#;; aesthetic [[ elia martell ]]

[florzzzs2]

Princess Rhaenys 🌺

She should have been the delight of the kingdom ☀️🥹

[elycetellsall]

unbowed unbent unbroken

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

Why do you think the tides have slightly turned from "Elia deserves better than Rhaegar" to shipping her and Rhaegar together? Like what is the psychology behind these people because I've seen some of them like/reblog anti Rhaegar posts while also shipping Rhaegar x Elia at the same time.

hey anon! my thoughts are a bit messy, but i’ve done my best to explain them coherently :)

so, rhaegar was the best man anyone could have when elia was alive, and most people want the best for their favs. he was considered the most handsome, didn’t have a bad personality, and he was crown prince—meaning elia was almost queen, which is often seen as the greatest role a woman can have. the narrative also treats rhaegar as a beautiful, tragic, haunting figure, and elia actually had this very aesthetically pleasing man all to herself at one point! she was married to him, had children with him, and her life was so close to perfect! but rhaegar just had to go and ruin it. 😠

for many elia stans, if rhaegar hadn’t fallen in love with another woman (they want him to have been a completely different character), then everything would’ve been perfect, and elia would’ve had the best, most desirable life. however, that’s not what happened—elia met a very tragic end, and as a result, these stans feel double the bitterness. because of this bitterness, they blame rhaegar for everything (even though it’s not logical to do so), but he’s just too ‘perfect’ to let go of. so, for years these stans have made rhaegar revolve around elia, filling his tag with posts about her out of bitterness. so, i do believe that this obsession with rhaegar x elia has always been there, but i think it’s become a more favorable stance on the elia stan side of the fandom because of a mix of reasons.

plus, rhaegar is one of the few canon relationships we know elia had, since she’s not much of a character. because of this, and the fact that most people don’t like to stray too far from canon, most elia stans are forced to focus on rhaegar, which has created an echo chamber. basically, if a sentiment about elia and rhaegar’s relationship becomes popular, then the whole elia stan side of the fandom will likely regurgitate the sentiment. (also, this desire to stick close to canon is likely why the elia x arthur ship was so popular. while it’s a total crack ship, it had good aesthetics, and since elia and arthur at least knew each other, it allowed the stans to create their perfect fanfiction whilst sticking it to rhaegar. but remember, elia was actually married to rhaegar and had children with him, so while arthur is cool, rhaegar was always ‘top dog,’ meaning arthur would never be able to match up to rhaegar to most elia stans. also, the arthur x elia crack ship is likely her second most popular ship, which just shows how little elia stans have to work with, so they’re always forced to eventually return back to rhaegar for a lot of things.)

however, even if the elia x rhaegar ship gains more popularity, these stans will never stop hating rhaegar because he wasn’t ‘perfect’—and he wasn’t perfect because he didn’t love elia. plus, rhaegar loving another woman and supposedly kidnapping her is what began the war that led to elia’s tragic death. that’s bitterness times 1000. and while i don’t actually blame rhaegar for the war, i do think that this is how an elia stan sees it. i also don’t view rhaegar’s complex relationship with elia as a bad thing—it’s actually a very realistic take on an arranged marriage between two decent people. but most elia stans will never be able to get over the fact that they almost had everything, which is why many have it out for lyanna, as they consider her a thief who ruined their ‘perfection.’

tbh, that might be why so many elia stans are so obsessed with the idea that rhaegar only got with lyanna because of the prophecy—they don’t want to believe that rhaegar actually loved a different woman and not their perfect self insert elia. that’s a bit mean of me… but i don’t know what else one would call the ‘elia’ elia stans have created.

now that i’ve laid all those thoughts out, i’ll try to explain why the tides seem to be turning… i think it may have something to do with the ‘targaryens are all evil and bad’ sentiment losing popularity. i think this shift has occurred due to a mix of factors, such as years of fandom fights and fandom cycles leading to the targs being more liked now than before. it helps that canon doesn’t actually condemn the targs/favors them quite a bit, and the influx of new targ fans from HOTD has also contributed. this combination of reasons seems to have shifted the way the mainstream fandom discusses all the targaryen characters, including rhaegar. so, with this shift, it’s only natural that some elia stans/elia x rhaegar shippers—who’ve always been there—are using this opportunity to push their agenda. while these stans still hate rhaegar and see him as the bad guy, they just can’t let go of him. and as the mainstream fandom moves away from the anti targaryen sentiment, these smaller corners of the fandom, which tend to be echo chambers, are also affected, which has therefore led to a rise in rhaegar x elia shippers and the ‘shifting tide’ that you’ve also noticed.

[magnificentsapphiresoul]

House Martell ☀️

[the-queen-who-should-have-been]

Princess Elia Nymeros Martell

"The Sun of Dorne"

Princess Elia was a good and gracious lady, kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit.

[daenysthedreamer101]

Something a Princess of House Martell would wear

Zuhair Murad Haute Couture S/S 2023

masterlist

[martellspear]

[mskrianna]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤʏᴏᴜ ʀᴀᴘᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀ! ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀ! ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ! sᴀʏ ɪᴛ! sᴀʏ ʜᴇʀ ɴᴀᴍᴇ!

[sunspearesque]

The Bereaved Dunes: moodboard

[thepog]

Старшая дочь являлась точной копией ее самой в свои годы: непоседливой хохотушкой, любящая бегать по саду и ловить больших бабочек, показывая их брату-малышу.

[florzzzs2]

Rhaenys Martell - Targaryen 🌠

fancast: iffat marash

Purple💜💜

[elycetellsall]

“weak men will never rule dorne again”

[viscardiac]

The pretty girl genes

My personal headcanon/fav wack theory is that the families with magic in their blood, like the Targaryen or the Stark, often have two phenotypes. The bulky phenotype and the pretty girl phenotype. I don't say this in a gendered sense, just as a general aesthetic. The pretty girl parts of the family are usually softer in aspect, and have those fairytale airs about them. The bulky parts on the other hand are the people that will scare you off based on appearance alone. It's not the sneer in their face or the wildness of their demeanor, it's just that they look like they could really fuck you up.

For the Targaryen, the pretty girl genes are dominant. You rarely ever get some dude like Maegor who was just massive all around. I mean. Aegon The Conqueror was just some anime twink. Look at this guy.

This isn't some dude you'd wanna cross the street to avoid. He's really just some twink. And most of the Targaryens are Like That. Maegor is one of the few exceptions, and I'm going to put in Maelys Blackfyre in that category too, but take at some of the most feared ones for having their heads up their asses like Aerion the Bright, or crazy Aerys.

Aerion is pretty even being punched in the face.

Aerys always looks like he's constipated anyways but he's still built like a pretty girl. You get exceptions that pop up once in a lifetime when the stars and planets align and someone manages to get the bulky genes from both sides.

Now, for the Stark, and i'm probably guessing the north in general, considering they come from a different lineage/ethnicity altogether, have some different shit going on. The Targaryen got, from outsiders to the house, andal blood (Arryn, Martell [rhoynar too, in this case]). In theory, the Dayne were of the first men, but with the andal invasion, there's likely been a lot of mix up, and the same is to be said of the Blackwood and the Hightower. The only arguably more direct line (though i doubt they haven't really married with other andal houses too) are the Baratheon. ...The Velaryon hadn't as much self imposed restrictions for marriage as the Targaryen did, so there's probably one shit ton of outside marriages for them too. I can be very wrong about all this bc it's pretty hard to track when we don't have all that much info on family trees, but honestly i don't care, this is my wack theory and you'll bear with me. The Targaryen are fairly easier to track because of the, yknow, whole incest business.

The north doesn't really get on with outsiders, though. They pretty much stay there, doing their thing, trying very hard not to stick themselves in all this court bullshit. For the Stark line, mostly only the daughters married people from the outside, meaning they don't partake in the main line, and are instead accounted for in other family trees. The women who weren't northeners are Blackwoods, who have, though likely joined with andals on the long run, a first men origin, and one Catelyn Tully, who has this same claim to her bloodline. I don't count the Manderly as outsiders, seeing as they, as the Stark and most if not all of the north, a claim to the first men origin.

Now, the Starks often seem to be the imposing, bulky type that we don't really see all that often with the Targaryen. They all mostly seem tall and imposing from the accounts we have. We'll say for this purpose, the pretty girl genes are actually recessive for them. The only two described Stark women that aren't Catelyn's Arya or Sansa are Alarra Stark, who was described by her father as "as sweet to look upon as any southron lady", and Lyanna, The Lyanna. Lyanna wasn't described to be beautiful in the same way that Elia was, being wild and slim where Elia was delicate. I am a firm believer of pretty girl Lyanna -- though, yes, i don't think she was pretty in the same manner as ladies from other ethnicities were, all pretty girls, but different brand of pretty girl. North pretty girl is wilder and all that.

And then we get to what for me is the funny part. I know, I know, not all of us like or are into the R+L=J theory, but I do, and since this is my post only my opinion matters. Whatever was the nature of the relationship between them, we get lil pretty Jon. Jon always gets described as pretty. He's prettier than daughters, he gets confused for a girl a time or two if i remember it right, and in comparison to what Robb looks like, Tully features aside, he looks way softer. This doesn't seem to have been a problem Ned Stark had, from what was told so far, to have been to pretty it became annoying.

Rhaegar, however, was never really different from what a Targaryen man was expected to look like. People already expected them to look pretty and soft and graceful and stare into the distance after something no one else could understand.

What I'm saying is that Jon managed to snag TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRETTY GIRL. That's why he's Like That.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[libraesthetiques]

princess elia was a good woman, your grace. she was kind & clever, with a gentle heart & a sweet wit. i know the prince was very fond of her.

【 jewish elia martell aesthetic 】

[atopvisenyashill]

Top ten: the narrative did them dirty, what could have been (more interesting), and what one off mentions you want to see more of, and what Martin historical inaccurate stuff pisses you off (no child brides).

narratives did them dirty. that’s actually kinda hard bc like for example depending on how the story ends, lyanna & elia could be perfectly fine as they are OR i could be annoyed. i feel very silly being like "narrative did them dirty" when we just have no idea how the narrative ends alsjdfkl

arianne nymeros martell - simply should have been there earlier

areo hotah - like victarion, he’s a character that is meant to give us insight into a particular region, unlike victarion his inner narrative is largely nonexistent. he just loves doran & that’s it, we don’t really know him

irri - no explanation needed

lyarra stark - deserves more than “she died”

gaemon palehair - his death should have hit harder

alyssa velaryon - should have aborted jaehaerys in the womb

loreza nymeros martell - we don’t even know her name

dalla the wildling - she should have lived, would have been more interesting having her be our wildling voice in the north w jon

weasel - IF HOT PIE & GENDRY ARE OKAY WHY CANT WEASEL BE 🤧🤧

cersei - listen. listen to me. she is RIGHT to be paranoid, i think this is simply a byproduct of (similar to arianne) not introducing her pov until late in the game but she’s RIGHT just bc she’s crazy doesn’t mean she’s not CORRECT

one off/could have beens

whoever wrote that book about the similarities between the north and dorne. i want the whole thing.

rhoynar water magic

the black pearl of braavos. she just seems cool, give me more summer island diaspora stuff, it’s interesting!!!!!!

the entire jaehaera/daenaera thing. no reason for daenaera to have not been a lady of jaehaera’s, and even if jaehaera still ultimately dies before having children, just doing more with the three of them instead of whatever he did would have gone a long way

alysanne daughter of maegor forever

saera - i think her later years should have had more of a focus, she just disappears to be a brothel owner, feels like a lot of build up without enough pay off

myr. i’m very very interested in them, esp w the controversial maester comments about them being related to the rhoynar (are they or is that racism lol) and the fact that taena serala AND thoros are from there?? AND varys was castrated in myr???? i’m just curious bc we don’t know a lot about it!!

pact of ice and fire should have been MORE. LADY SWAP SOMETHING. COME ON.

MORE ALAYAYA. she just kinda disappears after tyrion leaves and i get it but i want to know she's alright!!!! how is her reading going!!!

literally a single fucking essosi point of view. a dothraki, a meereenese, a pentoshi tyroshi like ANYONE

historical inaccuracy nitpicks

the fucking dothraki. listen. the focus on the arakh as if any nomadic people place any sort of importance on metal tools?? the lack of any sort of armor?? the complete reliance on orientalism and anti native characterization of like, thoughtless hordes of hyper violent savages for their ENTIRE PEOPLE???? they have the aesthetics of mongolians and lakota but absolutely NOTHING that made them interesting cultures that had civilizations that lasted hundreds of years.

the small households in the north kill me. i think you could argue this is mostly a ned thing because everyone else is still fostering kids, making marriage pacts, etc, but there’s a real lack of it, and a huge lack of focus on the politics of each faction that would crop up esp re: the small council.

the lack of cool septas. i know this is part of his distaste for religion but there were a lot of very cool and interesting nuns who ran around doing cool and interesting stuff and i DO think the gender & class dynamics potentially at play there WOULD interest him so it’s a frustrating lack

the lack of saints. again, this is his disinterest for religion but like. what kind of religion doesn’t have a martyr or two they throw a festival for a few times a year like. everyone has a prophet or two that are regularly worshipped idk!!!

not enough peasant revolts!!!!! dragon pit? amazing. poor fellows? very fun!!! the riot scene in KL? harrowing!!!! but like people just rebelled way more in history than he writes about!

what’s the word yeoman i believe? more of them!!!!!

more guilds!!!

okay it’s not like,,,, necessarily a problem it’s just that societies that had Slaving Economies, not just places that had slavery but Economies Centered Around Slavery Exclusively number at like, three or four, while half the societies we have in terros are slaving economies. i don’t inherently mind this - for example, people have pointed out how much more volatile and brutal his world is but imo that makes sense when you have crazy seasons like they do & also magic, so that’s not a nitpick for me personally - but i guess i. wonder. if HE realizes this?

more festivals and feastdays and random holidays. these people don’t have any fucking holidays!!!! i feel like there should be waaaaaaay more yearly celebrations to help keep track of the passage of time since they don’t have regular seasons????

[the-queen-who-should-have-been]

Rhaenys Martell Targaryen

"The Sun Dragon"

(Daughter of Rhaegar and Elia)