Does Jon Snow ever react to the Red Wedding?

[SaltpansResident]

there was no immediate reaction as far as I know but he does think about it.

"And pull your hood up. The snowflakes are melting in your hair." pretty much the saddest thing Jon has ever said.

Agreed. Also, he does react to Catelyn's nastiness at Bran's bedside. I can't quote from the text in the reader I'm using, but he is visibly distressed when he talks to Robb, who notices and asks how things went with Catelyn. And Jon lies smoothly that she was very kind. In a quiet way, it's a very emotional scene.

[Archangel of Winterfell]

I think this will be something that is expanded upon in Season 4. Remember that Jon still doesn't know about Winterfell being invaded by Theon Greyjoy and the "deaths" of Bran and Rickon. More than likely, Jon will be told all of this at once.

[nara]

Not seeing a reaction from Jon about the Red Wedding was probably one of the things in the books that disappointed me.

He appeared to be close to Robb so it would have been nice to see a reaction.

My only hope is that we see one on the TV series.

I agree that it was very disappointing. In the TV show, I felt they robbed us of Sansa's reaction--stoic in public and only crying behind closed doors, which was so poignant in the books--so I don't have a high level of confidence that they'll do it for Jon. However, it could just be that they didn't think that the young actress who plays Sansa could do such raw emotions...

I'm actually more surprised that Jon didn't snap when he first became aware that Arya was going to become Ramsay Bolton's plaything.

I don't think it's well-known how cruel Ramsay is.

[Grail King]

I agree that it was very disappointing. In the TV show, I felt they robbed us of Sansa's reaction--stoic in public and only crying behind closed doors, which was so poignant in the books--so I don't have a high level of confidence that they'll do it for Jon. However, it could just be that they didn't think that the young actress who plays Sansa could do such raw emotions...

I don't think it's well-known how cruel Ramsay is.

I don't quite agree, she had handled the beating scene and the attempted mob rape really well I think she pull the RW off just as well.

But I do agree we got robbed of some good EMO scenes from both Sansa and Jon on the show, hope we get some back.

[nara]

I don't quite agree, she had handled the beating scene and the attempted mob rape really well I think she pull the RW off just as well.

But I do agree we got robbed of some good EMO scenes from both Sansa and Jon on the show, hope we get some back.

I definitely think she handled the mob scene very well. I was scared even though I knew she would be okay. I was simply suggesting a possible motive for the show runners to change the scene, not saying I agreed with it.

[Brother Seamus]

He does it the Northern/Stark way to gain respect, that "vengence" was just for the reader.

beheading is more honorable, and is often reserved for lords and the like. hanging dishonors the executed. Slynt was a lord. and, it's the honorable northern way, as he learned from ned.

[Ser Sucram Uller]

Time to rehash this topic. Some tend to believe that Jon does not outwardly show anger or grief as a reaction to the news of the Red Wedding for a number of reasons; he is preoccupied with the issues of the NW ie; white walkers, wildlings, janos slynt etc, he is emotionally paralyzed due to the extreme tauma of many recent loses to him or he simply is Ned's son and does not dwell on uncomfortable thoughts just for memory sake.

I however must disagree with this notion simply because of what we see from Jon in his 10th chapter in ASOS. As he and Iron Emmett are practicing in the yard Jon blacks out at the thoughts of old memories at Winterfell and Robb, going into an uncontrollable rage, relentlessly thrashing Emmet despite his cries of "I Yield". After a number of brothers intervene and separate the two combatants Iron Emmett's helmet is bashed in and must be pried off. Never before has Jon exhibited such rage, except following the news of Ned Stark. Jon may be the least verbal of any POV character outside of Sansa. He is very much in his head leaving us as the reader often times speaking for him as to what we would do or say if in his place. This time Jon speaks and I wonder if while all of us heard him, how many were truly listening?

[Señor de la Tormenta]

I think the lack of reaction by Stark kids is GRRM`s doing. He wrote and said that writing of RW chapter was extremly difficult, and that he didn`t want to go again through that when he was offerefd to write an episode of HBO`s GOT S03. I think the same thing applies here. He didn`t want to make several chapters aroud RW, and reactions on it. Perhaps it was too painful for him. I mean, we don`t have Sansa`s POV in which she hears the news, it was Tyrion`s, also we lack of some great reaction in both Bran`s and Jon`s POVs, and Arya just see her mother death which redirects her life to Braavos. I think that GRRM deliberatly skipped the reaction POVs in order not to over-emotionalize story, and because it was too difficult for him.

And even now, three books later he will still need to handle how rickon is going to get it.

[sarah.jenice]

I'd never really thought about this, but it does seem that we don't really get much reaction from the Starks on the Red Wedding. Jon's memories of Robb with snow in his hair as they were saying goodbye in Winterfell have always touched me. Even if he doesn't think about Robb's death a lot, I'm sure it affected him, but I agree that he had resigned himself to the Night's Watch by that point.

The Red Wedding and knowing/thinking that the majority of his siblings are dead could have contributed to his decision to save Arya and go up against House Bolton at the end of Dance.

[houseHB]

I do not think so. But Sam thinks to himself in one of his pov chapters in Feast how Jon is sad all the time now so Jon definitely knows.

[Ghost's Shadow]

Time to rehash this topic. Some tend to believe that Jon does not outwardly show anger or grief as a reaction to the news of the Red Wedding for a number of reasons; he is preoccupied with the issues of the NW ie; white walkers, wildlings, janos slynt etc, he is emotionally paralyzed due to the extreme tauma of many recent loses to him or he simply is Ned's son and does not dwell on uncomfortable thoughts just for memory sake.

I however must disagree with this notion simply because of what we see from Jon in his 10th chapter in ASOS. As he and Iron Emmett are practicing in the yard Jon blacks out at the thoughts of old memories at Winterfell and Robb, going into an uncontrollable rage, relentlessly thrashing Emmet despite his cries of "I Yield". After a number of brothers intervene and separate the two combatants Iron Emmett's helmet is bashed in and must be pried off. Never before has Jon exhibited such rage, except following the news of Ned Stark. Jon may be the least verbal of any POV character outside of Sansa. He is very much in his head leaving us as the reader often times speaking for him as to what we would do or say if in his place. This time Jon speaks and I wonder if while all of us heard him, how many were truly listening?

Such a lovely first post! Thanks for it!

I'd love to add the next scene, the one where he's pushing back enemies on top of the Wall, alone:

That night he dreamt of wildlings howling from the woods, advancing to the moan of warhorns and the roll of drums. Boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM came the sound, a thousand hearts with a single beat. Some had spears and some had bows and some had axes. Others rode on chariots made of bones, drawn by teams of dogs as big as ponies. Giants lumbered amongst them, forty feet tall, with mauls the size of oak trees.

“Stand fast,” Jon Snow called. “Throw them back.” He stood atop the Wall, alone. “Flame,” he cried, “feed them flame,” but there was no one to pay heed.

They are all gone. They have abandoned me.

Burning shafts hissed upward, trailing tongues of fire. Scarecrow brothers tumbled down, black cloaks ablaze. “Snow,” an eagle cried, as foemen scuttled up the ice like spiders. Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. As the dead men reached the top of the Wall he sent them down to die again. He slew a greybeard and a beardless boy, a giant, a gaunt man with filed teeth, a girl with thick red hair. Too late he recognized Ygritte. She was gone as quick as she’d appeared.

The world dissolved into a red mist. Jon stabbed and slashed and cut. He hacked down Donal Noye and gutted Deaf Dick Follard. Qhorin Halfhand stumbled to his knees, trying in vain to staunch the flow of blood from his neck. “I am the Lord of Winterfell,” Jon screamed. It was Robb before him now, his hair wet with melting snow. Longclaw took his head off. Then a gnarled hand seized Jon roughly by the shoulder. He whirled …

… and woke with a raven pecking at his chest. “Snow,” the bird cried. Jon swatted at it. The raven shrieked its displeasure and flapped up to a bedpost to glare down balefully at him through the predawn gloom.

Now, I think I've once seen a thread questioning Jon's actions of cutting off Robb's head, but to me it's quite simple: there should have been all kinds of people alive still, making him NOT be alone (to help him fight the Others - it's obvious he's having a Targ vision of the future, but his mind is twisting it around to make it about his feelings of abandonment), and they simply are not.

So yes, his feelings are definitely leaking into even his nightmares/visions.

[Mladen]

And even now, three books later he will still need to handle how rickon is going to get it.

It's much easier. Rickon could have found out off screen, and he is not POV like Jon, Sansa and Bran...

I agree that it was very disappointing. In the TV show, I felt they robbed us of Sansa's reaction--stoic in public and only crying behind closed doors, which was so poignant in the books--so I don't have a high level of confidence that they'll do it for Jon. However, it could just be that they didn't think that the young actress who plays Sansa could do such raw emotions...

I don't think it's well-known how cruel Ramsay is.

Actually she proved herself quite capable of projecting emotions. The kids on the show are actually best part of the casting...

And it is well-known how insane Ramsay is. It was told in Davos' POV in his conversation with Manderly.

[WinterWarrior]

What disturbs me the most is that GRRM has never avenged the RW. We do not really know what Jon's reaction is.....we just know that Jon knows that Rob is dead. I am waiting for GRRM to give us vengence for the RW. The North Remembers and so do we readers.

I do think that Robb wanting Jon to be his heir shows how close they were, alhtough that scene with the Will was cut out of the HBO series so maybe its a red herring. I think Jon related most to Ned because he truly believes he is his father and Robb and Arya were/are very important to him as well. I am re-listening to ADWD in the car and just got to the part where Mel tells Jon about Arya on a dying horse coming to find him and he gets the letter that Arya is marrying Bolton....and he fights his emotions because he technically does not have a sister anymore as a member of the Nights Watch. It is a little cold.

The Slynt execution does parallel Slynt's beheading of Ned. I wonder if Jon will be the one who brings down House Frey as well...... I think we will see more sorcery and the hand of Bloodraven in Book 6 as these events play themselves out.

I really wish GRRM would finish this thing...he posted on his blog all of this other stuff he is getting out in October...but of course not Book 6.

[DrunkSister]

May be a useful hint concerning Jon's emotions: he doesn't have any memories of his wet nurse. He says somewhere he was still a babe in arms when the last winter ended, but the fans here have calculated he was five when that happened so he was no longer a baby or even a toddler (is that the time whoever that woman was went home because travel became easier?) but he has no memories of her or any feeling of loss.

Only of cold looks Lady Stark gave him.

You might want to take that into account regarding how Jon copes with loss, though not being a psychologist I have no idea how it fits in or even if Martin didn't develop her only because he wanted a slimmer cast of characters.

[Djinn]

Does Jon ever mentions any Frey? He doesn't like Bolton's or Lannister's, but i don't recall he even sparring a toughs on the people that boasted killing his brother.

[Ludd]

There is no reason why Jon would actually know the details that went on at the Red Wedding - He would know of the Freys but not of the Boltons.

Where was Jon when it happened? He heard about Bran and Rickon when he got back to the wall and he was immediately busy in battle, holding the wall against Mance. Now the Red Wedding must have happened say two weeks before Stannis arrived and the wall, allowing for travel time, so just about the same time as the battle. Jon would only have heard about it after Stannis arrived (he had been in an ice cell before that).

[bemused]

He does have a premonition in his dream before the battle where he's in WF, and there's a feast going on that he can't get in to. He then goes through the crypts calling for his father and Benjen.. and sees the grey wolf spattered with blood.

This may have prepared him emotionally ( subconsciously ) somewhat ,for the news that was about to come.

[jom]

I had noticed this the first time through SOS. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't any reaction by John.

A question: I'm on my 2nd read-thru of SOS so forgive this: When/where did Bran learn of the RW? I can't imagine he could of given his relative isolation. Then again he might have dreamed something. If so, which book was this in? Just curious.

jom

[Julian Rayne]

He dreamed of it in ASoS. I don't remember which chapter.

[Boxman]

He learned about Mormont's death, and had to deal with Ygritte dying, around the same time. He also had to help orchestrate the defense of castle black, convince his brothers in arms that he wasn't a turncloak (whilst internally dealing with his legitimate betrayal of the wildlings he had come to somewhat like/admite such as Tormund, Mance, Ygritte). Sam was presumed dead, some odd 200+ night's watch actually were dead, etc. If I remember correctly, Jon was north of the wall when Winterfell was attacked and Bran and Rickon were "killed", so he would have gotten that news with Mormont...

He also had to internalize whether or not he did right by Qhorin

Jon had a lot of death and destruction to deal with, all around the same time there