Robert Arryn is a bastard

[Balerion the kitten]

Not sure if this is a well known theory, but I'm bored so I thought I'd make a thread on it.
The theory is Robert is not Jon Arryn's son, but rather Littlefingers son. Since we know Lysa was having an affair with Petyr in KL.

"No." She stamped a foot. "I want you now, this very night. And I must warn you, after all these years of silence and whisperings, I mean to scream when you love me. I am going to scream so loud they'll hear me in the Eyrie!"

We aren't given a description of Jon Arryn's appearance (or what the Arryn's look like in general) but it's a fair assumption to say he had fair hair and blue eyes.[spoiler]

Ser Harrold Hardyng looked every inch a lord-in-waiting; clean-limbed and handsome, straight as a lance, hard with muscle. Men old enough to have known Jon Arryn in his youth said Ser Harrold had his look, she knew. He had a mop of sandy blond hair, pale blue eyes, an aquiline nose.

[/spoiler] This may be on shaky ground, but the world book gives off the impression the Andals generally had fair hair

The stony dornishmen were the mountain folk, fair of hair and skin, mostly descended from the first men and the Andals

So, it's not a stretch to say light skin and light coloured hair is a common Andal look. And

House Arryn derives from the oldest and purest line of Andal nobility. The Arryn Kings can proudly trace back their lineage to Andalos itself, and some have gone so far as to claim descent from hugor of the hill

So it's only natural that a book series where families carry on the same basic look for thousands of years (starks - brown hair, grey eyes. Lannisters - gold hair, green eyes. Baratheons and their super sperm. So on, so on) that the house with the purest andal blood, will have the andal look.
Now I don't have any quotes about Robert's appearance, but I know he has brown hair, and he's frail and small. If Lysa has Auburn hair, and Jon Arryn sandy-blonde hair, something's up (since its asoiaf).
Roberts appearance fits far better with Petyr's, than it (possibly) does with Jon's.

His family's modest holdings were on the smallest of the Fingers, and Petyr had been slight and short for his age.

Petyr had been a small boy, and he had grown into a small man, an inch or two shorter than Catelyn, slender and quick, with the sharp features she remembered and the same laughing grey-green eyes. He had a little pointed chin beard now, and threads of silver in his dark hair, though he was still shy of thirty.

ETA - something I posted in a later comment

"Yes. Be grateful that I have more honor than some." Petyr sounded as angry as she had ever heard him. "I have read your declaration and heard your demands. Now hear mine. Remove your armies from this mountain. Go home and leave my son in peace. Misrule there has been, I will not deny it, but that was Lysa's work, not mine. Grant me but a year, and with Lord Nestor's help I promise that none of you shall have any cause for grievance."

It should be noted that throughout that chapter LF referred to Robert as "Robert" or "my stepson", yet this once he calls him "my son". Might be nothing, just interesting.
Also this has been mentioned twice in this thread, so I thought I'd clear it up - The time Lysa got pregnant with her first child (the child with Petyr that she was forced to abort) wasn't the time she got pregnant with Robert. She got pregnant with Robert years after that, when both her and Petyr were in Kings Landing.

[Neds Secret]

I have always suspected that littlefinger may indeed be sweetrobins father

[PHAT_Walda]

This wouldn't surprise me, and they were definitely living in King's Landing at the time when he would be conceived. Lysa herself convinced John Arryn to bring Littlefinger over as Master of Coin some time before that, which would have given them plenty of time to be around each other. I'm sure Littlefinger probably has an idea that this might be true, which makes it even more fucked up how nonchalant he is about possibly killing Sweet Robin.

[Balerion the kitten]

This wouldn't surprise me, and they were definitely living in King's Landing at the time when he would be conceived. Lysa herself convinced John Arryn to bring Littlefinger over as Master of Coin some time before that, which would have given them plenty of time to be around each other. I'm sure Littlefinger probably has an idea that this might be true, which makes it even more fucked up how nonchalant he is about possibly killing Sweet Robin.

Yeah, it makes an already disturbing idea (killing a sick child) even more disturbing. But not surprising, since it's LF (the guy who turned an eleven year old into a prostitute, starved a city, and started a war).

[Orphalesion]

No. No he is not. Or at least I don't believe so.

[ChillyPolly]

Lord Robert flaps like a bird, and has surprising strength in his thin arms.  How can anyone suspect he is anything other than a true descendant of the winged knight of legend?

[TeamWhiteWalkerz]

Does it matter? Isn't LF planning to kill him? He'll be dead anyway, who cares?

[Cas Stark]

He's not.

 

Lysa speaks somewhere in the books about how she/they have waited so long to be together..if they'd been having an affair way back at the time of her son's birth she wouldn't have said such a thing.  And why would he be so blase about killing his own son, instead of trying to mold him?

[Imp Beyond the Wall]

I think this issue is short on definitive facts, but I have always wondered this as well.  Puny Robin just seems so much more like a Baelish than an Arryn.  We know that Petyr is potent, he impregnated Lysa at River Run, Lord Arryn's potency is questionable.

Most people say not, but I think it is well within the realm of possibility.  

   

[aryagonnakill#2]

Points in favor

 

Jon never had kids in his previous marriages, and all other kids with Lysa ended in stillbirth

LF and Lysa were together in KL when Robert was conceived

Lysa indicates they were sleeping together in KL

Robert resembles LF more than Jon Aryn

Lysa had auburn hair, Jon Aryn presumably had sandy blonde, yet Roberts is dark like LF's

 

Points against

 

Lysa never mentions it when she is having her tell all sob story before LF kills her

 

Conclusion:

Impossible to say for sure, but it seems pretty likely.

[Balerion the kitten]

He's not.
 
Lysa speaks somewhere in the books about how she/they have waited so long to be together..if they'd been having an affair way back at the time of her son's birth she wouldn't have said such a thing.  And why would he be so blase about killing his own son, instead of trying to mold him?

I'm telling you all of this so you will understand how long we have suffered and dreamed of one another

That doesn't mean they have waited to have sex all these years, just that Lysa has waited to be with LF, as his wife.
But even if Robert isn't his child, they were almost definitely having sex. (Some people may not but) I take this as confirmation that they were having sex

And I must warn you, after all these years of silence and whisperings, I mean to scream when you love me

Does it matter? Isn't LF planning to kill him? He'll be dead anyway, who cares?

I've seen this kind of argument before on other threads, and it doesn't hold up imo.
Nobody really cares if Rhaella and Bonifer had a thing. No one really cares about Mya and Mychel's relationship.
Why bother including the fact that Jeyne was turned into a prostitute and whipped when she didn't do something right, she's still going to marry Ramsay and have a horrible marriage.

[Chocs]

Hoster made Lysa drink Moon Tea after that one night wonder with LF, no?

[Balerion the kitten]

Hoster made Lysa drink Moon Tea after that one night wonder with LF, no?

Yes, but that wouldn't be when Robert was conceived.
And Hoster presumably wasn't in KL when she got pregnant with Robert, and even if he was he wouldn't just assume it was LF's and force her to abort it. The only reason he knew back then, was because Lysa told him in hopes he would let her marry Petyr

[aryagonnakill#2]

^Yes, before she married Jon Aryn, then years later he was brought to KL.

[Cas Stark]

Jon Arryn's first wife died of pregnancy complications, so it is incorrect to think he could't produce children.

[pigpiginsunspear]

I'm not too sure it matters. Also, it may be impossible to tell.  She could have been sleeping with both around the same time.

[Balerion the kitten]

Jon Arryn's first wife died of pregnancy complications, so it is incorrect to think he could't produce children.

Well his first marriage only resulted in 1 stillborn child, his second marriage resulted in no children, and his marriage to Lysa doesn't need repeating.

[ChillyPolly]

Does it matter? Isn't LF planning to kill him? He'll be dead anyway, who cares?

 

The best laid plans of mice an' men an' evil smirking villains gang aft agley.

[WolfgangII]

Interesting theory. Knowing the importance of hair color in genetics in this world, I say the discrepance between Jon, Lysa and Robert's hair is important. The proof Jon, Stannis and Ned had about the parenting of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen is their hair.

 

Also, it would be ironic that Jon Arryn found out about Cersei's bastards, but fail to see that his own son is not his.

[mediterraneo]

If I had to put my money on yes or no, I'd say yes.

 

But it is not relevant, he is the recognized son of Jon Arryn's wedlock. He is as trueborn as you can get in Westeros.

 

Exactly as other three characters in this story, with non matching hair with their father's.

 

 

EDIT: typos and grammar