Why Jon Snow Killed Daenerys Targaryen In Game Of Thrones

Jon Snow killing Daenerys Targaryen is one of Game of Thrones‘ most shocking plot twists, the kind of moment that sparks fervor, debate, and controversy even years later. Game of Thrones‘ ending faced a backlash for many reasons – the pacing of season 8, Bran becoming king, and so on – but chief among them was its handling of Daenerys. She went from being one of the show’s two biggest heroes to its final villain, having to be stopped by her lover (and nephew) who had bent the knee to her.

Game of Thrones season 8 would be controversial regardless of that moment, but it was a fatal blow. And yet, Jon obviously didn’t act without reason. This wasn’t a moment he took lightly, because king or queenslaying is such a great crime in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros – Jon himself, as with most people, had no love or respect for Jaime Lannister for that very reason. Jon was ultimately left with no choice because of Dany’s actions, but it took something specific to convince him to act.

Jon Snow Didn’t Want To Kill Daenerys

He Wasn’t Convinced Until The Throne Room

Throughout the early stages of Game of Thrones‘ series finale, Jon Snow is being pushed to take decisive action. He has witnessed Daenerys destroy King’s Landing, and now he’s watching in disbelief as the fallout from it shows no signs of remorse. Lannister soldiers are still executed in the streets. Tyrion throws away his Hand of the Queen pin, and is subsequently thrown in a cell. Arya warns him that Dany is “a killer.” The Queen herself gives a speech that only promises more violence.

Jon witnessed all of that, and he still wasn’t convinced to kill Daenerys. Indeed, he still wanted to root for her to succeed, for her rule to work; he tried to insist upon staying loyal to her. All through the conversation with Tyrion in the cell, where the Imp clearly wants him to murder her, Jon tries not to listen. The evidence against her, of course, is insurmountable, but he desperately doesn’t want to see reason. Tyrion tells him that “duty is the death of love,” but even then, Jon isn’t prepared to read love its last rites.

Jon Snow Really Killed Daenerys Because Of His Sisters

Daenerys Posed A Major Threat To Sansa And Arya

Jon Snow kills Daenerys Targaryen because of the many terrible things she has done, and the many terrible things she will do. He kills her because she needs to be stopped, and it’s the only way. And, beyond that, because he’s the one person who can. But the absolute real reason Jon kills Dany is because of his sisters, Arya and Sansa Stark. Even if they’re not his sisters by blood, that’s what he sees them as still, and his need to protect them is what comes through in the end.

Jon: “What about everyone else? All the other people who think they know what’s good and right?”

The fire of the conqueror flares in Dany’s eyes.

Dany: “They don’t get to choose.”

Jon understands what this means for the people he loves the most.

This is something Tyrion had warned him of in the cell; that Daenerys would not accept anyone who does not accept and support her. And Arya and Sansa, very clearly, would not do that. Jon knows the North will not back Daenerys, and that’s going to bring consequences when the queen has just promised to continue the war against all who stand in their way. Dany saying “they don’t get to choose” directly connects back to his talk with Tyrion, making him realize what that truly means.

Jon may not be Ned Stark’s biological son, but he is his truest child in some respects. Like Ned, Jon puts honor above almost everything:

• When Varys warns him of what she’s going to die, he says “she is our queen.”
• When Samwell Tarly tells him she killed his father and brother, he says she is “our queen.”
• When Tyrion pleads with him about the terrible things she’ll do, he says “she is the queen.”

What was the one thing that could get Ned to sully his precious honor? Family. It was his sister, making him promise to keep Jon safe, that led to him lying to everyone, including his own wife, for all those years, taking a secret to his grave at the cost of his own reputation. And when Ned was facing death, refusing to take back his treasonous words, what was the one thing Varys was able to say to get through to him?

Ned: You think my life is some precious thing to me? That I would trade my honor for a few more years of- of what?!

Varys: What of your daughter’s life, my Lord? Is that a precious thing to you?”

As it was for Ned, it is for Jon. It is the threat to the life of Sansa – and, in Jon’s case, Arya too – that prompts him to forget what is honorable, and do what is best for the people he loves the most. It’s only when he confronts Dany in the throne room, and fully understands what allowing her to live would mean for his sisters, that he decides to kill her.

Jon Snow Killing Daenerys Had Multiple Callbacks To Game Of Thrones Season 1

It Connects To Ned, Jaime Lannister, And Robert Baratheon

I’m not going to say that Game of Thrones was always setting up Jon killing Daenerys, or that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss knew that was where George R.R. Martin was headed from day one of the show (indeed, it remains to be seen if it will happen in the books). But it’s interesting to look back at season 1 now, and see how various lines work with Jon killing Daenerys and add more weight to the moment.

Obviously, one of those is the exchange mentioned between Varys and Ned, but there are others, too. From episode 1, Ned introduces his golden rule: the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. This is important for Jon, and defines who he is in some ways. He carries this with him throughout the rest of his life, such as when executing Janos Slynt, or hanging the Night’s Watch mutineers. These tough decisions test him morally, preparing him to be able to kill Daenerys, and to do it himself.

Jon killing Daenerys even more specifically calls back to lines from Robert Baratheon and Jaime Lannister. Take this exchange from season 1, episode 2, “The Kingsroad”:

Ned: “Daenerys Targaryen has wed some Dothraki horselord. What of it? Should we send her a wedding gift?”

Robert: “A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it.”

An episode later, we get this between Ned and Jaime:

Jaime: And later… when I watched the Mad King die, I remembered him laughing as your father burned. It felt like justice.”

Ned: Is that what you tell yourself at night? You’re a servant of justice? That you were avenging my father when you shoved your sword in Aerys Targaryen’s back?

Jaime: Tell me… if I’d stabbed the Mad King in the belly instead of the back, would you admire me more?

All of this comes back with Jon’s decision to murder Daenerys. He is the bold man wielding a knife against her; he does stab her in the belly, not the back. It paints a harsh reality of Jon’s decision: that it is the very one Ned himself had railed against making all those years ago. Obviously, now, there’s a very different context, and she’s made decisions that suggest it had to happen.

Whether Ned would approve of Jon killing Daenerys is, nonetheless, a fascinating question to ponder: I think he’d understand it, but would want to ensure there was no other way. I’m not convinced he’d love the way he did it, either, and likely believe there should have been a trial. Still, while Ned was quick to condemn Jaime’s kingslaying, it’s unlikely he’d be quite so fast in condemning Jon’s queenslaying.

Will Jon Snow Kill Daenerys Targaryen In The Books?

GRRM Could Have This Planned For A Dream Of Spring

Jon Snow killing Daenerys is the kind of twist that’s so monumental, part of me has to believe it came directly from George R.R. Martin himself. It feels like the kind of cruel blow he’d deliver at the end of his saga, a last subversion of classic, Tolkien fantasy tropes. And, very broadly speaking, it does fit with where his story is headed: the moral conflicts and difficult decisions I mentioned earlier about Jon are far more prominent in his book story. So, too, is the ambiguity in Dany’s arc and her leaning toward “fire and blood.”

At the same time, it is, admittedly, very difficult to predict. This is something that wouldn’t happen until the final third or so of A Dream of Spring. Not only has that book not been written, but there’s a whole other book that still needs to come before it. Jon Snow still needs to be resurrected. Daenerys needs to get herself to Westeros. They have to meet. There’ll be a conflict over the Iron Throne, but it’s more likely with Aegon Targaryen, aka Young Griff, than Cersei Lannister. And that might well happen before the Long Night.

Is Jon Snow going to kill Daenerys because she’s the Mad Queen and a threat to his family? Is he going to sacrifice her to fulfill the Azor Ahai prophecy? Is it even going to happen at all?

I can see arguments for any of those, and while I lean towards Jon killing her in the books since it happened in the show, I’m also confident that how it plays out, and how we understand it, will be quite different (and a lot more in depth) than Game of Thrones. With The Winds of Winter taking so long, we may not get close to an answer anytime soon, but I cannot wait to find out.