#from Aenar the Exile to Dany

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Ideas #45: Game of Thrones, but make it Reincarnation

I am a huge fan of eternal recurrence in media - the idea that all this has happened before, all this will happen again. I therefore have a tendency towards seeing patterns in works that were not perhaps intended by their authors, or, if they were, taking them to the utmost extreme.

Or: What if Jon Snow and Daenerys Stormborn are the latest incarnations of doomed Targaryen lovers?

Aka: The Aelor the Accursed Fic

Bear with me:

Prince Aelor was married to his twin sister Princess Aelora and died because of a mishap at her hand.

Before that Baelor Breakspear died of a mortal blow struck by the future King Maekor during the Tourney at Ashford Meadow.

Before that Prince Lucerys fell into Shipbreaker Bay during a fight with Prince Aemond...

...and because we know next to nothing about Aegon the Conqueror's forebears, there's no reason that, say, his ancestor Aenor the Exile couldn't be responsible for the death of his unknown great-grandmother through some mishap.

And since Game of Thrones is a world of magic, where the blood of kings can preform miracles and the dead can come back to life, there's no reason why all these tragedies can't have occurred between the same two reincarnated souls throughout history.

Or: Jon Snow is the reincarnation of Prince Aelor, Baelor Breakspear, Prince Lucerys, and Aenar's unknown wife, while Daenerys is the reincarnation of Princess Aelora, King Maekor, Prince Aemond, and Aenar the Exile.

Just imagine it:

Events proceed as per canon, but Jon and Dany are haunted in dreams by memories they shouldn't have and can't fully recall upon waking. Jon, on some level, is always afraid he will be killed by the one he loves - and believes this has come true when he's killed by brothers of the Night's Watch after narrowly escaping death at Ygritte's hand. Dany, similarly, always feels like she is responsible for the death of the ones she loves - and believes this has come true with her mother, brother, first husband, and son.

Yet these dreams become worse when they finally meet.

The War for the Dawn is fought against the backdrop of an endless series of memories - Jon and Dany growing closer and falling apart as new memories coming to the forefront.

Jon wants to trust Dany, but all his dreams tell him that he must kill her before she kills him, whereas Dany is afraid about being the death of yet another person she loves.

The revelation of Jon's parentage is tangled up in the revelation of their reincarnations.

As Jon and Dany try to reconcile all of their past lives and all of the terrible things their past lives have done to each other, they reunite the Seven Kingdoms. Even as they marry and are crowned the co-rulers of Westeros - Jon taking the dynastic name Aelor I - they're still trying to overcome the actions of their past selves.

They spend the rest of their lives trying to break the cycle, with at least three notable near-misses. They succeed in the end, but have a relationship far more fraught than bards who tell the story of their meeting make out. Later historians are baffled by the dynamic, but place it down as Targaryen oddity.

Bonuses include: 1) Jon having an instinctual knowledge of High Valyrian because of the dreams and not realizing it until the first time Maester Aemon slips into the language in his presence; 2) The inherent complication that comes from having five sets of memories - perhaps even more from before the Doom - that tell you not to trust your lover, who will destroy you even if they don't intend it, and plunge the country you've just rebuilt into war; 3) The inherent complication of having five sets of memories - perhaps even more - that tell you that you can't be trusted, that you destroy everything you touch, and will inevitably lead the country you've just rebuilt back into war; and 4) A whole host of concerned friends and family members looking at Jon and Dany's relationship from the outside and being very concerned about their strange dynamic.

...and that's all I have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you ever do anything with it.

Other Jon Snow Headcanons: Aelor the Accursed | Aegon the Adopted | Aegon the Undying | Aegon the Unyielding | Aemon the Adventurous | Baelor the Brave | Daeron the Desired | Dyanna the Defiant | King of the Ashes | Lady Arryn | Lady Baratheon | Lady Lannister | Lady Stark | Lord of the Dance | Prince Consort | Prince of Summerhall | Queen Mother | Rhaegar the Righteous

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[beneaththeshadows]

Honestly, HotD got my hands itching to draw a targaryen family tree but I still don't think I have the ability necessary

[agentrouka-blog]

What do you think about Marwyn? He told Sam that Aemon was sent to wall because of his blood and shouldn't be trusted. Then he claim he is going to meet Dany to see her dragons. He is the one who taught Mirri some tricks. He claims that Citadel has no place for sorcery and other maesters don't trust him. I don't know if he truly believed in Dany or he will be another Mirri. He is really fishy. Do you think he will betray Dany?

I really don't know. I don't like him, something about him gives me the creeps. The only reason I am not writing him off completely as a deranged chaotic element is the fact that Sarella "Alleras" Sand was part of his circle, and she hails from a Westerosi family that has an anti-dragon history and has a Summer Islander mother, also not a people known for oppressive violence.

He has a mocking name for everyone, thought Pate, but he could not deny that Marwyn looked more a mastiff than a maester. As if he wants to bite you. The Mage was not like other maesters. People said that he kept company with whores and hedge wizards, talked with hairy Ibbenese and pitch-black Summer Islanders in their own tongues, and sacrificed to queer gods at the little sailors' temples down by the wharves. Men spoke of seeing him down in the undercity, in rat pits and black brothels, consorting with mummers, singers, sellswords, even beggars. Some even whispered that once he had killed a man with his fists.

When Marwyn had returned to Oldtown, after spending eight years in the east mapping distant lands, searching for lost books, and studying with warlocks and shadowbinders, Vinegar Vaellyn had dubbed him "Marwyn the Mage." (AFFC, Prologue)

Hmm. I mean, the aggression and murder don't endear him to me. But some of this is reminiscent of Arya, the consorting with all kinds of social outcasts and killing and learning magical science stuff is basically what she does in Braavos.

But look who speaks well of him: Qyburn.

"The archmaesters are all craven at heart. The grey sheep, Marwyn calls them. I was as skilled a healer as Ebrose, but aspired to surpass him. For hundreds of years the men of the Citadel have opened the bodies of the dead, to study the nature of life. I wished to understand the nature of death, so I opened the bodies of the living. For that crime the grey sheep shamed me and forced me into exile . . . but I understand the nature of life and death better than any man in Oldtown." (AFFC, Cersei II)

The grey sheep shamed him... but not Marwyn?

He's as into propehcies as Aemon.

"Nuncle." She closed the door behind her. "What reading was so urgent that you leave your guests without a host?"

"Archmaester Marwyn's Book of Lost Books." He lifted his gaze from the page to study her. "Hotho brought me a copy from Oldtown. He has a daughter he would have me wed." Lord Rodrik tapped the book with a long nail. "See here? Marwyn claims to have found three pages of Signs and Portents, visions written down by the maiden daughter of Aenar Targaryen before the Doom came to Valyria. Does Lanny know that you are here?" (AFFC, The Kraken's Daughter)

Though at least he seems more sceptical of them than the Targaryens themselves. "Still..."

"Born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star. I know the prophecy." Marwyn turned his head and spat a gob of red phlegm onto the floor. "Not that I would trust it. Gorghan of Old Ghis once wrote that a prophecy is like a treacherous woman. She takes your member in her mouth, and you moan with the pleasure of it and think, how sweet, how fine, how good this is . . . and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams. That is the nature of prophecy, said Gorghan. Prophecy will bite your prick off every time." He chewed a bit. "Still . . ."

Alleras stepped up next to Sam. "Aemon would have gone to her if he had the strength. He wanted us to send a maester to her, to counsel her and protect her and fetch her safely home."

"Did he?" Archmaester Marwyn shrugged. "Perhaps it's good that he died before he got to Oldtown. Elsewise the grey sheep might have had to kill him, and that would have made the poor old dears wring their wrinkled hands."

"Kill him?" Sam said, shocked. "Why?"

"If I tell you, they may need to kill you too." Marywn smiled a ghastly smile, the juice of the sourleaf running red between his teeth. "Who do you think killed all the dragons the last time around? Gallant dragonslayers armed with swords?" He spat. "The world the Citadel is building has no place in it for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles, much less for dragons. Ask yourself why Aemon Targaryen was allowed to waste his life upon the Wall, when by rights he should have been raised to archmaester. His blood was why. He could not be trusted. No more than I can."

"What will you do?" asked Alleras, the Sphinx.

"Get myself to Slaver's Bay, in Aemon's place. The swan ship that delivered Slayer should serve my needs well enough. The grey sheep will send their man on a galley, I don't doubt. With fair winds I should reach her first." Marwyn glanced at Sam again, and frowned. "You . . . you should stay and forge your chain. If I were you, I would do it quickly. A time will come when you'll be needed on the Wall." (AFFC, Samwell V)

The way Sarella handles him and leads the conversation reminds me of Missandei, and it's probable that Missandei is manipulating Dany, so I'm projecting that onto their relationship here, too.

It's hard to predict what his exact intentions with Dany might be. He doesn't buy the heroic prophecy, but it's clear he's not opposed to dragons and murky magic and manipulation and violence. For all that he speaks as if he sees through all the confusion, he could be as misguided as Melisandre, or as coldly curious as Qyburn.

And the sourleaf is never a good sign, either. Masha Heddle (murdered), Yoren (murdered), Chett (killed by wights), the dwarf at the Duskendale Inn (murdered), Emmon Frey (not long for this world, eh?), Marwyn and Snatch are all featured as chewing sourleaf. Some are good, some are bad, but the blood-looking mouth rarely portends a good end.