Let's talk about lemongate

[Lost Melnibonean]

Except the books say that Dany didn't stay at the Sealord's palace
 
 
Dany says that the marriage pact was made while she lived in the house with the red door. Not while she lived in the Sealord's palace, after she just read a document declaring that the Sealord witnessed the marriage pact. She clearly separates the Sealord from the house with the red door.
 
It's always been a nonsensical proposition, not only from the text having Dany not put them together after she's just presented with something bearing the Sealord's name, but from the lemon trees not living in Braavos, from the lack of hills and fields that Dany remembers playing in, a house clearly being different from a palace, from the servants robbing her after Willem died, and pretty much everything. The "Sealord's Palace theory" is a complete farce. It's never even remotely fit.

You draw a reasonable inference, but your argument is not conclusive.

[King of the Narrow Sea]

You draw a reasonable inference, but your argument is not conclusive.

 

Well what more really needs to be said that the Sealord's palace doesn't fit with Dany's house with the red door? The only part that works is that the Sealord's Palace happens to be in Braavos.

[Lost Melnibonean]

 
Well what more really needs to be said that the Sealord's palace doesn't fit with Dany's house with the red door? The only part that works is that the Sealord's Palace happens to be in Braavos.

Palaces can't have guest houses? The government can't own houses to house foreign dignitaries?

[Alaynsa Starne]

 

She has a vision of the lemon tree in the HOTU in ACOK

 

 

More recently though Dany thinks of the house with the red door, where the lemon tree was, 6 different times in Dance, half of those being dreams she has. She's also told by visions of Quaithe and Jorah 3 different times in Dance to "remember" who she is which makes little sense as she "knows" she's Aerys and Rhaella's daughter.

 

Well, ok, but are there any other times that lemons or the lemon tree or a serious questioning of Dany's true identity from a biological standpoint ever come up in the novels? Because mentioning the HWTRD -- which Dany associates with peace and stability, what she would naturally most desire as she attempts to rule a fundamentally unstable city -- is not quite the same as incorporating lemons into Dany's specific story arc. Her visions bidding her to remember who she is aren't meant to suggest that she isn't Aerys and Rhaella's daughter, but to remind her that she is. Knowing something from an intellectual standpoint and deeply understanding the implications of that fact are not the same thing. It would be as if one watched The Lion King and concluded that Mufasa's ghost was instructing Simba to remember who he is not because he's meant to take Pride Rock from Scar, but because he must solve the puzzle of his otherwise unsuspect parentage. Dany's the blood of the dragon, and dragons plant no trees, and she had lost sight of that. I really do want to understand this debate, but I can't seem to grasp why so many people think lemons are significant to Dany beyond the fact that she remembers a lemon tree from her childhood in a location where maybe lemon trees aren't supposed to grow. Mentioning only twice that a lemon tree grew next to the HWTRD (which is, I believe, meant to be object of real significance) doesn't strike me as an investment in a future plot point. 

[King of the Narrow Sea]

 

Well, ok, but are there any other times that lemons or the lemon tree or a serious questioning of Dany's true identity from a biological standpoint ever come up in the novels? Because mentioning the HWTRD -- which Dany associates with peace and stability, what she would naturally most desire as she attempts to rule a fundamentally unstable city -- is not quite the same as incorporating lemons into Dany's specific story arc. Her visions bidding her to remember who she is aren't meant to suggest that she isn't Aerys and Rhaella's daughter, but to remind her that she is. Knowing something from an intellectual standpoint and deeply understanding the implications of that fact are not the same thing. It would be as if one watched The Lion King and concluded that Mufasa's ghost was instructing Simba to remember who he is not because he's meant to take Pride Rock from Scar, but because he must solve the puzzle of his otherwise unsuspect parentage. Dany's the blood of the dragon, and dragons plant no trees, and she had lost sight of that. I really do want to understand this debate, but I can't seem to grasp why so many people think lemons are significant to Dany beyond the fact that she remembers a lemon tree from her childhood in a location where maybe lemon trees aren't supposed to grow. Mentioning only twice that a lemon tree grew next to the HWTRD (which is, I believe, meant to be object of real significance) doesn't strike me as an investment in a future plot point. 

 

You might have missed it but someone recently asked GRRM about Dany remembering the lemon tree in Braavos as being an odd detail because of how lemons shouldn't grow in Braavos due to the climate and they asked if that meant anything to Dany's story and GRRM responded saying the lemon inconsistency is very perceptive of the person, and that he wasn't going to mention what it means to Dany's story as that would be telling. So GRRM acknowledge it's there for a reason.

 

As to you mentioning if there's any biological details that also support that she might not be who she's supposed to be GRRM did say that Dany is 8-9 months older than Jon which is pretty much impossible if Lyanna died birthing Jon. Jon would be like 5-6 months older than Dany if that were the case, so one of their birth dates has to be wrong.

[Alaynsa Starne]

 

There are other examples of lemons in Dorne. The two recent preview chapter just go to show that Martin is continue to point it out. It makes sense in those chapters 1) Sansa loves lemoncakes 2) Arya is in Braavos.

 

Dany hasn't been in Braavos during the books and I don't recall her eating lemons.  Having Irri and Jhiqui bring her a lemon and Dany asks where are they from.  "Lemons from come from Dorne it is known."  Might have been a little too direct.

 

Also I am sure there are places in Essos where lemon trees grow. Just not usually in Braavos. I met they grow in Tyrosh however.

I don't really see how lemons being grown in Dorne has anything to do with Dany. Spears are used in Dorne, but that doesn't mean that Janos Slynt has much to do with the Martells. Lemons are a fairly common fruit. Them popping up in a variety of chapters doesn't mean that GRRM is continuing to point them out, just that people are studiously avoiding malnutrition and scurvy. Sansa has an established liking for lemoncakes. [spoiler]Because she eats lemoncakes and because the lemons for the cakes also come from Dorne still doesn't have much connection to Dany's story beyond the fact that a common fruit appears in both. All that really does is build upon what we already know about Sansa and Littlefinger, which is that she loves citris-y sweets and he is exceptional at commerce. [/spoiler] I mean, kudos to the OP for putting together the various sides of the debate in such a concise manner, but even after looking at that, I'm still confused about what people expect to come from the lemon tree. Too many of the suggested implications are on opposite extremes. At the very least, the lemon tree means nothing beyond the fact that the memories of a five year old with an extremely disruptive childhood are often faulty -- which tells every adult exactly what they already knew, has little bearing on the plot, and seems rather pointless to deliberately integrate into the story. On the opposite end, the lemon tree is meant to indicate that Dany is not who she believes that she is, which is far too grave a consequence to have come solely from a single misplaced memory. The lemon tree either seems to mean too little or too much.

[Alaynsa Starne]

 

You might have missed it but someone recently asked GRRM about Dany remembering the lemon tree in Braavos as being an odd detail because of how lemons shouldn't grow in Braavos due to the climate and they asked if that meant anything to Dany's story and GRRM responded saying the lemon inconsistency is very perceptive of the person, and that he wasn't going to mention what it means to Dany's story as that would be telling. So GRRM acknowledge it's there for a reason.

 

As to you mentioning if there's any biological details that also support that she might not be who she's supposed to be GRRM did say that Dany is 8-9 months older than Jon which is pretty much impossible if Lyanna died birthing Jon. Jon would be like 5-6 months older than Dany if that were the case, so one of their birth dates has to be wrong.

 

No, I saw the SSM, but I found it to be rather inconclusive. I took "that would be telling" to mean "You'll have to wait and see if the discrepancy was intentional or not," not "Yes, the discrepancy was intentional and you'll have to wait and see what it means." Apparently pretty much everyone interprets that SSM to mean something different. Also, GRRM has stated that Dany is 9 months younger than Jon, not older.

[The Others Take Ya]

A post from before the forum restore point:

19 September 2015 - 05:43 PM

So I would like to propose adding a theory to the list. It does not get talked about much.

 

Since my post got locked and I'm not sure if it's okay to link to a locked thread I'll just say if people are interested in the first thread on it to go look at it via my post history, although I have other writeups with far more detail about it elsewhere on the net.

 

Also your post states yolkboy came up with it first, however I posted a thread about the fact that Dany was not remembering the lemon tree in Braavos correctly a month before yolkboy's version. Plus some comments here and there on westeros.org. I searched a lot for anything "lemon" before I posted it so I'm pretty sure this was the first theory, but I welcome anyone to look and see if there was another theory posted beforehand because it's amazing what other theories people come up with and I'd like to see it.

 

#) The House with the Red Door is Dany's past life memory as Rhaegar and the tower of joy.

Explanation: Dany is reincarnated from Rheagar. Depressed Rheagar's happiest place, which he called the tower of joy, is actually the place Dany is remembering as the place she was happiest. She just thinks that place is from when she was a young child instead of her past life because she doesn't realize she used to literally be her brother. Dany is the blood sacrifice that brought the dragons back, she's just been killing herself/willingly dying in her/his past lives to do it.

 

Pros: The logistical nightmares of how a young child lived in Dorne but had a signed pact by the sealord and zipped around the free-cities are not a concern. She was in Braavos as a young child as Dany and in Dorne when she was Rhaegar. Her early dragon dreams/fever dreams make more sense when she dreams her blood is all over the dragon (AGOT) and when she sees Rheagar being betrayed and killed by Robert as on of her betrayals in the house of the undying.(ACOK)  Also her fever dream when she opens the red door and Rhaegar is in the house (AGOT) and dreaming she played as husband and wife with Darrio in the house. (ADWD) GRRM used to describe himself as a feminist before he found out some feminists didn't like that so to write a male character coming back as a female is something I think he is perfectly open to. (I love the interview answer when he was asked "how to you write women so well?" and he answered "well women are people." paraphrasing). The timeline works - Dany was born after her brother died so they did not exist at the same time.

 

Implications: Reincarnation is a thing. Death is just as screwed up south of the wall as north of it is. (And why wouldn't it be? Why isn't the wall just hiding it?) The greater mystery of how Dany is magical is explained (past blood sacrifices). Jon currently has two mommies (see below for who Lyanna is). It gives Dany a strong reason to have strong interconnected family ties to characters she has not met for 5 books that she thinks she hates but that GRRM has to find a reason for her to bond with. It's a "love is greater then death" theme. Dany has to have sacrificed multiple past lives for multiple dragon lives and so could feasibly have been not just Rhaegar, but Egg, the original Rhaenys... any other "blood of the dragons" really. THE dragon, who Dany is to wake, could be reincarnated too (Jon). Jon could be Baelor Breakspear, and Aegon the Dragon and Azor Ahai reborn. Arya = Lyanna = Egg's wife = Visenya = Nissa Nissa (Baby Visenya and Arya both have occasions in the story described as "a hole where their heart should be" and Nissa Nissa had her heart put out by a sword.)

 

Cons: It's quite a bit to wrap your head around reincarnation is a thing in the story for many people. Some people have commented that it seems "too out of left field" or "too late in the story". (Although I would like to point out... if Mellisandre's great other = death to her... but she kills them by burning... does she really think she's killing them? Selyse says "reborn into the light", so I say no. Mel's been reincarnating them all along.) 

 

I humbly admit, as the creator of the theory I may be biased in thinking up cons, so add what you will. More often then not when I post about it, I get what I think is a gut fueled "no" reaction but I'm not sure if there's a fact based argument behind it yet.

 

Anyway, clean it up however you wish, add it to the list if you choose. I don't post here much but I thought maybe you would like to have the original theory in the list. It's not talked about so much, but that's probably because what gets debated gets proliferated.

 

edit: added last pro, typo

[WhitewolfStark]

A post from before the forum restore point:

19 September 2015 - 05:43 PM

So I would like to propose adding a theory to the list. It does not get talked about much.

 

Since my post got locked and I'm not sure if it's okay to link to a locked thread I'll just say if people are interested in the first thread on it to go look at it via my post history, although I have other writeups with far more detail about it elsewhere on the net.

 

Also your post states yolkboy came up with it first, however I posted a thread about the fact that Dany was not remembering the lemon tree in Braavos correctly a month before yolkboy's version. Plus some comments here and there on westeros.org. I searched a lot for anything "lemon" before I posted it so I'm pretty sure this was the first theory, but I welcome anyone to look and see if there was another theory posted beforehand because it's amazing what other theories people come up with and I'd like to see it.

 

#) The House with the Red Door is Dany's past life memory as Rhaegar and the tower of joy.

Explanation: Dany is reincarnated from Rheagar. Depressed Rheagar's happiest place, which he called the tower of joy, is actually the place Dany is remembering as the place she was happiest. She just thinks that place is from when she was a young child instead of her past life because she doesn't realize she used to literally be her brother. Dany is the blood sacrifice that brought the dragons back, she's just been killing herself/willingly dying in her/his past lives to do it.

 

Pros: The logistical nightmares of how a young child lived in Dorne but had a signed pact by the sealord and zipped around the free-cities are not a concern. She was in Braavos as a young child as Dany and in Dorne when she was Rhaegar. Her early dragon dreams/fever dreams make more sense when she dreams her blood is all over the dragon (AGOT) and when she sees Rheagar being betrayed and killed by Robert as on of her betrayals in the house of the undying.(ACOK)  Also her fever dream when she opens the red door and Rhaegar is in the house (AGOT) and dreaming she played as husband and wife with Darrio in the house. (ADWD) GRRM used to describe himself as a feminist before he found out some feminists didn't like that so to write a male character coming back as a female is something I think he is perfectly open to. (I love the interview answer when he was asked "how to you write women so well?" and he answered "well women are people." paraphrasing). The timeline works - Dany was born after her brother died so they did not exist at the same time.

 

Implications: Reincarnation is a thing. Death is just as screwed up south of the wall as north of it is. (And why wouldn't it be? Why isn't the wall just hiding it?) The greater mystery of how Dany is magical is explained (past blood sacrifices). Jon currently has two mommies (see below for who Lyanna is). It gives Dany a strong reason to have strong interconnected family ties to characters she has not met for 5 books that she thinks she hates but that GRRM has to find a reason for her to bond with. It's a "love is greater then death" theme. Dany has to have sacrificed multiple past lives for multiple dragon lives and so could feasibly have been not just Rhaegar, but Egg, the original Rhaenys... any other "blood of the dragons" really. THE dragon, who Dany is to wake, could be reincarnated too (Jon). Jon could be Baelor Breakspear, and Aegon the Dragon and Azor Ahai reborn. Arya = Lyanna = Egg's wife = Visenya = Nissa Nissa (Baby Visenya and Arya both have occasions in the story described as "a hole where their heart should be" and Nissa Nissa had her heart put out by a sword.)

 

Cons: It's quite a bit to wrap your head around reincarnation is a thing in the story for many people. Some people have commented that it seems "too out of left field" or "too late in the story". (Although I would like to point out... if Mellisandre's great other = death to her... but she kills them by burning... does she really think she's killing them? Selyse says "reborn into the light", so I say no. Mel's been reincarnating them all along.) 

 

I humbly admit, as the creator of the theory I may be biased in thinking up cons, so add what you will. More often then not when I post about it, I get what I think is a gut fueled "no" reaction but I'm not sure if there's a fact based argument behind it yet.

 

Anyway, clean it up however you wish, add it to the list if you choose. I don't post here much but I thought maybe you would like to have the original theory in the list. It's not talked about so much, but that's probably because what gets debated gets proliferated.

 

edit: added last pro, typo

I was actually rereading Dany's ASOS chapters and wondering much the same that you postulate here in terms of her being Rhaegar reincarnated. It was a passing thought I had, especially with the different voices Dany has in ASOS--the voice with which she speaks and the voice with which she thinks being so much at odds with one another to a greater degree than you see in most other characters.

[StarkofWinterfell]

I was watching Preston Jacobs and I have come to the conclusion that Daenerys could be Lyanna's daughter

[Alaynsa Starne]

59 minutes ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

I was watching Preston Jacobs and I have come to the conclusion that Daenerys could be Lyanna's daughter

That presupposes that the timeline is wrong, and that GRRM lied when he said Dany was born about 8-9 months after Jon, who was born approximately at the time of Rhaegar's death/the Sack of King's Landing. 

[StarkofWinterfell]

3 minutes ago, Alaynsa Starne said:

That presupposes that the timeline is wrong, and that GRRM lied when he said Dany was born about 8-9 months after Jon, who was born approximately at the time of Rhaegar's death/the Sack of King's Landing. 

With no lemontrees in Braavos and the fact that lemons are mentioned in Dorne chapters, then it does seem to speak in favor of Daenerys birth being in question. The Tower of Joy is in Dorne after all.

I believe GRRM has also said that Daenerys' memory is fuzzy or he intentionally wrote it this way. So it is possible that she grew up in Starfall. If not Lyanna, then she is Ashara's daughter through Brandon or Ned.

[Lord Wraith]

4 minutes ago, Alaynsa Starne said:

That presupposes that the timeline is wrong, and that GRRM lied when he said Dany was born about 8-9 months after Jon, who was born approximately at the time of Rhaegar's death/the Sack of King's Landing. 

From the SSM:

Quote

All of which is a long winded way of saying, no, Jon was not born "more than 1 year" before Dany... probably closer to eight or nine months or thereabouts.

So probably it happened, that's not lying that's misdirection. Also nothing in that SSM mentions Jon being born around the Sack of King's Landing.

 

[Alaynsa Starne]

Just now, StarkofWinterfell said:

With no lemontrees in Braavos and the fact that lemons are mentioned in Dorne chapters, then it does seem to speak in favor of Daenerys birth being in question. The Tower of Joy is in Dorne after all.

I believe GRRM has also said that Daenerys' memory is fuzzy or he intentionally wrote it this way.

Lemons are mentioned in many chapters, not just chapters relating to Dorne. Furthermore, Dany was born on Dragonstone, not in Braavos. Her childhood may be in question and which years she spent where may be fuzzy in her memory -- unsurprisingly, as early childhood memories are often not very clear -- but there is no reason to presuppose that because Dany may have misremembered a tree when she was 5 that her mother was Lyanna. To make that leap, you would have to take the tiny clue of lemon tree -- which may or may not be a discrepancy -- and use that to say that GRRM deliberately lied to his fans on the timing of Dany's birth. 

[StarkofWinterfell]

2 minutes ago, Alaynsa Starne said:

Lemons are mentioned in many chapters, not just chapters relating to Dorne. Furthermore, Dany was born on Dragonstone, not in Braavos. Her childhood may be in question and which years she spent where may be fuzzy in her memory -- unsurprisingly, as early childhood memories are often not very clear -- but there is no reason to presuppose that because Dany may have misremembered a tree when she was 5 that her mother was Lyanna. To make that leap, you would have to take the tiny clue of lemon tree -- which may or may not be a discrepancy -- and use that to say that GRRM deliberately lied to his fans on the timing of Dany's birth. 

Was she though? For 4 and a half books we thought Aegon was murdered by Gregor as a babe but he shows up alive in ADWD. Origin stories can easily change through the narrative. Makes you think doesn't it?

[HexMachina]

Any theory that has Dany as anything other than Rhaella's daughter does a piss poor job of explaining why Viserys kept silent on the matter for his entire life. Yes, I know there are attempts to explain why he would stay quiet, and some mental gymnastics with a quote from Viserys at Illyrio's manse that would make Gabrielle Douglas envious, but really, not concincing in the slightest.

[Alaynsa Starne]

1 minute ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

Was she though? For 4 and a half books we thought Aegon was murdered by Gregor as a babe but he shows up alive in ADWD. Origin stories can easily change through the narrative. Makes you think doesn't it?

Does he? 

And no, it doesn't really make me think. Yes, origin stories may change through the narrative, but I'm not going to question every origin story simply because it may change. I could posit that "The Ned that we came to know in AGOT was really Brandon Stark. The true Ned Stark was murdered with his father by Aerys." But that would be completely preposterous because it doesn't serve the narrative, we have a burden of textual evidence that argues otherwise, and no significantly compelling evidence to support such a hypothesis. Completely restructuring a well-established character arc and narrative based on a lemon tree is far too big a leap. The lemon tree may mean something significant, but I very much doubt that it means that Lyanna is Dany's mother.

And if, just for the sake of indulging the question, if Lyanna were Dany's mother, what does that have to do with Dorne? Why would a region loyal to the Martells take care of the bastard offspring of the woman who started a war that resulted in the brutal murders of Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon? If Dany were the child that Lyanna died birthing, why would she be kept in a continent that is overwhelmingly hostile to her for several years before Darry took her to Essos? 

15 minutes ago, Lord Wraith said:

From the SSM:

So probably it happened, that's not lying that's misdirection. Also nothing in that SSM mentions Jon being born around the Sack of King's Landing.

 

I don't think GRRM used the word "probably" to say that "it probably happened" but rather as part of his habit to keep the timeline relatively loose because he has a difficult time with concrete dates. He ends the sentence with "thereabouts," which means that Dany could be around 7-10 months younger than Jon, but is most likely about 8-9. Incidentally, given the larger context of that SSM as a response to an email about timeline inconsistencies relative to Jon's birthdate, it's not at all surprising that he was trying to avoid giving concrete dates because he is so bad at them -- as he admits right off the bat. 

See this: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/FAQ/Entry/Who_are_Jon_Snows_parents/

And this: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/1040

[StarkofWinterfell]

3 minutes ago, Alaynsa Starne said:

Does he? 

And no, it doesn't really make me think. Yes, origin stories may change through the narrative, but I'm not going to question every origin story simply because it may change. I could posit that "The Ned that we came to know in AGOT was really Brandon Stark. The true Ned Stark was murdered with his father by Aerys." But that would be completely preposterous because it doesn't serve the narrative, we have a burden of textual evidence that argues otherwise, and no significantly compelling evidence to support such a hypothesis. Completely restructuring a well-established character arc and narrative based on a lemon tree is far too big a leap. The lemon tree may mean something significant, but I very much doubt that it means that Lyanna is Dany's mother.

And if, just for the sake of indulging the question, if Lyanna were Dany's mother, what does that have to do with Dorne? Why would a region loyal to the Martells take care of the bastard offspring of the woman who started a war that resulted in the brutal murders of Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon? If Dany were the child that Lyanna died birthing, why would she be kept in a continent that is overwhelmingly hostile to her for several years before Darry took her to Essos? 

<snip>

I agree with you that Ned dying and Brandon taking his place would be preposterous. There is simply no textual evidence to support such a claim, however Dany growing up in Dorne does hold some water by having snippets here and there of something being out of place.

If you go up above and reread my post, I mentioned that it could also be Ashara instead of Lyanna as Dany's mother. Dany's arc doesn't have to be entirely in Dorne. It is possible she went to Braavos at some point and if she did, why have Oberyn Martell travel there to secure a marriage?

I too was once like you, but I've now come around to lemongate. It does have its merits.

[Alaynsa Starne]

2 minutes ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

I agree with you that Ned dying and Brandon taking his place would be preposterous. There is simply no textual evidence to support such a claim, however Dany growing up in Dorne does hold some water by having snippets here and there of something being out of place.

If you go up above and reread my post, I mentioned that it could also be Ashara instead of Lyanna as Dany's mother. Dany's arc doesn't have to be entirely in Dorne. It is possible she went to Braavos at some point and if she did, why have Oberyn Martell travel there to secure a marriage?

I too was once like you, but I've now come around to lemongate. It does have its merits.

I didn't see the edit, so I was mostly responding to the idea that Dany could have been born to a woman months dead. 

And, as I said, the lemon tree may be significant. It just in no way supports the notion that Lyanna may have given birth to Dany. 

The timeline still doesn't fit for Dany to be the child of Ashara and Brandon. Even if Dany were conceived while Brandon was in King's Landing, she'd be a little bit older than Jon or almost exactly his age, not nearly a year younger. Though if Dany were the child of Ashara by Ned... why was she with Darry, why was she raised to believe that she was a Targaryen, why does destitute Viserys go to the trouble of raising her despite their enormous difficulties when he would have been old enough to know she wasn't his sister, how was she able to hatch dragons, why does she have dreams and visions that so closely tie her to the Targaryens in general and Rhaegar in particular, why did Ned allow his daughter to be taken to Essos instead of being raised at Winterfell, why would Ned allow his child to be an infamous disenfranchised Targaryen when he knew Robert killed Targaryens, why doesn't he have a far more visceral reaction to Dany's impending assassination, if she was raised in Starfall, why does everyone believe that Ashara's daughter was stillborn when Dany's existence very clearly contradicts that, etc. Dany being Ned and Ashara's child is far too complicated and raises far more questions than it answers, the only question needing to be answered being: why does Dany as a 5 year old remember a lemon tree in a city that doesn't have a climate for lemon trees? 

[StarkofWinterfell]

1 minute ago, Alaynsa Starne said:

I didn't see the edit, so I was mostly responding to the idea that Dany could have been born to a woman months dead. 

And, as I said, the lemon tree may be significant. It just in no way supports the notion that Lyanna may have given birth to Dany. 

The timeline still doesn't fit for Dany to be the child of Ashara and Brandon. Even if Dany were conceived while Brandon was in King's Landing, she'd be a little bit older than Jon or almost exactly his age, not nearly a year younger. Though if Dany were the child of Ashara by Ned... why was she with Darry, why was she raised to believe that she was a Targaryen, why does destitute Viserys go to the trouble of raising her despite their enormous difficulties when he would have been old enough to know she wasn't his sister, how was she able to hatch dragons, why does she have dreams and visions that so closely tie her to the Targaryens in general and Rhaegar in particular, why did Ned allow his daughter to be taken to Essos instead of being raised at Winterfell, why would Ned allow his child to be an infamous disenfranchised Targaryen when he knew Robert killed Targaryens, why doesn't he have a far more visceral reaction to Dany's impending assassination, if she was raised in Starfall, why does everyone believe that Ashara's daughter was stillborn when Dany's existence very clearly contradicts that, etc. Dany being Ned and Ashara's child is far too complicated and raises far more questions than it answers, the only question needing to be answered being: why does Dany as a 5 year old remember a lemon tree in a city that doesn't have a climate for lemon trees? 

There's a lot we don't know. But there is the supposed backstory of Ned and Ashara being in love and Ned travelling to visit Ashara after the Tower of Joy but not bringing with him Arthur's bones. It is complicated but it is precisely the reason that she remembers a lemon tree in a city that doesn't have lemon trees which raises all these questions. 

As a young girl raised in Dorne, she would have seen a lemon tree. And that therein lies the conundrum!