Seriously thank you for giving Lya and Rhaegar’s relationship the weight they deserve. Lmao I don’t know why its so hard for some to understand he did not love Elia as a man loved his woman/wife. He loved Lya as a woman and Lya is the woman the man craves and loves. From what I got in the story Rhaegar and Elia were King/Queen. Lyanna and Rhaegar were man/woman, husband and wife and he did not even sleep/have intimacy with Elia like he did with Lya.
Ciao nonny! Thank you for your take, I do think that many focus on the crystallised version (which we don’t even know the half of) of the whole Rhaegar/Elia/Lyanna.
Like R+L super fans are focused on Rhaegar burning every bridge to be with her etc… but they often don’t see how he is willing to hurt her. He has isolated her from her family, caused her a great deal of distress — half her family dies because of their actions — and he leaves her alone, pregnant, grieving and possibly very scared to go off and fight a war he thinks he will win solely based on the fact that he believes in the prophecy.
In canon obv. Yet even this is just a version of what could have happened. Jaime in the books has nightmares about Rhaegar confronting him on not protecting his wife and children, whom he left in his care. And many Elia/Rhaegar fans might even believe that he pursued Lyanna only to spare Elia the risk of another pregnancy as he is convinced the dragon needs three head.
As we will possibly never see in the canon Rhaegar POV all that remains us is debating upon the slivers of text we have about them.
What I personally wanted for this story was showing how Rhaegar and Lyanna could develop in a real context. Rhaegar own reasonings we will see in the prequel.
As I am a fan of complicated and interesting dynamics these three were perfect to evolve.
Yes.
Elia and Rhaegar were king and queen — and I think some way Rhaegar could see no one as queen but Elia so long as she was alive — and they loved each other; arguably Elia loved him more than Rhaegar loved her, but she also focused on her children and trying to defend their claim.
In my story the prophecy, magic, the dragons… they are all allegories of something and I don’t want to divulge more to avoid being spoilerish.
So yes, Rhaegar might have believed in the prophecy and — as many man have done before — he might have fallen in love with someone different than his wife (especially since it was a match of convenience though there was fondness and love between them) and that woman is Lyanna (who at the time was a girl, and yes we will dissect that too).
In the end. Elia was his queen. Lyanna was his woman.
He loved Elia and did not wish her ill. Despite following his basic ego and motives he respected her — until it meant foregoing what he believed the prophecy to be about (because he is still a medieval man, with his superiority complex on women and his superiority complex on his peers because he is a Targaryen, the dragon prince and yadda yadda).
He was in love with Lyanna. She was the woman from whom he sought passion and understanding, and comfort, even though he had not a qualm about her comfort (remember he issued the order that her family was to be disposed of if they attempted to reach out to her via land and ensured she was isolated from the North so that she would not leave him).
As Lyanna herself said, he was the love of her life. He is the love of her life even now that he is dead; and even though she both loves and hates him equally; she loves him beyond her hatred for him. She loves him enough that she could love him, and offer him comfort upon his deathbed even after all the debacle about Jon’s stint in the Black Cells.
But how does Elia fit in this? She’s the mother of his two children — the only ones that are trueborn as much as the Realm is concerned so far — and his legal, wedded and bedded wife. His queen.
Honestly.
Rhaegar did them both dirty. Both his queen and his woman. Yes. Rhaegar would run to Lya, every time it mattered as a man.
When Cersei drugs him with aphrodisiac he runs to Lyanna; completely ignores her… but Elia was also dead by then.
So who is to know what would have happened if she had been alive? My own canon?, he would have run to Elia.
Because he trusted her to keep him safe and sane, he would not run to Lyanna because — as Lyanna tells us — their relationship had somewhat soured and was yet sour after the whole debacle about Jon and she would have refused his advances though she kept him safe because she loved him and understood him.
Knowing this, Rhaegar would have attempted to spare Lya this, and would have instead run to Elia, knowing Elia would understand. That he would demand from Elia more than he already had and she would ensure he did nothing stupid.
I think that is love too, between man and woman, just different than what he shared with Lyanna that was shaped a great deal also by Lyanna’s determination to remain by his side.
Elia was the woman he could not look in the eye after what he had put her through, his wife and queen. Lyanna remained steadfast in her love for him and that would have endeared her even more to him.
So in part yes. Elia was his queen and his wife, but not his woman in the way Lya was. And at the same time, Lya could never be what Elia was to him, and I think part of the problem between the two women laid there.
Lya was a girl enamored with a prince and in a way always remained that; even though their relationship matured.
Elia was the queen to his king. An equal who could look down on him and yet never did.
So yes, all of this to say that… it’s complicated and I love it for that.
Hope you have a wonderful day! All the love ~G.
