#vaella

I really don’t know what’s gotten into me but I have two other Vaella Daeron commissions that I need to post on here and two more ongoing, the irrelevant character bug has bitten me. I think it’s because Vaella is meant to be Queen under historical English law, which is one loose inspiration for asoiaf, but the reason she was dismissed and not taken seriously whatsoever is because she’s “simple minded”, which I’ve always taken as meaning developmentally disabled. As someone that is autisitc, many of the non-characters that I gravitate to while reading are characters coded as having some form of disability: Vaella, Daella, Jaehaera, Lollys Stokeworth, Jinglebell Frey, etc, even if it is more on concept instead of actual character. And while there are women that are usurped that we know more about (Aerea, Rhaenys, Rhaenyra), I can’t help but feel a special place in my heart for Vaella that most other characters don’t touch. I so hope that we get more than the one line we received on her in the ASOIAF series if Blood & Fire ever comes out. I would at least love to see the same kind of elaboration we got for Daella for Vaella.

Daeron obviously has more written on him than Vaella does, thanks to the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms short stories. His main characterization beyond any other trait is that of a drunkard. He can’t keep out of taverns and beyond that, he can’t keep out of brothels. Those two tend to go hand in hand in the asoiaf universe. But in my personal opinion, he’s more interesting than your standard drunkard because he’s neither indulging for fun nor because of a tangible tragedy in his life. He’s doing it to escape his dreams. He has dragon dreams that haunt him and sends him into a very deep depression. We know that he keeps drinking and eventually that he succumbs to a sexually transmitted disease some time before his father King Maekar dies. He never frees himself from either of these vices. And yet, Kiera of Tyrosh, the widow of Prince Valarr, practically falls into his lap and he eventually becomes heir to the Iron Throne. I am interested in Daeron independently and his struggles while still at least attempting to be a good person (as we see between Egg and Daeron), what I find immensely interesting is how the position he finds himself in potentially impacted him as a parent. I care more about father and daughter dynamics far more interesting than any other dynamics (besides my one exception of Stannis and Renly); I could talk for days and on very little evidence about Stannis and Shireen, Mya and Robert, Saera and Jaehaerys, Arianne and Doran, Lysa and Hoster, etc etc. So of course I’m interested in how Daeron may have treated Vaella. There’s no evidence whatsoever so I just insert my own headcanons. To me, I feel like Daeron would be scared to be close to Vaella because he feels like such a failure in everything and his life depends on debauchery. And no matter how much he loves her, his dreams will persists and the only escapes he can fathom are in debauchery. That’s also why I think he only had one child, and yes I think he was perfectly happy with Vaella being his heir. I feel like he would have potentially be worried that he would pass on the dragon dreams to Vaella and any indication that she was having them (I think it would be interesting if she did), would only push him further away because it would freak him out. I would like to think he loved her a lot and wanted to support her in her interests. Perhaps he would have bought her love a bit, seeing as it would be easy to feel guilty over choosing time at a tavern/brothel over time with your child. That’s why I always commission her in very pretty and fancy dresses while he’s dressed more haphazardly. The main interest I’ve headcanoned for her is that she likes ponies!!! So he keeps buying them for her and that’s why he’s broke. One of my commissions soon will have her on a pony so watch out for that.

Seeing the way that Daeron treats Egg, I do feel like Daeron does not know what a proper activity for children is, so my idea was not that Vaella followed him to the bar, but that he took her there on purpose so he could multitask. She’s paying their tab for them. She’s getting a milk and honey and Daeron is already pretty inebriated as always. But he does love her and wants to be around her (sort of. If he could get out of his own way), so he’s looking at her fondly. He literally wants to be a good dad guys please be kind!!!!

Fashion inspired by the Tudor era as always. Her hair has the pink strip because her mother is Tyroshi.