That Game of Thrones reveal you know about already was difficult to maneuver.
Consider this a spoiler warning for the latest episode of Game of Thrones, but it’s not likely necessary; the world over is already talking about it. And spoiling it freely. For fans of Game of Thrones, there wasn’t all that much to spoil in the first place. The murder of Jon Snow was figured out to be ultimately untrue as soon as it aired last season.
Book readers have had several years to wonder what would happen to the fate of Jon, and this is the first major time that fans of the series have been able to learn something first. Fans have known for a long time that Jon wasn’t really dead, and HBO played their part in teasing his fate.
Entertainment Weekly’s new cover story is on Game of Thrones and the secrets of keeping Jon dead for as long as possible. But was it all worth it? Basically it was one of the worst kept secrets in television. Even though they kept it until the second episode, Jon’s revival at the very end of the episode wasn’t the shock it was perhaps intended to be.
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Part of that is due to readers of the book. Although Jon’s story ends at his death, and is the end of A Dance with Dragons, readers have had years to work over a number of possible theories that would keep him alive. One of which — revival by Melisandre — ended up being the one used on the show.
It’s difficult to keep a secret like that over a year. It’s possible that the reveal would have had more impact of Game of Thrones had changed the order of events and were able to have Jon die and be revived within the same season. It would be certainly feel like less of a gimmick, but perhaps it would have been too difficult to maneuver.
Next: Watch the preview for the next Game of Thrones.
Either way, Jon is alive and Game of Thrones will go on ticking. After all, he wasn’t dead all that long.