samwpmarleau:

nobodysuspectsthebutterfly:

Oh, speaking of the Dead Ladies Club, I know that term is generally reserved for the mothers of the main actors in current ASOIAF (and a few other Robert’s Rebellion-era female characters). But I’d like to honorarily include one more – Dyanna Dayne, mother of Aegon V Targaryen and Master Aemon and others, wife of Maekar Targaryen. Wrong generation, for sure, but Aegon is one of the main characters in the Dunk and Egg stories (and his brothers are important in the stories and very probably his sisters eventually), Aemon is a major character in ASOIAF, and this is all we know about their mother:

“You’re going to Ashford, aren’t you? Take me with you, ser.”
The innkeep had warned him of this. “And what might your mother say to that?”
“My mother?” The boy wrinkled up his face. “My mother’s dead, she wouldn’t say anything.”
He was surprised. Wasn’t the innkeep his mother? Perhaps he was only ’prenticed to her.

–The Hedge Knight

And again, we only found out her name in 2014, in the Targaryen family tree in The World of Ice and Fire. Dyanna of House Dayne of Dorne, married Prince Maekar of House Targaryen in ???, had four sons and two daughters, and died ??? some time before 209 AC, many years before Maekar became king in 221 AC. That’s it, we know nothing else.

Was Dyanna close to Queen Mariah Martell, her mother-in-law? What about her sister-in-law, Jena Dondarrion, considering Dondarrions are traditional enemies of Dorne? While she might have been pleased to marry a prince, what did she think about marrying a fourth son? What did she think of the First Blackfyre Rebellion, considering Daemon’s supporters were so against the supposed Dornish influence on the royal court? Did she know about her son Daeron’s dreams and her son Aerion’s madness, what did she think of them? How did she die? What did her sons and daughters think of her? Did they ever think of her, so many years later, when Aegon the Unlikely had become king of Westeros, when Aemon became a maester and then joined the Night’s Watch, when her daughters married and had children of their own? We just don’t know.

I’ve been rereading Dunk and Egg stuff for fic reasons, and this is a post (and issue) I just keep coming back to. This line, and Dyanna in general, is one of GRRM’s most egregious offenses when it comes to erasing women, in my opinion.

It’s even worse than poor Lyarra (“Lady Stark. She died” GOD) as far as I’m concerned, because we don’t ever have Rickard, Brandon, or Lyanna show up in the books, we barely have Benjen, plus Ned’s traumatized from all the other shit. The omission of so much as Lyarra’s name, let alone anything about her, is also horrific, but I mean–

We have Maekar. We talk to him, we see him in action.

We have Aegon, a thousand times over.

We have Baelor, we have Daeron, we have Aerion, we have Aemon, we have Valarr, we have Bloodraven, we have so many characters who would have known Dyanna intimately. Hell, we even have Eustace Osgrey, who is knowledgeable enough about Ulrick Dayne, who would have been related to Dyanna, yet still no mention of her. Dunk and Egg went to Dorne, yet STILL NO MENTION.

And the worst part is, that line is SO UNNECESSARY. What possible purpose does it serve?? Dyanna plays no part in any of the stories. Why was that line included? Why did she have to be killed off? Why did Aegon have to be so appallingly flippant about it? Why do we only have her name? A fact which I am absolutely certain we wouldn’t have at all if GRRM hadn’t had to make one up for the family tree.

The line could have been left out entirely and nothing would have changed. Or it could have been altered in such as way as to–gasp–give Dyanna some personality, like, “My mother used to run off too when she was my age, she’d have a laugh.”

There is no reason for her to have died, let alone died so early, and there is far less of a reason for not a single person to mention her beyond that one line, especially when THK centers around three of her children, her husband, and her brother-in-law. All the headcanons or fanworks in the world (and I have several) can’t ever make up for the fact that all GRRM has given us is her name and an early death.

It’s a goddamn travesty.