#cw... daemyra.

[susellesie]

"My Dark Vanessa" by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Lana del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell. Ethel Cain, Hard Times. Azra T., Fruit. HOTD 2X4, "The Red Dragon and the Gold."

[alannacouture]

💕Multifandom Love (don’t fight me on some of these couples, HEA exists in my headcanon)💕

[horizon-verizon]

i think of Rhaenyra's life and it's just sad. imagine a 8 year old completely scared after her mother's death. then this new step mother comes and it's fine but then as she births sons little Rhaenyra's whole life turns shades darker while still a child like 😭 no matter viserys adored her so much he neglected her when she needed him. she was a child in court full of adults. didn't even have her uncle by her side and when he came back she was a woman grown and so was plagued by rumours again! and more happened and yet she kept her head high and fought for her birth right for something which was promised to her till the very end no matter how it ended.

my heart just breaks for that little rhaenyra so much. i don't think people really understand what kinda place she was living in since she was a child. a little girl.

Before people start slapping this ask with a "Rhaenyra was 15 when Daemon came back from the Stepstones, she wasn't a woman!", yes, duh.

The point of this ask is to look through Rhaenyra using what circumstances she lives through and in. In Rhaenyra's world/society, she is no longer just a child and up for marriage. Viserys had always considered her marriage to Laenor and Westerosi noblewomen (when they are not in special circumstances) usually get married in their mid-teens. For better or worse, yes, Rhaenyra occupies the place of a marriageable not-child youth of majority who was available for marriage at the time that Daemon came back. I wouldn't go so far as to say others around her would think she is a matured woman, more like that she was considered "old enough". Again, that definition of "maiden". Which is itself coming from factual medieval ideas about female life stages:

It was easy enough to pinpoint the start of medieval adolescence. As the writer John Trevisa put it, it was a ‘full age to get children’: that is, entering puberty. When it ended, however, was less clear. As Avicenna, the great Persian philosopher, wrote in a work that was translated into Latin and widely disseminated throughout the Middle Ages: ‘There is the age of growing up, which is called the age of adolescence and commonly lasts until the age of thirty.’ Avicenna was contributing to the scholarship on ‘The Ages of Man’, used by many medieval thinkers to explain the stages of man’s life. While ‘man’ might be a universal term for humanity, these schemes make it clear they were not about female experience. The 13th-century jurist Henry of Bracton said a woman reached maturity when she was able to take on the responsibilities of a housewife, but few other writers concerned themselves much with the female life cycle. Women were believed to experience the prime of their lives during adolescence, as this was the age when they were considered to be most spiritually pure and physically beautiful. For a female youth, adolescence was tied to her ‘maidenhood’ – both her youth and her virginity – and so with marriage and the loss of her virgin status she was usually perceived to have exited the most ‘perfect age’ of a woman’s life. In short, girls usually became women because of their relationships with men: when they left their natal families and became wives. Boys’ transition to manhood was a longer and more variable process.

GRRM takes medieval ideas about womanhood and gives the word "maiden" a more technical and material existence/role in the Westerosi feudal social system, but the idea remains the same. What's different is that 15-year-old Rhaenyra--as heir and a girl coming into authority in her own right over men instead of subject to her husband's authority in the official manner--now also partially occupied that which is a male office and condition of power, so she would be simultaneously seen as not as capable and someone who should "realize" how much responsibility she's been given.

And that is where Daemon as her boon comes into play. Regarding the timeline of their relationship, Daemon treated her as a child first when she was actually young, and then as a person capable of making their decisions--at least compared to others--as well as protected her claim to the throne. No, the gifts he'd intermittently give her BEFORE he left for the Stepstones were not of the socially isolating kind.

Yeah, this can be considered grooming, semi-Doylistically. Esp since it was not official, open courting that the girl's father approved of.

Why this specification? Grooming entails:

physically or emotionally separate a victim from those protecting them and often seek out positions in which they have contact with minors

gaining the trust of a potential victim through gifts, attention, sharing “secrets” and other means to make them feel that they have a caring relationship and to train them to keep the relationship secret

will often start to touch a victim in ways that appear harmless, such as hugging, wrestling and tickling, and later escalate to increasingly more sexual contact, such as massages or showering together. Abusers may also show the victim pornography or discuss sexual topics with them, to introduce the idea of sexual contact

behaviors are not only used to gain a victim’s trust, but often are used to create a trustworthy image and relationship with their family and community. Child and teen sexual abusers are often charming, kind, and helpful — exactly the type of behavior we value in friends and acquaintances

Daemon never tried to be kind or mild enough to anyone except Rhaenyra and his kids out for well-wishes for that individual or to make them feel good for the sake of it. Even with the gold cloaks, he was a leader who had to keep the loyalty of those under his command, which entails giving a sense of purpose and confidence. The guy is not a man of complex duplicity and machination, he's a guy who has a family heritage of dragonriders that lives in an incestuous family. Both he and Rhaenyra are products and individuals shaped by their conditions. And their conditions allow/necessitate that they look to each other as first partners-by-family-and-sustained/proven-trust, then the sexual/romantic element infused into that base that is uniquely Targaryen/Valyrian dragonrider. *EDIT* REMOVED LAST SENTENCE *END OF EDIT*

Back to the ask, yes, it is a sad story. It is a weird state to acknowledge that as a princess she enjoyed a lot more luxuries and protections than "commonborn" girls and women while also having her own classist view AND how she had been so exposed to adult intrigue before she turned 10. But this is the truth. The most Rhaenyra got to live as an autonomous person doing her own thing--before marrying Daemon--as much as she could was after she left the Red Keep for Dragonstone to become its ruling "Lady" and raise her kids with her lover/guardsman Harwin Strong.

[jellolegos]

ngl I liked the fact Alicole had sex as well, Alicent took control of her sexuality and finally got to experience an orgasm, what’s not to love lol.

Unpopular opinion because I’ve seen this a lot in Rhaenicent fanfics and I’m not a fan: I don’t like the idea of sexually empowered Rhaenyra vs. virgin Alicent whose only consensual partner is Rhaenyra.

If Rhaenyra can have sex with men (that being said I don’t consider Daemyra consensual because he groomed her) then so can Alicent! It doesn’t change the fact that Rhaenicent’s love story is the heart of the show, it just means Alicent’s taking control of her bodily autonomy rather than standing around waiting for Rhaenyra.

Yea absolutely!

CW for mentions of sex below the cut :)

I think in my never ending attempt to really take my time and start to appreciate tv/movies as art, one of the things I've been thinking about for a while is how sex is shown in s1 vs s2 for Alicent. I haven't seen anyone mention it (although I'm sure they have), but there is really such a difference in how her relationship with Cole is shown, physically, compared to Viserys. Not only is she consensually engaging in sex with Cole, but the sex she is having is very clearly for her benefit (as well as his). She gets eaten out! and is literally on top of him! during their relationship, vs the clearly framed scene of her being crushed by Viserys. I am still a lesbian alicent truther but that relationship is so important (I see it as the closest to a comphet arc we'll ever get). The way it's framed in parallel to Rhaenyra's own liberation arc is really great :)

RE: Fic. I will be totally honest I haven't seen a whole lot of that trope in fic, but honestly I am not omniscient and it definitely could be there. While I can't say I've seen that one, it is a little bit funny the way things shake out in fanon, and also how they've changed post s1 vs. post s2, there are definitely some things that have become fanon that I'm not 100% on board with as well. But that's just what fandom is sometimes... we don't always have to be on the same page with all the minutiae, it's better if we aren't!

I do agree with you, although my idea of a modern Alicent is basically just a fuzzy grey outline, I don't see her as necessarily super sexually repressed. I always see Rhaenyra and Alicent together in the end, but their conflict and long separation is what makes them really compelling, I can absolutely see Alicent with other people in meantime. I think that trope may just come up because we don't really see Alicent with anyone else in canon. For her Rhaenyra will always be the one, partially because Viserys effectively placed her in amber at 14. I think a lot of people may also see her as very religious even in non-canon fic, resulting in her being super repressed and sheltered for that reason. I can definitely see the logic there but I can also see at least some of the way she clings to religion as an artefact of the intense trauma she undergoes with Viserys. She must be righteous, she must be right, or else all of this suffering was for nothing. She's definitely more religious than Otto, and I don't think it entirely impossible that would be part of the reason. Get rid of being a child bride in a modern fic and suddenly you have a very different Alicent with a very different relationship to sex, experimentation, etc.

[destiniesfic]

Do you think there’s love between Daemon and Rhaenyra? I keep seeing people saying Daemon is incapable of experiencing emotions but I’m not really sure that’s true lol

... What evidence is there to suggest Daemon is incapable of experiencing emotions? Lmao? He seems to experience extremely strong emotions that he doesn't express well, and when he does express them it's often in a way that we think of as very typically masculine (by which I mean shouting and hitting stuff). It's not subtle.

Case in point: what immediately follows after this GIF.

This is not a cool brooding sociopath man, this is a man who runs incredibly hot at least 85% of the time. To believe otherwise is to read a lot of his anger as a product of ambition instead of hurt, and to do that you have to take Otto Hightower at his word when he says "The gods have yet to make a man who lacks the patience for absolute power." (And you shouldn't take Otto at his word when he says that, because he's talking about a different second son: himself.)

Anyway, I touched a little bit on the question of whether Daemon loves Rhaenyra in this other meta. Approaching it from a different direction, we're meant to take from his behavior in episode 8 that he loves her very much, but we are meant to take from his behavior in episode 10 that love doesn't blunt Daemon's sharp edges or render him safe. I'm not only talking about the choking scene, but about the way he immediately shifts into attack dog mode and therefore ignores what emotional needs or actual desires his wife may have.

But—just to head some questions off at the pass–although I say "love" I don't mean it's a modern-day romantic ideal: we're starting with the foundation of an incestuous marriage, after all! Still, even before they marry it's easy to see that Daemon adores her, that he likes to spend time with her, and that he desires her. He holds some kind of regard or respect for her which prevented him from deflowering her in that brothel, more than just her being into it. And all of those ingredients add up to something.

Daemon's family is the star around which his planet orbits, providing the gravity that dictates his behavior. Initially the biggest and brightest of these stars was Viserys, and now it's Rhaenyra. She is the center of his universe. Someday that star will go supernova and become a black hole which will devour them both, but if that's not some kind of love, destructive and all-consuming, then, I guess, what is?

Edit: I spent so much time talking about Daemon because of the question about his emotions that I forgot to add that Rhaenyra loves him too, as family and an ally and a lover all at once. Okay bye.

[bbygirl-aemond]

If you consider viserys a creep, then I hope you realize Daemon is also one just slightly less so, laena was young when daemon married her and rhaenyra was even younger when to took her too a brothel and kissed her, plus he asked for her hand in marriage, he would have no problem sleeping with rhaenyra if viserys had agreed to marry them. Daemon just has pretty privilege, so people aren't willing to see that his more problematic than viserys

CW for CSA, grooming mentions

Okay so first of all, let me remind everyone that my posts that only talk about Viserys shouldn't be taken to mean anything about completely unrelated characters like Daemon. Now, this post isn't going to be an apology for Daemon, and it shouldn't be taken to excuse his actions. But I will be making the argument that what he's done isn't as bad as what Viserys has done.

In the books, Laena is twenty-three years old when she and Daemon meet for the first time and get married. There's still obviously an age gap, and I personally hate age gaps in real life, but Laena's very much a grown woman here, even by modern standards.

And I've discussed before here that I very much DO think Daemon's treatment of younger Rhaenyra is problematic. As for adult Daemyra, there are a few things that I think are important here:

During the brothel scene, even though Rhaenyra is acting willing, Daemon doesn't have sex with her. Also, Rhaenyra is seventeen. Obviously we rightfully take issue with this, but by Westerosi standards she is technically capable of consent. Again, we know this shouldn't be the case and it doesn't excuse Daemon's actions, but it does provide context for them.

I could make a whole separate post about how Daemon's interest in Rhaenyra as a child wasn't about her, but was entirely about her being an extension of Viserys. Daemon doesn't genuinely want Rhaenyra when he proposes to wed her; he's feeling rejected by Viserys and is trying to get close to him in the only way he knows how.

Daemon then distances himself physically from Rhaenyra, and explicitly says this is because she was a "child," implying that he didn't feel it was right for them to have a relationship and felt that he needed to remove himself from the situation to allow her to grow by herself.

When Daemon and Rhaenyra DO start a relationship, it is when Rhaenyra is twenty-seven years old and unquestionably an adult. And it starts on Rhaenyra's terms. Now, this isn't fully okay, because we know that their dynamics when Rhaenyra was younger impact what she wants as an adult. But I do think this is still significant when comparing him to Viserys.

Finally, Daemon's relationship with Rhaenyra is about as healthy as a Targaryen relationship can get. Rhaenyra maintains the upper hand in every single scene with him-- even in the choking scene, she laughs in his face and he is ultimately rendered impotent in the face of her confidence. Daemon unquestioningly supports Rhaenyra's decision-making skills and her power as a ruler. When she asks him to do something, even if he clearly doesn't want to do it, he always backs down. Daemon obeys Rhaenyra at every turn, never the other way around.

Daemon's relationship with Rhaenyra is obviously still problematic, and Emma D'Arcy has said it counts as grooming, and I won't argue against this because I agree. I also don't think Daemyra should ever be used to excuse these dynamics in real life, ever. But it's not quite comparable to what Viserys did with Aemma and Alicent, for all the reasons outlined above.

TLDR: Viserys raped a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, the latter of whom he saw as a daughter. His relationships with both of his wives involved mistreating them and sacrificing their physical safety, comfort, and wishes for his own whims.

Daemon had sex with a 23-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman, the latter of whom he saw as a niece. His consummated marriages were amicable and he always allowed his wives autonomy, even at the detriment of his own personal desires. You can see how these two things aren't 100% the same, yes?

[multistoty]

inspired by @caraxes--rider

[stheresya]

The evolution of uncle-niece incestuous obsession in audiovisual fiction going from Shadow of a Doubt where the girl and her evil uncle are soulmates but Hayes Code wouldn't allow them to be together, to Stoker where the girl and her uncle are kindred souls but they're both too unhinged to function together, and finally House of the Dragon where the unhinged uncle & niece duo finally get together and make it everyone's problem.

[heretic-child]

something about hair twinning 😣😣😣😣

[reignyra]

I don’t necessarily trust RC but i will say im pleasantly surprised he said this in an interview

[susellesie]

hard times by ethel cain + daemyra.

hard times by ethel cain, interview with emma d'arcy by collider.

[chronicallyfabulous22]

Wake up besties, new chapter just dropped

I posted this yesterday but I was in blog jail so I’m telling everyone about it now 

[destiniesfic]

walls could talk ◆ ch 1, e, 5.9k

Rhaenyra Targaryen starts over at Harvard, leaving a mess of a summer behind. But the future has a few curveballs in store for her, and the past won’t leave her alone.

Maybe she doesn’t want it to. Maybe she just wants him.

Read on AO3

[destiniesfic]

I think part of the reason that the incest shipping is as widespread as it is for HotD — aside from the “it’s fiction!™” point that Meg correctly made — is that the text doesn’t treat the incest in the show as particularly taboo. The closest we get is Alicent saying that Targaryens have “queer customs,” and even in that conversation she’s more concerned with whether or not Rhaenyra is still a virgin than with who precisely she boned. (And then Alicent turns around and engages her kids to each other, so I guess she embraced the customs.)

Anyway, any feeling of taboo ickiness is coming from outside the house, which is a marked difference from Game of Thrones, where the incest was framed as “bad” and “doomed” from the outset (if you’re Jaime and Cersei; if you’re [redacted] and [redacted] you are simply “an honest mistake!” but doomed anyway). It’s baked into the world building that, at this point in history, Targaryens traditionally do incest. It’s actually baked into Westeros’ laws! And the camerawork, especially in the female gazey eps 4 and 5 but also in ep 7 (when we can see it), positions the incest as “sexy” and “electric” even if you, a modern watcher, are probably supposed to still feel somewhat squeamish. (Spoilers: it’s also a little bit doomed, which means that everyone gets to feel morally okay with it in the tragedy way, I suppose.)

Like Meg, I like watching messed up people do messed up stuff that wouldn’t fly irl, and those silly Targaryens are delivering in spades! But it’s also easier to ship something when the world building doesn’t condemn it, even when we would, which is probably why there’s so much Targaryen incest flying around these days. The Doctrine of Exceptionalism said it was okay!

But also, how quickly they forget GOT fandom of old...

i have a question (not meant to be rude i promise) but… doesn’t it bother you that these couples in the game of thrones show are committing incest? like i know it’s fictional and everything, but it still seems strange to me that they’re shipped like it’s nbd

no worries, anon.

there are a lot of things i could discuss here—catharsis, thoughtcrimes, the dangers of relying on fiction to define morality, and so on—but i'm going to stick with the answer you provided in your ask: it's fiction.

it can be really fun to watch fake people do wild crazy taboo things, because it's not real and it has no bearing on what you'd do or condone in real life. just because someone likes slasher movies doesn't mean they support halloween-costumed serial killers irl, you know?

so no, the incest in hotd doesn't bother me. that being said, everyone has their own personal boundaries/preferences/etc— if it's not your jam, that's totally fine

[luthien-under-bough]

Daemyra Masterlist🖤🔥❤️

WIPs

i got a bad desire (baby i'm on fire) - rated E, chapters 17/?, ~102,000 words, modern westeros au, in which a one-night stand means Daemon might actually be Rhaenyra's father, dead dove: do not eat

the ghosts that we knew - rated T (for now), chapters 2/?, ~7330 words, modern au where Rhae (Rhaenyra Targaryen, but not THAT Rhaenyra) encounters the ghost of Daemon Targaryen on Dragonstone

we open our throats to sing - rated E, chapters 3/?, ~43,000 words, No Dance canon divergence, where Rhaenyra runs away to Volantis, and Daemon goes to find her

milk teeth - rated E, chapters 5/?, ~32,000 words, No Dance canon divergence, Daemyra early marriage, breastfeeding/lactation kink & character study on Rhaenyra's relationship with motherhood

augurs of spring - rated E, chapters 2/3, ~15,000 words, Old Valyria AU inspired by The Mists of Avalon

give me your ecstasy - rated E, chapters 4/?, ~18,000 words, modern AU with magic, Daemon returns from along deployment with a special gift for Rhaenyra

AUs

won't be satisfied 'til i'm under your skin - rated E, chapters 2/2, 25,367 words, modern AU, role reversal where Rhaenyra is Daemon's aunt

ain't nobody hurt you like i hurt you - rated E, chapters 6/6, ~31k words, modern au, in which Daemon & Rhaenyra cheat on their respective spouses with one another (angst with a happy ending)

something borrowed - rated E, 6353 words, a prequel oneshot to 'ain't nobody hurt you like i hurt you' that takes place on the day of Rhaenyra's wedding to Harwin Strong

better not touch (i want it too much) - rated E, chapters 7/7, ~31k words, modern westeros au, Rhaenyra comes to Dragonstone to stay with Daemon for the summer while her father is away on holiday

fledgling - rated E, 7900 words, King Daemon/Dark Daemon AU, where Daemon inspects Rhaenyra before her bedding ceremony

acquisition - rated E, 6700 words, modern corporate AU where Rhaenyra is CEO, and Daemon is her executive assistant - but outside of work Daemon is her Dom.

mama told me there'll be days like this - rated T, 5600 words, modern AU, Rhaenyra is determined to have a terrible time at her dad's wedding to Alicent, but she can't seem to stay in a foul mood when Uncle Daemon is around

Canon Divergences/Episode Fix-Its

for our blood is restless - rated M, ~1200 words, alt ep 4 where Daemon stays at the brothel

i found some hate for you, just for show - rated T, ~2400 words, alt ep 5 where Rhaenyra leaves the wedding feast with Daemon

down on my knees, with unquenchable thirst - rated E, ~5300 words, post-ep 4 canon divergence where Rhaenyra returns to the brothel

do you feel the hunger? - rated M, ~6400 words, alt ep 3 where Daemon joins the name day hunt

Character Studies

do you really feel alive without me - rated M, 3500 words, two-shot examining events of ep 6 from Daemon's and Rhaenyra's POV

viventes enim - rated M, ~1280 words, Daemon introspection/character study during the events of ep 6-7

the likes of a darkness so deep - rated M, ~3500 words, Major Character Death, Daemon introspection/character study during an alt ep10 where Rhaenyra dies in childbirth (cw: necrophilia)

Shameless Smut

penitent - rated E, ~3400 words, Dom!Daemon finds a new use for the small council orbs

squeeze and bind - rated E, 4625 words, Dom!Daemon ties up Rhaenyra after another small council meeting

kiss me hard before you go - rated E, ~2300 words, Divorced!Daemyra have some hate sex, modern AU

deep tissue - rated E, ~4,000 words, massage therapist Daemon, modern AU

stay wrecked and jealous for this - rated E, 4,315 words, Rhaenyra goes to the Westeros version of the Warped Tour and hooks up with band manager Daemon, modern AU

seven blessings - rated E, 3700 words, CNC roleplay with Rhaenyra dressed as a septa

when you move, i'm moved - rated E, 6600 words, modern AU pegging

Fluff & Humor

farsighted - rated M, 1200 words, modern AU, Daemon confronts the harsh reality of aging and needing glasses

Naked Attraction: The Lost Episode - Not Rated, ~4000 words, crackfic written as an episode transcript for a "lost episode" of the UK dating show Naked Attraction, where Rhaenyra is the contestant

Prompt Fills

>> Events

Summer of Dove Prompt Event - prompt fics written for Fire, Blood & Kink's dead dove event (summer 2023)

Hot[Daemyra] Summer Snippets & Stories - prompt fics written for the HotD Summer Snippets & Stories prompt event (july 2023)

>> Other

BYOM; or, Bring Your Own Mistletoe - rated E, 7725 words, no specific prompt, but a general holiday-themed fluff & smut fic to get me into the Christmas spirit, modern au

my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder - rated M, 1000 words, prompt: the song Lover, You Should've Come Over by Jeff Buckley

best laid plans - rated G, 500 words, prompt: flight cancellation

your lips, my lips (apocalypse) - rated M, 500 words, prompt: holiday party hookup

meet me under the mistletoe - rated T, 500 words, prompt: bringing home a fake SO for the holidays + mistletoe

if the fates allow - rated T, 500 words, prompt: “Through the years we all will be together / if the fates allow”

Background Daemyra

like light refracted - rated E, 23,765 words, Daemyra x Aegon II ep8 canon divergence

the comforts of home - rated E, ~4300 words, Daemyra x Baelon (Daemon's father) threesome

nothing so undoing as a daughter - rated T, ~1200 words, Viserys POV after he learns of Daemyra's secret wedding

[wulfhalls]

A lot of your anons are watching this show like a CW teen soap show when it’s fucking GoT

hotd but make it gossip girl. daemyra are obviously chuck x blair 😌