Keeping the bloodline pure

[Sheyria]

Even Aegon the Conqueror was born from a non-Targaryen union. His father was Aerion Targaryen and his mother was Velena Velaryon, (a Valyrian, but not brother to sister).

That's nice to know really. Thank you for sharing. (:

[Adar]

Ok...if the Targaryens married each other to keep bloodlines pure, then how come Rhaeyrs married outside the family?

Do you mean Rhaegar? This is because his only sibling was Viserys (who as 8) and Daenerys was not born yet.

[Sheyria]

Do you mean Rhaegar? This is because his only sibling was Viserys (who as 8) and Daenerys was not born yet.

Like they said earlier, it was not an obligation to marry siblings. Even if Rhaegar had siblings he could marry, there would be a chance he still would marry someone else.

[Nathan the Calm]

That was one of the first things I was really concerned about. Since I knew about the relationship between Jamie and Cersei I also went asking my mom about it. She told me that it is possible that the children are healthy at all. I think it happened in real life often enough.

[The BlackBear]

It takes a long time to do too much damage, but the Spanish Habsburgs ended up like this:

'Charles II's genome was actually more homozygous than that of an average child whose parents are siblings.^[2] He was born physically and mentally disabled, and disfigured. Possibly through affliction with mandibular prognathism, he was unable to chew. His tongue was so large that his speech could barely be understood, and he frequently drooled. It has been suggested that he suffered from the endocrine disease acromegaly, or his inbred lineage may have led to a combination of rare genetic disorders such as combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis.'

[jansein]

I remember the ancient times, they are allowed to marry their relative to protect a bloodline. But it is true that if a person will marry a relative, there is a big possibility to bear an abnormal offspring. Did you heared a story about zombies? Zombies are real, thanks to dangerous drugs and powerful weapons. No, you won't actually become "The Walking Dead," but you might be kidnapped and give up your bank account data.

[LuisDantas]

Joffrey was malformed, but only mentally, and there is no evidence that his incestuous origin played a role in that. He was just spoiled rotten by an unbalanced mother and an uncaring father.

[The BlackBear]

Joffrey was malformed, but only mentally, and there is no evidence that his incestuous origin played a role in that. He was just spoiled rotten by an unbalanced mother and an uncaring father.

Totally agree. I think Joffrey was Roberts greatest failure.

[Distorted Humor]

They are not that far from the Greek family that ruled Eygpt for generations.

http://www.tyndalehouse.com/egypt/ptolemies/genealogy.htm

Will give you a idea of how odd it was...

[TheNiggardlyBastard]

Maybe the Mad King had some kind of disorder, and that's why he was so fuckin crazy. Because I know that the Targaryens kept the bloodline pure.

[Heidrun]

Hi, I'm new here, but my perspective as a horse & goat breeder may be of interest. Sorry to sound so arrogant :)

Inbreeding has been used to develop nearly all modern livestock breeds, although sire to daughter is more common. That way, the resulting offspring is 75% of the sire rather than the usual 50%. Breeding half-siblings is such a common practice in breeding animals that hardly any breeder bats an eye at it. Breeding full siblings is less common and usually only done if the sire is stellar. It's a good way to lock in recessive traits that wouldn't normally show: unusual color or markings, "downbreeding" to create miniatures. If cousins or further relations are bred, it is usually called line-breeding.

HOWEVER, the difference with livestock is that the offspring are "culled" ruthlessly to weed out undesirable traits by responsible breeders. A horse or goat (or sheep or cow or pig or whatever) may be sold to a pet home, meat, or castrated. This was obviously not the case with the Targaryens! Ethics aside, inbred humans are rarely culled although some weak individuals obviously won't make it to child-bearing age.

There is an old horse breeder maxim: if you breed good to good, you get good, if you breed bad to bad, you get bad. The Targaryens may have striven for perfect humans, but they could have benefited if there had been some culling. There has been some greatness from inbreeding: Arabians, Thoroughbreds, Lippizans, etc... but bad recessives crop up as well, like hemophilia among the European monarchs. The purity and prepotency of Arabian horses is a result of inbreeding, but also QUALITY breeding.

Because of this, the inbreeding isn't quite as icky to me as some others (probably because I've had to explain to my family why I wanted to buy a high quality buck that was half-brother to several of my does and why I get excited about a stallion who has "20 lines to Skowronek!"). But as loyal as I am to certain bloodlines, they DO benefit from outcrossing on occasion.

But as others have pointed out, yes, many royal familes throughout history have been inbred. But unfortunately, with humans, they are not culled like livestock to accentuate the good.