But where actually is Blackfyre? Well, you see, Dunk and Rafe went scavenging through the battlefield and came across this funky looking sword with its jeweled pommel. Rafe is... relatively certain the blade is made of Valyrian Steel but that doesn't make any sense because surely surely someone else would have scooped up the sword by now if that was true?!? Anyway, they take it with them. It ends up saving Rafe's life, because when Dunk realizing Alestor is going for her, he stabs him with the sword (it had been sheathed at his side, they'd covered the pommel and hilt with rags so no one would look at it twice). Dunk ends up killing the other two gold cloaks as well. He and Rafe steal back their coin and all the extra coin the guards have on them and they go rushing off to get tickets to the Free Cities. But end up getting into some trouble before they can board the ship, Arlan saves them, and they end up going with him. Arlan keeps side eying the sword at Dunk's hip (because he was at Redgrass and he fucking recognises Blackfyre, thank you very much). Arlan's honour would demand he return the sword to the Targaryens, but his practicality means he knows he, Dunk, and Rafe would be accused of looting at the very least and likely end up being executed, so he says nothing about it other than a command for Dunk to keep the fucking thing hidden, unless Dunk's very life is in danger, and even then he better make sure not to let the Royal Family see it unless they're the ones threatening his life, and even then he better have some fucking luck on his side if he doesn't wanna lose his fool head over it. Dunk agrees, though he's confused about it (until he later realises the sword is Blackfyre).

Dunk loses Blackfyre approximately three times in the years with Arlan. Arlan'd be concerned about that except for the fact that the sword just... keeps on showing back up in the oddest places and it's always Dunk who stumbles over it again. He figures there's some magic at work here that he doesn't understand and it's not worth interfering with that. Just keep the sword safe, boy!

Arlan still ends up dying on the way to Ashford, but he does knight Dunk first, and Dunk and Rafe go on as normal and everything still happens as in canon. Except when Dunk's brought before Baelor regarding the whole Aerion situation, Dunk, who had discovered in his time with Arlan that he's something of a wordsmith if he puts his mind to it, ends up bargaining with Baelor, that if he can provide House Targaryen with something precious they've been looking for for years then Baelor will pardon Dunk and Rafe for any wrong doing already committed up to that moment. Baelor's very raised eyebrows about this, but agrees anyway on the condition that this 'something precious' must be very precious indeed, or the deal is off. Dunk just smiles and asks if Prince Baelor could request Dunk's arms be brought to them. Baelor, bemused, does.

Ser Arlan's sword and Dunks are brought to them by the guards and handed to Baelor. Baelor waits until the guards are gone and then he turns to Dunk and just asks 'now what?' Dunk grins and asks Baelor to unsheathe the larger of the two swords. Baelor does and furrows a brow at the Valyrian steel that's revealed. He looks up at Dunk demanding an explanation, but Dunk just tells him to take the rags off. Baelor does and just stares at Blackfyre, he hasn't seen it in well over a decade and what the actual fuck?!

"I believe, your grace, that I've just restored to you the symbol of kings. The King's Sword, if you will. I doubt you'll find something more precious to your house, except living dragons," Dunk says, the smile on his face is all teeth and Baelor realises suddenly what Dunk is. He's just bargained with a fae and the fae has kept their side of the deal and now Baelor... Baelor must keep his unless he wants to risk the fae's wrath. Dunk and Rafe get their pardon, but Dunk gains Baelor's unwavering attention.

Firstly, the OP of the tweet just happened to cut off the name of the subreddit this was posted to. Turns out it was posted to r/Asexual. You know. The subreddit dedicated to talking about asexuality and related things. It makes sense that the original poster and a mod of that very subreddit would emphasize the inclusion of asexuality in Niger’s article 25.

Here’s a link to the actual Reddit post btw

Secondly, while all persecution of queer identities is evil and unjust, it is significant to point out asexuality being included. Most of the time laws don’t go into specifying more than gay or trans identities when it comes to trying to bar rights to individuals. This article has go so far to break down and specify the meaning of every single letter in LGBTQIA and call them all an “act against nature” to justify punishing anyone under the banner. It makes sense to, again, emphasize that asexuality was also included when this was posted in the r/Asexual subreddit.

And thirdly, and this is kinda the most important part imo, this means ANYONE CAN BE ACCUSED AND PERSECUTED UNDER THIS CHARTER. People in the subreddit and even the OP of the tweet are asking “how can you even prove that?” And that’s the thing. You can’t. So it makes it that much easier to just accuse someone of asexuality in order to force them into a heterosexual relationship or punish them.

Think about it. What’s stopping a bitter ex or an abusive spouse from accusing their partner of “denying sex due to their asexual tendencies” in order to punish them? Maybe someone is career driven or just not interested in a relationship at the time. What’s stopping a business rival, a jilted flirt, or an obsessed stalker from leaving an anonymous tip that the object of their ire is an asexual deviant? Absolutely nothing.

Taking this post and dismissing it as “no one cares you don’t want to fuck” is completely missing the point on why this is exceptionally dangerous. And acting like a mod of the r/Asexual subreddit is being silly for putting emphasis on the dangers to their community is rude at best.

The fact that everyone with a queer identity now can face prison time and ridiculous fines is terrifying and it breaks my heart to know more and more countries are baking these laws into their charters and constitutions. But we should be bringing these things into the light and condemning the people pushing for this kind of cruelty, not throwing stones at each other for pointing out a specific part of the article that affects us personally.

The process is actually quite sophisticated, and requires the presence of a full-grown goth to trigger it. A pupal-stage proto-goth, at this point completely indistinguishable from any other small human child, only needs to encounter a mature specimen once - and while the initial imprinting that ensues will only take seconds, the incubation period often takes more than a decade, even several.

The first visible step of the transformation is triggered when the dormant goth suddenly gains awareness that they have free will and can do whatever they want with their appearance. While the progress may be gradual, or seem like the transformation happened all at once overnight, the initial seed was planted years ago. And now, in full bloom, a fully-fledged mature adult goth may finally be happy.

I didn't figure out specifically how to change Ashford to make sure Baelor survives, but the point is that this is a Baelor lives AU (thoughts currently unclear on whether this is also a Valarr and Matarys live AU) and by this point of proceedings he's King.

Following Ashford and a short visit to King's Landing (because King Daeron is going to want to look his children and grandchildren in the eye and ask for an explanation about what the fuck happened out there and also to meet the hedge knight that's captivated half his family), Dunk and Egg are off out on the road again. There's probably a lot more ravens back and forth between King's Landing (between Dunk and Baelor, even if Dunk can't offer the same words that Baelor can, he can offer pictures of their time away at least).

(Also, on the journey to King's Landing and during their briefish stay, Dunk and Baelor are attached at the hip so everyone has picked up how Not Normal they are about each other already)

So Dunk and Egg are out there, having their adventures (maybe the business at Coldmoat still happens and Maekar literally has to hold Baelor back from riding out there alone and dragging Dunk home back to King's Landing again).

Then bam!

Rebellion.

Dunk hearing the first whispers and immediately begins panicking, like "What do you mean Baelor is in danger? Can't have that." and immediately doing whatever he can to help. Probably starts seriously considering whether he can stop and entire Blackfyre rebellion single-handedly just to keep his the King safe.

Egg watching Dunk crash out about Baelor being in danger specifically and knowing that when they head back to King's Landing, they won't be leaving to go back out on the road again because there's no way that Dunk is ever going to leave Baelor behind again. And he can live with this- there are far worse people for Ser Duncan than Uncle Baelor- but also you know he's not relishing the thought of being stuck in a castle again and will be persuading Dunk to sneak him out of the castle at every available opportunity still.

But the rebellion is put to bed again, no harm to Baelor or any of the rest of the royal family, and Dunk is headed back to King's Landing in the company of that Bloodraven character (you could never persuade me that he doesn't creep Dunk.the fuck out), with a Blackfyre in chains, but the only thing on his mind is getting to see Baelor again.