#this is all the logical expounding on what is primarily a looming fear

[winterprince601]

so we all know that the got show wildly underutilised the direwolves and robbed them of all magical significance, which annoys me because the starks finding the direwolves in chapter one of got seems to be a direct counter to the existential threat posed by the others in the prologue. they don't just mark the beginning of political upheaval, but also the return of magic to westeros. like daenerys' dragons, they are the magical counterbalance to the evil power of the others - one of the many incarnations of ice in the prophesised song of ice and fire.

having said that, they also have personal roles for each stark. the nominal determinism of the pups has been well analysed but i think you could read thoroughly into the behaviour of each one - for instance, nymeria connecting arya to westeros and her identity as a stark warg and summer matching bran's weird-girl green-seer energy.

to cut a long-winded post short, however, i think ghost is going to have to die in order for jon to be resurrected. i hate the thought as much as you likely do - ghost has been a close companion of jon and the reader throughout the series but unfortunately, that's what makes the sacrifice so meaningful. i do think jon's resurrection will require a sacrifice: it won't be like the show where jon sits up, is sad for five minutes and then hops off the dissection table to swing a sword about.

one of the many things ghost's name seems to foreshadow is jon's resurrection. not only that, but theon suggests the albino wolf is bound for death, saying he will "die faster than the others". however, when jon retorts "this one belongs to me", he takes responsibility for ghost's life. this is what all the starks do for their pups, but in jon the rescue is especially marked: he turns back to find ghost and whilst he is the runt of the litter, under jon's care he grows to be bigger than his siblings. jon gives ghost life and it makes a lot of symbolic sense for that life to be eventually returned. moreover, ghost with his weirwood colouring represents the old gods of the north - jon even muses that he might be some kind of agent of them. i don't think the lord of light alone can bring jon back: it has to be a rebirth of ice and fire, a spring-like mix of both elements of jon's nature.

jon's resurrection will mark a major change for the direction of his character and is potentially the first step towards realising his targaryen heritage and maaaybe becoming a dragon rider. the death of ghost, of his past as the invisible bastard of winterfell, might be necessary for this. however, i don't believe ghost or his identity as a wolf, as a stark, will truly leave him. if he has warged into ghost and lives on for a period of time in his body, it only makes sense that ghost will live on in him even after he has died. prolonged warging can create slippage between man and beast which we've already seen between living jon and his direwolf. we won't lose ghost entirely and perhaps with the affirmation of robb's will and finally turning home towards winterfell, jon will realise he doesn't need the physical emblem of a direwolf to be a stark - he has the wolfblood of the old gods and the first men within him always.