- Pronouns
- He/Him
There are reasons Sansa started out how she did and why Ser Loras is so popular
The Heir of the Dragon: A Rhaenyra Targaryen Quest
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
We need to inspire legions of baby-gays in westeros with charming and gallant Ser Rhaenyra
We need to inspire legions of baby-gays in westeros with charming and gallant Ser Rhaenyra
- Location
- Virginia
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I think we'd be fine if it was chaperoned, actually- Gwayne could singlehandedly solve all our problems with the romance option by coming along on the ride. Though it wouldn't be quite as fun, of course, especially since Gwayne doesn't yet quite understand that Rhaenyra's affections for Alicent are serious, as I recall, though he may have had an "ohhhh" moment watching Rhaenyra crown Alicent just now.
Well yeah. Westeros isn't all gritty cynicism. The trick, I would think, is striking the balance between the popular culture and the fact that the upper nobility really, really does have a lot at stake and has a strong incentive to be hard-eyed dynasts about things.
Like... just analyzing the power dynamics and incentives here...
Ser Loras is wildly popular because yes, he's handsome and popular and an amazing tournament warrior and so on. He fits into the culture perfectly and the culture loves that romantic stuff.
But that doesn't mean that just any noble house would leave their daughter alone with him for long (though given his preferences that might actually be quite safe). And insofar as they would trust him with their daughter, that's in large part because he's a known individual who can be held accountable, at least in the sense that the Tyrells can probably be badgered into paying hush money if Loras gets a girl pregnant (though given his preferences, well, you get the idea).
The thing is, this doesn't apply to a young noblewoman who goes off with a masked-"man" mystery knight who probably isn't even a noble and in theory could be literally anyone. So that's why we might reasonably worry about getting Alicent into trouble, given that right now we're incognito as a masked man who was kind of flirting with her at this tournament.
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Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Also it is a surprise to see just how affable Cole was here. He can be a surprisingly okay dude when he thinks that the person he's dealing with is a fellow lowborn knight trying to make a name for himself.
He'll probably go back to being a douche when he finds out who we really were though.
He'll probably go back to being a douche when he finds out who we really were though.
StarSingerBlue
Zenryoku Zenkai !
- Location
- The City of Lights
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Eat shit, Unwin and Cole.
Eat shit, Unwin and Cole.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Cole was a surprisingly decent figure in the show who supported Rhaenyra until they had sex and the slight to his honor basically drove him nuts. But he makes some general comments that strongly suggest he had some very traditional views on women
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Well maybe living the high life of a star tourney knight who doesn't have as much of a chip on his shoulder about needing to prove himself, as opposed to his canon path of being a Kingsguard who feels that he has dishonored himself and who has the threat of being executed or gelded for breaking his vows hovering over his head will have caused him to mello out. Cole might have had the skill, but he just didn't have the mentality for being a kingsguard, being simultaneously willing to break his vows as well as at the same time taking breaking his vows as a huge blow to his psyche. A less stressful line of work like the one he took up here might do him some good.
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[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Yay we win.
Yay we win.
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] [Defiant] [Romantic] Extend your hand to Alicent. "Will the lady grant me the honour to join me on a ride?"
He can't knight us anyway because of rank shenanigans, I expect. This is probably stupid but we're a Targaryen, we're supposed to do some amount of stupid shit and this wouldn't be much of a story if we didn't.
He can't knight us anyway because of rank shenanigans, I expect. This is probably stupid but we're a Targaryen, we're supposed to do some amount of stupid shit and this wouldn't be much of a story if we didn't.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Literally any knight can knight us. That's how knighthood works in ASOIAF. Rhaenyra just wants her knighting to be prestigious so that naysayers can't try to put her knighthood in to doubt. It's why for example I think trying to get knighted by the king would be a poor idea. Too big a risk of being accused of getting favoritism from our father. Being knighted at a tourney we won where people didn't know who we were, so no claims they were going easy on us, is pretty good though.
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Wolfman217
Oh No! Oh No! Oh No!
- Location
- England
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
This is like, the easiest vote yet? Choosing the "romantic" option is just a terrible idea. Like OBVIOUSLY terrible.
This basically.
And that's even IF Alicent agrees...because she's smart enough to realise this? So it'd be putting her on the spot of either spurning Rhae or causing an incident and likely destroying her reputation.
Plus it's just building Rhae into the kind of romantic moron who would cause a civil war or destroy a kingdom for "romance". If the goal is to make her a good monarch she can't be making idiotic decisions like this.
Like, it's not even "romance vs practicality" because it so obviously won't actually work out as actually romantic, just awkward and likely disastrous because it escalates far higher than Alicent is clearly comfortable with.
This is like, the easiest vote yet? Choosing the "romantic" option is just a terrible idea. Like OBVIOUSLY terrible.
This basically.
And that's even IF Alicent agrees...because she's smart enough to realise this? So it'd be putting her on the spot of either spurning Rhae or causing an incident and likely destroying her reputation.
Plus it's just building Rhae into the kind of romantic moron who would cause a civil war or destroy a kingdom for "romance". If the goal is to make her a good monarch she can't be making idiotic decisions like this.
Like, it's not even "romance vs practicality" because it so obviously won't actually work out as actually romantic, just awkward and likely disastrous because it escalates far higher than Alicent is clearly comfortable with.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] [Defiant] [To Become A Knight] Face Lord Manderly and reveal yourself to the crowd as Rhaenyra Targaryen.
It's interesting to see if Lord Manderly decides to knight Rhaenyra. It would certainly earn him goodwill from the heir to the throne, and he could absolutely do it, but it would also likely damage his reputation, especially in the eyes of Rhaenyra's detractors. Well, she just defeated Unwin Peake, chances are he'd be willing to do it out of sheer gloating, consequences be damned.
It's interesting to see if Lord Manderly decides to knight Rhaenyra. It would certainly earn him goodwill from the heir to the throne, and he could absolutely do it, but it would also likely damage his reputation, especially in the eyes of Rhaenyra's detractors. Well, she just defeated Unwin Peake, chances are he'd be willing to do it out of sheer gloating, consequences be damned.
- Location
- SF Bay Area
Because if we crown a woman who's not a family member and not the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms—and is known to be a very close confidant of Princess Rhaenyra—as the Queen of Love and Beauty, and then reveal that we are Princess Rhaenyra, we come that much closer to publicly outing both Alicent and ourself as lesbians.
No one has any reason to cast aspersions on the honor of this specific Silver Falcon right now, and the idea that we could spawn copycats who might sully our reputation and Alicent's by proxy is (I think) a much less immediate danger than turning to the crowd and saying, "By the way, I'm the royal princess and I think my close friend and handmaiden is the most beautiful woman in the world".
??????????
Rhaenyra could just say that crowing herself as Queen of Love and Beauty would be in too much of a boast. Hence she chose Alicent.
Also you know that eventually Rhaenyra would reveal herself as a Silver Falcon to get the knighthood right? This whole scheme is a thing to get the Knighthood.
- Location
- United States
At the very least, both Rhaenyra and Alicent don't think it would do this. Rhaenyra discussed this with Alicent prior to the tournament and Alicent okayed it. The excuse is that crowning a man may give offense, and Alicent is well known to be Rhaenyra's best friend - honestly she'd be a somewhat logical choice even if we weren't romancing her. This seems at least a somewhat plausible excuse to me.
It does seem plausible that it'll raise sus with people who already are suspicious or have some reason to be like Johanna, and again I think it's definitely time to talk to Gwayne.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
So our solution to wanting to not come across as having romantic intentions towards Alicent is to.... Publicly ask her to ride with us on a romantic ride for two? What? At the very least write in for us to just leave rather than asking her to join us on a horse ride.
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Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Lord Manderly noticed the kind of looks Rhaenyra was giving Alicent despite the latter currently wearing a face concealing helmet. We should praise the seven most of the people around here are likely to be manly macho men and therefore the demographic least likely to be cognizant of the idea that wlws exist.
But yes, Gwaine will probably put two and two together once Rhaenyra's identity comes out. If he hasn't already.
I mean, to be fair he already knew there were feelihgs on both sides of that from our previous talk with him. But yeah, this will probably clue him in that things have progressed.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Now, if Rhaenyra'd already been knighted and was competing openly, then it would work out great. Or if we could easily ensure that, say, Gwayne was along as a chaperone to make sure no unacceptable hanky-panky went on and everyone was fine with that, that would work out pretty good too.
But I don't think we can manage the latter, and the former would only be possible after Rhaenyra is knighted in this tournament.
Ideally, Rhaenyra maneuvers him into agreeing to knight Rhaenyra before taking off her helmet, at which point the detractors can only say so much against him... but who knows.
Literally everyone who's in on the plot and knows the local culture seems to think the risk of outing Rhaenyra as a lesbian under the circumstances is relatively minimal, because if a straight girl was in the same position she'd very probably do the same thing.
Think of Brienne of Tarth, our obvious model for what a female knight in this culture would be like even if canonically she hasn't been born yet and won't be for, uh, 150-200 years as I recall. Brienne is, so far as we know, straight (to the despair of a certain fairly specific demographic of women, I'm sure).
If Brienne won a tournament, what do you think she'd to with the crown of flowers?
She damn sure would never give it to herself, because even if she could all it would do is mean men are mockingly calling her "Brienne the Beauty" to her face. She doesn't expect anyone to find her conventionally attractive. So she'd give it to whatever woman at the tournament she liked best as a friend, or to a woman who had been relatively kind to her when she was a child, or to one of the most prominent young noblewomen present as a gesture of respect.
Which is pretty much exactly what Rhaenyra is doing. In theory it might be 'safer' and more deniable to crown Lord Manderly's wife or eldest daughter or something, but given that Rhaenyra is socially expected to crown someone as Queen of Love and Beauty because you just do that at a tournament when you win, I think it's okay.
The good news is that Gwayne's previous concern was that we were toying with Alicent's affections. But the combination of making Alicent her handmaiden and crowning her Queen of Love and Beauty at a tournament is about as close as a lesbian noblewoman in Westeros could conceivably come to asking her girlfriend to marry her, so hopefully Gwayne will be going into our next conversation with fewer of those concerns.
Hell, by this point we may be making Jeyne Arryn's girlfriend whose name I forget kinda jealous.
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