Game Of Thrones: 8 Ways Season 6 Spoilt The Winds Of Winter (And 3 It Didn't)

5. Battle Of The Bastards (And King In The North)

When Jon was killed in the books, it was after he'd received the Pink Letter, ostensibly from Ramsay Bolton, and was wanting to head to Winterfell to battle him. On the show, this didn't happen until after his resurrection, and it led to the Battle of the Bastards: incredible, cinematic spectacle that stands with any of the show's battle sequences to date, and ended with the death of Ramsay and the Starks reclaiming Winterfell.

Following that victory, Jon is then declared the new King in the North by his fellow Lords (and Lady), being crowned The White Wolf and the new Lord of Winterfell, despite his supposed status as a bastard.

In The Winds of Winter, we're going to get a different battle at Winterfell. Stannis is still alive, and the showdown between his men and the Bolton army hasn't happened yet. Furthermore, there's a chance Stannis could win. If he does, then the Battle of the Bastards can't happen, though the resurrected Jon may still ride to reclaim Winterfell, because he's almost certainly ending his watch in the books too. If Ramsay wins, then it means we probably are going to read the Battle of the Bastards, though with some differences, such as Sansa not being as involved and Rickon potentially not dying. The outcome, though, is likely to be the same.

The roads all lead to Jon becoming King in the North. This is the underpinning endgame of the Grand Northern Conspiracy theory, with various Northern Lords plotting against the Boltons, and though the path may take a couple of different side-roads, we should be reading Jon crowned KING IN THE NORTH in the books.