#stansei

with robert dead, tywin doesn't sack the city. instead he joins forces with rhaegar and forces the rebels to surrender. aerys, however, blows up the red keep, and elia/rhaenys/aegon/jaime all perish in the fire. (this makes jon the de facto crown prince? i suppose?) i'm not quite sure what i want to do with dany and viserys, tbh. (open to all ideas! but i think it'd be easiest for them to simply be dead)

stannis and renly are allowed to live because they did little more than starve for a year. stannis also reluctantly declares his brother a traitor to the realm and is "forgiven". that + i guess rhaegar can't really afford to cause more trouble in his kingdom bc the north hates him already + the riverlands loathe him + dorne is mad as well.

(side note, what could realistically happen to robb and cat in this scenario? would cat be married off to benjen?)

anyway so tywin is well. REALLY mad. and with rhaegar marrying lyanna, stannis is quite literally the only somewhat eligible lord left in westeros.

and that's where my crackship!otp comes in!

so we've got a young, distraught (jaime died!) cersei who hates the targs and a young, traumatised stannis (who also hates the targs) trying to make it in this new world--raising renly on storm's end and having a family of their own eventually.

with no jaime in the picture, no abuse, (stannis isnt that bitter either) and the Trauma to bond over, i do think they'd be somewhat content.

-timeskip-

their firstborn son would be named jaime (and he looks exactly like robert did, of course, we pumping all the dead brother angst into this shit) and they have two more daughters--shireen and myrcella.

about ten years after RR, the greyjoys rise up in rebellion and rhaegar is horribly injured in the ensuing war. meanwhile lyanna has had no more children. rhaegar is losing faith in the prophecy and getting...paranoid.

on jaime's 10th nameday, he's summoned to be fostered at king's landing. both his parents absolutely LOATHE this idea, but it's quite obvious that it's not a request. renly offers to go with the boy. cersei is furious, (this is where her first jaime was killed, after all).