So, I did promise a little 'Making of' style chapter, so the first part of this are fun facts about how this story came to be what it finished up as. The art at the end however is a little dedication of what it's meant to me, and how this has impacted my life, which I urge you to read. There's a lil thank you note to you guys in there as well, so I hope you enjoy this!
1. I often alluded to things in my real life in this fic. Some of Lyanna's thoughts and emotions reflected how I felt in my own life at the time I wrote the specific chapters (e.g. I wrote the chapter where Lyanna found out about Eryk and Alize after a break up) and certain bits of dialogue mirror stuff I've read elsewhere or have said in drama productions (I know some of you have already noticed my Harry Potter reference when Lyanna confront's Baelish, but a more covert reference is when Lyanna is asking Olenna for her approval of the Willanna engagement; her little speech is a direct quote from a pantomime I performed in, the line I said as Aladdin when asking to marry the princess (also Willas' dialogue before is what the princess said, since that scene was my favourite)).
2. In a plan for the book's ending back from 2016, Lyanna was going to marry Loras. I didn't know Willas existed, so I planned for a very different Tyrell wedding!
3. Following the Loras marriage, the original epilogue would have been Daenerys arriving in Winterfell after taking the Iron Throne and meeting Loranna's (Loras/Lyanna's) children. I can't remember all of what I planned for that, but I remember that they had a son called Renly.
4. Going back to my habit of referencing, Willanna's first daughter is named after my best friend, hence why Ayrella Stark is constantly shortened to Ella. In fact, I invented that Targaryen name just to have a nod to my friend for Lyanna's mother,way before I planned to have Lyanna call her daughter the name too.
5. The rest of their children's names are references to other GOT characters. Brandon Jon (obviously Brandon Stark and Jon Snow), Ayrella Robbyn (Ayrella Targaryen and a female version of Robb Stark), Eddard Luthor (again, pretty obviously Ned Stark, though Ed's name is shortened differently, and Luthor Tyrell), Opheliarra Daenerys (a combination of Ophelia (meant to not directly reference Olenna Tyrell as well as Hamlet) and Arya, and Daenerys Targaryen), Maeya Alinsa (combining Margaery and Arya for first name and Alize and Sansa for middle name). Gotta admit though, Willanna's youngest, Ernest Benjen, only references GOT through the middle name, as the name Ernest was inspired by Prince Ernest from Victoria.
6. Speaking of Victoria, the actors portraying Willas and Garlan also play brothers in the form of Princes Albert and Ernest in the show. Victoria is my favourite show, and since Garlan and Willas appear very little in the set canon, I decided to base their characters on Albert and Ernest. It felt only right to cast the actors in the fic!
7. The Commanders of Lyanna's Unsullied are all named after the conspirators of Julius Caesar. Brutus, Casca and Cassius are named after Shakespeare characters.
8. Speaking of Cassius, the character in Shakespeare is historically a male role (played famously by Sir Patrick Stewart). In my version I made her a woman, not only to give more representation, but to mirror recent theatre trends of a woman playing Cassius (most recently by the gal who played Catelyn Stark).
9. Keeping on the trend of Cassius, her character was originally a male Unsullied. In original drafts the role Cassius plays was that of an Unsullied called Scar, shortened from Scarlet Weasel. Later on I changed Scar to be a Second Son, though this time she was a woman. Scar and Lyanna were going to have an affair (like Dany and Dario) and I was going to make Lyanna bi through this storyline. Eventually I changed her name to Cassius and decided against Cassanna, though I kept Cass as an LGBT character.
10. I've met quite a few members of the cast! A few I've met at cons but others at theatre things, and often my meetings with them shape the way their character affects the story. For example when I met Conlith Hill at LFCC I was running late since I'd just got out of a talk (it was Benedict Cumberbatch's, no biggie) and my mum had been holding my place in line for ages to the extent I was the last one and even though it was really bad, he was so so nice and legit unfazed by the fact I was out of breath from running across the entire con hall (not to mention star struck). He gave me a hug and we took the best picture ever, and cause I was last we had a good chat. It was so amazing, to the extent I wrote a few Varys interactions. Similarly, Lyanna married into House Tyrell because of how nice both Finn Jones and Natalie Dormer were (I got a Finn hug and a Natalie handshake), but I considered somehow pairing Lyanna with Euron Greyjoy, just because of how hot he is in person (and utterly hilarious, anyone that was in the LFCC 17 GOT Panel will know exactly what I'm talking about). Honourable mentions are also Mark Addy, Rose Leslie, David Bradley, Hannah Waddingham, Ian Beatie, Kerry Ingram, Ian Whyte, Daniel Portman (vv hot in person) and Gemma Whelan.
11. I never intended on Lyanna going East. The original plan for after Baelor was thay Lyanna would escape King's Landing and ride north for Robb's camp. She'd become his right hand woman and eventually become close to Lady Catelyn. Lyanna would be captured at the Red Wedding after seeing Robb's murder and imprisoned in the Black Cells awaiting execution only to be freed (I think I was going to have Sansa and Margaery free her or something) and run off to the wall. This would have been a completely different story if I'd have done that and I'm so glad I didn't because what's the point of having a Targaryen protagonist who does nothing with Daenerys???
12. I have tonnes of chapters planned that I never ended up writing. These range from real characters talking about the events in this fic (so there's one of Jon at Castle Black overhearing Janos Slynt bitch about Lyanna back when he thought she was dead), or Lyanna meeting my faves (e.g Lyanna going to the war meetings with Olenna, Dany, Tyrion, Yara and Theon and the Sand Snakes), or just sequel material (like when Lyanna goes to King's Landing with Jon and Dany to negotiate with Cersei and Cersei meets Brandon). Maybe I'll eventually write these up and upload then as Christmas specials in the future.
So now all those facts are out of the way, here goes the final notes.
I started this fic back in June 2015, meaning I was just about to turn 15 and I'd been watching Game of Thrones for about seven months. Back then, I was in my last few months of Year Ten, I'd just sat my first few GCSE's and at school, I was pretty much the most unpopular person there was. My nerdy little quirks had been the centre of my class' jokes for multiple years, and even kids who were younger than me made fun of me for loving GOT (not to mention my teachers found it weird and a little disturbing because of how young I was, though I think they forgot I was the kid who always referenced South Park from being 10).
So, I guess I was kinda lonely back then. I'd always wanted to write, and I'd done fics before (my DW fics to be specific, which are still up, check them out!), but something about GOT just called to me. My own life was pretty basic, and I longed for friends like the ones I saw in the show. I was an only child, so seeing the Starks made me envious and I wished I could have Dany or Sansa or Margaery as a best friend.
One June afternoon after school, I did some research on Robert's War and the Userpation of the Targaryen's, and decided that would be a perfect starting point. I wanted my character to be a girl, someone I could relate to, look up to, and be best friends with. I made her a Targaryen, so she could be strong and admirable like Dany, but I made Ned find her so she would have the luck of having an amazing father like the Stark children. Lyanna grew up seeing the Starks and Jon as her brothers and sisters, something that fulfilled my wish of having siblings, but the thought of her being 'adopted' drove me to change the plot entirely and make Brandon her father.
That wasn't meant to happen, I knew that no matter what, Lyanna was a Stark, that you choose your family, not to mention I knew next to nothing about Brandon Stark, but a quick decision I made changed her character completely, an for some reason to me just made Lyanna easier to sympathise with in my heart, and made her more beloved to me. Wolf Blooded like her father, but orphaned by his Wolf Blood, his daring bravery leading to his death and the war. The fact she never knew either her mother or her father but was so readily accepted into a whole other family made my heart ache with love for the Starks and just reminded me of why I loved them so much in the first place.
But then the Targaryen side to Lyanna appealed to why loved Dany so much. Lyanna slowly became a combination of all the features I loved from the Stark's and Targaryen's, not to mention all the features I wish I had. As she grew closer to the Tyrell's I felt like she grew from the child she started this fic out as into not only a well-rounded character, but a woman, and someone I could look up to.
As the story progressed, Lyanna became less of a character of my imagination, based around all my favourite characters and myself, and more of a real person, with real feelings and real thoughts sperate from my own. I realise how ridiculous this all sounds, Lyanna Snow is a fictional-fictional character, she doesn't exist outside of my mind, the minds of the readers and this story. She is not Daenerys Targaryen, nor is she Sansa Stark, or Ygritte, or Yara Greyjoy, or Brienne of Tarth. She doesn't matter outside of the purposes of fanfiction, but she matters to me, and has done for the last four years.
In a time where I moved from GCSE's to A-Levels, to now University, Lyanna Snow has always been a constant for me in life in it's most turbulent periods. In a time where I had to move schools, when I was rehearsing for drama shows, take exams, write personal statements, apply for jobs, work full-time, leave sixth form, go through the loss of my Grandma and having to give up the house where most of this was written, this story was always a part of my life, and so was Lyanna, and now it is complete.
Except it never will be complete. When a character becomes such a huge part of your life, whether it be a canon character or an OC, you can't let go or forget, and that's how I feel about my Lyanna Snow, a character that is such a huge part of me it feels so bizarre to now have to not only wind up her story, but to write about what she means to me.
So, to Lyanna, thank you. Thank you for coming on this ride with me. Thank you for being the best OC I could have invented, even though your name is so unoriginal. Thank you for being so strong when I put you through unending shit and hardship. For all the crap I put you through, for all the deaths and pain, I'm sorry. For killing you, I'm sorry (though I did bring you back). For killing your parents, your father, your 'son' (technically not), your brothers, your friends (Alize especially), I'm sorry. For Cersei, for Meryn Trant, for Janos Slynt, for every jack-ass in the East, for the men of the Night's Watch, for Ramsay, I'm sorry. For Joffrey, I'm so sorry. For everything Joffrey did that broke you and hurt you and made you into the person you are now, I am forver sorry I put you through that. For Willas, I'm sorry too, as he came into your life too late, the protection of High Garden happened after you were already hurt, but I hope it makes up for all the prior shit I put you through and gives you the happy ending you deserve. Honestly, Lyanna, I know you could have achieved everything you have done without the Tyrell's, without Willas. You didn't need a love interest, you're a strong woman who could conquer the world let alone Winterfell, but you did need happiness, and I hope that despite everything at the beginning, the ending is what you deserve.
The same to you readers. I'm sorry I put you through the hardships of this book just for you to see Lyanna become Queen in the North. It was a turbulent road to the end, one I hope stays true to the base text of Game of Thrones, and one I hope was worth as much of your time as it has been mine. Thank you for supporting me, for voting for me, for forgiving me when updates are slow, for giving me feedback and constantly being the most supportive readers I could wish for.
Lyanna does not just belong to me, but to all of you, so I hope she was worth your time, and her story was worth at least a third of how much it was worth to me.
~Olivia xoxo