#and Lyanna would be mad with grief

[atasian123]

Not all but I’ve seen a lot of R+L shippers love to erase Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon. Like they make AU’s where Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon die and Rhaegar is just completely content??

Like Rhaegar was born during Summerhall which many attribute to his melancholy- born from an event of death and destruction- an event he couldn’t remember nor comprehend yet he was still brooding and melancholic. And you’re telling me he wouldn’t have been absolutely torn apart from the deaths of Rhaenys, Aegon and Elia?

Rhaenys was found hiding under his bed. To Rhaenys, her father was her shining brave hero that would come to rescue her, but he couldn’t.

R+L is not a happy ending if they had lived. Rhaegar would have probably gone insane with grief from the deaths of his wife and children.

And Lyanna?? Poor girl was only 15 years old. She would have been devastated by the loss of Brandon and Rickon, the books indicate she was righteous, she would have wanted blood for the deaths of her father and brother. She probably also would have blamed herself.

[lovelyladyabsinthewrites]

Another Life

Pairing(s): implied/referenced Rhaegar Targaryen x Stark!Reader, Ned Stark x Catelyn Tully, Robert Baratheon x Cersei Lannister

Warnings: canonical character death, illegitimacy, cat actually loves jon in this story, drabble, short, robert and cersei actually like eachother

Words: 1269

Lyanna watches Jon from atop of the courtyard's parapet, her eyes crinkling with pride as she watches Jon best Theon Greyjoy at the dance of swords. Every victory Jon made resulted in him outgrowing the label of bastard. He was so much more than a bastard of Winterfell. Not even Catelyn saw him as such. Many were so shocked when the news came that Ned had brought back his bastard one day. In fact Cat had shown up at Winterfell by his side as he held the infant in his arms, for she was one of three that knew the truth about Jon Snow.

Heartache nibbles at her heart when she recalls fifteen years prior. She remembers her sister (y/n). The fever of her cheeks as she held her newborn son in her arms. But she wasn't faring well. Birth rendered her near lifeless, allowing her to slip slowly away into the Stranger's arms. It was only a matter of time. She refused to leave the Tower of Joy, understood her fate as well as her siblings and sister-in-law did. (y/n) had just been content with the fact that she'd birthed a healthy baby boy.

"Jon." Her watery eyes turn up to Lyanna. "His name is Jon."

After Rhaegar's closest friend. Jon Connington was the one to deliver the note to Winterfell, ensuring it fell into the safe hands of the young Warden of the North himself. He'd been instructed by his revered lady, Princess (y/n) Targaryen.

The name was a slap to the face. A year prior to the birth of her son, (y/n) had supposedly been kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen who was supposed to marry Elia Martell the following day. Both up and vanished without a trace. Lord Rickard Stark was beside himself with grief and agony that they stormed to the capital to demand answers from King Aerys himself. Lord Rickard and his heir Brandon accused the king of hiding the location of Rhaegar and (y/n), said that she was to be returned immediately and the prince punished. But Aerys didn't take kindly to the slander they were slewing against the crown. He had them executed.

Ensuing blood shed consumed the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaegar appeared only on the battlefield with his own men. They fought against not just the king, but Ned and his own allies which included Storm's End. No sign of (y/n) nearby.

After Robert Baratheon killed Rhaegar and the regicide of the Mad King by the young lion Jaime Lannister, there was still no clue as to where (y/n) could be.

Robert, though it was Jaime who slew the king, secured the Iron Throne for himself. That meant Lyanna would be queen as she was engaged to Robert. She refused.

When Ned implored her to marry Robert, she gave him the tongue lashing of the century but it did the job in shutting him up. He couldn't force Lyanna to do something she didn't want to. That lesson was learned in childhood. If she desired to stay in the North then she would stay. Slighted at first, it didn't take him long to choose another bride. Cersei Lannister. A beautiful couple. Lyanna was happy that Robert even seemed to be truly smitten with the golden haired girl. They couldn't keep their hands off of each other.

Or so she was told. She couldn't attend their lavish wedding, not when her sister was still out there somewhere.

Day and night she worked in searching for (y/n). Northmen scattered across the vast land took part in looking for her.

They'd nearly given up.

And then Jon Connington delivered a letter in (y/n)'s handwriting.

She and Rhaegar had eloped. Rhaegar couldn't marry Elia Martell, he didn't love her but there was absolutely no way that Aerys would let him marry (y/n) Stark. Even (y/n) had kept her love for him a secret from everyone in her family.

Getting married as soon as they could. They had a short honeymoon for the war started shortly after. Jon Connington was entrusted with (y/n)'s safety, and though he wanted to be with Rhaegar on the battlefield, he held (y/n) in high regard. He agreed without much hesitation.

Soon she discovered she was pregnant. The pregnancy wasn't going well for her. She was constantly sick and weak. She didn't have long.

In her note, (y/n) specifically wanted Lyanna, Ned and his new bride to come. Only them. They were not to tell anyone else. Cat was loathe to leave her own baby Robb but knew how important this was for Ned and his family so of course she agreed to go. Leaving Robb pained her.

Jon was but a week old by the time they arrived to the Tower of Joy. The Sword of the Morning himself stood guard at the tower's entrance.

The babe was healthy. The same couldn't be said of his mother.

She was gaunt, so gray. This wasn't the sister Ned and Lyanna grew up with. Her smile was still the same though, even if it was a little strained. To each of them she spoke to, having the other two wait.

All of them, including Jon Connington and Arthur Dayne were to take this secret to their graves.

(y/n) died two days later.

"I know that look."

Lyanna jolts at Ned's voice, ripped from her melancholic memories. She presses her lips together. Ned grew into a fine lord. A horde of children filled the halls of the castle. Among them was the boy they thought their bastard brother. "Sometimes I can't help but think about her when I see him. He has her big, sweet eyes."

Ned nods. "He does." He rests his forearms on the wooden rail and looks down into the courtyard where Jon swung his sword in the way that Arthur Dayne had shown him that morning. Off to the distance was Jon Connington watching with a close eye. Theon and Robb are trying it out as well.

Jon was thriving. No one caught on to the truth of him. Never even breaching the surface. Many asked who the mother was since Ned agreed to claim fathership over him.

Bittersweet for the siblings watching their nephew grow up without his real mother and father. It was better this way. (y/n) wanted her son to grow up in the north opposed to the death and discrimination he might receive from being raised in the capital. Not just that, but Robert Baratheon was now entirely against the entire Targaryen line. He was already trying to locate the missing Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys with plans to execute them if they're ever found. Children. It was insane that his queen was supporting the king's search for them. His claim to the throne was in danger as long as there was even one Targaryen left alive. And unfortunately Jon was included.

That day his sister died, Ned swore to her that he would protect Jon with his life; even if that meant protecting him against his own friend he thought of as a brother. Lyanna, Ned and Cat had spent sleepless nights speaking about the possibility of Robert finding out about Jon. Their voices hushed, only the quiet flame in the fireplace bore witness to the secrets being discussed.

They would never allow the secret of Jon's parents to become public knowledge. (y/n) entrusted Jon's life to them and they would not disappoint her. They would defend the boy with their life and take his secret to the afterlife.

[melrosing]

Maybe I’m missing the obvious but I never realized that Brandon and Ashara were probably the real thing, not Ashara and Ned….. poor Ned (but also LOL at Lin Manuel Miranda as Ashara Dayne)

I think it’s virtually canon - probably one that can only be inferred for the moment because iirc it’s never outright stated that Brandon and Ashara had any interest in one another. But Barristan’s recollections in ADWD certainly make the case for it:

“[Ashara] had thrown herself from a tower soon after, mad with grief for the child she had lost, and perhaps for the man who had dishonoured her at Harrenhal as well […] If I had unhorsed Rhaegar and crowned Ashara queen of love and beauty, might she have looked at me instead of Stark?”

So we can certainly infer that Ashara slept with someone at Harrenhal, that it was a Stark, and that it probably wasn’t Ned given Barristan and Ned are on good terms till the end… so given it surely wasn’t Lyanna or Benjen, it was Brandon. So Ashara did conceive a child with a Stark, but that child wasn’t Jon and the father wasn’t Ned.

I actually didn’t hate the idea of Ned having had a brief thing w Ashara because I think it would actually be interesting if the stories were TRUE - the details were just wrong. So without getting into the ins and outs, Ned comes to see Jon not just as his nephew but as a kind of penance for what happened with Ashara, and how he feels he failed her and the child they might have had. He feels there was a great dishonour in all that, but because that story serves to shroud the truth about Jon’s parentage, he claims that lie as his dishonour instead whilst always feeling guilty for not being able to own the truth. And that’s why Ned reacts so badly when Catelyn raises Ashara’s name

BUT that’s obviously not what GRRM intended just a lil Ned thought. Anyway lin manuel ashara will be back I guess

[sansacherie]

Lyanna of Winterfell

Lyanna was named for a Stark, Lord Eddard’s sister. Father had given her the name, as a way of honoring the Lord of Winterfell, who died fighting in the rebellion three years before her birth. Not the rebellion that killed Lady Lyanna, but a different one, the one with the wicked Ironborn.

But she will never be a Stark, as she is often reminded, and it’s not as though there is a possibility of marrying into their family one day either. That was a bit difficult when all the Starks were her siblings.

Although that never stopped the Targaryens, of course, but look where they ended up. Lyanna’s not too sorry for them, though. Robb and Sansa and Arya weren’t the only ones to lose kin to Mad Aerys and Prince Rhaegar, who must have been as mad as his sire, for all he was lauded as the noblest prince during his time. Lyanna’s uncle Ethan fell at the Trident, the same battle where Robert Baratheon rose as king.

Father said Uncle Ethan was very brave. There was nothing to discredit him on this. Men had to be brave if they fought in battle all the time, but then they were often the ones making the battles happen in the first place, so maybe it wasn’t really bravery. Maybe bravery was just something you got more of, the older you got. You could be born craven, but your heart could become courageous if you wanted it badly enough.

Mother is different. She was born with a courageous heart. Lyanna cannot imagine Mother weeping when word of Brandon Stark’s murder reached Riverrun that black day, all those years ago. She cannot imagine Catelyn Tully indulging in tears when she wed Eddard Stark in his place, or when she sent him off to his war and his uncertain fate afterward, Robb already in her belly. They say she did weep during Lord Eddard’s vigil, held not even a decade after they became husband and wife, and that it would have broken one’s heart to see her, and the little children too.

But Mother was strong and did not allow grief to become her. She was strong and ruled capably as Robb’s regent, which made sense because she had been raised as Pa’s heir until Uncle Edmure. She was strong and probably would have been strong enough to fight off proposals forever, but eventually, Pa convinced her that it might be best for her to take another husband. Someone would be a worthy consort to the Lady Regent of Winterfell.

Mother had been reluctant, Lyanna knew, but Lady Catelyn was ever a dutiful daughter, and she did have a few suitable options in mind.

Not Roose Bolton, recently widowed around that time, with a young son of his own. One day, while playing, Lyanna overheard one of Mother’s ladies-in-waiting say that she did not trust him. Lyanna didn’t blame her. She had seen Bolton a couple of times when he came to visit his son at Winterfell, and she did not care to see him more. Domeric was nice enough, though. Maybe that was why Mother chose him to be one of Robb’s foster brothers. He would never have real brothers unless you count Jon Snow. That was Lyanna’s fault. Mother couldn’t have any more babies after her.

Lyanna wondered sometimes if that made Mother sad. If she still got sad for Lord Eddard sometimes and missed him. The North did, and so did the king, away in Kingslanding. The poor man didn’t have any children to take comfort in either. If he did, maybe it would be Sansa promised to Steffon Baratheon, and not Margaery Tyrell.

Lyanna wondered if her sister thought the same and if she cared. Maybe she didn’t. When you were unbetrothed, there were so many possibilities. Lyanna and her sisters could go anywhere.

But today they are here, embroidering kerchiefs for Lady Alys. Sansa smiled serenely over her work, Arya scowling as if it had just offended her. Although Arya’s work used to be just naturally offensive. Lyanna said that once to her, teasing, and Arya screwed up her long face something horrid and told her to shut up. In response, Lyanna taunted her about being a baby, even though she was the youngest. Arya retorted that actually, if you only counted full siblings, then it was Arya was the youngest. Lyanna would have hit her, if Sansa ever the graceful lady, intervened. She did that often.

She did it often because she and Arya were good at fighting.

Like now.

“I can’t wait for Robb’s wedding,” Sansa was gushing. “It’ll be so lovely, getting to dance.” Her blue eyes shone. “I wonder who the best dancer will be?”

Arya shrugged. “Probably better than Cley or Domeric.” She wrinkled her nose. “They danced horribly at the Harvest Feast!”

Lyanna found herself speaking up. “Jon Snow danced well, though.” She turned back to her work. “For a bastard.”

“Half-brother,” Sansa gently corrects, soft and precise.

“Jon’s wonderful,” Arya hissed. Did Lyanna say he wasn’t? “He-he’s not like a real bastard-,”

“Arya,” Sansa begins, a warning in her voice to both of them, but her sisters both ignore her.

“Not like a real bastard. What, did his name melt or something?” Lyanna giggled.

“I wish you were the bastard! You would deserve it!”

“ARYA!”

Lyanna feels her face grow hot. She wants to burst into tears, but then Arya would win.

“Well, I’m not,” She huffed. “I’m a trueborn Glover of Deepwood Motte.”

“Yes, a Glover, but never a Stark.” Arya’s voice was cold. “Jon might be a bastard, but he’ll always be more of a Stark than you’ll ever be.”

At that, the tears came. She hears Sansa calling after her, but the words do not reach her.

She just wants to be alone, for now. She did not hate Jon Snow. He hadn’t done anything to her. It was just…. Arya was right in a way, even though Lyanna would rather die than admit it to her.

Lyanna was born at Winterfell, the daughter of the Lady Regent. Her brother is Robb Stark. The castle is in her bones. But she will never be a Stark of Winterfell.

She is a Glover of Deepwood Motte, but she does not truly feel like a Glover either. She has only visited the castle a couple of times, where she played with her cousins. Her last name-day, when she turned eight, had even been there. She wears the colors of a castle that is just a memory to her now. It does not feel like it is enough for her to be a Glover, but she can never be a Stark either.

At that moment, she wished Father had named her something else.

[writingsofwesteros]

Even though the Lannister-Stark hostility kinda began when they were on the 2 different sides of the war and when Tywin betrayed the Mad King to gain entry and cause most houses saw the Lannisters as greedy and prideful opportunists, as opposed to the Starks' well-earned reputation of being honorable oathkeepers, I have my own au for the stark/lannister hostility and I really wanted to share it

So imagine if the hostility started when Aegon I Targaryen was king and (King) Loren I Lannister (the Last) was married to Lyanna Stark (my OC and (GOT) lyanna Stark was named after her) they married in a political marriage but soon fell in love. As years passed, they had a couple of sons, and as their sons grew up, Lyanna experienced some miscarriages which caused her to fall in deep depression. So when she got pregnant again and didn't miscarry, she and Loren were ecstatic till 9 months later. Lyanna gave birth to stillborn twins, which caused her depression to worsen. So a couple days after she gave birth, she jumped out a window falling to her death into a flower bed of winter roses. She was found by a servent, and before a letter could have been sent to the starks telling them about Lyanna and what happened, whispers started up. The whispers traveled all around the seven kingdoms, all saying she was pushed by Loren, while Loren who was overcome by his grief of his wife being gone, slit his own throat, and with that, the whispers grew, saying Loren took his own life so the starks wouldn't come after him for killing Lyanna. Sadly, the whispers made it to the Starks before a raven could, the starks started believe the whispers the more they heard them and even though they started to hate the lannisters, they still granted Loren's wish of being buried in the winterfell crypts next to Lyanna, knowing that's what Lyanna would have wanted. In the casterly rock castle, they hid away all of Lyanna and Loren's things, putting them in their bedchamber, the doors closing never to be opened again and their story to never be talked about again. With Loren's and Lyanna being gone, their sons slowly become heartless, greedy, and prideful opportunists, causing the rest of the lannister family to be the same. Over the decades, the hostility between the Starks (who still believe the whispers) and the lannisters only grew.

!!!!!!!

ooooh! I love that! That is so interesting and really shows how miscommunication happens fast.

With Loren's and Lyanna being gone, their sons slowly become heartless, greedy, and prideful opportunists, causing the rest of the lannister family to be the same. !! Oh things could have been so different !!

[blissfulphilospher]

Rhaenys, Viserys and Rhaegar

I will force my friend to draw art for the fic as she draws for her own as soon as she gets free but untill then, here are the AI pictures of there three. 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen 

She has her mother's colouring but people can take a glance at her and say that she is her father's daughter. In my opinion sho could have been the most exotic Targaryen princess with Valyrian and Rhoynish features. 

(Seriously, Rhaenys Targaryen should have lived. Just like all of her namesakes she should have lived a long life got married have kids and die on a dragonback. I believe had she lived Viserys wouldn't have turned like he turned out to be as he would have someone to share grief with, someone who lost her everything too. But too precious to be sold to Dothraki, Rhaenys brought Dorne, Viserys would be the fool to sell her.)

Prince Viserys Targaryen 

I didn't used used Harry Lloyd but he still turned out looking like this. I am proud of the lilac eyes. 

(Does someone else agree that Viserys has the roughest and the saddest life any Targaryen prince ever had? People hate him, for the right reasons as we see him through Dany's pov. But if we had his I don't think people would. Imagine loosing everything you had in days, your family dead, the people who bowed to you out for your blood and having no allies or whatsoever. Being the descendants of great feared kings like Aegon I, Jaehaerys I, Viserys II, Daeron II and Aegon V and then you have to beg others and being ridiculed and laughed at. Even Blackfyres fared better. And  Rhaegar won/No rebellion fics where Viserys is still insane for no good reason? Seriously people?)

Prince Rhaegar Targaryen

I am not happy about those eyes which were supposed to be indigo but okay. Rhaegar was said to be beautifully tragic.... Tragically beautiful?

(I have no words for this man. I am disappointed just as the rest of his ancestors who spilled countless innocents blood to keep the realm they made, the Iron Throne and a 14 year old northern girl isn't worth it. Thousands of deaths, Rhaella had runaway from her home, Elia's murder who had been dutiful to him, Rhaenys murder who was hiding under his bed, Aerys murder who killed Brandon and his companions because they threatened Rhaegar, Viserys's suffering and descent into madness and gruesome death, Aegon's secluded life without knowing his family he who would have been the Prince of Dragonstone and Dany's life who have too go through all of that alone and she is 15! All of that isn't worth it. And who knows if he kidnapped Lyanna? I have a strong feeling that Jon will too feel repulsed to know the truth and may go in denial. He is Eddard Stark's son, no matter who was the sperm donor. )

[redwolf17]

I know this isn't really an ask you're probably thinking of, but I wanted to send it to you because I was reminded of TWQ.

I saw someone try to argue that Ned actually wanted Rhaenys and Aegon dead because that would secure Robert's throne. Like..... did we read the same chapters? What gave you the impression that Ned Stark wouldn't have been in favor of promising them to the Faith? Did you just forget that the Faith exists?

I'm all for legitimate criticisms of Ned Stark but come on.

… okay what was that person smoking, because Ned explicitly, canonically flipped the fuck out???

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing.

This time, Ned resolved to keep his temper. "Your Grace, the girl is scarcely more than a child. You are no Tywin Lannister, to slaughter innocents." It was said that Rhaegar's little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to face the swords. The boy had been no more than a babe in arms, yet Lord Tywin's soldiers had torn him from his mother's breast and dashed his head against a wall.

"And how long will this one remain an innocent?" Robert's mouth grew hard. "This child will soon enough spread her legs and start breeding more dragonspawn to plague me."

"Nonetheless," Ned said, "the murder of children … it would be vile … unspeakable …"

For fuck’s sake, Ned warns Cersei, murderous, vicious, adulterous Cersei, who just confessed it was Jaime who yeeted Bran out a window, to run for the hills before he tells Robert about the twincest because he doesn’t want to see her children get brutally killed for the “crime” of being incest bastards!

[snowsandstones]

GRRM uses Sansa’s POV to foreshadow at least two major twists in Jon’s story.

Secret parentage:

"Varys has informers everywhere. If Sansa Stark should be seen in the Vale, the eunuch will know within a moon's turn, and that would create unfortunate . . . complications. It is not safe to be a Stark just now. So we shall tell Lysa's people that you are my natural daughter.""Natural?" Sansa was aghast. "You mean, a bastard?" [….] "Catelyn? A bit too obvious . . . but after my mother, that would serve. Alayne. Do you like it?" "Alayne is pretty." Sansa hoped she would remember. "But couldn't I be the trueborn daughter of some knight in your service? Perhaps he died gallantly in the battle, and . . ." "I have no gallant knights in my service, Alayne. Such a tale would draw unwanted questions as a corpse draws crows. It is rude to pry into the origins of a man's natural children, however." He cocked his head. "So, who are you?" "Alayne . . . Stone, would it be?" -ASOS, Sansa VI

Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. -AFFC, Alayne II

The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see. -AGOT, Catelyn II

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing. -AGOT, Eddard II

"I am so sorry, my love. Jon Arryn is dead." His eyes found hers, and she could see how hard it took him, as she had known it would. In his youth, Ned had fostered at the Eyrie, and the childless Lord Arryn had become a second father to him. -AGOT, Catelyn I

and his death:

"Tell me, Alayne—which is more dangerous, the dagger brandished by an enemy, or the hidden one pressed to your back by someone you never even see?" "The hidden dagger." "There's a clever girl." He smiled, his thin lips bright red from the pomegranate seeds. -ASOS, Sansa VI

There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. -AFFC, Alayne II

Dolorous Edd sometimes called Marsh "the Old Pomegranate," which fit him just as well as "the Old Bear" fit Mormont. "He's the man you want in front when the foes are in the field," -ASOS, Jon V

"It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel. It was very cold."-ADWD, Jon I

"Pomegranates. All those seeds. A man could choke to death. -ADWD, Jon V

Then Bowen Marsh stood there before him, tears running down his cheeks. "For the Watch." He punched Jon in the belly. When he pulled his hand away, the dagger stayed where he had buried it. Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger's hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. "Ghost," he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … -ADWD, Jon XIII

and GRRM loves threes. What could be the third?

[jackoshadows]

One of the things I dislike the most about Ned Stark is his friendship with Robert Baratheon. Our very first impressions of Robert Baratheon in the story comes from Ned’s POV and it doesn’t get any better as AGoT progresses and we see that he is weak willed and nonchalantly cruel. It only gets worse once we read Jaime and Cersei’s POV chapters and there’s more insight into Robert as a husband and father.

What we read about Robert Baratheon being an absolutely useless monarch and person who has no problem murdering children is from Ned Stark’s own POV. Our introduction to Robert in AGoT is Ned describing someone who justified the brutal massacre of babies and then he goes on to talk about his love for his great friend.

Robert’s hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar’s wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, “I see no babes. Only dragonspawn.” Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna’s death, and the grief they had shared over her passing.

This time, Ned resolved to keep his temper. “Your Grace, the girl is scarcely more than a child. You are no Tywin Lannister, to slaughter innocents.” It was said that Rhaegar’s little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to face the swords. The boy had been no more than a babe in arms, yet Lord Tywin’s soldiers had torn him from his mother’s breast and dashed his head against a wall. - Eddard, AGoT

How does Lyanna’s death change what happened to Rhaenys and baby Aegon or Robert’s viewpoint of what was done to them? It doesn’t, as seen by Robert’s desire to have another child, Daenerys, assassinated.

And despite knowing how terrible Robert’s treatment of women has been in the ensuing years after Lyanna’s death - the bastards, the abuse of his wife - and despite Lyanna herself refuting Robert Baratheon as a good husband, Ned continues to hold great stock in Robert’s obsessive love for Lyanna.

In whole, Ned’s relationship with Robert Baratheon diminishes him and is a fundamental flaw in his character. It further highlights the hypocrisy in his complex relationship with honor and duty.

More importantly, how is Jon Snow going to look back on his father’s friendships with Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn? Right in Jon’s first POV chapter, he’s surprised at how different Robert is to what Ned has told them about the King. He finds the man comes nowhere close to his father’s adoration of the person.

Next had come King Robert himself, with Lady Stark on his arm. The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups. - Jon, AGoT

How is it going to be to know that Ned was best friends with and admired the man who would think of Jon as dragonspawn deserving of death? That Jon had to be hidden from his father’s best friend as a bastard else he would be killed - just like babies Rhaenys and Aegon.

Something that Jon himself has experience doing - babyswapping in order to save Mance’s baby from Stannis and Melisandre’s fires.  Ned hiding him away from Robert, just as Jon hides away Mance’s baby from Robert’s brother Stannis.

That his father admired and loved a man who supported the deaths of his half siblings and that Jon was named after Jon Arryn who rewarded the Lannisters for their treachery, which included the rape and murder of Elia and her babies.

The only people who have held the Lannisters to account for what was done to Elia and her children were the Martells and Oberyn Martell, years later.

I mean, this fandom goes on and on about how Jon is going to feel guilt and remorse for Robert’s Rebellion and look down on Rhaegar Targaryen and all the while ignoring how the truth is going to affect Jon’s idea of the people he did know and loved deeply. 

Why in the world would Jon Snow look kindly upon Ned’s love for a man who would have done to him what was done to Aegon and Rhaenys? Jon’s having to be hidden away as a bastard is a consequence of Robert’s visceral hatred of the Targaryens.

People who think that Jon will immediately start hating the Targaryens or his biological father after knowing the truth are going to be sorely disappointed. It’s not that black and white and there are many complex facets to Jon Snow finally knowing the truth of what actually happened and the mystery of his parentage as explained to him most probably by Howland Reed.

[thelustybraavosimaid]

George mentioned in a recent interview that Rhaegar knew of the prophecy, but there is not really much indication that he was "obsessed" with it or that that was the only reason why he did what he did with Lyanna.

It's hard to garner such information when in the official World of Ice and Fire app, it was said that he died whispering Lyanna's name:

Not only that, but George described him as a "love-struck prince" at one point:

At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

[Source]

Ser Barristan said that Rhaegar had a sense of melancholy about him, a sense of doom:

"Perhaps so, Your Grace." Whitebeard paused a moment. "But I am not certain it was in Rhaegar to be happy."

"You make him sound so sour," Dany protested.

"Not sour, no, but...there was a melancholy to Prince Rhaegar, a sense..." The old man hesitated again.

"Say it," she urged. "A sense...?"

"...of doom. He was born in grief, my queen, and that shadow hung over him all his days." (Daenerys IV, ASoS)

...and yet Ned has heard it said that it was Rhaegar himself who named the tower the "tower of joy."

Ned had pulled the tower down afterward, and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge. It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory. (Edward X, AGoT)

This would be in a similar way, I think, to how Arya could always make the oft-described "sullen" Jon smile.

And Arya…he missed her even more than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair and torn clothes, so fierce and willful. Arya never seemed to fit, no more than he had…yet she could always make Jon smile. (Jon III, AGoT)

She got him, in a way that Lyanna probably understood Rhaegar.

Ser Barristan also mentioned that Viserys was the one who was most like the Mad King, not Rhaegar:

"Some truths are hard to hear. Robert was a...a good knight...chivalrous, brave...he spared my life, and the lives of many others...Prince Viserys was only a boy, it would have been years before he was fit to rule, and...forgive me, my queen, but you asked for truth...even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did."

"His father's son?" Dany frowned. "What does that mean?"

The old knight did not blink. "Your father is called 'the Mad King' in Westeros. Has no one ever told you?" (Daenerys VI, ASoS)

[agentrouka-blog]

Sansa is blamed by fandom for not looking Joffery for his cruelty earlier and romanticised his actions. But Ned did the same thing with Robert. He knew that Robert rewarded Tywin for killing Elia and her kids. Robert claim to know about Joffery lie at Trident yet didn't do anything. Ned came to know that Robert is not same person and is abusive to his wife. Hell he even ignore Lyanna worry about Robert. He continue to be his friend till his last breath. Do you think their relationship was toxic?

Ned's levels of denial are really... not a good look.

Part of it is owed to GRRM's desire to hide Jon Snow's identity, but a consequence of that is that canon!Ned is shown avoiding all thoughts of why he desperately needed to keep the kid's identity a secret in the first place.

It's cohesively set up, how this denial exists alongside his very real fears.

The obvious way in which women are oppressed in their society makes him uncomfortable, so he evades confronting the thought, even though he knows that a problem exists.

"Robert will never keep to one bed," Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm's End. "I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale." Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature." (AGOT, Eddard IX)

Lyanna doesn't need to be a genius to realize Ned is feeding her horse dung. It's hard to tell if he even realizes the contradiction: he doesn't want to lie to her, so he serves her wishful thinking instead, something he wishes was true, but that obviously isn't for anyone who is not an idiot.

His priority is to make Lyanna stop worrying about it, to smother the conflict in his life between his sister and his friend. It's meant to appease Lyanna, not seriously address her concerns.

Avoidance at its finest.

It comes out again later, and more seriously.

Honestly, it's quite horrible. Lyanna fought in a tourney to chastise three squires for harrassing Howland Reed. This scene below would disgust her:

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing.

This time, Ned resolved to keep his temper.

He used Lyanna's death and his grief for her as an excuse to ignore Robert's approval of these murders. Even though they are the reason he knows why Robert cannot ever discover Jon's identity. He doesn't frame it in terms of still being secretly angry at Robert over this. He speaks of a mutual reconciliation. And it is mirrored here.

No sooner had those formalities of greeting been completed than the king had said to his host, "Take me down to your crypt, Eddard. I would pay my respects."

Ned loved him for that, for remembering her still after all these years. He called for a lantern. No other words were needed. The queen had begun to protest. They had been riding since dawn, everyone was tired and cold, surely they should refresh themselves first. The dead would wait. She had said no more than that; Robert had looked at her, and her twin brother Jaime had taken her quietly by the arm, and she had said no more.

They went down to the crypt together, Ned and this king he scarcely recognized. (AGOT, Eddard I)

Robert is being a tyrannical husband in this moment, almost humiliating his wife over what are absolutely valid concerns, but Ned just absolutely loves it because Robert wants to talk about Lyanna. Lyanna who had not wanted to marry Robert.

Ned goes about banishing Jon from the family table to hide him from Robert, but when his visit is announced?

It took Ned a moment to comprehend her words, but when the understanding came, the darkness left his eyes. "Robert is coming here?" When she nodded, a smile broke across his face. (AGOT, Catelyn I)

"Yay, the guy who would kill my nephew is coming here!"

Lyanna spent her final moments probably begging Ned to save her son's life. From this man. Who approves of child murder. With whom he then reconciled over his grief for Lyanna.

It's absurd! She would have hated Robert so much! That never occurs to Ned.

And his resolution now is to appease Robert even more by suppressing his own anger at the idea of assassinating Dany. Avoiding the conflict is more important again, because he has a murder investigation to worry about for which he is using his daughters as a cover. Especially Sansa, who is now going to marry into the murder suspect family. All is well.

It's kind of sickening.

Ned is not an 11-year-old girl with no power, trapped in a betrothal, reframing reality to mentally protect herself from trauma.

He is a grown man with tons of power, reframing reality to protect himself from the responsibility of open conflict.

Ned's wardship in the Vale must have been absolutely enchanted to make him prioritize his friendship with Robert over the reality of the man over and over and over again.

[esther-dot]

Apparently the Jon stan who was blaming Sansa and Bran for stealing his crown, now blaming Robert and Ned for stealing his crown. Because according to them Ned didn't make efforts to crown actual heir to the IT and had no problem with making his daughter Queen. That stan even once mocked Jonsa saying that it can be possible for Sansa to fall in love with Jon but Jon can't do incest. I don't know if that person is even Sansa stan.

I’ll answer this because the blogger has put these comments on my posts, but I’ll just express my hope that no Sansa fans/Jonsas harass anyone for disagreeing. When someone has nothing positive to contribute to your tumblr experience, unfollow/filter their URL/block them. Making sure your fandom experience is fun and leaving others in peace can be accomplished simultaneously. 💗

Yes, I had a long back and forth with them about Ned wronging Jon by denying him a crown on a different post some time ago. I disagree because I think the brutal deaths of Aegon and Rhaenys and how Ned is haunted by it is supposed to be the explanation for why Ned believes the only way to protect Jon is to keep his identity a secret.

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south. It had taken another death to reconcile them; Lyanna's death, and the grief they had shared over her passing. (AGOT, Eddard II)

This is the context in which Ned was living when he claimed Jon as his bastard. And here in AGOT, a decade and a half later, we’re told Robert hates Rhaegar just as much and it isn’t until he’s on his deathbed that he changes his stance on killing Targaryen children. I believe the author wanted us to view Ned’s decision to lie to his friend/king and cause strife in his own marriage and risk all of their lives by committing treason as not only entirely rational and justified, but a sacrifice he made out of love. I also don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Ned to turn around and ask the people who fought to overthrow Aerys to pick up their swords and fight to put that man’s grandson on the throne. It wasn’t only Brandon and Rickard who Aerys murdered. Furthermore, the author doesn’t support wars for the sake of a crown so it wouldn’t have been presented as right if he had.

Personally, I believe that Ned’s decision to raise Jon as his son is being upheld as good by the author each time he highlights Jon’s devotion to the Starks which is something I believe will culminate in him protecting them/the realm from Dany (I’m team stabbity stab), so the end of the series will justify Ned’s pre canon decision. We all have our own interpretations, but I don’t think the author intended us to find fault with Ned here.

We also had an exchange about how Sansa can fall in love with Jon, but Jon would never love Sansa, and first, it will never cease to amuse me when fans say sweet little Sansa is more likely to commit incest than a Targaryen. I often say we’re all reading different books, but Targcest is such a big deal, it’s hard for me to believe anyone’s version can completely delete that propensity! I’ll reiterate a sentiment I’ve expressed before, no one is obligated to believe Jonsa will happen. I really don’t care that people don’t buy it, many of the Jonsa fic writers I like don’t think it is a book thing. That’s not an issue for me.

But if I were looking at the books and trying to find proof that one of them will have someone fall in love with them as part of their story,  my attention would be drawn to lines like this:

It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love.

Stories progress, there’s evolution and new circumstances to change the characters as they respond to it. When we first meet her, Sansa believed in her stories, she didn’t know about all the horrible people and dangers in her world, she doesn’t understand how her world works, and she reaches a lowpoint where she finally understands that she was fed a story to make her inescapable fate palatable. She realizes she is a means to an end, and she has given up on more. But, this is only halfway through the story. How can you believe that that is where Martin intends to leave her? She’s disillusioned, she has given up on love, how do you shake up her worldview again and progress her into new territory, rather than retread the same ground?

The issue isn’t that Sansa can’t love, she’s had crushes and been infatuated, basically talked herself into loving Willas without even meeting him. No. We are waiting for her to be loved. The blogger you’re talking about isn’t a Sansa fan but a lot of them don’t like Jonsa for various reasons. To each their own. Even so, I read Sansa’s line and think, someone will fall in love with Sansa. This girl is going to have a romance. And I don’t think it will be a rando, it has to be someone whose head we’re in so we know how sincere their love for Sansa is. I think it will be Jon.

[sad-hippie]

Chapter 1

Kingsguard vows mean little when family blood stands in the way.

As Ser Lewyn Martell learned of the kidnapping of Lady Lyanna Stark, as he watched the King he dutifully served for years grow increasingly mad, as he smelled the burned flesh of those brave Stark Lords – he knew which duty weighed the heaviest.

In the cover of the night, he took his niece and her children and did not stop until he reached the safety that only Dornish sand could provide.

From then forth, the odds changed quite a bit.

Mad King Aerys died from a sword on his back much before the Battle of the Trident could ever take place. With the Targaryen King dead, not many Lords saw reason to rebel any further against the crown for a Stark daughter, no matter to whom she was promised.

When the former Prince Rhaegar Targaryen arrived at Kingslanding, victorious in his empty triumph – Robert Baratheon dead, Jon Arryn and Ned Stark defeated in their grief – he came to find Elia Martell sitting on his late father’s throne and ten thousand loyal Dornish men inside the city walls. All of them awaiting his return.

Elia Martell was a good woman, a gentle woman, and above all – a clever woman.

She wrote to Highgarden and promised the hand of her heir, her sweet Aegon, to the daughter they might yet have, should they support her before any woman her husband might prefer above her. To Lord Hoster Tully she promised Rhaenys to his heir. And to Lord Tywin she offered his son, Jaime Lannister, who she herself had pardoned, ensuring his father’s loyalty, albeit unwillingly, and a promise of release from his Kingsguard vows.

When Rhaegar Targaryen named Lyanna Stark, her sister-wife and their bastard, their legitimate son, Queen Elia Martell laughed heartily as she raised herself from the Iron Throne and went to her chambers. Followed closely behind by her own personal guard, the newly appointed Queensguard.

Her children were safe and her place secure, from the threat of a lesser man.

Those were the stories Sansa had been told, though Queen Elia had never spoken them to her. Nevertheless she knew them to be true, for it was Queen Elia who entertained the court, and it was she who heard the commoners and the petitioners. It was her presence the one requested in council rooms, much to the King’s displeasure. And it was to her the Lords bowed and beggared favours from, not her Lady Aunt – never to Lady Stark.

Sansa didn’t remember her parents very clearly, but she knew Lyanna had been a name unspoken in those cold halls of the North, and when she had been sent as a Stark ward to Kingslanding – a hostage – years later, it became clear to her that had the North held any love for Lyanna Stark, Sansa would have never been required to leave her home.

In the beginning it had been her lady Aunt that took charge of her. Until she found herself without patience for a little girl who preferred sewing and playing the high harp and the bells than riding and hunting.

And so, all alone and disregarded by the only family she had, it was Queen Elia that took Sansa under her wing. Presented her as a playmate to Prince Aegon. Made her a lady-in-waiting to Princess Rhaenys, when she grew older and more graceful. Treated her as her own daughter. Corresponded with her mother, Lady Catelyn, often to reassure her of her health and comfort.

Elia Martell was beloved all throughout the Seven Kingdoms and when King Rhaegar mysteriously died, after rumours that he had been searching for a third wife to fulfil a prophecy Lady Lyanna could no longer complete, after being made barren by her pregnancy as a child, no one batted an eye.

The mourning was quick and even quicker was the coronation of King Aegon Targaryen, the sixth of his name, his regency firmly in the grasp of his mother, the Queen – Elia Martell.

(...)

[hello-nichya-here]

Do you think Robet genuinely loved Lyanna?

Robert loved the woman that wanted to be his wife, would accept anything to be with him (including him putting himself at risk or repeatedly being unfaithful), and died waiting for him to rescue her from the evil man that stole what was his.

That woman is not Lyanna Stark, and only has her name and face in Robert's mind.

Lyanna never wanted to marry Robert, she said as much many times, and it's very likely that one of the reasons she ran off with Rhaegar was because she believed he was her best chance of avoiding that marriage. Robert still said that he didn't fight for the crown, he fought for her.

"But he didn't know she had not been kidnaped!"

True. But we cannot forget the result of that whole fiasco: Ned Stark has to pretend Jon, Lyanna's son, is his bastard, because had he known that the boy was Rhaegar's, Robert would have killed him - even if it meant ignoring Lyanna's dying wish for her son to be protected. Think about that: in her last moment on earth, she feared that the man who claimed to love her so dearly would murder her innocent son for the simple crime of being the child of another man. So romantic...

And let’s not forget that he was mad about her being buried in the crypts - even though it was what she wanted and a sign of great respect towards her. And that while visiting her grave, he told Ned about how much he loved seeing the women in the south swimming naked. Lyanna said love couldn’t change a man’s nature, and boy was she right. In what was to be a moment for him to grief and honor her, Robert was only thinking about getting his dick wet, no matter which woman would be helping him out. 

Finally, we have the nail in the coffin being brought on by Ned Stark:

"You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert. You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath"

The only reason Robert was obsessed with her was because she was the only woman he wanted that rejected him. The only reason his “love” for her lasted so long was because she was dead and thus could not contradict the warpped idea he had of her.

[astradrifting]

AGOT - Eddard I (Chapter 4)

Fifteen years past, when they had ridden forth to win a throne, the Lord of Storm’s End had been clean-shaven, clear-eyed, and muscled like a maiden’s fantasy.

…your fantasy too, mayhaps Ned?

****

No sooner had those formalities of greeting been completed than the king had said to his host, “Take me down to your crypt, Eddard. I would pay my respects.”

Ned loved him for that, for remembering her still after all these years.

You say ‘remembering’, I say ‘unhealthily obsessed with the idea of her, to the detriment of literally everyone in the realm’ but ok.

****

The queen had begun to protest. They had been riding since dawn, everyone was tired and cold, surely they should refresh themselves first. The dead would wait. She had said no more than that; Robert had looked at her, and her twin brother Jaime had taken her quietly by the arm, and she had said no more.

If they hadn’t mentioned Cersei in Catelyn I, our first impression of her would actually be very sympathetic. Hell, it still is, she’s in the right here.

****

“Kings are a rare sight in the north.”

Robert snorted. “More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!” The king put one hand on the wall to steady himself as they descended.

“Late summer snows are common enough,” Ned said.

Oh tell me more about these kings hiding underneath the Snow. Very subtle, George.

****

Brandon had been twenty when he died, strangled by order of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen only a few short days before he was to wed Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. His father had been forced to watch him die. He was the true heir, the eldest, born to rule.

There’s that younger brother complex rearing up.

****

Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. Robert had loved her even more. She was to have been his bride.

Your definition of love is very strange if you think Robert loved her more. Also, keyword there is child.

****

I was with her when she died,” Ned reminded the king. “She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father.” He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister’s eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it.

This is the first, if not one of the only, proper images we get of Lyanna. Sixteen years old, dying of fever in a bed of blood, black rose petals crushed in her palm, begging to go home.

Sure is romantic! Sure indicates she loved Rhaegar to the very, very bitter end!

Also, they found him. We only find out later on that nobody else survived the battle with the Kingsguard, so there’s an early hint that someone else was there with Lyanna. Wylla acting as a wet nurse maybe?

****

“In my dreams, I kill him every night,” Robert admitted. “A thousand deaths will still be less than he deserves.”

We’re in total agreement there.

****

Ned would sooner entrust a child to a pit viper than to Lord Tywin, but he left his doubts unspoken. Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.

Well ain’t that been the running theme of Ned’s life for the past 15 years.

****

The Hand of the King was the second-most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms. He spoke with the King’s voice, commanded the king’s armies, drafted the king’s laws. At times he even sat upon the Iron Throne to dispense king’s justice, when the king was absent, sick, or otherwise indisposed. Robert was offering him a responsibility as large as the realm itself.

If only Ned actually remembered that, later on. He acts more like a beleaguered detective who’s boss is riding him to close the case than the second most powerful man in the realm.

****

“If Lyanna had lived, we should have been brothers, bound by blood as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have a son. You have a daughter. My Joff and your Sansa shall join our houses, as Lyanna and I might once have done.”

mmhm, yeah, sure dude, that’s definitely gonna happen. Apropos of nothing, I wonder whose chapter is coming up next? :)

****

final thoughts:

I think the theme of this chapter is “men living in the past, unable to move past their trauma”, Robert very obviously so and Ned a bit more subtly.

[ericanoelle]

What if Cersei married Rhegar?

If King Aerys agreed for Rhaegar to marry Cersei instead of Elia, that would have changed things drastically. I believe that they still would have had two children and we will still call them Rhaenys and Aegon. Since Rhaegar would have treated Cersei better than Robert, she would have tried to make things work with him.

However, Rhaegar was obsessed with the prophecy of a Song of Ice and Fire, so he still would have crowned Lyanna the Queen of Love and Beauty, which would have insulted Cersei far more than it would have Elia. While Rhaegar and Lyanna were off having an affair, so where Cersei and Jaime- which would have lead to her being pregnant with Joffrey.

Robert rebellion happens however, since Tywin is Aegon (the heir) is going to back the throne. Both Rhaegar and Robert die at the Trident and Jaime still kills the mad king. Ned just wants to go back to the North and Tywin, who steps up for his grandson, tells Cersei to pardon them because they were just trying to get their sister back.

This brews a fresh hatred for the Starks because of Lyanna. Cersei gives birth to Joffrey Targaryen. Aegon is crowned King but Cersei is the Queen Mother and Tywin becomes hand of the King. Everyone else, is sent home. Stannis becomes Lord of Storms End and Jon Arryn and Lysa stay in the Vale.

Daenerys and Viserys are given Dragonstone and eventually grow up and marry each other. - they never hatch dragons.

Ned never tells anyone who Jon Snow is for fear of

Things are peaceful and Tywin proves to do well with the kingdom. Petyr's story stays the same, makes Gulltown profitable, catches the eye of the throne and Tywin brings him to be Master of Coin.

When Aegon is about 17, Tywin decides that he should marry. Cersei feels. that he should marry Rhaenys but disagrees. For services to the throne during the rebellion, Aegon marries Margaery- something Petyr arranges and is given Harrenhal as services to the throne. Which Cersei hates. Rhaenys is engaged to Trystane Martel. Tywin also reaches out to Ned and arranges for Sansa to be engaged to Joffrey.

When Sansa is 17, Ned and Catelyn bring Sansa to be married to Prince Joffrey (who is Cersei's favorite) who is the heir to Casterly Rock since Jaime is still in the King's Guard and Tywin ignores Tyrion completely in the line of succession. Joffrey and Sansa marry but he quickly becomes abusive.

They stay in the Red Keep for a time and Sansa becomes good friends with Margaery but also begins to lean heavily on Petyr. When Sansa miscarries due to a beating from Joffrey and is bed ridden, Petyr arranges for an accident to occur. Joffrey is killed and Cersei becomes distraught. Tywin is forced to name Tyrion as heir to Casterly Rock.

Sansa stays in King's Landing to heal and around the same time, news breaks that Jon Arryn has died in the Vale (Petyr had Lysa poison him). Sansa decides to remain in King's Landing since she is now a widow and has more freedom in comparison to when she was married. She starts having an affair with Petyr after a year or so. Sansa learns that it was him that had Joffrey murdered and that is a secret she will take to her grave.

Eventually, Robin who is very ill dies and in her grief, Lysa commits suicide- especially since Petyr never came to the Vale to marry her like he promised. Harry takes control of the Vale. Petyr suggests that perhaps Sansa and he should marry. At first Sansa is not pleased wit this but agrees. When Harry and Sansa marry, she learns very quickly that Harry is not faithful. He is a better husband that Joffrey but she is still not overly pleased with him. Petyr ends up leaving his position of Master of Coin and goes to the Vale to sit on Harry's council - but in reality it is to be near Sansa and away from prying eyes of the court.

When Sansa falls pregnant, she knows it is with Petyr's child and not Harrys. She gives birth to a son that they name Benjen. He has black hair which Sansa says must be the Stark line- when the child looks like Petyr. Harry never notices. Sansa eventually gets pregnant again and this time she gives birth to twin girls, Alayne and Lyanna. When the girls are infants, Harry is killed in a fight at a brothel (that Petyr owned).

Sansa becomes Lady of the Vale and rules through her son Benjen until he becomes of age. Petyr is her closest advisor and their affair continues undetected for many years. It is not until Lyanna marries Aegon and Margaery's son that Benjen discovers who his father really is.