I wonder why wifey? What was it about wifey that made Markar fall ass over tea Kettle? How did one woman make both the hammer and the anvil fall for her? I guess what was going through Maekars mind that made him fall so hard and keep those feelings despite everything? What about wifey made Baelor propose after 3 weeks? Both men must have been sought after by the ladies at court during their time as widowers.
One dance and some small talk ey? Do it for the plot ey.
It's kinda been talked about but wifey still must think: why me?
As you said it's a flex for her to have married two princes.
It’s very much a for the plot explanation on the surface level.
I’m going to use your ask to go ahead and do some rambling on the backstory and thinking behind the story, and my own opinions on the characters, so please don’t mind lol.
I really wanted to write a love at first sight esque story for Maekar, mostly because you don’t really see many fics that aren’t oneshots that typically only center on them having freaky nasty sex - not to say I don’t like those kinds of fics, but I wanted to write something of a fresher material.
It’s really hard to write about a character into a doomed lovers type story when that character is typically generalized as cold and unfeeling. Maekar isn’t cold and unfeeling, in fact I think he feels too much at times and instead of allowing his emotions to be communicated in a positive manner, it translates into him being stern and closed off.
We see in AKOTSK in the scene where Egg comes into Aerion’s room with a knife that Maekar is sitting in the room in a chair, his eyes are glossy by the lighting of the scene, but the way I saw it I think he’d been crying. This also applies to the scene we see of Dunk and Maekar having a conversation about Egg squiring for Dunk at Summerhall where Dunk can also continue learning to become a knight. Maekar stands against the table and you can see his hands are positioned on the underside of it, with him holding the edge of the table in a manner you’d see someone who is angry or upset would do. His voice literally breaks a little when he tells Dunk that Egg is his last son, so he’s obviously capable of feeling every emotion we do, the portrayal of him being nonchalant and mean every time he’s given the opportunity, doesn’t make sense.
We have to remember that Dyanna died anywhere between the birth of Rhae and the start of the show, assuming we’ll ever get an explanation for her death in the series, Maekar is in a way buckling under the weight of caring for all of these children by himself. We can also assume that Maekar and Dyanna were incredibly in love, because I don’t think you’d have six children if you hated the man you married. Dyanna gave Maekar three sons back to back, assuming that those boys were in line to inherit anything other than Summerhall, they could’ve stopped after that, but they didn’t. You could say them being at Summerhall gave them a lot of free time, but I really believe that Maekar loved Dyanna. I don’t think he’s this emotionless and aggressive character that he’s often portrayed as.
I’m saying all of this to say that I went into the story considering the fact that Maekar clearly has the capacity within him to love someone more than he loves himself - maybe even more than that.
I also think that the love he had for Dyanna directly translated into the perception his children have of him. I think they understand the fact that their mother isn’t there to parent them besides their father, and Maekar being the militaristic man that he is, his parental style follows that of approaching his sons in a serious way for more than half the time that he’s around them. Yes this parental style isn’t perfect by any means, but it doesn’t mean that his sons didn’t learn anything from it.
Daeron has his drinking and whoring issues, yeah, but I believe he’s incredibly eloquent and soft spoken in a way that he would’ve been taught to by his mother, and though he dislikes anything associated with being a knight, his father still cares enough to not want him seriously injured or killed.
Aerion obviously idolizes his father, but more importantly his uncle because he’s the Crown Prince, he doesn’t really seem to have this softness that his brothers do portrayed on screen, he hides behind the facade of confidence and ego when in reality he’s still closer to a child than a man; in the books it’s explicitly stated that Aerion behaves more in front of his father, which is very telling because to me it still seems like he wants his father’s approval, not that he’s afraid of the consequences of his actions.
Aemon isn’t really mentioned as of now in the recent series, but by going off of the books information and the things suggested during Maekar’s reign, Aemon clung to both his mother’s and father’s parental styles. Aemon cares for and wants to protect his family, a notion deeply rooted in his father, and this can be identified through one of his last moments in the original books, where Aemon realizes Daenerys is the PWWP and quite literally says “I must go to her. I must.” Aemon as a Maester and sworn brother of the Nights Watch, didn’t have to keep up with information on Daenerys or Viserys in their journey through Essos, but he did. I believe it’s also mentioned that Aemon talks about his brothers and father, where Aemon believes that it was his poor mental health that finally consumed Daeron, not the drinking or whoring or disease, and that he hoped he finally found peace, and how he was ready to be reunited with his family once again.
Egg, whom we’ll see much more of both on screen and most likely in more Dunk and Egg books, is the son we can take the most from in terms of breaking down Maekar and his relationship with his children. We see that Egg can recount some of his father’s thoughts and words, like how horse’s aren’t that smart, which is funny because why of all things did you remember that. In the books when Egg and Dunk are in Dorne, which I believe we’ll see in season two of the show, they have an encounter where either a page or a squire (?) basically talks about how Maekar meant to kill his brother in order to begin knocking down the line of succession. This encounter alone is enough to enrage Egg, and I believe he attacks the other boy and defends his father openly. A child who was resentful of their family and more specifically his father, wouldn’t really be inclined to do that. We also know just by following along with their story, that Egg has this joyful and imaginative personality behind the curiosity that he leads with, as exemplified by Dunk catching Egg playing around on his horse in the first episode. We also see Maekar attempting to comfort Egg in the scene where he comes into the room with Aerion, and I think Egg glances at Maekar during the funeral scene, which the actor Sam Spruell did say they filmed a different take of that scene where Dexter as Egg attempts to take hold of his father’s hand, and Sam as Maekar pulls/swats the touch away. Egg is clearly confident enough to attempt to comfort his father or even self soothe himself with the comfort of his father’s hand, but Maekar in his grief and anger for the death of his brother, doesn’t allow that for himself.
It’s very clear to me that Maekar’s character is much more complex than what we’ve seen, and though I’m not entirely confident in my own portrayal of him, I do try to add that into his character arc.
I think Maekar losing Dyanna was enough to make him lose sight of the things he deserved in life, that being the comforts of someone else besides himself. In my story at least, Maekar sees wifey and is immediately struck by the fact that he feels drawn to her. It’s a love at first sight thing for Maekar but it wasn’t like that for Baelor.
Baelor loved wifey obviously, and though he was happy in her presence and felt compelled enough to ask for her hand without courting, it wasn’t the same scale in which Maekar was on. For Maekar it was quite literally immediate, this intense feeling that makes him do a double take on wifey because he hasn’t felt this way since becoming a widower. It’s best explained if you’ve read or seen any adaption of Pride and Prejudice, they’re almost entirely like Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, with the both of them being drawn together because they’re alike. Obviously Maekar has these insecurities about himself because there’s hardly anyone like him in his life, I don’t even think Dyanna and he were similar in those terms, but I think they got along because they had things in common and understood one another. Maekar’s just different in a sense, and so are his sons, which is by no means a bad thing, but it is harder to understand and unravel because they’re so complex.
With Baelor it’s a tad bit different because we get varying views of him all around. He’s complex to some people, and straight forward to others. I personally think he has his own complexities, but I also think he himself understands and accepts these complexities, and that’s why he was such a great man. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I think Baelor’s decision to remarry was centered on the fact that he wanted something brought about by romance, and wifey is taken by Baelor because he’s a spectacle in a way - think of Baelor and Maekar as being almost akin to Brandon and Eddard, with Brandon being constantly considered the better of the two of them.
The decision to make the request of betrothal happens so quickly because Baelor understands the fact that time is precious, he also understands that familial relationships are in of themselves, special. He tells Egg that although Aerion taunts him, he’s his brother, and he has to find it in him to love his brother. We also see by Valarr’s conversation with Dunk the kind of emotional connection Baelor had with his sons. Valarr approaches the conversation with him trying to understand why the gods took away his father and left Dunk. Some people could read Valarr’s reaction as malicious or bitter, but I see it as a direct reflection of the man Valarr and Matarys had to look up to. Valarr almost entirely acts just like his father, he has this almost apathetic look to him when he’s bored or biding his time, and when he’s in a state of vulnerability he doesn’t lash out like you think he would. You can tell Valarr has tears in his eyes in both the funeral scene and the scene between Valarr and Dunk, he’s not afraid to mourn his father, and we can tell by seeing the snippet of Kiera behind Valarr that there’s this sympathetic look on her face as she looks at Valarr. There’s an emotional feeling that comes off of Valarr very easily, and I think we can use this as a reference for how Baelor acts in private.
All of this is to say that I think Baelor and Maekar are much more emotionally vulnerable than they let on, and wifey has a radiance to her that drew both of them in. I’m not saying that wifey is different from other women in that she wasn’t throwing herself at the two conventionally widowed prince’s at the banquet, but there is a difference in how they approach her because of how they’ve perceived her. Obviously wifey has her own faults and flaws, and the next chapter is going to explore more of her confronting her own complexities as she’s already dissected Maekar’s.
The next chapter is going to be very emotionally and physiologically important to the core of their relationship, which is why I rambled and dissected the characters stated above lol.
What other details have you guys been paying attention to? I believe most of the hidden information has been pointed out, but if there’s something you want to ask me about, please do!
