#gots3

Costumes

From: Game of Thrones, 3.02

Character: Sansa Stark

Actor: Sophie Turner

Costume By: Michele Clapton

Game of Thrones | Major Character Ranking [40/43]  ⇒ Lord Commander Jeor Mormont

Here is my version of Dany’s Astapor dress. Also pictured is the lovely necklace that the extremely talented @ts4got created to complete the look. Thank you so much @ts4got for collaborating with me, testing my dress, and being incredibly patient during my lengthy creation process!! More dress textures to come! I hope you guys enjoy!!!

Astapor Dress: DOWNLOAD

Astapor Necklace (by @ts4got): HERE

TOU:

  Please don’t claim as your own.

  Recolors/retextures allowed, but please don’t include the mesh.

  Please don’t modify the mesh without asking first. 

  Please feel free to convert to other games, with credit.

Hair by @leahlillith.

How do I know this? 

Let’s examine his first encounter with a “foreign” king, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, in which he has to convince Mance that he wants to join them. It’s critical to understand that in this circumstance Jon Snow MUST lie in order to: 

Survive the encounter 

Honor his fallen brothers/Make sure his brothers including Qhorin Halfhand died for something

Serve the Night’s Watch (as a spy infiltrating the free folk’s encampment and learning their plans)  

When Jon Snow first enters, he believes Tormund to be Mance, and he kneels before him. Jon quickly learns that this isn’t the wildling way; the others laugh at him.

Mance explains, “We don’t kneel...” 

Jon Snow also gets some level of respect simply by being Ned Stark’s bastard, presumably because he is a descendant of the First Men like the freefolk. 

Next Mance notes that Ygritte likes Jon, and he asks Jon if he likes her back. Jon doesn’t answer and avoids eye contact; he’s still sizing up the situation but I think it’s important to note that this Jon isn’t comfortable revealing his feelings for Ygritte whether they are positive or negative. He likely understands that not having feelings for her would indicate he is keeping his vows to the Night’s Watch, and that having feelings for her would be leading down a path to break them - which is something he desperately wants to avoid even though he is going undercover. Also, having feelings for her might give him some extra leverage to convince the freefolk he wants to be there, so he doesn’t want to give this card away; Jon is also still an awkward teenage boy who is probably a little embarrassed by his encounters with Ygritte.  

Jon is still uncomfortable in his role as a spy; he’s not comfortable outright lying as an easy option might be to play the role of the fool in love who wants to desert the Night’s Watch to be with a woman, and he’s still not sure how to play this game while keeping his allegiances to the Night’s Watch intact as much as he can, i.e. not losing himself. 

“He was our enemy and I’m glad he’s dead,” Mance says. 

Jon gains trust from the freefolk because he killed their enemy, Qhorin Halfhand. Mance even shakes his hand. Jon doesn’t offer up any additional information about why he killed Qhorin, but when Mance asks him about why he was with Qhorin, Jon answers honestly. He says that the Lord Commander was grooming him for leadership. 

“If I’m a traitor then you are too,” Jon retorts back at Mance after Mance points out his betrayal of the Night’s Watch. 

Jon holds his ground, and it’s a pretty ballsy move. The room becomes tenser. This is a bit of risky candor from Jon, and it actually ends up working in his favor. 

“Why do you want to join us, Jon Snow?” Mance asks him simply. 

“I want to be free,” Jon tries to lie. 

This lie he picks up from verbage used by other wildlings, specifically Ygritte. He thinks this is what Mance wants to hear. But Mance is smarter than that, and it’s a bad lie because it’s not based in any truth. 

Easily Mance spots the lie, “No. I think what you want most of all is to be a hero. I’ll ask you one last time: why do you want to join us?” 

Mance is insinuating that Jon is here to be a hero for the Night’s Watch - either by killing Mance or being a spy for them. This is in fact true, he’s onto him. The room tenses. This is Jon’s last chance. 

So he tells the truth, but in a way that’s a lie: 

Jon: “We stopped at Craster’s Keep on the way North. I saw...” 

Mance: “You saw what?” 

Jon: “I saw Craster take his own baby boy and leave it in the woods. I saw what took it.” 

Mance: “You’re telling me you saw one of them? And why would that make you desert your brothers?” 

Jon: “Because when I told the Lord Commander he already knew. Thousands of years ago the First Men battled the White Walkers and defeated them. I want to fight for the side that fights for the living. Did I come to the right place?” 

Mance: “We’ll need to find you a new cloak.” 

Jon looks down and away. 

Jon doesn’t want to join the freefolk, not really. If he was being honest, he wants to join them to help his brothers of the Night’s Watch, to make amends for those he killed by not being able to kill Ygritte, and ultimately maybe to protect people from the White Walkers by ensuring the wildlings don’t defeat the Night’s Watch. 

He doesn’t offer the whole truth, but he does offer some of it. He really did see Craster do that and he really did see a White Walker. Those things shook him up, and when he told the Lord Commander he already knew about it. Jon is drawing on the only time he’s had real doubts about the Night’s Watch and his commander - the only time he’s been genuinely afraid most likely. 

Then Jon does something even more politician-y. He references alliances made in the past (something other politicians do when trying to gain allies in the show - Tyrion, Dany, the Starks, the Lannisters, etc.). Jon also takes note of how they treat him special because he’s Ned Stark’s son who is descended from the First Men. So what does he do? He brings up his connection to the First Men, and in fact doesn’t make a distinction between the wildlings and himself when he refers to the First Men here. 

The best true lie is “I want to fight for the side that fights for the living.” Because this is 100% true, and the thing that Jon isn’t saying is that he believes that side is the Night’s Watch. He believes it’s the duty of the Night’s Watch to fight for the living, and if he has any say in what the Night’s Watch does, he will work for this to be their mission. But Mance takes it as appraisal of his mission and a discontentment with the Night’s Watch and its leaders. 

“Did I come to the right place?” is another ballsy move on Jon’s part. But his candor and fierceness has seemed to won him favor so far with Mance and the freefolk in the tent. He also likely noticed how freely, aggressively, and honestly the freefolk he’s been around speak their minds; Ygritte is a great example of that. But also, this is just Jon being Jon when we right down to it. He can’t keep his damn mouth shut as seen in his scenes getting chewed out by the Lord Commander. 

The most important part about this true lie is that Jon plays into what Mance believes about him. Mance believes Jon wants to play the hero. He also probably thinks of Jon as a kid who just took his vows but doesn’t know what they mean, a son of Ned Stark, and a kid being groomed for Lord Commander. So Jon tells him a reason to join the freefolk that aligns with these beliefs. Wanting to defeat the evil White Walkers and save the living is a very heroic reason to join the freefolk and abandon his brothers. This reason also has some notes of honorableness and leadership to it as well as the foolishness and naivety of a kid. 

Who knows ultimately how much of this was intentional vs. unintentional on Jon’s part, but we do know in the books he’s described as very observant. 

I believe this encounter demonstrates his ability to lie by telling the truth, and that he already has employed similar tactics in season seven in his encounter with a different foreign ruler, Queen Daenerys, and that this will be revealed to us in season eight. I won’t go into detail of his encounters with Daenerys and where he could be lying in this post; however, he is under similar circumstances with her as this one. Jon believes that he must persuade Dany to ally with the North against the Night King in order to... 

Survive (not be burned alive or killed in the Great War by default) 

Leave Dragonstone (be released as a prisoner and able to help fight the Night King) 

Protect his people and all the living/Save his home & family/Honor his role as King in the North and therefore Protector of the North 

Defeat the Night King 

Make all other sacrifices for the North & Winterfell worth it/Honor those who fought before & ensure there will be something left after 

Honor his own code of honor/the Night’s Watch mentality of being the shield that guards the realms of men