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Does Jon need to know who is real parents are?


ssls6

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I was thinking about this the other day...as a fan, I want him to know and that revelation be meaningful to the plot but is it necessary?  As it stands, Dany plans to marry for alliance sake and Jon is already King of the North.  That makes Jon a good choice relative to any others in the Realm.  Does Jon being a Targ make him more appropriate to Dany?  Jon has already taken the mantle of "leader against the white walkers".  Does he need a prophecy to spur him into action?  The Bastard King of the North who chose to lead is actually a cooler thing  than "born to be a hero".

Does he really need the information on his parents?

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Yes, because the center point and the struggle (every character has a struggle in his story) of Jon in his story is that he never liked being a bastard, he was mocked to be a bastard and he was in perpetual search of a home and a family, this is why he took the black : to find a family, now he have a home (Winterfell) and a family (Lady Sansa), only missing his true parentage

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You do not add Checkov's gun to the story without it going off.  It has to come up at some point.

And the whole character arc is rich in irony.  The thing that Jon resents the most, being a bastard, is the very thing that protected him as a child.  

I also think it is important that both Dany and Jon earn their own success.  That can be done even with the secret of Jon's parentage. 

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He definitely has to know...

It would be pretty lame if he doesn't get to know who is his mother and why Ned kept this information secret. I think that it has been the thing that made him suffer the most, more even than being a bastard. He used to dream about his mother and could almost see her face.

And with Bran knowing the truth, I don't see how Jon would not since they are surely going to meet again before the end.

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I can see Littlefinger whispering this to Jon as to "damage" him or make him question if he is really Ned's son.  I don't know if I can see a reason for Bran to tell him.  Jon is not a power hunger person (like Dany, Littlefinger, and most the other players) so the knowledge doesn't have much value to him.

 

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10 minutes ago, ssls6 said:

I can see Littlefinger whispering this to Jon as to "damage" him or make him question if he is really Ned's son.  I don't know if I can see a reason for Bran to tell him.  Jon is not a power hunger person (like Dany, Littlefinger, and most the other players) so the knowledge doesn't have much value to him.

 

It doesn't have to be about power, knowing the identity of his mother and why Ned had to lie are important enough. Anyone who had been raised as a motherless outcast would want to know about his parentage and Jon has always been thinking and wondering about his mother.

Besides, we don't even know yet if his Targaryen heritage would be essential for the war for the dawn and how he could handle it if he's unaware of it.

As for littlefinger, I don't believe he knows about it... As a first class schemer, I believe he would have already used this card somehow to his advantage if he did.

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1 hour ago, Blueroses said:

As for littlefinger, I don't believe he knows about it... As a first class schemer, I believe he would have already used this card somehow to his advantage if he did.

I agree with this. I think LF suspects it but he has no proof at all. And Jon doesn't look like a Targ so there is no evidence to play this card. He can't go around telling people Jon isn't a Stark while he looks exactly a Stark. They will just laugh it off and call him mad. 

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45 minutes ago, Quyen Thuy Tran said:

I agree with this. I think LF suspects it but he has no proof at all. And Jon doesn't look like a Targ so there is no evidence to play this card. He can't go around telling people Jon isn't a Stark while he looks exactly a Stark. They will just laugh it off and call him mad. 

Exactly -- it would sound almost as silly as Patchface being Shireen Baratheon's biological father.

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Yes, he needs to know, and I think it will be Sam who pieces it together with Bran's help.

This might be too meta, but in the BOOK HotU, The Undying call her "mother of dragons" and "child of three".....

So, does that mean she's one of three living siblings? That would work with Viserys, and Jon - all three were alive at the same time, not so with Rhaegar, only two. Dany was born after his death. Or, does it mean .....I'm out. I thought I had something else, but..... nope. 

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He truly deserves to find out the truth about his parents. He has spent the most of his life thinking that he was only a bastard. The fact that the Targaryen blood flows through his veins might allow him to marry Daenerys and tame one of her dragons. The fact that he is not Eddard's son but his sister's instead, might put his leadership in danger because Sansa's claim on the North is much stronger than his

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48 minutes ago, Lorenzo98 said:

He truly deserves to find out the truth about his parents. He has spent the most of his life thinking that he was only a bastard. The fact that the Targaryen blood flows through his veins might allow him to marry Daenerys and tame one of her dragons. The fact that he is not Eddard's son but his sister's instead, might put his leadership in danger because Sansa's claim on the North is much stronger than his

This means nothing. Sansa has no claim to the North. She has a claim to Winterfell alone. Jon was proclaimed King by the North. Therefor he is the King, period. It's like winning by defeating the previous regime. The previous Princes aren't king now, they are nothing because the throne was taken by force and succession goes to them.

 

As to the topic question. Does he have to know, no. Will he, yes, the author himself said he will. Will it matter in the grand scheme of things, I am not sure. I would think Dany would choose him to marry for Westeros power since he the logical choice. Him being half Targaryen would allow their name to continue, since I think Lyanna and Rheagar were married and his last name is Targaryen.

Of course the author also said it would be a bittersweet ending so who knows, maybe they all die and the last chapter is a POV of the Nights King.

 

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On 7/12/2016 at 10:56 AM, Le Cygne said:

He wanted to know about his mother in season 1, he asked Ned, and Ned never got the chance to tell him. I think it would make a difference to him to know that his real mother loved him.

Quite simply, this.  Both the show and the books highlight how Jon thinks about himself as an outsider, we know how Catelyn treated him, and we know how he thinks about his mother. We see Jon wistfully asking Ned about his mother.   He deserves to know.  

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On 7/12/2016 at 7:37 PM, Chib said:

Jon might do not need to know, in fact, I have the feeling not knowing will be better for him. But he must know... because it's his tragedy.

I believe by learning his true parentage will likely lead him into another tragedy, a big one. I dunno what it is, but...I think it will be something to do with bittersweet ending.

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He's going to find out ... but I think that what finding out will mean, to him, to those around him, and to the rest of Westeros, will be different in the books and the show. Not to mention the details around finding out are likely going to be rather different as well.

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