What Would Jon do When he Learns he was Born of Rape?

[Corvo the Crow]

Would he, after saving the world, take his own life as a final sacrifice for humanity so Targaryens line will end once and for all, ensuring there will no longer be Mad Kings, child murderers, rapists, pyromaniacs, incest bastards warring for claims etc. troubling the good people of Westeros? What would he do with his new found aunt Dany who idolizes the rapists Rhaegar and Pyromaniac Aerys the Mad King who murdered his uncle and grand father and calls his uncle and adoptive father Ned who has been caused much sorrow and grievance by a usurper's dog? Would he immediately send Edd to fetch a block to remove this threat against humanity before she can cause more damage, and do her a favor as well by not allowing her to go madder than she already is?

[King_Tristifer_IV_Mudd]

I think it would trouble him, break his heart, but I think he’ll move on a focus on the war, and then his throne.

 

I would actually prefer that Lyanna was SA’d from a story perspective, otherwise she’d just be a stupid girl running off with a married older man for her own desires and make her a willing cause of a massive civil war. Rhaegar and Aerys would still hold the majority of blame but if she went willingly she would be culpable as well.

 

I also think it would color Ned’s decision to protect Jon in a way more positive light. “No matter how he was brought into this world, he is my son, Ned. Promise me Ned.”

[Aline de Gavrillac]

The series is about the Targaryens and their cyclical battles with the Starks and the Others.  Neither side will die out.   I am also thinking Jon is the son of Brandon and Lyanna.  It gives a balance to the Fire for Ice.  

[kissdbyfire]

Brandon + Lyanna has absolutely zero support in the text. It’s just a silly attempt by some in the TARGA* camp to force some sibling incest in the Stark family tree because they know it’s vile and disgusting and they’re not happy the Targs are the only ones practicing it. 
 

* do not confuse TARGA fans, who will ignore, reimagine and twist the text to fit their own fanfic with actual proper and insightful Targaryen fans; one group is nothing like the other. The TARGA camp probably calls normal Targaryen fans TLINO or something. 

[John Suburbs]

6 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Would he, after saving the world, take his own life as a final sacrifice for humanity so Targaryens line will end once and for all, ensuring there will no longer be Mad Kings, child murderers, rapists, pyromaniacs, incest bastards warring for claims etc. troubling the good people of Westeros? What would he do with his new found aunt Dany who idolizes the rapists Rhaegar and Pyromaniac Aerys the Mad King who murdered his uncle and grand father and calls his uncle and adoptive father Ned who has been caused much sorrow and grievance by a usurper's dog? Would he immediately send Edd to fetch a block to remove this threat against humanity before she can cause more damage, and do her a favor as well by not allowing her to go madder than she already is?

It depends on if that is what really happened and, if not, the truth remaining buried.

Logically, though, ending the Targaryen line in no way ensures there will be no more Mad Kings, child murderers, rapists, pyromaniacs or incest bastards troubling the good people of Westeros. None of that is exclusive to the Targaryen line.

[Julia H.]

Jon has grown up feeling the shame of his bastard birth. On another thread, it was mentioned how entitled the members of nobility (necessarily) are - well, Jon is one character who started from a position of non-entitlement, for having no proper right to his own family even, due to his birth. He has, by now, accepted his bastard birth as part of his past, overcome the shame, at times even making his bastard identity into a weapon. Placing him into another period of angst about his "shameful birth" would add nothing to his arc. Finding out his true origin will, I believe, cause a crisis, but I hope it will be more on the basis of identity and his relationship with his various family members (Ned, most of all) rather than about being the fruit of basically a different kind of sin.

As for suicide, it is not an answer to anything, least of all to issues associated with one's birth. Sacrificing himself for humanity - he is already willing to do that, so finding out the truth about his birth is not necessary for that. Nor do I think pre-emptive executions would be very much in character with him. 

[Lord Varys]

He would whine and sulk a lot as he is wont to do, and then he would found the Westerosi BFRDIC (born from rape, death in childbirth) gang. Founding members beside himself would be Tyrion and Daenerys. But there are lots and lots of secret members of that club, to be sure. Almost as many as secret Targaryens, one imagines.

[Corvo the Crow]

1 hour ago, John Suburbs said:

It depends on if that is what really happened and, if not, the truth remaining buried.

Logically, though, ending the Targaryen line in no way ensures there will be no more Mad Kings, child murderers, rapists, pyromaniacs or incest bastards troubling the good people of Westeros. None of that is exclusive to the Targaryen line.

But it's a house that provides a good portion of all of it by themselves. Burning that said house would really lower their numbers in the future.

[SeanF]

A man should be judged by his character, rather than by his genetics.

Jon has no reason to commit suicide, purely because an ancestor may have acted wrongly.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

'Ned Stark isn't you're father. Rhaegar Targaryan raped Lyanna Stark and Ned adopted you at cost to his personal honour to save you from his best friend Robert Baratheon who would kill you as dragon spawn that may some day challenge his rule.'

I don't want to completely discount the Lyanna was raped aspect of this, but to Jon Rhaegar and Lyanna are people that he never met and bad things happen to people we've never met all the time.

In my mind the ramifications of this statement that Jon will struggle the most with are "Ned Stark lied to me my whole life."

"Ned Stark lied to Catelyn Stark my whole life and our relationship was miserable because of it"

"The reason Ned Stark lied to me my and my adopted mother my whole life was to protect me from his friend Robert Baratheon who would have murdered me because he loved my birth mother"

I admit there's a nobility in Jon which would probably influence him to externally rate Lyanna and his father's generation of Starks' tragedy as worse than his own, but on some level I think he's going to be enraged at the fact that his whole life was made miserable because the man who raised him as his own (illegitimate) son couldn't be confident in his ability to convince his best friend not to kill his family. I think this will destroy his image of Ned, maybe temporarily, maybe for good and you look at how much of Ned he took on into his own personality and this could be a serious turning point for the young man (or zombie or whatever).

Whether it was a rape or not becomes less and less relevant as the the people who know the truth die off. What will Jon think happened? Who's word will he accept and how will he interpret it - I doubt he'll be able to swallow the story he's grown up with any longer, but is there anyone who could tell him the truth that he would be willing to hear it from? If he's an illegitimate bastard then it doesn't matter who his parents are, he can't inherit. "How was I such a threat to King Robert (Ned's best friend) that this was the right choice?" "Hey, I get you couldn't tell Cat right away, you hardly knew her, but by the time Sansa came around couldn't you let her in on the tale?"

In Jon's shoes, depending on how he learns and what exactly he learns I would be most concerned with the fact that Ned was so afraid of telling his best friend the truth that he ruined Jon's life (yeah, go to the Wall, that's a good idea) to avoid it.

I suspect that the circumstances of his conception will be secondary at best when he learns of his parentage and sees his life in light of Ned Stark's relationship with Robert Baratheon. I think he'll wonder and think about what might have actually happened, but if he's told outright that he's a product of rape he'll assume that the person telling him that doesn't have the whole story. Again though, I think his first reactions will be about his upbringing and his relationship with Cat and the rest of his family.

[kissdbyfire]

1 hour ago, SeanF said:

A man should be judged by his character, rather than by his genetics.

Jon has no reason to commit suicide, purely because an ancestor may have acted wrongly.

Phew, that’s a relief! Otherwise Planetos would be a massive collective grave w/ not a single soul alive.

[Floki of the Ironborn]

The 'rape' never happened. Lyanna eloped with Rhaegar. That's what GRRM has been hinting at throughout the story, and I frankly find it a much worse version of events than rape. Because that means Lyanna willingly and even happily ran away with a married man twice her age, and hid away with him in his wife's home turf even as the world was being torn apart because of their B.S.

[Corvo the Crow]

2 minutes ago, Floki of the Ironborn said:

The 'rape' never happened. Lyanna eloped with Rhaegar. That's what GRRM has been hinting at throughout the story, and I frankly find it a much worse version of events than rape. Because that means Lyanna willingly and even happily ran away with a married man twice her age, and hid away with him in his wife's home turf even as the world was being torn apart because of their B.S.

Oh, I believe it wasn't a rape, but would your average Westerosi? Also Lyanna is an underage girl, same as Jon was underage when Ygritte started to make advances on him.

[Floki of the Ironborn]

3 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Oh, I believe it wasn't a rape, but would your average Westerosi? Also Lyanna is an underage girl, same as Jon was underage when Ygritte started to make advances on him.

It's not the same situation. Jon was forced to break his vows because he would literally be killed otherwise. We have gotten no indication that Rhaegar would kill a woman if she refused his advances. Yes, it's still icky on Rhaegar's part, but I never exonerated him anyway.

[Lord Varys]

1 hour ago, Floki of the Ironborn said:

It's not the same situation. Jon was forced to break his vows because he would literally be killed otherwise. We have gotten no indication that Rhaegar would kill a woman if she refused his advances. Yes, it's still icky on Rhaegar's part, but I never exonerated him anyway.

Jon as a character is somewhat inflexible. He is not going to want to not be Ned's son. He will also not like to be the son of the dude his alleged father helped to kill, a man who clearly ran away with or stole the woman of another man. Then there is the fact that apparently the pregnancy (i.e. Jon) got his own mother killed, and the fact that whatever Rhaegar/Lyanna thought they had drowned the Realm in blood, causing the death of Jon's maternal grandfather and uncle. This will all be a lot to swallow.

In addition, there is Ned's deception to consider. If Jon is some special savior type person, then Ned's lies clearly made it very difficult for him to fulfill his destiny, not to mention separating him permanently from his Targaryen uncle and aunt, and robbing him of the chance to either claim 'his birthright' or try to help his relatives claim theirs.

There is also the whole War of the Five Kings issue - and all the destruction it wrought on the Realm and House Stark. If Jon/the other Starks had known the truth things may have gone very differently. This is something that will haunt him.

How he takes the news will depend on who convinces him it is true and how. What knowledge they have in addition to 'Rhaegar and Lyanna are your parents.'

My own guess is that the whole thing will move Jon (further) away from the Starks (as a house with special interests in the North) and further towards the 'it is our (House Targaryen's) job to protect the Realm'. Not that it is *that likely* he will use much additional motivation there considering the position he is in ADwD. Although, of course, the assassination and resurrection and the continued pointless civil war in the North might cause him to lose track of the big picture for a time.

[LynnS]

What would Jon do if he learns that Lyanna is is mother and still thinks Ned is his father?  not only a bastard but an abomination as well.  He might well deny being a Stark:

 

[Hrulj]

Hopefully go beyond the wall and never return or just end his life. In an ideal story Lyanna asked Ned to kill the rapespawn but he couldn't which is why he feels like he failed. 

[Corvo the Crow]

22 minutes ago, Hrulj said:

Hopefully go beyond the wall and never return

I dunno sounds very much like the plot outlines of a sequel to me. 

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

31 minutes ago, Hrulj said:

In an ideal story Lyanna asked Ned to kill the rapespawn but he couldn't which is why he feels like he failed. 

I've seen this idea before, that the 'promise me, Ned' was actually in reference to killing Jon because Rhaegar had told Lyanna what Jon would become and she wanted to prevent that.  I really like the way it turns everything on it's head and maybe justifies Ned letting Jon grow up just to go to the Wall. It's an interesting idea. Not killing children seems to be a bit of theme in the life of Ned Stark, so it would fit quite nicely.

[John Suburbs]

22 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

But it's a house that provides a good portion of all of it by themselves. Burning that said house would really lower their numbers in the future.

Only because they were the kings for the past 300 years. Imagine if it was the Lannisters on the Iron Throne, or the Arryns. The crown weighs heavy on those who wear it.