#brb crying at this precious brotherhood

[fujunfuren]

It’s California Love, Our endless night

DONGHAE 'California Love (Feat. JENO of NCT)'

[chillyravenart]

Where Does He Get It From?: Baelon and Alyssa Targaryen

In this post I will be exploring the traits and characteristics of Baelon the Brave and his beloved sisterwife Alyssa. 

Baelon and Alyssa were soulmates, an OTP to defy all others, devoted and charming and PASSIONATE. They died fairly young but left a lot of their fire in their son Daemon.

Daemon Targaryen, The Rogue Prince, notorious cad, abominable scallywag, certified badass and philanderer inherited much of his zest for life from his mother and father. The hot-blooded feistiness was all Alyssa, whilst the daring and badassery was all Baelon the Brave. Let us delve into these two beautiful children of Jaehaerys and Alysanne to shine a light into the inner depths of Daemon’s character.

When Aemon was given his first wooden sword to begin his training in arms, Baelon was judged to be too young to join him, but that did not stop him. He made his own sword from a stick and rushed into the yard anyway to begin whacking at his brother, reducing their master-at-arms to helpless laughter.

Thereafter Baelon went everywhere with his stick-sword, even to bed, to the despair of his mother and her maids.

Aemon was taller and stronger, Baelon quicker and fiercer.

You’re telling me Daemon didn’t sleep with Dark Sister under his pillow every night? He treasured that sword above all else, it is known. Baelon’s mastery at swordplay, the drive and energy- along with the sword were evidently imprinted on Daemon too.

Additionally, Baelon adored his older brother so much, a Tolkien-esque bond of brotherhood that just kills me. Daemon may not have had the same devoted love for his brother Viserys, but I’m certain he loved him in his own way... the rascal.

Prince Aemon was shy around the dragons at first, Benifer observed, but not so Baelon, who reportedly smote Balerion on the snout the first time he entered the Dragonpit. 

“He’s either brave or mad, that one,” old Sour Sam observed, and from that day forth the Spring Prince was also known as Baelon the Brave.

No, he’s just Daemon’s daddy.

Wherever Prince Aemon went, whatever Prince Aemon did, Prince Baelon would not be far behind, as the wags at court oft observed. The truth of that was proved in 73 AC, when Baelon the Brave followed his brother into knighthood. Aemon had won his spurs at seventeen, so Baelon must needs do the same at sixteen, traveling across the Reach to Old Oak, where Lord Oakheart was celebrating the birth of a son with seven days of jousting. Arrayed as a mystery knight and calling himself the Silver Fool, the young prince overthrew Lord Rowan, Ser Alyn Ashford, both Fossoway twins, and Lord Oakheart’s own heir, Ser Denys, before falling to Ser Rickard Redwyne. After helping him to his feet, Ser Rickard unmasked him, bade him kneel, and knighted him on the spot.

Prince Baelon lingered only long enough to partake of the feast that evening before galloping back to King’s Landing to complete his quest and become a dragonrider. Never one to be overshadowed, he had long since chosen the dragon he wished to mount, and now he claimed her. Unridden since the death of the Dowager Queen Visenya twenty-nine years before, the great she-dragon Vhagar spread her wings, roared, and launched herself once more into the skies, carrying the Spring Prince across Blackwater Bay to Dragonstone to surprise his brother Aemon and Caraxes.

Dressing up as a mystery knight, beating several knights in a joust and being knighted at sixteen? Sounds like something Daemon’s daddy would do! Claiming Vhagar HERSELF as his mount? The she-dragon of QUEEN VISENYA? Yep, just Baelon the Brave things. Its also no surprise that Daemon took that punk Aemond down so SPECTACULARLY after seeing the unworthy snot fly both his father’s and deceased wife’s mount.

Prince Baelon, who dutifully took his brother under his wing, marched him out into the yard, put a sword into his hand and a shield upon his arm. It did not set him right. Vaegon hated it. He was a miserable fighter, and he had a gift for making everyone around him miserable as well, even Baelon the Brave. 

Baelon persisted for a year, at the king’s insistence. “The more he drills, the worse he looks,” the Spring Prince confessed. One day, mayhaps in an attempt to spur Vaegon into making more of an effort, he brought his sister Alyssa to the yard, shining in man’s mail. The princess had not forgotten the incident of the Arbor gold. Laughing and shouting mockery, she danced around her little brother and humiliated him half a hundred times, whilst Princess Daella looked down from a window.

Getting his little sister to beat up his brother? Oh Baelon <3

Unlike their father and mother, Baelon and Alyssa did not wait to consummate their union; the bedding that followed their wedding feast was the source of much ribald humor in the days that followed, for the young bride’s sounds of pleasure could be heard all the way to Duskendale, men said.

Great in the sack too, hmmm I wonder where Daemon got it from??? Now we come to Alyssa.

A shyer maid might have been abashed by that, but Alyssa Targaryen was as bawdy a wench as any barmaid in King’s Landing, as she herself was fond of boasting. “I mounted him and took him for a ride,” she declared the morning after the bedding, “and I mean to do the same tonight. I love to ride.”

Your son did too, Alyssa. 

But let us rewind a bit and have a look at this little firecracker when she was younger.

... when she was six playing in the yard a whack across the face from a wooden sword broke her nose. It healed crooked, but Alyssa did not seem to care. By that age, her mother had come to realize that it was not Daenerys that she took after, but Baelon.

Just as Baelon had once followed Aemon everywhere, Alyssa trailed after Baelon. “Like a puppy,” the Spring Prince complained.

“Alyssa is for Baelon,” she (Alysanne) declared. “She has been following him around since she could walk. They are as close as you and I were at their age.”

Their older siblings Baelon and Alyssa had become inseparable, and plans were already being made for them to wed.

The fact that Alyssa was besotted with Baelon since she was old enough to walk kills me. The fact that they were soulmates always leaves me crying in the club. How perfect they were. How precious.

The princess did not act like a girl, however. She wore boy’s clothes when she could, shunned the company of other girls, preferred riding and climbing and dueling with wooden swords to sewing and reading and singing, and refused to eat porridge.

Look at this badass. Obstinate, determined and a hater of porridge? Her son made up for her shunning the company of girls, I assure you.

Like her brothers before her, Alyssa Targaryen meant to be a dragonrider, and sooner rather than later. Aemon had flown at seventeen, Baelon at sixteen. Alyssa meant to do it at fifteen. According to the tales set down by the Dragonkeepers, it was all that they could do to persuade her not to claim Balerion. “He is old and slow, Princess,” they had to tell her. “Surely you want a swifter mount.” In the end they prevailed, and Princess Alyssa ascended into the sky upon Meleys, a splendid scarlet she-dragon, never before ridden. “Red maidens, the two of us,” the princess boasted, laughing, “but now we’ve both been mounted.”

My girl wanted to claim BALERION, but ended up with the Red Queen- a red mount, like her son after her :’) She was energetic and loved to race her brothers, easily outpacing them. This daring and ambition was so evident in Daemon too.

Against all advice, his mother clapped the boy in swaddling clothes, strapped him to her chest, and took him aloft on Meleys when he was nine days old. Afterward she claimed Viserys giggled the whole while.

And that was just what he did, for later that same year Princess Alyssa bore her Spring Prince a second son, who was given the name Daemon. His mother, irrepressible as ever, took the babe into the sky on Meleys within a fortnight of his birth, just as she had done with his brother, Viserys.

In case you’re wondering where Daemon got his BDE from... HE GOT IT FROM HIS MAMA!

After a long and difficult labor, she gave Prince Baelon a third son, a boy they named Aegon, after the Conqueror. “They call me Baelon the Brave,” the prince told his wife at her bedside, “but you are far braver than me. I would sooner fight a dozen battles than do what you’ve just done.” Alyssa laughed at him. “You were made for battles, and I was made for this. Viserys and Daemon and Aegon, that’s three. As soon as I am well, let’s make another. I want to give you twenty sons. An army of your own!”

Ok so can we just talk about how SWEET these two were??? We could have had it all... it hurts so much. So SO much. BRB crying.

Though shattered by his loss, Baelon took solace in the two strong sons that she had left him, Viserys and Daemon, and never ceased to honor the memory of his sweet lady with the broken nose and mismatched eyes.

IT’S TOO MUCHHHHHH. I can’t cope.

As charming as he was hot-tempered, Prince Daemon had earned his knight’s spurs at six-and-ten, and had been given Dark Sister by the Old King himself in recognition of his prowess.

Daemon became a knight at sixteen, like his father before him and wielded his sword Dark Sister too, the Valyrian sword of Queen Visenya herself. The charm? The hot temper? Alyssa and Baelon ran deep in that boy... and what a legacy he carved out for himself too.

Thank you for coming to my Targ Talk.