“You know nothing, Jon Snow..”
Oh but your die-hard fans might!
There has been a theory floating around “Game of Thrones” (GoT) forums and discussions boards that suggests that Jon Snow isn’t entirely who he appears to be i.e. Ned Stark’s bastard son. Up until S4 of the TV show and as far as George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, he’s only known as Ned Stark’s “other son”, a member of the Night’s Watch, and a knower of nothing.
Source: HBO
Or so we thought.
Last month, a “R+L=J” theory” surfaced, all out to prove that Jon Snow is actually the lovechild of Ned’s sister, Lyanna Stark (the betrothed of Robert Baratheon) and her captor/suitor Rhaegar Targaryen (son and heir of the mad king, Aerys II Targaryen).
Note: Rhaegar was the older brother of Viserys and Daenerys, though Daenerys was born after he died.
This YouTube user created a video to “report” the findings and it elaborately illustrates the true lineage of the Jon Snow. Watch:
And that’s not all! In the recent weeks, it seems that none other than Sean Bean (Ned Stark) himself has been endorsing the above theory. Because of that, the “R+L=J” theory gained mainstream traction. Big time.
In all started with a Reddit AMA last week, when Sean Bean gave weight to the rumours:
Now, it seems like another person loosely tied to the “Game of Thrones” universe is hinting at its veracity. Who else but George R.R. Martin?
Here’s what the author had to say at the Edinburgh International Book Festival:
I want to surprise and delight my reader and take them in directions they didn’t see coming. But I can’t change the plans… So many readers were reading the books with so much attention that they were throwing up some theories and while some of those theories were amusing bulls**t and creative, some of the theories are right. At least one or two readers had put together the extremely subtle and obscure clues that I’d planted in the books and came to the right solution… So what do I do then? Do I change it?! I wrestled with that issue and I came to the conclusion that changing it would be a disaster, because the clues were there. You can’t do that, so I’m just going to go ahead. Some of my readers who don’t read the [online fan] boards, which thankfully there are hundreds of thousands of them, will still be surprised and other readers will say, “See, I said that four years ago, I’m smarter than you guys”.
True, there’s a high chance that he could be talking about an entirely different major twist. But the “R+L=J” theory has been the most prominent theory in the recent months, that was concluded by die-hard fans who were “reading the books with so much attention that they were throwing up some theories”. The same fans who probably “put together the extremely subtle and obscure clues” George R.R. Martin “planted in the books” and figured it all out.
Boomz.
Sounds like there will be exciting times ahead. Ooh we can’t wait for S5 of “Game of Thrones” to premiere already!
Meanwhile, we’ve curated a list of things you can do while waiting for S5 of “Game of Thrones”. See if you’re up for doing any of these.