#that's why i decided to go with the asoiaf universe

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

#the people upset about Criston being Dornish are constantly stating Dorne is white so why does it really matter? (via @thewitchqueenofharrenhal)

i say ‘i’d love to know why’ but i know the reason people on twitter are actually weird about criston being dornish is that they view media in terms of overwatch diversity points and the team with more overwatch diversity points is morally superior. same as the alicent wasn’t a child bride argument it’s a concern to concede like. abused(5points) woman(3points) dornish(7points) lowborn(6points) because, if diversity is morally weighted, that would imply you think the greens are morally defensible or even superior to rhaenyra. leading to this bizarre refusal to acknowledge these morally neutral traits characters have. anyway clubfoot(10points) so unfortunately larys still 🔛🔝

[ghostofharrenhals]

It’s baffling how so many people in this fandom have fully deluded themselves into thinking that Daenerys will burn down king’s landing when that’s not only completely unsupported by the text but also fundamentally misinterprets Dany as a character and the narrative as a whole.

Many people argue that Dany will burn down the city because the people of KL will prefer Aegon over her. This is an argument already built on shaky ground because this is an assumption that requires us to believe that Dany will even go to battle with Aegon. A claim which frankly, has very little basis in the actual story. A lot of fans latch onto GRRM mentioning a second dance of dragons, but they completely disregard his clarification that such conflict does not necessarily involve an invasion from Dany (I personally think it’ll be between her and Euron but that’s a topic for another day). And secondly, unlike HBO’s adaptation, to book!dany, family is important and she feels sad at the idea of being the last Targaryen. She wouldn’t go to war against her own family.

And the timeline for this is dubious at best and utterly fucking moronic at worst. The assumption that she will arrive in Westeros in time to confront a reigning Aegon overlooks the long journey she still faces in Essos. There is a lot of groundwork that GRRM laid that shows us her journey there is far from over. Essos is an insanely vast continent, moving through it will consume a lot of time and resources and events will continue to unfold in Westeros independently of her, just as they have in the 5 novels we have available.

And the belief that Dany will be rejected by the people of Westeros in favour of Aegon is another assumption that has absolutely no base in text. Aegon, as we’ve seen in Dance, is very far from being an ideal ruler, he’s shown as unlikeable and unfit to rule, with Tyrion even comparing him to Joffrey. Also the belief that Aegon’s reign will be peaceful and/or that he will be beloved is equally flawed. Westeros still is a fractured, war-torn continent with further conflicts still ahead. He has many potential enemies, his ascension will most likely provoke even more conflict, not universal love and butterflies. The claim that he’ll be a good king comes from Varys, who is the key mastermind behind all this and as the text has repeatedly shown us, and Varys is hardly reliable.

Why would the people of Westeros chose a potentially illegitimate Targaryen when all they have is his word that he is who he is (literally source: dude trust me) over a Targaryen with dragons who has Barristan the Bold with her and who has a history of ruling already, is ridiculous.

And onto my final point, the idea that Dany would just decide to burn a city to the ground because the people don’t like her is a fundamental misunderstanding of her character. Throughout ASOIAF she has been shown as a ruler who cares deeply about people, and to whom justice is important. The whole mad queen dany bs relies heavily on illogical plot developments and a version of Dany’s character that exists nowhere but in a season of Game of Thrones that was mocked by the entire world.

[vermithorn]

crush jace headcannons 🥺

* JACAERYS HAVING A CRUSH ON YOU * HCS

contains: afab!reader, kissing, dirty thoughts, modern! and asoiaf! jacaerys hcs, grinding, horny jace lmao.

author’s note: tysm for requesting ;-) hope you like it!

asoiaf!jacaerys

the first time he saw you, lucerys was a little shit and pushed him towards you

he couldn’t take his eyes off of you, as you stood straight beside who he thought was your lord father

later he discovered you were the daughter of the warden of the north, the little sister of cregan stark

it was after a few hours he discovered why you were in the capital with your lord father, he brought you with him to search for a possible suitor for you

jacaerys found you in the training yard, with sword in hand and demolishing a kingsguard with it

he couldn’t help the twitch of his cock at the sight

he knew the way northerners were raised was different from the crownlands, women weren’t usually allowed to even learn how to use a weapon like a sword

but being the daughter of the lord of winterfell would have a few perks he guessed

a little crowd gathered to watch you obliterate a few knights, who were lining up to have a chance to duel with you

after a few more very intense fights, you decided to take your leave bowing and shaking the hands of the men you fought

a few looks of admiration were thrown your way as you walked towards the red keep, still panting slightly from the workout

jacaerys was hypnotized by you, your sword clinging to your hip as you walked past him without giving him a spare glance

his eyes trailed your body as you walked away, his gaze glued to your form

he couldn’t form words when he was around you, always staring and blushing furiously when you greeted him

lucerys and aegon made sure to make his live impossible by always talking louder when you were around, pushing and nudging him your way

by the time he got the confidence to approach you, he stuttered the wrong thing

“you’re pretty hot.” his mouth opened and closed, embarrassed by his clumsiness when approaching a good looking woman

you raised an eyebrow at him, a small smile tugging from the corner of your lips “yeah?”

he sighed, embarrassed enough. “yes. also i saw you in the training yard, you’re pretty good with the sword.”

you rolled your eyes, amused by the prince’s behavior. “thank you, my prince.”

“i would love to spar with you someday, if you allow me.”

you nodded, giving him a wolfish grin as you looked at him up and down, “of course, i would love that, let me know when you’re free.”

you bowed slightly, backing away to go somewhere unknown to jacaerys, who was left speechless and lowkey intoxicated by your grin

modern!jacaerys

first day of university he had the privilege to bump into you and drop all his belongings to the floor

when he looked up to see the culprit of the accident, his brown eyes locked into yours

you stuttered an apology, eyes pleading and frowning slightly as you kneeled to gather jacaerys’ stuff

his jaw dropped, mesmerized by your beauty and willingness to help him even when he was the one that bumped into you in the first place

“don’t worry, thank you for helping me.” he muttered softly, his cheeks reddening as he received his stuff back from you

you smiled softly at him, “sorry again.”

the only thought on his head that day was you, your soft smile and eyes looking up at him

his mind drifted a little as he remembered when you kneeled to grab his stuff, imagining how good you would look just like that sucking his cock

he blushed every time he bumped into you in university, you always waved at him when you were passing by and it made his heart flutter

you seemed so innocent, and jacaerys couldn’t help but feel things he shouldn’t when he wasn’t even your friend

always daydreaming about you, how well you would take his cock, and how good you would look begging for him

your first full conversation was on a frat party near university, you were with your little friend group chatting and giggling, already a little tipsy

he decided to wait to approach you, waiting for a moment you were alone

you stumbled your way to the bathroom, making your way through the crowd

he followed you waited for you outside the bathroom, leaning against the wall pretending he was just waiting to use it next and didn’t noticed you were in first

you opened the door to leave and you saw him, “hi jacaerys,”

he instantly flushed, remembering he never told you his name

“h-hello.”

you engaged in a conversation with him there in the hallway, leaning against the wall as you looked at him talk

he realized you were remarkably smart, but kind of shy so you had a tight friend group in university

he spent the rest of the party talking and drinking with you, and a lot of time giving you goofy smiles as you laughed at something he said

when he was brave enough, he asked if he could kiss you, looking at your lips as you two got slightly closer

you gave him a small smile as you pulled him by the collar, crashing your lips against his

he right down whimpered at that, his hands traveling to your waist to pull you impossibly closer

one of your hands traveled to his brown curls, softly grabbing them as your other hand went to his neck keeping him in place as you kissed him against the wall

with his back on the wall, you pressed your body against his, deepening the kiss

he felt your tits against his chest and groaned, his tongue entering your mouth in return

you felt his cock against your lower belly, and you grinned pulling away a little bit just to catch your breath

“eager aren’t we?” his eyelids fluttered when you started grinding against his cock

he was down bad for you oh my god

vermithorn © do not copy, repost or translate my works.

[queenvhagar]

“In terms of the laws, for thousands of years Westeros has adhered to agnatic primogeniture (as modeled off of real-world history): the right by law and custom of the firstborn legitimate son to inherit the father's title.”

I think you’re getting this from an unreliable source. In the book "a world of ice and fire" it explains the law, history and workings of the asoiaf world. In that book, it's stated that the first born CHILD is immediately heir, not first born son. It has just become tradition for sons to inherit over daughters, no law ensures that.

“Most recently, this was reinforced by the Council of 101 AC where the lords decided that Viserys would inherit over Rhaenys and her son's claim to the throne.”

“According to the law and the precedent that made Viserys himself king, Viserys' firstborn son should be king after him.”

The council of 101 AC was due to an unnecessarily high count in possible claims for the throne but viserys was chosen despite rhaenys being older to the fact that the men of the council did not wish to see a woman on the throne. It all circles back to misogyny which is a very common thing in this world. That is also mentioned is a world of ice and fire. Rhaenys was passed over, rhaenyras claim was her right.

You're right about custom favoring aegon but you're wrong about law favoring aegon.

So Westeros is modeled off of actual medieval history with very little change. There's a reason that real world histories and historical succession in feudalist societies followed agnatic primogeniture (males inheriting over females) and here's a well-written and detailed post about that: https://www.tumblr.com/synchodai/754988745430827008/i-get-this-impression-that-house-of-the-dragon

Through what was considered tradition, custom and law of the land, firstborn sons inherit over daughters and there are no known exceptions to this in the entire history of Westeros. I'm interested in any examples you might have of an older daughter inheriting over a firstborn son or a woman inheriting over a man higher up in the traditional view of succession than her in Westeros as mentioned in any text, if you can find one. The only I can think of would be, say, Asha Greyjoy made heir over Theon, but that's the Ironborn, who have different traditions and customs and essentially their own laws (especially since at that time they had declared independence from the Seven Kingdoms). If Dorne is your example, it's well established that they do allow the eldest child to inherit, male or female, but they are not a part of the Seven Kingdoms until much later and irrelevant in this discussion. Essentially there is no legal precedent for it being the case that firstborn children inherit regardless of gender; despite what any official text might say, unless there are real legal precedents to argue in terms of the history in-universe, the case is that firstborn males inherit over females every single time and that would be what people in the society follow, and going against this could have consequences for long term stability. If people started just naming daughters before sons, there would be conflict and likely violence (as detailed in the other post I referenced). So it is, in effect, a law that you can't just ignore or break without some major consequences.

As for the council, the decisions of the lords very much backed up the idea of males inheriting over females. Obviously misogyny exists as a "very common thing in this world" (A+ observation on medieval feudalism!). It's almost like this might also explain why there are no examples of females inheriting over males 🤔 Rhaenys' claim was passed over in favor of a male. Viserys is only king because he was the eldest male in line to the throne. This just helps give weight to Aegon's claim as he is the eldest male in line to the throne. Westeros has had and continues to reinforce agnatic primogeniture as succession law, which is what Aegon's claim relies on.

Rhaenyra had a "right" to the throne only insofar as the last king said so. Basically, what we have here is the word of the last king vs established traditions, customs, and laws of the land, and once the king dies, his words carry less weight as he's no longer around to enforce them. Rhaenyra's problem is that she pretty much solely relied on the argument that the last king wanted her to inherit and did very little on her own to gather support to her claim and consolidate power in her father's last years. Because Viserys never took action to transition power to Rhaenyra or publicly reaffirm his stance on succession after having sons (in order to keep the peace within the family) it was especially easy for some to assume Aegon should be the next ruler by all accounts of history, tradition, custom, and legal precedent. And sure, misogyny. But clearly it's not just misogyny in this case that gave Aegon a strong claim and allowed for Rhaenyra's claim to be challenged.

[lemonhemlock]

Hi! First, let me say that I have greatly enjoyed reading your posts in the divisions of houses during the dance tag. I actually had a question for you regarding Jeyne Arryn. I came to the conclusion that the main reason she decided to support Rhaenyra was because of she wanted to name a distant cousin her heir over her cousin Arnold and his line. However, considering that Arnold has attempted three coups against her, couldn't Jeyne ask the iron throne to attaint him for breaking the king's peace, stripping him and his descendants of any claims to the Vale? Historically, irl coups have never been bloodless so I would think Arnold broke the King's peace. I realize that could mean Arnold might have to be executed or join the Night's Watch. I know he goes insane at some point so I would ask if it would be possible that his life could be spared, even if he couldn't take the black. Irrc, irl medieval society insane people weren't executed (Henry VIII actually had to change the law so he could execute Jane Rochford after she had a mental break) but I don't know if that applies in ASOIAF or not. If you're not the right person to ask this question, I apologize but you seem very knowledgeable.

Hello there! Thank you for dropping by, yes, indeed, that would have made sense for Lady Jeyne's character, to side with the faction who would offer her security in regards to her position as Lady of the Vale.

But I don't think either the greens or the blacks would have had any issue with this: Lady Jeyne is the rightful ruler of the Vale by Andal Law. She is her father's only living child. And her cousin's attempted coups disqualified him from inheriting her seat.

So, it follows that Jeyne should have factored in other reasons when it comes to her alliances. Daemon Targaryen, the man who, at worst, killed Rhea Royce, and, at the very least, tried to poach away the inheritance of House Royce, is going to be the king consort if Rhaenyra wins. Rhea's relative, Lord Yorbert Royce, was Lord Protector of the Vale and regent while Lady Jeyne was a minor, somehow ensuring she would inherit her rightful seat. This is how Lady Jeyne repays her close allies? By siding with Daemon?

I'm not saying there is not a way to believably explain why Lady Jeyne would still side with Rhaenyra/Daemon. We know Arnold Arryn squired at Runestone and that House Royce supported his claim against Joffrey Arryn's, despite Lady Jeyne's will. So, perhaps everything was not daises and roses between Lady Jeyne and House Royce and she could have organically reached a point where she no longer saw the Royces as her true allies, despite her having previously banished Daemon from the Vale when he showed up to claim Runestone.

But Fire & Blood leaves out those details and HotD does absolutely nothing to build on Vale politics beyond showing Lady Jeyne being irritated with Rhaenyra (but not irritated enough to refuse her alliance, of course). Why? Because the writers cannot write political intrigue to save their lives. How could they have possibly come up with original machinations? They'd need to understand the politics of the universe they inhabit first and that has proven to be woefully out of their scope.

[fromtheseventhhell]

Interesting how the Trident incident is the only moment where people question Joffrey's capacity for cruelty. He is almost universally considered one of the worst asoiaf characters, with no redeemable qualities. No one ever attempts to justify his actions when he abuses Sansa, orders Ned's executions, or any of his other many acts of violence. It's only this moment, a moment meant to introduce us to his cruel nature, that people seem to believe him to be a rational character with limits. It's honestly laughable. It's evident that the people who think like this are just biased against Arya; the majority of these arguments are centered not around Joffrey's violence, but Arya's actions to defend Mycah. People seem to truly believe that the better option would have been to let Joffrey "have his fun" and torment Mycah.

Debating how badly Joffrey would've hurt Mycah misses the entire point of the moment. Joffrey attacks Mycah because he's lowborn, he finds amusement in tormenting others, and he knows he can get away with it. He was quick to pull his sword and draw blood and, from what we know of his character, he undoubtedly would've taken it further. Arya stands up to him because she thinks that Mycah is worth defending which is significant considering she is the only one to do so. She is also the only character who mourns him and is affected by his senseless death, even books later (Ned is affected by his death but I wouldn't say he mourns him, although it is a moment that influences his feelings towards the Lannisters and Robert). Even if, which is a very big if, Joffery hadn't intended to go any further he had already crossed a line by attacking Mycah. The only alternative would be that Arya simply sits by and watches Joffrey further injure Mycah...and that's somehow the "better" option?

The people coming to the conclusion that Arya was the one who escalated the situation (and that it's somehow not Joffrey pulling his sword on an innocent boy) are coming from the perspective of the classist society that they live in. Joffrey attacking a lowborn boy wasn't an issue worth action, but harming a prince is "wrong". Mycah being attacked, and later murdered, is seen as inconsequential to the other characters (and readers) because he is lowborn. That's the thing though. You aren't supposed to look at this situation where a young boy is murdered for no reason and think that the only one who defended should've behaved differently. This moment is a criticism of the classist society these characters live in. It is significant that Arya is markedly less classist than a majority of other characters and cares when no one else does.

Further, if Arya were truly in the wrong for her actions then Joffrey wouldn't have needed to lie about what happened. From the very existence of the "trial" and Arya being given the chance to tell her version of events, we know that there wouldn't be any punishment if the truth of the situation had been told from the very beginning. The only reason there was an issue is because Joffrey decided to attack Mycah, and then later lie about what happened. Arya is not responsible for Joffrey's cruelty, Cersei's enabling, or Robert's subsequent apathy. The fact that people can't seem to comprehend this is maddening. I've never seen people have the same attitude towards Sansa for speaking up for Dontos, even though it incurred Joffrey's wrath and would've escalated had Sandor not spoken up. Why are Sansa's actions brave and kind, but Arya's are seen as stupid and reckless? What happened to not blaming young characters for the actions of others?

This is one of those things where the fandom decides for themselves that they know the story being told, without actually looking at how it's written. They would rather debate on (baseless) hypotheticals than look at why George presented the story to us the way he did. It takes an insane amount of misinterpretation to decide that Arya's actions are the reason for Mycah's death and misses a, rather large, point being made by the author. Notably, none of these people can ever provide evidence from the book to support their insistence that Joffrey would've simply left Mycah alone. You would think that since that's the basis of their argument and they're so adamant that their analysis is correct, they would be able to support their reasoning. It's almost as though the books don't support their interpretations...

[presidenthades]

Once again, I am doing a series of my behind-the-scenes thoughts for The Golds while I do light edits for formatting, typos, and continuity. Here’s Chapter 1!

DO NOT read these commentaries until you have finishes reading the entirety of The Golds! These commentaries have many spoilers for future chapters.

First I’m gonna talk about why I decided to write this fic in the first place, because it wasn’t part of my original roadmap for the series. After I finished writing Daemon’s Handbook, my plan was to write an epic longfic with POVs from all the Targkids that encompassed a multi-year timespan a la the ASOIAF books…and then I realized if I did that, I had high odds of burning out halfway through 💀.

I’ve discovered that I do better at writing fic if I have an ending an mind when I start writing it, and the story needs to be something I can finish writing in several months so I don’t lose steam or get distracted/go on hiatus too long. That meant I needed to focus on a specific story with 1-2 protagonists/narrators that had its own complete story arc within the series’ larger arc.

When I finished writing the Handbook, I read a lot of books during my break. Several of those books were about fashion history, and one was the official GOT costumes book. I got really obsessed with fashion in the HOTD world, and I temporarily thought about writing a Rhaena POV fic because in my verse, she’s really into fashion and I wanted to put my newfound amateur knowledge to use 😅. But as I brainstormed what her story would look like, I realized it was super adjacent to Jace’s story because Rhaena is her lady-in-waiting, and eventually I shifted over to a Jace-centric story.

While I was brainstorming the Rhaena fic, I thought of a pregnancy subplot where Rhaena has to create Jace’s pregnancy wardrobe, and that pregnancy plot ultimately became the central story in The Golds. I was originally going to make Jace the sole narrator as she deals with the pregnancy, but I realized Aegon would have some really entertaining thoughts so I made it dual POV. This is when I started thinking about the Bridgerton approach, where each Targkid gets to be the star/costar of their own story in roughly chronological order.

The title “The Golds” is a reference to the canonical Greens and Blacks. There’s a theme throughout the story of Jace and Aegon accumulating popularity and soft power at court and among the smallfolk. This growing faction will unofficially be called the Golds because Jace and Aegon are strongly affiliated with that color, due to Sunfyre’s scales, Jace’s preference for gold, and all the symbolism that gold entails.

Most chapter titles are lyrics from the in-universe lullaby “The Song of the Seven.” Since the fic is about pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood, I thought a reference to this lullaby was appropriate. My original outline had 7 chapters for the fic so I was going to title each chapter after the first line of each stanza in the lullaby. As I wrote the fic and realized it was going to be more chapters, I had to get creative. For Chapter 1, I picked the Maiden lyrics because the Maiden is associated with innocence and young women. Aside from this chapter including the wedding night (and thus Jace’s last night as a maiden), this is also the beginning of Jace’s character and emotional journey, during which she becomes less innocent/naive and, as you know, encounters a lot of darkness in the real world.

Ok now for the actual chapter commentary lol

I started showing during the Handbook that Jace is a responsible, dutiful “eldest sibling syndrome” kind of person, and I wanted to really highlight that in this fic. In the beginning of this story, Jace is the neurotic workaholic while Aegon is hedonistic and urges her to relax. Throughout the story, Jace does learn to relax and delegate better, but Aegon also starts picking up responsibilities along the way. By the end, my goal was for them to meet in the middle, where Jace learns that she has to take care of herself if she wants to take care of others, and Aegon learns that he needs to put in some work in order to secure the things he really wants in life.

There’s also a theme of private vs. public. Jace starts as having a very public life (she’s the heir to the throne, her life is on display at court) while being very private about things like her body and personal wants. In contrast, Aegon is very public about his body (the casual nudity is canon, don’t blame me) and personal wants (“I love my wife and everyone must know it”), but he wishes he could have a private life (be his own person and do what he wants, rather than be the prince and politician his family wants). Again, they kind of grow to meet in the middle by the end. Jace learns to be more selfish about her desires and fight for them (she also becomes more comfortable with her body around Aegon, although the self-consciousness never entirely goes away). Aegon learns to put aside his hangups about “I don’t want to be a player in the game” and steps into the arena so he can ultimately achieve what he wants, which is to protect Jace and their child.

We see the beginnings of Aegon’s powers of observation this chapter. He notices the Bracken/Blackwood exchange (these are the same lovers that Daemon spies in the tunnels in Chapter 9 of the Handbook) and deduces a likely explanation. This trait was inspired by a TGC quote about how Aegon is very observant and knows people’s weaknesses. I loved this idea that Aegon observes a lot of what’s happening around him, but canonically he’s too drunk and apathetic to do much about it. Here, Aegon is not an alcoholic and he’s a lot more grounded, so he actively registers a lot more details.

I mention in Chapter 2 that Daemon is part of the reason Aegon doesn’t drink so much, but that’s definitely not the whole story. Aegon seems very driven by the pursuit of dopamine, things that give him pleasure. In canon, he achieves this through whoring and alcoholism. Here, he has Jace, who has always fulfilled many of his emotional needs and now his physical needs. His life is a lot happier, so there’s no need for him to drink himself into a stupor. He did still have a youthful period of debauchery, but it’s not an outrageous amount of debauchery for a spoiled prince—although still in an upper percentile.

Aegon remains impressively chaste during the Stepstones because he realizes his youthful debauchery was a big reason Rhaenyra disapproved of him. And by the time he leaves for the Stepstones, he’s realized (thanks in part to their forced separation, thanks in part to Jace being the prettiest girl he can ever imagine existing) that no other woman is ever going to compare to Jace, so why bother? (He definitely had a locket or something with Jace’s mini portrait and lock of hair lol)

Aegon’s attitude toward dancing (he’s good at it but he hates the formality) is similar to his overall attitude toward court life and politics. He can do it if he wants, but he just doesn’t want to—unless it makes Jace happy.

Confession: the Tyroshi subplot wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did. I’ll explain more in future chapters, but for now, I’ll just say Floris and Sara weren’t always intended to die. But they did die in the final draft, and in hindsight I’m glad I included the Baratheon scene this chapter. Originally the scene was supposed to showcase Jace’s politicking and diplomacy, as well as lead up to her eventually picking Floris as a lady-in-waiting. Now it has extra meaning because it shows how sweet Floris was, how she fit in with her sisters, and how her mother doted on her 🥺.

I actually kind of like Maris, she’s funny in a mean girl way 😂. But she canonically has a tendency to run her mouth and say nasty things. Here, I think she feels jealous that Cassandra is getting so much attention from potential suitors, and that contributes to her rudeness. Jace could have publicly shamed Maris for being so rude to a Targaryen bride at her own wedding, but she decided to be sneakier about it and not cause a scene. Jace wants to maintain a good relationship with the Baratheons while making it clear what Maris said is unacceptable, so she extends the private tea invite to the other Baratheon women while deliberately omitting Maris from the offer. Now Lady Elenda feels honored by the invite and relieved to not have disfavor, and she’ll probably give Maris a terrible scolding in private.

The bedding tradition seems awful and potentially traumatic, especially for the bride (but that’s ASOIAF for you!). I can’t remember what’s canon or fanon, but I went with the interpretation that the bride and groom are supposed to be stripped naked or close to it. I feel like the royal family ought to be exempt from it (in a privileged “nobody else is allowed to behold our naked bodies” kind of way), but I know Alysanne made a point of having the bedding ceremony so nobody could question her marriage was consummated. The ceremony also seems horribly wasteful because all that expensive material and labor that went into the wedding clothes is just trashed, but I guess it’s a status flex. Only the super-rich can afford to deliberately destroy all those resources after one use.

I wish I wrote more scenes where Jace and Aemond hang out 😭. They have a lot of similarities: dutiful, studious, responsible for their siblings. I imagine their relationship being super chill. Then again, they’re very proper so they probably have hangups about spending alone time with someone of the opposite gender for extended periods of time 🙃. Anyway, their relationship is much less antagonistic than in canon. Fem!Jace thinks bullying is wrong and tones down Aegon’s mean streak, while Aemond has a chivalrous and gentlemanly attitude toward women (contrast with book!Aemond, who seems pretty misogynistic). Since a lot of the friction from canon is removed, they get along much better, and this Aemond is more comfortable with the idea of fem!Jace being queen one day because they start from a better place, and he’s her good-brother.

You can see my newfound fashion history geekery showing itself during the scene where Jace gets ready for bed. (Also, take note of how meticulous Jace is. It highlights her general cautiousness, and it serves as a contrast for Chapter 3). I try not to get too flowery with description, but I decided it was relevant to highlight key fashion choices like her wedding dress because it is an aspect of Jace’s influence at court, and she is concerned about appearances. I incorporated a lot of design aspects from GOT, which are much less medieval than the HOTD gowns. I had this idea that the older generation (Alicent and Rhaenyra) stick more to traditional cuts and designs, while Jace and the other girls are starting a new fashion trend akin to what we see in GOT, where styles are more flattering and multicultural.

Jace’s wedding dress is strongly influenced by Margaery’s Purple Wedding dress. The backless part makes it rather daring, and it’s part of Jace and Rhaena’s goal to depict Jace as a leader among the younger ladies at court since matrons are far less likely to wear something so revealing. Also, in GOT, Daenerys’s dresses tend to be much more revealing than anyone else’s, so I deduced that the fashion culture in Essos is overall more daring than in Westeros. Rhaena grew up in Pentos, so I decided she brings that influence into Jace’s wardrobe, which then spreads through court. Jace’s jewelry (heirlooms owned by Valaena Velaryon, mother of the Conqueror and his sisters) is also a statement to highlight that she was born a Velaryon but now she’s a true Targaryen in name.

Jace’s lingerie is definitely Rhaena’s (and Baela’s) influence. Otherwise she would have zero clue what’s fashionable in Lys. 😳

Jace deciding to work on her wedding night is very in character for her. And Aegon making her stop to enjoy herself is also very in character for him. Definitely a recurring pattern for these two.

Like any scene I write, I try to make sure the smut has a purpose in the story. I don’t usually write PWP but I think smut scenes are an excellent way to demonstrate dynamics and emotional connections between characters, so that’s how I typically use them. Here, we see Aegon is devoted to Jace: makes her feel comfortable, ample foreplay, even cracks a few jokes because their relationship is familiar enough for that sort of thing. He literally “lets her hair down” so she can shed her usual inhibitions.

True to character, Jace overthinks the process. She knows the theory of how it works (Rhaenyra would ensure her daughters are informed of the mechanics, and Jace has been living with Baela for three years). She also knows Aegon enjoyed his time on the Street of Silk and she desperately wants to meet his expectations. She doesn’t realize that she could do literally anything (or nothing) and Aegon would still think she’s perfect.

Since Aegon hasn’t had sex in three years, he’s trying very hard not to finish too early 😅. It’s OK though, Jace has no idea how long a guy is supposed to last and they have the whole night to make up for it 😂.

In the Handbook, I hint at Aegon’s artistic tendencies when he doodles in his letters. Here, I expand upon that so he’s sort of a Renaissance man: he sings, he plays lute, he dances, he draws, etc etc. All the skills he enjoys are skills not conducive for a politician/king. In this verse, Jace encourages him to sing and draw, so he pursues it further than he would’ve in canon.

I like to think of the morning-after smut scene as when Cheeseball is conceived 😂. It’s when Aegon dirty talks about making heirs for the throne, and Jace thinks about how much she would like to have children with Aegon. It just makes sense lol.

GRRM makes his female characters give birth way too young. Some people argue it’s historically accurate, but it’s really not. Other than Margaret Beaufort (who gave birth at 13 and never had any other children, probably due to complications), royal and noble women generally married in their late teens and early twenties. But this is the world and culture GRRM created, so I’m trying to work with it. I still headcanon that in normal peacetime, highborns try to wait until bride and groom are at least 16 to marry because they are aware that giving birth too young is dangerous. It’s during wartime or when politics require an earlier consummation that we see things like Sansa marrying at 13 💀. So I made Jace realize, after she’s had time to stew, that being forced to wait three years was best. (Especially since she IMMEDIATELY gets pregnant.)

I had to research whether people with a broken nose (or recovering from rhinoplasty surgery, which apparently has similar side effects—the more you know!) could have sex. Apparently one of the concerns is causing blood vessels around the nose to expand/contract/whatnot, and arousal impacts blood flow so that’s why Orwyle bans any nookie 😔. No wonder Aegon bribes Alyssa to wake Daemon early lol.

A side effect of broken noses is bruising around the face and black eyes, so Jace looks like she got hit very badly. The ensuing gossip about how she got injured ties into the recurring themes of a) Jace’s concern with appearances and b) that courtiers can and will gossip about anything, and the more salacious the better.

Jace is pretty peeved that Luce was so reckless re: the tunnel incident, and probably upset that it inadvertently led to her broken nose. But as soon as Luce needs help, Jace stops caring about her injuries 😭. Another recurring part of Jace’s personality: she’ll do almost anything to help her loved ones but she’s much harder on herself. (Note Luce’s little question, “What do I do now?” which is a question she always asked Jace when she was in trouble as a kid.)

Aegon is closer to Aemond than in canon, since a) they went to the Stepstones together and b) Aegon had far fewer options for male companionship in this genderbent world so he had to lean on Aemond a lot more. The brothers aren’t the kind to have heart-to-hearts, but Aegon knows Aemond well enough to know that Aemond is really into Luce and is probably going to try to marry her.

With Larys dead, there isn’t a very good option for master of whisperers. The council keeps trying to fill it but the candidates never last for long. I like to joke that they’re holding the seat open for when Joff is old enough, but finding a good spymaster seems pretty difficult. Daemon would probably be good at it but he’s already flamed out of several council positions, and he would hate working with Otto.

A little more fashion history! A surcote is that quintessential medieval gown for women, which I decided is very traditional in Westeros. This is Jace’s first day at her new job, so she wants to dress extra conservatively. Color is a big deal in this world of Black versus Green, so she deliberately picks very neutral and inoffensive colors. She also styles her hair and wears gold jewelry from Aegon to emphasize her new marriage, which shows she’s a mature woman and is forging harmonious bonds with her husband across the Black/Green divide.

In canon, Corlys resigns his position as master of ships around Episode 2. Tyland is canonically master of ships during this time, but I made an error in the Handbook and turned him into the master of coin. So I decided to just force Lyman Beesbury into retirement, and this can serve as an in-universe explanation for the change in roles: Viserys (or somebody else) wanted Corlys to have his position back, so they reshuffled the council a bit.

Aaaaand Jace officially has a “first day at work” horror history. Vomited, fainted, and cried in quick succession. And for someone who values privacy regarding her body, this was an awfully public way for her to find out about her pregnancy (and have it announced) 🥲.

Chapter 2 commentary here

[theaudientvoid]

I've spoken before about how I don't put much stock in a lot of fandom theories. I think that a lot of them take precisely the wrong perspective on storytelling. The correct perspective to take is to realize that fictional stories are fictional; that everything that happens in them happens because somewhere a writer decided to have it happen in order to further the story that they are trying to tell. The correct approach to theorizing is to ask the question "what is the writer trying to do with this story, and how does this theory fit into that?" Most people don't really do this, though. Instead, they latch on to minor details which they interpret as license to engage in wild speculation, utterly divorced from any though as to how it all fits in to the writers narrative objectives.

Anyway, I just head an ASOIAF theory that I think is dumb as fuck. So, the theory goes that the "reason" the Others (or Whitewalkers, if we're being vulgar) are returning after thousands of years is because in the past, people in Westeros used to sacrifice babies to them to keep them appeased, but then they mostly stopped, and so now the Others are returning to, I dunno, steals the world's babies? It's kind of vague.

The theory's proponents have various things in the books that the will cite as "evidence", but remember, fictional story being written by a writer. So, in the spirit of that, let's ask ourselves what Martin is trying to do with the Others? What's the point of even including them in the story?

So, like, the main recurring theme of the ASOIAF book is that universe is a cold, uncaring void, that you and everyone you love will inevitably die, but before that happens we can still fight to create our own meaning, for ourselves. A song of ice and fire, if you would.

On literally the third page of A Game of Thrones, there's a bit with a team of Night's Watch rangers north of the Wall, and one of the rangers gives a monologue about what it feels like to freeze to death. The cold has a way of working its way inside of you, and once that happens, you just stop fighting and let it take you. "The real enemy is the cold", he concludes.

Anyway, right after this, they run into the Others and die.

So, from that perspective, it's pretty clear how the Others fit into Martins thematic agenda. They're avatars the unfeeling coldness of the universe, which we all have to fight to keep out of ourselves. And so, this whole theory seeking to answer why the Others have returned is thematically incoherent. The Others don't need a reason to return anymore than Winter does. You might as well ask "why is winter coming?" It doesn't matter. What matters is what are you going to do when it arrives.

[dragonsfromthemoon]

ON ASOIAF, AGE GAP AND RHAELYA

This is a topic discussed over and over on fandom spaces. Often it is brought up by antis as a “gotcha!” against the fans of certain fictional couples — and on this meta, my focus is mostly on Rhaegar and Lyanna, though some arguments can be used for other ships as well.

That said, we have two ways of looking into this subject in the context of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Parting from a doylist analysis, we could rightfully criticize George R. R. Martin for his approach to age and relationships, especially regarding his female characters. In Rhaegar and Lyanna's case, we could object him putting an underage girl in a relationship with a married man about eight years her senior. If I were the one writing this story, I would have aged Lyanna up; there is no narrative/worldbuilding/plot reason for not doing that. Alas, I am not George R. R. Martin, the story does not belong to me.

The gist here, however, is reprobating the author's conscious choices, nor the characters themselves or their relationship. Rhaegar and Lyanna cannot make decisions or be held accountable in the real world, as they are only fragments of George R. R. Martin's imagination and words on a blank paper. The same is valid for any other relationship featured on Planetos.

Nevertheless, a doylist analysis is bound to face some questions and run into some issues as well. The first being, who is the one raising the objections? The answer is crucial, because the objector parts from their own vision of the world — which is dictated by one's upbringing, moral and culture. Needless to say, all of these things vary from person to person. Different fans will approach the matter of age gaps differently, based on their own opinions and experiences. The second one is, who gets to judge what is right or wrong? And this is followed by the question: what is the the acceptable age gap — 10 years? 5 years? 2 years? 1 year? Months? We would debate over it endlessly, because there is really no right answer, and everyone would apply their own biases to the issue. Thirdly, why did the objector decide to engage with a material that features such age gaps in the first place? We have the power over what we read and watch, over the fandoms we join; as well as the power of not engaging with triggering content for us anymore. Sanitizing fiction is not the way to go, because it brings more harm than good in the form of persecution and harassment of content creators and censorship (again, who gets to decide what must be censored and why?)

There are two more intertwined factors to take into account when discussing a doylist perspective: George R. R. Martin's historical inspirations and worldbuilding. Though so many times exaggerated and factually wrong, the fact remains that he draws inspiration from the European Middle Age (with focus on England) to build Planetos. And that reflects directly on the issues of age in his work. Childhood, adulthood, marriageable age, age of context are notions that differ drastically from our contemporary ones. We are talking about distincts periods of history, with distinct approaches to social and cultural norms, after all. Here the author himself discusses the issue of ages, if one would be interested to read on the topic.

Which brings me to the watsonian analysis part of this essay. Above all, the in-universe context matters here. And if we hope to understand the characters, their actions and views on relationships in a deep level, we cannot dissociate them from their historical and social in-universe background.

By the time Lyanna met Rhaegar, she was 14 and already engaged to Robert Baratheon. Her fiance Robert, by the way, was also older than her. By all accounts he desired her and claimed to love her, constructed an image of her in his mind. It is safe to speculate she would have been expected to marry Robert not long after Brandon Stark's marriage to Catelyn, if her elopement with Rhaegar and the Rebellion had not happened. My point here is, this was hardly a frowned upon marriage arrangement in A Song of Ice and Fire. Except for Lyanna, that is, as she did not desire Robert nor this marriage. Even so, her issue was not with his age (her distaste for Robert is a whole other discussion).

Well, when Lyanna starts her affair with Rhaegar de facto, she is about 16 (not 14, as antis like to claim; let's get our facts straight). By Westerosi standards, a woman grown, apt to marry and bear children. Rhaegar was about 24. Thus they have a 8 years age gap. This is hardly a remarkable age difference in Westeros, as so many couples have it even bigger. Almost all of romantic entanglements in this story have an element of age imbalance. I will not name these examples; I trust the readers to come up with their own.

My point here is, through watsonian lens, the age gap between Lyanna and Rhaegar is scarcely a problem or something to be particularly condemned. And quite frankly, there are other aspects of their characters and their dynamic that are more relevant to discuss, if we as readers take upon us to analyse them.

[cloudberry-sims]

I'm behind with the queuing , so here's some random facts about Hopebury/Simvaria✨

🧡 Simvaria's capital , Watcherholm , is based of Stockholm. Which is if you don't know , a archipelago. Hopebury is part of the archipelago and in my mind takes a day and a half to travel with boat. I was originally going to play in Watcherholm and do the Ye Olde Royal Kingdom Challenge , but I got overwhelmed with all the prep-work and decided to down-scale.

🧡 Simvaria , unlike some other kingdoms in the world, allows the practice of magic and arcane arts , but only for those who went to school. Meaning peasants and yeoman aren't allow to use magic , at least not in legally. Other supernaturals are shunned and sometimes actively hunted by specific "guilds".

🧡I believe that Hopebury will become a duchy once the medieval charter challenge is officially finished. I don't see the monarch ruling from a ity bity island , but maybe a third or fourth born child. Less important but still royal , ya know?

🧡 This is how I imaged Hopebury coat of arms looks like (I used CK3 btw).

🧡 All the sims I made for this challenge uses the Academia Palette by @serindipitysims , because it's my favorite color palette ❤ Although I'm running out of colors 😅 So I been looking at the gradient version for inspiration and pin point the RGB in a document to make a slightly darker or muddier version , just until I find another palette I like as much.

🧡 Simvaria has a male preference inheritance law, meaning the eldest son inheritance before daughters. But it's just that , a preference, meaning it can be overlooked.

🧡 Simvarian names are heavily inspired by halflings from " The Witcher" , hobbits from "Lord Of The Rings" and D&D, as well as various medieval names and westerosi names from the "ASOIAF" universe.

🧡 Marriage in Simvaria is extremely important. Unmarried men and women are less socially secured compared to their married or widowed counterparts. Unmarried men are often forced to join the simvarian military/fleet and woman are less likely to earn money , if no family support ending up in almshouses or brothels. It is why a lot of simvarians end up in either arranged marriages by their parents or get married by convince as young adults - some marriages ending happy and some are just straight out of hell.

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

Thank you @theoneeyedprince for giving us some behind the scenes perspective on your brilliant writing 💜 As always, Interview With a Writer is my ongoing series of the talented souls on Tumblr and ao3, and their brilliant writing!

Dividers by @saradika 💜

Name: theoneeyedprince 

Story: A Refined Taste

Paring: modern Aemond Targaryen x Female!Reader

Warnings: Explicit/18+, be mindful of chapter warnings!

So, when did you start writing?

I have been interested in story telling and writing since I can remember. My first story that I've ever written was for a class in my third grade tilted "A Tale of a Little Droplet". I don't really remember why I decided to write a story about the journey that water goes through. Perhaps our teacher gave us this topic or I was just funny like that.

The thing is that I think that I've always had a soft spot for fiction. Then as the years went by I wrote everything from prose, to lyrics and poetry. Then I went to university and I started writing scripts, which became my new favourite form of writing, if I have to be honest.

When it comes to fanfiction it was the Harry Potter fandom that introduced me to it a decade ago. I read Dramione, Harry and Hermione and The Marauders fics first in my native language and then switched to writing those in English.

I didn't write at first but after months of being a reader I decided to give it a go and posted my own Dramione fic. Unfortunately, I believe that it got lost in the Internet ether because I didn't save the chapters on my computer-I wrote everything on the fanfiction site I used back then.

My fanfiction experience stopped or rather ended abruptly when I was in my senior year of high school and during four years at uni until my final year of my Masters degree began in October 2022. Funny enough it wasn't only the year when House of the Dragon premiered, but also the month when the older Aemond Targaryen appeared in the show.

The moment I saw this character on screen it was as if an old friend whispered in my ear telling me to come back. So after years and years of absence in the fanfiction community, I was finally back. All thanks to a new ASOIAF universe show and an incredibly intriguing character of Aemond Targaryen, played by Ewan Mitchell who I already knew from his role as Osferth in The Last Kingdom.

I took it slow however, searching fics and getting to know AO3 and the fanfiction side of tumblr. And as I was doing that, an idea for my own HOTD fanfic came to me. At that moment I felt like I was truly back.

What made you decide to start writing in English? Do you have any advice for budding new writers where English is not their native tongue?

I'd talk about bilingualism and literature written in English by non-native speakers for hours on end!

In my country (Poland, for anyone interested) kids start learning English in kindergarten so it became my second language pretty early on in my childhood, a constant since I was 6 years old. Lucky for me, it sunk into my brain with ease so the more I studied it the more comfortable I became with talking and writing in it.

Also, growing up with British and American shows, films and Internet helped me with that. I stopped reading translated books in high school (in English that is) 'cause I thought that if I watched visual media and listened to songs without having them translated, then why not try that with literature.

My journey with writing prose and poetry in English started then too. For some reason, writing in my second language (English) comes easier to me than in my first. I'm not sure how to describe it, it's still a mystery to me. Maybe it's the fact that I've been familiar with English for so long that my brain simply prefers it. Also, I got my degrees in English literature and translation studies so that helped me a lot with understanding this language at a level that feels like my second native tongue.

I'd say that as an author who writes in English I have an advantage because of how much time and space English occupied my life in the past and in the present.

My advice to anyone who wants to write in English but isn't a native speaker would be to simply start. Start writing and reading and get familiar with the language through these activities. The saying 'Practise makes perfect' is one hundred percent accurate!

To those who already write in their second or third language - I applaud you because by doing so you show everyone a skill that you should be proud of! In our modern times English is a global language and so available for everyone to learn that people take it for granted when someone says they read or write in it. How hard could it be, right? Well, the latter takes time and expertise and requires love and devotion for what you do. And doing that in another language is worth praising.

Where did the plot for A Refined Taste come from?

The idea came to me after devouring every modern AU that came my way. Summer was around the corner and I thought 'What if I wrote a modern AU myself? Can I do it?'

I was writing my in-canon Aemond fic at that time but started feeling a little burnt out and needed something else to focus on with hopes that it'll fill me with new inspiration and motivation. I wrote two short scenes but for what turned out to be a completely different fic at the end–the action took place during summer holidays so these scenes ended up in ART's Part 4 and 5.

The inspiration for A Refined Taste particularly came from Pinterest and Lana del Rey. A still from The Talented Mr Ripley showed up on my dash, while I was listening to Lana's Honeymoon album. Soon enough I was adding tens of pictures to my 'old money aesthetics’ board and then it dawned on me. This is perfect–a modern AU about the Targaryens being an old money family who lives in a big mansion by the sea and owns a private vineyard!

I had the title at the ready because it was one of three that I considered for a completely different modern AU but luckily it fit the theme and aesthetics. 'A refined taste' is a reference to the vineyard and their private wine collection, the old money lifestyle (the romanticised one, of course) and as we later find out in the story to the people we choose to spend time with and love.

So, in short the idea started with a desire to write a modern AU fic and old money aesthetics.

Explain your interpretation of Aemond. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in ART?

Aemond from A Refined Taste can be described in two different ways depending on who you ask about him. If you're like the reader at the beginning of the story, so someone who doesn't know him personally, no connection despite shaking hands with him once, he seems distant, so quiet that you might think him pompous and judgmental and there's this cocky attitude that comes to the surface from time to time.

However if you get to know him closer or manage to break down his walls, it turns out that he's more of an observant than a participant that's why he barely talks around strangers. Well, except for when there are his siblings around, then he might join in the conversation or crack a joke (whether it ends up being genuinely funny or mean that's another story 'cause our guy spends more time with books, he's an academic scholar after all, than with people that aren't his family).

When Aemond trusts someone or falls in love with them he lets them see this vulnerable and caring side of him that he keeps locked deep inside due to the trauma and heartbreak he faced in the past. He was raised by his mother because his father was always absent so one might assume that being doted on by Alicent he'd be more in touch with his feelings but unfortunately for him it was the opposite. Especially after losing his eye it became obvious how little Viserys cared for him.

Also, he became a shell of himself, locking himself from the world, in consequence becoming a very lonely boy who later had trouble finding friends outside of his siblings. That is why he focused on his studies.

When it comes to his romantic life, he had crushes but his low self-esteem constantly pulled him back from shooting his shot with those girls. He went through some sort of transformation during the summer before his first year at Oldtown University with the help of Aegon who was finished with his B.A. at KLU at that time. That's when he met Alys, his first serious girlfriend and a cause for the return of his bitterness and insecurities (it was a long, on and off toxic relationship). After that he was with Cass who was only a rebound for him, turning him into a cold and selfish dick in her eyes, which he was at the end. Aemond simply couldn't think of any way to cope with his previous relationship and treated Cass like Alys treated him. And that is one of the reasons why he enjoys sex, because he can be in control of a situation and forget everything just for a moment.

Then, there came the reader who showed him that he doesn't have to be at odds with the world and people in it only because he's hurting so much, that if he gave someone a chance they can surprise him in a good way.

His love language is acts of service (and quality time, at the same time)–he offers to teach the reader how to play tennis, notices what book she's been reading and gives her a first edition he's sure she'd like, shows his attraction to her by providing her pleasure without wanting anything in return (Part 4 and Part 5), takes her on a date on a boat and at the vineyard, chooses the PHD program that is closest to where she lives, shows up with flowers at her work in order to surprise her. Words of affirmation are something new to him though, but seeing how open she is with her feelings, he decided to grand her the same in return.

He's a very contradicting character in canon, so I wanted to convey that in ART too.

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader?

I wanted the character of the Reader to be someone who is independent on her own but would benefit from ending up in a relationship with someone who shares her interests and challenges her. I'm not going to lie, her love for literature is the author showing themselves in the fictional character. But that's totally okay because every writer leaves a part of themselves in the characters they create.

I tried to make her as relatable to the person reading as her as I was able. Besides a couple of mentions of the quite big difference in height between her and Aemond, I decided not to describe her physical appearance so you the reader can see yourself in her, act in this role even. In this I got inspired by some amazing modern AUs where a reader can wholly become The Reader.

On the other hand, I needed her to be three-dimensional at the same time. In the process she became a mixture of my favourite characters and the women in my life. Confident in what she wants and needs but not free from self-doubt, realistic but romantic, in touch with her feelings but sometimes too much that it causes her distress, empathetic but prejudiced in some cases (Aemond at the beginning). Indeed it was the women I'm influenced by that inspired to write the Reader in this particular way.

Why do you think your Reader complements Aemond so well?

I think that my Reader and Aemond complement each other because they're interested in literature and relate to each other's love for their siblings, but also because they differ in so many aspects. They naturally challenge each other and not only in a fun way that excites them, but also so they're able to grow as individual people–find and reveal hidden sides they were too afraid to act on.

Was there another characters in your story you enjoyed writing?

I really enjoyed writing the Reader’s sister Argella. She was the only OC in this story–besides the Reader of course if we can consider her to be an OC–that i made from scratch.

Argella and Reader’s relationship was inspired by the one I have with my sister but changed slightly into something even more special, deep in understanding of one another. A truly profound sisterhood. Besides that I loved throwing in these little moments of her and Helaena together and I can’t wait to write a one shot where we’ll get to know Argella as a character and which will delve into the girls’ relationship.

Do you think there be a sequel? Or do you have anything else you are working on next?

I don’t think there’s a need for a sequel. The Epilogue was written in a way that both concludes the story but allows us to imagine their life after it. There might be one shots if anyone requested something that would added to the story.

For now I’d like to focus on the rewriting of my first Aemond fic titled Of Blood and Fire which I’m currently in the middle of and an upcoming Tom Bennet story - As The World Burns. In both cases the romantic interests are original female characters, which are just so fun to create. Also one shots are to be always expected because my mind comes up with too many ideas. It’s just too little time to bring them all to life.

But one will be posted soon as part of your/arcielee’s 1k celebration! All I can say is keep an eye on my blog 🤭

Do you have a personal favorite story you'd like to share?

I thoroughly enjoyed @adragonprinceswhore 's “Warm Me Up” one shot and I see she’s got a series inspired by Fleetwood Mac, which sounds amazing!

"Come Back To Me" by @assortedseaglass has a special place in my heart because it was the very first Billy Washington fic I have ever read. "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" was the first fic of @humanpurposes that I read and in my top 5 of favourite modern AUs.

Also, @endless-ineffabilities series Maroon captured my heart! It’s been months since I read it and I’m still thinking about it.

[horizon-verizon]

I'm seeing people claim Daemon has been grooming Rhaenyra since she was a little girl both in the book and the show but that's not true? In the book he gets banished when she was 8 and doesn't return to King's Landing until she's 15. And in the show we have no idea what their relationship looked like pre episode 1 and it's implied he spends a lot of time away from court.

I wrote about the medieval ages of consent, ages of marriage, and how they can relate to thoughts of grooming in the universe of ASoiaF HERE.

You are correct, but it's after Daemon leaves KL in anger at Rhaenyra being named heir that he voluntarily leaves with Mysaria to Dragonstone ("A Question of Succession"):

It is when Viserys later hears that Daemon gave Mysaria an egg for their unborn child that Daemon is actually exiled ("A Question of Succession"):

Ultimately, I think that if the frame of mind for characters default to how little choice a lot really have in choice of partner (especially for women & girls) is going to affect how they think about childhood and be more open to those relationships we'd avoid, condemn, call the police for. In other words, before I hate Daemon for his maybe grooming maybe not grooming of anyone only-specificially-uniquely (for no other reason), it would behoove me to really think about HOW AND WHY he or any person can marry/fuck much younger people & get rid of that problem. Because that larger force is guiding these people's actions more than them thinking "this is a child, I love to fuck children, lemme fuck this child".

Rhaenyra was born in 97 A.C. and was proclaimed Viserys' heir at the age of 8 in 105 A.C., which also means Daemon left that 1st time in 105 A.C. Daemon did not come back to KL until 111 A.C., when she was 14-15 and she had decided to wear her red-black dress to unsubtly declare her opposition against Alicent and the greens. Daemon was not there often enough or around Rhaenyra enough to have that much of an influence before he came back. Again, for BEFORE.

He also did not begin to give her gifts and attention like what the text explicitly says he did after he came back, which implies EITHER that he didn't do that as often when she was younger OR if/when he did no one thought that it was a weird or suspicious bc family members gives gifts to each other.

The following is what he did after he came back, in terms of what would be identified as grooming and would alert many readers ("A Question of Succession"):

Intermission (ignore, this popped into my mind when I was thinking of my response)

Ironically, Rhaenyra's red-black dress moment almost matches and simultaneously contrasts with Jaehaerys' 14-15 yr old working harder to become a "better" king by working on his swordplay, fighting, bearing, etc. as a way to reduce and put to bed doubts over his leadership, referring to the medieval belief that a king must be not just physically able but also strong and good with a sword (hence the ableist rhetoric against Daeron II, no matter if he was disabled or not). It's not about truths so much as manipulating and controlling the image--Jaehaerys barely actually went to war during his entire reign. He did it once on his dragon with his sons, it was barely a battle AND he, as a male, is encouraged to learn swordplay (the avenue towards respect and trustworthiness on a ruler's capability in such a society) more than if he were a man, but his reign nor right to rule at that moment wasn't really as under attack much as when he was younger. And here Rhaenyra must form some sort of self-defense and advocacy, some show of strength both for herself and to put on for others. Without swordplay or participating in martial arts (things discouraged for women), she shows strength where she needs to--in court, through dress. Social "performance" can mean different things but stems from the ability to be what one uses to self-affirm/self-advocate, bc it's about controlling one's own image and having some sort of awareness of your relationship with those actors/people you need to control/manipulate/influence. And those we are able to look at a distance from as "children" are pushed into such positions bc of the society they live in. We can't refute its importance in social interactions and politics nor how those people we real, modern people call children have been involved with such practices as if they were adults--even nonsexually--in ASoIaF.

END of Intermission

Grooming can happen at any child age as long as it is an extended period of time because it needs constant reinforcement.

Viserys had been planning--with the council--for some time as to who 15-year-old Rhaenyra should marry. Only a little under a year after Daemon comes back. In 112 A.C.--again, she's 15 here--Daemon was exiled (again) AND she went on an unofficial tour to attract possible admirers & supporters on a semi-official "progress". So that the heir could also "know" her soon-to-be subjects and those subjects would be putting a face to the name of the woman they swore to protect and be loyal to ("A Question of Succession"):

Note how even after Daemon leaves, there is Mushroom's account of Viserys being very worried and angry over Daemon's words/actions AND Eustace's account of Viserys commanding both to never speak about whatever happened, later exiling Daemon. After this event, the court "returned to its customary tranquility" for at least a little under a year before he forced Rhaenyra to marry Laenor.

And it is after he does this that we have two other accounts of how exactly Rhaenyra and Criston finally separated.

And really, Viserys favored her marrying Laenor since a Velaryon alliance was perceived as necessary esp after he spurned a marriage w/Laena: ("A Question of Succession"):

This makes the tour even more likely a means for Rhaenyra to attract favors from her not-"suitors" to build her image, NOT to actually get a suitor to marry.

There is an interesting phenomenon in Rhaenyra going on a tour other than just an heir meeting those she will rule. Twofold: one because she is a woman, and one because of herself and what happened/didn't happen w/Daemon:

she gets to present herself, be charming, and show off her physical beauty, dragon, and clothes as a sort of "treasure" and show why she's called the "Realm's Delight" to make a very feminine-but-desirable picture to her subjects (female paragon of beauty to match the image of a ruler being the "supreme" example of the aristocracy) -> a crossover of sexual desire and the motivation to be loyal to her as a subject when a woman being a ruler is an uncomfortable notion

the idea being to "bait" others in her tour: why would she present herself in such a way if not for marriage prospects, or at least if she "likes" someone she sees, the lords/sons can make a case for their devotion to her; making her visit these lords and their sons is not an event that happens for women and girls and many would feel as if it were some sort of suitor-progress -> thereby, as she's presenting herself as if she were marriageable (a sort of business as usual) and emphasizing her virginity and sexual "purity", she could also be getting ahead of any possible rumors of her lost virginity for the sake of her reputation and future with Laenor.

Of course, we'd have to have evidence of supporting materials that indicate the possibility of Viserys or any of his council being actually this forward-thinking. But that tour really came in handy for Rhaenyra. The timing...

Anyway, yeah, all this indicates that it isn't enough for us to see Daemon give Rhaenyra gifts and pay special attention to her when she's already in a situation where the "childhood" we recognize in her does not have the same meaning as "childhood" for any person in some medieval societies, even with people trying to get their kids married with as little age gaps and as older as possible in noble circles. It certainly shows how sexual purity for girls makes men automatically/likelier and more often seekers of young girls for sexual partners bc it makes a prize/attraction of youth in women/girls more than boys. But we'd have to destroy the entire system and world and/or convert it to a more modern world (doesn't have to be the digital age specifically)--and that's not happening anytime soon within the timeline of Rhaenyra's period.

So the question after identifying Daemon as a groomer is what takes away with that information? Other than hating Daemon--which is your prerogative--in the context of examining the text &SOCIETY, how does it serve us to understand Rhaenyra's story in-text when she must learn/build strength in a world where she must marry and have sexual relations much younger than how we'd want her for her to even gain power (other than explaining how ludicrous that she and all women here are in this)?

la pheacinne states:

All I said is that it doesn't matter in the context of the story because all women got married in their teen years. All. All mariages, all classic love stories basically have a grooming element, and it's so generalised that it looses its value as a point of criticism. Yes, technically, if you sterilise the context and isolate the facts, it could be considered "grooming", yes technically there is a power imbalance, obviously, it's just that these points cannot constitute a valid criticism for the character because in the context of the story, they lose their meaning. They cannot be used as a proof that the character is bad or immoral or a pedophile. [...] The problem with the word "grooming" is that it's not a neutral word. It's a word with a very heavy meaning, that frames an individual who has a perverse, unnatural sexual desire for children whereas the society this individual lives in has decided (fortunately) that these children are not to be considered in a sexual way. So this individual breaks a fundamental moral code of the society they live in, and they do it so skillfully that they go the extra mile as to manipulate their way into basically, committing the crime that constitutes child sex abuse. It is a crime punished by law. You go to prison for it. Everybody knows it is perverse, unnatural behaviour, everybody tries to protect their children from it, and children themselves have a certain knowledge that it is NOT ok for an adult to approach them that way.

AND HERE:

Well GRRM is creepy with age differences, that is a fact. I'm ok if you adress this as a meta commentary. What I mean by a meta commentary here is a commentary on the choices of the author himself and whether these choices are wise/unwise, or if there is a pattern that should be adressed. All of this can be discussed in a meta commentary. Dead Ladies Club was one for example, in a different subject though.

[deadmegumi]

8, 10 + 2 if you're feeling heinous 😈 24 if ur not 😇

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

well MY special little noble is actually the most inherently just and pure of heart and when they win the throne there will be a thousand years of peace. Wdym inherent violence of feudalism that's not real. And while there has been a downtrend in this belief throughout the last five years it HAS influenced a lot of other discource subtly... most people have realized that the way to start fixing westeros's problems is not thru a nice feudal monarch, but they dont understand that abandoning this framework for character/plot analysis also means abandoning a lot of other framework. In the arya v sansa wars people still use feudal patriarchal definitions of femininity to decide who is the Best Sexy Feminist (preteen girl). In debates about morality for certain actions people excuse things because it aligns with the feudal code of ethics- a deeply flawed and violent code. See: ned HAD to take theon hostage because well we live in a society. Like i think it's important not to hold characters to the same moral standards that we hold people in modern times to, because their circumstances are so wildly different, but we dont have to adhere to THEIR feudal values when analyzing them because its only a detriment to their characters. They live in a society but WE do not... cmon guys...

10. Worst part of fanon

no one fucking draws these characters ugly enough. Asoiaf fandom has a plague of sameface ig model syndrome and it sucks cause george puts so much distinct personality even in minor characters and then people are like hmmmmm what if they had the same button nose and good chin that everyone else has. Brienne is ugly let her be ugly!!! Arya and jon have long plain faces u dont have to draw the teen/preteen kids as super defined and striking! Let the kids look like kids. I don't care how beautiful dany is let her be a 15 yr old. OR the instinct to make everyone best friends forever and soften the complicated dynamics btwn these characters. like modern aus where the starks are the benevolent rich people who adopted theon from his abusive trailer park family grind my gears like hes a child hostage from a powerful noble house and u cant erase such a defining part of his character bc you want everyone to be nice to each other. Also related to this is people making jaime nice/acting like asos was a redemption arc or that he didnt commit some uniquely horrific acts in agot/acok. His actions thru out the last two books are not the acts of a changed man they are the acts of a man who realized he can make choices based on empathy and reason not instinct. LAST thing which is something i dont reaaaaally see here much but i know the cunts on ao3 are doing it: the post canon thing where people want brienne and jaime to get married and have twelve kids. Fuck you eat shit and die brienne is not an incubator especially not for that lannister SLAG

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

cersei is not necessarily my fave but shes a character whose sexuality i often think of. In canon the only time she's had sex with a woman she's topped and every time she fucks a dude she's disassociating so hard shes on another planet. Even when fucking jaime shes like imagining herself in his body fucking him in her body. In the bulldyke cersei universe he's stone. The pants stay on during sex and so does the shirt and probably also the shoes. Cis gay guy cersei universe he already thinks being gay is emasculating enough so obviously he's not going to let anyone penetrate him. Transmasc bi universe its like you've never been strapped until you've been strapped by a dude who's never cum once in his whole life. THANK YOU!

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"Daenerys is basically george bush because she uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well its a post 9/11 metaphor and uhhh well astapor is basically iraq and uhhhhh nuclear arms" "dany has never done anything wrong in her life and criticizing her means uhhhhh you hate women and abuse victims" "dany is a RAPIST and a RACIST and wants ALL BROWN PEOPLE TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO HER" "mirri maz duur deserved to die horribly for killing (checks notes) her enslaver" "dany is a colonizer (that's not what that word means. you need to look up what that word means)" brothers. Lets all link arms and kill ourselves

Jesus Christ this is long as hell. Sorry I got a lot of beef

[lemonhemlock]

https://www.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/763163615828361216/adding-to-your-nuanced-discussion-regarding-sara much of the hatred towards sara hess is gross and openly misogynistic. unfortunately, it also muddies the waters for making valid critiques of her writing overall. i’m only familiar with her work on HOTD, and while i think she does basic level serviceable work (ie- mostly the plot makes sense) i find a lot of it extremely lazy. take both HOTD finales for example; we have two scenes of domestic violence (daemyra and helaena/aemond) being used to communicate the pretty elementary idea that these men are bad, wrong, and power hungry for anticipating war in a struggle for succession. now with both characters, you can argue it makes sense; daemon has been orbiting the throne all season, he sees the greens as the threat they are and, understands war is inevitable. he’s frustrated with rhaenyra’s lack of response and lashes out after finding out viserys didn’t trust him enough to communicate aegon’s dream. meanwhile, aemond has just discovered he is at a great disadvantage in this dragon cold war, has already committed severe violence to become regent in the first place, and is also lashing out because he is insecure in his position and fearful of what might happen.

the problem is instead of exploring these (very sensible) feelings for the characters or developing them through actual scenes and dialogue, we have this shorthand where Men = Violent, because they couldn’t possibly explore these emotions for these characters in another way. i can’t remember if it was olivia or phia who spoke about the aemond/alicent/helaena scene as helaena refusing to feed aemond’s violent male ego… girl you are literally at war! idk if this is about his male ego so much as he doesn’t want to fucking die 😭 not to point the finger at the actors, i am just assuming that idea came from somewhere, and it seems most likely to be the writer or director. and daemon isn’t in the wrong for expecting battle- yet instead of having that be a real conflict between him and rhaenyra, we have this moment of abuse that is quickly brushed aside and moved past. it exists only to show us how aggressive daemon is in the simplest, laziest way possible, and then it’s disposed of when it’s no longer needed. you can say the same for “civilians don’t matter”— it’s just lazy writing! they don’t have to, in that the story can function without an in depth look at the smallfolk’s relationship to dragons and the targ dynasty overall, and why bother to do any of that when you can just decide that for this one scene, none of them matter!

this is very long 😮‍💨 i’m sorry for the essay! i find this topic hard to discuss because too often people come in to just call her a cunt because she wrote a medieval man who didn’t articulate feminism perfectly. there are real issues here!! and it’s not all on her, condal obviously approves everything and they are on the same page here. anyway. thanks for reading as always!

Coming back to this ask after some time, sorry for the delay!

I agree very much with your assessment of her doing serviceable, but ultimately lazy writing. Perhaps that under a more competent showrunner, she could have written something decent. But one of her problems is that she is only superficially familiar with the source material - I'm saying this because she gave an evasive answer when asked if she read the books ("a long time ago"). This matters because she clearly doesn't understand the politics of the universe she is writing for (the scheming is nonsensical in HOTD) or the themes (dragging back the "civilians don't matter", but it's very revelatory to how she approaches the scripts). How can you write ASOIAF media, a series that relies heavily on politicking and dismantling tropes, without a grasp on those two things? D&D misunderstanding the themes of the series is famously one of the reasons for its lackluster show ending.

And that's just not going to rectify itself on its own. If she lacks the initiative to analyse the text properly, then someone should direct her as to what exactly to write. I'm sorry, but that's you can't just have it both ways - not do the work and then shrug your shoulders when you end up creating a divergent version that doesn't fit in the plot you're bound to follow.

take both HOTD finales for example; we have two scenes of domestic violence (daemyra and helaena/aemond) being used to communicate the pretty elementary idea that these men are bad, wrong, and power hungry for anticipating war in a struggle for succession. [...] the problem is instead of exploring these (very sensible) feelings for the characters or developing them through actual scenes and dialogue, we have this shorthand where Men = Violent, because they couldn’t possibly explore these emotions for these characters in another way.

Exactly, and the reason it ends up working for Daemon is because he previously got a ton of screen time and we got to know his personality, whereas Aemond gets little next to nothing in Season 2, in addition to his in-built disadvantage of being much younger and, thus, getting introduced later on. Well, surprise surprise, what worked for Daemon will not work for Aemond in that situation, because if you don't invest in Aemond's characterisation, the parallel will fall flat. Aemond and Daemon had very different upbringings and it's very silly to think that what applies to Daemon will automatically apply to Aemond and, therefore, you don't need to bother to dissect Aemond on screen in any meaningful way.

That's just concentrating on the logistics & not even critiquing the very lazy stereotype of men = violent & women = peacemakers.

i can’t remember if it was olivia or phia who spoke about the aemond/alicent/helaena scene as helaena refusing to feed aemond’s violent male ego… girl you are literally at war! idk if this is about his male ego so much as he doesn’t want to fucking die 😭

This. ^^^ I often find that the writers were trying to make some kind of point that, in other circumstances, could have been relevant, but they have a knack for picking the worst situations as illustrative examples. And, after that, they're surprised their simile felt mismatched.

Aemond having a violent male ego and being critiqued for it within the text is absolutely fine, but is it reasonable to do it when he's trying to ensure his family are not getting killed? And have Helaena be that agent of critique, when she herself has just been subjected to horrific loss and trauma at Daemon's hands?

Conveying that the smallfolk live miserable lives that often lead them to forsake their morals and commit horrific acts in desperation (such as becoming assassins for hire) is another valid point to make. But is it really appropriate to beg for clemency from the audience via a widowed dog (the lowest form of sympathy begging, if you ask me) when we are talking about a cruel child-murderer at the end of the day?

In the same vein, high-borns having more resources at their disposal to recover after trauma is very true. But is it appropriate for that comment to come out of the mouth of a mother who only just recently lost her son to horrific violence? Especially after having her grieve so halfheartedly, it's giving less intersectionality and more her not actually giving much of a shit instead. No one in their right minds would go to a rich lady mourning her dead child and start lecturing her on the privilege of grief. Helaena is just not the appropriate vehicle in that moment for that kind of commentary.

Neither are the smallfolk of King's Landing in a position to mourn the dragon Meleys mere days after it butchered so many of their fellow townies. So many times I can sense this disconnect between what a believe, humane response would look like and half-baked attempts at social commentary.

and daemon isn’t in the wrong for expecting battle- yet instead of having that be a real conflict between him and rhaenyra, we have this moment of abuse that is quickly brushed aside and moved past. it exists only to show us how aggressive daemon is in the simplest, laziest way possible, and then it’s disposed of when it’s no longer needed.

Yes, in some ways, Daemon is the writers' opportunity to eat their cake and have it, too. They make a lot of noise about how much of a problematic bad boy he is, but, when it comes down to it, nothing he does has any kind of real consequence. The only consequence he ever faced was Viserys banishing him and that was way back before any kind of time jump (and it got overturned in the end, anyway).* Alys doesn't do anything to him except hold his hand and gently nudge him in the "right" direction. Rhaenyra takes him back with nary a snide comment.

Even back in season 1, he can kill Rhea Royce with no fallout: the Royces don't do anything and Lady Jeyne is still Rhaenyra's lackey with no explanation given. He can spread the rumour of killing Laenor with the intent of sowing fear and decapitate Vaemond in front of the greens. Yet the greens are not worried about him and scrambling to prevent Rhaenyra from seizing the throne. Oh no. Crowning Aegon is just misunderstanding Viserys' dying words. 🤦‍♀️ Daemon can even kill Jaehaerys and still Helaena decides to help him instead of her own brother.

*honestly, that's one of the reasons I think the first 5 episodes of season 1 are the show's strongest. It's like back then you did stuff and it had consequences. Incredible achievement.

you can say the same for “civilians don’t matter”— it’s just lazy writing! they don’t have to, in that the story can function without an in depth look at the smallfolk’s relationship to dragons and the targ dynasty overall, and why bother to do any of that when you can just decide that for this one scene, none of them matter!

You know, I would actually like to take this opportunity to point out that I get this conundrum as a showrunner. You don't really want to make a story about smallfolk suffering, because it would be a massive downer and it would not sell as much or be as popular. Not many people are interested in Les Miserables but with dragons and that's understandable! But there is a way to simultaneously not delve into the intricacies of oppression in your escapist nobility fantasy, but not be downright insulting about it.

They don't need a ton of screen time to set up the basic theme of "it's always the innocents who suffer when you high lords play your game of thrones". They just don't and I'm tired of pretending otherwise. They can very well illustrate the point of smallfolk suffering without resorting to insane suspension of disbelief like King's Landing starving after two weeks of blockade. And, if they can't, then they shouldn't be in the writers' room for productions that have the audacity to submit episodes to prestigious award shows.

[aboutdragons]

Hello, thank you for answering my questions. If you are open to sharing, do you have any tips to write an isekai in the Asoiaf universe and to write an interesting oc?

Hi, you're welcome!

As for tips... When you're looking for inspiration, it's good to reach for works of the genre that interests you. If you want to write isekai, go read some isekai (japanese mangas and korean manhwas are the best for this) and see which of the tropes you like, which you dislike, and which you think are most interesting to tackle. Then you pick the one you like best/think would suit the story you want to tell best/both, and roll with it.

Personally, I write isekai as pure escapism, so I heavily stray away from giving my MCs any possibility of returning to their original world, or having them have a good enough reason to try. Ability to physically cross between worlds could be interesting, but really isn't my cup of tea. I prefer leaving 21st century reality behind me in the burning dumpster where it rightfully belongs.

When it comes to ASOIAF specifically, the setting has its own magic and stuff, so you can take that (take an existing concept, make shit up, or go somewhere in-between like I have) to make the transition between worlds plausible and ta-dah! Valyrian Gods are a good go-to if you want to be fucking around with the Valyrians, but I think R'hllor and his whole rebirth shtick or even the Drowned God could be an interesting option. Opens a way for interesting worldbuilding & making the MC particularly attuned to the magical side of the world.

Or something Eldritch! Damn, I love eldritch fuckery so much, unspeakable cosmic horror and all.

Beware! Ramble ahead!

As for writing an interesting OC... Honestly, gonna sound super basic as everyone will probably say the same, but make them as close to a person as you can. Give them multiple personality traits, flaws and all - conflicting personality traits are fun, too. Give them quirks and ticks and interests and hangups and make them consistent, but also allow them to grow. We all live through character arcs, and your characters should too. Their views can be changed or reinforced, they can be forced to go against those views for the sake of themselves or others. They can (and should) hold grudges, even about the silliest things. Give them a pet or a hobby (or both), show us how they interact with those things, how they care, how they grieve, and how they seethe. Who are their friends, what kind of people do they gravitate towards, how do they interact with those people? How do those people view them? How close are they to the truth?

Does the character show a different them to the world than they truly are? Why? Why not? Do they exaggerate their traits? Why? Why not? What are their limitations, social and physical, and how do they get around them?

How do they influence others? Do they stay on the sidelines or make a menace of themselves, or something in-between? What motivates them? Are there lines they will never cross? If so, what are those, and why? Make them react realistically, based on the information they have and the things they feel. Make them face the consequences of their actions, the good, the bad, the entertaining!

It's also very important - essential - to decide where your character will end before you even begin. You as the writer need to have an end goal with them. Who they are at the start, and who they will become by the end, and that's where you need to gradually take them. Having the points in the middle down helps too.

Their journey is important, but so is their relationship with the world and others. Don't overdo it, but make the audience care. Put them in a situation and ask yourself, what would I most likely do here? Would they do the same, or would they do something different?

There's many facets to writing characters, but the baseline always is; make them human. A little fucked up, a little weird, trying their best. Or utter fucking menaces. Or both! Or something else!

Also give them demons. Give them issues! And then make them deal with them! I give a lot of my OCs depression because I suffer from it myself, and then I have them slowly work through it in lieu of therapy. It helps me, and it makes for a compelling internal struggle that many can identify with. Or imposter syndrome. Or mommy issues.

Explore themes with them, those that interest you, those that pertain to them.

Of course, adapt character traits accordingly to how you want the characters to be perceived, too. Don't give them too much of a trait of which perception you don't want; save being judgmental or hateful for the antagonists, don't overdo on chivalry, don't overdo on badassery. Let them fuck up. Let them fall down. Let them need help. Let them succeed too, of course. Few like misery porn, but fewer like the feeling of emptiness that comes from unearned victories.

And that goes without saying: don't make them right all the time, or successful all the time, or infallible. Kick their ass sometimes! It's for their own good, I promise!

But ultimately write the character that brings you joy. It's easier to write a compelling character when you, too, want to know what happens next, what kind of trouble they get into, how do they get out of it.

Most of all, have fun with it. If you do, others will, too.

[bohemian-nights]

I’m happy Laena is going home. After all “home is where the heart is.” I hope she and Rhaenys have a heart to heart. It’s been ten years since they have seen one another. It’ll also be good for Baela and Rhaena and Aemon to meet their grandma (and grandpa) under very different circumstances. I wonder if Vhagar will come back and how that’s going to work with Aemond. Also what is Laena’s relationship with Rhaenyra here? I feel like Rhaenyra is still going to be trying to make an intimate alliance with Daemon. And why do I have the feeling that she is going to jump for joy when she learns that Aemon is white passing. Which by the way makes since because Laena is biracial and Daemon is white so not all of their children are going to have the same skin color as her. And when it comes to Daemon I’d love to see some begging and groveling. Lol but seriously sir needs to start begging.

And I wonder where they’ll live. Kings Landing? Driftmark? Dragonstone? I feel like there are advantages to each one. In Kings Landing they’d be closer to the Greens and that means Baela and Rhaena would be closer to Aegon and Aemond so they would be closer to the throne. On Driftmark Laena would be very close to family as would her children. Dragonstone would be a fresh start. Sorta like in Arilī. And Dragonstone is close to both Driftmark and Kings Landing so it’s not like they wouldn’t still be close to family.

Also how did Laenor die? Did Rhaenyra think Laena was going to die and decide to get rid of Laenor? Tbh I wouldn’t put it pass her.

Laena and Rhaenys have a lot to catch up on(and Rhaenys is already making plans because she herself has allowed the interests of her family to go by the wayside 📝). It’s going to be bittersweet and she’s going to spoil those kids 🙌🏽

I know that genetics works differently in the ASOIAF universe(and I'm still extremely confused with the HOTD show situation), but realistically some of the kids would look straight-up white 🤷🏽‍♀️ Rhaenyra’s reaction to Aemon shall be interesting 👀

Daemon has so much to apologize for. He needs to put his money where his mouth is cause Laena has had it(if he wants to keep her he needs to start getting on his knees).

I’m honestly leaning toward Driftmark for where they will live. I won’t rule out Dragonstone just yet(although I’m tempted to go another way that involves one of the Targtower boys hehehehe😈), but Kings Landing is just a little too crowded(also King Crusty lives there and Laena and the kids don’t deserve to be around the bad vibes 🙅🏽‍♀️).

Spoilers but Rhaenyra didn’t kill Laenor. Honestly, I doubt she’s brave enough to have him killed off without a guarantee from Daemon(her position would go from bad to worse especially now that Aemon is here she’s just about worn out her usefulness with the Velaryons), and in this fic, he was too worried over Laena to go ordering Laenor’s murder ��