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Jon Snow's Sequel Can Actually Do The Targaryen Story GOT Failed
One of the many things that Game of Thrones failed to do in its final couple of seasons was to fully reckon with the fact that Jon Snow is a Targaryen, and this leaves a lot of room for the sequel series to address what this means. After all, he is no longer a part of the game of thrones, which means he'll have time to reflect on his past. As Jon adapts to his new life outside the main politics of Westeros, he'll finally have a chance to reckon with the fact that he has Targaryen blood in his veins.
Since the beginning of the series, one of the enduring mysteries centered on Jon Snow's parentage. At the end of Game of Thrones season 7, it was finally revealed that Jon had a Targaryen heritage by being the true-born son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Though this revelation had been building for a long time, the series paid far more attention to his doomed romance with Daenerys than it did to his feelings about this revelation about his heritage, let alone his potential claim to the throne.
Game Of Thrones Failed The Targaryen Part Of Jon Snow's Story
Snow can fix this lack of examination of Jon's Targaryen heritage since it will focus on Jon away from all the pressures of Westeros and the game of thrones the Houses below the Wall are playing. It was as if, having built up so much expectation, the writers didn't know how to work his identity into the intricate plot. Even the council, which met to decide who would rule over the Seven Kingdoms, didn't seem to pay much attention to the fact that as the trueborn son of Rhaegar, Jon Snow was the rightful ruler.
Given just how much of a build-up there was to reveal the truth about Jon's identity, this aspect of the final seasons was particularly perplexing. Banishing him to a life of relative poverty and anonymity among the wildlings was a simple plot solution that seemed to dispense with all the importance the Targaryens supposedly possessed. So when he rode off north of the Wall with the wildlings, it was something of an anticlimax, an ignominious ending for the last scion of a powerful dynasty.
In the finale of Game of Thrones, Jon Snow is sent north of the Wall as a punishment for killing Daenerys in front of the Iron Throne. The forthcoming series, currently titled Snow, certainly has many choices regarding what to do with his character during this exile. Given how prone Jon Snow is to moments of introspection and reflection, it would make sense for the show to allow him to engage with the pressing questions of his heritage as a member of one of the most powerful houses to have ever dwelled in Westeros.
How Jon Snow's Sequel Can Give His Targaryen Lineage More Meaning
In particular, Snow can allow Jon time to grapple with the ramifications of his identity as a Targaryen. After all, this revelation shook everything he thought he knew about himself, so he deserves a bit of a chance to reckon with what this means, both for his present and his past — something mentioned by Kit Harington as a tease of the Jon Snow sequel. Just because he is living north of the Wall doesn't mean that there aren't those in Westeros proper who will be looking for an opportunity to scheme against Bran and Sansa, who rule from King's Landing and Winterfell.
The later seasons of Game of Thrones did much to alienate even longtime fans, and Jon Snow's character arc was one of the most significant casualties of the rushed and sometimes sloppy writing. Fortunately, giving this character an entire series opens up an entirely new set of possibilities for elaborating on his internal struggles and his reckoning with his identity as a Targaryen — even if the Jon Snow-focused sequel wouldn't fix the finale. Focusing on this aspect of his identity will make for a strong story in its own right and help dispel some residual ill will that still clings to Game of Thrones.
