WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8.
The history of House Stark goes back centuries, and yet one thing has remained constant: The Northerners prefer the North. Because of the geography of Westeros, the North has always been more isolated. This has fostered an independent spirit, as the minor houses fell under the rule of House Stark. After Aegon's Conquest, and Robert’s Rebellion after that, the Starks were the Wardens of the North, true rulers of their lands who were generally left to their own devices by the Iron Throne.
Jon Snow was raised as a Stark, and in a lot of ways, he is a lot like the man who raised him, Ned Stark. However, Jon has learned his true identity as Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar Targaryen, and is experiencing difficulty admitting it to anyone. The news that Jon’s the true heir to the Iron Throne rattles Daenerys Targaryen so completely that after the victory against the Night King’s army, she starts obsessing over the people loving Jon more than her.
The thing is, she’s not wrong. The North is always going to love and support one of their own over someone who wasn’t raised there. Jon can claim to be a Targaryen all he wants, but he will always have the values of a Stark, which is what makes it so troubling that Jon spends a great deal of the latest episode, “The Last of the Starks,” attempting divest himself of what makes him a Stark.
Leaving Winterfell
Though Jon has bent the knee to Daenerys, she remains paranoid that the people won’t accept her as ruler since he is so beloved by the North. Thus, she asks him to keep the secret of his true identity to himself, which includes him not telling his sisters. Her attempt to control him, especially when it comes to his family, should’ve been a red flag for Jon, and though he does eventually come clean his sisters, he makes them swear not to tell anyone else.
Even as he informs Sansa and Arya of the truth, Jon continues to back Daneyers, as his sisters don’t trust her. While we don’t see their immediate reactions to the news, it's implied that they don’t take it well. Arya leaves Winterfell for good, while Sansa tells Tyrion of Jon's true lineage in the hopes that this information will leak to the people of the realm.
The conversation in the godswood with Sansa, Arya and Bran (who already knew the truth) is frustrating because, well, Jon knows better. He’s been through this before. He knows that the North wants a Stark as a ruler, here or over the Seven Kngdoms, yet he denies the reality of the situation because he’s already pledged his loyalty and heart to Daenerys. Alas, continuing to side with the Dragon Queen could prove to be his undoing.
Something the Starks say repeatedly is, “The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” Eschewing this advice, Jon purposefully isolates himself from his remaining family. He shares the secret with his sisters -- which is actually an honest Stark move -- but then makes a major mistake, leaving Winterfell to support Daenerys.
Jon is backing a Queen who is turning into the worst of the Targaryen lineage, a ruler that doesn’t care how many lives are lost in the process of fighting for what she believes is her destiny. This is the type of ruler Ned Stark fought against in Robert’s Rebellion because he believed it would be for the greater good of the people. Jon believes, foolishly, that for the good of the people, he needs to step down instead of step up.
The great irony is that Jon’s making a similar mistake to Ned's. Catelyn Stark warned Ned not to leave Winterfell, but he felt bound by duty and went to King’s Landing where he got on the wrong side of Cersei Lannister and died for it. Looking to the past, we have to wonder if Jon will ever make it back to Winterfell.
Leaving Ghost
In a symbolic move, Jon leaves Ghost in Tormund’s care right before leaving Winterfell. Jon tells Tormund the direwolf doesn’t belong in Winterfell, that “he’ll be happier up there.” While it could be argued that, for Ghost’s sake, it’s probably better that he has more room to roam and hunt, this is still a notable shift in Jon’s character.
The Stark kids all got their direwolves in the first episode after they found a dead direwolf with her pups still alive. There was a wolf for each kid, including the runt for Jon. The fate of the direwolves have been inextricably linked to the fates of the Stark children.
Sansa’s wolf, Lady, dies at the urging of Cersei, the young Stark's first taste of the Lannister’s cruelty, of which she’d be a constant victim. Summer dies protecting Bran from wights, Grey Wind dies along with Robb at the Red Wedding, Shaggydog and Rickon are both killed by Ramsay Bolton. Nymeria is free and wild, and so is Arya. Meanwhile, Ghost has always accompanied Jon. Even if he wandered off for a while -- to hunt or because the CGI department had to cut costs -- Ghost always found his way back to Jon.
If Ghost belongs in the “true North” as Tormund puts it, Jon, at the very least, belongs in the North as well -- and we know full well that Jon would be happier there. It’s prophetic that he and his direwolf are going in opposite directions, and it doesn’t bode well for the reluctant royalty.
Jon is struggling with the opposing parts of his identity. He has spent so much of his life coing to terms with being a Stark bastard, now that he’slearned this was never the case, he struggles with being the Targaryen heir apparent to the Iron Throne. He can yell that he bent the knee from the ramparts of Winterfell, but it won’t stop the North’s swell of support when they find out Jon’s secret. His people want a Northerner to rule the North, whether this includes the other six kingdoms or not. The combination of Stark and Targaryen blood, as said by Varys, could be exactly what’s needed to unite the realm.
What we worry about now is what this means for Jon’s fate in the final two episodes. When a George R.R. Martin hero seems to be meant for something, it’s usually a sign that they will fail; just look at Robb Stark. And with numerous characters saying Jon is meant to be on the Iron Throne, the truth is he may very well fall victim to it.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.