Warning: Game of Thrones spoilers ahead.
A lot of moments from last week’s Game of Thrones made fans scream at their TV. The biggest upset was, of course, the devastating death of Daenerys Targaryen’s beloved dragon, Rhaegal. But that, unfortunately, wasn’t the only pet tragedy: There was also a heartbreaking scene in which Jon Snow abandoned his loyal wolf companion, Ghost.
Like many fans, I was pretty outraged when Jon did this. If you recall, each Stark sibling received a wolf pup back in the first season, and Jon’s was named Ghost. The albino wolf has stuck by his owner’s side unconditionally. When Jon died and was brought back to life by Melisandre, Ghost slept beside him the whole time.
But he obviously forgot this, because he left Ghost with Tormund in King’s Landing on Sunday, coldly saying, “A direwolf has no place in the South.” He didn’t even hug Ghost goodbye. Cue the boos.
So why did this happen? Well, there are a few theories. One Reddit user, Waitingforadragon, sees this sad farewell as a hint of things to come. They point out how each direwolf has represented the core of every Stark sibling’s storyline: “Arya’s direwolf is free and wild and can’t be tamed. Sansa’s is Lady, who is killed at Kings Landing, much like Sansa’s dreams of being a lady die at [the Riverlands]. Bran’s Summer dies after his meeting with the Three-Eyed Raven, much like Bran effectively dies and becomes something or someone else after this meeting.”
Waitingforadragon posits, then, that Jon leaving Ghost actually predicts his arc for the rest of the show: “For a few seasons now, Jon has been focused on defeating the White Walkers. He’s never really cared about who sits on the Iron Throne outside of how it affected his efforts in defeating the White Walkers. When Jon was focusing on defeating the Night King, he was exactly where he belonged… I think him leaving Ghost behind without interacting with him was a visual metaphor of how Jon is making a mistake. He is abandoning his true self and going against his true nature to go South instead of staying in the North where he belongs.”
This theory shares a common spirit with the whole Dany-is-the-Mad-Queen idea. If that’s true, perhaps Jon Snow is resigning to a dark fate. Or maybe the Game Of Thrones creators are planning to incorporate Ghost into the finale. He certainly deserves justice!
