Application - The Last Voyages
Aug. 5th, 2011 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wakethedragonUser Name/Nick: Lita
User LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beautiful_void
AIM/IM: srsorionblack
E-mail: blackrosesempai@gmail.com
Other Characters: Sirius Black |sirius_is_a_dog
Character Name: Viserys Targaryen
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire novels, more specifically the book A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Also incorporating some flavor from the HBO show.
Age: 23
From When?: From after he's killed by his sister's husband, Khal Drogo.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate
Abilities/Powers: He has no special abilities or powers. He will often say that he is 'blood of the dragon' or 'the dragon,' but that doesn't mean he's actually a dragon. It refers to his bloodline. Wiki link to his family, the Targaryens. A typical Targaryen trait was the ability to have premonition-like dreams. Viserys has nightmares, often saturated in blood and fire, but whether these fall under the category of premonition, madness, or other is anyone's guess. (Viserys having nightmares is not stated in the books - Viserys is not a viewpoint character, his sister Dany is. All we ever see or know of him is from her point of view. I'm taking a creative liberty based on his personality traits - namely, his paranoia and anxiety. Also, his history.)
Personality: When we first meet Viserys, he is described as 'a gaunt young man with nervous hands and a feverish look in his pale lilac eyes.' He is completely consumed by the Iron Throne. The throne is his by right and by blood. He doesn't care that he's in exile, that he has no armies, that he's called The Beggar King because he had to pawn his mother's crown. He promises his sister he will kill the Usurper in single combat. He's never owned his own sword. He's never had combat training. He's plagued by delusions of grandeur. He has an idea of what he's supposed to be, of who he was meant to be, and when the reality of the situation doesn't match to that, well, the fantasy wins. His head has been filled with false tales of the smallfolk of Westeros crying out for him, for their rightful king. He's weak and terrified and utterly lacking everything he needs to be a king, but he can't accept that, so he veers to the extreme on the other side, believing he will take back Westeros with only 10,000 Dothraki screamers, that he really will defeat Robert Baratheon, the Usurper and his brother's murderer, in single combat.
Viserys is incredibly paranoid, frustrated, and bitter. He was eight years old when his father, his brother, and his young niece and nephew were murdered. He's spent most of his life on the run, constantly looking over his shoulder, never staying in one place long, because the Usurper's hired knives were always right behind him (at least in his mind). At the same time, he knows he's the 'Last Dragon,' and that the entire Targaryen dynasty depends on him summoning an army and reclaiming his birthright. He's a scared child and he's a bloodthirsty dragon. He feels completely helpless and projects that helplessness into rage that he typically unleashes on his little sister, Daenerys, because she's meek and frightened and will let him.
He's arrogant because he's a Targaryen, of the golden blood of Valyria, the rightful king of Westeros and all her Seven Kingdoms. He's the blood of the dragon. He's better than the common man. He holds the Dothraki savages in particular contempt and makes no effort to learn their language or dress like them, as his sister does after her marriage. He's the rightful king of Westeros, not a barbarian. As a result of his stubborn ignorance, he's often mocked by the Dothraki, and he ends up in positions that make him into a joke. He accepts a ride in a cart even though only eunuchs and cripples ride in a cart. They grow to love and respect his sister, but never him.
He wants the Iron Throne because it belongs to him. He's never actually stopped to think about what it means to be a king. Westeros is his property. It's his right. He views his sister as his property, too, because for 300 years the Targaryens married brother to sister to keep the bloodlines pure. But he's forced to marry Dany to Khal Drogo because he needs Drogo's khalasar to take back his homeland. The quest to take back the throne defines him, and it trumps all else. As he tells Dany in the book, 'I'd let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. Be grateful it is only Drogo.' He's practically doing her a favor.
He has terrible fits of rage; he often warns his sister about 'waking the dragon.' He's physically and verbally cruel to his sister, but he can be kind and affectionate to her as well. He's kept her alive all these years. If it wasn't for him, she'd be dead or worse. She wouldn't know anything about the homeland they fled when she was a newborn. She belongs to him. When she later starts to stand up for herself, he views it as betrayal. He takes it personally. Not only is she spitting in the face of her rightful king, she is defying the big brother who protected her. When she stands there and does nothing as Khal Drogo prepares to crown him with a pot of molten gold, that's the most devastating blow of all. Never mind that he put a sword to her pregnant belly and threatened to cut her child out of her. That was business – Drogo had promised him a crown in exchange for his sister and he hadn't delivered. So he was going to take Dany back. He was being generous by letting him keep the whelp.
He's impatient and quick to snap or seethe if he believes he's being talked down to or treated as less than a king. When his sister gave a command as the Khaleesi of the Dothraki horde, which included him at the time, he completely lost it and tried to threaten her as he had in the past. How dare she command him, her king! When one of Drogo's bloodriders choked him with a whip as a result, he was reduced to a sobbing, wheezing wreck in the grass.
When it comes to the Barge, Viserys is going to realize he's dead, because he vividly remembers being 'crowned.' He will be obsessed with finding Dany and making her pay for watching him die and doing nothing to stop it. He's going to think the Seven (the gods of Westeros) have spared him for a reason. He will think that reason is the Iron Throne/his birthright/etc. The Barge itself is probably going to be really freaking terrifying to him. He's from a medieval based world. Even a toilet is going to be a modern marvel to him. He will be bewildered, which means he'll probably be snapping at people left and right. He tends to default to angry when he's confused/scared/upset.
He will probably avoid using the communication device and write out his entries, at least in the beginning. He has a history of stubbornly refusing to conform to the norms of different cultures. When he was among the Dothraki, he still wore his silks, mail, and tunic, despite the blistering heat and the slow rot caused by sweat and travel. When his sister presented him with gifts of Dothraki clothing of the finest quality, he was insulted, even though his own clothing by that point was little more than rags. A large part of not using the comm device will probably be ignorance. He will have no idea how to use it, and he isn't the type to try something he doesn't know. He does NOT like to look a fool.
Path to Redemption: Viserys' father was called 'The Mad King.' There was a saying within the family that when a new Targaryen was born, the gods tossed a coin to decide whether the child would be great or mad. He is certainly his father's son, but a lot of what makes him who he is is driven by the circumstances of his childhood and exile. He has shown moments of compassion for his sister, even if they were few and far between. He did keep her with him and alive when he could have been rid of her at any time prior to marrying her off to Khal Drogo. The marriage wasn't his idea, but he went along with it because he needed an army.
His entire life and identity revolved around taking back what had been stolen from his family. If his father and older brother hadn't been killed, he never would have been king. There was a tremendous amount of pressure on him to reclaim Westeros, even though he wasn't even remotely qualified to do so. The entire Targaryen dynasty rested on his shoulders. Being in exile, the rest of his family murdered, he constantly felt the knives at his back. He never felt safe for a single moment of his life from the age of eight onward. If the circumstances of his life had been different, maybe he wouldn't have turned out the way he did.
Viserys needs to discover his own identity. He needs to be more than 'the blood of the dragon.' This will not be an easy task for any warden. He is a Targaryen, and he's been indoctrinated since birth to see himself as better than other people. Targaryens even looked different, with their silvery-blond hair and purple eyes. On top of this superiority complex, after what happened to his family, he sees himself as the last dragon. There's no one else but him. His entire existence in the book is him threatening Dany within an inch of her life prior to the marriage if she doesn't please Drogo, then impatiently waiting for his army after the marriage, then the fatal consequences when he decides to stop waiting. There are no hobbies or additional character traits, there's only this powerless boy and his obsession.
History: A brief wiki page. Here is his TV wiki as well.
Sample Journal Entry: [Written, because sending letters by raven or messenger is the extent of Viserys' technological prowess]
Sweet sister, when I find you again, I will not crown you quickly. I will paint you a crown of molten silver. I will dabble it against your smooth, fair skin and listen to the hiss of your flesh as it is consumed by the flames. Do you hear me? You will not have my throne. Do you hear me? I will tear down the Iron Throne before I ever see you on it. I will use the thousand swords to cut you into a thousand pieces. I will feed you to the Dothraki horses.
This...Barge, it is only a temporary impediment. I will find you. And I will make you pay and suffer and scream, you and your savage and your whelp.
Sample RP: Viserys knew the room was meant to be a mockery. He hadn't seen this room in fifteen years. His hands shook as he took in every last ornate detail. King's Landing. The Red Keep. A room fit for a prince. Until after the prince's eighth name day, when his world came crashing down around him. He kicked at the fresh rushes scattered across the stone floor. How dare they bring him here, to this boy's room! And yet, and yet...he wanted to push through the door and run, run, run until he found his big brother Rhaegar's room, he wanted to fling open the doors and throw himself into the crown prince's arms and beg him not to die.
There would be no running, no begging. Rhaegar was dead, and so was he. One didn't soon forget the sensation of molten gold being poured over one's head. One didn't forget the stony, expressionless eyes of one's beloved sister, watching as if it was all a pantomime, put on for her amusement. What a useless slut she had turned out to be. Disappointing. He would have treated her well when he ascended his throne, but now? Now, there would only be torment for her, should their paths ever cross again.
And they would. He would make certain of that. The Seven must have spared him for a purpose, and what other purpose could there be but Westeros? I will take what is mine, by blood and by fire, and then I'll make that slut pay. He smiled to himself as he crouched down in front of the roaring fire. He reached toward the flames, but the heat was too much for him before his fingertips could even graze the smoke. He snatched his hand back, waved it in the air, blew cool breath against his skin. He never should have expected a savage to keep a promise. When he defeated Drogo and cut off his braid, perhaps he would use the great, long, impressive length of it to strangle his sister.
Special Notes: I'm drawing predominantly from the book for Viserys, but as I stated above, we see Viserys entirely from his sister Dany's point of view. The HBO show had a couple of additional scenes with Viserys, one that didn't exist in the book, and one that happened off-page in the book. In the off-page scene, he tries to steal the dragon eggs his sister was given as a wedding gift. He's going to sell them to buy an army. This is after his pregnant sister eats a horse heart in a Dothraki rite that gives strength to her child - during that rite, he saw and commented on how much they love her. Ser Jorah Mormont stops him before he can leave with the eggs. He laments about the weight of the dynasty that has been on his shoulders since he was a little boy, and how no one has ever given him even a piece of what they gave his sister in that tent. 'Who can rule without wealth or fear or love?' This is the last we see of him before he goes off, gets drunk, and returns to try and force Drogo's hand. He was a slightly more sympathetic character in the show, pretty much for this scene only. It was his one moment of self-awareness. While I don't see him being remotely self-aware in the beginning, or maybe for a long time, I want that to be a possibility down the road.
User LJ:
beautiful_void AIM/IM: srsorionblack
E-mail: blackrosesempai@gmail.com
Other Characters: Sirius Black |
sirius_is_a_dog Character Name: Viserys Targaryen
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire novels, more specifically the book A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Also incorporating some flavor from the HBO show.
Age: 23
From When?: From after he's killed by his sister's husband, Khal Drogo.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate
Abilities/Powers: He has no special abilities or powers. He will often say that he is 'blood of the dragon' or 'the dragon,' but that doesn't mean he's actually a dragon. It refers to his bloodline. Wiki link to his family, the Targaryens. A typical Targaryen trait was the ability to have premonition-like dreams. Viserys has nightmares, often saturated in blood and fire, but whether these fall under the category of premonition, madness, or other is anyone's guess. (Viserys having nightmares is not stated in the books - Viserys is not a viewpoint character, his sister Dany is. All we ever see or know of him is from her point of view. I'm taking a creative liberty based on his personality traits - namely, his paranoia and anxiety. Also, his history.)
Personality: When we first meet Viserys, he is described as 'a gaunt young man with nervous hands and a feverish look in his pale lilac eyes.' He is completely consumed by the Iron Throne. The throne is his by right and by blood. He doesn't care that he's in exile, that he has no armies, that he's called The Beggar King because he had to pawn his mother's crown. He promises his sister he will kill the Usurper in single combat. He's never owned his own sword. He's never had combat training. He's plagued by delusions of grandeur. He has an idea of what he's supposed to be, of who he was meant to be, and when the reality of the situation doesn't match to that, well, the fantasy wins. His head has been filled with false tales of the smallfolk of Westeros crying out for him, for their rightful king. He's weak and terrified and utterly lacking everything he needs to be a king, but he can't accept that, so he veers to the extreme on the other side, believing he will take back Westeros with only 10,000 Dothraki screamers, that he really will defeat Robert Baratheon, the Usurper and his brother's murderer, in single combat.
Viserys is incredibly paranoid, frustrated, and bitter. He was eight years old when his father, his brother, and his young niece and nephew were murdered. He's spent most of his life on the run, constantly looking over his shoulder, never staying in one place long, because the Usurper's hired knives were always right behind him (at least in his mind). At the same time, he knows he's the 'Last Dragon,' and that the entire Targaryen dynasty depends on him summoning an army and reclaiming his birthright. He's a scared child and he's a bloodthirsty dragon. He feels completely helpless and projects that helplessness into rage that he typically unleashes on his little sister, Daenerys, because she's meek and frightened and will let him.
He's arrogant because he's a Targaryen, of the golden blood of Valyria, the rightful king of Westeros and all her Seven Kingdoms. He's the blood of the dragon. He's better than the common man. He holds the Dothraki savages in particular contempt and makes no effort to learn their language or dress like them, as his sister does after her marriage. He's the rightful king of Westeros, not a barbarian. As a result of his stubborn ignorance, he's often mocked by the Dothraki, and he ends up in positions that make him into a joke. He accepts a ride in a cart even though only eunuchs and cripples ride in a cart. They grow to love and respect his sister, but never him.
He wants the Iron Throne because it belongs to him. He's never actually stopped to think about what it means to be a king. Westeros is his property. It's his right. He views his sister as his property, too, because for 300 years the Targaryens married brother to sister to keep the bloodlines pure. But he's forced to marry Dany to Khal Drogo because he needs Drogo's khalasar to take back his homeland. The quest to take back the throne defines him, and it trumps all else. As he tells Dany in the book, 'I'd let his whole khalasar fuck you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that was what it took to get my army. Be grateful it is only Drogo.' He's practically doing her a favor.
He has terrible fits of rage; he often warns his sister about 'waking the dragon.' He's physically and verbally cruel to his sister, but he can be kind and affectionate to her as well. He's kept her alive all these years. If it wasn't for him, she'd be dead or worse. She wouldn't know anything about the homeland they fled when she was a newborn. She belongs to him. When she later starts to stand up for herself, he views it as betrayal. He takes it personally. Not only is she spitting in the face of her rightful king, she is defying the big brother who protected her. When she stands there and does nothing as Khal Drogo prepares to crown him with a pot of molten gold, that's the most devastating blow of all. Never mind that he put a sword to her pregnant belly and threatened to cut her child out of her. That was business – Drogo had promised him a crown in exchange for his sister and he hadn't delivered. So he was going to take Dany back. He was being generous by letting him keep the whelp.
He's impatient and quick to snap or seethe if he believes he's being talked down to or treated as less than a king. When his sister gave a command as the Khaleesi of the Dothraki horde, which included him at the time, he completely lost it and tried to threaten her as he had in the past. How dare she command him, her king! When one of Drogo's bloodriders choked him with a whip as a result, he was reduced to a sobbing, wheezing wreck in the grass.
When it comes to the Barge, Viserys is going to realize he's dead, because he vividly remembers being 'crowned.' He will be obsessed with finding Dany and making her pay for watching him die and doing nothing to stop it. He's going to think the Seven (the gods of Westeros) have spared him for a reason. He will think that reason is the Iron Throne/his birthright/etc. The Barge itself is probably going to be really freaking terrifying to him. He's from a medieval based world. Even a toilet is going to be a modern marvel to him. He will be bewildered, which means he'll probably be snapping at people left and right. He tends to default to angry when he's confused/scared/upset.
He will probably avoid using the communication device and write out his entries, at least in the beginning. He has a history of stubbornly refusing to conform to the norms of different cultures. When he was among the Dothraki, he still wore his silks, mail, and tunic, despite the blistering heat and the slow rot caused by sweat and travel. When his sister presented him with gifts of Dothraki clothing of the finest quality, he was insulted, even though his own clothing by that point was little more than rags. A large part of not using the comm device will probably be ignorance. He will have no idea how to use it, and he isn't the type to try something he doesn't know. He does NOT like to look a fool.
Path to Redemption: Viserys' father was called 'The Mad King.' There was a saying within the family that when a new Targaryen was born, the gods tossed a coin to decide whether the child would be great or mad. He is certainly his father's son, but a lot of what makes him who he is is driven by the circumstances of his childhood and exile. He has shown moments of compassion for his sister, even if they were few and far between. He did keep her with him and alive when he could have been rid of her at any time prior to marrying her off to Khal Drogo. The marriage wasn't his idea, but he went along with it because he needed an army.
His entire life and identity revolved around taking back what had been stolen from his family. If his father and older brother hadn't been killed, he never would have been king. There was a tremendous amount of pressure on him to reclaim Westeros, even though he wasn't even remotely qualified to do so. The entire Targaryen dynasty rested on his shoulders. Being in exile, the rest of his family murdered, he constantly felt the knives at his back. He never felt safe for a single moment of his life from the age of eight onward. If the circumstances of his life had been different, maybe he wouldn't have turned out the way he did.
Viserys needs to discover his own identity. He needs to be more than 'the blood of the dragon.' This will not be an easy task for any warden. He is a Targaryen, and he's been indoctrinated since birth to see himself as better than other people. Targaryens even looked different, with their silvery-blond hair and purple eyes. On top of this superiority complex, after what happened to his family, he sees himself as the last dragon. There's no one else but him. His entire existence in the book is him threatening Dany within an inch of her life prior to the marriage if she doesn't please Drogo, then impatiently waiting for his army after the marriage, then the fatal consequences when he decides to stop waiting. There are no hobbies or additional character traits, there's only this powerless boy and his obsession.
History: A brief wiki page. Here is his TV wiki as well.
Sample Journal Entry: [Written, because sending letters by raven or messenger is the extent of Viserys' technological prowess]
Sweet sister, when I find you again, I will not crown you quickly. I will paint you a crown of molten silver. I will dabble it against your smooth, fair skin and listen to the hiss of your flesh as it is consumed by the flames. Do you hear me? You will not have my throne. Do you hear me? I will tear down the Iron Throne before I ever see you on it. I will use the thousand swords to cut you into a thousand pieces. I will feed you to the Dothraki horses.
This...Barge, it is only a temporary impediment. I will find you. And I will make you pay and suffer and scream, you and your savage and your whelp.
Sample RP: Viserys knew the room was meant to be a mockery. He hadn't seen this room in fifteen years. His hands shook as he took in every last ornate detail. King's Landing. The Red Keep. A room fit for a prince. Until after the prince's eighth name day, when his world came crashing down around him. He kicked at the fresh rushes scattered across the stone floor. How dare they bring him here, to this boy's room! And yet, and yet...he wanted to push through the door and run, run, run until he found his big brother Rhaegar's room, he wanted to fling open the doors and throw himself into the crown prince's arms and beg him not to die.
There would be no running, no begging. Rhaegar was dead, and so was he. One didn't soon forget the sensation of molten gold being poured over one's head. One didn't forget the stony, expressionless eyes of one's beloved sister, watching as if it was all a pantomime, put on for her amusement. What a useless slut she had turned out to be. Disappointing. He would have treated her well when he ascended his throne, but now? Now, there would only be torment for her, should their paths ever cross again.
And they would. He would make certain of that. The Seven must have spared him for a purpose, and what other purpose could there be but Westeros? I will take what is mine, by blood and by fire, and then I'll make that slut pay. He smiled to himself as he crouched down in front of the roaring fire. He reached toward the flames, but the heat was too much for him before his fingertips could even graze the smoke. He snatched his hand back, waved it in the air, blew cool breath against his skin. He never should have expected a savage to keep a promise. When he defeated Drogo and cut off his braid, perhaps he would use the great, long, impressive length of it to strangle his sister.
Special Notes: I'm drawing predominantly from the book for Viserys, but as I stated above, we see Viserys entirely from his sister Dany's point of view. The HBO show had a couple of additional scenes with Viserys, one that didn't exist in the book, and one that happened off-page in the book. In the off-page scene, he tries to steal the dragon eggs his sister was given as a wedding gift. He's going to sell them to buy an army. This is after his pregnant sister eats a horse heart in a Dothraki rite that gives strength to her child - during that rite, he saw and commented on how much they love her. Ser Jorah Mormont stops him before he can leave with the eggs. He laments about the weight of the dynasty that has been on his shoulders since he was a little boy, and how no one has ever given him even a piece of what they gave his sister in that tent. 'Who can rule without wealth or fear or love?' This is the last we see of him before he goes off, gets drunk, and returns to try and force Drogo's hand. He was a slightly more sympathetic character in the show, pretty much for this scene only. It was his one moment of self-awareness. While I don't see him being remotely self-aware in the beginning, or maybe for a long time, I want that to be a possibility down the road.
