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When you play the game of thrones, you GIF or you die. Return to the realm with the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 4, April 6 at 9pm on HBO. 

The endless conspiracy of Jon Snow’s parentage has dominated Game of Thrones since it’s inception, and as we get to Season 7 – we’re starting to get some answers about it all. But if you were paying attention during Season 7’s fifth episode, ‘Eastwatch’, we might have got the bombshell answer we were waiting for and it might have been Gilly that revealed it. 

What did Gilly say?

As Sam Tarly was ranting and raving about having a shit time at the Citadel – his partner Gilly might just have stumbled on the answer to one of Westeros’ biggest questions. Reading from a book penned by a maester in the thick of it at the time of King Aerys II reign, she dictates;

“Says here the high septon annulled a marriage from ‘Prince Ragger’, and married him in secret, to another woman, in Dorne” she says, before being interrupted.

At the time of his death, it was believed that Rhaegar was still married to Elia Martell. This however, appears to suggest that Rhaegar had split from the Martell and married Lyanna Stark, Jon’s mother. 

So what does that tell us?

Well, it might solve that pesky question of Jon’s parentage and beyond. From Season 6 flashbacks, we learn that Jon Snow is in fact the daughter of Lyanna Stark, Ned’s sister. At the time, Lyanna had been ‘kidnapped’ by Rhaegar and held captive in the Tower of The Joy. Lyanna would later die in childbirth, but Ned took custody of the child to prevent from soon-to-be-king Robert Baratheon of killing the illegitimate bastard. 

You have to remember that the Targeryan’s were the ruling family of Westeros at the time. So when Aerys (Rhaegar and Daenerys father) was on the throne, Rhaegar was the next in line.

Wait, does that mean…

Yes. So if Rhaegar is indeed Jon’s father – which is all but confirmed – when Rhaegar is killed, it means that Jon Snow becomes the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne and King of Westeros, due to his marriage to Lyanna.

The books allude to Rhaegar’s obsession with having this third child, given that Elia was warned that she would not survive another pregnancy. So it makes sense for him to seek assurances his third child would be legitimate. Their previous two children, Aegon and Rhaenys, were murdered by Ser Gregor Clegane during the Sack of King’s Landing.  

What effect will this have on the rest of the show?

Potentially massive. It basically confirms that our little hero Jon Snow has been the legitimate King of Westeros the whole time. Whether he wants to be the ruler is a completely different story, but it at least puts him in the frame.

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