#R+L=J

[saessenach]

What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms… or the memory of a brother’s smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.

Jon Snow - and family that haunts him, because sometimes ghosts make for the best love stories.

[winterprince601]

honestly, i don't blame anyone for not making the connection between rhaegar targaryen and jon snow. they are such different guys to me. you could organically stumble upon rhaegar playing a silver harp in a clearing in the woods, silently weeping into the flowing waters of a crystalline stream. jon is the teenage manager of a fast food chain who sometimes shows up to work dripping wet because he doesn't own an umbrella.

[amber-laughs]

He loves him. He raised him. That’s his son.

"Come, let us see what mischief my sons have rooted out now."

He hates him. A constant reminder of the worst days his of his life. The weight of House Stark on his shoulders with no warning.

“He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.”

He doesn’t miss him.

“The thought of Winterfell brought a wan smile to his face. He wanted to hear Bran's laughter once more, to go hawking with Robb, to watch Rickon at play.”

He begs, in his dying hour, for one last moment with him.

“The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words. If only he could see the boy again, sit and talk with him…”

He’s his greatest shame.

“I've never lain with any woman but Cersei. In my own way, I have been truer than your Ned ever was. Poor old dead Ned. So who has shit for honor now, I ask you? What was the name of that bastard he fathered?"

He’s his highest honor.

“The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see.”

He’s his darkest lie.

“Catelyn had asked her husband the truth of it, asked him to his face. That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. “Never ask me about Jon,” he said, cold as ice.”

He’s his kept promise.

“Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes.”

[hyacinthecanard]

Lyanna survived and lived hidden with her son in Greywater Watch. But when news of her brother Eddard taken prisonner in Kingslanding came, the wolf-blood is too much and she joins Robb Stark's forces to try to free him.

[rhaegars-cervix]

i have brainworms over how jon was allegedly conceived months after brandon and rickard’s deaths. i feel like lyanna must’ve had very conflicting feelings all around, anger at both of them (as well as aerys), sadness and disappointment, doubling down on her convictions even if unable to shake the underlying guilt because if she looks back she’s lost… well it’s good she at least has someone to take that out on :)

[jimmymmtz]

/Commission/ RhaeLya. The tower of Joy

[danytheconqueror-jonthewhitewolf]

[atopvisenyashill]

Pink and blue roses lining the path The flagstone path that leads to nowhere To nowhere Decided for now

[angrycommiedyke]

Speculations on Jon and Arya : "The woman is important too"

It’s no secret that Jon Snow has always wanted to be a Stark, and has a strong connection to this house and to the North, with his looks, his direwolf and warging ability, among other things.

“Lord Eddard Stark is my father,” Jon admitted stiffly. Lannister studied his face. “Yes,“ he said. “I can see it. You have more of the north in you than your brothers.“ “Half brothers,“ Jon corrected. He was pleased by the dwarf's comment, but he tried not to let it show. [Jon - AGOT]

Now when Jon is going to learn the truth about his parentage, it’s going to be a mess in his head and he will obviously need time to process. It will cause multiple problems but I just want to focus on one in particular : his identity as a Stark. 

The male lineage tends to be more important, so wherever R+L marriage was valid or not, even if Jon remains a bastard, he won’t be Ned Stark’s bastard but Rhaegar’s. He may then not feel entitled - or less -  to be King in the North (if he is as in the show), or just feel like he doesn't really belong in the North/Winterfell due to his Targaryen father.

And that’s when Arya comes into play. To remind him that “the woman is important too”. 

"The Lannisters are proud," Jon observed. "You'd think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother's House equal in honor to the king's." "The woman is important too!" Arya protested. Jon chuckled. "Perhaps you should do the same thing, little sister. Wed Tully to Stark in your arms." [Arya - AGOT]

So I like to imagine that Arya will be there to remind him that his northern face, which he was proud of when Tyrion mentioned it, isn’t due to his father but his mother. That the sigil he wanted to wear but was never allowed to, is in fact his mother’s. 

"Girls get the arms but not the swords. Bastards get the swords but not the arms. I did not make the rules, little sister." [Arya - AGOT]

And because the woman is important, he’s no less of a Stark or a northerner. Perphaps Arya will be there to tell him directly or he'll just remember her words.

PS : I also hc that when Jon will reveal to Arya the truth about his real parents, she’s gonna tell him these exact words : “You’re still my brother”. 🥹 And i'm still mad we didn't see the reactions on the show, but let's not start on that

[citizensun]

Mother and son. The shield is a bit too small for his tastes but by the gods Jon's gonna use it.

Featuring pointillism because I'm at work and do not have access to anything other than office supplies. Also I don't think I own art supplies?

A few notes:

• Post-res!Jon adopts black, white and red as his colors for. Uh. Several reasons. He's making a exception here, though.

• Jon's shield arm is giving Rob Liefield, I know. Nevermind the anatomy.

• All things considered, the lack of Ukrainian flower crowns in Lyanna fanart is absolutely criminal.

• If the wolf embroidery on Lyanna's sleeve looks a bit wonky... Well, it's because she did it herself. Sorry girl.

• Jon got Lyanna's nose and chin! Those emo eyes, though. He's lucky no one who knew Rhaegar paid attention to him. Also I'm a pretty hair Jon truther no cap.

Bonus: "I'm not taking the damn crown off, Brandon"

[saessenach]

working on a wee storyboard thing - a certain prince gets knocked off his horse while chasing the Knight of the Laughing Tree and shenanigans ensue

[winterprince601]

thinking about how all three of the kingships jon stands to inherit are legacies of love - jon's ability to understand the free folk as human and worth saving is an act of love and they love him and essentially make him king beyond the wall in return. robb loves and trusts his brother and is confident in jon's love and loyalty in return, even fresh from theon's betrayal, so he names him his heir to the north. despite the ambiguity of the affair, grrm seems to suggest rhaegar truly loved lyanna and that would make jon, literally, their love child - illegitimate or not, his existence and potential claim to the iron throne is because "prince rhaegar loved his lady lyanna" and he lives because lyanna loved him and ned loved lyanna.

do you see it? around jon snow, more important than any royal blood or legitimacy, is a nexus of love?

[amber-laughs]

that fucking royal feast at winterfell haunts me. did they toast to the royal house baratheon? did robert shout out his war stories about taking down a once great dynasty? did ned watch jon snow cheers to the death of his own father? raise a glass to the death of his future, the loss of his identity? would he even notice if he had?

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

Rhaegar's final word being Lyanna's name, his lover who soonly would give birth to their love child.

Lyanna's final words being her begging her brother to promise her to keep her baby safe.

Jon doesn't know it but he was so loved by his biological parents even if they never got to meet him.

[myimaginationplain]

I've found that when it comes to discussing who has the best claim to the iron throne and/or the Targaryen dynasty, there's often this implicit assumption that when Jon finds out about his true parentage, the knowledge will inevitably leak to the general Westerosi public. People love to theorize about whether or not the Northerners would continue to support Jon if his being Rhaegar's son came to light, or if he would be pushed as heir to the iron throne over Dany & Aegon, & I'm just like...how would any of them find out about it? Why would any of them find out about it?

I feel like some people believe that when Jon finds out about R + L = J, he'll, I dunno, send out news letters about it or something? Publicly renounce his status as Eddard Stark's son? I don't exactly understand what people think Jon would do with the information, but anything less than keeping as tight a lid on it as possible would be very out of character for Jon. Guys, we're talking about the same guy who purposefully gave a young mother the wrong baby. He's not gonna be cavalier about this.

The only people we can really be certain he'd feel the need to tell the truth to are Arya & Sansa. We know that Bran is likely to already know the truth himself by then through his greenseer tree-god bullshit; Rickon, even if he is found & taken to Winterfell by the time the other siblings reconvene (which I find highly unlikely), would probably be considered too young to trust with information like that.

Daenerys is also an extremely likely candidate for being one of the few people Jon would tell, although this is variable, as it depends on what sort of relationship you believe she & Jon will have by the time R + L = J is revealed. I for one am betting on she & Jon already being involved in some capacity by the time he finds out, thus making her one of the people he'd tell. But if you're in the camp of people who think they'll be enemies by then, he probably wouldn't tell her in that scenario.

Sam is furthest down on the very short list of people Jon would probably tell. I think it's likely, seeing how much he trusts Sam & leans on him for support. But still, it's not a sure thing.

So, including Howland Reed (who has successfully kept the secret for ~17 years now), that makes just 6-7 people who would be privy to Jon's parentage. None of whom would have much motivation to go screaming about it from the hilltops in any scenario where they're still behaving like themselves. (If any of you bring up show!Sansa here, then I'm gonna beat you with a hammer. Don't be a hypocrite; if you can acknowledge & accept that literally every other character was wildly ooc in Season 8, then do the same with Sansa. Betraying Jon's trust after swearing not to before a heart tree is just as ooc for book!Sansa as purposefully burning Kings' Landing to ash would be for book!Daenerys.)

Even in the event that Jon rides a dragon, I think that can easily be explained away by lying about Jon's mother. "Oh, why can I ride a dragon? Not many people know this, but my mother was actually a Lyseni whore. You know they have some Valyrian blood in them. She died in childbirth, though, which is why my lord father took me in." Who's gonna call his bluff on that? Ned's resolute silence on Jon's mother would absolutely work in his favor. The historical precident set by Nettles & others like her means that Jon can 100% just say his mother was the daughter of some unknown dragonseed or something.

IMO, the real question we should be asking is, if Jon were to have children, would he ever tell them the truth?

[deithe]

re-reading asoiaf and god. i feel like we take r+l = j for granted since it's been years since the theory first spawned, and it's all but canon but by god the foreshadowing for it in the books is so. beautiful almost? it's never said, it's never even alluded to, but it's just there, under the face of george's writing, from the tower of joy flashback, to the allusion of a promise ned made to lyanna on her death bed, the mystery of it all, the whole thing about rhaegars missing ruby and dany and jon's innate and magical connection. it's a masterclass in foreshadowing and keeping a secret within the text, because it's never clear enough to be in your face, but just thinking about it for a while makes it very clear why jons parentage is so secret. it rewards you for paying attention and it's genuinely such a fun thing to look for when reading, all these little gems, like grrm is giggling with you through the text, like, "omg you've spotted it". genuinely so fun