#ellario seems unlikely bc he’s not inheriting which means it’s robert & rhaegar AND ISNT THAT FUN

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Rhaegar, Elia, and Lyanna were genderbent?

I've answered a few about Rhaegar being gender swapped or stillborn and that answer essentially boils down to "his mother's life sucks even worse than it does in canon, plus the political scene is tense as FUCK." i've also answered some about lyanna being gender swapped as well, which is basically just "lyanna is having the time of her life chilling in winterfell while westeros burns around her" hah. never done an elia one, or all of them swapped.

But okay - Lonnel Stark is, in all likelihood, just chilling out at Winterfell. Either he or Benjen gets fostered out (I speculated on where in that other ask, but I think it's likely he would be sent to a Reacher house, where there is currently a plethora of girls to get engaged to, or the Lannisters, and if Tywin is meant to be the foster father of Benjen or Lyanna/Lonnel as the war kicks off, that puts a fun spin on what Tywin is going to do if he has a potential hostage and/or closer alliances with the Southron Ambitions plot), and which one is fostered out probably depends on the ages of the people he's fostering with. But no matter what, both of them are just kinda chilling. After the war, if a bunch of the Stark men die, having both Benjen and Lonnel would help a lot in rebuilding House Stark as well (ntm, I think it's likely Benjen went to the Wall out of guilt for whatever happened with Lyanna. If she never leaves with Rhaegar, that guilt goes away!).

Rhaena Targaryen, first born daughter of Aerys, cannot inherit but she is a catch. I'm sure there's some plans to have her marry Aerys and Rhaella's first born son, but when that first born son never comes, Aerys (and Steffon, probably Tywin as well, as I imagine the people doing most of the actual ruling early on was those two. I have always pictured this dynamic as the two of them teaming up on Aerys to babysit/keep him occupied while they do the actual work, haha) looks to make a smart political match with his daughter instead. Enter Jaime Lannister. Aerys is going to be a huge weirdo about this, Tywin is going to get his feelings hurt, Cersei is going to start scheming. Exit Jaime Lannister. But...Enter Robert Baratheon.

That's right my man, the one, the only, Bobby B. is marrying girl Rhaegar/Rhaena. My reasoning is this: Steffon has already brought Robert to court several times so they're familiar with each other, Robert is knighted fairly young so he proves himself "worthy" of the honor, and best of all he has a Targaryen grandmother. Not only does this keep ~the blood of Valyria~ strong in House Baratheon, but it also helps in the long run if the Targaryens keep having fertility issues, because they have another Valyrian house to turn to for potential brides. BUT. There is a challenger here - ENTER ELLARIO NYMEROS MARTELL!!!

While I think Aerys himself would rather Robert because he's a racist freak, that alliance with Dorne is the only reason Robert's Rebellion went on for as long as it did. Without Dorne, Aerys has nothing. Less than nothing, even. Granted, without a helpless bride and her two children being kept hostage in the capital, Aerys still has jack shit, but he doesn't know that now does he. Still, with Loreza and Rhaella being friends, I think Ellario is a contender for Princess Rhaena's hand (again, a bit unsure on when Mellario and Doran marry, so maybe Rhaegar/Rhaena marries Doran since he's the one inheriting, and Ellario has no seat to give Rhaena). There's some stiff competition with Bobby B. here. I think it's likely Bobby B. & Steffon win that one though, and Loreza's hurt pride means that, once again, when Aerys inevitably does something fucked up and the realm turns on him, Dorne is going to conveniently look the other way while the rest of the Lords storm KL to oust Aerys.

HOWEVER. We do have these two branches here - Rhaena marries Bobby B., and Rhaena marries Ellario. In the Ellario situation, as I point out in other asks, a girl Rhaegar would be in Dorne, not in KL or anywhere in the Crownlands. Since there's no Stark maiden for Robert or Rhaegar to get fixated on, exactly what Aerys does is up in the air here, but we know from Jaime and JonCon's memories that Aerys was acting erratically, especially in regards to wildfire, long before Robert's Rebellion started. Now, there's no real reason for Robert to go so hard on hating Targaryens in this scenario BUT if Aerys makes KL kaboom? I do imagine there comes a question of "well is Rhaena going to go crazy too?" and there's a minor stand off between Dorne and the rest of Westeros. If Rhaena marries Bobby B., I think there's a chance that marriage is used to further push Robert's claim to the throne once Aerys finishes blowing shit up, considering Robert's grandmother, Rhaelle, is used to push him in canon.

IF Rhaella and Viserys live (let's say they still get sent to Dragonstone while Aerys is making wildfire), I think things get real dicey in either scenario. They'd need some sort of consensus in pushing Robert over Viserys, and Rhaena is not going to stand by and do nothing while people call for her mother and brother to be killed.

THE REAL JUICE is If Rhaena finds the prophecy as a young girl and starts obsessing over it and what it means. She’s going to be very determined to have children (or to make Viserys have children, perhaps?), bringing her fucked up Valyrian magic to a court that is probably very anti Valyria because Aerys just blew some stuff up, and Robert, if canon is anything to go by, is going to react violently to something like that. BUT. If she’s smarter - and she’d have to be, women cannot make mistakes the way Rhaegar can! - and plays up the “i want to give you a healthy heir” thing and isn’t as publicly focused on magic, that might be okay. It DOES change the political landscape a lot because, in a scenario where Aerys gets himself ousted, and Robert marries a Targaryen, they are….basically just a continuation of the Targaryen line, in a very real way that Robert/Cersei are not. In Dorne, however, Ellario I think more likely to be forgiving of weird magical obsessions, and Rhaena would likely have a long leash (so to speak) on obsessing, but with no real power to make her plans come to fruition. in either scenario, I do wonder if Rhaena doesn't try something fire and blood magicy and blow up another building the way Egg does Summerhall. If she does, and she survives, I think that's the final nail in the coffin of the Targaryens, who would have blown up THREE SEPARATE PLACES in the last, what, 2.5 decades? I think Robert could be convinced to just send all his dragonspawn to the Faith and start over with a less ridiculous, much more rich family, while Doran and Ellario have Rhaena held in Sunspear to keep an eye on her.