#please except this unorganized stream of consciousness writing anon. aslkdjflkdjf

[atopvisenyashill]

You know how you said that it was stupid that Rhaenys and Viserys didn't marry since that would've united their claims? Well, what if they did marry? What goes down? Who would Corlys marry? And what about Aemma? Does she marry Daemon instead or maybe someone else?

Okay, so this is all wild speculation and opinion so it is NOT written very well. Just follow the train of thought wherever it takes you, don't worry about going down a tangent, it's fine, we're fine!!

SO…I mean okay, if Rhaenys and Viserys grow up believing they’re going to marry, I would imagine a dynamic similar to Rhaena/Aegon, which is to say like, fine? They like each other well enough, Viserys is fine being ruled by Rhaenys, altho there will be inevitable “make sure Rhaenys doesn’t look hotter than Viserys on Meleys” type stuff the way there was with Rhaena not being allowed to ride Dreamfyre bc Aegon’s dragon was too small (I think Viserys was always going to claim Balerion, but I wonder, if he's engaged to Rhaenys, that the dragonkeepers don't encourage him to claim one of the younger, faster ones, so Rhaenys isn't showing him up? I mean no matter what, I don't think Viserys is ever claiming a young dragon. There's The Narrative but also, that man probably hated riding a dragon, he just wanted to chill with Balerion and read to him). So even with the kind of clash in their personalities, you could do worse than marrying a relative you feel okay with in this series, especially as a Targaryen princess, and both Viserys and Rhaenys would realize that.

BUT. if they marry because, say, alysanne or jaehaerys, suggest it specifically as a way of combing their claims and crowning viserys king and rhaenys queen, well that’s a whole different can of worms. that’s probably a worse aegon/visenya dynamic - rhaenys will feel resentful of being tied to & expected to be subservient to his claim, and viserys, eternal people pleaser that expects people to please him right back is um, not gonna cope well with that (see also: his marriage to alicent).

i would imagine in either case they’d take the throne more or less without any problems. i can see rhaenys talking viserys into letting her rule the way visenya & rhaenys did (could she push to be named queen regnant besides his king regnant, a la william & mary?? im doubtful but i do think rhaenys would insist on the ability to make law & run the small council without viserys needing final say, and i think she’d get it too). given that rhaenys seemed on the whole healthier than aemma (largely because she was giving birth at 17 and not 13), i think they’re probably fine in that area but even if the two of them have issues with living sons, well, rhaenys is certainly not about to let her daughter’s claim be put aside for the likes of daemon fuckin targaryen, and she’s going to be a lot smarter on ensuring her daughter takes the throne after her. i do imagine regardless of whatever changes rhaenys makes, gyldayn refers to her as some sort of harpy badgering poor viserys tho lmao. I think she'd be remembered much less fondly than Alysanne and Rhaenys, again more in line with Visenya, because it would be obvious that she resents her marriage, and she would be attempting to actively play politics and make changes, and both Westeros and Gyldayn get really resentful when women Do Things. But the same way no one could check Visenya, no one is going to check Rhaenys because Viserys is not going to check her. While Rhaenys is deeply resentful, and Viserys is definitely feeling weird about his wife, this is best case scenario fo rhim - all the power of a king without the responsibility. He can have his parties, his songs, his drink, and not worry about the line of succession because Rhaenys had kids, and Rhaenys does the ruling.

as for who everyone else marries….kinda depends on what is cooking in alysanne’s psyche in the mid to late 90s lmao. i think the general theory is that alysanne threw daemon in the vale to help rhaenys’ claim (so rhaenys would be uncontested in the crownlands, and probably so daemon would destroy viserys’ support in the vale by being daemon), and tbf there is mountains of evidence that alysanne plans marriage matches based around punishing the person she’s matching. i think in this scenario, alysanne would be outwardly really supportive of rhaenys & viserys but inwardly super angry, resentful, feeling weird about rhaenys being forced to merge her claim instead of just ruling on her own, and she’s gonna take that out on daemon, so his ass is still going to runestone. we don’t know who arranged the aemma/viserys match (could have been baelon given that alysanne was avoiding the capital at that point) and as for Corlys, his attraction to Rhaenys was a) status b) DRAGON RIDER and he doesn’t really get that with any other woman from this era. all that to say…..i’m wildly speculating here because i think it’s unlikely daemon marries aemma, and i also think it’s likely daemon would inevitably get psycho sexually obsessed with a daughter of viserys.

for aemma…i don’t think it’s out of the question that alysanne suggests corlys for her, and if she’s not married off to viserys, i think alysanne takes a more active role in her life. it means aemma likely doesn’t marry until she’s 16/17, but if aly is arranging it, it’s still likely to an old dude. BUT. i actually think borros baratheon isn’t out of the question here - he’s partial valyrian descent, we don’t know exactly how old he is but he’s probably at least in the same ballpark as aemma, and he’s first born & heir to storm’s end. she could also wind up in white harbor, considering the manderlys press the point in the dance & alysanne seemed at least a bit charmed by the northerners, but i think borros would be most likely.

corlys….the thing about him is that he’s pragmatic, ambitious. yes, he loves rhaenys, but both of them are aware of what privileges the other brings to their marriage. corlys is not only ambitious but (imo) he is aching to prove that the velaryons are just as valyrian, just as powerful as the targaryens - having three dragon riding children was important to him. and look at marilda - precocious, curious, intelligent young girls are very clearly his type. he wouldn’t be cruel to aemma but im not sure he could love her as fiercely as he did rhaenys. and he seemed in no hurry to marry either - i think corlys was being purposefully choosey, biding his time until the perfect match appeared. I'm not sure Corlys would wait like forty or fifty years to marry, but if Rhaenys and Viserys have a girl early enough, if Corlys perhaps has a friendship with Rhaenys....does he ask to marry her daughter? OR OR maybe he does marry Aemma, and then encourages her to claim a dragon.

now i'm thinking about aemma the dragon rider, aemma the daughter-wife of corlys. a better and also much worse life for aemma, haha.

#asks #anons #please except this unorganized stream of consciousness writing anon. aslkdjflkdjf #canon divergent au