Winter is Coming

Image Credit: Pat_Photographies/Pixabay

Based on celebrity news these days, one might think George R.R. Martin is late delivering his next book because he’s too busy killing off well-known entertainers. Scott Weiland, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Alan Rickman - those are just the ones I’m a big fan of. We also lost Lemmy Kilmister, Dan Haggerty, Meadowlark Lemon, Natalie Cole, Wayne Rogers, and Robert Loggia in the past two months just to name a few.

Death is always tough to accept despite the fact we all must face it in the end. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or the loss of someone famous that we admire, we have to come to grips with the fact that our memories and their past deeds are all we’ll have of them going forward.

Although my little known debut novel Storm Orphans received positive reviews, I caught some flak from several readers over the deaths of a few major characters. I actually consider this something of a compliment. If they cared about their demise, that means they cared about the characters themselves. That in turn means I did at least part of my job as a writer. In the end, no matter how well laid out a plot might be, if the reader isn’t invested in the characters, they aren’t truly invested in the book.

My WIP (that’s “work in progress” for any of your non-acronymers out there) is MG fiction. MG stands for middle grade which is the term used for books geared mainly toward readers ages 8-12. Given that audience, you won’t find a lot of death in this one, but yes, it’s still there. I’m hoping to make a much larger splash in the literary pool with this book. I plan to go the traditional route: entice a good agent via a well-worded query letter and then participate in the necessary voodoo rituals with said agent in order to obtain a deal with a top publisher. If that fails, I may just go door to door visiting elementary school libraries and leaving copies behind like a paperback-planting Johnny Appleseed.

No matter what happens, I promise a story with characters you’ll care about. Winter may indeed be coming both to Atlanta this weekend and to HBO this April, but my next book has a decidedly sunnier outlook.

Why Jon Snow Had to Die

Photo Credit: HBO

First things first, the title is already enough of a spoiler. If you haven't read A Dance with Dragons or seen the final episode of Game of Thrones Season 5, stop reading now. The spoilers will only get worse.

Okay, now that's out of the way, let's talk about Jon Snow's final scene in both the fifth book of the series as well as the final episode of the fifth season of the show. Jon's been stabbed multiple times by his mutinous black brothers of the Night's Watch and he seems to be lying dead on the ground as his lifeblood stains the snow. Thus ends one of the most popular and certainly the most heroic of characters left in George R.R. Martin's mythical land of Westeros. Fans are outraged. Twitter is ablaze with the sort of fury typically reserved for when the bitchiest cast member of The Bachelor somehow manages to move onto the next round. How could HBO do this to us? Better yet, how could Mr. Martin do this to us? We've been such good and faithful followers of his/their work.

The answer is, they had to. Jon Snow had to die.

Hear me out on this. I have no more of a peek into the next book or season than you do. But I know where the story needs to take us if it's going to reach its full potential for mayhem and glory. The White Walkers and their wights need to overwhelm the Night's Watch and invade the lands south of The Wall. As long as they remain on their side of The Wall, the action is limited. The threat is relatively contained. If you follow this logic then you realize the Black Brothers are going to be defeated. Completely. And the White Walkers aren't the type to take prisoners. Not live ones anyway.

So if Jon Snow continues to be the heroic character we know and love (meaning he'd never abandon his men) and he wasn't killed by those same men, then his fate would have been to die to the Walkers instead. Not in a final climactic battle, but early on next season so the drama could continue to unfold as the evil from the north spread into the southlands. And that just isn't the sort of anti-climactic ending any of us want for Jon.

But he didn't deserve to die by treachery either, you cry! Well, perhaps not. But in death, he now has the power to be transformed much as Gregor Clegane becomes Robert Strong in both the books and the show as a result of Qyburn's necromancy. Much as Beric Dondarrion comes back from the dead repeatedly as a result of the healing power of R'hllor via the Red Priest, Thoros. And similar to how another certain character (who I won’t name since many of you probably haven't read the books) is brought back from the dead in the books yet not on the show.

Remember, like Thoros, Melisandre is also a powerful priest/priestess of The Lord of Light. Her champion, Stannis Baratheon, appears to be short one head thanks to Brienne and he's much too far away to revive. Now Melisandre has to find a new champion to fight “The Long Night” that is coming via the White Walker invasion. She's at The Wall, the scene of Jon's demise. Who do you think she'll choose? My money is on our favorite Lord Commander. Bringing him back from the dead just might give him the new lease on life he requires to defeat their common enemies. He'd no longer be bound by his vow or his misplaced loyalties. He'd finally be free to become the sort of badass Daenerys is going to need as a partner when she inevitably crosses the narrow sea to claim the throne.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see together. Like Book and Season 6, Winter is Coming!