![]() Instead of pinning it on Ashara or Brandon, Ned shoulders the burden himself and claims the dishonor to protect his nephew, in the only way that will leave his sister, his brother, Catelyn, and Ashara all out of it. Brandon was already dead, gruesomely murdered, and while Catelyn might've been more accepting of Jon as her nephew later once she'd fallen in love with Ned, at the time he originally brought Jon to Winterfell their marriage was still new, neither knew the other particularly well, and Cat might be hurt or offended at the notion that Brandon might've fathered a bastard on Ashara when he was supposed to be engaged to her (or given that Cat's POV suggests it was more the specific circumstances of how Ned was raising Jon that she objected to than the idea Ned cheated on her, at the time Ned thought his new wife might take it as a slight on her honor that his brother had a bastard with another woman and was trying to protect her feelings and his brother's reputation). Ashara died, supposedly killed herself in grief, and Ned would likely balk at passing Jon off as hers if she did kill herself in grief over her stillborn child (particularly if that infant was either his own or his brother's, giving it a touch more personal grief for Ned over his daughter/niece). ![]() The reason Ned didn't do all this comes back once again to being a good-hearted man who's not the type to pragmatically twist the reputations of people already dead for his own comfort. note Since her problem with Jon wasn't the fact he existed, it was Ned raising him at Winterfell making her worry that Ned loved Jon and Jon's mother more than he does her and their children together Catelyn might even have been more accepting of Jon if only she knew it wasn't Ned's bastard being inappropriately raised equal to her own trueborn children, but the child of his dead brother. ![]() So why not pass Jon off as Ashara's bastard by himself or Brandon when it might be safer? The Daynes probably wouldn't be opposed to helping protect the child Ser Arthur laid down his life to defend. It was already believed that Ned had a fling with her, and if Ned didn't want to tarnish his own reputation, well, his brother Brandon was already known to have slept around with women and it's implied he might've been the one who had the affair with Ashara instead of Ned, so Ned could've honestly said it was his nephew he was raising. People already whispered that Ashara Dayne was the mother and her family was known to inexplicably have purple eyes and silvery or pale blond hair like the Targaryens, so it would be most convenient to claim her as the mother from the start in case little Jon grew up to look a little too much like his real dad. There was also the chance Jon could have also grown purple eyes and/or silver-gold hair instead of having the Stark look like Ned, which would obviously open up a whole can of worms. Looking at the timeline with Ashara Dayne's pregnancy and assuming R+L=J is true, you might scratch your head and wonder why Ned didn't cover his tracks better: Jon could've easily been passed off as Brandon's bastard instead of Ned's, it would've probably been more believable to everyone, and raising his murdered brother's son alongside his own out of sentimentality for his brother would've been A) closer to the truth and B) maybe raised a few less questions about the unconventional way Ned was rearing a mere bastard.At least having them both look like her made Ned's cover story more believable. It's a good thing that Jon looks like Lyanna or there'd be trouble. But it's also said that she, despite her homely appearance, looks a lot like her paternal aunt Lyanna Stark when she was her age. It's mentioned several times that Arya Stark is the one of Catelyn's children that looks like Jon Snow, thus seemingly confirming their sibling status.
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