Sweetrobin is weird.

[Angel Eyes]

His appearance boggles my mind. 

His mother Lysa has red hair and blue eyes, and his father Jon Arryn has blonde hair and blue eyes. So Sweetrobin should at least have light hair and blue eyes. Instead, he has brown hair and brown eyes. 

Now I know that there's that theory that Sweetrobin is Littlefinger's son, but there's a catch. Littlefinger has green-gray eyes, and Sweetrobin has none of those traits present in his eyes. He doesn't have Littlefinger's charming personality either.

[SirArthur]

Hoster Tully has brown hair and blue eyes. The other grandparents have no description. 

[Angel Eyes]

Which means Sweetrobin should have an even bigger chance of having blue eyes, even by the wacky genetics in the book.

[ChuckPunch]

He's a secret bastard of Lil' Finga.

[Angel Eyes]

6 minutes ago, ChuckPunch said:

He's a secret bastard of Lil' Finga.

I already addressed that in the opening post. Sweetrobin doesn't really have Littlefinger's eye color or personality.

[falcotron]

Going by simplified real-world genetics, like the two-gene model for eye color you may have learned in primary school, yes, Robert should definitely have blue eyes. But obviously GRRM's world isn't that oversimplified. The fact that Littlefinger has green-grey eyes is enough to prove that there's more to it than the two-gene model. And, while I doubt GRRM actually researched the genetics,* he probably does know that sometimes, two blue-eyed parents can produce a brown-eyed child without a milkman being involved.

And remember, GRRM has said it was a mistake to make the bastard proof entirely based on hair color—both to oversimplify the genetics that much, and to rely on medieval people like Ned and Stannis understanding even that oversimplified genetics. So, I don't think we should expect him to keep repeating that mistake at every opportunity.

But if you really want to come up with a conspiracy theory, the best ones I can come up with are:

• Morton Waynwood. I don't think he's described, but his mother has brown eyes and greying (so presumably originally dark) hair, and he appears to have been a widower and single father for some years by the time he proposed to Lysa after Jon's death.
• Lyonel Corbray. His brother has dark hair and eyes, so he probably does too. And he had a sickly son with his own wife. And he seems to have genuinely cared about Lysa in some way (although more likely only as the widow of his beloved liege than anything romantic or even personal). And seems to have spent some time in the Eyrie (his family is said to know the Blackfish well).

The worst ones I can come up with, on the other hand…

• Lyn Corbray. Most of that Lyonel evidence comes from Lyn being his brother. If it weren't for the minor problem that Lyn is openly gay, to the point where everyone is pretty sure he won't be producing any heirs… But maybe Littlefinger has been paying him off his entire adult life to pretend to be gay just so nobody will find out that he impregnated Lysa. That happens all the time, right?
• Ned Stark. Littlefinger couldn't tell whether he was sleeping with Cat or Lysa when he was drunk. He seems to still believe it was Cat, but maybe he's just faking, and he already got the first stage of his revenge against Ned by getting him drunk and tricked him into repeating the mistake.
• Brandon Stark. Brandon bangs everyone. He won't let a little thing like being a corpse buried in a crypt hundreds of miles away stop him.
• Bran Stark. Via time travel, of course.
• A secret half-Blackfyre/half-Brightflame Targaryen. Because everyone in the story is one of them. Robert doesn't even have brown eyes, Littlefinger is just disguising him.

---

* If he had—well, I'm sure if you google for OCA2 and HERC2 you'll find a good explanation, but if you want the short version: If Jon had ooHH genes, his eyes would be blue because his OCA2 gene doesn't produce the main precursor for brown pigment; if Lysa had OOhh genes, her eyes would be blue because her HERC2 gene doesn't produce the trigger that activates OCA2 in the iris; Robert would then be OoHh, so his eyes would be brown. It's not as common as you'd expect from that description, both because OCA2 and HERC2 are linked and because most European populations that carry the o allele also happen to carry the h, but it's common enough that it happens.

[Vaedys Targaryen]

I don't recall ever getting a proper description of Sweetrobin's eyes, but his hair is dark-brown and he is short, similarily to Littlefinger.

And personalities can't just be passed down like genetics. Sure, many sons in the series are like their fathers, but that's because they spent time with their fathers and began to internalize their behaviours and thoughts. Sweetrobin, if he is Littlefinger's son, was born sickly due to no fault of his own, but he was sheltered and spoiled by Lysa and spending little to no time with Littlefinger, or Jon Arryn for that matter, so there really isn't anything Sweetrobin can internalize.

[SirArthur]

9 hours ago, falcotron said:

• Ned Stark. Littlefinger couldn't tell whether he was sleeping with Cat or Lysa when he was drunk. He seems to still believe it was Cat, but maybe he's just faking, and he already got the first stage of his revenge against Ned by getting him drunk and tricked him into repeating the mistake.
• Brandon Stark. Brandon bangs everyone. He won't let a little thing like being a corpse buried in a crypt hundreds of miles away stop him.
• Bran Stark. Via time travel, of course.

I think Sweetrobin is as old as Bran. I don't know about Brandon's time travel abilities but if we want to look "stark", how about Benjen ?

[Angel Eyes]

Ned doesn't make sense. He hasn't gone below the Neck since the Greyjoy Rebellion.

[falcotron]

9 hours ago, SirArthur said:

I think Sweetrobin is as old as Bran.

That's why time travel is needed. That, and the fact that if you want a silly tinfoil theory, it has to involve either Bran time traveling or someone secretly being Euron.

9 hours ago, SirArthur said:

but if we want to look "stark", how about Benjen ?

Well, it doesn't sound like Benjen has been any farther from the Wall than Winterfell since joining the Watch shortly after Robert's Rebellion.

7 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

Ned doesn't make sense. He hasn't gone below the Neck since the Greyjoy Rebellion.

Sure, that's what he thinks, but who knows what happened when Littlefinger roofied him. Or maybe LF snuck Lysa north instead.

Anyway, there's a reason I listed these as the worst theories I could come up with, separated from the best (but still not very good) ones.

[Jaehaerys Tyrell]

I’m sure Robert’s eye colour is never mentioned. I expect that he is the son of Petyr Baelish and Lysa Tully, but I don’t think the books will ever say it outright. The hair and Petyr and Lysa’s relations in King’s Landing make it a strong possibility. 

[Faera]

While it is not impossible for a blond-haired man and an auburn-haired woman to have a brunet boy, it is incredibly unlikely and involves a lot of chance genetics. I agree that it is very possibly Littlefinger is the true father of Sweetrobin. As for why he would be trying to kill his own son, either, Littlefinger doesn't know or he does and doesn't care. He's quite sociopathic so if SR was a liability for his plans, I don't think he'd hesitate to get rid of him.

[Apoplexy]

On 9/26/2017 at 4:52 PM, Angel Eyes said:

His appearance boggles my mind. 

His mother Lysa has red hair and blue eyes, and his father Jon Arryn has blonde hair and blue eyes. So Sweetrobin should at least have light hair and blue eyes. Instead, he has brown hair and brown eyes. 

Now I know that there's that theory that Sweetrobin is Littlefinger's son, but there's a catch. Littlefinger has green-gray eyes, and Sweetrobin has none of those traits present in his eyes. He doesn't have Littlefinger's charming personality either.

It is possible for parents with green grey and blue eyes to have a child with brown eyes. And the children don't always have personalities similar to their parents.

[Prince Yourwetdream Aeryn]

I think that we shouldn't expect similarity between Robin's and Littlefinger's character. They were raised in totally different environments. But Jon Snow was raised by Ned Stark and he got character similar to Ned.

But there are many hints that Robin's character could resemble Littlefinger's:

Quote

but I promise, I’ll read you two tales of the Winged Knight when we reach the Gates of the Moon.”
“Three,” he said at once. No matter what you offered him, Robert always wanted more.

Quote

“I don’t love her. She’s just the mule girl.” Robert sniffled. “Maester Colemon put something vile in my milk last night, I could taste it. I told him I wanted sweetmilk, but he wouldn’t bring me any.

Quote

I’m only a girl, not as brave or strong as you. If I can do it, I know you can, Sweetrobin.”
“I could do it,” Lord Robert said, “but I don’t choose to.” 

 

[DrouintheOneandOnly]

Angel Eyes. It's not entirely true. My father has pers eyes (two colors) and my mother has green eyes. I ended up with brown eyes. I had like 0,99% chances of ending up with brown eyes lol 

[A Ghost of Someone]

We do not know the appearance of Littlefinger's parents. Whether he is Littlefinger's parents or not. Being breastfed by a lunatic like Lysa Tully as the only form of Nutrition into you 8th or so year of life is bound to have side effects. He seems to be aging a bit better now that that situation has changed.

[Corvo the Crow]

On ‎27‎.‎09‎.‎2017 at 0:52 AM, Angel Eyes said:

His appearance boggles my mind. 

His mother Lysa has red hair and blue eyes, and his father Jon Arryn has blonde hair and blue eyes. So Sweetrobin should at least have light hair and blue eyes. Instead, he has brown hair and brown eyes. 

Now I know that there's that theory that Sweetrobin is Littlefinger's son, but there's a catch. Littlefinger has green-gray eyes, and Sweetrobin has none of those traits present in his eyes. He doesn't have Littlefinger's charming personality either.

Is he? We are never told that, only Harrold looks like Jon Arryn, not that he has his coloring. Jon could very well be a black haired black eyed guy.

My sister has brown eyes, light brown hair. she looks very much like my aunt when my aunt was her age, who in turn looks very much like her aunt when she was her age. My aunt has dark brown/black hair I think as I have no color photos of her youth but she has hazel eyes and her aunt has blue-grey eyes and black hair. People can look like each other without the same coloring.

[Lady Dacey]

On 26/09/2017 at 6:52 PM, Angel Eyes said:

His mother Lysa has red hair and blue eyes, and his father Jon Arryn has blonde hair and blue eyes. So Sweetrobin should at least have light hair and blue eyes. Instead, he has brown hair and brown eyes. 

Auburn hair + blond hair makes it really likely to have an offspring with brown hair. It's actually the most likely scenarium. Auburn is dark red, has a lot of melanin. It's not uncommon, in the real world, for a person with auburn/red hair to have an offspring without that coloring, specially if the other parent doesn't have the genetics for red pigments (as is the case of Jon Arryn light hair). The offspring will show a hair colour that is darker than the fair-haired parent, and not reddish, making it... brown, yeah. That's brown. Darker than blond due to brown-pigment producing genes from mom (these are the most dominant alleles we've got), but not reddish because of the lack of red-pigment producing genes - he simply didn't get them from Lysa, who only had a 50/50 chance of passing them along to begin with. So no misteries there. Hair colour is a-okay. And no need no understand anything about genetics or hair pigment either - simply observation of real life families is enough for one to see such thing is possible, very possible. Because red-heads are scarce and most people don't see a lot of them matched with their offsprings and don't understand much about genetics, well, such people might be inclined to remember high-school genetics and try to apply it to hair colour. Don't do that. Take my word on it, it is possible and likely for Arryn and Tully to have a brown haired son. 

Now about eye colour, we don't know Jon Arryns eye colour. It could have been brown, as far as we know it... 

[Tygett Lannister]

On 9/26/2017 at 11:52 PM, Angel Eyes said:

His appearance boggles my mind. 

His mother Lysa has red hair and blue eyes, and his father Jon Arryn has blonde hair and blue eyes. So Sweetrobin should at least have light hair and blue eyes. Instead, he has brown hair and brown eyes. 

Now I know that there's that theory that Sweetrobin is Littlefinger's son, but there's a catch. Littlefinger has green-gray eyes, and Sweetrobin has none of those traits present in his eyes. He doesn't have Littlefinger's charming personality either.

No he can easily have black hair or brown and any color of eyes.

[Tygett Lannister]

On 9/27/2017 at 2:31 AM, falcotron said:

Going by simplified real-world genetics, like the two-gene model for eye color you may have learned in primary school, yes, Robert should definitely have blue eyes.

That is just wrong. Simple genetics meaning Mendelian say different.