Okay, so here's the thing... I am a HUGE fan of Footsteps in the Sand. I love everything about it. I love the dialogue; I love that you include Ellaria in this (like my bisexual soul thanks you); I love the smut (like damn it's GOOD). But here's the thing, I... really (REALLY) don't like unhappy endings. I even look at the end of completed fics so I can avoid it. So, I feel bad, but a few comments you've made have got me concerned with how you'll end this story. So, you don't have to give me spoilers or anything, but can you please tell me if Footprints will end happy or not? Because I would like to know now if it does and I can protect myself. (I'm okay with drama and angst before the ending. I just like my happy endings).
Let me start by saying the most important thing: Footprints will end happily.
The fic itself will have closure and be complete in a happy and comforting way.
I understand how important Characters are to us. I have an example for you from my own personal experience:
I once read a fic in the Sons of Anarchy fandom that was a Tig Trager and reader fic. It was like 50+ chapters, it updated every week, and I loved it completely for over a year. ....he died very suddenly at the end in a motorcycle accident and the author had not warned anyone so it would be a "surprise". I was devastated. Legitimately broken. I sobbed. I moped for days. I told myself I was an idiot but I wasn't. These Characters mean so much to us and we trust authors to take us on a journey of escapism. I promised then that I would never do that to my readers, ever.
So, Footprints will end happily.
However, we all know what happens in canon. There will be an "Epilogue" to Footprints that ties it to the canon time line of Game of Thrones. It will not be necessary to read it to have the full story and it will stand on its own, but it will explore the AFTERMATH of Oberyn's fight vs the mountain on Reader and Ellaria, IF someone would be interested in such things. (Meaning I am not having Reader and Ellaria watch the fight and describe it... absolutely not) It will delve into their life with their children, in Dorne, in the war, without their Prince and how their love of each other keeps his memory. If this is something my readers do not want to participate in, then I understand COMPLETELY and by no means expect people to read it and am putting it out there as an artistic choice for the story I want to tell about love and growth. (I really hope that doesn't sound as pretentious as it looks typing it out haha)
My recent posts have been about how I have been headcanoning about many many many years in the future (like post final season of GoT) and how somehow, someway, the Lannisters convinced the reader to come back and gave her rule over a province in her family's name. Away from Dorne and possibly witnessing the aftermath of what the Mountain did to Oberyn for the first time, and having the Lannisters claws in her once again, she would become cold, reserved...and maybe even cruel. Her people are suffering and word reaches Ellaria who travels across the sea to come find you. She sees you on that throne and her heart is broken. I picture her on her knees, holding your hands, her voice cracking as she tells you how she misses her beautiful lioness. She longs for your kindness and warmth, and all the things that separated you from the rest of the Lannisters and made her and Oberyn fall in love with you in the first place...and you listen to her...
Because she's the only one who left alive that could give you back your heart...
(All of that came from this single fucking gif and I've been a wreck all night 👇)
