#Daemon’s Fault

[charlezarrd]

🎨💡 for both wips?

For Fourteen Souls:

🎨: What colors or textures do you associate with the wip?

I’m not really sure. It’s such an expansive story that it’s honestly hard to pin any one color to the story as a whole. But I think given some of the imagery in the early parts of the story, maybe a sandy yellow-brown would fit, I’m not sure.

💡: What inspired the wip? When/how did you first get the idea?

It’s actually a combination of a handful of ideas.

My first attempt at writing a book, inspired a bit by The Hero & The Crown by Robin McKinly, and another bit by LOOM, a LucasArts game released in 1990.

And then I decided to start designing a fighting game set in the same universe, which never really took off.

From there, I just kept adding to it until it was this massive project that… I’ll get around to one day.

For Daemon’s Fault:

🎨: What colors or textures do you associate with the wip?

Probably a greyish-blue. A lot of the story has to do with having lost something important and meaningful, so in my head there’s a lot of dreary imagery, as the main character tries desperately to reignite hope in the world, with varying degrees of success.

💡: What inspired the wip? When/how did you first get the idea?

You know? I don’t remember anymore. This was initially one of the first stories I ever wrote, and I deleted a lot of the first drafts because it’s gone through so much revision as I came back to it that it doesn’t even resemble was it used to be very much. But I don’t remember where the initial idea came to me from. Although it was just about the same time I was getting into Anime, so… Probably something along those lines.

[lady-corrine]

I do think people forget that when Rhaenyra walked the castle battlements of Duskendale weeping, refusing to eat or sleep, she was, in all the ways, heartbreakingly alone. She was a mother with five children lost, a widow too (for some reason people forget this aspect?), a dragonrider who had her dragon with whom she had shared her cradle killed (the canon literally tells us that Syrax's death left her inconsolable). It's just very interesting how for some people everyone else is allowed to suffer and their losses are blown out of proportion, but Rhaenyra isn't, and her total losses (which were devastating) are of little to no value to some.

[ride-thedragon]

Nettles and Race.

George is great at both analysing and subverting genre tropes. We see this with his portrayal of the Targaryens as bad white blonde powerful elf like people. Or his understanding consistently in his works that beauty doesn't equal morality. This is surface level, and he does have his shortcomings (how he portrays the Dothraki in a lot of aspects, etc) but I find it really interesting the amount of tropes and conventions he addresses and subverts with Nettles specifically in such a short span of the book. George uses specific racial imagery with Nettles that we don't see often from him, in short. Here's a list:

Implementation and Subversion

1. The most unlikely is, the most unlikely:

Oftentimes, in fantasy stories, the least likely is a white disenfranchised person. The majority of the time, it's because they are poor or treated poorly. Nettles is a black girl who is poor, orphaned, and marked for thieving, and none of that hinders her own feat of claiming a dragon or the accepting initially that she does. She's unlikely, extremely unlikely, the most unlikely choice.

2. Black girls are allowed to feel:

Nettles cries and grieves. Of all the dragonseeds, she's the only one positioned to feel remorse and loss after the Battle of Driftmark. She is foul-mouthed (though not written into the narrative) and fearless. Often times their is a need for black women to be strong (not have access to their emotions) or angry (the only emotion they're allowed because they're "loud"). Nettles is crass and sensitive. She's multifaceted.

3. White people don't center black narratives:

Typically, black characters in fantasy are centred around white protagonists. Nettles distinctly isn't when you focus on her. This is different from being impacted. To be impacted means you're a part of the plot. To have someone be centred in your narrative would be for your existence in the narrative to entirely depend on your relationship with them. You don't exist outside of them. Nettles does. She has an entire life up until she claims Sheepstealer without any intervention from the Targs, and after she leaves the main narrative of Fire and Blood, she has a life. This is even in a Targaryen history book.

4. Black girls deserve to be protected and loved:

Nettles is protected by the men around her in the narrative. Oftentimes, this is something not afforded to black characters, far less for black women in fantasy narratives, but she is protected. Not just by Daemon, who is someone who has extreme emotional stakes with her but by the men of Maidenpool and Lord Corlys. All of whom are white in the books. Nettles is protected by men unquestioningly. They may decide how to do it or have a bigger motive, but protecting her is never a question.

5. Promiscuity questioned:

Nettles is never shown to be a promiscuous character through an unbiased lens. Every time a person brings up Nettles' sex, it's through the lens of necessity or heavily implied to be a dramatic assumption. The two biggest cases, "her raising her skirts for sheep" by Septon Eustace is counteracted by the fact that she's marked as a thief and claims a dragon called Sheepstealer who she's likened to in the narrative and by Rhaenyra who is disproven from her "she seduced the prince with spells" theory by both the men of Maidenpool who don't believe her and Daemon who let's Nettles go. Anytime her promiscuity is presented, it's immediately questioned by who we are told she is.

6. White women tears:

Historically and in fiction, the tears of a white woman are enough to derail any existence of a black character permanently or are at least meant to. Black people, fictional or real, are consistently tormented with the notion of white woman tears or emotional outbursts. Their actions cause a major consequence with white women. With Rhaenyra, this would be Nettle slowing her head for her suspicions. Nettles does not and gets away from. The narrative. This is unheard of. In fantasy doesn't occur because most times, the black woman would be punished, but in fandom, this idea is also reflected in the call for Nettles to be replaced.

7. Relationship with the lead man:

Daemon, for better or worse, is the lead man of the dance. Nettles finds herself attached to him in a relationship that seems, for lack of a better word loving. They seem comfortable, happy, and he's doting towards her. They spend all their time together, and it's paralleled with his other 'living' relationships as well. She's portrayed as his last great love and in the universe, the singers say as much. Issues aside, this is rare. (Martha Jones, I'm sorry I wasn't your writer)

8. Power and Worship:

Nettles is worshipped and seems to become a Goddess in her own right at the end of her narrative departure. Nettles is viewed as a deity because of the power she claimed by herself. Revolutionary. Also it isn't some blink and you can avoid it thing. It ties into the main story of Game of Thrones and her clan, the Burned men helping Tyrion Lannister.

9. Mammy, Sapphire Jezabel ext:

Mammy: Maternal black woman. Lives to serve white people and nothing else.

Sapphire: Rude, loud, stubborn, malicious, 'dumb' black women, nothing else.

Jezabel: raw, sexual, can barely restrain their sexuality and live to tempt (white) men. Nothing else.

Not once does Nettles tie into any of these tropes without it being questioned in the narrative or simply ignored in her story. So many representations of black women, especially in fantasy, fall into the first two or friend not lover trope, help mate trope, etc. anything that justifies their existence by tying them to white characters with no other outlook. Nettles subverts this.

10. Season of the Witch:

Black witches and their history save me. Black witches and their history save. This aligns itself with African spiritually and the otherness assigned to enslaved women who practised both 'witchcraft' and medicinal herbology for lack of a better word.

Witchcraft is also often tied to the imagery of the irresistible black woman as it's almost inhuman to be that attracted to black women when white women are available.

So when it's said that Nettles is a witch, imagery similar to the justifications of white women during slavery are being invoked but not followed through because no one believes her.

11. Disposable Black Love interest

This is also a big issue across genres with black chapters. It happens with Laena in the show as well. When the plot calls for it (or in a lot of cases fans) you dispose of the black love interest in place of a white one. Nettles removal from the narrative immediately calls for both Daemon's and Aemond's removal from the narrative. She isn't disposable. She's a linchpin. Also, Daemon does not go back to Rhaenyra after Nettles leaves. He just dies.

12. Nothing Special:

Magical black negros that helps the protagonist, welcome to your tape.

The magical black negros trope is this convention within fantasy where a black character will appear only to be an aid to a white character by their use of magic. They don't exist or have a life outside this purpose. Nettles could've fallen into this trap.

The idea that she isn't Valyrian could have easily been tied with the spells angle outside Rhaenyra’s bias. Instead of that, however, we get the idea that Nettles is just smart and interesting. She's allowed to be smart and interesting. The narrative defends her being smart and interesting.

She might not be Valyrian. She might not be a witch or seductress. She might be just a really clever girl who defies the odds and conventions.

Conclusion

I think Nettles was both an active effort on George's part to defy conventions and subevert stereotypes and tropes as well as a way to question his reader's bias. Nettles is often reduced to trivial, replaceable, and minor when she's not. You just have to want to pay attention to her.

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

Scrolling through the “anti Viserys I” tag is something that can be so personal and beautiful

[aurabora]

is it safe to point out that alicent is the luckiest woman in westeros for marrying viserys based off the same westerosi norms and culture that greenies cling onto to declare aegon has to be king simply because he has a cock and rhaenyra doesn’t and it’s for the stability of the realm?

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Challenge: Aegon had to be King for his own survival. Rhaenyra would have killed him. And Alicent. Maybe not Helaena. DEFINITELY Aemond. He was protecting himself. AND he offered her the chance to p much keep living her life in peace.

Rebuttal: We have absolutely no evidence of this short of Otto's claims. And Otto is lying.

He saw firsthand what happened when a member of Rhaenyra's family tried to steal her inheritance. When Daemon occupied Dragonstone and declared himself Viserys' heir, did Rhaenyra resort to bloodshed? Did she use this as an excuse to try and kill Daemon? No. She called his bluff. She invited him to strike first. So when Otto tells Alicent that Rhaenyra will have "no choice" but to put her brothers to the sword, either he is suffering from memory loss, or he's lying through his teeth. He should know better than anyone that Rhaenyra is no kinslayer.

Here's the real truth. Otto realized that he couldn't control Rhaenyra. That she would not accept her position being taken away without a fight. He saw how easily she won over Daemon, how alike the two of them were. Just look at Otto's expression when Rhaenyra is flying away. He's realized that if it came to a fight with Rhaenyra, she'd have Daemon backing her. And that terrified him.

The story that Rhaenyra would preemptively murder her brothers to prevent any challenges to her claim is just that, a story. Otto uses it as justification for his plot to reject the succession. During the Green Council, he tries to have Rhaenyra and Daemon murdered so they won't challenge Aegon - exactly what he claimed Rhaenyra would do. Realistically, why would she ever do this in the first place? If she murdered her own brothers without any provocation, she would look like a tyrant. All the lords actually on her side would abandon her. Rhaenyra doesn't have a reason to harm Aegon unless he gives her one, and it's clear as day that he wouldn't do so on his own. She'd likewise have zero reason to hurt Helaena or Alicent. They have no real power. I suppose Aemond might be a problem, but again, only if he initiates. Rhaenyra isn't going to pick a fight with him.

The terms offered to Rhaenyra in 1X10 are, frankly, a complete joke. They offer her Dragonstone...which she already has. She's been living there, and now that she's queen, the castle belongs to Jace. They offer to re-confirm Luke as heir to Driftmark...even though he was already re-confirmed, just two days ago. Not to mention that Corlys survived, so the Crown really doesn't have jurisdiction over that anymore. Corlys will always choose Luke. Oh, and they offer to take her two youngest children as hostages. Sure, they don't call it that, but Rhaenyra's no fool, and it's plain as day that they would be hostages. Perhaps treated as guests, but taken for no other reason than to keep Rhaenyra in line. She's the rightful Queen, why should she entertain such nonsense? Oh, and they offer to spare any Lords who "conspired" against Aegon's ascent. Even though the story of Viserys "changing his mind" isn't well known, and these Lords would have simply been following the succession as they knew it to be. Get real.

Finally, Aegon acting in self-defense based on what he was told might have been his motive in the book. But in the show, it's very clearly a case of enjoying the attention. He feels validated and seen by the crowd. It's the first time he is actually shown to enjoy being King and maybe even start to want it.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

What do you think of Rhaenyra and Aegon's relationship before the dance? Aegon refused to usurp rhaenyra bc she was his sister but what of Rhaenyra's feelings about him ? Do you think she ever looked upon him as her brother instead of her rival ? at least when they were young?

Hi anon, this is a good question!

I feel like book!Rhaenyra was pretty hostile towards her younger siblings as a teenager, and settled into ambivalence as an adult. Rhaenyra was ten years older than Aegon, which meant that by the time he was old enough to really interact with, she would have already been fifteen or so. There's a line in the book about how when Daemon came back to court, when Rhaenyra was fourteen, one of the things they would do was sit around mocking Alicent and the people she surrounded herself with. Alicent generally gets the blame in the show fandom for "poisoning" her kids against Rhaenyra and her children, but I think in book canon a lot of it was initially driven by Daemon. He was the cool older dragonriding uncle with a bit of a bad boy reputation, and he swooped in and started paying attention to her, lavishing her with gifts, taking her out for dragon rides, telling her how pretty she is, and making her feel wittier and more popular than the queen by making her the butt of their jokes. Daemon was said to be "noticeably cool" towards Aegon and Aemond, and you can bet teenage Rhaenyra with a bit of a crush on cool uncle Daemon is going to follow that lead. And even if Daemon and Rhaenyra didn't directly include Aegon and his siblings in their mockery, how do you really develop a relationship with kids when one of your favorite hobbies is hating on their mom and her friends? It's not like modern day, where Rhaenyra would maybe get babysitting duty or have to drop them off and pick them up at school, and maybe would develop a relationship with them independent from her relationship with Alicent. In the Red Keep, they'd have their own separate lives. It's interesting that at this point, even Alicent saw their poor sibling relationship as a problem that needed solving, saying the fact that Aegon and Rhaenyra didn't get along was all the more reason to bind them together in marriage. Of course, that doesn't happen, and eventually Rhaenyra starts spending more time at Dragonstone before moving there completely, and they just don't seem to have much to do with each other after that.

As for book!Aegon refusing to usurp his sister, I think it speaks more to his values and his personality than it does to his personal relationship with Rhaenyra, which I think was at best pretty ambivalent on his end too (although we aren't really told how he felt about it, it couldn't have felt great as a little kid to have your older sister and your uncle talking constant shit about you and your mom). He wasn't ambitious or power hungry, and if you lack those qualities, why would you want to be king? What would you get from kingship that you couldn't get from being a prince except a lifelong headache? I think as far as Aegon is concerned, it was more like, hey, if she wants to be queen that much, let her and I'll just keep partying on. But the argument that is ultimately used to convince him is a valid one from his perspective too. They didn't actually have the kind of family relationship that would make him feel comfortable trusting his life, and the lives of his siblings and kids, in the hands of Rhaenyra, her husband, and her children.

[rhaeisthequeen]

PeoplewhohatebookDaemondon'tunderstandalittlethingcalledslanderandbiasinanhistoricalcontext pass it on.

[mmelolabelle]

I love and adore Alicent Hightower but baby, “My son has lost an eye…Over an insult? 🥺🥺”

sweetie you have been trying to leverage one of your culture’s greatest, most shameful taboos with anyone who will listen to get your ex crush/bff and her (v likely illegitimate tbf) sons disinherited for nearly ten years??

Now all of a sudden questioning someone’s legitimacy is nbd? Just ‘an insult’? Really? You’ve just been in a silly goofy mood for ten years? Bit of harmless name-calling was it?

Obviously a kids’ fight should never have escalated to someone losing an eye, because the children had no business being party to whatever political nonsense/family drama was going on. But the boys coming to blows over this was fairly predictable, especially as they got older. Babe, you actively chose to alienate your sons from their nephews in that way when you live in a culture where duels to the literal death over offended honour is a thing??? Where trial-by-combat is a 100% legit legal tactic?

Driftmark witnessed some truly audacious attempts at gaslighting that night but ALICENT REALLY

tl;dr Alicent lit the fuse on the Hightower v Velaryon/Strong kids conflict, she just didn’t intend for that particular bomb to go off so soon, or think that it would blow up in her son’s faces (much less that uh…literally)

[ladyalicentshightower]

I think people overestimate how feminist team black is. If someone brings up how Baela should be the heir to Driftmark, it's always "she would've been Queen if not for the Greens!", ignoring that 1, she would be Queen consort, not a Queen in her own right, and 2 she has a legitimate claim in her own right to Driftmark. Team Black's goal is to crown Rhaenyra, but Rhaenyra becoming Queen isn't a win for feminism because it does nothing to dismantle the rest of the patriarchal system that exists in Westeros. From what we've gotten so far, it reads that Rhaenyra wants to be the exception and not the rule. Rhaenyra has made a lot of bad political decisions, which means she can't acknowledge Baela's claim because it would weaken her own claim (blatantly admitting her eldest sons are illegitimate would not end well for her to say the least). So she betrothes Jace and Luke to Baela and Rhaena to kind of atone for that, like as a consolation prize Baela will be Queen and Rhaena will be lady of Driftmark, neither of them would hold either title in their own right. It's good matches because the kids like each other and will treat each other well, but it's not a feminist win or a feministic liberation. It's usurpation, usurpation that takes place because Rhaenyra has to do damage control after having illegitimate children and after a serious of bad political decisions (both hers and her fathers, Viserys is the arbiter of this entire mess). To me, Rhaenyra is very reminiscent of Mary Queen of Scots, I can see a lot of elements drawn from Mary's history in Rhaenyra's story and character, down to their sons eventually taking the crown they failed to claim/keep.

[asharaxofstarfall]

“alicent is a trump wife” rhaenyra has a cop for a husband

[confusedismymiddlename]

I hate that Viserys doesn't realise his brother actually loves and cares about him a lot

[thewitchqueenofharrenhal]

If people were willing to engage with the dynamics at play between HOTD Criston & Rhaenyra they’d find the inevitable conflict between them all that much more interesting but people just want to cry incel.

[ride-thedragon]

Aemond claiming Vhagar gets a little more layered when you realise that her and Caraxes are the only dragons those girls have known properly when it comes to dragon bonds. Like Baela has moondancer, but Rhaena specifically is being ignored by her father for the most part because if she didn't hatch a dragon egg, that means she could claim a dragon which would mean going back to Westeros.

Which is something he's clearly avoiding. Laena has to comfort her saying there are many ways to claim a dragon because Rhaena thinks they'll abandon her for not having one.

So when the dragon her mother has had her entire life is 'stolen', the exact meaning is that that was her mother's dragon, she doesn't have the understanding that Aemond does of going to the dragonpit and looking for dragons to claim.

To her, Vhagar was a family dragon, her family specifically, and the best chance she would have to claim one like her mom said.

Again, her dad ignores her and makes it seem like there's some hierarchy when it comes to hatching dragons and claiming them and not hatching them at all simply because he doesn't want to go back. He doesn't want to help her claim a dragon in King's Landing because he's a selfish bitch.

Aemond does not see it that way because of a similar inferiority complex, that the world's largest dragon could help absolve, and because he has the understanding that dragons aren't inherited. He is also aware that he's at a funeral and that the reason Vhagar is unclaimed is that Rhaena is mourning her recently dead mother.

I think my point is to blame Daemon and Viserys for being evil little men really and giving their kids or facilitating environments where their kids feel inferior based on their own targeted perceptions based on nothing over dragons and dragon bonds. They are responsible.

[maximofftwinsbitch]

im not team black, team green, team targ or team any noble house. i'm team leave the kids & small folk out of this jfc

[kingcunny]

I think rhaenyra and criston cole relationship is meant to be like lolita. Rhaenyra and Dolores are both victims of these men's fantasies, in the minds of Criston cole and Humbert, the girls are the seducers.

What do you think?

i know basically about lolita but i havent read it myself so i cant really make any comparisons between them. but i do think criston blames rhaenyra for *whatever* (depending on whos versions of events you believe) happened between them

ill admit this is kinda a hard question for me to answer. so much of my thoughts about rhaenyras sexual abuse is based on my own experiences, which i dont necessarily mind talking about, but im not sure if i should be trauma dumping on a fandom blog lol.

criston had become rhaenyras sworn protector when she was 7, (hes 23) she had an obvious crush on him, literally calling him her “white knight”. this is fine. kids do this. the problem is it seems criston indulges this crush. to the point that even alicent brings it up - “ser criston protects the princess from her enemies, but who protects the princess from ser criston?”.

(like sure devils advocate you could read this as alicent slutshaming rhaenyra or -as i do- as criston having an inappropriately close relationship with rhaenyra)

i imagine rhaenyra was very sexualized as a child, as girls often are. especially being a princess. “the realms delight” the constant mentioning of her beauty and marriage proposals. being groomed by her uncle*. one way to cope with this sexualization is to ‘own’ it. for rhaenyra to start acting out sexually herself.

(*devils advocate again, ‘daemon was just being a good uncle spoiling his neice!’ he eventually gets married to her making all his interactions with her as a child suspicious)

children exploring their sexuality is normal and healthy, the problem arises when there are adults around taking advantage of that curiosity. which is exactly what daemon and criston did.

rhaenyra wouldve been around 14 when that first *something* happened. (16 when something happens again between criston and rhaenyra, causing him to turn on her) my own belief being that daemon molested her and criston statutory rapes her. i think rhaenyra even initiated these things. no one involved thinks they did anything wrong. rhaenyra *wanted* this. but shes still a child, and doesnt understand the consequences of what shes asking for. but her *sworn protector* should have.

criston blames rhaenyra for ‘seducing’ him and ‘making’ him break his vows, and then resents her for rejecting him.