Chereads / House Of The Dragon-For The Queen, Not The Prince / Chapter 108 - Author’s Note: The Vision

Chapter 108 - Author’s Note: The Vision

Hello, dear readers. Before we continue on with the story, there are a lot of things I want to discuss. And I do mean a lot.

First and foremost, I would like to apologize on the drought. I am sorry for that, I have been busy with my Novel, life, and Monster Hunter World. Now that the grind is slowed to a stop, I have until February 28 to complete this story and "The Black Lord" all while working on my Novel, "Cursed As A Dragon God"

Now, onto the things I wish to discuss. I will find it difficult to structure this without going into a tangent, so here I go.

1.) Who I Am

- Now, lets make one thing clear here. I am going to be as polite and kind as possible here; We don't know each other. I don't know you and you don't know me. The only thing that keeps us together is that I am an Author and you are my readers. And that's all that matters, right? Yes, exactly that. You guys are my readers who enjoy my work. And guess what? I love you regardless. Why? Because you're my readers. This is an Author/ Reader relationship we got going on. Nothing more, nothing less. Strictly professional.

- That previous point is something I have to remind myself because of one thing; My Age. While I am a private person, I'll let you in on one fact about myself; I am an adult, 25 years of age.

- With that said, I immediately assume that everyone, from the authors of other works to readers of my own are either close to or the same age as I am. That is not true, obviously, as some people are significantly older than me or significantly younger than me. And that changes perspectives and context on anything.

- With age in mind, I would like to point out some things. The first is that I've been writing for a long time, more than 8 years. Now, whether or not that writing was any good is up for debate, but trial and error am I right? Also, with writing Fanfiction….obviously I would've read plenty, right? Yes, Ive read plenty of fanfiction. Mostly Anime but yes, Many many works have been read by mine own eyes. While they were good or bad, it doesn't matter, they've been read.

- Aside from Fanfiction, I've read a lot of books. Mostly fiction. And some Novels have made more impact than others. Notably, The Percy Jackson series. That said, I have a formidable amount of experience when it comes to fanfiction. Can't say I'm an expert or anything but whatever.

2.) Fanfiction: What's the deal?

- "fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc." is the definition that comes up when searching up "Fanfiction". Now there are many types of Fanfiction. Crossovers, AU, Smut, and etc. Personally I consider all Fanfiction to be AU, but that's beside the point.

- The Fanfictions that I've read always consist of OCs. Now, OCs are characters that are made up by the Fanfic author and are included in the story, whether as the MC or as side characters. Not many people enjoy OCs. I do, I think OCs are nice. It gives writers a chance to create and flesh out a character within the universe, the story they're focusing on.

- The fanfics I've read were not only OC stories, they were Fanfictions that followed the events of the Canon story. We'll get to that in a moment.

- When it comes OC stories, its essentially creating a character, inserting said character into the story, and using them to change things. Now, whether it's some things or a lot of things really depends on the author (ahem, ahem….). The OC, being not just an OC, but an MC, will essentially be in charge of making a change in the story that "loosely" follows the main story. Whatever choices they make or don't make must have some sort of valid reasons that make sense to the story the author is going for, not the Canon story (ahem….ahem….) of course, mistakes can be made. (Ahem...)

- As I've mentioned before, All Fanfics I have read follow the Canon story. They go Arc by Arc (Animanga Fanfics) and their OC makes some changes. As someone who was very young and whose mind wasn't that expanded as both a reader and writer, It was extremely mind-blowing to see a major change in Fanfic.

Exhibit A: In One Piece, Luffy is separated from the crew at Sabaody. He ends up in Amazon Lily and he decides to go save his brother Ace when he sees his Vivre Card fading. This is the start of the Impel Down and Marineford Arc (Peak). [SPOILERZ] Shit goes down in Impel Down and shit goes down in Marineford. (Whitebeadd Gigachad). At the end, Luffy fails and Ace dies (First ever depression-inducing anime character death).

In a fanfic I read, the OC had their own stuff going on, separate from the Straw Hats journey while the canon events happened in the background of that story. Eventually, she stumbles upon Marineford and because she has a connection to Ace, she is there. Or maybe she was up with Ace…I don't remember. Anyways, at the end of that Arc, Ace survives. And little ol young me was like "Whaaaaaaaa, you can do that?"

Yes. You can do that. It is a Fanfiction.

-must be kept in mind that the Canon Events were unchanged. They were tinkered with, but unchanged. Key moments in the story were left there with the OC inserted in the midst (Whitebeard's Gigachad Death, Shanks pulling up like a G, and Luffy receiving his scar) There is also inserting an OC at a pivotal point in the story, making it so that they are directly linked to whatever is referenced.

Exhibit B: In Naruto, The Uchiha Clan were wiped out by Itachi and Obito during the whole attempted coup. Yes, details and details, right? But ultimately, Sasuke was left as the sole survivor and last Uchiha. In the Fanfic I read, The OC was inserted to be the younger sister of Itachi and Sasuke, inserting her into Team 7 (don't ask me why).

So when I was reading it, I was like "Okay, interesting." And then I was like "Oh, teacher/student romance? And she's underage? How old is she? Tf, hell nah" so i got out of there.

- Which brings me to my next point. While I am used to not only reading fanfics that follow the canon but also writing it, I have no issue writing or reading complete AU overhauls. Im not conditioned to do so, but I am okay with it. Keep in mind that this "conditioning " took place 10 years ago and I have no proper English or literature education (college level at least) so my skill in writing is pure trial and error and taking inspiration from other talented writers far superior to myself.

- This is what I'm used to:

1. Canon Event 1 (with OC)

2. Canon Event 2 (with OC)

3. Canon Event 3 but the OC prevents tragedy.

4. Canon event 4 but OC can't prevent tragedy.

5. Canon events 5,6, and 7 are omitted and Fanon Event 1 begins.

6. Canon event 8 (without OC)

7. End of story, OC either lives or dies, idk.

- And this is what I am getting used to writing:

1. ERASE THE CHALKBOARD AND COOK YOUR OWN STUFF USING HIRO MASHIMA'S INGREDIENTs, FUCKBOY (Fairy Tail, first source I wrote a fanfic on)

- Now people do not fuck with complete overhauls (The Black Lord) so I stick with what I am used to. But despite that, it is possible to do overhauls that stay faithful to the canon story. It is a FANfiction after all.

- that said, there are two types of fanfic readers: those who like the story to stick to the flow of the canon, so they have a reference point and those who prefer an overhaul. The latter are in the minority, I believe (not here, not here though)

3.) Lunacia_Yujin, what's this guy's deal?

- Firstly, My username is the combination of "Lunacia" a character I've conjured for my original Novel (Will include her in Cursed as a Dragon God), and "Yujin" as in Ahn Yujin from IVE. (i will not be judged by you, kpop is my life, deal with it.)

- You can call me Author.

- as I said before, I've been writing for years and as time passed, my writing improved. Not the best, obviously, and I stick to the format that I mentioned earlier.

- I like sticking to canon flow by inserting my OCs. I can definitely deviate from the original and do my own thing, yes I can do that. We'll come back to this in a bit.

- I'm chill if you're chill. And if you're not chill, Ill still be chill….by ignoring you.

- that said, I can be a bit petty.

Exhibit A: The Yuri_Lover23 stories. I write smut, yes. Shameful, I agree but meh, who's gonna do something about it? Anyways, I write a story, I get to a point, I announce something, and people complain and begin to be rather unpolite.

What did I do? I gave them a drought.

I continued the story, and revealed something, they got rather unpolite once again, this time with steroids. What did I do? You guessed it, Drought.

Lets be civil.

-Now I don't think I've done it to you guys. The droughts were purely coincidental. And even so, I fed you guys good when I had the chance.

-Now, I don't claim to be a saint, a Mr.IDoNoWrong. I am an asshole, sometimes. But as long as we're chilling, we're chilling. Thats me. I am going to be nice as long as we're all nice.

- If you for any reason took a peek at my other account, you're going to see the whole petty replies and all that stuff. We'll come back to this later.

- I already said that I am conditioned to write fanfic a certain way. But the question is…..How does this noggin work? Well, its simple….but complex. One moment, I'm minding my own business and when suddenly, I get hit with an idea. Then, a week later, I got a story with half a million reads with nearly 50 chapters. I mean…..im just different I guess.

Now its much more complex than that. I mean, yea, I can come up with an idea and then go with it, pump out who knows how many chapters and take it from there. How do you think The Black Lord and this story came to be?

- I was just minding my business when I began to wonder what would happen if there was dragons during the GoT timeline. Then the gears began to shift and a couple hours later (I was at work when this happened), The Black Lord happened. Of course, I completely overhauled it but hey, What you gonna do about it?

- Same thing with this story. Aerion Targaryen was just some OC i came up on the fly and mentioned him on one of the Tour chapters in The Black Lord. Then I was like "Potential HoTD fanfic??" And everyone was like "Yes please". Obviously some changes were made at the start, retcons happened and all.

- But that's just how I am. I get an Idea and I go with it. And I can come up with an idea on the fly and just do a story, it doesn't matter. Even now, as I write this, I can think of 3 different story ideas that could be interesting. I mean it. Do you want me to say it?

Okay, if you say so.

1. Baeron The Dragonslayer: Takes place during the Conquest, Baeron Targaryen is the youngest brother of Visenya, Aegon, and Rhaenys. He's also known as the Dragonless because he doesn't want any dragon that isn't Balerion. He's called the Dragonslayer because he fought and killed a wild dragon on Dragonstone with his massive Valyrian Steel Greatsword (Guts Dragonslayer ;) )

2. Black Flames of Rebellion: Daemon Blackfyre is obsessed with a mighty warrior of the past, his Great-Grandfather. He claims that it is his birthright to take what he believed was The Mighty's, The Iron Throne. After several events, he comes across a secretive group that aids him in the Rebellion, which eventually fails due an unforeseen interference. (Oop....was this a potential Sequel to this story and a potential Prequel to the Black Lord???? Idk. ;) ) 

3. The Prince in The North: [Takes place after the Gross ending of the GoT show, ewwww]. Rickard Stark is the Son of Sansa Stark, the Queen of The North. After his 17th birthday, He receives a letter about a conflict Beyond The Wall, which involves his presumed-dead Uncle, Jon Snow. He then makes it his mission to find out the truth and discovers a threat far worse than the White-Walkers. (Idk, I'll pull something out of my ass)

- Will these stories happen? Idk. Can I make them interesting? Maybe. Will the MCs be "boring" like Aerion and Rhaegon? We'll get to that in a bit. 

- Basically, when I have a story Idea, I go to the AI Art site and cook up a cover.....once that is ready, I start my work. And when I have the first chapter readied, I publish it. And we take it from there. I envision where I will take the story, what I'll do with it, and how it'll end. 

It's basically like this: 

1. Beginning. 

2. ________

3. ________

4. ________

5. Cool Moment I thought of when I started

6. _________

7. _________

8.Tragedy I thought of when I started 

9. _________

10. End. 

- Those Blanks? Yeah, with me, it's about filling them out. And sometimes, I have to change some things. Yeah, it has happened in this story. A lot. Especially with the whole Daemon and Aerion situation. We'll revisit this topic later. 

- All in all, I have a Vision with my stories, especially this one and The Black Lord. "Trust The Process" Is something I tell my friends a lot. Whether it be related to what we're speaking of or whether it's when I'm doing some buffoonery in Destiny 2, it matter not. Trust The Process. I am something else when it comes to Writing. 

- Back to the Yuri_Lover23 stories, that's exactly how my most successful Fanfic started. One day, i was in the heat in my construction job, pissed off as hell when my mind just wandered to a story Idea. Now, I wanted to bring some big-time numbers and build a fanbase in some way. And well, Smut was in my mind at the time. And within the span of an hour, I thought of a Fairy Tail Smut. A Transmigration Sex System shit. So I said "Fuck It, we ball" And a year later, that story is at 5M reads with more than 300 chapters on Webnovel. Hey, it just happens. 

- And after that, I challenged myself. How so? Well, every week, I started a new Smut story. I wanted to see how long I could take it within a week and how much reads that story got. And well, let's just say that they did really well. A month later, two of those stories were at 1M reads at less than 30 chapters. (Crazy, I know). 

- "Well, Author, why not keep the momentum going with that?" Well, we'll address that later. Also, you can guess why, as I've mentioned I am petty. 

4.) Aerion Targaryen, What's the Deal? 

- For The Queen, Not The Prince is the Story of Aerion Targaryen. I mentioned how he was originally a random OC I came up with on the fly but his character took me a bit of thinking to get down. We'll come to this later.

- How did this story came to be? Well, The Black Lord. I already mentioned how I just came up with The Black Lord but why? Why did I decide to connect this story to the Black Lord. Because I like sticking two stories together into their own little universes that have references to each other. It's fun, I like it. And I am the Author. Read that again.."I am the Author." we'll come back to this later. 

- Aerion's entire character wasn't supposed to be what it is at first. Oh no. As you may or may not know, there was a Retcon. That Retcon was that he wasn't supposed to be married to Rhaenyra. Let's come back to this in just a bit. 

- A lot of people have made the observation that Aerion's purpose is to be Daemon's replacement. Yes. That is true. Why? Because I don't agree with Daemyra. It's weird. The dude watched her grow up. 

"But Author, so did Rhaenyra. She's older than Aerion by a lot." 

I admit, that's no different. But did Rhaenyra make any advances and create scandals with Aerion as Daemon did with Rhaenyra? Nah. 

- Aerion was supposed to be Daemon's son yes. He was meant to be Rhea's son, yes. He was also supposed to be abandoned by Daemon. All of that dynamic was intended. But was he supposed to be the Aerion he is right now? No. This is a topic that I will tackle in another Author's Note. 

- When deciding on Aerion's current character, one of honor and strength, I knew what that entailed. Aerion is loyal, honorable, and humble. Well, as humble as a dragonrider could be. He was intended to be vastly different, a whole different monster that was similar to Daemon. (Again, another Author's Note). But when I decided on Aerion The Mighty, The Gigachad that he is right now, I had planned out his entire character arc. And well, I won't spoil it. Soon, my readers, soon. 

"Why is MC so stupid? He is so useless, doesn't do anything, has no ambition." 

First, he's not stupid. Just because he was a quiet boy from a young age, doesn't make him stupid. (Before the Retcon, it was mentioned he was always quiet and that he never liked the spotlight). Secondly, he's not useless. Simply because he doesn't do something you would've wanted him to do, it doesn't mean he wasn't capable of doing it. Thirdly, not everyone needs ambition. We'll come back to that later. 

Exhibit A: During the "Incident" chapter, which I've already addressed, there were complaints that this chapter was simply me writing the incident with Aemond losing his eye and Aerion just standing there doing nothing. In the end, Aemond lost his eye and Aerion sided with Rhaenyra's children, despite many taking different sides and giving their biased opinions. 

I wanted to point out that this was a pivotal moment in Aemond and Aerion's relationship, which was alluded to prior to this chapter. And yes, I do admit, I am at fault for not fleshing it out. That's why I wrote a flashback in later chapters, highlighting how they got along. Aemond felt betrayed by Aerion, who was plunged into a situation that he had no control of; Marriage with Rhaenyra.

In the previous chapter, Aerion had made an Oath to Rhaenyra that he would protect her from any harm that the Hightowers might do to her, with the conspiracies and all that. Do you think that after telling his betrothed that he would not betray her trust, he would just side with Alicent's son and, in turn, with Alicent herself? Especially when they called Rhaenyra's boys bastards, the highest of Treasons. 

"But they are bastards." 

If the King tells you not to do something, whether or not he's right, you don't fucking do it or he'll punish you. This isn't modern America, there is no Free Speech, even if you're Targaryen. Even if you're a Queen. Viserys had warned Alicent to not speak of it any longer because the boys were in line for the Iron Throne. It doesn't matter how wrong it was and if the Greens had a point, The King's word is Law. 

As flawed as that is, Aerion abides by it. Why? Because he is a Knight. He's the Lord of Runestone, raised by the Knights of The Vale who are known for their honor and chivalry. He wasn't raised by Daemon or Viserys. One would've turned him into a spoiled fruit and the other would pamper him too much. Aerion was raised by Knights, he lives and breathes as a Knight, an honorable warrior who happens to be the best Dragonride, the pride and joy of House Targaryen. 

Exhibit B: The Petition. Vaemond walked up to the King himself and called Rhaenyra's boys bastards. Scene by scene, it was identical to the show. Only difference is that Vaemond was tricked by Daemon to demand a Trial by Combat. Once he did that, Aerion stepped forth and fought him, killing him with ease. 

"There are no changes from the actual Show/story" 

No. This one happened because I wanted to write it. "Because I am The Author." Sometimes I do things because I want to write it, man. It's that simple. 

In The Black Lord, Rhaegar mentioned this moment when he was challenged to a Trial. It was a little nod to that and I went through with it. Details, Details, and Details. We'll come back to this word. 

- Aerion is an ambitionless character in a GoT setting, yes. And guess what? So is Rhaegon, my other MC. Why? Well, that's simply because I don't like writing characters that go for the Iron Throne and seek power like it's the last thing they want. 

"Well, it's ASOIAF. It's a setting where you need to be filled with ambition. It's an eat or be eaten world. Any wrong move and it's game over." 

Well, not to a guy with a Dragon. You don't need to crave the Iron Throne when you have a Dragon, a castle, and riches from birth. That's Aerion Targaryen. I mean, yea, you could. But why? 

- Aerion has said that he was content with claiming Vermithor. That was all the ambition he wanted. He wanted to meet his Father, yes. But that burned away over time. all he wanted to do was to fly Vermithor over the Vale peacefully and just chill. That's all he ever wanted before Rhaenyra. He had planned to live a quiet life with his Moore fiance when they married and just live his life. But hey, Character Development happened. 

"Okay, so what's the plan with Aerion? You claim he's the most important figure in history according to your stories, so why's everything the same?" 

We're not there yet. Not there. We're at his War, The Dance of The Dragons. And speaking of the Dance....oh boy, there's a lot of stuff that I have to take out. For the sake of time. But ultimately, it'll end all the same. Trust me when I say this, you will come back to this and be like "Ohhh, that's what you meant."

"Details details details. What's the deal with that?" 

We'll get to that. 

I've just noticed that I've written so much by now. So I'll make a brief comment about the Daemon and Aerion situation. 

"Is it over? A scar and that's all?" 

No sir, it's not over. I had 3 major duels planned for Aerion and Daemon. The Tourney Match, The Dragonstone Duel (a proper duel overseen by everyone. fighting for Visenya.) and the resolution. The actual resolution. 

but because people were like "Oh....another Father/Son fight? Borrriiiiinggg.." I took that out and we got the disappointing "Scarring". 

But it's not over, far from it. The Father/Son beef is the main focus of this story. Some will connect the dots. After that is said and done, I will speak about what I had planned for Daemon Targaryen. But we'll get to that when we can. 

And this is Part 1 of Author's Note: The Vision. I have written too much for my liking. I'll get Part 2 cooked up next week or something, after 20 chapters hopefully. 

TLDR: There are 3 Stories planned for this continuity. This one, The Black Lord, and The Long Night. So let me cook, I got this. Details, Details, and Details. We'll discuss Details in Part 2.