‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 6 Finale: What Did Lyanna Whisper In Ned Stark’s Ear And Why Was It Important?

The Season 6 finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones revealed something pretty big. Or did it? Perhaps if fans could actually hear everything Lyanna whispered to her brother Ned as she lay dying, it would have made more sense. But were there enough clues to work it out? Let’s have a look.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information about the Season 6 finale, Episode 10 of HBO’s Game of Thrones as well as the book series the show is based on. Please proceed with caution if you wish to avoid spoilers.

So what exactly did Lyanna Stark (Aisling Franciosi) whisper to her brother Ned (Robert Aramayo) in the Tower of Joy all those years ago? If you watch Episode 10 of Game of Thrones, not a lot of what Lyanna said was loud enough to understand. So let’s have a look at the backstory leading up to that event and see what we can learn.

The Battle at the Tower of Joy backstory

The Battle at the Tower of Joy was a significant event contributing to what is now unfolding in the entire Game of Thrones series. Before Robert Baratheon was the ruler of Westeros, the Targaryens were. But, thanks to a Mad King and his son, Rhaegar, things went horribly wrong. Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) killed King Aerys II Targaryen (otherwise known as the Mad King) because of the king’s perceived threat that everyone was traitorous towards him. He was known to burn innocent people to death using wildfire. But, when he threatened to burn King’s Landing to the ground (does this sound like someone else from the Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones here?), Jaime stepped in and killed the king rather than have so many lives lost. Thus he became known as the Kingslayer.

Just prior to this event, the Mad King’s brother, Rhaegar, was married to Princess Elia Martell of Dorne. While the marriage was successful and bearing two children, it seems Rhaegar was not happy. Instead, he appeared to be infatuated with the young Lyanna Stark. As a result of this, he abducted her and kept her captive in the Tower of Joy. At the time Lyanna was betrothed to Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), thus the official story in Game of Thrones was that she was taken captive against her will. However, there is enough gray area within the story to suggest there may have been mutual feelings.

Because of this abduction, Robert and Eddard Stark (Lyanna’s brother and Robert’s friend), joined forces with others to help overthrow the Targaryens. This became known as Robert’s Rebellion (or, alternatively, the War of the Usurper). Once again, the official story in Game of Thrones is that Lyanna died during this battle, although her cause of death was unclear.

Once the dust settled, Robert Baratheon was betrothed to Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and the remaining Targaryens, Rhaegar’s younger siblings, Viserys and Daenerys, fled Westeros and remained in hiding for many years in the Free Cities across the sea. In Season 1 of Game of Thrones, Robert told Eddard (Sean Bean) that Daenerys should be killed as well, thanks to his bias towards the Targaryens, using what Rhaegar did to Lyanna as an excuse.

What Lyanna whispered to Ned Stark

Now Bran Stark’s (Isaac Hempstead Wright) greensights during Season 6 of Game of Thrones are starting to make more sense. The scenes show the real story of what happened to Lyanna Stark; the fact she died in childbirth. She then insists her brother Eddard (Ned) keep the baby’s true identity a secret, or so fans assume because Ned has always claimed this child as his own bastard child, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), brought back from the Battle of Joy in the first year of his marriage to Catelyn (Michelle Fairley).

According to Tech Insider, here is the audio from Episode 10 of Game of Thrones.

“His name is [illegible]. If Robert finds out, he’ll kill him, you know he will. You have to protect him. Promise me, Ned.”

The visual then cuts to an adult image of Jon Snow at Winterfell, leading fans to believe that child of Lyanna’s is Jon Snow. This shows that Ned lied to everyone all these years over the identity of the only child he brought back from the battle at the Tower of Joy. He lied to protect both his sister and the identity of the child she bore. Lyanna is terrified someone will find out who her baby really is. But why?

What we know from Robert’s Rebellion is that Robert is partial to eradicating all known Targaryens. While he states in Season 1 of Game of Thrones his reasoning being what Rhaegar did to his sister, by having Targaryens still living in Westeros, it means he has a less valid claim to the throne. If Jon were to live with his Targaryen blood, he would be more entitled to claim the iron throne than Robert Baratheon.

That’s right, Jon Snow (or Jon Targaryen), has a very high claim to be the ruler of Westeros in Game of Thrones. This is if he can prove his parentage. While Bran may reveal Jon’s identity, it might be hard to prove it to the rest of Westeros. There might be a couple of people who could help, though. A handmaiden was seen in the room with Lyanna, perhaps she is still alive? Also, Ned was with another survivor at the battle at the Tower of Joy. In the books, he is known as Howland Reed, a character that has not really been present much in the TV series of Game of Thrones. It is unclear just how reliable either of these sources would be for confirming Jon’s true identity, though.

So who is the proper Targaryen heir?

In Game of Thrones, Daenerys is heir to the Targaryen name thanks to the Mad King being her father. With both of her older brothers dead, she appears to be the sole heir to the iron throne. However, Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, the eldest son of the Mad King, making him more entitled to claim ownership than Daenerys. An argument could be made though for the fact Jon is not a pure blood Targaryen. The Targaryens, after all, are known to marry their own siblings and relatives in order to keep the bloodline pure. Daenerys is the child of the Mad King and his sister/wife, Queen Rhaella Targaryen, making her blood more “pure” than Jon’s. So it will be interesting to see just what happens if these two discover each other and both try to lay claim to the iron throne.

Finally, some people are claiming Lyanna didn’t actually say Jon’s name when she spoke to Ned in Episode 10 of Game of Thrones. However, as Heavy points out, the reason behind this could be as simple as Ned changing the name Lyanna picked for her child because it might have sounded too much like a Targaryen name. To change the name of Lyanna’s child to something Ned would pick as a Stark name covers up Jon’s true identity even more.

What did you think about the reveal in regards to Jon Snow’s parentage in the Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

Game of Thrones returns to HBO with a shortened Season 7 in 2017.

[Image via HBO]