Jonsa Rewatch: 8x01, The Intro
Wight dragon attacking the wall, with ravens/crows fleeing on the story wheel.
We see the Great Hall of Winterfell, and then the crypts… including Lyanna!
We see a callback to the Red Wedding on the story wheel. Interesting. We see a lion with a fish in its mouth, a hung direwolf at the Twins, and a naked man with a wolf head.
Red Keep with the dragon basement, three skulls with a crossbow aimed at them, and the Iron Throne under Cersei’s rule.
FOUR DAMN DRAGONS on the story wheel chasing the red comet. All the while the dragons are attaching an army on the ground. I think that army might be the various sigils of Westeros.
Looking at this intro, there are going to be three major sides of the story: the Starks, the Targaryens, and the Lannisters.
Both the Starks and the Lannisters have Targaryen secrets hidden in their basement. For the Starks, it is an actual Targaryen, and for the Lannisters, it is their demise foreshadowed with the crossbow.
In addition, the entire orientation of the show has been flipped. With the destruction of the wall, it almost seems like the intro is being purposefully vague about the movement of the camera so you are never sure whether it is the North or the South that is above the current location. Interesting.
However, the most interesting aspect of the intro is the story wheel.
The first scene is an obvious one: the destruction of the wall.
The second scene is a callback to the Red Wedding. We know that the Red Wedding was essentially caused by Robb Stark making an ill-advised marriage choice, turning his back on an alliance. This, among other poor decisions, led to the Freys and Boltons betraying the Starks.
We know that Sansa is upset with Jon for bending the knee. She also believes that Robb and Ned made poor decisions that got them killed, and we are reminded of a particularly interesting poor decision in Robb involving a marriage.
The showrunners could have chosen any number of scenes for the three scene story wheel - they chose that one.
The third scene on the story wheel are FOUR dragons attacking the animals that represent the houses of Westeros. I think it is meant to portray that Daenerys and her dragons are dangerous to peace.
But the wheel represents the state of affairs at the beginning o the season:
The past - the wall has fallen
The present - Jon has made a politically fraught decision
The future - Danerys is a future threat
Robb’s fatal mistake was betraying the trust of his people. His people didn’t just include the North… the Freys were part of his war and thus people who were pledged to him… and soon to be by marriage.
When he chose to take up with a foreign girl, the Freys believed they were dishonored. So too did the Karstarks and the Umbers when Robb did not honor their requests as expected. He also did nothing to placate them when he went against the expectations of his rule.
Now Robb was just a young man, and was particularly unlucky. He wasn’t yet ready to man the helm of his house and his mother struck a hasty and ill-advised marriage proposal.
But Sansa knew that Robb didn’t act wisely, and warned Jon he could not do the same thing. Jon didn’t just marry an outsider, he did so without the consultation or the placation of his people. They have yet to feel honored by his decision.
The only way Robb could have prevented the Red Wedding was to honor his people. He should have accepted his betrothal or negotiated an effective compromise.
Jon did attempt to make a compromise, but his people don’t yet appreciate this compromise, and Sansa isn’t so sure that Jon bent the knee for his people and not for love. Littlefinger definitely poisoned her mind on that, but I imagine the people of Winterfell also wonder the same thing.
That’s the critical point: Robb essentially thought of himself instead of his family and his people.
For Jon, solving his current political dilemma means earning back the trust of his family and his people. His family does trust him, but there is a seed of doubt in their minds.
However, Robb’s easiest solution was to accept his initial obligation to the Freys. For Jon, his easiest solution is to accept his initial obligation to the North… as King.
Jon individually believes the only solution is to bend the knee and score powerful allies. However, the North is stubborn and wanted Jon to be King.
Now he has sacrificed that obligation. In his absence, the North grew a lot fonder of Sansa than they were originally, and if we remember that Sansa has the Stark name and Jon doesn’t, especially since Jon is apparently a Targaryen, then it means Jon cannot rejoin the North as a Stark King. He doesn’t have the name. He never had the name.
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