HBO Toys "Confirm" That Jon Snow Lives

Since the season finale of Game of Thrones, HBO has been desperately trying (and failing) to keep Jon Snow's fate under wraps. When the season ended, Kit Harington chatted with Entertainment Weekly and said, "I’ve been told I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m not coming back next season." The creators even told President Obama that Jon Snow is dead. But I still won't accept that Jon Snow is really dead and gone. And it looks like HBO is with me: The official Honor The Fallen: Game of Thrones In Memoriam Toy Collection is missing Jon Snow. Every fallen character from Robb Stark to Joffrey Baratheon (who we know are long dead and gone) are represented in the collection, but there is no sign of the Lord Commander.

Add this to our other "clues" that Jon lives, and things are looking pretty good right about now. Not only has Harington hung on to his luscious curls, but he was also recently spotted in Belfast, Ireland where HBO shoots some parts of the show. This tangible proof shouldn't be taken lightly, especially since it further corroborates the many theories that Jon Snow will somehow be resurrected after he sustained those fatal stab wounds. Jon may be dead now, but he cannot be gone forever. If he is, nothing that has happened in Westeros makes any sense.

Then, there's the whole parentage issue: We never learned the truth about Jon's mother. Knowing all that we know about Ned Stark, it seems almost unimaginable that he would dishonor his marriage and himself by carrying on an affair with another woman. Instead, it seems much more likely that he was trying to help someone that he loved deeply. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, then please take a look at the, R+L=J theory and prepare for your mind to be blown:

Why would we get all these clues if Jon was really going to just die and never come back?

Still, it's not actually Jon Snow's absence from the In Memoriam collection that truly convinced me that he's coming back. It's actually the presence of someone whose fate seemed very much up in the air: Sandor Clegane, aka The Hound. The Hound is represented in everything from a collectible bust to an action figurine. The collection description on HBO's online story states:

As the saying goes—when you play the , you win or you die. Perhaps no one knows that better than Sandor Clegane ‘The Hound’ or Ned Stark. Now, you can memorialize their deaths and honor the fallen with his Bust of ‘The Hound’ and a replica Ice Sword of Ned Stark!

I was stunned because we never actually see The Hound die. The last time we saw him, he was gravely injured but still alive because Arya Stark refused to put him out of his misery, and left him to die. Clearly, The Hound is dead. He's in an in memoriam toy series. It's over. It's a bummer, because I was still holding onto the hope that The Hound miraculously made it Despite his rough and violent exterior, he always showed compassion to those who needed it most.

I guess I can take solace in the fact that confirmation of his death has given us one very important thing: Hope for Jon Snow.

Images: Helen Sloan/HBO; Giphy