What will happen to Jon Snow after ADWD

Potential Spoilers Below

The Wheel of Time: Lews Therin Telamon, The Dragon

Lews Therin Telamon

Lews Therin Telamon, Lord of the Morning, was the Dragon during the War of Power. He was the leader of the forces of Light and was well respected all over the world. He was able to summon the Nine Rods of Dominion, as well as being the highest rank of Aes Sedai, wearing the Ring of Tamyrlin. He was as strong in the Power as a man could be and was the "First Among Servants."  He was the most powerful Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends, rivaled only by Elan Morin Tedronai.  

Elan Morin Tedronai

After a relationship with Mierin Eronaile soured, he married Ilyena Sunhair. Fifty years later, the War of Power began, and Lews Therin was named general of the forces of the Light, leading them to many great victories. At some time during the War of Power he humbled Ishamael in the Hall of Servants and defeated him at the Gates of Paaran Disen.

Mierin Eronaile

Ilyena Sunhair

However, envy overtook many of Lews Therin's greatest generals and caused them to defect to the Shadow, shifting the war in favor of the Shadow. The Aes Sedai began creating the Choedan Kal in hopes of defeating the Dark One by brute force. However, as soon as they were finished, the forces of the Dark overtook the city in which they were being built. Fortunately, the invaders were ignorant of the existence of the Choedan Kal. The women Aes Sedai were insistent on attempting to recapture the city, while Lews Therin proposed a decisive strike at Shayol Ghul, where they would place seven seals to seal the Dark One away again. Latra Posae Decume convinced all the strong female Aes Sedai to oppose this, which created the Fateful Concord.

Male Choedan Kal

Female Choedan Kal

The Dark One

Broken Seal

Because he believed Latra Posae's plan that involved retaking a city that was heavily occupied by forces of the Shadow was riskier than his own plan, Lews Therin and the Hundred Companions took it on themselves to seal the Bore with the seven seals without the aid of the female channelers. While this plan succeeded in temporarily closing the Bore, the Dark One tainted saidin in his counter-stroke. The reason for the weakness of the seal has been theorized by Rand al'Thor to have been caused because only saidin was used to create the seal and because the Dark One was allowed to touch the seals. Many of the companions went insane instantly, including Lews Therin himself. Lews Therin returned to kill all of his family and many friends, causing people to later rename him "Lews Therin Kinslayer." Healed of his madness by Ishamael and horrified by his actions, he drew too much of the One Power and killed himself, causing the creation of Dragonmount and inadvertently diverting the river Erinin creating what is now known as the island of Tar Valon.

The Bore

Rand al'Thor

Dragonmount

The Game of Thrones: Azor Ahai

Azor Ahai was a legendary hero who wielded a burning sword called Lightbringer.

Azor Ahai wielding Lightbringer

Darkness lay over the world and a hero, Azor Ahai, was chosen to fight against it. To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero's sword. He laboured for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over.

The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered.

The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes.

Azor Ahai tempering Lightbringer through Nissa Nissa

Although he had Lightbringer, Azor Ahai did not fight alone. The Jade Compendium mentions that when the hero thrust the blade through a monster, the creature burst into flame.

Some readers believe that Azor Ahai lived during the Long Night and defeated the Others. It is unknown if he is connected with the legend of the last hero.

The Long Night

An Other

I believe that Azor Ahai was an ancestor of House Dayne.  I also think that Lightbringer is now known as Dawn.  Dawn is the ancestral greatsword of House Dayne, whose wielder is always given the title Sword of the Morning. Dawn is largely the reason for House Dayne's fame. Its origins are lost to legend, but it seems likely that the Daynes have carried it for thousands of years. It is said to be made from metal forged from the heart of a fallen star. The blade is as pale as milkglass, looking like no Valyrian blade, yet sharing all of the properties, being incredibly strong and sharp.  Unlike other houses who have ancestral swords, House Dayne does not pass its sword from lord to lord. Only a knight of House Dayne who is worthy can wield it. The name of the Daynes' castle, Starfall, and their arms, featuring a white sword and falling star, both reference Dawn.

Ser Arthur Dayne wielding Dawn

Brienne wielding Oathkeeper

Starfall

The Wheel of Time: The Dragon Reborn

The Dragon Reborn

Rand al'Thor, the reincarnation of Lews Therin as the Dragon Reborn, is fated to both destroy and save the world. The Pattern requires that he be a male channeler and must be at Tarmon Gai'don, i.e. The Last Battle, or the forces of the Light will not stand a chance; even his presence does not assure victory, however, only the possibility of one. Prophecy says that he would break all bonds and bring suffering to the earth. It is commonly expected that in doing so he will also bring a new Breaking of the World. Due to Lews Therin Telamon's infamy, for better or for worse, the tale of the Dragon Reborn is known well even in remote villages, though often distorted beyond recognition.

The Dragon Reborn was born on Dragonmount the same place that Lews Therin died during its creation.

Every social group appears to have their own name for the Dragon in the 3rd Age. For example, the wolves know him as Shadowkiller, the Sea Folk know him as the Coramoor, and the Aiel call him He Who Comes With The Dawn.

Sea Folk Windfinder

Aiel

The Game of Thrones: Azor Ahai Reborn

Melisandre was robed all in scarlet satin and blood velvet, her eyes as red as the great ruby that glistened at her throat as if it too were afire. “In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.”

Melisandre

The flames do not lie, else you would not be here. It is written in prophecy as well. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.

Yet now she could not even seem to find her king. I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow. “Devan,” she called, “a drink.” Her throat was raw and parched.

A turn or two later Sam stopped suddenly. He was a quarter of the way around the well from Bran and Hodor and six feet farther down, yet Bran could barely see him. He could see the door, though. The Black Gate, Sam had called it, but it wasn’t black at all.

Sam, Gilly, Jojen, Bran, Hodor and Meera

The Black Gate

It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it.

Weirwood Tree

A glow came from the wood, like milk and moonlight, so faint it scarcely seemed to touch anything beyond the door itself, not even Sam standing right before it. The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken. It looks dead. Its mouth was closed, and its eyes; its cheeks were sunken, its brow withered, its chin sagging. If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like that.

The door opened its eyes.

They were white too, and blind. “Who are you?” the door asked, and the well whispered, “Who-who-who-who-who-who-who.”

“I am the sword in the darkness,” Samwell Tarly said. “I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.”

“Then pass,” the door said. Its lips opened, wide and wider and wider still, until nothing at all remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles. Sam stepped aside and waved Jojen through ahead of him. Summer followed, sniffing as he went, and then it was Bran’s turn. Hodor ducked, but not low enough. The door’s upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran’s head, and a drop of water fell on him and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear.

Summer

“Wick, put that knife …”

 … away, he meant to say. When Wick Whittlestick slashed at his throat, the word turned into a grunt. Jon twisted from the knife, just enough so it barely grazed his skin. He cut me. When he put his hand to the side of his neck, blood welled between his fingers. “Why?”

“For the Watch.” Wick slashed at him again. This time Jon caught his wrist and bent his arm back until he dropped the dagger. The gangling steward backed away, his hands upraised as if to say, Not me, it was not me. Men were screaming. Jon reached for Longclaw, but his fingers had grown stiff and clumsy. Somehow he could not seem to get the sword free of its scabbard.

Longclaw

Then Bowen Marsh stood there before him, tears running down his cheeks. “For the Watch.” He punched Jon in the belly. When he pulled his hand away, the dagger stayed where he had buried it.

Bowen marsh

Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …

Ghost

Like Bran when he was in a coma like state and was told by the three-eyed crow that he had to fly or die I believe Jon to be in this same condition.  Though his test is in the Crypt of Winterfell:

Three-eyed Crow

King Robert and Ned in the Crypt of Winterfell

Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.”  

Kings of Winter in the Crypt

He then continues the experience and learns who he actually is from Lyanna as her bones are buried in the crypts.  I also believe that the sword Dawn has made its way from Starfall to Castle Black since Ned returned it.  This too could be because of another page from Signs and Portents.  I then believe that Melisandre comes along and she brings his physical body back the same as Thoros of Myr has done several times with Beric Dondarrion as she has seen it in her fires.  Not that R’hllor thinks this is what needs to be done because I believe he wants to be able to control Jon.  When Jon comes back it makes me think back to the conversation he had with Maester Aemon:

Lyanna and Ned

Castle Black

Thoros of Myr

Beric Dondarrion

Maester Aemon

Jon was tired. I need sleep. He had been up half the night poring over maps, writing letters, and making plans with Maester Aemon. Even after stumbling into his narrow bed, rest had not come easily. He knew what he would face today, and found himself tossing restlessly as he brooded on Maester Aemon’s final words. “Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel,” the old man had said, “the same counsel that I once gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne. A man grown with sons of his own, yet in some ways still a boy. Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” The old man felt Jon’s face. “You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear. You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.”

The Iron Throne

Egg

The Wall

The Wheel of Time: Signs of the Last Battle

The Last Battle was prophesied in several accounts of many people, the most central one being the Karaethon Cycle (The Prophecies of the Dragon), though other prophecies by different societies included their perspectives.

According to the Prophecies of the Dragon there are certain signs that will proclaim the imminence of the Last Battle. The rebirth of the Dragon is the earliest such sign, and others include the breaking of the Aiel and their return to the Westlands and the splitting of the Aes Sedai. It is also prophesied that the Seanchan and the Dragon Reborn will come to an accord, but the Prophecies are unclear in this regard: some have the Dragon Reborn kneeling in subjugation to the Crystal Throne, others say that he will bind the Nine Moons (the sigil of the Seanchan Imperial Court) to him; it is possible these conditions are not exclusive of one another. It is also possible that Ishamael may have tampered with the Seanchan version of the prophecies, or that Seanchans turned them into propaganda themselves.

However, the Prophecies specifically state that the clearest sign of the Last Battle will be the return of the dead to plague the living. Early in 1000 NE inhabitants of the Westlands, possibly the whole world, began to see images of people long dead, sometimes just individuals but sometimes entire long-destroyed cities or towns that appear and then vanish. Around this time 'ripples' in the fabric of reality were detected, suggesting that the entire Pattern could unravel if the Dark One broke free of his prison altogether.

The Stone of Tear will never fall, till Callandor is wielded by the Dragon’s hand.

The Stone of Tear will never fall, till the People of the Dragon come.

The Stone of Tear

The Game of Thrones: Signs of the Great Battle

I believe that Azor Ahai has been reborn in the body of Jon Snow.  We have seen the dead walking in the form of wights.  I believe the Seanchan to be be synonymous with Valyria in ASOIAF. 

A Wight

Valyria

Another battle will be the end of all of us, thought Davos. Lord Alester saw that much true enough. “Your Grace asked for honest counsel. In honesty then . . . we lack the strength for another battle against the Lannisters.”

Davos

“It is the great battle His Grace is speaking of,” said a woman’s voice, rich with the accents of the east. Melisandre stood at the door in her red silks and shimmering satins, holding a covered silver dish in her hands. “These little wars are no more than a scuffle of children before what is to come. The one whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power, Davos Seaworth, a power fell and evil and strong beyond measure. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends.” She placed the silver dish on the Painted Table. “Unless true men find the courage to fight it. Men whose hearts are fire.”

The Painted Table

As I dissect the books IMO it all started with Daenys Targaryen and her prophecies documented in the book Signs and Portents.  I believe pieces of this book have been popping up at key moments to guide the fate of the world.  The One relating to this topic follows:

“As you wish,” said Whitebeard. “As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father’s knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, ‘I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.’”

Arstan Whitebeard

Rhaegar

Baelor the Blessed

Robert and Rhaegar on the Trident

I believe he read something that showed the parts that Lyanna, Ser Arthur Dayne, Ned Stark and himself had to play.

Ser Arthur Dayne

“And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.

“No,” Ned said with sadness in his voice. “Now it ends.” As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.

Ser Arthur Dayne and Ned

“Lord Eddard,” Lyanna called again.

“I promise,” he whispered. “Lya, I promise …”

“Lord Eddard,” a man echoed from the dark.

Groaning, Eddard Stark opened his eyes. Moonlight streamed through the tall windows of the Tower of the Hand.

I think when he said “And now it begins” he was referring to what his friend Rhaegar had shared with him the day he took up the sword.  I consider he laid down his life for what he believed in a similar way that Qhorin Halfhand did at the hands of Jon Snow.  Ser Arthur Dayne dies at the Tower of Joy and his soul is reborn into Jon the same day.  This opens up the way for Jon to become the next Sword of the Morning and be able to wield Dawn which I believe to be Lightbringer.  It also makes Jon the Dragon and brings us full circle to one of the most famous quotes of the book series:  “The Dragon has three heads.”  In this case the heads being Targaryen through his father Rhaegar, Stark through his mother Lyanna and Dayne through Ser Arthur Dayne’s  soul being reincarnated into Jon through a form of blood magic witnessed by the only remaining person alive now, Howland Reed.  This in no way excludes the remaining two dragon riders which I see as Dany and Tyrion.  If not through Howland Reed we will see these events play out through Bran.

Jon kills Qhorin Halfhand

The Tower of Joy

Dany

Tyrion

Summation: IMO as ASOIAF hasn’t been completed.  This is how I would write in the Azor Ahai character

Both stories contain a hero who didn’t quite finish the job and prophecy told us he would be reborn to try and set things right but by no means was he guaranteed to win.  They tells us this hero would come back wielding a sword of light and that the sword can only be wielded by the one who is worthy. Whether he went by Lord of the Morning or Sword of the Morning they fought for the survival of their worlds.  Both were born in the place that they died. One was known as a Ta’veren the other a Targaryen but both had two others like them that made them ever stronger.  Both were raised by men who they believed to be their fathers but the light of truth proved otherwise.  But what makes a father but the values they instill and in the end it was and will be those values that make the man who he is. 

Perrin - Rand - Mat

Tyrion - Dany - Jon

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.