#rhaenys targaryen (daughter of aemon)

[sophiemariepl]

That + this scene made me realise that Rhaenys Targaryen still wears a semi-Baratheon hairstyle, I guess, to honour her Baratheon mother?

AEMOND TARGARYEN and FLORIS BARATHEON HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022-)

[midnight--sadness]

Giving dragons to non-dragonriding Targaryens.

(Note: this makes no sense in terms of timelines, it is just for fun! 😊)

Daenerys: Morning -- no great philosophical reason, I just think my girl deserves a pretty pink dragon

Daella: Viserion -- he is such a gentle dragon, she would (probably) get over her fear of them if she had him contantly cuddling her

Saera: Syrax -- a spoiled dragon for a girl who always desired attention

Viserra: Sunfyre -- the most beautiful of Alysanne's daughters must have the most beautiful dragon in the known world

Aemma Arryn: Tessarion -- the Blue Queen would match with Meleys the Red Queen, whose rider Rhaenys is Aemma's cousin

Viserys II: Rhaegal -- I feel like between Drogon and Viserion, sometimes Rhaegal is forgotten, which is also something I feel happens with Viserys, particularly in the midst of the tragedy of the Dance

Aegon IV: Syrax -- both very fertile and pampered

Naerys: Dreamfyre -- both of Dreamfyre's previous riders, Rhaena and Helaena, had twins, so I wanted to have that connection to Naerys

Daeron I: Meraxes -- the obvious Dorne connection and both Queen Rhaenys and Daeron have Velaryon mothers

Daena: Caraxes -- the Blood Wyrm being ridden by Daemon's wild granddaughter OR Meleys

Elaena: Arrax -- his coloring perfectly matches her hair OR Moondancer -- she "stole" her aunt Baela's husband and also her dragon

Daeron II: Silverwing -- only appropriate that Good Queen Alysanne's dragon is ridden by King Daeron the Good

Daemon Blackfyre: Balerion -- the Black Dread for the Black Dragon

Aegor Rivers: Vermithor -- the Bronze Fury for a perpetually angry man

Brynden Rivers: the Cannibal -- known for eating other dragons and Brynden is a supposed kinslayer OR Caraxes -- the Blood Wyrm for Bloodraven, both lean and formidable

Shiera Seastar: Seasmoke or Silverwing -- a silver dragon that matches her aesthetic

Baelor: Sunfyre -- golden like the sun of Dorne and his name "sun" like the Martell sigil, in honor of his mother Myriah Martell, and "fire" connects to the Targaryen words

Maekar: Vhagar -- a war dragon

Aemon: Viserion -- Daenerys' sweet boy for the man who so desperately wanted to protect her

Aerion: the Cannibal -- the dragon's menacing green eyes are the color of wildfire

Rhaegar: Grey Ghost -- a wild dragon, known for his elusiveness, is mysterious and avoidant of people, and would be a good companion to Rhaegar and the way no one really knew him

Rhaenys: Balerion -- she named her kitten after the Black Dread, so it is only fair that she gets to ride him

Please let me know what you think!

Do you think there is another dragon/rider combination or is there someone here you would assign another dragon?

[coveredinsun]

what i think about sometimes is that it’s lowkey crazy that it took 130 years for an eldest girl vs. younger boy succession conflict to break out into Actual War among the targaryens. i mean, in every single generation after the conqueror’s sons (in which there were no daughters at all) the eldest child of that generation had always been a daughter, but their inheritance was never formally scorned until rhaenys.

firstly, rhaena was aenys i’s eldest child, but she was quickly married off to her brother, not necessarily with the explicit intention to prevent a succession conflict, but prevention was a result; it made for a simple father-son succession with a built in queen consort.

of the next generation, there were 2 daughters elder than jaehaerys’ eldest male child aegon (who died as an infant and actually left a presumed female heir for a few years, daenerys!): aerea and rhaella. rhaella was sent away to be a septa, but aerea was even proclaimed heir! her claim against jaehaerys, like rhaenyra and daemon later, was a matter of king’s daughter vs. king’s brother. however, her inheritance was unofficially spurned, and with less publicity and outcry than rhaenys, because A) her father aegon “the uncrowned” was, as his nickname implies, never officially crowned king; and B) she was proclaimed heir by maegor, which left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. but jaehaerys was indeed chosen over her because of the male primogeniture that put viserys over rhaenys! and rhaena, her mother, held a valid resentment over that.

and then finally after jaehaerys is crowned king and has ruled for a little while, he actually has an eldest female heir, daenaerys, for ~6 years—and her mother alyssanne specifically contended for her right to be heir! but then she dies, and jaehaerys gets an uncontroversial male heir, AND a uncontroversial male backup. but then both of those male heirs die, and like 4 of their daughters die/run away/are sent away in rapid succession (alyssa, daella, viserra, saera, maegelle) and suddenly there are TWO possible options for jaehaerys’ children, so he turns to his children’s children, and we all know how it goes.

TLDR: the dance of the dragons was not the first succession conflict based on gender. it is simply the only one that did not have a clean “wrap up” (sorry for such an insensitive turn of phrase), and thus turned into a war. targaryen women have been spurned since day 1, but it was never officially ordained until rhaenys, and never viciously fought over until rhaenyra.

[gracielikegrapes]

Angōs Meleys

[raven-6-10]

Okey, but like. Rhaenys and Viserys and Daemon are parallel cousins, and if I remember my Valyrian correctly the word for 'father' and the word for 'father's brother' are the same. And your parallel cousins are addressed the same way as your siblings.

So Rhaenys probably grew up calling those two her little brothers, and they called her their older sister.

…fucking hell there’s a lot of different kinds of cousin in this valyrian dictionary

[valyrianfreehold]

the queen who never was

[starry-aesthetic]

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was, 90 AC.

Rhaenys joined King Jaehaerys I Targaryen for part of his royal progress. On Greenshield she informed the king about her intention to marry Lord Corlys Velaryon, and received her grandfather's blessing. She insisted on arriving at the wedding on the back of Meleys. (F&B, The Long Reign)

[horizon-verizon]

Rhaenys killing smallfolk is so…. Like wtf, and then people be like “Kinslaying is the worst crime there is! She’d be stupid to do it!”, first HOTD never introduces the notion of kinslaying, and killing hundreds of people is a crime too! She is already a criminal for what she did, why stop halfway if you’re going full murderer ? If you’re gonna commit a decapitation worthy offence, then you might as well kill the people who are a legitimate threat to your future great grandchildren and granddaughters themselves.

Them coming out saying that Rhaenys didn’t kill them because it’s not her war…. Lol, it was her war the moment she agreed to betroth her granddaughters to Rhaenyra’s sons. Her family (the little that is left of it) is in legitimate danger and she passed up the opportunity to kill people who WERE ACTIVELY PLANNING ON KILLING HER FAMILY ANYWAYS. (Yes, I know it was mostly Rhaenyra and Daemon but Jace and Luke and Joff would have to go too and Daemon is the father of Rhaena and Baela, the twins have legal claim to the throne, so no ways they letting that slide either).

Yeah, this has been my argument as well. I will never not be angry about this damned episode, esp this scene.

My biggest gripe about this fool of an episode is that if Rhaenys says she doesn't want to "be involved" in "their" war is that in ANY iteration of these events where Baela & Rhaena exist without turning this into a full-fledged AU like sweetestpopcorn's "The Black and the Greens", Rhaenys will ALWAYS be "involved"...

because those girls are DAEMON'S DAUGHTERS and ONE OF THEM LIVES WITH DAEMON AND RHAENYRA!!! And this Rhaenys constantly has said she primarily cares about her own kids and grandchildren, not Viserys, Daemon, or Rhaenyra...so what gives?!

In a world where these strategy-minded people would, you know, think strategy...Rhaenys practically spoon-fed them a public reason to go to war and assume a protective-justice persona!!!

To further paint the blacks as violence mongerers or even just shit-starters, even with those killed being peasants, bc the sheer number of people killed simultaneously who live around you & around your castle who have historically been a part of some Faith-led attacks against the crown (Aenys, Maegor, Rhaena & her brother Aegon--the Poor Fellows) is astronomical. Killing that many smallfolk doesn't pay and rather makes for a larger number of angrier smallfolk with a reason to be angrier than average. You'd think she'd realize that and idk, maybe not kill dozens if not thousands of smallfolk.

Otto will always look to them as possible rivals because of that connection to the person he thinks will likely always contend with him/anyone for power, espe after he includes the younger boys' hostage-taking in his terms in episode 10. Aside from Otto--who had a grip on Alicent's decision-making until it came to Rhaenyra (as if Rhaenyra doesn't come with her kids, who Alicent has accepted the risk of exile or total ruination for 10 years, but I digress).

And Alicent--by the next season's 2 trailers--appears to go back to Otto as a consultant and guide as to how the greens will face the blacks, so we can't argue that she will not escape his influence even with her allowing herself to understand his manipulativeness. She obviously didn't want a war and has tried to stave it off by holding Rhaenys hostage and sending that damned page to Rhaenyra with Otto's terms--that is if she actually sent it--she also sets up a possible war through usurping Rhaenyra in the first place! And Alicent isn't actually fighting against Rhaenyra for the sake of "the realm" but for for her own position as the mother to a possible king/wife of a past king and the lives of her kids.

Even in the book--if you are inclined to believe that she believes this and/or has sincerely taken Otto's fear of Daemon as her own maybe bc similarly to the show he instilled in her that fear of him--Alicent brings up Daemon's supposed bloodthirstiness and inevitable murder of her kids as reason to usurp Rhaenyra ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

As for the kinslaying part, they refused to insert Rhaenyra's lines of that, instead making her grab Otto's pendant and throwing it off the bridge in a much more flaccid version of what she does with Orwyle's chains in the book. Without the context of her giving Aegon that chance to withdraw AND criticizing Orwyle taking the green side and basically going against his own maester code of following traditions and laws, show!Rhaenyra's protests against Otto is more losing the desired cool & careful, wise reservedness that HotD already favors over original "proud" book!Rhaenyra. And I think that it's to give the Dance story this faux measure of "balance" that ozymalek talks about HERE:

People often argue whether HOTD showrunners are biased in favor of Team Black or Team Green. I think the answer to this question can't be encapsulated within the context of "bias", at least not fully. They are biased for both and neither at the same time and it's difficult to explain, but I will try to articulate how I see it. The Dance era in "Fire and Blood" is something that will fundamentally cause the feelings of cognitive dissonance. I think this is why people initially disliked this book when it first came out. It did not provide easy answers, it was written as a historical account, the in-universe historians were clearly biased. People, however, had trouble realizing who the historians are biased for and against. Team Green would have you think that "F&B" is biased against the Greens, because their allegiance as maesters clearly being to Hightowers notwithstanding, they could not evade simple historical facts: that most of the kingdom supported Rhaenyra, that Greens were horrendously misogynistic and that her usurpation was clearly wrong. That's why, approaching it from the "choose your favorite war criminal" point of view, it was difficult for Greens to accept that their preferred side is so cartoonishly evil - obviously bias must have been involved, even though the only pro-Black narrator of F&B is Mushroom, the rest are Greens. The maester's anti-Targaryen bias, however, manages to sneak in and mess with the reader's balance, causing said cognitive dissonance. It's hard to deal with it as a reader, let alone as a showrunner who's trying to adapt a story in which not everything is set in stone. They incorrectly assumed that, because they are constantly forced to question what is happening in the story, the bias is with the underlying idea that there was a correct side. As such, they assumed that all the inconsistencies result from maesters not choosing to view it that way. Ryan Condal repeatedly stated that he does not want watchers to pick sides, while George RR Martin embraces it and even encourages it (and I think that he himself has picked the Blacks). Such is our nature as human beings. So they decided that they have to balance the scales. Because Greens are poorly developed, they added more characterization for them that contradicts their book personas (abused child bride meow meow Alicent who is clueless about the plans that in the books she herself set in motion, for example) while simultaneously taking the characterization AWAY from team Black members. Rhaena and Baela barely have any lines, and though this may be the case of simple racism, it's pretty telling that they ignored the fact that Baela is tomboyish and has short hair. Rheanyra herself is so toned down that she does not resemble her book counterpart in the slightest, making her seem weak, stupid and undecided. Daemon straight up becomes a villain and a wife murderer rather than a throughoutly gray character (book!Rhea Royce unambiguously dies after a hawking accident while Daemon is still fighting in the Stepstones); that's because Team Black was in a desperate need for a corrupting influence in order to balance the scales. But some Greens aren't spared from this treatment either. Otto is made much worse than he was in the books, he straight up pimps out his teenage daughter so that he can elevate House Hightower. While Aegon is also a sex pest in the books, showing him openly rape a lowborn woman was a risky decision (as was the not very subtle implication that he rapes Helaena as well); not to mention that the child fighting pits come from Mushroom, whose entire gimmick is making shit up. So neither side is really spared from being villified and whitewashed, depending on whom we look. The showrunners were fully committed to making choosing sides a confusing process, making the cognitive dissonance of this story to be even stronger. This is why they aren't really biased for or against anyone.

[lagosbratzdoll]

thoughts about Laena and more

The statement “That show is disrespectful to its Black characters” is unfortunately applicable to almost every show ever broadcasted, which is a disheartening realization. In this instance, though, I’m talking about House of the Dragon. 

Laena's erasure from Rhaenyra's life to make room for a friendship between two white women that did not exist in the original source material. She is isolated from her family so that Daemon can be separated from Rhaenyra, which isn't what happened in the books. It's frustrating to watch Black characters isolated and used as plot devices.

The show's treatment of Baela and Rhaena is also problematic. There are inconsistencies in the plot, such as Daemon ignoring Rhaena even though he didn't have a dragon until later in life. Baela going to foster at Driftmark when it should be Luke and Rhaena. It's disappointing that we don't see more of Laena with her family on Driftmark or her claiming Vhagar.

Additionally, it's strange that Jaehaerys is depicted as white as snow when his mother was Black and his father was at least half Black based on show lore. The Targaryens have historically intermarried with the Velaryons, so they shouldn't be all white, at least not at this point in their history. It seems like the show may have made the Velaryons Black solely to push the Strong boys' narrative, without considering the wider implications. This is negligent at best and malicious at worst.

[taviamoth]

awake at night thinking abt how jaehaerys disinherited the clear undisputed legal heir to the throne, the living child of aemon, his eldest son and heir, because he thought "meh i don't want my little granddaughter to become the queen when i have a HANDSOME POWERFUL SON, who was just like me and alysanne with his cool sister-wife before she died"

[eschercaine]

Is... Is this book!Rhaenys?

[sarcasticsweetlara]

I can't help but have another image vibe of Alicent's book depiction.

All my respect to Olivia Cooke, but Book! Alicent is slender and graceful to Show! Alicent who seems to try to hide herself, and Book! Alicent is so witty, sassy (a trait she passed down to all her children) and unafraid to use the power she has as queen consort and then queen mother in a manner that Show! Alicent could never be.

Whether you prefer her book version or show version is up to you, but you can not deny Book! Alicent is indeed more powerful and less maleable than Show! Alicent, the show runners wanted to make her more sympathetic but they didn't have to strip her of her agency.

Book! Alicent would have never showed Larys her feet, she would have made him give her information whether he wanted or not as Book! Alicent was in more control of her power, and the thing with the Green Council is that she initiated it! Alicent wanted to protect her children, yes, but that scene should have portrayed her power and control of the Council not this meek woman who everyone kept in the dark about their plans for her son that she believed in.

Also, Book! Corlys is far more proud than his suck it up version in the show - again my respect to Steve Touissant, but I feel like they failed in portraying that Corlys was not only ambitious but highly cunning, proud and clever that Show! Rhaenyra would have to do more than offer a random proposal (that actually was made by Laena when the children were toddlers) to get him back to her side, she made him her hand in the end.

In both the show and book versions House Velaryon fought for everything they have and Book! Corlys would not let himself and his family be humiliated.

And Book! Rhaenys is brave, witty and with a no-nonsense attitude that she would never let Corlys go over her like Show! Rhaenys.

I know all of them are complex and flawed but it's like the show is refusing to really portray that.

[midnight--sadness]

i love the way that a dragon's coloring is sometimes connected to its rider's family.

meraxes had silver scales and was ridden by rhaenys. rhaenys' son aenys had a dragon named quicksilver, and though we don't know her coloring, given her name and her pale white fire, it is probably silver as well. aenys' daughter alysanne had silverwing, described as a silvery dragon.

three generations of rulers who had silver she-dragons.

jaehaerys i rode vermithor, the bronze fury, and his son baelon the brave rode vhagar, who was described as bronze.

aemon and alyssa, brother and sister, both rode red dragons, caraxes and meleys, respectively.

rhaenyra has the yellow-gold syrax, and her son lucerys who rides arrax, described as having yellow fire and gold eyes and crest.

(could even connect this to aegon ii's sunfyre, who is golden and has pink membranes, matching to rhaenys' meleys and rhaena's morning, who is fully pink.)

helaena and daeron, also brother and sister, rode dreamfyre and tessarion, both blue dragons (although in different shades).

although we dont know his coloring, stormcloud, based on his name, was probably (dark) grey, which would match with the (light) grey color of seasmoke, who belonged to laenor, aegon iii's stepfather.

and of course, there is the connection between the conquerors' dragons balerion, meraxes and vhagar with dany's children drogon, viserion and rhaegal.

[tbtgtr-incorrectquotes]

Daughter of Naerys:

If Naerys marries Boremund, that makes her Rhaenys aunt... young Rhaenys probably thinks the world of her and Aemon has a heart attack everytime little Rhaenys says she wants to be like Aunt Naerys.

Rhaenys: I will make like auntie and be a conqueror too!

Aemon: Absolutely not! You will already inherit a entire continent! No need to risk your life in a war!

Rhaenys: But Dad-

Aemon: No conquest of anything unitl you're in your 30's!

Rhaenys: I can never do anything fun!

Naerys: pspspspsps, wanna come help me raid some fuckers who’re trying to set up a slave base on Moonstone

Rhaenys, running: Yes!

Aemon: NO!

[naerys-arryn]

NotD!Naerys:

I imagine Rhaenys wanting to give one of Maelys's eggs to Jo was a great step forward in her relationship with Rhaenyra.

Finally a proper bonding moment between mother in law and her daughter in law

Yup, and Rhaenyra is super excited about it because Meleys has very few egg clutches so this is a major moment for Jocelyn and her.

[dwellordream]

Say Corlys dies around the time Aemma does, Viserys offers to marry Rhaenys, but wants Rhaenyra to be his heir no matter what. Rhaenyra and Laenor. Laena gets Driftmark. Rhaenys is only 31. Would she accept such an offer? What would she do if she had a son? I always have been Team Black because the Velayrons put their teeth into the rulers of law not war.

I sincerely doubt Viserys would be interested in marrying a widowed Rhaenys.

This is not a knock on Rhaenys, this is a knock on Viserys. He could have chosen an older, mature woman to marry after Aemma died, and instead he went for his Hand's 18 year old daughter, who he'd known since she was a child helping to care for his ailing grandfather. Frankly, I think Rhaenys likely intimidated him.

Nor do I think Rhaenys would ever consent to marrying Viserys after Corlys dies. She knows she would only ever be Viserys' consort, not a queen in her own right, and why would she sacrifice a powerful role on Driftmark to be confined to court? Beyond that, Rhaenys having a dragon and being a wealthy widow makes forcing a marriage on her very difficult.