What do you think of Stark x Dayne ships like Eddard x Ashara or Edric x Arya? I kinda find them more interesting than NedCat and Gendrya to be honest.
Another ask unanswered for ages.
Used to be a fan of "arranged marriage" fic tropes, but the asoiaf fandom cured me.
The whole point of it as a trope is it is meant to be rare, a surprise - a delightful one. It's meant to be against the odds. Which you can say NedCat sort of is? But this fandom (literally never encountered this anywhere else) made it into a must-be-or-else-obligation that characters in an arranged marriage are EXPECTED to make it work. Like, that's not the "arranged marriage trope" which is fun because it is some wistful ideal. That's... the actually (more often than not) fucked up concept of real arranged marriages in a land without women's rights or divorce.
There's times when something actually nice or passionate about NedCat is pointed out. And I think, "yeah, no, it IS kind of the good kind". But then the emphasis comes back to them being admirable for playing the "good" feudals about it as one SHOULD, and the focus instantly shifts in my mind of all that's fucked up in their white picket fence pretend as a result (noncon "bedding" on both sides, resentment built on power imbalance, etc).
So, while I don't like stuff I encountered when people try to make NedxAshara happen (like one fic I used to read was way off about Catelyn and made her into a caricature), they are a sweet idea.
As a liker of Lyanna, and approver and understander of her choices, though I do not (longer) personally care to actively ship it myself, I do still like what Gendrya stands for, ultimately. Because Gendry IS a lot like Robert, he DOES have a lot of his flaws (hard-headed, grudging, etc), but he's... not a pampered man-child. Gendrya (moreso Arya returning the fancy) points a finger at Robert and says "It was YOU". It was Robert being a self serving lordling of a spoiled brat who got all he wanted all his life and starts stomping his feet and gets violent with everyone and anyone when he doesn't.
Of course it's a whole different turn of leaf when Gendry, who's worked since childhood for his bread and saw the world as it was, acts proud about his beliefs and claimed principles. Atta boi, only one has a leg to stand on.
Ideologically, Gendrya works.
But Arya marrying into a Dornish family sure has its boundless appeal on its own, not gonna lie. Issue with young Edric where that is concerned is that (ship wise) beyond projecting some of that wistfulness and the wistfulness of the NedxAshara vibe (that they do not fit imo) is it requires a lot of fanon to make something of the very little fleshed out Edric. He just sounds like a naive kid. A sweet one. But not particularly complex (hence interesting) nonetheless.
