tbh, I always subscribed to Brandon being the father of Ashara’s stillborn. But your thoughts on Ned x Ashara have made me reconsider. It creates a more tragic and complicated tale, while adding depth to Ned. I also like how it makes Jon not just Lyanna’s ghost to Ned, but the bastard that he did have (and lost). By giving Jon that identity (Ned Stark’s Bastard) he is almost repenting for his tragic past.

That is a big part of why I take this position: the Daynes have absolutely zero reason to give a shit about Brandon Stark – a betrothed man who was never going to take care of Ashara when she got pregnant, a man they likely never met given the timeline of his capture vis-a-vis the Tourney of Harrenhal. 

But Ned’s story is undeniably tragic – star-crossed lovers divided by civil war; True Love vs. Family, Duty, Honor;  untimely death caused by miscommunication, etc. So you have a sense of why the Daynes would care, and why Ned would freak out in AGOT when he hears Ashara’s name – remember, she doesn’t threaten R+L=J. If anything, Ashara’s a good smokescreen to distract people from the truth. But Ned gets uncharacteristically emotional about it, I think because it hits on a different sore spot.

And I agree, there’s almost no way that Ned wouldn’t have seen a parallel between his dead daughter and his “bastard son” coming into and out of the world so closely together.