RESONANT [AO3]
Jon and Rhaegar wake up as children in the Vale during the reign of Viserys I, only to discover that in this life, they are the twin sons of Daemon Targaryen, and hidden since birth.
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#resonant fan works: any and all fan works based on/in the Resonant 'verse. Mostly art, all of it amazing!
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#resonant dvd commentary: me dropping the deep lore on chapters, and occasionally a deleted scene or two
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In Restoration Au, could a female Daemon be skilled enough to seduce Ned Stark?
I just imagine Catelyn being super jealous and acting so rude because of it, thinking Daemon is Ned’s past lover and Jon’s mother , and Daemon just “you know what, I’m going to seduce him just because you are being so fucking annoying “
0% chance. Daemon, male or female, can be charming when he wants, but that's not the kind of charm that's likely to work on Ned (and if it does, more in the "friends" sense). Like, I doubt Daemon has actually had to seduce anyone in his life. When you're a prince (or princess) it's usually other people tripping over themselves for your favor.
And then there's Ned. Loyal Ned, who wholeheartedly loves his wife, and who feels guilt over the suffering/shame he's brought to her in fulfilling his sister's dying wish. I can't imagine him intentionally causing her more distress by seeking to make those long-whispered rumors of a past love true.
That said, there's probably some comedy that could unfold where Daemon manages to contrive various compromising circumstances that are just enough to stir Cat's doubt/jealousy further. And there's a perfectly reasonable/innocent explanation every time, but it keeps fanning the rumor mill, while Ned grows ever more despondent over the tragicomedy that is his life.
In the Reunion AU, does Jon suspect that Teriphos’ tale of it all being Viserys’ fault is bullshit? Also, I know people have already asked this before but : how is Rhea in this shitshow? Does Viserys’ think his brother really defected or does he (correctly) think this Volante lies and his brother is a hostage?
We see a little skepticism peeking through in this most recent ficlet, but Jon mostly tries to brush it aside. It'll all depend on both Teriphos's sell job, and Daemon's sell job (or on Teriphos possibly managing to convince Daemon that Viserys views him as a traitor currently, even if he would never have been involved in Jon's "death" years before). It's not like Viserys hasn't been convinced by other people (*cough* Otto *cough*) in the past that Daemon's motives shouldn't be trusted.
The Viserys story in general is a bit of a calculated risk on Teriphos's part. He could have just handed Daemon over to the warlocks rather than risk him challenging Jon's loyalty to Teriphos, but he is being a little greedy and also a little suspicious of what happens if/when his warlock allies get what they want, especially if their protection is what he's been counting on to hold off any dragon assaults.
He has a special mission planned for Jon, in fact, to debut his dragon to the world...
As for what Viserys is thinking, I'm sure Otto is all over any whispered rumors of Daemon defecting, and Daemon was certainly in a pure rage when he left, but he had promised Daemon justice. And it's not like Daemon's out there flying Caraxes in service to Volantis! He and the twins essentially disappeared in the night in circumstances that either suggest a masterfully executed kidnapping...or an inside job.
And that inside job could very well have been facilitated by the knight of House Royce whose letter brought Daemon to Gulltown in the first place.
Which brings us, of course, to Rhea. Rhea, who was in some serious danger when Daemon was on the warpath, but who (unlike in Regret AU) has the excuse of her own trauma over losing her firstborn son to explain why she might have hidden two new sons away. Especially if the instant their existence was revealed they were kidnapped.
If Rhea is smart, and I do think she is, she is playing that angle as hard as she can, and it might not even wholly be an angle, TBH. But there is definitely quite the political shitstorm going down in the Vale right now.
And at least for now, Daemon and his sons are still missing as far as everyone else is concerned. The Victory Pit is a very secure location to have kept Jon and a dragon larger than Balerion effectively a secret from the world. After how long it's been (one or two months at this point?), there are probably a no small few people who believe Daemon and his sons were murdered, their bodies tossed out to sea. Only the fact that Caraxes has been spotted in various locations on Essos, riderless and seemingly in search, gives the faintest hope that Daemon is still alive. Then again, he could just be a wild dragon whose bond to his rider was severed by death.
Uh, no promises on a part 2, but it's been so long and the people deserve a treat while I finish up ch40!
For those who need a refresher, Reunion AU is a mash-up of Veteran AU and Regret AU. For those who need a refresher on those AUs, I'll just direct you to the masterlist of AUs.
x~x~x
“I am happy for you, brother,” Vejessa said from the doorway, watching as the last of his jewels, strands of ruby and gold, were fastened to his hair.
The words had been spoken with a smile, but there was a tightness around her eyes that hinted at an underlying tension. She would be attending supper as well, the only one of the triarch’s five children, other than Jon. Had their father told her the same thing? That he had lied to Jon for all these years, insisting that it had been to protect him, when in truth, Jon’s very presence here was a direct result of King Viserys’s—his own uncle’s—scheming?
“Have you seen them?” he asked.
“No.” She rubbed a thumb over one of her bracelets. “Though I have heard that Prince Daemon is most handsome. He is naught but a few years older than Mezimo.”
He could not have been very old when I was born. Their eldest brother, who had recently celebrated his twenty-third name day, had returned to Volantis to tend to Teriphos’s interests there, and Jon would venture that the flurry of ravens he’d watched depart the Victory Pit over the past two days were bound for him.
Jon’s gaze shifted from his sister to his own reflection in the mirror before him, to the red and black silks that had been chosen for tonight’s supper, draped in Volantene fashion rather than the stiffer cut of the Targaryen house they sought to invoke. Most of his life, he had been dressed in the gold and turquoise of his adoptive father’s house, but tonight the triarch sought to send another message.
Vejessa too was to convey that message, apparently, her own black gown glittering with rubies of deep red that bisected the fabric like a lava flow.
He courts Prince Daemon’s favor, perhaps. If the accounts of his brother’s treachery were true, Jon could not see how the prince could refuse the offer of a safe haven. The king sought his death—and the death of his sons. As he had sought Jon’s own death in secret years before.
If the word of his father could be trusted this time, Jon mused, a frown tugging at his lips.
As a child, he had been told that his parents, Prince Daemon and Lady Rhea Royce, had hated one another with such fervor that his very existence was a blight in their eyes. It had been a lie at odds with his hazy memories of being thrown aloft by a man with purple eyes and silver hair, of being held in his mother’s arms as he stared at a yellow-eyed falcon, of being ushered to sleep with gentle song.
Later, when Jon’s great-aunt Saera had made a few sly remarks to him, Teriphos had admitted to the falsehood. Instead, he had claimed that Jon’s parents did not know he still lived, and the fact that King Viserys also believed him to be dead was all that kept him safe from assassins. It was why the Victory Pit had been constructed, a full week’s ride east of Selhorys. So that Jon and his dragon would remain hidden.
Volantis benefits just as much from such secrecy. Jon’s frown deepened, and he turned away from the mirror, wishing not to follow such thoughts to their thorny end. This was a happy day, as Vejessa had said. He would be reunited with his father by blood, with two little brothers.
“He will love you,” his sister said, offering an elbow for him to link his own through. “How could he not?”
==========
They were first to arrive after their father, who directed them to their places at the table: Vejessa at his left, and Jon beside her. Before he could take his seat, Teriphos stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Prince Daemon is yet reeling from his brother’s betrayal,” his father said, an intensity to his expression that Jon could not pierce. “To say nothing of learning that you are alive and well. He requires gentle handling, and may at times speak in haste.”
That did little to settle Jon’s nerves. He gave a small nod, and Teriphos released his shoulder to take his place at the head of the table. Vejessa leaned toward him, and they exchanged a few murmurs of their own. Ordinarily, Jon might have tried to listen in, but his attention was fixed upon the door, his stomach in knots.
For as long as Jon could remember, he had felt out of place: a son, but not his father’s by birth. A brother, but not by blood. Not even his dreams provided respite; in some of them, he was a child of the North, and he did not belong at that supper table either. Here, at least, he was cherished. Irūdyro, his adoptive father had named him. Gift.
Would I be such a gift if not for Ātsiāzma? Volantis had long proclaimed itself the successor to Old Valyria, but lacked the dragons that had built their great empire. Jon was their very first dragonrider. Had it truly been a happy accident, buying him from the Myrish slavers who had been paid to kill him as a babe?
Jon shook his head, guilt rising in him at the thought. His dragon had hatched here in Volantis, from a warlock’s egg; it was not as though they had known he would be a dragonlord.
The door opened then, and the murmurs behind him fell silent. Jon clutched at the arms of his chair, then stood, gaze fixed upon the doorway as their guests were announced: Prince Daemon, his sons Baelon and Rhaegar, and their sworn shield, Ser Willam of House Royce.
Jon blinked when he heard the name Rhaegar. Even though he knew that his father’s name was Daemon, for a brief moment, he was convinced he had been mistaken, that surely he was Rhaegar. But no, Rhaegar was a toddler, head barely grazing the midpoint of his father’s thigh, though he shared the same Valyrian coloring.
Baelon, meanwhile, had the same dark hair as Jon, though his eyes were a dark grey instead, and another brief spell of dizziness passed over him where a girl’s features overlaid his little brother’s, her face slightly longer. Arya. But that was no Targaryen name. That was the name of a northern girl. I have no sisters across the Narrow Sea, no matter what I see in dreams.
Ser Willam had brown eyes that evoked a feeling of warmth, and though worry etched his brow, he smiled at Jon as soon as he noticed his gaze. Jon looked away quickly, unsure why he felt as though he had been caught, and there was no avoiding Prince Daemon any longer.
The prince’s silver-blond hair was short, stirring yet another ancient memory. The face in that memory beamed at him, small age lines crinkling around the eyes and mouth. A dragon for my little dragon. There was another face that Jon recalled on rare occasions, smooth and unlined, crowned with long pale hair that he could grip like reins as wind blew in his face. Remember, if your mother asks, we only flew to the harbor and back.
The face staring back at him now was somewhere between the two, neither boyish nor nearing the end of his prime, and there was not a trace of mischief in it. The introductions continued, but Prince Daemon remained frozen, eyes shifting at a frenetic pace as they swept over him. His lips moved at last, but what emerged was the sound of a man punched in the gut, even as they formed Jon’s name.
He closed the distance between them so quickly that Jon heard swords scraping against sheaths, and by the time Teriphos had uttered the command to stay their hands, his arms were closing around Jon, crushing him to his chest. Even through the thick beads of his robe, Jon could feel the thud of his heart, and though the smell was wrong, heavy with Volatene perfume, there was something so achingly familiar about the sensation as Prince Daemon swayed with him, side to side.
Jon thought he was shaking at first, but he finally recognized the gasps of air stirring the top of his hair as strangled sobs.
He did not know. A part of Jon had always doubted, for that was the very first lie he had been told: that his parents had wished for him to be gone. And when his adoptive father had at last admitted otherwise, it had barely felt like a betrayal. He had already been abandoned.
As nervous as he had been to meet Prince Daemon, he had not considered how his father might feel to meet a son he had believed lost, murdered as a babe. Like little Aegon. Jon swept the nonsensical thought, and the accompanying image of a silver-haired babe, aside.
He let Prince Daemon hold him, awaiting an interruption from Teriphos that surprisingly did not come. Through the perfume, a scent did finally emerge that reminded him of something, a faint hint of leather—and wind.
“Forgive me,” his father said, finding his voice at last. It was different than in his faint memories, deeper now, more like the other man. “I did not know.”
“It was not a betrayal one would expect,” Teriphos said, causing Daemon’s arms to tighten around him. “Let alone coming from one’s own brother.”
It was enough to break the long spell. His father drew back slightly, hands drifting to Jon’s shoulders as his gaze roamed over him, a glitter of something hard lurking behind the tenderness.
Jon knew that he should speak, but his throat felt tight, a heaviness lodging in his chest. I must not cry, he thought, mortified. He was nearly twelve, hardly a boy anymore.
His little brothers came to his rescue, pulling at his sleeves with obvious curiosity until Prince Daemon formally introduced him to them, using his Westerosi name, rather than the one he was called in Volantis. Baelon’s eyebrows drew into a deep furrow that abated after a moment, and Rhaegar shyly informed him that he liked his bracelets, and showed him one of his own that Jon recognized.
It was the first he had been given, so early that he did not remember, a band of deep turquoise within a gold setting meant to symbolize a homecoming. Baelon had one as well, but he seemed to find it more a nuisance than anything, tugging absently at it when it caught on fabric.
The moment seemed to have brought Prince Daemon a small measure of calm as well, though it seemed to abandon him just as quickly as he was escorted to a seat on the opposite side of the table from Jon, across from Vejessa, whose nervous smile seemed utterly lost on the prince.
The little twins were seated between their father and Ser Willam, their attention immediately occupied by the glitter of the silver plates and cups. The smaller cups in front of them had been Jon’s favorite when he had been little, inlaid with the mosaic of a dragon, made of dragonglass. He hadn’t seen them in years.
Other than excited chatter from his little brothers, the table was silent. Ser Willam’s attention seemed half on the children, half upon the guards posted about the room, and Prince Daemon was staring at Teriphos. It was not the stare of a man grateful for rescue, but rather one beset by dread.
Such dread proved prophetic when Teriphos broke the quiet. “I fear I bear further grave tidings, Prince Daemon. It seems that your brother is not content to let your escape go unchallenged. He has claimed a dragon of his own: the Bronze Fury himself.”
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Okay, I didn't have the chapter quite ready for s3 premiere buuuut on the bright side, I don't hate what I've written, which is a good sign for not needing rewrites once officially finished! And I may have a little First Supper ficlet treat either today or tomorrow...
A line in one of the early KL chapters from Otto where he talks about Daemon’s selfishness in having sons instead of daughters. An AU already covers Jon and/or Rhaegar as daughters but what if Daemon had both sons AND daughters. Follow me here. Rhea ( or Elys) gives birth to the boys. And the other gives birth to Daenerys and … Rhaella. A young Rhaella like right before her marriage. Now we’d have a Rhaegar that is fiercely protective of his mother who doesn’t know him. A mother/sister who never had to live through the grief of her life. A Daenerys who finally gets to meet her mother. A Jon genuinely out of the loop when it comes to Rhaella. And a Daemon dangerously protective of all of them. Especially after he is shown the Visions of his daughters futures during the KL arc.
Ah, so a quadruplets variation of the "twins + Dany as a 'triplet' via either Elys or Rhea" B-tracks people have proposed in the past.
I think if I were to choose a "young Rhaella" swapover point, I'd actually use the Summerhall disaster itself as the catalyst for her getting Summerhalled (since technically it's a required magical event that allows Summerhalling to happen at all). That way, we get the trauma of losing a bunch of family + the initial unhappy year of marriage to Aerys, but it's not so much that her spirit has been broken down. It also gives her a little prophecy knowledge + "dragon dream" fuel for disasters that could strike House Targaryen.
It does mean that Jon won't be out of the loop re: Rhaella, but it should be pretty apparent where her memories stopped, so he'd have some context on how little she knows of her future for both him and Rhaegar.
(There's something super sweet about her two children and grandchild teaming up to protect her from everything bad in the world, even though two of them--Dany and Rhaegar--were basically the same age when they got Summerhalled. Odds that all three are conspiring to keep her from learning her fate? Also, oof, almost certain that Rhaegar learns it too given that Jon and Dany already know.)
Let us take a brief moment to ruminate on the collective boggling of the realm at Daemon having fathered two sets of twins. Also, hilariously, Rhea could refuse to actually specify which were born of her body, thus potentially causing all of them to be treated as legitimate because no one knows which are the bastards. Or she goes "fuck it" and declares them all hers, even though everyone knows that quadruplet births, aside from being SUPER RARE, pretty much always result in most of the babies dying.
More decision paralysis for Viserys, what does he do with four prophecy children? Ignore the boys and betroth the girls to Rhaenyra's children in the hopes that it makes it back into his line? Try to double down on the prophecy blood and betroth them in pairs? Secret third thing?
And of course as soon as Otto catches a whiff that Viserys considers the girls and any of their offspring special, he's gonna be maneuvering so hard to match them to his grandsons.
Meanwhile, Daemon. Candle can't re-use Rhaella's fate for Dany, so maybe an ambiguous assassination attempt vision for her? Obviously we know which they'll choose for Rhaella. Gods, LEAVE POOR DAEMON ALONE, it's so cruel to make him watch FOUR children die in those candle visions.
So, the Rhea Reverberate post from a couple months back (sorry, I am doing an archive binge right now) now has me considering the AU where BOTH she and Daemon go back, but neither of them knows the other one has.
So Daemon has all the resentment/anger, is about to rush to Runestone- when the letter arrives yelling at him for not coming back because Rhea's pregnant, why have you not been answering her letters? Cue Daemon's head exploding with the idea of- wait, did she write to him in the original timeline? REYNE! REYNE MUST'VE KEPT MORE LETTERS FROM HIM! Did he send a forged letter back denouncing the kids as obviously not being really Daemon's so Rhea hid them to make it easier for the Volantines to kidnap his kids? Has he been resenting her all this time over a misunderstanding? (He hasn't, but to be fair, she was pretty out of it on milk of the poppy the last time they spoke.)
Meanwhile, Rhea dealing with Daemon's 'dragon dreams' about the Volantines coming after their kids in addition to their mutual nemesis Otto Hightower! And the fact that Daemon, under the impression that the whole 'preventing him from seeing their kids' thing was a complete misunderstanding born out of a plot against him by Volantis, is- maybe dealing with a lot less resentment than he is in standard 'Reverberate'.
(And, you know, if this could result in them either teaming up to take on Otto or the scenario suggested in the replies to the Reverberate Rhea post where Rhea's at court and Daemon's in the Vale with the kids, both of those are great. I sort of love the fun gender-role-inversion quality of that second one. Although, given that it'll be at least 8 years before we even get to Resonant's present day, there's plenty of room for both.)
Ahahaha, I love this! I forget if something similar has been proposed before, but the mutually confusing game of intrigue they're playing with each other and the way it keeps turning their understanding of the situation (and one another) on its head is hilarious. In part because both of them are equally impacted, both questioning whether the other was as awful as they thought.
Which perfectly sets them up for actually reconciling and forming a semi-healthy relationship/partnership. Granted, Daemon is more likely to react poorly to the thought of being so wrong, and the most resistant to it, but all evidence is pointing to the fact that Rhea did in fact try to reach out to him!
Rhea meanwhile is somewhat dreading Daemon's return, because even though he seemed to care about his sons, he is such an insufferable/proud manchild. And, okay, he's still insufferable and proud, but he's so excited about the birth of his sons, and so sweet? Slightly less prickly, if a bit cool/distant?
Them uniting in hatred of Otto is surely the clincher in becoming true allies and partners to one another.
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In Restoration, what you think is going to happen to Robert’s brothers? Or Shireen? Or Viserys?
and I know this is crazy, but in honor of Pride Month, I gotta ask: are there rumors in the verse that Ned won Daemon’s mercy (or the position as Hand) through seduction? I just love the idea of people thinking Daemon is keeping Ned and Cat as a side-piece no matter how nonsensical it is
Uhh, good question. The boring answer is "tbd," really. Daemon's not inclined to be merciful to House Baratheon, but Renly was just a child when the rebellion played out, and Shireen of course hadn't even been born (and is a girl, no less) and is still a child. A big question mark is how Melisandre reacts to the sudden stirring of the kings pot with Daemon's arrival. Stannis is gonna Stannis, of course, in that he is Robert's successor by law (given that his children are bastards, which Cersei will be proclaiming loudly to spare their lives) and thus he is a logical head of the opposition to Daemon.
But the Reach will get a lot of brownie points by quickly swapping their allegiance to House Targaryen, given their loyalist status during the war, so that removes them both from Renly's and Stannis's pockets (by proxy, since I'm assuming Renly isn't foolish enough to split from Stannis when the enemy is a Targaryen with a dragon). And Tywin worked too hard maneuvering his blood onto the throne/into power to accept Stannis, and has the most to lose in many ways if Daemon takes the throne, so I don't know that he wants to ally with Stannis, since Tywin will be disputing any rumors about his grandchildren being bastards. It's clearly a lie propagated by House Targaryen to weaken the legitimacy of Robert's heirs, forced from his daughter by threats to her children.
Which is a longwinded way of saying "if Stannis and Renly are legitimate targets of war, aka actively in opposition, they are most definitely dead once Daemon gets his hands on them." Daemon is going to need some serious persuasion not to strip House Baratheon of their seat, and I'm not sure who would actually provide it in a convincing manner. At best you might get Shireen married off to whoever gets Storm's End (assuming it isn't one of his sons/adoptive children, because he'll be damned if he forces one of them into marriage with a Baratheon), but it passes through the father's line, not hers. Similar to how House Baratheon received it in the first place, in fact!
Viserys is a wild card, but one more likely to end up burninated than not. He's pretty far gone at this point, and Daemon's not known for his patience/understanding.
As for Ned-as-Daemon's-sidepiece theories, it's probably a rare theory. 😂 But there are some who just refuse to believe that Ned Stark was that conniving, whereas the last rebellion was over a Targaryen falling for a Stark and Robert very obviously mooned/moped over Lyanna's death and Ned's absence both, so apparently House Stark (and Ned in particular) is magically irresistible to men of power? And given his known love for Catelyn, it must be a threeway situation, which also explains why the Riverlands are largely spared Daemon's wrath.
with HotD season 3 premiering in just over an hour, do you have any plans for watching episode one? Are you even going to watch after the relative disaster of season 2? If you plan to (or if you don’t!) is there anything you’re really excited for this season, or something you want them to change/start doing better?
These days, I'm more likely to "watch" via Tumblr gifsets and reactions. 😂 I definitely try to keep apprised of show canon, because I'm a very cutthroat "steal what you like from any source" writer (and usually if you don't like something in one source, it's different in the other).
Book canon holds a special place in my heart because it's not written as a narrative, which is such a rare thing for a fandom, honestly! It's akin to D&D source books, where you have rich settings and sketches of characters and history, and they're yours to do with what you will. It gives you so much power as a writer.
The show, meanwhile, is essentially an interpretation of how the events may have played out, arranged as a narrative, but occupies a space in my mind similar to fanfic almost? Aka I'm disappointed at times (...sometimes often) at how things play out, but I'm not overly fussed, because it remains a distinct thing from the books, so you can (again) ignore what you like at the end of the day.
Now, from a fandom-consuming-your-work perspective, it's a little more complicated, because everyone approaches things differently. There are some who have only ever seen the show, so that is their canon, and they're viewing your works through that lens.
As for S3 of the show, I'm mostly dreading it, because the Dance is tragic, and we're really heading into the depths of that tragedy, aka more characters and dragons killed. (My babies!) I am holding out vague hopes of Daemon getting to have a few impressive moments/victories? He's been pretty unimpressive in the show, IMO, versus his larger-than-life legend in the books. I'm also curious if we're getting to Baela's badass moment at Dragonstone this season (I haven't kept up with spoilers, so I don't know how deep into the war this season will go), however that will play out with Sunfyre presumed(?) dead.
Piggybacking off that last ask - how much do the Green kids wish Daemon was their dad/their dad was more like Daemon? They haven’t seen much of him, but most of what they’ve seen of him is around the twins, who he’s very involved with, taking them out for ‘dragon lessons’, spending time with them, in contrast to Viserys barely seeming to remember his younger children even exist
I've alluded to it a bit in the past (and even recently), but I think Aemond is likely to end up pretty heavily on the "I wish he were my dad" side of the spectrum, with Aegon wanting his real dad to just love him and feeling a bit intimidated by Daemon if he shows his teeth.
An interesting thing to explore will be their reactions to Viserys's recent shows of favor toward their cousins. I could see Aemond taking it as "it's because they are excelling at studies/swordsmanship/etc and if I match them, I will also receive his love and approval," whereas Aegon sees it more as a rejection of him, which could go several ways.
Because Daemon is the first overly-involved/invested father figure they've probably encountered in their daily lives? Laenor, bless him, is mostly out to have a good time and while he shows up on occasion for his boys, he's certainly more hands-off, if not to the degree that Viserys is. And we all know Viserys's parenting style with his children with Alicent. They didn't really have something to point to and say "that's what I'm missing from my father," until Daemon showed up.
Also, it has just occurred to me - for the Reclamation AU, what's the dynamic between Alicent and Rhaella like, either before or after the marriage to Daemon? I could see that being fascinating. Like- bastard daughter of Saera Targaryen on its own is going to predispose Alicent to dislike her, but also in the context of how close she is to Rhaegar, whom Alicent has that whole thing about 'saving' from his father's influence, and also specifically from Valyrian culture/influence, that's going to be a whole new layer to it. Even before we get into the fact that Rhaella claiming Vermithor swings another dragon to the Blacks' side of the coming civil war, at a time when Alicent's own kids are notably without dragons.
Rhaella is a mindfuck and a half in that AU for Alicent, truly. For one thing, as you noted, she's ~foreign~ and a bastard by Westerosi standards, who has likely been raised to follow the heathen gods of Pentos. Pentosi culture isn't necessarily Valyrian (not in the way that, for example, Volantis embraces it), but it's certainly adjacent and influenced by it, not to mention sharing a dialect of the language.
And yet here Rhaella is, examined to be chaste by a maester (I'm sure this is a humiliating ritual that Alicent convinces Viserys to subject her to), speaking excellent High Valyrian and unaccented Common Tongue, well-versed in both Pentosi gods and the Faith of the Seven, and shockingly well-educated on the customs of the Seven Kingdoms, to say nothing of navigating the cutthroat politics of the Red Keep! It's like she's lived here her whole life, except that Alicent knows it to be impossible.
I wonder if Alicent just gives up on "saving" the boys as a side project, because Rhaella is a threat that can't be ignored. (How much of a threat somewhat depends on how well she and Rhaenyra seem to get along; I wonder if Alicent tries her hardest to drive a wedge there, given Rhaenyra's likely complicated feelings about the marriage? But Vermithor being in Daemon Targaryen's hands via his marriage definitely can't be ignored as a danger.)
Before the marriage, I expect Alicent treats her in a distantly civil manner, since she appears to be yet another marriage prospect for Daemon that will be ignored. She's almost a "not applicable" as far as having an opinion goes, since she's likely to be gone within a fortnight, and who spends much time thinking about visiting foreigners?
As she sticks around and the boys grow close, but before she claims Vermithor, things doubtless change. Now she's a heathen influencing the poor boys who clearly are just longing for a mother figure, and this wicked bastard cousin, whose mother herself was one of the greatest whores of the Targaryen dynasty, is preying upon them so that she can convince Daemon to marry her.
Through that lens, after marriage, she almost has to feel even more negatively about Rhaella.
Heck, at this point, I'm wondering if Alicent (and Otto, sensing weakness) actually tries to mend things slightly with Rhaenyra to secure an ally against the threatening axis of Daemon (with Caraxes) + Rhaella (with Vermithor) + two sons with growing hatchlings of their own, especially if Viserys is showering royal favor after favor on their sons. Who is to say that Daemon's loyalty is to anyone other than himself and his sons? No one with eyes will deny the latter. What's to stop him from scheming to take advantage of Viserys's strange goodwill (which Rhaenyra knows to be prophecy-motivated) to advance his own sons to the throne, and who's left as a threat at that point? Alicent's children and Rhaenyra's of course.
(Granted, I don't know how well that works. It sort of depends, IMO, if anything has happened between their children yet to really solidify their ill-will toward one another's sons.)
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Rhaegar: We just want everyone to know because we've never been able to say this before.
Jon: We don't just want dragons because they keep us safe.
Rhargar: We want them because they make cool explosions-
Jon: -and they destroy stuff-
Jon and Rhaegar: -and they're FUCKING FUN TO RIDE.
