#but plenty of daemyra vibes

[captainswanapproved]

The Queen's Gambit- Chapter 1

A03

Daemon x Rhaenyra Multi Chapter AU: Rhaenyra is now 18 and eager to prove herself. Having never been forced to marry Rhea Royce, Daemon has matured and given up his gallivanting through the Street of Silk. Queen Aemma survives her final birth but the baby does not.

Queen Aemma knows of Daemon's devotion to Rhaenyra. She also knows that this devotion is not unrequited. Aemma goes to Viserys with a proposition: one that will ensure the future and legacy of House Targaryen.

Chapter 1

“Your grace, you must choose. The babe or the mother?”

Viserys winced as his beloved Aemma screamed again.

“Save them both,” Viserys said, “By the order of your king, save them both.”

“Your Grace—”

But Viserys did not remain to argue the point. Instead, he went to the weirwood tree to pray.

***

By the grace of the gods, Queen Aemma Targaryen survived her labors. Alas the gods gave and took away. Prince Baelon Targaryen was stillborn and burned on a pyre the following day.

Aemma watched as her son’s pyre was burned by Syrax. Rhaenyra had barely been able to utter the command. She watched as Rhaenyra, now a woman grown at one and eight, clung to her uncle Daemon as she wept. Daemon held her tightly, running one hand through her hair and idly kissing her brow. It did not seem to matter to him that his actions had an audience.

Aemma knew she would be unable to carry another child. Her body had been irreparably torn and scarred by this final birth. Daemon was the heir, but Aemma suspected that he wanted something else. She would confirm her suspicions in the godswood the next day.

Aemma sent a summons to Daemon’s apartments the following morning. She paced the peaceful godswood as she waited for her brother by law.

When he arrived, he bowed deeply. “I am at your service, my queen.” Aemma was tempted to smile. His formalities always had an heir of mockery with herself and Viserys. Daemon loved them both, she knew, but the games and politicking of court seemed to have little appeal.

“What do you want, Daemon, truly.”

“Your Grace summoned me. I expect you wanted something of me.”

Aemma nodded. “I want your honesty, Brother. Do you want to sit the iron throne, or does your heart and ambition lay elsewhere.”

Daemon did not immediately speak. He appeared wary as he formed his next words. “Viserys would never allow me to have what I truly want. I suppose I must settle for the throne, but I hope it may be many years before I take that mantel.”

It was the answer Aemma wanted to hear. “Does the title King Consort have more appeal? And before you deny it, remember that I, unlike my husband, have yet to deny you anything.”

Daemon swallowed thickly. “Your lord husband would never permit it.”

“That is not an answer to my question. Do you want Rhaenyra? Would you treat her as she deserves? Would you do everything in your power to protect her?”

“Yes,” Daemon said, at last without hesitation.

Aemma smiled and moved to embrace her brother. Daemon seemed tempted to withdraw, wary still. But eventually his forehead was on her shoulder, and arms were around her waist. “I will make my husband see sense, Daemon.”

***

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen had spent the night weeping for her brother, for her parents. For eighteen years, and very likely more, they had been trying to conceive an heir to the throne, and all the gods had granted them was her.

Rhaenyra knew her father loved her, but she would never be a son. She would never be able to sit the iron throne. Uncle Daemon would be the next in line for that dubious honor. Yet, Rhaenyra wondered if she could ever convince her father to allow her to follow her heart.

Rhaenyra had kept her desire for Daemon locked away in the deepest chambers of her heart, knowing that her father was unlikely to approve the match. He would expect her to wed the son of some other highborn lord. Perhaps a Lannister or a Tyrell.

But in the last three years, Rhaenyra had begun to imagine what it would be to wed her uncle, to bind their blood in the tradition of Old Valyria.

Rhaenyra was startled from her reveries when her mother entered her chambers. “Mother, you should be resting.”

Aemma smiled. “Perhaps I should, sweetling, but there is much work to be done. Tell me true, my love, do you wish to become your father’s heir.”

Rhaenyra’s heart leapt, but she schooled her features. “I am only a girl.”

Aemma sighed. “You are as stubborn as Daemon, child. I have been unable to provide a male heir for two decades. Your father must learn to accept that he already has a capable heir. Would you take up the responsibility?”

“I would not wish to supplant my uncle,” Rhaenyra said truthfully.

Apparently this was what her mother wished to hear. She kissed Rhaenyra’s forehead. “Supplanting your uncle is not precisely what I had in mind, my dear. Would you be opposed to him taking a different title one day, that of King Consort?”

Rhaenyra’s heart skipped a beat. Surely her mother was not serious. “Father would never allow it.”

“All I want for you is happiness, my dear. The crown is a heavy burden. To bear it, you must have the right person at your side. Do you wish to wed Daemon?”

“Yes,” Rhaenyra said, still not believing it would ever come to pass.

***

The council meeting was supposed to end an hour ago. Yet her husband had not returned from the council chambers.

Aemma decided that this was not only a matter of the heart, but a matter of state. So she climbed the stairs that led to the small council chamber. When she entered, she found her husband alone with his Hand, Otto Hightower. “Prince Daemon is not a worthy heir, Your Grace. If he ever sits the iron throne, he would be another Maegor the Cruel. He would ruin the peace you have worked your whole reign to maintain.”

Her lip curled. Already, Otto Hightower was trying to supplant his old rival. The man was a snake, and her husband refused to see it. She cleared her throat, and both men looked up.

Hightower had the good sense to appear embarrassed. “My Queen, you should be resting,” he said. “Allow me to express my sincere condolences for your loss.”

“Thank you, my lord. I need to speak to the king in private. Leave us now.”

Hightower bowed low and left the room.

Viserys watched her with concern. “My love, truly you should be resting. You endured a great ordeal.” He withdrew a chair for her and she sat beside him.

“I am well, husband. But we must think of the future. The gods have denied us a male heir. We have both been guilty of overlooking the greatest hope for the realm. My King, you must make Rhaenyra your heir. She will uphold your legacy and the Targaryen dynasty. She is wise and capable beyond her years. Name her the heir.”

“You would have me supplant Daemon?” Viserys asked.

“As would your Hand, my lord husband, but my motivations are different. I have spoken with Daemon. He has no wish to sit the throne himself. But he would gladly take a different title. Wed Rhaenyra to Daemon, and they will secure our family legacy and rule the realm with grace and honor.”

To her great surprise, Viserys laughed. “My love, that is nonsense. I do not doubt that Rhaenyra would be a capable heir. My Hand has even encouraged me to name her heir, but to wed Rhaenyra to Daemon? That is ridiculous.”

“Why? There is nothing Daemon loves more than our family and its legacy. He would treat Rhaenyra as she deserves, and defend her claim with his last breath.”

“He lusts for my throne, not for our daughter, Aemma. I will name Rhaenyra my heir, but she will marry someone more deserving of her. I love my brother, but he has proven time and time again that he is unworthy of a high position.”

Aemma frowned. “Is this your belief, or that of your Hand?”

“It is the undisputed truth. He is careless, reckless, and brash. In regards to a possible match with Rhaenyra, Daemon is incapable of being a faithful husband. I know of his reputation with the small folk. He has fucked his way up and down the Street of Silk for years.”

“People change, Viserys. Give him a chance. Give him a place on your small council. I believe you have no current Master of Coin.”

Viserys kissed her cheek. “My Queen, your faith in Daemon is admirable, if not questionable. Out of respect for you, I will ponder your advice. But in no uncertain terms will I wed my daughter to my brother. Please, let us speak of this no longer.”

Aemma wanted to argue, but she heard the finality in her husband’s tone. It was enough for now that he had agreed to name Rhaenyra the heir. What was somewhat disturbing though was that Hightower had suggested the very same. Aemma was certain that Hightower’s suggestion was self-serving, but she did not know the details of what the Hand may be planning.

What Aemma did know was that she would have to find a way to convince her husband to see reason. Daemon was the only man in the realm who would serve Rhaenyra with unfailing devotion.

[egipci]

what do you think it is exactly that's stopping the daemyra pairing from being more compelling? bc i feel the exact same way and i can't pinpoint it. is it just the show not hitting the right points and letting it kind of blur into the background... is it an acting problem, a chemistry problem? i think rhaenyra by herself is great and matt smith is really bizarrely ugly imo but a very good actor and from the beginning i had faith in him to play daemon (and i'm still enjoying him for the most part). also its not like one or both parties being ugly has stopped me from getting into a pairing before but i just for the life of me cannot bring myself to feel anything about them at all. i am kind of a lowkey viserys/daemon shipper but again that's not something that on paper would have stopped me from also caring about d/r? i feel like that's been the consensus amongst casual viewers too tbh, having read the book(s) i expected more outrage from my normie friends over the incest but more than one of them has complained about being bored with those two. it's gnawing at me. idk would be interested to hear your thoughts

Hello hello <3 I had to take a minute to think more about this beyond "the vibes are just not there anymore” lol, because I actually really did enjoy the ship in S1a, even though I vastly prefer Emma D'Arcy and older Rhaenyra to Milly Alcock (and she was great in her own right) and despite Matt Smith's... unconventional charm. And while I do think the actors still have plenty of chemistry, and I can be persuaded to care more, at this point I just find myself wondering 'what do these characters like about each other? what is this relationship like?’

The thing I have found particularly attractive about incest (and even more inter-generational incest) is that it's inherently a shorthand for deep history and affection and obligation (kinda like childhood best friends to lovers in that way) -- I don't need to see Daemon meet Rhaenyra for the first time as a new-born to like, imagine the feeling of meeting a very little person related to you for the first time and the parental feelings that inspires. And of course an uncle/niece relationship is per se about the nexus character, namely the brother/father, and so far the show has delivered on that front. Viserys is their third because he's the raison d'etre of the relationship, but I can't figure what else is going on there, I don't know what inspires the romantic turn. Daemon is a parental figure to her, but he's not just that, and that's the reason the relationship is permissible in their world in the first place, but what else is there? In ep 2x4 little Rhaenyra articulates what the initial draw was for her, and then again adult Rhaenyra does the same in ep 6, but what is it to Daemon? What does he like about her? Like, I know why I like watching her as a character, but what does he like about her?

Not to make everything about j/d but for the sake of illustration --- j/d is a parent/child relationship obviously, and whenever I write them the central motif is that deep paternal love but that's not enough to explain the sexual turn (whether consummated or un). There has to be some extra something there, which is in the case of J/D the 20+ years of history and partnership between them, which we only see glimpses of. But I factually know that in canon it existed, and I can still see its impacts on Dean all the way to the very last scene of the show. There's a reason I find J/D more plausible than J/S, even though John feels the same profound affection and devotion towards Sam.

I have no sense of that history with D/R. I can fill in the blanks when we first meet them in ep 1, but that can only go so far, because the adapted text leads me to believe there is no such history between them. There is no canon opportunity for that relationship to develop. We have a few scenes with them between s1 ep 1-2, then there's a three year time jump to ep. 4 during which they haven't seen each other, between 5 and 7 there are ten years where these characters do not interact, unlike in the book. Their reconciliation in ep. 7 feels more like a grief-fueled political alliance than a rekindling of a torrid affair, which is of course plenty interesting as a foundation for a relationship, but then we immediately jump six years into the future in ep8. Presumably any given relationship is different at year 20 from what it was at year 0, I just don't know much about how this particular relationship has evolved. I know they have had sex in the interim because I see they have kids, but that's about it. And it's unfortunate, because the show has been able to deliver real-feeling relationships in very limited scenes between Rhaenyra and Laenor, for example, or Aegon with his parents and Otto in S1. And to be sure the D/R relationship doesn't lack nuance, it just doesn't have the emotional resonance to me of a romance between soulmates like the show runners describe it. From a Rhaenyra-centric pov it simply feels like getting with your high school crush after many years in-between and it's just not working out as you would have hoped. From a Daemon-pov, Rhaenyra just feels like a consolation prize. And also both of them used to date the same guy. And ironically, I actually find that intriguing enough, I just feel like I'm being gaslighted by the show runners and its fans about what I'm actually watching.

Like I said before, incest aside, I think this is a very common problem in conveying romance in visual media, or at least a common experience for me as a viewer (which is why I consider myself a pretty non-shipper normie). Obviously there are many many people who ship it and spend a lot of time thinking about it out there, so it's not unpopular by any stretch, and I think fandom and transformative works are completely valid ways to deepen your investment in canon and the characters, but it takes a lot for me to reach that level of interest.

As to your impression of the normie consensus: that seems more or less accurate to me --- none of my normie friends have seen s2 yet, but I do watch a lot of reaction videos (lol) and people seem more invested in the dragons and the overall family drama and politics than in the romantic dimension to D/R. Though to be fair, I don't know that any of the romantic relationships on the show are particularly attractive. Corlys and Rhaenys were wonderful, and I'm intrigued by Cole/Alicent (and Alicent/Aegon in headcanon land), but it's a pretty sexless show on the whole. Like, even Baela and Jace have taken vows of chastity until marriage or something, it's very strange.

Re: Viserys/Daemon: <3 I think it's wonderful actually! I haven't finished F&B and I haven't read any of the other books so I don't know if there is some gay incest down the line, but I don't think there is? Which is bizarre of course because why wouldn't two siblings of the same gender develop a relationship in the fucking your siblings family? I think that conflict would have been tremendously intriguing to explore, and I can so easily see Daemon as a character attached to his vision of Targaryen godhood pushing that permission even further to fuck his brother. As it were it's completely consistent with the show and with Daemon's chemistry with male characters, and holds a lot of explanatory value for him as a character, but I do wish it were made more explicit. And this is coming from someone who generally finds sibling incest pretty meh to squicky. In a different world I would write about them, but all this canon is enough for me!

[shipcestuous]

You know, just today I started wondering... are there any Hades&Persephone AUs for Daemyra? I assume I'd probably find some if I looked, but I don't really remember seeing any fic or edit like that in the wild, so to say. Which kinda weirds me out, because on the one hand I lowkey ship Reylo and those AUs used to be pretty much everywhere for that ship, and on the other hand... come on, Daemyra seems like it would be SUCH an obvious choice for that kind of mythological reference!

Hades is Persephone's uncle no matter which version of the myth you go with, as he and Demeter, Zeus, and Poseidon are all siblings. And while he's not meant to be understood as an evil or even particularly violent figure in context, pop culture has moved from portraying him as a sort of Satanic character due to his position as ruler of the Underworld to portraying him as a sexy, scandalous, alluringly dangerous, and often dominating character in romance stories, while also emphasizing his willingness to raise Persephone to a position of power by marrying her, thus making her his queen rather than just some kind of concubine after the kidnapping, and by offering her godly honors equal to his own. There's plenty to work with, then, if one wanted to play with Daemon-Hades parallels. With a bit of imagination, you could even play off Daemon sneaking Rhaenyra out of the Red Keep through the secret passage and taking her to the lower parts of the city and into a brothel, then attempting to seduce her, as a kind of descent into an underworld itself... especially when reading the myth as a symbolic "death" of a maiden who is then reborn as an adult woman through her marriage and all it implies, including an assumption of awakening sexuality.

Rhaenyra would also work well as a Persephone, I think. We see her at the start of a story as a teenager being thrust into a variety of situations, including difficult ones, by the people around her, who are often older than her and should know better... like the Persephone in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, who is not privy to Zeus' decision to accept Hades' proposal to marry her to him, doesn't even get to say anything about Demeter unleashing winter on the world until Zeus agrees to rescind his own deal with Hades, and may or may not get tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds. But Persephone isn't just a helpless maiden, she's also the "dread queen" who Odysseus offers sacrifices to so that he may access the knowledge of the dead and eventually return to Ithaca, who convinces Hades to let Orpheus try and bring Eurydice back to the world of the living, and who could be invoked to inflict curses on those who had wronged her supplicants. And Rhaenyra, too, grows into her role as the heir of the Targaryen dynasty until, in the finale, she's a woman ready to go to war to avenge herself and her child.

So, yeah. I think that kind of AU would honestly work a lot better for them than for other ships that often just borrow the general bad boy/good girl vibe inspired by Hades&Persephone comparisons, lol.

I also cannot recall seeing much if any Hades/Persephone comparisons and content for Rhaenyra and Daemon and I am also very surprised given how popular both things are. The two of them being uncle/niece is almost enough to go on alone, but as you pointed out, there's a lot of other things that fit too. You did such a wonderful job of describing the comparison It's lovely.