Prince Daemon held Dark Sisters hilt tightly as he listened to his niece's screams on the other side of the door. His wife, Lady Laena, and his goodbrother, Ser Laenor, were within comforting the princess as she birrhed her fourth child. It did not matter to him that she had had three successful births as his own mother had had two successful births before his late brother Aegon, he still worried for her safety.
It was not until he heard the desperate and fearful scream of Laena, yelling for him, that he moved. In one blow he knocked the door open, running into the birthing chamber.
Ser Laenor was fighting against a maester with a blade in hand as Rhaenyra screamed. Laena stood at her side, looking fully ready to lunge at the man if he nor Laenor could get him out. A midwife kneeled between Rhaenyra's legs, coaching and encouraging her even with the tremble of fear in her voice. His observation took less than two seconds before he was unsheathing Dark Sister, blade singing as it was pulled from the sheath.
The Maester looked to him in fear as Laenor shouted, "He attempted to murder Rhaenyra!"
That was all it took for Daemon to swing his blade with precision, completely severing the mans head. Blood sprayed into the air like a geyser, spraying over Laenor, Daemon, the midwife, and the newly born babe.
Wailing, the babe was quickly passed up to Rhaenyra who sobbed in relief, thanking Daemon as she cradled the babe close, whispering into blood and fluid soaked hair.
It took well over an hour for Rhaenyra to calm enough for them to wash the babe and for her and Laenor to give him a name. As they waited guards were admitted to drag away the body and feed it to Syrax, and the news was taken to the King.
"So? What name shall you give to my newest nephew?" Daemon asked, sprawled in a chair as Laena and Laenor sat beside Rhaenyra.
"Before we tell you we have a proposition for the two of you," Laenor stated, staring Daemon down with surprising confidence.
"A proposition? Do tell."
"The Stepstones," Rhaenyra began, tearing her gaze away from her babe. "Will be officially taken under the crown within the next month. A keep, garrison, and port is already being built on the main island and shall be given to my son when he is of age in 10-and-6 years. But until then it must be watched over by a regent, and I was hoping to name you, Uncle, or you, Laena, as his regents. You would be welcome there even after he took control and I would off her his hand in marriage to Baela, Rhaena, or any future daughters you have if it would please you "
Daemon and Laena stared at her before Laena asked, "Why? You could hire a castellan if you so wished. Why give us this responsibility?"
"Because you deserve it. You have supported us, even from afar. Your loyalty means everything to us," Laenor admitted, smiling awkwardly. "And the kids adore you. They would be highly distraught if you returned to Essos."
Laena laughed, sharing a look with Daemon. A silent conversation passed between the two before they turned their attention back to the two.
"If we take it, I wish to be given control of its garrison even after your, still unnamed, son takes it back."
"Done."
"Then we agree. We will care for our nephews castle and he will marry one of our daughters. Eventually, of course. Now, tell us his name," Laena commanded, holding her head up haughtily to make them laugh.
"We have chosen to name him Maegor ll Velaryon, to remind ourselves not to make the mistakes Aegon the Conquerer made," Laenor announced, smirking at the surprised looks on their faces.
"A powerful name," Daemon commented, grinning sharply. "One that will make the Highcunts shiver in remembrance. I applaud your choice niece, goodbrother."
"We're so happy to have your approval, Uncle," Rhaenyra deadpanned, making Laena snort loudly before to cover it up as Laenor began laughing at his sister.
Maegor was given back to his mother by an awed midwife, who spoke quietly to Rhaenyra as Laenor continued to poke fun at his sister.
"Is something the matter?" Daemon asked as the midwives filed from the room, leaving the four alone.
"She was informing me of the peculiar birth mark upon his left arm," Rhaenyra stated, gently unwrapping Maegor so she could them all the arm. Upon his chubby forearm was the sigil of Vhagar, something Laena and Daemon realized near simeoultaneously.
It was a long angular shield with a spear shape through one side and a sword theough the other. There were other details but they were hidden by the fact that it was underdeveloped.
"Rhaenyra, Laenor," Laena whispered, gently running her fingers over the markings. Both knew that they had recognized the mark, but seemed unaffected.
"You keep my secrets, I keep yours," Laenor murmured, dark eyes sharp. It did not matter that this was his goodbrother, a man that had seen war and held a valyrian blade. If Daemon threatened his wife or children, he would retaliate.
"I keep your secrets," Daemon agreed, understanding. "Now, when shall I have the pleasure of seeing Otto's face when he hears the name of the babe. And of course, the pleasure of seeing the Highcunt Queen throw a fit, how could I forget."
They chuckled, easing the atmosphere.
"In three days, Uncle. Be patient."
He scoffed, earning looks of genuine amusement between the three.
-----------------------
Queen Alicent perfectly arranged her children at her side, with Prince Aegon in the lead and Prince Daeron standing at the end. Her father, Ser Otto, stood beside Prince Daeron, pin of the Hand of the King shining brightly.
She glared at Princess Rhaenyra as she swept inside with her sword-swallowing husband, and heathen children following close behind. Held within her arms was the newest Prince of the Realm, whose name would be revealed to the court soon, while Ser Laenor held his heir, Prince Lucerys, in his arms. Prince Jacaerys and Princess Alyssa walked between their parents dressed in fine clothes.
"Princess Rhaenyra, my dearest daughter. Ser Laenor, my goodson. Prince Jacaerys, Princess Alyssa, Prince Lucerys, my grandchildren. I am glad you are all alright. Prince Daemon I thank you for your timely intervention. It saved my daughters life. It saved the Crown Princess's life," King Viserys stated, allowing silence to fall. "Lords and Ladies of the Realm, today my daughter stands here to introduce the newest Prince of the Realm, futhering her line of succession."
Viserys nodded to his daughter, sitting back dowm heavily. He ignored the look he recieved from his brother, Daemon, worried and surprised in equal measures.
"Lords and Ladies, I introduce to you Prince Maegor ll Velaryon, Heir to the Stepstones, chosen to remind us of the mistakes of Aegon the Conquerer. Until his 10-and-6 Nameday, his keep upon the islands shall be watched over by his chosen regents, Prince Daemon, and his lady wife, Lady Laena."
The news had everyone in a titter, surprised that the King had allowed a Keep to be built uppn the Stepstones at all but the man was deep to his eldest daughter and had caves after much insistance.
Ser Otto and Queen Alicent were angry and shocked respectively. None of her sons had been given Keeps, while all four of her children had inheritances to recieve.
The scales only tipped further in the Blacks favor.
Prince Maegor Velaryon, Second of His Name, Heir to the Stepstones, Born in Blood, the Warrior, the Fierce, the Wild, the Warhammer had been born.
If you had the chance to change something about the dance of the dragons (TV show or book), what would it be? For example, how a character dies, which team a house is on,or an entire character personally. How would you change it to make the story better, in your opinion?♥️🖤💙💚
Ohh anon i've got a list.
When it comes to the tv show there are a few choices the writers made that just don't sit right with me.
I do like the characterization they went for, he's a pretty cool dude who really loves his weird, dysfunctional family. What I really don't like is how they handled his death.
See I truly can't stand it when a character is sugar coated just because they're the protagonist and thus must be righteous and always objectively correct.
So to witness the writers white wash his murder, having him flee to essos instead of being killed by Rhaenyra pisses me off. I get that after showing them being good friends it would be very odd to have her kill him.
But that's the thing, they should have opted for a more ruthless Rhaenyra in the first place!
Laenor's death in the books (at least for me) was the first instance of Rhae Rhae making morally wrong choices in order to pursue her ultimate goal. It was compelling! Here she just takes the easy way out, without having to make a tough choice.
Also his survival really fucks her up when you really think about it. Now all her sons are bastards since her marriage to Daemon isn't valid, and for the upcoming season 2, how are they going to handle Addam and Seasmoke? Laenor is still alive, his dragon won't accept a new rider. This doesn't make any sense and just causes plotholes what the actual fu-
Sidenote: After Laenor's very moving speech on how he was done goofing off and was now willing to really step up for Rhaenyra and their family it's super strange to imagine him ditching them all immediately afterwards Lol.
My gosh, where do I even begin with this woman?
She too is pretty cool at the start, but then episode 9 rolls around and I roll my eyes.
She's so hypocritical. She tries to shit on Alicent for "toiling in the service of men." When that's all she does in the goddamn story!
She wants Baela to get Driftmark, tells Corlys about it, he shuts off the whole plan cause he wants a kid who he's not even related to on the driftwood throne, and when she complains about it he dismisses her.
So what does feminist Rhaenys do about it?
She... submits to her husband, something she conveniently forgets about when talking to Alicent. My god. Just remove this entire exchange, it hurts to watch.
And the coronation scene, Jesus Christ! It was so cool in the books, why did they have to ruin it? Had they replaced it with something better I wouldn't have complained, but this is just, the worst.
Rhaenys shows how badass she is by.... Brutally crushing hundreds of small folks to death and almost slaughtering the greens.
Cool, cool, absolutely necessary. Thanks Sara.
And you know what's even more infuriating? When she flees to Dragonstone to inform Rhaenyra of all that happened. She says she didn't kill the greens cause she didn't wish to start a war. I'm sorry what?
That would have ended the war at the start! As glad as I am that Rhaenys didn't barbecue them it makes absolutely no sense!
If she had killed them there would have been no dance in the first place!
I hate these dumb show only moments. They needlessly complicated an already complicated story and just mess everything up.
There's probably other stuff I could rant on, like how Aegon was made a rapist sorely to make the audience think:
Oh look! The greens are so baad, they believe a rapist alcoholic douche should be in charge instead of our empowered dragon queen, they sure do suck!
Or how house Velaryon was disrespected and mistreated by D*emyra but still somehow decided to support Nyra's claim.
They didn't really have a motive to be greens though, so I think they should have stayed neutral. Their fervent black support makes no sense.
The writers really should have given them more reasons to back up the blacks or had their beloved queen treat them better so that their loyalty made more sense ( I mean holy hell I wonder how they will handle the two betrayers and Corlys's arrest lmao).
But other greens have already shat on these awful decisions and I won't beat a dead horse.
When it comes to fire and blood I surprisingly have very little complaints, except of course, the Jaehaera situation.
My poor baby deserved better, I've made a post about it in the past
(where I ranted and said stuff I kind of regret now, don't post while very angry guys I don't recommend it)
tackling how the little queen was unnecessarily killed off and how her death genuinely adds nothing so why was it added? God I get upset just thinking about it lol.
Some people say George did it cause he needed Aegon's kids to be born after Viserys's, and apparently he couldn't fathom a married teen not having kids until her 20s, which is veery weird.
The more plausible theory is that he got rid of her cause he wanted more Velaryon queens to showcase how close they used to be to the Targs.
Which is something I had understood already thanks to Alyssa, the sea Snake and all the Velaryons who were masters of ships but whatever.