Is Jon Snow dead? How he could come back to life and why his death might be the best thing that ever happened to him

Not Jon! Anyone but Jon!

Jon Snow looking very much dead (HBO)

Game of Thrones has a fondness for killing off your favourite characters and with little ceremony, but [*SPOILERS OBVS*] its apparent dispatching of Jon Snow last night was too much for fans to handle.

Can he really be dead, given he is so central to the show's narrative and would have been the protagonist if GoT had ended up being a film instead of a TV show?

As noted in several Reddit threads, we know it's possible in the Game of Thrones universe to bring people back to life, given Beric Dondarrion managed to resurrect a staggering six times with a little help from red priest Thoros.

It's highly likely that Melisandre, who is back at Castle Black, will channel the Lord of Light and revive Jon, and perhaps with such a level of skill that he will still be a fully functional hunky warrior rather than a shell of a man as with previous resurrectees.

Now, consider Jon's vow to the Night's Watch:

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

The fact that Jon technically died could be a loophole he could exploit to get away from the complete ballache that is The Wall, allowing him to regain Winterfell, or, if the popular L+R=J theory is to be believed, take his rightful place as Jon Targaryen, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.

It has even been posited that Melisandre will burn Jon because the Night's Watch don't want him to turn into a Wight (could tie in with sacrifice of Shireen?), but he will rise from it just as Daenerys did, emerging as a Targaryen.