Game Of Thrones season 6, six days to go: How the bastard of Winterfell Jon Snow became lord commander

With the much awaited TV premiere of Game Of Thrones season 6 less than a week away, IBTimes UK takes a look back at some of the key characters and plots of the fantasy drama. Since most fans do not have the time to sit and watch re-runs of the previous five seasons, here is a flashback of what has transpired on the show so far.

Jon Snow

The men of the Night's Watch are the unsung heroes of Westeros. They spend their days freezing their fingers numb at one end of the civilized world so that people south of The Wall can sleep safer in their beds.

As an audience, we too may have not cared as much for these men in black were it not for Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and his luscious long locks. So when the young Stark bastard decided to leave Winterfell in season one for the celibate life of a Crow and protect the realm against the vicious Wildlings, our interest was piqued.

Over seasons three, four and five Jon manages to infiltrate the army of the Wildlings who live beyond The Wall, falls in love with a feisty red-head Ygritte (there goes his chastity vow) and then escapes back to Castle Black where he shares all the information he has learned including his knowledge about the White Walkers – a group of un-dead icy creatures out to spread their necro-touch.

When the Wildlings advance on The Wall he fights them off and watches as jilted Ygritte dies from an arrow wound, that too while trying to shoot him down (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned). The Night's Watch wins the fight, but not by much.

In season five, Jon gets elected as the lord commander and what follows is a difference of opinions on whether to head out and rescue the rest of the Free Folk from the Walkers or leave them to suffer their fate.

Towards the end of the season, Jon convinces the leaders of the Wildlings to join him in fighting the army of the un-dead using the dragon glass that was found, but his endeavour is soon interrupted by those skeletal ice zombies. While a number of Wildlings manage to escape, most end up at the wrong end of the Walkers' blades, not to mention the dragon glass gets left behind.

In one of the scariest scenes of the season, we watch as the leader of the Walkers raises his arms and all the fallen Wildlings rise, new additions to his wight army... where are those dragons when you need them!

Murder of Crows

If this was not enough to spoil the lord commander's mood, the sullen welcome he receives back at Castle Black does the job. In a scene that now reminds us a lot of Donald Trump's Mexico wall issue, not all the Crows are happy to allow the Wildlings who had previously attacked and pillaged their villages, to be allowed free access across the wall to take up lands to the south.

The last we see of Jon is him being surrounded by his Crow comrades, who take turns stabbing him and then leave him to bleed to death in the snow. Like... seriously? You've got a problem with people rising from the dead and you are leaving one of your best fighters on ice!

What to expect from season 6

Now from the trickle of information that we have been fed from HBO, we know that season six will feature Jon again. Will he be alive, dead or un-dead? Most of us are hoping that Lady Melisandre finds her way to the North and manages to call upon her Lord of Light to get Jon's heart pumping again, but the show's producers are adamant that this Snow will remain fallen.

Game Of Thrones season six will premiere on HBO on 24 April at 9pm ET.