Game of Thrones: George R. R. Martin let slip that Jon Snow's dad isn’t Ned in 2002

A very carefully worded answer

(HBO)

In the constant battle against spoilers, most authors, actors and showrunners with knowledge of what is to come tend to just straight up lie when they’re asked about future plot events, as Kit Harington had to when it came to Game of Thrones questions about Jon Snow’s “death”.

But way back in 2002, George R. R. Martin managed to cleverly evade the issue of Jon Snow not actually being Ned Stark’s son, and no-one noticed.

A fan wrote to him:

“Since all of their mothers died, who gave Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister their names?”

GRRM’s response:

“Mothers can name a child before birth, or during, or after, even while they are dying. Dany was most likely named by her mother, Tyrion by his father, Jon by Ned.”

Rather than saying Tyrion and Jon by their fathers, Ned was named as if he wasn't the father - and indeed we now know him not to be, he’s the son of Rhaegar Targaryen.

Game of Thrones, and by extension Martin, showed their hand in the final episode of 6 with the Tower of Joy scene. It revealed Jon’s mother is Lyanna Stark (Ned’s sister) but didn’t confirm Rhaegar as his father, though HBO later cleared this up with a family tree infographic.

Bran Stark now holds arguably the most important piece of information in Westeros - here’s what actor Isaac Hempstead Wright thinks he’ll do with it in season 7.

(via Reddit)