Are Children Of Aunt-Nephew Incest At Risk Of... You Know?

It’s called avunculate marriage. It’s legal in Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries that have their shit together. It appears that incest is taboo in Westeros. But there is so much incest in Game of Thrones that you almost can’t help but blame a lot of the character flaws on it. Joffrey was the product of twincest, which means his parents share 50% of their DNA. This might explain why Joffrey had such a small head: microcephaly—the condition of a child being born with an abnormally small head—is often a biproduct of incest. Look at how small this thing is:

If he were a penis, you’d shit on it, i.e. “Hey, there goes Dichabod Crane!” (For this joke, I reference the well-known fairytale “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” whose protagonist, Ichabod Crane, was haunted by a headless horseman).

This leads to our big question: what is the risk that a child of Dany and Jon will have a genetic mutation that arises from incest? It all depends on whether these two share a gene mutation. The more genetic makeup that is shared, the higher the likelihood. As aunt and nephew, they share 25% of their genetic DNA. It’s the same quantity of crossover as a grandparent-grandchild marriage, and twice as much crossover as first cousins. That’s pretty close to home from where I stand, which is in the realm of never banging family.

Here are some theoretical mutations that might occur for their child:

Hapsburg Chin

Long, jutting jaw with a severe underbite. It results in an ugly face, which makes it harder to get a job or a girlfriend. The Hapsburg royals, of Spain, were known for inbreeding and many Hapsburg children developed this outrageously shit face. It would be a great shame to see the child of such beautiful parents walk around town with his chin leading the way.

Clubfoot

Clubfoot is a broad term that describes myriad foot problems, but it typically arises when the tendons are too short to let the foot rest flat. Or straight. Basically, whenever you see someone and say, “the fuck is going on with that guy’s feet?” That’s clubfoot, and his parents might be related.

Albinism 

The condition that comes when the body lacks melanin, which gives color to the hair, skin, lips, etc. Albinism is an autosomal recessive disease, making it more likely to occur from the breeding of two people with similar genes.

You can read about some of the other incest-born mutations here. Fascinating stuff.

Aunt-nephew or uncle-niece hookups are more common than you might think. Especially among royalty. Check out some of these famous pairings from history:

(From wiki)

Hmm. I did NOT know that Adolph Hitler’s parents were uncle and niece. And that’s talking Hitler.

As long as Jon and Dany don’t share too many genetic mutations, they should be ok. First they’ll have to sort out this whole power struggle thing. Hoo boy. Talk about relationship issues.