#but dany has them and despite thinking winning the throne back is her duty as the last targaryen STILL decided to stay in slaver's bay
Text
I was hoping that Jaimie went back to being smug to cover up what he realy feels. He is scared to lose Brienne when Cersei wins the iron throne. Its not addiction that propelled him to go back to KL. It is fear of what the outcome of the war will be. There is guilt of not being able to save his unborn child and part of him still longs to save cersei because shes his twin. I can see the dillemma in his scenes which nikolaj portrayed ever so well. The conflict of his position.
The night that he and Brienne made love was conflict brewing. He knew in that moment that he loves Brienne. I wish the lack of dialogue were open for interpretation. I waa frustrated by lack of dialogue and the love scenes were not as elaborated as i have hoped for. Maybe in a way it was an opportunity for more ways to interpret it. Right after that night the scenes with Tyrion was enough for me to see that Jaimie seemed happy with his situation despite his conflicting thoughts and emotions.
His history with Cersei have been his formative years of dysfunctional relationship. To finally experience a healthy romantic relationship with a woman he strongly feels about in Brienne maybe felt overwhelming. It feels good but theres that conflicting history he has with Cersei.
Watching the scenes with Tyrion i was so sure he was happy to stay had if not for Bronn ruining that moment. He made the decision to stay because he is finally happy with Brienne up until the danger that Cersei and her allies has over them. The dillemma started again coupled by the news of Cersei getting the upperhand on the current battle.
I think that was the turning point of Jaimie's decision to go back ro KL. Either he waa worried because if Cersei wins Brienne and Tyrions life would be endanger again and he feels that obligation to get to her whether he gets killed or not. But if Dany's wrath got the better of her then he was worried about his sister after all she is his sister no.matter what and of course his unborn child. Either way theres this guilt within him he could never ger rid of. Now im so sad for him.
The scene where Tyrion freed him where he became his smug old self was just a cover to hide his fears. Fear for his family abd fear for the love of his life Brienne. I think the dialogue that he told Cersei on the last moment was just to calm Cersei. An obligation of the last moment of his generosity to his twin. He felt that last moment of kindness towards his sister ny telling her what she wanted to hear. Poor Jaimie.
The heartbreaking scene where Jaimie left Brienne was trying to hold her at arms lenght to cover his dillemma and fear of losimg her. He really hurt her so bad. Ugh im still not over that scene. But i realised that was Jaimie giving up on his happiness for a greater good. If only the writers did him justice by letting him live to tell Brienne why he actually left. Nikolaj acted that scene so very well that it opened for better interpretation other than addiction of Cersei. I think hes more than his addiction. He is better than his addiction to Cersei.
I wish that Jaimie lived and failed trying save Cersei and exiled somewhere far away to finally realised that theres more to life than his twin. That Brienne is the one who will show him that. I think the ultimate saving grace would be Brienne having his babies. That will give him the ultimate purpose because finally he got a son amd daughter to call his own. No reservations or shame whatsoever. Because Brienne and Jaimie deserve that happy ending. Tyrion will become the bridge to connect Brienne to Jaimie. He would be over the moon to know he has twins. Selwyn and Myrcella. Theres a long distance love affair bacause of his exile. Enough time for Brienne to fulfill her Lord Commander duties. Every so often Tyrion would sneak the family to get together away from the realm. Brienne and Jaimie reunited and of course Brienne woould forgive her husband Jaimie. Sigh. Their kids will know their father Brienne will make sure od that. And of course more passionate love making for the two. Yassss. Gimme xxx
0 notes
Text
Been thinking about Dark!D*ny and
I think for me, it comes down to two things:
The utter hypocrisy re: her supposed abolitionist ways
The escalation of her power and the destruction she wreaks
Because I can't really fault her for smothering Drogo. I can't really fault her for letting Viserys die. I can't really fault her for murdering the shit out of Kraznys. I can't fault her for freeing slaves (as if). I can't even fault her for wanting revenge.
Let me explain-
I think if we compare the capture of the Lhazareen and the capture of Meereen, it paints a very clear picture of where D*ny is headed.
The Lhazareen
Ok. First, the whole 'D*ny has no power' argument has to stop. She's the khaleesi. Her husband is the khal. Of course she has power.
I'm NOT saying Drogo isn't absolutely monstrous to her. I'm not saying she chose to marry him. I'm not commenting on their relationship at all.
In a patriarchy, (upper class) women gain property/power/control over others in exchange for sexual/reproductive service. So D*ny, simply by virtue of being the khal's wife, or simply because she's pregnant with his kid (neither of which were her choice) has power.
For comparison, Cersei, who is abused by her husband, the king, still derives power from her position as Queen and mother of the princes/princess. See what I mean?
?? Drogo decides they're gonna sail to Westeros and gives his rousing speech because D*ny was almost assassinated. The attack on the Lhazareen was done in service of D*ny's conquest of Westeros. Let's repeat.
The Lhazareen were attacked to further D*ny's interests.
The Lhazareen were attacked to further D*ny's interests.
No, it wasn't for Rhaego, he's a fucking foetus he doesn't HAVE interests. It's not for Drogo, he doesn't give two shits about Westeros. IT"S FOR D*NY. And that is her 'power' in action. Her power, that she derives through her husband, because PatRiarChy. But power.
And you know what? Sure. It's fine. She didn't know what a bloodbath it was going to be. That's not her fault. And yeah, she IS ready to accept the bloodshed as necessary collateral. That is...a bit more questionable. But she does try to help some women.
Does she only help them because she can see their suffering? Probably. There's plenty of suffering not in her direct line of sight that she allows. But ok. Sure. It's not her job to save everyone (nevermind that they're suffering to further her interests).
The whole 'save them by marrying them to their rapists' thing makes me more sad than enraged. It's tragic. It's D*ny, making women marry their rapists in the same book where she married her rapist...thinking she's ok, thinking they would be ok too. It's the cycle of abuse in motion, right before our eyes.
This is an explanation I accept. All that bullshit about how powerless D*ny is? Pls. Women and children are being enslaved right there on the same page, so D*ny can win the IT, and she's powerless ?? stfu
Ok. I get it. She's not powerless, but how far does her power extend? COULD she have gotten away with getting all the newly enslaved Lhazareen freed? We'll never know. Does that absolve her?
Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downriver to one of the towns on Slaver's Bay. She wanted to cry, but she told herself that she must be strong. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne.
NO.
This- the capture and enslavement of the Lhazareen people- is a direct consequence of Viserys' ambitions, which is a torch that D*ny has now willingly taken up. THAT ^^^ is a price she's willing to pay, or rather- make others pay.
Buuuut it's fine. She's inexperienced, and her power is certainly limited, and hey she tried. Sure. Moving on.
Meereen
(TW: mentions of rape)
Fast forward four books and D*ny is approximately 100x times more powerful than she was in the Lhazareen scene. Let's see how she does now-
A boy came, younger than Dany, slight and scarred, dressed up in a frayed grey tokar trailing silver fringe. His voice broke when he told of how two of his father's household slaves had risen up the night the gate broke. One had slain his father, the other his elder brother. Both had raped his mother before killing her as well. The boy had escaped with no more than the scar upon his face, but one of the murderers was still living in his father's house, and the other had joined the queen's soldiers as one of the Mother's Men. He wanted them both hanged.
I am queen over a city built on dust and death. Dany had no choice but to deny him. She had declared a blanket pardon for all crimes committed during the sack. Nor would she punish slaves for rising up against their masters.
xxx
A former slave came, to accuse a certain noble of the Zhak. The man had recently taken to wife a freedwoman who had been the noble's bedwarmer before the city fell. The noble had taken her maidenhood, used her for his pleasure, and gotten her with child. Her new husband wanted the noble gelded for the crime of rape, and he wanted a purse of gold as well, to pay him for raising the noble's bastard as his own. Dany granted him the gold, but not the gelding. "When he lay with her, your wife was his property, to do with as he would. By law, there was no rape." Her decision did not please him, she could see, but if she gelded every man who ever forced a bedslave, she would soon rule a city of eunuchs.
SO anyway how is D*ny rating on the 'tried to prevent rape' scale?
She even went so far as to summon Irri, hoping her caresses might help ease her way to rest, but after a short while she pushed the Dothraki girl away. Irri was sweet and soft and willing, but she was not Daario.
Oh look she's in the negative :/
How's she doing on the slavery front? She's got all the power now...
"Your slave Missandei." Jhiqui had a taper in her hand.
"My servant. I have no slaves." Dany did not understand. "Why does she weep?"
xxx
There was no slavery in the free city of Pentos. Nonetheless, they were slaves.
...
D*enerys spends five books gaining power. How does this affect the condition of her people? Is the condition of the Meereenese better than the condition of the Lhazareen had been, all the way back in the first book? No. It's worse.
People have still been raped. People have still been enslaved/remained enslaved. People have starved. People have been brutally murdered. And at a much larger scale than book 1.
This is what it comes down to. D*ny is a villain because her climb to power is characterized by death and destruction, always. Isn't that the trademark of a villain?
D*ny is a girl who truly believes in her own PR, but when you look at her words and actions-
"The Good Master has said that these eunuchs cannot be tempted with coin or flesh," Dany told the girl, "but if some enemy of mine should offer them freedom for betraying me . . ."
"They would kill him out of hand and bring her his head, tell her that," the slaver answered. "Other slaves may steal and hoard up silver in hopes of buying freedom, but an Unsullied would not take it if the little mare offered it as a gift. They have no life outside their duty. They are soldiers, and that is all."
xxx
"No," she pleaded. "Save him, and I will free you, I swear it. You must know a way … some magic, some …"
...how much of her actions are truly altruistic? How much is performative?
Despite her anti-slavery rhetoric, D*ny consistently benefits from slavery- and slavery flourishes.
Despite her 'oh no I don't wanna bring death and destruction anywhere', her actions continue to bring exactly that- and it never stops her from doing it all over again the next time.
Not to dismiss her internal struggle. But really. Being upset at the thought that you might be a bad person doesn't make you a good person. For that matter, being worried if you're going mad or not...doesn't mean you're not (not that I'm saying she is). Seriously, where did that logic even come from? Ultimately, her internal struggle makes her a more compelling character, sure, but it doesn't actually make her a better person.
The point is, her story is absolutely rooted in hypocrisy. Her destructiveness only escalates with her power. Her so-called good intentions never pan out- because her own actions undermine them. And because she has the self-awareness of a pigeon, she never gets better.
She IS the villain who thinks she's a hero. She isn't just a villain because she's done bad things, but because she's utterly unaware (or deliberately obtuse) of the bad things she's done, and so she's incapable of learning, and so she's only getting worse.
Take a step outside her POV and it suddenly becomes clear.
Let's recap.
D*ny has-
Wayy more power in Meereen. Less in Lhazareen
D*ny did-
Less to prevent rape in Meereen. More in Lhazareen
D*ny benefitted from-
Slavery in Meereen. Slavery in Lhazareen
D*ny was-
A slaver in Meereen. A slaver in Lhazareen
D*ny wreaked-
Death and destruction in Meereen. Death and destruction in Lhazareen.
D*ny, riding high on her power-
Ordered the murder of children. And much more.
Power is NOT good for D*ny.
#dark!dany#anti daenerys targaryen#d**y stans do NOT interact#yea I censored her name twice just to be sure
112 notes
·
View notes
Text
Musings on ASOIAF Ladies and Ambition
I’ve noticed people use “ambition” to describe Sansa and Daenerys as if it’s a bad word or an insult (often called “power hungry”). Yet in the text of the series, neither of them are shown to be ambitious people as a core characteristic. I blame the series for a lot of this, because it failed to explore the internal dialogue of Sansa, Arya, and even Cersei, who ends up more humanized than either of them by the end (because of the maybe baby).
Cersei Lannister is the classic ambitious ASOIAF lady, whose point-of-view is introduced in perhaps the most iconic sentence of any introductory chapter:
She dreamt she sat the Iron Throne, high above them all.
I can’t think of a sentence in ASOIAF that better introduces the internal thoughts and view of its leading character.
In comparison, Sansa’s first sentence is receiving news about her father’s whereabouts, Daenerys is shown her new dress to meet Drogo, and Arya has crooked stitches again. Arya’s works to frame her relationship with Sansa and her internal struggle to fit the feminine Westerosi mold, while Sansa and Daenerys are setting up plot points. None of these interactions signal ambition, bad or good. Daenerys did not arrange her wedding, Sansa is just told the information by her Septa, and while Arya is aspiring to have straight stitches, that’s hardly an ambitious goal for a girl of nine.
Fans rarely, if ever, deny Cersei’s cruel, cold, often stupid ambition. In fact, it’s one of the reason people seem to love her. She’s internally open about what she wants - power - and when she wants it - now:
All of them are burning now, she told herself, savoring the thought. They are dead and burning, every one, with all their plots and schemes and betrayals. It is my day now. It is my castle and my kingdom.
- AFFC, Cersei III
The rule was hers; Cersei did not mean to give it up until Tommen came of age. I waited, so can he. I waited half my life. She had played the dutiful daughter, the blushing bride, the pliant wife. She had suffered . . . She had contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, and her vile, treacherous, murderous dwarf brother, all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn. If Margaery Tyrell thinks to cheat me of my hour in the sun, she had bloody well think again.
- AFFC, Cersei V
Cersei is the definition of a power hungry lady, scheming and cheating at every point. Yes, Sansa learned from her, but most of Sansa’s internalized lessons of Cersei’s were to do the exact opposite.
"The night's first traitors," the queen [Cersei] said, "but not the last, I fear. . . . Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. . . . The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy."
"I will remember, Your Grace," said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.
- ACOK, Sansa VI
Cersei isn’t the only POV character who views herself outside of conventional Westerosi standards and aspires to something beyond being a wife and mother. Arya Stark has ambition writ clear on the page, though it is not so cold or denying other people their rights or chances. Compared to Cersei, Arya doesn’t want everything, crown and throne and kingdom and all. She just wants something, and even that is denied to highborn women in Westeros. Even when she asks her father about her future, a man who wants to do right by his children and loves them, Eddard Stark is blinded by Westerosi patriarchy:
Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"
"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."
- AGOT, Eddard V
With Arya in this, I see some parallels to Elaena Targaryen, who was so good at math and management she served as the secret Master of Coin while her husband carried the title. Elaena was “more willful than Rhaena, but not as beautiful as either of her sisters,” yet is also said to have been “more beautiful at age seventy than at age seventeen,” growing into herself like Arya is expected to. They both even cut their hair, Arya to hide her gender and Elaena to hide her beauty, both instances to gain freedom from captivity in the Red Keep.
Despite both these examples of ambition - Cersei’s all-encompassing, without care for how it affects the realm, and Arya’s attempt to find a place in the world outside the Westerosi model - it still becomes an insult when people speak of Daenerys and Sansa.
Critics claim Sansa is ambitious, and negatively so, because she “wants to be queen.” But this criticism misses a vital point of Sansa’s character. Unlike Cersei, she does not want to be queen because of the power and political influence, but because she will be living a song. In the start, Sansa’s got her head in the clouds, not to the dirty world of politics. Her very first chapter lays out this motivation incredibly clearly:
All she wanted was for things to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs.
When she thinks of Joffrey and being in love with him, it’s because he’s “handsome and gallant as any prince in the songs” (AGOT, Sansa II),
Alternatively, it has been said that Sansa is ambitious because of her claim to Winterfell. But compare how Sansa thinks of her claim to how Big Walder Frey does. Despite being far down the inheritance line, he is certain he will someday possess the Twins. He’s likely willing to kill his family to become Lord of the Crossing, and already has killed Little Walder.
In comparison, Sansa isn’t the one who realizes her claim as heir to Winterfell, even after her two younger brothers are believed dead. It’s Dontos who mentions it, and after she still thinks that Robb will have sons to inherit.
But she had not forgotten his words, either. The heir to Winterfell, she would think as she lay abed at night. It's your claim they mean to wed. Sansa had grown up with three brothers. She never thought to have a claim, but with Bran and Rickon dead . . . It doesn't matter, there's still Robb, he's a man grown now, and soon he'll wed and have a son. Anyway, Willas Tyrell will have Highgarden, what would he want with Winterfell?
- ASOS, Sansa II
Sansa’s not ready to kill Bran and Rickon if they show up. Her arc is about taking off the rose-tinted glasses and seeing reality, but also working to make reality like a song. For example, her idea of the Tournament of the Winged Knights for Sweetrobin. It’s a song come to life, all by her making. TBD how the ending goes, of course, but it shows that trajectory.
And finally, Daenerys.
Daenerys is not driven by some lifelong desire to win and dominate. She’s forced into it, a la Brienne’s “no chance and no choice.” If Daenerys were raised in a stable environment, I have a feeling she’d be much more like Sansa: dreamy, hopeful, sweet and studious. Happy.
But instead, her eyes are open.
When she’s introduced as a character, she shows an awareness for the schemes and politics of the world. She knows her brother is called the Beggar King in the Free Cities, and is doubtful of the smallfolk’s secret toasts to Viserys III that Illyrio Mopatis claims happen across Westeros.
Like Sansa and Cersei, there’s evidence of her goals, hopes, and wishes in the very first chapter:
"I don't want to be his queen," she heard herself say in a small, thin voice. "Please, please, Viserys, I don't want to, I want to go home."
. . .
Dany had only meant their rooms in Illyrio's estate, no true home surely, though all they had, but her brother did not want to hear that. There was no home there for him. Even the big house with the red door had not been home for him.
Daenerys remembers home as the house with the red door in Braavos. It’s her brother whose only home and stability was the Red Keep, not her.
Throughout her journey of power to take back the Seven Kingdoms, she is doubtful at every turn and most of her wishes are for happiness, for peace, for stability.
Dany had no wish to reduce King's Landing to a blackened ruin full of unquiet ghosts. She had supped enough on tears. I want to make my kingdom beautiful, to fill it with fat men and pretty maids and laughing children. I want my people to smile when they see me ride by, the way Viserys said they smiled for my father.
- ACOK, Daenerys II
A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros?
- ADWD, Daenerys II
Even later, Daenerys is determined to bring peace to the lands she currently rules. She does plan to return to the Seven Kingdoms, but it’s not driven by pure ambition. And this is, notably, from a conversation when Prince Quentyn Nymeros Martell asks her to come back and claim them now, saying she has allies for that conquest. And still she turns him down, with promises that it will only happen eventually:
"Daenerys said. ". . . .One day I shall return to Westeros to claim my father's throne, and look to Dorne for help. But on this day the Yunkai'i have my city ringed in steel. I may die before I see my Seven Kingdoms. Hizdahr may die. Westeros may be swallowed by the waves."
- ADWD, Daenerys VII
And yet in both Sansa and Daenerys, these visions and hopes for the futures they might have are considered unbridled ambition, although they turn more on happiness and peace for themselves and their people, rather than the type of ambition Cersei has, which is clearly her own power and being heralded above everyone.
Daenerys’ thoughts in her sixth chapter of ADWD have the same energy as Sansa’s “I will make them love me.”:
"A queen must know the sufferings of her people."
. . .
A queen must listen to her people, Dany reminded herself.
Daenerys has figured out how to make her people love her, by wearing her “floppy ears” and appealing to the masses, listening to them, et cetera. She’s also a bit ahead of Sansa in the realm of ruling, to be sure.
But how are these similar thoughts ambition in either of them? It’s an attempt to empathize and connect, not to throw away and disregard and rule by force and domination. Both these ladies are more nuanced, and the fandom does them a disservice by painting them as ambitious or power-hungry when at the end for both of them, it’s a desire to have a happy, stable, loving life.
132 notes
·
View notes
Note
Sansa, Catelyn, and Cersei are described as beautiful women in the books by several POVs. Their cheekbones, eyes, and hair are described in detail.
I was wondering, what about Daenerys? Is there any actual physical description of her in the books?
The first character that comes to my mind talking about Daenerys's look is Viserys :
“You still slouch. Straighten yourself.” He pushed back her shoulders with his hands. “Let them see that you have a woman’s shape now.”
(...) “She’s too skinny,” Viserys said.”
(...) “Smile,” Viserys whispered nervously, his hand falling to the hilt of his sword. “And stand up straight. Let him see that you have breasts. Gods know, you have little enough as is.”
—AGOT - Daenerys I
The second character is Illyrio:
“Look at her. That silver-gold hair, those purple eyes…she is the blood of old Valyria, no doubt, no doubt…and highborn, daughter of the old king, sister to the new, she cannot fail to entrance our Drogo.”
—AGOT - Daenerys I
So far: silver gold hair, purple eyes, slouch, too skinny, small breasts.
Now, according to the ASOIAF WIKI, "Daenerys has been described as fair and beautiful." Let's see:
Xaro described Dany as 'the fairest woman in the world':
"Let us speak instead of love, of dreams and desire and Daenerys, the fairest woman in this world. I am drunk with the sight of you."
She was no stranger to the overblown courtesies of Qarth. "If you are drunk, blame the wine."
"No wine is half so intoxicating as your beauty. My manse has seemed as empty as a tomb since Daenerys departed, and all the pleasures of the Queen of Cities have been as ashes in my mouth. Why did you abandon me?"
—ADWD - Daenerys III
Despite not knowing her in person yet, Tyrion called her our fair Daenerys:
"Aye." Tyrion moved his elephants. "And when the pisswater prince was safely dead, the eunuch smuggled you across the narrow sea to his fat friend the cheesemonger, who hid you on a poleboat and found an exile lord willing to call himself your father. It does make for a splendid story, and the singers will make much of your escape once you take the Iron Throne … assuming that our fair Daenerys takes you for her consort."
—ADWD - Tyrion VI
Galazza Galare called her fair Daenerys:
"I know these were not the words you wished to hear," said Galazza Galare. "Yet for myself, I understand. These dragons are fell beasts. Yunkai fears them … and with good cause, you cannot deny. Our histories speak of the dragonlords of dread Valyria and the devastation that they wrought upon the peoples of Old Ghis. Even your own young queen, fair Daenerys who called herself the Mother of Dragons … we saw her burning, that day in the pit … even she was not safe from the dragon's wroth."
—ADWD - The Queen's Hand
Jorah the creep called Daenerys 'the most beautiful that I have ever seen' that time he forced a kiss on her:
His eyes were on her breasts.
Dany covered them with her hands, before her nipples could betray her. "I . . . that was not fitting. I am your queen."
"My queen," he said, "and the bravest, sweetest, and most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Daenerys—"
—ASOS - Daenerys I
Even before knowing her in person, Quentyn called Daenerys 'the most beautiful in the world':
Tell me, my Westerosi friend, what is there in Meereen that you should want to go there?"
The most beautiful woman in the world, thought Quentyn. My bride-to-be, if the gods are good. Sometimes at night he lay awake imagining her face and form, and wondering why such a woman would ever want to marry him, of all the princes in the world. I am Dorne, he told himself. She will want Dorne.
(...) And now the most beautiful woman in the world was waiting in Meereen, and he meant to do his duty and claim her for his bride. She will not refuse me. She will honor the agreement. Daenerys Targaryen would need Dorne to win the Seven Kingdoms, and that meant that she would need him. It does not mean that she will love me, though. She may not even like me.
—ADWD - The Merchant's Man
"All dead," Quentyn agreed. "For what? To bring me here, so I might wed the dragon queen. A grand adventure, Cletus called it. Demon roads and stormy seas, and at the end of it the most beautiful woman in the world. A tale to tell our grandchildren. But Cletus will never father a child, unless he left a bastard in the belly of that tavern wench he liked. Will will never have his wedding. Their deaths should have some meaning."
—ADWD - The Spurned Suitor
Despite not knowing her in person yet, Euron and Victarion called Daenerys 'the fairest woman in the world' and 'the most beautiful woman in the world':
"The last of her line. They say she is the fairest woman in the world. Her hair is silver-gold, and her eyes are amethysts . . . but you need not take my word for it, brother. Go to Slaver's Bay, behold her beauty, and bring her back to me."
(...) "I could sail the Iron Fleet to hell if need be." When Victarion opened his hand, his palm was red with blood. "I'll go to Slaver's Bay, aye. I'll find this dragon woman, and I'll bring her back." But not for you. You stole my wife and despoiled her, so I'll have yours. The fairest woman in the world, for me.
—AFFC - The Reaver
"Aye, Captain," said Wulfe One-Ear. He was not half the man that Nute the Barber was, but the Crow's Eye had stolen Nute. By raising him to Lord of Oakenshield, his brother made Victarion's best man his own. "Is it still to be Meereen?"
"Where else? The dragon queen awaits me in Meereen." The fairest woman in the world if my brother could be believed. Her hair is silver-gold, her eyes are amethysts.
Was it too much to hope that for once Euron had told it true? Perhaps. Like as not, the girl would prove to be some pock-faced slattern with teats slapping against her knees, her "dragons" no more than tattooed lizards from the swamps of Sothoryos. If she is all that Euron claims, though … They had heard talk of the beauty of Daenerys Targaryen from the lips of pirates in the Stepstones and fat merchants in Old Volantis. It might be true. And Euron had not made Victarion a gift of her; the Crow's Eye meant to take her for himself. He sends me like a serving man to fetch her. How he will howl when I claim her for myself. Let the men mutter. They had sailed too far and lost too much for Victarion to turn west without his prize.
—ADWD - The Iron Suitor
The iron captain had no time to wait for laggards. Not with his bride encircled by her enemies. The most beautiful woman in the world has urgent need of my axe.
—ADWD - Victarion I
Daario also called Daenerys beautiful:
Daario Naharis entered swaggering. He swaggers even when he is standing still. (...) "Bright queen," he said, "you have grown more beautiful in my absence. How is this thing possible?"
The queen was accustomed to such praise, yet somehow the compliment meant more coming from Daario than from the likes of Reznak, Xaro, or Hizdahr. "Captain. They tell us you did us good service in Lhazar." I have missed you so much.
—ADWD - Daenerys IV
As you can see from the last quote, in addition to those already mentioned, there are other characters around Daenerys that constantly praise her beauty. And I'm sure I failed to quote others characters talking about Daenerys's beauty as well.
There is also the fact that Daenerys's eyes are compared to Ashara Dayne, a known beauty:
And they told how afterward Ned had carried Ser Arthur's sword back to the beautiful young sister who awaited him in a castle called Starfall on the shores of the Summer Sea. The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes.
—AGOT - Catelyn II
Even after all these years, Ser Barristan could still recall Ashara's smile, the sound of her laughter. He had only to close his eyes to see her, with her long dark hair tumbling about her shoulders and those haunting purple eyes. Daenerys has the same eyes. Sometimes when the queen looked at him, he felt as if he were looking at Ashara's daughter …
—ADWD - The Kingbreaker
As you can see, the praise to her beauty comes from mostly dubious people, more interested in her dragons than in herself, people that wanted to use her for their own agenda than truly and unconditionally help her.
I personally think that the Targs are exactly in the line/border of beauty and ugliness. But also take note that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For Westeros, Targaryen/Valyrian look is exotic, the gold-silver hair (that can look almost white/grey) and the purple/lilac/indigo eyes. And exotic can be attractive for some people. But most than exotic, when Targaryen conquered Westeros, they established the superiority of their blood, so of course their look, incest tradition and dragon riding was stated as superior and exceptional, they even wrote a doctrine about that and called it "exceptionalism." And it's too easy to associated superiority with beauty......
Anyway, about the Targaryen look, I think we must trust in Princess Arianne Martell:
Young John Mudd has been sending out birds as well, it seemed. Near dusk on the fourth day, not long after Chain and his wagons had taken their leave of them, Arianne’s company was met by a column of sellswords down from Griffin’s Roost, led by the most exotic creature that the princess had ever laid her eyes on, with painted fingernails and gemstones sparkling in his ears.
Lysono Maar spoke the Common Tongue very well. “I have the honor to be the eyes and ears of the Golden Company, princess.”
“You look… ” She hesitated.
“…like a woman?” He laughed. “That I am not.”
“ …like a Targaryen,” Arianne insisted. His eyes were a pale lilac, his hair a waterfall of white and gold. All the same, something about him made her skin crawl. Was this what Viserys looked like? she found herself wondering. If so perhaps it is a good thing he is dead.
“I am flattered. The women of House Targaryen are said to be without peer in all the world.”
“And the men of House Targaryen?”
“Oh, even prettier. Though if truth be told, I have only seen the one.” Maar took her hand in his own, and kissed her lightly on the wrist. “Mistwood sent word of your coming, sweet princess. We will be honored to escort you to the Roost, but I fear you have missed Lord Connington and our young prince.”
—TWOW - Arianne II
Thanks for your message.
65 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’ve talked a lot about this long fic I’m working on this month, and I finally got started yesterday and have already churned out a pretty decent amount! I’m like 6 chapters deep, and I wanted to share the first one, both because I kind of like it and because I want to post something this weekend.
I have no idea what this is going to end up being called. Currently in my draft it’s The Return of the Wolf, but that’s going to change. It’ll be Jaime/Brienne, Robb/Dany, and Jon/Sansa when it’s done! With probably a bit of Arya/Gendry as well!
Hopefully putting it under the cut here...
Jaime I
She is still in here somewhere.
Jaime refuses to run, knowing that it would draw the more obsequious of his men to him like large metal moths, looking for a chance to win the favor of their one-handed commander. He keeps his expression level, and he walks as quickly as he dares past his men and through the underbelly of Riverrun. There are shouts from deeper in the tunnel, and he follows them. The clash of swords. His stomach tightens. So much for a peaceful surrender. He runs anyway.
She is still in here somewhere, and he must make sure that she gets safely away. She cannot linger here once the Lannister forces have taken the castle, and he knows that she will linger if Tully gives some fool, impassioned speech about honor and duty, because the stubborn woman is too honorable by half, and she will be moved by the old man’s courage, and she will be killed by the old man’s courage.
He cannot allow it.
He scarcely knows why. He warned her. He all but begged her, but of course she didn’t listen. She never has. Even when they grew something of a respect for each other, she was always so sure she knew better than him. Well, this is what happens. She gets herself caught in a siege she should be far away from, and here he is, trying to clean up the mess.
The mess. The Lannisters are the mess. The Lannisters and the Freys, stealing the ancestral home of the Tullys from Brynden Blackfish, who has long been a hero of Jaime’s. How did it come to this? How did he let it come to this? He thought he could be better, once. Why did he stop trying?
He increases his pace as he ducks his head past a wooden beam and finds himself in a rocky tunnel. There is a dead man at his feet. Lannister armor. Another up ahead. Jaime trips past them, his golden hand loud and cumbersome along the rock wall as he places it there for balance, stumbling as the shadows mess with his perception. Ah. Another dead man, just ahead. He wonders which of them killed him. Not that it matters. He’s seen Brienne take down three men before. She hardly broke a sweat.
He rounds a corner, and at last he sees her. She looks bigger than ever. Her frame takes up most of the tunnel the same way it took up most of his pavilion and left it feeling empty when she was gone. She’s speaking urgently to the Blackfish. Tugging on his arm. The fool woman is trying to get him to abandon the castle. Jaime sighs, and Brienne and the Blackfish both look in his direction. Mostly impassive, both of them, but he can see that one is surprised. Heartbroken to see his left hand near his sword.
He hadn’t actually intended to draw it, but Brienne steps before the Blackfish and pulls her own. Oathkeeper, he thinks. Yes, and she means to keep my oaths for me, if I’m too much a Lannister to keep them myself. Even if it means running a sword through my gut.
“What are you doing?” he asks her.
“Ser Jaime, please,” she says, and she sets her stance wider.
“I will not surrender,” the Blackfish says, behind her.
“I was speaking to the lady,” Jaime replies, trying for sarcastic, trying to pretend that the daggers the Blackfish glares in his direction aren’t piercing. There is sweat on his brow; it trickles down his temple. He dares not wipe it away. “Lady Brienne, I cannot allow you to take him.”
“And I cannot allow you to stop me,” Brienne replies. “I told you it might come to this.”
Jaime continues to move closer. He still doesn’t draw his sword. Could he draw against Brienne? He hardly knows. Perhaps, if it came to it. He’d like to at least die with sword in hand, if only to spare the poor girl the trauma of striking down an unarmed man she once may have thought of fondly, despite all his many faults.
“And I told you that I hoped it wouldn’t,” he says softly. Brienne’s sword does not waver, but her expression does. He meets her eyes.
“It doesn’t have to,” she says.
“My lady,” the Blackfish warns her gently, still close behind her. “We must go.”
“Uncle.”
Jaime’s eyes leave Brienne’s for long enough to see the figure that appears in the tunnel behind her. It’s impossible, yet Jaime would know the boy anywhere. He spent a year chained in his camp, visited periodically by the King in the North, with his great grey beast beside him. Jaime did his best to comfort Brienne when they received word on the road that the idiot boy had died with his mother and wife at that cursed wedding, but he hadn’t exactly mourned the loss himself. He heard tales from the Freys. Bragging, endless tales about cutting the boy’s head from his body and sewing his wolf’s on in its stead. Something that made Tywin laugh and made Cersei smile and made Tyrion wince and made Jaime try to think of nicer things so he didn’t have to imagine it.
“No,” he says, forgetting to be calm or wry or amused or whatever it was he was trying to go for here. “Brienne…”
He can hear the songs now. The Return of the Wolf. The Young Wolf Rises. Triumphant stories of the boy who never lost a battle but who lost the war for love, born again to take revenge. Sentiment has already turned against the Lannisters. Cersei may not want to hear it, but their son holds to his throne only through what remains of the realm’s fear of their father. When the smallfolk hear that Robb Stark has risen again…
“Get in the boat,” Brienne says over her shoulder. “I’ll keep him.”
“We cannot wait forever,” Robb warns her. Jaime can’t stop looking at him, hoping to see an illusion. A trick. This is some Tully cousin they hope to use as a decoy. Some trick to win favor in the war the Starks are fighting against the Boltons.
No. Stark turns his poisonous glare in Jaime’s direction, and it’s him. He is so much his mother and father at once. Jaime has felt the force of that glare many times in his life, but it is perhaps more potent now, with Brienne standing between them.
“It won’t take long,” Brienne says, and both men vanish into the darkness behind her. Jaime had begun to advance again, but he stops when she speaks the words. He wants to feel betrayed. He wants to say Brienne in a hurt, small voice, like a much younger man. A child asking for answers the Septon can’t give. Why?
“I must warn you I’ve been practicing,” he says instead. Brienne’s eyes close for an instant, but then they open again, made glimmering and orange by the torchlight. It used to strike him as funny that she could be so much a maiden in the body she had been given. A soft heart beneath muscles and a massive height. Some cruelty of the gods made her fall in love with poor, dead Renly, and they made her too much man for most but not man enough to secure the heart of the one she wanted. He doesn’t think it’s funny anymore.
“As have I,” she says. Her maiden’s heart is breaking. Jaime steps closer. His left hand still holds the sword, but he doesn’t draw it. She meets his eyes, and her chin raises as she looks at him.
“You’d do it, wouldn’t you?” he asks. He can hear the Blackfish barking orders at someone down at the water’s edge, and he suddenly wants her on it. Away from him. Away from his family. Take the bloody Stark boy and go, he wants to shout, but he doesn’t. His voice is very quiet. He doesn’t know he can shout, now. He is oddly breathless, oddly removed. “For the Starks, you would strike me down. Kill me as you killed Renly.”
“I didn’t kill Renly,” Brienne says. She tilts her head slightly. “Stannis did that. And I killed Stannis.”
A boast from anyone else. From her, it’s a warning. A reminder that he struggled to fight her even when he had two hands—the irons and the year of captivity were bad, but they weren’t a maimed sword hand. If he tried to fight her now, she’d cut through him like wet sand. The best he could hope for would be delaying the inevitable until his men could come to his aid, but then he would have to take her in, and Cersei would…
No. He shoves Widows Wail back into place, and he takes a demonstrative step back.
“You would have done it,” he says. Brienne slides Oathkeeper back into place with a look that’s warning. Almost afraid.
“Yes,” she says.
“Good,” he replies. “Now go. Before my men realize you’ve taken the most valuable political prisoner we had and one we didn’t even know existed.”
There is still a glimmer in Brienne’s eyes as she nods and turns to go, but he also catches the slight edge of a smile. The slight upturn of her lips. She thinks he has done a good and honorable thing, of course. She always thinks the best of him. He wishes she wouldn’t. It would be so much safer for her if she realized how wretched he has become.
He follows her at a distance. Brienne settles into the boat. Her squire is there, he sees. At least she listened to him about that. The Blackfish and Robb Stark are there too. If Cersei knew what Jaime let slip away…
He raises his golden hand when Brienne turns back to look, when they have already begun to melt away into the fog. Brienne hesitates, but then she raises her hand as well. He stands and watches until they’re gone.
Next time, he won’t be so lucky. Cersei is always calling him a fool, and perhaps she’s right. He was a fool to think he could simply meet Brienne of Tarth as friends. The honorable woman and her absurd fondness for the oathbreaker. As long as he continues to stand against the family she swore herself to, she will continue to stand against him.
It would have destroyed her to kill him. But she would have done it, and he would have deserved it. Perhaps she wouldn’t have felt honorable to do it, but she would have been. The Kingslayer slayed at last by a woman as virtuous as she is ugly. The songs would last for a thousand years, and the singers would never know how either of them truly felt for each other.
He returns to his men. He says nothing of Brienne, nor of the Blackfish. He accepts the news of Tully’s escape with an incline of his head and some wry comment about Tully being a sly old man.
In the morning, they will begin the return trip towards Kings Landing. Towards Cersei. And he will pretend that he is as eager to get back to her as he was only hours ago.
29 notes
·
View notes
Note
How can you like daenerys
Quite a lot of reasons, actually. For the sake of my time, I’ll limit my answer to ten of them.
1. She tolerates disrespect in her own court.
“We are all dead, then. You gave us death, not freedom.” Ghael leapt to his feet and spat into her face.
Strong Belwas seized him by the shoulder and slammed him down onto the marble so hard that Dany heard Ghae’s teeth crack. The Shavepate would have done worse, but she stopped him.
“Enough,” she said, dabbing at her cheek with the end of her tokar. “No one has ever died from spittle. Take him away.”
How many leaders and rulers in ASOIAF would have tolerated being spat on in their own court? Not many, I’m sure.
2. She’s witty.
“Little girl, another woman once tried to geld me with her teeth. She has no teeth now, but my sword is as long and thick as ever. Shall I take it out and show you?”
“No need. After my eunuchs cut it off, I can examine it at my leisure.”
3. She’s a creative and resourceful ruler, despite having never received any sort of training, unlike the majority of other leaders.
“Not a hole. A ditch, to bring water from the river to the fields. We mean to plant beans. The beanfields must have water.”
Ser Barristan remained. “Our stores are ample for the moment,” he reminded her, “and Your Grace has planted beans and grapes and wheat. Your Dothraki have harried the slavers from the hills and struck the shackles from their slaves. They are planting too, and will be bringing their crops to Meereen to market. And you will have the friendship of Lhazar.”
4. One of, if not the most, compassionate ruler in ASOIAF who is determined to take care of her people, despite what her advisors might say.
“Ser Jorah, you say we have no food left. If I march west, how can I feed my freedmen?”
“You can’t. I am sorry, Khaleesi. They must feed themselves or starve. Many and more will die along the march, yes. That will be hard, but there is no way to save them. We need to put this scorched earth well behind us.”
Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. “No,” she said. “I will not march my people off to die.” My children.
It was time, though. A girl might spend her life at play, but she was a woman grown, a queen, a wife, a mother to thousands. Her children had need of her.
Daenerys considers the people under her rule her children. That says enough about her compassion for others.
5. She’s pragmatic and a great military strategist, again despite having no formal training in these matters.
“Ser Jorah Mormont scowled. “You told the sellswords-”
“-that I wanted their answers on the morrow. I made no promises about tonight. The Stormcrows will be arguing about my offer. The Second Sons will be drunk on the wine I gave Mero. And the Yunkai’i believe they have three days. We will take them under cover of this darkness.”
“They will have scouts watching for us.”
“And in the dark, they will see hundreds of campfires burning,” said Dany. “If they see anything at all.”
“Khaleesi,” said Jhogo, “I will deal with these scouts. They are no riders, only slavers on horses.”
“Just so,” she agreed. “I think we should attack from three sides. Grey Worm, your Unsullied shall strike at them from right and left, while my kos lead my horse in wedge for a thrust through their center. Slave soldiers will never stand before mounted Dothraki.” She smiled. “To be sure, I am only a young girl and know little of war. What do you think, my lords?”
The following is describing Daenerys’ conquest of Meereen. Meereen’s walls have no weak points, the Harpies heads can squirt hot oil, and all the trees were burned by the slavers to prevent Daenerys from being able to build weapons. Daenerys doesn’t want to order the Unsullied to assault the wall directly because it would lead to pointless loss of their lives (courtesy of the boiling oil from the Harpies heads). So instead:
“Aegon the Conqueror had won Westeros with three dragons, but she had taken Meereen with sewer rats and a wooden cock, in less than a day. Poor Groleo. He still grieved for his ship, she knew. If a war galley could ram another ship, why not a gate? That had been her thought when she commanded the captains to drive their ships ashore. Their masts had become her battering rams, and swarms of freedmen had torn their hulls apart to build mantlets, turtles, catapults, and ladders. The sellswords had given each ram a bawdy name, and it had been the mainmast of Meraxes-formerly Joso’s Prank-that had broken the eastern gate."
6. She's willing to and makes an effort to learn, and learn she does.
Dany reined in her mare and looked across the fields, to where the Yunkish host lay athwart her path. Whitebeard had been teaching her how best to count the numbers of a foe. “Five thousand,” she said after a moment.
“A queen must listen to all,” she reminded him. “The highorn, and the low, the strong and the weak, the noble and the venal. One voice may speak you false, but in many there is always truth to be found.” She had read that in a book.
7. She’s brave. Anyone who has the balls to face a dragon with only a whip is far more courageous than a considerable number of characters. And before anyone says,“the dragons wouldn’t hurt her no matter how angry they get, she’s their mother,” yes they would. Drogon tried to kill her.
His head turned. Smoke rose between his teeth. His blood was smoking too, where it dripped upon the ground. He beat his wings again, sending up a choing storm of scarlet sand. Dany stumbled into the hot red cloud, coughing. He snapped.
“No” was all that she had time to say. No, not me, don’t you know me? The black teeth closed inches from her face. He meant to tear my head off. The sand was in her eyes. She stumbled over the pitmaster’s corpse and fell on her backside.
8. Her idea of what it means to rule is extremely idealistic, even after all the exploitation she’s suffered. By intentions alone Daenerys is already a far better candidate as ruler than most other leaders in the books.
“I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn’t have done that. He wasn’t just my brother, he was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”
“Some kings make themselves, Robert did.”
“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no justice. Justice... that’s what kings are for.”
She would rather have drifted in the fragrant pool all day, eating iced fruit off silver trays and dreaming of a house with a red door, but a queen belongs to her people, not to herself.
She believes it’s her duty as a queen to protect her people and bring justice. In Dany’s eyes, a queen must put her people first, herself second. You’d think someone who suffered under the hand of her cruel and abusive older brother, who she also considers her king, and then exploited and sold like an animal by him to a barbarian tribe, would make a thirteen-year-old girl quite jaded about rulers. But Daenerys still wholeheartedly believes that rulers should be selfless, protect their people, and bring justice, though the people who had power over her in the past did none of those things for her.
9. She’s intensely self-critical.
That morning she summoned her captains and commanders to the garden, rather than descending to the audience chamber. “Aegon the Conqueror brought fire and blood to Westeros, but afterward he gave them peace, prosperity, and justice. But all I have brought to Slaver’s Bay is death and ruin. I have been more khal than queen, smashing and plundering, then moving on.”
“You have brought freedom as well,” Missandei pointed out.
“Freedom to starve?” asked Dany sharply. “Freedom to die? Am I a dragon, or a harpy?” Am I mad? Do I have the taint?
“A dragon,” Ser Barristan said with certainty. “Meereen is not Westeros, Your Grace.”
“But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?” He had no answer to that. Dany turned away from them, to gaze out over the city once again. “My children need time to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same. I will not let this city go the way of Astapor. I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. I will not march.”
What sort of mother lets her children rot in darkness?
If I look back, I am doomed. Dany told herself... but how could she not look back? I should have seen it coming. Was I so blind, or did I close my eyes willfully, so I would not have to see the price of power?
Mother of dragons, Daenerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I.
There is blood on my hands too, and on my heart, We are not so different, Daario and I. We are both monsters.
Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.
Now we must keep in mind that Daenerys’ chapters are told from her POV. They are not objective by any means. The fact that she’s so self-critical in these quotes (and more) does not mean she can never be a good ruler. It’s a human thing to magnify your failures and judge yourself much more harshly than the others around you, and this is well-communicated on Dany’s POV.
Daenerys was trying to change a system that has been in place and served as the economic foundation of Slaver’s Bay for countless years. It’s an extremely radical - even revolutionary - change. There’s not a single character that would have been able to work that situation out smoothly and without bloodshed. Yet Daenerys never takes this into consideration, she simply blames herself.
The fact that she’s so self-deprecating reveals a lot about Daenerys. For one thing, she clearly doesn’t attempt to mentally shift the blame off of herself when things go awry. This means that she’s self-aware and willing to take responsibility for her actions. Being self-critical is also something I can very much relate to, so I empathize with Daenerys here.
10. She freed slaves.
I can already hear the storm of antis crowing that she did an awful job, which is ridiculous and I dare them to do any better. When such a revolutionary change is brought about, there is simply no way it’s going to go smoothly. Like I said before, there isn’t one character in ASOIAF who would have flawlessly handled the situation Dany was in.
The “white savior” argument is also something I find odd, because slavery in ASOIAF is not race-based. Among the slaves Daenerys liberated, there were Lyseni, who are blonde-haired and blue-eyed.
I love the fact that Daenerys, despite being a queen, empathizes with the lowborn. She’s experienced the same things they have - mistreatment, fear, exploitation, to name a few - in a time that she had no say about what happened to her, like them. When she does gain power, she does her best to use it primarily to help others.
“I will not let the harpy of Yunkai chain up those I’ve freed all over again.” She turned back to look at their faces. “I will not march.”
“Enough.” Dany slapped the table. “No one will be left to die. You are all my people.” Her dreams of home and love had blinded her. “I will not abandon Meereen to the fate of Astapor. It grieves me to say so, but Westeros must wait.”
604 notes
·
View notes
Text
8 Thoughts on GOT 8X04 - 7 Key Characters and 1 Final Thoughts Round
Alright so, because this episode is ACTUALLY Game of Thrones like, revolving around characters, I'm going to do this for 8 Characters and how they affect minor characters around them. Okay? Here we go.
1. Sansa Stark - Lady of Winterfell, Wardness of the North.
If you hate Sansa after this episode, you're watching GOT for the wrong reasons. Jon shouldn't have told her, not because she'll tell everyone and their mother to get Daenerys off the throne out of pettiness, but because she's lived through Bad Kings and horrible people, and she can smell them when she sees them. Sansa Stark who lived with Joffrey and Tywin and Cersei Lannister knows who'll hurt the realm, and the best thing she can do is try to save it.
Sansa Stark also loves the North. Sansa Stark loves her family. But Sansa knows how the game is played and she knows that innocents get hurt when the great houses play the game. More importantly, she knows that Jon is backing the wrong woman.
Sansa tried to counsel caution, and she failed because Daenerys refused to listen. Sansa tried to warn Jon about her, and she failed because he's too much the son of Ned Stark to listen. Sansa Stark will be right in the end, and everyone else will be dead because they refuse to listen.
2. Jon Snow, King in the North, son of Rhaegar Targaryen and true heir to the Iron Throne
Rickard Stark. Brandon Stark. Eddard Stark. Robb Stark. All these people have something in common, and it's not just their last name—honor gets Stark men killed when they ride south. Jon Snow may not be Ned Stark's son, but he's the only surviving Stark child that is the MOST Stark, and it's going to get him killed.
He could've easily shut his mouth and not told Sansa, but he did because that's the honorable thing; telling your siblings who you really are is honorable.
He could've listened to Sansa, because he knows she's right, but he has his head in the clouds because his love for Daenerys is more than his common sense.
He could've gone with Tormund to the North, because the threat is done and he much rather be far away from a crown he doesn't want. But he didn't because loyalty and duty is more important.
Clearly, Jon Snow was not Catelyn Stark's son, but he's living for at least some of her the Tully's words. Family, Duty, Honor. Despite the former he'll get himself killed for the latter.
3. Daenerys Targaryen, Breaker of Chains, Khalessi of the Dothraki and not quite rightful queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Daenerys is the queen of the marginalized. She was adored by slaves, and the oppressed, and the many who needed saving. Daenerys can't be queen of the Seven Kingdoms for the same reason she could be queen of Slavers Bay. And perhaps she could learn, to rule over people that don't necessarily need saving. And maybe she could be a good queen. But she won't be, because Westeros is never that kind.
I have my theories about how Daenerys might meet her end, but I know for sure she won't sit on the Throne because she can't rule it. She's trying to cater favor with people, leaving them in her debt (Sansa saw right through it with Gendry's naming, and she probably knows she tried to get the North on her side by praising Arya), trying to create a culture of the oppressed that she can liberate and it won't work.
Daenerys has been slowly poisoned by the throne without getting near it. She's going to slowly descend into madness despite her good intentions, and we've all known it from the beginning. Missandei's dying words and Rhaegal's death are the last pushes she needed. She's going to pull the biggest Dracarys that's ever been, and she'll go down trying to get a throne that isn't hers, wasn't hers to begin with, and she didn't want in the first place.
3. Tyrion Lannister, Hand of the Queen
Tyrion is still the smartest person in the Seven Kingdoms, and he's afraid—and frankly so should everyone else.
Varys considered treason, and he knows Tyrion did too because he's not stupid. Tyrion has known for the longest time now that Daenerys is the wrong person for the throne, and he's been trying to convince himself otherwise, because to say anything else would be to admit he doesn't know what's next.
Tyrion also knows, deep down, that Cersei is going to take the city with her if it comes to it, and I think that's terrifying to him.
4. Lord Varys, Master of Whispers
Varys believes in whoever can help the realm, and he honestly and sincerely thought that was Daenerys. For the same reason that Varys believed in Daenerys I also know that he definitely doesn't think Jon should be King.
A long time ago, Renly asked Ned if he still believed that good soldiers make good kings—we know they don't because we've seen it. Varys knows they don't because he's seen it. So he knows Jon Snow would make a horrible king, especially because he doesn't want to be. But he might be their only hope.
Daenerys is a whole other ball game. Varys believed in her at one point, but he certainly doesn't anymore because he can see that the throne, and the losses and the pain have slowly poisoned Dany.
Varys will continue to serve the realm before any Kings or Queens, and unfortunately I think it's going to get him killed.
5. Cersei Lannister, Queen of the Ashes
Everyone knows Cersei's reign is over, and more importantly Cersei knows her reign is over. But by God she's going to take them with her. Cersei, much like Daenerys, have been steadily descending into madness, but don't by a second believe she's not in control of the issue.
Missandei died because Cersei is going to take them with her. If anything, the only thing I'm surprised about is that she didn't kill Tyrion on the spot. The only indisputable fact about Cersei Lannister is that she loves her children, and by letting everyone know that she's pregnant, he put her child in danger.
I've always thought that the moment Cersei sees the war going wrong for her, she's going to burn the city down, let the winners be Kings and Queens of the ashes—we're about to see if I'm right.
6. Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer
Jaime, Jaime, Jaime.
It's so heartbreaking that happiness is within reach for him, and he doesn't believe he's worthy.
Jaime's been the victim of slander for years, taking the moniker of Kingslayer and wearing it like armor. Jon talked about the people of the world owing the dead of the battle of Winterfell a debt they can never repay-a debt they'll never know about to begin with-and that is exactly Jaime Lannister's story. The people of Kings Landing never knew how much they owed him. Instead they ridiculed him, and called him Kingslayer, Oathbreaker, and he's internalized it so much that he can't believe otherwise.
Brienne is right, he's a good man and he can't save Cersei. And because he's a good man he's going to try. But because he can't save her he's going to fail, and that's the kind of heartbreak that Game of Thrones will give us.
7. Arya Stark, the Hero of Winterfell
Arya Stark is on the warpath, and there's so many ways her story can go, but whatever it may be I think she didn't lie—she's not going back to Winterfell.
I appreciate that she kept her arc, she's not a lady, that's just not who she is. But much like Jon's ending, I think she's going to get something bittersweet and she might end up in Storm's End after all. Sweet ending because it's Gendry, and it closes the circle on the Baratheon/Stark issue that started it all, but it's bitter because it goes against who she is in many ways.
I also think she might end up killing Cersei somehow, and it might happen through the actions of the younger Lannister siblings, or maybe just through her own volition, but wouldn't that be poetic justice.
8. The Game of Thrones
Frankly, I love that this is where it's all led. I'm glad to see that it's not black and white and good and evil anymore, but a genuine human conflict that has so many layers that no one will be happy in the end.
No one is going to get everything they want, and a lot of our favorite characters are going to do whatever it takes to win for their side, even if they know their side is wrong.
Frankly, if I could write this, I would sit Sansa in the throne. Maybe she'd be the only woman in the world to sit on the Throne that deserves it.
But her dream had always been to leave the North, and I think that's where she's going to end up. Because it's the bittersweet ending she gets.
Jon wants nothing more than to let other people rule, he's tired of fighting and he's done his duty. But he won't get to, and maybe he'll be the reason the woman he loves dies. And maybe he'll sit on the Throne because that's his duty, but he'll hate every minute of it, because that's the bittersweet ending he gets.
Daenerys, Cersei, Tyrion, Jaime, all of their days are ticking down, because that's the bittersweet ending they get.
Game of Thrones is about to give us a serving of feels that many of us will love and a lot of us will hate, because that's the bittersweet ending we get.
Episode Score: 9.8/10
BONUS: THE GOODEST BOY IN ALL OF WESTEROS IS ALIVE AND HE'LL GET TO BE FREE NOW.
#8 thoughts on s8#got s8: spoilers#got spoilers#got s8#got season 8#got season eight#jon snow#sansa stark#sansa stark is a boss ass bitch#arya stark#daenerys targaryen#gendry baratheon#tyrion lannister#brienne of tarth#jaime lannister#jamie lannister#lord varys#varys the spider#westeros#ghost the direwolf#tormund giantsbane#game of thrones spoilers#game of thrones#renly baratheon#robert baratheon#kingslayer#oathbreaker
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Saddest Ending
(also known as MY FRIDAY THE 13th FIC featuring what I would consider as the most HORRIBLE ending I could ever think of)
Warning: Character Death
Summary: She never visited. Not once. Not even when he pretended to sleep. She was still angry at him and Jon actually chuckled at that. Of course she is. He had given away her freedom and then had lain injured and useless as Daenerys no doubt claimed the Iron Throne.
Jon had stopped feeling. Stopped understanding anything. It was just darkness and the softly murmured words, softer footfalls as they tried to save him. He kept his eyes closed and let his body do whatever it wanted. He no longer had the energy to fight off the cold, to bear the heat, to keep his heart beating. Whatever it is that will come to pass, will pass.
The last thing he remember seeing was pure white shards of ice flying towards him as the Night King shattered against Longclaw. Death and steel and then darkness.
Jon did not know how long he had lain, hovering between two worlds, fire and ice, death and life. However long it was, just like everything else, it had to end.
It ended when he finally felt warm fingers touching his face. He smiled. Or at least he tried to. He didn’t know how well that went, but he knew that touch, he would know it in death or in life.
Thin, bony fingers. The tips none too warm. He knew her from her scent: freshly washed tunic, faint-barely-there scent of wet fur, morning sun.
“Arya.” He took her hand in his, felt callouses on her fingers. Left handed Arya. Her sword hand. Needle.
“How are you feeling?” Her voice was the same. How could that be possible? It was as though Jon had been thrown back in time and he very nearly asked if this was the Winterfell before they left, if this was the Winterfell that still knew Ned and his lady wife, the Stark children with their direwolves.
But no, the Arya of that Winterfell would have softer hands. The hands of a proper Lady and not the warrior that she had apparently become, hands that had known pain and dirt and blood.
They had all known about those. Robb. Sansa. Arya. Bran. Rickon.
Jon tried to open his eyes even though he already knew that it was futile. It was a cruel joke. That he is alive, that he is finally with his beloved sister but he is unable to see her, unable to see the world he had helped saved.
He didn’t have too many words to describe how he really is, so he answered as simply as he could. “Tired. Sleepy. But alive, it seems.”
“You’re lucky.”
Yes. No. Did it matter?
“Aye.” And because it will always be darkness that he will see from now on, Jon went back to sleeping.
Now Jon was aware of days and nights of comings and goings of visitors, of Maesters, of Lords and old friends. He knew their voices. Knew their hands. But he no longer knew their faces.
Sam had to tell him one day, even though he had already figured it out long before.
Blind.
Never able to see the winter snow, spring flowers, summer skies, autumn leaves – the color of her hair.
She never visited. Not once. Not even when he pretended to sleep. She was still angry at him and Jon actually chuckled at that. Of course she is. He had given away her freedom and then had lain injured and useless as Danaerys no doubt claimed the Iron Throne.
Had the Dragon Queen ordered her to Lannisport, to fulfill her wedded duty to Tyrion? Was she pregnant now with a Lannister babe?
No. She would not be any of those. Sansa would’ve fought hard to stay in Winterfell. She would have talked Tyrion into petitioning their divorce.
Also, Tyrion had visited thrice and never mentioned anything about going to Lannisport or taking care of newly birthed Lannister heirs. Tyrion made some fancy speech about heroes and sacrifices and rebuilding the kingdom, together, one united front. Jon didn’t say anything. He didn’t want anything to do with uniting a kingdom ruled by frivolous lords whose loyalty could easily be switched, bargained, forgotten. No, Jon wanted no part in that.
Daenerys visited more than anyone. More than Arya, to Jon’s dismay. More than Bran, who only came twice. Once, to remind him that he was still a Stark, despite being the son of Rhaegar. His mother was still Lyanna Stark and he was still of the North. The second to urge him to choose: Stark or Targaryen. His choice still mattered, it seemed. He had to shake his head and groan. There is no choice. He is a Stark. He will always be a Stark. He will never stop being a Stark.
You are to me.
She had insisted it once, in an impassioned speech, her blue eyes fierce and bright and so very open, Jon could feel the truth of her statement deep within his bones, up to very bottom of his soul.
That was all that mattered to him.
This would explain Dany’s daily visits but not Sansa’s absence.
Dany commented on his color, not as pale as yesterday, my love. She was a bright warm voice urging him to ride south and live with her in King’s Landing. Or perhaps Dragonstone, the sun and the sea will help him regain his strength.
But his strength lay in wet snow, the cold biting wind, the Godswood, the howling of the wolves that had made Winterfell their home. He didn’t have the energy to explain this to her. He didn’t want to share with her these things that had kept him alive.
Jon tried his best to be patient. A blind man after all has too many things to occupy him. Relearning sounds, scents, textures. Relearning his own room, his own body even. He was whole, scarred beyond healing, but everything seemed to be where they should be. It was only his eyesight that he had lost and all things considered, it was not as devastating as being dead.
He will probably never hold a sword, never fight another battle in his life and this was something he was actually thankful for. He had no more wish to fight. There was nothing left to fight for. Only to live for.
But she still refused to see him.
And so, when Jon had been sure that everyone of importance in the North, in the Vale, in the miserable South, even the Free Folks has visited him – the King, the bastard, the Warden of the North, the Lord of Winterfell, just Jon – he finally asked Arya.
“Where is Sansa?”
There is a strange silence. But Jon didn’t think, didn’t feel it was the mourning kind. He would know if she was gone, wouldn’t he?
“She never visited me.”
“You’re asleep sometimes. How would you know?” Arya asked, the lilt in her voice the same as always. No change in tone, no hint of sorrow or anything.
“I’d know. She smells like lemons and fresh snow and winter roses.” He’d know because when they had lived in Winterfell, together, her scent remained even when she had left the room. It lingered all around him, it seeped into his fur coat and into his skin. If she had visited him, his room would smell of her.
“I’ll take you to her.”
“Aye. Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow then.” Arya promised him and as usual, leaned forward to press a gentle kiss unto his forehead before leaving the room.
But Jon felt something inside him twisting and shivering. Does she still hate me? He wanted to ask, needing to know before he had to be in her presence but he couldn’t make himself know the answer. He decided that yes, Sansa still hated him. And if it was the case, then he would be ready and accepting but he will have to start wooing her. Something he had thought about long and hard, all those many nights he had lain awake thinking only of her. He will tell her how he truly feels, she needs to know first. And then, he will be able answer Dany why he would never join her in King’s Landing.
It would be a lot of work to win Sansa back, but that was something to live for.
And if she had forgiven him, then it would be something he could cherish. Maybe he could finally be glad that he had survived the war.
The following day, as promised, Jon walked with Arya out of his room and into the hallway. There was a hush around them and Jon was certain it was because the people inside Winterfell had never seen Jon Snow and Arya Stark walking its hallways. At least no one alive would have seen them together, dark eyed, dark haired Stark ghosts silently roaming their home.
Her strides were short but confident, as though she already knew that even without his sight, he would know exactly where to go, where the corners would be, were the stairs would start and end, where the windows would allow light and sun and warmth.
And he did. Jon knew Winterfell better than he knew himself. This was the Winterfell he had grown up with, the Winterfell whose nooks and crannies he had explored and mapped and he could see it all clearly in his mind. Knew exactly where the Stark banner would be hanging – he reached out his hands and felt the heavy fabric bearing the grey winter wolf.
He started towards Sansa’s solar, sure that she would be there, but Arya’s footsteps stopped and Jon had to turn back towards her. It didn’t take long for Jon to realize that they were heading outside and he braced himself for the cold, but the air was crisp, not the biting freeze he had expected.
Arya seemed to have sensed his confusion, “Sam thinks that when you defeated the Night King, it shortened winter. He thinks that the Night King and winter were somehow feeding off each other.”
He sensed Arya’s shrug, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what Arya meant and he didn’t want to question Sam who had skillfully dragged him out of death’s grip.
“I think we just assumed it would be a long winter and it turned out that it wasn’t.” This sounded nothing like his impetuous sister. This sounded like someone who had grown resigned to the mistakes men were bound to make.
And that makes Arya so much wiser, calmer, and surer of herself, of her place in the world that Jon suddenly missed the little girl that had jumped into his arms, hugging him, making him promise that he will visit her in the South or maybe she will visit him at the Wall.
They had assumed a lot of things and ended up being so incredibly wrong and that, Jon could at least understand.
The chill was familiar but not in a comforting way. He knew this cold, had spent too many times being enveloped by it.
The crypts beneath Winterfell.
He stopped walking so abruptly, he stepped on Arya’s heels.
And now, yes, the scent of tears. Of mourning that was never meant to be spoken of or shared. It rises from her and Jon feels suddenly weak and lightheaded. He fights against this feeling, fights it like he had fought so many months ago, with gritted teeth and clenched fists.
“Is she visiting father?” Jon asked, in the exact same way when he had tried to open his eyes knowing that he would never be able to see again, ever.
“Jon.” And now, yes, that sudden change in Arya’s voice. Like a raw, opened wound that was still profusely bleeding and that will remain open until all the blood runs out. It was exactly how sorrow worked.
But Jon didn’t wait for another word or worst, a comforting touch. “Take me to her.” Was all that he said, suddenly reminded of Robert Baratheon, years and years and a whole lifetime ago, ordering their father to take him to the crypts.
Darkness never mattered now. He was still surefooted as he was inside the castle. How many days and nights had he spent coming inside these crypts to stare at Ned Stark’s face, asking him for forgiveness for bending the knee, for wanting something he was not supposed to have, for hoping, for demanding, for trying to bargain?
I will save The North, father. I will make myself worthy of her.
His senses were startling in its accuracy and as they walked closer to where he knew Ned Stark’s statue was, Jon was also certain that there was no one else inside the crypt. It was still just him and Arya.
Arya, who very gently takes his hand and stretches it over his head so that his fingers can meet stone, instead of flesh, coldness instead of warmth.
Sansa.
His breath leaves his lungs, noisy and painfully and Jon willed his heart to stop as his hand finds her jaw, cupping it tenderly before moving upward to feel her the smooth roundness of her cheers, turning softly downwards, to her neck and then her shoulder and suddenly, Jon could feel his knee giving way, the weight of this sorrow so sudden, so encompassing it had turned into everything.
This is whole world now: this loss.
It was all the he could know and feel and it consumed him, devoured him like snow storms could swallow up whole armies.
“How?” came out more as a howl and he asked this over and over before switching to “why” and then finally “who?” because his fight was not yet over, he would have to hold his sword once again and he will swing it, wait for the sound of steel slipping between flesh and bones, the heat of blood hissing as it melted the snow. This would not ease the pain, but it will allow him to live with himself.
He had so utterly failed her.
Arya didn’t move, didn’t try to comfort him. “You were still beyond the wall. She abandoned you, remember?”
Jon wordlessly nodded. Dany had apologized for it with tears and careful hands brushing away the anger in his frowns and grunts. She had to. Rhaegal had already died. Drogon barely survived. She only had one dragon left and there was no way she will be able to claim the Iron Throne with a dying dragon. She had to leave.
It didn’t matter. Jon was going to kill the Night King and he will put a stop to this endless nightmare and he didn’t care if he had dragons or Dothrakis or the Unsullied was behind him. The war was now just between him and the Night King.
“She headed North. I was still at Riverrun with Nymeria.”
“You took The Trident.” Jon remembered receiving a raven telling him of the Warrior of Winterfell, the youngest daughter of Eddard Stark, charging towards the Golden Company on the back of the biggest direwolf the kingdom had ever seen and behind her, more wolves, snarling and howling, the fur of their snouts matted and colored with all the shades of blood red.
An Army of Avenging Wolves. Winter finally arriving in the South, jaws furiously, righteously snapping up bones and flesh.
“I was too late. The Dragon Queen arrived in Winterfell and she demanded the Northern Lords to bend the knee, to give her the army that she had lost fighting beyond the wall.”
And already Jon could see her, standing just outside Winterfell, her head held high, chin jutting out, red hair harsh against the pure white of winter snow. She would not show them that she was frightened; she will not let them see her trembling. She was of the North. The daughter of Eddard Stark and Catelyn Stark. She was the Lady of Winterfell.
“Bran said Sansa had looked up and closed her eyes and it was so, so quiet that even though it was a whisper, even when it had been spoken so quietly, everyone heard it.”
Dracarys.
Jon found himself storming outside, the chilled air seeping through his skin, finding its ways inside his veins, into his blood, wrapping itself around his heart until he could feel frozen air inside his lungs.
Arya grabbed his shoulder, “You can’t.”
“I will.” He shrugged off her hold. “I only regret that I won’t be able to see her face.” The anger inside him – no, not anger, something far more fiercer than that. Fire and blood. A kind of madness.
But Arya planted herself firmly in front of him, “You can’t. She is the mother of your son.”
Jon staggered back. What?
What?!
“You slept with her. On your way here. She bore you a child. Why do you think she is still here, alive? Why do you think her head isn’t on a spike rotting on the table inside my chambers?”
No. No. No. No.
“You have a son. A Targaryen. The first real Targaryen in years. You think I would be able to kill a child that has you face? Your eyes? He is a Targaryen, but his face… it’s your face. It’s father’s face.”
And Jon felt like dying all over again. The Gods were so, so infinitely cruel.
--
Okay, fuck. Fuck. What the fuck did I write?
It’s like everything I don’t ever want to happen (MagicalTargBaby!) in GoT.
I just had to get that out of my system. So yeah. There’s the saddest ending I could ever think of. Imagine having to live with the woman who is the mother of your child and who also happen to murdered the woman you truly loved?
I’m so sorry Jon.
I will never write anything like this ever again. Like, ok that’s out of my head now. I can now stop thinking about that scenario – which has haunted me many sleepless nights. I know this has a lot of plot holes, so maybe we can consider this as a crack fic? Please don’t hate me.
#nooooooo#jon snow#Sansa Stark#daniella tumbleweed#Arya Stark#bran stark#worst ending#bad bad evil evil#i hate myself for actually writing this#sad jonsa fic
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
Why do people want Jon to be legitimate so bad? It's almost like they're buying into the stigma that being a bastard is bad and something to fix. And like you said, it's as simple as Rhaegar was married, Lyanna betrothed, and polygamy illegal. He's a bastard. And I really doubt Lyanna would be so naive (well her running away in itself is naive but different context imo) as to believe 'marrying' Rhaegar before her gods would somehow be noble or recognized.
Oh man. I have THINGS TO SAY.
For many people, I think he’s just a special snowflake and they want him to be legitimate so that he’s not “tainted” by bastardy or whatever and he gets to have Everything He’s Always Wanted™.
But also, I think it’s for how much of an identity crisis Jon has had with being a bastard and the irony that this scenario would bring to it. We’re inside Jon’s head so thoroughly and thus are keenly aware of how for his entire life he’s been at odds with his status, especially since he’s not the typical bastard. Catelyn is frigid towards him not because he’s illegitimate, but because Ned brought him home and has raised him alongside Robb, completely ignoring the shame it brings upon his wife.
Yet, Jon’s not the same as Robb — he has the same basic education, but he’s never been in line for Winterfell and by virtue of his very birth there was always an insurmountable divide between him and his siblings. Except for as much as Jon dislikes his place, he abides by it well — even when he’s presented with what he used to dream of (though note it says “later, when he was older, he had been ashamed of those dreams … even to dream otherwise seemed disloyal”), to become an actual Stark, he refuses it because he knows it would be a farce and that Winterfell belongs to Sansa, not him.
It stems too from him having no idea who his mother was. Obviously Ned can’t tell him the truth, but he doesn’t even tell him a lie. Was his mother a whore? A merchant’s daughter? Ashara Dayne? Wylla? Who was she? Jon (understandably) desperately wants her to be a respectable woman, but he’s told absolutely nothing about her so even that is merely a hope.
“Words won’t make your mother a whore. She was what she was, and nothing Toad says can change that. You know, we have men on the Wall whose mothers were whores.”
Not my mother, Jon thought stubbornly. He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind.
The sad thing here is that we know Jon’s mother was beautiful, highborn, and kind, but Jon doesn’t. And he thinks of this constantly:
I will ask him about my mother, he resolved. I am a man now, it is past time he told me. Even if she was a whore, I don’t care, I want to know.
He wanted to say that Lord Eddard would never dishonor himself, not even for love, yet inside a small sly voice whispered, He fathered a bastard, where was the honor in that? And your mother, what of his duty to her, he will not even say her name.
Interestingly, his mentions of her fade as the series goes on, as he accepts who he is. He didn’t have any friends in Winterfell save (most of) his family, yet at the Wall he’s surrounded by people he considers not only friends, but brothers. Who actually like him. Then, where once he had thought he could never achieve any high position, he is elected Lord Commander. Sure, that command is of the Night’s Watch and not Winterfell, but the position has been held by many respectable men, and no one ranks higher than he does. He is in charge. People listen to him.
Enter that irony. For five books we have Jon slowly growing into himself, finding love (even if it’s dubious consent love) and friendship and honor and repute despite being a bastard, then we find out his parents were not only married but his mother was a Stark and his father was the Targaryen crown prince. If circumstances were different, Jon would have grown up as third in line to the Iron Throne behind Rhaegar and Aegon. But that could only happen if Rhaegar and Lyanna were married, 100% legally, and if they could prove it and/or anyone actually believed them — it’s not enough that they simply had him, because then he could only ever be a legitimized bastard, who may have come before the girls in succession, we don’t really have precedent to say, but may equally have come dead last after Aegon, Viserys, Rhaenys, and Dany (possibly even Rhaella?).
They also focus on the Prince That Was Promised prophecy, and claim that he must be legitimate because then that title wouldn’t fit. This despite the fact that Dany is likely the “Prince” That Was Promised —
“No one ever looked for a girl,” [Aemon] said. “It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. … Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it.”
— and that Jon would still have princely blood even if he were a bastard. Both because Rhaegar lived and died as one, and because if everyone had lived and Jon were legitimized, he would then also be a prince, though not trueborn.
And we mustn’t forget that much of this bullshit has to do with people’s perceptions of Elia as well. Everyone and their grandmother says she would have been fine with it because she’s ~Dornish~ and Dornish people take ~paramours~ and so she wouldn’t care.
Never mind that the last time a Martell married a Targaryen, a Targaryen bastard set off five generations of war, the last of which occurred right on Elia’s doorstep and in which (probably) her uncle Lewyn earned his stripes.
Never mind that Rhaegar was not Dornish and by using the “paramour” excuse he would be disgustingly appropriating a culture to which he doesn’t belong.
Never mind that Rhaegar fathering a bastard, even an un-legitimized one, would present an extreme threat to Elia’s children. She’s Dornish, people are racist as hell towards her people (not to mention ableist towards her specifically), and love the Starks — what happens if Westeros decides one day they’re not into having a half-Dornish king and instead back Jon? What happens if Lyanna isn’t content with her son playing second fiddle?
What happens if Rhaegar decides Jon is a better choice, especially if he changes his mind about Aegon having the song of ice and fire, and either sets Aegon and Rhaenys aside or declares Jon his heir over Aegon? Brandon was betrothed to a Tully, Ned was warded with Robert in the Vale, and Tywin hated Aerys — that’s a ridiculously powerful bloc that could oppose Elia’s children, who would have only Dorne and maybe a handful of other houses in support.
Elia would never be on board with that. I could see her putting up with Rhaegar having a mistress, because almost every guy in this series has one, but not a highborn one, and not having a child on one. And the way he went about it? By abandoning a newly postpartum Elia who nearly died giving birth to an heir who looked exactly like him, running off with the 15-year-old only daughter of a Lord Paramount, not leaving so much as a note or letting Lyanna tell her family she’s all right, disappearing for over a year, not returning even when Brandon and Rickard were killed or when war broke out or when his wife and children were taken hostage, then being so overconfident about winning on the Trident that he lost in gruesome fashion.
He caused not only the downfall of his own house, but crippled the Starks (Brandon, Rickard, and Lyanna all die, then Benjen takes the black shortly after the war) and the Dornish (10,000 spears were extorted from Doran, Elia was raped and murdered, their children were brutally killed, Lewyn was killed in battle, Arthur was killed, and Ashara committed suicide), put the Baratheons and Lannisters in power, and ruined the prophecy as he’d interpreted it.
Had Rhaegar not been so politically braindead, none of that would have happened. So no, Elia would have hated him for that, not signed off on it. Fuck that noise. People often talk about paramours as though every Dornish person takes one and that it’s not cheating, which is simply not true. Oberyn had one, but Oberyn was not married, the occasional additional liaisons he took were not only approved by Ellaria, but they participated in those liaisons together, and he and Ellaria were in a committed relationship for 14-plus years.
We also really don’t have that many examples of Dornish people taking paramours at all:
Ellaria
Neither she nor Oberyn were married, and they were both completely devoted and faithful to one another.
Old Lord Yronwood’s that Oberyn slept with
Which, incidentally, we don’t know that Yronwood was cheating at all. Perhaps Yronwood was a widower, or his wife was fine with it, or his wife joined in, we don’t know the details.
Lewyn
Hey guess what! He wasn’t married, and was completely faithful to her, exactly like Oberyn.
Daemon Sand
There were rumors that he and Oberyn were lovers (which, gross, on so many levels), but we have only the one mention and no proof. Arianne maybe counts here as well, depending on your definition.
Drinkwater twins
Cletus suggested Quentyn take one of them as a paramour after he was married, but again we don’t know the details of that hypothetical, and Quentyn rejected it anyway.
Many Dornishmen took women of the Rhoynar for paramours; however, presumably that would have been more for purposes of alliance and to permanently join the two races.
Sylvenna Sand
She was a whore in King’s Landing who was the paramour of Essie, who was also a whore, so yet again, no adultery there.
Now, the text often refers to mistresses as paramours, but they are used interchangeably outside of Dorne. Within Dorne, they’re a separate thing. And, as you can see from the above, no one except maybe Lord Yronwood was married.
Rhaegar was. With two small children. Lyanna was betrothed. Their affair was full-blown adultery, none of this “paramour” business. Once more I say: fuck that noise.
Also, like … GRRM once said Rhaegar was a “lovestruck prince” and Barristan said he “loved his lady Lyanna” (neither sentiment is one I believe), but we’re never told anything of Lyanna’s thoughts on the matter. I am baffled as to where people get the idea she would agree to a marriage with Rhaegar.
She wanted out of her betrothal to Robert because he was not faithful, why would she enter into polygamy?? Why would she agree to get pregnant at 15?? She’s compared to Arya constantly — can you see Arya ever doing all of that?? It makes no sense!
Not that they could even get married. The Faith prohibits polygamy, and we have no examples of people in the North (save beyond the Wall, which is not in the Seven Kingdoms) ever having polygamous marriages either. So even if there were some kind of “ceremony,” it would never hold up.
Anyway. People are dumb.
305 notes
·
View notes
Note
Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:
I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:
1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.
2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.
I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?
oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.
as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.
such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.
and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?
yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO
so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".
tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".
but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:
“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”
The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)
“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)
#thank you for the ask!!!#hope it didnt get too long and rambly afshsjsjs#once started talking its hard to shut up 😂#and im sorry for any possible mistakes#.txt#rhaegar targaryen#targnation#mypost#fandom wank#anti antis#majorton#*answered#asks
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
Silver & Gold
For Jon's entire life he was told he would amount to nothing. Being the bastard of a high lord didn't even change this; "A bastards a bastard' he was told repeatedly throughout his life.
He can't remember the faces of those who had told him this, just the feelings that swelled throughout his entire body, waves crashing over him, breaking his heart over and over again. Sadness, shame and even guilt. He was the walking and breathing outcome of his father's lust and betrayal to his lady wife.
Despite being a bastard, he was lucky enough to be the bastard son of Eddard Stark. The man was gentle and kind to Jon, trying his hardest to let him feel that Winterfell was his home as much as it were his true-born siblings. Ned had raised him with the same ideals and courtesies as his half brothers and half sister. Yet he was still reminded, that no matter how much love his lord father showed him, he was still a bastard.
"A bastard's a bastard!"
Jon had come a long way since his low birth. He'd become a valiant warrior, fought against demons and visions he was told about only in stories as a boy, became 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He'd fought bravely for Sansa and his family for their home, Winterfell, away from the Bolton bastard. He became the King in the North, a title last held by his beloved brother: Robb.
So he found it strange, despite coming so far in his life, that the feelings of being a bastard son still haunted him.
The shame he felt when he first entered the lord's chamber (under Sansa's persistence) had overwhelmed him to the point where he had to get out. He couldn't stand in his father's rooms, rooms that should have held King Robb and his pretty foreign wife and all their babes. The room that should have housed Sansa, the last true born child of Eddard Stark.
Instead it was given to him. A low born boy, a man not worthy... a bastard.
Sansa had found him in the yard the next morning. The sun was barely rising in the sky, the bitter air cold against his cheeks.
"Couldn't sleep?" She'd asked, coming to stand next to him.
Jon looked down and brought his hands to the railing. "Aye."
Silence drifted between them. Comfortable now that they'd gotten over the worse and won their home back. Their relationship was still fragile, niether quite knew how to act around the other, both taking their time in reading each other. Jon felt he couldn't grasp a clear reading on her, he'd conjure up some idea of how she was feeling and then would quickly counter it with another the longer he tried.
"Do you suppose we'll ever get used to it?" Sansa asked.
Jon brought his gaze over to her. She was staring down at the yard as well, her cheeks bit pink from the winter wind flowing around them and between them.
"To what?" He replied.
Sansa looked over to him and tilted her head. "To the ghosts that seem to haunt this place. I'd thought after defeating him and taking Winterfell back it'd be easier." She broke her gaze and looked back down to yard. "Instead it seems even harder to breathe now."
He looked back down to the yard as well and saw in his mind a memory of himself, Robb and Theon running and chasing each other. Pretending to be knights of some sort he was sure, fighting against all that was evil, win tourneys and the love of a beautiful queen.
He'd decided then, in that moment, that Robb would have wanted him to be happy. Robb would have wanted both of them to embrace their home again and make it what it was back when they were little; their sancutary.
Jon reaches out for Sansa and holds her in front of him like he did just a few nights prior. He gazes down at her, their heights at a match and gives a nod.
"We live for them now, Sansa. We live."
Sansa gives a small smile and brings her arm to hook with his. He turns around so they both face down at the yard. It's when he's reminiscing another memory, this one of Arya, when he feels her head rest against his shoulder.
*
The raven arrives 3 moons later. It is from Daenerys Targaryen, requesting the King in the North's presence in Dragonstone.
He wants to throw the letter out at first, he has no time to acquaint himself with another Sourthern king or queen when he has a war to prepare for.
It's Sansa that brings him to his senses. She reminds him that she's heard the Targaryen queen has dragons, three of them, that will surely help their cause. Davos, sitting to his right, nods in agreement.
"Dragonglass, your grace." The man mutters, almost to himself.
Three days past before Jon, Davos, and a handful of Northern men make their way down south. He'd named Sansa in command while he was gone, requesting she inform him of any news or information that is to come in his absence. Feeling a little guilty for leaving his sister when there was a danger just beyond the wall.
"We'll be fine." Sansa assured him. "You're leaving Ghost with me, I'll be fine."
Jon nods and reaches out to hug her, not caring if it proper or not. She hesitates a moment, before he feels her squeeze back.
Time seemed to have fast forward the moment he'd laid eyes on Daenerys Targaryen. A small, lovely, little thing. Her hair shone bright silver, her eyes bright lilac. It didn't take him long to become enamoured with her. Her knowledge of battles and conquering only added fuel to the fire that seemed to have brewed between them.
It was clear to him that an attraction was shared between them. But neither had acted upon it, she insisting he bend the knee and north to her, he insisting she bring herself and dragons in a fight against the long night.
No, they don't act on it at first. Not until she loses one of her dragon, one of her children, to the night king. She's inconsolable at first, a side he's positive not many see of her. He comes to her with the best intentions, to try to console the unbreakable queen.
She kisses him first and he loses all will. He makes her forget the pain, even just for a brief period of time. He brings her pleasure when all she feels is emotional pain.
They continue on, learning things about each other, Jon sharing secrets he hasn't shared since Ygritte.
She's something else, this little Dragon Queen. She tells him of her lost love Drogo, her tales as Khaleesi leave him angry and full of respect all at once. She even tells him of a red door that she still dreams about. Of a son that never was.
He's completely lost within her, and in the moments alone with her he can forget. He can forget all the things of past. He can forget the night king, the impending doom that forever hangs over their heads, forget his duties and commands. Just lose himself in Daenerys.
Of course, like all things in Jon's life, it eventually comes crashing down.
It's when they're on the road up to fight in the North.It's in the form of a letter with a Direwolf seal on it. He quickly recognises the writing as Sansa's. She'd written him one and off these past few moons, keeping him informed of things back at Winterfell. Her last letter from him was one of great news, his brother Bran and sister Arya had returned. The wolves were back.
But this letter, this letter brought nothing but the oh so familar feeling of shame and guilt.
He was not Jon Snow, he was not Jon Stark. Rather, he was Jon Targaryen. Aemon Targaryen according to his sister. a funny and cruel thing, his first thoughts, to be named after a knight I so wanted to become.
No, he thinks, I am not Aemon Targaryen. He thinks of the old blind maester of the Night's Watch. I am not Aemon Targaryen
Four days pass before he confesses the letter's contents to Daenerys in her tent.
She is quiet at first, sitting at the edge of the bed. She'd gotten up to grab a cup of wine to share between the two of them after they had just coupled. He didn't come to her rooms to do such a thing, it was odd and he felt unnatural after, but his body worked before his mind.
Her back is to him, he cannot read her expression but notices her shoulders tense immediately.
"Who can confirm this?" She asks, not turning to look at him.
"My sister speaks of Howland Reed bearing witness to my mother in the Tower of Joy. My father... Ned Stark, holding me beside her body."
Daenerys keeps herself away from him, still not bothering to turn to look to him. ``And do you believe such a thing?"
He's quiet, unsure of how to answer. Finally he responds: "I'm not sure."
She finally turns to look at him. She so beautiful, her hair free from her braids, her eyes wide, her lips parted just so. "This changes a great many things, Jon.
My whole life I felt alone. I had Viserys, yes but he was cruel. Even in his death I couldn't help but feel even more sad but not for the fact he died, no, he deserved to die. It was the fact that I was truly alone then. No other Targaryen. It fell on me."
Daenerys stands up from the bed and turns to face him. Her face is different, Dany is now gone. Instead a queen stands in front of him, her face stern. "It falls on me to take what is rightly mine, that belongs to my blood. I have fought long and hard for this and I will not lose it when I'm so close to having it."
Jon begins to feel a small panic rise within. He stands up, still naked from their time together in bed. He reached for his small clothes and throws them on, tying them together when he finally looks to her. "If you're worried about me wanting that bloody thing you needn't. I have no need to sit on the iron throne. I've heard what it does to people, and I want no part of it."
She doesn't flinch. Instead she squares her shoulders. "I thought to bring marriage to the table, to truly unite the North and the South as it once was."
Daenerys purses her lips together and shakes her head. "But that won't do."
"We don't even know if it's true." Jon responds.
"Why would your sister lie about something like this?"
"My sister found out from Howland Reed."
"And is this Howland Reed to be trusted?" Daenerys raises an eyebrow to him.
He remembers his father talking about Howland Reed. Stories he'd once so fiercly believed in as a boy, tall tales. He remembers Ned talking of Howland's character, how so loyal and honest Howland Reed was.
No, there was no way he would lie about this.
Daenerys takes his silence as confirmation. She turns away from him and takes a few steps away. "I want you to leave." She says.
"Aye, I will." Jon responds.
"Not just to your tents Jon, I want you to leave me and never come back."
"Daenerys-"
"Your Grace." She corrects. She turns back to look at him. "We will discuss more in the morning when I don't feel the need to throw you to Drogon."
So he leaves to his rooms, lays in his bed and feels the sadness, the shame and the guilt.
A bastards a bastard.
*
It's the Imp, Tyrion, who comes for him in the morning. He brings a glass of wine and pushes it towards Jon. "Drink. It helps." He offers.
Jon had barely slept throughout the night. His mind was running far faster than he could comprehend each thought. But it all came down to why.
Why did his father, Ned, because he'd always be his father, lie to him on such a matter. Why did Lyanna Stark run away with such a man? Why did Rhaegar Targaryen fall in love with the She-Wolf. Why
"How one must feel, waking up with a new father and newly found mother. I've always known it was too out of character for the honourable Ned Stark to do such a thing to his lady wife." Tyrion says, walking to the end of Jon's bed. "You look miserable."
Jon's sure he does. He can feel the bags beneath his eyes, his throat dry and his body parched. He reaches over and takes the wine from Tyrion and takes a deep drink.
"Any more surprising news from my lady wife? Perhaps I'm a Targaryen as well? Maybe my true father a Tyrell? That would so burn my sister, me the imp brother! Due to inherit High Garden!"
Jon doesn't respond, instead he takes another deep drink. He holds the cup between his hands, staring off towards the wall. "I suppose she wants to take me to Drogon."
Tyrion is silent for a moment.
"Your grace intends no such thing. In fact, I'm sure she's a bit glad."
Jon scoffs. "I'm sure of it." He replies with sarcasm.
"Drink the rest of your wine." Tyrion says walking back towards the door. "Meet us in the meeting tent, we will discuss further matters there. Oh and Snow,"
Jon looks up to Tyrion, standing before the flap of his tent entertance. Tyrion opens and closes his mouth and gives his head a shake before leaving. Whatever he meant to say he decided against it.
*
Just a short time after Jon finds himself standing in front of Queen Daenerys on her make-shift throne. To her left stands Tyrion and to her right stands Missendei, both have their hands cups in front of them.
Daenerys sits with her back straight, her eyes seem a different shade of purple as she stares down at Jon.
He takes a small step towards her and looks up to Daenerys. The four of them don't speak a long while before Daenerys sighs.
"I've given thought about the new information that was presented to me last night." She says, her eyes still and face silent, not giving away any emotion.
"And I've come to a decision."
Jon is silent and he waits.
"I've decided," Daenerys stands. "I've decided not to feed you to my dragons. I had thought about them burning you to see if you were truly a dragon, but remembered of the story you told me. You've been brought back to life once already. I highly doubt it will work again, with no magic around here."
"I have no need for the North to fight me for burning their King. I'm aware you haven't told them that you've bent the knee. You must think me a fool for thinking I wouldn't be aware of such a thing. But I'll forgive you for that." She continues.
She takes one step. "I've worked a long time to get where I'm at. I've lost so much for what I've wanted. I can't risk to lose it all, even on your word that you wouldn't.
"If it's true, all true, I will not kill you on my brother's honour. Instead, I will name you my heir. But, you are to stay in the North. You are not to step a foot in the South without my word that you are welcome."
"So you are to banish me to the North and leave me to a cause that you know will make it's way down here. We are to die without your help and you still wish for us to call you Queen?" Jon asks, a flash of anger rides in him.
"I will help with the cause. I have seen those demons with my own eyes and understand what great power that Night King holds. If whispers serve me true, the small folk talk of seeing a night Dragon. One of my children. You would best believe I will fight for revenge for taking something so close to me.
"It is after that we've decided things will change. The original offer we were to bring to the table would be one of marriage but since these news I can no longer offer such a thing. No, I couldn't marry someone who I couldn't trust completely. Yes, you say you don't want the Iron Throne now, but Jon, there have been stronger men on that chair before and it has done wicked things to them."
Jon moved forward but Daenerys held a hand up. "I'm not finish dear nephew.
As you've been told, you are to remain in the North and step not a foot out of it unless I've invited you. And as I've told you before, the only children I will have alive in my life are my remaining dragons. I will need a heir, and you will supply me one. You are to marry a noble Northern woman to strengthen the union between Targaryen and Stark, the South and North, and lucky for you there are two. I would prefer the oldest of the both, as she is now the heir of Winterfell now that your dear, dear brother declined his rightful claim as King. I don't want to offend the North any more than I have already. We are family now afterall."
It was a punch in the gut. The sound deafening and feeling that flushes him is hot.
Jon let out a breath. "You are asking me to marry Sansa?! She is my sister!"
Daenerys raised her eyebrow as she stared up to him. "Sister? No, dear nephew. She is your cousin."
"That's unnatural!" He choked, cleanching his left fist at his side.
"Oh dear nephew," She spoke, "It's in your blood."
Daenerys is calm throughout the entire exchange. She barely flinched when Jon moved closer to her, that's when he noticed the Unsullied soldiers step forward from the showers, four of them, each pointing their spears to him in a matter of seconds.
He took another breath, willing himself to calm down like the woman across from him. "Why send me away?" He asked.
"Why send me away back to the North where I can raise an army and fight your claim? A bastard I may still be, but Rhaegar Targaryen was my father, the true and rightful King of Westeros. I'd have a claim if I wanted!"
"Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't do it. You may be Rhaegar's son, but you've only just found out. You were raised by the honourable Lord Eddard Stark. I've been told it was honour that got him killed and it is the very same honour that runs through your veins. You will do as your told because you will see it as your duty-"
"I would just as well see my honour and duty as your husband!-"
"Because the people would love you more!" Daenery cuts him off. Her face and facade crack just a little. Fear and anger mixed in wild emotions on her face, flashed in her eyes. "The people will hear the Targaryen name and see a Stark face. They will love you more than me, they will cast me aside as the Mad King's daughter! They will look to you for their advice and leadership and I cannot have that, and I will not have that. I will come to these people showing that I've given mercy to those around me. I will defeat the Lion Queen that sits on my throne keeping it warm for me, I will come to the people as their savior and they will love me and love me alone."
It was then that Jon saw a flash of Aerys in her face. Her face was the very picture he'd imagined when he was told the stories of Aerys, the mad King, telling his guard to burn them all. It brought Jon sudden clearity. He couldn't ever have brought her true happiness. Only a chair made of iron could do such a thing.
"I won't force Sansa to do anything she doesn't want. She's been through enough."
He spoke after a heavy silence between them. He looked beyond the Queen's shoulders and saw Tyrion shift, uncomfortable. He then saw Tyrion square his shoulders and move to clear his throat.
"If I may, my grace." Tyrion spoke behind Daenerys.
Daenerys kept her gaze on Jon. "You may." She replied.
"I believe it would offend a great matter of people if we were to force Sansa's hand. Jon Snow is right on one thing, the poor lady has been through enough."
"Haven't we all, Hand?" Daenerys asked.
"Yes, your Grace, but poor Sansa has an entire Northern kingdom to defend her and well, I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather not lose my throat to the wolves."
Daenerys brought her head to look over her shoulder to Tyrion. She waiting a beat before looking back to Jon. "Very well. Leave to Winterfell now and convince her of what we ask. Convince her this is for the best of the realm and let her know that if the decision is not reached in my favor I will have no choice but force my hand."
Jon furrowed his brows together. "And what would that entail your Grace?"
"We shall see if you really are a Dragon with Drogon's supplying the fire."
Her voice was cold, her stare was colder.
Gone were those sweet moments shared between the two of them. Gone were Daenerys Stormborn and Jon Snow, lovers and friends.
__
A/N: Okay! SOOOO I just had to get this out of my system. I’ve been thinking of writing this for a long time and have had the idea floating in my head forever. It’s extremely rough with the grammar and sentence run on’s but c’mon I haven’t been in school in like 10 years soooooo.
I do plan on continuing and I do plan on there being tons more of Jonsa!
#jonxsansa#fanfiction#extremely rough but had to share#jonsa#jon snow#ROUGH DRAFT#eeek am aware of mistake sorry!
33 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
quehecke
quehecke
boybasher
🖤 bad girlhood 🖤
een-chau
ええんちゃう？やったこと。
margaretchurch
The Traveling Artist
political-mention-he-attention
Untitled