We hoped we'd read wrong. We hoped that the showrunners would change her fate, but alas, Game of Thrones allowed Ygritte to die during the battle at Castle Black. And we couldn't be more devastated than if the battle took Jon Snow in her place. What do we have without the forbidden love between Jon and Ygritte? What reason do we have to go on?
Well, obviously Jon is our reason to go on. Watching him muster up the strength to fight his way through the mayhem of Castle Black was an exhilarating moment. But Ygritte was our great hope. We prayed that the showrunners would defy the books and give her more time in Westeros (what with Daenerys' sleepy storyline and Margaery gone the way of Ser Pounce (that is, hidden from our view), we're short on incredible female characters.We needed Ygritte.
When she finally found Jon Snow and looked upon him with arrow aimed at his heart, she was everything we'd always wanted her to be. You could see the love in her eyes, yet she still held her own beliefs and goals above all. Then, when the boy from the Nights Watch shot her with an arrow, she almost melted. All that was left was her love for Jon Snow, as would be the case for anyone living through her last few seconds on Earth. Jon held her close as her breath left her and she used her final puffs of air to tell him she wished they'd stayed in the cave where they consummated their love before ending her life with the words that made us love her forever: "You know nothing, Jon Snow." And there was not a dry eye in all of America with those final words as flames surrounded the grieving Jon and his lover's limp body.
Pardon me here. I'm going to need a moment.
Thankfully, Ygritte's death will not be in vain. The loss of his one true love does an extreme service to Jon and his continuing story. (No, we won't be losing Jon any time soon. Thank the gods.) Now that Ygritte is out of the picture, Jon becomes more of a leader and eventually earns himself a rightful lordship. Its a huge price to pay for his future success, and we're not entirely over the loss of such an amazing woman, but if we know anything about Game of Thrones, it's that when you love a character (Ned Stark, Robb Stark, any number of Stark Direwolves) you need to learn, rather quickly, to let them go.
Image: HBO; Giphy
