Each day for the next seven days, we're going to be bringing you and breaking down a different Game of Thrones theory to see just how plausible they are and if we think they'll be coming to the small screen (and George R R Martin's novels once he's finished writing!).
Credit: HBO
Today, we'll be taking a look at one of the most famous and longstanding theories from the series' most devoted fans - 'R+L=J'.
What is 'R+L=J'?
Though you've probably heard of this theory already if you're a big follower of the Game of Thrones series, you may not have seen or read about it broken down to fully appreciate everything it could stand for. So, let's go back a few years in Westeros.
Rhaegar Targaryen angered Robert Baratheon when he ran off with Lyanna Stark. Lyanna is Ned Stark's sister, and Rhaegar is Daenerys Targaryen's brother. So, in the theory 'R+L=J', R is Rhaegar Targaryen and L is Lyanna Stark.
The J here would be... Jon Snow. Rather than being the bastard born son of Ned Stark, he could have been born as Lyanna and Rhaegar's son in The Tower of Joy, with Ned present and promising to keep Jon's heritage a secret, instead raising him as his own. If other houses knew of Jon's real status as a Targaryen at the time, Robert Baratheon would have for sure had him murdered as a baby. This would change the game entirely and mean that Daenerys has a cousin she knows nothing about with quite a considerable stake to the Iron Throne - Jon.
Why do people think this could be true?
Now as the story goes, Lyanna was kidnapped against her will before being raped by Rhaegar. But as we know, history can be written in a very biased way and sometimes even become political propaganda, so it's very possible that this was NOT the case. Rhaegar was at the time married, but Targaryens and Martells have historically been involved in polyamorous relationships, so he wouldn't have been betraying his wife Elia Martell.
It was also known that Elia would not be able to risk having a third child due to her ill health, so she and Rhaegar may have agreed on him finding somebody else to sleep with and help produce an heir after a prophecy proclaimed that a prince was promised to the Targaryen family line. 'The prince that was promised' is also the man that Melisandre believed Stannis to be, before moving her attentions to Jon following Stannis' execution at the hands of Brienne of Tarth.
Ned as we know was an honourable man. There was always a lot of emphasis put on this during his time alive and though his character has now been muddied due to his beheading and the theatre shows that travel around the Seven Kingdoms, he'll always be remembered by those closest to him as someone who wouldn't do anything to betray his family. So, would he really have slept with somebody other than his wife whilst in such a loving relationship?
In the books there is also a flashback scene to Ned finding his sister in the Tower of Joy, where she's lying in a bed of blood. Before dying there, she asked her brother to do something - but so far we've never been told what it was that he promised to do. The television series very nearly approached this subject during one of Bran's warging visions in the second episode of the current sixth season, but we're being teased a little more before any of that reveal is made.
"[Ned] had lived his lies for fourteen years, yet they still haunted him at night," comes a quote straight out of the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. At the beginning of the book series, Jon is - you guessed it - 14 years old.
Further evidence comes in the book series. For example, blue winter roses are consistently associated with Lyanna throughout the series. So, many eagle-eyed readers found this quote from A Clash of Kings, during Daenerys' time in the House of the Undying with Pyat Pree VERY interesting indeed: "A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness."
How plausible a theory is it?
With all the evidence mounting and the amount of people behind this theory, it's the most plausible one to exist. If for some reason this wasn't the case and Jon wasn't actually a Targaryen and Stark offspring, there would be uproar within the fanbase. It's going to be very interesting to see how things play out going forward.
Game of Thrones continues Sundays on HBO in the US and Mondays on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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