#Rhae rants

[anew-flame]

I was emotionally prepared for the Trespasser epilogue of DA:I… but no one could’ve prepared me for Cassandra’s impressions of the others when reading aloud Varric’s book about the Inquisition

[rhaelynn]

**some of my tags below mildly spoil the video’s content; if you found this post through any of them, do proceed with caution!**

I don’t watch video essays very often, but imho this one is fantastic—so I thought I’d share here!!

The video analysed the purpose, function(ing), and long-term effect of the Hunger Games on both Capitol and District citizens, in ABOSAS and the main series, and broke down its structure (and by extension, Panem) to A TEE.

Do check out the channel as well!! There’s another video made on Wandavision that I really like also (translation: I FELT SEEN), and in general I quite like the way they structure their arguments/points.

[rhaelynn]

I’m doing better, I made it to September // I can finally breathe

I don’t think I can ever pass another September without thinking of this line

I’ve always associated september with new beginnings. so whatever happens this month, I hope it leads to the start of something new and good for all of you. as the days slowly get shorter I hope we can make the best of what’s to come

[unolvrs]

UNO!!! what do you think of aegon ii?

BABES...

okay, look i have much to say about aegon ii but trigger warning before we continue: i will be mentioning spoilers from the series, the books, and sexual assault. and before you guys ask, yes, i am team black but i try to give some of the greens the benefit of doubt. but i have always been a fire&blood reader first and foremost more than i will ever be a hotd fan. (i liked hotd at first but then the writers happened.)

i think aegon ii wasn’t raised properly. i admit that viserys was not the best father and f&b!alicent/hotd!alicent was just... i think we all know how she was. but that does not excuse his actions. he was neglected, treated poorly by his parents, but that DOES NOT excuse his actions. while i believe in separating fiction from reality, that still does not take away the fact that he assaulted girls more than once.

i personally draw the line there when it comes to fiction. i separate fiction from reality but no. just no. like, fuck. no, i’m just 💀 i could’ve empathized for aegon’s mommy and daddy issues but then he just had to be a rapist 💀 c’mon... so i'll admit: i don’t understand his fans. i don’t understand the aegon little meow meow edits when the guy is literally a rapist.

(and yes, i don’t like aemond too... i have a thing against older kids getting pissed at something younger kids too. it’s a personal grudge tbh. but i am, however, a f&b!alicent lover 😍 slay evil queen! at least you had ambition and was a girlboss! hotd did you no justice babe!)

[forsakenwitchery]

It's been a long time since I've really ranted about something on here but like.

HOTD is just… On another level of bad? At some point this season, I got so tired of getting angry with the writing I just straight up started laughing at almost every single scene. I managed to find a sliver of enjoyment in the shitshow what S2 turned out to be. Not anymore.

Small costest backstage at the end because I felt like looking at myself smiling after writing all this down lol

Having seen some and read about some E8 leaks I'm just… I guess I'm checking out. What they've done to the Greens and specifically Aemond this season is Merlin's 'Morgana suddenly full evil' level of shit writing. And I can't handle yet another favorite nuanced character of mine being stripped of any nuance by the shit writers. But at least with Morgana there was a lot of her, and with Aemond it's 2 minutes of peak character assassination per episode and it isn't cutting it.

I feel so bad for Ewan and the rest of the Green actors who gave it their all - and in some scenes you can clearly see Ewan giving his all trying to fight the shitty writing, but there's only so much an actor can do with a script so bad.

Like when in ep. 5 everyone kept referring to Aemond as if he's suddenly Satan incarnate (Alicent, Daemon ahhh pretty sure there was someone else this episode ‘cause I remember three characters) I knew they decided to flip the switch with Aemond suddenly going full caricature villain (and yeah he was no saint BUT LIKE BBQ-ING HIS BRO?) with no proper buildup for it but HOLY SHIT I didn’t think it would be ‘blink and he’s full on sociopathic villain’. And the way they really did try and hammer that point home with him yanking Helaena now is just… Fucking wild. But like, he wasn’t wrong with dismissing Alicent who turned out to be the biggest traitor on TG this season (RIP S1 Alicent). He’s not wrong in saying they need Dreamfyre. But the show sure did go about him technically not being wrong yet showing it in the worst way possible very... head-on and with lacking any nuance. It truly feels like Condal & Co just couldn’t handle how popular Aemond became in S1 and gave him as little screen time as possible while simultaneously trying to make him as unsympathetic and suddenly 180 as possible. Which just doesn’t work without the proper buildup if you stop to think for even one second.

Then we’ve got Alicent who drilled it into her sons’ heads they’ll be dead unless they fight Rhae and now she’s also 180 and doesn’t understand why they want to fight and turns out to be the biggest traitor basically surrendering her children, the city and her brother to the woman whose husband killed her grandchild. The fuck did S1 Alicent go? Can we see her? Is she in the room with us? You know, the one jumping Rhae with the knife for Aemond? By all means, she and Aemond should have had a dynamic akin to Cersei and Joffrey’s if they were dead-set on making Aemond pretty much THE (only) villain in the show (which should have been about everyone being a criminal lmao). But like… We came to THIS? THE FUCK. THE FUUUUCK. Like imagine for one second Cersei pretty much throwing her kids to their enemies. This is. I don’t know which level of bad writing is this. We’re so far past the rock bottom at this point, the bottom doesn’t exist, the depths this season has reached don’t even have a proper name.

Then we’ve got Helaena. All season I’ve been waiting to see more of her. All season. And I waited. And waited. Her being the Dreamer sounded cool on paper. And they just ended up using her as a device to show ‘Aemond bad’ again? And HELP DAEMON? And like... to spoil the end of the story for those unfamiliar? THE FUUUUUUUUUUUCK. THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Like damn, I knew they were baiting us with the promo and I knew it would be OOC for her to want to fight but at the same time I was kinda hoping at least she’d want to? Like she’s sane in the show. Her son was beheaded in front of her eyes. I kept hoping this show would have at least ONE female character actually willing to fight, but no. The balcony scene was good. But in spite, not thanks to what the writers clearly meant for this scene to be. Phia and Ewan really did give this scene their all and try to add nuance where they just once again tried to write Aemond off as a dick.

I haven’t seen the Aegon scene but apparently, they tried to make him look dumb again? And since there’s no rush to vacate KL in the show, why the hell didn’t he try to at least take his daughter with him? Like we get it, show, you hate the Greens and therefore all the Greens hate each other apparently (not buying it no matter how much you’re selling it tho), so him not bothering with Helaena is like okaaaay suuuure (not), but HIS KID? He was the hightlight of the first part of this season, and now we're... back at it again. Yay.

Also tbh I hated Daemyra as a concept in S1 as a ship but I LOVED their dynamic if it makes sense. It was truly interesting and both characters really shone in their shared scenes, so when Rhae’s arc this season started to feel like Groundhog Day I really missed Daemyra since at least their push and pull with Daemon made her feel more alive and interesting idk. But like. Their reunion scene looks like a grand meh? Daemon looks like he cares. Rhae came off to me like she doesn’t give a single fuck about him. Rhae in general was one of my fave characters in S1 and now it’s just. Huh? Them trying to saintify her absolutely ruined the character for me, she’s just so bland now which with her amount of screen time just… Doesn’t make for a very compelling show.

So. Yep. Those are my thoughts and feelings. tbh I don’t even know when I became so attached to the Greens. Like maybe it was in spite of the show trying to ruin and ignore them. Sort of like when you start rooting for the underdogs. But now I just feel really hollow and drained and sad for the actors. On both teams tbh, ‘cause like… What even is the point of this show anymore? There’s no war. Aemond is the only one who’s willing to wage it and the show villainizes him for it. Even in ep. 8 Rhae still says she doesn’t wanna fight the war. What did we spend 8 episodes, then, on aside from some character assassinations?

What’s the point if you don’t really feel anything towards most of the characters? Not even anger or apathy? ‘Cause like, I couldn’t care less when Rhaenys died. I’m sure when Jace kicks the bucket it would be the same. If the characters themselves can’t be bothered (where’s the aftermath for Blood and Cheese ffs?), why and HOW the hell should the viewers care? I’m sure they’ll find a way to make even Helaena’s death as meaningless as possible with giving her zero agenda in the matter.

I truly don’t think I’ll be watching S3. I don’t think I have it in me to witness how they screw up the Greens even more than they already did. It’s not even fun anymore how dumb the show is, it’s just draining. Motivations and relationships changing 180 between episodes or even during them (sometimes even during scenes), major events not phasing anyone and having no consequences. Characters the show chose as THE main characters living in Groundhog Day with nothing to do. We’re supposed to just believe the characters are suddenly completely different than they were weeks/months ago in show’s time just because the show says so. HOW ABOUT NO?

I’m only holding out hope for Daeron but at this point? I’m sure he’ll have a total o 1-2 minutes of screen time each episode as well and they’ll ruin him somehow, too. Still funny though how him and Aemond are both 16 which I’m sure is just another writing plot hole but on the off chance it isn’t… The only cool and redeemable thing the show can do at this point in my eyes is make Daeron and Aemond twins. You know, at the very least to give Ewan the screen time he deserves AND give him some better material to work with. But ah well.

At this point I’m choosing to more or less ignore everything that’s happened in S2, ‘cause the sure itself sure as hell ignored 2/3 of it, so why can’t I. Honestly, I want to do a full Helaena and Aemond cosplay, not a costest, if not for any other reason than to freaking forget S2 ever happend and maybe do some scenes which should have been in it, shippery or not. tbh I wasn't even shipping Helaemond until I saw Ewan and Phia's interviews about them and I was SO HYPED. And Tom's interviews. I was so hyped for siblings interecting in general and I feel like both the actors and the audience were done dirty in the worst way possible.

Also also the last thing I want to say is that it's super sad to see viewers turning on Aemond because it's so clear that's what the show wants everyone to do and neither Aemond nor Ewan deserve it. That's very telling of how badly he's written this season, he's not a villain you love to hate, he's just there for people to hate him. I hope at least Ewan doesn't get hate for his character, but we all know some people are braindead enough to project characters onto actors, so... :(

ALSO ALSO ALSO I don't really feel like fighting over this show because I don't think it deserves any more of my nerve cells, so should anyone decide to come at me for this post don't bother, I'll just reply with print screening this part. But it's kinda funny how tumblr seemed to have an actual war over this show when the show straight up refused to commit to anything.

To everyone who has read thus far – here, have some cute backstages from our costest. I’m sure we could all use a hug and a laugh. I know I could.

[anew-flame]

He really does have the perfect set up to be yandere, but he’s not. Not at all. His “obsession” with MC is not about possessing them in any way, rather he’s just… unhealthily attached to them. Which will make a lot more sense why as you play through his route.

Fair warning, it will make any other routes you play after his hurt. 🥲

girlies and pookies, i fell down the asra rabbit hole and what are your thoughts on him being obsessing or yandere? because i have seen it a lot around, but i don't fully see it? or rather i don't see it at all and my relationship with yandere anything is complicated at best but i also have seen very little of him to form a full opinion and girl do i love spoilers

so what do you think?

[twilight-princess240]

I am seething. I am furious. I am crying inside. What was that portrayal of Alyssa Targaryen in House of the Dragon?

Fire and Blood explicitly described her as having dirty blond hair, mismatched eyes, one violet, one green, ungainly features, and a crooked nose because she broke it when she was six. She knew she was not a great beauty and never would be, but never gave a shit about that. She preferred trousers over gowns, rode Meleys whenever she had a chance, was openly a tomboy, and once again, never gave a shit about any negative opinions about that. She was spirited and fiery, openly saying she was "as bawdy a wench as any barmaid in King's Landing."

Why couldn't they have portrayed her like that? Was it so hard to show that she was still a Targaryen and Daemon's mother, the parent he took after the most, while using the book description of her? The fans, especially those who have read Fire and Blood, know how Alyssa really looks and what her personality is like. Do the show's creators think all fans don't know anything about the source material?

The grievances I have with the scene depicting her and Daemon are innumerable. I have just become more Team Black than ever before and am so relieved that I never watched Season 2 except for the new intro. I know now that I won't be able to stomach the show from now on knowing they ruined my girl Alyssa in such a, excuse my wording, blasphemous way. I now feel afraid, no, terrified, for the day that Targaryen women like Alyssa's many sisters, her mother, and Shiera Seastar will be adapted for the screen, because they will be ruined and reduced to unrecognizable beings who might not be like their book descriptions at all. Since the story of Dunk and Egg is being adapted, I feel afraid of how any Targaryen woman in that show will be adapted, such as Aegon V's (Egg's) sisters Daella and Rhae, and possibly his daughters Shaera and Rhaelle. Hell, maybe Egg's wife Betha Blackwood, his mother Dyanna Dayne, his sisters-in-law Kiera of Tyrosh and Princess Daenora Targaryen, and his niece Princess Vaella Targaryen should be on that list too because they were Targaryens by marriage, in Vaella's case, by birth, and in Daenora's case, by both birth and marriage.

Targaryen women have been ruined for far too long, and Alyssa Targaryen was only the latest. She was reduced to an unrecognizable being who was used to make fans unsympathetic to Daemon and by extension Team Black, and it disgusts and infuriates me. Yes, Daemon has done morally questionable, if not outright immoral things, throughout the books and the show, but this scene feels too much like they want to depict him as an irredeemable monster in contrast to Team Green, and that is, to me, abhorrent.

I apologize if this rant makes anyone uncomfortable, but I absolutely had to get it off my chest after seeing (on here, not the episode itself) and hearing about Alyssa's appearance in House of the Dragon and how it was used. The only things this show has accomplished is me confirming that I'm solidly Team Black all the way and me desiring justice for not just Alyssa, but every Targaryen woman who was ruined before her, might be ruined in House of the Dragon, and might be ruined in future shows.

[a0random0gal]

If you had the chance to change something about the dance of the dragons (TV show or book), what would it be? For example, how a character dies, which team a house is on,or an entire character personally. How would you change it to make the story better, in your opinion?♥️🖤💙💚

Ohh anon i've got a list.

When it comes to the tv show there are a few choices the writers made that just don't sit right with me.

Laenor

I do like the characterization they went for, he's a pretty cool dude who really loves his weird, dysfunctional family. What I really don't like is how they handled his death.

See I truly can't stand it when a character is sugar coated just because they're the protagonist and thus must be righteous and always objectively correct.

So to witness the writers white wash his murder, having him flee to essos instead of being killed by Rhaenyra pisses me off. I get that after showing them being good friends it would be very odd to have her kill him.

But that's the thing, they should have opted for a more ruthless Rhaenyra in the first place!

Laenor's death in the books (at least for me) was the first instance of Rhae Rhae making morally wrong choices in order to pursue her ultimate goal. It was compelling! Here she just takes the easy way out, without having to make a tough choice.

Also his survival really fucks her up when you really think about it. Now all her sons are bastards since her marriage to Daemon isn't valid, and for the upcoming season 2, how are they going to handle Addam and Seasmoke? Laenor is still alive, his dragon won't accept a new rider. This doesn't make any sense and just causes plotholes what the actual fu-

Sidenote: After Laenor's very moving speech on how he was done goofing off and was now willing to really step up for Rhaenyra and their family it's super strange to imagine him ditching them all immediately afterwards Lol.

Rhaenys

My gosh, where do I even begin with this woman?

She too is pretty cool at the start, but then episode 9 rolls around and I roll my eyes.

She's so hypocritical. She tries to shit on Alicent for "toiling in the service of men." When that's all she does in the goddamn story!

She wants Baela to get Driftmark, tells Corlys about it, he shuts off the whole plan cause he wants a kid who he's not even related to on the driftwood throne, and when she complains about it he dismisses her.

So what does feminist Rhaenys do about it?

She... submits to her husband, something she conveniently forgets about when talking to Alicent. My god. Just remove this entire exchange, it hurts to watch.

And the coronation scene, Jesus Christ! It was so cool in the books, why did they have to ruin it? Had they replaced it with something better I wouldn't have complained, but this is just, the worst.

Rhaenys shows how badass she is by.... Brutally crushing hundreds of small folks to death and almost slaughtering the greens.

Cool, cool, absolutely necessary. Thanks Sara.

And you know what's even more infuriating? When she flees to Dragonstone to inform Rhaenyra of all that happened. She says she didn't kill the greens cause she didn't wish to start a war. I'm sorry what?

That would have ended the war at the start! As glad as I am that Rhaenys didn't barbecue them it makes absolutely no sense!

If she had killed them there would have been no dance in the first place!

I hate these dumb show only moments. They needlessly complicated an already complicated story and just mess everything up.

There's probably other stuff I could rant on, like how Aegon was made a rapist sorely to make the audience think:

Oh look! The greens are so baad, they believe a rapist alcoholic douche should be in charge instead of our empowered dragon queen, they sure do suck!

Or how house Velaryon was disrespected and mistreated by D*emyra but still somehow decided to support Nyra's claim.

They didn't really have a motive to be greens though, so I think they should have stayed neutral. Their fervent black support makes no sense.

The writers really should have given them more reasons to back up the blacks or had their beloved queen treat them better so that their loyalty made more sense ( I mean holy hell I wonder how they will handle the two betrayers and Corlys's arrest lmao).

But other greens have already shat on these awful decisions and I won't beat a dead horse.

Book

When it comes to fire and blood I surprisingly have very little complaints, except of course, the Jaehaera situation.

My poor baby deserved better, I've made a post about it in the past

(where I ranted and said stuff I kind of regret now, don't post while very angry guys I don't recommend it)

tackling how the little queen was unnecessarily killed off and how her death genuinely adds nothing so why was it added? God I get upset just thinking about it lol.

Some people say George did it cause he needed Aegon's kids to be born after Viserys's, and apparently he couldn't fathom a married teen not having kids until her 20s, which is veery weird.

The more plausible theory is that he got rid of her cause he wanted more Velaryon queens to showcase how close they used to be to the Targs.

Which is something I had understood already thanks to Alyssa, the sea Snake and all the Velaryons who were masters of ships but whatever.

[darklinaforever]

I don’t know what this person sending you their rants is on but - “there are no prominent debates about the validity of Rhaenyra's love for Harwin. There's no one jumping on posts about the Velaryon boys to say that Rhaenyra only had them because she couldn't have Daemon. “ And Rhae loving one ‘set’ of boys more over the other …

Saying this is never debated and it’s always JUST Laena stuff is so fake. I’ve seen many many debates over all of these, and more.

Did Daemon care about Laena, yes. Did he love her? Maybe. Would he have ever married her if he had been allowed to marry Rhaenyra? No.

All of that being true and stating it doesn’t make us racist. It would have been the same if Laena had been like the book. I’m sorry the show writers suck, and did her dirty but.. It is what it is.

This is from this reblog :

I simply wanted to say that yes, Laena is the victim of misogynistic writing (like all the women in the series) and of racism in addition, but that the fact that Daemon is not in love with her has nothing to do with that, because that most likely wasn't the case in Fire and Blood either. I expressed myself clumsily and too quickly, sure, but to assume that I'm saying that Daemon hated Laena when I never implied such a thing ? Like, just because I say Daemon wasn't in love with Laena, does that necessarily mean I'm saying he hates her ? WTF ? That does not make any sense.

Then, yes, I've already seen tons of posts exposing (with good reason) the fact that Rhaenyra probably wasn't in love with Harwin. It seems pretty obvious that if she could have had Daemon, she would never have been with Harwin. For what ? Because Harwin is an anedoc in the text for Rhaenyra apart from her boys. And also the fact that she suddenly stopped having children with him when Daemon was finally allowed to return from his exile to the court.

Just like I've already seen tons of Laena fans insult Rhaenyra's character as a whore. Literally, I've had some come to my inbox. Just like there are fans of Laena who write her in fanfiction as Daemon's true love and Rhaenyra the jealous whore who can't live up to him. But for all that, I'm not going to say that all Laena fans think that Rhaenyra is a whore (plus misogynistic and grossophobic comments).

There's even debate that the Velaryon boys should be disliked by Rhaenyra because they put her reputation and legitimacy at risk (even though in reality, no one cares except the asshole greens) !

Basically... well yes, as you say, everything this person cited has been debated about Rhaenyra.

Rhaenyra is also a character who has always been in trouble, even before the release of HOTD.

Not to say that Laena's case in HOTD is not serious, on the contrary, it is. But she's not the only victim of the fandom's mistreatment. I even think she's not the worst in the female character category from the entire GRRM universe by the fandom.

Either way, HOTD's general treatment of female characters is truly horrible and I fear that even if Baela and Rhaena finally get real scenes and dialogue in the future, they won't be treated any better than everyone else. Which particularly annoys me.

[littlemisssatanist]

can i ask for a small favor? can you rant about daemon targaryen please? i just re-read your team green 💚 post and i'm reminded of how much ick i feel towards that character, especially in the wake of the team trailers being released.

hiii!!! tysm for this ask i was super happy when i saw it in my inbox i'm flattered people want to hear my opinions lol

my thoughts about daemon are very convoluted. i think he has the potential to be a very interesting character but it's kinda canceled out by the incest and pedophilia thing.

like. i understand it's an incest dragon show but my main issue with team black when it comes to their criticisms. they love to spout endless words about how aegon is a rapist and how alicent is a rape apologist for not... idk slitting his throat i guess.

it's really ironic to me, because these same people will turn around and then yap about how daemyra is the perfect ship. they'll be aghast when you even slightly suggest you enjoy aegon's character in any way but be in an uproar if you dare bash their dashing and roguish prince daemon.

honestly, name one terrible thing aegon did and i'll be able to give you something daemon did that is arguably worse than that.

aegon - raping a servant girl in the show (which honestly i'm treating more as a fanfiction considering how terribly written both the greens and the blacks are).

daemon - uhmmmm probably the whole thing with nettles. you know. the sixteen year old girl he groomed and raped (yes raped because minors aren't able to consent). actually, now that i think of it, he did the exact same thing with rhaenyra too, huh? or does team black find the whole fleabottom episode to be hot and rhaenyra being sexually free? that seems like the sort of thing they'd take from that whole fiasco.

on the topic of blood & cheese: the way some people defend this is honestly sickening.

'but poor luke was killed by his terrible uncle aemond' he was an envoy of war (not to aemond, btw, he owed him no safe haven) and also he kinda. yk. took out his eye. i'm not saying luke deserved to die, but i'm going to be honest this is one of the more mild things that happened during the dance.

whether luke deserved to die (which i'd like to reiterate: i do not think he did. i can understand WHY aemond killed him, but that is not me EXCUSING him. this is for those of you who don't know how to read and will inevitably find a way to start putting words in my mouth) b&c is completely unexcusable.

it's team feminism until its a woman who doesn't fit your little box of badass hottie. it's team feminism until that woman doesn't bow down to rhae-rhae and betray her own family and children in order to join the 'good side.' it's team woman until you point out that rhaenyra was groomed by daemon and continues to make decisions that are decidedly anti-feminist.

this is why i can't stand team black stans who say things like 'i hate the greens except for helaena bc she didn't do anything wrong' because you quite literally cannot do that without admitting that helaena suffered because of the blacks NOT the greens.

helaena suffered bc of DAEMON not because of any actions taken by the greens. DAEMON was the one who orchestrated b&c, the one who sent men to terrorize her and kill her children.

daemon did that.

i have no problem with people who can admit that their faves have flaws. i admit aemond's flaws, daeron's flaws, aegon's flaws. the problem i have with daemon is that his stans are so insufferably annoying and they literally cannot do any of that.

my last thought about daemon (at the moment, at least) is his relationship with strong boys.

lots of tb likes to say that daemon loved those boys like his own and would never do anything to hurt them. and i... honestly find it a little strange, and also a little embarassing, because how am i going to have a better grasp on his character than those that love him most???

i genuinely believe that daemon, had rhaenyra ascended to the throne like viserys planned, he would have caused 'unfortunate accidents' for the strong boys in order to get his blood on the throne. which, btw, was one of the main reasons viserys named rhaenyra heir, to keep daemon from sitting on the throne.

i think it the succession crisis had been between daemon and rhaenyra instead, it would have been a much more interesting storyline.

then again grrm isn't that good at writing interesting storylines when it comes to daemon considering he's a self-insert. honestly i wouldn't be surprised if when he died it was found out that grrm had a fanfiction written somewhere where daemon survived the fight with aemond and got to live out the rest of his boring ass life grooming little girls. who knows.

[anew-flame]

I understand and accept that they have no plans to make a Varric romance, it’s not ideal for his character arc and yadda yadda yadda. I get it.

But can we please please at least fuck him? Let us fuck him. Bianca is destroyed, let us destroy dilf dwarf dick thank you very much

[rhaelynn]

I’m going a bit insane today

欲哭無淚

on the verge of actually screaming and crying (not throwing up though thankfully)

[thesilverlady]

Judging by how Ryan love to show his feminist ideals by making female characters go through unspeakable amount of non-canon abuse and violence. And the only way for Rhaenyra's story to be a progressive/feminist tale is by making her get abused by the men around her. I am going to assume it's wouldn't be that far for Ryan to change Rhae's death and makes her gets raped in 4k scene by aegon (who should be disabled but we know Ryan loves to ignore source material) like show Rhaenyra's got zero respect from the writers. Like even her relationship with Daemon which wasn't healthy in the book to begin with , is now not really about her but because Daemon got the hots for Viserys (some leaks implies it for Aemma) he started projecting into her and entered a relationship with her bc it's the closest he can get to Visussy 🤓 f&b was already bad for me personally but Ryan is such a talented mf he managed to come up with much worse

*sorry for the rant I don't really ship daemrya but I really hate watching a female character get non-canon abuse just for the writers to prove a point about a male character *

Edit: My answer became very negative so for the pookies who want to avoid discourse and negativity pls scroll past ♥

it's alright! no need to apologize! 🫶

tbh with you I do enjoy daemyra very much in the book but I fully acknowledge their dynamic has its toxicity (tbf it's super rare to find a wholesome, sweet, "healthy" asoiaf couple and I probably wouldn't even get that hooked compared to how I get with the dark ones)

That being said, the couple lost me already by s1 ep4, so it terms of shipping I've given up waiting anything from them

Now about the writing, hotd has been misogynistic from the start so I'm not exactly waiting for a transformation to happen in s2.

in s1 Alicent’s character was rewritten - in such a way that the new version of her doesn't even experience a moment of happiness or a second of having autonomy or power. She's always someone's punching bag while also her being hypocritical and nasty to Rhaenyra

Laena's way of death was completely unnecessary and brutal, similiar to Aemma's. And the fact they made getting burnt alive being "a dragon rider's death" already gave a hint about how Rhaenyra's death will be seen if it follows canon.

asoiaf established how brutal dragon fire is when Rhaegal bathed Quentyn after he tried to tame Viserion. It's not "honorable" as hotd tries to make it be, it's torturous. And my concern with Rhaenyra's death is that it won't be seen for its brutality.

To continue Baela & Rhaena were barely given any lines, their role as kids was getting dismissed but their dad and as adults they were just standing silently - you'd think they were background characters.

Mysaria's character was brushed off by erasing the child loss she went through due to Viserys - which debatably worked as a trigger for the events she also did in the plot.

Rhaenys was downright written as an idiot who was envious of Rhaenyra and instead of supporting her, she was trying to "humble" her by being an asshole. When she got the opportunity to destroy the greens during the coronation she walked away because.... *check notes" she made eye contact with alicent and the power of motherhood won? her granddaughters being engaged wasn't enough for her to act I guess.

Then there's Helaena, who while she did have an extremely tiny role in the book, it doesn't justify making her extra passive. I've talked about this before but making her having "dragon dreams" is useless and a waste of time and it's also a great excuse to have her be dismissed and ignored.

Helaena in the book was said to be pleasant, motherly, patient and calm. I won't mention the leaks I've read about b&c but if they're true they paint her in a very weird light.

Rhaenyra deserves an entire post of her own. If alicent was the punching bad Rhaenyra is the bing bong boll being tosses from one person to another each second.

So yeah, the issue isn't about shipping or even which teams anyone sides with. The writing is atrocious to all the female characters, and what's the cherry on top is the showrunners constantly patting themselves in the back for being "feminist" and GA falls for it!

I'm so burnt out 😩 This is why I've decided to attempt turn off the media analysis for the show 'cause it's like kicking a dead horse. My goal for this season is to try to vent less and enjoy whatever I can put of context without thinking too hard about it.

[ae-neon]

Actually not done ranting

Hot/D writers let RayRay look bad challenge

And I'm not even saying that as a diss. The whole point of Dani's story is that she's nothing like her ancestors.

Rhae is allowed to be not just flawed, not just downright racist in a certain case, but also actively harming others in order to get what she wants. but nooo, she can't kill her gay husband, she's a modern ally, speak Valentina.

Let her do things, let her take action not for the greater good or for prophecy or for feminism™ but because she feels entitled to it, because she wants to be queen

It's not feminist writing to rob all the female characters of their personality, active agency and make them solely reactive to men, whom the show keeps hinting at as almost genetically predisposed to war??? What is this, A Court of Fire and Blood?

And let the green goblins be nice to each other? How are you reconciling the ironclad faith Edmond and Begone had in each other last episode to the clear tension and animosity in this one?? Where is the third boy (which one, you might ask since on screen both generations are missing a whole fucking person)

Removing Helen's influence over her husband and cutting out that they only began sleeping in different beds post son beheading undermines their relationship and the reason a fuck up who never wanted to be king was scared into taking his sister's throne

Let the contenders for the throne be at the centre of the story? And stop acting like the audience is supposed to have read the books? Children are appearing and disappearing and I'm supposed to know or care about who the fuck they are 😭

I literally have never liked Demon but why make him killing his wife, saying the heir for a day and a son for a son unambiguous but then never showing him grieving with his daughters and acting like I'm supposed to see him as morally grey bad boi™ just cause he's played by your favourite actor

I told my brother the casting was intentionally manipulative with such a beloved actor but I never gave af, I'm so sorry

No hate to the actor, clearly it works as compelling or tempting or unconscious bias for some ppl

And apparently removing the canon black character ?? But it's okay because of you casted a whole other bunch of blood supremacists as black with no real regard to how their character writing plays into racial stereotypes: great stuff 👍 thank you so much for the representation as *checks notes*

a temp love interest whose romance and life gets reduced then glossed over and whose funeral brings together the real incest it couple,

dead beat DL father who fakes his death to run away from his family

Two supposedly main characters who get little to no lines and character development

Terrible wigs

And a cheating husband

(that being said, eve best and steve toussaint 🙏💚 love y'all) we were also robbed of black hair with the rogue white streak for Rains Barathea Tangent 💔

And because we kept time jumping in S1 with only a focus on like 7 ppl, the world felt so empty. Some of those time jumps could have been used to hint at the current wider world.

You have the source material, don't just fanfic at us, adapt it

How the fuck are you being out done by David and Duncan, Rian???

you know which 57 other ppl are gonna become relevant later on, why not give us more glimpses at the brocken and blackweed rivalry than that one scene where riverlanders went to stormy end for no reason??

Why not show us the Stork dude with his brother so later we click that him giving Jason the bad news about Lucas is double hard because he also lost a brother??

Why not show us Cory's kids working on his ships?? Where was Leanne's relationship with RayRay??? We didn't need to see the adult cast of Rhae and Alice's kids until the second season.

We needed more politics, more worldbuilding, a sense of consequence and reality. Chris can just kill a knight and a lord? Demon can just kill a lady and a lord? IN THE THRONE ROOM? IN FRONT OF OTHER non royal NOBLES? And no one is worried about that, there's no fallout of mistrust, no fear of vulnerability?

Ray can just have three brown haired kids and only Alice will be shown to be bothered?? Are we forgetting Jeffery having Lancaster blond hair literally triggered several succession wars and launched S1 of Game of Chairs??

Where is the politics, why wasn't she shown taking note of the rumours and in turn maturing to realise she must appease and befriend or at least gain the favour of those around her?

Give us more depth on how valyrian culture clashes with westerosi culture with a focus on gender and incest and how it's already made them extremely unpopular with the Faith so tiktok fans can understand putting a woman with bastard heirs on the throne is actually a kinda big deal for a lot of people who don't have white hair and uncle-brother-husbands

Like I'm not asking for a lot but you have access to one of the biggest IPs out, you have Grim who would rather work on anything but his next book in the main series, you have HBeeO bent over, come ooooon

[daylander1000]

Will you watch season 2 of HotD or you've lost interest in the show? I wasn't thrilled with season 1, but I do like some characters and I'm curious to see if they'll do them any justice in the next season(s). I'm still trying to be optimistic (which is definitely against my nature 😁), although the latest leaks from Spain (which I desperately hope to be false) doesn't sound promising.

Idk it you read Fire & Blood, but that book is often overrated imho, almost all the characters there are painfully one-dimensional, shallow and bland, while the plot is full of illogical things (especially the Dance part) . So, as you can see, I'm not the biggest book fan, and I do believe that the show did some things better and gave a bit of depth and complexity to certain characters and fleshed them out. However, at the same time it seems to me that they didn't complete what they started, like, you see the potential of the characters and understand their motivations, but then out of the blue they do or say something totally nonsensical and OOC. Take Alicent at the end of episode 8. Rhaenyra says something nice to her and she suddenly forgives everything and forgets that's the same woman who wanted to "sharply question" Aemond after her son Luke maimed him over an insult (a fact, actually), the woman her husband always favoured at the expense of Alicent's own children and finally, the woman who is married to Daemon, the sociopath who hates Alicent and her children and who will kill anyone (and apparently with Rhaenyra and Viserys' blessing) without remorse if it benefits him and his side. I mean, the guy even had the gall to look annoyed during the prayer for Vaemond. Still, according to the show, Alicent somehow needs to "misunderstand" Viserys' last words to crown her own son, and not because it's probably the only way to keep her and her children alive and safe and because her son actually has the strongest claim to the throne according to Westerosi laws avd tradition. And don't get me started on the Velaryons who are collectively depicted as "Dae and Rhae fan club". Like, what is Corlys even thinking?! I won't ask about Baela and Rhaena because they obviously don't get to think and are just unconditionally supportive of Rhaenyra and the Strong boys. Rhaenys is contradictory and inconsistent. It's frustrating, really. Also, the fact that the narrative/the framing of the show heavily favours team black is also off-putting. Nevertheless, I'm still curious and just a bit hopeful that season 2 will balance these things a little. Maybe I'll just be terribly disappointed, but oh well. Sorry for the rant :D

Anyway, as a fan of your fic, I would like to know your opinion. Does the show deserve our optimism and what are your predictions regarding season 2?

S2 predictions? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Why would you ask me this? This is a show where someone in a professional HBO writers room said, "So what if a dragon just bursts up from the underground?" And the showrunner was like "Fuck yeah!"

I don't think they even thought to do a camera pan of the carnage. It's like they wanted to make Rhaenys look badass but did a Koolaid Man scene instead.

Tell me that this isn't Rhaenys

Predictions? This is not Leftovers where you could do a whole video essay on foreshadowing and subtext and hidden clues. This is a series where there's a horse running loose in a writer's room and nobody knows what it's going to write next.

This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.

My prediction for S2 is that during the time off at least one person realizes that they failed to make Aegon into Joff 2.0, that instead of having him be affably evil, he's onscreen affable and offscreen evil, and they'll try to double down on actually showing that he's evil and actually showing that he's worse than Daemon and Rhaenyra.

We've seen Daemon in brothels, grooming and marrying children, killing Rhea, killing innocent people and murdering lords at court, but we've only been told (by very minor characters) that Aegon is a baby-eating rape monster. It's all extremely "tacked-on."

I think Aegon's the biggest problem that they have to work on. Just getting at least this one character to make sense moving forward.

When Jahaerys is killed, I think they'll use that to really commit to making him the bad guy. Like he'll have to be killing a baby or raping someone or eating someone so that it's not Rhaenyra and Daemon killing a child but "Look at what this bad man was doing instead of protecting his son."

As far as predictions go, that's all I can see. If they only develop one character in S2, it needs to be him. Rhaenyra has Rockstar!Daemon, Rhaenys and Corlys on her side, so they'll have to upscale the green threat otherwise it's a bunch of grown people and veteran soldiers fighting two children who have no experience at anything because the oldest one is a 20-year-old frat boy and his brother is still a teenager. Aegon's going to have to really be villainous.

I feel like there's a reason all his nude scenes are with his mother, it's one of the few consistent things between them through the time skips and actor changes, and I feel like they're going to go fully 500% in that Commodus direction

and have him just be creepy and rapey with her in a "bad incest," how-the-turntables, "be careful what you wish for" way. Alicent's defining trait seems to be "perpetual victim," so I feel like they'll go this way and frame it as if she's getting what she deserves for slapping him around. Ten extra points if they have Rhaenyra or Rhaenys there on hand to be like "Is this your king?"

I don't see them doing anything with Rhaena besides sending her away, and I actively don't want to see Baela going out there getting her dragon killed and her face burnt off in defense of Rhaenyra.

I honestly try to not think about s2 of this.

I was a hardcore asoiaf fan but I didn't like Feast or Dance. I read Dunk and Egg, but he didn't finish that either. And when F&B came out, I got the audiobook and I listened to it for a few hours, probably less than five, and I couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking "Did this bitch seriously package his story notes as a novel for sale??? This is an insult to storytelling."

And I deleted it.

It's the quality for one thing. It's the lack of diversity, it's the author not finishing anything, it's the fandom being 20% fantasy fans, 80% trump rally...

Like, in just 10 episodes HotD has managed to give a voice to pro-rape feminists. Didn't even know that was a thing until I saw it on Twitter.

I saw some of the leaked pics of Helaena at the funeral on my feed, didn't have to scroll far to see people just casually r-wording Helaena and acting like having six fingers is a killing offense since eugenics rhetoric is apparently thriving in this fandom.

And on top of all that, the story doesn't even make sense.

I don't want to be like "dramaturgically speaking" but narrative coherence is a thing. Just from bing chat (yes, I'm using bing 😣):

Narrative coherence is the degree to which a story makes sense. Coherent stories are internally consistent, with sufficient detail, strong characters, and free of significant surprises. The ability to assess coherence is learned and improves with experience. Individuals assess a story's adherence by comparing it with similar stories. The ultimate test of narrative sense is whether the characters act reliably. If figures show continuity throughout their thoughts, motives, and actions, acceptance increases. However, characters behaving uncharacteristically destroy acceptance.

This show has curb-stomped narrative coherence.

Like, take that scene where they killed Vaemond. The way they write it, Rhaenyra has come back after 6 years of never visiting her father to drag him off his deathbed so he can support her in taking Driftmark, the seat of house Velaryon, away from Velaryon people to give it to her son by Harwin Strong. Vaemond is killed for telling the truth.

With different lighting and music, that's peak tyranny. That's some Mad King Aerys shit. In full view of all the lords at court. Every single person in that courtroom is aware that Luke is a bastard and they've just witnessed a lord like themselves get beheaded over it. This isn't Daemon killing commoners. He's killing the lords and ladies of Westeros.

But there's no fallout. Nothing. All the lords of Westeros cease to matter. It's just another Tuesday to them.

Hell, they go even further and frame the scene like Viserys is Old Theoden fighting off the curse of Wormtongue. Otto, Alicent and her goblin children all but shrivel and wither from the sunlight that Rhaenyra brings as Vaemond is cut down by noble Daemon. In that scene, Dark Sister might as well be Andúril, Flame of Old Valyria, sword of justice.

There are shows that are easy to watch that we say are "no brain cells required," but HotD is like, "No brain cells allowed. Switch them off or put them on silent so you don't disturb anyone."

I have no hope for season 2. I would never rec this to anyone or say that I think the writing will improve. The foundation is shit. You can't build a strong s2 on a shit s1 unless you're writing a procedural or an anthology where nothing that comes before matters.

You can't undo things like Alicent supporting Aegon as king because of a misunderstanding. There's a limit to how many things you can retcon without destroying all sense of continuity and they've already gone beyond that in s1.

They're past plot holes. They have whole parts of the world that are just void of all thought. Alicent and Rhaenys are characters who respawn and disintegrate from scene to scene as needed. Corlys is three lines of dialogue in a trenchcoat. Daemon Targaryen is somehow, impossibly, a less-developed Damon Salvatore.

No optimism here.

I'm that jaded ex fan who's like, "hotd is a barren wasteland, riddled with racists, ableists and toxic stans, and those are just the writers. The very fandom air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten-thousand Lindelof-level writers could they fix this shit."

But that being said, I have a really bad habit of watching shit TV.

I've seen Catwoman more than 5 times.

Waterworld, Jonah Hex, Elektra, Daredevil (Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell), Battlefield Earth, Supernova. At least 8 of the Fast movies. All the Transformers. Dracula 2000. All the old school classics of bad cinema.

I haven't watched Morbius as yet and the only reason why is because I feel like Jared Leto is intentionally trying to become Nicholas Cage and I don't want to support that.

There is something about the cringe that hooks me. And with a TV series? That weekly cringe? That is peak entertainment.

It used to take me 4 sometimes 5 hours to watch and digest a single episode of Titans because there were so many questions to think about.

I hyperfixate on bad writing. Trying to figure out all the ways it went wrong and why and what they were trying to do. Once I start, I can't stop thinking about it. I'm hoping swhhw gets it out of my system, but I don't know.

Like, anybody can make good TV. Anybody can do that if you try hard enough. But truly horrible TV isn't supposed to exist. It's like 20 million an episode to make HotD? Nobody is supposed to invest that in a show where the showrunner doesn't even know how old the characters are. Bad TV shows are supposed to be snuffed out before they see the light of day.

But HotD is something special.

You don't accidentally end up with a Koolaid Dragon busting up through concrete. A director described that scene to a VFX crew. The actors had to rehearse that repeatedly. They had to do a read-through...

Like, just think about that.

And then they announce that they're going ahead with s2 without writers?!

That is insane. Part of me says look away, and the other part of me says that s2 of HotD will be something the likes of which I'll never see again.

I really don't want to watch S2, but honestly, I might. Not because I think it will be better but because I'm dead certain it can only get worse.

[bbananababe]

Getting back into HotD for a bit now we have a release date for season 2 and....

I gotta say I really don't understand one thing about the HotD fandom that didn't seem to be as big a thing when the show first came out but is now huge even with people who are pro team black:

Everyone's always refering to Rhaenyra's kids as 'half-breeds' and 'fake valyrians' and Alicent's kids as pure blooded valyrians?? Like Harwin and Alicent have the same amount of Valyrian blood (0)???

Besides whatever weird regressive moral panic everyone seems to be having about Rhaenyra having kids out of wedlock, social rules about bastardry don't change genetics?

Only difference is Rhaenyra took a huge L having them look like Harwin and the Hightowers have weak genetics or something. Jace as a future king would have just as much Valyrian content in his blood as Aegon, and his kids even more Valyrian blood than Aegon's if he had them with Baela, who has more Valyrian blood than Helaena.

I see this thing all the time where people are saying Rhaenyra is destroying house targaryen and weakening her blood line by trying to have her kids inherit but the line actually gets weaker overall if Aegon inherits instead, so really the only problem is that her kids were had out of wedlock and like guys, how is that something we're condemning in 2023?

In the show the religious moral purity argument makes sense sure, bc they're a heavily patriarchal society that undervalues women and doesn't let them inherit except under very strict circumstances, and also that likes to punish and censure women having any of the same freedoms as men (reminder here that Aegon also has bastard children- he just doesn't raise or love them).

This is just something that is so weird to me as the defining reason people give to call Rhaenyra a 'spoiled whore' (?? In 2023??) and support Otto stealing her throne. I like and find characters interesting on both sides (especially Alicent), but at the point the show is at Rhaenyra is both the legal, rightful heir (as decreed by the king) and whatever her faults, a morally superior choice to Aegon if you think about relative ability to rule fairly and with the good of the people in mind.

Anyway rant almost over, but I would be interested to see if anyone could explain to me how Rhaenyra's children are less Targ than Alicent's apart from in appearance (which no one cared about when it was Jon Snow) and why their paternal parentage should even matter to US as the audience when we know for certainty that Rhaenyra's their mother. Even in-universe over half the realm supports Rhae (showing they don't care either).

(Side note: the Velaryons weren't gonna get done dirty at all in the long run either bc Luke and Rhaena's children would have both Velaryon blood and a huge chance to claim more dragons for the Velaryon house with the double dose of Targ blood on top. If they wanted the Velaryon look desperately they could just marry Rhaena's kids to Baela's kids, or to Vaemond's children/grandchildren.)

No hate to people that prefer the greens or anything I just don't understand the flack Rhae and the Strong boys get, especially since even if you don't like Rhae, characterisation-wise Jace and Baela as a ruling team (diplomatic, dragon riders, honorable, intelligent, dutiful, like and respect each other etc.) have the best chance out of the whole crew to successfully unify and rule Westeros in the future.

It just feels like it has to be a sexism thing bc otherwise it doesn't make sense to me 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️