Despite being the biggest Game of Thrones secret for a long time, several people knew that Jon Snow was a Targaryen. Game of Thrones Season 7 confirmed that Jon is the legitimate son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, who secretly married shortly before Rhaegar was killed by Robert and Lyanna died during childbirth. Jon was raised as Ned Stark’s bastard son, as Ned knew that Jon would likely be killed by Robert if his true parentage were revealed. Although he discovered it himself in Season 8, other characters knew that Jon Snow was a Targaryen even before he did.
Both Stark and Targaryen, the revelation of Jon Snow’s parents also meant that he was the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, which got in the way of his loyalty to (and romance with) Queen Daenerys Targaryen. Jon’s parentage was Westeros’ best kept secret for over 25 yearsbut once it spread to Jon himself, it quickly became common knowledge among the nobility of Westeros. However, although HBO Game of Thrones answered the question about Jon’s ancestry, the A Song of Ice and Fire books haven’t yet.
Ned Stark
Ned raised his sister’s orphaned boy to protect him
In both Game of Thrones and in the books, Ned Stark is the only confirmed character who knew Jon Snow was a Targaryen. In Game of Thrones Season 6, the Three-Eyed Raven takes Bran back in time to when Lyanna died after giving birth to a baby, with Lyanna simply saying “promise me, Ned”Before giving him the child. The revelation proves that Ned was always just Jon’s uncle who had to live with the secret of knowing that Lyanna and Rhaegar had a child together.
Understanding that Robert would kill Jon, aka Aegon Targaryen, if he discovered the truth, Ned also lied to his best friend for the rest of their lives, with most of Westeros believing that Jon was the son of Ned and a woman he once knew. . the road at war. Although making Jon his bastard son publicly tarnished Ned Stark’s honor as he apparently betrayed Catelyn, Game of Thrones reveals that Ned maintained his honor the entire time, as he was fulfilling a promise he made to his dying sister.
While Game of Thrones‘ still suggest that Ned could actually be Jon’s father, the only certainty about Ned is that he is the only person who knows Jon’s ancestry.
Howland Reed
Howland was with Ned when Lyanna died
Young Ned Stark’s flashbacks to the Tower of Joy in Game of Thrones suggest that he wasn’t the only character who knew that Jon Snow was a Targaryen, as his friend Howland Reed, Jojen and Meera’s father, was there with him when Lyanna died. Since Ned would have to explain why he left the tower with a baby in his arms and his deceased sister, it’s clear that Howland at least knew that Jon was never truly Ned Stark’s son..
Even if Ned hadn’t directly told Howland that Jon’s father was Rhaegar Targaryen, anyone in the kingdom could have guessed it. The story of how Jon Snow was conceived said that Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna, raped her, and then killed her, so finding Lyanna with a baby would have to mean it was Rhaegar’s. Although Howland was not in the tower with Ned Game of Throneshe was the one who finally pulled Ned away from Lyanna’s corpse in the books.
Author George RR Martin revealed that Howland Reed will not be a POV character in the A Song of Ice and Fire books because he knows too much, implying that he also knows the identities of Jon’s parents in the novels.
Bran Stark
Bran uses his powers of vision to learn the truth about Jon
Although Bran Stark is not someone who knew that Jon Snow was a Targaryen in the books, he was the first character to confirm his parents as Lyanna and Rhaegar in Game of Thrones. The end of Game of Thrones Season 6 sees Bran having a vision with the Three-Eyed Raven. It was then that Bran discovered that Jon Snow was actually Lyanna Stark’s son, with details of Jon Snow’s father emerging in Season 7.
Bran had already understood that Jon was Lyanna and Rhaegar’s son, but believed he was still a bastard until Sam helped fill in the information about their secret marriage. Game of Thrones‘the end of season 7 then saw Bran had a vision in which he watched Lyanna Stark’s wedding to Prince Rhaegar Targaryenconfirming that Jon, actually Aegon Targaryen, was his legitimate son and rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
Samwell Tarly
Sam helped Bran realize Jon was the true heir
The last person to find out about Jon Snow’s parents before Jon Snow himself was his best friend, Samwell Tarly. Sam learned about Jon Snow’s real parents from Bran Stark. When Bran and Samwell meet at the end of Game of Thrones Season 7, Bran explains that Jon needs to know the truth about himself, with the new Three-Eyed Raven entrusting such information to the future Grand Maester.
However, Sam had already unwittingly discovered the full truth about Jon’s parentage when he was at the Citadel with Gilly. Gilly read in High Septon Maynard’s diary that he annulled Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia Martell, and later secretly married Rhaegar to another woman in Dorne. When Samwell Tarly hears from Bran that Rhaegar and Lyanna are Jon’s parents, he realizes that the secret woman Rhaegar married was Lyanna Stark.making Jon not only her legitimate son, but also a Targaryen heir.
Wylla
She was possibly a nurse who helped feed Jon when he was a baby
Game of Thrones season one features a quick mention of Wylla when Robert and Ned have a meal together, with the two reminiscing about their time during the rebellion. Robert asks about Ned’s bastard’s mother, which Ned confirms as “Wylla.” Ned never mentions Wylla again and dies before he can tell Jon the truth about his mother. Although Wylla isn’t Jon’s real mother, it’s still possible that she is in the books.
George R. R. Martin’s books describe Wylla as a wet nurse who served House Dayne for many years, although it is unclear how she met Ned. However, the character Edric “Ned” Dayne tells Arya Stark that he and his brother Jon Snow are “milk brothers”, as they were both breastfed by Wylla as babies. Dayne was born several years after Jon Snow and Ned left, so he doesn’t know the true circumstances of his time in Starfall, but he believes Wylla is Jon’s mother.
It’s also been suggested that even if Wylla isn’t Jon’s mother in the books, she at least knows some of the truth behind his parentage. Martin’s books confirm that Ned went to Starfall after Lyanna’s death because he had to return the ancestral sword of House Dayne after killing Ser Arthur Dayne, and it is likely that Wylla was simply Jon’s wet nurse during his stay there.
It is also speculated that Wylla was the wet nurse present while Lyanna gave birth to Jon Snow in Dorne, which would have made her privy to information about Jon Snow’s Targaryen identity.
Ashara Dayne
Ned Stark’s former love interest may have helped care for Jon
While George RR Martin’s books never aired the rumor that Lyanna is Jon’s real mother, it is an openly discussed rumor that Ashara Dayne is the real mother. It is assumed that Ashara was a love interest of Ned before Robert’s rebellion. Catelyn even heard rumors throughout the kingdom and believed that Jon Snow’s mother was Ashara, but Ned never confirmed it. Ned visited Ashara on his way back to Winterfell after Robert’s Rebellion, where many people assume she revealed the son they had together.
Ashara killed herself shortly after Ned left and the truth about what she knew about Jon died with her.
However, other rumors suggest that Ned came to see Ashara with Jon already in his arms. It may be that Ashara, moved by her past love for Ned, helped him take care of the newborn.including allowing wet nurse Wylla to feed the child. Ashara killed herself shortly after Ned left and the truth about what she knew about Jon died with her.
Was Jon’s Targaryen lineage important in Game Of Thrones?
Jon did nothing with the information
Looking back at the final seasons of Game of ThronesThere’s still the question of how important Jon’s ancestry is. When the truth was revealed, it felt like a groundbreaking revelation that set incredibly high stakes for the rest of the series with the idea that he was a prophesied hero and that the Iron Throne would come down to a battle between the two remaining Targaryens. , Jon and Daenerys. However, the reality was that the truth of Jon’s parentage was barely taken into consideration. Game of Thrones‘ finishing.
From the moment Jon discovered he was the true heir to the Iron Throne, he suddenly took on a much less active role in the series.. The final season was filled with Jon watching other people do important things while he continually insisted he didn’t want the throne. Even when killing Daenerys, the fact that he was effectively becoming the last living Targaryen was never mentioned, nor was the fact that the heir to the Iron Throne decided to live his life Beyond the Wall.
It’s not hard to see Jon ending up in a similar place in the novels, but it’s also easy to see George RR Martin finding bittersweet poetic justice in this. Perhaps Jon, being a Targaryen, was never meant to lead to him taking the Iron Throne, but it should have meant something to the character. He had been a bastard with no real name all his life and now he was Aegon Targaryen.
However, all the show managed to do with all this information was let him form a bond with Daenerys’ dragons and fly them in two short sequences.
How House Of The Dragon Is Making Jon Snow’s Targaryen Lineage Important
Aegon’s dream reveals that the Iron Throne was not the Targaryen’s greatest purpose
Dragon House explores Jon’s Targaryen lineage in greater depth, and the introduction of A Song of Ice and Fire the prophecy only emphasizes how important your family history is, despite its lack of impact on the line of succession. In Dragon HouseKing Viserys gives his heiress Rhaenyra Targaryan a familiar artifact: the Catspaw dagger. The Catspaw dagger is, of course, the same weapon used in the assassination attempt on Bran Stark in Game of Thrones season 1.
The Valyran steel weapon came with a story of Viserys, one of Aegon’s dreams, which turns out to be the A Song of Ice and Fire prophecy, along with the Prince That Was Promised. This means the Targaryens would know of the imminent threat of the White Walkers – Aegon’s reason for conquering Westeros and uniting the country to prepare for the invasion. The end of Aegon’s dream/prophecy states that it will be the Targaryens who save Westeros from the White Walkers, and Aegon’s dream will come true in the end in more ways than one.
Jon Snow was a key player in the survival of the Westerosi population.
Although Arya defeated the Night King in battle, Jon Snow was a key player in the survival of the Westerosi population. Between the dragon he rode that destroyed swarms of White Walkers and all the time he spent beyond the Wall, Jon played a significant role when it came to taking down the Night King. In the end, the eventual occupant of the Iron Throne would be Jon or Dany – both technically Targaryens.
Although a Targaryen didn’t end up on the Iron Throne due to Dany becoming the Mad Queen and Jon being sent back to the Wall (and the Throne being melted), Game of Thrones proves that these were the two Targaryens that Aegon spoke of in his dream, only solidifying the importance of Jon’s Targaryen heritage, although it wouldn’t matter as far as Westerosi politics were concerned. The prophecy was never about ruling – it was about safeguarding the people of Westeros against real and imminent danger, a warning that was unfortunately misinterpreted..
There are still many book theories about Snow’s ancestry
Fans have other options about Jon’s parentage
Readers of George RR Martin’s books have long speculated about the truth behind Jon Snow’s parentage. It was these passionate fans who brought to light the theory that Jon was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. However, although this was the most popular of the theories, and although it was confirmed by the series, that didn’t stop other compelling ideas from emerging over the years.
Although the books explicitly present this as a possibility, fans have racked up a lot of compelling points as to why Ashara could be Jon’s mother. It is known that Ned and Ashara met at a tournament in Harrenhal and it is rumored that they began seeing each other in secret over the years. This was before Ned was engaged to Catelyn Tully, so it avoids questions about whether Ned would abandon his honor like that.. It would also make sense for her to introduce him to baby Jon, which explains where he came from on Ned’s march back to Winterfell.
Ned killed Ashara’s brother, Arthur Dayne, in the Tower of Joy and was returning her ancestral sword to Ashara. Shortly after this meeting, Ashara committed suicide and Ned returned to Winterfell with his bastard son. It is speculated that Ashara was sad because the man she loved killed her brother and gave Ned the son he didn’t know he had before he killed himself.
Another thing that is linked to Ashara is that Jon is her son with Ned’s brother, Brandon Stark. This would mean that Brandon was unfaithful to Catelyn, who was initially supposed to be his wife. Rather than tarnish his late brother’s reputation as an honorable man, Ned claimed Jon as his own bastard son. All of these theories have compelling evidence to support them and are presented in the books as real possibilities. However, this could simply be Martin delivering some convincing red herrings to ensure the reveal about Lyanna and Rhaegar is more shocking.
Is Jon related to the greens or the blacks from House Of The Dragon?
Fans learned more about the Greens and Blacks in Dragon House. Jon Snow has lineage from this program, but his relationships are not necessarily Green or Black. He is of Targaryen lineage, and his seventh great-grandmother is Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. from the HBO series. King Jaehaerys I Targaryen is Jon Snow’s tenth great-grandfather. This means that with so many branches, Jon has a lot of relatives when it comes to the characters in the new series.
The Greens and Blacks are mostly family members, but the colors are based on political leanings. This separation caused a huge Civil War, which devastated the Houses. As for Jon, he is descended from the Blacks because all of the male Green descendants died. To be clear, no one won because of the devastation they caused, but black people were the last to have lineage in the succession.
Dragon House takes place 172 years before the birth of Princess Daenerys Targaryen. Daemon and Rhaenyra are Jon Snow’s seventh great-grandparents, and it is through her and Daemon’s son Viserys that the lineage continues. This is complicated thanks to intermarriage in House Targaryen, but is tied in the prequel series to Game of Thrones history, although there are many relatives, but Jon Snow was one of the descendants of this House.