He dreamt he was back in Winterfell, limping past the stone kings on their thrones. I say almost everything, because before the siege can begin, GRRM decides to do give Jon a meaningful dream that speaks to Jon’s insecurities about his identity as a Stark bastard – which inevitably means that it’s also about R+L=J and the question of whether, once Jon learns the truth, he will ultimately come to identify himself as a Stark, a Targaryen, or something else altogether: While the Battle of Blackwater looms larger in the fandom’s imagination, I would argue that Jon VIII is possibly the purest example of GRRM’s fascination with medieval siege warfare, albeit with GRRM’s usual fantastic additions – a 700-foot tall ice wall, mammoths in place of war elephants, and giants roaming the battlefield – because almost everything in the chapter revolves around how an outnumbered but determined group of defenders can maximize the defensive and offensive advantages offered by siege equipment to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. We’ve just experienced the emotional climax of the battle for Castle Black with the death of Ygritte, but rather than proceeding to the falling action/denouement, things unexpectedly accelerate because the snek attack from the south was just one of Mance Rayder’s shaping actions – it’s now time for the main assault on the Wall to begin, and pretty soon Jon Snow is going to be the only thing holding the Night’s Watch together. As I said elsewhere, Jon VIII is a chapter that somewhat defies conventional story structure.
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