our plus l equals j is a fan theoryregarding George RR Martin's Song of Iceand Fire the basis of HBO's Game ofThrones is one of the best supported andmost widely believed fan theories theidea is that Jon Snow is not the bastardson of Eddard Stark and an unknown womanas John and most of Westeros believesbut is actually the son of Ned's sisterLyanna stark and rhaegar targaryen sofor a bit of context Prince RhaegarTargaryen was the son of the Mad KingAerys Targaryen who was overthrown inRobert Baratheon's rebellion the warthat made Robert KingLayana is kind of the Helen of Troy ofWesteros because Robert's rebellionstarted when Layana who at the time wasbetrothed to Robert was abducted by ormore likely ran away with Prince Rhaegarwho was already married to Elia MartellRago spent the start of the war in theTower of joy in dorm with Liana beforegoing off to battle and to his doom inthe form of Roberts hammer so after thewar was over Ned and six others headedto the tower to find Liana where theywere confronted by three of the deadKingsguard when the fight was over thetwo survivors Ned and his friend HowlandReed went up the tower to find Lyannastark in a bed of blood there Liana gotNed to make her a promise before shedied so R plus L equals J suggests thatDiana's bed of blood is one ofchildbirththe baby is Rhaegar and Lyanna sand thatNed's promised to lay Anna is to pretendthat the child is his in order toprotect the child from Robert who wouldsee the sign of the Targaryen Prince asa threat and likely have him killedjust as he had regards wife and otherchildren killed in any case Ned thencomes back from the world with a babyJohn who until his death he raises ashis own son in Winterfell so that's thetheory what's the evidence that makes itmore plausible than the alternative thatJohn really is Ned's bastard firstly itseems very out of character for NedStarka painfully honorable person to a fatherto bastard in Ned's own words to afather John was to dishonor himself at adishonored catland in the sight of godsand men Ned isn't like Robert who wouldswear undying love and forget thembefore even pull Ned keeps his vows soright away it seems unlikely that Nedwould break his wedding vows to Catelynby father and John at one point Nedrefers to John as his blood but he nevercalls him his sonat one point he internally lists hischildren naming Robb and Sansa and ayaand bran and Rickon the very next linehe mentioned John but not as part of thelist of his children speaking of ayaJohn is said to look like her and ire issaid to look like Leanna anyway soduring a conversation with Robert aboutthe rebellionNed thinks that he has lived his liesfor 14 yearswhat liars are Ned referring to here's ahint John is at the start of the firstbook 14 years old so what all thesehints amount to is that John is Ned'slie a lie that haunts him at night butwhich he persists with because somesecrets are safer kept hidden somesecrets are too dangerous to share evenwith those you love and trustit hurts Ned to lie like this but hedoes it to keep his promise to hissister to protect his sister's son onemore thing about Ned on multipleoccasionsNed opposes the killing of Targaryenchildren when Robert orders theassassination of Daenerys and her unbornchildNed refuses hurting his friendship withRobert and endangering his honor andlife by disobeying the king the otherexample is his opposition to the killingof regards wife and children at the sackof King's Landing this refusal to killchildren for the sake of their Targaryenblood is mirrored by Ned's protection ofJohn to return briefly to the Tower ofjoy it seems very odd for three membersof the Kingsguard to be there with layon a stock shouldn't they be protectingthe siblings of the now dead Prince avery good explanation for their presenceis that they were guarding the unbornheir apparent the son of the Prince Johnso now to Essos for a biggie in terms oftextual evidence while in the house ofundying in QarthDaenerys has a vision of a blue flowergrowing from a [ __ ] in a wall of iceand filling the air with sweetness blueflowers specifically blue winter rosesare consistently associated with Layanastock at the turning of HarrenhalRhaegar selected Lana as the queen oflove and beauty over his wife andpresented her with a crown of bluewinter roses a storm of blue rose petalsfeature in Ned's dream about Liana andthe statue of Lana in Winterfell crypthas a garland of blue winter roses whatthis strongly suggests is that somethingto do with Liana is at a wall of icethat something is very probably John onthe wall so given all these hints itseems very likely that Johnsonis the son of Rhaegar Targaryen andLyanna stock but what but what are theimplications of r+ l equals j it's beensuggested that being both a Stark and aTargaryen makes John the Song of Ice andFire personified what this actuallymeans exactly is unclear but it doesseem to suggest that John is veryimportant perhaps he's the prince thatwas promised or Ozora High or one of thethree heads of the Dragon or any of theother various prophesized figures in anycase stock blood is associated withpowers like war game and Targaryen bloodis associated with an affinity withdragons and fire John having both wouldpossibly make him capable of some prettyimpressive stuff a more concreteimplication is that if John is the sonof Prince Rhaegar he has a claim on theIron Thronemore so than Dany actually that'sassuming though that Rhaegar and Lyannawas secretly wedded which could havehappened despite reyga's existingmarriage to Alaia polygamy is a bit of athing with Targaryen z' but if theyweren't married John would still beconsidered a bastard and theillegitimate contender for the throne sohe could possibly be legitimized John'svows with the Nights Watch are anothercomplication he's sworn an oath to holdno lands to wear no crown so surely hecan't be king and even if he couldovercome that barrier would anyonebelieve his claim to the thronehow could he prove his parentage andbesides it seems doubtful that Johnwould even want the throne powers andThrones aside finding out his trueparentage would be very significant forJohn personally he's always struggledwith rejection from karte alienationfrom being a bastard and the difficultyof not knowing his mother finding outhis true parentage would undoubtedly bea big deal for him if not for all ofWesteros so that's R plus L equals J themain evidence and some of the possibleimplications let me know in the commentswhat you think of the theory and whetheryou'd like to see more videos on theSong of Ice and Fire fan theories someof which pretty crazy and wholesome ifyou're interested in A Song of Ice andFire fan theories and discussion youmight like to check out Westeros org thewiki and the subreddit that's all fromme thanks for watching this video