#i am trusting that writing this will help get rid of this lil brainrot

[bbygirl-aemond]

Oh, can I please have more deets about the Lucemond Arranged Marriage AU idea??

Yeah sure I've thought about it plenty lmao. It's another canon divergence AU (can you tell I love me some fix-its?) and is basically founded on two main premises:

1. Viserys lives until 135 AC

Somehow Viserys is a bit healthier than he was in the show canon, so he has the strength to keep going for six years longer than in canon. By the time he dies in 135 AC, instead of 129 AC, things will have shifted within the families as a result.

Visenya survived her birth in 129 AC, since there was no throne stealing to induce a miscarriage. Corlys died in 132 AC (as in canon). With Viserys around to ensure his claim, Luke succeeded Corlys as Master of Driftmark.

By the time Viserys dies, Visenya will be six years old and Luke will have been Master of Driftmark for three years. However, as in canon, the Greens will still probably try to move to take the throne. But now we're dealing with two Teams who look different than in canon and who are in different positions politically.

Team Black will be in a noticeably stronger position (their dragon riders have matured + Jace has had more time to prove his competence + Luke has full control of Velaryon resources). So it sets up the stage very nicely for Team Green to be quickly (and relatively bloodlessly) overpowered by Team Black, for Rhaenyra to assume her throne, and for her to try to solve the house divide with her favorite trick: a few handy dandy arranged marriages.

2. Same-sex marriages are seen as valid political arrangements

I mean this is kind of necessary for when your plot revolves around two men being in an arranged marriage lmao. I have no trick to make this realistic, you'll just straight up have to suspend your disbelief. Maybe it's a Valyrian tradition that's kind of looked down upon by most of Westeros, the same way as incest is. I also don't write mpreg, so this would require some further suspension of disbelief that magic can be used to let two guys reproduce via a surrogate or smth. Idk man just go with it. But overall, this stuff will have interesting plot implications:

For example, Otto would have had a legitimate reason to try to pimp Alicent out to Rhaenyra, happy to embrace Valyrian taboos when they furthered his private agenda, but Viserys likely pulled rank to steal Alicent away and his subsequent relationships with both girls were more negative as a result.

Instead of proposing that Jace and Helaena marry, Rhaenyra would have probably proposed that Jace and Aegon marry, as the two respective eldest children, but with Jace as the sole ruler. (As in canon, Alicent would refuse and instead marry Aegon to Helaena, this time just because she's the second-eldest instead of because she's the eldest girl.)

The two betrothals between Jace and Baela and Luke and Rhaena would still occur. Jace and Baela would get married before Viserys died and have a child on the way. (Potential angst goldmine here for Viserys's death to still cause a miscarriage- just not Rhaenyra's)

But Luke and Rhaena wouldn't get married quite yet, leaving Luke betrothed but technically unmarried by the time of Viserys's death.

Add 1 and 2 together and you get Lucerys and Aemond: the eldest unmarried children on either of the two teams, right when Rhaenyra is trying to use marriages to unite the teams. You'll also probably get some attempt to marry Jace's bloodline with Aegon's within one of the younger generations, but that's not the main point here.

So you get older, very adult Lucemond by the time they even consider each other in a romantic context- Lucerys will be about 20 and Aemond about 24- and you also get a Lucerys who's already three years into being Master of Driftmark. Lucemond in this content are snarky assholes who are on fairly equal footing (Aemond having Vhagar balances out Luke having a title). Push them together, wind them up, and watch them go.