A Song Of Ice And Fire + Grandmothers (of The Younger Generation)(requested By Anonymous)

a song of ice and fire + grandmothers (of the younger generation) (requested by anonymous)

// Catriona Balfe as Lyarra Stark, Yasmine Al Massri as Loreza Martell (the Unnamed Princess of Dorne), Tamzin Merchant as Rhaella Targaryen, Marina Alexandrova as Cassana Estermont, Sienna Guillory as Minisa Whent, Gabriella Wilde as Joanna Lannister, Anita Briem as Shaera Targaryen and Charlotte Spencer as Olenna Redwyne

I have seen [her] in my fires, fleeing from this marriage they have made for her. Coming here, to you. A girl in grey on a dying horse, I have seen it plain as day.

(requested by @wierwolf)

Queen Rhaena I AU: The day Maegor forced Rhaena to become one of his black brides was the day he died. The young woman brought a dagger to their marriage bed and ended him with it. As the oldest grandchild of Aegon the Conqueror, she claimed the Iron Throne and became Queen of Westeros. Her ascension wasn’t met with complete acceptance. There were those who opposed a woman ruling over them in her own right, especially when she had a brother yet living. But after years of terror and bloodshed under Maegor, no one wanted war again and Jaehaerys refused to fight his sister.

Rhaena’s reign brought many changes to Westeros. She filled a number of offices not just with men, but with women who proved themselves worthy of their positions. Most notable was Elissa Farman, who held the office of Master of Ship. A born seafarer, she pushed for the creation of the crown’s own navy rather than relying on the fleets of other Houses. She also pushed for exploration to the west, which led to the discovery of a passage straight to Asshai and great riches.

The Westeros Rhaena passed on to her heir, Crown Princess Aerea, was more prosperous and tolerant of women in power than the one she had claimed.

Known Ruling Princesses of Dorne

*  the names of Nymeria’s daughter, the two members of the Red Princes and the latest Princess of Dorne are made up, since they are mentioned in canon, but not given a name. (Thank you to @drbobbimorse for the suggestions)

asoiaf meme: [2 /3] legends || Alyssa’s Tears Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, her brothers, and all her children slain, and yet in life she had never shed a tear. So in death, the gods had decreed that she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth of the Vale, where the men she had loved were buried. Alyssa had been dead six thousand years now, and still no drop of the torrent had ever reached the valley floor far below.

As I read you description of Renly's scheming to get Margaery to be Robert's mistress, how much of that do you think was his idea and how much was the Tyrells'? I tednt to read Renly as a (witting and willing) puppet of the Tyrells in their bid to get more power.

I think it was mostly (perhaps almost entirely) Renly’s idea. The Tyrells want power, yes, but they’re cautious about it. Well, partially cautious. For example:

Her grandmother snorted. “Gallant, yes, and charming, and very clean. [Renly] knew how to dress and he knew how to smile and he knew how to bathe, and somehow he got the notion that this made him fit to be king. The Baratheons have always had some queer notions, to be sure. It comes from their Targaryen blood, I should think.” She sniffed. “They tried to marry me to a Targaryen once, but I soon put an end to that.”“Renly was brave and gentle, Grandmother,” said Margaery. “Father liked him as well, and so did Loras.”“Loras is young,” Lady Olenna said crisply, “and very good at knocking men off horses with a stick. That does not make him wise. As to your father, would that I’d been born a peasant woman with a big wooden spoon, I might have been able to beat some sense into his fat head. […] It’s treason, I warned them, Robert has two sons, and Renly has an older brother, how can he possibly have any claim to that ugly iron chair? Tut-tut, says my son, don’t you want your sweetling to be queen? […] The thought that one day he may see his grandson with his arse on the Iron Throne makes Mace puff up like […a puff fish…] We should have stayed well out of all this bloody foolishness if you ask me, but once the cow’s been milked there’s no squirting the cream back up her udder. After Lord Puff Fish put that crown on Renly’s head, we were into the pudding up to our knees, so here we are to see things through.”

–ASOS, Sansa I

This discussion is of course about the Tyrells supporting Renly’s bid for king, but I think it also applies to Renly’s Margaery/Robert plot. While Mace might find the plan attractive, Olenna would consider the idea of throwing her sweet granddaughter into a den of lions in hopes she might succeed in turning Robert’s head and gaining a crown for hers absolutely appalling. (There’s the danger of Cersei knocking Margaery off, there’s the chance that the adultery/incest might not be provable, there’s a chance that Robert might make Margaery his mistress but not his new queen, or maybe he’d just love her and leave her like he does with most women, etc.) So I very much doubt it was a plan that the Tyrells came up with on their own and proposed to Renly.

Rather, I think Renly was visiting Highgarden, saw Margaery and heard something about how people were comparing her beauty and appearance to the proven royal-seducing Lyanna (which of course is B.S. but also Margaery doesn’t look a thing like Lyanna so, y’know, the romance of the Reach yadda yadda), and realized aha, here was the key he could use to influence Robert and get rid of Cersei. Maybe Loras played a small part too – like, “you’re unhappy with Cersei and Joffrey, why don’t you do something about it” – but he also was definitely Renly’s instrument in convincing his family to go along with the plan. Varys says Loras was writing to Mace, not the other way around. And also, Mace may be an ambitious pompous blowhard, but he doesn’t strike me as someone who’d come up with the idea to pimp out his daughter that way (unlike those who facilitated Aegon IV’s mistresses, like Lord Bracken with his daughters Barba and Bethany, or Lucas “the Pander” Lothson with his wife and daughter).

Note Renly also tells Stannis that he was planning to make Margaery Robert’s queen, he doesn’t blame it on the Tyrells or anything – and though thatcould just be his own “look how clever I am” taking credit for it, IMO it’s said too casually, as an admission of “yep, guilty, I had those plans all right”. Basically, I think it’s an extreme misread to think Renly was being manipulated by the Tyrells to give them power, or by anyone else. Everything he did was his own choices, alas.