mind you, if rhaena had claimed the dragon, flew back to dragonstone, saw her grandfather's fleet and castle ablaze, decided to do nothing, and jace still died like he meant to, they'd still be calling her useless and say she was selfish for abandoning her family and just watching as everything went to shit. she's really damned if she does, damned if she doesn't.
you lose the chance to claim your mother's dragon which then in turn costs you your betrothed, your seat as lady of your mother's ancestral home and your grandmother. you've been neglected and ridiculed your entire life, with your entire identity being unfulfilled and diminished and all you can do is watch helplessly as you lose more people you care about to this war while your stepmother intends to ship you off to the very place your mother died, with her 3 screaming toddlers in tow. your destiny is to simply wait around as people die.
and suddenly there's a chance. there's a last chance. there's a single unclaimed dragon. perhaps, the last in the world. you have one last chance to fulfill your mother's legacy. to hunt down and claim your birthright as she once did at this very age. as your father, and your grandmother and every ancestor before them. and you fucking do it. by god, you do it. screaming, exhausted, terrified, starving, you do it.
and then you go home finally feeling like you deserve to be a part of your family. you have a dragon larger than even your father's. finally you're worth something. and suddenly there's smoke on the horizon. and you see your grandfather's fleet, your mother's home ablaze, and an armada bearing a sigil that spells death. for once in your life, you can do something. you can stop another tragedy. you can stop losing people to your own inaction. this is your first flight, of course, but your family needs help. someone could die. you need to be brave. and you are. you are so brave and so desperate.
but this great wonderful beast knows no sigils. it knows no sisters. it knows no queen's heirs. it knows not enemy armada from allied fleet. all it knows is you. its skinny disheveled rider. it has fed you. it has brought you home. all it knows is that your protection is paramount to anything else in the world. it does not know war. it knows survival. a lonely, solitary endeavour. but now you share it's solitude. and it cannot trust that you know what's best for your own survival because you are less its commander than you are its responsibility. there is no tragedy for this beautiful beast because the little girl as brown and ragged as he sits safe on his back.
annaxmalina
origamiaround
prguitarman
kaledo-art
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
