How Jon Snow will regain his consciousness

[CrypticWeirwood]

Perhaps it’s to be the sacrifice of Theon’s king’s blood at the godswood that pays for Jon’s life.

[The Undead Martyr]

Jon doesn't need a sacrifice; he "said the words" before a heart tree, just like Benjen- who, IIRC, is implied to be Coldhands. In other words: the Nights Watch is literally the Nights watch- Others and wights come out only at night- and they were "sacrificed" to a heart tree after saying their vows, thus rising to become the "black brothers" (=frostbite) of the Wall. Notice Coldhands has hard, cold, black skin, and called Sam a BROTHER! upon rescuing him and Gilly.

This brings an interesting point: Coldhands, like the Others, is unable to go beyond the Wall; can an UnJon go beyond it, if he's resurrected on the other side?\

And what if the Others are actually the real black brothers, possibly the remnants of the Night king's army or somesuch? IIRC The NK was a Lord Commander (and a Stark) who turned on his brother and marched on Winterfell. Maybe the Wall wasn't meant to keep the Others out? Maybe the original enemies were just the wildlings or something, or maybe the Night's Watch is the enemy, for instance, if some first man lord had the bright idea of using wights as soldiers (mirroring the Valyrian Doom- he unleashed the "Ice" upon himself) and he and/or the army were hemmed in beyond the wall?

[BlueHighwind]

I want Jon to come back as an Other and finally get the plot rolling again. That Wall NEEDS TO COME DOWN.

[Free Northman]

Some weird-ass theories on this thread. Probably sprouting from that damn neverending Heresy #2000 thread, or whatever number it's reached by now.

As soon as I see yet another theory based around the Night's King - who gets less coverage in the story than the legend of the 8 foot tall Clarence Crab who tied a dragon's neck in a knott so that whenever it breathed fire it roasted it's own arse - I know we're venturing into weird territory.

[moongoose]

I give a lot of credit to another poster here who brought up the fact that an unusual amount of emphasis had been given to the food storage cells under the wall - one where meat was smoked and another where it was salted. I'm fairly certain that through a Melisandre POV we will see his body transported to a cold storage cell under the wall next to the smoke and salt rooms. I think in this interim period where Jon's body is dead, his spirit lives in Ghost. This could be why Melisandre saw Jon's image alternate between his own face and that of a wolf - in the flames. I'm unsure of how he will be brought back to life - potentially some intervention on Melisandre's part - but I'm pretty sure that when he is, he will fulfill the Azor Ahai prophecy - Smoke, Salt, Stars bleeding etc.

AA reborn admist salted pork and smoked meat?!

Hhahaha good joke, very good joke.

Possible yeah... but it makes for a very undramatic prophecy. "And with salted meat and smoked pork he will be reborn!" I wonder if Mel's follower would like that.

Prophecy is something that has to have style or else people won't buy it, so I guess it would make sense to leave the meat part out of the spoken prophecy even if it is going to take place.

Sounds funny I definitely have to remember that!

[cuendillar]

The concept of a "Reverse Wall" is intriguing. What if, instead of protecting the Realm against Wildlings and Others, the wall was actually built to protect against men? Before the Wall rose, the Children of the Forest were all but extinct in Westeros - surviving only in the most remote parts. As they're needed to maintain a balance in the world, the Wall was built to set up a "wildlife refuge" in the extreme North so mankind wouldn't drive them or the Others to extinction and thereby doom itself. This might even have been what happened to Valyria - resulting in a cataclysm of unbridled fire that consumed their very civilization.

The world needs both Ice and Fire, in resonable proportions, to avoid a catalysm of one kind or the other.

[Black Crow]

With thoughts like that you're obviously wandering down the dark path to heresy. Never mind what that big Northman with the axe says - come and have a look :cool4:

[Free Northman]

With thoughts like that you're obviously wandering down the dark path to heresy. Never mind what that big Northman with the axe says - come and have a look :cool4:

Hehe. The big Northman with the axe doesn't like it when people imply that his liege lords are in league with the Others.

[dreamcatcher]

I really hope Jon doesn't become an Other. We already have a good Other - Coldhands. I mean, Jon can't be EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in this world - a Stark, a Snow, a Targaryen, a wildling, a wolf, now an Other??

[CrypticWeirwood]

I really hope Jon doesn't become an Other. We already have a good Other - Coldhands. I mean, Jon can't be EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in this world - a Stark, a Snow, a Targaryen, a wildling, a wolf, now an Other??

No, that’s wrong. Coldhands is clearly nothing like an Other. The Others are pale and inhuman; they have pale hands, not black ones. Coldhands is just a dead human with his own mind and will.

[Howlin' Howland Reed]

Hehe. The big Northman with the axe doesn't like it when people imply that his liege lords are in league with the Others.

Liked both those posts for the forum meta-humor. :)

No, that’s wrong. Coldhands is clearly nothing like an Other. The Others are pale and inhuman; they have pale hands, not black ones. Coldhands is just a dead human with his own mind and will.

There should probably be a stickied thread in every forum, postless and locked, with the title: Other = White Walker, Wight = reanimated dead person

[The WolfSpider]

I don't think it's a Stark thing just a skinchanger thing but I think he's dead and moves on to his second life inside Ghost but his body will happen to get 'wighted' and he'll get help to re-inhabit it. Jon-wolf-Jon

[bemused]

Wounded, I say.. soon to be healed by Val and Morna the warrior witch ;)

( With time for some pertinent dreams to expand his connection to Ghost.)

[Red Wedding Singer]

I will summarise a more detailed post I made on this topic before:

In Storm of Swords, at Crasters Keep we have a Sam point of view on the flight back from the Fist of the Firstmen.

There a brother of the Night's Watch named Bannon dies and is burned. The closing vow of the Night's Watch is recited there in full, I believe for our information, as it will later be the way in which Jon is released from his vows, although we don't know it yet at the time.

Anyway, in that chapter Mormon't Raven screams Snow!, and most significantly, when Sam watches the brother burn in the pyre, he curiously says that "For a moment, it appeared as if Bannon was sitting upright in the midst of the flames, and was trying to step out of the fire. Only for a moment, then he disappeared in the smoke."

The recital of the closing vow of the watch "Now my watch ends", the screaming of the word ''Snow'' by the raven, and the images of a body rising from the flames is huge foreshadowing in my view.

This is how Jon will return, now released from his vows. He will be reborn amidst smoke and salt.

And here's the clincher. The price that will be required to raise this secret Dragon, will be the sacrifice of King's Blood in front of a Heart Tree. I believe I know who the King is, and his identity links to the salt part of the prophecy. .

Thus his ressurection will be through the power of Fire and through the power of the Old Gods. Thus his will truly be the Song of Ice and Fire.

I tend to agree with this theory, but one thing I was thinking about that keeps bugging me is the "salt" part. IDK if it's been mentioned, but could the salt be from the wall(not the storerooms)? If you remember in ASoS BranIV, when Bran is traveling under the wall with Samwell, he gets a drop of water in his mouth and it tastes salty "as a tear".

[Stark@heart]

I say its BR/Bran who revive/heal Jon just like what was done for Bran. I think Mel will try to take custody of Jon's body, for her own purposes, which leads to a lot of bloodshed with the QM and Marsh's NW vs Wildlings and those of the watch loyal to Jon.

The sacrifice of a "certain" person with Kings Blood under a Weirtree will seal the deal by keeping Jon alive and his lifeforce in his own body so that while he's comatose BR will pull a twofer and educate both Bran and Jon at the same time. So we'll finally get a crash course in Everything you ever wanted to know about the Wall, the Walkers and the Watch but were afraid to ask. Then Jon can choose to go into Ghost like Bran's able to do with Summer and the wolves together journey to the Land of Always Winter to..... destroy the one ring that binds them all??

I don't really have any ideas about what happens next.

[Ghost714]

Melisandre can definitely save Jon, either by healing him, or by ressurecting him(and no I am not talking about as a Wight, none of that heresy bs). Melisandre says as much to Jon at the end of Jon's first chapter in ADwD.

Jon tells Melisandre that the Wall is no place for a woman, and she disagrees with Jon, saying that Jon may have grave need of her soon, and right after that she goes on to warn Jon about the daggers in the dark, and telling him to keep Ghost close. So obviously Mel saw Jon getting stabbed in her flames, and she even offers to tell him the names of his attackers. The grave need that Jon would have of Mel, is for Mel to heal or ressurect him, if her warning is not enough to prevent the stabbing she saw in the flames.

A lot of people like to think that Mel can't pull a Thoros, and ressurect someone. Or people think Mel can't pull a Benerro, and heal someone. People think this just because we haven't seen Mel do this yet. At the same time though, we never saw Benerro heal anyone until he did it, and that does not mean he couldn't do it before, it just means we didn't know he could do it. I do not know which one Mel can do, either healing or ressurecting, but I believe Jon's first chapter has Mel implying she can do one or the other, if Jon doesn't listen to her warning. Maybe she can do both, who knows, but just because we have not seen her do either yet, it doesn't mean she can't.

[DoctorSwerve]

I disagree... Right now I would bet that he does come back, but from the other side.

The Starks seem to have a connection to the Others (or so I'd like to believe). Why else would they burry their death with a sword to keep them from rising again? Jon has Stark blood in him and he will rise again as some sort of wight.

(If first thought that it would be similar to dany and that Jon could be AA reborn and so .. well.. reborn, that word says it all, but just today I found something while rereading ASOS and I changed my mind. He's going to come back as something similar to an Other or a wight)

If you're implying that the Starks may be related to the Other's due to being buried with a sword is flat out wrong. The Starks have been in Westeros for thousands of years since they are direct descendants of the First Men.

When the Others come, all bodies in their vicinity, including those underground, rise as wights. The Starks remember this, hence the reason they bury their dead with iron swords, which are hated by wights, thus leaving all Stark ancestors at rest for eternity.

Now since it has been noted that some iron swords are missing from Winterfell's crypts, I think that we can expect to see some long-lost Starks rise from the dead as wights once the Others reach Winterfell. Eerie.

[Mulled Wino]

as much of a Jon Stark fan as I am, I think george should keep him dead.

wouldn't that stir stuff up. everyone and their mom thinks he's not dead.

[Mulled Wino]

I really hope Jon doesn't become an Other. We already have a good Other - Coldhands. I mean, Jon can't be EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in this world - a Stark, a Snow, a Targaryen, a wildling, a wolf, now an Other??

this is why GRRM would be, once again, setting this series apart from every other series ever if jon snow is dead like ned stark died in the first book.

[DoctorSwerve]

I tend to agree with this theory, but one thing I was thinking about that keeps bugging me is the "salt" part. IDK if it's been mentioned, but could the salt be from the wall(not the storerooms)? If you remember in ASoS BranIV, when Bran is traveling under the wall with Samwell, he gets a drop of water in his mouth and it tastes salty "as a tear".

I think his theory is implying that Theon would sacrifice himself in front of the heart tree, the Greyjoys being of salt and iron.