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Did Catelyn Stark know about Jon's parentage ?


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1 minute ago, Red Dragon10 said:

No, Catelyn definitely did not know.  

The knowledge of who Jon really is was *that* dangerous, Ned couldn't even tell Catelyn.  It wasn't because of a lack of trust that he didn't tell her. 

Exactly!  I think it may even have been said in the books that "some secrets are too dangerous to share" or something like that.  But, anyway, I think anyone would be crazy not to think long and hard about sharing info with a loved one that is considered treason and puts them in danger of being executed should it be found out.  Ned was protecting everyone by not telling them, not distrusting them.

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She did not know.  Cat in the books would have argued for throwing Jon out into the cold because it would have endangered her kids and blah.. blah.. inheritance.  TV show Cat would have been sympathetic.  There was that beautiful monologue by Cat in Season 3 about how all the ills that have befallen her family came about because she could not love a motherless child.  However, Ned thought that the secret was too dangerous to tell even TV Cat.

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I think Ned could have trusted her with the secret, maybe he should have told her. Then she would have been nicer to jon.

Damn.. It's sad that catelyn and Ned are both dead now (in the show) and so she will never know that her husband was truly honorable. 

 

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7 hours ago, brightflame princess said:

I think Ned could have trusted her with the secret, maybe he should have told her. Then she would have been nicer to jon.

 

Maybe Ned thought that it was more convincing if Catelyn genuinly disliked Jon? Because imagine if Ned told Catelyn and since then Catelyn would be so nice to Jon because of sympathy, and one day someone would overhear how she says to him "My poor little Jonny, what a terrible fate your poor mother had to suffer..." That's not exactly something she would say about her husband's mistress.

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In the show the only people to know about Jon's parentage is Ned, Howland Reed, Bran, and those two nursemaid's who I'm guessing one of them is Wylla.

In the books during Ned's Fever Dream he mentions he was holding on to is sister's body until "They" came. I'm guessing "They"= Howland, and Wylla and how many nursemaids were there with Lyanna.

 

 

 I personally like to believe she might have treated Jon a little better had she knew his mother was Ned's little sister, but I think she would have been a more fearful and paranoid women, mainly for her kids safety. Technically Ned was committing treason by harboring a half breed Targaryen claimant to the Iron Throne. Had she knew who his real parentage was, she would have been in fear for her own children's safety.

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2 hours ago, Sir Matthis Light said:

In the show the only people to know about Jon's parentage is Ned, Howland Reed, and those two nursemaid's who I'm guessing one of them is Wylla.

The only other possibility would be Benjen, that is if Ned confided in him to help conspire to protect Jon.

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One of the first things to happen in AGOT is Cat asking Ned about Jon's mother and Ned refusing to tell her and in fact warning her to never ask him again. If she knew he was a Targ bastard she wouldn't need to worry so much about him trying to take Winterfell. Her concern was based on him being Ned's son. If he's Lyanna's son he doesn't have the same claim that the eldest son of Ned would (even if he's a bastard). She was afraid of a Blackfyre situation.

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51 minutes ago, Rory Snow said:

The only other possibility would be Benjen, that is if Ned confided in him to help conspire to protect Jon.

Thats a tough one, IIRC Benjen was 14 when he left to join the Night's Watch after Ned came back to Winterfell with baby Jon, new wife Cat, and baby Robb. 14 is still a year shy of manhood and, still considered young by Westeros standards. I personally think Ned didn't tell his little brother, due to wanting to protect him from holding on to the burden of knowing. Like I mention above, technically the people who know/knew about Jon's real parentage, are committing treason.

But Lyanna is Benjen's sister too, so maybe he told him, and Benjen is holding the burden of the promise to.

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20 minutes ago, Chib said:

Cat would have killed Jon herself because she would never want Robert to harm her family especially her children because of Jon. 

It depends who we are talking about - Book!Cat or TV!Cat  Book!Cat was a simply awful lady who would have demanded that Ned get rid of Jon because he endangered her children.  TV!Cat already regretted how she treated Jon and would probably feel great compassion toward him.

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2 minutes ago, illinifan said:

It depends who we are talking about - Book!Cat or TV!Cat  Book!Cat was a simply awful lady who would have demanded that Ned get rid of Jon because he endangered her children.  TV!Cat already regretted how she treated Jon and would probably feel great compassion toward him.

 

Yeah Book Cat, sorry.

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On 01/07/2016 at 8:34 PM, adiman83 said:

No, Ned told nobody. At some point she does ask him about Jon and he snaps at her (the only time he did that) and tells her Jon is his blood, that's all she needs to know and never to bring up that subject again. 

Oh yes, I remember that now that you mention it,

Thanks

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