#saberkid2011

She's always had a subtle air of being like. mildly dissociated at all times. Weird Route accentuates that while also highlighting the disconnect between herself, her thoughts, and her actions as early as Chapter 2. There are also a few times where she talks to herself in the third person, and I made sure to call attention to that in one of my sillyposts. I'm not going to make the mistake of saying those are Strong hints right now because I never really structured it all into a coherent paragraph or anything before (and normally I like to bounce these thoughts and ideas off of other people before I talk about them in public), and all that can apply to a girl who doesn't have DID or OSDD.

What I *didn't* know until today was that even on the Normal Route in chapter 5 you can get optional dialogue where Noelle explicitly refers to her younger self as if she were someone else, a separate girl who she feels no continuity with, and THAT hits us especially hard because holy shit. That's how it is when your original host goes dormant after traumatic experiences and you're just kinda left there playing their part. I felt that. My whole system felt that.

(credit u/solitudeisblissTI)

…that there’s a dead Conductor in Blasted Steps. No idea what they’re doing out here but ten bucks says this is Romino.

First of all, thank you for giving me a chance to speculate about mysterious timeline shenanigans, it’s my favorite pastime lmao. 

Second of all - it IS a theory I like, yes, and I also kind of like how it plays with the history of Targaryen women, but especially with a potential namesake for Rhae: Rhaena of Pentos and her own happy Hightower marriage, which is the other big theory about why the Hightowers look suspiciously Targaryen-ish. Gives me hope both ladies were happy in their marriages <3

Thirdly - okay i’m gonna over analyze here, let’s buckle in. 

Targaryen Princess marriages tend to fall into a few categories. There’s the most obvious brother-sister, first cousin, or uncle-niece marriages. For that category there is Visenya, Rhaenys, Alysanne, Jocelyn, Alyssa, Aemma, Daena, Naerys, Aelora, Daenora, Shaera, and Rhaella. 

For marriages outside the family, they tend to marry a family with Valyrian heritage  - Alyssa Velaryon’s second marriage, Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, Baela, Rhaelle, and probably Elaena’s marriage to Ronnel Penrose is in this category as well.

The last category is the fun one - when they marry someone without Valyrian heritage OR a vassal, they tend towards rich, powerful, and ancient families, who have been hanging around KL a lot. To break it down: 

Daella married Rodrik Arryn, a Lord Paramount who had been at court since Alysanne and Jaehaerys were young. 

Viserra is engaged to Theomore Manderly, NOT a Lord Paramount but a powerful, ancient, and well connected family & Theomore was friends with Aly & Jaehaerys when they were young. 

Rhaenyra has an affair with Harwin Strong, the heir to a powerful, ancient, and rich house, whose dad is on the Small Council so he’s in KL constantly & gets a job there instead of at home. 

Shaera is engaged to (though she does not marry) Luthor Tyrell, the heir to a Lord Paramount. 

Rhaena of Pentos is basically our One complete exception to a lot of these rules for Targaryen women marrying - she marries twice, both times to a house that is not the lord paramount for their region, and both times are likely to be kinda controversial. Firstly, because the Corbrays are old but broke, and secondly, because Garmund is a Hightower. We don’t know why she married Garmund, but what interests me is Corwyn, despite being of a lower status than Rhaena, is at KL constantly because his brother is on the council of regents, similar to Harwin, Rodrik, and Theomore (makes me wonder if she meets Garmund because the Hightowers try to get back into politics once Aegon III no longer has a regent).

All that to say - we know Daella (Egg’s Daella) and Rhae are both in this category and that’s FASCINATING to me. We have no real context for how they marry, or when, or for what reasons and there’s so many fun outcomes here. 

It’s easy to guess who Daella marries - the Evenstar, though she has Dunk’s baby - just based off of a few clues, but we have no idea if she marries for love (and then falls out of love), if she marries for politics, because she’s pregnant and needs a proper wedding now right now, etc., and I’m really excited to get to this, i NEED more dunk & egg because i NEED to watch Dunk and Daella fall in love so badly. 

And then, per your ask, we have Rhae!! 

Besides Rhaena, she’s the only married but unaccounted for Targaryen who could explain why Alerie and Lynesse potentially look Targaryen-ish. Rhaena is way far back, but we know that the silver and gold hair can crop up sometimes later on - Valarr Targaryen had a streak of silver despite having a brown haired mother, father, and grandmother. I actually think it would be fun if both of them married into the Hightowers, Rhaena through the female line and Rhae by marrying the heir, to explain the coloring, but Rhae by herself is still a good option. Too much math here but - Leyton was probably born between 230-250, which matches up with Selwyn Tarth, born in 245, and Selwyn’s grandmother being Daella, born in 199, therefore Rhae probably married Leyton’s grandfather, mayyyyyyybe his father, so Hightowers having Valyrian features as Rhae’s great-grandkids isn’t a huge stretch, esp with Andals being so fair haired in general. BUT, as I laid out above, the female lines tend to intermingle again later down the line, like with the Penroses, and with the Rhaenyra-Laenor match. if Rhae marries a House that already has Valyrian blood (like Elaena did), that also explains why the Hightowers are a lil Targaryen-ish, and even fits with the patterns of Targaryen marriages as well.

I think it’s likely that whoever they marry would be someone who is at Court often, perhaps serving on the Small Council or their parent serves on the Small Council, or has a friendship with Maekar or Aerys. And even makes sense, because lowkey the reigns of Aerys I - Aegon V are super messy and full of marriage drama, and what’s better than a Targaryen princess making eyes at a cute, silver haired Hightower lord while her daddy is dealing with a Peake uprising, I ask you. 

Anyways, yes, very excited for Rhae, I desperately want her to have married a Hightower with love on the mind because I think both Targ Lady-Hightower Lord marriages going well when the two Targ King-Hightower Queen marriages are notoriously shitty, would be really funny. Also, watch me smoosh Dragon Twins references into every other Targaryen sister relationship until George himself stops me!!

I mean. Iirc it's not necessarily that it was terrible the whole way through but moreso that the blatant anti-indigenous racism that was present in one section of it it was a hard dealbreaker for me. I can't remember the exact details bc this was years ago but from what I do recall it was really fucking bad in terms of calling the tribes that bordered their '''''civilized''''' lands savages who could ~obviously~ never be reasoned with and had to be killed despite the fact that the protags were literally going straight through their territory. And like, yeah sure Hornet DOES kill members of the Stilkin and the Skarr when intruding on their territories, but the difference is that those bugs were a.) mostly haunted, so it's not like they could be reasoned with (though Hornet communicated with those who did not attack her when she could) and b.) Hornet still respected them as people, admired their skills, and knew full well that she was trespassing, so they had the right to attack her for intruding on their territory. The difference is honestly quite staggering.