Game of Thrones season 6 has ended with an epic finalé as usual. And though it tied up a lot of loose ends, it popped up lots of new questions also.
But one thing that fans completely loved is the Tower of Joy scene, and the fading of Lyanna’s baby to Jon Snow.
This pretty much confirmed the R+L=J theory, meaning that Jon Snow is not Ned Stark’s bastard son, but is the lovechild of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Fans are finally rejoicing after 20 years’ worth of theorising came true. And if you still think it’s a theory, HBO released this infographic. Check out the black lines that go from Jon Snow, and see who his parents are for yourself.
But one thing fans were stumped about is what did Lyanna whisper into Ned’s ear before handing him the baby?
According to Reddit user sparkledavisjr he is almost sure that she whispers his name as “Jaeherys.” And he has a lot of theory to back it. Let’s debunk what he has to say.
sparkledavisjr took to Reddit to post this detailed theory about why he thinks Lyanna named her son with Rhaegar as Jaeherys.
“It makes a lot of sense as a name (instead of Jon), as both previous Jaehaerys to rule were considered good Kings.”
Jaehaerys I was the 4th Targaryen king to sit the Iron Throne.
He was known as “the Wise”, “The Conciliator”, and “the Old King”. His long rule was prosperous and he was aided by his sister-wife Alysanne, who convinced Jaehaerys to expand the Night’s Watch and granted them the land now known as the New Gift.
Jaehaerys II was Jon’s great-grandfather. His reign was short due to his ill-health (only 3 years), but still a good one.
Now, the reason why Ned renamed the baby as Jon is because he did not want to reveal his true parental lineage and also wanted to keep the secret from everyone, as he had promised Lyanna.
Hence, a number of theories arise as to why Ned might have named him Jon also.
“XYZ-Wing pointed out that Jon was likely renamed after Jon Arryn, who I totally forgot about, and completely agree this is the most likely source of Ned’s choice of an alias. Jon Arryn was a father figure to Ned, and Ned is the father figure to Jon Snow.”
Now that all of this is out of the way, there is additional proof that Lyanna’s baby was named Jaeherys because of the parallels it draws with the history of the Targaryen ancestors who were named Jaeherys.
Twitter user Anastasia went on a tweeting spree and laid out all the common connections between the Jaeheryses of the past and Jon Snow.
So all these are very strong theories as to why we think Jon Snow’s real name is Jaeherys Targaryen. All we have to do now is to wait for the next two seasons to see where George R.R. Martin takes us.
You know nothing, Jon Snow Jaeherys Targaryen!
You can read the entire post along with the discussion here.
Cover image source