#Also Corlys!

[backjustforberena]

I wonder if any of them knew it was all for her.

[houseofthetides]

How you come and take my blood cup and link me together and take my brine. We are bare. We are stripped to the bone... — "Eighteen Days Without You" by Anne Sexton

EVE BEST as RHAENYS TARGARYEN & STEVE TOUSSAINT as CORLYS VELARYON in HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

[thevelaryons]

The thing about pitting Rhaenys (show) and Catelyn (show & book) against each other, in their reactions to their husband’s bastards, is that it completely ignores the context of their situations.

Many men fathered bastards. Catelyn had grown up with that knowledge. It came as no surprise to her, in the first year of her marriage, to learn that Ned had fathered a child on some girl chance met on campaign. He had a man’s needs, after all, and they had spent that year apart, Ned off at war in the south while she remained safe in her father’s castle at Riverrun. Her thoughts were more of Robb, the infant at her breast, than of the husband she scarcely knew. He was welcome to whatever solace he might find between battles. And if his seed quickened, she expected he would see to the child’s needs.

He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him “son” for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence.

That cut deep. Ned would not speak of the mother, not so much as a word, but a castle has no secrets, and Catelyn heard her maids repeating tales they heard from the lips of her husband’s soldiers.

— A Game of Thrones, Catelyn II

Catelyn understands the social rules of the society she lives. She’s been taught the belief that men having affairs and fathering bastards is normal. But even in such a patriarchal society, there has to be a level of respect afforded to the wives of the men that cheat (especially if they’re noblewomen from powerful families). In Catelyn’s case, she feels slighted because her husband raised his bastard in the same household. It is considered a social insult to Catelyn that her husband did this to her.

She had come to love her husband with all her heart, but she had never found it in her to love Jon. She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned’s sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him. Somehow that made it worse.

— A Game of Thrones, Catelyn II

Obviously it’s not fair to Jon that Catelyn takes out her resentment on him. Though from her POV chapters, it’s shown that she holds no negativity towards Ned’s mystery mistress despite hating Jon. It’s impossible to hate someone you don’t even know. Meanwhile, Jon is a living, breathing reminder of her husband’s infidelity. While it would be a more reasonable reaction for her to dislike Ned rather than misdirect her negative feelings towards Jon, Ned is still her lord husband. It is easier for Catelyn to hate Jon.

When it comes to Rhaenys, her husband’s mistress and bastards are relatively unknown to her, even if she is aware of their existence. They were kept far away from her. So Rhaenys is less likely to resent them. That’s why Rhaenys addresses only Corlys with barely concealed anger but Alyn doesn’t earn her scorn. The scene between her and Alyn in episode 4 appears to be the first time those two have ever interacted. Rhaenys has not had to live every day with the reminder of her husband’s betrayal. If it’s out of sight, it can be (relatively) out of her mind.

I’m sure that the way this show characterizes its female characters as more gentler/calm individuals definitely plays a part with how Rhaenys reacts here too. Which is why the viewers are led to assume Rhaenys just quietly accepted the fact of her husband cheating on her.

In the book, Corlys never dared have his bastards around whilst his wife still lived. He kept the affair so discreet that had it not been for him personally presenting the boys at the Red Sowing, no one would have assumed him to be the father. Both Addam & Alyn were staying with their mother and serving in her fleet. In the show, Alyn is in Corlys’ fleet, and therefore more likely to come under notice (and that’s exactly what happens).

Princess Rhaenys, his wife, had the fiery temperament of many Targaryens, Mushroom says, and would not have taken kindly to her lord husband fathering bastards on a girl half her age, and a shipwright’s daughter besides. Therefore his lordship had prudently ended his “shipyard trysts” with Mouse after Alyn’s birth, commanding her to keep her boys far from court. Only after the death of Princess Rhaenys did Lord Corlys at last feel able to bring his bastards safely forward.

— Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons

Not only did Corlys have an affair with a young girl (coincidentally the same age Rhaenys was when she married him), but said girl is also a commoner. Rhaenys is a princess who could have been a queen. For Corlys to make his affair public would have been a huge insult to his wife, even if he never brought up the matter of his bastards. Rhaenys would have been rightfully furious at the shame her husband’s actions bring upon her. She was the first to speak up when her position as heir was usurped so that suggests she’s not the type to just turn a blind eye to anything she considers an injustice against her. Book version has a far more fiery personality than her show counterpart. Her reaction to the truth would probably be different too.

A detail in episode 4 which I did like is when Rhaenys corrected Alyn about her title. Princess not Lady. She’s asserting her position and status in that moment. Alyn serves the Lord of Driftmark so naturally his Lord’s wife would be a Lady to him. By correcting Alyn, Rhaenys places him in the position of an ignorant who does not even know the difference between the titles. Perhaps a subtle expression of classism towards another who is very much beneath her. But the glimmer of antagonism is gone as soon as it appears. Their interaction is not simply Rhaenys welcoming her husband’s bastard with open arms.

The show leaves Rhaenys’ original reaction, when she first finds out about the affair, to the imagination. So it’s difficult to say what exactly she felt in the moment. Unlike fiery tempered book!Rhaenys, the show version is more calm and collected. She is a person who seeks peaceful resolutions to problems (similar to Catelyn) so her reaction in the show makes sense for her even if it’s different from how the book version of her may have reacted. In the HOTD canon, we’re basically getting an interpretation of how Catelyn might’ve reacted to Jon had he been raised away from Winterfell.

[the-witch-of-woods-beyond]

don’t know why so many team green stans are dying over the fact that rhaenyra’s sons are bastards 😱😱😱 when it wasn’t even confirmed in the books and when being a bastard in westeros is just a state of legality. if legitimised, they would have every right to their family’s titles - hence gendry and jon being legitimised and having claims to the throne and winterfell. legit every single person in that show has legitimised jace as rhaenyra’s heir and referred to him as such. their grandfather corlys, their father laenor, their other grandfather the literal KING accepted them and threatened death and dismemberment to anyone who didn’t do the same, their MOTHER rhaenyra. jace has every right to ascend the throne because his mother is the rightful queen and he is her rightful heir.

[daeneryseastar]

steve and harry trying to make actual ‘legal’ arguments as to why the blacks are in the right, eve calling the greens annoying, “they’re all just a bunch of knobs and they need their heads being knocked together.” harry, phoebe, and bethany reaffirming how much they all love each other as a family, bethany and matt proclaiming their thirst for violence towards the greens, emma’s “we all have madness on our side, AND a powerful naval presence ofc.” team black is such a fun team when you don’t have an annoying bitch in your ear yelling about how bOrInG they are.

[futuregws]

Emma D'arcy is already getting snubbed and the award season isn't even here yet and who is doing that?? The fans. Bc listen the whole cast is amazing but there are some that stand out Emma D'arcy and Tom Glynn Carney are definitely two of them but I'm tired of people basically bringing the whole team black vs team green bullshit to real life now with the actors bc apparently it's impossible to say Tom or Emma were amazing without dragging all the other cast but specially God forbid someone mentions that Emma is a phenomenal actor (they literally had one line only in the first episode and yet they were able to express soooo much with their face and body and eyes in all the other scenes) the people that mention that will get dragged fr, it's almost like people forget both can coexist as fucking amazing and if they get nominated for awards they wouldn't even be in the same category, but honestly I do fear for Emma bc the amount of transphobia and disgusting hate they get already if they get nominated and Tom doesn't I can already see those weird fans throwing tantrums.

[sukibenders]

"Rhaenyra isn't the stepmother, she's the mother who stepped up!"

The HOTD writers themselves are hardly doing anything to support that narrative, so I take this rhetoric with a grain of salt. While I think, in some way, Rhaenyra does care for Baela and Rhaena....if I had to point out a motherly figure for them that could pose as someone stepping in Laena's place, Rhaenyra would not be it.

[atopvisenyashill]

cregan’s issue is the same as corlys which is ya kno never seeing his girl heir as an heir period. so just like corlys brings marilda’s boys to rhaenyra to legitimize instead of pushing for baela or rhaena to inherit, cregan decides to remarry for a THIRD time even though he has a granddaughter and SEVERAL daughters who could inherit. they’re perfectly happy to bow to a woman when it’s convenient, when it fits into their own honor codes and benefits them, but when it comes to their own families, their own legacy, only a man is good enough. when it comes to the it it’s like - aegon the younger has BEEN heir, and was already named the next king by the time cregan gets there, BY corlys, who goes along with the green style inheritance of saying aegon iii is aegon ii’s successor through daemon’s line, likely imo bc he just wants the war to stop and thinks getting rhaenyra’s last son on the throne is good enough (bc he doesn’t get it!! it’s why he pushes rhaenyra to name men over women with better claims during the dance; he’s not about disrupting the system, he only supports rhaenyra bc it benefits him!).

baela isn’t being denied the crown because not a single person including baela herself thinks she’s a viable contender and that’s the result of aegon ii being the last monarch & adult targaryen alive in the capital, and not anything cregan or to some extent, corlys, does; jaehaerys’ ideology is what the greens are fighting for and jaehaerys’ ideology is what wins and the person to blame for both jaehaera & baela not being viable contenders for the throne is aegon ii himself. but jeyne arryn is right there!! too bad it doesn’t matter, bc in a situation where cregan and corlys actually do have the power to go “i have the ability to just support my girl heir” they choose a boy. it’s just like cat says it’s just like borros lord misogynist himself says - a daughter is nice but ahhh a son. a son is more important!

[jedi-enthusiast]

Before watching GoT and HotD, I used to wonder why people were so obsessed with the Starks and the Targaryens, but now...ngl I get it

[baelonthebrave]

corlys and rhaenyra saying with a straight face that laenor velaryon who never successfully encountered a pussy once in his life is responsible for FIVE children will never not be hilarious to me

[eggblackwood]

i wonder about jace's words from the episode 7 preview because they are a bit weird considering what he said in episode 5 re:valyrian supremacy propaganda but i get how it's more like a member of the aristocracy fearing too much power going to the peasantry, especially when they are already in a risky position. also, is he going to be appeased or be even more destroyed by corlys maybe claiming and pushing for legitimizing addam as his laenor's bastard son? or will he suggest it himself and say actually this peasant man has been one of us all along and that is why he was able to ride a dragon?

this is all on top of rhaenyra refusing to let him take action and getting mad when he took initiative and accomplished something, while taking action herself without telling her council or even just jace, and then not being in on the secret plans she hatched with mysaria. this all feels like some setup for jace to be even more desperate to prove himself as a worthy heir, and then there are mentions of the triarchy and prince reggio and the gay abandon. i want this season to end now before The Thing happens.

[backjustforberena]

Watching the HOTD fandom turn in on itself and I'm just here, enjoying my flawed, complex, glorious middle-aged couple who just love one another:

[houseofthetides]

A Distant Shore | Rhaenys/Corlys

[Prologue | Chapter: 1 ] A world away, Corlys washes ashore and into Rhaenys' arms. But when he's taken to the hospital to recover from his injuries, he remembers nothing of modern life, but everything of dragons and kingdoms. He and Rhaenys must find out the truth of each other - and just where their hearts truly belong.

Here it is! Chapter 1 of mine and @evebestt's latest collaboration. Thank you so much for your interest, we are so excited to publish this fic. It's been such a joy to write so far. I know we're in for a bumpy season of House of the Dragon (ok, understatement). So, we hope you can look forward to some angsty but also lighthearted fun featuring our favourite pair.

[thevelaryons]

What happened with the Driftmark throne succession? How is that matter not settled yet?

In all seriousness though, the succession crisis doesn't seem like it's getting resolved anytime soon.

Corlys is going into battle at the end of season two, and for all he knows, he could die. Which would leave the 6-7 year old Joffrey as the new Lord of Driftmark. While that's not necessarily an issue, Corlys made it one when he expressed his displeasure at having a child as his remaining heir. But I do believe that the writers are trying to avoid having Corlys act against Rhaenyra in any way, such as by pushing Joffrey aside from the Velaryon line of succession to name one of his own bastards (as happened in book canon). So Corlys simply does nothing.

If HOTD was still closely following the book, then Addam as the eldest of Corlys' bastards could've been legitimized as the new heir. Addam being named heir would've been an open and shut case because he actually does want it. Even in the show, Addam is the one who expressed interest in the Driftwood throne. But he's also younger than Alyn now so it's not possible unless Alyn dies first. The show made Alyn the elder sibling, and he doesn't want anything. This is probably part of the reason why their ages were switched in show canon. HOTD is going to milk that deadbeat father drama for all its worth by dragging out the succession issue.

[serymn31]

Rhaena babygirl, you deserve so much better 💔

[tessarionbestgirl]

Like I know it’s dumb and dragging down the show but How much do you wanna bet Rhaenicent will become a complete parody of itself by season 3 and 4? It might honestly be funny to watch shippers realise how dumb their ideas of Alicent poisoning Aegon are

Lmfao, this show already seen as joke for some because of the rh@enicest meetings, if get worse, this will become even more the laughing stock of internet. And Alicent killing her son for Rhaenyra or end the war she started because of him, will not be the tragedy, they think people will see but it will be the last nail in the coffin of character assassination that Alicent is already inside.