#bethania blackwood. || study. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

imaginarianisms · 6 months ago

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b.etha b.lackwood actually has potential to be a Very intriguing character when you rly sit down & think about it. like. this is all based on speculation & i have no idea what fire & blood is gonna do surrounding the later targaryen kings & their queens & i haven't personally read the dunk & egg novellas so i could definitely be wrong about a few things but this is a meta on b.ethania b.lackwood.

b.ethania blackwood was born in 201 AC & would've been 5 years old when her father (or possibly even her grandfather as her father wasn't named, only known as lord blackwood) lord q.uentyn blackwood of raventree hall died in a tourney & killed by ser otho bracken who'd later become known as the brute of bracken at a tourney in king's landing during the reign of d.aeron ii the good targaryen which reignited the eons long feud between the blackwoods & the brackens (three years before the tourney of ashford where baelor 'breakspear' was accidentally killed by maekar targaryen, aegon v's father, which is where dunk & egg takes place), & thus i'd imagine that would cause b.etha to hate the brackens because of her (grand?)father's untimely death. to add salt to injury, she would've seen him die in front of her eyes because although he used a blunted longaxe, he struck him so hard that he stove in his helm's visor & his face beneath & that could've traumatized b.etha severely. maybe her older brother (or father, depending on if you think q.uentyn blackwood was her grandfather), the so far unnamed lord blackwood, inherited after quentyn's death. she would've been 8 years old when d.aeron ii 'the good' targaryen died during the great spring sickness. so, b.etha would've been raised in a time where women were more valued in comparison to the previous eras with the help of m.yriah m.artell, daeron ii targaryen's queen. house blackwood never lacked for powerful women in their house, however, but i think she would've looked up to queen m.yriah m.artell as a child. let's go with the scenario that betha is quentyn blackwood's granddaughter, she has every reason to hate the brackens & that's not even getting into petty blackwood-bracken feuds, this is a legitimate grievance in her family & i think that would've forced her to grow fast.

she's known to be willful & spirited, similar to her ancestors agnes blackwood & alysanne blackwood & later in life lyanna stark & arya stark. she would've grown up likely around someone of the likes of brynden rivers / bloodraven & shiera seastar & if she's anything like her female blackwood relatives, she's fierce, strong-willed, loves animals & an excellent archer, hunter & warrior & hella bisexual, but it's also plausible that she has the power of greensight & was a seeress, maybe even a skinchanger. maybe she even learned sorcery from both brynden & shiera later on in life but considering that the blackwoods are known for their magic & mysticism, that wouldn't be surprising at all. maybe she's brynden rivers' half sister through melissa blackwood or smth bc she was definitely related to melissa blackwood & she very well could've learned political intrigue from them. so, bethania could probably be an intriguing mix of agnes blackwood, alysanne blackwood, lyanna stark, sansa stark, arya stark & val/ygritte were all merged together into one badass powerhouse of a woman which i think aegon would've respected. house blackwood was originally from the north but for whatever reason they were exiled thousands of years ago & now that they're in the predominantly andal (read: european white folx) dominated riverlands, they've had to adapt as a minority unlike the indigenous majority north, & while they're the only indigenous house in the riverlands (& one of the few houses in general) that still follow the old gods, they participate in jousts & tourneys like the other andal southron houses do & they're powerful & wealthy enough to get away with it. it's possible that bloodraven may have inadvertently set up aegon v to meet betha bc he's kind of a giant troll, or maybe she saw him coming in her dreams. i'd& like to think that she & aegon bonded over the mystical & their adventures & aegon's mother was dyanna dayne so he would've been aware & raised in a time where women were respected & aegon himself is half if not more than half dornish. so considering he's half a dayne, he likely would've been raised in tales of brave chivalry & i think that aegon & betha would've bonded over that, too.

betha & aegon married for love which was exceptionally rare. i'd like to think that her fierce nature endeared aegon & the fact that he was a targaryen prince but was friendly to & practically grew up & lived among the common people would greatly intrigue betha, but also at the same time bc they're both stubborn, it definitely caused some friction from time to time, especially when he became king & he was often in wars as he was often described as forced to spend most of his reign in armor quelling one rising or another most notably the fourth blackfyre rebellion so he wasn't at home very often & it's entirely possible they became estranged but still loved each other. they married at summerhall when she was 19 & he was 20. i'd imagine they're both probably shorter than average bc we love to see short couples slay together. they probably could've met as kids before reuniting as teenagers. she & egg running around dunk is a very adorable image. it's also very possible that betha would've known rohanne webber & would've been friends with egg's sisters. aegon was pro-common folk & supported many reforms to give numerous rights & protections for the smallfolk that was unheard of at the time & limiting the rights of the high lords & i'd like to think that bethania definitely supported these reforms that angered a lot of the high lords which frustrated aegon because he couldn't do anything like that when everyone, even his own children, rebelled against him, when literally all he wanted was peace, prosperity & justice for all & i think betha supported him through all of it.

i'd like to think that she was slightly mean but in a good way & was never afraid to speak her mind & let others know when something they said or did was wrong, a kindhearted & pragmatic but also stern, tough-love type of person when necessary & i also think that she was likely a big political player & had a big say behind the scenes. she sometimes had to tell aegon to put his foot down, not that he didn't already have that confidence but sometimes you need a little push to get your point across. i'd& also like to think that betha saw duncan the tall as some kinda big brother figure & liked teasing him about everything at every given opportunity & seeing as brienne of tarth is a descendant of his, i think she'd like brienne very much & would be proud. betha definitely had a very dominant personality in any room she entered & left.

i think that when it comes to parenting, she was the stricter & more dominant one of the two (in more ways than 1), & when their kids end up fucking up big time doesn't hesitate to let them know that they fucked up big time, maybe tosses a slipper at duncan when he gets a lil too mouthy or does smth stupid, like, lbr most of her kids, especially jaehaerys & shaera make some pretty shitty decisions that really ended up fucking aegon & his peaceful reign over & she wouldn't have liked that one bit. i like to think she ended up liking jenny of oldstones, even after she tried to warn jenny away from duncan by telling her the most embarrassing & most annoying stories of all the shenanigans he did since he was born but she liked that anyway & she technically cost duncan the iron throne & she wouldn't have anything against daeron being gay bc its not considered a sin to the old gods. but at the same time No One Fucks With Her Kids. she's like one of those almost embarrassing soccer moms that will be super passionate when aegon, her kids or dunk are performing at tourneys & would straight up fight other ppl in the stands, & she was clearly the more dominant one of the pair, always standing in front of egg & speaking louder than him in social gatherings bc she Knows she's That Bitch. obviously that changed when she became queen & aegon becomes king & obviously they need to watch their behavior in the public eye, but you could easily tell that if you were close to them, that dynamic hadn't changed. i'd like to think that duncan & rhaelle takes the most after bethania physical wise so they look the most visibly indigenous with brown skin, black hair & dark eyes in comparison to paleskinned blonde haired purple eyed jaehaerys & (bc i like valyrians who don't look paleskinned white haired & purple eyed + native targaryens SWEEP) mixed features of paleskinned black haired purple eyed shaera & tanskinned silver haired dark eyed daeron (who i imagine is rhaelle's fraternal twin) & rhaelle was both a mommy & a daddy's girl & even as an adult she's still their babygirl but even though duncan looks like bethania, his personality's a lot more like aegon's. i'd like to think that betha, daella & rhae were the closest of friends once she was formally introduced into the family & they told her all about aegon & all of his worst stories & they'd always be hanging out somewhere & gossiping, with rhae especially, but that's specifically because i'm tired of female romantic rivals trope & aegon never wanted to marry any of his sisters at all, & the aerion thing & the love potion story was enough so please for the love of g-d grrm can we not have incest for one (1) generation.

regardless, she was the last non-targaryen queen before the targaryen dynasty fell & she is robert, stannis, & renly baratheon & rhaegar, viserys & daenerys targaryen's great great grandmother & (legally) joffrey baratheon, myrcella baratheon (legally) & tommen baratheon (legally), mya stone, bella rivers, gendry waters, edric storm, shireen baratheon, laena iii velaryon, corlys iii velaryon, rhaenys targaryen-martell, aegon (vi) targaryen-martell (if young griff really is that aegon, but that's how he'd perceive it either way), jon snow & khalakka rhaego's great great grandmother. she's the ancestor of the vast majority of the five kings & daenerys targaryen save for balon greyjoy & robb stark, but i& suspect the theory that melantha blackwood, wife to lord willam stark, mother of edwyle stark (who married marna locke & had rickard stark who then had brandon, eddard, lyanna & benjen & then the stark children) & jocelyn stark (who married benedict royce in the vale), who could've possibly have fought against the young boy lord edwyle stark's rival claimants of winterfell upon lord beron stark's death during the she wolves of winterfell period, is bethania's younger sister, so that would make bethania the great great great aunt of robb, jon, sansa, arya, bran & rickon in the paternal line through eddard & lyanna & i suspect that's one possibility of where the starks' recent greensight comes from. so with all that in mind, brandon, eddard, lyanna, benjen & rhaegar would be cousins, just as robert & eddard would be cousins, & rickard & aerys ii (his murderer) would be second (?) cousins & that would make rhaegar (& viserys & daenerys) a third cousin of lyanna (& brandon & eddard & benjen for that matter, which collectively makes rhaegar, viserys & daenerys third cousins once removed with all the current era stark children through the blackwoods & ned & robert having the same separation, iirc i believe they'd be, like, third cousins & bc of that, the present day targaryens, starks & baratheons are all direct descendants of bloody benjicot blackwood & daenerys would actually have more blackwood blood than the current era starks & she's also quite a bit of dornish blood who the rhoynar were known to use water magic, & jon has blackwood blood on both rhaegar & lyanna's side). yeah. she would've known a young tywin lannister, very likely a young joanna lannister & young barristan selmy & gerold hightower & likely knew maester aemon & several of the grandparents & parents of the current generation.

in the later years of his reign, aegon was consumed by the search for dragonlore in the hopes of hatching dragons; he was desperate for the power that he believed could bring peace to westeros & his dream of dragons led to the tragedy of summerhall. the books don't really say who exactly died but it's known that aegon v died, as did their son duncan & duncan the tall, aegon v's kingsguard, died there, too & it's very possible that his sisters daella, rhae & their children died there, too. maybe even betha did, too, but i'm leaving that up to interpretation in a scenario where betha could've lived, maybe because she wasn't there or she escaped just in time to look out for her very heavily pregnant granddaughter rhaella targaryen. maybe bethania helped rhaella give birth to & raise rhaegar while the fires consumed summerhall & most of their family in it & bc of that i think betha & rhaella were close. it's also implied that duncan the tall saved rhaella (& betha itc) from the fire before going back in. for the rest of her life, she wore nothing but black in grief for her husband & family.

it's entirely possible that they were fans of daeron ii targaryen the good, who knows, maybe myriah martell could've mentored betha when she was introduced to court & going with the theory that betha could possibly be bloodraven's younger half sister, myriah could've adored her & treated her like a protégé of hers considering she & melissa blackwood may very well have gotten along at court during the reign of aegon the unworthy. betha & aegon also both agreed that the incestuous marriages of so many targaryens did more harm than good (& that's not even getting into his own experiences as a child), but even though betha tried to make politically advantageous betrothal marriages for her own children to house baratheon, house tully, house tyrell & house redwyne, literally every single one of them married for love over duty save for rhaelle: duncan married jenny of oldstones, a mysterious common woman & gave up his throne for her, jaehaerys & shaera got involved with each other despite aegon & betha trying to separate them, daeron was gay & died with his lover ser jeremy during a battle & rhaelle was sent as a peace offering to the baratheons & she's the entire reason why robert, stannis & renly & robert & stannis' children have a claim to the iron throne in the baratheon dynasty bc they have targaryen-blackwood ancestry in the paternal line through their father steffon baratheon. she would've been around when the last blackfyre rebellions & maybe the ninepenny kings were happening (which, btw, the gang was all there, the targaryens, the baratheons, the greyjoys, the starks, the lannisters, the arryns, the tullys & the martells were all there; brynden 'blackfish' tully, tywin lannister, kevan lannister, tygett lannister, quellon greyjoy {asha & theon's grandfather}, ormund baratheon, steffon baratheon, aerys ii targaryen, hoster tully, petyr baelish's father, jon arryn, rickard stark & barristan selmy, all united against the ninepenny kings so a lot of the dynamics & alliances of the past generation began in this war & house blackfyre was ended in the male line).

betha would've likely had duncan at least 19 to 23 at most, but for simplicity's sake i'm going with she had him at 19 & he was conceived on their wedding night at summerhall & later fell pregnant with him; she had jaehaerys ii at 24, shaera at 25, daeron at 27, rhaelle at 27 at least to 33 at most but i'm just gonna say that she had her at 27 as daeron's twin & betha would've unexpectedly become queen at 32 years old in 233 AC. she would be queen for approximately 26 years & when she became queen the brackens were probably crying screaming shitting throwing up & be BIG MAD ngl bc a blackwood of raventree hall becoming queen of the seven kingdoms would've been so humiliating for the brackens & i wouldn't have put it past the brackens to try & send their daughters to seduce aegon when he was younger like they tried with aegon iv targaryen but it didn't work just like last time (but unlike the feud between barba bracken & melissa blackwood, i'd like to think that bethania was. far more direct & aggressive towards her competition & wouldn't hesitate to beat a bracken bitch's ass lmfao). she would be the only queen in the targaryen dynasty (& the baratheon dynasty for that matter) who worshipped the old gods save for of course the de facto crown princess sansa stark. & honestly i think as queen, that would be disputed especially among the faith of the seven, specifically for her faith of the old gods (aka her INDIGENOUS RELIGION) & the faith very specifically sees the old gods as little more than demons (which is what. yknow. christianity said about indigenous religions in our world) & she would be the only indigenous queen of westeros. bethania's faith (& her being an indigenous woman who's also a warrior) would be another reason why people didn't want aegon to be king, considering many lords considered him half a peasant because he practically grew up among the smallfolk. so betha would've likely had to face sexism, antinative racism & faith discrimination. & i think her being a powerful indigenous woman & being a worshiper of the old gods & also her ties to bloodraven would've played a factor into the debates of the great council of 233 AC & even beyond possibly, westerosi politics was no stranger to criticizing unorthodox nobles, particularly women like larra rogare during the lysene spring, & maybe a reason why some lords may have wanted to get aemon on the throne was so that they could have a son of maekar who had no troublesome ties to the old gods rather than the half peasant son who's wife worshipped those strange & ancient gods & possibly practiced magic. i& genuinely think that betha's familial religion was used as an argument against aegon v's kingship & even after his reign bc how could aegon be trusted as a prospective defender of the faith when his own queen worshipped gods who were "little more than demons" & tried to turn aegon & betha's children from these same old gods from their "sinful" mother who "encouraged them away from the light of the seven" & assumed to share the same intrigue in magic & evil as associated with another blackwood old gods worshipper (& a bastard & maybe even her older half-brother at that) brynden "bloodraven" rivers. for people who were already distrustful of aegon bc he was basically brought up around the common people, the fact that the prince's wife & the mother of his heirs worshipped gods other than the seven might have been useful ammunition in their arguments against his ascension to the iron throne & during his long reign afterward.

overall, i think she was a talented political mind who's skills were ultimately strengthened by the eons long bracken-blackwood feud & possibly the teachings of melissa blackwood & brynden rivers & maybe even shiera seastar, who's own skills were honed during the court of king aegon iv targaryen the unworthy, may well have been the power behind her husband's throne if not his equal, smoothing things over when he infuriated the high lords, maybe she even served as his hand of the king when brynden rivers was exiled to the wall for his entire reign, i also think she's an extremely pragmatic & also deeply loving woman & was the one responsible for arranging her children's betrothals & while she was upset that they broke their betrothals, she never disowned them for it but despite all her diplomacy & tact, she had a fiery temper that was utterly terrifying in its power, & may have been a skilled seeress, huntress, archer & warrior, who knows, maybe she fought alongside aegon & her sons during one of the blackfyre rebellions. i genuinely believe she was a popular queen among both the smallfolk & the nobles which was a rare feat for a monarch but despite that respect, i'm sure there were rumors that always followed her around. i'd like to think she outlived her husband & most of her family & spent the rest of her life trying to protect the remainders of her family as dowager queen & dowager grandmother who still followed the old gods faithfully. i personally interpret that during their wedding, betha planted the last weirwood tree in the royal godswood of king's landing & ravens tended to flock to her whenever she went outside & she always seemed to know more than she logically could, even with the help of spies which she no doubt used, but she always claimed to others it was mere intuition.

she would've been 51 when brynden rivers disappeared during a ranging beyond the wall & would've been 58 years old during the tragedy of summerhall where her husband & so many of her family & friends died & when prince rhaegar targaryen was born. (which, btw, betha technically provides half of rhaegar, viserys & daenerys' genes bc the next two generations were inbred rippppp & that technically makes them half blackwood thus "half" native if you will lmfao). i also calculated how old she'd be in the present day & she'd literally be 99 years old. i'm& genuinely considering an au or maybe her main verse where betha actually Does live bc idk i think it'd be interesting to see betha interact with the current generations, particularly her grandchildren & great grandchildren & being forced into this intrigue.

#bethania blackwood. || study.

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