Spoilers for the most recent season of Game of Thrones. If you haven't caught up, you may want to enjoy one of our other stories.
Game of Thrones season 6 ended a few weeks ago, but fans (myself included) are still reeling from all of the chaos and killing that happened in the past 10 episodes. In addition to the standard amount of violence, Season 6 stood out for giving fans a shit ton of payoffs, speeding up the pace of a series that had otherwise always taken its sweet time. Perhaps the best example of this was the Tower of Joy scene, where it was finally revealed that Jon Snow wasn't born from Ned's mistress, but Lyanna Stark. This led us all to believe that he was the child of Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen, making fan theory R + L = J into seemingly a reality. But now one Game of Thrones actor claims we shouldn't count our eggs to soon.
In an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Game of Thrones actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays everyone's favorite warger Bran Stark, claimed that Rhaegar might not be Jon's father after all. Cinema Blend's own Dirk Libbey was there as he young actor said the following:
I don't think we know for sure whether he's a Targaryen. It could well be that there's an incest situation going on like the Lannisters.
Damn, Bran. Don't go killing our buzz now.
While Isaac Hempstead-Wright was surely kidding with the insinuation that Ned could have impregnated his sister Lyanna, he does bring up a valid point. We haven't actually gotten confirmation that Jon is Rhaegar's son. The Targaryen has yet to appear in one of Bran's flashback sequences, so it seems plausible that another man could have gotten Lyanna pregnant before or after she was "kidnapped" by Rhaegar before Robert's Rebellion. If this were the case, Game of Thrones would succeed in truly surprising both the TV audience and readers of the Song of Ice and Fire novels. We have a clear conclusion, so going against our assumptions would be a big twist.
Then again, Isaac Hempstead-Wright may very well just be stirring the pot. HBO published an infographic after the season finale which pretty clearly lists Jon as the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna. This seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the debate, so it wouldn't make much sense for Jon's lineage to remain a mystery. If the network doesn't even know what's going on with their most successful show, we may have bigger problems.
Oh and by the way, I wouldn't be so judgy regarding incest in Game of Thrones if I was Bran. Sure, Cersei and Jaime's relationship is super weird and creepy, but they're hardly the only characters to harbor incestuous intentions. The Targaryens married relatives for many years, keeping the blood of the dragon within the family. And with Jon most likely half Targaryen, many have been predicted that he'll eventually marry Dany, who is actually his Aunt by blood.
Do you think Jon's parentage is still up for debate? Sound off in the comments below.
