Easter is a culmination of religious celebration, the Easter bunny, and Zombie Jesus jokes online, but there may soon be another among the risen to join the Internet repertoire.
Despite the repeated insistence from Kit Harington and several castmates, the Game of Thrones showrunners, and higher ups at HBO, many fans are still convinced that Jon Snow isn’t actually dead—or he won’t stay that way. He’s been spotted on set, been at the center of HBO’s marketing campaign, and was the main focus of the official trailer. (And that’s not to mention the other, likely unintentional reveal.)
The most popular theory, given the recent trailer, in regards to how Jon comes back is that the red priestess Melisandre resurrects him; a priest or priestess of R’hllor may be able to raise the dead, as Thoros of Myr has done with Beric Dondarrion on several occasions. The circumstances of how Jon got there differ slightly, but the result was the same.
We’ll have to wait until April to see if that’s how it plays out, but the thought of Jon being resurrected is certainly on people’s minds this Easter.
@Da7e @rejects @jowrotethis in the name of the father, son, and holy GHOST pic.twitter.com/vjLh2Fancx
— Summer McCusker (@SummerMcCusker) March 26, 2016
Happy Easter everyone! Today we celebrate the rising of our savior, Jon Snow – deliver us from the White Walkers! #springiscoming
— Mike (@uhohitsbigmike) March 27, 2016
Easter: The day Dean, Jon, and Jesus all rose from the dead
— Marky B (@you_knowme_naw) March 27, 2016
https://twitter.com/KevinNovoa/status/714114674950807553
Friendly reminder that Jon Snow is trending on Twitter on Easter Day. #GOT #Winteriscoming
— Chiara 🍋🐺 (@wolfiestarks) March 27, 2016
Jon has received the Jesus comparison before when Game of Thrones released the first teaser post, so it’s not a new notion. But considering some believe that Jon may be Azor Ahai reborn—a legendary hero that saved Westeros from the White Walkers during the Long Night thousands of years ago—the comparisons may not be so far off.
APRIL. #GoTSeason6 #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/DSK2xZi9i9
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) November 23, 2015
And if he is a Christ-like figure in Game of Thrones, then he certainly deserves his own Easter story*.
Like all good men in Westeros, Jon Snow was ultimately betrayed by the people he trusted the most.
He trained with these men—men he called brothers. He broke bread and drank ale with them, fought wildlings and wights with them, guarded them in the night. They voted him as Commander of the Night’s Watch (even if it was only by one vote). Some openly hated him for wanting to extend a hand to the wildlings that killed them and countless innocent civilians and the privilege that came with his perceived father, and some were willing to kill him for it.
Melisandre had been searching for signs of Azor Ahai, who she believed was King Stannis Baratheon—at least until her visions led Stannis and his men into a massacre at the hands of Ramsay Bolton. Her visions, as of late, stayed on Jon though he rebuffed her advances. In one lifetime, located on the pages of a book, she warned him of what she saw; in another, she had only just arrived at Castle Black in defeat when it happened.
“Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark,” she told him about the dangers surrounding him. “Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel. It was very cold.”
Jon didn’t know that Ser Alliser Thorne would betray him first or that Olly would betray him last of all. The men he knew tricked him to his grave as he stood in front of it. He stumbled as they stabbed him, and it took five stabs to the chest for him to fall on his knees. Then Olly walked to him with tears in his eyes as he dealt the fatal, final blow.
For the Watch.
He wasn’t anointed, but nobody doubted his possible return by the next night; it happened to everyone who died at the Wall. He wouldn’t be buried in Winterfell, no longer in the hands of the Starks, but rather burned by pyre before he transformed into a loyal subject of White Walkers’ ever-growing, undead army. That’s something the men who killed Jon would likely try to prevent.
Ghost, positioned beside him, was loyal even in death. Ser Davos Seaworth was willing to guard his body with the few men who still remained true to Jon. But what is it for? To prevent harm, or to allow Melisandre to call him back to the land of the living as foretold?
Jon Snow may riseth by the grace of R’hllor, but can he stop the greatest evil of all?
*This is a work of satire/fanfiction.
Photo via Game of Thrones/Twitter
