Is Jon Snow going to go mad?

[TheThreeEyedCow]

On 26/01/2018 at 11:24 AM, Lord Varys said:

Well, sure, he needs to get harder. Whether he needs to be a great warrior, I really don't know. This is not an action movie, and he is not going to kill all Others and wights with a burning sword even if he gets one.

A leader doesn't have to be the greatest warrior of all time in this world.

Jon certainly is privileged in comparison to the rabble he trains with at the Wall. But he is not privileged in comparison to the really privileged people. Jon doesn't have a gilded sword, no?

All fine points LV. I caught the lurgee so I've been offline. 

I agree completely that Jon doesn't need to be the realms best fighter. More so a leader of people. Preferably, all of the people and not one singular race or culture. What holds me back from thoroughly believing that this truly is Jon's arc are his dreams. In Jon's dreams, he's facing everything alone. Perhaps that's indicative of his state of mind rather than his future. But I think it builds a confusing picture for both the reader and Jon. 

I agree Jon is a lot farther down the pecking order than Jaime. Tyrion too as well as the other Starks.  But his education, his training, the fact that he's eaten 3/4 square meals a day. A wolf as a bodyguard. I would also like to add that having 'The Ned' as a father was an enormous advantage. I think like most men in the series, they need to hit a metaphorical wall as Jaime did with Vargo. Jon hit a Literal wall. The Wall. Maybe that's the only similarity.

[Bloodraven's Spider]

considering Jon isnt a Targaryen no... we have seen how the dead react when being back to life from Rhollor with Beric/Stoneheart. Neither are mad. Jon will probably be a mix of both. Restructured with vengeance and wisdom in his mind.

[James Fenimore Cooper XXII]

Is Jon Snow going to go mad?

So we are to assume he's the son of Rhaegar for the sake of this talk.  Targaryen males are more likely to go mad than the females as we have had no recorded cases of a female Targaryen going mad.  But even among the Targaryens the madness is not that common.  Even if his father was Eddard and his mother was Wylla, or Ashara, or Lyanna, or the fisherman's girl.  His behavior is the best indicator not his parents.  Read his thoughts closely before he got killed and you can make a case that he was already sliding into insanity.  I am reminded of Annakin Skywalker's attachment to his mother.  No matter how he tried he could never get his mother out of his mind.  Which led to his fall to the dark side.  I read something similar in Jon's thoughts and it's not pretty.  He was too obsessed with Arya and it was not healthy.  He broke the laws of his order and betrayed his own men for Arya's sake.  He was showing signs of madness right before his assassination. 

[kissdbyfire]

On 16/01/2018 at 10:00 PM, Lady Dacey said:

Maybe the night's watch will cease to exist? 

Or maybe now w/ the free folk taking over after getting rid of the cowards, the NW will be once again focused on their true purpose. It's actions that will matter, not blindly following vows.

 

 

[chrisdaw]

What Jon is going to become, his mental state on his return, is given to us. It does concern Targ traits but it isn't about madness, it is primarily a judgement and mercy relationship.

He is coming back hard and judgemental, and it is a question of if he retains the capacity for love and mercy. He will seem the embodiment of cold, merciless, heartless, consistent unfeeling judgement - Ice. In comparison to Dany who is fire, all passion, all feeling, inconsistent and temperamental.

Here are the prized quotes from which to project the character of the returning Jon, they are often what Westeros thought of Ned and what they think of the Starks, though sometimes of bastards or the NW.

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Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him.

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Bolton's silence was a hundred times more threatening than Vargo Hoat's slobbering malevolence. Pale as morning mist, his eyes concealed more than they told. Jaime misliked those eyes. They reminded him of the day at King's Landing when Ned Stark had found him seated on the Iron Throne.

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He remembered Eddard Stark, riding the length of Aerys's throne room wrapped in silence. Only his eyes had spoken; a lord's eyes, cold and grey and full of judgment.

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And with him stood the great lords her brother had named the Usurper's dogs, cold-eyed Eddard Stark with his frozen heart, and the golden Lannisters, father and son, so rich, so powerful, so treacherous

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"So I did. Come here by me, lad. I want my folk to see you. I got thousands ne'er saw a lord commander, grown men who were told as boys that your rangers would eat them if they didn't behave. They need to see you plain, a long-faced lad in an old black cloak. They need to learn that the Night's Watch is naught t'be feared."

That is a lesson I would sooner they never learned. Jon peeled the glove off his burned hand, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled. Ghost came racing from the gate. Tormund's horse shied so hard that the wildling almost lost his saddle. "Naught to be feared?" Jon said. "Ghost, stay."

"You are a black-hearted bastard, Lord Crow."

A few characters are in part Jon proto-types, and what is said of them can be taken extrapolated for where we're headed with Jon. The pinnacle being this one about Stannis.

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Lord Stannis in particular. His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

Winter is Coming is about Jon's return.