Random Writing Thought: The Best Stories Are Often The Ones That Only You Could Have Written But Also

Random writing thought: the best stories are often the ones that only you could have written — but also the ones that you could only write at this one moment.

I couldn't write All the Birds in the Sky from scratch now if I tried. But the me of 2013 couldn't have written The Prodigal Mother either.

Aegon’s arc if the writers were competent

choose violence ask: 12 & 22 for F&B/HOTD

12. unpopular character you actually like: I feel like with F&B/HotD this is so team based that the definition of "unpopular" is going to vary widely. I like Aegon II, even though he's widely hated in the broader fandom, but that feels like a bit of a cop-out since he does have a lot of fans on TG, even if he's not as popular as Aemond. I really like the Lannister twins, Tyland and Jason, are they unpopular? Tyland gets villainized a lot for pulling that shit with the treasury but honestly, it was a smart move and respect to him for not cracking under torture. And regardless of what happens later with the Lyseni Spring, Marston Waters will always be a real one for reminding Aegon II twice that he shouldn't kill Baela, and luckily for everyone Aegon II listened.

22. favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores: Well, kind of related to the above, even though I generally do not like the end of Aegon II's reign/House of the Wolf/Regency of Aegon III, it's also the part of the book that made me appreciate Aegon II, because it's here where he shoes mercy when he really has no reason to, and when doing so actually kind of undermines him in some ways. At the tail end of the Dance people tend to focus on how Aegon had Essie tortured into admitting Gaemon wasn't his, and on the threats made to harm Aegon III, but it's frustrating how the context is ignored or kind of brushed over. Gaemon was a pretender to the throne and under any other circumstance that kid would be toast-- forced to take the Black at the very best. Forcing Essie to admit that he was a Lyseni bastard was a way to save him-- he's no longer a threat to the throne if his father is just a random Lyseni. Aegon then takes him into the royal household, where he later becomes Aegon III's only friend. Aegon also grants the request of another pretender to the throne, Trystane, and knights him before executing him, giving him the name Ser Trystane Fyre. But what's more, Aegon II keeps Aegon III and Baela alive for six months against the advice of two of the only three people left in King's Landing who he really trusted, one of whom was his mother. At this point Aegon II is in pain, he's not allowing himself milk of the poppy so he's drinking more, he's grieving, and yet he just refuses to kill this kid, even though realistically, killing Aegon III would have left Aegon II's opponents with only Daemon's daughters to rally around. From the moment he returns to King's Landing, Alicent is saying kill Aegon III. Tyland is saying kill Aegon III. But it is only in the final moments of his reign, with the Tullys and the Starks practically at the door, does Aegon reluctantly agree to take Aegon III's ear and send it to the Tullys, but he is poisoned before that order can be carried out. When the fandom talks about this, it's often framed as if Aegon started threatening to mutilate Aegon III right away, but it's six months, and this whole time Corlys is trying to negotiate some kind of treaty but Aegon also won't compromise. It's really poignant to me that the Dance starts with the deaths of children, but for whatever reason, Aegon II just refuses to end it that way.

Lost on You final chapter!!

Dragonstone had never felt like a home.

But Shireen had claimed her dragon. With whom it felt like home.

It felt like flying.

Is Targcest but not explicit because you have to know stuff and being done that for being explicit I haven't. And I can't actually write what I haven't experienced.

Is Targcest but one of them is Baratheon with great grandmother for a Targaryen.

Is Targcest but both of them are half Martell.

Alicent being thrust into the life of the royal court by Otto, Alicent being forced to hide her anxiety and behave as a normal functioning adult at 14, Alicent being thrust into the role of administering to King Jahaerys at a young age, Alicent forced into the role of his caretaker, Alicent being thrust as the companion of Viserys, Alicent forced to continue that role despite the rumors of her being a whore with Jahaerys and later Viserys, Alicent forced to marry Viserys despite herself, Alicent forced to defend herself against Rhaenyra's anger at her marrying Viserys, Alicent forced to keep a balanced r/s with Rhaenyra as her new stepdaughter, Alicent thrown into the role of Rhaenyra's stepmother, Alicent being thrust as the role of a future queen, Alicent forced to have babies, Alicent being thrust into the role of a mother, Alicent thrown into the role of defending her future heirs, Alicent thrown into the role of team green defender, Alicent forced to defender her place as queen vs Rhaenyra, Alicent forced to defend her place vs Viserys, Alicent forced to insist her own blood is the rightful heir, Alicent forced to defend her own blood from Rhaenyra's influence with Viserys, Alicent forced to defend Aemond from Rhaenyra's own blood, Alicent forced to withstand Viserys siding with Rhaenyra and Luke, Alicent being thrust into the role of evil queen mother by Rhaenyra, Alicent forced into the decision of having more kids or not (Daeron), Alicent forced to continually defend her kids even as she's being forced to have more kids, Alicent forced to withstand Rhaenyra naming her new son Aegon, Alicent being thrust into the role of Viserys wellbeing and caretaker as his disease worsened, Alicent forced to decide how to administer to Viserys health, Alicent being thrown to the naysayers for administering to Viserys health, Alicent forced to defend herself from accusations of poisoning Viserys, Alicent thrust into the role of protecting Aegon ii as the rightful heir after Viserys death, Alicent forced to crown Aegon ii before Rhaenyra named herself heir, Alicent thrust into a war with Rhaenyra and the Blacks, Alicent forced into an assassination attempt by Daemon and Rhaenyra, Alicent forced into watching her grandson be slaughtered because of Rhaenyra and Daemon, Alicent forced to watch her daughter go mad because of Jahaery's death, Alicent thrust into the role of peace maker by offering to divide lands between Aegon ii and Rhaenyra, Alicent being forced to stay silent by Rhaenyra if ever the subject of bastardy came up, Alicent forced to struggle with Helaena dying by suicide, Alicent forced to struggle with Aemond's death, Alicent forced to struggle with Daeron's death, Alicent forced to struggle with Maelor's death, Alicent forced to thrust aside every role she was thrown into because of Rhaenyra, Viserys, and Otto, Alicent thrust aside.

I don’t write my characters, my characters write themselves and I just pick up the broken pieces left by their ill advised hijinks and repressed traumas and try to cobble them together into a coherent narrative