Post by freyfamilyreunion on Sept 19, 2017 21:26:26 GMT
Well, I guess one way around that would be if Brandon and Ned never had legitimate children, and since Benjen is in the Nights Watch, it would leave only a child of Lyanna's from a marriage as the heir. But that is a lot of but's and what if's. Or if he is Rickards son from a legal marriage and all his elder siblings (Brandon, Ned, Lyanna, and Benjen) had no legal heirs.
The more I look at it, the more twisted up it gets! Jon want's Winterfell, but maybe it's just not his to have?
I'm not sure it's quite as simple as Jon only having a claim to Winterfell if he was born of a marriage. There is the issue of legitimizing a bastard. Once you legitimize a bastard, the question remains where does the legitimized bastard fall in the line of succession?
For example if Jon is Brandon's son, he is the first born son, of the first born son of Lord Rickard. What would have happened if Ned got Robert to have legitimized Jon? How would that have affected Cat's children's claim to Winterfell.
In a So Spake Martin, George indicated that there is no clear answer to this question:
In other words, Catelyn had a cause for concern about Jon being older than Robb, it definitely could have an affect on Robb's claim to Winterfell, if Ned had ever decided to legitimize him. And the fact that Ned treated Jon so much like a son surely gave her cause for concern.
In fact, the passage that you quoted in your earlier post is a fascinating insight into Cat. Because you're right, she seem to be minimizing a bastard's claim in that passage, but if you go further down in the passage, it appears that she considers the question of Jon's parentage to have died with Eddard:
Catelyn seems fairly comfortable with the fact that the issue of Jon's parentage died with Ned. But then Robb brings up the idea of legitimizing Jon, and now we see Catelyn's fears of Jon being legitimized explained:
So wow, here it comes out. Cat is extremely protective of her children and their inheritance. She sees Jon as a threat to her children and their claim to Winterfell. If Jon is in fact Brandon's son, this would greatly explain why Ned could have never confided in Catelyn as to Jon's true origin. It would have only made things worse. Likewise if Ned and legitimized Jon, he is setting up a conflict between his children with Cat and Jon. Which makes me wonder if legitimizing Jon was the promise that he broke.