The 3 Reasons Why Jon Snow Was Game of Throne’s Main Character Since The Very Beginning

This article was written midway through season 8 and contains spoilers for GRRM’s Game of Thrones; mainly from the storyline of Jon Snow.

George R.R. Martin geniusly created in Game of Thrones, a story well known for its intricate plot that meddles with an absurdly amount of well-constructed and unique characters filled with flaws, emotional growth, and story arcs of their own, even though not all of them are main characters. This includes a set of characters that fit into a series of hierarchy levels that define their involvement in the story. Judging only the characters that are at least partially involved in the story, GoT has C level characters, like Loras, Meera and Tormund, B level characters like Jorah, Brienne and Sam, and A level characters like Arya, Jaime and Cersei; but above the traditional A-List characters, Thrones has three main pillars in Tyrion, Daenerys, and Jon Snow.

These pillar spots are well defined right now that the plot has developed enough and the series climax is on the horizon, but at the beginning of the story, these top spots were a bit more confusing to define, since GRRM created a story with enough protagonists to keep the audience confused, when in reality, Jon Snow, a.k.a. Aegon Targaryen, has always been the first and foremost protagonist. Almost every other character has had a turbulent moral compass or sudden shifts in personality that made it difficult for the audience to root forward or against, but not Jon Snow.

Jon Snow’s Hero’s Journey

A Hero’s Journey is an archetypical story concept, that was first described and analyzed by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. This pattern talks about the usual path a Hero follows in traditional storytelling, summarized in the following three steps: 1. A call to adventure, 2. His initiation and growth from trials, and 3. The return to his familiar world for ultimate salvation.

Jon Snow has had a Hero’s Journey mapped story arc since the beginning of Thrones but having him outside in the edge of the world makes you wonder why you are following his plot if he is the only main character over there. He had barely any interaction with the “main political plot”, and, even though he received a great amount of screen time and chapters, there are other fake protagonists that take it up.

The brilliance here is not that GRRM had the guts to kill the main character, but the genius of having your whole main character arc planned out in Jon and then create other arcs around him with the famous moral ambiguity that characterizes Thrones, in order to subvert the plot and make the audience feel that anything can happen.

Joffrey’s sudden choice of not sending Ned Stark to the Wall and killing him, the infamous Red Wedding that happened after the Sarks were promised “guest right” and Oberyn’s sudden loss against the Mountain, are some of many examples of plot subversions where the audience’s morale was directly attacked and usual fantasy values and principles were reversed. With this, GRRM tricked the audience into believing that certain people where the protagonists, when in reality, he was following a hidden and then very notorious traditional timeline for a Hero’s Journey, in Jon’s storyline.

Following the traditional steps of a Hero’s Journey, we can see in Jon Snow, the three main stages described before. First, Jon leaving for the Wall is the moment in which the Hero leaves his familiar world behind. Second, when he grows as a leader in the extremes of the North, meets the threat of the White Walkers and then is murdered, is the stage where he learns to navigate the new unfamiliar world. And lastly, when he resurrects and leaves the Night’s Watch to save his family, and later Westeros from the threat of the White Walkers and Cersei, mirrors the third stage of the Journey when the Hero returns to the familiar world. Furthermore, there’s an added bonus that enhances a character’s fit to a Hero’s Journey, and this is to have a metaphorical death and rebirth, which for Jon was actually a real death and resurrection.

Important clues about Jon Snow

GRRM lays out clues since the beginning to support this. First, one of the biggest clues is having the main question and plot point surrounding who Jon Snow’s mother. Even GRRM asked Dave and Dan (the creators of the show) this question, and greenlit the show when they answered THAT question correctly.

Keeping his identity secret until almost the end, helped him look like an underdog that kept pushing for greatness without him or the audience ever knowing that he had this greatness in his blood all along. Also to note that he is the product of a love story that exploded into a Rebellion that changed the story of Westeros completely and gave entrance to the story told in Thrones.

Giving it away since the beginning or in the middle would have made Jon Snow a sure thing for the ending of the story, making the audience assume that he would eventually overcome his obstacles because of a hidden last name that gives him plot armor, and not because of the sacrifices he made and efforts he endured throughout the story.

Keep in mind that an unusual birth, surrounded by a mysterious secret about his lineage, together with a prophecy that fits him best, are all circumstances that show is centered in a traditional Hero’s Journey. The Prince that was Promised prophecy did not come true in a literal way for Jon, as in killing the Night King and ending the Long Night, but he did join most of the continent and lead them through the battle.

Another important point here is that GRRM made Game of Thrones as a character-driven series and not plot-driven; and, while, yes, the menace of the White Walkers and the Winter they bring may be considered a plot device, it is actually a character, the Night King, that is driving this Winter. This does motivate Jon Snow to make many decisions, but it is still HIM that is making the tough choices, acts upon them and then ends up suffering the consequences, for better or worse.

This Winter plot device serves more like a battle of choices and chess-like moves between one of the main and most consistent antagonist in the series, the Night King, and the main protagonist of the series, Jon Snow. He has always been linked directly to the main force of evil, and, even though Jon wasn’t the chosen one to kill the Night King, he was the chosen one to lead everyone through the Long Night, gathering a great number of forces to fight for life in Westeros. (At least on the series, the book could tell a different outcome.)

The King Archetype in Jon Snow

Jon Snow transformed into the leader he is meant to be by following the Archetype of the King, who needs to be a person who seeks first and foremost the protection of his realm with integrity, whilst being a centered, and inspiring figure. No other story has ever portrayed this so well written like Lord of the Rings with Aragon. GRRM, being a great fan of Tolkien and his work, inspired himself with LOTR to write Thrones. Analyzing both stories, we can see several parallels in how both stories’ reluctant heroes grew from a damaged past to the honorable leader their people need.

These characteristics of the Archetype of the King, separate Jon from Daenerys and is therefore what puts Jon Snow ahead in the quest for the throne, whether he wants it or not. Don’t get me wrong, Dany started developing in the same pattern as him, following a Hero’s Journey with the King’s Archetype by being an exile at the edge of the world and slowly progressing into a powerful leader; although with a very much different objective in mind.

But, the separation in their paths came when she started losing the centeredness and order that used to define her and then started becoming a ruthless conqueror. This development opposes the King’s Archetype’s structure, and this Yang to the King’s Yin is the Tyrant Archetype. He or she who resembles this figure is someone that is controlling by nature, acts motivated by rage and doesn’t accept competition, just look at how she reacted when Jon told her his true heritage. This is what separates these two great characters: a different approach in how they search for power, and a completely different handling of it once they acquired it.

GRRM focuses on the great moral and physical costs of the main protagonists as a blueprint to guide his story to a logical conclusion, and it serves as the key difference between GoT and LOTR. His goal is still to create a story in which good surveils, but with an added realism in which the main character has to suffer and endure, try and fail, love and loose, and atone for his actions, in order to create a bittersweet ending that will serve as a partially satisfying, but completely earned result for the protagonist, and those around him.

But in the End…

The fact that fans still theorize and believe that the throne could end up in anybody’s hands, even the antagonist’s, is a clear result of masterful writing, in which the initial deceiving story arcs hide the fact that the true protagonist of the series and the books is Jon Snow. Although, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Jon is going to survive the ending of the story or that he will be the literal King sitting in the throne; but it does mean that his role in the wars to come, at least as a symbolic King, is headfirst the most important. Remember, GRRM says he’s aiming for a bittersweet ending and, Jon’s final actions, even if they mean his doom, will change the world of a Song of Ice and Fire, for the better.