A shocking new theory about Jon Snow is floating around the nerdosphere. It’s actually not about his mysterious parentage, but rather whether he, being Game of Thrones’ equivalent of Luke Skywalker, might have a twin sister kicking around Westeros as well.
Basically, the theory—which, again, I sincerely doubt is correct—starts with the very popular, almost certainly true idea that Jon Snow is the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. But instead of Lyanna giving birth just to Jon in the Tower of Joy before mysteriously dying, she gives birth to twins—Jon and a sister.
This sister, according to the theory, is Meera Reed, the young woman who leads Bran to the Three-Eyed Raven along with her brother Jojen. There seem to be three main points that the theory is based on:
1) When Ned Stark attacked the Tower of Joy to free Lyanna, there were only two survivors—Ned and Howland Reed, Meera’s father. In truest Star Wars fashion, the twins would have been split up to protect them.
2) Jon and Meera seem to be the same age in the books’ appendices.
3) This picture.
It is true that the actor and actress who play Jon Snow and Meera Reed look bizarrely like each other. However, that could easily be due to the show’s visual style rather than a secret attempt to make them look related. There’s no evidence in the book that I can recall where Meera is described as looking anything like Jon Snow, and surely if there were a striking similarity, Bran would have noticed it and commented upon it, even if just internally.
Also, if Meera is Jon’s twin, then she would almost certainly need to be a power player in the series’ endgame, right? I mean, being a secret Targaryen, she would almost certainly be one of the prophesied three heads of the dragon, but again, the books have done nothing to indicate that there’s any sort of grandeur in her future. If this twist is coming, then George R.R. Martin hasn’t seeded it in the least—unlike Jon Snow—and I feel 100% confident he would have said something if this was the case. Also, as many people have pointed out, it’s really, really Star Wars-y. It’s not a cool plot twist, it’s a tired one, and I think we all know GRRM is above that.
Anyways, there’s some more “evidence”—most of it kind of silly—at the link below if you want to check it out.
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.