House Targaryen Power Theory
WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS!
I’ve taken a deeper look at season 7 and once I was able to look past the plot holes and teleporting I’ve come to appreciate it for the foreshadowing and development I’ve always loved with Game of Thrones. The core of this season was based around Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. I have an idea of why incest rules in this fantasy world. Let's begin.
Game of Thrones season 7 ended with Bran and Sam revealing that Jon Snow is the child of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. Jon Snow’s actual name is Aegon Targaryen. Rhaegar Targaryen was Viserys Targaryen and Daenerys Targaryen’s older brother who was killed by Robert Baratheon. This makes Daenerys Jon’s aunt.
The “Targaryen” bomb was a new revelation given that the series implied that Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna Stark. This lie was the start of Robert’s Rebellion which caused the end to the Taragaryen dynasty.
Oh so honorable Samwell Tarly failed to even acknowledge Gilly when she came across this information at the Citadel and then passes it along to Bran as if he came to find the information himself.
I’ll give Sam the benefit of the doubt given how poorly he was being treated by the maesters.
The Targaryen family are the only dragon riders that survived the Doom of Valaria. They are known to inbreed to preserve their bloodline. This inbreeding allows their magical abilities such as their tolerance of heat/fire and their ability to ride dragons to be genetically passed down. There might be consequences of this…
Cersei might not be the best person to say this considering she gave birth to a mad king of her own. However, I do see her point.
Maybe the Targaryen family’s incestuous relations weren’t strictly to pass along magic. Could it have been out of pure necessity to produce offspring and heirs to the throne? I assume it was a necessity for those that possessed the magical genetic genes.
We first got a glimpse of this power when Daenerys Targaryen stepped into a bath of steaming water in season one. Then there was Viserys Targaryen who clearly didn’t inherit the magic.
When Daenerys had a miscarriage with Khal Drogo’s child, the witch Mirri Maz Duur told her she would be incapable of having children.
Lyanna Stark also had complications when she died giving birth to a child who has Targaryen blood.
Is it possible that Targaryen’s can only reproduce with other Targaryen’s because either the unborn baby or the mother wouldn’t survive birth due to the extreme heat tolerance needed?
In genetics there are dominant and recessive genes so it wouldn’t be impossible to have successful births outside the Targaryen bloodline. However, each birth would be at the mercy of the magical genes being properly inherited otherwise both the mother and the unborn baby would be at severe risk.
Season 7 has given many hints that Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are going to be a power couple for the remainder of the series. Is Jon the answer to Dany (now Jon/Aegon)’s much needed heir?
