#egglets

so, before we start, 1) keep in mind that i'm gonna refer to the prince of dragonflies as just duncan and to duncan the tall as ser dunk, to avoid repeating each time if i'm talking about the small or the tall lol, 2) let's take a look at the timeline (because i love this shit).

some things are uncertain (like the exact age of duncan or rhaelle), but i am going to assume that duncan was 18-19 when the jenny of oldstones and the abdication happened, and also just vibe whatever is missing about rhaelle, so let's go lol.

220 AC: 20yo egg married 19yo betha

220-221 AC: soon they became young parents after giving birth to duncan the small

221 AC: maekar became king

(somewhere after 222 AC and before 233 AC, maekar's daeron died)

225 AC: jaehaerys ii was born (with egg being 25, betha 24 and duncan being 4 years older)

226 AC: shaera was born the following year

228 AC: daeron was born

231 AC: rhaelle was born

232 AC: aerion died

233 AC: maekar died, egg was crowned as aegon v (duncan was 13, jae 9, shaera 8, daeron 6 and rhaelle 3)

237 AC: massive betrothals of his kids were organised, save for rhaelle who was deemed too young by her parents (duncan was 17, jae 13, shaera 12, daeron 10 and rhaelle 7)

239 AC: duncan married for love and gave up his crown at 18-19, egg had to betroth 9yo rhaelle to ormund baratheon and send her to the storm's end

240 AC: jae x shaera eloped aged 15 and 14 (egg shouldn't have been surprised)

244 AC: aerys was born (making egg a granddad at 44, with jae and shaera being 19 and 18)

246 AC: steffon baratheon was born, rhaelle died (egg and betha had to bury their youngest child aged 46 and 45, with her siblings being horribly young, too, randing from 25yo duncan to 18yo daeron) and then later that year rhaella was born

251 AC: daeron died aged 23

259 AC: summerhall happened, with confirmed deaths of egg (59) and duncan the small (39), rhaegar was born

anyway, i did this both because of my personal obsession and because i wanted to show how fucking young they all were at different shitty points in life and how their tragedies make me sick (obsessed).

so, i think one of the most interesting things in egglets (oh, the nostalgia to see this word again) potential dynamics is that they were all actually born as grandchildren to the king maekar, but with daeron the dreamer and aerion still alive, they were still considered to be far removed from being actually relevant heirs to the throne. so they were basically in egg's position when he was a child, grandson to king daeron the good, but a 4th son of a 4th son, then prince maekar. idk, i just find this detail interesting.

since the ask is about all egg's kids, i'm gonna word vomit all over the place.

• duncan the small, the eldest child that remembered the most about his parents being young, unburdened and untroubled, growing up with the actual taste of freedom, since not much was expected of egg and his line at that time. he took after his mother the most, not only in appearance, but also in personality. (totally mama's boy wgshxvhs). remember the "9 months in my womb making me suffer, and he looks like his stupid father" meme? reverse it for egg "i was waiting for 9 months, and he is his mother's clone???", except 1) nobody cares, she did all the hard work anyway, sorry not sorry, egg, and 2) egg was actually a fool in love for betha, and nobody believed in this fake outrage for a second lol.

• so, duncan the small, growing up with duncan the tall by his side, an image of perfect and unfailing chivalry (or so small duncan believed with his whole heart), his father's best friend, closer than some of his actual brothers. duncan had betha's black locks and her dark eyes, her stubbornness, unyielding iron will and dedication, but whenever he smiled? ser dunk could see only a spitting image of a small egg, all boyish joy and charm. (tho ser dunk also often said that his parents were lucky their son didn't inherit his father's "big princeling mouth"; egg pretended to be offended again).

• being the eldest, duncan also remembered other things that were not as pronounced in his siblings' memory, like grandfather maekar, not knowing how to show his affection, but loving his grandchildren no less than his own kids. (though anyone would love to be a fly on the wall when maekar learnt what name egg had given to his firstborn lmao). duncan also remembered his uncles: some bits and pieces of daeron, who was often incredibly drunk, but in duncan's eye he was just sad, even less of aerion, who egg would allow to come closer to his family only over his dead body, but quite a lot of aemon, who kindly told stories to all egg's kids and never turned down a request of help or advice, even when they lived far away from each other (aemon served on dragonstone for some time and egg lived at summerhall, i imagine).

• the majority of people saw only blackwood features in duncan. smarter men, like maester aemon, could notice more targaryen-like eye shape or a nose that egg and aemon himself shared, more slender valyrian build in comparison to first men heritage in blackwoods. (if aemon was still able to see 70 years later at the wall, he would've noticed a similar pattern in jon snow). no one, except aerion, dared to be outright insulting over this, however, and a few times aerion opened his mouth, egg was ready to throw hands.

• duncan was incredibly different from his younger brother, jaehaerys. where jae was pale and frail, duncan was energetic, always in motion, almost unable to stay still, often sun-kissed from all the time spent outside, riding, running, travelling, training. but their differences didn't mean distance, on the contrary, since jae always had delicate health, he often attracted concern and doting of his parents and elder brother. for duncan it went even further, since he would always have this furrowed expression on his face, which was twice as cute with his baby cheeks, whenever someone told him he could just go and play by himself. it meant abandoning his brother and he would not do it. so yeah, when jae was not permitted to play outside or just take a walk, duncan would also refuse to spend time apart from his brother, even though he loved running outside. he would play with him, entertain him, tell him stories (most of which were poorly memorised and thus quite confusing and twisted history lessons lol, because duncan was 4 years older and already had more lessons with maesters).

• duncan wasn't the only one often sticking by jae's side. shaera was there, too. in jae's mind, at 7 as well as at 37, shaera was always there for him.

• so, you see, being an elder brother was actually important for duncan. egg, in fact, tried his best not to be too harsh with his words about aerion and daeron in front of his kids and in public (though he definitely carried different sentiments about each brother), mostly for the sake of his children: he wanted to be a good example for them. and good men didn't badmouth their own brothers. but you know, kids often see and understand far more than adults realise, so small duncan could see a stark difference between egg's closeness to aemon, his barely hidden animosity for aerion, which was even attempted to be hidden only for the sake of appearances, especially in court, and tired, disappointed exasperation for daeron. thus, as a small boy duncan became dedicated to being a good brother, because the very concept of "a bad brother" and "a good brother" is something that became very real for him thanks to real life examples in front of his eyes.

• so it's a rather wordy explanation for duncan's tendency of ending up in ridiculous situations, like coming up with fairytale-like stories for his baby siblings and confusing details he himself had imagined (because he thought it'd make a story "more epic"), or begging ser dunk, their parents or a trusted servant to craft more toys for them, because options for playing inside in their times sucked were very limited. (ser dunk did actually carve a couple of toys for them put of wood when he had spare time). also!!! little spoilt princess shaera would definitely bat her lashes at duncan and kindly ask to carry her somewhere (just for the fun of it lol), and duncan would pretend he'd actually fallen for it. but then little shit jae would produce the fakest cough ever and, despite feeling amazing the whole day, would claim to be unwell, so duncan would carry him, too. and duncan would be like ":// are you kidding me right now, brother" lol. and let it be known, despite being a good big bro and all that, duncan was not above pretending to drop them just right next to the stairs or a window, just to hear them shriek lmao.

• "i will tell father!!!" was a normal occurrence. "i will tell mother!" was a nuclear war threat. it is worth noting, however, that no egglet was a real snitch ever, ready to throw one's sibling to the wolves... i mean to betha blackwood.

• so you can definitely see which parent was the strict one lmao. it's not to say that egg didn't try btw, but the children just weren't stupid. they must've been blind not to see how ready egg was to fold like a wet paper when they asked really nicely. of course, he could actually be stern when it really mattered, but how often it happened anyways.

• (and there were times when it really mattered, but he caved again. because what father doesn't want his children to be happy? what king doesn't recognise unfairness of robbing children of what was so freely granted to parents? there must be separate studies on a) the dichotomy of concepts "good king = bad father" and "bad king = good father" for both jaehaerys the conciliator and aegon the unlikely, and how jae i's decisions that marked him as a bad father actually had negative political consequences down the line anyway because of the fucked monarchy system, and how the comparison to him shouldn't work 1:1 for aegon v, since he lacked the dragonpower jae i had so freely commanded in his time; and b) generational problem, aka egg had freedom to marry for love and attempted to take it away from his children, jae ii and shaera actively took this right of theirs back, but then took it away from their own children... yeah, i'm not the one to write these papers)

• maybe because duncan was so stubborn in his decision to keep his small siblings company whenever he could, or maybe because all the care from his family actually helped, but jae never let his poor health spoil his joy in life. or he desperately pretended it was true anyway, all for the sake of making his loved ones smile along with him. in any case, jae was naturally smart, witty remarks never too far from his tongue. some of his comments were actually cutting deep, big thanks to his ability to see right through people (a quality he got from his mother betha and something that his daughter rhaella inherited later), so a bitter truth sharpened every little thing he said if he so wanted. but jae was never mean, not intentionally anyway. oftentimes his kind eyes and a naturally charming smile significantly softened the blow, no matter what he said.

• (so yeah, jae was a good judge of character. but ironically, he was the most blind when it came to those closest to him, like the true nature of his son aerys. it's actually an interesting detail to consider that jae and shaera eloped out of love when they were very young, and then married their kids to each other when they were approximately the same age, as if in their mind 1) the age wasn't an issue, just bc it wasn't a problem for them personally, and 2) being prophesied to be direct ancestors of tptwp could mean a guarantee for a successful marriage in jae and shaera's opinion, which wasn't the case as we know, but hey... let's stop talking about sad things for a bit)

• we know that jae had silver hair and purple eyes of targaryens, taking after his father in look, unlike duncan. i also picture shaera to have targaryen colouring, though her eyes and hair were lighter than jae's (these lilac eyes were inherited by her daughter rhaella and later by viserys). however, her facial features also resembled her mother's quite noticeably. shaera was considered to be a great beauty from a young age, a charming and confident princess that she was, and she had a vain side as well. however, just like jae, shaera wasn't unkind. her arrogance might've been annoying to some other nobles, but it was only endearing for those closest to her, and she wasn't malicious to anyone just because, shaera always needed a good reason to arm herself with the most lethal weapon in her possession, gossip and manipulation. speaking of that, her vanity also didn't mean she wasn't a smart woman. shaera was very aware of what impression she left on people and often it gave her opportunities to manipulate things in her favour. and when some uptight lords and ladies were scandalised over her small flirting with anyone who wasn't her husband? she could only laugh, and jae would laugh even louder. (egg would also be exasperated with their antics, but when wasn't he with his kids lmao)

• so earlier in the timeline part, i said that daeron the drunken dreamer died somewhere after 222 AC (because he definitely was alive when maekar became king since he was considered to be the prince of dragonstone for some time, and maester aemon served him there, and, well, he also couldn't have died before making vaella lol) and before 233 AC (because he definitely had been dead for some time when maekar died), as per canon. however, i'm personally persuaded that daeron passed away before 228 AC, so egg named his third son after his deceased brother, but not earlier than 225 AC, because then jaehaerys would've been named after daeron. and this fact is very significant, that egg named his own son after his alcoholic brother, who had horrible reputation and next to no respect from their men, whose death was so readily assumed and widely believed to be because of a pox he'd caught from a whore (and i'm actually not averse to a theory that it could be any other illness from his excessive drinking). despite everything, egg loved daeron, in his own way. so here we can have two possible headcanons: daeron died a little earlier, while betha was pregnant with shaera, and the birth of their first daughter greatly helped egg dealing with his grief, OR daeron died a little later, while betha was pregnant with a fourth child, and when this 4th eggbetha baby turned out to be their third son, egg named him after his recently deceased brother, also helping him to deal with the loss.

• i've always imagined daeron the nephew looking a lot, and i mean a lot, like daeron the uncle. even canon sources claim daeron was a darker shade of blond, so i feel absolutely justified in thinking this!! so yeah, they were so similar that maekar felt a knife twisting in his heart whenever he saw his youngest grandson. and the day he met him for the first time when egg presented the baby to the court? probably the one and only time people saw maekar being fucking sentimental for once. and he was probably the only person left alive that remembered what his daeron looked like as a baby.

• "don't let him drink too much," maekar rasped, still holding the baby, still looking.

egg blinked. "of course".

• (so when 16-17yo jae and shaera took 14yo daeron to give him his first opportunity to properly drink, as they considered their parents to be too coddling? yeah, egg might've overreacted that day a little).

• anyway, remember the description of all the silly shenanigans egglets had? throw daeron right there as well, he was a part of everything, just like rhaelle was when she was born.

• daeron grew up admiring his older siblings. he tried to be as strong as duncan, as smart as jae, as confident as shaera. not because he felt overshadowed by them per se, but because he genuinely loved them. he didn't realise for a long time that he already was all that and as naturally charming as every child of egg and betha was.

• daeron was also the one to inherit egg's "insolence" aka his big mouth lol. whenever he was fast to retort with something painfully unbecoming of a third son, a boy who had not yet grown into an accomplished man, that most people would consider rude, ser dunk had a nostalgia stabbing him in different places at once lol. it was also different from what jae was doing: his words were carefully picked, as dangerous, sharp or blunt as he desired, always thought through despite an occasional act of obliviousness. but daeron? pure impulsive sarcasm (that often set things on fire unintentionally).

• duncan was a dearly beloved eldest brother that all his siblings looked up to. and yes, even after his marriage to jenny, the abdication and the rest, no matter what other people said, no matter how much or how little time passed. it takes courage to follow your heart, they all believed, and by judging someone for their courage you only show your own cowardice.

• jaehaerys that didn't have a single warrior inch in him? ready to throw hands but was more successful with whipping someone with his cutting words as soon as fuckers opened their mouths about duncan and jenny. shaera? completely destroyed some nobles' entire reputations with a couple of conversations here and there, all poisonous smiles. daeron, while still being a boy when duncan x jenny happened, perhaps idolised their love story most of all, exactly because he was a child, and him defending his big bro actually reminds me of small egg always defending maekar's name no matter the consequences.

• so, you see, nobody really blamed duncan in his family, definitely not his siblings that followed his example, anyway. but duncan? he did feel guilty. not precisely because he regretted jenny, no, for he loved her too much, but his was that throbbing kind of guilt caused by the sorrow over how everything turned out, even though you realise that you're not the main culprit why everything went the way it did. duncan naively thought that giving up his crown would be enough, that wounded baratheon pride would make peace with the idea that even though there wouldn't be any baratheon queen and baratheon-blooded heirs to the throne, then at least a lowborn girl jenny wouldn't become queen either. duncan didn't care about his crown anyway, he knew that jenny cared even less, and he was confident that his dear brother jae would become a great king. except lyonel baratheon couldn't let it go just like that. if you ask me, it takes a considerable temper to declare yourself a storm king out of spite lmao, not to mention that lyonel must've lacked respect for his own king aegon v to begin with to rebel like that. and on top of getting his pride wounded, duncan's actions also went against lyonel's personal ambitions. afaik, ormund was ever referred to only as lyonel's heir, not exactly son, so i think it'd be interesting if lyonel harboured these ambitions about making his only daughter the queen and put his grandson on the iron throne. so he was actually unsatisfied even after getting the betrothal with rhaelle for ormund, for ormund was only his grandson (from an already dead son, probably from the first marriage, if we assume his daughter's mother was a younger second wife, whom lyonel might've loved more). he had to deal with it tho, he literally couldn't do anything else.

• so i imagine it was quite a trial for duncan, possibly the biggest in his life. it's not that he never encountered ambitious noblemen before, or how unfair their world could be. but it was always from a distance, never so personal, never in such a conflict for him where he would be damned no matter what he'd chosen. and, as i mentioned before, he did feel guilty. but he also couldn't help but rage at lyonel baratheon, too. it's exactly why aegon the conqueror created the king's peace as his first law, he argued, because fucking lords felt entitled to causing so many deaths of innocent people, whom they didn't even consider as people simply for being lowborn, and all that over their insulted egos that they prettily called "their house's honour". and he wasn't wrong, you know. and who if not his own parents could fully understand his rage and frustration? but no matter what they said or did, the matter was settled and 9yo rhaelle was sent to the storm's end.

• when i said all duncan's siblings loved him and admired him, it included rhaelle, too. it does suck that she was the only one who had to accept an arranged marriage, but her betrothal wasn't a typical political arrangement anyway, so let's focus on more interesting things, aka rhaelle herself. since i'm pretty fucking sure that even f&b vol.2 won't have much on her, i let my imagination run completely wild. imo, it'd be interesting if she was the other egglet with betha's dark hair aside from duncan. but ultimately i had to relent to my oldest mental image of her with silver hair instead. but!!! i do imagine her having more of blue-ish eyes instead of completely purple, as some other targaryens had, e.g. queen alysanne. everyone was saying that her son steffon looked like a true baratheon, but his eyes were actually lighter than typical baratheon blue, since it was his mother's eyes. (and consequently, here i just can't make up my mind: make robert, stannis and renly get typical baratheon blues, "these fucking disappointing offsprings" /jk, OR let at least some of them inherit rhaelle eyes, either for minor drama ("uwu baby renly got grandma's eyes!!!! and he doesn't even know...") or major drama (rhaelle's eyes looking at rhaegar, jae and shaera's grandson, from robert's face as he was dealing him a lethal blow). you can go with either of those tbh).

• one of the reasons why rhaelle didn't even have an opportunity to develop any negative feelings about her family or whatever is that her family actually refused to completely lose touch with her. lyonel was old and unpleasant at that point, but his unknown wife was a kinder woman, perhaps because she, too, had a daughter and could understand targaryens' plight, despite everything that had happened. so while lyonel was alive, rhaelle mostly exchanged letters with her parents siblings (so much that the local maester should've complained lmao), but given a close proximity of the storm's end and summerhall it wasn't that difficult to organise their meetings. e.g. lady baratheon was attending some business at their bannermen's castle? well, of course, her companion princess rhaelle was with her! and if other children of the king happened to be there? they were just on their way to or from summerhall, duh.

• obviously, rhaelle's siblings were worried and missed her dearly. it was an earth-shattering experience, to part with their baby sister so abruptly. daeron, only three years older, was her closest companion, they knew each other's secrets like no one else (rhaelle was the only one who he'd told about his intention to end the betrothal to olenna eventually). it was also easy to assume that shaera, who had been an only daughter, a little spoilt princess, wouldn't have such a warm relationship with her only sister, but she actually enjoyed being a bad example... uh, i mean sharing her wisdom and advice with rhaelle (how to manipulate adults and be a little menace), claiming that she had wanted a sister for so long (so she could treat her like an alive overgrown doll lol; shaera was actually lucky rhaelle liked being dressed up or having her hair braided), even teaming up against their brothers just for fun (because shera thrived in chaos, and often just dragged rhaelle with her). there was also a case when 12yo jae had to be explained that activities which were fascinating for him (like strategy games) were not as interesting for 6yo rhaelle. luckily, jae, who often had to stay inside per maesters' orders not to catch a cold or sth, knew exactly how entertaining certain toys can be (a generous share was given ro rhaelle). speaking of that, i picture rhaelle was being sweet, but calm child, nothing like a ball of energy duncan had been at her age. she loved being in someone else's company tho, so she equally liked sitting with jae while he was showing her books with beautiful pictures as well as trailing like a small tail after duncan, until he relented and took her riding again.

• i already stated that betha was the stricter parent. however, it doesn't mean there was a dramatic distance between her or her children. on the contrary, betha taught them as much as egg did, both about life and about ruling. she was The Standard in her loved ones' eyes. a true image of what a lady should be, both graceful and strong? that's betha blackwood for her family. an inner voice of each egglet that either scolded them for their mistakes or gave advice? suspiciously sounded like queen betha's voice. it was also really easy to see why egg admired her so much. it wasn't just the beauty or the fire of their tempers clashing but always dissipating into warmth. it was the wisdom and support, unwavering and steady. betha was the kind of woman to slap you across the face, but it'd be honest and genuine, never failing to point out where you failed or struggled to stay true to yourself. i've always pictured a younger egg struggling with keeping the balance between staying kind and compassionate to the common people and making them respect him still, so imo, betha was the perfect candidate to help egg find this balance, even when they were just a prince and princess as far away from courtly problems and intrigues as it was possible.

• all egglets grew up seeing their father caring for all people around them, especially those who were vulnerable to the power of high and mighty lords. they had a deep respect for the old gods, since their mother taught them about other faiths in westeros and how they ought to respect them. on several occasions, duncan had to step up for one commoner or the other, drawing respect from some and the disdain of other people, but never failing to execute the lesson his parents had taught him. jae and shaera also didn't allow people to dismiss the old gods in front of them, as daeron did as well.

• ser dunk was an honourable but beloved uncle from day 1. if you think he had no participation in the upbringing of these kids, you're very wrong.

• i think there was a sweet period of time when aemon lived not on dragonstone but at summerhall with egg and his family. uncle aemon always commanded a crazy amount of love and respect from his nephews and nieces. canon aemon's memories about rhaelle calling him "uncle maester" refer to this period.

• tbh, given that later jae and shaera named their daughter after their sister, i fear rhaelle died quite young in canon... and i hate how likely it is that she most likely just "died in childbed" as many others. so since there are not many chances we ever learn that much about egg's family, i say fuck it and go with this: ormund wasn't much older than rhaelle, a couple of years perhaps, so they grew up to be more of childhood sweethearts. lyonel (thankfully) died a couple of years after his rebellion, so his lady wife was kind of a regent for ormund who wasn't yet of age for another couple of years until he turned 16. it became much easier for egglets to visit rhaelle, so, considering that ormund became jae's hand in the future, i think they all became fast friends. ormund and rhaelle married when she was 15 and they were happy together (idgaf how small the percentage of happy arranged marriages there was, if ned and cat could have it, rhaelle could, too). unfortunately, it also seems she gave birth to steffon at 15 and died 💀 if i were to write a fic about them, i'd certainly let rhaelle live and kill ormund instead lol, so she could be the lady regent for her son steffon and rule the stormlands. unfortunately, if we stick to canon, then she did die, causing immense grief to her family, jae and shaera kinda repeated egg's fate "my sibling died and i named my newborn baby after them", but!!! they also refused to let go of the only thing left of rhaelle. unwavering friendship with ormund and constant attention to their dear nephew steffon explains how aerys and steffon grew up so close.

• i refuse to let rhaelle die in childbed anyway btw. let's say there was some kind of a bad accident and rhaelle died while helping her people, as she was the great lady of the storm's end, responsible and kind.

• "all three sons of the fifth aegon had wed for love" (c) barristan, and i do believe he heard it from jae himself. to jae it was a slip of the tongue: at that time he already lost so many people, was a grandpa despite his quite young age, but was getting sicker day by day. so one of my oldest headcanons is that it was, in fact, the truth. his brother daeron also married for love, his beloved ser jeremy norridge, in the traditions of their mother's house, in front of the old gods in the godswood of summerhall (was there really the godswood? idk but let's assume there was). all daeron's siblings attended the (kinda secret) wedding, and daeron himself almost cried as he realised that the only one missing was rhaelle (he missed her so much, no words could describe it). their parents were not present, of course, not because they'd be horribly homophobic or sth, but just in case they still harboured any hope for him to enter a political marriage (and it was almost a family tradition at this point lmao).

• not necessarily a headcanon, but consider this: to put an end to his betrothal once and for all, daeron just casually informed his parents one random morning that he did marry, in front of the old gods (nobody can protest the same-sex marriage if there is no formal religious organisation full of shitty men telling you no). egg and betha's faces must've been hilarious.

• some potential angst material: as egg buried his little girl rhaelle, dead too early, did he wonder if it was the punishment of the gods, to rob her of the freedom all her siblings were eventually granted, all for the sake of the peace among his lords? (i do believe she was happy with ormund, but egg was still a grieving father)

• and then daeron died, along with his husband. gives you much to wonder about loyal third sons and loving brothers, who passionately entered battle to defend their family's throne, the throne that belonged to their father, the throne that was destined to belong to their elder brothers. these younger sons and brothers don't usually wonder what their death could do to their family.

• anyway, i've always wondered about the lack of children of duncan and jenny. maybe we just don't know enough and the (potential) release of f&b vol.2 will shed some light. in any case, whether they decided to be the first childfree couple of westeros or they couldn't have kids for any other reason, i think there was a part of duncan contemplating how it could be for the better (with a wave of guilt if they wanted but couldn't have children), since it'd mean less chances of another succession crisis that could destabilise jae's line's reign. to me, that's a crazy amount of brotherly love and it runs in the family (e.g. aemon taking the black to avoid being used against egg).