FIC

[lodessa]

Title: Carthage
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
Characters/Pairings: Lyanna/Rhaegar, Ned, Robert/Lyanna
Word Count: 1708
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Regarding the Westernosi equivalent of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Notes: Written as a pinch hit for my asoiaf_equinox fic exchange for alyxbradford. sainfoin_fields scanned it for errors even though she has not read the

Comments

[girlupnorth]

I really like what you did here. At the beginning, you have the reader (ie, me) thinking that such motivation and development really makes sense - and then you turn it around with revealing that it was all because of a potion, and that also makes sense.

Your fic reminded me of two things - first, the mystery behind the death of Prince Rudolf of Austria, and second, more obviously - Tristan and Isolde. It was really interesting to read a story in which the potion is taken not by a mistake, but because of scheming of a third part.

Really good job. Terribly sad towards the end - perhaps even a little sadder than I usually like them - but really good.

[lodessa]

Thanks. It's always tricky to pull off making sense both ways and I was worried that the reveal was too rushed. When I started thinking about writing this fic, it was going to be just a straight doom and fate feeling, but I found it too gaudy in the end and had to change things up a bit. Plus, I've always said Tywin Lannister was responsible for the war.

That's a totally intriguing historical mystery and I can definitely see the connection. I find it especially interesting that I also had a European royal death in mind when I described the story as well.

Like Tristan and Isolde... it's sort of hard to write about Rhaegar and Lyanna without it being sad.

[girlupnorth]

I was worried that the reveal was too rushed.

No, quite the opposite - I felt this was very well paced. There were enough hints on the way to give you a stop, but not too much to reveal the truth too early.

I've actually never thought about Tywin Lannister as the mastermind behind the first war... But it's an interesting thought.

We could probably draw quite a lot comparisons between the Targaryens and the Habsburgs - for one, the Habsburgs also had this insanity going on in the family, if I remember correctly.

[lodessa]

That was my hope.

Well think about it this way. If Tywin hadn't been too ambitious to go along with his wife's plan to marry Cersei and Jaime to Oberyn and Elia then Rhaegar would not have been married to Elia, he could have married Lyanna and Robert could have done nothing but sulk. So on one level it is his fault, whether he planned it or not... but I think it's more than that. Tywin was pissed off at the Targ's for rejecting his daughter and stealing his son. The Lannisters financed the revolution for the most part, and no one benefited as much from it as they did in the end. Robert got to be king but he was ill suited to it and it never really seemed like he wanted it either. The Lannisters did want to get on the throne and they very much succeeded.

I think you are right about that. It would be an intriguing discussion.