#their wives are cruel

[bookshopbentley]

what an agonizing existence aziraphale must have . to be overflowing with love . to be forbidden from loving .

[warp-speed]

Alys Harroway in furs shivering in Harren Hall. She's waiting for her ticket out of there.

[atopvisenyashill]

Thoughts on the Alysanne is Maegor's daughter AU? I feel like it has some interesting potential, and it vastly recontextualizes different parts of Jaehaehae (I do not like him sjsjsjs) and Alysanne's relationship (such as Jaehaehae's treatment of their daughters) but I wanna hear what you think about it!

I’ve touched on this a bit before but since you actually want to hear my thoughts, allow me to present to you my Jaehaerys Is The Goddamn Worst, And Alysanne Annoys Me Too: An Essay lmao but my answer is basically “yeah all of what you just said.”

I think it makes Alysanne much more palatable (to me) as a character because as she stands, she just fixates on forcing her daughters through these fucked up marriages at too young an age bc it traumatized her to be married and pregnant at 15 too but she’d never admit that being a willing participant in her own kidnapping by her brother-husband was the single worst thing that ever happened to her, and because Alysanne doesn’t want to admit it (and Jaehaerys would never see it as wrong or a mistake) F&B really shies away from delving into the fact that Alysanne is as deranged of a mother as Cersei is. So as she stands, she’s very flat to me because she’s presented very flatly and inconsistently. She’s so in love with Jaehaerys, she’s maritally raped by Jaehaerys, she’s a loving and doting mother, she forces her daughters into marriages when they’re the same too young age she was, she accuses her teenage girls of being scheming whores then gets angry when her husband accuses their teenage girls of being scheming whores, and worst of all we are just told “Maegelle tells them to make up so they do” so we don’t know why Alysanne gets over all of this. What is the point of riding a dragon when you never use that dragon to protect your daughters from unwanted teen marriages? We’re just not given a good enough justification for why her behavior is so weird and frustrating towards her daughters.

Make her Maegor’s daughter though…most of her behavior as an adult makes more sense. Like a worse version of Rhaenyra’s childhood almost - a father desperate for a son, but lowkey obsessed with his daughter, who makes all his hang ups about his parents the problems of every woman around him, except Maegor is out here blood sacrificing and torturing and starting wars and forcing babies on wives he discards quickly and brutally. Then here comes Jaehaerys on a white horse green dragon to save her from the horror her life has become, and he loves her so much he runs away with her even though Alyssa says they shouldn’t marry because people won’t like it. And they have beautiful children, and a beautiful marriage, and build a beautiful kingdom.

Then her pregnancies start getting dangerous. Gaemon, then Valerion, die. Alysanne thinks of the shriveled up mutants she called brothers, if Maegor’s taint has passed to her. Her perfect husband ignores her no, and forces Gael on her. Alysanne remembers that he said nothing to Rogar when Alyssa died, merely wept. Then her daughters start to die. Daella, Alyssa, Viserra, all within a few years. Then Jaehaerys makes Saera watch as he murders her boyfriend, calls her a whore, and says Alysanne cannot follow Saera to Lys. Alysanne thinks of Maegor torturing the Harroways over Alys’ presumed infidelity. Jaehaerys says he’s sorry, and her daughter badgers her into forgiving him, and she remembers how she helped Jaehaerys badger Alyssa into forgiving Rogar. Not two years later, Jaehaerys passes over Rhaenys. Alysanne thinks of how she was never enough for her father, how she felt so superior to Rhaena banished to Dragonstone and resented by Aerea, yet there she is dragging Gael away from court because she can’t stand to be with Jaehaerys. How her father was surrounded by dead women and dead babies and how Jaehaerys is surrounded by his own dead daughters, but surely she did the right thing, surely Maegor was worse, surely the realm is better off? Is he right to pass over Rhaenys? Is she enabling a man just as monstrous as her father? She will never decide, because Maegelle will guilt her about keeping Gael isolated at Dragonstone, and Alysanne will do as she’s told, just like Rhaena, and Alyssa, and Jeyne, Elinor, Ceryse, Alys, and Tyanna, just like every one of her daughters.

I do get why Alysanne is Alyssa & Aenys’ and not Maegor’s. The weird Targ babies, the line not descending from Visenya, Jaehaerys and Alysanne being held up as the perfect Targaryen couple specifically because they are brother and sister and dragon riders. I do even think canon Alysanne is likely traumatized by her time as a hostage on Dragonstone, and the ensuing war, and the trauma bond that caused with Jaehaerys, and it makes her idolize Jaehaerys, and then he isolates her at Dragonstone so he can swiftly and safely marry, groom, and knock her up. It’s not like,,,, a fun time, and it’s enough to make anyone crazy and weird about their daughters, but I think having her father be Maegor makes Alysanne herself much deeper because it gives her, as the most beloved Targaryen queen, a blood tie to the most hated Targaryen king, and a marriage to the most beloved Targaryen king. It fits better with a lot of the themes of the main series (again, imo) - forcing the spotlight on the outsiders to see how the affect the story from behind the scenes. The fall of Aegon’s sons, and The Long Reign, not told from the PoV or to serve the PoV of any of the kings or princes, but of the queen that tied them all together.

[cl0ud-ninex]

I was just thinking it would be so ironic if out of Maegor's first three wives, Ceryse (the wife he humiliated and abandoned because she was infertile) was the only one who actually gave a damn about him.

Even though i love Maegor, Alys, and Tyanna together, I feel like this idea could work depending on the circumstances. Like, yeah he chose Alys and Tyanna and discarded Ceryse, but they both were just using him and only cared about the power he came with. Meanwhile, Ceryse actually cared about him as a person.

Idk I swing either way when it comes to this.

[starrynightsxo]

jude duarte and paedyn gray are just two knife wives coming together maximising their joint slay

[itsfoxglove05]

Maegor the Cruel and his 6 wives Elinor Costayne, Jeyne Westerling, Raena Targaryen, Tyanna of the Tower, Ceryse Hightower, Alice Harroway

[witchthewriter]

𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐧𝐞 𝟺𝑡𝘩 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑟'𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠

ISFJ

Ravenclaw

Lawful Good

Cancer Sun, Virgo Moon, Leo Rising

"But his third wife couldn't give him a child either. Desperate to cement his stolen throne with an heir, Maegor took three wives at once, known as the Black Brides because each were women he'd widowed in his wars. All three women grew full with child in time, but each gave birth to the same twisted monstrosities as his second wife. One need not be a maester, much less a Grand Maester, to deduce the common thread here."―Varys

A noblewoman from House Costayne, Elinor was one of the three 'Black Brides,' along with Lady Jeyne Westerling and Princess Rhaena Targaryen.

Elinor had three children with her first husband, Ser Theo Bolling. He was arrested by Maegor's Kingsguard and executed as he was accused of conspiring with Queen Alyssa to put Jaehaerys on the throne.

After seven days of mourning, Elinor was summoned to wed Maegor. The king forced Elinor's sons' at the wedding so she would play her part in the ceremony. According to one tale, Elinor scratched Maegor's back to bloody ribbons as they coupled.

Elinor's sons were sent away after she wed Maegor. Her eldest was fostered at the Eyrie, her second son to Highgarden, and her youngest was given to a wet nurse.

When Tyanna admitted to poisoning Alys Harroway during her pregnancy, Tyanna promised the same would happen to Elinor.

Tyanna had been telling the truth. Elinor had given birth to an eyeless stillborn with small wings.

Elinor was one of only two wives who survived the king. The other was Rhaena Targaryen.

After the death of Maegor, Lord Daemon Velaryon proposed that King Jaehaerys marry Queen Elinor to reconcile with Maegor's supporters, but nothing came of that proposal.

After Jaehaery's ascent, Elinor left King's Landing dressed in the robes of a penitent. She visited her two elder sons at the Eyrie and Highgarden before retiring to her father's seat at the Three Towers with her youngest son.

Later, King Jaehaerys commanded Elinor to go forth and spread his Doctrine of Exceptionalism to the peoples of the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the goodness of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, becoming one of the Seven Speakers.

Her queenly clothes became shabbier and more threadbare each day, and she eventually gave up all claims to nobility, becoming Mother Elinor at the great motherhouse in Lannisport

[targwh0re]

The Six Wives of Maegor the Cruel

Ceryse Hightower, 25AC-45AC (Abandoned)

Divorced

My name's Catherine Of Aragon

Was married 24 years, I'm a paragon

Of royalty, my loyalty is to the Vatican

So if you try to dump me

You won't try that again

Alys Harroway, 39AC-44AC (Killed by Maegor/on his order)

Beheaded

For my promiscuity outside of wed

Lock up your husbands, lock up your sons

K Howard is here, and the fun's begun

Tyanna of the Tower, 42AC-48AC (Killed by Maegor/on his orders)

Beheaded

I'm that Boleyn girl

And I'm up next

See, I broke England from the Church

Yeah, I'm that sexy

Why did I lose my head?

Well, my sleeves may be green

But my lipstick's red!

Elinor Costayne, 47AC-48AC (Survived)

Survived

Five down, I'm the final wife

I saw him to the end of his life

I'm the survivor, Catherine Parr

I bet you wanna know how I got this far

I said, I bet you wanna know how I got this far

Jeyne Westerling, 47AC-47/48AC? (Died in childbirth)

Died

Jane Seymour, the only one he truly loved

Rude

When my son was newly born, I died

But I'm not what I seem

Or am I?

Stick around, and you'll suddenly see more

Rhaena Targaryen, 47AC-48AC (Escaped; so basically divorced his ass)

Divorced

Ich bin Anna of Cleves

Ja

When he saw my portrait he was like

Ja!

But I didn't look as good as I did in my pic

Funny how we all discuss that, but never Henry's little…

[spurgie-cousin]

one thing I really hate about the sister wives online community is how people talk about Robyn's kids, it is so gross and weird and cruel. ESPECIALLY her girls, her two youngest get equal screen time (which is fortunately not much) but people just eviscerate that little girl.

her two older girls maybe had 15 minutes of screen time the whole last season, yet I can't even make references to them in a video without these kinds of comments:

(Edit: also Breanna is only older than Savanah by a few months 🙄)

like where tf do people get this shit??

The only thing I can agree with people on is that they're mannerisms are SO similar to Robyn's, and I guess that's what makes people immediately dislike them? But I don't know why that's surprising to people since they're her actual children......

Idk i just feel so bad for them, like it's already hard to be a young girl in this world, they're family is struggling, and then to top it all off they have millions of grown ass adults who are soooooo desperate to hate them and pick them apart.

[rozsesandart]

Queen Ceryse Hightower ~

first wife to Maegor “The Cruel” Targaryen

Art by @rozsesandart

Art masterlist + socials

Commissions open

[ermm-what-the-alpha-theta]

I was just thinking

What kind of lucky did aziraphale and crowley have to be to both be placed as the hell/heaven representative in London? Was it just EXTREME luck? Was it God, AKA the og shipper? Or did they both do something to be placed there? Can you imagine them coming to their superior like ,,hii can i be your representative in London'' and Michael/Beelzebub just being like ,,yeah sure, but why'' ,,oh no reason''

[libraryboy]

there is love that doesn't have a place to rest but it would've burried you if it had settled on your shoulders

[taohs]

hi. again. what’s your favorite color? for reasons yet undisclosed. uwu <3 (kissing you on the forehead. i love you aki <3 i apologize for making you choose only five wives in that last ask. that was truly cruel of me. i will bode for my sins 💖)

hello. i am blushing and swooning, love you too mica <3 (have you always been that smooth??) RIGHT NOW my favorite colors are red, black and purple, because many of my faves end up being associated with purple 💜

[bread-that-draws]

Glenn Close girlies listen to me. Guys. Guys please

[rose-lizzzy]

Katherine looks into Shrubs eyes, pleading, praying that it would work, like a fairytale.

Her red eyes flicker, and she watches as for a second, it settles on amber, and Shrub gasps.

"Shrub!" Katherine wraps her arms around the gnome, who gasps in horror.

Shrub looks at Katherine, at the bloodied bandages, how she had a gash in her side. "....Kat.....I...it's all my fault....she...stew...I..."

Katherine wipes her tears. "Hey...I know. We're going to fix it all. Are you okay?"

"She threatened..if I didn't eat it....she was going to corrupt you...I had to .....the cloud...it...." She sobs. "It's back...I hate that it's back...I never wanted......" She trails off, threads of red returning to her irises. "...no....I don't.....I don't want to......I don't!"

Shrub starts stepping back, holding her head with her hands while shaking it back and forth like an animal.

"Shrub! Shrub look at me! You're okay!"

The gnome shakes her head. "It's too much, Kat....I can't....please....make it go away....make the voices stop......." She begs, looking into Katherines eyes, her own full of tears.

And just as quickly as the red left, it spread across the amber plains, and Katherine watches as the corruption returns to control.

"I'll make it stop, Shrubby." She whispers, before leaping forward and restraining the gnome before she could get her bearings again.

[horizon-verizon]

Aemond who was described as "fierce from birth" , who also called his sister a whore in the day his father died , shown sociopathic tendencies from his childhood , these sociopathic tendencies have developed much worse in his adulthood to the point he was able to commit heinous crimes like genocide without a single fuck in the world. And all the sources in the book have similar characterization of Aemond , so that's means that his personality and his actions were all on display for everyone to witness it . But according to Ryan the historians are too biased and they've properly misunderstood everything.

So Aemond was turned into a poor mew mew in the show that didn't mean it , that's makes me wonder actually if Ryan will ever adopted Maegor's reign, would he make Maegor this big softie that everyone in westros misunderstood? All of Maegor's cruel actions are nothing but propaganda from Jaehaerys to destroy the reputation of Maegor the softie ?

No anon, Ryan would have Visenya and Maegor have a really close relationship where Visenya is jealous of her sister Rhaenys for having all of Aegon’s love and affection.

Visenya plots against Aenys I from the beginning because of that vendetta against Rhaenys, and people love Visenya because she is the ��official” wife, or the “first”/”prime” wife in Aegon’s “harem”. 

Because Valyrians had full, stratified harems like you’d imagine from the Ottoman empire, you see. The canon historians don’t have enough information to tell us about Valyrian culture, but this is definitely what existed in Valyria.

But she’s actually being honorable; she only usurped Aenys (because it’s not Aegon, Aenys I’s son, who gets usurped, it’s Aenys himself this time, this is in canon you see) and we find out her “true” intentions in episode 4 (while in episode 2 we saw her looking like she wanted to stab Rhaenys and never mentions the succession and the realm’s “well being” at all).

So she forces/manipulates Maegor into marrying all the women he marries, even the Black Brides of Jeyne Westerling, Elinor Costayne, and his niece Rhaena Targaryen. She despises Tyanna, but finds her magic useful and tries to confiscate her potions, etc. for herself on some pretext.

Except Tyanna of the Tower is the only woman he ever loved, you see, because she was his only real choice. Ryan calls Tyanna Maegor’s “mail-order-bride” and “only true lover” in one interview and another. Her Lyseni pussy puts Maegor into a tizzy, from all her “training”. People online also call her a mail order bride and says this proves how evil the Targs are for being white people taking advantage of poor Essosi (Essos is a place of only vacation-locations) peoples for self gratification.

Tyanna, in order to gain back power and make sure his attention is always on her, poisons all of Maegor’s other wives and botches their pregnancies. Maegor, in order to eliminate this threat to his family, orders her execution, and he tears up or cries as he turns away from her for the last time. (The “rumor” of her heart being ripped out is just her personal writings that some maester re-recorded inaccurately, and then another maester [because some parts were too deteriorated to read] wrote down as if her writing Maegor “ripped her heart out” was literal instead of her complaining about him having sex with other women.)

Alyssa Velayron cheats on Aenys with Rogar specifically because Aenys is a little baby bitch boy and Rogar was a man who “did what needed to be done”, even when he tried to usurp Jahaerys for Aerea (Rhaena’s daughter by Aegon “the Uncrowned”). She enlists his help to overtake Maegor (pussy power enslaves men), and Visenya (who apparently survives her canon death and stays the puppet of her son). In all this while, Rhaena lives in the Keep with the other poor brides and abuses Tyanna or dismisses Tyanna’s low birth. Her nose is always up, you see.

Maegor dies when Elinor Costayne pushes him into the Iron Throne, finally drudging up the muster to address him killing her husband while he burned down the holy Sept. Because, you know, he did that and her husband was one of those that were burned alive while praying. *Tear.