Game Of Thrones Season 8 Finale: 10 Ups And 3 Downs From 'The Iron Throne'

3. The True North

Jon Snow is really Aegon Targaryen, the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. But he's also, now, a Queenslayer, and someone who was never going to accept the Throne anyway. With Daenerys dead at his hand, it definitely wasn't going to be an option.

While his sisters want him pardoned, and Grey Worm wants him dead, Bran finds something of a compromise: Jon must take the black, and return to the Night's Watch. Yes, it apparently still exists, because the realms of men still need a shield from... grumkins and snarks, I guess.

That detail is a little wishy-washy, but it serves the bigger purpose of getting Jon back to the North. The true North. It's another one of those Lord of the Rings parallels, mirroring Frodo saying goodbye to his friends and heading to the Undying Lands. This is where Jon belongs. He is a true Northerner; he's much more a Stark than a Targaryen. But he's an outsider too: a bastard, the White Wolf, he belongs beyond the Wall just as much as Ghost does. It's the one place he seemed truly happy and himself, so it's fitting that he goes back there.

He does so as yet another echo of Ned Stark, and of Aemon Targaryen too. R+L=J, but they are the men who made Jon the man he is, and that's what we see in his final moments, including that brilliant scene where he reunited with Ghost and finally pets him like the good boy that he is.