Jon Snow Kills Mance Rayder in Premiere
[Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, “The Wars to Come.”]
Jon Snow (Kit Harington) may have crossed the wrong king.
Jon publicly disobeyed Stannis (Stephen Dillane) in Sunday’s Game of Thrones premiere, making the risky decision to put Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds) out of his misery. Rather than let him burn alive, Jon shot the King Beyond the Wall with an arrow, giving him a more humane death.
“Jon is used to having older, more powerful men than himself trying to tell him what to do,” Harington tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Now that he’s got a real king doing that, he doesn’t always listen this season. He’s tired of being told what to do.”
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Stannis is among the proudest characters in Game of Thrones, and will likely not take Jon’s public disobedience well. Harington says that the action of Sunday’s episode set a path in motion for a “really interesting standoff” between Jon and Stannis.
Jon’s move comes at a particularly volatile time for The Wall. The Night’s Watch is in the midst of an uneasy coexistence with Stannis and his men, as well as thousands of Wildlings who want refuge south of the wall. And that’s not even to mention the hoard of White Walkers just waiting to destroy Westeros.
Something else that should be on Jon’s radar: His act of mercy deprived Stannis’ priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) of a sacrifice. She will certainly be looking for more blood, and being on her bad side never turns out well for anyone.
Van Houten won’t say if she’s eying Jon for her fires.
“There is something about Jon Snow that interests her,” says van Houten. “It could be a sexual thing. It’s not unthinkable. But there might be something else about him.”
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
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