The revelation shakes Jon to his core, although his initial horror seems like it has more to do with not wanting to break his vow to Daenerys than disgust at their extremely close blood relationship. This is information that might have been useful to know before he slept with his aunt, but since that ship has already literally and metaphorically sailed, it's better late than never. Her warning takes on new relevance toward the end of the episode, when Sam Tarly finally tells Jon the truth about his parentage, something Bran Stark refuses to do personally because … they're cousins instead of brothers? I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but Bran's been kind of a dick ever since he came back from his freshman year abroad in the past and/or future, so I'm not particularly invested in analyzing his inscrutable moods.Īnd so Jon learns that he is actually Aegon Targayren, the true born son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targayren, and thus heir to the Iron Throne. Sansa's already seen her father and her brother invite political catastrophe and death by listening to their hearts rather than their common sense, and she'd rather not retread that particular narrative just because Jon is getting laid for the second time in his life and dragons are the world's coolest roller coaster. Like Ned and Robb before him, Jon seems to have inherited the fatal flaw that spelled doom for so many Stark men: He sees the world not as it is but as he is. "Sansa thinks she's smarter than everyone," he harrumphs to Arya in the Godswood, unable to see what is obvious to Arya and the rest of the world: Sansa actually is smarter than everyone. He seems weirdly determined to keep his family locked in the amber of memory never mind that Arya is now a deadlier fighter and Sansa a vastly superior politician, he still thinks of them as a prepubescent tomboy and a petulant, swooning teen. Podcast: Listen to our Game of Thrones podcast on iTunes and Spotifyįor all his transformations-bastard to Lord Commander of the Night's Watch to King in the North to the pseudo-consort of a dragon queen-somehow it is Jon Snow who understands this the least, who arrives where he began and, in the immortal words of Ygritte, somehow seems to know nothing.
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. While all of the surviving Starks have finally returned to their home, no children remain, either because they are dead or because they stopped being children long ago.
REVIEW OF GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 EPISODE 1 FULL
In the premiere episode of its final season, Game of Thrones brings us full circle, opening on another child weaving through the crowd at Winterfell to gawk at the pomp and circumstance of another royal procession-and Arya who parts the sea of people and lets him through. It was a rose-colored moment in a bottle, a romantic, prelapsarian fantasy that they would look back on, later, as a way to measure how much they had lost-and now, how far they have come.
When Game of Thrones began, nearly eight years ago today, it introduced us to Westeros through the eyes of the Stark children, as they clamored over ramparts and up wagons to catch a glimpse of the royal procession, dreamed of marrying golden princes or becoming noble knights, and believed in a world with an arc that bent inevitably toward justice and happy endings.