Why did Jon admit that he killed Daenerys in Game of Thrones S08E06? Why didn't he just tell that she flew away with her dragon? He could say that, escape from the Unsullied and then tell the truth. I understand that there was blood and a melted throne, but he could come up with something.
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7"She just flew away on her dragon!.... Oh that? Probably menstrual blood... best not to draw attention to it, I'll have it cleaned up" – Mikey Mouse May 22 '19 at 07:40
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Well, he could cut his leg or arm and pretend that it's his blood – Mzia May 23 '19 at 13:53
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1Grey Worm: "So, you cut yourself on one of the blades on the throne by accident before the dragon melted it to slag and walked over here without leaving a blood trail, then bled in this small patch where it looks like someone bled so much it is almost like they got stabbed in the heart?" -"Jon, yes that is exactly what happened, oh she asked if she could borrow my dagger, so of course I gave it to her" – Mikey Mouse May 23 '19 at 14:38
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1@MikeyMouse why would Grey Worm go to the throne room without getting called in? The blood would be dried in 2 hours. After that... well, the whole city just fell down. You see the roof of the building that's missing here? And you are wondering why there is blood there because the queen flew away? Ok. – grovkin May 23 '19 at 14:40
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"My Queen! We've finished cutting the throats of the last surrendered Lannister dogs as you ordered, what's next on the ..... BLODDY HELL?!?!! What happened here. Jon! What is going on here? Why are you standing in a pool of blood crying? Where's the Queen?" – Mikey Mouse May 23 '19 at 14:43
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@MikeyMouse so Jon was afraid of the Unsullied being too eager to deliver status report on the project cut-the-throats? Grey Worm would be too eager to wait until he is called for? Jon could wait for an hour or two before walking out of the throne room. He doesn't owe the unsullied an explanation for why their queen flew away. – grovkin May 23 '19 at 14:50
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Psh, what are they going to do, kill him? – Gaurav May 23 '19 at 19:10
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1Drogon did let out some pretty loud and pained cries, blow a whole bunch of fire out of the throne room, then fly past the still-on-fire crumbled walls with Daenerys' body in his claw. Soldiers on the ground may well have have spotted her and figured something was up due to her unconventional dragon-riding position. – Paul D. Waite May 23 '19 at 21:25
5 Answers
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Jon Snow is a man of honor. It's part of his core personality.
His own personal care is less important for him than being honorable and doing the right thing for the people.
Running away after killing someone (no matter who or what the reasons are) is a very cowardly act, so it's against his very nature.
Also keep in mind he didn't try to run away from the dragon, but instead faced it and was fully prepared to be burned alive as a consequence of his actions.
Another point is the "right thing for the people" part. Suppose he would have fled and the people found out about what happened when he's away. The Unsullied would surely act against the people, and likely many people would die until peace is somehow restored.
Shadow Wizard Love Zelda
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30+1, his actions are very in line with Ned's philosophy all the way back in season 1: the one who passes the sentence should swing the sword. – Upper_Case May 21 '19 at 14:31
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7I think your last point about the power vacuum is important. Westerosi politics is already on very shaky ground after Dany's death, and it would be even moreso if it were instead Dany's mysterious disappearance - turmoil would ensue, since some would want to wait for her return and others would want to move on. – Nuclear Hoagie May 21 '19 at 15:06
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Running away was not his only alternative. There was no body. Drogon took it. Jon could simply say nothing or he could say she flew away. – grovkin May 21 '19 at 17:59
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3@grovkin And that solves... what, exactly? If she "flew away", she'd still be the queen. Everyone would be waiting for her return (or plotting against it). – Luaan May 22 '19 at 06:30
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@luann i didn't say it solved anything. but this answer treated "running away" as the only option. I simply pointed out that it wasn't. This was not meant to say that pretending that she flew away was a way out for Jon. It was to point out that the answer is clearly incomplete. – grovkin May 22 '19 at 12:11
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@grovkin incomplete how? The answer is for the direct question. Adding more things that answer something that wasn't asked won't be a good idea and would just be noise. (In my own opinion) – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 22 '19 at 12:55
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1Given the blood on the ground, I would say pretending she flew away is not a viable option. It is also a cowardly act. Jon would own up to what he did, not try to get away with it. And I agree with Shadow Wizard, it's also not related to what the OP asked. – May 22 '19 at 15:49
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I was asked "How did Grey Worm know Jon killed her?" "Because it's Jon" was all I had to answer. I don't regret that they didn't show that scene. We know what happened. – candied_orange May 22 '19 at 17:21
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@Shadow Wizard I wasn't looking to debate with you (or anyone) why other possibilities were or were not good courses of actions. I only pointed out that if you write an answer about which courses of action could have been taken, not listing some of the obvious ones (and possibly explaining why you think they weren't viable) makes the answer incomplete. The question did mention that Jon "could come up with something." So this is within the scope of the question as asked. BTW, the original version of the question asked "Why didn't Jon just tell that she flew away with her dragon?" – grovkin May 22 '19 at 18:56
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@grovkin actually, the answer doesn't offer up him running away as an option. It brought that up as an explanation for why there were *no other viable options* for Jon's character. So you're wrong. The answer is complete. It doesn't offer alternatives because as it explains, there simply were none. – iheanyi May 23 '19 at 13:48
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@iheanyi it doesn't "explain" that there were no other alternatives. In fact, it doesn't even state it. This is despite the fact that both the original wording and the current wording of the question explore other alternatives. – grovkin May 23 '19 at 13:55
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@grovkin it doesn't state it using the exact words that I did, but it is clear that this is what's being said.Here's the relevant portion of the answer: `His own personal care is less important for him than being honorable and doing the right thing for the people.
Running away after killing someone (no matter who or what the reasons are) is a very cowardly act, so it's against his very nature.`
– iheanyi May 23 '19 at 14:15 -
@iheanyui which does not answer, for example, "why didn't he just tell that she flew away with her dragon?" – grovkin May 23 '19 at 14:20
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1@grovkin outright lying is almost as bad as running away for someone with such high level of honor. It's not just a small "white lie". – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 23 '19 at 14:22
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@ShadowWizard so? I am not advocating that Jon should have taken one of those courses of action. I am saying that a complete answer has to state all the options immediately present (viable or not) and then explain why some are not viable and some are not in keeping with the character's personality. You can't tell me that something doesn't need to be stated because it's obvious when giving an answer to an already obvious question. – grovkin May 23 '19 at 14:27
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3@grovkin well, all I can say at this point is that if you think something is missing, you can add it inside a new answer. You'll even get some rep from this. :) – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 23 '19 at 14:33
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Because he is a man of honesty and it has been shown in his own words before (from season 7 finale):
"I'm not going to swear an oath I can't uphold. When enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies."
And if you go by his arc he can lie and cheat easily to get away many times before but he will not he is an honest man.
Ankit Sharma
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1Well, yes... But than why did he kill her with a backstab? Not literally, but he kissed her and she didn't know that he has a weapon... I understand that maybe, he couldn't kill her other way... But that's not very honorable anyway... – Mzia May 21 '19 at 06:54
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1@Mitch sounds like this can be a separate question of its own. (And a good one.) – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 21 '19 at 06:56
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1@Mitch - technically not a backstab, he stabbed her from the front in the heart, but yes, it was veiled with the kiss... – Cinderhaze May 21 '19 at 15:06
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2@Mitch It's not like he wanted to kill her. He was still in love with her. The kiss was as genuine as the stab - and it was a quick death, with the one passing the sentence executing it. It may be one of the less honourable things Jon's done, but he didn't lie about it, didn't just send an assassin, and he was the one betrayed (along with essentially everyone else - the Northmen, the people of King's Landing etc.). – Luaan May 22 '19 at 06:41
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In addition to the other answers, we should remember that Jon was not just in a relationship with Daenerys but was in love with her. He killed her despite his love for her, because of its importance to everyone's lives; but it was still absolutely heartbreaking for him not only to lose her but to be the cause of that loss. I would imagine someone in that situation to feel absolutely desolate, to the point of not caring what happens to him next—perhaps even with the feeling that he deserves to and/or wants to die.
Greg Martin
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1Indeed, he was quite accepting of his impending doom through Drogon; he knew what he's done, he was ready to accept the punishment, but he still knew he had to do it even though he really didn't want to. – Luaan May 22 '19 at 06:42
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And he went ahead with his banishment despite there was absolutely no reason to since the Unsullied just left to be eaten by some butterflies. – chx May 23 '19 at 09:28
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@chx they wouldn't have left peacefully if he would have been pardoned, it's quite clear. There could be war between the thousands of Unsullied soldiers and the Army of the North, leading to thousands of dead people. And that's what Jon agreed to prevent in the cost of his freedom. – Shadow Wizard Love Zelda May 23 '19 at 13:59
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But after the Unsullied left? He could've stopped at say Winterfell and who'd be the wiser... – chx May 23 '19 at 15:45
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@chx Still the central characteristic - honor. He held on to his oaths for things far more important than his own personal gain. And there would be nothing other than his own personal gain to breaking that oath - not to mention that it's been pretty clearly implied he's quite happy to be coming back to Tormund :) – Luaan May 24 '19 at 07:31
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In addition to this being precisely in-character for Jon, there is precedent for Daenerys leaving with Drogon. She did exactly that after the Sons of the Harpy attacked her in the fight pits of Meereen.
And what happened after is that everyone continued what they were doing until Dany returned. Her regime was upheld, awaiting her return. The same would have happened in this case.
So even if Jon had gotten away with it without being imprisoned; he would not have actually stopped the atrocities that were going on.
Flater
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2"So even if Jon had gotten away with it without being imprisoned; he would not have actually stopped the atrocities that were going on." - I didn't thought of that, but it does make sense! – Mzia May 22 '19 at 05:53
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In addition to the other answers which I think are the primary reason (honour), consider that lying probably would have raised more questions anyway. It would be very odd of her to simply fly away without saying anything, and in time the suspicion would only grow.
user
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2It may have been odd for her to fly away without saying a word, but she did it before, in “The Dance of Dragons”, episode 9 of season 5. What she has done once she can plausibly do again, even if the circumstances are a little different. – Mike Scott May 21 '19 at 15:51
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@MikeScott exactly!!! That's why I thought of it... But I don't remember, whether Jon knew about that incident? If he didn't He couldn't have known that it'll work – Mzia May 22 '19 at 05:51
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@MikeScott in Dance of Dragons she wasn't in full control of Drogon. I think it would be a stretch at that point to suggest she had been transported against her will to some far off land. – user May 24 '19 at 08:24