I don't think that is required. A major element is that Corlys betrothed Laena to the son of the Sealord of Bravos to get money to support his war in the Stepstones.
In canon the timeline was this:
Deamon is semi-exiled in 105 AC.
He joins Corlys in conquering the Stepstones in 106 AC, at some point in this year Corlys betroths Laena to the Sealord's son.
By 109 AC he has succeed, crowned himself King of the Narrow Sea.
In 111 AC the Triarchy allies with Dorne to drive him out.
Deamon continues to fight them until he abandons the Stepstones in 115 AC when Rhea dies, at that point he marries Laena.
So, Laena might already be betrothed. Rhaenys is not going to be happy about that. I think we try to leverage this into Laena and Laenor joining us on the royal progress. It allows us to show off our dragons, and become closer to both Laenor and Laena. We can find out if a marriage with Laenor will work or not. Perhaps Laena can find a potential husband that can replace Corlys' loan from the Sealord (a Lannister would be the obvious option, but a Manderly or a Redwyne might work too).
Maybe we end up being the one to free Laena from her betrothal instead of Daemon. Lot's of different ways this could play out.
I don't think we ought to be as worried about canon, I do think Daemon is likely to be the most dangerous to us, as he feels we robbed him of his position as heir. Try to become close to Laena and Laenor. Even if the Velaryon and Targaryens do not marry this generation, perhaps we can make it work next generation. If we are close friends I think we can make it work out.
One of the things we should make clear to Rhaenys (and thus to Corlys) is that we agree that holding the Stepstones is strategically important to the realm. So we support his efforts there. When we visit Storm's End, most likely the Venstar of Tarth will be there, can we encourage him to support Corlys? Maybe we should visit the Arbor while in the Reach, see if they can be persuaded to support taking the Stepstones (it does benefit them to gain a more secure passage from the west coast to the east).
We make it clear that whatever the conflict between Corlys and Viserys, we still see them as family, and they can fully expect the Velaryon House to flourish under Rhaenyra. Will Rhaenys/Corlys really agree to marry Laena to Daemon and support his claim over ours? That seems like a very risky move for either Corlys or Rhaenys to take. Better to let Daemon have his little independent Kingdom of the Narrow Sea, suggest to him that he marry a Lysene wife to divide the Triarchy. The future is not bound by canon anymore.
Look, medieval people do not acquaint women who are close with being lovers. Heck, we didn't do that thirty years ago, it's an incredibly modern thing. The only way that happens is if you live together and both refuse to marry (like Jeyne Arryn) and even then it didn't have a lot of effect (lesbians have never been as discriminated against as gay men are). No one will look twice at Alicent and Rhaenyra until they in their mid twenties at the earliest.
Alicent being close friends with the Crown Princess is a plus to her marriage prospects, not a negative.
We only have two actions. Right now we need to focus on our swordsmanship skills first so we can achieve our first impossible goal of becoming a Knight. We also need to study a bunch of different things (like Aenys death). We shouldn't forget about Syrax training, but we can put that off for a while, unless we plan to get involved in combat in the Stepstones, which we shouldn't be. We will do a lot of dragon flight during our tour. We can do dragon training once we are married and need some stress relief. I don't disagree that we should beomce better at dragon riding, but there is a proper order to things.
Definitely. Probably not next turn, but by the turn following we need to see if we can visit Rhaenys at Driftmark and start healing this breach in the family.
No way. Every other turn at least. It's why we should not focus on Dragon training right now. Not to say we never do it, but that's the skill we don't need right now.
That's a point. Talking to them would also help set up a royal progress.
Rough ideas for the following turns:
Next turn:
[] Speak with Viserys
[] Speak with Lord Lyonel Strong
[] Study Valyrian History with your Father.
[] Investigate the Death of King Aenys
We float the initial idea of a royal progress, it tends to flow naturally with investigating the Death of Aenys (Aegon the Uncrowned was on a royal progress at the time) and studying Valyrian history, it makes for a nice transition to recent Targaryen history, in which Jaehaerys went on a royal progress.
Following turn:
[] Speak with Tyland Lannister
[] Speak with Lord Lyman Beesbury
[] Train
[] Fly to Driftmark to reconcile with the Velaryons. Invite Laena and Laenor to join you on the royal progress.
Turn after that:
[] Speak with Alicent
[] Speak with Grand Maester Mellos
[] Study Diplomacy and Etiquette
[] Study Houses of Westeros
Then we leave on the royal progress.
Something like that anyways.
Harold Westerling is Lord Commander now, and he dies before the canon Dance.
If we had three actions a turn I'd agree, but with only two I don't see how we can do better than every other turn.
Yeah, the show created this dynamic that has everyone pairing them together. I'm willing to wait and see where things go, but I'm not married to a relationship with Alicent. I wouldn't mind us falling for Borros if it works out that way. Or even Tyland.
No, that's foolish. Viserys is not going to let us fight in the Stepstonea, and Daemon would start getting ideas about arranging an accident.
Which is why you marry them to create an alliance. Marriage between potential rivals is common. That's a plus, not a negative.
The Stepstone War rages on for years. Let's get our ducks in order. Have a royal tour, spruce up our combat skills for that. Then once we are back from the tour, we get married, train our dragon, and then once Corlys and Daemon are exhausted with all the fighting, we can ride to the rescue.
