Game of Thrones Finale (Spoilers)

I have only read the books, not seen the show, but I assume these things would be similar.  I thought with certainty that Jon was dead, but if you read Wikipedia it says "his fate is unclear."   I also felt there was some later foreshadowing of his not being dead, or maybe I heard that somewhere. I now think it's been intentially left open. 

I know... there are only so many favorite characters that can die before you say - REALLY??????

I watched the finale last night.  I thought the season has been pretty good, but I think there are too many potential cliff hangers right now.  There were several people that appeared to have died or been killed last night, but did they really kill someone from almost every story line?  I keep having cheesy soap opera endings running through my head ...tune in next time to see if Lady Brienne actually kills Stannis...will Jon Snow turn into a white walker?  is he even dead at all?...does Reek brake Sansa's fall?....  

I agree with all of this.  Thoros of Myhr (kinda sad I remember some of this) was an adherent to the Lord of Light (Melisandre's god) and was able to bring folks back to life.  Convenient that Melisandre showed up at CB when she did.  I didn't recall it, but in the last book Jon's death was hinted at, but he passed out, and his last word was "Ghost", so no one knows his status.

Never saw Stannis' head roll, and I had this feeling that he was looking behind Brienne in that scene, so that's not a given either.

Momma Stark may or may not return in the book, in some form....

Except that they used a body double for Cersei's walk.  I was actually going to comment to my wife, "she has a pretty nice body for having three kids... " but wisely (I think) held my tongue.

There are a bunch of blogs out there, but one in particular lists all the characters that we are finally up to in the book (i.e. Jon Snow), those that are close (i,.e. sansa and theon), and those that have gone way off script so have nothing to do with the book anymore (ie stannis, I think)

Except that they used a body double for Cersei's walk.

I am leaning this way also thinking the red witch will bring him back.  Thinking back to the scene with the hounds fight in a cave which we saw someone brought back from the dead.

They already got the kings blood from Stannis' daughter.  As with Khal Drogo, death must pay for life.  Jon Snow will be back

I think this now as soon as I started to read this thread.  I just took it for granted that he was dead following the "trend" of the show.

Ned stark CAN'T die...  Nope

Red Wedding CAN'T have really happened (dream/vision?)  Nope

The hound CAN'T really just die in the desert.  Nope

SO, John is dead.  BUT they can easily have someone find his body in the opening scene of next season to find him "mostly" dead (maybe Sam comes back for some reason) and saves him...

I'll probably have that hope/expectation and NOPE, he's dead...

Kill the boy and let the man be born.