A Ph.D. student has taken her Game of Thrones obsession one step further and has actually done the math, and looks like those Westerosians and their strong seed theories haven’t taken genetics into account when determining that Joffrey couldn’t be Robert’s son.
Now, before you leave angry comments about how wrong this is: book and TV show fans alike obviously know that Joffrey is the son of Cersei and Jaime Lannister. It’s not just about his hair being blonde.
But. MadLabArt presents a fascinating counter-argument from genetics student Elizabeth Finn – complete with Duggar family comparisons – which very convincingly proposes that despite Cersei’s determination to avoid Robert impregnating her (and any babies she thought were his, she would get rid of), technically a small chance remains that Joffrey could be Robert’s natural son.
Basically, Ned’s assumption that Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella are not Robert’s children is based on the fact that they haven’t got black hair. And the fact that all of Robert’s bastards do, Finn explains, is a good indicator that Robert is only able to pass on the dark-haired gene, which seems dominant.
But this is not enough evidence to rule out that Joffrey (or Tommen or Myrcella) could not possibly be Robert’s. Not enough bastard children were mentioned in the books to prove that Robert is incapable of producing blond children; this is even addressed in the text. Finn explains:
Tyrion remarks that Joffrey’s – and hence Cersei’s – claim would be foolproof if she had had even one child with Robert: someone with dark hair married to someone with light hair having some children with light hair and some children with dark hair is utterly normal.
She goes on to cite other evidence, which, coupled with what we know about Cersei doing everything in her power to avoid birthing children she could work out were Robert’s, leaves a very, very tiny possibility that Joffrey was Robert’s after all. Again, we know that he isn’t – if nothing else, he displays the madness associated in the books with in-breeding gone wrong – but it’s fun to think about!
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