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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1094749" data-attributes="member: 151">I don't think spoiler notices are really necessary, this far down in the thread, where casual mentions to major 3rd book events have been made.  However, if you gotten this far without hitting any, skip this post. Jon Snow is about as a good a character as his 'father'.  To isolate Jon's choices to the moment is to ignore one of the key driving factors of the series: tradition and social convention are important.  And to characters in 'Song', much like actual people of our medieval period, define themselves by their family, their relationships and their place in society. Jon Snow is a bastard.  Think about that for a moment, in the context of the stories culture.  Illegitimate sons are immediately recognized as a product of an unsanctioned union just by their names, and the more powerful the noble, the greater the embarassment.  Their fates are often not pleasant.  Consider the three biggest bastards in the series, namely: Jon Snow, Gendry and the bastard of the Flayed Man's house.  View how each is regarded.  Some bastards are abandoned to the elements (and considering how we never even see female 'illegitimates', this may be even more common for baby girls...brrr). Jon Snow has been raised by Eddard Stark with the understanding that he is lucky, LUCKY, to have been treated so well.  His wife sees Jon Snow as a constant reminder of an infidelity that he insists on fluanting in her face.  That we now suspect that this is a complete fabrication is irrelevant.  Snow was raised by Stark as a law-abiding man with little regard for himself and no expectation of greater things in life.  Gendry's fate is even quite favorable, as the king watches after him when he can, until things go sour.  The bastard of the Flayed Man's house is considered to be half-mad, evil and bloodthirsty...and that's seen as much as his blood being 'dirty' as anything else.  Luckily for him,  his father appears to consider that as an asset.  So it is that when Jon goes to the Wall, he swears the oath.  His father demands it of him, and his father is an honorable man.  Make no mistake, Jon loves Ned Stark, regardless of his heritage or even treatment, at times.  He honors his oath because he was raised that way, wants to honor his father's name, believes that it is his place in society and still associates himself as a Stark, even if he knows he can never truly be one (or so we think). Is he happy with Ygritte and among the wildmen?  Yes, after a fashion.  But he wasn't raised with their ways, and their culture is radically different in some ways.  Like the Iron Men, the wildlings value strength over other things, and it's no more of a democracy than Westeros...the only difference is that power is much more mercurial.  Mance isn't a bad person, from what we see, but he doesn't much care about people getting hurt, and if the folk south of the wall get looted, killed or raped, it doesn't bother him much.  He recognizes talented individuals and leaders around him, it's true, but his meritocratic ways are balanced on a knife edge.  Jon is more aware than the average noble about the plight of the people, and realizes that for the most part, the wildlings represent total chaos.  They are bringing violence and pillaging southwards, and they aren't looking to join the system, just smash it down.  And Jon Snow was raised to believe that the system is what works and that his duty is to defend it. Had Jon robotically followed the path he has without doubt, fear or regret...then he'd be somewhat hard to accept.  But as it is, he has faced hard truths and done what was asked of him, even when it was more difficult and potentially costly than anything he'd ever done before.  He has sacrificed his own personal happiness for the greater good, and always sought to protect those around him. Jon Snow is THE hero of the series, IMHO.  No other character except possibly Bran can lay claim to making as many good, hard choices and staying true to his path.</blockquote>

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