#what if sgt. fury fought wwii in outer space?

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What if Rhaegar was stillborn?

Then it would be a completely different story.

Then it would be a completely diff we'd all be a lot better off.

Then one would have died young and the other would have gone into the Faith so that Jaehaerys could be king.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I just thought of a random ship, Stannis and Cersei. Doubt it could ever work, but thoughts?

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

If Robert were still king but had already married by the time the Lannisters joined the war, would Cersei/Stannis be a good marriage contract?

Only if Tywin has Robert killed. Tywin wants his daughter to be queen. Tywin joined Robert’s side in the Rebellion in order to make Cersei queen and eventually have a grandchild on the throne. If Robert were already married, Tywin wouldn’t marry Cersei to Stannis, he’d figure out a way to have Robert’s wife knocked off and then make Cersei queen. Tywin has kind of a one-track mind here.

And not that Robert would have a wife, as he was fighting the Rebellion for Lyanna. Yes, yes, I know, the war really was against Aerys’s tyranny, and Robert was fighting against that too – because after Aerys killed Rickard and Brandon without a trial, he called for Ned and Robert’s heads – but the reason the war sparked and Aerys’s tyranny went into overdrive was because Rhaegar apparently kidnapped Robert’s betrothed. There are reasons why everyone’s marital status was the way it was when the war began and ended, the plot wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What would happen if Loyalist lost at Trident but Rhaegar survived?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

How did they lose while Rhaegar survived? The Battle of the Trident came down to single combat, and the loyalists fled after they lost their leader when Rhaegar died. If Rhaegar lives, it means he probably killed Robert and therefore the loyalists don’t lose. And when you’re considering the facts of the single combat battle, Rhaegar isn’t surviving a warhammer blow to the chest; that kills people, Carl. 

Or if it’s some sort of military victory without the combat between Robert and Rhaegar, where Rhaegar is pulled down from his horse and captured but not killed… again, I don’t see the point. You want a debate over whether royal prisoners get executed or not? This isn’t the Dance of the Dragons. I can’t see a proper way forward, with all of the tension of Robert’s Rebellion ending in a whimper without a proper climax. I can’t see any purpose to Rhaegar losing without dying, without realizing he was wrong about everything. I can’t see a decent story in this. Sorry.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I don't know if you have already answered this or not, if yes sorry for the trouble. What would happen to the Southron alliance, Harrenhal tourney and the rebellion if Stannis was born before Robert ?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Probably nothing much different, Stannis would just take Robert’s place. Sorry, it’s a nature/nurture thing. How much of Stannis’s personality is innate, compared to being the middle brother, the boisterous Robert’s younger brother? You can’t just pluck resentful overlooked Stannis out of the standard timeline and go “ok you’re the older brother now” and keep his personality completely intact.

And if you do, if somehow against all reason first son Stannis is absolutely identical to main timeline, then fuck if I know what happens, sorry. Lyanna doesn’t object to being betrothed to Stannis as he’s not a philanderer with bastards and therefore doesn’t run off with Rhaegar? Or is she objecting to being betrothed against her will in general and things turn out exactly the same? Is Stannis not so charismatic that he can’t raise the stormlords and turn enemies into friends? Or would he take on the responsibility and bull through no matter what?

It’s a very pointless AU, sorry. Someone else can write it if they want, but I don’t see any purpose to it.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

If both Robert and Stannis had died at the end of Roberts Rebellion, who would be more likely to be named King by the Stark/Arryn/Tully coalition - Jon Snow or Renly Baratheon?

If Stannis had died at the end of Robert’s Rebellion, it almost certainly would have been because he lost the Siege of Storm’s End – no Davos arriving with food, most likely, and Stannis too stubborn to surrender before he starved to death. If so, it’s possible Renly would have died too (he was only 6 years old), but more likely he would have been captured by the Tyrells. (Surely the last of the food in the castle would have gone to preserve his life.)

If so, getting word of this will change Robert’s plans dramatically, with one brother dead and his castle and only heir captured by the enemy. (For reference, see what happened to Robb’s war when Theon took Winterfell and reportedly killed Bran and Rickon.) It could be that this butterflies away the Battle of the Trident for something else, a push of the rebels not towards King’s Landing, but back south to take back Storm’s End and save Robert’s little brother. Maybe Robert dies in the process. Maybe he lives but the loyalists force a stalemate. But it also butterflies away the Sack of King’s Landing and the death of Rhaegar’s children and probably Rhaegar’s death too.* So your question is far more complicated than you think, sorry; you can’t just kill Stannis at the end of the Rebellion without consequences for every other part of the war.

*(Wait, you didn’t even say Rhaegar died when you killed off Robert and Stannis – or Aerys or Aegon for that matter. What kind of an AU is this, anyway? Are you changing the results of important battles, or are people just getting randomly struck by lightning, or what?)

Nevertheless, presuming some historical vacuum where Stannis’s death doesn’t matter other than him being dead (events don’t work that way! wars do not work that way!), not to mention Robert’s death (for how that alone would butterfly away the Sack and lead to Rhaegar’s children’s survival, see here), there’s no goddamn way Jon Snow would ever be named king. Even if Ned ever let anyone know of his origins (doubtful), even if it were proven that Rhaegar and Lyanna had married and that he wasn’t just a bastard (doubtful), bigamy is banned by the Faith (that GoT annulment is utter bullshit my friend) and likely he’d be considered a bastard anyway. And besides, if Aegon survives, Jon doesn’t really matter. :D

Furthermore, if we’re speaking of the rebel coalition, they would never take a newborn infant Jon as their figurehead leader even if Ned shared his origins (one more time: highly doubtful), because (a) he’s a goddamn newborn baby, and (b) he’s Rhaegar’s son, and y’know, they are rebelling against Targaryens. All of Aerys’s line is tainted with his madness and with Rhaegar’s tacit support of his tyrannical policies. Renly wouldn’t be much of a figurehead either, despite being Robert’s only heir (and from a Targ branch untouched by Aerys, which the maesters like), because, again, he is only 6 years old. If the rebels acclaim anyone as king, it’ll likely be Jon Arryn, or very possibly Ned Stark.

By the way, if the rebels do acclaim Ned once Robert and Rhaegar and Stannis and Aegon and Aerys are hit by lightning, Ned is not going have the time to find out about the Tower of Joy and Lyanna and head down to Dorne with nobody but a few companions, he’ll be too busy dealing with ruling and leadership and stuff. There’s no battle at the ToJ, once Lyanna dies from fever and bloodloss with nobody to hear her last words but her midwife and three Kingsguard who evidently did not give a fuck that they imprisoned a 16-year-old girl until she died, the Kingsguard take the baby (not named Jon, not named Aegon ffs) and run off with him god knows where. I really don’t like this AU.

So… what happens to Renly? Well, if he’s the only surviving Baratheon male, if the maesters insist that a king must be of Targaryen descent, it’s probable that if the rebels win the war (do they?) then Ned or Jon Arryn’s kingship is just temporary, a regency for another 10 years until he reaches adulthood at 16. By which point he’ll have to deal with the KG who’ve been raising up Aemon the young 10-year-old king in Essos, or have rallied around Viserys (who’s 17), or something Targaryen. (Like, don’t discount Varys and Illyrio’s Blackfyre plan, though their Aegon’s only 12ish at this point.) War of the adolescents, what fun.

(No, not really fun.)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

@i-just-like-commenting replied to your post “Hi, I was wondering how the story might have changed if Sansa and...”

the ask is clearly show-only, this is a valid question based on what happened over there, but not in the books, where it's nonsense

It’s fair to assume it’s show-inspired, since Olenna did join up with Team Dany in the show from what I understand. But it’s not valid based on show canon, because it still makes no damn sense with the timeline. (Which is why I didn’t delete it as a show-only ask.) I mean, yeah, the show is all timelines borked to fuck, and jetpacks zooming around the world, sure... but even in the show Olenna had absolutely nothing to do with Dany and no knowledge of her while Sansa was in KL, or Margaery was in KL. And even in the show it would be madness to send teenage girls to Meereen. Or however old Marg’s supposed to be, idek, it doesn’t matter, it’s still nothing Olenna would ever do with her. Nonsense can still be nonsense, even in a nonsense canon. ;)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hey, I was wondering if you could answer a question I had. What do you think would've happened if Ned decided for some reason or another to not take up Robert's request of him to become Hand of the King? I know it's super unlikely that it would've happened because him and Robert were bffs and Ned was honor driven to do it, but still, what if?

It wouldn’t be ASOIAF. Because Ned and Robert were bffs, and Ned was honor driven to do it, and “some reason or another” wouldn’t be in character.

Sorry, it’s not a what-if I’m interested in, and there’s a lot of fanfics of this type already, with outcomes ranging from the sublime (excuses to ship ships of author’s preference) to the ridiculous (Robert declares war on the north!). You’re spoilt for choice if you take even a glance at AO3. But I have no desire to write anything of this sort myself, sorry.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What could happen if Jon Arryn/Ned found out about Cersei and Jaime incest? If they couldn't prove that children were Jaime's (like, if Lannisters and Baratheons didn't necessarily always had black haired kids). So, Ned goes with the info about infidelity to Robert (not sure if he would warn Cersei if he thought children weren't in any danger) and King believes him, then what? How will they deal with twins and children?

Jon and Ned did find out, and Ned did believe the children would be in danger from Robert and therefore warned Cersei. I am not sure exactly what you’re asking for, but sorry, I don’t see any possible AU where Ned would tell Robert about his queen’s infidelity with her brother (whether provable or otherwise) and wouldn’t expect him to react with fury and destruction.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What is Sansa is the younger sister, and Arya is older? What do you think would change?

Too many things to figure out any real answer. Yeah, someone might start with “oh Arya would be betrothed to Joffrey instead but she’d see right through him”, but that wouldn’t necessarily be correct, as an older-sister Arya wouldn’t have the constant inferiority complex from being compared to a more gracious older sister, plus she’d have more responsibility from being an older sister herself, and so many other factors that could lead to her being more rule-oriented and authority-following, or alternatively more visibly chafing under the yoke of the patriarchy. And consider how Catelyn having a Stark-featured child so soon after Robb would shift the family dynamics, and also affect Arya and Jon’s relationship. And an Arya approaching adolescence and looking more like how Lyanna looked before she died would also change things, especially with Ned, maybe even Robert too. You can’t just shift original-timeline Arya’s personality up a few years, she’d be a completely different person. Same with a younger Sansa, if perhaps not quite a dramatic a personality shift. 

(This is why I tend to roll my eyes a bit at fanfics where the Stark kids grow up as peasants but have the exact same personality, or if they have different parents ffs, it’s just not possible, everyone is a gestalt of their genes and experiences, and you change something huge like that, the personalities will also change hugely.)

Anyway, I can’t list changes for you, sorry. It would be a very different book, that’s all I could say for sure. Though if you still want a real answer, I suggest you ask @jimintomystery, he always has the best ideas for AUs with a dramatic shift in Arya and Sansa’s storylines like that. :)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Going from sts's Lady ask, if GRRM had steered the Hound with dead Mycah to Ned before Lady could be killed, what internal thoughts or external pressures COULD have stayed Cersei's demand for Lady (had she'd seen the dead Mycah). I know it is LIKELIER she would have demanded Lady dead anyway (and intensely relevant to plot and character development) - even after seeing dead Mycah - but on the off chance she decided against, what factor(s) would have prevailed to see that happen?

Unknown factors that didn’t and would never happen. Cersei wanted the direwolves dead. The fact that Lady was completely innocent didn’t change her mind. The fact that Lady belonged to her son’s betrothed didn’t change her mind. The fact that her son’s betrothed was the daughter of the Hand of the King didn’t change her mind. I doubt anything would have ever changed her mind.

Cersei + wanting vengeance for her son’s injury + wanting to weaken the Starks + wanting to weaken a potential “younger and more beautiful” queen + not giving a fuck about other people’s feelings + Robert refusing to get involved = dead Lady.

That’s just the way it is. No deaths of innocent humans would have made any difference at all.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Suppose Cersei gets the valonqar prophecy before Tyrion was born. At this point she will certainly believe that Jaime was the valonqar. What happens after Tyrion is born ? Does she shift the prophecy onto Tyrion ?

Cersei didn’t find out what valonqar meant until some time after she received the prophecy.

“Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds,” she said. “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”“What is a valonqar? Some monster?” The golden girl did not like that foretelling.

She could still hear Melara Hetherspoon insisting that if they never spoke about the prophecies, they would not come true. She was not so silent in the well, though. She screamed and shouted. “Tyrion is the valonqar,” she said. “Do you use that word in Myr? It’s High Valyrian, it means little brother.” She had asked Septa Saranella about the word, after Melara drowned.

Cersei killed Melara partially because she was jealous of her attraction to Jaime. That was, y’know, when they were pre-adolescents, age 10 or so. So if in this timeline Cersei still seeks out the meaning of the word after Maggy’s prophecy for Melara comes true, she’ll certainly focus on Tyrion. (As she was already inclined to, since she thought valonqar meant “monster” until that point.) So giving Cersei the prophecy early does absolutely nothing, no change at all.

To be quite honest, I find this what-if extremely unlikely in the first place. Cersei and her companions went to Maggy’s tent at the Lannisport tourney in honor of Prince Viserys’s birth, in 276. They went of their own free will, because Cersei wanted to know her future because she had been told that the announcement of her betrothal to Rhaegar would be that night. It wasn’t some evil fairy showing up at a christening; Cersei barged into the maegi’s tent, woke her up, insulted her, and demanded her fortune told. That’s… not going to happen with girls age 7 or younger, sorry. (Noble girls that young have guardians who’d prevent that sort of adventure.) It’s not going to happen with a Cersei whose mother is still alive. It’s not going to happen without a tourney for Maggy to set up a fortune-telling tent at. It’s not going to happen without Viserys’s birth and Tywin’s desire to flatter the king. It’s not going to happen without a proposed betrothal (again, age 7 or younger is way too young for that). So in short, it’d never happen. Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Me again with a bothersome question. What if Rhaenyra married Aegon II by his father's word (Helaena still too young) when they hear that Daemon went too far in the east and it's either lost or dead and it seemed like he was going to die, only to return when Aegon II already has children by her? Here I am mainly interested in RHAENYRA: she wants her Velaryon-or-i-cut-your-so-lying-tongue children, BUT Daemon will try to use his own, Aegon too (Viserys dies of stroke at hearing news)

Ummmmm…….. your scenario is all kinds of confusing, but first of all, why would Daemon being MIA change anything?

Long before any man had reason to doubt her innocence, the question of selecting a suitable consort for Rhaenyra had been of concern to King Viserys and his council. […] Queen Alicent had her own candidate: her eldest son, Prince Aegon, Rhaenyra’s half brother. But Aegon was a boy, the princess ten years his elder. Moreover, the two half siblings had never gotten on well. “All the more reason to bind them together in marriage,” the queen argued. Viserys did not agree. “The boy is Alicent’s own blood,” he told Lord Strong. “She wants him on the throne.”

[…] The princess knew much and more about Laenor Velaryon and had no wish to be his bride. “My half brothers would be more to his taste,” she told the king (the princess always took care to refer to Queen Alicent’s sons as half brothers, never as brothers). And though His Grace reasoned with her, pleaded with her, shouted at her, and called her an ungrateful daughter, no words of his could budge her … until the king brought up the question of succession. What a king had done, a king could undo, Viserys pointed out. She would wed as he commanded, or he would make her half brother Aegon his heir in place of her.

–The Rogue Prince

Rhaenyra was married to Laenor Velaryon in 113 AC, when her brother Aegon was 6, wayyyy too young for marriage or children. Daemon being reported dead in the Stepstones would change absolutely none of Alicent’s or Viserys’s plans for Rhaenyra’s marriage, since he had nothing to do with it. Well, per some rumors, Daemon had taken Rhaenyra’s virginity two years earlier, and Rhaenyra might have been in love with him… but neither of those points are why Alicent wanted Aegon to marry her (because she wanted him on the throne) or why Viserys didn’t (because he didn’t). Either way Viserys would never insist Rhaenyra marry Aegon.

But, per your last statement, you’re thinking that Viserys would have dropped dead on hearing the news about Daemon’s “death” (he wouldn’t). If this is prior to Rhaenyra’s marriage, say early in 113, what happens is… a very mild version of the Dance, pretty much? Although with a Rhaenyra who’s just reached adulthood and hasn’t had her reputation spoiled by having obvious bastards, and with a very underage Aegon and Aemond… so god knows what kind of support either party can get at this time. (Especially with Lyonel Strong still Hand, and Otto Hightower not near KL.) The Greens and Blacks have only been established for about 2 years, and it’s only 8 years after all the lords of Westeros swore to support Rhaenyra’s claim… so probably she becomes queen? It’s either that or Aegon gets a regency for 10 years.

Maybe, maybe for the situation you want to present, Lyonel Strong (a legal expert) convinces Rhaenyra that the best way to avoid war is for her to marry Aegon and unite the parties, with her as ruling queen until Aegon comes of age. Which she would hate, but meh. (The alternative – a Great Council reaffirming Laenor Velaryon’s right to the throne as the son of the Queen Who Never Was, and Rhaenyra marrying him, would be so vociferously protested by Alicent and the Greens, it’s just not going to happen.) Mind you, with a 16-year-old queen and her 6-year-old king husband… there’s not going to be any succession or marriage consummation for a good long while. 7, 8 years minimum. But Rhaenyra’s far more discreet in her relationship with Harwin Strong here, because while a princess having non-Targ-looking kids and claiming they’re fathered by her gay husband is one thing, a queen claiming they’re fathered by her extremely pre-teen husband is something completely other. (See Margaery and Tommen and Cersei and the whole moon tea thing.) She’s not going to get away with visibly bastard kids here, not even with a “shut your face or lose your tongue” rule, she’d end up facing Aerys-type rebellions, be deposed or executed. So Rhaenyra’s smarter than that, if she messes about with Harwin she uses moon tea, until Aegon’s old enough to consummate and conceive children… and she doesn’t pull a Cersei after that point, either.

Anyway, how long is Daemon supposed to be MIA in your scenario? Say he was imprisoned by Stepstones pirates but manages to escape 10 years along, in 123 AC… Aegon II’s a legal adult now, and he and Rhaenyra have finally had some kids, Viserys and the twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. But they’re babies, the eldest 2 years old at most. And Daemon doesn’t have any kids, Laena Velaryon’s gotten married either to that Braavosi douchebag or someone else in the meanwhile. So Daemon can’t “use” any kids against Rhaenyra and Aegon’s kids, and Rhaenyra doesn’t have any Velaryon(/Strong) kids, so I don’t know what you’re talking about? If Daemon tries to make a move against the throne to press his own claim at this point – though after being missing for 10 years, he’s not going to have any supporters at all – he’s certainly not going to do it through children.

Seriously, think about it for a minute. You can’t have Daemon disappear for a decade, Rhaenyra marry Aegon, and then say “but she was all for her Velaryon kids” because these kids and their dubious parentage don’t exist. You can’t say Daemon was for his kids with Rhaenyra because those kids don’t exist either. And if Viserys died when he heard Daemon died, then either Aegon or Rhaenyra (or both, since they’re married) has been ruling the entire time Daemon’s been gone, so as Viserys’s mere younger brother, he’s not going to have any chance at supplanting Viserys’s actual child and heir who’s had all the lords of Westeros sworn to them for 10 years! If you have an AU then the history has branched off in that direction and done all kinds of different things, you can’t bring in stuff from the original timeline again.

Still, I’ll attempt to keep trying to figure out what you’re getting at. Like, are you asking what Daemon would try to do to gain the throne if he got back from being missing and found Aegon and Rhaenyra king and queen, married with kids? (And Laena’s married off and Helaena too.) Well, I said, he’s shit outta luck. Maaaaaybe maybe maybe he might try to seduce Rhaenyra using her old fond memories, maaaaybe he might try to assassinate Aegon and then marry her? (Though he’d be better served getting rid of the Hightowers first.) But even so, Rhaenyra’s kids with Aegon are extremely visibly legitimate, and she’s not going to let her eventual kids with Daemon supplant them. And if Aegon’s been knocked off, then his and Rhaenyra’s eldest son is arguably king already, or Rhaenyra’s definitely queen. (Depending on which party’s arguing.) Daemon can just be regent for Viserys II, king in all but name, if power’s all he’s after.

But honestly, if Daemon’s been MIA for years, imprisoned by pirates, he’d be worse off than Theon-Reek, he’s not going to even want the throne, he’s just going to want to be home ffs. The scheming rogue, the Maegor-like devil of Otto Hightower’s nightmares, just wouldn’t exist anymore. So, sorry for those fantasies of a Dance of the Dragons redux, your scenario has managed to make it vanish. Hope that helps!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Ew. Never realized you took that as Viserys dying for his brother's death, neither the Daemon being imprisoned. Lol. All the contrary. Viserys dies when he hears his brother RETURNS (that is, he's not quite dead) and he knows war is coming because he allowed Rhaenyra to be married to Aegon since no other suitable line was available for Rhaenyra, so have it married and Alicent would shut her mouth in his presence. Daemon goes missing because dragonhit BUT survives and lives in wild far inland 1/2

So there are problems with living in the wild, trying not to be captured for slavery, then going to the coast and trying to get a ship, return to their supposed base or, if this army left or died out, then return to Westeros, well either way he hears news of Rhaenyra being married and having kids with Aegon, then returns immediately, Viserys hears it and die because now he knows war is inevitable, and his health is frail at this point. Of course, the timeline problems, so, IDK, just saying.

And just to be clear, my whole question was when Rhaenyra is ALREADY married to Daemon. The thing comes that Viserys allowed the marriage between his children begetting more children but then Daemon comes, so that’s the heart of the matter. The war on the Stepstones is either a second one or the first one having been to a much later date. Just that.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. your clarification makes even less sense than your original question, sorry. So, Rhaenyra marries Laenor, has kids, then marries Daemon, has kids, and then Daemon disappears? (Doing what, IDEK, there was no war at the Stepstones at that time. He didn’t go east either. Are you mixing him up with Corlys?) And then Rhaenyra marries Aegon (who didn’t marry Helaena or anyone else god knows why) despite the fact that she hated him and he hated her and Viserys absolutely refused to let them marry, and has even more kids? And then Daemon comes back and that’s when Viserys dies? What the hell?

You’re not kidding when you say this timeline has problems. And sorry, man, but if you want to do a plausible what-if, you make a change to the original timeline, a big possible change with lots of ripple effects, not a dozen wild crazy changes involving all kinds of out-of-character whackadoo to set up your whatever. Otherwise you end up with shit like this:

And look, Daemon wasn’t the reason for the Dance. The Dance happened because Viserys raised Rhaenyra as his heir and insisted she was his heir even while remarrying and having sons that by law precede her in the succession. It happened because Rhaenyra slept with her knight protector and had very obvious bastards she still claimed were her gay husband’s, and was brought up believing that royalty means you should act imperiously and have people executed when they argue with you. It happened because ambitious Alicent and her party hated Rhaenyra and raised her sons to hate her and her sons. It happened because Westeros is deeply misogynistic, because all the people in charge were fuckheads, and because of the occasional good person serving said fuckheads obeying without question. Daemon and his various roguish ambitions were just one element of many.

So, I don’t even know what you’re trying to do with the “Viserys dies because Daemon’s back and Rhaenyra’s married Aegon and this means war!” No. That’s silly. Aegon marrying Rhaenyra after she’s a grown woman (over 30) and has been married twice and has had 5 sons already (three of which he knows are bastards, who have seriously bad blood with him and his brothers) is silly, and fucking impossible. Just to “beget more children”? Why?

The only only only possible way Aegon marries Rhaenyra is per the situation I outlined before, instead of her marrying Laenor and ruining her reputation and potential with bastards, because Viserys died and he can’t object to it anymore and because someone on her side convinced her it was the best way she could be queen. Or idk, mayyybe if Alicent dies after having Aegon and can’t poison his mind against Rhaenyra (Otto Hightower drops dead too), and there’s no Greens party and someone manages to convince Viserys it’d be the best way he could ensure the heir he chose could come to the throne. But it’s definitely not happening after Rhaenyra’s been married twice already and all the history and shit that happened with that.

And even if it did (because everyone in Westeros ate bad mushrooms and went “whoopsie! let’s do all kinds of stupid crazy senseless things completely opposite to our personalities and all the political ideals we follow!”), there’s no damn reason why Daemon being suddenly back from the dead after some years MIA would mean war immediately, anyhow. Hell, if I were him, and I came back to find Aegon II and Rhaenyra snuggling away in glorious matrimony with their babies who are super-low in the succession, with Alicent and Otto and Viserys all cooing in happiness at their plans coming together, and Aemond and Daeron and Lucerys and Jacaerys and Joffrey holding hands and singing Kumbaya… I’d leave to find a maester, or maybe take some of those mushrooms myself and join in the circle, because what the fucking hell.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

As you said and I said, timeline problems LOL. By the way you say it was not worth, but the way you answer, it makes it worth, you should do a monologue! Or better, a puppet show, say, with a mummer's dragon on poles, while a crowd cheers you up? Not only the image of Fury (that already was a win) but the way you said the rest, to me, it makes it worthy, we need a laugh! The thing is, I wanted to know what would Rhaenyra do in a three sided Dance where all heirs are her blood. W/out pers. trans.

Are you suggesting I should take my show on the road?

I don’t really care for ASOIAF video blogging (imo if you can’t write down your meta you should at least provide a transcript ffs), but you might enjoy the tumblrversary video Q&A I did a few years back. I don’t remember but I might go off on a rant in there somewhere. :)

I wanted to know what would Rhaenyra do in a three sided Dance where all heirs are her blood. 

W-what… why… ummmmm… the heck? In the Dance of the Dragons all the heirs were Rhaenyra’s blood already, that’s… kind of the point. It was a Targaryen civil war between a brother and a sister. (Or to be more complete, between a woman and her allies including her sons and uncle-husband and his daughters, vs her half-brother and his full brothers and their mother and their allies.) And Rhaenyra wasn’t fighting for her heirs, she was fighting for herself, for her right to the throne over her brother Aegon’s right. And again, let me repeat, her having kids with Aegon (while already being married twice and having five sons, three of whom are not-so-secret bastards who’ve made grand enemies of Aegon and Aemond) is impossible. Im-poss-i-ble. Not going to happen. Ever.

And seriously, man… at this point all I can say is write your own damn everyone’s-on-mushrooms fanfic. Just… figure it out for yourself. So let me just leave you with this, enjoy!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Maybe you've answered this already (your backlog is huge and search only gets me so far) in which case link me up, but what do you think would have happened if Jaime and Brienne hadn't been captured en route to King's Landing? Would they have made it there before Sansa's marriage to Tyrion? How would a two-handed Jaime handle keeping his oaths and his desire to publicly marry Cersei? Would Brienne have wound up dead on suspicion of killing Renly? Or would she make it out of KL?

Generally my what-if answers are tagged what ifs, although a few particularly interesting/well-developed ones are tagged alternate histories are fun! However, I don’t believe anyone’s ever asked me this particular question before. Though if they had, I don’t think I would have had an answer, nor do I have one now, sorry. I’m afraid I just can’t see any way of working with the plot of ASOIAF with a Jaime who doesn’t have the life-changing moment of losing his hand, which leads to his bonding with Brienne, loss of being Cersei’s mirror, further rejection of being Tywin’s dutiful son, coming too late for Joff’s wedding and Sansa’s escape, etc. It’s not interesting to me, far less interesting than the actual events of the books, and the “wrong!” gong banging in my head is too loud to consider possibilities. Some fic writer might care (can’t imagine it would be a J/B one though), but I’m just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, sorry. Or maybe it should be ¯\_(ツ)_/

But @racefortheironthrone will be doing Jaime III of ASOS in a few months in his chapter-by-chapter analysis, and he always does hypotheticals, so maybe he’ll travel a bit along that path? Anyway, sorry again.