#queerness in asoiaf

[g0lightly]

grrm was soooo funny for naming a child being raised by a wlw couple "gaemon"

[sapphicgraphixx]

modern au butchfemme rhaenicent 🙂‍↕️🛍️💋💚

i included a lot of little details in this i'm so proud of 🫂

based on an art prompt for alicent and rhaenyra to be wearing femme bait/butch bait shirts

[hauntedbythenarrative]

[ladyadaine]

Y'all, where is Alysanne "Black Aly" Blackwood, who slew Ser Amos Bracken with a weirwood arrow during the battle of the Burning Mill and commanded three hundred archers of the riverlands? Where is the Lady Sabitha Frey, "who would sooner ride than dance, wore mail instead of silk, and was fond of killing men and kissing women"? The two shared a tent during the campaign but I doubt we'll see that

We saw the Lady Jeyne Arryn, but got no mention to the fact that she was rumored to prefer women. Where is Jeyne's dear companion Jessamyn Redfort and didn't one the few female rulers in westerosi history say her iconic line "In this world of men, we women must band together"?

They're erasing our sapphics and I won't stand for it

[queenvhagar]

Allegedly Rhaenyra will carry a sword starting next season and it's per Emma D'Arcy's request? Quote from them in a recent interview:

“All the men in the show don’t have to worry about where they put their hands because they’re constantly holding the pommel of their sword. That obviously sounds like innuendo and you can do with that what you will but that is true. And all the rest of us are going, 'Where do we put our f—king hands?' Anyway, next year one hand is going to be taken care of. That’s what I want. I want a sword and I’ve been really clear about that with Ryan and I think that’s happening.”

While I understand that yes! Wouldn't it be cool for a female character to carry a sword and be a warrior queen and fight to change the world? Hell yeah! But is this Rhaenyra's character as it fits into the narrative of the story and universe in which she lives? Absolutely not, never was, and it diminishes the story to alter it so significantly yet again.

And for what? Is the creative team really so clueless about what to do for the writing that they're letting the actors run the show again, just like they've done in the past, including the Mysaria kiss that was never mentioned again and led to nothing? It's very clear that everyone in the creative team has fundamentally incorrect views about this story, it's characters, and the world it's set in.

The failures of this adaptation continue to truly astound and disappoint me in ways I did not think were possible.

[polysucks]

I love my evil slut wife :,)

[marysblo0d]

How some of you sound

[xamelsketch]

"I asked her how to win my man

And she said, "I know just the thing"

Gave me lipgloss and a hair toss

And, after school, a lesson in kissing"

[I.D. This drawing consists of two panels featuring Rhaenyra and Alicent in a intimate moment. In the top panel, Alicent is on the left with shoulder-length, wavy hair, wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt and red plaid pants. Rhaenyra, on the right, also has shoulder-length hair, wearing a black sleeveless top and green plaid pants—symbolically wearing each other’s colours. They also wear matching blue bracelets. They're facing each other with their legs touching, and Rhaenyra’s hand is gently cradling Alicent’s hair, a visible scar can be seen on Rhaenyra's arm. In the bottom panel, they're leaning closer, their lips grazing as they are about to kiss. Rhaenyra’s other hand grips Alicent, pulling her even closer, while Alicent's hands remain on Rhaenyra’s leg. The background of both panels features a soft, blended gradient of pink and purple hues. END I.D]

[from-ib-to-asshai]

controversial take and i in no way wanna take away from queer brienne headcanons, but i think its actually kinda cool and good if brienne is straight and cis. i think it's important that we have masculine women characters that are straight as well as queer mascline women characters because that is real life baby!! the same way you can't look at every feminine man and call him gay for that either, because thats not how sexuality works at all.

i think there is that correlation tho due to the fact that queer people are usually more willing and open to gnc presentation due to already being, you know, gnc to begin with, but i always wonder how many more non-queer identifying people we would see presenting more openly as gnc if we stopped trying to correlate the two things (i see a lot of jokes about it on tiktok by queer people that kinda pisses me off)

anyways, back to the babygirl at hand: a worse writer would have written brienne to be cold, hard and masculine on the outside, and then having a soft, feminine inside hidden away (which is also honestly what i first thought of he was going for when reading her first few mentions) but she just straight up is not that. her "masculine" associated traits of her strength, her honor and bravery segway flawlessly into her "feminine" associated traits of being caring, kind and gentle. they coexist on the same level because these aren't masculine or feminine traits, these are just straight up her traits. it has little relevance to her how these traits are sided up since she is so strongly led by her sense of what is right. to live the life she wants to she had to give those notions up; to become her true self she had to give those up.

brienne is not feminine "in spite" of her masculine presentation, nor is she masculine "despite" her femininity: she is brienne and a fantastic human being in spite and despite the feminity and masculinity everyone else tries to force her to be, or percieves her as.

sozs if this is very rambly and not quite coherent

[aseunghunstory]

My Queen 👑🏳️‍🌈

[g0lightly]

My favorite person to ship Dany with is Alleras (aka Sarella Sand) and I even have a gay little tinfoil hat theory about them. Together I call them Sphinxstorm and they are the endgame Dany ship I have planned for my longfic. From what we know of Alleras, he is intelligent, funny, and charming to women – to me he sounds exactly like the type of person that Dany would have a crush on. Only the best for my bi queen!

The highlighted line below is often used as evidence that Daenerys will eventually fall in love with Jon Snow:

I don't have anything against that ship, however I couldn’t help noticing that one could argue that the text above points more to Alleras here than it does to Jon. Though Jon is never described as comely, that is one of the first words used to describe Alleras. To be fair, we naturally get less description of POV characters than non-POV characters and I’m sure Jon could be described as comely. However, I find it interesting that GRRM would choose that as one of the first words to describe Alleras in the prologue of the book that follows the mention of this comely suitor.

This "shifting shadow" of a face Dany dreams of calls to mind previous descriptions of the Stranger in ASOIAF, which has been linked to other gender-nonconforming characters like Brienne. What if the shadow is shifting because Sarella's identity is shifting to be Alleras? Given that he seems close to Marwyn at the Citadel, I wonder if he won't have a bigger role to play for Daenerys when she arrives in Westeros.

[sapphicgraphixx]

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and her Queen Consort Alicent Hightower on the Iron Throne 🙂‍↕️👑

inspired by this tweet

[hauntedbythenarrative]

It would be a hundred times easier

If we were young again

Where Did You Go?, Hishaam Siddiqi//Waiting for This Story to End Before I Begin Another, Jan Heller Levi//Jodi Picault//Brutus, The Buttress//Two slow dancers, Mitski// House of the Dragon (2022-)

[rhaenin-time]

There's something really insidious about Alicent's conduct in that Godswood scene. How she raises the point that Rhaenyra might very well have different cultural values when it comes to sex, and how she only raises that possibility to say that it's a bad thing. Because not only does she lash out when she suspects that Rhaenyra and her father might have privately resolved the issue, and that their shared cultural difference might be one of the reasons they resolved it in a way that Alicent — who is neither Rhaenyra's parent nor her ruler — disagrees with. But also... knowing that at the time, she was raising children from that very culture.

If I trusted that the writers actually knew what they were doing, I would honestly congratulate them. Because it would make so much sense for a woman like that to raise children who had no true respect for the culture they claim as a means of claiming 'legitimacy', eg dragons, outside of how it empowers them. Aemond feeling entitled to claim Vhagar with no prior discussion with the senior family members and dragonriders (who would have denied him), and fucking up at Storm's End that colossally, make total sense.

But it also puts him and Alicent absolutely in the wrong in both cases, which is why I suspect it's more a product of the writers blindly throwing around pieces of a better story. That would be the source material, by the way. Which does strongly suggest that's a key difference between the factions.

[thevelaryons]

As parents of queer children, Alyssa and Corlys have rather different approaches to how they handle their children’s sexualities. They’re sensible enough to know that being gay in their society isn’t socially acceptable; though it’s not openly condemned either. But, because of their circumstances, they would hold private misgivings: Alyssa needing her family to conform to societal norms in order to ensure stability for the realm and Corlys wanting heirs of his own blood and feeling frustrated at the lack of.

Alyssa’s daughter, Rhaena, has her share of female companions. I don’t think Alyssa could have anticipated that Rhaena would develop affectionate feelings for other girls. But once it happens, Alyssa, who had previously tried to have her daughter form close bonds with girls now tries to distance them from each other. Of course, she doesn’t isolate Rhaena completely because her daughter is still a princess and therefore, she needs her ladies about her. So instead, Alyssa ensures that if she sees Rhaena getting too close with any girl, she switches them out. Rhaena does not like all the companions her mother provides her but the ones she does like are also the ones that are taken away from her. It’s probably for this reason that Rhaena’s girlfriends are often described as former favourites because they were not allowed to remain by her side for long once they reached the favourite status. As the Queen, Alyssa has complete authority to dismiss any of her daughters’ companions as she sees fit.

Though her mother provided her with a succession of suitable companions, the daughters of lords great and small, Rhaena never seemed to warm to any of them, preferring the company of a book.

[…]

Not long after, Rhaena made her first true friend in the person of her cousin Larissa Velaryon. For a time the two girls were inseparable…until Larissa was suddenly recalled to Driftmark to be wed to the second son of the Evenstar of Tarth. The young are nothing if not resilient, however, and the princess soon found a new companion in the Hand’s daughter, Samantha Stokeworth.

— Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon

It’s the same thing Alyssa later does with her younger daughter, Alysanne. The reason here being the reputation of the family. That is what drives Alyssa’s actions. She is often shown to be a person that does care about public perception.

Alysanne did not choose these companions for herself; they were selected for her by her mother, Queen Alyssa, and they came and went with some frequency, to ascertain that the princess did not grow too fond of any of them. Her sister Rhaena’s penchant for showering an unseemly amount of affection and attention on a succession of favorites, some of whom were considered less than suitable, had been the source of much whispering at court, and the queen did not want Alysanne to be the subject of similar rumors.

— Fire & Blood, A Surfeit of Rulers

Though there are times when Alyssa does allow Rhaena some leniency to spend time with her favourite companions, those moments are very rare. For the most part, Alyssa’s priorities tend to be about the realm.

The princess had been most loath to be parted from her dragon, Dreamfyre, and her latest favorite, Melony Piper, a red-haired maiden from the riverlands. It was only when her mother, Queen Alyssa, sent for Lady Melony to join them on the progress that Rhaena finally put aside her sullenness to join the celebrations.

— Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon

Rhaena was described as being a shy child. Though she did grow out of her shyness, she still had a quiet nature. I think for someone like her, to have even the smallest hint of her identity denied by her parent would feel rather suffocating. Alyssa is the type of person who always looks at the bigger picture but it makes her miss smaller details in the process. She’s too focused on organizing the kingdom/preserving the peace/guiding the King. She’s said to be concerned about rumours that may follow her daughter because of the closeness she shares with other girls so from her perspective, she’s acting to protect her daughter. I doubt she would even realize how Rhaena could feel hurt and isolated by her actions (and Rhaena does voice that she feels pushed away by her own family).

I’d say all this is part of the reason why Rhaena so thoroughly excludes her mother from the new life she attempts to build for herself, with her old favourites by her side. It is either Rhaena seeking out her companions or her companions seeking her out, but it always happens away from Alyssa.

Two of Rhaena’s former favorites, Samantha Stokeworth and Alayne Royce, made their way to Fair Isle in some haste to stand with the widowed queen, together with the groom’s high-spirited sister, the Lady Elissa. The remainder of the guests were bannermen and household knights sworn to either House Farman or House Lannister. King and court remained entirely ignorant of the marriage until a raven from the Rock brought word, days after the wedding feast and the bedding that sealed the match.

[…]

Chroniclers in King’s Landing report that Queen Alyssa was deeply offended by her exclusion from her daughter’s wedding, and that relations between mother and child were never as warm afterward.

— Fire & Blood, The Year of the Three Brides

By the end of Alyssa’s life, she and Rhaena are essentially estranged from each other. Alyssa’s concerns are understandable. With the Targaryen dynasty still young, she would feel that they have to make sure to conform as much as possible with the social norms. The wars against the Faith Militant and Maegor further push her to become more concerned with the family’s discipline. But this does cost her a relationship with her daughter.

Skip forward a few generations and the dynamic between parent and child is different now.

Corlys’ son, Laenor, is said to surround himself in the company of other boys. Since house Velaryon was isolated on Driftmark for many years, after distancing themselves from the royal court, this could have actually helped create a feeling of being free from societal constraints. Laenor’s male companions are considered a steady fixture at his side over the years. He’s allowed such complete freedom in his relationships that his sexuality is basically an open secret, unlike with Rhaena, where it was hushed whispers barely spoken of.

One objection was raised: Laenor Velaryon was now nineteen years of age, yet had never shown any interest in women. Instead he surrounded himself with handsome squires of his own age, and was said to prefer their company. But Grand Maester Mellos dismissed this concern out of hand. “What of it?” he said. “I do not like the taste of fish, but when fish is served, I eat it.”

[…]

The princess knew much and more about Laenor Velaryon, and had no wish to be his bride. “My half-brothers would be more to his taste,” she told the king.

— Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon

Laenor’s easygoing manner at his wedding suggests a level of comfort. He openly gives his favor to another man as if he is not used to hiding himself.

When Rhaenyra bestowed her garter on Ser Harwin, her new husband laughed and gave one of his own to Ser Joffrey.

— Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon

Despite the fact that his wedding turned into a disaster, Laenor’s life does not change too badly.

He is allowed to openly grieve his lover, Joffrey, and he is allowed to return back home to High Tide, rather than conform to a marriage that would give him misery.

Borne bloody from the field, Ser Joffrey died without recovering consciousness six days later. Mushroom tells us that Ser Laenor spent every hour of those days at his bedside and wept bitterly when the Stranger claimed him.

[…]

Ser Laenor returned to Driftmark thereafter, leaving many to wonder if his marriage had ever been consummated. The princess remained at court, surrounded by her friends and admirers.

[…]

Ser Laenor preferred the comforts of High Tide, where he soon found a new favorite in a household knight named Ser Qarl Correy.

— Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon

Qarl is a knight directly under Corlys’ service. As such, if Corlys wanted to, he could have him removed from his household for daring to be in a relationship with his son. Instead, he allows the relationship to persist for many years.

Although Corlys may be frustrated that things aren’t going according to plan, he clearly cares about Laenor’s happiness first and foremost, even if it interferes with any ambitions of his own. But sometimes, Corlys does let his plans interfere with Laenor’s happiness. When Laenor states his intentions to name his sons, Corlys denies him (perhaps the first time he’s ever done so) and has the child named like a Velaryon: Jacaerys. He continues to deny Laenor for the second son too by giving the boy another Velaryon name: Lucerys. But by the time the third son is born, Corlys finally relents to Laenor’s wishes.

Laenor’s wish to name the child Joffrey was overruled by his father, Lord Corlys. Instead the child was given a traditional Velaryon name: Jacaerys.

[…]

Ser Laenor was at last permitted to name a child after his fallen friend, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth.

— Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon

Btw, it’s not Rhaenyra giving the permission here but Corlys. The text makes it rather obvious when she’s finally allowed the right to name her own child and it’s certainly not when it comes to the elder three boys (that’s just a Corlys vs Rhaenyra issue though). I think a lot of people miss this key detail that even naming a child can be a power play among the nobility. Corlys has his own reasons for what he does when it comes to any of his grandsons, but the main reason he would be okay with letting them be his grandsons is surely because Laenor called them sons first. There’s a certain level of indulgence present in the relationship between Corlys and Laenor.

Concerning Laenor’s sexuality, Corlys’ problem appears to be that Laenor does not do his duty to sire actual sons of his body. If Laenor did his duty, then I do not think Corlys would care if Laenor started having relationships with a dozen or a hundred different men. But it’s a frustration that Corlys does eventually come to terms with. He allowed Laenor a freedom of identity and so it’s Laenor who chooses to remain comfortably by Corlys’ side.

[ladyadaine]

We talk shit about Otto Hightower, justifiably so most of the time, but that man is always serving the best looks and major shade. Like, he's just a cunty grandpa who wants to rule the kingdom through a puppet and I think that's something we can all aspire to be