Why A Jon Fan Thinks Jon Should've Died

[rustythesmith]

I think Jon is the single most fit person to rule. But I think the show would have been better if he died, and here's how.

First, you have to think of this story as a war of ideals and philosophies rather than a war between characters. The characters are more like vehicles for the ideals and philosophies.

Jon, Robb and Bran are vehicles for Ned's philosophy.
Dany is the vehicle for Jorah's.
Arya for Ned's corrupted by Sandor's.
Sansa for Catelyn's corrupted by Petyr's.

What I think we're witnessing in ASOIAF is this medieval-ish world's discovery of one of Ned's philosophies in particular. That's "the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword". AKA don't use executioners. AKA everybody should just do their own damn killing.

Robb tried to stick to Ned's philosophy, but he tripped up when he failed to honor his marriage vow to House Frey. Remember, Ned honored his arranged marriage vow to Catelyn. So Robb gets murdered and now Team Ned loses one of its players.

Bran's life experiences aren't really testing him on matters of execution and justice, but they're testing him on matters of power. He has unequaled power that he can wield in secret, but he's not supposed to use it. Whether or not power will corrupt Bran remains to be seen, but for now Bran is a carrier of Ned's philosophies, safely stowed away in the north with the Reeds and ravens.

Jon's life experiences constantly test him on matters of execution and justice. So far he hasn't tripped up even once. He has stuck to those ideals even at great risk to his life. To others, Jon and Ned appear to be Lawful Stupid. They both get killed for sticking to their ideals. Getting killed doesn't seem to be conducive to winning the war of philosophies. Until...

Until you average all of Ned's philosophies to find the commonality between them, revealing a hidden philosophy. I think that is "self-sacrifice."

• To do all of the executions yourself is a self-sacrifice. It would be easier to let other people do some executions for you.
• To allow your wife to resent you in order to protect a baby is a self-sacrifice. It would be easier to tell your wife the truth.
• To give Cersei a chance to escape the city safely with her kids is a self-sacrifice. It would be easier to let the mob kill them.
• To object to the assassination of Daenerys is a self-sacrifice. It would be easier to let her get assassinated.
• If a lone wolf has to die so that the pack can survive, the lone wolf should elect to die.

There are more but you get the picture.

So while Ned's self-sacrificial philosophies in practice appear to be Lawful Stupid in the short term, the suggestion is that they work better on average, and thus should yield better results on a longer timeline for the people who champion them.

This exposes the great weakness of Ned's philosophies, which is that their effectiveness cannot be easily proven. You have to take it on faith that they work better than competing philosophies and begin acting them out consistently for a long period of time before you will clearly see and feel the results. Contrast it with Sandor's philosophy that the strong should prey upon the weak, and how quickly the effectiveness of that philosophy can be demonstrated. That would be pretty convincing to a 12 year old girl whose parents just died and who has all the reason in the world to hate the world.

In season 8 of the show, Jon and Bran are the last carriers of Ned's philosophy. Jon is clearly the best man to rule, but love is the death of duty and even Jon has succumbed to the temptation of love. He defended Daenerys right up to and beyond the day she slaughtered a million people in the name of mercy.

So there it is. One fuck up is all it takes to lose you the game. Jon kills Dany to redeem his error and save the world from her mercy. The consequence for that is that Drogon kills him. Then Drogon kills the throne too because he knows that the corrupting influence of power killed Dany as much as Jon did. Then the last carrier of Ned's philosophy is Bran.

Viola! "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword" has completed its journey, won the war of philosophies and found its way onto the Iron Throne (so to speak) where it will have its chance to be observed on a larger platform and immortalized by all of Westeros as a philosophy worth keeping. What was once a Northern sentiment gets to spread across the whole continent and improve society.