Agreed, we've been prowess maxxing for so long, and we got the Master of Laws position to get ready for, outside of a few more duels to impress upon Lords that the rumours of our skill are true, the next actions we take should be social and maybe studying actions.

Then again a lot of us already agreed to talk with Gwayne in Turn 12 about Alicent anyways, and we have been negelecting Syrax a bit.
And we still have to learn how to play music to properly serenade Alicent...
 
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen

Manderly can't actually knight us. Even if he tried, only Viserys has the authority to make it stick.
Yeah, but it's not going to happen unless we do something amazing, and "holy shit, Rhaenyra just won a tournament as a mystery knight" is going to be pretty important as the groundwork for that. Riding off into the sunset with Alicent means that Rhaenyra is going to have to do something else equally public and impressive and literally under Viserys' nose, and... Well, even when you're "the mightiest knight on life," winning tournaments isn't a sure thing.

This was one of the bigger tourney's, but not the last, IIRC.

So in theory we could grab another.
At the next tourney there may well be multiple Criston Coles worth of badassery for us to fight our way through to win. Not impossible, but by no means a certainty. Though to give this up for Alicent and "just have to do it again" has its own charms.
 
Last edited:
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.

Eyes on the prize people. There's a time for romance and a time for responsibility - and frankly this was already pretty romantic!
 
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
 
Which is why I would rather wait for Highgarden when we can have a second victory under our belt.
What do we have to lose by angling for Manderly to knight Rhaenyra on the spot? I think he's likely to go for it. Among other things, we know he's bold and ambitious and already wants an alliance with Rhaenyra. And if he knights her, she will NEVER forget that, and he knows it.

I thought about it, and for once I can be patient. It'll be more narratively satisfying.
I do respect the alternative, though.

There well be a Lot of Time to write poems and cuddle with Alicent...of only because Rhaenyra needs healing time.

Cole was NOT a fun time
And, yeah. I was worried that Rhaenyra's shoulder was outright dislocated there. It sounds like it's not, but she's going to need a lot of tender loving care and to not overwork that sports injury.
 
Last edited:
...I can just imagine the cheers turning to shocked silence and then booing, but them's the breaks. Rhaenyra is strong, and her dream is burning bright; she'll withstand this.
I don't think the crowds will boo.

One, Targaryens are weird aliens who are partially exempt from normal standards of behavior. Rhaenyra's most famous ancestor is well known for fucking both his sisters, and a princess becoming a knight is WAY less weird than that.

And two, the smallfolk of White Harbor just watched Rhaenyra trounce someone they really hate and were literally throwing rotten fruit at a few minutes ago.

It's not as if waiting for Highgarden to reveal ourselves invalidates the achievements here. The Silver Falcon winning another major tourney in the Reach will have even more impact than just the Northern Tourney on it's own.
We'd have to win a second tournament, and there will probably be multiple Criston Cole-level badasses for us to batter our way through. It is by no means a given that we will win the second tournament; we could have lost this one.

Honestly I would love be to romantic with Alicent, I really would, but I don't think my heart could take the stress from ANOTHER jousting roll against Criston Cole.

One was enough for a lifetime.
Oh, I think Rhaenyra will absolutely enter another tournament at some point, and Criston Cole or someone equally good will probably be there to break lances with.

But if she's established as a knight, then losing won't hurt the same way it would have this time.

MAN I was freaked out when I got to the part where Rhaenyra was "staring at the sky." I thought she'd been unhorsed.

More than okay, actually
Alicent actively wanted to be crowned the queen of love and beauty as a big gesture of their knightly romance
And she's reasonably confident she can provide an excuse to onlookers that obviously Rhaenyra couldn't crown anyone else, so her "close friend" and handmaid was the only reasonable option available
I think the excuse checks out, yeah. I could totally see Brienne of Tarth doing something like that with her platonic childhood bestie only girl friend, and I'm pretty sure she's not even gay.

Ok, let's do this...

Seeing how well we did in this Grand Tourney we have the knighthood assured... Which means that we will have much more time to engage in conversations or doing diverse activities during this Royal Progress, instead of focusing on earning the Knighthood...
Well, we absolutely do need to keep doing Prowess/training actions now and then, we can't entirely ignore it, but yeah, it stops being a priority and our action economy eases up a bit.
 
Last edited:
"You sell yourself short, Falcon. I'm sure your mentor was excellent, but you fight as though you were born for the blade," Cole assured you.

I want to unmask solely because these words by Cole are so fresh :rofl::lol: Nothing more ironic than telling the girl you thought was just playing at being a warrior that she was born to wield a sword.

"And yet I didn't," he replied. "The better man won today."

Am I the only one who thought this is a great line to throw back in the future to Cole if he's being an asshat? :whistle:

[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Ser Rhaenyra the Silver has a good ring to it, I think.

I was also wondering on what cool epithets Rhaenyra could get from this!

Anyhow~

[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.

The Cole and Unwin Peake salt will be max if we do this right now, thusly it's the objectively better choice.
 
now that i've calmed down: how much were the tournemant winnings plus armor ransoms? we can probably do some interesting things with that!

off the top of my head
  • charity! hand out alms, fund some apprenticeships, pay for public works, maybe straight up chuck cash at a sept (increases opinion with the smallfolk. if we want to influence and encourage the more pragmatic/progressive portions of the Faith this is an approach.)
  • fancy new armor 😉
  • cool sword 😉
  • wardrobe items like jewelry, dresses, accessories (a gift for Alicent maybe🥺)
  • H O R S E
  • investing! i am actually not sure what investment opportunities would be appropriate for Rhaenyra's station besides trade fleets. but if we want more influence in economics without isembard attached this is how to go about it.
  • patronizing the arts - can strongly overlap with charity, but doesn't need to. again, not sure what woukd be appropriate for Rhaenyra's station.
edit: sorry, i've realized i've jumped five thoughts ahead and forgot to post thoughts 1-4. my heart was pounding reading the update 😭 i feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders. thank you author, going into the new year with my heart 3 sizes larger
 
Last edited:
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.

Very nice. Suitably dramatic and with an appropriate finish to the tourney itself. Gonna be honest here, the whole eyes for only alicent thing as a lead up to the vote makes sense, but kind of weakens the overall finish in my opinion.
 
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
 
investing! i am actually not sure what investment opportunities would be appropriate for Rhaenyra's station besides trade fleets. but if we want more influence in economics without isembard attached this is how to go about it.
We can probably meet a hedge knight or two along the way that would appreciate the funds for proper armor, in return for dawning the role of mystery knight. I for one like the idea of the silver falcon living on in the next tourney.
 
To clarify, we don't reveal ourselves if we pick romantic?

I really like the concept of competing in a bunch of different Tournaments to build up the mystery. However, we don't have the action economy for that and I don't want to make @Teen Spirit write a bunch of Tournaments that retread this same ground. And we beat Cole, so narratively I feel like we already beat the miniboss of the "become a knight" thing.

If we're going to face him again, something between us needs to have changed - and him learning our real identity seems right. It'd be kind of interesting to do another Tournament (the one at Highgarden maybe?) but this time under our real name, as a way to cement the status.

[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.

Edit: Also, it doesn't seem right for a mystery knight, even a victorious one, to ride off with a highborn lady? It's all very romantic and is the sort of thing that happens in plays. But in practice, uh, nobody knows who this guy is, and they think he's lowborn, and they don't know where he's taking her. Somebody's gotta stop him.
 
Last edited:
[X] [Defiant] [Romantic] Extend your hand to Alicent. "Will the lady grant me the honour to join me on a ride?"
 
Back
Top