Game of Thrones: What will Jon Snow do with the truth about his heritage?

Jon Snow learned the truth about his parentage during the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere. What will he do with this information?

The Game of Thrones premiere on Sunday was full of long-awaited moments between characters, but the most intense reunion of the night was definitely between Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly.

After learning what Daenerys Targaryen has done to his father and brother, Sam goes to the crypts to meet Jon—and break the news to him that he’s the rightful heir to the Seven Kingdoms. The timing isn’t great, especially as Jon has just bent the knee to Daenerys.

As expected, Jon doesn’t take well to the idea that Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen are his true parents. He attempts to deny Sam’s words, then insists that he won’t take the Seven Kingdoms from Daenerys. Not only has he already sworn himself to her cause, but he doesn’t believe he’d be a good ruler. Really, after seeing what’s happened to the other kings of Westeros, why would he bother trying?

Still, Jon’s eventually going to need to work through the information Sam gave him. But what will he do when he faces the truth? As a man of honor, it’s unlikely that Jon can keep lying to his people about being a Targaryen. However, he also has pledged an oath to Daenerys—and the dragon queen won’t be pleased to learn that she’s traveled all this way for nothing. There’s a good chance she wouldn’t even accept Jon’s claim to the throne, and there are really enough tensions in the North right now without the two of them squabbling over an iron chair.

Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington. Photo: Helen Sloan/Courtesy of HBO

The Night King will also be arriving at Winterfell in almost no time at all, meaning that Jon won’t have much time to consider his options. Tormund tells him that the North has until sunrise to prepare for the oncoming attack during the promo trailer for next week, and Jon knows that the fight against the army of the dead is the more important task at hand.

For that reason, Jon will probably wait to break the news to anyone. Why put the breaks on his blossoming relationship with Daenerys and make the Northerners wary of him, when they all might be dead following the Battle for Winterfell anyway? But he’ll have to own up to his Targaryen heritage eventually; after all, the writers wouldn’t put a loaded gun in the room and not have anyone use it.

The real question is how Jon will use the information. Jon’s already had a brief time with power as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. That didn’t go so well, and he was more than ready to go south and get warm when Sansa arrived at Castle Black and gave him a different objective. Assuming Jon survives the Night King’s attack, he probably won’t want to rule one kingdom, much less seven of them.

His followers might feel differently, however. Both the Northerners and Sam himself seem to feel that Jon makes a better king than Daenerys does a queen, and if we’re being honest, they’re probably right. Sam’s question to Jon, regarding whether Daenerys would forfeit her crown for her people, hit home—and when Jon realizes that his queen may not be what’s best for his people, it’s possible he’ll accept his role as king. Hopefully, the North and his own siblings will accept it, too…

Jon has plenty to think about after his conversation in the crypts. With any luck, he’ll come out of shock and be able to process everything Sam has told him. We’ll find out exactly where Jon’s head is during the next episode of Game of Thrones this Sunday, April 21.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. 

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