#i don't think it'd have been as easy if he didn't sympathize with her in a way at the beginning. it's like they say the best lies have a

[allyriadayne]

Why do you think Larys gravitated towards Alicent and not say Rhaenyra? Did he think Alicent was easier to manipulate and more vulnerable or did he just think the greens were a safer bet?

it's half and half. i don't think larys is doing all that because he particularly believes in the traditional male inheritance and is ideologically aligned with the greens, nor that he thinks they are the safest bet (if he believed in this he would not have murdered his family lol). we don't actually know what are his grand plans in the books or in the show but while i don't believe it has to do exactly with personal power, it has to do with getting him into a position of considerable influence over the realm's affairs.

after saying this we can say that targeting alicent makes more sense than rhaenyra. why? for the same reason otto decides it's better to make alicent visit viserys to eventually trap him into marrying her rather than try to guide rhaenyra from zero. alicent is more pliable, more naive, and more willing to follow than to lead, even if she doesn't realize it that moment as the mother of the possible future king she has a lot of influence in court and council; larys has been watching her since she became queen (notice how he inserted himself in the women's circle during the hunt) and found her to be in the right position AND disposition. it was no accident that he finds her just after saying goodbye to otto in the godswood: she's finally free from her biggest influence, has no support system, and in such a vulnerable state that when larys does his tricks she falls really easily and believes all his words (the-green-dress-ramin-djawadi.mp3) because he empathizes with her ("when one is not invited to speak..."), speaks her fears out loud (rhaenyra, her lack of allies) and offers her his support when all she had was through otto.

as for larys, i like to think that he saw some parts of himself in her (outsiders, under strict parents, intelligent and overlooked), esp during those ten years of dinners where the friendly facade (or was it?!?!) was firmly in place (rip alicent you are never getting away) and that's why he doubles down in his punishments when she denies him. in any case, this would not had happened with rhaenyra at all. larys needs an entry and the only moment rhaenyra is vulnerable is when daemon leaves her pants down in the brothel, she's much more guarded and knows how to wield her privileges. poor larys would've been kicked out immediately plus after rhaenyra started seeing harwin there was NO WAY larys was going for the same route, that his brother liked her was already a mark against.

i think at this point when aegon was a baby many people were just waiting for viserys to change his mind, he doesn't really do much for rhaenyra so for them it was a matter of time. i think this is true for larys and because he's practically put all his eggs in alicent's basket he's throwing himself to be the best pet spy in the realm and not lose the foothold he has in the queen until the moment she or the cause is not useful to his goals anymore (let's remember he installed one of the puppet kings, did nothing when daemon took harrenhal, when alys did the same, and well, he did poison aegon lol).

[unsoundedcomic]

When we first see Anadyne, she definitely seems more like a side character that's just there for the scene. Oh, Anadyne and Knock, they're just mini bosses from the Thieves' Guild, we'll see other Thieves Guild mini bosses with other quirky names show up from time to time. Was this fate always in the plans for her, or was she originally a Chapter 6 miniboss? It's interesting how much she grew into significance. Early Ana seems like one of those nameless henchmen you're supposed to forget about.

Ana's still not a major character with much of an arc, but she's been an important part of the plot, and a fine illustration of what can happen when you let your smoke eels win an argument :/ I'm pretty sure she was always meant to be in this role, at least as far back as I can remember outlining the whole thing. Stockyard's role did change massively, but Knock and Ana and Toby always had their path.

Prakhuta needed another form for the Silver - not just to make it more mobile for him, but we also narratively needed to put a slightly different spin on it, so it's more personal to Sette and so it has a direction that's very easy (I think) to understand: Ana got shafted and she's pissed and she's letting her rage and despair steer her. She's the face for all the millions of other phantoms that we didn't personally see get rekt in their lives. If the Silver was still a faceless boogieman here like it was in Ethelmik, I think it'd be more dull.

It ain't a pretty face, and I can see readers sympathizing with it less and less. That's what happens. Unless you have someone who loves you unconditionally - and most of us don't deserve that - you will damn yourself to isolation if you give in to the worst parts of you.

You can see that with Cutter too. Ana's only here because he couldn't stand being alone with his own awfulness anymore. He had to kidnap someone else into Hell with him.

[clearwillow]

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? [um, we all know the answer is YES 😆] If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

Hiii @dchelyst!

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

As much as most would probably say that all the sit commands, I gotta say the forced "love" triangle because it's not really achieving what they hoped it would. We can't sympathize with anyone over anyone else because Sunrise made it so everyone was wrong.

Kikyo's got a stick up her ass (she was brought back with clay so it's very possible) and was resurrected when she didn't want to be, so she's got rage going on and like anyone that's been rudely awakened they're picking violence for any reason. Inuyasha's got the empathy range of a teaspoon because he's been alone, and from personal experience people tend to shy away from someone that's unusual to them. He woke up still thinking it was Tuesday in 1972 and now it's Thursday in 2022 so he's got a lot of unprecedented global events to make sense of and just getting more and more pissed. Kagome's not any better, because it is extremely rare for a 15 year old to be mentally stable enough to handle traveling through time and space, demons, a piece of quartz with more influence than Taylor Swift, her own version of Twilight, navigating a time that hasn't utilized the Gregorian calendar, and dealing with a crumbling school and social life because her grandfather is about three pages away from saying she's missing school because she got the clap. The human brain won't mature for another decade. Those neurons are firing every which way because they've got fuck all idea what to do because they're just trying to make sure she stays hydrated.

Actually...if they'd have played into it like this it might've been more funny instead of wanting to tear our hair out...

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

I dunno how wild it is, but I think if Kikyo's soul were to be reborn in anyone, it wouldn't be Kagome - it'd be Ayumi. The girl is intuitive and doesn't seem as phased as Eri and Yuka, and I used to think it was because she was off doing a side quest in her head, but what if she knows that there's things Kagome isn't saying in her words? She may not understand the feeling, but she rolls with it because intuition says "it's okay". She probably can't purify a cat turd, but she knows that when Kagome's missing school, it's not because of rickets. She just...doesn't feel like she can explain why to the others.

So when she sees Inuyasha without the hat at the school festival, she stares a minute too long for Kagome's comfort, but not for the reasons she thinks. Ayumi's processing that those aren't fake ears, and the voice comes back and says "he's fine don't worry about it", so she grabs Kagome and drags her off because they've got shit to do.

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? [um, we all know the answer is YES 😆] If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

🤣🤣🤣 Probably more than I should have! At this point, I'd say difficult because there's that fear of recycling the same wording, a character's thoughts or actions, etc. If I could get out of my own head and not worry so much about that, it might be easier. So I try not to be excessive with smut scenes (there's probably some I could've cut) but if there are going to be multiples in one fic (like Nailed It for instance) I want to try to mix it up (the couch, the shower, the hallway...). And then there's oneshots like Kneel Before Me where I just...really stray left and hope I didn't go too far because I wanted to challenge myself 🤣