Terrible Fic Idea #66: Targaryen Restoration, but make it queer
The other day I had the crazy thought: what if Robert Baratheon tried to pass a male Jon Snow off as his second wife? So naturally today I had the complimentary thought: what if it was Jon's choice to present as female?
Or: What if Jon Snow was transgender?
Aka: The Visneya the Victorious Fic
Just imagine it:
Everything follows canon - with one exception. It's not just that Jon Snow feels out of place in Winterfell, he feels out of place in his own skin. It gets worse the older he gets, until some point shortly before Robert Baratheon is set to come North Jon has the realization: she is a woman in a man's body, and the pretty features her half-siblings tease her about are the only parts of herself that she's comfortable with.
Jon (for she still thinks of herself by this name at this point), quickly realizes there's no place for her in the North. Perhaps if she ran away, adopted a new identity, and restricted herself to traditionally female activities she might get away with it - but, for all that Jon feels like a woman, she doesn't want to restrict herself to needlepoint. She wants to be a woman and to fight. Her role model in this is Queen Visneya.
In the chaos before King Robert's arrival, Jon runs away. Her escape is helped by the fact that the few people Ned is able to send after her do not know to look for a woman.
Jon manages to make her way to Pentos shortly before Daenerys is due to marry Khal Drogo. She's recognized by Jorah Mormont - not as a Stark, but as a Northerner recently come from Westeros, and presented to Dany during her wedding as a means of learning more about the country she is exiled from. Jon - now calling herself Jenny Snow - is very much an unwilling member of Dany's court, but has little alternative.
Canon proceeds apace, with the addition that many of the Dothraki are alternately amused and disgusted by a woman who wields a sword - though she gains the respect of certain factions for cutting the cock off any man found take a woman unwilling, free or slave.
Drogo dies. Dany becomes mother of dragons...
...and Rhaegal is absolutely taken with Jenny.
At this point some of the truth comes out - that Jenny is the bastard daughter of Ned Stark, now presumed to have a Dragonseed for a mother - but the fact Jenny was born Jon Snow remains remarkably hidden considering the Dothraki live largely out of doors with minimal privacy.
Canon continues to proceed apace, with Dany and Jenny becoming friends in a way they never quite managed while Drogo was alive. They do not become lovers until they finally sail for Dragonstone, and when King Robb - heavily scarred after surviving the Red Wedding - comes to plead for aid, he doesn't see his missing half-brother in Visneya Blackfyre (as Jenny Snow is now known as).
Visneya is sent with Rhaegal and some of their allies to defeat the Others, while Dany and the remainder of her army begins solidifying their position in Westeros.
With their forces divided, neither side is willing to take stupid risks, but with their fresh soldiers and supplies from Essos they can make several important, modest gains. Dany takes the islands of Blackwater Bay and the Narrow Sea - including the Stepstones - before moving onto the Stormlands and the rest of the Crownlands. Visneya, for her part, knows Northerners and how best to fight in Northern weather, and leads her forces to several great victories - including holding the Wall after the Night King tries to destroy it with magic.
Eventually the Night King is defeated - Visneya managing to destroy him in single battle after a fall from Rhaegal separates her from her forces - and she returns south with a portion of the Northern army to start retaking the Riverlands and the Vale.
By the time they turn their attentions to the Iron Islands, the rest of Westeros has already bent the knee and Dany has been crowned Queen of the Seven Six Kingdoms - but it's there Visneya earns her epithet. Not only does she free any salt wives she comes across, but she kills many locals for raping and reaving, and turns the castles of those who refuse to concede to slag, starting with the Greyjoys. It is in many ways a second Harrenhal, writ large over an entire kingdom.
Though pressured to make a political alliance, Dany never remarries. She claims her dragon Drogon as her second husband and continues her affair with Visneya behind closed doors, stating that a dragon is the only acceptable spouse for a dragon, and produces a handful of children with the Targaryen look over the years. One of their daughters goes on to marry Robb Stark's heir. (This goes on back and forth for a handful of generations until, a la James I, the closest male heir to the North is the King of the Westeros, and the kingdoms are reunited.)
As for Visneya, no one ever gets a clear answer who she is or where she comes from. It's largely believed that her mother was a descendant of Daemon Blackfyre who married an exiled Northerner, but no one really knows. Not even Visenya, who never learns she was born the only son of Rhaegar Targaryen and his second wife, Lyanna Stark.
Bonuses include: 1) a detailed exploration of gender roles - and gendered violence - in Westeros and Essos. This should include the many ways in which gender is a performance, and that toxic Medieval masculinity is just as damaging as female repression, and what it means to want to exist outside your ordained role; 2) a detailed exploration of sexuality in Westeros and Essos and what it means to defy - or conform to - those norms ; and 3) Robb and Arya being the only ones ever to learn Visneya Blackfyre's original identity, mostly through accident rather than intention.
And that's all I've got. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you ever do anything with it.
Other Jon Snow Headcanons: Aelor the Accursed | Aegon the Adopted | Aegon the Undying | Aegon the Unyielding | Aemon the Adventurous | Baelor the Brave | Bastard of Winterfell | Daemon the Destroyer | Daena the Dreamer | Daeron the Desired | Dyanna the Defiant | Elia the Magnificent | Jon the Fair | Jon Whitefyre | King of the Ashes | Lady Arryn | Lady Baratheon | Lady Lannister | Lady Stark | Lord of the Dance | Prince Consort | Prince of Summerhall | Queen Mother | Rhaegar the Righteous | River Queen | Shiera Snowbird | Visneya the Victorious
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