Was Jon Snow Attempting To Sacrifice Himself To The Ice Dragon To Allow Arya To Reach The Night King?

Elite DailyFans have long predicted that it would be either Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen to take down the Night King, but in a twist ending, Arya Stark actually snuck up on the White Walker and stabbed him with her Valyrian steel dagger, reducing him to a pile of icicles. But Jon may not have been entirely useless in the cataclysmic battle — one scene in particular may prove Jon’s important role in helping Arya succeed in destroying the Night King.

As we see the Night King begin slowly advancing towards Bran near the weirwood tree, the show cuts to a scene of Jon Snow hiding under a piece of rubble from the undead dragon Viserion at the edge of Winterfell. Jon looks panicked, but then suddenly leaps up in a burst of energy to face the dragon and screams at it. It is not entirely clear whether Jon is just screaming in general or screaming a specific word, but fans on Reddit think Jon is screaming “Go!,” and you can definitely hear that upon rewatch. This is important because it suggests that Jon is distracting the dragon in order to allow another person to escape it. Only a few seconds after this scene of Jon screaming, we see Arya sneak-attacking the Night King.

All of this paints a picture where Jon Snow spotted Arya near Viserion as she was trying to make her way to the godswood, and to help his little sister out, Jon decided to potentially sacrifice himself by distracting the dragon so Arya could make it to the weirwood tree in time to kill the Night King. Thankfully, Arya was able to make it to her assassination appointment right on time thanks to Jon Snow’s dragon-bait distraction, and in turn, she was able to save Jon from Viserion by killing the Night King, which also caused all of his army to crumble with him.

Ok, Ok. Now we’re getting somewhere. That would be a little something that makes Arya’s sneak attack a little more interesting. I readily admit that I’m going right back to Reddit and the Internet looking for answers and material which I swore I would stop doing because it only sets you up for disappointment. But if Jon Snow actually realized Arya was there and capable of a run at the Night King if she had some cover, that would be a little more satisfying. If everyone was making fun of Jon Snow for looking completely useless, again, in the middle of battle, just screaming nonsense in Viserion’s face. But, maybe, if it turns out he was actually sacrificing himself for the greater good, that would check a lot of boxes. A) It means it took more than just a random fluke assassination from a little ninja girl to take down the baddest motherfucker in existence. Not much more, but at least a little bit more. 2) Jon Snow willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the living would be extremely on brand and very much align with his values. and D) Makes me feel that there was actually some sort of plan coming together, albeit a last minute, makeshift one. If the death of the Night King turned out to be an orchestrated attempt from the Starks, that would be a lot better. Brother and Sister teaming up, like some sort of dual Prince Who Was Promised taking down Death? I could fuck with that.

Now, I’d rather that have been shown on the fucking episode. Clue the readers into this badass sacrifice and this on-the-fly battle plan so that you understand all that went into the demise of the show’s most evil characters. Maybe! Just a thought! Maybe they’ll explain it on Sunday and flash back to show us what really happened and we’ll get to appreciate the tactical approach to taking down the Night King.

Probably not. Probably getting my expectations up again. But this at least gives me a sliver of hope that there was more to it than just what we saw on the screen.

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