Jon Snow killing Daenerys in the 'Game of Thrones' finale was a spur of the moment thing
We've now had time to process what happened in the finale of Game of Thrones, and whether we're happy with the turn the action took or not, there are still a few questions dangling.
But thanks to Kit Harington – aka Jon Snow – we've discovered that his shocking decision to stab lover/Queen Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) in the throne room at King's Landing was not premeditated murder.
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The season eight DVD is about to be unleashed, and while viewers may be thankful for a digital version of the Battle of Winterfell (brightness turned up to 10), there's some valuable DVD making-of commentary going on too.
Revealed by Entertainment Weekly, Harington explains that Jon doesn't intend on killing Daenerys until he realises he has no other choice.
“He doesn’t know he’s going to betray her until right at the end,” he says. “In Jon’s head, it’s a number of [reasons: Dany] doesn’t factor in anyone else’s decisions and it also means [Dany] is going to kill my sisters, so it becomes [my] family versus her.”
It's among a number of other issues around the show's final season that are finally put to bed.
Showrunner David Benioff also confirms that Drogon, Daenerys's dragon spawn, does not eat his mother after carrying her off into the sunset.
“Drogon’s not going to eat you,” he says. “He’s not a cat. Did you see how gently he was nudging you?”
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Instead, he was carrying her off to Volantis, with Benioff also answering why Drogon melted the Iron Throne too.
“If [Dany is] not going to sit on it, no one’s going to sit on it,” he goes one, though some critics had mused that perhaps Drogon was more sentient than we realised, and had smelted the throne in blaming it for all the woes of Westeros.
Whether these – and other – explanations in the documentary, called Duty is the Death of Love, will placate all fans remains to be seen.
Many were left somewhat bereft in the final season, with criticisms that it was rushed in favour of several high-budget battles over the character development that the show had long been praised for.
Clarke herself has said that she was left ‘heartbroken’ by fan responses to the last few episodes.
Some also didn't appreciate the seemingly flippant choice to appoint Bran the King of Westeros following Daenerys and Cersei's deaths.
But Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister, adds: “Bran is the only probably pure person in there. And the fact he cannot father children is key because they’ve repeated the cycle in this Westerosi history of heirs being really bad.”
Amen to that.
The series eight DVD of Game of Thrones will be released in the UK on December 2.