Though we’re only five episodes into this season of Game of Thrones, the show’s wasting absolutely no time and answering some of the burning questions we’ve had about characters since season one.
Image: HBO
Yesterday’s episode focused largely on everyone deciding on whether to believe the increasingly widespread word that an army of the dead are marching towards the Wall on their way to invade the seven kingdoms. While Daenerys, Tyrion and Jon are all well aware of the impending threat, others such as the Lannisters in King’s Landing and the maesters in the Oldtown Citadel are less willing to believe that the Night King is on his way to murder them all.
Though Samwell tries to impress upon his superiors that the warning they have received from Winterfell about the white walkers is very correct, they’re loathe to listen to him, leading to Samwell venting his frustrations to Gilly. Towards the end of the episode when Samwell’s considering whether to leave the Citadel, we see that Gilly’s taken a shine to reading through the vast collection of books at her disposal. While making her way through a book detailing things about High Septon Maynard, Gilly asks Samwell what an annulment is after reading the word in a sentence:
Maynard says here that he issued an annulment for a Prince Rhaegar and remarried him to someone else at the same time in a secret ceremony in Dorne.
Neither Gilly nor Samwell realise the gravity of that sentence and their conversation quickly moves on, but we, the audience, have way more information than they do. Last season, we saw Bran learn what went down at the Tower of Joy in the moments leading up to Lyanna Stark’s death. After killing the Targaryen kings guard in Dorne, a much younger Ned Stark rushes to his dying sister just after she’d given birth to her son whose identity she asked that Ned keep secret.
While we knew that Rhaegar Targaryen had been married to Princess Ellia Martell due to there being no suitable Targaryen women for him to marry, we didn’t know that their marriage was annulled in Dorne and that Rhaegar had taken another wife.
Up until this point, common knowledge was that Rhaegar had simply kidnapped Lyanna, triggering Robert’s Rebellion, but Gilly’s revelation suggests that the two might have been in love before going on to have a child together. If Jon Snow is, in fact, Rhaegar Targaryen’s son, then that would ultimately mean that he’s the rightful heir to the Iron Throne as well as the North in addition to being Daenerys’ nephew.
Earlier in the episode, after Daenerys returns to Dragonstone after having obliterated those poor Lannisters, Drogon actually approaches and allows Jon to touch him before looking back knowingly at Daenerys. While it isn’t exactly confirmation that Jon’s a secret Targaryen, it’s pretty damn clear that the dragon knows something about Jon that we don’t quite yet.
This could all be a huge misdirect, sure, but it’s definitely starting to look like everyone’s assumptions about Jon Snow were very, very accurate.
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12 responses to “Game Of Thrones Just Hinted At That Major Theory About Jon Snow Being A You Know What”
Even if Jon Snow was a legitimately born son and thus eligible to claim the iron throne, wouldn’t the vows he took upon joining the Night’s Watch rule him out of contention?
Yeah but he technically died, so I guess maybe said vows are fulfilled?
True. Although it’s also questionable whether he would even WANT the iron throne. He didn’t particularly even want to be king in the north, let alone king of the whole shebang.
Yeah, when he left Castle Black to ride south and take back Winterfell, he specifically said “I died. My watch has ended”
He’s no longer a Brother of the Nights Watch. He is able to become King of the North and King of the 7 Kingdoms/Dannys Bitch.
There isnt going to be a Night’s Watch when all this is over.
If the Night King and his merry band of snowmen get under/over/through the Wall, I doubt that there’d be anything left of the Night Watch anyway
Most likely scenario in my head is that when it finally gets revealed for all to know, Daeny will make Jon her Heir.
The issue of heir is after all one of her major problems since somebody needs to rule after she’s gone and she’s barren now cause of the blood magic.
They already blew their load to anyone who knows the R+L=J theory in season 6 with the Bran time jumping to the Tower of Joy stuff. It’s not a secret anymore.
I think the main thing here is that he was born withing marriage, so not a bastard, so able to take the Targaryen name and true heir to the throne.
That part’s news, true, but the article seemed to be implying that R + L = J hadn’t been completely confirmed by Bran’s vision.
Yeah, that was already well known. Can’t remember if it was also implied in the books either. Fans had worked it out though.
It hadn’t been spoken of at all in the books. Or if it was, it was pretty subtle, because I missed it.
Though, I will admit that I also missed the fact that Renly was sleeping with dudes too while reading the book, so maybe I’m just dense.
The only references that I remember were the comments on the Tower of Joy stuff and how “Ned’s so honorable and valiant that he fucked a waitress LOLOLOLOL.” sorta comments.