"Fire and Blood" are the words of House Targaryen. With the revelation dropped in this week's Game of Thrones episode, 'Eastwatch,' Jon Snow will eventually have to accept that fire and blood course through his veins. Jon is believed by nearly all in Westeros to be the bastard son of Ned Stark and he is currently the foremost Stark family member warning that House Stark's words "Winter is Coming" are about to come true. An equally monumental truth, however, is that current King in the North has no true claim to the seat of House Stark - but he may have more claim than anyone to the Iron Throne. In fact, Jon Snow is a Targaryen by blood and he could be the true King of the Seven Kingdoms.

One of Game of Thrones' primary overarching stories is the quest of Daenerys Targaryen to restore House Targaryen to its "rightful" place as the royal family of Westeros. To do this, she must reclaim what her family lost over two decades prior - the Iron Throne and control over the Seven Kingdoms. The death of King Robert Baratheon, who usurped the Iron Throne from House Targaryen, and the War of the Five Kings that resulted left the continent completely destabilized and now under the control of Queen Cersei Lannister.

Technically, House Baratheon remained in control of the Iron Throne after Robert's death. The two kings who succeeded Robert were King Joffrey and his younger brother King Tommen, who are now also deceased. Both boys were members of House Baratheon as they were legally recognized as the trueborn sons of Robert and his wife Cersei. However, the truth - which has become commonly known though it seemingly hasn't raised any serious questions as to the legitimacy of the crown's succession - is that Joffrey, Tommen, and their late sister Myrcella are the product of incest. All three were really fathered by Jaime Lannister, Cersei's twin brother.

The conflict for the Iron Throne today centers around two Houses - Lannister and Targaryen - and the two Queens who control them. Who has the more 'legitimate' claim? Cersei's rights by way of possession for the last two decades means the Iron Throne will have to be wrested from her with a fight - by Daenerys, Jon Snow, or by both Targaryens together. For when it comes to sheer dynasty over the Iron Throne, there's no denying the rights of House Targaryen.

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Visenya, Aegon, and Rhaenys looking to the distance.
Illustration by Amok. 

THE TARGARYEN DYNASTY

There would be no Seven Kingdoms of Westeros without House Targaryen. For three hundred years, the Targaryens were the ruling family of Westeros, for better or worse. Six of the seven kingdoms were united over a two year Conquest by Aegon Targaryen, the First of His Name, who left his seat on Dragonstone with his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya. They rode their three dragons, Balerion, Vhaegar, and Meraxes, across the Westeros and conquered the kingdoms one by one, with Dorne, the only holdout, joining the union later by arranged marriage. It was Aegon who built the royal city of King's Landing on the Blackwater Rush, raised the Red Keep as the royal castle, and who forged the Iron Throne by melting the thousand swords of his conquered enemies by dragonfire.

Aegon the Conquerer was the first of what would eventually be thirteen Targaryen monarchs to sit upon the Iron Throne. Though the Targaryens practice the Faith of the Seven, which is the dominant religion in Westeros, they held themselves apart from other Westerosi by openly practicing inbreeding. The Targaryens always married family members. This allowed the Iron Throne to always remain within House Targaryen, passed down within the family, with the heir apparent gaining possession of Dragonstone. Inbreeding allowed the Targaryens to maintain their hereditary trademarks: white or golden hair, pale skin, bluish or purple eyes, and a resistance to fire. However, the downside to centuries of compound inbreeding was madness; many Targaryen kings and queens would gradually be gripped by insanity. The last Targaryen ruler, Aerys II, the father of Daenerys, was commonly known as the Mad King.

The Mad King's rule was already problematic and untenable for the other ruling houses of Westeros even before his eldest son and heir, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, sparked the war that became known as Robert's Rebellion by abducting Lyanna Stark of Winterfell - according to the most widely accepted story. The Mad King had Lord Rickard Stark of Winterfell and his eldest son Brandon Stark burned alive in the Red Keep when they came to protest Lyanna's abduction. Lord Robert Baratheon of the Stormlands, who was betrothed to Lyanna, and his best friend Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, Lyanna's brother, led the war that eventually ended the three hundred year rule of House Targaryen.

Robert killed Rhaegar in battle as revenge for Lyanna's abduction and later death. The Mad King was in turn betrayed by House Lannister, with Tywin Lannister, the former Hand of the King, leading his army into King's Landing under the banner of friendship for the besieged king. Instead, Tywin had his forces sack King's Landing, while his eldest son Jaime Lannister, a member of the Kingsguard, killed King Aerys, earning the moniker of 'The Kingslayer.' Finally, Robert Baratheon arrived in King's Landing and claimed the Iron Throne, becoming King Robert, the First of his Name. The surviving Targaryen children, young Viserys and the infant Daenerys, were stolen away to live in exile across the Narrow Sea in Essos. The reign of House Targaryen officially came to an end, with House Baratheon becoming the new royal house of the Seven Kingdoms, a position it held for nearly two decades.

Daenerys Targaryen walks off on shore as Tyrion, Missandei, and others are in the background with a boat

The current reign of the widowed Cersei Lannister as Queen and the demise of House Baratheon - which has no legitimate male heirs now that Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly are deceased - means that House Lannister is now the official ruling house of Westeros. Cersei has the right of possession of the Iron Throne, for whatever legal status that holds. She lives in King's Landing, commands all of its armies and resources by methods of fear and intimidation, more or less maintains the established administrative and political systems of the realm in place, and she will not surrender her claim - which she feels she has earned by cunning and strategic murder - without a fight. The issue of Cersei's incest with her brother Jaime is also something she is ready to publicly defend; after all, the Targaryens were allowed to practice incest for centuries. Cersei even destroyed the religious organization that prosecuted and punished her for incest, the Faith of the Seven, at the end of season 6.

Daenerys' return to Westeros from her lifelong exile is to press her family's dynastic claim to the Iron Throne. Her claim has merit as she is a trueborn Targaryen of full blood as the daughter and only living scion of Aerys II, the last Targaryen king. Working against Daenerys is her status as "a foreign invader" who leads a Dothraki army, and the fact that her family has been deposed and their throne usurped, so she no longer has legal claim, in as much as such legalities can be enforced. Prior to the fourth episode of season 7, "The Spoils of War," Daenerys had never even set foot on the mainland of Westeros. The highborn families of Westeros owe her no loyalty or fealty, despite her bloodline and family name, especially considering how unpopular her father the Mad King was. However, conquest seems to be the most ironclad method to secure and maintain royal power so Daenerys' claim immediately becomes legitimate if she wins the war with Cersei.

THE ROYAL BLOODLINE AND CLAIM OF JON SNOW

With the bomb dropped in an offhand comment by Gilly during 'Eastwatch,' it seems Jon Snow may actually be the true heir to the Seven Kingdoms with the best claim to the Iron Throne. Jon's claim may even rank above Daenerys' claim. Before the Targaryens were deposed and the male Targaryens were killed, the heir to the Mad King's throne was his eldest son Prince Rhaegar. Though he is currently neither aware of this fact nor granted the legal status it would theoretically allow him, Jon Snow is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark. He is a male Targaryen by blood. Even more importantly, he is a trueborn Targaryen - something Daenerys' dragon Drogon even sensed when they came face to face.

What Gilly discovered in her readings of the meticulous records kept by High Septon Maynard in the Citadel of Oldtown is that the High Septon performed an annulment of Prince Rhaegar's marriage to Elia Martell of Dorne, as well as a simultaneous secret marriage in Dorne. This secret marriage could only be to Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, which flies in the face of the established and accepted story that Lyanna was abducted, held prisoner, raped, and eventually murdered by Rhaegar. It seems Rhaegar and Lyanna were legitimately man and wife.

If High Septon Maynard's claims are indeed true - his meticulous record keeping is intended to provide necessary merit - then the annulment of Rhaegar's marriage to Elia dissolved the rights of his children with Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon, to claim the Iron Throne. Rhaegar's true heir would have been his son with his legal second wife Lyanna Stark - the boy who would grow up as Jon Snow - even if all three of Rhaegar's children were alive. As only Jon is alive, Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne by Rhaegar's claim. However, all of this was kept secret by the Maesters of the Citadel, so as to not disrupt the established new order and peace after Robert's Rebellion concluded.

The Targaryens' dynasty as the rulers of Westeros is hard to dispute - except for the fact that their family was deposed in war and lost their seat, literally and figuratively, as the royal house of Westeros. Robert Baratheon was recognized by the consensus of the highborn families and people of Westeros as the rightful King after he won Robert's Rebellion. With Robert's calculated and secret murder by his wife Cersei, things get complicated: the two Baratheon boys who each inherited the throne were not trueborn Baratheons. What's more, even when Robert was the rightful and recognized king, he was a corpulent and disinterested monarch of left the actual ruling of the realm to his Hand and Small Council - all the while, the Lannisters, masterminded by Tywin, were plotting, consolidating their power base, and secretly serving as shadow rulers.

WHO DESERVES THE IRON THRONE?

With the murder of King Tommen's wife and Queen Margaery Tyrell by Cersei, which led to Tommen committing suicide, Cersei achieved her lifelong goal and assumed the Iron Throne for herself and for House Lannister. For Cersei, this means no more acting through her sons and hiding behind the now-defunct Baratheon banner, which has no true heirs left to claim the Iron Throne. The Lannisters were the only great house left in King's Landing who had claim (by marriage) to the crown, and Cersei usurped it for herself, which was not challenged by anyone in Westeros until Daenerys Targaryen arrived from the east. Since Cersei's two sons were never technically kings and Robert's brothers are dead, one could argue her claim to the Iron Thone is the truest as she actually was the rightful Queen all along. Plus she has the right of possession, and her newly revealed pregnancy means she could sire an heir to maintain the Lannister's hold on the crown.

As the trueborn son of Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon Snow has claim by blood to the Targaryen dynasty and their rights to the Iron Throne. However, Jon's legal status as a Targaryen hasn't been publicly revealed or ratified, in however way such a thing would occur in Westeros. The most effective way to press a claim to the Iron Throne is by war or conquest, but Jon Snow doesn't even know he's a Targaryen yet. Even if he did know, Jon Snow's priorities aren't and have never been to seek a throne for the sake of gaining power. Jon Snow is currently recognized as King in the North by the Northmen, but he didn't even want that throne and reluctantly accepted it as a means to an end. Jon's greatest and only real priority currently is to fight the war against the Night King and the Army of the Dead, or else everyone in Westeros will be killed and become White Walkers. Should anyone even survive the war against the Night King, would Jon Snow even want to press his claim to the Iron Throne when he learns the truth? From what we have seen of Jon throughout the series, it's doubtful he wants that responsibility.

The person Jon Snow's status most affects is Daenerys. Unlike Jon, Daenerys wants the Iron Throne and to rule the Seven Kingdoms - it is her lifelong desire. Daenerys is also qualified as a ruler; she has spent the last seven seasons of the series gathering the necessary advisors, supporters, armies, and power base, and she has ruled Mereen, giving her experience as a monarch that Jon Snow - whose experience is much more that of a military commander - doesn't have and never attempted to garner. Jon being her nephew, and more importantly the trueborn son of her eldest brother, the former heir to the throne, substantially muddies her own claim to the Iron Throne. (Any potential romantic entanglements between them while they are unaware they are actually related will only further tighten an already twisted knot.) Daenerys would possibly have to resort to eliminating Jon if he were to press his claim, and vice versa.

Which Targaryen scion has more right to rule Westeros? Going by blood rights, Daenerys is of full Targaryen blood, while Jon is half Stark, so does being a full Targaryen gives Daenerys more claim than Jon's status as trueborn son to Daenerys' dead older brother, the former heir? In the patriarchal society of Westeros, Jon being the eldest male Targaryen gives him the advantage to claim himself as the true King, if he were to press his claim, which isn't something Jon Snow is prone to do - unless somehow he is given no choice.

Given their personalities and priorities, a reveal of the truth about Jon may simply lead to him and Daenerys easily working out the distribution of power by themselves. This might be the key to any tug of war for the Iron Throne between the two Targaryens: Daenerys wants to be Queen, Jon is at best a reluctant king. But such an easy distribution of power and authority is dependent on Daenerys unseating Cersei, who will never give up her own lifelong desire and achievement without a fight. Two Queens and a King all have substantial claim to the Iron Throne and one way or another it will likely be settled by fire and blood before the ultimate ruler of the Seven Kingdoms emerges.

NEXT: RHAEGAR TARGARYEN'S MARRIAGE RECORD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU THINK

Game of Thrones season 7 continues Sundays @ 9pm on HBO, HBO GO, and HBO NOW.