Elia and her relationship with Rhaegar get so little "screen time" in the novels--so it is wonderful to read about her courtship and marriage (the gift of a cloak--was it a cue from Sansa and Sandor?). Even Lyanna and her relationship with Rhaegar are sketchily indicated in Ned's POV--we have no idea what the relationship was really like. But the atmosphere at court is conveyed powerfully--Aerys at his worst is very like Viserys in AGoT. And I have a shrewd feeling that Viserys' madness is one part genetic and one part lack of nurture--he has had to flee from home, lose a mother and take care of a newborn sister at a very young age, when he himself lacked love and care. And Willem Darry died when Viserys was ten or eleven. So one must really wonder why in the seven hells Rhaegar felt it was necessary to carry off Lyanna Stark. Was he also out of his mind?
Well, the cloak thing was more a link to the marriage customs in Westeros, added to the red of her dress that day, all of it was supposed to be hints to what was coming to a very unsuspecting Elia.
God, Aerys was hard to write. I didn't know how to go about writing about person so insane, and I didn't want him to be a nonsensical loony tune. I wanted him to be volatile, unpredictable, but still able to articulate himself, no matter how paranoid he sounded when he did.
And Rhaegar . . . oh Rhaegar. I hooked onto the idea of the Targaryens being all crazy about one thing, and Rhaegar's obsession was going to be his pursuit of love. I honestly can't think of any other good reason for him to have done what he did.
“Viserys, my love,” she kissed him gently on the cheek. “You need to go with your mother now. You must take care of her, and the babe when it comes. You must do this now, because your brother cannot do it any longer. Do you understand, my love?” Oh Viserys and Dany. Fate is cruel, but so is Targaryen madness.
She opened her eyes, spied the beast of a man eyeing her from the corridor. Elia of Dorne lifted her chin, met the monster’s gaze with her own.
“My brothers will kill you for this.”
He stepped into the room.
With these few sentences you've managed to conjur up images in my mind of not only Elia's death, but also Oberyn's. *ugly sobbing*
Seriously, this was perfect. I love your incarnation of Elia to bits (so much more than one should love a fictional character) and my emotions went completely haywire while reading this. I'm pretty sure I look like a racoon right now, smeared make up and all.
Back when I first started plotting out this story, that ending was the first bits of dialogue that came to me. That was the ending point I wanted, and the rest of the story just sort of worked towards that one mini-scene.
Thank you so much for all the praise. I'm so happy to hear the story impacted you so much.
This was completely amazing. Brilliant. I love how you wrote whole backstory, and even though I knew how it would end, I kept hoping it would all sort out and they would get a happy end. I just can't help, I'm such a sucker for HEA)
I know . . . it was so hard to write the ending, even though I knew the exact words I wanted to write. I might have to do an AU with Queen Regent Elia ruling over the realm and kicking all kinds of ass.
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God, Aerys was hard to write. I didn't know how to go about writing about person so insane, and I didn't want him to be a nonsensical loony tune. I wanted him to be volatile, unpredictable, but still able to articulate himself, no matter how paranoid he sounded when he did.
And Rhaegar . . . oh Rhaegar. I hooked onto the idea of the Targaryens being all crazy about one thing, and Rhaegar's obsession was going to be his pursuit of love. I honestly can't think of any other good reason for him to have done what he did.
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Oh Viserys and Dany. Fate is cruel, but so is Targaryen madness.
She opened her eyes, spied the beast of a man eyeing her from the corridor. Elia of Dorne lifted her chin, met the monster’s gaze with her own.
“My brothers will kill you for this.”
He stepped into the room.
With these few sentences you've managed to conjur up images in my mind of not only Elia's death, but also Oberyn's. *ugly sobbing*
Seriously, this was perfect. I love your incarnation of Elia to bits (so much more than one should love a fictional character) and my emotions went completely haywire while reading this. I'm pretty sure I look like a racoon right now, smeared make up and all.
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Thank you so much for all the praise. I'm so happy to hear the story impacted you so much.
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Really amazing.
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