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A Young Woman's Inevitable Dance of the Dragons

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A Young Woman's Inevitable Dance of the Dragons is a crossover fanfiction between The Saga of Tanya the Evil and A Song of Ice and Fire by Failninja, where Tanya is reborn in her third life as the daughter of Viserys Targaryen and Aemma Arryn, with the timeline being a composite of House of the Dragon and Fire & Blood.

The story can also be found in Archive of Our Own (here).


A Young Woman's Inevitable Dance of the Dragons contains examples of:

  • Abusive Parent: Otto sees his daughter as nothing but a pawn for his ambitions and doesn't care that he's driven her to extreme paranoia over the non-existent threat of Rhaenyra executing her and her children upon her ascension to the throne nor does he care about the problems he's been putting on her plate since he made her marry Viserys.
  • Adaptational Badass: Ziggzagged and implied with Tanya. While she is still no where near as magically powerful as she was in her home series, it’s heavily hinted that she both has more magic, and is also more capable of utilizing it as Elaena in this story, than she is as Myrcella in her own. While Myrcella notes that she only has a limited pool of magic that gradually increases, but still runs out quickly, Elaena is implied to be using magic for hours straight to help deliver the births of many of her younger family members. However, while as Myrcella the details about her limitations to use her magic without an orb are explicitly revealed, how skilled Elaena is can only be inferred thanks to the story being told from other’s perspectives.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • Thanks to having a consistent and competent parental figure in his life, Aegon is almost completely devoid of all of the behavioral problems that made him a Hate Sink in the show. He still has a temper, but he actively attempts to keep it under control.
    • Zigzagged with Aemond. He’s still as prideful, haughty, and mean as he is in canon, and as he avoids the eye-for-an-eye incident, he doesn’t experience his mother fiercely defending him; causing him to look down on her. But he greatly admires and respects Elaena, and tries to emulate her politeness and diplomacy. It’s also hinted he may be developing a sister-complex because of her.
  • Always Second Best: Aegon is regularly surpassed by Aemond in many things, from their studies to their training, despite being the older brother. It’s only due to Elaena's teachings that it's not affecting him worse than it would have.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Unlike Failninja’s other crossover, this story is told entirely from the perspective of the people around Tanya, rather than Tanya’s herself. It’s thus an open question just how much she truly understands the familial-divisions that exist around her, and can potentially lead towards civil war, and her exact views on individual people; or if she’s once again horribly misjudging things due to her classic miscommunication and assumption problems. It’s also heavily implied Elaena is using magic, but how much she has, and what precisely she can do with it, especially in combination with a dragon, is also never elaborated.
  • Assassin Outclassin':
    • Jessamyn Redfort had sent some goons to either intimidate or kill Garland Grafton but Elaena discreetly dispatched them before anything could happen.
    • Otto and Larys send assassins to kill Laenor after Laena gives birth to a third daughter. He is able to fend off one despite being hungover, and Elaena arrived in time to kill the rest of them.
  • Association Fallacy: Jon Roxton thought that Elaena may have slept with some of her suitors solely because of Rhaenyra's reputation.
  • Babies Make Everything Better:
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Laenor is normally rather mild-mannered, but he becomes heated and forward whenever Daemon antagonizes Elaena. People around him take that to mean that the Dark Storm is roused, which gets even the Rogue Prince to back off. This has since expanded to people being wary where her well-being is concerned for fear of what Laenor might do.
  • Beyond the Impossible: Elaena managed to get Viktoriya to fly over The Wall despite the dragon's reluctance, which Queen Alysanne was never able to do with Silverwing.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Targaryens, unsurprisingly. Half of the family split along matrilineal lines is plotting to kill the other and vice versa, while King Viserys remains oblivious to the brewing catastrophe.
  • Blasphemous Boast: As Aemond grows increasingly disdainful of the faith of the Seven (and all religion in general), he dismisses any occurrence as a result of divine will. At the squire’s tournament at Golden Tooth, he declares his victory isn’t due to any blessings of the Warrior, but solely his own skill, and rejects being made a knight as he won’t kneel and take vows to anyone but the king.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Rhaenyra’s POV frequently show she’s intelligent enough to navigate Westeros politics, but as her main pursuit is her own pleasures, and she assumes being her father’s named heir, and the Black’s martial power, will make her authority absolute; she doesn’t make any active attempt to prepare herself for the Iron Throne, and often fails to consider any negative consequences to her choices. It's to the point that when she speaks out against Daemon’s desire to further conquer Essos, by pointing out the numerous political and military problems, Daemon calls her out as just repeating someone else's words (it was Elaena). When Viserys personally arrives in Tyrosh to put a stop to Daemon's plan, he himself realizes Rhaenyra isn't making herself worthy of rule, and forces her to live with and be taught by Jeyne Arryn, in order to shape up.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Almost literally. After Rhaenyra’s rejection, and discontent at the Iron Throne’s economic reforms, Jason Lannister deliberately sets up Elaena’s visit to Casterly Rock for her marriage tour to be as unpleasant as possible, while maintaining Plausible Deniability. Elaena figures it out almost immediately, and tolerates things when they stay the level of petty annoyances (being paired with a noble with body odor, being put in a room near where music is playing loudly all night, etc.), but sabotages Jason’s effort when the scheme escalates to attempting to damage her public image.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Daemon has offended so many people that he has to be reminded that the Vale hates his guts after all the insults he's heaped upon the kingdom and his dead former wife, Rhea Royce.
  • The Chessmaster: It’s implied Elaena is this, as she strives to endear herself to as many members of the family as possible, so that both factions view her favorably, and is using her close relationship with Viserys to enact her own agenda.
  • Choosing Neutrality: While Elaena supports Rhaenyra's claim to the throne, she doesn't side with the Blacks as she takes great umbrage with Rhaenyra's hedonistic lifestyle. That said, she's not on the Green's side either. This is represented by her wearing a silver dress in public events. Despite this, Daemon believes she's with the Greens. Otto initially tries to convince Alicent to sway Elaena to support them, only to mistakenly believe Elaena supports the Blacks.
  • Devious Daggers: Elaena can wield knives just as well, if not more so, than Myrcella can in her own series.
  • The Ditz: King Viserys is revealed to be partially this in his POV scenes. He can’t immediately recall the name of Elaena’s dragon, doesn’t bother knowing the name of the maid who fell down the stairs with Elaena despite his concern for her well-being, and even forgets that his own son Aemond is present during a conversation till the boy speaks. It all comes off as due more to absentmindedness rather than callousness.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Almost no one realizes that Elaena is more interested in maintaining the peace within her family and is the "Dark Storm" everyone credits Laenor for, and is a de-facto Black only because she respects the rules of obeying a king’s explicit command, and on the condition that Rhaenyra abstains from kinslaying.
    • Thanks to Elaena’s influence over Viserys, her refusal to solidly declare for any faction through their colors, and her willingness to pursue policies that would be genuinely beneficial to House Velaryon, while not being as easily swayed as her father, Otto Hightower not only comes to view Elaena as a Black, but believes Rhaenyra is the true brains behind everything Elaena does.
    • Conversely, Daemon has no idea that Elaena is the reason Viserys was convinced to let him return to King's Landing, and believes Elaena is a Green because Otto is (begrudgingly) working with Elaena on policy compromises with Elaena's efforts to retain concessions beneficial to the Blacks being lost on him. This is on top of him constantly antagonizing Elaena who, it must be restated, is already committed to defending Rhaenyra's right to the throne (the irony only redoubles when he plans for Laenor to dispatch Elaena in the event of war).
    • Even as Elaena is old enough to start looking to marry, Rhaenyra believes her sister is very delicate and sensitive to any act of death or murder that takes place anywhere in her vicinity. Laenor nearly chokes upon hearing Rhaenyra’s impression of her sister.
    • After Laenor (who is following all of Elaena’s instructions) declares Tyrosh as the masterminds behind his assassination attempt, and presents a plan that would see the Free City conquered in a single night using modern blitzkrieg tactics, Larys comes to believe Laenor is both a military and political genius, and thus the actual true power in the Black faction.
  • The Dreaded:
    • Laenor is this to all potential foes after he was credited with pacifying the Stepstones, owing to the sheer brutality it was done with. In turn, Elaena is this for Laenor, as he knows her to be actually responsible for humbling the Triarchy and Dorne and is unnerved with how she could do all that but still act as a perfectly demure princess.
      • By chapter 36, the reputation of the Dark Storm has grown to the point where he is able to treat with Prince Qoren without accepting guest rights and expect complete safety as, after the story spread of him killing his assailants with his bare hands and nonchalantly surviving a Perfect Poison, the Dornish figure that they have no chance to take him even when he's surrounded by soldiers led by the Sword of the Morning. When Elaena confirms from him that he really didn't send assassins, she offers to interrogate the suspect Dornish lords and to shift the blame to Tyrosh and, even if that's a violation of Dornish sovereignty that he doesn't want to allow, he ultimately relents, partly to avoid the devastation that Elaena promises will befall Dorne itself, but also because the Dark Storm has them over a barrel.
    • Daemion Velaryon finds out that Lyman Beesbury has this kind of reputation in Qarth. When he gets kidnapped by pirates, he gets rescued by one of the Thirteen, who apologizes and gives compensation in treasures because he doesn't want to bring the Master of Coin's wrath down on the city.
      • After the Westerosi conquest of Tyrosh, the Qartheen share to a gathering of Essosi notables that Lyman, known to them as the Arcane Apiarist, is a sorcerer who may actually be the true power behind the Dark Storm.
  • Enemy Mine: Rivals for Elaena's hand in marriage though they may be, Kevan, Baldric and Medrick all cooperate to defeat Daemon after hearing what the prince did to Alan and Forrest on Dragonstone.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Par for the course of a Youjo Senki story, almost everyone is quite off-base in their assumptions and conclusions when it involves Elaena. See the entry for Dramatic Irony above for some of the most prominent examples.
  • Evil Is Petty:
    • After Elaena judges Cole to have defeated Daemon in their tilt, by which she looked at their lance placement, her uncle decides that he needs to avenge this affront to his pride by physically harming his young niece in the celebratory feast. It is also implied that he used his contacts in the city watch to spread salacious rumors about her, though it fails due to having underestimated Elaena's popularity with the smallfolk.
    • Daemon forces all of Elaena's final suitors to duel him with live steel, despite him having a clear advantage with Dark Sister and them not even having their own personal harnesses, deliberately injuring Alan and Forrest because he just doesn't like her or any of them. He calls Hamish a coward for not fighting and insults Baldric when the latter defeats him.
  • Exact Words: The maegi that Daemon consulted about Laenor's health said that his recovery would require a life for a life. Elaena had put a dragon egg next to the Dark Storm when she was healing him, one that Rhaenyra noted was stone when she took a look at it much later.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Because Elaena prefers that no one knows that she joined the war against the Triarchy, Laenor is credited with bringing the Stepstones to heel, slaughtering the Triarchy's troops by the thousands and bringing their leader's head to the gates of Tyrosh. For this, he is dubbed "The Dark Storm".
  • False Flag Operation: The Dornish assassins that attack Laenor are actually indeed from there but they weren't sent by Qoren Martell or any of his lords. They're Otto and Larys' catspaws who were to either get rid of the Dark Storm, which would make things easier for the Greens later, or at least the attempt would implicate Dorne and give an opportunity to bleed the Blacks.
  • Freudian Slip:
    • When Viserys hears that rumors are being made that Elaena is having sexual relations with one of the Knights of Victory, he’s so outraged he almost instantly proclaims how she’s nothing like Rhaenyra. While he consciously stops himself at the last second, it’s a strong indication that deep down he knows full well what the first princess is like, and the true origin of her first three sons.
    • Upon Elaena visiting her younger brother Daeron during his fostering with the Hightowers, the young prince almost calls her ‘mother.’
  • The Generic Guy: Among the suitors, Ser Medrick Manderly doesn't have anything particularly outstanding about him. The rest of the family didn't really have anything to say about him and his polling among the readers was the lowest.
  • Glory Seeker: Aemond wishes to put his name down in the history books for doing something grand and to future generations ponder about his actions.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Elaena and Laenor have this dynamic when they treat with Prince Qoren to try and prevent war between their nations. While she mostly presents herself as the velvet glove to the threatening fist of the Dark Storm, the Devil of the Rhine leaks out when she tears down the claims of Dornish dragon-slaying prowess and threatens the kingdom with annihilation, courtesy of Daemon.
  • Graceful Loser: The finalists who weren't selected by Elaena may not have gotten her hand in marriage, but they came away from the selection process with gifts, new friendships, along with networking with the bank, the royal family and other prominent lords. Forrest is notable considering that he's been rejected twice now, but still holds no hard feelings.
  • The Hedonist: Rhaenyra primarily concerns herself with the lover's circle she amassed for herself, which involves Harwin Strong, her uncle Daemon, and her cousin Laena. Elaena is not happy about this and even lambasts Laenor when she realizes their firstborn son is actually Harwin's, believing Rhaenyra's actions only hurt her standing and lessen her chances of succeeding Viserys.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Lord Lefford initially didn’t have a good opinion of Elaena and her ideas when she and Kevan were first engaged. He’s later shown being an ardent supporter of the Knights of Victory, by the time Elaena and Kevan have their first born son, likely due to all the wealth Elaena has helped bring.
  • Heroic BSoD: Viserys goes through one when he becomes informed that Elaena was in a nearby room at the time of a seeming Dornish assassination attempt on Laenor. When he snaps out of it, he immediately reverses his course to proceed with caution, and calls for the majority of the seven kingdoms to prepare for war; giving Daemon overall command.
  • How They Treat the Help: Elaena is beloved by the smallfolk of King's Landing. This started from small acts like generally treating them with human decency, to saving a handmaid from physical harm and royal reprisal when a young Aegon threw a tantrum, to regularly patronizing the works of the city's artisans and networking with them, up to giving them grand opportunities for upward mobility with the Knights of Victory and offering the services of the Dragon Bank to wealthier merchants and guilds. She became so well-regarded that when goldcloaks started spreading rumors that one of her Knights of Victory took her maidenhead, angry citizens murdered them for daring to slander her virtue.
  • Hypocrite: Despite always having some kind of attraction to Daemon, and openly pursuing sexual relations with both her uncle and her cousin Laena, Rhaenyra becomes increasingly jealous of Harwin showing affection to his wife Lyra. Rhaenyra has also referred to Alicent as a whore, while being the absolutely last person that should be using such an insult.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Lyman Beesbury, Lord of Honeyholt and Master of Coin, is an old man with grown grandchildren though Elaena had no problem striking a friendship with him before she even reached double digits over monetary policy and the Dragon Bank is their joint project.
  • Internal Reveal: Jacaerys learns in chapter 23 that he and all his siblings are actually bastards.
  • Jurisdiction Friction:
    • After Elaena reviews the Iron Throne’s bookkeeping policies, and discovers how vulnerable the system is to theft and fraud, Viserys enacts several economic reforms upon her suggestions; one of the major ones being subjecting the noble houses to a random audit by the Iron Throne. This initially causes a lot of objections from the nobility due to claims of heavy-handedness, and openly questioning their honor. When Viserys refuses to change his mind, they quickly subside for what is heavily implied to be fear of being caught defrauding the crown.
    • The establishment of the Dragon Bank, while an overall net positive for the Seven Kingdoms, is seen by some lords as encroaching upon their rights (specifically, the right of pit and gallows) when Elaena and Lord Beesbury propose to allow major depositors and loan-holders to appeal judicial cases involving them before the crown, specifically because the crown has a stake in their fate. After some discussion, a compromise is made to limit this only to nobility.
    • Being from opposing sovereign nations, Qoren tells Laenor that he cannot allow the Velaryon knight to interrogate his lords on the matter of the attempted assassination. Being that it's the Dark Storm, Dorne's prince has no choice but to let him do so anyway.
    • The Waywardens were established to deter banditry on Westeros' main roads, but some lords that don’t have land along those routes have complained that it's caused banditry to flare up in their territories.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Rhaenyra and Laena don't think particularly clearly when it comes to Daemon, often making excuses for his boorish actions.
  • Loved by All: Elaena is exceedingly popular with the smallfolk, so much that when the City Watch starts spreading malicious rumors that Elaena was spoiled by one of the Knights of Victory, the smallfolk formed a lynch mob. While she has her detractors and enemies in her house and extended family, most of Elaena's relatives adore her, with Alicent's children preferring her over their own mother.
  • The Medic: Elaena secretly serves as this for her family, as she regularly mitigates Viserys’ illness so he doesn’t deteriorate as quickly as he did in canon, and always attends every time a family member goes into labor to ensure both mother and child survive.
  • Mistaken for Gay: It’s implied Elaena believes Criston Cole’s brutal beating of Joffrey during a tournament is because he’s in love with Laenor and jealous of their relationship.
  • Mythology Gag: After false rumors of her having trysts like Rhaenyra are discovered, Elaena uses the same method as Princess Myrcella did in A Young Girl's Game of Thrones, and Tyrion did in canon, by telling the servants around her different versions of a story to try to discover The Mole. It fails this time simply because her kind tendencies results in all the maids and servants around her being so utterly loyal, they’d snub the heir to the throne to her face rather than reveal anything.
  • Nerves of Steel: Hamish stands up to Daemon and denies his petulant demands for a duel, seemingly unperturbed at staring down the Rogue Prince.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: On Otto's orders to sabotage the suitors with a light hand, Larys insinuates to Forrest that Elaena isn't as pious as she looks to be due to losing her mother to the birthing bed. While it may have worked in destroying his chances with another maiden, her past as Tanya and her grudge match with Being X means that the ensuing borderline-sacrilegious conversation he strikes up wins great favor from her instead.
  • Non-Action Guy: Hamish Arryn has no martial inclinations whatsoever and those around him thought he would have become a maester. This would hurt his future prospects under normal conditions, but his intellectual bend has led him to being the chief advisor to his uncle Isembard, the shadow lord of Gulltown, and actually drew Elaena's interest when she went on her tour of the kingdoms to look for a potential husband. He notably doesn't answer Daemon's sparring challenge and refuses to give in to provocations.
  • Not Helping Your Case:
    • Rhaenyra, despite being the designated heir, faces an uphill battle to maintain legitimacy as future monarch, yet she constantly undermines her own position through extramarital affairs and offspring, lack of interest and knowledge in statecraft, and her association with Daemon.
    • Elaena inadvertently does this by trying to convince Viserys to eat healthier in order to combat his illness. Because she regularly and secretly uses her magic to heal him, Viserys is free to indulge in any food he wants, and not feel any worse for it. Elaena comes to realize this when she discovers Viserys has been going behind her back in regards to his eating habits, and cuts off her magical healing till Viserys suffers the consequences long enough to agree to her diet method.
  • One-Man Army: Every dragon rider is this, but Elaena and her dragon Viktoriya take it even further despite their youth and relative small size, due to Elaena’s experience with war and aerial combat, and possibly magical enhancements. So much so, she near single-handily destroys the combined army of the Triarchy and Dorne.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Otto Hightower believes he’s this among the Greens; being the main driving force in their political faction. That so many of his family members and allies are either stupid, petty, and/or blinded by sentiment rather than focused on the goal of winning the Iron Throne, is a major source of frustration for him.
    • Rhaenys is shown to be this for the Black faction; being the only member in her immediate circle that isn’t either obsessively ambitious and prideful like Corlys and Daemon, or more focused on romantic and sexual pursuits over good politics and statecraft like her children and Rhaenyra. She also actively attempts to judge people by her own observations, rather than let others prejudice her.
    • Elaena, of course, is this out of everyone in the game of thrones, as her constant attempts to stay neutral and not get dragged down into the belligerent factions, while trying to pursue good policies that benefit the realm as a whole, shows her the most intelligent and capable person involved in the whole conflict.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It is well known that Viserys dislikes war, and was hoping to be remembered as The Peaceful for his reign. When he learns Elaena was in danger from what appears to be a Dornish assassination attempt on Laenor, his immediate call for the seven kingdoms to go to war and have dragon support, is such a reversal, Otto becomes surprised and disturbed.
  • Open Secret:
    • Laenor and Joffrey being gay lovers is known well enough among their enemies, but they've been less willing to make digs at the two in public after mistakingly believing Laenor won the Stepstones.
    • Rhaenyra's promiscuity is so well-known that even Viserys has a hard time not accidentally acknowledging it out loud.
    • Jeyne Arryn and Jessamyn Redfort's relationship is less known around the Vale, but still strongly suspected due to Jeyne’s refusal to marry.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Daemon’s own reputation as the Rogue Prince becomes increasingly eclipsed by Laenor’s infamy as the Dark Storm. He gets jealous enough that he secretly hopes Laenor will be killed off during the conflict with Dorne.
  • Papa Wolf: Viserys is this for both Rhaenyra and Elaena. So much so, he doesn’t hesitate to go to war if they become threatened. Same for Corlys, who is out for blood after the assassination attempt on Laenor leaves him in a coma.
  • Parental Favoritism: Elaena is the most beloved out of all her siblings; with Viserys favoring her even over Rhaenyra due to her always being dutiful, and Alicent loving her above all her own blood related children as Elaena never causes her problems, and even helps in raising all of her half-siblings.
  • Parental Neglect:
  • Parental Substitute: Elaena takes care of her half-siblings by Alicent, seeing to their education and well-being even more than their own mother, leading to them seeing her as the most important figure in their lives.
  • Poor Communication Kills: A good amount of hostilities is driven by the fact that malicious intent is assumed as the default when compromise happens, or a coincidence of bad luck to one's allies, or information is otherwise omitted and the intentions never known.
  • Red Baron: Daemon has his canonical "The Rogue Prince" moniker, the War in the Stepstones has people referring to Laenor as "The Dark Storm of Driftmark" and the Qartheen refer to Lyman Beesbury as the "Arcane Apiarist".
  • Refuge in Audacity: Forrest Frey is a bold man, one mocked as a fool for having the temerity to seek Rhaenyra's hand in marriage. For his part, he thinks not even trying would be true foolishness, which is why he tries again when Elaena goes around Westeros to seek a husband. When they meet, he cuts through courtesies and tells her upfront that what she wants, he will give, because there's no price he won't pay to be chosen by her.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Otto Hightower believes Elaena is a Black because she and Rhaenyra are full-blooded sisters, and Elaena often opposes him on policies. While Elaena is a Black, it’s only nominal and entirely due to Elaena respecting Visery’s wishes, while her policies are simply geared to the benefit of the whole realm, not just the Greens.
  • Royal Brat: Rhaenyra is this as in canon, being more interested in pursuing her own pleasures than in running a kingdom, while still feeling entitled to the throne. It gets notably averted with all of Alicent’s children, thanks to Elaena’s influence as their parent figure.
  • Royal Inbreeding: A Valyrian tradition that Rhaenyra, Daemon and Laena are actively practicing while Aegon and Helaena are matched to do so once they come of age. It is notable that Elaena is averse to this practice (thanks to her knowledge about the problems of inbreeding), and insists on finding a husband outside the family, much to her brothers' disappointment, though Viserys has told her that he will have her marry Aemond if she is unable to select a suitable man when she goes on tour around the kingdoms.
  • Salt the Earth: During her negotiations with Prince Qoren to avoid a war, Elaena describes how Daemon is planning to burn and raise every piece of fertile land in Dorne to make the land itself unlivable, and to avoid having to deal with the years of the Dornish people predictably resisting to being occupied. Word of God confirms Daemon is planning no such thing, and is just a scare tactic by Elaena, but the idea is so unimaginable and terrifying to Westeros sensibilities, Prince Qoren submits to all of her proposals with little resistance.
  • Secret-Keeper: Laenor keeps Elaena's involvement in the pacification of the Stepstones to himself and is tormented by that fact enough that he eventually confides this in Joffrey. Joffrey soon joins him after witnessing the young princess slaughter the Dornish assassins.
  • Seers: Helaena has visions of events from both the canonical Dance of the Dragons and of Tanya's time in the Great War. This causes her some distress as she finds it very difficult to reconcile Elaena with the infamous Devil of the Rhine, believing the Dance is what causes her to become the "smiling devil" she sees in her visions.
  • Skewed Priorities:
    • Elaena secretly helps House Velaryon in their war in the Stepstones because they were doing so badly that they were on the verge of defaulting on their loans to the Dragon Bank, and she didn't want the young institution to suffer a major setback.
    • Elaena seeks to stop the brewing war with Dorne following Otto's false flag assassination attempt mainly because she doesn't want the economic shocks of war to interfere with the developments she's been arranging. She told Laenor that if Prince Qoren proved to be an unreasonable negotiator, she'd have no problem with annihilating Dorne, regardless of his guilt or innocence in the assassination attempt on Laenor.
  • Spanner in the Works: Elaena secretly becomes this for all of Otto’s plans to weaken the Blacks before Viserys dies, and the succession crisis begins. Amusingly, Otto mistakingly believes Laenor is this as Elaena’s most consequential acts, defeating the Triarchy and Dorne in the Stepstones, and saving Laenor from dying via poisoning, are attributed to Laenor rather than her.
  • Spared by the Adaptation:
    • Thanks to Elaena's intervention, Joffrey Lonmouth survives his tilt with Criston Cole. He has to contend with being crippled for the remainder of his life, however.
    • Harwin Strong survives his canonical death at Harrenhal, waking up and escaping before the fires should have consumed him.
    • Again thanks to Elaena's healing magic (though nobody knows it) both Laena and her son with Daemon survive, where in canon neither survived long after the birth.
  • Succession Crisis:
    • The brewing one from canon is present, with the added complication of Elaena coming after Rhaenyra's family and before Aegon in succession by Viserys' decree. The second princess has helped to blunt the tensions but scheming by the rival factions still push to fulfill the fic's title.
    • The Vale has one due to the fact that Jeyne Arryn does not have children of her own and her cousin Arnold seeks to take the Eyrie from her because of this.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: In a rare moment of candidness, Elaena reveals to Kevan that she has this problem with the rest of her family.
  • The Scapegoat: Elaena and Prince Qoren both agree to have Tyrosh be the one ultimately blamed for the assassination attempt on Laenor.
  • The Un-Favorite:
    • Daemon really hates his oldest son for his deformities. Not only is he given the name of the most hated Targaryen King who ever sat on the Iron Throne, Daemon also staunchly refuses to acknowledge Maegor as his heir.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: Jessamyn Redfort is this for Jeyne Arryn. She even plans to go behind her lover’s back, and murder any potential rival should they look to succeed and marry Elaena, as it could potentially threaten the Lady Paramount’s claim.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Elaena and Viktoriya are both younger and smaller than many of her fellow dragonriders and dragons respectively. However, thanks to her military experience from her previous life, and possibly magically boosting her dragon’s abilities, Elaena has such exceptional aerial combat skills that, under the guise of the Dark Storm, she inflicted such catastrophic damage against Dorne and the Triarchy as to be compared to, if not surpassing, Aegon the Conqueror.
  • What Would X Do?: Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron’s inner monologues show that Elaena's teachings heavily influence what they do and how they do them, often recalling specific lessons she's taught or considering how she might resolve a particular situation they find themselves in.
  • Wild Card: While Larys seems to serve Otto, he has undertaken a few actions that are not in the Greens' favor, such as revealing to Viserys that Elaena was in the vicinity of the assassination attempt on Laenor, shifting the king from his usual cautious stance to pushing for outright war.
  • With Us or Against Us:
    • Both Otto and Daemon have this attitude when evaluating people, and both of them believe Elaena is siding with the other faction because her actions support family members regardless if they're Black or Green.
    • Jessamyn has taken this kind of view when it comes to the Vale's nobility, seeing every move they make as something made either for or against Jeyne. While she's not entirely wrong about taking this attitude given Arnold Arryn's actions, she does categorize some people as enemies when they don't need to be, such as with Garland Grafton.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Daemon feigns drunkenness to bruise Elaena's arm at a feast, and later he tries to buzz her during a dragon flight to give her a scare. He also plans to have her killed once the impending civil war kicks off and Otto intends to do the same.

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