Why Is There Still a Night's Watch on Game of Thrones? What's Up With Jon Snow's Ending?

In the series finale of Game of Thrones, one fan theory ended up coming true: Jon Snow returned to the Wall. Not as Lord Commander, however, but in exile, his penance for killing Daenerys Targaryen. While this made a great deal of emotional sense for Jon's character-he never wanted to rule and often seemed more at home with the wildlings-it does bring up a few inconsistencies in the larger plot of the show.

Jon on his way back to the Nights Watch pic.twitter.com/9oWeIgqHf0 - Juju (@QueenIdle) May 20, 2019

Tyrion justifies the continued existence of the Night's Watch by saying: "The world will always need a home for bastards and broken men." Which just reaffirms that this new world they're building isn't as progressive as they think. Part of the joy of Game of Thrones has been in watching marginalized characters find agency, be they women, dwarves, disabled, LGBTQ, or illegitimate outcasts. Tyrion's line suggests that the tradition of exiling those deemed "unsavory" by society will continue largely unhindered.

But putting the optics of that aside for a moment, why is a Night's Watch still necessary? The Watchers on the Wall were stationed there as a first line of defense against the dangers of the North, namely the wildlings and the White Walkers. Both of these threats have been neutralized; the wildlings forged a truce with the Night's Watch and people of Westeros, and the Night King's army were defeated at Winterfell.

If the White Walkers are dead and gone and the Wildlings are our buddies now... what is Night's Watch watching for? And that's all I have to say about that. - Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 20, 2019

The final scene of the series shows Jon leading Tormund and the other wildlings back North of the Wall from Castle Black, and we see a hint of a smile play on his lips, implying that this is where Jon has always been happiest. We see blades of grass coming out of the earth, suggesting that winter may finally be over, and that life in the True North will be more hospitable for the free folk than it has ever been before.

I was wondering about that too. But also, what else is there to do at the Nights Watch at this point except go on field trips with the Wildings? https://t.co/NwEhmIexU5 - Saeed Jones (@theferocity) May 20, 2019

It provides a certain degree of symmetry to end this saga in the North, considering this was where the very first scene of the pilot took place. Taking the viewer from that snowy horror to something more hopeful is satisfying, to an extent, but it might have been nice to get a few more lines of dialogue to help get us there.

I'll admit, part of me expected that final scene to end with three horns being sounded, a warning that there are more White Walkers out there. But instead, we just see Jon riding off into the sunset with his new posse. And that's fine, I guess. At least he finally petted Ghost .