THE MAD DRAGON LIVES: VISEEYS III GETS A DRAGON - Fic potential

**Hello all!**

**I'm writing this post to see if anyone is interested in writing a "what if" scenario that I have been thinking about for some time, called "The Mad Dragon Lives." The story is about Viserys bonding with Drogon. Essentially I want it to be about the worst Targaryen in the books get firebreathing air support.**

**Unfortunately I have neither the ability nor the dedication to write this, so if anyone wants to write it or use it for inspiration, or write something inspired by this please do!**

**The General Premise.**

After Daenerys's wedding to Drogo Viserys is convinced to stay with Illyrio, or is given so much wine that he cannot wake up in time to "join" the khalasar. Dany leaves one of the dragon eggs (Drogon's, since she thinks Viserys would like the one with Targaryen colors best) with him before she leaves.

Time-skip to after Drogo dies from an infected wound, Viserys goes through manic and depressive months culminating in him throwing the egg in the fireplace of Illyrio's mance and it hatching (maybe by letting the fire get out of control and burning down the mance?). At this point Viserys does not know Daenerys survived or has dragons, so he gets (more) paranoid, violent and meglomaniacal. I like the idea of him going through bipolar episodes with wild swings in his goals to show how awful of a king he would be if he ever got the chance (and of course the superiority complex he has with the penchant for violence boosted by hatching a dragon should be a tip off too).

From here Viserys moves from place to place always hiding and paranoid that an assassin will come after him. He no longer trusts Illyrio, for largely imagined reasons (instead of the real reasons he shouldn't be trusted), so avoids or hurts people he suspects of being from Illyrio.

In contrast to Daenerys who's hard life made her sympathize with slaves and the poor Viserys's experiences make him actively despise them. His internal thoughts show he thinks they're barely human and should be punished for being poor, after all if they weren't disgusting wretches they wouldn't be in this situation (he can't see the irony that he looks and smells exactly like them).

Eventually Drogon (probably renamed to something pretentious) grows to the size of a horse, so he rides the dragon for the first time. Almost immediately he makes for King's Landing, but since Drogon is not used to long flights and being ridden they stop on a ship in the narrow sea and rest. As soon as they fly again Viserys commands Drogon to burn the ship, then they make their way to the next ship, and continue until they reach King's Landing.

When Viserys arrives in King's Landing (a week or two after Tyrion's trial) he could either burn the red keep (which I don't think he'd do since it was made by his ancestors), land in the courtyard and threaten to kill anyone who comes close to him, or burn the gold, red and tyrell guards before landing. Either way at some point he corners Tommen and lets Drogon burn and/or eat him. Cersei sees this and obviously tries to kill him, Viserys strangles her (valonqar prophecy fulfilled) then proposes to Margaery Tyrell. Viserys is cruel and vain (and going paranoid crazy) but he's not stupid, he knows the Tyrells can get him a huge army and wants to lock them down for him as soon as possible.

In his discussions with the Tyrells he is informed that Aegon (I hope his true parentage is never revealed, it adds so much ambiguity that each option, Targaryen/Blackfyre/random Lysenni, is just as likely) has taken Storm's End with his army of defecting/bribed Stormlanders and the Golden Company. Viserys, after being steered by the Tyrells to the conclusion that the Lannisters are the biggest threat, raises/commandeers the Tyrell army and marches to meet Aegon and his army at the (Golden Tooth? Maybe the boarder of the Crownlands and the Stormlands). They meet for a negotiation where, after tense back and forth Aegon offers to step down if he is named heir. To sweeten the deal he offers the sword Blackfyre, given to him by the Golden Company, and the crown of Elia Martell (the one that Viserys had to sell and never got over). Viserys accepts and offers him the position of hand of the king.

Viserys merges his army with Aegon's, but they are still effectively two independent armies, just pursuing the same goal, one headed by Viserys and the Tyrells, and the other lead by Aegon and the Golden Company. Viserys flies over the armies and burns castles as needed, which makes the campaign quick, (this could lead into intrigue by the Tyrells trying to take Westerlands land). Eventually the armies lay siege to Casterly Rock, Viserys flies over and sees most of the castle is abandoned, so he melts the golden throne then burns the mines basically doing a Castamere to the Lannister forces (irony). This could be the end of the Westerlands as a significant force or Kevin could have prepare escape tunnels (through Tyrion's sewers) so they couldn't be trapped like the Castameres were. Or Tyrion could be the only significant Lannister left in the story, assuming Jamie dies in the Red Keep from dragonfire. This is a good opportunity for Viserys and Aegon to have time to get paranoid about and infuriated by, respectively, each other.

Aegon and Viserys could continue to work together as they whittle down other enemies and just before they are about to run out of excuses not to kill each other they could get word that the Iron fleet is shipping Daenerys, her two dragons, and her army of unsulied, Dothrakai and sellswords to Dorne (since Dorne sent Quinten she's hoping they're open to supporting her bid for the throne, she could even be married to him in this version. If not Viserys could plan to marry Aegon and Daenerys to keep her from killing them both) for her invasion. Aegon and Viserys panic, ignore their issues with each other, and form a plan. They'll meet Daenerys's army in the Prince's Pass (since they've been in the Stormlands, Westerlands and Reach for months campaigning it would be easy to get there and fortify) and try to negotiate with her, like they did for each other.

When Daenerys meets them they spend the first day of negotiations yelling at each other (Viserys calls her a wh*re who lays with horses, Aegon tells them both they're not fit to rule a pile of rocks, and Daenerys tells them she'll burn the red keep to the ground before she knees to the brother who sold her). This should show how fragile any alliances are, that they can't work with each other and that Daenerys has the numbers advantage. Ultimately after weeks of fruitless negotiations Daenerys tells them they'll die tomorrow. Aegon asks for one more day of negotiations which she reluctantly agrees to. That night he sneaks into her camp, finds the dragons and rides either Rheagal or Viseryon to his camp (add lots of tension here, he might not know which dragon is hers and if he picks the wrong one they'll eat him, or during the negotiations constantly mention dragonseeds have tried to steal her dragons and been eaten). The next day she is deflated and accepts a negotiated peace on bad terms (she has a large army but its smaller than Aegon and Viserys's combined army, and her major advantage and her confidence are gone).

They all combined their armies and begin the march north to crush Stannis.

**THE NORTHERN STORY**

Since this is happening more or less simultaneously to Stannis reaching the wall the fanfic could deal with the northern portion mostly independent to Viserys's story. The two portions could run independently until they collide after Daenerys is negotiated into the new Targaryen alliance.

To keep the North interesting Jon could accept Stannis's offer to be legitimized as a Stark, leave the watch with an army of wildings and march south to overthrow the Boltons. After satisfying comeuppances for Roose and Ramsey, as well as a mixed reunion with Theon Jon could prove himself a worthy successor to Ned in the eyes of the North. That is until Sansa (in the Vale) hears that her half brother has stolen her family's birthright from her and her children. She raises an army (maybe with some Riverlands nobles and their armies) with Petyr Balesh's direction and marches North. While traveling north she is stopped by Howland Reed who tells her that Rickon is alive on Skagos, and Jon's secret parentage (I don't like R+L=J, I like N+A=J better, Jon is better as the Starkest Stark in the series and I think making him a Targaryen messes up his character). Howland tells Sansa that the reason Ned refused to tell Catelyn about Jon's mother is that he married her in front of a weirwood, Catelyn's father did not consider that a real marriage, so he forced Ned to marry her despite Ned refusing to divorce Ashara. Sansa realizes this makes her, and all her "trueborn" siblings bastards and Jon the only true stark (I think this gives a great bit of irony to Sansa's treatment of Jon and validates Catelyn's attitude to him. In a twisted way she was correct, none of her male children survived and Jon has taken Winterfell as his own).

Sansa sends people to Skagos to find Rickon, which they do (Skagos should be a strange brutal land where hallucinogenic mushrooms are ritually eaten/are mixed in food and drinks, white walker and others imagery should be everywhere but only if you know what you're looking for) and bring him to white harbor. The Manderlys side with Sansa and Rickon for a few reasons, like better trade deals with the Vale, and Rickon being the last True Stark. They form a small army and shadow Jon's army until they can sandwich it between their army and Sansa's.

Rickon should be the second best skinchanger after Bran (who i do not intend to mention here, I don't know what to do with him). His time at Skagos let his bond with Shaggydog and other animals really go wild. Unfortunately that is not enough, Jon, who marched south to try to convince Sansa to join him becomes enraged at the prospect that Rickon might take his freedom from him, he just got it, Winterfell, and everything he wanted, and under no circumstances does he want to return to just being a bastard (maybe if it were Robb or Bran, but not a child Rickon who only vaguely remembers Ned). He catches Rickon, fights and kills him, but tells everyone that it was an imposter to avoid being a kinslayer and to keep his power. He burns the body to destroy the evidence.

At the Negotiations with Sansa he tells her she was lied to, Rickon was killed and burned by Theon (I don't think she would believe him, but she doesn't have any evidence). Sansa would join their forces upon hearing the combined southern armies are marching north and have already passed the neck, but begin undermining Jon and trying to steal his support. They march to Winterfell to fortify it for the southern seige.

Winterfell has basically no food left after Theon, the the Boltons, then the Wildlings and Stannis (who has been trying to rebuild it as Jon went south to negotiate peace with Sansa) so things look grim. They manage to get a month's worth of food before the army is too close.

In the meantime the Wall has been busy, but no one in the main cast has any idea. Immediately after Jon went south to confront Sansa white walkers collapsed a miles long section of the wall (the walkers are made of ice, they should be able to use magic on the ice wall). The dead have been streaming in ever since, making a ravenous undead hoard who killed everyone who saw them.

The night before the southern army will lay seige to Winterfell (within sight of it) northern lights appear over Winterfell and the worst blizzard for 100 years starts. Undead slam into the walls with no warning, and the defenders have to fend them off. Stannis, Jon and Sansa show their leadership qualities and they survive the night.

Viserys, Aegon and Daenerys wake early and admire the pretty lights as well as the storm that seems to have stopped just over Winterfell. They talk, try to settle differences, but they hate each other too much. When day breaks the storm moves south and they become swarmed with the dead. The meager defenses they put up hold them off for an hour or two, but then a trench is breached and Viserys panics. He mounts Drogon and starts burning anything that's moving. He can't see in the blizzard so Drogon tramples Tyrell, Dornish, Dothrakai, Golden Company, and Stormlander forces trying to get out.

The disruption Viserys caused lets the dead in and Aegon and Daenerys have no choice but to mount their dragons and flee. As they breach the clouds and their army gets massacred to a man Daenerys catches up to Viserys and breaths fire on Drogon. Viserys falls back and purposely slams into Aegon (who Viserys thinks is obviously disloyal and made her do that) clawing at his dragon. Aegon recovers and pulls out a bow and shoots Daenerys in the shoulder (he is just done with both of them, he hates Daenerys's naive arrogance and Viserys's paranoid delusions). The dragons start fighting under the full moon and northern lights and the second Dance of the Dragons starts.

The three royals have a flying fight all the way back to King's Landing. The end results are Aegon flying off to Storm's End when the red keep gets in sight and it is clear he will not beat them to it. Viserys's dragon gets a massive cut in its wing and he doesn't stop to let it heal, instead fighting over the city until slamming into the ground. Daenerys gets to the red keep and orders the Gold cloaks to fire on any dragon who comes in range. When Viserys is able to rouse Drogon they fly off to a nearby friendly keep and gather Tyrell allies to seige the city. He's vile and alienates them often, but tries to keep them in line by fear of Drogon. In Storm's End the Measters' centuries long plot to irradicate magic from the world should be discovered when the Storm's End Measter tries to poison Aegon's Dragon's food.

The northerners, lead by Stannis and Jon know they can't stay in Winterfell for long, so scouting parties are sent out to determine the situation in nearby castles. Jon leads one, Sansa organizes food (and divers better food for the Vale knights with/loyal to her and Littlefinger) while Stannis organizes a march south. Jon goes out into arctic weather, finds many have frozen to death in wintertown and other villages. When he reaches a nearby castle he finds frozen food, and massacred northerners. The dead came here and left none alive. On the way out of the castle the sun sets and the dead rise, it becomes a tight zombie horror story and only ends when they hide until morning. The next day they leave, but see in the forests yellow eyes staring back at them (the CotF are using the White Walkers to reclaim the north).

The King's Landing siege won't change much, Viserys will use his army to starve the city and fly to meet Daenerys every time she flies out. Both dragons get wounded each engagement. Viserys neglects the realm and Daenerys is unable to change anything outside of the city. Aegon sets up a court in Storm's End and ignores the two fighting. Aegon tries to prepare the Stormlands for a White Walker invasion and warns anyone who will listen. Daenerys tries to rule well in King's Landing, but similar to Meereen her every decision creates more problems. Since there is no food coming through the peasants of the city turn on her. Viserys is cruel, bipolar and violent, and should get consequences for that.

That is as far as I have though through it, but a few final thoughts:

The Faith of the Seven should be more developed, in the books its obviously corrupt and fake, and most people who actually believe are portrayed as zealots. Other religions are just as under developed, R'Hllor is the deepest but is entirely made up of zealots, the worship of the Old Gods isn't brutal enough and is too loose to really be called a religion, etc. Religions should have deep, meaningful rituals, regional variation, hierarchies of clergy, practices stolen from other long dead religions and have spawned dozens of living and extinct orders. None of the religions of ASoIaF do that convincingly.

Final fate of each dragon: I think that the best ironic death for Daenerys's dragon would be being beaten to death by a mob while protecting a clutch of eggs. It would be ironic that the best intentioned option for the people has her power taken by an angry mob. She has proven herself in Meereen to be less competent at ruling than is necessary, so in the King's Landing siege she'll make bad decisions and this is a good consequence for her. Likewise Viserys should lose control of his dragon or its wings should be irreparably damaged, making it crawl on the ground. Turning Viserys's dragon into basically snake is a good mirror to where Viserys was at the start and how he ends his story, as something much less than a dragon. Finally Aegon catching the Measter's poisoning attempt and learning to be more careful bodes well for his rule over Storm's End.

**The End Positions of Everyone**

I think the best way to end the story is Aegon getting Dragonstone, Stannis getting the throne, the wall being moved to the neck by the White Walkers so the Children of the Forest can reclaim the North, Daenerys realizing she never wanted the throne she wanted peace and a family, Viserys in some dungeon somewhere used to make heirs (ironic reversal to his attitude on women), Shireen getting a happy ending because she is kind and innocent and didn't deserve anything that happened to her so being the Crown Princess would be a good end (maybe married to Willas Tyrell? Or maybe Aegon?), Jon dying or exiled because he betrayed his oaths and everyone who trusted him (maybe he voluntarily returns to Winterfell since its the only home he's ever wanted), Sansa killing Petyr because he's gross, and Tyrion getting the ruins of Casterly Rock.

Again I do not have the skill required to write this, so if ANYONE would like to write this premise or something similar please do. I think this has a lot of potential and I look forward to anything this post inspires!