The Atlantic

Would You Believe Jon Snow?

In its current season, <em>Game of Thrones</em> is exploring the life of another kind of monster: the alternative fact.
Source: HBO

This post references plot points through Season 7, Episode 5 of Game of Thrones.

“Perhaps we ought to listen to what he has to say.”

Sam Tarly is trying his best to convince the maesters of the Citadel that Jon Snow has not completely lost his mind. Sam is not having an easy time of it. Which is not entirely surprising: The truth Jon is telling, after all, involves murderous zombies rising from the north’s icy wastelands to attack the warm humans of the south and win them over for the army of the dead. Oh, and the zombie-horde includes some giants. Oh, and the whole undead army is operating under the leadership of an ice-king with superhuman strength who seems to be both exceptionally militarily strategic and also in possession of a lifetime supply of EyeCandys color contacts in Fancy Blue.

Jon—while the audience of knows this for sure, the denizens of Westeros do not—has not lost his

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic17 min read
How America Became Addicted to Therapy
A few months ago, as I was absent-mindedly mending a pillow, I thought, I should quit therapy. Then I quickly suppressed the heresy. Among many people I know, therapy is like regular exercise or taking vitamin D: something a sensible person does rout
The Atlantic4 min readAmerican Government
How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t
Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking
The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was

Related Books & Audiobooks