Winter Rose.

A/N about the book

You can skip this, you don't have to read this. This is just a justification of choice, and may contain some spoilers for later points. 

Hi guys, 

I really want to thank everyone for every comment, read, and vote, and the general enthusiasm everyone has for this book; it's taken me by surprise that people do want to read this. I'm so pleased with all the comments - both positive and the criticisms, because how are you supposed to improve if you don't take criticism? 

But besides from that, I think I want to talk about the last few chapters; namely the way Rhae has responded to this business with Dany, and how people have taken this. You don't have to read this chapter, I won't be affected but this is more for if you're looking for an explanation on it.

Throughout this book, we've seen Rhae go from strength to strength meanwhile Dany has not, and Dany has really taken on that Mad Queen/spiteful Ruler role. I didn't want to have her this disliked throughout the whole thing, but obviously intentions change and other plotlines felt right to do, and we've come to a spoilt Dany. 

By giving Rhae all this power, personally I felt like she had become a bit of a Mary-Sue character; she just felt perfect all of the time, that she could do no wrong, that she had no flaws, and I didn't want that. I want her to have those stumbling flaws that make people irritated with her, I don't want her to be this perfect person all the time, and I don't want her to constantly have good relations with other characters. It's human to be that way, and that's the way I want to keep her; so it's going to drive you mad to see her handle stuff wrong.

So yes, she will handle the situation with Daenerys wrong; she's already lost every member of her family bar Daenerys, and why would she want to lose another? The death of them all weigh heavily on her shoulders, it would be better to keep Daenerys alive and help her cross the Narrow Sea where she no longer has to see her than have to deal with weight of her death. I should have made this clearer, and I'll try to in future chapters. I know that some people don't like it and have chosen to stop reading because of it, and that's completely okay!

I will not have Dany's baby killed or taken away, this goes against Rhae as a character. She isn't going to rip a baby from its mother's arms and keep it for herself, or kill it because why would she want to hurt someone like that when she's felt the pain of losing her own child, and frankly, that makes her mad and/or delusional. No matter how much we wish for Rhae to be able to have a baby of her own, that doesn't mean she can take Dany's; it just means she needs to remember the curse Mirri Maz Duur had placed upon her. 

Dany will die; I've said this before to a couple of people, and I thought because of how Season 8 ended, that was the general thought. I wasn't going to leave her alive after her having done all this, Rhae isn't that stupid. I just don't want to reveal details of her death and how it would occur when it spoils the end of the book, and to me why would you want the end of the book spoiled? I know it's irritating because I have to write from Season 5 to here and you want that justice now, but Rhae is playing a long game. She's far smarter and craftier than it appears, she's just to get out of this bubble of self doubt she's put herself in. 

Plus I have an idea of how I want her death to occur, and to me, it feels far more spicy than executing her now in Meereen but I'm kind of second guessing now in case you wait all that time and then find it anti-climatic and positively hate this book for it. There's nothing worse than waiting 8 seasons and receiving what ya did (*cough* D&D *cough*). 

Rhae is not a Mad Queen, I didn't realise I seemed to be writing her that way, I only wanted elements of her to be questionable at times; Rhae isn't on the bad side of the coin. Although, that doesn't mean she'll have chapters where she doesn't feel completely mad due to the people around her. She may feel guilty and melancholy at times but that's due to gaining those sorts of traits from Rhaegar. I also like to put little hints and stuff in my writing for what's going to happen at times, or who a character is, or how outcomes may be. 

In terms of lovers and end pairings, I think we're going to see a lot of surprising shit go down; I'm not someone that frowns upon polyamory/multiple partners, or slut shames; some of the scenes will probably start featuring same sex relationships, multiple people sex, and such. So this is the warning, I'll still put warnings on the chapters just in case you are uncomfortable with NSFW scenes. I try to make it so if there is a scene like that, I won't reveal any plot changing details because that's not fair to people who aren't comfortable reading smut. 

I do not agree with what happened in Season 8 and how it ended, so expect some scenes to appear but the outcome to mostly change. It all felt a little rushed, and some things were for shock value, and were plain stupid. This fic is going to be long, possibly more than 100 chapters because I have little drabbles of what's to come after the Iron Throne; those chapters won't be nearly as long as these but it'll give you a little insight into life afterwards.

I think that's covered everything but if it hasn't and you still want to ask, just drop a comment and I'll either update this, or just reply back. If there's a wave of people not sure about a section in the book later on, similar to how this was, then I'll use this as an A/N for the whole book and just say I've added another note on the bottom if you want to check it out. :) 

If you don't wish to continue reading this book, that is completely okay. I'm not forcing you to, and I want to thank you for dedicating some of your time to reading it. I'm sorry that this isn't what you'd thought it would be, but I don't want to change what is going to happen because this is what I want Rhae to have to deal with. I always remind people of this, but I'm not an asshole and I'm more than happy to hear what you have to say - criticism or not. 

Now back to the story :)