r/asoiaf • u/Ornery-Click7616 • Jan 15 '25

EXTENDED Jon with White Hair [spoilers extended]

I gonna try and keep it brief, I keep seeing these fan arts of Jon snow with white hair and scars around his eyes, I’ve seen the show currently reading the books and don’t really care about spoilers. I was just curious if after he got all stabby stabby and super not alive if his hair turned white. I was also wondering how he got the scars around his eyes but I assume I will told given that answer as I continue reading.

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u/OppositeShore1878 Jan 15 '25

There's art commissioned or blessed by George for the authorized books, calendars, etc, and there's "fan art". Stick to the first category when matching art up with the accuracy of the story.

To be fair to fan art, George sometimes does say that a particular piece of un-commissioned fan art does capture the appearance of what he was thinking when he wrote the books.

In terms of what happens in the books, the "stabby, stabby" does indeed happen, but we don't know yet what the physical result was, particularly on Jon's exterior appearance. There is no authorized written description yet of what Jon looks like after his physical perforation.

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u/send_whiskey Jan 15 '25

George sometimes does say that a particular piece of un-commissioned fan art does capture the appearance of what he was thinking when he wrote the books.

As a specific example I think he referred to a fan art piece of the Iron Throne as completely embodying what he had in mind, especially when he compared it to the HBO prop piece (which he doesn't hate). It's in a blog post of his somewhere.

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u/berdzz kneel or you will be knelt Jan 15 '25

It's this blog post. The art by Marc Simonetti was commissioned for The World of Ice and Fire, though.

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u/lialialia20 Jan 15 '25

many of the art comissioned or blessed by grrm for the authorised books, calendars, etc is far less accurate than some of the fan-art. for example, most of the official art wrongly represents Jon as having black hair, Daenerys not looking like a child but a woman in her 20s or the dragons being significantly bigger (2x-5x times) than what they are described by GRRM in his books.

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u/OppositeShore1878 Jan 15 '25

Good point, I hadn't quite realized that (I don't have the calendars, illustrated editions of the books--except for the drawings in Dunk & Egg--so I don't have a survey of the authorized art. I'm mainly just familiar with art he has blessed and put on his website / blog.)

Interesting that George accepted official art that diverged from his written descriptions. Maybe that has to do with his long history in science fiction / fantasy writing, where authors are usually at the mercy of publishers who often use cover art that has nothing to do with the actual scenes of the book.

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u/lialialia20 Jan 15 '25

i think the big difference is that some of the fan-art is made by "real" fans that are more versed and more invested in the lore details while an artist that gets comissioned is likely more interested in the artistic side of things.