#c: Lyanna

[ladystoneboobs]

ya ever think about how the lannister sibs all have big secrets kept from each other, like huge life-altering experiences? jaime's is the most obvious, the most talked-about, with the full story of his kingslaying and everything he endured from aerys leading up to it. it's clear enough to me that brienne was the first he opened up to about that, including either sibling. they never asked, but unlike ned stark and the rest deriding him as kingslayer, their lack of curiosity is no offense in itself bc as tywin's other children they would never judge him for turning his cloak purely out of family loyalty. ned's assumption of jaime's motives is directly tied to his judgment of jaime, but it's the judgment that rankles jaime so. choosing your father's life over a king's is hardly the worst crime in itself. how can he explain all the other reasons without prompting when its not just about his crime but all his trauma too? is there any basis for that in his relationship with cersei, who always relied on him for comfort and consolation but seems less adept at providing the same to him? or even with tyrion, his only real male friend for years, but also his baby brother, the one he was meant to protect and take care of, who was only 10 at the time of the kingslaying? even to fully share all with tyrion years later, both adults, could be something of a role reversal, forever shattering tyrion's image of him as the strong invulnerable golden big brother by revealing his own broken inner child. jaime can't break out from those sibling roles and patterns, so neither can ever understand that part of him, never knowing the early life he had at court without either of them with him.

and tyrion, who trusted jaime more than anyone in the world before learning the truth about tysha, still could not confide in him freely even when all that trust was still intact. jaime must have heard some story of what tywin did to tysha to feel the need to confess his lie, but he def didn't hear it straight from tyrion bc imo there's no way he could still think confessing would help anything if he understood how scarred tyrion was by what he witnessed and esp not knowing that tywin ordered him to participate at the end. tyrion could reveal all that to bronn when they barely knew each other but not to his beloved brother, his first and best friend. how can the most abused child explain all his unknown abuse to the golden child, the big brother meant to protect him who couldn't always do so? how does he even begin to reveal the deepest trauma that happened to him when jaime wasn't in the room, esp when the story does start with jaime apparently trying to help him by fixing him up with tysha?

and then there's cersei and all her secrets. she always turned to jaime for consolation, or at least when he knew she needed it, but how many times did he not know? how personally could she confide in him as they grew older and their paths diverged? we know the first big secret was maggy the frog's prophecy, her first big scare, which came on the cusp of puberty, an experience she couldn't share with her twin bc he would prob just laugh and make a joke of it. in their first real scene together, in bran's pov, he mocks lysa's motherly fears and likens her to cersei. ("I think birthing does something to your minds. You are all mad." He laughed.) then he makes light of her marital discord, ("And whose fault is that, sweet sister?"), having no idea of the depth of pain she'd suffered from robert, beyond his infidelities. he later blames her for being robert's queen, not his, only thinking of how she managed to arrange his kg post, that power to forever tie him to her in secret, never grasping her lack of control in marriage, that "a queen is only a woman after all". in her pride it was hard to reveal all she'd suffered as a woman, but she also couldn't rely on jaime's response if he knew of her abuse, knowing he would kill robert and get himself killed too, only making her and their children's lives more precarious. she couldn't trust him to listen about securing the throne before dealing with robert or that as robert's victim it was her right to decide such matters, to choose his fate, not jaime's place to avenge her without her say-so first. all bc they were both too stuck in their idea of jaime as her sword, nothing more, with jaime determined to protect her and tyrion, always a bodyguard before he ever donned a white cloak.

something something tywin did his best to play his children off each other and the most effective thing he did to divide them was by setting jaime up as the golden child and family protector. the designated lannister sword only pointing at threats outside their house. a knight serving his family whose protection was always limited, who could never protect them from the person who first hurt cersei and tyrion and made them who they were at a distance from him, bc ofc he couldn't fight his own father, much less slay him with a sword.

something something maybe the reason that joff+marg+loras was a surer recipe for kingslayer stew than robert+cersei+jaime is all down to that tyrell lack of abusive structure. not that loras cared more about marg, was more willing to kill for her than jaime was to kill robert, but that there wasn't a chance of marg hiding her misery from him if/when her husband abused her in their shared household. it's not like he understood her to the point of mind-reading but when their previous royal marital household involved her bearding for his boyfriend then they prob had a pretty good basis of open communication. in that sense, the lannicest twins with all their sexual and physical intimacy still had less emotional intimacy than the tyrell queen and her kg brother.

[arthmis]

i'm currently reading asoiaf so. medieval fantasy people as i've been imagining them :-)

[rhaegxr]

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐭: 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚑𝚊𝚕

Maybe it was all for naught. 

The moving of the pawns from the shadows, writing letters in the dimly lit corner of his chambers, risking the lives of those who believed in him to do what was best by carrying out shady schemes. Even Elia, his ever gracious wife, summoned an entire retinue of ladies to attend her, in the hidden intent of assisting her husband in his plans. It was hard to stop his heart from dropping in hopelessness when the rumors of the King’s presence in Harrenhal became a reality. It wasn’t hard to surmise who was whispering in his royal sire’s ear, fueling the man’s fear of enemies and betrayal; proving that all efforts to remain inconspicuous were in vain. 

It meant not that all was lost nor that those plans were thwarted for certain. The prince might yet rally the support of the noble families in other ways, for when the time of changes is upon them. 

The eve prior to their departure, Rhaegar visited the bed of the Martell princess, where they would whisper of what was to come in the following weeks. Both were reluctant to leave behind their daughter, sharing in how they would miss her bright smile and sweet laughter as she wobbled along the halls of Dragonstone.

Although Elia was eager for the journey and the tourney’s grandeur, the crown prince was less so. Harrenhal was a place of ghosts. It was there that Aegon unleashed the destructive fury of the Black Dread’s fire, engulfing those inside in a fiery death. The place which was meant to protect them became their grave. He’s seen ghosts, heard them in Summerhall, their whispers haunting his dreams. And yet he’s seldom felt such solace elsewhere that was not in the ruins of his birthplace, under the open blanket of a starry night sky. Being surrounded by the shadow of grief strangely brought him peace. How he longed for those nights of lone escape. 

Even from a distance, the melted, black towers of Harrenhal inspired a kind of awe that was close to unnerving. The more they approached its gates, the busier the road with all those who would attend the tourney. They stared when the royal procession passed by, the banners of House Targaryen proudly waving in the wind, but they cheered and bowed as Rhaegar’s steed galloped along. The dragon prince smiled and nodded, lifting a hand in every now and then in greeting. 

The grounds around Harrenhall were filled with colorful pavilions, making the heir wonder how they would look from above on the back of a dragon. He would sometimes dream of it—Flying on dragon back and leaving the world behind. Often enough, it felt like he was the dragon. 

After his own pavilion and those of his wife and her ladies were standing, refreshments were fetched, but he did not remain long. Arthur Dayne, Knight of the Kingsguard and his closest friend, accompanied the prince on a stroll around the grounds, greeting a few of the lords and their families. But not long after, a commotion commanded the attention of those closeby, including Rhaegar’s, who followed towards the source.

What he saw was certainly unexpected and for reasons he was yet to understand, it would not easily forsake his thoughts.

[lyannatropes]

Herald of the end

[notenoughmuses]

@inspireswar

Daemon knew they needed more support from more Houses and he had to remind the North what they reap from siding with the Blacks. He accompanied his son Jace to the North and treated with Cregan Stark, it was supposed to be that simple. But Daemon didn’t think his near six and ten year old son could make such an alliance and came on Caraxes. He also didn’t plan on seeing a woman that was in host of Cregan Stark and fall for her like he did on first sight. He was married to Rhaenyra yes, but, he wasn’t sure how much longer things would last. How long their marriage or lives would last. He could have some fun couldn’t he? After all, she knew about Nettles, what would another lover be to the to be Queen?

While his son and the Lord Stark spoke of formalities, Daemon interjected every now and then and Cregan than brought them to the great hall, a banquet for the Targaryens was bountiful and Daemon kept eyeing the Northern beauty and walked up to her, bold as his drink had hit his system finally. “Good evening, my good lady.” He greeted, a bit to formal at first as he tried to assess her rank or who she was in general. “How has this feast treated you?”

[firebloodicee]

Starter Call ! From Lyanna Stark ;

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

People in the ASOIAF fandom are very obsessed with passive women they can project onto. The obsessions with the characters of show!Alicent, Sansa, Elia, and Helaena are perfect examples of this.

In the show, Alicent is changed from a woman who actively seeks power and heads the scheming of the green faction into a passive victim who watches and reacts to the men around her. And yet, despite this being a much more boring characterization, the show version is vastly more preferred by her stans. They condemn her book character as simply an "evil stepmother trope" while completely ignoring how their fav is just as blank and tropey as they accuse her book counterpart to be. Alicent stans want her to be the show's blank victimized canvas.

Helaena is someone who the show changed very little in the adaptation, because both book and show Helaena have little impact on the plot other than to be victims of their surroundings. Both women are forced to marry Aegon at thirteen and have his children, go through B&C, and are the least active members of the green faction. The show only added elements to make her more tragic: her dreaming and autistic behaviors. Helaena's character makes her the perfect canvas for certain fans to project themselves onto as she simply exists to be victimized and play the dutiful wife/daughter despite her circumstances, just like the show version of her mother.

Elia Martell is a woman who we know very little about. She died thirteen years before the events of ASOIAF and, unlike characters like Rhaegar and Lyanna, she has no pov characters who think about her enough for us to learn anything about her. The only things we know are that she was loved by her family, was in an arranged marriage to Rhaegar, had his two (confirmed) children, and was brutally raped and murdered by Lannister men. She is an unknown character and, again unlike Rhaegar and Lyanna, has no known active role in the events surrounding the Rebellion. Because of these things, she is, again, the perfect blank canvas for people to project on.

Sansa is, despite being a prominent pov character in ASOIAF, a very passive character. She rarely takes action in her circumstances and simply reacts to them while trying to survive. There's nothing wrong with this, she's a young girl who has never had to fight for anything in her life, it's not unexpected or condemnable for her reaction to her circumstances to be this way. However, her passivity is something her stans obsess over. She is praised for being the "perfect lady" and they project their desires to see her rule onto her and how they view her story.

These women have been chosen by these fans because of their passivity and tragedy. They love that the women have suffered in the name of the "duty" they believe is higher than them. Because they love passivity, they hate the women of ASOIAF who are active in their own lives and fight to better their circumstances. Characters like Rhaenyra, Arya, Daenerys, and Lyanna are all massive influences on the world and purposely chose to challenge the patriarchy. Since they did not take their suffering silently, theses certain fans view them as wrong and hate them. They only love the women they can project on and who simply refuse to fight for better lives.

[nrilliree]

Hot take for some but Aegon II is as dog shit if not even worse of a father than Viserys. The fandom can try to retcon him into this doting daddy or “girl dad” fantasy but reality is he was awful to and responsible for the suffering of both his true born and bastard children. A loving father doesn’t let his children have their teeth filed to points and fight tooth and nail in Flea Bottom. A caring and protective father would have his children taken to a safe haven BEFORE his brother basically opened the door to indiscriminate bloodshed and certainly would have AFTER that danger arose. A father who truly wanted the best for his wife and children would have had a member of King’s guard protecting Helaena and the children at all times. Incase he forgot, the reason Aemond lost his eye was because all the adults were asleep at the wheel and left the kids unwatched and unguarded. So he never learned a single lesson from his father if anything he’s a mirror of Viserys in terms of complacence. Aegon only seems to show any interest in his kids (whom he constantly abandoned to go watch bastards fight to the death and hang out in brothels) after they were endangered. Que the Tony Stark “we’re the Avengers not the Pre-vengers right?” monologue.

I’m not denying that the death of Jaehaerys changes the way Aegon treats his family but it’s really so insincere for anyone regardless of team to act as if Aegon was motivated to be a good father at any point up to B&C. The fact of the matter is it was too little too late by the time he decided to care and take up the position of a “protector of his family” like the showrunners are trying to retcon. We saw who he was. He isn’t a cute sweet “girl dad” - he’s a misogynistic drunken rapist. He isn’t a “protective father” he literally left his children and wife under protected both before and after the death of Lucerys and was arrogant to think they were safe in King’s Landing. He never cared about his children until a true born son died, because he let his own bastards be abused for sport and celebrated “bastard blood spilled at war” - I mean the sheer fuckin hubris.

Now obviously the death of Lucerys and Jaehaerys were devastating but they were preventable tragedies on Aegon’s part. He was an even shittier father than Viserys and the stans can try to argue it but the facts are plain as day.

Even when discussing Rhaegar’s role in the death of Elia and his children it’s clear the Martell’s rightly place the blame on Tywin Lannister, because that’s who ultimately is responsible for their deaths. Rhaegar was also aware his father wanted them and Jaime Lannister as hostages effectively and since Aerys was the King, Rhaegar had little ability to rescue his wife and children (even if there was someone who smuggled baby Aegon out that would have been the most anyone could do). He did leave Lyanna guarded by two of the best swordsman of his age. Unlike Rhaegar tho, Aegon IS the King and the white cloaks do what HE commands. They could have flown Helaena and the kids to Oldtown where Daeron would be to protect them along with a Hightower host of guards. (If Daeron is even going to be acknowledged by the show). Aegon is responsible for both Lucerys and the resulting revenge of Blood and Cheese I wish the audience saw that more clearly.

Exactly. It's sick and incomprehensible to me that people blame Rhaenyra for Lucerys' death (!) or Lucerys for his own death (!!) just to justify the actions of Aemond and Aegon.

Lucerys was 13/14 years old when he was murdered by his 19-year-old uncle. Yes, murdered. He didn't "die by accident", but was murdered because Aemond killed him the moment he decided to chase him and set Vhagar on him. The fact that at some point Aemond realized that he screwed up and tried (very clumsily) to stop Vhagar doesn't change anything, because it's like he was trying to stop the bullet he shot at Lucerys because he was "just having fun". It was Aemond's fault and Aemond's fault alone, not Rhaenyra's or Aegon's.

Aemond flew to Storms End as Aegon's emissary. As his messenger who carries Aegon's words. And then he murdered Lucerys. And when he returned, Aegon threw a party. So from the outside it looked like Aegon was responsible for Lucerys' death by Aemond's hands.

And Aemond actions is the cause of Jaehaerys' death. Daemon sent assassins, Mysaria hired them, B&C carried out the sentence, but Aemond and Aegon were the cause. They simply did not think about the consequences of their choices once again. Aegon raped girls and… And what? And nothing. He could do whatever he wanted because his mother would always protect him. Mom won't punish him, but she will put him on the throne. And once he was on that throne, he didn't think about any consequences of what he was doing. After all, what bad thing could happen? His mother could do whatever she wanted - torment Rhaenyra, plot against her and Viserys, openly plan a coup and usurpation, and… nothing happened to her either. So why would Aegon somehow suffer for his choices? When Aemond murdered their nephew, Aegon had no idea of ​​the gravity of the situation at all. Even political. When you usurped your sister's throne and caused her to have a miscarriage, and your brother, being your messenger, killed her son - well, the last thing you do is throw a party. His mother told him all his life that Rhaenyra was a threat to him, that she and Daemon would murder their entire family for the throne… So why are he celebrating the death of her son?! Aegon openly laughed in her and Daemon's face, while not understanding the seriousness of the situation. He himself wanted to run away before the coronation because he was "scared", but he didn't even think for a moment about putting Helaena and the children on the ship so that they would be safe.

[atopvisenyashill]

THE PACT OF ICE AND FIRE

so there's an aspect of this one i don't think has really been delved into that I think may be important when it comes to canon jonsa and I wanted to do my own lil analysis, along with maybe some tin hatting at the end here.

this is what the pact is (or what we know of it at any rate, Munkun is not exactly a good source of information):

Cregan Stark and Jacaerys Velaryon reached an accord, and signed and sealed the agreement that Grand Maester Munkun calls “the Pact of Ice and Fire” in his True Telling. Like many such pacts, it was to be sealed with a marriage. Lord Cregan’s son, Rickon, was a year old. Prince Jacaerys was as yet unmarried and childless, but it was assumed that he would sire children of his own once his mother sat the Iron Throne. Under the terms of the pact, the prince’s firstborn daughter would be sent north at the age of seven, to be fostered at Winterfell until such time as she was old enough to marry Lord Cregan’s heir.

There's two parts to this that I think are important here. Here is the first, which is the basics of the pact, and that most Jonsas are familiar with:

Jacaery's First Born Daughter Is Fostered At Winterfell -> She will marry Cregan's first born son and heir.

Obviously, this never happened for several reasons and the pact is forgotten but perhaps it will be fulfilled anyway by...

Jon, a secret Targaryen bastard, is "fostered" at Winterfell -> he will fulfill the pact by marrying a Stark Maiden aka Sansa.

Basically, it's a genderswapped version of what the pact entails. I think given George's fondness for how Tolkien was a hater of Macbeth because he thought the "no man of woman born" should have indicated a girl and not just a man born via c-section, I think the genderswap aspect fits George's style.

The second part however, has more to do with Jacaerys and Sara and I feel like it's glossed over a bit. See here:

They had spoken their vows in Winterfell’s own godswood before a heart tree, and only then had she given herself to him, wrapped in furs amidst the snows as the old gods looked on.

Jacaerys, a "secret" Targaryen bastard who gets his family name and allegiances through his mother, not his father -> Rumors of a secret marriage in front of a Weirwood with a Stark bastard, Sara

Listen. It doesn't matter whether Sara Snow is real, you believe whatever makes you happy! But what IS real and relevant is that this part was included in F&B for a reason, and is indicated to be the catalyst for the pact. Jace and Sara get secret married in front of a Weirwood, and this is what calms down Cregan so they can make their pact. And here is how (I believe) it applies to Jonsa:

Jon, a secret Targaryen bastard, but who gets his look and his allegiance not through his father but Lyanna's blood -> Jon, a Stark bastard, will marry an Heir in secret in front of a Weirwood tree.

THAT is, imo, the most important aspect of this scandalous story from Mushroom - that a secret bastard, a targaryen and a stark, secretly marry in front of a Weirwood tree just before a bloody war kicks off. People tend to make Sansa the Sara in this part, which is valid, but I think Sansa's role in this is not just to be the pretty Stark maiden, but to be the HEIR that is secretly marrying for love, like Jacaerys is, and that Jon's role will be about his status as a bastard, so that both parts kind of apply to both characters. And given that, if Jace and Sara had married, their daughter would have been a Starkgaryen with "secret" bastard heritage (from both her parents), marrying a Stark Heir, it does make sense (at least in my mind) that this may apply to Jon and Sansa's future plot. the That's something I touched on here in my "what will Jon's endgame" post.

Then there's the Vermax of it all...

Mushroom also claims that Vermax left a clutch of dragon’s eggs at Winterfell, which is equally absurd. Whilst it is true that determining the sex of a living dragon is a nigh on impossible task, no other source mentions Vermax producing so much as a single egg, so it must be assumed that he was male. Septon Barth’s speculation that the dragons change sex at need, being “as mutable as flame,” is too ludicrous to consider.)

This brought to mind the ole' Jonnel and Sansa (the first) thing - beyond the J&S similarities (Jacaerys & Sara, Jon & Sansa, Jonnel & Sansa), I think it's also important that Jonnel and Sansa never have any children, though they're married for several years. Jacaerys and Sara also never have children, yet there's the rumor Vermax laid eggs in the crypt, with some believing this may have meant Sara was pregnant (but perhaps miscarried) when Jacaerys left. I think however, the fact that both J&S couples kind of mysteriously do not have children of their own, and that their Houses descend from someone else to be important.

I've kind of briefly gone into the idea that Bran rules in a parliamentary style over (what's left of) Westeros, and while I'm not too committed one way or the other on whether he physically has children or whether they elect the ruler on the Iron Throne more often starting from Bran, the succession is significantly less of an issue because of the permanent Great Council/Parliament that will exist. Sansa (and Jon, for that matter), however, is the heiress to a long line of kings and lords and needs some sort of heir. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibililty that while in the Vale, she connects with some of Jocelyn Stark's descendants (the famous "Vale cousins" that Catelyn mentions as heirs for Robb) and makes one of them her heir, or even names the children of Arya her heir, and pulls a Queen Elizabeth, but then I thought of Vermax laying dragon eggs that are never found, and Jonnel and Sansa never having children, and George's love of threes and thought...perhaps Jon and Sansa will have an heir, but Sansa can't claim the child as hers.

In that same vein, it’s noteworthy to me as well that Serena and Edric (Sansa's younger sister and Jonnel's younger brother) have TWO sons but the line completely bypasses them. We have no idea how the Northerners felt about these marriages beyond the fact that they didn't like Lynara's sons because their rules were plagued by troubles. Is it possible that they chose to bypass Edric's sons because of the incest, and Sansa/Jon may be forced to reconcile with how the realm views him (as Ned's son) and what he actually is (Lyanna's son) when it comes to the line of succession? IE - Vermax is rumored to lay an egg in the crypts but no one ever finds out, Sansa is rumored to have have had a child with her “brother” but no one ever finds out the truth.

TO SUM UP: I think the Pact of Ice and Fire is a hint that Jon and Sansa will secretly marry in the godswood of Winterfell, and it's likely that when Sansa is named Queen in the North, her heir will be "fathered by a wolf" or a "wildling" and she and Jon won't be able to tell anyone that Jon is the father.

[ladystoneboobs]

no of fence to jon snow fans who for some reason care about his exact age, but these discussions just annoy me no end. not only bc there's no way any weirwood flashbacks bran has to rhaegar/lyanna will come with time/datestamps, but also bc there's always comments like this:

SEVERAL turns of the moon (ie, months)?! have these people never seen a human baby before or just have no concept of their ages? even if we take into account travel time from the toj to wf, meaning jon was not a newborn too fresh out the oven when catelyn and robb arrived, there's still a difference between a newborn and a 3mo and an even bigger difference between those infants and an older baby 5-7mo. there's very good reasons these lines were cut. whatever birthdates can be worked out internally for jon and robb from when they're first mentioned as 15 and 16 don't matter in the end, bc grrm doesn't care about a consistent timeline and the actual text of catelyn's pov and ned's convo with robert about cheating on her should outweigh any guesstimates about jon's official nameday wrt robb's. catelyn may not have cared for jon, but she would sure as hell have noticed his nameday if it came before robb's and made him ned's firstborn. if jon's birthday canonically came before robb's then either ned's cover story would not involve adultery (not impossible for him to sire a bastard before his wedding), or he'd just give jon a new nameday along with his new name to fit the adultery lie. it makes no sense for him to lie about one and not the other, undermining the big lie with a little public clue of his story not adding up. whatever else she was as a stepmother, cat wasn't stupid and a bastard who was actually the eldest son being raised alongside her trueborn heir could be an even bigger insult than whether he was born of adultery or not.

BUT, the unknowability of jon's true birthday is not the only reason this annoys me, it's bc this is all based on the assumption that jon must be older since rhaegar/lyanna ran off together before ned married cat, as if both boys must have been conceived asap as robb canonically was when his parents consummated their marriage. and that's not how human reproduction works! even if you don't understand how fast babies grow in the first year, you should know that people who get pregnant do so through ovulation cycles and a lucky sperm finding an egg and all that, not just immediately getting knocked up as soon as one has p-in-v sex for the first time. not unless you only know mean girls sex ed where if you have sex you will get pregnant and die. (even tho lyanna did die, there's plenty of canon examples where pregnancy did not lead straight to death. also examples of people who did not get pregnant right away and even some who are/were sexually active and childless without always having moon tea on hand.) we can't know how long lyanna was having sex before that sperm+egg match happened or even how long she was with rhaegar before losing her technical virginity. if they were married, doesn't it make sense to think they didn't consummate their relationship until the wedding night either? that's the only leverage there is to ensure a status as wife rather than just mistress.

and while i just said grrm doesn't care about exact timelines and a lot is still foggy surrounding the rebellion and esp rhaegar, there is one timemarker wrt robert's rebellion he voluntarily threw in, time and time again: that stannis was besieged at storm's end for almost a whole year. that siege, which mind you, did not match the duration of the entire war. it only started after robert won his battles at gulltown and summerhall, returned to storm's end, and then went out and lost the battle of ashford, leaving his homeland open to the reachermen. the same siege which only ended when ned made a detour there after the sack of king's landing, before going to the toj. even if lyanna may not have given birth that exact day ned found her, she could only be waiting in that bloody bed for weeks at the most, not months. so if rhaegar knocked her up the very same night he carried her off and jon was still a newborn when ned found her after the siege of storm's end had ended, wouldn't that mean lyanna was pregnant for well over a year? that's not how human pregnancy works either! so, maybe that's proof that jon and robb, whichever order they were actually born in, were actually very close in age as babies, much closer than if they were both conceived asap.

and really, jon's actual birthdate does not matter imho, when he was raised not just as the bastard to robb's trueborn heir, but with robb also known by catelyn and the world as ned's firstborn (which he was, in any case, as jon was ned's nephew by birth). what difference could a birthdate before robb's make (even were there some means of discovery) after ned, cat, and robb are all dead? if one is looking only at his birth parents then he's only a firstborn child on lyanna's side, but definitely a second son on rhaegar's side. maybe he was always meant to be a second son with a not much older half-brother! even if the aegon fka young griff is not in fact rhaegar's son, he'll still be known as aegon vi targaryen, meaning jon will never be known as any father's elder son. if i may reference mean girls again, it's not going to happen.

[allyriadayne]

could you talk more about the daynes post robert's rebellion?

SURE

first of, this is mostly my hcs, speculations and a mix of things i must have read back when there was the height of asoiaf meta in 2013 because there is almost nothing about the daynes post robert's rebellion. so bear with me.

just to set the scene, the members of house dayne left after the mess of the rebellion were the unnamed older brother of ashara and arthur, the lord and father of edric; allyria the youngest sister that i headcanon to be much younger than her older siblings seeing as she is betrothed to beric dondarrion who is was in his twenties per agot so i don't think the marriage would've occurred if allyria was in her middle thirties or forties if she was closer to ashara and arthur; edric, twelve years old, beric's loyal squire; and gerold aka darkstar head of high hermitage, also in his twenties? around arianne's age.

(c) Eddie Mendoza for the cover of A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar

under the cut because i'm crazy

i don't know if the books are ever going to make clear what happened at the toj-starfall zone but we can be sure only that ned went from one to the other with lyanna's bones and supposedly baby jon to return dawn to the daynes. ashara had a baby of father unknown and shortly after ned was there she took her own life, body never found. i go back and forward in thinking if ashara's brother lord dayne was there with her when ned went or if he was one of the dornish commanders defending the targs. in any case, his presence was completely zero during this time so i think he was too injured for a time or too sickly in general to do something to reestablish the dayne name in dorne after arthur being an important part in elia's disgrace and indirectly, her murder.

because yeah after arthur and ashara's death and going by the books there is zero mention of them, even in the chapters set in dorne or others about dornish characters make no mention of them. and it's strange considering that when you read awoiaf and f&b, the daynes are The knights of dorne. queen nymeria marries a dayne, sends a starfall king to the wall, meria martell commands a dayne to burn oldtown, arguably one of the most powerful cities of the time, out of all the sons of daeron ii and myriah martell, maekar marries a dayne, the only dornish lady. it could be nothing OR something but i think it does mean something. we see there's no daynes in oberyn's party in kl or speculation in general about the new sword of the morning beyond remembering dear old arthur. they've fallen completely into obscurity. the house was reduced to a young girl and its child lord.

edric's dad dies before agot (he doesn't seem to afflicted by his death when he meets arya if he were less than a year dead, inheriting the lordship at such a young age would've been dramatic to him), i would say just after becoming a page to beric dondarrion at 7 yo and i headcanon the marriage between beric and allyria was brokered at this time too. this was part of a fic i was writing like 500 years ago but i think lord dayne must have known he would not live too long, not to see edric grow so he must have looked for someone to prepare and take care of allyria and edric after he died. betrothing allyria to a marcher lord is......strange. if a dornish person would have to be married to someone it would go like this 1) not from the reach 2) not from the marches in that order, there is too much bad blood. the daynes have a longstanding tradition of killing oakhearts so marrying allyria to the heir of blackhaven and giving him his only heir, lord dayne entrusted a complete stranger with the future of his house.

beric would've been in charge of teaching young edric just about everything. he would be living in the stormlands for almost half his live, learning from a his maester and how to govern a stormlands' castle. meanwhile, allyria in a few years probably around agot time would be ready to marry beric when she reached her majority. she would've been the defacto ruler of starfall in edric's name when lord dayne dies, i think the idea was to swap when edric gained his spurs: he would return to starfall after a successful run as a tourney knight, probably gaining some recognition from whatever beric was tasked with at the capital (rip king) and then accompany allyria to be married to his knight master. andddd fin.

the thing is. allyria being so young during the rebellion, lord dayne absence for whatever reason and then dying, let the younger members with no connections in the wider dorne political context. it is said young children go to the water gardens and it's fun yeah but it's def a starting point for politics for many lords. it's close to the martells and it's an opportunity to make friends with future rulers, /everyone/ is going. the daynes didn't have this. allyria was probably very young when the rebellion happened (i think no older than 5) and for obvious reasons she was not sent to the water gardens; as for ned, i think lord dayne could not secure an invitation, this or he died too early to even try. if allyria had gone, she would've been for sure one of arianne's companions, she has both the breeding and the standing, but NOT and it's crucial, the reputation. see what arianne has to say in affc about gerold's standing:

"He is highborn enough to make a worthy consort, she thought. Father would question my good sense, but our children would be as beautiful as dragonlords."

it's must be passé to associate with the daynes at this point. think of the conningtons losing all standing when joncon lost the battle and was exiled.

in any case, allyria, more than edric, grew in obscurity. as of the books she's betrothed to a marcher lord nobody knows if he's alive or dead, has a missing nephew and it's in charge of one of the most ancient first men houses of westeros. sad! at least ned is having more fun. which leads me to darkstar. i see his thirst to prove himself, his notoriety as a cruel knight as another way to separate himself from what the main branch has fallen into. he is in his twenties so he was probably affected by the same dark cloud as the others.

"If I led a quarter of a million men to death, would they call me Gerold the Great? I shall remain Darkstar, I think. At least it is mine own."

he wants to have what arthur had, but not be the sword of the morning, he wants something that it's his own, as he says. he may want the sword and the fame like arthur, but not to be associated with another's bad luck so to speak. it's very telling that he's called one of "the most dangerous man in dorne" and what is the sword of the morning if not this? he's a dark mirror of the daynes pre rebellion, just like allyria would've been a renown beauty just like ashara is she wasn't cloistered. something something gerold and allyria as mirrors of what could've happened to ashara and arthur if they hadn't the protection of the monarchy.

i once read gerold is meant to have young ned's plot after germ scrapped the five year time skip and i think this is half true. i do think there is something to be done about dawn the sword and i think gerold is going to steal it and do something with it, something ned can't do because he's /still/ in the riverlands. i don't know what but i think it ties nicely with the theme of deconstructing the noble knight archetype. arthur is only great because he knew how to kill.

writing this i had a breakdown about the parallels between arthur and gerold

to finish this rambling i want to say my hopes for house dayne in what is left of asoiaf is 1) ned alive 2) gerold steals dawn 3) and like. something. honestly i will take anything at this point about allyria. DOES SHE EVEN KNOW? my poor girl and 4) if germ wants to clear the toj situation then it's fine.

thanks for asking and to anyone reaching this point lol. this is mostly general but if you want to talk about anything specific just message me! k thx muah!

[x-aefx]

ONE TIME THING - BELLA RAMSEY (PART5)

Pictures above are not mine

Summary: unbeknownst to you, you meet actor Bella Ramsey. You two hit it off but your paths lead two different directions.

Bella Ramsey x female reader

Taglist: @evieguhbyebroski @amberputh @assgardangod @niwritespoetry @mainslutsblog @obsessedmunson @guacala @that-one-little-soybean

Warnings: none (?)

A/N- I am sorry this took so long, I've been studying for my exams and only finished them on the 1st. Not proofread.

Part one⬇️

★★

It took you the entire journey home to register what was happening, the moment you stepped into your home the wheels in your brain started turning and you realized you were about to get ready to meet with Bella.

Bella Ramsey. Mildred Hubble. Lyanna Mormont. Bella fucking Ramsey.

You wouldn't ruin this for yourself. You wouldn't over procrastinate or stress so much that you end up convincing yourself not to go. You would calmly get ready and have fun.

You cringed slightly. You knew that wasn't going to happen.

Aware of the time you ran upstairs to your bedroom.

Choosing an outfit has never been a worry before. A graphic tee would be your go-to in this heat, was that too casual? You didn't even know where you were going.

You continued your search.

Your hands dived deeper, everytime they moved another shirt that was one size too small, or a too revealing dress, your determination grew. Simple was the best option. You doubted Bella would show up dressed to the 9's, they seemed more laid back. Your fingers clung to the soft white fabric of a sleeveless tank top. Your head turned to your window. It was sunny today, not a single cloud in the blue sky. Last time you checked it was 21°C, you were sure it had gotten hotter. You decided that would be the top to wear. Standing back from your wardrobe you moved to your drawers.

Pulling the first drawer opened your hands rummaged through the folded trousers until you saw the familiar trusting blue high waisted jeans.

You wanted to put together a fancy outfit, and you were surprised you didn't, but it was just so hot and your mind was still processing today's events.

When your hair was brushed and your eyelashes curled you turned to your mirror. This would have to do. Taking your phone from the desk you checked the time. You were disappointed when you seen you still had plenty time. Bella had texted you an address, which lead to you typing it into Google maps.

The results were a nice looking vegan restaurant, one you had never heard of before and was only a ten minute walk from your home.

A simple lunch. Don't overthink it.

To keep your mind occupied you watched a few of Bella's past interviews. Somewhere along the way you had found one from when they were on the Worst Witch, you had to admit they were adorable and their long hair suited them.

When the interviews weren't enough to keep your anxiety at bay, you decided you would continue reading your book. You were quick to realize the words were not registering in your head.

Sighing you left your room and made your way to the living room to find something to put you at ease.

There wasn't anything worth watching on the tv, food didn't seem appealing as of right now, you didn't even have any chores to do.

Plopping down onto the soft cushions of your couch, your hands rested on you stomach as you tried to relax. You had seen your mum do this after every shift at work, it seemed to help her.

"Ugh" you groaned. You dug your hands into your pocket and pulled out your phone. Relaxing might be your mum's thing, but not yours.

You had a new message from Aaron and two from your sister. You were still mad at your sister so you decided to open Aarons instead.

You bit your fingernail, a nervous habit you had developed. You hadn't told Aaron about how you had ran into Bella multiple times since sitting beside them on the bus. You didn't know if you should tell him or not.

Aaron was your bestfriend. You told him everything, and trusted him completely. You didn't know why you were so hesitant to tell him.

You didn't want Aaron thinking the situation was anything more than what it was. You stared at the text and thought about your options. Finally your fingers began moving across the keyboard.

You leaned back into the couch. You hated lying, especially to Aaron.

It wasn't a complete lie anyways, you were almost sure that was why your sister had messaged you. She barely texted you for anything but favours.

You watched the three dots move. What if he knew I was lying?

You smiled thankful that he didn't seem to pissed.

You spent the next hour scrolling aimlessly, rotating from social media to online clothing stores.

★

4:48

You jumped from your position on the couch once you realized the time. You wouldn't be late.

Grabbing everything you needed you made your way out of your home, google maps opened on your phone and Mac Miller playing from your earphones.

What would you even say to them? What would you both talk about?

You tried to focus on your music.

With every stop the restaurant got closer and your nerves grew.

Why did you agree to this?

This was way out of your comfort zone.

Suddenly you wished you had told Aaron. He would give you shitty advice, but it always managed to calm you.

You guessed what he might say if he were with you.

You won't be able to marry them if you can't go on one single date.

Pretend its Granny.

If you don't want to talk or don't know what to say, shove your mouth with as much food as possible.

Pretend you don't speak English

Maybe it was for the better that your best friend wasn't here.

You sighed, the music was becoming annoying so you took your earphones out and safely tucked them into your trousers pocket. The restaurant was up a head, you could just about see it so the Google maps wasn't in need anymore.

You fiddled with your hands, sometimes your finger would play with one of the many bracelets on your arm.

Please don't be awkward

Don't mess it up

You calmed your breathing.

The restaurant was nice. It was a red brick building with a large wooden door. Flowers were overgrown from their plant pots above the door and at the bottom of the building. Ivy was growing on the side.

From the large windows you could see the wooden floor and tables inside. The fairy lights creating a soft glow. There were a couple of people inside, not completely busy.

You passed a red fiat car parked at the side and made your way to the wooden door and inside.

Here goes nothing

Pushing the door open your eyes began searching for the familiar brunette.

"hello miss, how can I help you?"

You looked to the smiling waiter.

You smiled back, "I'm fine, just looking for a friend." The waiter nodded.

You then seen those dark messy curls, black t-shirt that had writing you couldn't make out. Their head was ducked as they typed on their phone but you knew it was Bella.

You slowly walked over.

"hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

★ ★ ★

Bella sighed. They didn't know why the person they chose to confide in was the 40 year old man who still was mentally 13 years old.

"walked right into that one." Bella muttered.

They didn't want to admit it, but they arrived twenty minutes early, hoping time would speed up and you would be here already. That wasn't the case. It only gave them more time to stress. Bella began typing out their response.

"hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

Bella's head snapped up from their phone to the voice, to you.

In that moment Bella felt all air leave their lungs. They didn't know what to say or how to say it.

★ ★

You watched as Bella's confused face disappeared and a smile formed on their lips.

"Hi" Bella breathed out.

You chuckeld at their nervous state.

"hi" you replied back as you took your seat across from them.

It was silent for a moment, but it wasn't an awkward or uncomfortable silence. You both took the time to take in each other. All your previous meetings felt rushed and observed, but right now it felt like time slowed. The few people in the restaurant weren't paying any mind to the two of you.

Bella put their phone away and sat straighter.

"you know, I was worried you wouldn't show up. Actually I think it's concerning that you did. I am basically a stranger after all." Bella teased.

You faked offence.

"you know your right. I think I should get going-"

As you turned your body in your chair and was about to stand up you felt another hand on top of your own from across the table.

The feeling of their cold rings on your warm skin sent goosebumps all along your body.

You turned to look at Bella's hand holding yours and then to their grinning face.

"you wouldn't." Bella squinted their eyes and you could see their lips were trying to conceal their laugh.

"oh I would." You threatened teasingly. You turned to the table beside you, "but man does the food look good here."

Bella finally let out the laugh they were trying to contain. Their hand left yours and suddenly you wished you had savoured the feeling of it more.

You sat back into your seat. The same waiter who had greeted you at the door walked over to your table, pen and paper in hand. He smiled at the both of you.'eric' his name tag read.

You quickly opened the menu and scanned through your options whilst Bella told the waiter what they wanted.

You decided on the Vegan carbonara pasta.

"I'll have that brought out for you in a few minutes"

The waiter left and it was just you and Bella again.

"how long have you been working at the café?" Bella was the first to start the conversation.

You pondered the answer in your head."I'm not sure exactly, can't be over a year though. It's only until I start college."

Bella listened intently to every word you spoke. They gave you their undivided attention.

Once you finished talking about your hopes for college you decided to ask Bella a question.

"aren't you studying environmental science?"

Bella raised a brow, that familiar grin back on their lips."were you stalking me online?"

You scoffed. Their teasing tone and their face full of pride making you embarrassed.

"No" you mumbled as you drank the water from your glass.

Bella laughed, "you definitely were."

"you would do the same if I were super famous!"

Bella laughed again at your words.

"oh definitely"

Your food was eventually brought out. Bella and you ate, still you chatted about each of your lives and what you had in common. You had to admit it was probably one of the best conversations you've ever had.

★

The food was ate and time had passed, the sky had darkened and the restaurant gradually emptied, only a few lingering at the bar area.

It never got awkward between you and Bella, no silences. You found talking to them easy, always having something to say and them having a response.

But all good things had to end.

You glanced at the clock on the wall across from you.

You knew it was meant to be raining later and you didn't want to have to walk in it or the dark either.

Bella must've noticed your disappointment.

-

Bella noticed your eyes wander to the wall behind them, knowing there was a clock there due to the amount of times they had visited the restaurant.

Their cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry if I've kept you too long, I didn't notice the time move by." Bella apologized. They rubbed their hands on their thighs, a habit that came with nerves.

"no-no it's not that, I walked here and I'm aware it might rain later." You explained. "I wouldn't mind staying longer. I've had fun. Getting to know you and all "

Bella smiled. No one would ever know that inside their heart was about to explode from their chest, and their mind was coming up with thousands of scenarios and hidden meanings to your words.

"I'll walk you" the words left Bella's mouth before they could register what they were saying. They don't know why they said it, but part of them was glad they did because they knew normally they would never have the courage to ask.

You stared. You didn't know how to respond.

"yeah sure-i'd like that." You smiled.

Fuck you and your awkwardness! You thought to yourself .

Before you knew it both of you were exiting the restaurant together after dividing the check.

Bella was reluctant to let you pay even a penny, but you could be stubborn.

Bella paid no mind to their car as both of you passed it. They didn't want to tell you they drove here and could easily drive you back to your home, because that would mean they would have to say goodbye to you sooner, and they wanted to stall that as much as possible.

Bella walked with their hands in their pockets and you with your arms at your side.

The walk was quiet for the most part, bella would sometimes tell a cringy joke or recall a funny story from working on set. You enjoyed listening to them talk.

Bella didn't notice how close you were getting to your home, but you did. You wanted to be selfish and stall for as long as possible to avoid saying that dreaded goodbye.

"I'm glad I accepted your offer to get to know you better. " You avoided eye contact, choosing to play with your bracelet.

"I'm glad you did too." Bella smiled at you and watched you fiddle nervously. You met their eyes briefly before looking away, Bella's smile widened.

"I have interviews and meetings for majority of the week except Friday, maybe we could meet again?" Bella asked almost shyly, they felt like a kid again the way they got all giddy inside.

You frowned. "As much as I would love to, I'm meeting with an old friend on Friday." You apologized.

Bella masked their disappointment with a smile

"another time?"

"absolutely."

The rest of the walk to your home was quiet.

"I'd invite you inside but I don't want you walking in the rain." You said when you reached the door of your house.

"I wouldn't be able to stay long anyways, I have an early appointment tomorrow." Bella reassured you.

It was silent until bella spoke up again

"I had fun today. Text me, yeah?"

You agreed to and the both of you said your goodbyes when you couldn't stall it anymore.

The smiles on both your faces remained long after you said your goodbyes.

__

Part 6⬇️

A/n: I'm so excited for the next chapter, I have such a cute idea-

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

The Last Dragon: An analysis of Rhaegar Targaryen

Originally I was going to post simply about the amount of hate Rhaegar gets from the fandom and how buck-wild it is. But then I realized it wasn't enough to just push back on, no. I have to write a character study on this guy, because there is just simply so much to address!

Rhaegar to me is one of the most fascinating and complex characters in the series, and definitely among my absolute favourites. He is quite contentious, and my goal here isn't to whitewash him necessarily, or to paint him as the ultimate hero. That's boring and antithetical to what A Song of Ice and Fire is supposed to be. Calling him purely good or purely evil is reductive and makes the story smaller. That said, I hope to address why the hate he gets is odd, and how it completely misses the point of his character.

The Dragon's Honor

A total fucking idiot that deserved to die a far more horrible death than he did. He got off lightly.

Sure. Great guy forced to abandon his wife and children to screw an incredibly stupid vapid self centered idiot in a tower for a year. After he lost his honor at Harrenhal for humiliating his pregnant wife. As for the rest perhaps if Rhaegar weren't such a psychotic ass there would actually still be Starks continuously in Winterfell which was probably the thing to keep the evil in check.

Rhaegar dumped his pregnant wife for a truly stupid 14 year old girl. Anyone who does that is not a good man. And Roberts life was actually more tragic that dear Rhaegar's. Or did you forget what happened to Robert's parents?

Rhaegar was a truly awful father. Worse than Robert. Worse than Tywin. Worse, even, than Craster (who kept half his children alive.)

These are just a select few quotes from fans I found on Reddit in discussion about who Rhaegar was as a person. I do need to clarify that most people seemed to have some kind of nuanced take. But the aggressively negative takes... are aggressively negative. In the end, however, we need to look at the text to see what kind of person he was.

Many of the POVs have had interactions with Rhaegar, which give us our best glimpse into who he was as a person. Even then, there are things that they cannot give us, and we are left with an incomplete picture of what this prince was like when he lived. Ned, Cersei, Jaime, Jon Connington, and Barristan all have met and seen Rhaegar, and we hear more from other characters about him in other POVs.

When we are introduced to Rhaegar, it is through Daenerys's POV, in her very first chapter. We will save that for later, but the next instance is in Eddard's POV, and there we see Robert's views on him.

The king touched her cheek, his fingers brushing across the rough stone as gently as if it were living flesh. "I vowed to kill Rhaegar for what he did to her." "You did," Ned reminded him.

Robert despises Rhaegar with every fiber of his being, even 15 years after he killed him. So much so that it extends to all Targaryens, even to a 14-year old Daenerys and her unborn child.

"Nonetheless," Ned said, "the murder of children … it would be vile … unspeakable …" "Unspeakable?" the king roared. "What Aerys did to your brother Brandon was unspeakable. The way your lord father died, that was unspeakable. And Rhaegar … how many times do you think he raped your sister? How many hundreds of times?" His voice had grown so loud that his horse whinnied nervously beneath him. The king jerked the reins hard, quieting the animal, and pointed an angry finger at Ned. "I will kill every Targaryen I can get my hands on, until they are as dead as their dragons, and then I will piss on their graves."

Robert was in love with Lyanna, the woman he was set to marry. In his mind, because of her kidnapping, Robert believes Rhaegar was a rapist, a monster. In The World of Ice and Fire it is stated exactly how Robert reacted to Rhaegar crowning Lyanna the queen of love and beauty.

Brandon Stark, the heir to Winterfell, had to be restrained from confronting Rhaegar at what he took as a slight upon his sister's honor, for Lyanna Stark had long been betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End. Eddard Stark, Brandon's younger brother and a close friend to Lord Robert, was calmer but no more pleased. As for Robert Baratheon himself, some say he laughed at the prince's gesture, claiming that Rhaegar had done no more than pay Lyanna her due...but those who knew him better say the young lord brooded on the insult, and that his heart hardened toward the Prince of Dragonstone from that day forth.

Yet it seems Robert is all but alone in his vilification of Rhaegar. Even Ned, whose sister was supposedly kidnapped and raped by him, doesn't think ill of him.

Suddenly, uncomfortably, he found himself recalling Rhaegar Targaryen. Fifteen years dead, yet Robert hates him as much as ever. It was a disturbing notion...

There was no answer Ned Stark could give to that but a frown. For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not.

Though Ned doesn't say much else, this line implies that Rhaegar was above visiting brothels, that he did not simply use sex for his own pleasure. In this respect, Rhaegar was quite honourable, which is how most characters remember him. Jorah compares Rhaegar and his younger brother Viserys with a marked contrast.

She shivered. "I woke the dragon, didn't I?" Ser Jorah snorted. "Can you wake the dead, girl? Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and he died on the Trident. Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake."

When Daenerys puts an end to the raping of the Lhazareen, Jorah, again, favourably compares her to Rhaegar.

"As you command." The knight gave her a curious look. "You are your brother's sister, in truth." "Viserys?" She did not understand. "No," he answered. "Rhaegar." He galloped off.

"I am not Viserys." "No," he admitted. "There is more of Rhaegar in you, I think, but even Rhaegar could be slain. Robert proved that on the Trident, with no more than a warhammer. Even dragons can die."

Not only is Daenerys's empathy, kindness, and honour compared to Rhaegar's, she is considered to have the same talent for military strategy as him by both Jorah and Barristan.

"Just so," she agreed. "I think we should attack from three sides. Grey Worm, your Unsullied shall strike at them from right and left, while my kos lead my horse in wedge for a thrust through their center. Slave soldiers will never stand before mounted Dothraki." She smiled. "To be sure, I am only a young girl and know little of war. What do you think, my lords?" "I think you are Rhaegar Targaryen's sister," Ser Jorah said with a rueful half smile. "Aye," said Arstan Whitebeard, "and a queen as well."

In general, Jorah and Barristan constantly praise his honour, bravery, and finding him to be nothing like his father Aerys or his brother Viserys.

"Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died."

"Prince Viserys was only a boy, it would have been years before he was fit to rule, and . . . forgive me, my queen, but you asked for truth . . . even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did."

If he had not gone into Duskendale to rescue Aerys from Lord Darklyn's dungeons, the king might well have died there as Tywin Lannister sacked the town. Then Prince Rhaegar would have ascended the Iron Throne, mayhaps to heal the realm. Duskendale had been his finest hour, yet the memory tasted bitter on his tongue. It was his failures that haunted him at night, though. Jaehaerys, Aerys, Robert. Three dead kings. Rhaegar, who would have been a finer king than any of them. Princess Elia and the children. Aegon just a babe, Rhaenys with her kitten. Dead, every one, yet he still lived, who had sworn to protect them. And now Daenerys, his bright shining child queen. She is not dead. I will not believe it.

Even Tywin, someone who cared about prestige but could not be called honourable, believed that Rhaegar would've made a better king than Aerys.

Most of the small council were with the Hand outside Duskendale at this juncture, and several of them argued against Lord Tywin's plan on the grounds that such an attack would almost certainly goad Lord Darklyn into putting King Aerys to death. "He may or he may not," Tywin Lannister reportedly replied, "but if he does, we have a better king right here." Whereupon he raised a hand to indicate Prince Rhaegar.

Barristan tells Daenerys that not only was Rhaegar honourable, he was immensely capable and talented.

"I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?" The old man considered a moment. "Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded. There is a tale told of him . . . but doubtless Ser Jorah knows it as well."

Rhaegar was also considered a very skilled warrior, but according to Barristan it was not out of joy.

"Prince Rhaegar's prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance."

This is a curious thing to remember for later. Rhaegar was not a born fighter, nor was he eager for glory it seemed. He was quite content with being a singer and musician, a private man who loved to read and learn about prophecy. The picture painted is of an honourable, kind, talented, and dutiful man who won people over with ease.

Yet it appears that Rhaegar was perhaps at odds with his family. His relationship with Rhaella and Viserys is not noted upon in the text, but that of his father Aerys is remarked on extensively, and began to fracture after the Defiance of Duskendale.

Once safely returned to King's Landing, His Grace refused to leave the Red Keep for any cause and remained a virtual prisoner in his own castle for the next four years, during which time he grew ever more wary of those around him, Tywin Lannister in particular. His suspicions extended even to his own son and heir. Prince Rhaegar, he was convinced, had conspired with Tywin Lannister to have him slain at Duskendale. They had planned to storm the town walls so that Lord Darklyn would put him to death, opening the way for Rhaegar to mount the Iron Throne and marry Lord Tywin's daughter.

Aerys found ways to insult Rhaegar, such as when he was present for Rhaegar and Elia's firstborn child being shown to the court and refusing to hold her because she "smells Dornish." His madness was apparent to everyone at court, and surely to Rhaegar. There became a clear division at court between Aerys' followers and Rhaegar's followers.

To Grand Maester Pycelle and Lord Owen Merryweather, the King's Hand, fell the unenviable task of keeping peace between these factions, even as their rivalry grew ever more venomous. In a letter to the Citadel, Pycelle wrote that the divisions within the Red Keep reminded him uncomfortably of the situation before the Dance of the Dragons a century before, when the enmity between Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra had split the realm in two, to grievous cost. A similarly bloody conflict might await the Seven Kingdoms once again, he warned, unless some accord could be reached that would satisfy both Prince Rhaegar's supporters and the king's.

If Rhaegar was as learned as people say he was, then he was smart enough to know this as well. And this is why Rhaegar may have tried to find a more peaceful solution to remove Aerys from power. It is mentioned in The World of Ice and Fire that the great tourney at Harrenhal was hosted behind the scenes by Rhaegar for this exact reason.

If this tale be believed, 'twas Prince Rhaegar who urged Lord Walter to hold the tourney, using his lordship's brother Ser Oswell as a gobetween. Rhaegar provided Whent with gold sufficient for splendid prizes in order to bring as many lords and knights to Harrenhal as possible. The prince, it is said, had no interest in the tourney as a tourney; his intent was to gather the great lords of the realm together in what amounted to an informal Great Council, in order to discuss ways and means of dealing with the madness of his father, King Aerys II, possibly by means of a regency or a forced abdication.

It's not just the world book that says this. The main series all but confirms it in a flashback of Jaime's, from right before the Battle of the Trident.

"Your Grace," Jaime had pleaded, "let Darry stay to guard the king this once, or Ser Barristan. Their cloaks are as white as mine." Prince Rhaegar shook his head. "My royal sire fears your father more than he does our cousin Robert. He wants you close, so Lord Tywin cannot harm him. I dare not take that crutch away from him at such an hour." Jaime's anger had risen up in his throat. "I am not a crutch. I am a knight of the Kingsguard." "Then guard the king," Ser Jon Darry snapped at him. "When you donned that cloak, you promised to obey." Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime's shoulder. "When this battle's done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but . . . well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return."

It's quite clear that Rhaegar was actively trying to avoid war in the first place, instead finding more diplomatic and peaceful ways to resolve such matters. He knew that his father was dangerous, and had plans to deal with him. The fact he wanted to call a great council to remove him meant that he was going to avoid more direct and quicker actions such as kinslaying and costly matters, and cared about optics and doing things through the proper channels.

"The Others take your honor!" Robert swore. "What did any Targaryen ever know of honor? Go down into your crypt and ask Lyanna about the dragon's honor!"

Robert Baratheon believed that Rhaegar had no honour, that he was a cheat, a brute, a rapist. Ironically, all things Robert is. But Robert is alone in believing this. Through his actions, and what others remember of him, Rhaegar did in fact have honour. The dragon's honour was notable to all, and was part of why people were drawn to him so easily.

Smoke and Salt, A Bleeding Star, A Promised Prince

Rhaegar wasn't always the gallant prince he is remembered as. That warrior once beloved by all was at first a quiet boy, buried deep in scrolls and writings.

"As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father's knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.'"

Whatever Rhaegar found, it had a major impact on him, to change trajectory so drastically. Something that he was absolutely convinced of its validity. Rhaegar is put forward both out of and in universe as a candidate for the messianic prince that was promised, and it appears this is exactly what Rhaegar read in his scrolls. Not only that, but Rhaegar was in contact with his great-grand uncle, Maester Aemon, and he believed that Rhaegar also was the prince that was promised.

"No one ever looked for a girl," he said. "It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought . . . the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King's Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it." Just talking of her seemed to make him stronger. "I must go to her. I must. Would that I was even ten years younger."

Rhaegar then changed his tune, and believed Aegon was the prince that was promised, which is noted in the vision Dany has of him in the House of the Undying.

Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother's hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. "Aegon," he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. "What better name for a king?" "Will you make a song for him?" the woman asked. "He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

There is much and more we do not know of this, as we are fed only the barest scraps, so this is analysis is admittedly quite speculative. "The dragon has three heads" is a repeated phrase, and Jorah compares it to the sigil of House Targaryen, created to symbolize Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya when they conquered Westeros. As such, he and Daenerys believe that because Dany hatched three dragons, each head of the dragon is a dragonrider. But in Rhaegar's time there were no dragons. It's possible he read scrolls about the dragons returning (as Aerys I did) but we can't be certain. What it actually means is not of importance here, but rather what Rhaegar thought it meant.

Recently we learned George is on record as saying that Aegon the Conqueror was a dreamer, and that it was what drove him to conquer Westeros. The dream was of the Long Night, and Aegon wanted to unify Westeros to be prepared for this existential threat. The fact "the dragon has three heads" is tied to the prince that was promised, and the new Westerosi banner of the Targaryens was a three headed dragon is not som ething to easily dismiss. Though House of the Dragon isn't book canon, it's got the best insight into what it might mean.

According to Viserys, the dream Aegon had was given a name; the song of ice and fire. Is this what Rhaegar is referring to? Aegon's dream? It might make sense. According to Ryan Condal, this plot point is going to come out at some point, which implies this will be revealed in the main plot. Was Aegon's dream written down as Daenys's were, but kept secret, locked away somewhere, their significance forgotten? Perhaps even the fact it was from Aegon was not a certainty? We can't know, but it would explain a few things.

Alternatively, the song of ice and fire was from a different source, such as the Rhoynish legend of the Long Night.

Lomas Longstrider, in his Wonders Made by Man, recounts meeting descendants of the Rhoynar in the ruins of the festival city of Chroyane who have tales of a darkness that made the Rhoyne dwindle and disappear, her waters frozen as far south as the joining of the Selhoru. According to these tales, the return of the sun came only when a hero convinced Mother Rhoyne's many children—lesser gods such as the Crab King and the Old Man of the River—to put aside their bickering and join together to sing a secret song that brought back the day.

The secret song of the Rhoynish may be the song of ice and fire, and given Rhaegar's wife Elia was a descendant of the Rhoynar it may have influenced his thinking. Yet this still does not answer what Rhaegar believed the three heads of the dragon meant. His firstborn daughter was named Rhaenys, and his firstborn son was named Aegon, two names of the conquerors. However, it doesn't make much sense that he was actually trying to recreate the original three heads. Visenya was the oldest, Rhaenys the youngest, so why wasn't she named Visenya?

Another theory is that Rhaegar was obsessed with naming one of his sons Aegon, but again, we have no indication of this. All the vision says is that Aegon is a good name for a king, and since he was Rhaegar's heir and Rhaegar was Aerys's. So of course he expected him to be king, and Aegon is the most common name for Targaryen kings. The idea that he felt he needed to have a son named Aegon no matter what seems like a gross misreading of what he's saying in the vision.

Rhaegar was called "the last dragon." From a literary standpoint, one can draw a line between the mention of "last dragon" and "the dragon's three heads." If this is true, Rhaegar was the dragon, and his children were the three heads. Mentioning Aegon as the prince that was promised and saying "there must be one more" points to this. If he was no longer the prince that was promised, then he may have wanted to focus more on preparing his children for the coming return of the Others and the War for the Dawn.

Another consideration to take in is the manner of Rhaegar's birth. He was born during the tragedy of Summerhall, where King Aegon V gathered his family to do a ritual to hatch dragon eggs. Instead, something went horribly wrong, and instead the palace burnt. The only survivors (that we know of) were Jaehaerys, Aerys, and Rhaella. Rhaella was pregnant at the time, and as the inferno reduced the palace to a hollowed, smoking husk, she gave birth to Rhaegar.

Jaehaerys II is an interesting figure to say the least. He was very much conservative compared to Aegon V's more progressive approach to Targaryen politics. Aegon wanted to do away with the tradition of incest, but Jaehaerys went ahead and married his sister Shaera, also breaking a betrothal with a Tully girl. One of Aegon's other sons, Prince Duncan, married the peasant girl Jenny of Oldstones. Jenny's best friend was a woods witch, and she may have had pertinent information on the prince that was promised, as Barristan tells Daenerys when talking about why her parents married.

"Why did they wed if they did not love each other?" "Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince was promised would be born of their line." "A woods witch?" Dany was astonished. "She came to court with Jenny of Oldstones. A stunted thing, grotesque to look upon. A dwarf, most people said, though dear to Lady Jenny, who always claimed that she was one of the children of the forest."

Rhaegar is far from the only one who was driven by prophecy, it would seem. If Barristan knew this, it's almost certain that Rhaegar did as well. This may have contributed to him believing he was the promised prince.

Rhaegar's birth had a profound impact on him. Though he was loved by all, those close to him knew that he was a melancholy person, and he was known to have visited the ruins of Summerhall.

"He was born in grief, my queen, and that shadow hung over him all his days." Viserys had spoken of Rhaegar's birth only once. Perhaps the tale saddened him too much. "It was the shadow of Summerhall that haunted him, was it not?" "Yes. And yet Summerhall was the place the prince loved best. He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company. Even the knights of the Kingsguard did not attend him there. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and stars, and whenever he came back he would bring a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved."

Being born during a great tragedy is sure to have a big impact on someone. The ritual to hatch the dragon eggs failed, and countless lost their lives. It's no surprise something like that would leave one with a belief that this had to have happened for a reason, that their survival meant something. So him latching onto prophecy may have been one way of dealing with the trauma.

But another thing to note is that Rhaegar went alone. Entirely alone. Not even with the Kingsguard. All he brought was his harp. Summerhall was his quiet place where he could focus and be creative about his true passion; song. The woods witch who was a friend of Jenny's appears later in the main series, where she is said to have "gorge on grief" at Summerhall. One of her favourite songs that she always wants played to her is Jenny's song, of her dear friend she lost. Rhaegar could very well have met up with the witch and learned more about the prophecy from her. He may have even been the one who wrote Jenny's song.

As we've established, Rhaegar was not one eager for praise and glory. Fighting and war was not his passion, but a duty he felt had to be bestowed upon him by fate. His true love was for song and reading, for romance and love. I strongly believe he did not follow this prophecy out of ego, but rather to fill a part of his heart that was missing from Summerhall. He gave up on his own interests to fulfill a destiny he felt was preordained to him, to try to prepare to save the world from the complete annihilation of light and warmth and life. He was a doomed figure, whose destiny was only ever going to end in tragedy, yet he tried all the same.

Duty and Honour

Thus far I've been rather positive about Rhaegar. He has many positive qualities to him, and he appears to have been a good man who tried to do what he felt was necessary for the betterment of the world. But this is A Song of Ice and Fire. Characters are rarely that perfect and good. As noble as Rhaegar may have been, he was also human, imperfect and flawed, did good and bad things, and had passions that led to tragedy for many in Westeros.

Rhaegar did not marry Elia out of love. It was duty. After the failure to find a bride of pure Valyrian blood for him to marry in Essos, and the plan for Elia marrying Jaime Lannister dying with Joanna, Rhaegar eventually married Elia. Elia is noted as being frail and had many health issues, but was sweet and kind and witty. Their relationship has not been fully realized, but the little we do know paints it as a complex one.

"Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?" "It is not for such as me to say what might have been in your brother's heart, Your Grace. The Princess Elia was a good and gracious lady, though her health was ever delicate." Dany pulled the lion pelt tighter about her shoulders. "Viserys said once that it was my fault, for being born too late." She had denied it hotly, she remembered, going so far as to tell Viserys that it was his fault for not being born a girl. He beat her cruelly for that insolence. "If I had been born more timely, he said, Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl."

"Her duty." The word felt cold upon her tongue. "You saw my brother Rhaegar wed. Tell me, did he wed for love or duty?" The old knight hesitated. "Princess Elia was a good woman, Your Grace. She was kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit. I know the prince was very fond of her." Fond, thought Dany. The word spoke volumes. I could become fond of Hizdahr zo Loraq, in time. Perhaps.

George described their relationship similarly as "complex." The two did not love each other. They did not seem to hate each other, but there was no passion there. Dany compares her impending marriage to Hizdahr to Rhaegar's marriage to Elia, and marrying Hizdahr would be her doing her duty to the people rather than following her love.

Yet it cannot be forgotten the way Rhaegar did treat Elia. It may have been happy enough in the beginning, but I personally find it increasingly difficult to speak in defense of Rhaegar and his treatment of Elia as time goes on. It all starts at Harrenhal, when Rhaegar won the tournament.

Robert had been jesting with Jon and old Lord Hunter as the prince circled the field after unhorsing Ser Barristan in the final tilt to claim the champion's crown. Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty's laurel in Lyanna's lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost.

To anyone who says that the Dornish are fine with paramours and non-monogamy, and Elia might not have had any issue with this, here is what George himself said when providing feedback to an artist recreating this scene.

We’ve always imagined that the perfect image of the tourney at Harrenhal would kind of let you pick out all these figures in the stands, each with their different reactions when “the smiles died”. Jon Arryn and Robert and Lord Hunter joking a moment before what was happening dawned on them, Ned watching as Rhaegar was about to stop in front of his sister (who must have been seated quite close), mad Aerys glowering in the distance, Elia stiff-backed and trying to act as if nothing was wrong, Jon Connington probably looking vaguely sad (read: jealous), and so on.

That's not the reaction you have if you are okay with your husband passing you over for another woman. Non-monogamy, polyamory, that's one thing. Passing your wife and openly declaring for another women is just not that. Then of course you have arguably an event that helped contribute to war breaking out, which is Rhaegar's (alleged) kidnapping of Lyanna.

Rhaegar left his wife, his young daughter, and his newborn son all alone to elope with another woman. Elia could not have been happy about this. Rhaegar is one of my favourite characters, and I may have more than a slight crush on the guy, but even I have to admit this is not his finest hour. Elia was Rhaegar's duty, so it's not as though these two had a whirling epic romance. But both politically and personally, this is not how you treat your family. He didn't just abandon his wife, he abandoned his children. As reference, I would like to compare Rhaegar's struggles with love and duty with another character, one whose entire character could be defined by this; his son Jon Snow.

In A Dance with Dragons, Jon is stuck between two choices. The first is the love he has for his family, the desire to get vengeance for the wrongs done to them. The second is the duty he has sworn to the Night's Watch, to hold the Wall and prepare for the eventual invasion of the Others. He tries to ride a fine line between the two, but ultimately he gives into his desires, and chooses love by planning to go to war with Ramsay Bolton. He is then promptly killed by his officers for forsaking his vows.

This single action has yet to see its consequences, but none of it can be good. With Jon dead, peace between the Night's Watch and the free folk is very unlikely. War will break out and people will kill each other as the white walkers gain more strength and power outside the Wall. All the progress he has made, giving Alys Karstark sanctuary and promising her to a free folk husband, even the safety of Stannis's family, is at risk.

Jon is absolutely his fathers son. Rhaegar's duty is to be a faithful husband to Elia and a good father to their children, and to prepare the realm for the invasion of the Others. However, his love is for Lyanna, for song and romance. He tries to have it both ways; crowns Lyanna at Harrenhal, has another child with Elia. But in the end his heart won out, and he left Elia for Lyanna. Like Jon, this action led to a series of domino effects that led to open war, the death of his dynasty, and the death of Elia, his children, Lyanna, and finally himself.

Rhaegar may have been a mostly honourable, dutiful person, but he had a romantic, passionate side to him and his judgment was not always perfect. Like Jon, I do not believe Rhaegar ever thought his actions would lead to something this terrible. Jon did not think about what him dying would lead to. He believes he did not need his officers anymore. He was angry, disillusioned with the Night's Watch, and focused on revenge. It never entered his mind that the officers would kill him when he had just gotten the free folk to his side.

It's easy to say in hindsight that it would for Rhaegar, but characters are not omniscient. Running off without a word is reckless and impulsive, but it's not like they knew that Brandon would be similarly reckless, or that Aerys would do something as brazen and mad as executing Lyanna's father and brother without trial. Was it potentially short-sighted? Probably. Is it reasonable to assume they knew this series of events would happen and they didn't care? Not particularly. Characters are not readers.

A Love-Struck Prince

No discussion about Rhaegar is complete without Lyanna. The nature of their relationship is extremely contentious and the subject of much controversy. For one it is still not exactly clear with the published material if it was consensual, and even if it was, there is the rather concerning age-gap; Rhaegar as a young man, and Lyanna as a teenager. This discussion is not exactly one I'm comfortable with because it becomes a total shit-show so quickly. Either you call Rhaegar a pedophile and a rapist but conveniently ignore that Robert lusted after Lyanna as well, or you try to defend it by saying "it's just the times" (not true, medieval marriages were not this young).

What I'll say on the matter is that George definitely has an issue with what he considers romantic. He's been on the record as thinking that the wedding night between a 30-year old Khal Drogo and 13-year old Daenerys was a "consensual seduction," so I won't be surprised if he genuinely thinks this is a perfectly fine relationship. None of the ages in the books make sense, George knows he is bad at numbers. If we remember how young some of the characters are it gets to the point of ridiculousness and also makes literally every single character unsympathetic and terrible.

It's a massive flaw in an otherwise brilliant series. I personally use headcanon and death of the author for something like this, but not everyone does. That said, the fact that Lyanna was so young does leave the idea this was consensual a little unsettling to me. Yet, I also wholeheartedly believe that George is going to portray this as a consensual mutual, epic romance. The signs are literally everywhere.

We hear repeatedly about how Rhaegar loved Lyanna. Even Dany, who acknowledges that Rhaegar "kidnapped" her, thinks it was romantic. But the fact Rhaegar loves her is quite clear. The characters all universally agree (except Robert, of course) on this. However, it's not just because of what the characters say, characters can be wrong. George has called Rhaegar a "love-struck prince," and the companion World of Ice and Fire app (approved by Martin) says that in the Undying vision of Rhaegar dying, the name he whispers as he dies is "Lyanna."

But there is even more reason to believe this, and to believe that Lyanna also loved Rhaegar back. In fact, we have four different stories that all allude to Rhaegar and Lyanna, and provide insight into what we might expect. The first two come from the Dance of the Dragons, in Fire and Blood.

But we turn to Mushroom to find the tales other chronicles omit, nor does he fail us now. His account introduces a young maiden, or “wolf girl” as he dubs her, with the name of Sara Snow. So smitten was Prince Jacaerys with this creature, a bastard daughter of the late Lord Rickon Stark, that he lay with her of a night. On learning that his guest had claimed the maidenhead of his bastard sister, Lord Cregan became most wroth, and only softened when Sara Snow told him that the prince had taken her for his wife. They had spoken their vows in Winterfell’s own godswood before a heart tree, and only then had she given herself to him, wrapped in furs amidst the snows as the old gods looked on.

A Targaryen prince marries a Stark girl in secret before a heart tree out of love. Of course it's a Mushroom tale, and Mushroom is the Rudy Guliani of Westeros, but the idea this is supposed to harken back to Rhaegar and Lyanna is reinforced by the other secret marriage of the Dance; Aemond and Alys Rivers.

The “witch queen” of Harrenhal had proved to be none other than Alys Rivers, the baseborn wet nurse who had been the prisoner and then paramour of Prince Aemond Targaryen, and now claimed to be his widow. The boy was Aemond’s, she told the knight. “His bastard?” said Ser Regis. “His trueborn son and heir,” Alys Rivers spat back, “and the rightful king of Westeros.” She commanded the knight to “kneel before your king” and swear him his sword. Ser Regis laughed at this, saying, “I do not kneel to bastards, much less the baseborn whelp of a kinslayer and a milk cow.”

Alys Rivers claims to have the trueborn son of Aemond, which means they married. Her son is believed to be a bastard by everyone, not even a king, since nobody was really in witness to this marriage. Yet this does seem like foreshadowing for Jon's parentage eventually becoming public. Some people will simply laugh it out of court, or continue to call him a bastard, refuse to acknowledge him as king. But some people might also believe he actually is Rhaegar's trueborn son. Alys and Aemond in a way seem like dark mirrors of Lyanna and Rhaegar. Even the armour of Rhaegar and Aemond are described similarly, so this is definitely not accidental.

Seventeen and new to knighthood, Rhaegar Targaryen had worn black plate over golden ringmail when he cantered onto the lists.

Vhagar had come at last, and on her back rode the one-eyed prince Aemond Targaryen, clad in night-black armor chased with gold.

The third story might just about settle any debate on whether Rhaegar and Lyanna were both in love. This one comes directly from Jon's POV, which makes it especially significant.

"Well, long before he was king over the free folk, Bael was a great raider. The Stark in Winterfell wanted Bael's head, but never could take him, and the taste o' failure galled him. One day in his bitterness he called Bael a craven who preyed only on the weak. When word o' that got back, Bael vowed to teach the lord a lesson. So he scaled the Wall, skipped down the kingsroad, and walked into Winterfell one winter's night with harp in hand, naming himself Sygerrik of Skagos. Sygerrik means 'deceiver' in the Old Tongue, that the First Men spoke, and the giants still speak. North or south, singers always find a ready welcome, so Bael ate at Lord Stark's own table, and played for the lord in his high seat until half the night was gone. The old songs he played, and new ones he'd made himself, and he played and sang so well that when he was done, the lord offered to let him name his own reward. 'All I ask is a flower,' Bael answered, 'the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o' Winterfell.' Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious. So the Stark sent to his glass gardens and commanded that the most beautiful o' the winter roses be plucked for the singer's payment. And so it was done. But when morning come, the singer had vanished . . . and so had Lord Brandon's maiden daughter. Her bed they found empty, but for the pale blue rose that Bael had left on the pillow where her head had lain. Lord Brandon had no other children. At his behest, the black crows flew forth from their castles in the hundreds, but nowhere could they find any sign o' Bael or this maid. For most a year they searched, till the lord lost heart and took to his bed, and it seemed as though the line o' Starks was at its end. But one night as he lay waiting to die, Lord Brandon heard a child's cry. He followed the sound and found his daughter back in her bedchamber, asleep with a babe at her breast. They had been in Winterfell all the time, hiding with the dead beneath the castle. The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says . . . though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote. Be that as it may, what's certain is that Bael left the child in payment for the rose he'd plucked unasked, and that the boy grew to be the next Lord Stark. So there it is—you have Bael's blood in you, same as me. The song ends when they find the babe, but there is a darker end to the story. Thirty years later, when Bael was King-beyond-the-Wall and led the free folk south, it was young Lord Stark who met him at the Frozen Ford . . . and killed him, for Bael would not harm his own son when they met sword to sword. When Lord Stark returned from the battle and his mother saw Bael's head upon his spear, she threw herself from a tower in her grief."

Very long quote, abridged somewhat, but very significant to Jon's backstory. Bael seemingly had kidnapped this Stark girl and raped her, and later got what he deserved when he is killed by a Stark lord. Except that Bael and the Stark woman were in love, as evidenced by the grief she felt when she learned he was dead. There is even Bael's son being raised as a Stark and not knowing who his true father was, just like with Jon.

Finally, we only need to look into the Targaryens a single generation prior to find more allusions to Rhaegar and Lyanna.

Aegon's eldest son Duncan, Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the throne, was the first to defy him. Though betrothed to a daughter of House Baratheon of Storm's End, Duncan became enamored of a strange, lovely, and mysterious girl who called herself Jenny of Oldstones in 239 AC, whilst traveling in the riverlands. Though she dwelt half-wild amidst ruins and claimed descent from the long- vanished kings of the First Men, the smallfolk of surrounding villages mocked such tales, insisting that she was only some half-mad peasant girl, and perhaps even a witch. It was true that Aegon had been a friend to the smallfolk, had practically grown up among them, but to countenance the marriage of the heir to the throne to a commoner of uncertain birth was beyond him. His Grace did all he could to have the marriage undone, demanding that Duncan put Jenny aside. The prince shared his father's stubbornness, however, and refused him. Even when the High Septon, Grand Maester, and small council joined together to insist King Aegon force his son to choose between the Iron Throne and this wild woman of the woods, Duncan would not budge. Rather than give up Jenny, he foreswore his claim to the crown in favor of his brother Jaehaerys, and abdicated as Prince of Dragonstone. Even that could not restore the peace, nor win back the friendship of Storm's End, however. The father of the spurned girl, Lord Lyonel Baratheon of Storm's End—known as the Laughing Storm and famed for his prowess in battle—was not a man easily appeased when his pride was wounded. A short, bloody rebellion ensued, ending only when Ser Duncan of the Kingsguard defeated Lord Lyonel in single combat, and King Aegon gave his solemn word that his youngest daughter, Rhaelle, would wed Lord Lyonel's heir.

Prince Duncan the Small, son of Aegon V, was betrothed to a Baratheon girl. He spurned her in favour of a girl who was known to wear flowers in her hair. The aggrieved Lord Baratheon rose in rebellion, and many died. Lyanna was betrothed to Lord Baratheon. She is noted to not have loved Robert, telling Ned that even if he loved her it would not change his nature. Ned also believes that Robert never really loved her, saying he only "saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath."

Lyanna is also known to have loved winter roses, and Jenny wore flowers in her hair. Her and Rhaegar disappearing led to an aggrieved Lord Baratheon rising in bloody rebellion. Duncan and Jenny married without anyones leave but their own, so this is the third love story with a secret marriage between Targaryen princes and women of First Men descent. It's rather quite in our face.

Finally, George Martin himself is a huge romantic, not a nihilist. Rhaegar simply kidnapping Lyanna, locking her up, having a magic prophecy baby via rape, and then dying with her name on his lips is not romantic, it's nihilistic. Besides, I do not believe that Rhaegar eloping with Lyanna was because of prophecy. In fact, and possibly hot take, but I think Rhaegar eloping with Lyanna because of prophecy ruins this dichotomy of love vs. duty that he shares with his son.

If he groomed Lyanna to be with him and have a magic child of prophecy to save the world, then that would be him doing his duty (as he would see it). Yet, we also know that Elia was his duty, so thematically it feels a bit strange for Rhaegar to abandon his duty so he could focus on... his duty again? Did prophecy maybe motivate his actions with Lyanna a little bit? Sure, but it was not the primary reason. Thematically it makes much more sense for George, a romantic, to have one of the reasons for Robert's Rebellion to occur because Rhaegar, a love-struck prince, foreswore his duty to others by choosing love for himself. In fact we see Barristan go through the many wars of Westeros and how many have been started by forbidden love, with Rhaegar and Lyanna being lumped in together with the rest.

Better for Daenerys, and for Westeros. Daenerys Targaryen loved her captain, but that was the girl in her, not the queen. Prince Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna, and thousands died for it. Daemon Blackfyre loved the first Daenerys, and rose in rebellion when denied her. Bittersteel and Bloodraven both loved Shiera Seastar, and the Seven Kingdoms bled. The Prince of Dragonflies loved Jenny of Oldstones so much he cast aside a crown, and Westeros paid the bride price in corpses. All three of the sons of the fifth Aegon had wed for love, in defiance of their father's wishes. And because that unlikely monarch had himself followed his heart when he chose his queen, he allowed his sons to have their way, making bitter enemies where he might have had fast friends. Treason and turmoil followed, as night follows day, ending at Summerhall in sorcery, fire, and grief.

Rhaegar did not simply do something like this because he was horny for Lyanna. As we've established, Ned believing Rhaegar never frequented brothels shows he is a man whose desires were ruled not by his libido, but by his heart. The best idea for why Rhaegar fell in love with Lyanna is that he discovered she was the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Wild, willful, beautiful, but iron underneath. Rhaegar loved and understood Lyanna more than Robert ever could or did.

The Wedding of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark

As briefly as I can (and I'm not good at being brief) I want to explain how Rhaegar and Lyanna wed, and address one of the most common pushbacks against the secret marriage theory. There are two ways in which Rhaegar could've married someone else. The first is via polygamy, with Lyanna as his second wife. This may make sense given there is historical precedent, but as we've seen, Rhaegar did care somewhat for going through proper channels. Polygamy would not be one such way to do it, and indeed the marriage would be seen as illegitimate on the face of it.

The other, presented by the TV show, and one that I favour, is that Rhaegar received an annulment from his marriage to Elia. Though there is this prevailing attitude that this would automatically make his children with Elia bastards, there is real life precedent where annulling a marriage with children did, in fact, not change their legitimate status.

Annulment of marriage does not currently change the status of legitimacy of children born to the couple during their putative marriage, i.e., between their marriage ceremony and the legal annulment of their marriage. For example, canon 1137 of the Roman Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law specifically affirms the legitimacy of a child born to a marriage that is declared null following the child's birth.

In addition, the daughters born from the marriage of Elaenor of Aquitaine and King Louis VII were not bastardized when they annulled their marriage.

On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate."

Though the circumstances with Rhaegar and Elia are different, the precedent for such a thing is very much out there in the real world, and there's little to doubt that such a thing could occur in A Song of Ice and Fire. There are any number of grounds for an annulment between the two; Rhaegar could insist that because Elia cannot have anymore children, there is no point for the marriage to exist. He could also insist alongside this that King Aerys had arranged for the marriage in a fit of madness. Whatever the case, an annulment is not even close to as unreasonable as I've seen some fans argue it to be.

As to why an annulment would even happen in the first place, the reasons are both narrative and thematic. Jon Snow's true identity is a big mystery, and R+L=J is supposed to be the central mystery and big twist of the series. When George does twists, he does not pull any punches. Oberyn dies, Tyrion learns Tysha loved him and grows to hate his family. The Red Wedding does not simply kill off Robb, it kills off Catelyn as well in the most brutal ways possible, and Arya never gets to reunite with them.

Jon Snow's journey with identity is a massive part of the character. He is resentful of his bastard status, that his father never told him who his mother was. It would add to the drama and Jon's own angst that everything he believed about himself is a lie; Eddard Stark is not his father, he's not a bastard, he's got a claim to the Iron Throne, his name isn't even Jon.

My personal headcanon is that it isn't Rhaegar who comes up with the idea of an annulment, it's Elia. Elia has put up with Rhaegar's bullshit for so long, and now that he's preparing to meet with Lyanna, she's just had enough of excuses. Nothing that really points to this, but it's just a small headcanon that allows Elia some agency within the situation.

It is also my belief that Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding was on the Isle of Faces. This is due to proximity from where Rhaegar and Lyanna met, as well as the fact it is a holy site for the old gods and would make a nice gift for Lyanna, a northwoman. It is also partly narrative, as it would allow someone (*cough* Bran *cough*) to see this and learn the truth behind their relationship. We also know that the Knight of the Laughing Tree story begins with Howland Reed visiting the green men on the Isle of Faces, which is out of place with the rest of the story, and also that George has confirmed the Isle of Faces will come to the fore in later books.

The Dragon's Morality

So, throughout this essay, I have wished to address some of the points about Rhaegar's character, to answer the ultimate question of whether or not Rhaegar is a good person. It's a hard question to answer for someone whose story is not even known and whose characterization is intentionally vague and mysterious. But looking at the totality, is Rhaegar more good than bad, bad than good, or equal parts good and bad?

He was kind, won friends easily, talented, dutiful, honourable, valiant. He tried to fulfill a prophecy that would seek to save humanity from the threat of existential annihilation, did not seek glory for himself or take joy in fighting and wars. He attempted to try and remove his mad and evil father from power. He was passionate and romantic, and loved music and books.

On the other hand, he also publicly insulted his wife Elia and later abandoned her and their children to elope with another woman. He did so without telling anyone, which led to a domino effect that led to tragedy for him and everyone he knew, along with many others. But how much responsibility does Rhaegar have in starting Robert's Rebellion? Was him crowning Lyanna queen of love and beauty the one inciting incident? Was him running off with Lyanna? Was it Brandon riding to the Red Keep and shouting for Rhaegar to come out and die? Or was it Aerys burning him and Rickard alive without trial and demanding the heads of the other Starks, Arryns, and Baratheons?

Personally speaking, I don't think any one of these, including his and Lyanna's disappearance, was the cause of the war. Instead, all of them together was the cause for war. Isolated none of these events on their own caused the rebellion, but all together they did. As George said himself...

"The Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos."

I believe that Rhaegar is a grey character, albeit a lighter shade of grey. He is a tragic figure destined for doom but attempting to fight it. He wanted to do things for the betterment of the world, knew of the great threat coming in the Long Night, attempted to find a way to remove a literal monster from the throne, and sacrificed much to do his duty in these events. His intentions were good, and he never did anything maliciously.

But his flaw was his passion. He put aside his love for song and books to become a warrior that Westeros needed. He did his duty and gave Elia, a woman he did not love, two children, even after courting Lyanna publicly. Yet in the end, his own desires and his heart could not be stayed, and he suffered for it.

Jon Snow is the same way. Sacrificing his family, his home, his lover, all to protect the world. But he failed just as Rhaegar did, and suffered for it. Daenerys too has done this. She sacrificed her throne, her home, her own lover, her morals, even her own dragons, to keep the people he had freed from the bonds of slavery safe. And just like Rhaegar, she too could not keep to it in the end, giving up Meereen, deciding it is time to use her dragons and make west. How this will go for her is a matter of debate, but I imagine she will similarly suffer consequences from it.

Rhaegar isn't a villain. He's a tragic hero.

[elisysd]

Boat - Ed Sheeran

Masterlist - Previously - Next Chapter

The more that I love the less that I feel The times that I jumped never were real

Lyanna had woken at dawn. Like Charles, she had had a bad night. She had spent the hours after the door closed letting the tears flow until she was exhausted. She knew she had been hard on him. But she hadn't been able to stop herself. The Ferrari project seemed incredible and in other circumstances she would have jumped at the chance. But all her fears and doubts had resurfaced at breakneck speed. For a moment, she remembered why she didn't want to get involved with famous people. Her self-confidence was fragile, and a single grain of sand could shake the whole foundation she had built up. She loved Charles but she didn't want to live in his shadow, she didn't want to wonder if she was being offered great things just because she was associated with him. Her career was her baby, her purpose, her escape. A place where she had always felt free and for the first time, it was as if someone had suddenly taken the wind out of her sails.

So she contacted the last person she thought she'd contact one day, who arranged to meet her in a café not far from the station.

“I never expected you would use my phone number.” Told her Charlotte, sipping her cappuccino.

“Yeah, well never did I.” confessed Lyanna. “It’s just… I didn’t know who could understand. Beside Arthur. But I don’t want to put him between his brother and me.”

“You did the right thing. I know what it feels like. I understand you. But… can I be honest?”

“Go on.”

“Charles can be blind, can be stupid, can be too caught up in his little world sometimes, can be stubborn and can be naive but he is also the most loyal person I know. He has your back. He will always have it as long for as you want him. Because that’s how he is.”

“I just don’t want to live in his shadow and spend my time questioning everything.”

“That’s seems to be something that has more to do with you than with him. Listen, I’m going to be frank here. Whenever you’ll go out in Monaco with him, people will look at him and won’t care about you. You will always be his girlfriend. You are going to be seen with him at a GP, you will be talked to as his girlfriend. You attend an event sponsor related; you will be looked upon as his girlfriend. These are facts and you can’t do anything about it. The sooner you accept it, the better it will be for you. But he has no control over it. It’s not his fault. He didn’t dream to be a famous racing driver, he just wanted to drive an F1. Just like you didn’t dream of being a mega famous actress, you just wanted to make art. There are things on which you have control and others you don’t and have to learn how to let go. Of course you are going to have different opportunities now that you are with him. But does it make you less worthy if you take them? I don’t think so. As long as you make your choices with the heart at the right place, I don’t see the problem. You are not using him. He knows that. So chill girl.”

Her conversation with Charlotte had been strangely good for her. She felt calmer. Not more reassured, but at least she felt understood, that what she was feeling was normal and valid. Now it was up to her to decide how she wanted to handle the situation. Was she going to let her head rule her relationship or was she finally going to learn to let her heart do the talking? With her head full of questions, she made a diversion to the port and then to the beach, where she took off her shoes to feel the sand beneath her feet and the gentle crash of the waves tickling her toes.

She eventually returned to the residence with the firm intention of apologising. When she opened the door to the flat and expected to see Charles rushing towards her, she was surprised not to hear so much as a sound that she wondered if he was there. She found him sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee by his side, tapping away on his phone. He saw her out of the corner of his eye but didn't move in her direction. Lyanna approached gently, opening her arms, silently asking for the comforting warmth of Charles's arms, but he remained still.

“You ran away again.”

It was not a question. It was a bitter fact. When she did not react, he continued.

“You promised that you were done with the running away when things get tough.”

“I needed some air. I did not run away.”

“You slept in the guest room because you did not want to face me, Lyanna.”

“I did not sleep well if it can make you feel better.”

“No. It doesn’t. Because you should not have slept there in the first place.”

“We were both angry.”

“We did not have to be.”

She lowered her head in shame before taking her place opposite him. His sea-green gaze locked with hers.

“I love you Lya, but I don’t know how long we can keep going like that. We need to learn how to communicate. You need to let me get through to you. I’m trying to but you are not letting me. We promised to stick to each other during good and bad times but, at the smallest difficulty you panic and you run away. That is not how relationships work. That is not how I want our relationship to work.”

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“Oh my god, Lyanna, no! See, this is what I’m talking about. It’s not because we face hardships that it means that it will be over for us. Communication and trust are what matter the most to me and lately it seemed that we are both failing at that.”

“Most of the time it comes from me… I’m still insecure about so many things. Maybe I should try to contact my therapist and schedule a few session to work on that. It could do no wrong.”

“If you think that it’s something that you need, I won’t stop you.”

“It’s just…” she sighed, trying to find the right words to explain her thoughts. “You know how important my job is, how much it’s a part of me, how hard it has been for me to get back to it after… you know. The last thing I want to feel is what I felt yesterday… To feel like a pawn.”

“I’m not saying that I understand what it feels like. I don’t think I can but, I don’t want to ever feel like I’m an obstacle to your career. I don’t want to be one. And yesterday it felt like that. I didn’t choose to be a public figure, it just happened. We both have very demanding careers, we both made a lot of sacrifices to be where we are at today, but our jobs don’t define us. You are much more than just an actress or my girlfriend and I wish you would see that. I did not fall in love with you because you were Lyanna Michel, we both know that I had not the slightest idea of who you were. I fell in love because you are compassionate, you are kind, you are funny, you are smart, and brave, and driven, and I could continue the list because it’s a long one. I believe in you Lya, and I’m your number one supporter, but I need you to believe in you too.”

Tears streamed down the young woman's face and Charles did his best to resist taking her in his arms. She had to understand. He might have been hard on her, but if this was the wake-up call she needed to move on, then it was the right thing to do.

“I’m sorry I keep letting you down. I’m trying to be enough. I’m trying, really hard.”

“You are enough, Lya. You are putting too much pressure on you. I don’t need you to be perfect, I just need you to be you. A happy you. You are letting me down when you shut me out, not when you doubt yourself or you are getting scared. I wish you would have talked to me about the movie and your fears and concerns. We would have found a solution. Together.”

“Sophia still sent me the script… she won’t tell the production I said no until I’ve read it.”

“And are you going to do it? Read it, I mean.”

“I… think so. You are right, I overreacted and got scared.”

“Okay. I’m glad. I have to leave for a few days to Maranello. Ferrari wants to shoot some things for the social media. It will do us good, I think. We will have time to think things through on our own.  And I was meant to ask, Silvia and the media team want to shoot some things with me here. They want you also in the video… I haven’t said yes to them, I want to know how you feel about it…”

“Maybe that if we do it, they will leave us alone…”

“Only if it makes you comfortable.”

“I’m an actress Charles. I can put on a show if I want to.”

In the end, what was supposed to last a few days turned into a week and a half for Charles. He was dragged back and forth between photoshoots, interviews and shooting stupid challenges with Carlos for Ferrari, clinical tests, and simulator work to make sure he hadn't lost any of his reflexes. In the end, he had very little time for Lyanna. He'd only spoken to her a few times on the phone, but the very few occasions he had, she'd told him that she'd actively taken up the sessions with her therapist, who'd decided to schedule consultations for her twice a week. Charles was pleased to hear her say that this was doing her a lot of good and that she was already seeing progress.

What Lyanna had not mentioned to Charles, however, was that her psychotherapy was not the only thing helping her to move forward. Surprisingly, she had become much closer to Charlotte, to whom she could confide her doubts and anxieties, because the young woman had gone through more or less the same things.

“The only big difference between you and me, is that you already have a successful career and no one can accuse you to use him for fame.”

“People find other things to criticize.”

“As always and there is nothing you can do about it.”

“How did you handle that? The expectations that come with being his girlfriend.”

“As cliché that it is going to sound, by trusting him and our relationship. There is no miracle solution. Our relationship went down because we did not love each other anymore, we were just comfortable with one another at some point but there was no spark. We were making each other content, not happy.”

“That’s another thing that scares me… to wake up one day and just feel that we are not in sync anymore.”

“It will happen eventually, I won’t lie. But if you really love each other and from what I’ve seen it’s the case, then there is nothing you won’t overcome. But you need to communicate Lyanna. I should not be the person you ask these questions. You should talk to Charles about it.”

“I will. My therapist said that it’s better to overshare than keeping things bottled up, even if it’s something that I think is no use.”

Charles returned a few days later. December was already well under way and Lyanna had started thinking about Christmas presents. She loved this time of year. Christmas romances, hot chocolate, silly jumpers, decorations, and festive entertainment. She just thought it was a shame that Monaco wasn't covered in snow. So when Charles pushed open the door to his flat and saw large boxes strewn about the floor with garlands of every colour, and the smell of biscuits coming from the kitchen, surprise and doubt could be read very clearly on his face.

He stepped forward cautiously, avoiding getting his feet caught in anything lying on the floor, and a smile spread across his face when he saw her humming a Christmas carol as she meticulously decorated a tray of biscuits.

“I feel like I'm entering Santa's world.”

“Charles! You are back!” she exclaimed as she was throwing her arms around him.

“I see you kept yourself busy.”

“I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t find any Christmas decorations at your place so I bought some… maybe I went a little overboard. Sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s nice. I never decorate the flat because I’m never here during Christmas but if it made you happy, that is what matters the most. Speaking of Christmas… I gave that some thoughts and was wondering if you would like to spend it with me and my family in the mountains in Italy… that’s where I spend it generally so I can also prepare for the season. I would love to have you there but if you would prefer to spend it with your family I would understand.”

“I… well… I was not expecting you to ask me that. I did not make plans yet, but I guess I could come yeah. I would love to, actually. But in that case, maybe we can spend New Year’s Eve with my family? What do you think? We compromise. This year Christmas with yours and next year at mine?”

“It’s perfect for me.” He said while giving her a light kiss on the forehead. “I like when you talk about the future and I’m included in it.”

“Yeah, me too. It feels nice. I took the time to go through the script and to talk to Sophia about what I feared.”

“Yeah? It’s great, Lya. I’m proud of you.”

“I’m glad I did. Turns out we were both right… They don’t specifically want me because I’m your girlfriend, they wrote the character while having me in their minds which is very flattering. But they don’t hide the fact that since I’m your girlfriend it’s going to give a nice promo to the movie.”

“Okay. And what do you want to do? Are you still hell bent on saying no?”

“I said I was interested. I’m going to do some camera testing in the beginning of January in LA and they are hoping to start filming in late February. And the nice thing is that it will be shot in Italy, in Modena so I won’t be far from Maranello. You are definitely going to see me around.”

========================

author's note: Oh and a wild chapter appears! At least someone put some senses into Lya's head.

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[notenoughmuses]

“i said the words and i meant them.” for rhaegar

Rhaegar holds her close and rests his head atop of hers. His heart beat slowing down as he repeats her words in his head. "Forgive me, my sweet. I'm afraid I'm in my head too often."

It was true, over the last few months he wondered if either Lyanna or Elia felt true to their words, he questioned himself more and more as it seemed his father was hell bent on ruining any sliver of happiness he could have. He loved Elia and their children, but his heart had also made its way to Lyanna. "Thank you Lyanna"

[daenystheedreamer]

"Grand northern conspiracy" what part of the last 5 books makes you think ANY of these people have the ability to collaborate with each other independently be so real rn. ned had been IMPRISONED and the manderlys and umbers were fighting over hunting lands they are NOT planning anything together they just all hate roose that much

exactly plus what have we learned about people. They Do Not Shut The Fuck Up EVER. r+l=j only stayed secret because it was JUST ned and howland and they never said anything ever ned lied to his wife for fifteen years. there is no way, in such a tense climate, every lord and lady in the north could a) keep their mouth shut b) coordinate despite conflicting loyalties c) not have any of their hundreds of men blab even accidentally. also ravens is not texting its not immediate and you can just shoot that raven dead. the grand northern conspiracy is several seperate minor quests that slightly overlap.

my thoughts on the gnc (based on the ASX video, i hate the forums) below the cut

WINTERFELL

the snowmen lords (barbrey, wyman, harwood stout, whoresbane umber) have their rickon conspiracy. this is the davos one, most obvious, confirmed etc. i believe what has been explained and hinted is straightforward.

ROBB'S WILL: MAEGE AND GALBART

maege and galbart are ambiguously with howland in the neck with robb's will that says jon is heir. there's evidence they made it and maege is "with lyra and [jorelle]" but probably not at bear island, because lyanna is the only one there. there have since no mentions of galbart's whereabouts

howland of course is the last living person with knowledge of r+l=j

robb's will was made under the belief that bran and rickon were dead and that sansa and arya were ???, leaving that document in limbo. also jon is dead

my belief is maege and galbart had their meeting with howland and are in some kind of hiding rn. i don't think howland told them about r+l=j because it's honestly sooo unrelated to the northern political situation. all it does is make things way more chaotic and puts jon in a really precarious position.

ROBB'S WILL: LADY STONEHEART

LSH has robb's crown and since cat was at the signing of the will it's possible she could crown jon. people link her to maege and galbart but lsh is clearly doing her own thing right now and does not gaf about her bastard stepson

the lannister/freys lost the brotherhood somewhere in the neck so its possible LSH is up there slaying it up with howland.

i think the LSH/howland collusion is a little iffy. LSH is not in her right mind because her brain is rotting in her cracked skull. i just dont see her scheming a huge political conspiracy rn.

personally im of the opinion LSH is on a course towards arya and/or sansa, not jon. or at least her nexus is at her daughters. she is on a revenge quest, not avenge quest. she wants to kill RW participants, not complete robb's will.

plus imo if LSH and the brotherhood are scheming anything, its a red wedding 2.0 massacre

RIVERRUN

tom of sevenstreams is spying on the lannister riverrun camp on behalf of the BWB and is clearly colluding with edmure.

edmure frees brynden

brynden is a robb loyalist and is now running around possibly knowing whatever edmure knows from tom

two riverrun tully guards choose to join the night's watch. where JON is!!!

also jeyne westerling is confirmed to feature in the TWOW prologue

this stuff is wayyy more circumstantial. the line of thought is that the BWB knows about robb's will -> tom knows -> tom tells edmure -> edmure tells brynden -> brynden becomes jon snow #1 fan or whatever. + those tully men are sent judge jon/inform him/whatever

again this is all under the assumption that this is LSH's plan, which i doubt. i think this part of the conspiracy is the least credible and i think a lot of these 'clues' or whatever are probably about a possible red wedding 2.0 (or attack on the lannister camp) as opposed to Everything Is About Jon. those tully men are sus though...

---

jesus okay i got bored here once i got to the part about stannis army politics. i only have enough space in my head to care about one conspiracy per contingent and i picked night lamp for stannis' army. i think there are conflicting loyalties and the fArya situation + bran rickon thing will complicate it further but jesus christ theyre on a military campaign. they do not have time to hook up with fuckn wyman manderly. everyone is freezing and starving okay.

flint and norrey have some shit going on. plus the fuckin liddle that met bran. god. what ever. basically its several minor conspiracies that happen to overlap and some are probably unrelated. but anyway everyone go watch and draw your own conclusions<3

i think the bolton-held winterfell is a powder keg waiting to explode is the Point or whatever. everyone runnning around with conflicting loyalties lying hating each other loving their family etc etc human heart in conflict with itself. way more fun and thematically appropriate. plus its so unneccessary... its like how people try and make littlefinger have bigger and crazier plans. his plans are already big and crazy you dont need to throat him so hard. now i think wyman does deserve a good throating but he's already an awesome schemer do we need to include lady stoneheart. let her murder more people on her own for her own reasons. god forbid women do anything