#Jon who is outright confirmed to play the part of the hero by the author himself

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

It’s the way fantasy is broken down and built back up through a rather tenuous connection between Jon and Sansa. Two characters who are fantasy, when you really think about it, and are at the heart of GRRM’s deconstruction and reconstruction of common fantasy tropes.

There’s Sansa, the fantasy princess in every sense of the word. She’s breathtakingly beautiful and polite. She’s got her magic pet and her penchant for singing sweet songs. She wishes to explore outside her father’s magic castle and then boom, the king visits and now she’s betrothed to the most handsome prince who’s destined to be king. And he promises that he will take her out of that tower. She will get to live the grand romantic performance of a prince rescuing his maiden and marrying her and living happily ever after. And he does….only it’s the worst outcome imaginable. Out of one tower into another (and the tower is gender!). The handsome prince is a sadistic freak who abuses her and controls her. The beautiful queen is actually quite evil and perpetuates her abuse. The knights at court ignore her or are active participants in her dehumanization. Her family is either dead or far away from her. And as all pretty princesses are, she’s brutally orphaned. There’s no one to protect her. There are no valiant heroes and there are no true knights…..or maybe there are? In her disillusionment, she wishes for a hero to chop off ugly Janos Slynt’s head. Then in comes Jon Snow - a bastard black knight who is ironically (and unknowingly) the heroic prince Sansa dreams of but has come to think doesn’t exist. Sansa, a princess in a tower who is losing all hope. And Jon, a prince in hiding who is her hope. Huh…I thought fairytales didn’t exist? Maybe they do, actually. You just have to open your eyes and see.