So we’re well into the seventh season of Game of Thrones and still – people are hella confused as to how Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are related and how he’s a Targaryen at all.
We’re here to make your lives that much easier and break it all down for you – here you go:
The Mad King, aka Aerys II Targaryen married his sister (ugggggggggh) Rhaella and they had three kids – Rhaegar, Viserys and Daenerys. So – yes – Dany is a child of incest. But, she’s not Mad like her father (at least, not yet). While we’ve met Viserys and Dany in Game of Thrones, we never truly met Rhaegar because he died before Dany was born.
However, he was connected to Dorne, because he married Elia Martell – sister of Oberyn Martell – who died on King’s Landing in the show. Rhaegar and Elia had two kids – Rhaenys and Aegon. After having Aegon, Elia almost died and was told she could no longer have children – which pissed Rhaegar off.
While all this hoopla went down – Lyanna Stark and Ned Stark were chilling up North and Lyanna Stark was promised to Ned’s BFF, Robert Baratheon. But, Lyanna knew damn well that Robbie B was going around planting his seed in random women and having kids left and right – bastard kids – so she wasn’t hyped about the engagement because, same who would be?
While they were two completely different storylines, they crossed over at the Tourney of Harrenhal. The show briefly mentioned it through Bran’s visions and some convo’s that no one pays any attention to – but George R. R. Martin focused on them in the books.
Basically, Lyanna met Howland Reed – who’s the father of Jojen and Meera (who rescused Bran, the new three-eyed raven) and saved him from some squires. She took him to this random feast that Rhaegar was at and – playing some songs because he was talented AF and knew how to woo the ladies. Lyanna was starstruck by his music and wept – making her panties hella wet.