Game Of Thrones: 7 Things That "The Wars To Come" Did Right (And 3 It Didn't)

One problem that faced the show in its earlier seasons was the isolation of Jon Snow’s plot at the Wall from the political intrigue of the rest of the series. Ice zombies may be cool, but the relevancy of the plot and gravity of the threat were generally lessened by the separation. Besides, Jon Snow was pretty whiny in the beginning. Who wants to watch somebody whine when there are dragons and battles and backstabbings elsewhere?

With Jon slowly coming into his own as a hero after his experiences with the Free Folk, the question of whether it is better to allow hordes of Wildlings to pass into the North or allow them to die on the wrong side of the Wall and return as an army of wights is frighteningly relevant to the rest of Westeros. The internal politics of the Night’s Watch truly matter on a larger scale.

The scene with Mance Rayder as he tries and ultimately fails to overcome the pride of his people and bend the knee to Stannis added some heretofore absent humanity to the character, and Jon has never been so much the such of Eddard Stark as when he fired an arrow into Mance’s heart to put him out of his misery. Bravo, Jon.