Did Jon Snow have to kill Olly?
Children are always blameless." — Varys, this episode.
Children are always blameless." — Varys, this episode.
Coincidence? I don't think so.
I think Jon Snow was totally justified in killing all of them... except Ollie.
As for Alliser Thorne, and the other guys... not much sympathy.
They knew exactly what they were getting into. But Ollie was a child.
But, to be clear, he definitely did NOT have to kill Olly. That's a ridiculous statement. He spared Ygritte when he was supposed to kill her. He could have spared Olly. He could have slapped him on a wrist; sent him to Eastwatch or the Shadow Tower... Gotten rid of him, yes. But not neccessarily killing him.
Anybody maintaining that Jon had no choice is just flat out wrong.
Mercy is always a choice when you are a lord.
Jon Snow made the choice he made. Maybe he did it for pragmatic reasons, so that Ollie wouldn't kill him again; and by doing it, anybody watching would know that it's not a good idea to mess with Jon Snow, who probably seems unkillable at this point.
Kill him and he'll come back and hang you! I think that message is sent loud and clear. But it would have been sent loud and clear without killing the boy.
I've never gotten the hate for Ollie.
It's totally irrational. Ollie's whole world was totally fucked up; it was destroyed by the Wildlings, who raided his village and killed his whole family. Some of them were cannibals and it is likely that his parents were roasted and eaten by them.
He saw that at a young age.
Then Ollie fled to the Wall to warn them that the Wildlings were coming. He saved their life. He killed Ygritte, but as far as he knew he was saving JON. He was being a good brother of the Night's Watch.
Can you imagine how much that would fuck you up? To see your parents murdered and know they'd been eaten by cannibals? To be so traumatized that you sign away your life to the only organization you know of that fights these man-eating sons of bitches?
And then to have the man who took you under his wing, your foster father, your big protective brother figure making friends with them? Because he's scared of some legendary ice monsters you've never seen and don't really believe in? And you find out that the woman you saved him from was his girlfriend. That he was having sex with one of those bastards — a woman who had killed one of your parents? That has to be troubling.
I give Ollie a pass. Sue me, Jon worshippers. I know I'm cruising for downvotes by criticizing the indestructible hero's hero, but I just am not into the killing of children.
There's the legal perspective, which says Jon was in the right—I don’t question that; and there's the moral perspective —and your mileage may vary.
And let's talk about Jon: he's just experienced death. He made his choice, too. He suffered the consequences and got off the hook.
He saw death. NOTHING. It's NOTHING. There's no reward for honor. There is no punishment for evil. There's only... nothing. Which means there's only LIFE. Life, the most sacred few moments anybody has. Surrounded by a never ending gulf of nothing on either end.
Jon is traumatized. It's clear. I get that. He's in shock. He's been to the other side. He's scared shitless. He's got one life — well, two technically. And his life sucks. He wants out; he's going to leave, to live a little. Seize the day and be the man he should have been all along. Who can blame him? Not me. If no one cares to stop him, then more power to him!
But before he does this he's going to deprive this tragically messed up child of the only thing that matters in the universe: life. Consciousness.
Deprive him of his life — for fighting for what he believed in, what he was too young and inexperienced to understand.
Some hero.
It seriously bothers me. However shitty Jon Snow's life is, he had a loving family. He had sex with a babe. He had friends. He had respect. He had a cool sword.
Ollie, by contrast, had Jon Snow and a few memories of his family before they were eaten, practically in front off his young eyes. His frontal lobe hadn't even fully developed yet when he swung.
And then after murdering him, Jon basically says “fuck you” to the crew that gave him the authority to kill Ollie in the first place. He literally surrenders his authority. And if one of them were to go after him and kill him again, they would be completely justified in it, in my opinion. Of course, with Davos and Melly around to raise him up again, that would be a pretty stupid move.
Maybe Jon Snow did lose something of himself when he was dead. Because Jon Snow I know is not a child killer. (Or maybe, the writing is just so shallow that it never occured to them that having the indestructible Mary Sue #2 — Jon Snow — of the series kill a traumatized child might tarnish the hero a little.)
But I think it's the former — I think they meant to tarnish Jon Snow. Because having Jon Snow kill a traumatized child is way more interesting than keeping Jon Snow a goody-two-shoes Mary Sue. Way more... GRRM-like, if you will. Even though Ollie doesn't even exist in the books.
The more I think about it, the more it bothers me.
I like that it bothers me. I'll say one thing. The show finally did something really interesting with Jon Snow.
Written May 12 2016
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