Kit Harington Explains How Jon Snow Felt About that ‘Game of Thrones’ Reveal
Written by SOURCE on April 15, 2019
If you haven’t seen the season premiere of Game of Thrones season eight, stop reading.
Kit Harington gave Game of Thrones fans a bit of insight into how his character Jon Snow felt about finding out that he was actually a Targaryen.
Harington said the bombshell, which dropped on Snow in the first episode of Season eight, was “the most upsetting thing in the world” for Snow. In addition to the weight of finding out he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, Snow is also forced to question the honor of Ned Stark, a man he’s always thought of as being entirely trustworthy.
“If Jon could go back in time and say: ‘Whatever you’re about to say, don’t tell me,’ he would,” Harington told EW. “He’d happily be in ignorance.”
Of course, there’s another layer of complexity added to this already massive reveal. Jon being a Targaryen means that the woman he’s in love with is his blood relative. While Targaryens are known in the world of Thrones for their incestuous coupling, Jon has only known he’s got blood of a dragon for seconds.
“You mark the particularly tricky scenes that you’re going have to concentrate on and this was one,” Harington explained. “He finds out such a massive piece of information. Not only does he find out who his mother is but also that he’s related to the person he’s in love with. It’s hard for any actor to play. It’s not a two-hour movie but eight seasons of playing a character who’s finding out.”
As for finding out that he has the strongest claim for the Iron Throne in all of Westeros?
“He doesn’t f—king want it. He doesn’t want that f—king information. He doesn’t want to know. He has no ambition for the throne,” Harington said. “He’s never wanted that. The end of the world might be coming soon but at least he’s in love with somebody and knows who he is, and then comes this sledgehammer.”
The actor who plays Samwell Tarly, Jon’s best friend who tells him about his hidden parentage, compared the big moment to one of the Beatles’ most chaotic and divisive songs.
“Jon feels Sam is muddying the name of one to the most noble people he’s ever known and that his entire life is built on a lie,” John Bradley told EW. “You know The Beatles White Album? Just toward the end is “Revolution 9,” which is a very sinister soundscape. The inclusion of that on the album makes you doubt what you’ve heard before it, makes the rest sound darker and more dire. You thought you had an angle on the album but that track means nothing you’ve heard before can be trusted. With Jon, he can review his entire life backwards and see everything completely different and in sinister terms.”
