#im such an emo for bloodraven lol hes my man

[aerltarg]

My personal favorite headcannon is that the brother that Brynden mentions to Bran that 'he loved' is, in fact, Daemon Blackfyre; of course, the obvious choice would be Daeron 'the Good', I mean, he fought his king against Daemon, and nevertheless, killed him and his heirs, going so far that he went to history as a quenched Targaryen loyalist, always dismantling any Blackfyre insurrection but, wouldn't be more interesting if Brynden was thorn between 'love or duty', as many characters in asoiaf are? He could have he's reasons for loving Daemon: I mean, how couldn't he? the head of the Blackfyre dynasty was the ideal that any bastard could dream of being: was raised at court, being acknowledge by the realm despite his status (maybe for the wrong reasons, as many of his supporters had conniptions with the dornish), being acknowledge BY THE KING. And, I imagine, that being raised at court, and having similar status as Daemon, Brynden could relate a lot more with him than with Daeron, who was the heir and prince, something that he never dreamed of reaching. I imagined that, by the end of the day, Brynden loved and idealized Daemon, and the fact that Aegor persuaded him to rebel against the crown was a dagger to his heart, this and the old adage that so many characters of the books try to follow: "love is the death of duty".

What do you think?? (Pls, bear with my english, this is not my first language g.g)

omg i love this headcanon too!!!

yes, as you've said it's very easy to imagine daeron as the "brother he loved" of brynden. he fought for him, he killed for him, he became kinslayer, he stayed loyal to house targaryen after he died, he served his sons. i also think it's very much likely was daeron who gave brynden the dark sister for all his accomplishments.

yet, however much i love to imagine brynden having friendly relationship with daeron, the concept of "brother he loved" being daemon... just strikes different. and indeed does feel like smth grrm would go after - as you've said, "love vs duty" kind of situation, "human heart in conflict with itself" trope that grrm likes so much. there's even enough basis for this in canon, imo. i rlly like how you pointed it out! bc YES, brynden had more in common with daemon, another king's bastard, than with daeron, the prince of dragonstone. they were even closer in age to each other while daeron was much older. e.g. daeron was already 17 when daemon was born and 22 when brynden was. such a big age gap, esp in the world where ppl are considered 100% adults at 16, doesn't seem to me like a sign of a close relationship. ffs, brynden was very much likely younger than baelor breakspear, daeron's eldest son, and probably younger or around the same age of aerys i, daeron's second son. and yeah, sure, we do know that brynden's mother, missy blackwood, befriended naerys, aemon the dragonknight and daeron himself, yet i can see this only as brynden being kind of a distant little nephew to daeron, not a brother close to heart. and when we have the combination of the age gap AND different social status chances of close friendship go to hell pretty much, imo.

another great bastard who was even closer in age to brynden was aegor. and well... we know they weren't friends for sure lmao. this blackwoods vs brackens thing as addition to everything else ig. it's kinda curious tho that aegor was growing up away from the king's landing while both daemon and brynden were raised at court, and yet in the later years aegor and daemon somehow bonded and bittersteel even managed to persuade daemon to fight for the throne...

i must say i especially love the part of brynden idealizing daemon and feeling betrayed when he got persuaded by aegor to rebel!!! ah, ol' good targ drama, we love it. but personally i'm especially delighted to see this (and adapt this hc pls 😂) bc it reminds me so much of brynden & jon snow parallels that i enjoy a lot! it gives me the vibes of robb and jon: a close brother who has the love of their father while you are otherized and you still love this brother (even if are jealous in some way?). surely, i think there are greater parallels with daeron & robb / brynden & jon aka bastard bros staying loyal to their legitimate siblings despite everything. yet, now i cant unsee daemon & robb / brynden & jon! like yeah daemon got papa's love and was that perfect targaryen prince (except for the name) while brynden was otherized not just bc he was a bastard but bc of his looks as well. yes, jon and robb are the illegitimate vs legitimate kids situation but daemon being all that except for being waters and brynden also being rivers but still far from the perfect prince(TM) imagery gives us so many opportunities to wonder what their dynamics rlly was! bc i believe this basis of being able to relate to each other could make it so super interesting!

agsvxvsh idk if i'm making sense rn so the main point i wanted to lead to. brynden "he had sacrificed his own personal honor for the good of the realm" rivers chose duty and did what he thought right - put an end to blackfyre rebellions, got the kinslayer attire for this and was sent to the night's watch after his last attempt to end blackfyres. he paid for his choice. jon "i am the sword that guards the realm of men, and in the end, that must be worth more than one man's honor" snow chose love. his decision to march for arya is one of the main reasons he got assassinated. he paid for his choice too.

these parallels with jon that only shine brighter when you consider daemon as "the brother he loved" of brynden are one of the main reasons i love this hc! but ofc the whole complexity and potential of their story and situation that you get play the huge role too. it's a very rich concept that i enjoy so so much!

[wolfsneedles]

i like how prophetic dreams and prophecies in itself different from visions are interpreted in different ways and in diff directions but also by different people for eg stannis and Mel, Rhaegar and dany or other targaryen kings. Jojen and bran, Cersei and Maggy etc...

Melisandre usually tumbles and makes mistakes she sees what she sees but not exactly she wants to see what should be accurate considering how her major azhor ahai is stannis, was a mistake and an error. However recently we know she sees snow in flames. jon. but im skeptical about him being prince that was promised or AA, when you have....daenerys right here. But she still commits mistakes idk maybe rh'ollor is lil unhinged and is messing with her, but no. i think she is prone to change and her prophecies change too. Mel doesn't stick up to one interpretation and pretty sure will leave stannis in long run if she believes who is AA to her.

But stannis, is stubborn and crude. As a skeptic and well part atheist, he took her words and religious ventures too seriously and has attached with the prophecy too vehemently as if he has to be AA at any cost not knowing prophecy can't matter in the end even, but its so funny to me he risked most of the stuff for red priestess who just came to her and is like, "ight u be the king cuz u have targaryen blood"

Jojen reeds dreams are like mostly about starks and wolves and how they will come back again and when bran and others ask him if what he sees can be changed, he says no. which means him seeing something can be finalized testament or something that will happen one way or other since starks coming back or wolves coming back, is like obvious thing since they have their might broken. Bran is currently well being trained by bloodraven so his views weren't yet in first books but evolved with time.

And my fav part is cersei's prophecy of valonqar and maggy. She is destined or was to marry king not prince and she would have 3 children while robert 16 bastards, and we never knew and it was strange to me how lannisters never acquired or were even mildly amused by idea of magic all the way but cersei going to a witch when she was in casterly rock with her companions was like a major twist for me since i never assumed her to be like that, however she knows her fate will end by valonqar and a young more beautiful queen (def dany) will replace her and take what she holds dear. However cersei's reaction to this prophecy when she herself asks witch to tell her fortune is volatile. She takes to anger and resists it from coming true. She even shapes her life and everything according to not letting the prophecy come true but it follows her to in a way that she does marry robert and has 3 children by incestuous relationship. At the very best however, she avoids it because she hates the truth of it. She steers away from it.

Rhaegar is a different matter to me. I like how he was born as melancholic and amidst grief during tragedy of summerhal and well overall, for me had tragic demise but he took the prophecy too serious differently than stannis even. He made sure to follow and correct it and apply it aptly on his marital life and social life. He even kind of got too carried away and dreamy with it that he didn't himself realise the situation changing with Robert's rebellion and everything happening. Rhaegar however we knew was kind of intellectual and sensual personality so maybe he took the targaryen grief of years of no dragons too seriously too. And in the end well...prophecy really didn't work for him and most of his actions failed him and those around.

Dany is so different in this regards tbh. She is part of two prophecies for me the 'prince that was promised' and AZHOR AHAI. and the last 'younger more beautiful queen'. I mean it's startling. Unlike her brother and even old ancestors of her blood, she intrinsically is tied to so many of these prophetic verses and proves on so many occasions especially after birth of dragons that she indeed can be Azhor Ahai or maybe - the best candidates for her. She doesn't really is obsessed with it or neither is she forcing someone to tell her fate like cersei and then meet the rejection with rudeness infact she kind of subverts expectations one has of glaring prophecy which everyone imagines to be a prince...or a man. But dany really isn't a man lol and neither a prince. Aemon did say too the translated prophecy can have error too and it was not really prince who is promised but could be well...princess if that's even the correct term. Her birth of dragons explained in numerous posts and metas is so phenomenal and makes her ever so wonderful and magical than her all ancestors who died in all tragic ways because they made the prophecies too tied to their lives and were utterly obsessed with it. They were reminiscing over grief of dragons but daenerys bought dragons that to, three back to world after stepping into drogo's pyre and performing a ritual she herself only realised in the end what she was doing and thanks to well MMD. She realized later but still did she realise how the stone eggs did exudate warmth and called to her. Im pretty sure all other targayens and their expectations and experiences were all in vain or went down drain. Dany on the other hand independently alone and on her own without help of anyone but only subtly joining clues and hints, sorted out and stitched the importance and relevance of it. The dragons and ritual. It was anyways a one time magical event too, no wonder her bringing dragons to world is written as " music of dragons" and night came alive with it in AGOT. (interesting that grrm says music of dragons and well rhaegar also liked playing sad music at ruins of summerhall, an emo prince yea)

And Daenerys doesn't really is tied herself to prophecy but most of the prophecies are tied to her. The Younger More Beautiful Queen one indicates at her..tbh and really no one including cersei and her knows about it. The AzAhai one also points to her because she was born in salts of dragonstone and smoke refers to birth of dragons and cracking of sound and smoke during pyre. The sword forged from flame can obv be pointed to drogon whose birth is like fire made flesh of a dragon hence that, and also when Xaro X Daxos says, of her dragons 'as flaming sword'.

but not getting into details of AA as dany because again, there are a lot of essays to it.

I just pointed out how stannis makes prophecy his and forced a little on people, how jojen trains bran too in a way and he still takes time to learn this green visions thing, cersei staggers away from it and damages people to not fulfill it or prevent it from engulfing her...but dany has no idea yet as far of any prophecy only a dream, and house of undying visions which she herself doesnt yet believe all so much we rlly dont know, yet she fulfills def 2/3 prophecies.