an awesome question!! i love all of the black brides too actually, but rhaena especially is a beautiful character i must agree. i also like queen alysanne, who i liked the first few times reading. ofc rhaenyra and my girl the queen who never was rhaenys!!
my opinion hasn’t really changed on them, but we shall see 👀💗
AEGON THE CONQUEROR.
Enough said about him.
I had never portrayed the first of the Targaryen kings, but everyone did, so I had to try to be at least somewhat original. Thus, I inspired myself in Neogothic/Romantic portrayals of kings and found a depiction of Saint Ladislaus of Hungary -one of the Hungarian holy princes, alongside Saint Stephen and Saint Elizabeth-, by Roskovics (1854-1915), that I thought had the right look of fantasy meets historicity meets legend.
The sword, the gorget and the crown are all made of Valyrian steel, which in my books just looks like Damascus steel, thus the ripple effect all over the surface. The sword, of course, is Blackfyre, probably in one of its first re-hilts, following fashion; probably at first was more akin to a straight Roman gladius. Later on, I always think it got refashioned, particularly if it was damaged in war or as the hilt materials deteriorated. The dragon this time is more… medieval, so to speak, as I tried to use a more plausible design based on miniatures of said mythical creature, instead of the winged beast we usually did. I tried to go for a more 12th-13th century vibe here, instead of the usual Late Middle Ages look I use for later Targaryen, the apex of which I consider the reign of Daeron II, with later reigns being somewhat different.
The belt has golden plaques with the heraldry of vassal houses, starting with Velaryon and following with the Lord Paramounts. Also included are Rowan and Redwyne. I wanted to do that because there is a belt that was interred with Fernando de la Cerda, son of Alfonso X the Wise, king of Castile, that probably was a wedding gift by Thibault of Navarre and is decorated with small enamelled coat of arms. So I took the Roskovics belt and added Westerosi heraldry. Probably a jewelled belt given to Aegon for his coronation on Oldtown. I like to think the vibrant blue mantle is either a gift or plunder from the Reach.
YES, he has whiskers and YES, he looks cocky, but he is THE CONQUEROR. At least before Rhaenys died and his later years begun I imagine he was pretty high-spirited: he had two magnificent consorts, unparalled dragons, a heir and a spare. No reason for gloom.
I think GRRM is waiting to see how WW3 plays out to finish the Great War in WofW.
I can’t watch old GoT episodes not so much cus of the ending but because it’s fucking depressing comparing it to real life. A Knight of the Seven kingdoms is so lovely because even though the story itself is sad, they made it super lighthearted and full of hope. So it might just be hard for poor GRRM to go down the last battle of Westeros rabbit hole. Let’s let him enjoy the joyful years of this simple hedge knight show while the world kills itself and then we can all finish the story together at the end of time.
I really like headcanoning elia and dorne just generally being inspired by South Asia and desi culture in full but also that MY headcanon aka not canon just an interpretation of it. Idk why its so hard for other people to not just be happy with their headcanons but rather just force it on others for no reason. Yes South Asia might have been inspiration for dorne BUT as stated by grrm its is heavily based on MENA, welish and Mediterranean culture. Pretending otherwise to suite your own agenda is Orientalism and extremely weird.
Even if personally for me a South Asian woman is whom I imagine as elia doesnt mean I am gonna disrespect anyone who doesn’t and want to rightfully cast her north African, and especially someone of Palestinian heritage or Spanish or whatever else they want to in general. Your personal preference doesn’t overtake the canon neither does it overtake anyone else’s. Stay in your lane. If you dont like something scroll, mute the tag or block them. Being hateful and delusional about forcing your own shit on others says more about you than anyone else.
Prince Daeron Targaryen, called “Prince of commons.” He is the youngest son of Prince Aegon Targaryen and Princess Mariyan Martell (OC).
Note: Aegon = Young Griff
Prince Jahaerys Targaryen, called “the young dragon.” He is the oldest son of Prince Aegon Targaryen and Princess Mariyan Martell (OC).
Note: Aegon = Young Griff
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, called “Rhaenys the sweet” She is the youngest daughter of Queen Daenerys Targaryen and King consort Jon Stark.
Note: In this AU, Jon decided to honor his Stark heritage, since he felt more connected to it than his Targaryen bloodline. He was legitimized when Daenerys became queen.
harrenhal, for me will always symolize generational trauma. the castle goes from one family to the other, but the new owners seem to inherit the trauma of the previous one.
house hoare built harrenhal using slave labour so the entire foundation of the castle is just trauma. when the targaryens came harrn decided that he would stay inside his castle because he believed the thick stone walls would protect him. they didn’t. him and his songs burned to death. from this point forward, the burned harrenhal acts as a reminder of the evils of the conquest, and the futility of resisting.
then the castle was inhabited by house qoherys, but they died out quickly so no one cares about them.
next in line was house harroway. alys harroway was the second wife of king maegor the cruel. however, after his and alys’ kids looked like lizards, he accused her of cheating on him and killed her entire family. the murder of alys is a femicide since it was commited by her intimate partner. it is said that her torture went on for a very long time and was extremely horrific.
house towers’ heirs were very sickly. first lord towers died from his injuries after he won a fight for the ownership of the castle. his son died from an illness and the castle passed to his 9-year-old sickly grandson. could the illness be a physical manifestation of alys’ violent end? house towers also dealt with impoverishment.
house strong represents the horrors of civil war. their stay at harrenhal starts and ends because of the targaryens. they got the castle after rhaena (gay one) had died. harwin strong had a relationship with a royal wich ended in children who all faced tragic ends because of the war. harwin and his father burned to death inside of his castle, much like harren and his sons. rest of the strongs were executed when aemond took the castle. larys strong survived the civil war but was executed soon after.
falena stokeworth and her husband got harrenhal after house strong. falena, who had been a mistress to aegon iv, had a daughter, jeyne whom aegon took as his mistress when she was 14. it was rumored that he was her father. some sources claim that he had threesomes with both mother and daughter. very fucked up even if she wasn’t his. house lothston is about sexual violence and incest. jeyne contacted an std from aegon and was dismissed, she possibly had a daughter, danelle, to whom the line ends because she turned to black arts. danelles responce might be a sympton of all the pain of sexual violence that has been passed down to her.
house whent, just like house towers, were knights for the lothtstons. many of the whent women struggled with infertility. this might represent the generation of children who nope out of having kids of their own because of their own trauma. connects to house lothston.
also very interesting, that both houses, which were vassals to the house who came before, had some sorts of health problems. a physical representation of trauma? the pull of harrenhal and the way it poisons you over time?
to me harrenhal is a symbol of history repeating itself. it symbolizes the rot of the feudal system, the castle stays as a reminder that no one heeds. it stays the same but no one really remembers why it is like that in the first place.
7yo got an assignment to build a model of an imaginary land and make a tourism poster for said land, and obviously I was very into this. I was like “ok let’s pick some geographic features and think what kind of people live there, like if it’s a beach town maybe there’s an amusement park, or if it’s a desert there could be an oasis” and he said “it’s a volcano that shoots rainbows and there’s a spark of dark magic that can become a monster that destroys the world.” And like sure that idea is “better” or whatever. But also like have you not read GRRM on Aragorn’s tax policy???
If GRRM ever announces any other finished book in the ASOIAF series, I think that might genuinely be the happiest day of my life. It will feel like winning the lottery because I’m convinced the chances of this happening are negative.
Like, just give us a Dunk & Egg novella, George! I will literally cry.
So, back in 2011, when Game of Thrones (S1) was about to hit our screens, one of my closest friends BEGGED me to read the books before watching the show. She and I always had similar taste in books, so I said fine, and started reading them. I’d finished A Dance with Dragons around mid-season 1.
Today, I was searching through some of our old messages to track down a (totally unrelated) conversation we had, and saw that I’d started reading A Game of Thrones exactly 15 years ago, today. 8th of March, 2011.
It’s just a funny coincidence, so I thought I’d share.
And I would like to inform everyone that I am completely fine about having waited a decade and a half for The Winds of Winter. No hard feelings, honestly.
My first dragon art for my oc,
Queen Shaera Targaryen
Daughter of Baelon the Brave &
Viserra the Beauty,
wife of Viserys I,
mother of Rhaenyra the realm’s delight.
The dragon Seadancer, was slightly smaller the Caraxes. A she-dragon, a hatchling to Princess Shaera Targaryen Daughter of Baelon the Brave.
SEADANCER was a light sea green, speckled with stripes, huge, and a slim body. Who often dove into the sea to catch fish.
That’s truly why she was named Seadancer.
The thing with A Song of ice and Fire series is that it’s such a cultural juggernaut that it’s become almost mythology. You just osmosis the iconic characters and places and plot points of that series because you exist in the world without ever reading a single source material. And then when you actually sit down and read the thing, you”re hit with the realization that GRRM is actually a fantastic writer. Like, that motherfucker can describe things. He can nail down a characterisation in a paragraph. His prose is almost fairytale like and tranquil. It’s almost maddening.
i mean he clearly cared about the story too much to try and tie up all ends, make it up to his standard, make it a fulfilling read, make a compelling meta narrative and not go against the themes he wrote in earlier. i’d like to believe that he was editing and re-editing and 1100 pages are a lot of gardening and whatnot. all of that kicked his ass, obviously. i genuinely think he put twow on the back burner last year since that ‘dany & daenerys’ blogpost where he said he “also cares about twow”. obviously the fandom nonsense and chatter got to him or maybe he was just too happy with the akot7k adaptation that he just doesn’t gaf about twow anymore and can be at peace.
AKOTSK has thrown me bodily back in the fucking ASOIAF building again and I’ve realised something absolutely devastating. There’s a world where Deltarune’s entire lifespan begins and ends before we get The Winds Of Winter.
A Dance With Dragons came out in 2011, the same year Toby Fox had the fever dream that inspired Deltarune. 11 years later, in 2022, GRRM announced he had about 1100 pages of Winds finished with about 500 left to write. This number has recently (January 2026) been confirmed not to have changed. So, even though we know the vast majority of that happened during covid, let’s say George gets about 100 pages done per year. 500 pages left gives us 5 years from now, which puts our estimate for Winds’ release year all the way into the big ‘31 (I’d like to think it’ll be sooner, but that’s purely vibes-based. From recent interviews he’s done, I get the impression something’s lit a fire under his ass and he’s locking the fuck in.)
Given that the wait between Deltarune chapters is [Rapidly Shrinking] ever since Toby Fox assembled his all-star team (3 year gap, 4 year gap (for 2 chapters at once), 1 year gap) I think we’re in with a real chance of getting Chapter 6 in 2027 and Chapter 7 in 2028. 2029 if it’s content-heavy with alternate endings and retroactive updates to earlier chapters and such.
I’m trying really hard not to “YOUR TAKING TO LONG” GRRM with this post, he’s a nice old man who’s already given us tomes of wonderful writing and 6 marvelous seasons between 3 series of television. He doesn’t owe us anything and would be well within his rights to throw his hands up, say the world doesn’t deserve any more of his work, and go enjoy himself without worrying about it. The fact that he hasn’t speaks to a genuine commitment to see this through that I cannot stress enough he does not owe us.
That said I lowkey hope this happens because it would be so funny.
First mentioned with Terrence Toyne, the paramour to Aegon the 4ths Mistress Betha Braken (namesake for Betha’s teats). Was cut to pieces in front of Betha for this. Terrences brothers attempted to avenge him though they were foiled by Aemond the Dragonknight. House appears to have gone outlaw after this, with the Smiling Knight Simon Toyne being leader of the Kingswood Brotherhood, and Myles Toyne the Captain General if the Golden Company (and possible lover to Jon Connington).
Originally invented for the GoT Telltale game, only to be added by GRRM in ADWD. Appear to be a minor house sworn to House Glover and based in the Wolfs Wood.
House of the GOAT Nimble Dick Crabb! Despite their seat, the Whispers, having been alledged by Dick Crabb to have been a ruin for 1000 years, they appear to at least still be landed Knights with multiple appearing on the Kingsguard, most notably Clement Crabb. Considerd half wild in the lore book, they are interestingly, as stated again by Dick Crabb to not be a cadet house but rather loyal directly to House Targaryen, having sworn themselves to Visenya during the conquest.
Despite being in the Westerlands are actually descended from the Ironborn Warrior Herrock Henning of Harlaw, who took Kayce with the help of the cities whores. There seems to be some indication that they were orginally landed Knights before being given Lordship follwing the Dance of the Dragons.
Were briefly Kings of the Iron Islands in 2ac following the destruction of House Hoare at Harrenhall. Were subsequently defeated by Aegon the 1st though there was a conspiracy to renstate them as Kings of the Iron Islands early on in the Targaryen era.
Aerion Damphair states outright that after the Greyjoys House Volmark has the greatest claim on the Iron Islands, being descended from the Black Line of House Hoare. Despite this they surport Victarian at the Kingsmoot. Euron Greyjoy later gives them the Shields as their Lordship, stating outright this is to cut into Victarian’s base of surport.
The Vances of Wayfarers and Atranta are 2 vadet branches of the older extinct Vance line. All three appear to have been established from the Andal Conqueror Armistead Vance who is said to have been the mightiest if ALL the Andal Conquerors, defeating the King of Hills and Rivers Tristifer iv Mudd.
The 2 Houses took oposing sides during the Dance of the Dragons, and to this day quarter their Coat of Arms with a green or black dragon.
Interestingly thier sigil is the same as House Flint of Widows watch, though this may just be a coincidence.
Interestingly appear to be the Reach equivilant of a Marcher House. Their history is defined like the Dornish Marchers as a warrior culture standing against the Dornish. Infamously Alys Oakheart and her handmaidens were kidnapped by Wyl of Wyl and sold into Myrish Slavery. They later suggested forcing Princess Martell of Dorne to serve in one of the Kingland Brothels to Aegon the 1st.
Are stated outright to be one of the many Houses of the Reach to have a better claim on Highgarden than House Tyrell, and married extensively with their former overlords the Gardeners as well as House Peake.
Arys Oakheart, the POV everyone forgets, is from this house.
Basically the Dornish House that is so evil it justifies the existence of the Marcher Houses. Firstman in origin and one of the oldest in Dorne they were started by the warriormaid Wylla of Wyl. Aided and abeted the Vulture King during his rain of terror early in Aegon the first’s reign. Commited the aforementioned unspeakable acts against House Oakheart. Later kidnapped and killed Daeron Targaryen under a peace banner and imprissoned Aemond the Dragonknight, whom King Baelor the Good retrieved. Seemed to somehow survived unscathed until ADWD despite all this
Interestingly their name “the Wyl of Wyl” mirrors the naming conventions of the Northern Mountain Clans and Wildlings.
