"THE TRUE CHILD OF LION AND STAG
HOLDS NOT HER MOTHER'S RAGE
BUT HER CUNNING,
HOLDS NOT HER FATHER'S FOOLISHNESS
BUT HIS BRAVERY,
THE DAUGHTER OF LION AND STAG
WILL SEE AN EMPIRE FALL"
-
JOANNA WAS A WARRIOR. As Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister's only trueborn daughter, she stood between the Iron Throne and Cersei's desperate attempt at securing the crown for herself. Although she was every bit Cersei's daughter as her half-siblings, Joanna always stood out among her younger brothers and sister. Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen were born with golden hair, the true give-away that they were not of Baratheon blood, whereas Joanna was born with the signature Baratheon black hair and dark eyes.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that her younger siblings were not the legitimate heirs to Robert Baratheon's crown, and it was this fact that lead Cersei to despise her own daughter simply for existing, a reminder that Cersei would forever be tied to Robert Baratheon, a man that didn't love her.
Before, however, the births of Joffrey and her two other children, Cersei rather loved her daughter. As her second-born child and the one that survived infancy, Cersei bestowed upon the girl the name of her late mother, Joanna, who had died giving birth to Tyrion Lannister.
Growing up, Joanna spent more time with her uncles, Jaime and Tyrion, than she did with her mother or father. Cersei was too busy with her other children after they were born, products of her love for her brother rather than a loveless marriage, and Robert was too busy drinking away the days to care much for his daughter.
Although she loved her uncles, with Jaime teaching her how to wield a sword and Tyrion teaching her everything there was to be learnt, Joanna grew to loathe her own family. Constantly treated like an outsider by her own mother and estranged from her siblings that were told not to interact with her, life in King's Landing was not a life she wanted. She wanted to be free; she wanted to fight like her uncle and explore the Seven Kingdoms. Most of all, she did not want to be around to see the day that Robert Baratheon passed on from the world and left his dynasty to his children.
No doubt Cersei would never allow her daughter to take the throne, because she had raised Joffrey to one day be king. A cruel boy with no idea how much the people loathed him, Joffrey Baratheon inevitably came to take the Iron Throne and brought about the War of the Five Kings.
When her father died, Joanna knew that something was very wrong. She and Ned Stark had been working to prove that Jon Arryn had been murdered, and Joanna grew to understand why her father trusted him so much that he was willing to travel all the way to Winterfell just to ask him to take up the mantle of Hand of the King. Ned Stark was a man that Joanna could trust, and she hoped that his family would extend the same good grace.
It came to Joanna and Ned's realisation that Robert Baratheon had been murdered by Cersei Lannister, but before they could expose the truth, Ned Stark was arrested and Joanna was too scared to speak the truth without Ned to back her up.
When Ned Stark was murdered by Joffrey Baratheon, who gave the order for Ned's head to be removed, Joanna knew that King's Landing was no longer safe. With Joffrey as king, his tyrannical ways would undoubtedly extend to Joanna, who would receive no protection from her mother. So, with nothing left to do but flee, Joanna took a horse and set out for Winterfell.
If she could do anything to save the Seven Kingdoms from Joffrey, then Robb Stark was the one she needed to make that happen.
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ALYCIA DEBNAM-CAREY
as JOANNA BARATHEON
the lioness
RICHARD MADDEN
as ROBB STARK
the young wolf
KATHERYN WINNICK
as ALAYNA OSCURA
the black witch
ALEX HØGH ANDERSEN
as ALDEN OSCURA
the confidant
YOU ARE READING
LIONS AND WOLVES | Robb Stark
Fanfiction"and so the lion fell in with the wolves. what a tragedy it wrought." - in which the little lion meets the young wolf [robb stark x oc] [game of thrones] [book one in the lions and wolves duology]
