benjen: “You are the Three-eyed raven now.” Bran: “I didn’t have time to learn. I can’t control anything.” Benjen: “You must learn to control it before the Night King comes . . . One way or another he will find his way into the world of men. And when he does, you will be there waiting for him and you will be ready.”"
It is difficult to ascertain exactly where Bran is on his metamorphosis timeline since we have yet to see his story play out. He is obviously well on his way to reaching his full transformation and achieving the Ultimate Boon, but its likely he will be further changed by the challenges lying ahead. It took time for the well-established wizard Gandalf the Grey to be resurrected as Gandalf the White in The Lord of the Rings, and it’s going to take a lot longer for the new kid to become the next Three-Eyed Raven.
As for Refusal of the Return (Stage 12), Bran is similar to Daenerys, as they’re both committed to doing what they have to do in order to fulfill their destinies, even if Bran doesn’t know exactly what that is yet.
The Magic Flight (Stage 13): This ongoing stage is important to Bran’s story. Bran must escape with his new knowledge and the White Walkers and their army are determined to stop him. By the end of Season 6, the Night King is surely still in full pursuit, although the magic built into the Wall may be holding him at bay for now.
Rescue from Without (Stage 14): Bran has always needed a lot of help, and his escape from the White Walker assault on the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave in “The Door” was accomplished only through the combined efforts of Meera, Benjen, Summer, the Children of the Forest, Hodor, and the Three-Eyed Raven himself. Several of those helpers gave up their lives to see Bran safely away. If the measure of the sacrifice is any indication, Bran will become an extremely valuable player in the struggles to come.
With his accelerated journey, Bran now appears to be on track to eventually arrive at the third part of the hero’s journey: The Return.
The first stage in Part Three is The Crossing of the Return Threshold (Stage 15). 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.
Bran’s roller-coaster ride should continue with him and Meera making their way south of the Wall and returning to the familiar world of Westeros. Perhaps Bran will be able to reunite with Jon and Sansa, though his journey may prove a more spiritual than geographical one. The Master of Two Worlds stage looms in the future, and that should get interesting.
Bran knows what kind of horrors are coming, summing up his own future the last time we see him in Season 6: “I am the Three-eyed raven now. I have to be ready for this.”
And there we have it. I will be continuing the Hero’s Journey series while we wait for Season 7, tackling some more complicated Game of Thrones characters such as Jaime Lannister and Arya Stark. I’ll also take a look at some more character archetypes, including Hodor, Ser Davos, and Brienne. Please feel free to suggest any characters you’d like to see explored in the comments below. I’ve also included the links to the articles in my Game of Thrones as Myth series if you’d like to take a look at them.
Game of Thrones as Myth: the Hero’s Journey
Game of Thrones as Myth: Archetype
Alliser Thorne as Archetypal Threshold Guardian
Melisandre as Archetypal Dark Herald