#LAENA DESERVED BETTER

[henriettadreaming]

I really don't understand the writer's reasoning for race swapping the Velaryon's, when every Velaryon is mistreated or cast aside by the all white Targaryen's. Literally everyone of them.

• Corlys - Is apparently so selfish he's willing to disregard all of his blood related family to put a white boy that is no relation to him on his ancestral seat just because he carries his last name? Even though there's plenty of other actual Velaryon's that carry the Velaryon name.

• Vaemond - Gets murdered for telling the truth, and not wanting Driftmark to go to someone who isn't a true Velaryon. I think they only added him calling Rhaenyra a whore after calling her son's bastards to try and make his death justifiable, as if calling someone a bad name = off with his head.

• Laena - Is married to Daemon but knows that she isn't his first choice, and if he had his way he'd be with his (white) niece. Is stuck by his side in Pentos even though he knows she wants to return home. Supposedly dies a *badass* dragon rider death, but I just saw a pregnant black woman dying in agony. Like that doesn't already happen in real life when black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth.

• Laenor - The cuckold of all cuckolds. In almost every scene of adult Laenor he's completely miserable. And apparently he too is willing to disregard all his trueborn family to put a white boy that isn't his on the Driftmark throne. And I don't find Rhaenyra to be some great LGBTQ ally by "letting" Laenor run away and permanently leave his home and family behind so he can be with his partner and she can remarry.

• Baela and Rhaena - Have actual Velaryon blood through their mother, get passed over so another white boy can get something he has no entitlement too. Baela would have had a slim chance of ending up queen because even if Rhaenyra became queen, the lords of Westeros would have been very unlikely to accept an illegitimate son as her heir. Rhaena could become lady of Driftmark but only as a consort through Luke, meaning if he died her claim to Driftmark would die with him.

I'm all for diversity and representation, but was the family who consistently gets walked all over the best choice to make POC?

I think they were aiming for liberal and inclusive, but that doesn't really work when your white characters use and exploit the black characters you've purposely made black.

[thesunfyre4446]

Criston getting nerfed has nothing to do with “rhaenyra favouritism” and everything to with the fact he’s played by an ethnically ambiguous actor and that the show made him dornish. In the books criston was said to be one the greatest knight (skill wise) in history by jamie while aemond name is literally never brought up in that conversation and no one remembers him as such, yet on the show aemond beats criston during a spar in a way that very much implies the student became the master.

It’s the same reason mysaria is no longer a dancer turned brothel owner (like in the book) but a full on pr*stitute with her origins changed from lys to yi-ti now that she’s being portrayed by an asian actress.

yeah it's weird. criston was a powerhouse in the book and is literally remembered years after his death by the king's guard as a legend. that specific moment with aemond in the courtyard... you could say that he wasn't using all of his power because it was training, but your point is still 100% valid and i agree. in the show he's a joke & his fellow king's guard hate him.

the show also ruined laena's life, in the book she had a pretty good life. they literally ruined every single good thing she had. she married daemon when she was 22 in the book, in the show she's younger than rhaenyra. she travelled the world with daemon & they had a great relationship and lived in driftmark with her family, in the show she's alone, the second choice because daemon couldn't get rhaenyra and is isolated from her family. even her death is used to hype up the show's made up "dragonrider" death so that rhaenyra getting sunfyred will look cool. daemyra get together on her goddamn funeral!!!

and wrt to mysaria, i hate everything they've done with her character and she makes no sense. in ep 1 she was happy to supply daemon with "silver haired maidens" & helped rhaenyra with the blockade aka starving the entire population of KL while the show tries to sell that bs narrative where she cares about the people?? nope. sorry. but yeah in the book she was DEF 100000 more powerful then she is in the show. mysaria was one of the book's most powerful villains. (and yes, she is a villain. she literally helped daemon with b&c, suggested hel and alicent should be raped and told hel about maelor's death. one of the worst characters in f&b)

[saltywinteradult]

i know this has been said already but nothing makes my blood boil like the fact that savannah steyn who played teenage laena would’ve been a perfect casting choice for adult laena. laena was only 26 when she died. she’s supposed to be three years younger than rhaenyra and alicent, both of whom — as we’re reminded time and time again — were children being groomed by adult men. but we’re casting adult actresses to play laena so i guess she’s mature enough and not a victim of grooming too?

[alicentsgf]

As a black girl, who is both a Laenyra and a Rhaenicent from viewing the show, only finding out about the former later on I want to say something to that anon who told you about Rhaenicent. (Not doing this on anon for that reason) It’s clear from the narrative structure that Laena’s diminishment as a character as a whole is heavily due to Daemyra’s place as a central relationship in House of The Dragon. Many people blame Rhaenicent’s existence for Laenyra’s erasure and Laena’s diminishment but that’s not true IMO for the reasons you described. By the time Laenyra should’ve been happening in the narrative, the writers wanted to create this idea of Daemon and Rhaenyra being miserable due to their separation, for THEIR romance. We get Rhaenyra being jealous of Laena at her wedding and a brief interaction prior to that. Nothing else, which sucks. However, Rhaenyra is also propped up over Laena in that she’s the one Daemon is showed to be longing for, they even have Laena saying things like “I’m not the wife you would’ve wished for”, he neglects her daughter, and is consistently dismissive of her and not listening to her until she dies a “strong black woman” death of being burnt alive by her dragon.

In the books, it’s debated that Laena not only taught him how to love but he was also the only person he truly loved. Nobody brings that to contention. Not to mention, with Laenyra in the text. There should’ve been more to begin with. We get this rich idea of close good sisters who fly on dragonback together and are present at each other’s birth but it goes unexpanded on. Not to mention, this makes me wary considering in the books, it is much more likely that Rhaenyra and Daemon deliberately murdered Laenor, Laena’s brother, They loved her SOOOO much but they killed her brother so they could marry. Fire and Blood in general is very vague with sm details on purpose, the show made the choice not to expand on it but when I do the math, the subtraction of Laenyra all seems to come from the portrayal of Daemyra, nothing else.

Thanks for your input! This is a much better description of how Laena was sidelined than I outlined in my earlier reply so thank you x

[silver-dragonborn]

The way fandom tries so hard to portray Laena in fanfiction as this evil, spoilt temptress who needs to be humbled because she dared to grab life by the reigns and pursue a man she was attracted to is just plain gross and reeks of racism. Laena was a vibrant, fiercely devoted, and skilled dragon rider who claimed Visenya's mount and took to the skies. She followed her own path, and I will never forgive the writers for reducing her to just the "second best option" for Daemon and an "obstacle" in the Rhaenyra/Daemon ship. I will also never forgive the writers for not exploring Laena's friendship with Rhaenyra, her goals, her dreams, etc. If you don't like Laena, fine, but don't sit there and slander her just because she had the "audacity" to be attracted to a man she believed was on her level. But of course, we all know WHY she's so disliked and ignored.

[bohemian-nights]

Just something I was thinking about after reading one of your metas. TB uses “fond and more than fond of” when it comes to Rhaenyra and Laena to state they had an affair. Exhibit A:

And this is just one of MANY times I saw them using that argument… only to turn around and say that Daemon “being more than fond” of Nettles isn’t romantic? Hmm, the math isn’t mathing (I am not one of the people who think “more than fond” is any indication of a romantic relationship, Nettles and Daemon have tons of other stuff that make it obvious they were an item, but I just find it funny how they fumble with their own explanations).

Seriously they use one line to justify the weird Daemon x Laena x Rhaenyra the second coming of the Conquerors incest fest, but Daemon and Nettles was for sure 100% platonic(with all the evidence including them bathing naked together and people literally being frightened that Daemon would kill them if they touched her)? Yeah, it’s not adding up.

They always use that argument because that’s the only one they have to prop up that ship.

Honestly, they can’t have it both ways. Scratch that, they can not say one relationship that has little to no evidence of existing is real, but then turn around and scream bloody murder every time Dettles is brought up.

You can not disregard all the evidence for Nettles and Daemon and then turn around and say one line is sufficient for your self-inserting fantasies of Rhaenyra being worshipped. That’s not how this works.

They can drop the concern act. At the end of the day, they could care less about Laena in this equation. They just wanted Laena to cheer on Rhaenyra while she was screwing her husband. They also didn’t want Rhaenyra to come off like a harlot who sleeps with someone’s husband the moment his wife dies (😏). That’s really why they promote that silly little ship

I stand by the statement that how her relationship with Daemon was handled was deplorable. Missing out on the opportunity to see her sitting in a corner while Daemon and Rhaenyra do whatever was hardly what I’d call a tragedy.

[thesunfyre4446]

and don't forget daemon "i spare you, you were a child" Targaryen who literally married a younger girl a couple months later...

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S1 E4 "King of the Narrow Sea"

[laenaism]

it’s kind of crazy to me how often people are so quick to downplay Laenor’s father role when it comes to the velaryon boys. i know their bastardy is rumored in the book and pretty much ‘proven’ in the show (even though they don’t actually know for certain bc they can’t do a paternity test lmao), but even if they are bastards, they are still Laenor’s sons. in that case, Laenor would be their adoptive father but that wouldn’t make him any less of their father than if they were his biologically. like imagine if you said to an adopted child, “but who’s your ACTUAL father?” that would be so offensive and cruel to both the child and their father. Don’t get me wrong, they could also acknowledge Harwin as their father, which Jace does in the show, but the complete disregard of Laenor i see in this fandom is WILD! Laenor spent ten years of his life with his sons, he taught them to fish, he sang them songs, no doubt snuck them food (like cake 😉) and told them about his adventures, and yet he’s looked at as ‘inferior’ bc the velaryon boys may not be his biological children 🤨? i know he left in the show, but let’s not act like he had a true choice in the first place. if he tried to stay, no doubt he would’ve been ‘mysteriously’ killed. all of this is to say that i genuinely hope some of y’all don’t go up to adoptive children/parents and go “you’re not actually their child/parent” but i fear some of you would feel inclined to. weird.

anyways, love how fondly Jace spoke of his father Laenor in the latest episode :)

i know f&b/hotd is fictional, but it still irritates me, i needed to rant about this lmao.

[nyracel]

“He’s always angry, but we haven’t done anything.”

“…but I have a crooked finger, just like Mama!”

“We were born here. Mama is our mother.”

“I do not wish to be different.” “Nor do I.”

“So let us be good sons and please those who love us, so they may forget what we lack.”

I’m never going to recover from this. Once again scenes were removed that would add to both boys characterizations, and we all know why. The scenes would make the audience realize how Aemond’s ‘I’m being bullied for not having a dragon :( I’m the real victim!’ storyline so fallible and easy to shatter in universe because it’s a completely normal occurrence for Targaryen’s. Aemond is not the first child to not have a dragon by the age of ten, the original conqueror’s, Baelon, Alyssa, Rhaenys, Laena, Viserys, Daemon, Aegon II, Helaena, etc. all claimed young or fully grown dragons somewhere between the ages of 11-18.

The only character that had the potential to be marketed as his biggest bully is his brother. They’re never going to convince me (and many others) that it was Rhaenyra’s sons who would ever go after another child for their lack of a dragon, especially given that they were almost surely taught that hatching a cradle egg is but one way for a Targaryen to have a dragon. Aemond felt lesser than his nephews due to the way Alicent was parenting him. She led him to believe that his nephews were bastards, that due to their blood they were beneath him, and this is what led to his inferiority complex. It makes more sense than the crock of shit the show runners decided to include in the show.

Rhaenyra and her sons were subjected to actual abuse and bigotry over the timeskip due to their gender and their blood, respectively. It very much makes me sick how they’re being treated by not only the show runners, but a decent portion of the audience as well. Bastardphobia is not cool or edgy. Looking down on someone because their parents weren’t married is vile. It falls into the same category as believing in blood supremacy. It’s 2024. Do better.

Jace and Luke will forever be Mama’s boys and are never beating the best brothers/sons allegations.

</3

[henriettadreaming]

Daemon girlies: Daemon isn't a pedophile/groomer!! Rhaenyra was eighteen!

Daemon to Rhaenyra: I spared you. You were a child.

Also Daemon: Marries Laena who is two years younger than Rhaenyra.

So I have several questions. First of all, why didn't Rhaenyra being a "child" matter to him in the brothel? And secondly, why did he spare Rhaenyra for apparently being too young, but then marry someone younger?

[mercedesdecorazon]

I would like to add Laena Velaryon from House of the Dragon. One of the few black women on the show and she commits s*icide by burning herself to death by dragonfire while giving birth. It was so... traumatizing for me. And this doesn't happen in the books at all. Not to mention, she was mistreated by her (white) husband throughout the show and said husband slept with his (white) niece on the day of her funeral, like what?!

I just... wow...

The Casual Killing of Black Female Characters on Camera

This is a rant of sorts. An outcry, if you will, about the number of times that TV will find entertainment in the onscreen deaths of Black female characters, whether or not it makes sense.

And even at times when it does narratively, the fact that we have to see it, and the fact that she could be recurring, even a main character does not strike confidence within any Black female viewer who might want to use television as an escape from Black femicide and misogynoir.

It is literally inescapable.

Sometimes, you could say, “Well, its the nature of that show, to show us death onscreen. Seeing a Black female character die shouldn’t effect you any more than any of the deaths in this fandom…” but… how many Black women were even there? How much representation was provided for them? Even in a show filled with them, seeing another Black woman killed, especially if done so brutally, can be hurtful to witness.

This is magnified when she was the only one present in the work, one of very few in the work, or in a series where there was not very satisfactory representation in the first place. And this is the truth for most fandoms, even your faves, even ones that get heralded as progressive or praised for having diversity.

So, whether or not the genre or the content had death and murder regularly, if there wasn’t enough Black female representation to pad the death of the Black female character, I’ma be offended and upset and often times traumatized by the shit. Let me make you a list of the ones that especially hurt me:

Keep reading

[thesunfyre4446]

I detest Laena Death's portrayal in the show and the way the writers hinted that Rhaeyna would meet an honorable end.

the fact that even laena's death was about rhaenyra is truly disgusting. not to mention that the show really tried to frame a woman burning herself as gwurlboss moment.

[sansacherie]

"While Nettles was an interesting character, this would not only consolidate and streamline the source material, but also give Rhaena — the steadfast daughter of Laena Targaryen — a way to prove her worth to both herself and her stepmother, Queen Rhaenyra. So don’t be surprised if she suddenly becomes a lot more than a babysitter."

I want to punch something.

To describe someone like Netty as "interesting" is like trying to compare the Mona Lisa to a finger painting!

Its funny how I haven't seen anyone suggest that the characters of Addam and Alyn should have been combined.

As for Rhaena and the way she's talked about here....SMDH

[sunfyredefender77]

The tragedy of women in asoiaf

[ride-thedragon]

Everything said. Exactly how I feel.

Adultification of all HotD Girls and the infantilization of Rhaenyra.

Two scenes in HotD really bug me with how the characters acknowledge Rhaenyra as a child when she’s 18, but then go on to marry and impregnate girls younger than 18.

Viserys call Rhaenyra, “just a girl” when Daemon takes her to the brothel. He doesn’t use the world woman, he uses girl, denoting Rhaenyra as not an adult at this point in her life. By Visery’s logic, he married a child. Alicent was only 14/15 when he married her and only 17 when she become a mother twice over.

Daemon also cause Rhaenyra, “just a child” when she’s says he abandoned her after her wedding. Daemon then goes on to flirt with a 15/16 year old Laena at the wedding and marrying her soon after.

The adultification of Laena is much worse than characters in text acknowledging people older than her as kids. Laena is played by two actresses that are about ten years older than Laena’s canon age. This also isn’t just a case of adults playing teens, the show has set Rhaenyra and Alicent as the standard for what a 14 through 18/19 year old and 28 through 34 year olds looks like. Laena’s actresses are older than Rhaenyra and Alicent’s Actors and Actresses. This is a classic example of black girlhood being earesed in text and out of. Laena goes from a clear 12 year old who is very visually much younger than Rhaenyra and Alicent to being a near adult woman who looks about the same age, if not older than the other girls. Laena is also styled in much more mature clothing than we see any other character in. Even Alicent’s “sex dresses” are much more reserved than Laena’s gold dress.

We also have the same thing happening to Laena’s daughters, Baela and Rhaena. In text they should be 16 or younger but their actresses are older than Jace’s actor. The only upside is that the two are not visually sexualized and aged up as teen Laena was.

In conclusion, HotD in text shows the absurdity of Viserys and Daemon viewing Rhaenyra as a child while pressing girls younger than she was at the time. The show tries to erase the clear adultification of Laena. The show engages in a lot of anti black stereotypes and I am not looking forward to how they’ll treat Nettles.

Disclaimer: I am not a WOC or a POC, if anything I wrote is wrong please correct me. My goal is to learn and advocate for better representation in media for all gender, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientation.

Blogs I recommend you follow if you want to read more about how HotD fails women and people of color: @bohemian-nights @venusintheblindspots-blog @mejcinta @sunnysideaeggs

[viihelii]

the way absolutely everyone else in westeros is presently planning and fighting a war, meanwhile daemon is in this actively haunted castle, living a stephen king novel live action that's written and directed by the same woman that's causing him to vividly hallucinate the young girl he abandoned/his dead wife who killed herself via the dragon that is now terrorising his entire life