The Last Stag • Game of Thrones

construction notes

- House of the Dragon came out on HBO and so lots of people have renewed interest in GoT, leading to a really big wave of new readers overnight. so i decided to stop procrastinating and finally do the work on this story that it needed lol.
- given that it's been over a year since this story was completed, i decided to go back through and update quite a few things. i wanted to flesh out certain story lines, grow certain character relationships, get rid of some unnecessary stuff, and add explainers for why things ended up as they did. NO MAJOR PLOTPOINTS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.
- i considered a lot of changes. some potential things would have been bringing Loras back around Renfri's pregnancy; having Ben survive and be taken on as Jaime's faux bastard; Renfri ending up as Queen; Renfri dying. but at the end of the day this fic is super old and enough people have already read it that i decided against major changes.
- i added smut. i did it. whew. y'all my messages were blowing up with requests for it so i just said fuck it. it's in chapter 20. i'm not a smut writer but i tried. 4 the girls <3
- i really dove deep into the dynamic that exists between Ren and Dany to explain their relationship a bit more. i really, really tried to give them a friendship arc but with both of their family loyalties and them being foils of each other, it just felt wholly unrealistic every time i tried to write it down. Ren and Dany being friends would have meant sacrificing her bond with Robert, and i just couldn't do that. which sucks cus i love me some Targaryens. but i do think i explained things a bit more thoroughly with added dialogue and chapters.
- there are more chapters to come!! i'm adding around 5 or 6 between 49 and 50 just for closure for Ren and Jon.