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Originally Posted by GGG
I do wish John had to choose not to be king.
He continually chose duty over love throughout his life and died once and killed his lover twice.
Him walking out of Castle Black was him throwing off that mantel of duty. However it would have been more powerful if he’d been brought to the council in the dragon pit and refused to be king. Giving the characters Agency in their decisions is much more powerful than others forcing them.
I think the book ends with Bran on the throne and John killing Dany and Jon going north. How they get to that point will be different and better constructed but it’s hard to see Martin allowing Dany or Jon to win in the conventional way.
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Jon had a huge journey, but for people living outside of the North, he probably wouldn't seem all that important.
Jon would have also been a horrible leader in times of peace. He can lead a battle (well except for when someone does anything that triggers him emotionally), but how could he possibly be expected to make decisions for an empire? For example, how to manage their finances? Jon's greatest triumph was the battle of the bastards, but from the perspective of the non-North houses, the Boltons weren't some great threat. They were a lesser vassal house, that the Lannisters had manipulated.
I can't see the council, of mostly none northerners, entertaining Jon as a leader. His biggest claim to the throne was being a Targaryan, a claim which most of the other houses hadn't recognized since Robert's Rebellion. If he had been appointed to any kind of leadership role, Sansa would have eventually wrestled power away from him. There was an ongoing theme in the show about morality and what actually is the right decision. Jon was led by duty, but there were multiple times when it was explicitly stated that following duty was not always moral. Beyond what happened with Dany, there was also Jaime and the "kingslayer", Tyrion's betrayal of the Lannisters, Olenna's murder of Joffrey, etc...
This was one thing they did quite well in the finale. Jon was never in any position to lead. He was always much better suited for wandering around in the North, and the look on his face as he was going beyond the wall was him realizing that.