Jon Snow's Real Identity is Jaehaerys Targaryen

Good news: Just because Game of Thrones is over, it doesn’t mean we can’t still keep treating obvious plot points like new revelations. Post-Season 5, we all identified that Jon would clearly return to the show in spite of the showrunner and Kit Harington’s insistence otherwise. Post Season 6, it’s the non-question of Jon’s real father.

We have known for years that his mother was Lyanna Stark and his father was Rhaegar Targaryen — you’ve probably heard the term “R+L=J” even if you’re not a book reader or a regular Game of Thrones conspiracy theorist. We have discussed that Jon and Daenerys are now aunt and nephew, but in case you weren’t paying attention during that Tower of Joy scene in the season finale or the earlier Tower of Joy scene in which Rhaegar’s guards were clearly defending Lyanna, HBO has released a new infographic confirming it!

It also lays out, in a literal fashion, exactly what a tangled web Game of Thrones has woven.

In all fairness to the show, the episode did not outright name Rhaegar Targaryen as Jon’s father and this chart is probably an effort to embrace the showrunners new strategy of Thrones-splaining events as if we have not just watched them. They have also seen how we tend to jump to conclusions if something isn’t outright confirmed; so this nips any “but what if Jon’s father is really…” inquiries in the bud.

There were admittedly a lot of mumbles in that scene between Lyanna and Ned Stark — the only intelligible bit was “If mumbles finds out, they’ll kill him. You have to protect him. Promise me, Ned. Promise me.”

But repeat listeners are pointing out that if you slow the scene down and listen to it backwards while standing on your head, it sounds like Jon’s real name is Jaehaerys. This is intriguing both because it will give Jon and Daenerys a killer built-in couple name if he becomes her choice for Most Eligible Westerosi Bachelor and because it means that although his outward characteristics are far more Stark than Targaeryen, he’s still got the fire blood running through his veins. There were two Targaryen kings named Jaehaerys, and they were both completely sane. Could we be leading to a showdown between Daenerys as a mad Targaryen and Jon as a sane one? Now that would make an interesting Season 7.