Earlier in Season 6 of Game of Thrones, we saw
Jon quite disaffected with his duties
and essentially walking off the scene for some soulful reflective rest and relaxation. Sansa had to really work hard (well, sort of) to get him to go along with her plan to
mount an attack on Winterfell.
As we see
Jon
coming before the heads of prospective supporters, he does not seem very enthusiastic or passionate - and he doesn't even describe the White Walker Zombie Army threat as a central motivation (although
Davos
does).
Then comes the scene in Episode 8 where he essentially decides, against the counsel of Sansa even, that the time has come to make their attack.
So the questions are:
- Why the sudden change of heart, with him now clamoring for an attack?
- Assuming he does not know something that we don't, no ace up his sleeve or anything (which seems like a reasonable assumption considering his behavior so far) - why would he prefer attacking immediately rather than in a few more weeks, after possibly securing Tully or maybe Manderly forces?
- Under the same assumption, what makes him believe he stands a good chance of winning this battle?
- Even if Jon wins, an open-field battle - rather than some sort of combination between a siege and guerilla tactics - will at the very least exact heavy losses on both sides. How is that reasonable considering
they're expecting to be faced with White Walkers and Zombies later on? I realize they can't take on the WWZ army anyway, but may well be able to mount some kind of defense at the wall, say.
So what's the deal here? Am I missing something?