Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4708902-20160726013945/@comment-25402783-20160831180200

Fenrir51 wrote: Shaneymike wrote:

Fenrir51 wrote: Maybe the reason why it's so hard for me to understand about it has to do with the fact that the Northerners WANTED independence from the start, because the people controlling the Iron Throne cared so little about the North, and that the recruitment for the Wall has been neglected for so long. All the more reason why the Northerners might actually support Jon's claim to the Iron Throne as he actually grew up in the North and served in the Night's Watch. I...I don't know how many ways I can explain this. I just don't!

They want independence from thr south, right?! They don't want to be ruled from the south. They want to have more autonomy over their own affairs. If Jon Snow pursued his claim to the Iron Throne, then they might as well have lost their king. They're back to being a province of the Seven Kingdoms. They want their King IN the North. That's his title: King in the North! Not King in the South, not King who's-really-a-Targaryen, King under-false-pretences etc.

And why would you think it was a great idea to bring up the fact that he served in the Night's Watch to justify his being king? The Night's Watch, whose specific oaths involve the words "fathering no sons....win NO CROWNS...and DYING at my post"? So technically, Jon is a deserter. Twice a deserter, if you count his moonlight ride from Castle Black in an attempt to join his brother Robb, before Samwell, Pyp and Grenn talked him down. Three times, even, if you count the time he pretended to join the Free Folk. Well, we can discount that last one. But really, just imagine how that's going to look to an objective outsider who would review his career up until that point!

I bring up him being in the Night's Watch because the Watch is very much respected in the North. Jon didn't desert, because, you know, he died. And would the Northmen be upset with the idea of Jon being The King On The Iron Throne? A Northerner would be one of the most powerful people in the known world. The Northmen respect him, that's why the follow him, not because of his last name (right now his last name comes with a lot of baggage). The idea of the Northmen not following Jon because he's a Targ is shortsighted. Jon was raised by Ned Stark, his mothe was a Stark, and they respect him. I doubt they'd up and desert him for who? Bran? Sansa? Bran is a cripple, and Sansa is a girl that almost cost them the Battle of the Bastards. There is no way in hell that they'd follow Bran or Sansa.