The seed is strong?

[ImpinDornish]

I've read all the books and am up to ASOS on the re-read so forgive me if this is a fairly obvious one... But what was Jon Arryn going on about really when he said the seed is strong?

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Robert and his (bastard)children. The Baratheon seed is strong.

[ReleaseTheHound]

Yes the genes (dark hair) were strong so it was strange his kids had blonde hair

[Leonardo]

All of Roberts children took after him, with alllllll of them having his hair color and most his look as well; its as definitive proof as possible that joffrey and his siblings were not Robert's true born sons

Thus they have no claim to the iron throne

[Pox Americana]

His weed farm. The Eyrie's glass gardens are incredibly finnicky and he finally found a strain that could handle it.

[MissMatchedEyes]

I totally interpreted this as the Lannister's seed is strong. Like he was surrounded by Lannister's since the Queen's kids were no Baratheon's.

[ImpinDornish]

I totally interpreted this as the Lannister's seed is strong. Like he was surrounded by Lannister's since the Queen's kids were no Baratheon's.

Yes see this was where I was not 100%... I thought of it as he was reading the book and found that the Baratheon seed always overpowered the other genes where different hair/eye colour etc was concerned. Well, I guess if that's the crux of it and there's nothing deeper then I'm not as daft as I thought :-) thank you all

[Lord Hyrule]

I think he was talking about semen aka seed.

[Lord_Pepsi_Cupps]

Or something else entirely that hasn't been revealed yet, why not

[Mattco]

I totally interpreted this as the Lannister's seed is strong. Like he was surrounded by Lannister's since the Queen's kids were no Baratheon's.

He had to have meant the Baratheon seed being strong since he was chasing down all of Robert's bastard children.

[Stargaryan]

I actually think it's a good question. I always interpreted the statement as meaning the Lannister seed is strong. After all, Joffrey became the new ruler, which means the total defeat of the Baratheon seed.

I always wonder why Jon Arryn didn't just flat out say that Robert's children were Lannisters? Why speak in riddles that the king obviously couldn't decipher?

[Fae Boleyn]

I actually think it's a good question. I always interpreted the statement as meaning the Lannister seed is strong. After all, Joffrey became the new ruler, which means the total defeat of the Baratheon seed.

I always wonder why Jon Arryn didn't just flat out say that Robert's children were Lannisters? Why speak in riddles that the king obviously couldn't decipher?

Didn't the poison make him feverish, or at least disorientated? It's possible that the riddle was the best he could manage by then. That or even at the end he feared to tell Robert outright with Pycelle listening.

[Stargaryan]

Pycelle does call it "the last stage of his fever", and I'm sure he was disoriented. I guess that would be a good explanation. Still an interesting choice of words.

[RoamingRonin]

This makes me wonder... Did he expect Lysa to do something? Could you imagine that?

[lancerman]

Baratheon's have a strong seed. All of Roberts bastard's took after him. Furthermore, every time a Baratheon and a Lannister mated the result produced a dark haired child. Cersei and Robert produced 3 blond Lannister's. We know the Baratheon seed is strong, we know Robert isn't an anomaly since all his other children take after him.

[Stargaryan]

That's the most obvious explanation. Dark hair = stronger seed. However, it's the Lannister's "seed" that has removed the Baratheon "seed" or bloodline from the iron throne.

There can always be more than one interpretation, I guess we'll know at some point.

Baratheon's have a strong seed. All of Roberts bastard's took after him. Furthermore, every time a Baratheon and a Lannister mated the result produced a dark haired child. Cersei and Robert produced 3 blond Lannister's. We know the Baratheon seed is strong, we know Robert isn't an anomaly since all his other children take after him.

[King Duncan]

IIRC, Ned also noticed that every past Baratheon/Lannister union recorded in the genealogy book had resulted in black haired offspring. Assuming that Jon Arryn also took note, the "strong seed" would most likely reference the Baratheon's as a whole, both past and present, rather than Jaime and Cersei's progeny.

[MyLittleFinger]

Pycelle does call it "the last stage of his fever", and I'm sure he was disoriented. I guess that would be a good explanation. Still an interesting choice of words.

Also on top of the poison killing him and debilitating him, he was drugged out on milk of the poppy aka opium/heroine...so he likely wasn't too coherent.

[DamoDega]

Half OT

About the R+L=J

The Stark seed doe'snt seem as strong, see Ned and Cat sons... only Arya got that "Stark look", all look more Tully

On the other side Targaryen bloodline seem to often left a sign, be it silver hair (full head or a streak) or purple eyes.

Purple eyes in particular seem used as hidden hint, sometime they don't look purple at first but then watching better is possible see a shade of purple

So is kinda strange that a not so strong genes (Stark) and a kinda invasive one (Targaryen) given birth to Jon Snow, who look 100% Stark

Of course is not a perfect science, but GRRM often use it to design bloodlines... to the point of even being used as "proof" ( see this thread, Arryn theory)

To be clear, as much i don't like the idea of R+L=J, i think will probably happen, but still is kinda strange

[Mikkel]

Yeah, this one is pretty open-and-close: Jon Arryn was dying and feverish, and trying to tell Robert what he'd learned: that Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen were not his. I don't know if JA had figured out Jaime is the father, but it seems likely since he conducted his investigation with Stannis, who does seem to know.