ASOIAF #1: Who are Jon Snow's parents?
Aug. 5th, 2013 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I'm totally into theorizing about ASOIAF right now, and I have a looooooot to talk about, so in order not to overwhelm any casually interested people with one giant post, and also to make myself get back into a rhythm of posting more often, I'm going to go through one topic a day. :D
These talks will, of course, be spoilery (though I will keep my topic titles as spoiler-free as possible)... I'm really bad at remembering what happens when, so all comments I make will be in danger of spoiling for books 1-5, seasons 1-3 of the show, and also the 3 Dunk and Egg novellas that are set ~100 years before the events of A Game of Thrones. I don't know why it took me so long to read those novellas, btw. I absolutely loved them. The events of ASOIAF are really exciting and awesome, but there's a lot of Seriousness, since Important Things Are Happening. The Dunk and Egg novellas are a lot more lighthearted, but equally fun to read.
OK, onto the first topic! We'll start with an easy one. Who are Jon Snow's parents?
An excellent essay on this topic has already been written, so I'm not going to rehash all of the evidence. (To see the full text, under the "Scope" drop down, click on the book you've read up to.) The essay was written in 2010, so it doesn't cover the events from ADWD, but most of the proof points were revealed in the earlier books, so it's still thorough. Basically:
Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon. This is just about the only fan theory that I am certain is true. Luckily, I also want it to be true. The only way that this wouldn’t be true would be if GRRM is put out by everyone guessing his mystery – but I can only hope that his desire to be a good storyteller overcomes his desire to be utterly surprising to people at all costs. After all, AGoT was published in 1996; that’s a very long time for fans to be able to dissect every word of the books. Surely, surely, GRRM will not reward a bunch of people who have zero critical reading comprehension (people who take everything written at face value, meaning that they believe Jon is actually Ned’s son), while punishing those who are careful readers, who have caught onto his symbolism and who possess the ability to read between the lines.
These talks will, of course, be spoilery (though I will keep my topic titles as spoiler-free as possible)... I'm really bad at remembering what happens when, so all comments I make will be in danger of spoiling for books 1-5, seasons 1-3 of the show, and also the 3 Dunk and Egg novellas that are set ~100 years before the events of A Game of Thrones. I don't know why it took me so long to read those novellas, btw. I absolutely loved them. The events of ASOIAF are really exciting and awesome, but there's a lot of Seriousness, since Important Things Are Happening. The Dunk and Egg novellas are a lot more lighthearted, but equally fun to read.
OK, onto the first topic! We'll start with an easy one. Who are Jon Snow's parents?
An excellent essay on this topic has already been written, so I'm not going to rehash all of the evidence. (To see the full text, under the "Scope" drop down, click on the book you've read up to.) The essay was written in 2010, so it doesn't cover the events from ADWD, but most of the proof points were revealed in the earlier books, so it's still thorough. Basically:
Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon. This is just about the only fan theory that I am certain is true. Luckily, I also want it to be true. The only way that this wouldn’t be true would be if GRRM is put out by everyone guessing his mystery – but I can only hope that his desire to be a good storyteller overcomes his desire to be utterly surprising to people at all costs. After all, AGoT was published in 1996; that’s a very long time for fans to be able to dissect every word of the books. Surely, surely, GRRM will not reward a bunch of people who have zero critical reading comprehension (people who take everything written at face value, meaning that they believe Jon is actually Ned’s son), while punishing those who are careful readers, who have caught onto his symbolism and who possess the ability to read between the lines.
