--- title: Game of Thrones Gilly Becomes Hero For Jon Snow Discovery description: People are rallying around her online after another character took advantage of information she'd first uncovered. canonical: https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-29T16:23:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:53.642Z og:title: This Game of Thrones Character Is the Internet's Latest Hero og:description: People are rallying around this character online after the season finale og:url: https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd86547c6bfdd40c1/6988d5fbfb4eacd4a8892f00/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Game of Thrones Character Is the Internet's Latest Hero twitter:description: People are rallying around this character online after the season finale twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd86547c6bfdd40c1/6988d5fbfb4eacd4a8892f00/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Internet Is Rallying Behind This Unlikely _Game of Thrones_ Hero > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ef839338-1d09-41dd-93c1-1c3939f6bc01&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 29, 2017 4:23 PM UTC  Hannah Murray in Game of Thrones Hannah Murray in Game of Thrones Helen Sloan—HBO  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 29, 2017 4:23 PM UTC **Warning:** This post contains spoilers for season seven of [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/game-of-thrones-2017/). A lot went down on Sunday night’s _Game of Thrones_ [season seven finale](http://time.com/4919287/game-of-thrones-finale-most-watched-episode/). But one of the [most important moments](http://time.com/4918471/game-of-thrones-jon-snows-real-name-aegon-targaryen/) was the confirmation of what many fans have known for years: [Jon Snow](http://time.com/4915000/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-parents-rhaegar-targaryen-lyanna-stark/), everyone’s favorite of the north, is actually the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. And, in perhaps an even more critical move for the plot, he’s a legitimate son: the ill-fated lovers wed in a secret ceremony before his birth. That particular nugget of juicy information was uncovered by none other than [Gilly](http://time.com/4915000/game-of-thrones-jon-snow-parents-rhaegar-targaryen-lyanna-stark/), back in episode five, while she was practicing her reading out loud to Sam in Oldtown. Sam, impatient with the other maesters’ disinterest in taking the threat of the [Night King](http://time.com/4457896/game-of-thrones-night-king-different-villain/) seriously, seemed to dismiss Gilly’s subtle revelation. But in [Sunday’s episode](http://time.com/4919242/game-of-thrones-season-7-finale-tyrion-watching-jon-daenerys/), his tête-à-tête with Bran Stark at Winterfell brings up the subject of Jon’s true parentage. Then Sam reveals, without mentioning Gilly’s sleuthing, that he has discovered the marriage took place. Naturally, the internet is all behind stealth research hero Gilly. There is a bit of a divide, however, between those who think Sam did not properly credit his assistant ancient texts sleuth — and those who are cheered by the thought that Sam was listening to her all along. > [](https://twitter.com/SiobhanKaileen/status/901999804313735169) > [](https://twitter.com/meagan%5Flucidi/status/902000465126227968) > [](https://twitter.com/gameofcersei/status/902008165742649345) > [](https://twitter.com/kayboatner/status/901999733916491776) > [](https://twitter.com/mylifeasMD/status/901997294026977281) > [](https://twitter.com/imaCfish/status/901997244395769856) > [](https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/901992021384196096) > [](https://twitter.com/h%5Fmorrell/status/902001053486469120) > [](https://twitter.com/broderick/status/902542656256999426) > [](https://twitter.com/suzannesamin/status/901992765587902465) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/"},"headline":"This Internet Is Rallying Behind This Unlikely Game of Thrones Hero","datePublished":"2017-08-29T16:23:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:53.642Z","description":"People are rallying around her online after another character took advantage of information she'd first uncovered.","url":"https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd86547c6bfdd40c1/6988d5fbfb4eacd4a8892f00/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd86547c6bfdd40c1/6988d5fbfb4eacd4a8892f00/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"game-of-thrones-dragonstone-gilly","caption":"Hannah Murray in Game of Thrones","creditText":"Helen Sloan—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4920171/gilly-game-of-thrones-hero/","name":"This Internet Is Rallying Behind This Unlikely Game of Thrones Hero"}}]}] ```