Spoiler central here. Turn back now if you know nothing. If you're anything like me, or every other person on the planet, you're still reeling from Jon Snow dying in the Game of Thrones Season 5 finale. Yep, Jon Snow died, and that sentence is as jarring to write as the episode was to watch. He's just such an integral part of the series, and it seems cruel for his plot line to be cut off just when he was starting to get somewhere with the whole Lord Commander of the Night's Watch thing. UGH.
Trust me — anything you're feeling, I get it. Which is why I couldn't be more eager to turn to some fan theories that forecasting the return Jon Snow. Thank the gods. There have been clues and hints placed throughout the book and the series since day one suggesting that Snow will rise again, and the most credible among them seem to point to him being the heralded hero returning to save the world from the White Walkers, known alternately as Azor Ahai, the Lord's Chosen, and the Prince Who Was Promised. There's a prophecy surrounding the return of such a man, calling for a "bleeding star" in the sky, the blood of a dragon, and a rebirth among salt and smoke... and if you paid attention during the Season 5 finale, you likely noticed that all those requirements were in place for this to be referring to Jon Snow.
The bleeding star refers to the sigil of the man whose death catalyzed Snow's, the salt could be a reference to the tears of the cheek of his attacker, the smoke could be the heat of his wounds, steaming in the cold air, and we couldn't help but notice that Snow's blood pooled out of him in a shape very reminiscent of a dragon's wing.
Hello:
Could that be a visual cue hinting that he's a Targaryen? Or, y'know, he could also join souls with Ghost on account of being a warg, which all the groundwork has been laid for, or turn into a White Walker himself, based on the attention he and his sword garnered from the Night's King in "Hardhome."
Everything seems to line up for any one of those theories, but since the show will now officially be going ahead of the books in Season 6, it looks we're all on the edge of our communal seat together as we wait to discover Jon Snow's fate.
Image: Macall B. Polay, screengrab/HBO; Giphy
