(This post contains spoilers for pretty much all of “Game of Thrones”)
If you’re a more casual fan of “Game of Thrones” — it’s nothing to be ashamed about, it just means you’re normal — then you may have been tripped up by certain big revelations about Jon Snow’s secret identity, or all those memes about Jon and Daenerys doing incest.
If that’s you, well, fear not because we’ve got you covered with all the important info you need to contextualize the news that Jon Snow is actually named Aegon Targaryen.
So, the Season 6 finale provided a pretty heavy-handed hint about Jon Snow’s true identity, when it flashed back to Ned Stark’s visit to the Tower of Joy, where Ned’s sister Lyanna gave birth to Jon. Before Lyanna died, she revealed Jon’s true identity to Ned: Jon is the son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who had been killed during Robert’s Rebellion. Ned kept Jon’s true identity a secret to keep the baby safe — being the grandson of the Mad King, Jon was actually the heir to the Iron Throne. Which would mean that King Robert would have wanted to kill him after wiping out most of the rest of the Targaryen family, had Robert known who he was.
The other members of the family who had survived were Viserys and Daenerys, offspring of the Mad King and siblings to Rhaegar — Viserys was killed way back in season 1, and we all know who Dany is. Jon, then, is Daenerys’ brother’s son, making her his aunt, and Jon her nephew. They’re about the same age, though, yes — Dany was born on Dragonstone near the end of Robert’s Rebellion, with Jon born shortly after.
So, yes, Dany and Jon having sex in the Season 7 finale is actually incest. But, fortunately for viewers of “Game of Thrones,” we’ve had seven years to get used to that sort of thing thanks to twin siblings/lovers Jaime and Cersei Lannister being at the forefront of the narrative since the beginning. So somehow an aunt hooking up with her nephew doesn’t seem that weird!
Now, I should note that there are way more important ramifications to the revelation that Jon Snow is really Aegon Targaryen. For a much deeper dive into all that, check out our post explaining why Jon Snow has a better claim to the Iron Throne than Daenerys does.