An Answer to <em>Game of Thrones</em>' Biggest Mystery?
Spencer Kornhaber, Christopher Orr, and Amy Sullivan discuss the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
Sullivan: Now we’re getting somewhere. And I’m not just referring to all of the potential wars that so many of our Game of Thrones characters are trying to either stave off or set aflame. We’ll get to those in a moment. No, I’m talking about the long-simmering question that should be on every fan’s mind, the one that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had to answer before George R. R. Martin would hand over his series so they could bring it to television.
Who is Jon Snow?
In an episode that focused on the power of a family name—for good or ill—it was fitting that the show finally provided some clues regarding the real parentage of the Night’s Watch commander. For five seasons, Jon Snow has been belittled and resented for his bastard status. And we’ve been led to believe, although Ned Stark never actually said so, that Jon was Ned’s son from a wartime affair when the elder Stark was off fighting in Robert’s Rebellion.
“A bastard by some tavern slut,” spits Stannis’s wife, as they watch Jon move among his men at Castle Black. “Perhaps,” says Stannis. “But that wasn’t Ned Stark’s way.” What was Ned Stark’s way was putting family above all else, especially when it came to his beloved younger sister Lyanna. The story as told throughout the Seven Kingdoms is that Lyanna was engaged to Robert Baratheon when she disappeared with Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (himself already married to Elia Martell, sister to Doran and Oberyn). Her disappearance—usually characterized as a kidnapping—sparked all-out war in Westeros, which ended with the death of Lyanna, Rhaegar, Elia, and the Targaryen children.
Ned returned from the
