#World of Ice and Fire

[presidenthades]

I’m doing a reread of World of Ice and Fire, and I just realized that in the dedication, you can see where the maester who purportedly wrote the book erased Robert and then Joffrey’s names because the kings kept dying on him while he was writing.

But he kept the rest of the dedication the same because the titles never changed between the kings.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #world of ice and fire #GRRM #grr martin #george rr martin

[chemicalreal]

Everyone mentioning how Alicent Hightower is a cunning opportunistic woman for assuming King Viserys is talking about their firstborn son when Rhaenyra's Aegon is her 4th kid. Which would only mean the King himself wouldn't have acknowledged the Strong boys as his heirs on his death bed.

The devil is in the details.

#alicent hightower #queen alicent #rhaenyra targaryen #aegon targaryen #house of the dragon #the princess and the queen #world of ice and fire #just saying

[imperatorcaesaraugustus]

one of the funniest things about ASOIAF lore is how there are several targaryens who don't have the traditional valyrian look (like Baelor Breakspear or Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was (as described in Fire and Blood)) but none of them ever have the throne. and clearly the order of things went like this:

george decides targaryens are silver-haired and purple-eyed

george comes up with the list of kings

george decides some targaryens don't look like that

george comes up with the rest of the family tree

and something about that deeply amuses me

#asoiaf #world of ice and fire #house targaryen #george rr martin #baelor breakspear #rhaenys the queen who never was

[saminalloxo]

Seeing all those Maegor wannabes in the Targaryen line, examples: Aemond and Daemon. Aemond killed his nephew you say? Maegor murdered two of his nephews. The Original because before him, kinslaying wasn’t even a thing in this family

Daemon killed his wife to marry his niece, you say? Maegor took multiple wives, then forced his niece to marry him, then proceeded to kill two of his wives (three depending on if you believe he killed Ceryse, he probably did).

Aegon IV had like nine mistresses! Well Maegor had like Six lawful wives at the same time. Which Targaryen did they call “Mad” or “Cruel” first? it was Maegor. He is the blue print that all mad Targaryen’s wish they were (they can’t, because he was just an unhinged psycho from birth).

#maegor the cruel #fire and blood #world of ice and fire

[aimlesslywanderingthings]

aemond asking each of the baratheon girls for a kiss before deciding on who to marry is so cunty of him

#i know it's mushroom who says it and in the show it did not happen #still cunty tho #aemond targaryen #world of ice and fire #fire and blood #house of the dragon

[last-capy-hupping]

So, something really stuck out to me while reading the Targaryen section of The World of Ice and Fire and the early chapters of Fire and Blood. That something is how much power early Targaryen women who rode dragons had relative to their brother-husbands. For example, Fire and Blood suggests that Daenys the Dreamer was her brother-husband’s co-ruler and explicitly states that her children Aegon and Elaena had equal status as Lord of Dragonstone. As it says on page 4:

“Gaemon Targaryen, brother and husband to Daenys the Dreamer, followed Aenar the Exile as Lord of Dragonstone and became known as Gaemom the Glorious. Gaemon’s son Aegon and his daughter Elaena ruler together after his death. After them, the lordship passed to their son Maegon, his brother Aerys, and Aerys’ sons, Aelyx, Baelon and Daemion. The last of the three brothers was Daemion, whose son Aerion then succeeded to Dragonstone.”

So, this passage is the most detailed information that we get about Aenar’s descendants. It’s pretty sparse on details on both the men and the women—for example, why did Maegon, Aelyx, and Baelon all die without heirs and presumably so quickly? It doesn’t say. We can still see here that two Targaryen women held a lot of power on Dragonstone, with the first known Elaena Targaryen being described as a ruler who was equal to her brother-husband. The text doesn’t tell us why, but my guess is that she and Daenys garnered more respect and received more official power because they were also dragon riders. (Plus, Daenys was the one who saved House Targaryen from the Doom, so that certainly counts for something.) All the information that we have about the Valyrian freehold strongly suggests that female dragon riders had as much power and freedom as the male riders did. For example, the only other surnamed non-Targaryen rider is a woman: Jaenara Belaerys, who flew her dragon Terrax across Sothroyos. (The dragon lord Aurion, who tried to reclaim Valyria right after the Doom, doesn’t get a surname.) The term “dragon lord” also seems to have been gender neutral—Magali Villeneuve’s painting of the Dragon-lords of Valyria featured in the World Book shows a man and a woman, for example—which was likely a cultural result of dragons being intersex and not seeming to care about the sex or gender of their riders. (For example, Vhagar had both male and female riders.)

The next logical question is: what happened to the wives of Aerys and Daemion? My best guess is that they weren’t Dragonriders and that they weren’t Targaryens. We know that Aerion Targaryen’s wife was Valaena Velaryon, whose mother was a Targaryen, which suggests to me that after Aegon and Elaena, the Targaryens of Dragonstone started intermarrying pretty frequently with the Velaryons and the Celtigars because, as F and B notes, “Dragonstone[‘s]…location athwart the Gullet gave its lords a stranglehold on Blackwater Bay and enabled both the Targaryens and their close alllies, the Velaryons of Driftmark…to fill their coffers off the passing trade. Velaryon ships, along with those of another allied Valyrian house, the Celtigars of Claw Island, dominated the middle reaches of the narrow sea, whilst the Targaryens ruled the skies with their dragons” (4).

So, how did the Targaryens enforce these alliances? We have direct evidence that they strengthened their ties with House Velaryon through intermarriage, and from the above passage, we can logically infer that they also occasionally intermarried with the Celtigars, though they seem to have favored the Velaryons. The best explanation that I have for this favoritism so that the Velaryons were richer and more powerful and therefore more important.

Anyway, the point of these ramblings is that when we next hear about a Targaryen Lord of Dragonstone, Aegon the Conqueror, who married his dragon rider sisters, those sisters were extremely powerful. We don’t know exactly what role they played on Dragonstone, but we know that they were far more powerful and influential than any Queen Consort who lived after them, even more so than Queen Alysanne. In addition to performing their traditional queenly duties of arranging marriages and creating a cultured court——something that was more Rhaenys’ purview than Visenya’s—they were battle commanders. Even though Visenya seems to have had arms training that Rhaenys lacked, Rhaenys still led the first two failed conquests of Dorne and provided air support for Orys Baratheon’s conquest of Storm’s End. The fact that they both participated in battle as Dragonriders is actually very noteworthy because, with the exception of Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was (Jaehaerys I’s granddaughter) and Baela Targaryen (Daemon’s daughter) no other Targaryen woman is recorded as riding a dragon into battle. Aenys I’s daughter Rhaena did not participate in the Battle over the God’s Eye, even though she was a more experienced rider than her brother-husband Aegon, and Alysanne seems to have only used Silverwing as a way to convey soft power, which she did very effectively. Queen Visenya and Queen Rhaenys were both militarily active however.

What’s more though, they also seem to have made policy directly. Not even Alysanne accomplished this. For example, she had to persuade Jaehaerys to abolish the Lord’s Right to the First Night. She did not have the authority to do so on her own. Alternatively, Aegon I ended up deferring to Visenya on the creation of the Kingsguard after she slashed him across the face with Dark Sister to prove that their current guards were useless (F and B, 49). (Seriously, can yon imagine any other Targaryen king letting that fly?) Rhaenys also held court at the Aegonfort, the castle that preceded the Red Keep, and officially established the Rule of Six and the Rule of Thumb without having to ask Aegon’s permission (47-48). Visenya also seems to have done a decent amount of direct ruling during the later years of Aegon’s reign after Rhaenys was dead and he was absent at Dragonstone.

So, what happened? The most likely explanation seems to be that the Targaryens increasingly assimilated themselves into Westerosi culture and that that led to a natural decrease in the power of the kings. It’s no coincidence in my mind that Jaehaerys I, the king who made compromises with the Faith and standardized law codes and roads throughout the Seven Kingdoms, also checked the power of his extremely popular and influential dragon riding wife and twice avoided letting a woman (the aforementioned Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was) or the descendants of a woman (Rhaenys’ kids) succeed to the Iron Throne.

Anyway, those are my ramblings about Valyrian vs. Westerosi gender roles and power. The artwork is by the amazing Magali Villeneuve, and it’s my favorite illustration of Visenya, Aegon, and Rhaenys.

#asoiaf #fire and blood #world of ice and fire #aegon the conqueror #aegon i targaryen #visenya targaryen #rhaenys targaryen

[elysiancloudii]

Made out like a bandit at the post holiday sales 🤩

#book haul #booklr #booksbooksbooks #song of achilles #babel by rf kuang #fire and blood #art of war #rise of the dragon #world of ice and fire #team black #cloudii speaks #library

[flastar13]

My complaints about the casting of House of the dragon

Hello, I want to clarify that I loved the series and the way in which they developed the conflict between Rhaenyra and Alicent as two women who suffer under their patriarchal society that comes to confront them when they are actually girlfriends friends separated by their own problems instead of the classic cliché from the evil stepmother who wants to steal the throne from her poor stepdaughter to give it to her lazy and lecherous son unworthy of the crown, here are all complex characters with their own excuse and motivation. That said, I still had a problem and that is that Alicent is represented as more beautiful and better dressed than Rhaenyra and that is not the case, in the book Rhaenyra was the delight of the kingdom considered the most beautiful woman in Westeros, she liked to dress richly in purple velvet and gold myrish lace, and you could often see pearls and diamonds on her bodice while from Alicent the guy who wrote this was an ardent supporter of her son can only say to her credit that she remained as slim and graceful as she was before her pregnancy to unlike Rhaenyra whom he constantly tries to describe as not as beautiful as before. I can only say that after seeing the image of Rhaenyra in World of ice and fire where she looks like Charlize Theron I expected more but instead they make the actresses ugly, I always imagined her with very curly hair but they gave it to Alicent as her good taste for fashion.

not counting the series of foolish decisions like cutting Alicent and Viserys' anniversary tournament where Rhaenyra and Alicent's supporters are nicknamed by the color of each other's dress instead of Rhaenyra's wedding to Laenor where she wears WHITE and not in black anymore Joffrey's murder at the party instead of the tournament makes you think they were all blind.

Honestly I imagined Alicent with dark straight hair and brown eyes, beautiful and very elegant but not so striking (for some reason the bootlicker who writes the book does not say anything more about her appearance that she was very thin) than properly as a queen but it was Rhaenyra the belle of the red fortress and the best dressed in court, they managed to act this out with Milly Alconk and Emily Carey at first but then lost.

#house of the dragon #asoiaf #world of ice and fire #a song of ice and fire #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower

[lenbryant]

George RR Martin from eight years ago.

#got #still hasn’t finished the series #george rr martin #ice and fire #world of ice and fire #authors #fantasy #game of thrones #Youtube

[ritikajyala]

My 13 year old cousin came back from a date with her boyfriend and said, "I can't wait to grow up and spend sunday afternoons with him." At first, I wanted to laugh (after all they're just 13), but I remember being 13 and having the world in my hands. I remember getting excited to talk to someone about my dreams and wishes, and how happy these daydreams and fantasies made me. There's this innocence you can only have at 13 and the world rises and falls and crashes and burns every year... until you do not think about quiet sunday afternoons.

So I asked her about the date and heard her giggle about bubblegum flavored ice cream, and how much she loves this little life. I think she makes me love it too.

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

#ritika jyala #the world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire #dark academia #writeblr #studyblr #art #literature #poetry #history #quotes #cottagecore #lovecore #film #movies #photography #artists on tumblr

[wodania]

“our towers, they rose up and set with the sun / our sermons, they burnt us with fiery tongues / we wrought our wings of metal, surprised when we fell,” eastward of eden by amelia day

“The Valyrians learned one deplorable thing from the Ghiscari: slavery. The Ghiscari whom they conquered were the first to be thus enslaved, but not the last. The burning mountains of the Fourteen Flames were rich with ore, and the Valyrians hungered for it: copper and tin for the bronze of their weapons and monuments; later iron for the steel of their legendary blades; and always gold and silver to pay for it all.” a world of ice and fire, ancient history: valyria’s children

“The freed slaves parted before her. “Mother,” they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. “Mother,” they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. “Mother, mother, mother!”” a storm of swords, daenerys iv

#probably my most symbolism heavy piece so far #which isn’t muhc bc I don’t do symbolism very often but still! #an achievement nonetheless! #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #my art #extra tags: #fanart #artists on tumblr #art #digital art #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls #house targaryen #a world of ice and fire #old valyria #a storm of swords #valyria #awoiaf #mother of dragons #asoiaf art #asoiaf fanart #daenerys stormborn #queen daenerys #khaleesi #breaker of chains

[izzymarksthespot]

Ngl, if he smiled at me like this, I'd give him anything he wanted.

#you wanna set the world on fire bae? sure lemme just get us some kerosene #murder? i'll get the body bags #wanna have some ice cream after? maybe a backrub? #no seriously nothing is off limits #i love me my bae 🥹❤️ #izzy hands #ofmd #our flag means death

[jonsnowisthesexiestbastard]

Finally found the french version of World of Ice and fire !! 🥹

#asoiaf #game of thrones #french #books #george r r martin #world of ice and fire

[idonsul]

#forgot to post earlier #hotd fanart #a world of ice and fire #rhaenicent #rhaenicent fanart #rhaenyra targaryen #Rhaenyra Targaryen fanart #alicent hightower #Alicent Hightower fanart #rhaenyra x alicent #hotd #idonsul

[groundrunner100]

I declare these Olympic Games OPENED!!!!

#Fantasy #public opinion #magic #dragons #The Legend of Zelda #The Lord of The Rings #Dark Souls #Inheritance Cycle #Dragon Age #Dungeons And Dragons #World of Warcraft #The Elder Scrolls #A Song of Ice And Fire #How To Train Your Dragon #The Witcher #Magic: The Gathering #The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt #DreamWorks Dragons #Game of Thrones #Dragon Age: Inquisition #Eragon #World of Warcraft: Wrath of The Lich King #The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim #Dark Souls 3 #The Hobbit #The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time #lore #history #worldbuilding

[amber-laughs]

there is just no universe where catelyn likes jon i’m sorry. she knows about R+L=J? ned made traitors of her and her children, put jon’s safety above their’s and is now an even bigger threat to their lives. she hates him. Rhaegar wins and he’s prince jon? he’s still the product of the event that the entire country had to go to war for and probably got her father killed in the process. at the very least she resents him. maybe even hates him. modern au? he’s just the cousin with the teen mom that gets high with her son in the basement and sneaks arya razor blades or whatever. she hates him!

#turns out i’ve already posted the bottom half of this post verbatim lol #their relationship is too fractured from even before his conception #i’m sorry y’all she’s never playing mommy to that boy #even tho he’s my son who deserves all the love and affection this world has to offer #that one girl who really doesn't play about jon and catelyn #jon snow #catelyn tully #valyrianscrolls #asoiaf crack #well kind sorta #catelyn stark #game of thrones #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf meta