#hotd nuetrality

[horizon-verizon]

My prediction is thus: They’ll say the prophecy is meant to add “layers/nuance” to the story of the Dance, but really it’s meant to distract and dilute from how much the story is about misogyny. It will act as a way to pivot the conversation and make it seem as though Rhaenyra had a hand in her own fate and femicide, waylaid by her conviction in the prophecy to the detriment of the realm. That’s easier to pitch and makes her fate easier to swallow to audiences than if it remains as it were in the book. With the prophecy, the writers can say that she was wrong to become so deluded by it and obsessed with it to the point of fighting a war. Without it, they’ll be forced to try and convince people Rhaenyra was wrong to fight for her claim when she was usurped for being a woman, and they can’t say that because they’re aware that’s sexist bullshit.

Perhaps I wouldn’t have such a cynical view of what they’re trying to accomplish with the prophecy’s inclusion if they hadn’t already worked SO HARD to erase the misogyny of the Greens and their supporters, as well as what Rhaenyra’s struggle means for other women who wish to rule.

They carefully pick and choose which traits and quotes of the green/black allies to include: Borros Baratheon is proud and illiterate, but doesn’t call Rhaenyra a bitch and doesn’t give his speech about the Iron Throne needing to pass to a man. Grover Tully is old and dying, but whereas in the book his misogyny is what seems to be his driving life force in his final days, the show has him unable to express whatever opinions he might have on women ruling. Jeyne Arryn’s whole speech on women needing to band together in the world of men is cut, leaving her only “I mislike feeling powerless.” No mention of her own struggles to rule as a woman and how her male relatives sought to usurp her because of her gender. Oscar Tully actually seems to receive her book speech, but rewritten for his circumstances, which of course won’t include mentions of gender.

EDIT: Lifted from Twitter, LINK (by ace_pencil)

I've argued similar, so of course I agree.

It will act as a way to pivot the conversation and make it seem as though Rhaenyra had a hand in her own fate and femicide, waylaid by her conviction in the prophecy to the detriment of the realm. That’s easier to pitch and makes her fate easier to swallow to audiences than if it remains as it were in the book. With the prophecy, the writers can say that she was wrong to become so deluded by it and obsessed with it to the point of fighting a war.

Yes, and that plotline of her becoming so zealous in her dragon-god ruthlessness becoming into a mad-Queen situation is also apparent.

They certainly do not want the misogyny show!Rhaenyra faces in the shows more personal experience (Alicent's actions against her, the council and the embarrassment, Rhaenyra's own council in the 2nd season, Alfred Broome trying to convince Daemon and his own reasoning) to go outward towards how the greens and their supporters and even apart from them--seeing the sexism not just against Rhaenyra or Alicent but other female characters in other castles they could have introduced...like Jeyne Arryn before and during her rule before Jacaerys should have reached her.

they hadn’t already worked SO HARD to erase the misogyny of the Greens and their supporters, as well as what Rhaenyra’s struggle means for other women who wish to rule.

As it is, HotD only shows people's (blatant or sublte) sexism when it concerns Rhaenyra & Alicent or when those two or around to directly deal with such. And, as you state, the greens (which always refer to Alicent AND her sons) own expressed misogyny is shown more towards Alicent than to Rhaenyra. In fact, I can't recall a single word or act Aemond or Aegon has said about Rhaenyra sexistly that doesn't come from Jaehaerys' own death. And doesn't that make it so much more amenable to believe/feel only Alicent and Rhaenyra are the ones we should care about, that Rhaenyra's prospective rule doesn't mean much aside from her herself--and yeah a boy would have ruled after her, but there's a stronger precedent set after a queen regnant rules regardless...sneaky--, etc. It's annoying and narrow-minded and worse, it serves the "misogyny doesn't have that much of an impact on social conditions", which is a contradictory statemen tin of itself since sexism and male privilege CERTAINLY defines much of how resources or distributed and how much social support or graces women are allowed in Western AND other societies since....ever. Male primogeniture, hello?

Or perhaps, they thought that sexism would speak for itself and be enough to their audience if they held back?...please, as if.

Interesting you say that about Oscar Tully. They also, I think, didn't say or use his grandfather's insistence that Aegon was the ruler bc he was male and that he deliberately held back his sons and armies bc he himself supported Aegon over Rhaenyra. Simply bc she was a woman. As I mentioned in passing, all of Aemond's absurd sexist comments, gone. They think Aegon's angry badmouthing her as he went berserk after Jaehaerys died is enough, but what they don't seem to care about is that making Aegon say all that while mourning just makes it easier for already-male-gracing audiences to espouse he was "just" grieving and angry...a behavior they would never and didn't grace show!Dany when Missandei dies, when Rhaego and Drogon die for book!Dany, or even Rhaenyra when her own sons died one by one. Or any woman, for that matter.

[thattargboy]

Imagine…

Being Helaena’s darling sibling and you’re too proud to admit you’re afraid of her insects.

You sat with your sister in her chambers as she explained to you of all her scaly, jittery and strange little creatures. Her voice was soft, like she was in a trance, and you knew these insects were her greatest friends, aside from you.

However, you long stopped paying attention. All you could do know was count the freckles on her nose and the stars in her eyes.

“Would you like to hold one?” Helaena asked, taking you out of your own trance, as she held up a writhing little millipede, its hundreds of legs flailing about.

“Of course,” you smiled, extending the palm of your hand out to her jittery little friend. Your heart raced as she cupped your hand and held it still, and then it raced for a different reason when the creature touched your skin.

She traced the back of your hand with gentle fingertips, trying to soothe you, like you yourself was some frightened little creature your sweet sister had added to her collection.

“You’re a dragonrider,” Helaena said with an amused smile and a soft, wistful tone. “You’re not scared of a blind bug, are you?”

You rolled your eyes and scoffed, looking away from the thousands of little legs skittering across your hand. “Of course not, sweet sister. What do you take me for?”

She hummed and watched the little creature crawling from your hand to your wrist, her smile growing sweetly mischievous.

“Perhaps I shall leave it there, then, and you would be trapped with me forever,” Helaena says, equal parts adoring and impish.

“How about we make a deal?” You tried to put on your usual playful arrogance, but it just came out as nervousness. “You get to keep me forever, if you take this accursed creature off of me.”

“That sounds like a good deal,” Helaena took the bug off your arm before it reached your shoulder, and you leaned down to steal a kiss.

I’m back! Thank you so much for reading, I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in so long! I hope you have a nice day/evening/night/whatever 🫶. If you enjoyed, please comment or reblog they keep me motivated, but likes are loved too! And send in requests if there's something specific you want to see from me.

You can also read my fics on A03 if you prefer

[9383hff3839]

Are they’re people that still truly believe the Rhaenyra is feminist? On my spam, Team Green content popped up and I went snooping till I found a post that mentioned Team Black stans still think Rhaenyra is feminist. From my end, the TB stans I come across accept that she’s not and support Rhaenyra for different reasons. At this point, I see that they simply support her ascension to the Iron Throne because she was mainly usurped on the basis of her gender and because they think she’s a better person than most of Team Green members (Aegon, Alicent, Aemond, Criston, and Otto mainly). A good example of this a creator called: AvataraKatara (she thinks Daeron isn’t as daring as people say he is). They’re are also a multitude of other reasons, of course, that revolve around Team Black members, for example.

The feminist point can be applied to younger Rhaenyra, since she told Rhaenys she was going to create a “new order”, when Rhaenys (her tone was harsh, tho) rightfully warned her that noblemen won’t accept her and will support Aegon’s claim, instead. You can even add her bringing up the double standards between women and men, when Viserys questions her about her outing with Daemon to Flea Bottom in S1 EP 4 (I think it was this episode).

Older Rhaenyra doesn’t seem to think and care about any of this when she mentioned the hypothetical male children of the Baela and Jace inheriting the Iron Throne, when they’re time comes, to Rhaenys in S1 EP 8, in order to gain her support in the fight against the greens. She could’ve and should’ve said, “children” but chose to say “sons”, instead.

Was it an oversight on her part? The writers part?

Was it intentional? Maybe it was…

I was confused because Viserys stated that the Iron Throne would adopt absolute primogeniture when her ascension comes along. I actually thought they were gonna have her carry out that mindset into her later adulthood (I can’t be the only one), especially with how the writers were trying to make obvious contrasts between her and Alicent when it comes to literally every-fucking-thing, but I guess not. She probably views it as wishful thinking and such childish and idealistic views can’t ever be taken seriously in the real world.

GRRM gives us nothing on her thought process about the Stokeworth and Rosby ordeal but still made the choice for the female claimants, who were older than their brothers, to not inherit their ancestral seats. They could make it parallel Alicent and Dyanna’s scene in S1 EP 8, they feel sympathy but still not feel obligation to do anything. Maybe in fear of retaliation, fear of war (mostly for Rhaenyra, tho)? All situations that come back to bite them in ass later on in the war.

We have much better runner ups for feminists icons throughout the story, especially if this is still the case, so we shouldn’t be harping around Rhaenyra (I really hope we aren’t, though).

Let’s see how they go about with the Stokeworth and Rosby situation.

I hope my explanation makes sense😅

[horizon-verizon]

Sure...pictures of the "edit" portion of that post:

plus, The Blu Ray episode of the Dance doesn't have The Hour of the Wolf/Cregan Stark's Hand period...which canonically occurred before Aegon and Jaehaera marry. If that's not enough to pose this Blu Ray rendition of the Dance and its aftermath as irrelevant, esp when GRRM completed his telling of the Dance and its aftermath in F&B , then people are lying to themselves. Or stupid.

Girl “ASOIAF enthusiast” https://www.tumblr.com/horizon-verizon/763713144277352448/tg-stans-love-to-say-that-jaehaera-cant-die-in

Like even if you’re an adamant TB Stan whatever fine but??? How can you write this bs??? Jaehaera has to live, even GRRM wrote that on his blog that she’s Aegon’s heir (which I don’t think most people considered was the case before his blogpost but that’s a different thing) but wtf is this?

Jaehaera marrying Aegon III is the thematic closure to the Dance of the Dragons that THE WRITER george painstakingly wrote into his story to make the narrative that he was trying to tell WORK. That's how writing a theme goes and anyone idiotic enough to still bitch and moan about Teams when it concerns the narrative purpose of this marriage should go back to reading YA literature for 12 year olds instead of poisoning the ASOIAF fandom with braindead drivel like OP's post 😒

[horizon-verizon]

These greens who want jaehaera alive are just racists, and they don't even feel ashamed of it. because the gods forgive a black girl to be queen of the seven kingdoms, and loved over a white girl

Glad to see more people already noticing this

That's about half of it; the other half is wanting to deny the entire point of the Dance while also claiming the greens were "right" to push for male primogeniture to be ironclad OR insist that Jaehaera living is a product of how "both sides were bad, so the two sad children marrying to end the Dance/war fits", which really just works, again, to deny the evil of PATRIARCHAL VIOLENCE being the real "point" or impetus behind the Dance as well as the entirety of F&B.

It doesn't help that many people would rather go with a storyline that makes them comfortable (avoid a child's death) rather than understand why the orig storyline is the way it is. The world is messy and tragic; you burying your head in the sands and mistakenly thinking ASoIaF is just for shits and giggles with no ideas about politics, heroism, society's discriminations is delusional.

[horizon-verizon]

Full disclosure: I was on the side of the Blacks, even knowing that they eventually lose (or, rather, Rhaenyra herself loses). It’s absolutely unambiguous that Viserys I absolutely meant Rhaenyra to succeed him, and equally unambiguous that the Hightowers were the ones who usurped her and screwed it all up.

Having said that, after reading both novellas, Rhaenyra comes off like a spoiled and entitled brat, just perhaps to a lesser extent than her family members. She took for granted that she’d be queen without any challenges, when the experience of Rhaenys before her should have been a wake-up call that she needed to regularly secure her power. Not fair, but there you go.

And of course, she eventually descends into a pit of paranoia and cruel retaliation down the line, going so far as to demand that her own dragonriders be executed just because she made a poor judgment about some of them (give two meatheads access to huge dragons, what could go wrong). How she ended up is largely her own fault; it didn’t have to go that way, especially since she was on the legally right side.

Aegon II is no alternative. He is a whoring hedonist and rapist filled with entitlement issues and rage. He fails to understand that his Hand, Otto, seeks diplomatic solutions to the conflict. A good king will always choose peace over war as the realm suffers and the smallfolk pay the price. He tells him to spill blood, not ink. Eventually, he replaces him with the more bloodthirsty Criston Cole, who irrationally hates Rhaenyra, and forces nobles to choose him as king or die. The Greens back tyranny and bloodshed.

At the end of the day, both Aegon and Rhaenyra do a terrible job as ruler when they get their chance. They destroy all good will toward them and exhaust the realm. Both Rhaenyra and Aegon care more about THEIR own power, THEIR claims, THEIR rights than the people they are supposed to govern.

Responding, I think to these two: Post #1 & Post #2.

I think I understand where you're coming from. Why shouldn't we shoot for the best possible leader and "settle" for someone who wouldn't put their poorer subjects first? Why encourage that, or at least, what is the value? And I can understand why a person wouldn't want to stan or support Rhaenyra based on her personality alone. This statement is true: "Both Rhaenyra and Aegon care more about THEIR own power, THEIR claims, THEIR rights than the people they are supposed to govern". Because of neither book! nor show!Rhaenyra never once seemed to think about common folk in a substantive way even if she over Aegon would be just a better candidate. no other sources outside of Fire and Blood reveal much either.

A)

However, apart from Alicent also being a heavy-duty blood purist who never looked out for other women--even seized power from another woman entirely for herself and her house's patriarchal prestige and power (Rhaenyra was never a tyrant before King's Landing and the greens' usurpation), Rhaenyra should be destroyed not because she was a woman, but for her blood purity.

Yet she is destroyed and put in a more vulnerable position far before she fucks up because she is a noblewoman in a man's (and the misogynist woman behind him) way. There is value in seeing how this happens or could happen.

To go through the layers binding the Westerosi/feudalist paradigm of blood purity, we also need to inspect the misogyny for what it is/looks like and it becomes harder to do that when we constantly push aside the events and psychosocial-political processes leading up to Rhaenyra's end for her own final choices.

In some Greek tragedies and especially plays like Othello & Titus Andronicus, the protagonist has a major personal fault that stems from primary circumstances & historical events totally out of that protagonist's control. Then inspiring the protagonist to make personal or political decisions & develop qualities that address & oppose or foil plots, settings, institutions, and measures made against them and their desires or needs. So because we can trace how they developed into the persons they are and how much of it was due to misogyny, racism, blood purity, classism, etc., AND Rhaenyra did not do anything heinous or really of the moral error until she retook King's Landing. We saw how her need to impulsively self-assert against threats against her power after a lifetime of attempted sidelining, disrespect, and denial basically unlocked and revealed her blood purity. That blood purity was her weapon and armor.

Yes. Criticize her for that blood purity. Recognize that she herself made the Rosby/Stokeworth-dragonseeds-Nettles decisions to consolidate power and the sense of power (for all the pressure she was getting thinking she'd lose allies like Corlys) and that her decision was wrong. Were self-destructive short term and long term. Point out how by it being her choice to do these two things she has accountability for her own fall. Point out how she partially pushed herself over that edge. Acknowledge and also put less emphasis on how Viserys didn't teach her as much as he might have for a boy (Jaehaerys I wasn't trained like maybe Aegon the Uncrowned, but making Rhaenyra's education also kinda takes away her ability and the existence of her choosing how to maintain her power).

I only fear that people will totally subsume one for the other and claim that one objectively doesn't matter at all. *EDIT (5/31/24): Rhaenyra suffers from really bad sexist writing on GRRM's, not just the maesters', part and it undermines his own point.* And no, she doesn't need to be necessarily "moral" like Dany to be a deserving ruler. The point of her story was to highlight how no matter how good or evil or morally ambiguous a person you are, if you are female, you are subject to losing a power men are just granted. Or usurped. And this is inherently wrong. Rhaenyra chose to go to war rather than give up. This is valuable. Visenya was not thinking "for the realm" or for the benefit of smallfolk or outside of her family, yet she as so many fans bc she was not passive or restricted by "madness". She has less sexist writing.

In other words, for me and some others, it is the focus on misogyny's cruelty regardless of an individual's moral compass, misogyny's dehumanization the dynamics of that dehumanization so that personality/personal goals and values come to not matter, and guide aan already not-so-good person into being even worse. It's a tragedy of a particular human-social condition that itself created another tragedy for a different person as well as its own protagonist.

Once we understand this about these royals, there is still this phenomenon about the rules made and disrupted of the right to have power that is still important to explore:

people both in Westeros and in real life are not this far-thinking and will/have just considered the right to rule to be morally and practically a man's inherent right, and will make all sorts of justifications and prevarications for it. So that it is valuable and meaningful to inspect how we may justify such a thing. They do not want good leaders so much as a male ones to maintain patriarchal order. They'd rather have a morally/strategically mediocre male leader over a more capable/moral female one most of the time; they'd rather have a morally-horrible male one rather than a morally-mediocre female leader (Aegon and Rhaenyra). How embedded in society and in individuals' psyches, how--in detail--do women come to destroy others and/or themselves and loved ones for the power that is denied/reduced to them? So, there's the need to focus on how women self-assert anyway, even when they display behaviors that one may not want in a leader. It's about a different kind of leveling the playing field, between noble women and noble men...but it is still about leveling that field. Seeing a wrong, learning how it was wrong, recognizing it as wrong, and seeing how it still comes to shit.

Because misogyny tends to not care about fairness, misogynists will use the women's personality faults to re-support the idea that women, in general, cannot and should not rule... because the society/readers are already lubricated for that disbelief in women through centuries-long misogyny. Even logical arguments alone against misogynist readings are not enough to erase misogyny's influence. This is why you will see a lot of people be defensive in stanning Rhaenyra.

And I have to point out that I already explained why Rhaenyra is culpable for her downfall towards the end concerning Nettles, The dragonseeeds and Stokeworth/Rosby, how she uses blood purity--aka racism's grandfather and partner-- AND how she is concerning Rosby and Stokeworth.

B)

You wanna know why else Rhaenyra is stanned nevertheless? In one of those posts I gave, I explain somewhat but I will add and summarize:

HotD is telling this particular ASoIaF story RIGHT NOW -- more attention, therefore more attention to its characters in lieu of the ASoIaF desert and GoT flop

HotD, by inspiring curiosity from some--and appreciation in book readers who may have slogged through the Dance account-- revitalized closer inspections into Rhaenyra's character and motivations

HotD, by inspiring curiosity from some--and appreciation in book readers who may have slogged through the Dance account-- revitalized more "scholarly" examinations into how Fire and Blood is written as a misogynist text -> revealed the misogynist arguments towards her and allowed more people to observe the "hidden" politicking in the account told about the social landscape of the court/wider Westeros in Rhaenyra and Alicent's time

the blacks are less disgustingly amoral than the greens and people love to take sides to feel more emotionally invested in the story that is being told RIGHT NOW

her kids are morally less bankrupt (I would also just say that they are even just good people) than Alicent and the assumption is that this had to have come from a very good place in Rhaenyra-Daemon's personalities

Rhaenyra's story is still about female self-assertion in the face of misogyny while also supporting the historical context for how Daenerys's bringing the dragons back is a bigger deal and why -> while Dany provides context to Rhaneyra (the latter was written later) and Rhaenyra's self-assertion -> this tie and similarity is very thematically apt and aesthetically pleasing, matching how with Rhaenyra's end the dragons die and Dany's rise the dragons rise = female importance to society

Dany doesn't exist during this Dance of the Dragons; where there is misogyny, there is also the desire to stan the central woman/en who strive to overcome or use patriarchal traditions to win something/real power for themselves -- thought Alicent is a woman using men discreetly for her own power (as well as that for her house) since she has a lot of internalized misogyny toward a child since the very beginning AND that child-to-woman being an actual woman ruling in her own right is better for society (in creating that precedent) than one woman trying to gain power for herself, Rhaenyra wins out as a favorite

C)

These posts go into GRRM's writing of Rhaenyra as well as other notes about her leadership: POST #1, POST #2, POST #3, POST #4, POST #5, POST #6, POST #7, POST #8--esp Section B, C, & D

(all address Rhaenyra's rulership and has more quotes supporting what I will say below)

I even compare her to Daenerys Stormborn in one of the linked posts, but I also have frequently said that Daenerys is/would be a better candidate than Rhaenyra because of Daenerys' regard for those she is leading. This is not lost on me.

*EDIT (5/31/24): NO they are not the same person, I mean that Rhaenyra and Daenerys' one shared thing is that they both fight for something that would have bene denied to them on account of gender. Rhaenyra suffers from really bad sexist writing on GRRM's, not just the maesters', part.*

The difference between these women is that one grew up with many privileges as a princess AND fought for her right to lead and rule against no-woman-should-rule-over-male-lords because of her heritage while the other basically lived as a commoner, dependent on plotters, and then bridal slave despite her heritage...or rather in part because of that heritage (her brother wanting power for himself and choosing to go along with selling her)! Rhaenyra believed in herself, Dany believed in herself, yet one wishes to continue Targ supremacy, and the other wishes to start anew and build a better, safer world for those who can & do fall victim to power struggles between nobles/royals. Dany is partially so special and necessary bc her ancestors (aside from Aegon V, the second Daenerys, Alysanne, and Rhaenys I) do not work and claim power with more vulnerable persons in their minds.

Conclusion

If anon, you are neutral, this type of neutrality is the better and more sensical kind, but I hope that in it people don't become less encouraged to be aggressive towards how absent of morality (as a consideration in its attack against women) misogyny is.

And like I say several times, you do not need to stan Rhaenyra in her own story or wrongly claim she is a good person and think she is herself one of the best Targ rulers/candidates in the overall Targ dynasty. Just be honest and fair. Make sure you read the actual text, consider its sociopolitical context, Westerosi-Targ history, and look at things from Rhaenyra's perspective built from that context-text.

*EDIT* (8/21/23):

THIS is a great post by @mononijikayu about medieval queens, female rulers, the history of how women in leadership positions were made and seen as threats to the very structure of social "order", and contextualizing Rhaenyra thru Empress Matilda. I didn't even know about Matilda's husband being comparable to Rhaneyra's Daemon! PLZ READ!!!!

Excerpt:

just as much, along with these fictitious portrayals, more lies are depicted. these women are considered vixens that cause havoc to men by shifting them into desires and danger. through the written word, we see how women are cast in roles of villains in men’s lives. it is because by their conclusive thoughts, women are the only creatures that are able to turn ‘good honorable men’ into despicable creatures who do shameful, deplorable acts for the sake of women’s pleasures.  [...] it is within this narrative that ancient chroniclers declare that women were in fact the doom of men. if they were not able to control the dangers posed by the wiles of women, then the foundations of the mighty society they had built would be up in flames.  [...] as i mentioned, these factors of community are written down and preserved. and with that, the example of the ancients were the foundations by which medieval society built itself. the same concepts continued to cause the same issue within society and that was the exclusion of women from participating in the bigger picture of community and state, much so with governing states in their own right—without judgment or disapproval. 

[horizon-verizon]

The War of the Five Kings was another war that was extremely devastating to the realm and the common people. One could also say that the audience should not pick sides in that conflict because the common people suffered so much. But I hardly hear anyone saying that. Then those same people who pick sides in the War of the Five Kings, rooting for either Stannis or Robb, say that we shouldn’t pick sides in The Dance of the Dragons because so many commoners suffer and die. They also say that the point of the conflict is to show how “evil” the Targaryens are, and how monarchy is bad.

Yet they rooted for Stannis trying to get the iron throne for himself and waging war to do it, and I never heard them calling monarchy bad then. The War of the Five Kings was a war that was started perfectly without the Targaryens help, given how in that point in time, the Targs were an exiled house and the Baratheon/Lannisters were in power. So these people acting like the Targaryens invented war and monarchy is ridiculous. Before the Targaryens there were literally seven monarchies who were constantly warring. So it’s ridiculous that these people act like the Targaryens are the sole problem because they created the iron throne. If the iron throne didn’t exist, the seven kingdoms would still have their own monarchies and the common people would still suffer. The Targaryens are not heroes but they aren’t villains either. They are just like any other noble house, trying to keep their family in power.

So in short, people who claim to be neutral in the House of the Dragon fandom are usually big hypocrites and secret misogynists, who only say that war and monarchy is bad because Rhaenyra is a woman waging war for the throne, but at the same time rooted for Stannis waging war for the throne and had no problem with his atrocities.

you said what you said...and you should say it

[sirlovel]

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🌷💗❗️

Imagine…

Being Helaena’s darling sibling and you’re too proud to admit you’re afraid of her insects.

You sat with your sister in her chambers as she explained to you of all her scaly, jittery and strange little creatures. Her voice was soft, like she was in a trance, and you knew these insects were her greatest friends, aside from you.

However, you long stopped paying attention. All you could do know was count the freckles on her nose and the stars in her eyes.

“Would you like to hold one?” Helaena asked, taking you out of your own trance, as she held up a writhing little millipede, its hundreds of legs flailing about.

“Of course,” you smiled, extending the palm of your hand out to her jittery little friend. Your heart raced as she cupped your hand and held it still, and then it raced for a different reason when the creature touched your skin.

She traced the back of your hand with gentle fingertips, trying to soothe you, like you yourself was some frightened little creature your sweet sister had added to her collection.

“You’re a dragonrider,” Helaena said with an amused smile and a soft, wistful tone. “You’re not scared of a blind bug, are you?”

You rolled your eyes and scoffed, looking away from the thousands of little legs skittering across your hand. “Of course not, sweet sister. What do you take me for?”

She hummed and watched the little creature crawling from your hand to your wrist, her smile growing sweetly mischievous.

“Perhaps I shall leave it there, then, and you would be trapped with me forever,” Helaena says, equal parts adoring and impish.

“How about we make a deal?” You tried to put on your usual playful arrogance, but it just came out as nervousness. “You get to keep me forever, if you take this accursed creature off of me.”

“That sounds like a good deal,” Helaena took the bug off your arm before it reached your shoulder, and you leaned down to steal a kiss.

I’m back! Thank you so much for reading, I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in so long! I hope you have a nice day/evening/night/whatever 🫶. If you enjoyed, please comment or reblog they keep me motivated, but likes are loved too! And send in requests if there's something specific you want to see from me.

You can also read my fics on A03 if you prefer