Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Game Of Thrones season 8.
No one is disputing that Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) saved the day at the Battle Of Winterfell (although some people are saying she didn't deserve to). The youngest Stark daughter had a triumphant victory as she leapt in the air the killed the Night King at the last moment, as purported hero Jon Snow...hid behind a rock. To be fair, it was because he was facing off an undead dragon, but that didn't stop people from rolling their eyes that the King of the North was nowhere to be found when he was most needed. However, a new theory on Reddit gives him the benefit of the doubt.
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From an objective standpoint, Jon's participation in the battle went like this: Ride dragon, fall off dragon, hide from dragon, scream at dragon. While Jon yelling at Viserion has become its own meme, Reddit user Applesoapp thinks he was actually crucial in helping Arya pull off her grand victory.
"Watch it again, you can actually hear him scream 'GOOOOO - GO - GO,'" the post reads. "10 seconds later the scene you can see the hair of a White Walker flying up when Arya sprints past the group of White Walkers."
Basically, Jon may have been the one distracting Viserion so Arya could go running to the Weirwood Tree. After all, episode director Miguel Sapochnik specifically didn't want anyone — including us — to see her coming. (He also has the show's cinematographer Fabian Wagner to thank for that.)
“I thought, ‘Hmm, if I see Arya running then I know she’s going to do something,'" he told Entertainment Weekly. “So it’s about almost losing her from the story and then have her come in as a surprise and pinning all our hopes on Jon being the guy going to do it — because Jon’s always the guy. So we follow Jon in a continuous shot I want the audience to think: ‘Jon’s gonna do it, Jon’s gonna do it…’ and then he fails. He fails at the very last minute. So I’m hoping that’s a nice switch that no one sees coming."
But an even better twist? That Jon was actually the only one who saw it coming.
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