The real Jon Snow

Jon Snow is not who you think he is.
Who is the real Jon Snow in the ASOIAF books, compared to the Game of Thrones TV show?
How will Jon’s story end in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring?

Related videos:

Game of Thrones clips used under fair use.
Images from The World of Ice and Fire used with permission from Random House.
Map from The Lands of Ice and Fire.
A Game of Thrones graphic novel art by Tommy Patterson
A Clash of Kings graphic novel art by Mel Rubi
(Full art credits are too long to fit here).

References & further reading:

Special thanks to Patrons Michael Appell, Harry, Shane Veglia, NotGac, Tessa Campbell-Kelly, Tim Cunniff, T. Ledoux, MaxPal, Jake, Ruven Dewender, Nicolas L. Pimenta.

Chapters
0:00 A Game of Thrones
23:25 A Clash of Kings
34:03 A Storm of Swords
53:35 A Dance with Dragons
1:12:44 The Winds of Winter
1:32:34 A Dream of Spring

[PhantomHalf]

“The show removes the magic from Jons story” That is true in more ways than one.

[Clitjohnson]

I don't think any of us can express how thankful we are for the amount of care, hard work, and dedication you put into all of these videos. It feels like a holiday every time I get a notification saying you've uploaded. Truly one of my favorite creators out there. One of the best.

[ashroc]

"Jon is a 16 yr old boy and this redhead is throwing herself at him."

Yeah that'll do it.

[Man]

The more you dig into Jon’s story, the less sense it made for Arya to end up killing the Night King.

[DapperDill]

Show Jon: I don't want it!

Book Jon: I really want it!

[ILikedGooglePlus]

"In the book, Tycho has a big purple hat."

Perfiddious Schwift has infiltrated the script

[ohsnapleia]

The actor who plays Jace on HOTD is a spitting image of what I imagined Book Jon to look like

[jefferysilver]

Everyone at 17 : ay cool, one more year and I'm an adult.
Jon Snow at 17 : early-life crisis, mid-life crisis, apocalyptic events, zombies, ice demons, dragons, civil war, prophetic dreams, shadow demons, religious conflicts, deaths of half of his family plus friends and lover.
Jon : "ah, Monday."

[smilodnfatalis]

Sometimes I forget that he's not actually resurrected yet in the books. Like how wild would it be if Jon just... stays dead. The ultimate troll.

[samuraispartan]

The fact that this story could go in a million different directions and still be interesting in every possible scenario is a real testament to how deep and well-written this series is.

[liquidsword]

It was weird that in the show Jon and Sansa’s reunion are more impactful than Jon and Arya

[julin]

kinda unrelated but i really admire that you put the name of each artists with their fanarts. I'm sure it takes a lot of effort and it does not go unnoticed!

[MrCoffeejingler]

I half expected this video to be about Arya to subvert my expectation

[georgeealien]

19:42 Jon showing Ghost the pommel and going "Look. It's you." is adorable. Even though it's a fantasy story and Ghost is a wolf, they still get the owner/dog dynamic down.

[Plasmacat]

Kit Harrington deserved so much more. I really hope the final books come out eventually even if that’s just coping at this point.

[Avenaur]

Thanks for reminding people that the characters in the books have actual layers.

[sabrasabranise]

A 2hour video with subtitles ???
That's incredible. Thank you so much for making it accessible

[greenman]

About ravens appearing and saying "Snow".
In a Sam pov chapter - after he has returned to Castle Black with Gilly - there's a throw away scene of no import where he's feeding Aemon's ravens, many of which are spanking new ones. We hear Sam commenting that he has been carefully teaching ALL of them to say "Snow". A few chapters later, the election takes place.
Sam is much craftier than people give him credit for. He wasn't relying on ONE raven to say Snow. He was arranging for all of them to.

[dylanmclaughlin]

This is great. I hope you make “The Real” videos for Daenerys, Arya and Bran as well, since GRRM has had these characters along with Jon and Tyrion in mind as the main protagonists of ASOIAF since the beginning. They’re all meant to play a huge role in the story, but because they’re all different people in the books from the show it will probably work out a bit differently.

[fa]

I’m only 32 minutes into this video and I already feel we were cheated out of a much better story in the TV series. thank you so much for organizing this comparison between the TV plots and the books. Additionally, your editing is stunning and the lighted for two hours of enjoyment.