Fanfic / The Fate of the Dowager Queen

The Fate of the Dowager Queen by ainzee is a House of the Dragon/Fire & Blood Peggy Sue fanfic, where Alicent Hightower is sent back in time from her death to the end of Rhaenyra's short and ill-fated marriage tour. Armed with the knowledge of what is to come should she force her children to fulfill her ambitions, Alicent seeks to avert her fate by rebuilding and maintaining her friendship with Rhaenyra and raising her children to be better people.

However, the more changes she makes, the more the world she once lived in becomes unrecognizable to her. Can she truly forge a better fate for her family, or are they all doomed anyway?

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Since he never got jilted by Rhaenyra, Criston Cole is a much nobler person than he is on the show and is loyal to all of the royal family, not just the Greens.
  • Thanks to Alicent's better parenting and Rhaenyra's influence, Aegon never grows up to be a Serial Rapist Royal Brat. He's loyal and devoted to his older sister, a Cool Big Bro to his younger siblings and nephews, and has a sincere desire to serve the kingdom and make his family proud.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Alicent makes active attempts to maintain her friendship with Rhaenyra, as her decision not to make Aegon king means the survival of her children depends on Rhaenyra's mercy. Thanks to this, she's privy to more of Rhaenyra's more vulnerable moments and insecurities, allowing more genuine bonding as opposed to a pragmatic connection, and they legitimately do become best friends again. After the Time Skip, they're all but raising their children together, and Alicent has become one of Rhaenyra's most valued advisors.
  • As Rhaenyra and Criston Cole never sleep together, they never have a serious falling out. Cole remains in love with her and willingly resigns from his position as her sworn shield after she gets married to Harwin Strong because he can't bear to see her with another man. This also has a waterfall effect in his treatment of her children, who now all idolize him.
  • Rather than a distant, secret love affair, Rhaenyra and Harwin Strong are married thanks to Alicent's meddling.
  • The Arranged Marriage between Jacaerys and Helaena goes through this time, and their interactions as children show them to be already very close.
  • Alicent's and Rhaenyra's respective children are so close that Aegon flat-out admits he sees no difference between his brothers and his nephews and treats all of them (and Helaena) as his younger siblings. Naturally, that makes him even less disposed to the idea of being king.
• Altar Diplomacy: As always.
  • Being allowed to keep her choice for a husband and a heart-to-heart with Alicent convincing her to take her duties as heir seriously means that Rhaenyra puts serious thought into her future marriage. Her first choice is Laenor because of the need to appease the Velaryons, but Alicent discourages the marriage since Rhaenyra is unlikely to get any legitimate heirs from Laenor. She instead pushes her towards Harwin since, while not as strong a candidate as Laenor, he's still a respectable choice and someone Rhaenyra is likely to get along with and have a happy marriage with. Ultimately, Rhaenyra/Harwin wins out.
  • With Rhaenyra no longer an option, the Velaryons start to seek out Jacaerys as a potential spouse for either Baela or Rhaena. While acknowledging that the potential marriage is the best choice politically, Rhaenyra prefers that Jacaerys marry Helaena instead, as the latter is likely to appease the Hightowers and head off a potential Succession Crisis. In addition, the match is pleasing personally because Jacaerys and Helaena are already close and the latter is the daughter of Rhaenyra's best friend. After some thought, Alicent decides to accept the match, wanting what is best for her daughter's happiness.
  • To appease the Velaryons, they arrange a marriage between Lucerys and Rhaena, giving them a claim to Harrenhal, and make Rhaenys Hand to the King.
  • Aegon's hand is one of the most sought through the land because many view him as Viserys's true heir and want to stake their own claim on the Iron Throne through him. It's for that reason that Alicent is tempted to just let him go unmarried since she has no desire to enthrone him as king anymore. Aegon himself has shown no real interest in marriage and wants himself to be king even less than Alicent does. In the end, when it becomes clear that marriage for Aegon is unavoidable, Alicent seeks out Rhaenys's advice in finding a bride for him that won't make him an unwanted threat to Rhaenyra's claim.
• Big Damn Kiss: Rhaenyra finally kisses Alicent at the end of Chapter 29.
• Big Sister Worship: Thanks to Rhaenyra and Alicent's reconciliation, the former took an active part in Aegon's upbringing. As a result, Aegon is very close to his older sister despite the age difference between them and actively hates the idea of usurping her right to the throne.
• Blood Knight: Daemon, as always. When the Small Council gets a report about a fleet of Velaryon ships getting into skirmishes off the Dornish shore, almost immediately everyone knows he's responsible and is just waiting for someone to say it out loud.
• Character Development:
  • Due to the traumas she's experienced in the original timeline, Alicent makes an active effort to avoid the mistakes she made in her past life. The two most poignant examples are her standing up to her ambitious father and ensuring that he could no longer be a corruptive influence, and trying to be a better mother to her children and ensure that they grow up to be better people.
  • Aegon started out as an unambitious layabout who is unsure of what his purpose is. When a rebellion in the Vale breaks out, however, he decides to step up and accompany Rhaenys in suppressing the rebellion. Rhaenys's tutelage causes him to become a more confident young man, culminating in him getting knighted by Joffrey Arryn.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Aegon. While he is still deadset on not inheriting the throne, he nonetheless feels lost as he's not sure what he wants to do with his life, finding his only exceptional talent to be dragon-riding. That's why Rhaenyra pushes Alicent to allow him to be given more responsibility, so he can find something to do that would let him settle down.
• Entertainingly Wrong: A combination of her sheltered and pious upbringing and sexual repression due to an unhappy marriage means that Alicent is completely blind to the truth of Rhaenyra and Laenor's marriage in the previous timeline — namely, that it was a sham and that Laenor was gay. Instead, she believes that Laenor was madly in love with Rhaenyra and that was the reason why he was okay with her having bastard children and passing them off as his. Even after Rhaenyra tries to subtly tell her the truth, she still doesn't get it, and it takes Lucerys openly and bluntly stating that Laenor has a "husband" at Joffrey's birth for it to finally sink in. The realization is, hilariously, earth-shattering to her.
• Everyone Has Standards: As much as she hated Rhaenyra for trying to pass off her bastards as trueborn heirs in the original timeline, Alicent shows sympathy for her when she learns that Laenor is unlikely to provide her any children if they marry. If that was the case in the previous timeline (which it was), then Alicent can only lament Rhaenyra didn't think to father her children with a man that could give them Velaryon looks instead.
• Hidden Depths: Alicent's thoughts reveal that while her primary reason for reconciling with Rhaenyra is to protect her children, it's also because she genuinely misses having Rhaenyra as a best friend. She has also never truly forgiven her father for ruining their friendship by forcing her to marry Viserys, which helps motivate her to engineer Otto's banishment from court.
• Implied Death Threat: At Rhaenyra and Harwin's wedding, Daemon and Alicent have a conversation regarding Aegon. Daemon notes that he had a little brother named Aegon as well, who died on the same day he was born. Alicent is quick to pick up on this veiled threat.
• Incompatible Orientation: Laenor and Rhaenyra, and really Laenor and any woman. Rhaenyra is willing to go through with the marriage regardless just to make the Velaryons happy, but is convinced not to by Alicent since she's unlikely to get any trueborn children out of the affair. Eventually, after Laenor runs off with Joffrey Lonmouth to Essos, Corlys and Rhaenys write him off as their heir entirely and decide to pass on Driftmark to Laena and her children instead.
• Innocently Insensitive: While dealing with an uprising in the Vale, Viserys suggests sending Daemon to put it down, due to his familiarity with the region. He is either ignorant or (more likely) deliberately oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of the Vale despises Daemon for his poor treatment of his late wife Rhea Royce. To say nothing of the (correct) rumors that he murdered her.
• In Spite of a Nail: Harwin and Rhaenyra named their first two children Jacaerys and Lucerys to emphasize their Targaryen lineage. Even without Laenor Velaryon's prompting, their third son is still named Joffrey.
• Love Triangle: An implied one between Alicent, Rhaenyra, and Harwin. Alicent is implied to have feelings for Rhaenyra that is she oblivious too, and it's suggested Rhaenyra may unconsciously return these feelings. At the same time, Rhaenyra and Harwin are Happily Married, but their relationship is slowly being strained due to the Unresolved Sexual Tension between Alicent and Rhaenyra, which Harwin is well aware of. It's later revealed that Rhaenyra has been in love with (or at least attracted to) Alicent for years.
• Mistaken for Romance: Alicent believes Laenor was in love with Rhaenyra in the previous timeline. In reality, they were really close Platonic Life-Partners, and Laenor was gay.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Aegon has this reaction after Rhaenyra tells him the tale of Aerea Targaryen, to emphasize what kind of danger he put Aemond and Rhaena in when he took them to Dragonstone to claim Vermithor and Silverwing.
• Open Secret: Laenor's sexuality. The entire court knows (which is probably why the Velaryons took Rhaenyra's decision not to marry him relatively well), including the Targaryen children. The only person who doesn't is Alicent (at least up until she's informed by an oblivious Lucerys), and that's more due to her sheltered upbringing and willful ignorance.
• Parental Favoritism: Downplayed compared to the original timeline. While Rhaenyra still remains Viserys's favorite child, his favoritism is much less blatant because Rhaneyra, Alicent, and their respective families are on good terms. More over, Rhaenyra herself provides more than enough affection for Alicent's children to make up for Viserys's lack of it, to the point that they seem more like her children than his.
• Peggy Sue: With the protagonist sent back being Alicent Hightower.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Jacaerys and Helaena's betrothal is made in part because the two are very close as children, which everyone hopes will translate to a happy marriage when they're adults. While the two don't pay much mind to it in the earlier chapters since they're still young, it's clear that they're a good match and already care deeply for each other.
• Point of Divergence:
  • One of the first things Alicent does is prevent Rhaenyra's excursion through a brothel house with Daemon, saving her reputation. This allows Rhaenyra to keep her maidenhead, as she never sleeps with Criston Cole out of Retargeted Lust, and the choice of her own husband, which lets her marry Harwin Strong, ensuring that all her children will be trueborn this time. This both ensures Criston never descends into villainy and heads off most of the issues that led to the Succession Crisis that caused the Dance with Dragons.
  • Rhea Royce dies much earlier than she did in the original timeline, the implication being Daemon murdered her earlier thanks to the after-effects of Alicent's intervention with his attempted brothel excursion with Rhaenyra. Alicent is distressed to learn about this, as it means Daemon is up to something.
  • Simon Strong similarly dies several years earlier, supposedly of illness. It's implied that Alicent believes Larys is responsible, but she only suspects and has no proof.
  • Viserys is notably in much better health here than in the original timeline. This is likely due to Alicent and Rhaenyra quickly mending the fence as well as the latter taking her responsibilities as heir seriously, which places less of a strain on his health.
  • Instead of Vhagar and Morning, Aemond and Rhaena claim Vermithor and Silverwing as their dragons, respectively.
• Practically Different Generations: Rhaenyra is fifteen years older than her next oldest sibling, Aegon. While explicitly addressed as their sibling, she's basically a second mother to Alicent's children and they treat her as much. At one point, Rhaenyra calls them "our children" to Alicent's face, without any protest from her best friend.
• Present Absence: Otto Hightower. He's dismissed from his position as Hand early on in the story, but his presence is still keenly felt in the Red Keep. Rhaenyra clearly hates him for forcing her best friend to marry her father and nearly causing the break in their friendship, and Alicent does not like to speak of him at all. Nobody is under any illusion he's ceased to be a threat despite his banishment back to Oldtown, and both Rhaenyra and Alicent are taking their own steps to undermine his plans.
• Promotion to Parent: Thanks to Viserys' lacking parental skills, Rhaenyra has more-or-less taken over as the second parent to her much younger siblings, as the Time Skip shows. She treats them no differently from her own children and all of them, particularly Aegon, look up to her as more of a parent than an older sibling. It's also shown that she basically has the same authority over them as Alicent and Viserys have.
• Running Gag: Baela has to correct others regarding a potential betrothal between her cousin Daeron Velaryon and insist that it's not her other cousin, Daeron Targaryen.
• Sadistic Choice: Early on, Alicent has to stop Rhaenyra from meeting up with Daemon at Fleabottom, which was the moment where their friendship fell apart in the original timeline. She soon realizes that by stopping Rhaenyra, she would also prevent the events that led to her befriending Criston Cole. While Alicent despaired at the prospect of losing her sworn sword and confidant, she goes through with her decision. This decision would eventually pay off years later, when Harwin, implied to be at Rhaenyra's behest, summoned Alicent's brother Gwayne to King's Landing so that Alicent would not be alone.
• Seers: In one of Helaena's dreams, she experiences the "Blood and Cheese" incident that broke her in the original timeline.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jace and Helaena have many moments together, which overlaps with a Perfectly Arranged Marriage since they are to be betrothed. The most notable moment the two have is on Helaena's birthday when Jace gets her a book on insects that he illustrated himself. Helaena is pleased with the gift and reads it in her own free time and at one point, she monologues how she would rather spend her time reading a thousand more books Jace writes than concern herself over the responsibilities of being queen.
  • There seems to be some Unresolved Sexual Tension between Rhaenyra and Alicent, with Rhaenyra flat-out telling Alicent in Chapter 25 that she's as important to her as her husband Harwin. It's confirmed Rhaenyra has feelings for Alicent when she kisses the other woman in Chapter 29.
• Shipper with an Agenda: Alicent is quick to ship Rhaenyra with Harwin, having the latter accompany them on Rhaenyra's tour and suggesting to Rhaenyra that she pick Harwin as her husband over the more politically viable Laenor. Of course, this is primarily to prevent Rhaenyra and Harwin from having an extra-marital affair and siring bastards, a conundrum that contributed to the Dance in the original timeline.
• So Proud of You: Years after his unwilling departure from King's Landing, Otto tells Alicent that his proud of the woman she's grown up to be. Despite having been banished because of her, he can't help but praise her cleverness, in a rather twisted way.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Since Rhaenyra never jilted him, Criston Cole is in a much better headspace during her wedding. This, in combination with Rhaenyra marrying Harwin instead of Laenor, means Joffrey Lonmouth never does anything to provoke him, sparing the latter's life. Laenor and Joffrey later run off to Essos together to help the former escape his responsibilities as the heir to Driftmark.
• Succession Crisis:
  • While Rhaenyra's position as heir is much more secure than it was in the previous timeline, there are still plenty of detractors who would prefer to have Aegon on the throne. Luckily, with Alicent having no desire to enthrone her son and Aegon himself having a very close relationship with Rhaenyra, the danger of that particular threat has decreased significantly. To help shore up support, Rhaenyra has Jaecerys and Helaena betrothed to make the Hightowers less likely to rebel.
  • The Velaryons still remain an issue, as Rhaenyra declines to marry Laenor, and then later declines to have one of Daemon's daughters betrothed to Jaecerys. This is appeased somewhat in having Lucerys and Rhaena betrothed to one another.
  • Another succession crisis occurs in the Vale when Arnold Arryn challenges Jeyne Arryn's succession as Defender of the Vale on the basis of the latter's gender. Rhaenyra vocally supports the Crown's intervention, because the rebellion would have implications for her own ascension should it succeed.
  • A minor case happens in Oldtown as well. Hobert Hightower had taken ill and is unlikely to recover, resulting in his son Ormund and brother Otto competing over who gets to rule Oldtown once Hobert dies.
• Transparent Closet: Laenor Velaryon and Joffrey Lonmouth. Aegon recounts meeting Laenor only once during Rhaenyra's wedding to Harwin, and notes that was all he needed to figure out Laenor was gay. Remember that Aegon couldn't be older than four at the time.
• Women Are Wiser: It is consistently shown that all of the important women in Viserys's life (Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, Alicent) are much better-suited to ruling than he is. He's well aware of it, and more than once wishes that Rhaenys had been made Queen like he feels she deserved to be. He does manage to correct at least some of the wrong by making her Hand to the King instead.

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