ngl for a moment your new fic made me question if you still shipped baelor/maekar asdfghkkl
yes absolutely, they're my favorite akotsk ship but i really wanted to explore "realistic" grooming (fully aware that this is an extremely difficult and nuanced thing, especially given the context of the westerosi societal norms and targaryen traditions) and how baelor uses (and abuses) his power over maekar and specifically why. while also putting a lot of emphasis on the fact that a large part of that is a consequence of the different way they're treated by their mother and why.
myriah loves baelor a lot, not only because he is her firstborn but also because she sees the pressure that he has on his shoulders (him being othered and having to prove himself due to his appearance and simply due to being her son in the face of more valyrian-looking bastards) and she tries to alleviate that. and baelor himself, as a teenager/young man, is obsessed with the idea of being perfect in an effort to not create opportunities that would diminish his claim. but even though he truly does try to do everything for the benefit of the realm and his future as a king, he is also in love with and is grooming his little brother. and he is aware of that (him telling maekar to go and ask to be his quire instead of baelor asking himself is specifically due to this. baelor knows if he were the one to ask, it would raise eyebrows, and he would basically "leave a trail" of evidence that directly ties him to keeping maekar) and he is terrified of people finding out because he realizes that what he is doing is not acceptable
and because baelor's approach to the world is from the point of a noble future king and because myriah is already deeply concerned about people possibly trying to dismiss his claim, the fact that baelor compromises his engagement and his image by grooming his brother to myriah just doesn't align with the idea of her firstborn that she has in her head. therefore, everything must be maekar's fault
also, the extremely sad thing is that baelor does love maekar (the idea of love, of course, open to debate in this context, but let's say that at least he believes that he loves maekar) but in the end, he, like myriah, only destroys and betrays maekar, and baelor does it in an effort to protect himself, and it is because he believes that as the heir, his own feelings and his image are more important than maekar's in the grand scheme of things.
additionally, on the topic of him truly being in love with maekar and wanting to engage in valyrian traditions, the big reason why he doesn't is not only because of the larger societal expectations of him as the heir, but because of the expectations of their mother. she is his biggest supporter and defender and in his mind choosing maekar (to bring him to dragonstone, to spend his life with him, to even possibly throw away the arranged engagement) would risk losing the support that he already has and it would risk disappointing her, and at the end of the day he is still her child and wants to please her. moreover, throughout his life, very few times has he been in a situation where maekar wouldn't do as baelor suggests, so he thinks that he would have an easier time hurting maekar and then getting his forgiveness than ever having mother forgive him for potentially breaking the engagement with jena
also a large part of this fic is that in private with maekar alone baelor does act on his feelings, but in public and with virtually everyone else, he acts on the expectations of him, and there is a large dissonance between those two things
but also the reason why none of this is in the fic is because i wasn't interested in possibly "justifying" grooming, i wanted to present the horrifying consequences of grooming
okay sorry for the yap but i have thought about this a lot. so to answer, i do ship baekar, A LOT, but the fic is Nuanced
