Rhaegar and Robert die – too bad, so sad. Jaime takes off after killing Aerys and kills the Clegane/Lorch duo of evil before they can do anything to Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon.
Elia sets things to rights, beginning with calling off the siege of Storm’s End and officially Ending the War in her son’s name, and let’s admit it, in her own as well. She is so competent that it’s scary.
Lyanna is brought back to King’s Landing alive and relatively well, because she has an actual maester that the Crown sent.
Lyanna swears fealty to Elia and to the crown, making it clear that she and baby Jon will never have any designs on the throne – all she ever wanted is not to marry Robert, which will not happen anyway because he’s awful and now he is also dead.
Elia declares that Lyanna’s “punishment” is to stay in King’s Landing and raise Jon under the auspices of the Crown, to double-ensure no rebellion. Lyanna is completely fine with this. While she’ll miss Winterfell, she doesn’t think she belongs anywhere anymore.
Elia pardons Stannis, Ned, and Jon Arryn. All they ever did was rebel against unjust acts of the Crown, but she makes it clear that should they ever do it again, she’s going to go medieval on all of their Houses. Pun intended. They agree to this.
Rhaenys and Aegon don’t think all that much of their little half-brother, Jon Waters. He’s tiny, and Rhaenys is old enough to be vaguely aware that he’s part of the reason for all the upheaval. But he and Aegon are only a year and change apart, so they eventually do become good friends (with the usual complement of hitting and crying over toys they don’t want to share).
Elia eventually realizes that Lyanna has been hanging around King’s Landing long enough to raise eyebrows, so she proposes that Lyanna might marry Oberyn – he’s on the small council as Master of Whispers. Oberyn’s okay with this, as long as he can make it clear that Ellaria stays right where she is.
Lyanna and Oberyn have relations approximately once a year, but they like each other well enough. There’s someone else that Lyanna likes better, and Oberyn sees that – she’s patently obvious about it.
Eventually, Elia and Lyanna have their happily ever after, and Aegon is a wonderful king whose reign sees the defeat of the White Walkers for good. Rhaenys is NOT married to him, and is married to a husband of her choice. As for Jon, well, maybe he’s on the Wall, maybe he’s a Kingsguard, but these headcanons aren’t about him. 😀
Death By Catchphrase 