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Rhaenyra overcoming her fear of motherhood and pregnancy was such a missed opportunity! Like, imagine Rhaenyra, in her early twenties, who has just given up the hope of having normal intercourse with her husband - like, his sexuality aside (and that’s one hell of an aside), their wedding must’ve been extremely traumatic for him. There’s no way in hell Leanor was able to have regular intercourse with her, and both of them must’ve absolutely HATED it. It’s perfectly plausible that they gave up trying to conceive normally pretty early on in their marriage. Instead, Rhaenyra has some good old trauma bonding after the wedding with Harwin Strong, and then, after interacting regularly with him for a few months, is just like. Fuck it. It might as well be him.
And it happens FAST. Like, in the books, Jace was born the SAME YEAR Rhaenyra married Laenor, but even in the show she seems to have conceived within a couple of years after the wedding. So Rhaenyra understandably freaks out! Her little adventure with Daemon might’ve allowed her to put aside her fears for a while, but it of course did nothing to actually address them! She probably considers the good old moon tea, but she knows that as an heir, she can’t afford to just not have children at all. One day, she would have to face the music and give birth, no matter how much it triggers her trauma from her mother’s death. So she seeks help. She can’t turn to Alicent, not after she vouched for fucking Criston. Laena is still unmarried at this point, though Rhaenyra has probably heard that Corlys has agreed to marry her off to Daemon. Her last resort are her friends, except she doesn’t seem to have any (I headcannon that she does hang out with the women at court, but none of those are especially close to her, more like people to gossip, drink dornish red with and impress by her massive fuck you dragon), and... Rhaenys.
Like, imagine mommy Rhaenys coming to the court on her large fuck you dragon the in the last stages of her pregnancy. Imagine her being all “oh, honey, did you sleep well? what about the morning sickness?”. And at first it’s just care for her unborn grandchild, but for Rhaenyra, it’s a brief moment of having her mother back. And she starts to turn to Rhaenys for political advice, realizing she is much smarter than her father... For just a couple of months, the two are absolute besties! Rhaenys suddenly has a second daughter! Rhaenyra finally confronts her fears of motherhood and with Rhaenys’ guidance learns to love the child she is about to give birth to! It’s so beautiful... Untill her kid is born. Untill Rhaenys starts to hear the rumors. Untill she realizes the child is an absolute fucking miracle considering it was conceived so quickly after the wedding, with a father who doesn’t even like women (and was around the time of conception still mourning his lover). She doesn’t want to reject Rhaenyra to her face, but after they attend Laena’s wedding together (and boy is that a Moment for Rhaenyra, to watch her childhood friend marry her first love she’s probably not entirely over), Rhaenys returns to Driftmark and politely rejects her requests to visit her at King’s Landing, and always has an excuse why they can’t visit her and Corlys at Driftmark just yet. And if Rhaenyra doesn’t know why at first, she catches up pretty quickly. It’s the last straw that finally breaks her and makes her withdraw into herself, mining drops of happiness wherever she can - in the friendship with her husband, in her secret relationship with Harwin, and in her father. And more importantly, her son. Because she has no mum. She now IS the mum. And she can’t let her child down.
#house of the dragon#rhaenyra coming of age arch was frustratingly incomplete#it's fair to assume her kids played a role in that#so i wrote this pseudofic#more like a headcannon really#to make myself cry i guess#mommy rhaenyra just makes me emotional okay#as does the relationship between her and rhaenys#two absolute queens having an extremely thorny relationship#that isn't based on petty bullshit like rhaenyra's feud with alicent?#GIMME#if i can't have mommy rhaenys all the way trough#then at least let me have this!
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