Was Jon wrong to kill Janos Slynt?

[H Wadsworth Longfellow]

Tywin and Stannis executing another who offended them is normalcy for the nobility.  It is not for a lord commander of the wall.  Jon is not a free man.  He cannot act on his feelings because he has to be fair to all of the men under his command at the wall.  Janos Slynt, Jon Snow, and Mance Rayder are brothers of the watch.   

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

36 minutes ago, H Wadsey Longfellow said:

Tywin and Stannis executing another who offended them is normalcy for the nobility.  It is not for a lord commander of the wall.  Jon is not a free man.  He cannot act on his feelings because he has to be fair to all of the men under his command at the wall.  Janos Slynt, Jon Snow, and Mance Rayder are brothers of the watch.   

He didn't act on his feelings. We have his thoughts so we know he didn't act on his feelings. Slynt disregarded a direct order from his Lord Commander. Death was an appropriate punishment for the situation. 

[TheNecromancerofMirkwood]

Yeesh, step away from this topic for months on end and this is the result. 

Come on, folks. Jon offered Slynt not only a promotion (being put in command of a castle is a STEP UP in the organization), but also didn't simply snick off his head the first time frog-faced Slynt insulted him and refused the order. It was the second, PUBLIC, refusal by Slynt that got him executed. 

As for this blather about Jon being a hypocrite for potential desertion, he got no further than a few hours ride from The Wall. That's no further than visiting Mole's Town to see a whore. And Jon TURNED BACK to avoid being AWOL. 

[Corvo the Crow]

Jon is the commander of a knightly order which Janos is a member of and a lowly(I mean rank but he’s a lowly individual as well) member at that. The wall isn’t just a knighly order but also serves as a penal colony and Janos isn’t just any other lowly member but one sent there as punishment. Jon could’ve easily removed his head the first time but gave him several chances. 

[Brother Seamus]

9 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Jon is the commander of a knightly order which Janos is a member of and a lowly(I mean rank but he’s a lowly individual as well) member at that. The wall isn’t just a knighly order but also serves as a penal colony and Janos isn’t just any other lowly member but one sent there as punishment. Jon could’ve easily removed his head the first time but gave him several chances. 

I think more to the point is that he is the commander of a military unit. Slynt's open defiance is mutiny. In the real world the punishment for this was traditionally death, until sometime in the last century.

[Here's Looking At You, Kid]

Great.  A refreshingly direct question.  Direct answer coming up.

Yes.  Jon Snow was wrong to kill Janos Slynt.  

[Lyanna<3Rhaegar]

46 minutes ago, Here&#x27;s Looking At You, Kid said:

Great.  A refreshingly direct question.  Direct answer coming up.

Yes.  Jon Snow was wrong to kill Janos Slynt.  

How so? Slynt disobeyed a direct order from his Lord Commander. Had all night to think about taking the promotion offered & being part of the team & decided not to anyway. 

[TheNecromancerofMirkwood]

On 12/21/2022 at 1:26 PM, Lyanna&lt;3Rhaegar said:

How so? Slynt disobeyed a direct order from his Lord Commander. Had all night to think about taking the promotion offered & being part of the team & decided not to anyway. 

Exactly. People forget that The Night's Watch is a military organization and that refusing the lawful orders of one's commander, before the modern era, was often punished by being put to death. And again, it wasn't just 1 time that Slynt did so, it was the second time in front of not just brothers of the Watch, but also Stannis's troops and Melisandre's followers. Slynt wrote his death warrant by doing it like that.

[King_Tristifer_IV_Mudd]

No

[King_Tristifer_IV_Mudd]

On 12/21/2022 at 12:38 PM, Here&#x27;s Looking At You, Kid said:

Great.  A refreshingly direct question.  Direct answer coming up.

Yes.  Jon Snow was wrong to kill Janos Slynt.  

Wrong

[SeanF]

The punishment for mutiny is death.

Jon can choose to inflict that punishment, or to impose some lesser penalty, but that is entirely his call.

It’s similar to Robb and Karstark.  Robb would have been within his rights to execute both squires, but he chose to spare them.  Karstark’s open defiance was an act of mutiny, and Robb was entirely within his rights to behead him.

[Corvo the Crow]

8 hours ago, KingEuronGreyjoy said:

Wrong

Of course he was wrong to kill Janos Slynt... so late. He should've killed him as soon as he became commander.

[Moiraine Sedai]

Jon murdered Janos because he wanted to. Jon baited Janos knowing the man would more than likely resist at first.  It was wrong.  

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

3 minutes ago, Moiraine Sedai said:

Jon murdered Janos because he wanted to. Jon baited Janos knowing the man would more than likely resist at first.  It was wrong.  

Considering that he allowed that sniveling corrupt rat to live for so long, and gave him so many chances to obey and do his job, too many in fact ...

Yeah that was soooo cruel and unfair for poor Janos. Lol. 

[SeanF]

13 minutes ago, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

Considering that he allowed that sniveling corrupt rat to live for so long, and gave him so many chances to obey and do his job, too many in fact ...

Yeah that was soooo cruel and unfair for poor Janos. Lol. 

I think there was an element of baiting Slynt, and Jon was certainly keen to “part his greasy head from his shoulders.”

But, it’s still suicide by cop.  A decent officer would have accepted Jon’s command, and seen it as an opportunity to win kudos, or if he had doubts, expressed them privately to him.

Slynt chose to defy him in public, and sealed his fate.

[kissdbyfire]

On 12/28/2021 at 4:29 PM, Odej said:

Reading some posts about Jon Snow's attitudes as Lord Commander I realized that many people don't agree with Jon killing Janos Slynt and that made me curious. I always thought Jon's attitude was correct. Janos disrespected and disobeyed him publicly, letting his behavior go unpunished would make Jon weak in front of his subordinates. In an environment like the Wall, how to respect a leader whom an underling can curse and disobey him without serious consequences? Especially considering how many men who serve on the Wall were thieves, rapists and murderers.

 What do you guys think of Jon's decision?

Of course Jon was completely correct in executing Slynt. The problem is not w/ Jon’s actions here but rather w/ these posts you’ve seen. It’s very likely that I could give you a list w/ 10 user names and most if not all will have authored some of those posts, because it’s always the same crowd. 
And granted, we all have our faves and our least faves and even characters we dislike profoundly. Also, all characters, especially the main characters, make mistakes and much of what they all do leaves room for interpretation and different takes and perspectives. Key word in the previous sentence is ‘much’, because in some cases it’s all so bloody obvious and carefully spelled out by the author that the issue shouldn’t even be so controversial. The execution of Slynt is one such because we not only watch events unfold in real time but we are in Jon’s head! We see as he weighs in his options, considers what to do, etc etc. So we know it wasn’t revenge. 
It’s different from, say, Robb deciding to marry Jeyne. We don’t see what happens, we don’t know how others are acting and behaving around Robb, and especially, we don’t know what Robb is thinking. 
But not here, here it’s so perfectly clear and so painstakingly laid out by the author that you really have to question people’s intellectual integrity when they insist on making arguments that are blatantly false and go against everything the author wrote. 

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

On 12/24/2022 at 1:08 AM, kissdbyfire said:

Of course Jon was completely correct in executing Slynt.

I didn’t even know that this is a somewhat unpopular opinion.