Jon Snow

When King Robert visits Winterfell and takes Ned to King's Landing, Jon heads north with his uncle Benjen Stark and Tyrion Lannister. At Castle Black he learns the Watch is made of thieves and exiles, and that he's no better than anyone there. He befriends Samwell Tarly and protects him from the other recruits.

Jon wants to be a ranger but is made steward to Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. He saves Mormont from a dead man who comes back to life and gets the Valyrian steel sword Longclaw in return. When he hears Ned has been executed, he tries to desert to fight beside his brother Robb, but Sam and his friends bring him back. The season ends with the Watch marching beyond the Wall.

On the great ranging, Jon captures the wildling Ygritte and can't bring himself to execute her. He ends up a prisoner with Qhorin Halfhand, who tells him to pretend to switch sides. To convince the wildlings, Jon kills Qhorin in a duel and is taken to Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall.

Jon and Ygritte fall in love. She keeps telling him he knows nothing. Tormund's band climbs the Wall to attack from the south. When the wildlings kill an old horse breeder, Jon refuses to take part, runs, and takes three of Ygritte's arrows as he escapes. He reaches Castle Black wounded to warn them the attack is coming.

Jon leads a party to Craster's Keep to deal with the deserters who killed Mormont. Then the wildlings attack Castle Black, and Ygritte dies in his arms. Jon goes alone to parley with Mance, and just then Stannis Baratheon arrives with his army and crushes the wildlings.

Jon is elected Lord Commander of the Watch. He shoots Mance with an arrow to spare him the fire and beheads Janos Slynt for defying his orders. Sure that the real enemy is the White Walkers, he sails to Hardhome to bring the wildlings south and watches the Night King raise an army of the dead. Opening the Wall's gates to the survivors sparks a mutiny: Alliser Thorne, Olly and other brothers stab him and leave him dead in the snow.

Melisandre brings Jon back to life. He hangs the traitors, hands over command and says his watch is ended. Sansa reaches Castle Black, and the two decide to take Winterfell back from Ramsay Bolton, who is holding their youngest brother, Rickon.

At the Battle of the Bastards, Ramsay kills Rickon in front of Jon, who charges alone and nearly gets crushed under the bodies. The knights of the Vale, called in by Sansa without telling him, turn the battle. Jon beats Ramsay bloody and the northern lords hail him King in the North. In one of Bran's visions, the audience learns who Jon's mother was: Lyanna Stark, Ned's sister, who died just after giving birth.

Jon sails to Dragonstone to ask Daenerys Targaryen for help and for the dragonglass under the island. She demands he bend the knee, and he refuses. To prove the dead are real, Jon leads a mission beyond the Wall to capture one. The group gets surrounded and only survives because Daenerys arrives with her dragons, but the Night King kills Viserion.

Jon pledges himself to Daenerys and they become lovers. At Winterfell, Bran and Sam put the pieces together: Jon is the legitimate son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna, and his real name is Aegon Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne.

Sam tells Jon the truth about his parents, and Jon tells Daenerys, who fears losing the throne to him. In the Long Night, the living hold Winterfell and Arya kills the Night King. In the war against Cersei, Daenerys burns King's Landing even after the city surrenders.

Tyrion convinces Jon that she won't stop. Jon kills her before the Iron Throne, and Drogon melts the throne. Bran becomes king, and Jon is sent back to the Night's Watch. In the end, he rides beyond the Wall with Tormund, the wildlings and Ghost.

In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, Jon is 14 at the start and one of the point-of-view narrators. The books never reveal who his mother is. Kit Harington played him for all eight seasons and earned an Emmy nomination for S8.