Game Of Thrones Recap: 12 Things You Learn Rewatching Season 5

2. They Were Right To Kill Jon, Despite Bringing Him Back So Soon

Jon's death - "For The Watch" - is one of the most stunning season-enders Game of Thrones has ever produced, and one of the biggest deaths in the show's history - facts that could, arguably, be undercut by his return to the land of the living just a couple of episodes later.

However, even knowing that he does indeed return - not that it was in doubt at the time either - the killing of Jon still packs a punch. It's an emotional, harrowing moment as we see one of the main heroes lying there in the snow, bleeding out, and fits with his arc up to that point, but it's also necessary too.

One reason is the difficulty with the show overtaking the books: there wasn't a full roadmap of what was going to happen with Jon but, given it's one of the closing chapters of A Dance With Dragons, and one of the biggest talking points in it, they couldn't not do it. Jon's going to come back in the books too, even if it's a different way, so his death needed to happen.

We can also see that it needed to happen in order to free him from his Night's Watch vows. It's this that allows him to take back Winterfell from the Boltons, but even more so to make the alliances and fight the wars necessary to protect the living from the army of the dead. And we can see how it's played into a change in character too: after first coming back, Jon was done with fighting. He'd fought and he'd lost. He had to die so he could be reborn at the Battle of the Bastards, freeing him of fear of death, so that he can now face death itself.