2. Jon Snow
Kill the boy and let the man be born. Those were the words of wisdom directed at Jon Snow by Maester Aemon in the fifth episode of season five, titled after the aforementioned phrase; a piece of advice intended to motivate the young man to look within himself and find the leader hes meant to be. Since assuming his position as Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, the Stark bastard has already placed himself in the crosshairs of the men in his charge by attempting a peace treaty with the wildlings. Jon reasons that when the white walkers march on the wall hed rather have them on the inside, as allies. He sells this to Tormund as a way to save his people, and a deal is made between the two groups, much to the chagrin of Snows compatriots. Up until about halfway through season four, Snow always felt like little more than a tertiary character and despite the shows attempts to tell us otherwise, everything going on at Castle Black felt like it had little impact on the rest of the surrounding world. With the siege of the free folk and the ensuing battle, the events at the wall have taken precedence. Now Jon Snow is coveted as a warrior and a strategist by none other than Stannis Baratheon himself, and the offer to bend the knee and rise a Stark, riding alongside Stannis to free Jons people in the north is wreaking havoc on his commitment to his vows. Plus, the speech from Aemon felt like he was pushing Snow to forsake the Nights Watch and tend to the bigger picture at hand. Weve gone from not hardly carrying about anything going on with Snow to him being one of the central figures in the plot, and Kit Harrington has grown into the role the same way his character has.
Brad Hamilton
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Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
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