Jon Snow/Arya Stark

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Pairing
Pairing: Jon Snow/Arya Stark
Alternative name(s): Jonrya
Gender category: Het, Incest
Fandom: Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
Canonical?: No
Prevalence: Small
Archives:
Other: Starkcest
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Jon Snow/Arya Stark, also known as Jonrya, is the het and incestuous pairing of Jon Snow and Arya Stark in the A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones fandoms.

I've said it before but Jon and Arya have the most purest love in the whole series. Arya always knows deep down that Jon will always take her as she is no matter what she has done

Why Jon/Arya could work in the Books. I'll explain in a quick Essay! - Dawn of Fyre[1]

Canon

Jon and Arya were raised together at Winterfell and had an extremely close relationship. At the beginning of the series, before Jon goes north to join the Night's Watch, Jon has a sword forged for Arya: Needle is the touchstone that keeps Arya tethered to her identity throughout her travels. After they go their separate ways Jon and Arya think about each other excessively, longing to be reunited even more than with their other siblings. Jon compares his love interest, Ygritte, to Arya. George R. R. Martin has confirmed the parallel is meant to show that Jon has a "type" of women he is attracted to. Both Ygritte and Val, another woman Jon is canonically attracted to, bear similarities to Arya.

Martin originally intended for Jon and Arya to fall in love. In an outline sent to his publishers, he revealed that the siblings would be reunited earlier in the series with Arya older than she is in canon. Their sibling relationship would remain an obstacle to romance until Jon's true parentage is revealed. Much of the outline has been scrapped in the published novels.

Fandom

Statistics

  • In 2014, Jon Snow/Arya Stark was ranked 20th out of 25 Game of Thrones pairings on Archive of Our Own.[2]
  • In 2018, Jon Snow/Arya Stark was the 5th most popular ship for Jon in the Game of Thrones category in a survey of FanFiction.net, accounting for 3% of sampled fics.[3]
  • In 2019, during the final season, Jonrya was the ninth most popular Game of Thrones ship on Tumblr[4]
  • In 2020, Jon Snow/Arya Stark was the 2nd most popular ship for Jon in the ASOIAF category in a survey of FanFiction.net, accounting for 22% of sampled fics.[5]
  • In 2020, Jon Snow/Arya Stark was the 2nd most popular ship for Arya in the ASOIAF category in a survey of FanFiction.net, accounting for 18% of sampled fics.[6]

Common Tropes in Fanworks

  • Modern AU: modern setting where they begin a relationship
  • Targaryen!Jon: Jon is raised as the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, and his true parentage is not kept secret. Arya and Jon are cousins.
  • Dark!Jon: A resurrected Jon post-ADWD is hellbent on getting Arya back.
  • Incest: because Arya and Jon are raised as brother and sister their relationship could be interpreted as incestuous; some writers avoid this by having Jon raised as a cousin, often by his father Rhaegar or mother Lyanna, while others maintain their canonical sibling relationship and explore the issues that arise from this.
  • Futurefic: Jon and Arya in an adult relationship, sometimes as King and Queen in the North
  • Reunion: before they were reunited in canon, many writers would explore possibilities of how they would be reunited
  • Fix-it: unhappy that they were separated at the end of the series many fans will write "fix-it" fics, sometimes where Jon and Arya are together and happy, at Winterfell or beyond the Wall, or them finding each other again in the future
  • Warging: Since Arya and Jon are canonically both skinchangers, many fics feature them coupling in the bodies of their wolves, Nymeria and Ghost.

Events/Exchanges

Fanworks

Fanfiction

  • Girl from the North Country by Kurohitenshi: Prince Jon of House Targaryen finds an unlikely soulmate in a Northern girl with the same grey eyes as his own, and he loves her with all his heart. AU Fluffy Soulmates Kid Fic
  • Only a Direwolf (can love another direwolf) by Kurohitenshi: Jon and Arya reunite during the Battle of the Bastards, both of them having been proclaimed as King and Queen in the North and the Riverlands beforehand.
  • A Heart’s Home by Kurohitenshi: Arya returns home after her journey over the Sunset Sea. Home has always been a person to her, not a place: Jon, who has been exiled North of the Wall. But political drama awaits them in the South - ASOIAF canon mixed with TV Show elements
  • You put your arms around me and I'm home by Sapphire_blue: Jonrya reunion futurefic
  • where the heart is by nefertiti: Jonrya reunion futurefic with a side of politics
  • Chasing the Winter Sun by starbursts_and_kisses: Sansa POV, Jon/Sansa arranged marriage limps along until Arya comes home
  • For Now I'm Winter by LadyBee: Jon returns from the dead, Arya returns from Braavos, together they save the North
  • The Hostage Prince by BenAndWaffles: Targaryen!Jon is raised in King's Landing, lonely and unloved
  • Between Wind and Water by luna_plath: Arya marries Theon and Jon accompanies her to the Iron Islands as her sworn sword
  • Decade by ann_and_white_elephant: Ned POV--Jon takes the black, but can't manage to give up Arya
  • In My Life I Love You More by okieday17: Jon and Arya are together one last time before he leaves for the Wall and she for King's Landing
  • Everyone has a summer by bluetilo: Jon and Arya consummate their relationship in the last days of summer before their paths diverge
  • winter's queen in spring by museme87: futurefic where Jon and Arya rule as King and Queen in the North
  • Quid Pro Quo by sharkygal: the og godwood sex smut fic
  • even iron can bring forth by mysticalmuddle: King in the North Jon has been waiting seven years for his bride to come home
  • The Red Hood by Eanne23je: fairytale-inflected AU
  • Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Kurojouou
  • A Mother Cannot Be No One by MannixMind: Arya has Gendry's bastard, peaces out of the House of Black & White, rocks up to Dorne and joins froces with the Sand Snakes on her way to reuniting with Jon

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