Well, it had to happen at some point, so why not just rip the bandaid off in the premiere? Thanks to his best pal Sam Tarly (John Bradley), Jon Snow (Kit Harington) finally knows that his real parents were Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen…although he didn’t seem too happy about it. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Harington said the reveal was “the most upsetting thing in the world” for his character. “If Jon could go back in time and say: ‘Whatever you’re about to say, don’t tell me,’ he would. He’d happily be in ignorance.”
Bradley agrees that Jon “didn’t take it well.” Well, it’s a lot, reevaluating everything you thought you knew about your life. “But coming from anybody other than Sam, he would have taken it worse. Jon feels Sam is muddying the name of one to the most noble people he’s ever known and that his entire life is built on a lie.”
"You know The Beatles White Album? Just toward the end is ‘Revolution 9,’ which is a very sinister soundscape. The inclusion of that on the album makes you doubt what you’ve heard before it, makes the rest sound darker and more dire. You thought you had an angle on the album but that track means nothing you’ve heard before can be trusted. With Jon, he can review his entire life backwards and see everything completely different and in sinister terms even if [withholding his parentage] was done for the right reasons. Everything he’s done seems to have been compromised."
That’s quite a metaphor. “Revolution 9,” for reference:
Yep, that sounds how Jon Snow feels.
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For his part, Harington talked about his approach to performing the scene. “He’s not hard to predict, Jon, he doesn’t do many unexpected things,” Harington said.
"You mark the particularly tricky scenes that you’re going have to concentrate on and this was one. He finds out such a massive piece of information. Not only does he find out who his mother is but also that he’s related to the person he’s in love with. It’s hard for any actor to play. It’s not a two-hour movie but eight seasons of playing a character who’s finding out."
Weirdly enough, they didn’t really bring up the incest angle last night, although you know it’s one of many things kicking around in Jon’s head. One thing at a time.
Jon may just now be finding out who his parents are, but the audience has known since the season 6 finale. “t’s not a shock to them,” Harington said. “With Jon, it’s about what he says, ‘You’re telling me my father lied to me? My father, the most honorable man I’ve known my entire life, you’re saying that?’”
"For that moment, Samwell is nothing to him. Jon would disown this friend and beat him up if he was trying to lie to him about this. He’s quite threatening: You’re telling me this, you better be f—king right, and if you’re trying to play me — that was the way to play that scene I think. I hope it was."
I have to admit, there was a fleeting moment there, when Jon took a couple of threatening steps toward Sam, that I thought he was going to sock his best friend in mouth. Thankfully it didn’t happen.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, does this mean that Jon has lofty aspirations of sitting the Iron Throne and ruling the Seven Kingdoms? Nope. “That’s the thing I love about Jon, his purity,” Harington said. “He doesn’t f—king want it. He doesn’t want that f—king information. He doesn’t want to know. He has no ambition for the throne. He’s never wanted that. The end of the world might be coming soon but at least he’s in love with somebody and knows who he is, and then comes this sledgehammer.”
We’ll have to wait and see if Jon and Daenerys remain in love, or even if he’ll choose to tell her about this bombshell.
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