In March, George RR Martin, the creator of "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series, which the popular TV Show "Game of Thrones" is based upon, did an interview with Time magazine. The interview was published three days before "Game of Thrones" season 7 premiere. Martin spoke about his writing process, the pressure he is facing in regards of finishing the books, about the show, the characters, dead or alive, and more. However, what really caught the attention fans was the part when he talked about the issue of the characters returning back from the dead.
What did George say?
First, he talked about one of the major differences between the books and the TV show and showrunners' decision not to include Lady Stoneheart in the story. When talking about Lady Stoneheart, the resurrected Catelyn Stark, who made her first appearance in the epilog of his third book "A Storm of Swords," George RR Martin pointed out how he wanted to do something different with her character. He wanted her character to bear no similarities with Tolkien's Gandalf the White. He stated that he didn't want to make the character come back to life stronger than ever. He went on to suggest that what he is really trying to do is not to make a character come back to life, only to be the same as ever.
Time about John Snow's resurrection experience, and George RR Martin, cryptic as ever, started talking about Beric Dondarrion who rose from the dead and was a foreshadowing for all the resurrections in the future. He was talking about how every time Beric dies he is a little bit less himself, with all the scars and the fading memory.
George went on to suggest that this is because Beric is "not a living human being, his heart isn't beating and his blood isn't flowing in his veins." In conclusion, he said that Beric is actually a wight, but a wight resurrected by fire instead of ice, and that with this we're actually getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.
What does this all mean?
Of course, we can apply all this knowledge to Jon Snow, because in the show, he also came back from the dead. We expect Martin's next book installment "The Winds of Winter" to confirm this as well. However, in the show, Jon didn't suffer any major change since he came back from the dead, but there is still time. This may have the huge implications on the ending of the story. For now, we can only guess what the future has in store for Jon Snow.
"Game of Thrones" Season 7 premieres on Sunday, July 16 on HBO.