'Game of Thrones' Confirms Jon Snow's Father in Complicated Graphic
R+L=J is 100 percent confirmed.
The "Game of Thrones" season 6 finale on Sunday seemingly confirmed a longstanding fan theory that Jon Snow's true parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. However, there was some room for doubt.
In Bran's Tower of Joy vision, Lyanna was definitively shown to be Jon's mother. But Jon's paternity was unclear, though logic and clues from the book made Rhaegar the most likely candidate.
Now, HBO has totally confirmed that Rhaegar is Jon's father in a very complicated infographic.
Many fans of the show were well-aware of the R+L=J theory, thanks to book readers. There were clues in George R.R. Martin's novel that indicated Jon's parentage was not what it appeared. Some 18 years before the events of the book/show, crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped or eloped with Lyanna Stark, Ned Stark's sister and fiancee of Robert Baratheon. This led Robert to lead a rebellion against the Targaryens, which ended in success. King Aerys is killed (by Jaime Lannister), and so is Rhaegar.
In Bran's vision, Ned finds Lyanna at the Tower of Joy lying in a bed of blood. She asks her brother to protect her newborn son. ""Promise me, Ned," she says, and that promise led Ned to raise Jon as his bastard.
But Lyanna whispered a line to Ned that was inaudible — perhaps naming the infant, perhaps explaining his parentage. Maybe we'll find out in one of the two remaining, shortened seasons.
Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.