#remove aerys from daenerys and you get ned!

[royslannisters]

TWISTED FAIRYTALE : chapter one

pairings: jaime lannister x fem!oc , cersei lannister x fem!oc

warnings: birth , mentioned abuse

words : 1.1k

HOUSE MARILL , words was "the wind flows" that was sworn to house targaryen since centuries before the birth of rhaenys targaryen the mad king's only daughter before daenerys was born. the current living members are remus marill who was known as the blue venom as he was what people would call the worse tywin lannister , the other living member is his daughter alys marill the only daughter of remus whom he hated as when his wife lucelia died after giving birth to alys.

remus head rose up when he heard the door a maiden came out holding the crying alys as the maiden looked at remus "no"he kept saying as he ran inside "lucelia"he yelled rushing over to his dying wife "take care of her"lucelia chocked out her hand held by remus that dropped "no no no"remus kept saying the sound of alys could be heard behind as the maiden tried to calm her "shut that devil up"remus yelled

"i don't care kill her strangle her"remus yelled at the maiden who kept holding alys "are you crazy"joanna said frustrated with remus behavior then she stood infront of the maiden "she killed her"remus yelled "it's not her fault SHE'S A BABY"joanna yelled while remus was walking back and fourth "she is your daughter she is my bestfriend's daughter and most importantly your heir HEIR TO MARE RUINS"joanna yelled

Mare ruins was the most beautiful place in westros with its huge castle which was ontop of a hill going a bit down , the gardens everything was beautiful in it even tho when you hear mare ruins you would think the place would be horrible

that was for alys growing up always neglected or emotionally abused by her own father when a day never went by where he didn't blame her for mother's death. the only mother love alys could ever get was from joanna who was lucelia's bestfriend , that was how jaime's hatred for alys started he never liked how his mother would spend her free time with alys as he always called alys the motherless which was a nickname cersei created jaime and alys bickered growing up always.

Rhaenys targaryen the second daughter of the mad king , aerys always hated his daughter he hated the idea of a women on the thrown that he removed her as heir banishing her claim forever.

rhaenys and alys became friends immediately as they first met at the Anniversary Tourney in King's Landing in 272 AC, held to celebrate Aerys's tenth year on the Iron Throne

as all four grew up rhaenys would find herself slowly falling for cersei she never knew how yet the cold mean cersei always found confront in rhaenys. it wasn't that far till alys found out about jaime and cersei , unlike cersei and rhaenys who always were nice to eachother alys jaime hated eachother fought any chance they got but even tho jaime hated alys there was no doubt of

that

yet he would always confess his deadliest sins to her no matter what

even tho rhaenys alys knew of the incest they never said a word even tho alys always used it against jaime yet rhaenys never used it against cersei yet she was extremely jealous of jaime being with Cersei

rhaenys was standing beside the column looking at jon Arryn's body. she looked to the side seeing jaime and cersei there a thought entered her head but she shook it off then someone stood beside her "they both would be capable of it"alys softly said as she stood beside rhaenys "but on what motivate?"rhaeys added alys opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out which made rhaenys chuckle walking past her "but in my defense"alys said running after her , the twins watched from afar cersei fist's were clenched as she cracked them together "i sometimes wonder if they are together"jaime added "why would rhaenys be with a wench like alys"cersei replied in jealousy

alys rhaenys watched the encounter between robert and ned , they were now in the north alys rhaenys included. alys rolled her eyes when jaime took of his helmet it was always his way of showing of "not here"rhaenys whispered to alys then watched how robert simply ignored cersei "take me to your crypt. i want to pay my respects"robert said to ned "we've been riding for a month , my love"cersei said which cause rhaenys to raise her eyebrow "surely the dead can wait"cersei added but robert ignored her and simply nodded at ned

alys heared the sound of moaning coming from a room and opened to see jaime beside the table drinking and tyrion beside some whore "really already?"alys raised her eyebrow at tyrion who nodded. the only one alys was close with besides rhaenys was tyrion he was her what you would call boy bestfriend both having the same fate. "great you"jaime said drinking rolling his eyes but alys simply ignored him "the feast is at sundown"alys said as she stood against a collum "i'm sorry i've begun the feast a bit early"tyrion said then continued "and this is the first of many courses"he said which made alys immediately face palm "i thought you might say that"jaime cut in then walked to the door "but since we're short on time"he said then open the door "come on girls"jaime said as more whores entered giggling while alys looked at Jaime with disgust then the girls jumped to tyrions bed and jaime pulled alys by her wrist out

at the feast alys was sat beside rhaenys whose eyes didn't leave cersei's. then rhaenys noticed cersei's face when robert kissed some northern and rhaenys softly held cersei's hand from under the table and cersei's held her fingers tight. alys was beside the wine table she noticed jaime and ned's conversation she knew immediately jaime was probably starting it out of anywhere she rolled her eyes then drank her wine then jaime walked towards her "dear god"alicent groaned "aah watching me from afar"he said pouring himself a drink also "don't flatter yourself that much"alys said then looked around on the other hand jaime didn't like how alys stared at some man from afar so he cleared his throat "must be already inlove with me"jaime added which obviously made alys want to kill him "you wish"alys said finishing her cup then walking back beside rhaenys

later the next morning alys was in her guest chambers her head rose up as she heard the sound of her door open it was jaime she immediately realized and sat back "oh dear god what did you do this time"

[tomakeitbeautifultolive]

Saw your N+A=D meta on the internet and posts about it, first time hearing about it but i love it already! I am more of a R+A=D or R+L=D tbh, but i am sold on this one too!

OoOoOoohh, anon! Well, first - fucking thank you! Everyone ‘round here hates this theory with a burning passion lmfao. And I'll point you to mine and @ktwrites’ website here, where you can find a much more in-depth look at the theory.

But allow me to sway you away from Rhaegar and towards Ned.

First of all - Jon and Dany’s ages:

“No, Jon was not born ‘more than 1 year’ before Dany… probably closer to eight or nine months or thereabouts.”

This would make it physically impossible for Lyanna to have given birth to her, and likely Rhaegar. Of course, you could disregard the man, himself - but we’re going to go ahead and believe the author, here.

Now, curiously… exactly 8-9 months before Dany is born, we can place Ned at Starfall.

And, really, the crux of this theory is that someone who knew Dany’s parents from birth and watched them grow - does not compare her looks to either one, but instead, to Ashara, with whom she shares a rare eye color with. Daenerys has violet eyes. Rhaegar? Indigo.

Further, Dany’s mysterious memories involving lemon trees tie her childhood to Dorne, if we’re to take the context clues that Dorne is where lemons come from:

“Lemons. And where would we get lemons? Does this look like Dorne to you, you freckled fool?”

So, if you can accept then, that Ashara is Dany’s mother, and that Dany is 8-9 months younger than then you have to rule out Rhaegar. He was already dead.

Keep in mind that while Ashara had dark hair, the Daynes also possess more classically Valyrian looks. Gerold and Ned Dayne have pale blonde/silver hair and purple or blue/purple eyes. Also remember that unlike Robert Baratheon, Ned’s seed is not strong. All of his children look Tully, save for Arya.

There is no hint of any relationship whatsoever between Rhaegar and Ashara. Even Ned has thoughts that seem to confirm he was not the type to mess around:

“For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not.”

Considering that Lyanna took to him so quickly, it’s safe to say he was rather different from her intended betrothed, Robert Baratheon. We have quotes to tell us that Rhaegar loved both of his wives.

And we have many, many quotes that suggest Ned and Ashara not only had physical encounters, but that they were in love. Rumors exist from Dorne to King’s Landing to the North of their affair. Catelyn mentioning Ashara Dayne to Ned made him more furious than she had ever seen him before. Why? She would’ve been the perfect scapegoat for Jon’s mother! And if she’s just a red herring for Jon’s mother, why do we get a mention of Ashara all the way over in Essos, well after most readers have already figured out who Jon’s real mother is?

There is simply no proof of Ashara having been with any man other than Ned, and several quotes from several different people popping up in several different storylines about Ned and Ashara. Yet no one believes it. Why?

I really, truly, deeply do understand this repulsion to any theory suggesting Daenerys might not be Targaryen… because I used to have it, too. But I have my own repulsion.

If Jon was rumored to be born of rape, but actually born of love - why shouldn’t Dany be?

And also:

If Jon has a secret identity and past, why does no one care about Dany’s mysterious lemon tree memories that don’t add up?

These two are mirrors of one another, are they not?

Ice and Fire. The Dragon and the Wolf.

Right now we’ve got Fire and Fire and two Dragons.

Also bear in mind that Jon seems so much like a Stark. And while he does have Stark blood, he’s a Targaryen. If he’s a Stark, then his 'siblings’ are fucking Tullys. I don’t make the rules!

Yet Dany seems so blatantly Targaryen, doesn’t she? I mean, it’s undeniable! She hatched dragons! She’s fireproof! The blood of the dragon!

And yet - no Targaryen for over a hundred years have managed to hatch one. Also, if Targaryens had to use magical rituals and blood sacrifice to hatch dragons, we’d have heard about it somewhere, right?

Jon, also a Targaryen, burns his hand in book/season 1. Aerion Targaryen drank wildfire and certainly did not live. Aegon V and Duncan Targaryen perished in flames.

Dany’s 'dragony’ temper is not unlike the 'wolf’s blood’ that possessed Brandon and Lyanna Stark.

“But it’s cruel to take Rhaella away from her!”

If Rhaella, with a very long history of fertility issues, is not actually her mother, then no, it’s not cruel. She’d also have a band of living siblings. True family.

Further, Daenerys skinchanged a horse! (And possibly, even Ghost, upon opening her third eye, the same way Bran could touch Ghost upon opening his).

“A daring she had never known filled Daenerys then, and she gave the filly her head.”

If the fallen direwolf represents Ned Stark - why then, does it have six pups?

Jon is not his child.

Why, when Jon proclaims Ghost must’ve wandered off, does Ned bother to correct him?

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said.

“Or been driven away,” their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning.

It’s a white wolf. A bastard wolf. Jon is not actually a bastard! Ghost is a wolf that everyone already associates with Daenerys in some way. Jon even comments that Val (who looks an awful lot like Daenerys) looks as though she and Ghost belong together. Meanwhile, Daenerys possesses a black dragon… one that curiously got stabbed in ADWD… just like another black dragon up at the Wall.

In this theory, Dany and Jon both live because they switched lives. Robert would’ve killed Dany for looking suspiciously Targaryen, and Viserys would’ve killed Jon for being male.

Everyone complains that Ned is boring. Too honorable. If GRRM loves to write the human heart in conflict with itself, what could be better than giving up your own bastard because you made a promise to raise your sister’s child?

“He would do whatever was right,” he said … ringingly, to make up for his hesitation. “No matter what.”

“Then Lord Eddard is a man in ten thousand. Most of us are not so strong.”

Was Ned truly a man in ten thousand? Or might he have inadvertently dishonored the woman he loved for duty’s sake - squaring off with her brother at the Tower of Joy?

What is a better story, here: Two Targaryens coming together to claim their throne? Or a bastard girl with no claim to anything conquering the damned world because she believes in herself?

You tell me.

Cripples, bastards, and broken things.

But who’s the bastard?

Anyway, for anyone who bothered to read my nonsense and is interested at all, I’ll plug our website again. Thanks for the ask, anon!

[hosts-of-valyria]

"Oh the world will sing of a Storm King a thousand years from now. And not because he passed some laws or had that lofty brow while bonny good King Aegon leads the great crusade he's on. We'll all have to slave away for that good-for-nothin' Robert! Incredible as he is inept whenever the history books are kept, they'll call him the phony king of Storm's End. A pox on the phony king of Storm's End. A puppet on a string and he throws an angry tantrum if he cannot have his way. Too late to be known as Robert the First. He's sure to be known as Robert the worst. A pox on that phony king of Storm's End", sang Jaskier in Harrenhal.

Myrcella, Joffrey, Tommen, Margaery, Arya, Gendry, Sansa, Rhaenys, Aegon, Robb, Jon, Geralt, Daenerys, Ciri and Yennefer applauded, "a pox on the phony king of Storm's End!"

The scribes crossed Robert the First from the books and wrote Robert the Worst from Storm's End.

"A true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart", said Yennefer to Jon.

Harrenhal: Independence for the Kingdoms at the end of Robert's Rebellion when Elia Martell and Lyanna Stark fell in love. Elia and Lyanna fall in love in Harrenhal. Rhaegar's victory over Robert Baratheon when he proclaimed independence and destroyed the Iron Throne with the wildfire. Rhaegar has to avoid the Trident, he has no chance against Robert in the open field. Rhaegar must intervene in King's Landing. Rhaegar removes Aerys from the throne when he demands the head of Brandon and Rickard Stark and locks Aerys away on Dragonstone. Rhaegar, Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, Lewyn Martell and Gerold Hightower entered the Red Keep, "Aerys Targaryen! Come down from the Iron Throne! I'm capturing you for the attempted murder of Rickard and Brandon Stark! I am placing you under house arrest on Dragonstone. I will send you doctors and Rhaella will visit you from time to time to make sure of your condition", said Rhaegar.

Lord Commander Gerold Hightower refuses to take further orders from Aerys. Gerold Hightower files a petition against Aerys for insanity

The knights handcuffed Aerys. Arthur Dayne and Gerold Hightower drew their swords, "the guard arrests Aerys Targaryen! If you refuse to come down from the Iron Throne, we will use violence. We refuse to take further orders from you."

Rhaella watched Aerys scream insanely, "I burn you all", Lyanna and Elia hugged each other stormily. Barristan Selmy led Aerys away in chains, "Dragonstone is waiting for you Aerys."

The soldiers attached cranes and ropes to the Iron Throne and tore it from the throne room, "bring the throne to the furnaces and melt it down with the wildfire."

As soon as Rhaegar moves to the Trident he is dead. Rhaegar puts down the rebellion as Robert stands at the Trident. At that moment Rhaegar Targaryen declares independence for the kingdoms. The Trident becomes a death trap for Rhaegar. Varys, Barristan Selmy, Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower, Elia, Lyanna, Rhaella, the people cheered loudly when Rhaegar proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. "I, Rhaegar Targaryen hereby restore the Kingdoms to independence. I give sovereignty to all kingdoms. The Iron Throne is gone. I'm no king of Westeros!"

Rhaegar Targaryen crushes the rebellion. The bells rang for the Declaration of Independence in King's Landing. The news spread like a wildfire through Westeros, "Independence for the kingdoms!"

A big wonderful family

Ciri looked wide-eyed when she saw the fortress, "Dragon fire. A blown ruin. The fortress needs to be repaired", Jon, Yennefer, Daenerys, and Geralt nodded, "Aegon the Conqueror burned Harrenhal. Harren the black thought Harrenhal was his legacy, Ciri. The fortress was built to withstand 500,000 soldiers. But when dragon fire came he died in his own halls. Harren and Aegon the Conqueror were tyrants", and Ciri nodded, "Aegon the Conqueror built the wheel."

Jon's tremendous empathy: A general's yardstick. The son is more powerful than his father. Jon's magical ability: control of fire and ice to freezer burn. Lyanna teaches Jon how to reason properly

"The armies have found their general, they would follow him to death. When Jon speaks correctly, massive armies will answer his call. Tyrants bow their knees before him. He knows things", thought Yennefer and Lyanna as they looked at Jon.

Conscription: The shining hero and general for armies: A born general, soldier, commander and leader: Jon resigns from the Night's Watch and becomes general of the armed forces of Winterfell and King's Landing, replacing Rodrik Cassel and Gerold Hightower: A military career for Jon Stark. Live to love and love to live! Don't live to work, don't work to live.

"Interesting. The more penises on a uniform, the higher the rank", Medals from wolves, fishes, three-headed dragons, snakes were on the uniform. Ciri, Jaskier, Daenerys, Elia, Lyanna and Yennefer looked at the badges on their armors.

Brynden Tully and Petyr Baelish patted Jon and Geralt on their shoulders, "a picture for tomorrow's newspaper."

An artist painted a Photo of Jon, Geralt, Petyr Baelish and Brynden Tully.

"Jon Stark and Geralt of Rivia on par with Randyll Tarly", it said in the newspaper. Petyr Baelish's new newspaper from Westeros. And it was a box office hit. People bought Petyr Baelish's newspapers with gusto.

Jon's vow: "I am a soldier, general, commander. I wear a uniform. I am a born soldier and warrior. I swore to change Westeros", thought Jon in Harrenhal. Yennefer examined him carefully, "Empathy is always the key, Jon."

He looked at her, "get out of my head honey."

Yennefer laughed out loud and kissed him, "Sorry never happens again. I'm a good wife, please don't punish me. I am submissive too."

Lyanna caught Jon and Yennefer making out, "I should have known that I would catch my daughter-in-law and my son kissing wildly. Move your asses. If you two want to fuck, find a bed", Lyanna said, slapping both of them on the buttocks. Yennefer giggled, "yes mum", Lyanna smiled, "be glad I let you get away with so much", Yennefer and Jon kissed her cheek, "you're the best", Lyanna smiled, "oh that's nice of you two. You said that really nicely."

A new office created by Rhaegar Targaryen: Director Tissaia de Vries, Director of the Elite Guard

Rodrik Cassel, Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower and Tissaia smiled when they saw Jon and Yennefer, "Lord Commander we greet you. Ah the Commander of the Night's Watch and the sorceress are here. Have you chosen your successor yet, Jon", Jon nodded, "Dolorous Edd will be my successor."

Jon and Yennefer hugged Sansa and Aegon, "the two political geniuses have arrived. The King and Queen of King's Landing", Jon and Yennefer hugged Robb and Rhaenys, "the king and queen of the north are here", the six went to dinner and Sansa put a banana in Aegon's mouth, "swallow and don't spit, Egg", Sansa kissed him and he swallowed the banana.

Tissaia leaned over to Yennefer, "will you give me some of the pie", Yennefer looked at Tissaia, "what's the magic word?"

Tissaia shrugged, "but Pronto", Rhaegar, Eddard, Gerold Hightower and Arthur Dayne laughed out loud.

Gendry's steep career in the craft: A born craftsman: The blacksmith of King's Landing and Cintra and his two beauties: Gendry doesn't want anything to do with Robert Baratheon and is suing him for maintenance. Elia Martell and Lyanna Stark the lawyers and they drag the Storm King to court. Mya, Gendry, Edric and Bella are suing Robert Baratheon for maintenance costs

Ciri and Arya got dressed and kissed Gendry, "you ruined our pussies, we are sore and can barely walk straight. Tomorrow we'll be sore between our legs", Ciri, Arya and Gendry came out of rooms as they faced Eddard, Geralt and Jon, "oh fuck we can explain that."

Geralt, Ned and Jon grabbed Gendry, "did you fuck them both well?"

Gendry nodded, "with the heat of a stag. The two of them can't get enough of my hammer. Arya howled like a she-wolf and Ciri groaned after Mummy."

Ned patted his shoulder encouragingly, "very good Gendry."

Arya and Ciri rolled their eyes, "Gendry Baratheon!"

Geralt and Jon looked at Ciri and Arya, "didn't you think the joke was funny", Gendry and Eddard laughed aloud.

Ciri and Arya looked at Gendry, "your mother was a dumb whore with a fat arse. Did you know that", Gendry smiled cynically, "and you two could use a breastplate stretcher."

Ciri and Arya looked at him with their mouths open, "did you call us fat? Next time you can jerk yourself off!"

Sansa, Rhaenys, Yennefer, Daenerys, Lyanna and Catelyn laughed aloud, "yeah girls. The men sometimes have no manners, don't listen to them."

Jon, Eddard and Geralt gave Gendry a high five, "Well done Gendry."

"Have a drink in advance, food will be ready in a moment", said Elia and Lyanna, sticking a spoon of soup in Rhaegar's mouth, "Try", Rhaegar nodded, "it tastes great. You two have outdone yourself once more", Lyanna and Elia giggled, "Rhaegar Targaryen can be so diplomatic at times", Oberyn and Eddard looked at Rhaegar, "Crawler." Rhaegar shrugged, "if it works", Sansa, Ellaria, Jon, Oberyn, Yennefer, Elia, Eddard, Catelyn, Lyanna, Rhaegar, Aegon, Rhaenys, Robb laughed aloud.

Yennefer and Jon hugged Brandon, Ashara, and Rickard, "we missed you. You came from Starfall. How things are going with Ashara?"

"Have you laid her flat yet", asked Brandon to Jon. Yennefer rolled her eyes, "it was clear that this question comes from you."

Lyanna, Catelyn, Ashara, and Eddard looked at him, "Brandon Stark", Jon nodded, "More than once", Brandon smiled, "That's my nephew. Never too shy to take what he wants. Bang her hard Jon", Rickard laughed out loud.

Seven Stark children

Karhold: Rickard Karstark hugged Edric and Alys, "look at you, Karstarks and Starks belong together. Do you like Starfall, Alys", she nodded, "it's wonderful, Ashara is awesome", Edric leaned over to Alys, "he's always been an asshole", Alys giggled, "oh yeah."

Brandon smiled, "oh it's going perfectly with Ashara. Alys and Edric will come with us next time. The two are on their way to Karhold."

Ashara took Yennefer with her, "my nephew Jon has good taste in women. Tissaia, you must be very proud of Yennefer that she is so successful", Tissaia nodded, "she is a good girl."

Rhaella Targaryen's memories of the Targaryen Kings on the Iron Throne: Jon's paternal grandmother

Stories from bygone times, a three hundred year old dynasty.

Regular visits for Aerys by Viserys, Rhaenys, Aegon, Rhaegar, Jon, Robb, Yennefer, Elia, Lyanna, Rhaella, Daenerys, Geralt, Sansa, Brandon, Ashara, Ciri and Rickard Stark. Doctors from Sunspear and Oldtown are providing medical treatment for Aerys Targaryen.

"Do you still know who I am grandfather", asked Jon, Aerys shook his head, "i am your grandson Jon. You showed me the big map of Westeros and we ran against each other on the beach, you always let me win."

And Aerys nodded.

Yennefer and Jon helped Aerys get up and Yennefer gave him medicine and Rickard changed the sheets, "this is for your heart condition. Jon and I wanted to take you for a walk on the beach of Dragonstone. We're spending some time with our grandson, Jon's wife brought wonderful soup and homemade bread. How does that sound, Aerys? It smells wonderful."

And Aerys nodded.

Yennefer and Jon smiled and she gave him some soup, "I am Yennefer. I am happy to see you Aerys. I got the recipe from my mother when she was still alive. You could run a marathon Aerys", Rickard laughed out loud, "oh how does that sound Aerys? A marathon would be great", and there was a smile on Aerys as if to say yes.

Aerys Targaryen the last Targaryen king on the Iron Throne when Rhaegar removed his father and destroyed the throne. A heart condition in Aerys Targaryen. Loss of language. Loss of motor skills. Bedridden. Alzheimer's disease at Aerys Targaryen

Aerys Targaryen dies of a heart attack 25 years after the Rebellion. Aerys Targaryen buried in the Red Keep where the Iron Throne stood

Geralt as commander of the forces of Dragonstone.

Diane Kruger as Queen Mother Rhaella Targaryen, 60 the new 40: Niece of Maester Aemon Targaryen, mother of Rhaegar, Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, Widow of the late Aerys Targaryen on Dragonstone, whom she survived by 40 years. Death of Rhaella Targaryen in King's Landing at the age of 100

Rhaella grabbed Geralt by the neck, "so you're banging with my Dany yeah? I wish I was young again. You have to be Ciri, the lion cub of Cintra. Calanthe's granddaughter."

Ciri curtsied, "Cintra, Aedirn, Temeria and the Northern Kingdoms send you their greetings, Foltest and Virfuril send greetings. I am happy to meet the Queen Mother Rhaella Targaryen. You saw the Targaryen kings on the Iron Throne."

Rhaella smiled, "oh that thing was just shitty and ugly. That thing could have been thrown in the trash and I wouldn't have cared. I haven't seen anything more beautiful than the Iron Throne burned greenish through the wildfire. The Targaryen were refugees from Valyria, Aegon and his sisters could have lived here in peace, but instead Aegon was a conqueror and tyrant. You see what he did to Harrenhal, Ciri, a blasted ruin. Aegon built the wheel as we knew it when he subjugated the Kingdoms and Balerion's fires forged the Iron Throne. Aegon the Conqueror was no better than Harren the Black when he brought firestorms", Ciri nodded.

Daenerys looked at her, "mum. You can live another 40 years."

Rhaella laughed, "oh you know Dany I look in the mirror in the morning and say to myself: that's just the way it is. Oh, I was good back then", Geralt and Ciri laughed aloud. Daenerys smiled, "mum, this is Geralt", Geralt swallowed and nodded, "Dany fucks me in every imaginable position. She already fucked me on Drogon's back."

Ciri kicked his shin, "careful daddy. The witcher models for his Khaleesi."

Rhaella laughed aloud and stroked his hair, "he's got beautiful silver hair, Dany. Don't you think Ciri", Ciri and Daenerys laughed when Geralt blushed, "definitely."

"You were so cute Lyanna when you cried in Harrenhal when Rhaegar played the harp", said Benjen.

Lyanna poured wine over Benjen's head, "I think you're familiar with it Benjen."

Rhaella, Arthur, Gerold, Tissaia, Ashara, Brandon, Rickard, Eddard, Catelyn, Geralt, Ellaria, Daenerys, Yennefer, Ciri, Elia, Rhaenys, Rhaegar, Aegon, Sansa, Robb, Arya, Gendry, Jon, Oberyn laughed out loud.

A life in the shadow of Rhaegar Targaryen: Robert Baratheon, who never came out of the shadow of his adversary for the rest of his life. Robert's mistake: Incompetence, these are the types of people who fail every interview. Robert's lack of respect for others. The incompetent Lord of Storm's End: At Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister laughed out loud, "oh the Storm King has always been incompetent, a bad king, a drunkard and a thug."

Jaskier collapsed laughing when he saw Robert. Margaery pulled Jaskier up, "I'm sorry Storm King, my husband has never seen a fat pig", Trystane, Shireen, Mya, Bella, Edric, Myrcella, Tommen and Joffrey collapsed laughing. Jaskier laughed out loud, "haha haha such a fat pig."

Rhaegar always wins regardless of the outcome. Rhaegar's insurmountable power, a father's love for Jon, Aegon and Rhaenys. Eddard Stark, second father for Jon.

"I have to reinvent myself", said Rhaegar in his melancholy.

Lyanna and Elia looked at him, "renewal is cool. No need for melancholy, honey", and he kissed the two women.

Lyanna and Elia as successful lawyers. Rhaegar as a successful politician. "Lyanna is so wise", Elia thought.

"Elia is so great", thought Lyanna. "Rhaegar is such a strong father", thought the two.

Three successful characters in life: Determination, powerful, wisdom, respectful interaction, sustainability, renewal, loud, wild, dark, sad, feared, beautiful, sunshine, beloved, risky, elegant, dreamy

Rhaegar's respectful treatment of the mothers of his children. The mothers of his three children: Rhaegar's love for two women. Elia's and Lyanna's love for the father of their children. Wilf Scolding as Rhaegar Targaryen, Freida Pinto as Elia Martell and Megan Fox as Lyanna Stark

In Storm's End, a heavily indebted Robert Baratheon cursed the incompetent Storm Lord who wants to drink himself in his grave so that others can do his shit, "damn shit Rhaegar always wins. I don't want to be Storm King! I want to drink myself in the grave! I want to go to a brothel next to a marriage! I hate you Rhaegar Targaryen! You wouldn't stand a chance against me in a fight! You only won because you declared independence and burned the Iron Throne. I hate Martells, Lannisters, Targaryens. I hate that the Starks are kings and queens in the north. Elia took Lyanna away from me, how am I supposed to fight a woman. You and your smelly ex-wife this dornish bitch dishonored me."

Elia and Lyanna giggled in Harrenhal, "Lyanna's pussy is mine. Rhaegar's cock is ours. He eats our pussies like a hungry dragon", Lyanna and Elia looked at Rhaegar as the two women kissed, "Do you want to watch or participate?"

Rhaegar sat down, "Oh, I'll watch first." Lyanna and Elia giggled. "He wants to see a show."

Robert Baratheon insults Jon and Geralt

Ciri and Arya were standing by Gendry's shop in King's Landing as they looked at the gate. Gendry wiped the sweat from his chest and looked toward the gate, "Look at who we have there. The fat Storm Lord", Jon and Geralt leaned over the horses when Robert Baratheon came into the capital.

Ciri and Arya stood next to Gendry so demonstratively that they caressed his muscles when Robert came to the capital, "look at this Gendry, Robert ignores his own children", said Ciri and Arya and Gendry nodded, "he has always ignored me, Mya, Bella and Edric."

"You still owe your children 15,000 coins for maintenance", called Sansa, Arya and Ciri to Robert.

Yennefer, Daenerys, Sansa and Aegon were visiting the cavalry when they saw Robert, "oh look at that thing."

The cavalry with banners of the Starks, Martells and Targaryens laughed at the Storm King loudly, Jon and Geralt did not make any facial expressions when Robert rode past them. He looked at the laughing, heavily mounted riders, "no decency in the army. I'll kill you dragonspawn! And this mutant Witcher fucks a Targaryen cunt and is named Targaryen by marriage."

Jon stopped Geralt from drawing his sword, "no stop Geralt."

Yennefer, Ciri, Daenerys stopped Geralt, "Calm down Geralt, breath deep."

Geralt roared, "He insulted me and my best friend!"

Jon and Geralt bully Robert

Jon and Geralt looked at Robert, "welcome to King's Landing Lord Baratheon. You don't respect us so they laugh at you. They laugh at the Storm King who is too fat for his own horse", answered Geralt and Jon.

Jon formed fire and ice magic in his hands, "fire or ice, Lord Baratheon?"

Geralt and Jon looked at each other briefly. Jon formed ice in his hands and shot a snowball in Robert's face, "Winter is coming Lord Baratheon! You have enough fat for a whole garrison."

Aegon, Gendry, Geralt, Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Ciri, Sansa, and Yennefer collapsed laughing, "you two are right."

Rhaegar sat on the horse, "Geralt, Jon, Randyll Tarly invited the three of us to Horn Hill. The defense minister wants to speak to the generals."

Rhaegar, Jon and Geralt looked at Ciri, "don't laugh about Robert, Ciri."

She nodded, "I try hard."

The riders and the people in the streets burst out laughing that Robert Baratheon immediately disappeared from the capital. Tyrion looked at Jon and Geralt, "may I wave goodbye to him, generals", Geralt and Jon nodded and Tyrion waved after Robert. Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower, Jon, Geralt and Rhaegar rode out of the capital with cavalry. The children were amazed at the mounted armed forces, "we want to serve in armies later."

"They laughed at me, Ned", said Robert to Eddard in Riverrun.

Brandon, Ashara, Edmure, Roslin, Catelyn, Robb, and Rhaenys rolled their eyes, "ask yourself why."

Ned got up, "you've been laughed at all the time, but you're too drunk to realize it. You got yourself into this shit all by yourself. Rhaegar has nothing to do with that. The Iron Throne has been gone for years, Aerys has passed away, the kingdoms are independence. You are a grown man. I am sending you to the Citadel in Oldtown to fight your alcoholism. My foster son, whom you call dragonspawn, never laughed at you. Geralt, Daenerys, Ciri, Arya, Gendry and Jon's wife Yennefer aren't laughing at you because Jon is stopping them, Robert. Ciri, Geralt and Yennefer would have laughed at you long ago. Ciri doesn't laugh at you because Jon is a father to her too. Cirilla would have blown your brain away with her scream long ago she only listens to Geralt and Jon who are neutral."

Rhaenys, Robb, Elia and Lyanna left the room.

Robert roared, "Lyanna was mine! My ego gives me a right to a woman's body!"

Eddard yelled back, "I dare to doubt that your ego gives you a right to a woman's body! Oh are you a victim of bullying by Jon and Geralt? Forgive me Robert if I don't shed a tear for you. Oh poor Lord of Storm's End! How old are you Robert? Are you a little kid complaining about how unfair it is? Ask yourself why they are bullying you.

I can also scream, unattractive pig who makes himself dependent on others! Incapable king who believes Lyanna is power! You don't even know that your son Gendry, has a reasonable relationship with Ciri and Arya."

Catelyn kissed Ned, "Very good Ned. You heard Eddard, Robert. Go to the citadel."

Horn Hill: Randyll Tarly's boss mode. Horn Hill Secretary of Defense

Randyll was reading the newspaper over Starbucks coffee. Randyll Tarly shooed Melessa, Talla, Dickon, Sam, Gilly, through the rooms.

"I have distinguished visitors and I want everything to be in good condition! I have to finish the reports, balance sheets, and army reports. My two generals Jon and Geralt are coming to visit. I need the medals of House Tarly. Now!"

Melessa, Sam, Dickon, Gilly and Talla groaned, "you are a slave driver!"

Randyll sat down and signed documents and roared through the rooms, "I can no longer watch you work your way off, finally close the kitchen door!"

Sam and Dickon looked at each other, "the boss is in his element."

Randyll roared again, "I have heard that! And I didn't want Starbucks coffee! What madness is this? Where is the staff? Incapable staff everywhere! I can't work properly like this!"

Emilia Clarke, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan ran away laughing, "we couldn't resist."

[hellsbellschime]

1 Nice analysis, H! But don't you think that the Martells conspiring to overthrow the Lannisters with Daenerys and then turning to Aegon is not a lesson for morality? The plan is not to oppose the Targs, they are planning to bring them back. Aegon brought the GC to Westeros, and armies kill and destroy anyway. Or is that a lesser bad bc no dragons? Also, imo Jon is no hero; he's a bastard and so far did nothing truly heroic. Aegon although has all the potential to become one.

2 First, bc of his name; second, bc he means to overthrow the Lannisters; third, bc it is established well in Brienne's and Jamie's chapters that the people are longing for the return of the Targs, so at the very least they will see him as a hero. I do think that there's potential in this theory, but I am still not quite convinced although I see it. There's just too many people involved with their own agenda: Varys, Doran, JC, Ashara. Did they manage to save Aegon? We'll see.

Thanks! But no, I don’t think their plan is for a Targaryen restoration at all, I don’t think that any of Doran’s plans are very good in terms of marrying his children to a Targaryen, which is weird given that he’s supposed to be very intelligent and has had literal decades to plan these things out. I think they want the remaining Targaryens to think that the Martells are on their side, but after what the Targaryen family has done to them, I see absolutely no reason why they’d be Team Targ. Like, the only reason Elia and her children are even dead is because Rhaegar abandoned her with a maniac and then CAME TO HER HOME KINGDOM (which I honestly feel is vaguely manipulative/threatening, like Rhaegar was essentially abusing their forced loyalty because he was the only hope of them ever getting Elia back or keeping Aegon and Rhaenys alive, and he couldn’t even be arsed to go and rescue them) to impregnate another woman. The Targaryens have done nothing but insult them and get them killed, so why exactly would Doran be so desperate to hook his children up with a Targaryen (while also doing nothing to actually actively support them or even doing anything himself to make these matches happen)? 

And yes, it actually is a lesser evil, both because Aegon doesn’t have dragons but more importantly because he’s invading when there is a dangerous person on the throne. Arguably, Ned, Jon, and Robert should have done everything that they could have to avoid war, but their war is slightly more justified because their lives depended on it, but more importantly because Aerys happened to be a massive threat to everyone. Same goes for the Starks against the Boltons, and same goes for Aegon with Cersei. It will likely be easier for Aegon to conquer Westeros because it’s in complete disarray anyway, however, his ultimate goals at this point also largely coincide with what’s best for everyone, Cersei is a “queen of the ashes” type of person so removing her from power is in everyone’s best interest. When Dany destroys Aegon however, her goals will not be in line with everyone’s best interest, and she’ll be using weapons of mass destruction in order to do it. 

The common people have consistently demonstrated a shitty understanding of politics, and as quite a few characters have already pointed out, they just care about their own lives and don’t know what’s going on with the higher ups. The common people who long for a “Targaryen” return don’t give a fuck about the actual Targaryens, they just feel like their lives sucked less before, or they may be having a “good old days” delusion that plenty of people have in our own world despite the fact that they’d probably be dead or go nuts if they actually had to live in the era they’re feeling fake nostalgia for. They will likely be happy to have Aegon on the throne because he’ll manage the country better, but no one who is fantasizing about the return of a Targaryen is fantasizing about Daenerys bringing hundreds of thousands of people to eat all of the food or bringing her dragons to burn thousands of common people alive. 

[tweedfrog]

If both Robert and Rhaegar die at the trident, and all relevant political parties have that info, how do you see things play out/how would you want it to play out ?

Oh man I’m not sure this would end up with a much better outcome for Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon because the main architect of their misery (Tywin) is still alive. While Robert sanctioned Tywin’s crimes he didn’t actually commit them. I think Tywin analysed Robert’s natgure quite well - he wanted to appear as a hero, and heroes dont murder women and children. I tend to think if the gates hadn’t been opened to Tywins forces Ned could have talked Robert down from doing anything violent to Elia and the kids, in a similar way to how he stopped Robert from assassinating Daenerys in canon.

So if Tywin reaches Kings Landing before Ned in this AU I can see it going down similarly  - with Elia and Aegon and Rhaenys dead and Tywin gifting their corpses to whoever claims power while marrying them to Cersei. Or if he’s feeling arrogant enough maybe he’d try to do what Cersei suggested and crown Jaime and try to establish some sort of Lannister ruling dynasty. Whether anyone would accept this is questionable (the Lannisters have no Targaryen blood to appeal to loyalists unlike the Baratheons). but I do think Tywin would be tempted by the idea.

If Ned reaches Kings Landing before Tywin’s forces then I can see Elia getting treated similarly to Jeyne Westerling - kept effectively as a hostage for Dorne’s good behaviour and forbidden from marrying for 2 years to prevent anyone from trying to claim that she had a third child by Rhaegar. I think Aegon would wind up being a hostage until he was old enough to be sent off the the Nights Watch to remove his claim and Rhaenys would probably get given over to the faith or married to an INCREDIBLY loyal house. I tend to think Rhaenys would get the faith as well though and not a marriage because although Rhaenyra was generally hated after her stint on the iron throne she had shown that some people were fine fighting to sit a Targaryen women on the throne.

Honestly I find Elia’s rape and murder and the murder of Rhaenys and Aegon some of the stupidest and most pointless deaths in the series and I very much think GRRM’s tendency to brutalize people of colour to illustrate what a crapsack world Westeros is went up against the logic of his own story. And somehow logic lost out.

You can make arguments that a living Aegon would be a threat to the ruler of the throne and that he had to die. It’s evil but I can at least see the logic behind that - but Elia isn't a threat at all and whatever threat Rhaenys poses can be neutralised.

If anything keeping Rhaenys alive and marrying her to the heir of the new dynasty makes much more sense and would have been more effective to consolidate power. Even in the text there are examples of this occuring - Argella Durrandon marrying Orys Baratheon and The Stark kings marrying the daughters of the petty kings they defeated come to mind.

Ofc the ideal situation is that Elia somehow manages to kill Aerys, get ravens to everyone in time, bribe Mace to shift his butt to Kings Landing with a promise of Aegon for Margarey or a spot as Aegon’s regent and manage to crown Aegon in time.

[yennefers-geralt]

What do you think about the Rhaenys and Daenerys plot switch discourse antis throw around? I get a little bit of where they are coming from, sure WOC deserve badass characters, but to have other female characters arcs recycled for them, absolutely not, they deserve original and befitting arcs that work for them properly. I've never seen such hate for a character such as Dany, that haters resort to reviving a dead character whose plot would be completely different from hers, like what the hell?!

I haven’t seen that wank, so I’m not sure how helpful my input would be. But here goes...

Just based on this ask, I would say that it’s completely impossible for Rhaenys and Dany to have a “plot switch”. If Rhaenys, Aegon, and Elia had been sent to Dragonstone instead of Viserys and a pregnant Rhaella, their story couldn’t have ended in the same place. Tywin still would have had the Targs inside the Red Keep killed, so Rhaella, Viserys, and Dany would be dead. But that’s where the similarities end. Elia would still have all of Dorne to turn to for support. If she was able to escape Dragonstone before Stannis arrived, she probably would have gone to the safety of Sunspear rather than Braavos. Here are a few possibilities from there:

Robert extends the war to Dorne. This would lose him a lot of support. His rebellion against the Iron Throne was about saving his own life, Ned’s life, and Lyanna. It could also be said to be about removing an insane king and heir from the throne, which has already been achieved through the deaths of Rhaegar and Aerys. Extending the war to Dorne in order to kill two children would turn him from a hero into a tyrant in the eyes of many. Ned wouldn’t continue his allegiance to him and I’m doubtful Hoster Tully would either. It would also mean going to war against the only region that defied the dragons and only came into the realm through negotiation and peaceful marriage. Robert would die in Dorne and the Targs would be restored, probably with Aegon as king and Margaery as his betrothed. If Ned joined Dorne’s side rather than simply marching home, Rhaenys might be engaged to Robb.

The remaining lords call a Great Council to decide how to heal the realm resulting in a) the regions becoming individual kingdoms, b) Robert becoming king with some kind of marriage agreement between Rhaenys and him or his future heir, or c) Aegon being named king with a council of regents chosen by the assembled lords.

Robert would keep the throne and fume for years about the existence of Aegon and Rhaenys in Dorne, insisting that they were threats. He would be right, eventually, but the closer threat to him personally would still be his wife killing him. Unless Illyrio and Varys found a way to kill Aegon and arrange a marriage between Rhaenys  and Aegon Mopatis Blackfyre so they could be king and queen, I can’t see a reason why they would give her dragon eggs.

Long story short, Rhaenys surviving would be a completely different story than Dany’s. She wouldn’t have to suffer on the streets or be sold for an army or creeped on by J0rah. She would spend her early years in the Water Gardens with the safety of being one among many children.

Again, I haven’t seen that wank. But if the participants are the ones I suspect, I don’t believe for a single second that they care about women of color or Rhaenys. If Rhaenys had survived and was the mother of dragons, regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world, and gaining a power base that could win her the Iron Throne as well as Jon Snow’s dick, those people would HATE her. They would probably HATE her even more than they HATE Dany right now. Those people despise anyone who isn’t their self insert. Discussing Rhaenys as a hypothetical as a way of hating on Dany is meaningless. They know she is dead in the series and no threat to the status they want for their fav.

[mytsitsini]

“In Defence of Rhaegar Targaryen”

AKA some really annoying claims concerning a certain Targaryen I want to address.

“What Rhaegar did at Harrenhal was dickish, but it’s very important that we don’t know Elia’s reaction, because GRRM will reveal that she was actually OK with it”

Ned Stark himself says that:

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.

‘All smiles died’. All. If Elia Martell, Rhaegar’s own wife, is not included in ‘alll’, Ned would have made sure to mention it - it would be beyond odd for the wife of the prince not to feel insulted. People would speculate. People would question it. Ned himself mentions Elia in this very passage, so why would he not mark her reaction, had it been different to that of everyone else? Because her smile died, like everyone else’s.

And if that’s too vague, then there is this piece from The World of Ice and Fire, depicting Harrenhal:

Created by artist Paolo Puggioni. From his official website:

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.  

‘Stiff-backed and trying to act as if nothing was wrong’ hardly reads as ‘Elia was OK with Rhaegar crowning Lyanna’.

Not to mention that no woman would ever be OK with her husband publicly humiliating her in favour of another woman, so why does this argument even exist? Elia’s reaction should not be questioned at all.

“It was an arranged marriage, why shouldn’t Rhaegar be allowed to follow his heart?”

It was arranged for Elia as well. She didn’t want this any more than Rhaegar did. She was never but a faithful wife, so it’s only natural to expect that Rhaegar would be the same. Rhaegar isn’t entitled to anything. Rhaegar’s feelind do not matter more than politics. Rhaegar’s needs are not more important than Elia’s, and seeing how Rhaegar’s trouser’s needs sparked a war that costed Elia, Aegon and Rhaenys their lives, Rhaegar’s feelings definitely do not matter more than his family’s lives. Elia died. Aegon died. Rhaenys died. Rhaella died. Viserys had to leave the only home he had even known. Daenerys never had a home.

As a husband, as a father, it was Rhaegar’s responsibility to care for his wife and children, to stay with them, not to abandon them the moment his eyes caught a fourteen-year-old girl.

In her marriage, Elia had to:

marry a man she didn’t love.

abandon her home in Dorne and move to foreign King’s Landing.

live in a place openly hostile to her (”She smells Dornish”).

be sure her body was available to her husband whenever he wished, since the concept of marital rape does not exist.

bear as many heirs as needed, despite her fragile health.

simply accept it if Rhaegar were to take a mistress.

In his marriage, Rhaegar had to:

marry a woman he didn’t love.

So, who exactly got the short end of the stick? Elia. Who does the fandom act like he was the true victim? Rhaegar.

“Elia could not have any more children, so it’s very natural that Rhaegar would leave her for someone who could give him the third head”

Of all stuff I’ve heard, this angers me the most, because it boils down to ‘women’s sole fuction is baby-making, and if they break down, men have the right to replace them as if they’re machines’. Which is misogyny, plain and simple. Treating women as nothing else but means to further men’s causes and ambitions is misogyny. A woman’s worth is not measured by her ability to have children and make her husband happy! A woman is not meant to be exploited like a lifeless object and then put aside when a newer, better oner comes along.

Elia was not a baby-making machine. Elia was a human with feelings and emotions of her own, not a body to be used by Rhaegar and then to be thrown out when no longer useful. Westeros is a misogynistic society, but we, as readers, are meant to question the sexism, not endorse it, as people who use the ‘Elia is barren’ argument do.

Other things that Westerosi men are perfectly fine with include:

Girls having children as early as 13.

Women being legally raped by their husbands.

Low-born people being treated like shit by the highborn.

Women obeying either their husbands or fathers unconditionally.

Bastards being perceived as treacherous and untrustworthy.

Are we meant to agree with Westeros? No, we are not. We are meant to challenge those views. And this includes Elia being nothing more than a body to produce heirs for Rhaegar. Funny how those who bring up Elia’s inability to have children neglect to mention that women are also supposed to obey their fathers, but they rarely give Lyanna grief for disobeying Rickard in regards to marrying Robert Baratheon, and that bastards are vermin, yet adore Jon Snow. 

Also, the argument feels really hollow when one remembers that Lyanna was a virgin before she met Rhaegar, which means that if Rhaegar was out there to find a fertile wife, choosing a girl who could as likely be an Alysanne as a second Elia was a poor choice. Lyanna did not have children prior, so how could have Rhaegar been so sure she’d give him the child Elia coudln’t? Considering how Lyanna died in childbirth (while Elia survived two childbirths), Lyanna is not, at the end of the day, in anyway superior to Elia.

This argument is sexist. This argument is ableist. Women, people, are not less worthy because of a body disability. Elia’s fragile health does not make her any less deserving of respect from her own husband.

Also, no, it’s not natural to go after another woman if your wife’s barren? It just does not happen.

Aemma Arryn managed to give King Viserys I Targaryen just one daughter, Rhaenyra, in more than a decade of marriage. Viserys never abandons her for another woman, and only marries Alicent Hightower after she’s dead.

Naerys Targaryen never managed to give King Aegon IV Targaryen another son after Daeron II was born. He never had another wife, not even after she died.

Rhaella Targaryen gave King Aerys II Targaryen just one son, Rhaegar, and it would take seventeen years before she’d give birth to Viserys. Still, Aerys II never tried to marry another woman.

Aerys II and Aegon IV were two infamously bad men and kings who abused their wives and kingdoms. Still, despite their need for an heir, they never persued other women. Both men disliked their sons, unlike Rhaegar, so they had an even greater reason to want another possible heir than he ever did. Bad as they were, they realised that polygamy was not a good solution to anything.

A man who did practise polygamy because of need ot an heir was Maegor I Targaryen. The Cruel. Who killed his wives. And who brought six years of tyranny to Westeros. Maegor is not a character to make parallels with, and yet his example is the closest to Rhaegar’s.

Elia had given Rhaegar an heir and a spare (yes, Rhaenys was the spare. No, Great Council 101′s decision not withstanding, since Aerys I was able to make his niece Aelora his heir ahead of men like Maekar, Daeron and Aerion. Yes, women could inherit the Iron Throne). They also had Viserys, just in case. Rhaegar leaving Elia because of lack of heirs is not a valid reason, and the third head of the dragon is even less of a reason, considering how Rhaegar had already misinterpreted the prophecy already. Abandoning his wife because his new interpretation could be kinda right, maybe, is likewise not a good enough reason. 

“Elia let or even encouraged Rhaegar to go after Lyanna”

Most women, in Westeros as well as modern society, would not be OK with their husbands cheating on them, so how is Elia any different?

“She’s Dornish!”

No, not this argument again.

The Dornish practise feudalism like everyone else, and they are not polyamorous.

Why does this stereotype exist again? Ah yes, Oberyn. People take Oberyn’s example and apply it to the whole of Dorne. Even thought as for now, there’s not a single known Dornish character who had a wife and a mistress at the same time. But even if there were, so what? Rhaegar is not Dornish. Rhaegar does not get to use Elia’s culture against her.

Meanwhile, Oberyn was a second son, with an older brother with heirs of his own. Oberyn did not need to get married. Oberyn did not need to father legitimate children. Doran Martell’s been estranged from his wife for years, still does not take a mistress. Quentyn Martell died a virgin. Why aren’t their examples applied to the whole of Dorne?

“Well, Ellaria’s in an open relationship with Oberyn!”

Ellaria’s example cannot be applied to Elia, no more than Oberyn’s can. Ellaria is a bastard, Elia was a noble woman. Ellaria is a second son’s paramour, Elia was the future king’s wife. Ellaria’s children were bastards, and the younger ones too, standing to inherit nothing. Elia’s children were second and third in line of succession.

We definitely know that Oberyn got Ellaria’s consent. Rhaegar did not get Elia’s.

Even if we remove Dornish culture from the argument, why would Elia ever be OK with Rhaegar taking a second wife? OK with Rhaegar fathering legitimate heirs on another woman? Elia is married to House Targaryen. When it comes to the Targaryen, younger half siblings have always caused trouble for their older half siblings.

Aenys I and Maegor I: Maegor gives Aenys a lot of grief by taking a second wife (which angers the Faith), and after Aenys dies, kills two of Aenys’s sons and seizes the throne.

Rhaenyra and Aegon II: Although Viserys I made it crystal clear that Rhaenyra was to succeed him, Aegon II took the crown anyway and fought a war against his sister.

Daeron II and Daemon Blackfyre: Daeron II was seventeen years older than Daemon. He was trueborn, Daemon a bastard. Still, this resulted in a war.

Every single case of half siblings has seen the younger one usurping/trying to usurp the older one. Every single one. Why would Elia think this would be different? Why would Elia trust Lyanna not to push her own son’s rights? What if the case of Daeron II and Daemon is repeated? If Aegon grows up to be bookish and non-martial, and Lyanna’s son is the Warrior reborn, people will undoubtedly whisper that the younger son is much more fit to inherit a crown than Elia’s Aegon. What then? Lyanna will have the North to support her son’s rights, as well as everyone who prefers a martial king (read: around half of Westerosi people). And the Riverlands, since her brother will be married to a Tully of Riverrun. And the Vale of Arryn, since her other brother has been fostered by the Arryns. And maybe the Stormlands, since that same brother’s best friend is the Lord of Storm’s End. And maybe even the Reach, since the Tyrells are traditionally anti-Dornish. The Westerlands and the Iron Islands cannot be counted upon to help Elia’s cause, either. That only leaves Dorne, the least populated region.

Why would Elia ever risk her son’s rights like that? For a reason that isn’t basically “Rhaegar and Lyanna need to be happy and not be bothered over  feelings of guilt”? We see Catelyn treating Jon as a threat, because technically he is, to her children’s inheritance rights. We see Cersei igniting a war in order to keep her own bloodline on the Throne. Why would Elia be any different?

So, no. Rhaegar was not morally allowed to leave Elia because he didn’t love her or because she couldn’t have any more children, nor was Elia fine with him taking a fourteen-year-old girl to wife. This argument needs to die. Rhaegar fucked up when it came to Elia, and this is not character hate, or even narrative-twisting to fit my own biases. This is Rhaegar’s character.

“Polygamy is a Targaryen thing, and accepted besides”

There are only three cases of Targaryen polygamy known to us; only one occured after they became kings; Maegor I.

The other one is Aegon I, and no, is not meant to be a parallel. “Aegon I married Visenya out of duty, Rhaenys out of desire” is not the same as “Rhaegar married Elia out of duty, Lyanna out of desire”. Aegon would have to marry Visenya first, then abandon her after three years to elope with Rhaenys, for this to be a proper parallel, which isn’t what happened. Not to mention that the younger son ended up usurping the throne from the older son’s line, which Elia would see as a red flag, not comfort.

The second one is Maegor; couldn’t sire heirs at all, had six wives, killed two or three of them, was a tyrrant, was hated by pretty much everyone. If one’s best example is Maegor, then their cause might not be worthy after all.

From Fire & Blood:

Saera: Why should I have just one husband? The Conqueror had two wives, and Maegor had six or eight.

Jaehaerys I: You would compare yourself to Maegor? Is that who you aspire to be?

Yeah, Maegor’s not a good example.

Also, both Aegon and Maegor had dragons.

Maegor the Cruel has multiple wives, from lines outside his own, so there was and is precedent. However, the extent to which the Targaryen kings could defy convention, the Faith, and the opinions of the other lords decreased markedly after they no longer had dragons. If you have a dragon, you can have as many wives as you want, and people are less likely to object. - So Spake Martin

Rhaegar had none.

[thiskindofshootingstar]

Jon Is Not Heir To The Iron Throne (And Never Was)

I was going to post this after the first episode, but I got side-tracked. But now that I’m actually seeing with my own two eyes people claiming that Dany now is not the heir to the Iron Throne because Jon is, I knew I had to put this out there. Under the cut I will lay out how Jon’s parents’ marriage was highly suspect and unlawful, and even if it wasn’t there is no way to prove Jon’s parentage, but ultimately that Jon was removed from the Targaryen line of succession before he was even born so he is not and has never been an heir to the Iron Throne. So strap in for a history lesson folks.

To start off, Aegon Targaryen, Sixth of His Name and son to Rhaegar Targaryen was Elia's son. And he was brutally murdered by Gregor Clegane on orders from Tywin Lannister in the Sack of King's Landing. Quit disrespecting him and Elia and quit calling Jon that. (Furthermore, there’s no need for another Aegon Targaryen in this story because Daenerys is very clearly the Aegon the Conqueror parallel)

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let's look at the last few months of Robert's Rebellion.

Rhaegar and Lyanna are married, secretly, no witnesses (very convenient), and Rhaegar goes off to fight the war leaving a pregnant Lyanna in the Tower of Joy protected by some knights of the Kingsguard. The first big problem with this is that Rhaegar was already married. Apparently, in the show, he had his marriage to Elia annulled--but here’s the thing: Rhaegar was heir to the throne, he can’t just have his royal marriage, that has produced heirs no less, be set aside by one septon. Anyone who is in the line of succession can only set aside a lawful marriage if allowed to do so by the king. I actually think it’s an even more general rule of everyone needing to receive permission from their liege lord, but as an heir to the throne that liege lord is the king so it still stands. Don’t believe me? Look at Daemon Targaryen in Fire and Blood; he wanted to set aside his Royce wife because 1) he didn’t like her 2) she hadn’t given him any heirs. But he had to petition his brother, the king, to request to set aside his lawful wife (Fire and Blood, pg 354). His request was denied, for multiple reasons, but the big ones were because it would’ve offended their allies in the Vale and muddied the line of succession since Viserys didn’t have a male heir. Daemon’s situation was way less of an issue than Rhaegar’s, wherein he was the heir to the throne, married to a Dornish princess, and had both a daughter and a son with her. He never would’ve been allowed to set aside his marriage to Elia because that likely would’ve caused a full out war with Dorne and would’ve thrown a huge wrench in the line of succession and likely brought about another Targaryen Civil War. Which is probably why he didn’t ask permission or go about it legally, and instead married Lyanna in secret, because they knew it would never be allowed. Similarly, Daemon attempted to run away with his lover Mysaria, who was pregnant, but was told to leave her and return to his wife or be considered a traitor. What this means for Rhaegar and Lyanna is that their marriage is not legitimate because Rhaegar was still legally married to Elia as he never petitioned the Crown nor received permission to set aside his lawful wife. Therefore, despite what the show would have you believe, Jon is still technically a bastard because his parents were not legally married.

Now back to Robert’s Rebellion:

Rhaegar dies on the Trident. With this news, Aerys names his younger son, Viserys, heir and sends him and a pregnant Rhaella to Dragonstone, the seat of the Targaryen heir. Aegon VI, son of Rhaegar and Elia, should've been the heir but this move disinherits all of Rhaegar’s children (and subsequently any future children that would be born). This situation is almost exactly the same as that of Jaehaerys Targaryen, when, after the death of his heir Aemon Targaryen, he named his second son, Baelon, heir instead of Aemon’s pregnant daughter Rhaenys. Thus passing over not only Rhaenys, but her unborn child as well (Fire and Blood, pg 341). Similarly, Rhaegar’s daughter Rhaenys and son Aegon VI, and unborn son Jon, were thus passed over in the line of succession.

Also with Rhaegar’s death, Lyanna is now the only person living that knows Jon is a Targaryen, and, she believes, legitimate. At this point it would be nearly impossible for Lyanna to prove her child’s legitimacy and any claim he might have had because there were no witnesses to her and Rhaegar’s marriage nor is there any proof that Rhaegar lawfully set aside his wife. She might be able to enlist the help of the Kingsguard left to her, but they alone would not be able to assert the claim of an unborn babe against the king’s chosen successor and Rhaegar’s heirs by Elia Martell. But again, that doesn't matter because Rhaegar’s children were disinherited and Rhaegar and Lyanna’s marriage was unlawful, so Jon has no claim twice over.

Aerys Targaryen is killed by Jaime Lannister. King's Landing is sacked by the Lannister army. Gregor Clegane murders Elia and her children; Rhaenys and Aegon Targaryen VI. On Dragonstone, Rhaella Targaryen crowns Viserys Targaryen king. Thus, if any other Targaryen claimed birthright to the Iron Throne through any means other than being named Viserys’ heir, they would be traitors.

Regardless, Robert Baratheon takes the Iron Throne and crowns himself king--so technically no one but Robert’s heir now has claim to the Iron Throne except through (re)conquest. Lyanna gives birth to Jon Snow, dies in childbirth, and her brother Ned takes Jon as his own to protect him from Robert Baratheon who has a policy of killing Targaryen children.

Still on Dragonstone, Rhaella gives birth to Daenerys Targaryen and dies in childbirth. Some people on Dragonstone plot to serve up Viserys and Daenerys to Robert, but a few loyal knights steal the children away and escape to Braavos. There they grow up in exile, where Viserys names Daenerys his heir. Now, despite there being a new monarch, many would still see Viserys or Daenerys reclaiming the throne as just, since their family was violently overthrown. Much like how when Maegor stole the throne from his brother’s children and Jaehaerys was crowned king and supported in his bid “to end the reign of his usurping uncle” (Fire and Blood, pg 103). 

Fast forward a bit to after Robert Baratheon dies and Ned Stark is executed and Viserys Targaryen is killed. Robert Baratheon, the usurper, King of the Seven Kingdoms, leaves no legitimate heir. However, in this situation, a very reasonable result (and common one in our own history) after the death of a monarch who overthrew the legitimate rulers would be for the remaining heir of the overthrown ruling family to be returned to the throne. So Daenerys is now the only person that can claim the Iron Throne based on birthright because she is the last legitimate heir and living child of a King.

However, she still plans to win back her birthright by conquest, since the ruling lords of Westeros each want power for themselves and will not acquiesce to the only person with a legitimate claim. And with three dragons, an army, and a fleet, she stands a damn good chance of defeating those who would oppose her and winning the throne by conquest as Robert did and restoring Targaryen rule.

Meanwhile the last living person who knew that Jon was a Targaryen is dead. There is now no proof whatsoever that he is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. “But what about the septon’s journal?” you ask, but that simply indicates the two were wed, and there are several problems with Rhaegar and Lyanna’s marriage: 1) there were no witnesses; 2) Rhaegar was already married, and thus in order to set aside Elia as his wife and marry another he would have had to petition the king which there is no record of; 3) the septon’s journal only proves their marriage and not that they had a child because the only people that knew Lyanna was Jon's mother are dead, and she was the only one that knew her child was Rhaegar’s son, so there is literally no way he could ever use his Targaryen parentage to make a claim for the throne, especially when he doesn't even look like a Targaryen. Secondly, as Dany pointed out in 8x02, the fact that the only two people that know about his parentage are his brother (through magic visions that can not be proven nor shown to anyone else) and his best friend (through a single document that is actually incorrect because the septon was not able to legally annul Rhaegar and Elia’s marriage without permission from the crown) is highly suspect. 

Now, despite the fact that Rhaegar and Lyanna’s marriage was null and void because Rhaegar was already married and did not lawfully set Elia aside, and despite the fact that there are no living witnesses to their marriage or Jon’s birth and parentage and thus no way to prove any of it--both of which on their own would ensure Jon has no claim nor any way to assert one if he did-- IF it was proven and believed that Jon was Rhaegar's legitimate son, it would still mean NOTHING because Rhaegar’s children were disinherited and removed from Targaryen succession in favor of Viserys being named heir and crowned king, so Jon STILL would have no claim to the Iron Throne.

The ONLY way Jon would ever be in the line of succession or have a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne would be if Dany named him her heir.

Or by conquest, but honestly that would never happen-> the North and the Riverlands combined couldn't beat the Lannisters, so the now broken North has no possible way to defeat Cersei and/or Daenerys in a fight for the throne.

So in summation: Jon Snow has no leg to stand on in the bid for the Iron Throne because he is not legitimate, has no proof, and ultimately was never in the line of succession.

[valaenarhaegarovna]

Our little Prince

Rhaegar  x  Lyanna AU Week

Day 6: Types of love

Storge or familial love refers to natural or instinctual affection, such as the love of a parent towards offspring and vice versa.  

Word Count: 1.188

Warning: None

Notes: Quite short compared to the others, but after the long chapter I wrote for day 2, I think I deserved a small break lmao. This chapter serves as some sort of sneak peek of the next one-shot I am writing for the last day (free choice). It’s all in the same au. Anyway, enjoy!

“Aemon… stop!” Lyanna laughed as she tried to give her son a bath. “You won’t escape this!”

When she finally managed to clean her unruly son, she took him out of the water and wrapped him on a soft red towel.

“You are a wild little wolf pup, aren’t you?” Lyanna smiled at her babe and dressed him in the fine red and black silk. “Let’s take a walk down the beach!”

Aemon giggled happily.

“I knew you would like it!” She left her personal chambers and walked down Dragonstone’s corridors.

Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, now Princess consort of Dragonstone, had been married to Prince Rhaegar for nearly three years, but his castle had only started to feel like home. The ancient Targaryen fortress was gloomy and cold. Not cold like the North, who had its snowstorms, but warm castles. Dragonstone was cold. Whenever it rained, the ground and the walls became so cold Lyanna didn’t even want to touch them; the wind was so strong and freezing that the she-wolf would rather lock herself in her chambers than to do anything outside. As a Stark of Winterfell, Lyanna never thought she would feel cold in the South. It almost made her miss King’s Landing.

“Rhaegar!” She called as she saw him walking towards her, he was followed by Ser Arthur and her brother Ned.

“Lyanna, I was going after you.” The Silver Prince reached her with a discreet smile. “Hello Aemon, how are you today?” He took their son’s small hand and the babe giggled. “And how are my girls?” He lowered his head to give her a kiss and put his warm hand on her stomach which had already started to shown signs of her pregnancy.

“We are fine.” Lyanna rolled her eyes and pulled him by his robes, kissing him again, more passionate this time. “How do you know it’s a girl, anyway?”

“I just know.” He shrugged. “Where are you two going?”

“Oh, I thought that spending the day down at the sea would be nice. At least while it’s not raining.”

“Really? Then allow me to join you.”

“Oh, you have time for me today?” The She-wolf raised her eyebrow but smiled.

“You are always accusing me falsely.” He put his hand under his heart. “I always have time for you, we share chambers, remember?”

Lyanna’s cheek became bright red. Arthur and Ned were right behind him, by the Gods!! Did he have no shame? She stared at him with daggers in her eyes and Rhaegar chuckled. Aemon whined and stretched his arms towards his father who gladly took him.

“Will we go to the beach or not?” The Prince asked her, taking her hand in his with his free arm. “Aemon seems excited for it.”

“Well, he will spend some time with his father, of course, he is happy.” She said playfully as they left the castle and walked down the stairs that lead to the beach. “That’s not a common occurrence.”

Rhaegar stayed silent for a minute.

“I wish I could spend more time with both of you.” He whispered. “But with the current situation… I can’t possibly...”

“Rhaegar, I know.” She interrupted him. “You have much to deal with and I will always support you.”

They had reached the end of the staircase by then, but they didn’t move forward. Rhaegar just kept looking at her, his face blank, but his eyes storming with many different emotions. Lyanna was the only one who could truly read them, even if she was still learning it herself. What a mystery, her husband was.

“I just wished you weren’t in the middle of this mess as well.”

“Then another woman would be here instead of me.” Lyanna sighed. “As much as my jealous heart can’t take it, I think some lady with a better understanding in politics would be of better aid.”

“Don’t say that,” Rhaegar replied immediately. “Without your blind faith in me, I don’t know how I would have handled the pressure.”

To break the tension, Aemon whined, squirming in his father’s arms. Both parents laughed.

“It seems his majesty wants to go now.” Rhaegar smiled at his son, moving him from one arm to the other and releasing Lyanna’s hand in the process.

“We better obey him, then.” She bent down to remove her shoes, sighing when her feet touched the sand. “Give me Aemon so you can take off your boots.”

He passed her the babe and she walked closer to the sea, sitting down a few steps away from it and putting Aemon in front of her. When the waves came, they touched the Prince’s feet weekly and it made him laugh in delight.

“Why don’t we dig him a pool?” Rhaegar suggested as he sat by her side.

“The Prince wants to get his hands dirty! How exciting!”

“Oh Gods.” He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner. “Why did I have to fall in love for a woman that mocks me at any given opportunity?”

“You are so dramatic sometimes.” Lyanna imitated him, rolling her eyes. “Let’s start digging!”

Rhaegar and Lyanna placed Aemon on the sand and the babe watched carefully as his parents started digging around him. They used the sand they were digging out to build a sort of wall around the hole so that it looked nicer. Sometimes Aemon would destroy the walls and put the sand back in the hole.

“Aemon, you are not helping.” Rhaegar smiled at him before turning to Lyanna. “I guess we should start pouring water in here so that our son doesn’t destroy everything.”

“Sounds like a sensible decision.” She laughed. “Just let me take off his clothes first.” After she took off her son’s clothes, Lyanna remembered the bath she had given him that morning and chuckled.

“What is it?” Rhaegar asked her.

“Oh, just me realizing the bath I gave Aemon this morning was for naught, he will need another one after this.”

“We will all need a bath after this.” He chuckled.

The pool was full then, and Lyanna placed Aemon inside of it. The babe was delighted and laughed non-stop. Rhaegar and Lyanna sat side-by-side, smiling at their Prince. Rhaegar pulled his wife closer and she rested her head on his chest, listening to his calm heartbeat, something that she did every night. With all the plotting he was involved in, she always feared it would be the last time she would hear that calming melody.

“Father has sent me a raven.” Rhaegar spoke after a while, caressing Lyanna’s arm with his thumb. “Mother has given birth to a daughter, Daenerys. He announced her as Aemon’s betrothed.”

“But she has just been born!”

“My father doesn’t care.” He murmured. “But don’t worry, father won’t be alive when they reach the age to be wed. He won’t force them to do anything.”

Lyanna feared those talks of treason, but as she watched her son playing happily in the small pool they had dig for him, she was filled with anger and hope. She longed for the day Aerys would no longer pester her family.

[joannalannister]

The Dead Ladies Club

“Ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.”

The Dead Ladies Club is a term I invented** circa 2012 to describe the pantheon of undeveloped female characters in ASOIAF from the generation or so before the story began. 

It is a term that carries with it inherent criticisms of ASOIAF, which this post will address, in an essay in nine parts. The first, second, and third parts of this essay define the term in detail. Subsequent sections examine how these women were written and why this aspect of ASOIAF merits criticism, exploring the pervasiveness of the dead mothers trope in fiction, the excessive use of sexual violence in writing these women, and the differences in GRRM’s portrayals of male sacrifice versus female sacrifice in the narrative. 

To conclude, I assert that the manner in which these women were written undermines GRRM’s thesis, and ASOIAF -- a series I consider to be one of the greatest works of modern fantasy -- is poorer because of it. 

*~*~*~*~

PART I: WHAT IS THE DEAD LADIES CLUB?

Below is a list of women I personally include in the Dead Ladies Club. This list is flexible, but this is generally who people are talking about when they’re talking about the DLC:

Lyanna Stark

Elia Martell

Ashara Dayne

Rhaella Targaryen

Joanna Lannister

Cassana Estermont

Tysha

Lyarra Stark

the Unnamed Princess of Dorne (mother to Doran, Elia, and Oberyn)

Brienne’s Unnamed Mother

Minisa Whent-Tully

Bethany Ryswell-Bolton

EDIT - The Miller’s Wife - GRRM never named her, but she was raped by Roose Bolton and she gave birth to Ramsay

I might be forgetting someone

Most of the DLC are mothers, dead before the series began. I deliberately use the word “pantheon” when describing the DLC because, like the gods of ancient mythology, these women typically loom large over the lives of our current POVs, and it is their deification that is largely the problem. The women of the Dead Ladies Club tend to be either heavily romanticized or heavily villainized by the text, either up on a pedestal or down on their knees, to paraphrase Margaret Attwood. The DLC are written by GRRM as little more than male fantasies and tired tropes, defined almost exclusively by their beauty and desirability (or lack thereof). They have no voices of their own. Too often they are nameless. They are frequently the victims of sexual violence. They are presented with few or no choices in their stories, something I consider to be a particularly egregious oversight when GRRM says it is our choices which define us. 

The space in the narrative given over to their humanity and their interiority (their inner lives, their thoughts and feelings, their existence as individuals) is minimal or nonexistent, which is quite a shame in a series that is meant to celebrate our common humanity. How can I have faith in the thesis of ASOIAF, that people’s “lives have meaning, not their deaths,” when GRRM created a coterie of women whose main if not sole purpose was to die? 

I restrict the Dead Ladies Club to women one or two generations back because the Lady in question must have some immediate connection to a POV character or a second-tier character. These women tend to be of immediate importance to a POV character (mothers, grandmothers, etc), or at most they’re one character removed from a POV character in the main story (AGOT - ADWD+). 

Example #1: Dany (POV) --> Rhaella Targaryen

Example #2: Davos (POV) --> Stannis --> Cassana Estermont

*~*~*~*~

PART II: "NOW SAY HER NAME.”

Lyanna Stark, “beautiful, willful, and dead before her time.” We know little about Lyanna other than how much men desired her. A Helen of Troy type figure, an entire continent of men fought and died because “Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna”. He loved her enough to lock her in a tower, where she gave birth and died. But who was she? How did she feel about any of these events? What did she want? What were her hopes, her dreams? On these, GRRM remains silent. 

Elia Martell, “kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit.” Presented in the narrative as a dead mother, a dead sister, a deficient wife who could bare no more children, she is defined solely by her relationships with various men, with no story of her own outside of her rape and murder. 

Ashara Dayne, the maiden in the tower, the mother of a stillborn daughter, the beautiful suicide, we get no details of her personality, only that she was desired by Barristan the Bold and either (or perhaps both) Brandon or Ned Stark. 

Rhaella Targaryen, a Queen of the Seven Kingdoms for more than 20 years. We know that Aerys abused and raped her to conceive Daenerys. We know that she suffered many miscarriages. But what do we know about her? What did she think of Aerys’s desire to make the Dornish deserts bloom? What did she spend 20 years doing when she wasn’t being abused? How did she feel when Aerys moved the court to Casterly Rock for almost a year? We don’t have answers to any of these questions. Yandel wrote a whole history book for ASOIAF giving us lots and lots of information on the personalities and quirks and fears and desires of men like Aerys and Tywin and Rhaegar, so I know who these men are in a way that I don’t know the women in canon. I don’t think it’s reasonable that GRRM left Rhaella’s humanity virtually blank when he had all of TWOIAF to elaborate on pre-series characters, and he could have easily made a little sidebar on Queen Rhaella. We have a lot of dairies and letters and stuff about the thoughts and feelings of real medieval queens, so why didn’t Yandel (and GRRM) give us a little more about the last Targaryen queen in the Seven Kingdoms? Why didn’t we even get a picture of Rhaella in TWOIAF? 

Joanna Lannister, desired by both a King and a King’s Hand and made to suffer for it, she died giving birth to Tyrion. We know there was “love between” Tywin and Joanna, but details about her are few and far between. With many of these women, the scant lines in the text about them often leave the reader asking, “well, what does that mean exactly?” What does it mean exactly that Lyanna was willful? What does it mean exactly that Rhaella was mindful of her duty? Joanna is no exception, with GRRM’s teasing yet frustratingly vague remark that Joanna “ruled” Tywin at home. Joanna is merely the roughest sketch in the text, seen through a glass darkly. 

Cassana Estermont. Honestly I tried to recall a quote about Cassana and I realized that there wasn’t one. She is the drowned lover, the dead wife, the dead mother, and we know nothing else. 

Tysha, a teenage girl who was saved from rapers, only to be gang-raped on Tywin Lannister’s orders. Her whereabouts become something of a talisman for Tyrion in ADWD, as if finding her will free him from his dead father’s long, black shadow, but aside from the sexual violence she suffered, we know nothing else about this lowborn girl except that she loved a boy deemed by Westerosi society to be unloveable. 

For Lyarra, Minisa, Bethany, and the rest, we know little more than their names, their pregnancies, and their deaths, and for some we don’t even have names. 

I often include Lynesse Hightower and Alannys Greyjoy as honorary members, even though they’re obviously not dead. 

I said above that the DLC are either up on a pedestal or down on their knees. Lynesse Hightower is both, introduced to us by Jorah as a love story out of the songs, and villainized as the woman who left Jorah to be a concubine in Lys. In Jorah’s words, he hates Lynesse, almost as much as he loves her. Lynesse’s story is defined by a lot of tired tropes; she is the “Stunningly Beautiful” “Uptown Girl” / “Rich Bitch” “Distracted by the Luxury” until she realizes Jorah is “Unable to support a wife”. (All of these are explained on tv tropes if you would like to read more.) Lynesse is basically an embodiment of the gold digger trope without any depth, without any subversion, without really delving into Lynesse as a person. Even though she’s still alive, even though lots of people still alive know her and would be able to tell us about her as a person, they don’t. 

Alannys Greyjoy I personally include in the Dead Ladies Club because her character boils down to a “Mother’s Madness” with little else to her, even tho, again, she’s not dead. 

When I include Lynesse and Alannys, every region in GRRM’s Seven Kingdoms has at least one of the DLC. That was something that stood out to me when I was first reading - how widespread GRRM’s dead mothers and cast off women are. It’s not just one mother, it’s not just one House, it’s everywhere in GRRM’s writing.

And when I say “everywhere in GRRM’s writing,” I mean everywhere. Mothers killed off-screen (typically in childbirth) before the story begins is a trope GRRM uses throughout his career, in Fevre Dream and Dreamsongs and Armageddon Rag and in his tv scripts. It’s unimaginative and lazy, to say the least. 

*~*~*~*~

PART III: WHO ARE THEY NOT? 

Long dead, historical women like Visenya Targaryen are not included in the Dead Ladies Club. Why, you ask? 

If you go up to the average American on the street, they’ll probably be able to tell you something about their mother, or their grandmother, or their aunt, or some other woman in their lives who is important to them, and you can get an idea about who these women were/are as people. But the average American probably won’t be able to tell you a whole lot about Martha Washington, who lived centuries ago. (If you’re not American, substitute “Martha Washington” with the name of the mother of an important political figure who lived 300 years ago. I’m American, so this is the example I’m using. Also, I can already hear the history nerds piping up - sit down, you’re distinctly above average.)  

In this same fashion, the average Westerosi should (misogyny aside) usually be able to tell you something about the important women in their lives. In real life history, kings and lords and other noblemen shared or preserved information about their wives or mothers or sisters or w/e, in spite of the extremely misogynistic medieval societies they lived in. 

So this isn’t “OMG a woman died, be outraged!!1!” kind of thing. This isn’t that. 

I generally limit the DLC to women who have died relatively recently in Westerosi history and who are denied their humanity in a way that their male contemporaries are not. 

*~*~*~*~

PART IV: WHY DOES IT MATTER?

The Dead Ladies Club are the women of the previous one or two generations that we should know more about, but we don’t. We know little more about them than that they had children and they died. I don’t know these women, except through transformative fandom. I know a lot about the pre-series male characters in the text, but canon gives me almost nothing about these women. 

To copy from another post of mine on this issue, it’s like the Dead Ladies exist in GRRM’s narrative solely to be abused, raped, give birth, and die, later to have their immutable likenesses cast in stone and put up on pedestals to be idealized. The women of the Dead Ladies Club aren’t afforded the same characterization and growth as pre-series male characters. 

Think about Jaime, who, while not a pre-series character, is a great example of how GRRM can use characterization to play with his readers. We start off seeing Jaime as an asshole who pushes kids out of windows, and don’t get me wrong, he’s still an asshole who pushes kids out of windows, but he’s also so much more than that. Our perception as readers shifts and we understand that Jaime is so complex and multi-layered and grey. 

With dead pre-series male characters, GRRM still manages to do interesting things with their stories, and to convey their desires, and to play with reader perceptions. Rhaegar is a prime example. Readers go from Robert’s version of the story that Rhaegar was a sadistic supervillain, to the idea that whatever happened between Rhaegar and Lyanna wasn’t as simple as Robert believed, and some fans even progress further to this idea that Rhaegar was highly motivated by prophecy. 

But we don’t get that kind of character development with the Dead Ladies. For example, Elia exists in the narrative to be raped and to die, and to motivate Doran’s desires for justice and revenge, a symbol of the Dornish cause, a reminder by the narrative that it is the innocents who suffer most in the game of thrones. But we don’t know who she is as a person. We don’t know what she wanted in life, how she felt, what she dreamed of. 

We don’t get characterization of the DLC, we don’t get shifts in perception, we barely get anything at all when it comes to these women. GRRM does not write pre-series female characters the same way he writes pre-series male characters. These women are not given space in the narrative the same way their male contemporaries are. 

Consider the Unnamed Princess of Dorne, mother to Doran, Elia, and Oberyn. She was the only female ruler of a kingdom while the Robert’s Rebellion generation was coming up, and she is also the only leader of a Great House during that time period that we don’t have a name for. 

The North? Ruled by Rickard Stark. The Riverlands? Ruled by Hoster Tully. The Iron Islands? Ruled by Quellon Greyjoy. The Vale? Ruled by Jon Arryn. The Westerlands? Ruled by Tywin Lannister. The Stormlands? Steffon, and then Robert Baratheon. The Reach? Mace Tyrell. But Dorne? Just some woman with no name, oops, who the hell cares, who even cares, why bother with a name, who needs one, it’s not like names matter in ASOIAF, amirite? //sarcasm//

We didn’t even get her name in TWOIAF, even though the Unnamed Princess was mentioned there. And this lack of a name is so very limiting - it is so hard to discuss a ruler’s policy and evaluate her decisions when the ruler doesn’t even have a name. 

To speak more on the namelessness of women... Tysha didn’t get a name until ACOK. Although they were named in the appendices in book 1, neither Joanna nor Rhaella were named within the story until ASOS. Ned Stark’s mother wasn’t named until the family tree in the appendix of TWOIAF. And when will the Unnamed Princess of Dorne get a name? When? 

As I think about this, I cannot help but think of this quote: “She hated the namelessness of women in stories, as if they lived and died so that men could have metaphysical insights.” Too often these women exist to further the male characters, in a way that doesn’t apply to men like Rhaegar or Aerys. 

I don’t think that GRRM is leaving out or delaying these names on purpose. I don’t think GRRM is doing any of this deliberately. The Dead Ladies Club, imo, is the result of indifference, not malevolence. 

But these kinds of oversights like the Princess of Dorne not having a name are, in my opinion, indicative of a much larger trend -- GRRM refuses these dead women space in the narrative while affording significant space to the dead/pre-series male characters. This issue, imo, is relevant to feminist spatial theory, or the ways in which women inhabit or occupy space (or are prevented from doing so). Some feminist scholars argue that even conceptual “places” or “spaces” (like a narrative or a story) have an influence on people’s political power, culture, and social experience. Such a discussion is probably beyond the scope of this post, but basically it’s argued that women/girls are socialized to take up less space than men in their surroundings. So when GRRM refuses narrative space to pre-series women in a way that he does not do to pre-series men, I feel like he is playing into misogynistic tropes and tendencies rather than subverting them.  

*~*~*~*~

PART V: THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER

Given that many of the DLC (although not all) were mothers, and that many died in childbirth, I want to examine this phenomenon in more detail, and discuss what it means for the Dead Ladies Club. 

Popular culture has a tendency to prioritize fatherhood by marginalizing motherhood. (Look at Disney’s long history of dead or absent mothers, storytelling which is merely a continuation a much older fairytale tradition of the “symbolic annihilation” of the mother figure.) Audiences are socialized to view mothers as “expendable,” while fathers are “irreplaceable”:

This is achieved by not only removing the mother from the narrative and undermining her motherwork, but also by obsessively showing her death, again and again. […] The death of the mother is instead invoked repeatedly as a romantic necessity […] there appears to be a reflex in mainstream popular visual culture to kill off the mother. [x]

For me, the existence of the Dead Ladies Club is perpetuating the tendency to devalue motherhood, and unlike so much else about ASOIAF, it’s not original, it’s not subversive, and it’s not great writing.  

Consider Lyarra Stark. In GRRM’s own words, when asked who Ned Stark’s mother was and how she died, he tells us laconically, “Lady Stark. She died.” We know nothing of Lyarra Stark, other than that she married her cousin Rickard, gave birth to four children, and died during or after Benjen’s birth. It’s another example of GRRM’s casual indifference toward and disregard for these women, and it’s very disappointing coming from an author who is otherwise so amazing. If GRRM can imagine a world as rich and varied as Westeros, why is it so often the case that when it comes to the female relatives of his characters, all GRRM can imagine is that they suffer and die? 

Now, you might be saying, “dying in childbirth is just something that happens to women, so what’s the big deal?” Sure, women died in childbirth in the Middle Ages at an alarming rate. Let’s assume that Westerosi medicine closely approximates medieval medicine - even if we make that assumption, the rate at which these women are dying in childbirth in Westeros is inordinately high compared to the real Middle Ages, statistically speaking. But here’s the kicker: Westerosi medicine is not medieval. Westerosi medicine is better than medieval medicine. To paraphrase my friend @alamutjones, Westeros has better than medieval medicine, but worse than medieval outcomes when it comes to women. GRRM is putting his finger down on the scales here. And it’s lazy. 

Childbirth, by definition, is a very gendered death. And it’s how GRRM defines these women - they gave birth, and they died, and nothing else about them matters to him. (“Lady Stark. She died.”) Sure, there’s some bits of minutia we can gather about these women if we squint. Lyanna was said to be willful, and she had some sort of relationship with Rhaegar Targaryen that the jury is still out on, but her consent was dubious at best. Joanna was happily married, and she was desired by Aerys Targaryen, and she may or may not have been raped. Rhaella was definitely raped to conceive Daenerys, who she died giving birth to. 

Why are these women treated in such a gendered manner? Why did so many mothers die in childbirth in ASOIAF? Fathers don’t tend to die gendered deaths in Westeros, so why isn’t the cause of death more varied for women? 

And why are so many women in ASOIAF defined by their absence, as black holes, as negative space in the narrative? 

The same cannot be said of so many fathers in ASOIAF. Consider Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, but whose father is a godlike-figure in their lives, both before and after his death. Even dead, Tywin still rules his children’s lives. 

It’s the relationship between child and father (Randyll Tarly, Selwyn Tarth, Rickard Stark, Hoster Tully, etc) that GRRM gives so much weight to relative to the mother’s relationship, with notable exceptions found in Catelyn Stark and Cersei Lannister. (Though with Cersei, I think it could be argued that GRRM isn’t subverting anything -- he’s playing into the dark side of motherhood, and the idea that mothers damage their children with their presence -- which is basically the flip side of the dead mother trope -- but this post is already a ridiculous length and I’m not gonna get into this here.) 

*~*~*~*~

PART VI: THE DLC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Despite his claims to historical verisimilitude, GRRM made Westeros more misogynistic than the real Middle Ages. Considering that the details of their sexual violence is the primary information we have about the DLC, why is so much sexual violence necessary?

I discuss this issue in depth in my tag for #rape culture in Westeros, but I think it deserves to be touched on here, at least briefly. 

Girls like Tysha are defined by the sexual violence they experienced. We know about Tysha’s gang rape in book 1, but we don’t even learn her name until book 2.  So many of the DLC are victims of sexual violence, with little or no attention given to how this violence affected them personally. More attention is given to how the sexual violence affected the men in their lives. With each new sexual harassment Joanna suffered because of Aerys, we know per TWOIAF that Tywin cracked a little more, but how did Joanna feel? We know that Rhaella had been abused to the point that it appeared that a beast had savaged her, and we know that Jaime felt extremely conflicted about this because of his Kingsguard oaths, but how did Rhaella feel, when her abuser was her brother-husband? We know more about the abuse these women suffered than we do about the women themselves. The narrative objectifies rather than humanizes the DLC. 

Why did GRRM’s messianic characters have to be conceived through rape? The mother figure being raped and sacrificed for the messiah/hero is an old and tired fantasy trope, and GRRM does it not once, but two (or possibly even three) times. Really, GRRM? Really? GRRM doesn’t need to rely on raped dead mothers as part of his store-bought tragic backstory. GRRM can do better than that, and he should do better. (Further discussion in my tag for #gender in ASOIAF.) 

*~*~*~*~

PART VII: MALE SACRIFICE, FEMALE SACRIFICE, AND CHOICE

Now, you might be asking, “It’s normal for male characters to sacrifice themselves, so why can’t women sacrifice themselves for the messiah? Isn’t female sacrifice subversive?” 

Male sacrifice and female sacrifice are often not the same in popular culture. To boil it down - men sacrifice, while women are sacrificed. 

Women dying in childbirth to give birth to the messiah isn’t the same thing as male characters making some grand last stand with guns blazing to give the Messianic Hero the chance to Do The Thing. The male characters who get to go out guns blazing choose that fate; it’s the end result of their characterization to do so. Think of Syrio Forel. He chooses to sacrifice himself to save one of our protagonists. 

But women like Lyanna and Rhaella and Joanna they didn’t get a choice, were afforded no grand moment of existential victory that was the culmination of their characters; they just died. They bled out, they got sick, they were murdered -- they-just-died. There was no grand choice to sacrifice themselves in favor of saving the world, there was no option to refuse the sacrifice, there wasn’t any choice at all. 

And that’s key. That’s what lies at the heart of all of GRRM’s stories: choice. As I said here,

“Choice […]. That’s the difference between good and evil, you said. Now it looks like I’m the one got to make a choice” (Fevre Dream). In GRRM’s own words, “That’s something that’s very much in my books: I believe in great characters. We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices.” It’s the the choices that hurt, the choices where good and evil hang in the balance – these are the choices in which “the human heart [is] in conflict with itself,” which GRRM considers to be “the only thing worth writing about”. 

Men like Aerys and Rhaegar and Tywin make choices in ASOIAF; women like Rhaella don’t have any choices at all in the narrative. 

Does GRRM not find the stories of the Dead Ladies Club worth writing about? Was there no moment in GRRM’s mind when Rhaella or Elia or Ashara felt conflicted in their hearts, no moment they felt their loyalties divided? How did Lynesse feel choosing concubinage? What of Tysha, who loved a Lannister boy, but was gang-raped at the hands of House Lannister? How did she feel? 

It would be very different if we were told about the choices that Lyanna and Rhaella and Elia made. (Fandom often speculates about whether, for example, Lyanna chose to go with Rhaegar, but the text remains silent on this issue as of ADWD. GRRM remains silent on these women’s choices.)  

It would be different if GRRM explored their hearts in conflict, but we’re not told anything about that. It would be subversive if these women actively chose to sacrifice themselves, but they didn’t. 

Dany is probably being set up as a woman who actively chooses to sacrifice herself to save the world, and I think that’s subversive, a valiant and commendable effort on GRRM’s part to tackle this dichotomy between male sacrifice and female sacrifice. But I don’t think it makes up for all of these dead women sacrificed in childbirth with no choice. 

*~*~*~*~

PART VIII: CONCLUSIONS

I hope this post serves as a working definition of the Dead Ladies Club, a term which, at least for me, carries a lot of criticism of the way GRRM handles these female characters. The term encompasses the voicelessness of these women, the excessive and highly gendered abuse they suffered, and their lack of characterization and agency. 

GRRM calls his characters his children. I feel like these dead women -- the mothers, the wives, the sisters -- I feel like these women were GRRM’s stillborn children, with nothing left of them but a name on a birth certificate, and a lot of lost potential, and a hole where the heart once was in someone else’s story. From my earliest days on tumblr, I wanted to give voice to these voiceless women. Too often they were forgotten, and I didn’t want them to be. 

Because if they were forgotten -- if all they were meant to do was die -- how could I believe in ASOIAF? 

How can I believe that “men’s lives have meaning, not their deaths” if GRRM created this group of women merely to be sacrificed? Sacrificed for prophecy, or for someone else’s pain, or simply for the tragedy of it all?

How can I believe in all the things ASOIAF stands for? I know that GRRM does a great job with Sansa and Arya and Dany and all the other female POVs, and I admire him for it. 

But when ASOIAF asks, “what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?" What is one life worth, when measured against so much? And Davos answers, softly, “Everything” ... When ASOIAF says that ... when ASOIAF says that one life is worth everything, how can people tell me that these women don’t matter? 

How can I believe in ASOIAF as a celebration of humanity, when GRRM dehumanizes and objectifies these women? 

The treatment of these women undermines ASOIAF’s central thesis, and it didn’t need to be like this. GRRM is better than this. He can do better. 

I want to be wrong about all this. I want GRRM to tell us in TWOW all about Lyanna’s choices, and I want to learn the name of the Unnamed Princess, and I want to know that three women weren’t raped to fulfill GRRM’s prophecy. I want GRRM to breathe life into them, because I consider him to be the best fantasy writer alive. 

But I don’t know that he will do that. The best I can say is, I want to believe.

*~*~*~*~

“Ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.” 

But I sing of them. I do. Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story...

*~*~*~*~

PART IX: FOOTNOTES AND MISCELLANEOUS

**I am 90% certain that I am the person who invented the term “Dead Ladies Club”, but I am not 100% certain. It sounds like a name I would make up, but a lot of my friends who I would talk to about this on their blogs in 2011 and 2012 have long since deleted, so I can’t find the first time I used the term, and I can’t remember anymore. Some things that should not have been forgotten were lost, history became legend, legend became myth, y'all know the drill.

To give you a little more about the origins of this term, I created my sideblog @pre-gameofthrones because I wanted a place for the history of ASOIAF, but mostly I wanted a place where these women could be brought to life. During my early days in fandom, so many people around here were writing great fanfiction featuring these women, fleshing out these women’s thoughts and feelings, bringing them to life and giving them the humanity that GRRM denied them. I wasn’t very interested in transformative works before ASOIAF, but suddenly I needed a place to preserve all of these fanfics about these women. Perhaps it sounds silly, but I didn’t want these women to suffer a second “death” and to be forgotten a second time with people deleting their blogs and posts getting lost in tumblr’s terrible organization system. 

Over the years, so many other people have talked about and celebrated the Dead Ladies Club: @poorshadowspaintedqueens, @cosmonauthill, @lyannas, @rhaellas, @ayllriadayne, @poorquentyn, @goodqueenaly, @arielno, @gulbaharsultan, @racefortheironthrone and so many others, but these were the people I remembered off the top of my head, and I wanted to list them here because they all have such great things to say about this, so check them out, go through their archives, ask them stuff, because they’re wonderful!

[fedonciadale]

To be the dragon's advocate, they originally wanted to remain 'pure-blooded' because 'Valyrian' blood could train a dragon and no one of them get dragon horns, I guess. If they could keep their pets, the dragons might be far too destructive. Now, I wonder why they continued this after 153 AC... Aerys' marriage with Rhaella could be explained as the prince that was promised will come from Aerys' and Rhaella's line but besides that, I wouldn't see why they want to continue incest.

(2) Plus, I do not think Daenerys’ house is supposed to parallel nazis, considering national socialism wasn't  an ideology that values inbreeding whatsoever. Her house is the embodiment of white supremacy, yeah but more likely this parallels  Radbot’s house with a bit of Ptolemaic dynasty. 

Thanks for the ask nonny. Well, let’s suppose they wanted the “dragon-taming gene”. Then it would be a far better policy to try to spread the genes as far as possible and to cross the lines occasionally, say every 2 or 3 generations, marrying cousins or cousins once-removed. Incest reduces the probability of healthy children because apart from the dragon-gene there are also others less desirable genes that are getting enforced by the incest. It would have been far smarter to do a policy of spreading the genes and ‘collecting’ them again. More offspring, more possible dragon-tamers. We know from some of the Targaryen histories that there were royal bastards who could control dragons, so it can’t be absolutely recessive. It would be a good policy to combine exogamy and endogamy. So, from a genetic point of view, it’s not smart, but you could argue, that they don’t know about genetics, so we put that aside.

There is the other problem, that the Targaryen incest reduces the offspring to a dangerous degree. Now you also don’t want to much offspring because offspring means contenders for the throne (Blackfyres!), but on the other hand you need more than one line. Look at Aegon V, the fourth son of a fourth son, not a likely heir, but nevertheless he succeeded. If Aemon had taken the throne it would have been the third son of a fourth son…. So also for offspring, the general danger for an untimely death in a time that had no antibiotics, no modern technique, no vaccines and wars, wars and wars, it is a smart policy to have a royal line that does not only depend on one heir. Look at the Starks, Ned’s siblings were dead (or in the Night’s watch), and his line depended on him alone, so he tries to produce many children (even though he and Cat loved each other, it’s still a smart move). In the books, Cat muses about a possible heir after Bran and Rickon are supposedly dead and she has to count back several generations to come to some far-related cousin, or look at AFFC and Littlefinger’s recital of the Arryn family tree to explain why Harold Hardyng is the Arryn heir. So for the succession also a mixture of exogamy and endogamy would be the wisest choice.

And then there is the question of general politics! If you come to a country you conquer you should try to endear people to you. How do you do that? By marriage. Marrying Targ princesses to the nobilty of Westeros, means that the nobles will have Targ grandchildren and will support the Targ house. Keeping aloof does not help, not at all. Look at Dorne. They are real Targ loyalists and why? Because they are related (or that’s at least one reason).

So, the only reason for Targ incest, I see, is a sort of deep conviction that the Targaryens are so special that they can’t mingle with others, that for them incest is o.k. like they are gods (like the Egyption pharaoh and their successors the Ptolemaic dynasty), that because of dragons they don’t have to adhere to political reasoning that is valid for other houses. It is telling that the alliance with Dorne broke through that pattern only after the dragons died out.

To me - and that is my personal opinion - that smacks of entitlement and a feeling of supremacy that just does not sit well with me.

And the term Aryan was a term for white supremacy even before the Nazis used it, and though you are right, that the Nazis did not value inbreeding they valued ‘purity’, not of the bloodline, but of the race, and they forbade interracial marriage. So in a way they wanted ‘purity’ of a race, not a family.

So although ‘purity of the bloodline’, ‘blood of Valyria’, ‘blood of the First Men’ etc. might be explained as something ‘in-story’, I think that it is understandable that some people do have problems with this Targ ‘family supremacy’ politics.

And what I really think is problematic, that some people argue that Jon and D have to marry to ‘keep the bloodline pure’. That really makes me cringe. You could argue that ‘in-story’ maybe they won’t have a problem with the incest (certainly not Dany who was raised to think she’d marry her brother), - and I would say that Jon being the rightful heir and the Northern distrust of Targaryens are much more of a problem - but I think this would be a wrong reason for them to stay together. Let them stay together for love, for good looks, for neutralizing Jon’s claim as rightful heir, for anything, but not for ‘keeping the bloodline pure’.

That was a long answer, but I hope you can see, why I still think, Targ politics of ‘inbreeding’ is problematic and is probably meant to be that.

[tomakeitbeautifultolive]

Hey! I recently found your blog and saw you believed in N+A=D, which is a theory I read a few years ago and really enjoyed,, I plan on reading your more in dept analysis on your site when I have time, thanks for putting it together! I really like this theory since it mirrors J and D even more and it also removes the rape and Aerys' madness in general from D. Now a question: do you believe this theory will be discussed in the show (only 2 eps left) or is it gonna stick to the books if it is true?

A woman after my own heart!  This theory is the dearest to my heart! @ktwrites and I have expanded the theory much more than wherever you last heard it, I assure you. (For anyone wondering, this is our site)

First, thank you SO much for recognizing that this theory mirrors Jon and Dany even further!

That’s the part that hooked me in, too. If Jon is rumored to be born of rape but actually born of love, shouldn’t Dany be, too? I think the pair of them having parents with star-crossed, tragic love stories is actually perfect for a pair that comes together to break the wheel that drove their parents apart in the first place.

All of the anti arguments about Daenerys vanish, since let’s face it, they usually come from (homogeneous) Stark stans. Dany gets the blame for what Aerys did before she was born, gets accused of sharing his madness, and also, the incest. If this theory is true, Jon and Dany are downgraded to cousins rather than aunt/nephew. Fucking everyone in Westeros are cousins. Rickard & Lyarra, Tywin & Joanna…

Also, then these lines about “I am the last Targaryen,” and “A Targaryen alone in the world is a terrible thing,” and “The last dragon.” Then actually mean something literal.

I do have a page on the site about show clues, but fuck it - I’ll add some here.

The Dragon and the Wolf?

But… Jon’s a dragon. I don’t make the rules. He is Aegon Targaryen - Dragon, fire. Sure, he has Stark blood. But if Jon is a Stark, then Sansa, Arya, and Bran are Tullys (I don’t make the rules). So… who is ice and who is fire? Right now it’s more like The Dragon and the Dragon and A Song of Fire and Fire.

Curiously, the new Mother’s Day card (I know, I know it has Targ symbols) features an icy border:

And okay. Dany’s aversion to fire, which many relate to her being a Targaryen… maybe it has more to do with the ice in her veins? After all, we see Jon burned by fire:

And later wearing a bandage on his hand:

Meanwhile, we have Jon able to survive a deep dive in freezing cold water that probably would’ve killed a normal person - maybe the fire in his blood? This is all wild speculation now, so I’ll stop lmfao. One other thing though, in Fire & Blood, Alysanne’s dragon Silverwing refused to go past the Wall, it sounds almost like there was some sort of magical barrier there. Meanwhile, Dany has no problem getting past it. Which could just be plot convenience, admittedly.

Like in the books, the fallen direwolf (symbolizing Ned) at the beginning of the series has six pups. Ned has five children (so far as we know).

Dany and the color blue:

Now, I know what Michelle Clapton says about Dany always wearing blue - “Dothraki power color” Which is strange to me, since blue is one of the rarest pigments during this time period. I know, it’s just a show. Dany looks good in blue. Maybe that’s all it means.

But Stark women have a tendency to wear blue, likely as a nod to the blue ‘winter rose’, in which the Stark lady in the Bael the Bard tale is literally referred to as a winter rose.

Likewise, Dany wears greys and purples (if she is Ashara Dayne’s daughter, then purple would be her mother’s house color):

The Starks have a tendency to ride white horses. White is a Stark color. Jon has always ridden a black horse, which is a Targaryen color.

(Yeah, Dany rides a black horse beside Jon in S8, but she also tends to wear red colors while in his presence… bride of fire, eh?)

While Ashara Dayne is never mentioned on the show (I don’t think Rhaella is, either… despite Dany always wearing that ring, which is never explained in the show proper, rather in BTS stuff or interviews). Ashara Dayne is mentioned in the history and lore for the Season 6 DVD Extras.

Daenerys’ costume also shares similarities with Ned’s, in the way she wears her cape as well as the diagonal chain across her chest:

Ned has interesting reactions toward Dany’s assassination attempt. He doesn’t seem to give two shits about Viserys, telling Robert that if he makes it to Westeros, they’ll throw him back in the Narrow Sea, meanwhile Ned is chin-wobbling upset after hearing it’s too late to reverse the hit on Dany’s life. Arguably more upset than he was after seeing the dead body of a freshly murdered child, Mycah (though that’s debatable, I’m sure). There are some interesting transition scenes between Dany and Ned, particularly my favorite:

And then there are early promo photos where Dany and Ned are put together:

In season 7, Daenerys says Dragonstone does not feel like a homecoming, and she goes and touches Dorne on the Painted Table immediately thereafter:

There’s a curious line from Cersei during the Dragonpit meeting, saying basically she couldn’t trust Dany’s word, but could trust Jon’s word because he’s Ned Stark’s son. The shot hangs on Dany as she speaks the line about Ned Stark’s son (watch the clip here):

We’ve got other lines too, about how when Jon is elected King in the North, Lyanna Mormont says, this:

“I don’t care if he’s a bastard, Ned Stark’s blood runs through his veins.”

(But it doesn’t…) Even Dany is talking about Ned:

“I was born at Dragonstone. Not that I can remember it. We fled before Robert’s Assassins could find us. Robert was your father’s best friend, no? I wonder if your father knew his best friends sent assassins to murder a baby girl in her crib. Not that it matters now, of course.”

Varys knows damned well Ned tried everything in his power to prevent her murder (I wish he’d fucking tell her, whether or not she’s Ned’s secret bastard).

There are rumors we’re getting Robert’s Rebellion/Tourney at Harrenhal flashback next episode (I don’t know whether I believe it), but Wilf Scolding did have a mysterious deleted Instagram post indicating he was filming - so maybe we’ll see Ned and Ashara, too? Fingers crossed.

If everyone is talking about how Jon and Dany parallel Duncan and Jenny, which is a pairing comprised of a common girl and a dark-haired Targaryen prince… then just maybe Jon gives up his claim for say, a bastard girl? Dany being a Stark bastard and associated with flowers/roses, possible CotF relation via Stark blood… might make her have more in common with Jenny than if she were a Targaryen? 🤔

There may be more, I haven’t done a full, proper rewatch in a while, I admit. Probably too late now, lol. I’d say that there is a big “WTF” twist coming so there’s a chance - many attribute this to a leak involving Tyrion but… I feel like that was something that was foreshadowed, unlike Hodor/hold the door.

All that said though, I’d say the likelihood of this ending up on screen probably is slim. But again, we have a wealth of evidence on our site that must mean something. GRRM basically admits that the lemon tree mystery means something (and no, I don’t buy that it means the betrothal to Quentyn because he was more or less a non-issue anyway).

And there may be a chance GRRM is saving twists for his book, especially considering this:

My best guess would be Barristan Selmy, since in the books, over in Essos, nowhere near Jon, he’s bringing up that Dany looks like Ashara’s daughter, and by this point we don’t really need a red herring for Jon Snow’s mother, since most readers had figured it out.

[renlyisright]

Season 6 Episode 10: Justice for Everyone, Ex-Sept for Some

WHAT.

Just what. That seems to cover it. What.

Cersei just… but what about… but she… what… okay, one more try.

The episode starts with a shot of the sept of Baelor, and a montage of everyone preparing for the day’s trials. Then the music starts. Oh dear, the music. The foreboding, pling plong music. Cersei has a plan.

And what a plan. It’s very efficient. Put all of your enemies in King’s Landing in one place, then blow that place up. There’s some collateral damage, like the whole court and several districts surrounding the sept, but since those weren’t Jaime or Tommen they don’t matter.

When I figured out that she was going to use wildfire, and it was enough to burn everyone in the sept, the question became “Okay, who is going to get out? Margaery obviously, she had her own plot which we don’t know yet, some other named characters too so this doesn’t end all court politics in King’s Landing… they are not getting out. They are not getting out. High Sparrow, what are you doing? They -” And then it happened.

When you play the game of thrones, you win, or you die.

So many deaths in the span of a second. But I want to acknowledge all of them, so a few words of them all.

Grand Master Pycelle gets his own personal death, when he is called into Qyburn’s gothic cellar. He would have gone to the trial anyway, right? So when Qyburn says that this is nothing personal, and that he has no ill will towards the good old grand maester who has mocked him his entire time in the King’s Landing… he is lying like a cat. He wanted him there, so he could watch him be murdered by children. The realm will be in good hands with this Hand. Pycelle has been such a constant in the show, that him being gone feels weird. Who’s going to look smug, clang around and mutter in the small council meetings now? If there will be any anymore.

Of Lancel Lannister I have little to say. He poisoned Robert on Cersei’s order, then caught an arrow, was hit by Cersei, was sick for a long time, found the gods (they were hiding beneath the bed, I assume), became a religious fanatic, was stabbed by a child and then blown up as the wildfire’s first victim.

The High Sparrow is the second one to meet his gods, by a fraction of a second. If they exist, they will perhaps congratulate him for trying so hard and almost succeeding, or they’ll tell him to chill, that he was wrong on many points, but that when Cersei arrives, she will be dealt much more harshly. I never want an answer on what’s afterlife like in stories (purgatories are fine), but the High Sparrow was all about the afterlife and the judgement of the gods, and now he has gone there, and he has the answers. If he is welcomed not by his precious Seven, but by the Lord of Light… well, he went by burning, that should be a plus. I wonder about his last moments. When Margaery told him that Cersei is planning something and they should leave, what did he think it would be? Something like the Red Wedding? He knew that if he and/or members of the court died, they would be martyrs. He wasn’t afraid to die, and he wouldn’t care for the rich and elite, if the end result was a revolution. Well, he didn’t count for absolutely everybody dying at the same time.

Then there’s Margaery, who… was a plotter. She had a plan, that she would put to use when Loras was free to leave the sept. I wonder what it was. Margaery never was one to murder people, she just gently manipulated the people in power to do what she wanted them to do. Sadly, she couldn’t manipulate wildfire. (Sidenote: I think that not even Daenerys could survive that explosion, her body just wouldn’t burn, but there’s shock waves and everything else. So look out once you are there, there’s more of this stuff beneath all the big buildings). Margaery’s death was the biggest surprise. Everyone else there, sure, but she felt like she still had things to do and Cersei to challenge. Oh well. That’s the thing with death, it doesn’t care how much you have things to do.

Loras’ time has been almost nothing but suffering. It’s a pity, especially as he is… was the only gay man in the show after Renly died. Well, there was also that prostitute, but he was mostly a prop, and if he was still in the sept dungeons goodbye to him too. Anyway, after a long humiliation and abuse, he is mutilated and left to bleed as the High Sparrow goes after the bigger fish. And getting the star carved onto him was least of his worries, as he then dies too. Talk about drawing the short stick.

Mace Tyrell. How do I even begin to explain Mace Tyrell? He turned the wrong corner in the studio and ended up in the wrong show. Westeros is a darker place without him. I mean, sure, in that world kids died and people were flayed and so on, but that world also included Mace Tyrell, pompously going around the Red Keep, knowing that the place was kept in one piece only because of his diplomatic skills in the finances and fleet-organizing. Why, he practically ruled the realm behind the scenes, like in some game of thrones or something.

The Hand of the King is a very perilous position. Tywin Lannister was the only one who survived in that position for more than a season. Let’s see, Ned lost his head, Tyrion got a scar, Tywin was shot, Cersei (the Hand in all but name) was arrested and had Mother’s Mercy given to her, and now Kevan goes out in green flames. He was right in that Cersei wasn’t much of a ruler when she tried it, but completely excluding her from decision-making and her son was a wrong idea as well. Tywin could do it, but Cersei wouldn’t have blown Tywin up. Maybe. I’m actually not sure.

That’s everyone important inside the sept, but it doesn’t stop there. Oh how it doesn’t. Last week I wondered who will take the spot of the most vile character now that Ramsay is gone. Well… I have also thought that Cersei should get a win at some point. Can you say “summer child?” Because when Cersei gets a victory, it’s not pretty. The explosion at least was quick, even if it killed hundreds of innocents, but Septa Unella will suffer horribly for a long time until the good Queen allows her to die.

Queen, don’t I mean Queen Mother? After all, Tommen is still the king, right? Well, actually, after everything that Cersei has done for him... That is, trying to be the only one he ever listens to, removing everyone else from his life, including the woman she loves... To be fair, everybody in his life has only tried to use him for their own ends. Tywin told him to get good counselors, he has tried to get them anywhere he could. First Tywin, then Cersei, Margaery, Kevan, the High Sparrow… But he has been a puppet all the time. Once he figured out just how evil his own mother is, and that nothing in this world is good, except perhaps his beloved wife who just died… darn, that’s a lot to take in when your job description says “the most powerful man in the world” and that doesn’t help at all. He takes a long walk on a short windowsill.

There, that’s everyone in King’s Landing. Nine. What a purge. And it doesn’t stop there, as we move on to the Twins!

Lord Walder Frey is super happy for getting Riverrun back. He tries to make “The Freys and the Lannisters send their regards” into a thing, but Jaime is not amused. In their conversation Walder tries to make this a great victory, “I have defeated my enemies”, but Jaime points out that “he” had already defeated his enemies back at the Red Wedding, and then he couldn’t keep them defeated without Lannister help again. Now they are in the exact same situation but the Lannisters had to kill Blackfish for him. So after the Late Walder Frey becomes the late Walder Frey, is there a proper heir amidst his army of relatives, or will Cersei go “Pssh, who cares, let’s give Riverlands to some other house”?

Yes, Walder Frey dies. Not from old age, he’s too experienced of it to die from it, but from Arya’s hand, same way as he had her mother killed. Arya kills not only him, but also Black Walder and Lothar. She actually bakes them into a pie and has Walder eat them. This is some Titus Andronicus level horridness, and it’s done by Arya… actually I’m not even surprised. 

I don’t remember who are on her list, Cersei, the Mountain, the Hound… is anyone else still alive? Jaime apparently was not in the list, otherwise he wouldn’t have left the Twins alive. Arya uses faces, did she take them from the temple when she left? Do they work like that? And do the Faceless Men mind that she uses their tricks for her own purposes? Last time she did that, she was blinded. But maybe Braavos doesn’t mind her killing Cersei and some others, as the crown is still in debt to the Iron Bank. Even after the excellent deal Mace must have made with them.

But darn Arya, don’t act like cutting people up and baking them into pies is a cool thing to do. What I said last time of Sansa applies to her as well. Killing people is fine (in story), but cruel and unusual punishments must take a toll on you too, so better stop before you end up like Cersei.

So, on the throne? She has won the Game of Thrones, and sits now on the pointy chair. She has managed to gather enough of a new court to fill the throne room once more. The Mad King almost ended his rule by burning all his enemies, Cersei starts with it. So she read Stannis’ self-help guide “What would Aerys II do?” And with Qyburn as her hand and the entire Small Council, I’m sure her reign will be long and prosperous. Maybe even seven episodes long.

Sam and Gilly have arrived to their destination, without any dramatic hunting and confrontation which I feared would happen. They have the precious Valyrian steel sword in their possession. It would help a lot more in Castle Black than in the Citadel, but can Sam find anyone trustworthy enough to get it there in time?

Ah yes, the Citadel. I get big Alexandria vibes from it. The letter from Jon is accepted and believed, (“Yes, both the Lord Commander and the maester of the Watch died recently, I show up here months later holding a letter written by someone you don’t know and who actually is not the Lord Commander anymore, and I’m supposed to be educated by you.”), because who wouldn’t believe Sam?

The Citadel maester crosses out Mormont’s name from his book (if it lists current rulers, half of it must have been crossed out in recent years), and allows Sam to enter the library. Hallelujah! It’s got scrolls a plenty, and also planetary models. Cool! Is the map from the opening titles there somewhere too? More time here please.

So Sam and Gilly spent this season going from place A to place B, with the only hijinks on the way being having to dine with Sam’s father and stealing his sword with no repercussions (yet anyway). Now if they can just stay under radar for the next fourteen episodes…

Fourteen episodes. During the last fourteen episodes Sam defended Gilly once from the watchmen and then they travelled here. It feels weird that this story ends after that same number of episodes is up.

Well, so many of the cast died in this one that they can get more screen time in the future.

You know who won’t get any more screen time? Shireen. Because she was murdered. Davos confronts Melisandre about that, and her reasons and Davos’ objections are what I thought they would be. It felt super satisfying to hear Davos say “If he commands you to burn children, your lord is evil”, but sad as well. After hearing this, Jon doesn’t want her around anymore and exiles her.

Does Melisandre go to find another Chosen One? Well, Jon will fight the White Walkers so in that way he still is, but Melisandre can’t give her any tips from the Lord of Light. Which is totally fine with me. If he wants Jon to win, he can well melt the snow without asking for killing children first.

What did Olenna say to Cersei when she came back to King’s Landing last season? Sometimes you have to work with your enemies, not destroy them. Cersei never got the hang of that, so she ends up destroying anyone she can and making the rest new enemies. But Olenna, being awesome, is ready to put aside long blood feuds between the Martells and the Tyrells and travels to Dorne.

Seriously, Cersei has absolutely no proper allies anymore. The Freys need the Lannisters more than they need them. And being from the original usurper houses, and a bad person, she is a human-shaped target for everyone. Jaime and the Mountain have their job cut out for them to keep her alive long enough to be defeated.

I joked about “The War of Six Queens” back when Shireen, Margaery and Myrcella were still alive, but by the failure of existence of anyone else, the de facto ruleships have slipped to the women. Olenna, Ellaria, Cersei, Daenerys, Sansa almost, Yara likely soon. If you keep on killing everyone in the line of succession, at some point you run out of men.

Varys enters. He had Olenna’s respect back in King’s Landing, and now he can offer an alliance with three dragons and a big fleet full of soldiers. Daenerys’ job seems almost too easy. With Cersei being the most hated woman in the kingdom, and no other kings to challenge her rule-

Oh. These people are so easy to excite. Glover admits that he was wrong when he didn’t support Jon. Good, but the Glovers are still not right.

Sansa doesn’t take the leadership of the North, but she’ll likely become the regent as Jon has a war to fight during the winter. But that war seems much easier now with three dragons on the continent, if Tyrion manages to make Daenerys take that threat seriously. The dead can’t fly, and they can’t cross either the sea or the Wall.

That last information is told to us by Benjen. There are spells in the Wall’s foundations and the dead can’t pass while it stands. But the two dead watchmen who attacked Mormont in the Castle Black got through, by Jon and co bringing them there. Is that a loophole? But the watchmen won’t bring any more through, unless it’s for the pyre.

Benjen goes to be missing again, that’s what he knows best. Bran wants to see how the episode with young Ned ended, and rewinds there. Ned finds his sister Lyanna, dying in childbirth, and asks Ned to take care of the child.

The child. By Renly’s beard! That’s Jon! Who was thought to be the honorable Eddard Stark’s only sin, is instead the son of raped Lyanna Stark and her kidnapper, Rhaegar Targaryen, and Ned took care of him as his son. Wow.

I had no theories of Jon’s mother. I couldn’t figure out anyone 1) in the proper age range during the rebellion, 2) whose name would be a big enough revelation, and 3) who would be able to carry a child and have Ned then bring it to North with nobody wiser. So I decided to just wait and see. And this makes sense enough and fulfills the above conditions. Color me more than satisfied. It’s great to have six-year-long mysteries finally answered. What is left? The dagger will likely never be addressed in the show, Joffrey has been dead for a long time and who is going to care? Some historians, maybe. I don’t remember any other relevant mysteries which are still mysteries.

Littlefinger confesses that he has only ever wanted the Iron Throne, and Catelyn Sansa at his side. Sansa is not flattered, she has had enough of marriages for a long while. Besides, who would trust Littlefinger? Everyone, for some reason. If he had a bear costume and told everyone he was a bear, they’d believe that.

Daenerys wraps up on Essos. Slaver’s Bay is renamed into the Bay of Dragons, and Fabio Naharis is left in Meereen with the sellswords to keep peace there. “I said farewell to a man who loves me. Who I thought I cared for. And I felt nothing. Just impatience to get it over with”. Well, there’s two of us then. I haven’t thought much of any of Daenerys’ sidekicks... except for the ones coming from Westeros, now that I think about it. Huh.

Tyrion gets the Hand pin! And recognition of his skills and services! This is a beautiful day.

Then they are on their way. Daenerys is on her way. The fleet leaves Meereen and sails towards Westeros, with the dragons singing the song of fire.

Argh, I have to get the next episodes ASAP, no need for any months-long-breaks, I’m late as it is.

Compared to… all the other seasons, this one ended very optimistically. Aside from all the comparatively-decent persons dying, and with the knowledge that many more will die before the end, there’s still hope. The North is in peace and it’s led by a person who knows what they are up against, everyone is Cersei’s enemy so she won’t rule for long, and Daenerys has many ladies as allies already.

Okay winter, let’s go.

[readbookywooks]

Eddard

Robert, I beg of you," Ned pleaded, "hear what you are saying. You are talking of murdering a child." "The whore is pregnant!" The king's fist slammed down on the council table loud as a thunderclap. "I warned you this would happen, Ned. Back in the barrowlands, I warned you, but you did not care to hear it. Well, you'll hear it now. I want them dead, mother and child both, and that fool Viserys as well. Is that plain enough for you? I want them dead." The other councillors were all doing their best to pretend that they were somewhere else. No doubt they were wiser than he was. Eddard Stark had seldom felt quite so alone. "You will dishonor yourself forever if you do this." "Then let it be on my head, so long as it is done. I am not so blind that I cannot see the shadow of the axe when it is hanging over my own neck." "There is no axe," Ned told his king. "Only the shadow of a shadow, twenty years removed . . . if it exists at all." "If?" Varys asked softly, wringing powdered hands together. "My lord, you wrong me. Would I bring ties to king and council?" Ned looked at the eunuch coldly. "You would bring us the whisperings of a traitor half a world away, my lord. Perhaps Mormont is wrong. Perhaps he is lying." "Ser Jorah would not dare deceive me," Varys said with a sly smile. "Rely on it, my lord. The princess is with child." "So you say. If you are wrong, we need not fear. If the girl miscarries, we need not fear. If she births a daughter in place of a son, we need not fear. If the babe dies in infancy, we need not fear." "But if it is a boy?" Robert insisted. "If he lives?" "The narrow sea would still lie between us. I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water." The king took a swallow of wine and glowered at Ned across the council table. "So you would counsel me to do nothing until the dragonspawn has landed his army on my shores, is that it?" "This ‘dragonspawn' is in his mother's belly," Ned said. "Even Aegon did no conquering until after he was weaned." "Gods! You are stubborn as an aurochs, Stark." The king looked around the council table. "Have the rest of you mislaid your tongues? Will no one talk sense to this frozen-faced fool?" Varys gave the king an unctuous smile and laid a soft hand on Ned's sleeve. "I understand your qualms, Lord Eddard, truly I do. It gave me no joy to bring this grievous news to council. It is a terrible thing we contemplate, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule must do vile things for the good of the realm, howevermuch it pains us." Lord Renly shrugged. "The matter seems simple enough to me. We ought to have had Viserys and his sister killed years ago, but His Grace my brother made the mistake of listening to Jon Arryn." "Mercy is never a mistake, Lord Renly," Ned replied. "On the Trident, Ser Barristan here cut down a dozen good men, Robert's friends and mine. When they brought him to us, grievously wounded and near death, Roose Bolton urged us to cut his throat, but your brother said, ‘I will not kill a man for loyalty, nor for fighting well,' and sent his own maester to tend Ser Barristan's wounds." He gave the king a long cool look. "Would that man were here today." Robert had shame enough to blush. "It was not the same," he complained. "Ser Barristan was a knight of the Kingsguard." "Whereas Daenerys is a fourteen-year-old girl." Ned knew he was pushing this well past the point of wisdom, yet he could not keep silent. "Robert, I ask you, what did we rise against Aerys Targaryen for, if not to put an end to the murder of children?" "To put an end to Targaryens!" the king growled. "Your Grace, I never knew you to fear Rhaegar." Ned fought to keep the scorn out of his voice, and failed. "Have the years so unmanned you that you tremble at the shadow of an unborn child?" Robert purpled. "No more, Ned," he warned, pointing. "Not another word. Have you forgotten who is king here?" "No, Your Grace," Ned replied. "Have you?" "Enough!" the king bellowed. "I am sick of talk. I'll be done with this, or be damned. What say you all?" "She must be killed," Lord Renly declared. "We have no choice," murmured Varys. "Sadly, sadly . . . " Ser Barristan Selmy raised his pale blue eyes from the table and said, "Your Grace, there is honor in facing an enemy on the battlefield, but none in killing him in his mother's womb. Forgive me, but I must stand with Lord Eddard." Grand Maester Pycelle cleared his throat, a process that seemed to take some minutes. "My order serves the realm, not the ruler. Once I counseled King Aerys as loyally as I counsel King Robert now, so I bear this girl child of his no ill will. Yet I ask you this—should war come again, how many soldiers will die? How many towns will burn? How many children will be ripped from their mothers to perish on the end of a spear?" He stroked his luxuriant white beard, infinitely sad, infinitely weary. "Is it not wiser, even kinder, that Daenerys Targaryen should die now so that tens of thousands might live?" "Kinder," Varys said. "Oh, well and truly spoken, Grand Maester. It is so true. Should the gods in their caprice grant Daenerys Targaryen a son, the realm must bleed." Littlefinger was the last. As Ned looked to him, Lord Petyr stifled a yawn. "When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it," he declared. "Waiting won't make the maid any prettier. Kiss her and be done with it." "Kiss her?" Ser Barristan repeated, aghast. "A steel kiss," said Littlefinger. Robert turned to face his Hand. "Well, there it is, Ned. You and Selmy stand alone on this matter. The only question that remains is, who can we find to kill her?" "Mormont craves a royal pardon," Lord Renly reminded them. "Desperately," Varys said, "yet he craves life even more. By now, the princess nears Vaes Dothrak, where it is death to draw a blade. If I told you what the Dothraki would do to the poor man who used one on a khaleesi, none of you would sleep tonight." He stroked a powdered cheek. "Now, poison . . . the tears of Lys, let us say. Khal Drogo need never know it was not a natural death." Grand Maester Pycelle's sleepy eyes flicked open. He squinted suspiciously at the eunuch. "Poison is a coward's weapon," the king complained. Ned had heard enough. "You send hired knives to kill a fourteen-year-old girl and still quibble about honor?" He pushed back his chair and stood. "Do it yourself, Robert. The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. Look her in the eyes before you kill her. See her tears, hear her last words. You owe her that much at least." "Gods," the king swore, the word exploding out of him as if he could barely contain his fury. "You mean it, damn you." He reached for the flagon of wine at his elbow, found it empty, and flung it away to shatter against the wall. "I am out of wine and out of patience. Enough of this. Just have it done." "I will not be part of murder, Robert. Do as you will, but do not ask me to fix my seal to it." For a moment Robert did not seem to understand what Ned was saying. Defiance was not a dish he tasted often. Slowly his face changed as comprehension came. His eyes narrowed and a flush crept up his neck past the velvet collar. He pointed an angry finger at Ned. "You are the King's Hand, Lord Stark. You will do as I command you, or I'll find me a Hand who will." "I wish him every success." Ned unfastened the heavy clasp that clutched at the folds of his cloak, the ornate silver hand that was his badge of office. He laid it on the table in front of the king, saddened by the memory of the man who had pinned it on him, the friend he had loved. "I thought you a better man than this, Robert. I thought we had made a nobler king." Robert's face was purple. "Out," he croaked, choking on his rage. "Out, damn you, I'm done with you. What are you waiting for? Go, run back to Winterfell. And make certain I never look on your face again, or I swear, I'll have your head on a spike!" Ned bowed, and turned on his heel without another word. He could feel Robert's eyes on his back. As he strode from the council chambers, the discussion resumed with scarcely a pause. "On Braavos there is a society called the Faceless Men," Grand Maester Pycelle offered. "Do you have any idea how costly they are?" Littlefinger complained. "You could hire an army of common sellswords for half the price, and that's for a merchant. I don't dare think what they might ask for a princess." The closing of the door behind him silenced the voices. Ser Boros Blount was stationed outside the chamber, wearing the long white cloak and armor of the Kingsguard. He gave Ned a quick, curious glance from the corner of his eye, but asked no questions. The day felt heavy and oppressive as he crossed the bailey back to the Tower of the Hand. He could feel the threat of rain in the air. Ned would have welcomed it. It might have made him feel a trifle less unclean. When he reached his solar, he summoned Vayon Poole. The steward came at once. "You sent for me, my lord Hand?" "Hand no longer," Ned told him. "The king and I have quarreled. We shall be returning to Winterfell." "I shall begin making arrangements at once, my lord. We will need a fortnight to ready everything for the journey." "We may not have a fortnight. We may not have a day. The king mentioned something about seeing my head on a spike." Ned frowned. He did not truly believe the king would harm him, not Robert. He was angry now, but once Ned was safely out of sight, his rage would cool as it always did. Always? Suddenly, uncomfortably, he found himself recalling Rhaegar Targaryen. Fifteen years dead, yet Robert hates him as much as ever. It was a disturbing notion . . . and there was the other matter, the business with Catelyn and the dwarf that Yoren had warned him of last night. That would come to light soon, as sure as sunrise, and with the king in such a black fury . . . Robert might not care a fig for Tyrion Lannister, but it would touch on his pride, and there was no telling what the queen might do. "It might be safest if I went on ahead," he told Poole. "I will take my daughters and a few guardsmen. The rest of you can follow when you are ready. Inform Jory, but tell no one else, and do nothing until the girls and I have gone. The castle is full of eyes and ears, and I would rather my plans were not known." "As you command, my lord." When he had gone, Eddard Stark went to the window and sat brooding. Robert had left him no choice that he could see. He ought to thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He ought never have left. His sons were waiting there. Perhaps he and Catelyn would make a new son together when he returned, they were not so old yet. And of late he had often found himself dreaming of snow, of the deep quiet of the wolfswood at night. And yet, the thought of leaving angered him as well. So much was still undone. Robert and his council of cravens and flatterers would beggar the realm if left unchecked . . . or, worse, sell it to the Lannisters in payment of their loans. And the truth of Jon Arryn's death still eluded him. Oh, he had found a few pieces, enough to convince him that Jon had indeed been murdered, but that was no more than the spoor of an animal on the forest floor. He had not sighted the beast itself yet, though he sensed it was there, lurking, hidden, treacherous. It struck him suddenly that he might return to Winterfell by sea. Ned was no sailor, and ordinarily would have preferred the kingsroad, but if he took ship he could stop at Dragonstone and speak with Stannis Baratheon. Pycelle had sent a raven off across the water, with a polite letter from Ned requesting Lord Stannis to return to his seat on the small council. As yet, there had been no reply, but the silence only deepened his suspicions. Lord Stannis shared the secret Jon Arryn had died for, he was certain of it. The truth he sought might very well be waiting for him on the ancient island fortress of House Targaryen. And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden. Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love and trust. Ned slid the dagger that Catelyn had brought him out of the sheath on his belt. The Imp's knife. Why would the dwarf want Bran dead? To silence him, surely. Another secret, or only a different strand of the same web? Could Robert be part of it? He would not have thought so, but once he would not have thought Robert could command the murder of women and children either. Catelyn had tried to warn him. You knew the man, she had said. The king is a stranger to you. The sooner he was quit of King's Landing, the better. If there was a ship sailing north on the morrow, it would be well to be on it. He summoned Vayon Poole again and sent him to the docks to make inquiries, quietly but quickly. "Find me a fast ship with a skilled captain," he told the steward. "I care nothing for the size of its cabins or the quality of its appointments, so long as it is swift and safe. I wish to leave at once." Poole had no sooner taken his leave than Tomard announced a visitor. "Lord Baelish to see you, m'lord." Ned was half-tempted to turn him away, but thought better of it. He was not free yet; until he was, he must play their games. "Show him in, Tom." Lord Petyr sauntered into the solar as if nothing had gone amiss that morning. He wore a slashed velvet doublet in cream-and-silver, a grey silk cloak trimmed with black fox, and his customary mocking smile. Ned greeted him coldly. "Might I ask the reason for this visit, Lord Baelish?" "I won't detain you long, I'm on my way to dine with Lady Tanda. Lamprey pie and roast suckling pig. She has some thought to wed me to her younger daughter, so her table is always astonishing. If truth be told, I'd sooner marry the pig, but don't tell her. I do love lamprey pie." "Don't let me keep you from your eels, my lord," Ned said with icy disdain. "At the moment, I cannot think of anyone whose company I desire less than yours." "Oh, I'm certain if you put your mind to it, you could come up with a few names. Varys, say. Cersei. Or Robert. His Grace is most wroth with you. He went on about you at some length after you took your leave of us this morning. The words insolence and ingratitude came into it frequently, I seem to recall." Ned did not honor that with a reply. Nor did he offer his guest a seat, but Littlefinger took one anyway. "After you stormed out, it was left to me to convince them not to hire the Faceless Men," he continued blithely. "Instead Varys will quietly let it be known that we'll make a lord of whoever does in the Targaryen girl." Ned was disgusted. "So now we grant titles to assassins." Littlefinger shrugged. "Titles are cheap. The Faceless Men are expensive. If truth be told, I did the Targaryen girl more good than you with all your talk of honor. Let some sellsword drunk on visions of lordship try to kill her. Likely he'll make a botch of it, and afterward the Dothraki will be on their guard. If we'd sent a Faceless Man after her, she'd be as good as buried." Ned frowned. "You sit in council and talk of ugly women and steel kisses, and now you expect me to believe that you tried to protect the girl? How big a fool do you take me for?" "Well, quite an enormous one, actually," said Littlefinger, laughing. "Do you always find murder so amusing, Lord Baelish?" "It's not murder I find amusing, Lord Stark, it's you. You rule like a man dancing on rotten ice. I daresay you will make a noble splash. I believe I heard the first crack this morning." "The first and last," said Ned. "I've had my fill." "When do you mean to return to Winterfell, my lord?" "As soon as I can. What concern is that of yours?" "None . . . but if perchance you're still here come evenfall, I'd be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually." Littlefinger smiled. "And I won't even tell the Lady Catelyn."