Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-75.85.184.179-20160620213454/@comment-5014364-20160624185710

There's a whole page on Incest books vs TV series

Oh...it's only listed as "Unknown Lady Stark" because it wasn't established in "the TV continuity" just yet and sometimes they simplify things, but it is known from the books.

In the novels, Eddard's father Rickard married his own "first cousin once removed" Lyarra Stark - her maiden name was already "Lyarra Stark" even before she married him.

First cousin marriage simply isn't considered incest in Westeros.

Problem is that the TV show once or twice cracked jokes about Lancel/Cersei being "unnatural", but the question is: did the TV writers just plain not understand this? (even though Tywin/Joanna is a major example), OR, did they knowingly make these remarks about it because they felt it would take too long to explain that it isn't considered incest in Westeros?

Oddly enough, in the original draft outline, Jon was going to compete for Arya's affections with TYRION of all people - but this is a wacky very early draft, one in which Jaime never loses his sword hand and kills everyone to seize the Iron Throne himself (bearing little resemblance to the finished product).