#book canon ish

[atopvisenyashill]

Thoughts on the Alysanne is Maegor's daughter AU? I feel like it has some interesting potential, and it vastly recontextualizes different parts of Jaehaehae (I do not like him sjsjsjs) and Alysanne's relationship (such as Jaehaehae's treatment of their daughters) but I wanna hear what you think about it!

I’ve touched on this a bit before but since you actually want to hear my thoughts, allow me to present to you my Jaehaerys Is The Goddamn Worst, And Alysanne Annoys Me Too: An Essay lmao but my answer is basically “yeah all of what you just said.”

I think it makes Alysanne much more palatable (to me) as a character because as she stands, she just fixates on forcing her daughters through these fucked up marriages at too young an age bc it traumatized her to be married and pregnant at 15 too but she’d never admit that being a willing participant in her own kidnapping by her brother-husband was the single worst thing that ever happened to her, and because Alysanne doesn’t want to admit it (and Jaehaerys would never see it as wrong or a mistake) F&B really shies away from delving into the fact that Alysanne is as deranged of a mother as Cersei is. So as she stands, she’s very flat to me because she’s presented very flatly and inconsistently. She’s so in love with Jaehaerys, she’s maritally raped by Jaehaerys, she’s a loving and doting mother, she forces her daughters into marriages when they’re the same too young age she was, she accuses her teenage girls of being scheming whores then gets angry when her husband accuses their teenage girls of being scheming whores, and worst of all we are just told “Maegelle tells them to make up so they do” so we don’t know why Alysanne gets over all of this. What is the point of riding a dragon when you never use that dragon to protect your daughters from unwanted teen marriages? We’re just not given a good enough justification for why her behavior is so weird and frustrating towards her daughters.

Make her Maegor’s daughter though…most of her behavior as an adult makes more sense. Like a worse version of Rhaenyra’s childhood almost - a father desperate for a son, but lowkey obsessed with his daughter, who makes all his hang ups about his parents the problems of every woman around him, except Maegor is out here blood sacrificing and torturing and starting wars and forcing babies on wives he discards quickly and brutally. Then here comes Jaehaerys on a white horse green dragon to save her from the horror her life has become, and he loves her so much he runs away with her even though Alyssa says they shouldn’t marry because people won’t like it. And they have beautiful children, and a beautiful marriage, and build a beautiful kingdom.

Then her pregnancies start getting dangerous. Gaemon, then Valerion, die. Alysanne thinks of the shriveled up mutants she called brothers, if Maegor’s taint has passed to her. Her perfect husband ignores her no, and forces Gael on her. Alysanne remembers that he said nothing to Rogar when Alyssa died, merely wept. Then her daughters start to die. Daella, Alyssa, Viserra, all within a few years. Then Jaehaerys makes Saera watch as he murders her boyfriend, calls her a whore, and says Alysanne cannot follow Saera to Lys. Alysanne thinks of Maegor torturing the Harroways over Alys’ presumed infidelity. Jaehaerys says he’s sorry, and her daughter badgers her into forgiving him, and she remembers how she helped Jaehaerys badger Alyssa into forgiving Rogar. Not two years later, Jaehaerys passes over Rhaenys. Alysanne thinks of how she was never enough for her father, how she felt so superior to Rhaena banished to Dragonstone and resented by Aerea, yet there she is dragging Gael away from court because she can’t stand to be with Jaehaerys. How her father was surrounded by dead women and dead babies and how Jaehaerys is surrounded by his own dead daughters, but surely she did the right thing, surely Maegor was worse, surely the realm is better off? Is he right to pass over Rhaenys? Is she enabling a man just as monstrous as her father? She will never decide, because Maegelle will guilt her about keeping Gael isolated at Dragonstone, and Alysanne will do as she’s told, just like Rhaena, and Alyssa, and Jeyne, Elinor, Ceryse, Alys, and Tyanna, just like every one of her daughters.

I do get why Alysanne is Alyssa & Aenys’ and not Maegor’s. The weird Targ babies, the line not descending from Visenya, Jaehaerys and Alysanne being held up as the perfect Targaryen couple specifically because they are brother and sister and dragon riders. I do even think canon Alysanne is likely traumatized by her time as a hostage on Dragonstone, and the ensuing war, and the trauma bond that caused with Jaehaerys, and it makes her idolize Jaehaerys, and then he isolates her at Dragonstone so he can swiftly and safely marry, groom, and knock her up. It’s not like,,,, a fun time, and it’s enough to make anyone crazy and weird about their daughters, but I think having her father be Maegor makes Alysanne herself much deeper because it gives her, as the most beloved Targaryen queen, a blood tie to the most hated Targaryen king, and a marriage to the most beloved Targaryen king. It fits better with a lot of the themes of the main series (again, imo) - forcing the spotlight on the outsiders to see how the affect the story from behind the scenes. The fall of Aegon’s sons, and The Long Reign, not told from the PoV or to serve the PoV of any of the kings or princes, but of the queen that tied them all together.

[the-lake-lily-alchemist]

Dany’s vision of Rhaegar in the HotU

So, I want to beat an already dead and over-beaten horse, and talk a bit about Dany’s vision of Rhaegar in the House of the Undying.

Now, I want to preface it by saying that I know this subject has been talked about thousands of times and it’s boring and tiring to talk about the same shit over and over again, but I just saw “Rhaegar is a prophecy-obsessed groomer/rapist” discourse on my twitter feed and thought I’d toss my two cents in.

Firstly, let’s look a bit at this vision as it appears in the books, shall we?

Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. “Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. “What better name for a king?”

As we can see here, Dany, on her quest to find her children, stumbles upon this little moment long past. The text tells us that the three people shown here are Rhaegar, his wife Elia, and their son Aegon.

“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door.

This passage specifically has been interpreted numerous times. The text tells us that Rhaegar thought that his son, Aegon, was The Prince that was Promised. However, Rhaegar looks up when he says the prophecy, and looks directly at Dany, as if talking to her.

This to me reads as not-very-subtly being told the answer to the prophecy. Dany is TPTWP, as the author tells us through vision-Rhaegar. Thus, she is made aware of the prophecy, part of which we can find in the title of the book series.

I’ve seen the theory that Rhaegar seeing Dany was a time-space continuum bubble, of the present looking at the past, or, for Rhaegar, the present glimpsing at the future. How I see it, however, is that when he says those fateful words, and looks up to meet his sister’s eyes, he becomes both the gods’ and the author’s channel to make Dany and the reader aware of the answer to the prophecy. He sceases to be just a vision of the past and becomes the gods’/R’hllor’s voice, informing Dany. He tells her about the PTWP prophecy, because she is TPTWP!

Thus, when he continues with this,

“There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.”

we can infer that he’s saying this to Dany, because the gods want her to know this (and the author wants us to know this).

Mind you, these are visions, not just excerpts from the past/present/future. The conversation as it’s shown might not have taken place exactly like this, if it ever did. With how abrupt the cut from Rhaegar saying this to him going and playing the harp, I think he’s never said those words himself. Again, I believe that, in that moment (given that “There must be one more” and “The dragon has three heads” do not tie at all with the PTWP prophecy), it’s the gods using this vision of him to tell Dany (and the reader) an important message.

I shall say it one more time, just to be perfectly clear: IT’S NOT RHAEGAR TALKING ABOUT THE THREE HEADS AND A THIRD CHILD, IT’S THE GODS!

“There must be one more”, because Rhaegar has three children, not just two. Dany is fated to meet Rhaegar’s third child (and very probably fall in love and marry said third child, but that’s another overly-beaten, dead horse), and we as readers have been getting clues about who this child is since book one.

In no passage is it stated or implied that Rhaegar sought to have another child. He doesn’t go on and say, “When the maester has cleared you, we shall try for a third.” or “Because you can’t get pregnant again, I shall look for another woman to bear my third child.” The theory that he wanted another one, presumably a girl, to name her Visenya, is just that, a fan theory.

“The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can flnd them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.” (ASOS, Dany VI)

It’s clear (or it should be) that “the dragon has three heads” it’s specifically for Dany to know that there are two people out there whom she can trust and with whom she shall stand “against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.”

It’s not about Rhaegar thinking that his children are “the three heads of the dragon”. It’s about Dany. You would think it’s obvious given that it’s her chapter, but whatever.

[agentnatesewell]

suri getting railed until the bed breaks and the sun comes up and nate’s hair falls out of the knot at the base of his neck and waking up just to go again until adam delivers the most well timed orgasm denying interruption is exactly how i imagined her first night alone in weeks and first sleepover with nate actually

(minus the orgasm denying interruption, minus adam at her door, everything else yes)

[hewantshisbrideback]

Nobody can definitively say the means which lead to the tragic ends of two such beloved public figures. Nobody can name what it was that brought the last Targaryen heir to the throne and the only daughter of House Stark together in the first place. No one knows exactly what happened, not in truth, but people can speculate. And speculate, they do.

A SONG OF INTERVIEWS AND FAKE NEWS: Retrospectives on Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark

[neverenoughmarauders]

Prongsfoot headcanons?

​I am going to be so disappointing! 

Also, why answer in two sentences when I can answer WITH AN ESSAY?! Headlines provided to at least make some sense of my ramblings!

Canon

Sirius and James are SUPER close; they are being described as inseparable. Sirius is never shown to have any interest in girls despite it being very clear that he's spoilt for choices. 

All we learn about his life post-Hogwarts pre-Potters' deaths are that he was James' best man, James' son's godfather, that he was in the Order with James (and his other friends), that James wanted him to be secret keeper and that James trusted Sirius to use Peter as secret keeper (and even just writing that breaks my heart). Upon finding out James is dead, Sirius' first reaction is to try to take care of James' son, and the second is to go after the man that betrayed James (and Lily, Harry and Sirius).

He spent 12 years in Azkaban, blaming himself and escapes once he's worried for James' son's safety. The rest of his life is dedicated pretty much to keep James' son as safe as possible, and he dies protecting James' son. I will note though that he speaks more about Lily than say Remus speaks about Lily, and there's that letter in DH. It's fair to call it canon that the two of them cared about each other.

You know this... I just feel like it needs saying over and over because there's so much love there without any interpretation! <3

Headcanon

My headcanon has never been particularly creative. I've just always imagined that Sirius was in love with James (James was aware), and while James couldn't return those feelings, James obviously loved Sirius to pieces. Just as James accepted Sirius' feelings, Sirius accepted James'. I believe that if Sirius and Lily hadn't gotten along, James would never have married Lily, but I also believe Sirius mourned Lily too and cared about her deeply, obviously driven by how happy she made James.

Anyways, that's why I suck at writing ACTUAL Prongsfoot (apparently I can't write things that break my own headcanon except to write stricter canon stuff), but I love reading about it and seeing fan art because I just want my boys to have a good time.

Some Headcanons/moments

I've heard people say Sirius couldn't cast a Patronus because of Azkaban. My headcanon is that it was because he lost James - the light of his life.

Ignoring (1) I believe that if Sirius had been able to cast a Patronus after 1981, it would have been a stag and I even have a one-shot about that called: I can't love you back to life but I can live your love.

James and Sirius went to the 1974 Quidditch World Cup together with James' family. When Sirius opened his letter from Harry in the summer of 1994, which obviously did have some concerning news about Harry's scar hurting, he couldn't help but smile nonetheless at the hurriedly scribbled addition that Ron's family was taking Harry to see the World Cup.

Speaking of letters, Sirius re-read and re-read and re-read (...) Harry's letter where Harry provided a 'blow-by-blow account of exactly how he had swerved, circled and dodged the Horntail', all the while thinking back to the many occasions James would sit in the common room providing similar accounts of his own flying (which he didn't need to, Sirius had it all memorised already).

[cuteniaarts]

@katkastrofa, circa 40-ish hours ago: Hey, what if our newest bunch of OCs adopted a baby from one of the other brothel girls who knew she couldn’t afford to raise one? That would make for some fun shenanigans :D

Me, with a notoriously non existent sleep schedule, instinct of self preservation or concern for my poor wrist: Alright, bet. Watch how fast I can make you fall in love with this hypothetical baby >:)

Daneli as a gentle and loving caretaker-turned-adoptive-mother is something that can be So Personal, actually, and originally I was going to leave it at this quick sketch, but then I got carried away thinking about what this child will grow up to be like raised by this little gang of misfits, so…

Here she is!! A little older and so, so beautiful, I need more of her in my life immediately, she’s way too precious

And, because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t also add a sapphic element to this absolute cinnamon roll, a small crack ship that I’m only half serious about for when she’s a little older still:

All in all, we may be getting impossibly far from canon, but I for one already cannot get enough of sweet darling Kumisai <3

(I fully drew three pieces from scratch in 9 hours I cannot feel my brain or my hands anymore send help)

[natestars-corner-of-curiosities]

At first I was like “what if I made 11 sibling OCs for the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland and named them all after months of the year” as a joke. But bro, I don’t think it’s a joke anymore.

[communistkenobi]

I feel a strong desire to get deep into lotr lore, not because it’s fun or interesting (although I do think it’s both of those things), but because it’s a massive cultural text that people love arguing about and I enjoy having access to fine-grain discourse

[mydemonsdrivealimo]

i do want jensen to go back to school for sociology. just as a fun thing. bc 1 he deserves to see education as fun instead of the biggest financial stress and burden of his life but 2 bc i know bryce is sooo nosey whenever he's trying to study. like obvi he's seen jensen study for work and his boards but purely for academics?? it's such an untapped part of jensen and bryce wants to know soooo bad. jensen is sitting in bed reading a textbook while bryce is laying next to him kicking his feet and looking at what lines jensen highlights and asking what each highlighter color indicates

[shaniacsboogara]

Boogers I am seeing Dear Evan Hansen in 3 DAYS!!! This musical has been one of my biggest special interests over the years so I just had to yell about it a little bit 🙈

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Ranting a bit, just gotta get this off my chest don’t mind me

Rather annoyed by the notion that the ‘mastermind not being seen’ or ‘not being a player’ in the case of an Ouma twin situation means that it ‘wouldn’t work’ and is ‘just the same as bringing out Kaede’s twin at the 11th hour’

I mean... no? In a case like this ‘not being seen’ is the entire point (yknow just as Tsumugi sitting around doing basically fuckall is seen as the entire point of her, but when she does it it’s ‘cool and meaningful to her character’). And it’s not like there are no clues evident: to name but a few, Ouma’s lab not being present in the Survivor Perk, the hatch, monitors and the vault clues, the history book just lying around in his lab along with that (that’s going to be turned into ‘fiction’- like that in itself isn’t threatening?), Angie’s ‘god’ knowing peoples’ ideals as a ‘background force’ thing, the writing on the stone tablet matching the ‘this world’ speech from Monokuma, Ouma's whole mastermind-persona coupled with foreshadowing the ending in his FTE... need I go on?

It’s one thing if you personally don’t like it, that’s not what I’m taking umbrage with. What I’m taking umbrage with, is: how are you gonna sit there and compare all of that to the sheer asspull energy of bringing out Kaede’s or Kaito’s (? WHAT?) twin when neither of them ever even connect anything to such a persona? I just . How??

[angelsdean]

me with a neverending list of wip fics 

my brain: how ‘bout one more...

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I guess it's not overly common, or maybe it is and it's just in fiction, because there's plenty of them, and good in depth ones...but I also have always kind of liked or at least had interest for Bangelus I always was bummed there was never another meeting w them. It was something of ATS that didn't make sense since she was all he thought about last time he was out and he even almost ended the world. It was waste that rematch never happened....

I definitely agree, anon. I imagine a lot of it has to do with the legal issues at the time, of course. With Buffy and Angel being on different networks and the networks not really wanting the different characters to appear on each other's shows.

And, perhaps, the writers felt like if they had a Buffy vs. Angelus thing again--even if there would of course be some differences this time--it would be too much like Buffy season two, so instead they had Angelus vs. Faith instead (which I do love).

But it definitely is weird that Angelus didn't seem to mention Buffy much in Angel season 4, when she was all he thought about before. I think the most we get is him calling Buffy "a pistol," (which is a great line), and him calling Dawn and asking if Buffy's there (to figure out if the Slayer in town he's hearing about is Buffy or Faith), right?

To be honest, we can't deny that some of this might also be because season four is where a lot of where the Angel/C*ordelia plot line is. And during that, the show kind of stopped mentioning Buffy (to maybe try and give the illusion that Angel had moved on some, to try and get the audience to stop thinking of the Angel/Buffy pairing, or moreover to get people to not question... "Wait, how is Angel pursuing a relationship when he still has the curse when the whole reason he left Buffy is because he can't have a relationship if he still has the curse?"). So that might also be part of it. But I definitely think it's moreso the first points.

And, I know I'm biased here, of course (though I do still enjoy Angel/C*ordelia some, though Angel/Buffy is my OTP now), but I don't think Angelus really had feelings for C*ordelia (Buffy seems to be the only person that both the man and demon in him loved). Or if he did, it wasn't like what he felt for Buffy. Because if he had, wouldn't they have made him crazy like his feelings for Buffy had? Like, wouldn't he have wanted to destroy her for making him love her, too, if that had been a thing? So I don't think something like "Angelus had feelings for C*ordelia and that's why he didn't really think about Buffy in season four" was a thing.

The closest we probably ever get to seeing Buffy and Angelus ever interact again in canon is the comics (I don't know if you've read those, anon).

In season 8, I feel like Twilight (this other persona of Angel's, who, is, like partly good and partly bad; and also being possessed by his and Buffy's kind-of-evil kid [it's a super long and complicated story)] is kind of Angelus-like to me. But also Angel-like some. And yes, he and Buffy do end up fighting.

And then in season 10, Angelus makes a brief appearance (when his great-grandsire brings him out again) and he jealously attacks Spike in knowing that at the moment Buffy has chosen to be with him instead. And this definitely seems to hint, of course, that Angelus has finally accepted his feelings for Buffy by this point (the Twilight stuff kind of did, too--if you choose to see Twilight as partly Angelus at all--since he was choosing to be with Buffy and trying to create a perfect world with her, where they and everyone they loved could be together).

There's also a part in the tie-in book "Monster Island" (that takes place in early Buffy season 6 and Angel season 3), where Buffy and Angel (and Gunn) are kidnapped by the Big Bad of the book's minions. To try and get them out, Tara casts a spell to get all magical creatures to attack each other (thinking the demons would then turn against each other, and they could just easily swoop in and save Buffy and Angel at that point). But she didn't count on Buffy and Angel also being magical creatures, of course (or even herself being a magical creature), so Buffy and Angel are trying to break from their bonds to kill each other. And Angel is starting to be very Angelus-like (like, Angel even thinks that), though he's trying to fight it.

...This reply is all over the place. And I don't know if it makes much sense. Sorry about that! But like you, I do kind of wish that we'd gotten more Bangelus in canon! Like, it's cool that in the comics it seems that Angelus has undergone some sort of journey offscreen and accepted his love for Buffy, but I wish we had seen that onscreen somewhere.

But oh well. I guess that's what fanfiction is for:)

Thanks for the ask!

Edit: There's also more Buffy and Angelus in the book "Night Terrors," a Buffy Choose Your Own Adventure book. But if you get on the path where Angelus shows up, it's sort of an alternate canon to Buffy season two, as he shows up earlier there than he did in season two (before he and Buffy make love, etc.).

Angelus is also in the book "One Thing or Your Mother," and the classic comic "Ring of Fire," but they're more missing moments/episodes from season two, than Angelus showing up in a later season and seeing Buffy again or anything like that. I do highly recommend both, however, since you're a Bangelus fan. Especially "One Thing or Your Mother." Oh! And in the tie-in-novel "Here Be Monsters" (that takes place during Buffy season three), there's a section where Buffy is seeing her worst nightmares. I think it's Angelus she sees (and I think she sees herself killing him again? it's been a while), who tells her that she knows how their story is going to have to end (with her killing him once more), and she'd better make it stick this time.

In the tie-in book, "The Evil That Men Do" (a book that takes place in season three), Buffy and Angel are kidnapped by Helen (a former vampire lover of Angelus') and her lover and forced to try to kill each other in a gladiator-like game. They pretend that they've turned on each other to get out of it and get their enemies to try to kill one another (as Helen's lover was always jealous of her and Angelus, and now he fears they're going to be together again).

In the classic comic "City of Despair" (that takes place in Buffy season 4/Angel season 1) Buffy and Angel are abducted to another dimension (called the City of Despair, actually), and forced to battle each other. They both have these collars on their necks, that are impossible to remove and will kill them if they disobey. They're also, like, almost forced to fight against their will: their bodies moving with a mind of their own, I mean. But eventually Buffy realizes that it's literally people's despair keeping them there. She convinces Angel to try to fight against the feeling with her for just one moment: the two of them embrace, and then escape.

Edit 2: Wait. I guess there's also the Buffy book "Big Bad," that has Buffy and Angelus in it, but I haven't read it yet. So I can't tell you how good or in-character that one is atm. And unlike how the original tie-in books and classic comics were always okayed by at least one of the original writers, I'm not sure if these new novels have been. I'm thinking not?

Edit 3: And though a part of me is loath to mention Boom, since they're not canon and I have... not very positive emotions about these comics in a lot of ways. In the first Buffy/Angel comic they were doing, Angel ended up possessed by something called the Hellmother, I believe it was called, while he and Buffy were on a mission in the Hellmouth together. And then Buffy ended up having to fight him.

[lovehurried]

@wasworthy said:    “I turn round to find there's a girl in my room.” apart together  • not accepting.

"Y'know, you really need to get better security." She muses from her position on the bed, feigning concern. "They let anyone in here, Tommy. All I had to say was 'I'm his wife' and they gave me a key. Or am I just the latest in a long list of wives who've been visiting you this week?"

It's then that she lets herself grin, unable to keep up the bit when she catches sight of the gold band on his finger. She's used to the rush of affection he triggers now, but she's still not used to that.

The crisp, white hotel bedding stands in contrast to the black silk and chiffon of her dress; a show dress, something she decides to explain before he can think to ask.

"We've got a couple of days before the tour picks up again in Boston. Did you know it only takes an hour to get from Detroit to Hamilton, if you've got a friend with a private plane who owes you a favour?"

[wander-wren]

combo vent post & weird question coming at yall at the cool hour of almost 2 in the morning

so. i have not touched dusk to dawn in like two and a half weeks and have been slacking on it for months even tho i love the story and i really really want to get to its sequel(s). at the same time i have started a new project which is going to be about the same size (they’re both million word series! why do i do this to myself!)

the second project is significantly easier to work on and i’m more excited to work on it, and part of that is probably just “new and shiny thing” vs “two and a half year old wip,” BUT i realized something tonight.

for all of my other fandoms, i know at least one person i can send my fics to for betaing and bounce ideas off of and get nudged about progress. i do not have any warrior cats friends, at least not in my close circle of writers. i know some of them follow me so HELLO ILY, i do not blame them for not being in my fandom, it is simply a fact that the people i normally ask to beta can’t beta for warriors fics. which is fine.

but it definitely contributes to the lack of motivation when you feel like you’re working alone? ofc i have my handful of readers who comment, love yall, <3333, but that’s very very different from a bunch of in-line comments per chapter and yelling in dms and brainstorming sessions. which brings me to my slightly strange question

@ people (of any fandom!) who post about their stuff regularly……how. teach me. bc i wasn’t on tumblr when i was getting heavy into ao3, and on twitter i talked almost exclusively about my original work, which obviously i cant share as much about. like. do you try to avoid spoilers?? do you not?? what am i supposed to be talking about here, bc maybe if i don’t have proper betas i can at least get some of the same experience here. maybe use that to Find betas. idk. help?