I'm strongly against insest ships *coughjonsansacough* but I'm such a jonerys shipper I cant stand it.. I'm torn... What should I do?
Hello! I don’t think you should worry about it too much. Even after the R+L=J reveal, there are still many reasons why Jonerys isn’t as bad a ship as people make it out to be. This is going to be long so please bear with me:
1. They’re related by blood, sure, since she’s his aunt and he’s he nephew. But it’s all about context and characterization. If Westeros is based loosely on a combination of empires and eras in our world’s history, it would most certainly be a time when royals and nobility married within their families. Not saying it’s a good thing considering how some of their offspring turned out, but it definitely happened as a matter of political strategy.2. On characterization, I feel it’s more plausible, considering the characters involved in the story, that an aunt and nephew would end up together than say, siblings/half siblings. For one, they weren’t raised as family. Neither of them know the other exists, at least as a relative of theirs. As far as Jon knows, he’s a Stark plus something else. Dany thinks she’s the last Targaryen. On the other hand, Jon was raised with the Stark children as their half brother. Now from his perspective, that’s a much closer degree in relation. Even if his real relation to them was as their cousin, it doesn’t change the fact that they were raised as siblings. As for his Targaryen lineage, he has no idea about that, and even if or when he finds out, it’s still far enough to not make it a Jaime/Cersei thing. And let’s face it, the nobles in Westeros are all related in some way. Targaryens marrying within their house is also not unheard of.3. I bet the parallels between the two characters are on purpose. There’s something poetic about those two, and I think that many who are against them base their reasons partly on just how poetic they are. They embody the hero/heroine tropes in epics, and I people believe that GRRM wouldn’t write something so blatant as that. Maybe, who knows? But whatever they say about this story, it’s not postmodern fiction, it’s not Infinite Jest. It’s still High Fantasy. As much as GRRM wants to turn the usual tropes on their head, there’s still a a general structure to follow. Besides, who says it can’t be more like those old Greek epics? Who says that even if they do end up falling love, it won’t end in tragedy? 4. There’s a line in the books, in one of the visions Dany has in the House of the Undying. Something that goes like a blue flower grew in a chink in a wall of ice and filled the air with sweetness. It’s a rather beautiful image, especially if you consider it as a metaphor for Jon. Someone on tumblr (EDIT: it was @maesterleia ) earlier said that this symbolizes hope, and in a situation where the whole seven kingdoms are pitted against the forces of the dead, I think that having Jon and Dany unite against the darkness (and perhaps find comfort and companionship in one another, after everything they each had to go through in their lives) would be appropriate and bittersweet.
Hope these ease your mind somewhat! I admit that in other fandoms, especially those set in our time, I wouldn’t ship an aunt and nephew or other incestuous pairing, but GOT/ASOIAF is sui generis.
