#Rhea Butcher

[imkeepinit]

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

Does Rachel have something against moms?

[randomnameless]

Treehouse!Seteth :

I am, of course, Rhea's servant. So, in a more formal context, I must maintain a deferential distance.

After being called out for using Rhea's name without using honorifics - I mean, calling her by her name and not by her title - by Cyril, Seteth explains it's just an issue of context, and when he's formal, he always keeps a "deferential distance".

And when we see them in Nopes in the past, during Larva's paralogue, even as they were fighting, he was indeed very formal :

I cannot continue... I leave the rest in your hands, Lady Seiros!

(please don't mind the names lol).

But in JP :

かつての私は、レアに仕える者として 立場を弁えた言動を取る必要があった

Which was translated by Teaspoon translation as :

"Previously, as one who serves Rhea, I had to speak and act in a way befitting my position."

And yet, in the past, when he adressed Seiros - when she was the supposed de facto leader of the bunch - he called her like this :

セイロスの元には行かせんぞ！ くっ……これ以上は厳しいか。 セイロス、後は頼んだぞ！

There's no suffix - Flayn, I mean, Cethleann calls Seiros "セイロス様" with 様 being the -sama suffix... but Cichol has none of this.

There's no "Lady" Seiros for Cichol, no "deferential distance" whatsoever, he's just talking about his younger sibling relative.

IDK what this was changed, maybe with the different voice directions Treehouse thought Rhage and her hair-trigger temper should have a "second" who always show deference? And that would explain why Whitten was directed to voice a more "mellow" Seteth than Koyasu's?

Another example is in the Chapter 17 convo of Golden Shower, when Rhea announces her plan to lead a suicidal last stand in Tailtean, while Treehouse!Seteth finally calls her by her name, without any honorifics in the last line - as she told him she'll fight and only Sothis knows the outcome - but when she tells him "if anything happens, take Flayn and gtfo of Fodlan" basically asking him to abandon her if she dies or if the situation is dire, despite having the shocked portrait, Treehouse!Seteth says this :

Lady Rhea, you cannot mean that!

Jp!Seteth?

レア！？　それは……

His sister relative just told him she was ready to die and he and Flayn shouldn't follow her but live instead, Seteth drops all honorifics (even if there's a random monk nearby).

Tl;Dr : Jp!Seteth drops the honorifics more easily than Treehouse!Seteth when he's talking to his sister relative - I can only surmise the choice to emphatise his role as Rhea's second - but clearly under her authority - instead of his role as Rhea's advisor - only pretending to be under her authority when people are looking - had something to do with Rhage and the fact that even Seteth grows distrustful of her for player pandering and Hresvelg Grey reasons; granted, JP!Seteth being written the way he is written and yet still able to "disagree with the doctrine because CoS BaD under Rhea''s leadership for some reason" or having all his doubts/mistrust in WC/Tru Piss or even just wanting to find her "so she can reveal to Billy the circumstances behind their birth" feels even more artificial, but that's avatar pandering for you.

Tru Tl; Dr : JP!Nopes shows us how close the lizard fam is, deferential distance/"one who serves Rhea I had to speak in a way that befits my position" my rear, whenever they're talking about her security/safety/fighting, Seteth always calls Rhea by her "name of the moment", without adding any honorifics.

[microwave-core]

There are a lot of things I like about three houses, even if some of those things and characters aren't written well, if not entirely fumbled by the narrative.

However, if I woke up tomorrow in a world in which three houses never existed, I think it would be a better place

[drakaripykiros130ac]

I swear…if they even dare to have Daemon physically abuse Rhaenyra on or off screen (something that NEVER happened in canon), I will officially be 100% done with this shitshow.

The choking scene was bad enough (as confirmed by the actors themselves). There had better be a good explanation for that bandaged hand and the bruise on her cheek in that promo.

Daemon Targaryen was many things. But he was NEVER physically abusive towards any of his wives (not even Rhea Royce, the wife he despised).

The only ones to suffer Daemon’s wrath are his family’s enemies.

For what possible reason would Daemon inflict harm on the love of his life?

It’s pathetic how Condal tries the most despicable things to get the GA to root for his greenies, and it still doesn’t work. What is this guy’s problem?

And I can’t believe GRRM lets him butcher his absolute fave like this. Shame on him.

[moonflower91]

Where You Go, I Go

"He's afraid of me."

"Yes," Saerah hummed back, her fingers running softly through the ends of his long silver hair. "He's an old man now. Short of time, patience and temper. Like as not to lash out. Daemon has spent his life at war -- in the Stepstones, with his brother, even poor Rhea Royce to a degree. Now, likely the biggest war looms on the horizon, and he did not draw first blood."

“The folly of the young, as grandfather said. Smarter to wait than draw first blood.”

She fixed him with a sidelong look. “I shall say naught, for to insult Daemon for his recklessness, is to insult my love.” Aemond only rolled his eye, and settled further down her body to rest his head in her lap. 

"I do regret that business with Luke. I lost my temper that day."

"I know. You did not leave me intending to kill anyone, nor did anyone expect such a little fool to be the bearer of Rhaenyra’s business. You left me intending to make a marriage offer." She said it softly, stroking his hair, but he could hear the fire behind the icy tone in which  she spoke.

"That work is done now, Saerah."  He all but grumbled, turning his face into her lap.

"Yes, yes it is. Anyway, Daemon is full of bile and pride, but he is beholden to Rhaenyra. I can only imagine how burned he feels, to be reined in like a mad dog. Especially by her—not only his young wife, but the one whom Viserys chose over him.”

"You believe that whore would stop him from winning the war for her?"

Saerah thought for a moment. “To a point. She has ruined herself forever now with Jaehaerys’ slaughter. Mayhaps she takes pause now to act an innocent. But as her losses pile higher, I think it will make her desperate.”

��We fly with larger dragons and possess a larger army, with some of the best military minds in the Seven Kingdoms.”

“Aye. She and Daemon will die for Helaena and Aegon’s boy. Imagining how I might kill them has caused me  such dark thoughts of late. I’m frightened of them because I know I truly desire them.”

“Tell me.” He said, turning his head to look up at her.

She could not meet his eye, and stared out, watching the flames in the hearth. “I would burn all of her bastards alive, perhaps making her watch. And then, I'd keep her alive for a long while, to let her wallow in her agony, and have Daemon ripped apart by dogs. His limbs thrown into the filth of slums he once lorded over.”

Aemond scoffed. "You've thought about it quite extensively."

"What else can I do all day, trapped here in the Red Keep but think of ways to make them suffer?" Saerah did not enjoy the idea of murdering children, even if it was in vengeance. But that little child, sleeping in his bed, who loved stories and ponies and playing with his mother's long hair...to be butchered, to die in fear and pain…

Her fingers tangled in her brother's hair, heart speeding because it felt just. Almost. But she knew her pain and grief drove this feeling. It would not be justice, she knew. But how she longed for Rhaenyra and Daemon’s agony to sate the burning ache of her family’s suffering and grief .

"I was terribly lonely without you here, Aemond. If you leave me again, I shall follow you on Vexxa."

“And leave Helaena here? Alone with naught but her fears? With her broken heart?”

“Helaena has Mother beside her. And Jaehaera.”

“Whom she can hardly look at without running away in tears. Jahaera and the boy looked just alike.” Like we did , he thought. When they were very small, Alicent once told them, they’d looked so alike no one could tell them apart. Of course, that had changed as their personalities grew. 

“I am a selfish creature, then, for I will still follow.”

“I am selfish then, too, for I would let you.”

[very-straight-blog]

Making Aegon a r*pist was lazy writing, and it only further demonstrate how the screenwriters aren't able to understand the concept of "grey character".

Do I think it should be completely overlooked? No. Because even if he didn't hurt Helaena he did r*pe Dyana (it was completely useless to his character and it only served the purpose of making him appear more irredeemable, but that's beside the point), and he should be held accountable for it by the viewers at the very least.

Do I also think Aegon's sexual trauma — that would be having to sire children at FUCKING FOURTEEN — was grossly overlooked and glazed over not only by the viewers but also by the screenwriters, and that it could have been represented in a vast variety of more poignant ways (for example, instead of making Aemond an SA victim because yes, they could have given Aegon that kind of relationship with the madame and dive deeper on how he seeks the love he doesn't receive from his family elsewhere)? Do I also think the screenwriters treated Aegon unjustly just because they are not capable of handling a male character with such deep, complex scars that cannot be fully explained in an eight-episodes-long series, and have therefore decided to butcher him because they prioritized hype instead of delivering an actual good product to the public?

Yes. Yes to all of that. As a mainly TB fan I felt myself being forced into my faction, because "who would support a r*pist?", and I came to find unjust how unreasonable this argument is: Daemon and Viserys are r*pists too, with the former literally asking young virgins be set aside for him in brothels and the latter being seen forcing himself on Alicent. Neither of them is held nearly as accountable for their misdeeds as Aegon, and to this day I don't understand why.

I agree with everything here in general and will talk a bit about this topic (I like to talk about Aegon, in case someone suddenly didn't notice).

Yes, the show certainly manipulates facts to endear viewers to one character and make them hate another. Almost everyone in this story has done terrible things, but a lot of fans behave as if the incident with Dyana was the worst of them. Well, I don't know, what about those women Daemon slept with in the brothels? Who often didn't want to be there, who were very young, because he preferred virgins. What about that servant who was killed to hide Laenor's escape? What about Rhea, whom Daemon killed in cold blood to marry Rhaenyra? And so on and so forth. And believe me, such planned crimes shock me much more than what the drunken idiot Aegon did without even remembering it later. Once again, did he do a bad thing? Yes. Is he a good person (character)? No. But at least I'm not trying to make him into someone he's not. And yes - Aegon is still an interesting and complex character that I adore. Not a villain and not just a "drunk and r*pist."

The problem is how his actions are presented to the viewer. Our acquaintance with adult Aegon literally begins with this rape scene, this is our first impression of the character. Aegon has eight minutes of screen time in the first season, and three of them are devoted to the discussion of this incident. Plus, they don't give him anything that could justify it. Did Daemon kill his wife? Well, he did it for love. And this is deeply explored, we're forced to sympathize with the character and then we easily forgive him for such an act. Aegon is shown simply as an asshole without any redeeming traits.

Time skips cleverly mask the fact that Aegon and Helaena were teenagers at best when the twins were born. Helaena gave birth to TWO children at such an early age, they became parents against their own will, not being ready for it. It's interesting, it adds depth to the characters, it might explain why Aegon drinks so much - but of course the screenwriters won't show us that.

Again, Aegon's hypersexuality isn't something funny, it's not what makes him an asshole, it's a sign of trauma. He uses it to numb his loneliness. I believe that Aegon literally didn't have the opportunity to feel what love is in any form. His father disliked him and showed it openly. His mother loved him, but she never knew how to express it the way he needed to. He was married to his sister (the tragedy for both of them) and it was a matter of duty, not feelings. At the time of the first season, Aegon is deeply unhappy and this is obvious. I have every reason to believe that his need for physical intimacy is based on the fact that this is the only form of love he can receive. Considering that Aegon is quite smart, I even think that he himself understands how ugly this form is, but there's nothing he can do. During the act, I guess in some unhealthy way it really saves him from loneliness, longing and the need to be loved, but in the end it makes him even more unhappy.

My thought turned out to be a bit messy and it's time for me to shut up, otherwise I'll never finish, but the point is that the show manipulates the audience to create "the right" point of view for them and it's very annoying. And they also don't know how to create deep, controversial characters at all.

[reignof-fyre]

I despise how the writers/whoever the fuck is in charge of cutting scenes keep cutting important, vital moments of these characters lives/personalities.

People who have read fire and blood know that Daemon is a morally grey anti hero who has his own unique moral compass, and we know he is ride or fuckin die for rhaenyra and their kids. He loved his brother, and he never even entertained the thought of a usurpation.

The show has scrapped all moments that show the good side of his character. Him hugging his girls in their shared grief? Nah, let's cut it. Daemon interacting with his own and Rhaenyra's children? It's not important because aegon the raping usurper chucking a wank out the window is somehow more important? Daemon being ever by rhaenyras side during the birth and aftermath of Visenya? No, let's have him chill elsewhere. Daemon wanting to burn KL down when in the source material it was RHAENYS who wanted to immediately go to war and slaughter the greens willingly.

DAEMON BEING THE ONE TO KILL RHEA? WHEN? WHERE? BOOK! DAEMON WOULDN'T WASTE THE ENERGY OR BREATH IT WOULD TAKE TO KILL RHEA ROYCE LMFAOOOOOO

Also Daemon losing he and Mysaria's unborn baby was a fucking VITAL MOMENT IN HIS LIFE OKAY?! BECAUSE THE MISCARRIAGE WAS VISERYS' FAULT!!!!!

Book Rhaenys would slap Show Rhaenys and HUCK-TEW on her, y'know? (I love eve best thought she is my MOTHERRRRRRRR)

Cutting rhaenyra - who canonically in the book demanded Vaemond's death - ordering Vaemond executed and fed to Syrax?

RHAENYRA NOT TRUSTING DAEMON????? BITCH WHEREEEE THE FUCK???? SHE TRUSTED HIM WITH HER WHOLE ASS OKAY FUCK OFF

Book Rhaenyra would feed show rhaenyra to syrax fr

Removing any and all agency from female characters? Brother euuughhh

The showrunners made the Velaryons POC for inclusively then CUT THE LAENAXRHAENYRA FRIENDSHIP FOR A WHITE WOMAN WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT BRUH? WHAT? RHAENYRA AND LAENA HAD ONE (1!!!!!) INTERACTION IN THE SHOW!!!!

i actually like Book!Alicent because she isn't a 2d uwu poor abused by the patriarchy little bitch like she is in the show. In the book she KNOWS she's smothered by the patriarchy and USES HER SEX AGAINST THEM. She MARRIED the king WILLINGLY for POWER AND AMBITION and WHOLEHEARTEDLY orchestrated her sons usurpation. She played the game of thrones with her whole ass fuckin soul. I can RESPECT THAT. What I don't respect is show alicent playing the fucking victim and "Oh noooooo 🥺🥺🥺 everything was my daddy's fault. I have no say in anything. I'm just a wittle baby puppet that HAS to dance to my daddy's tune...."

I'm just so exhausted with show runners and writers butchering characters I ADORE with my whole fuckin ass honestly.

[baby--charchar]

Rhea: *nearly does a backbend trying to reach over for the limes*

Vaggie: Ahh!! No, no, you're gonna hurt yourself!! Sit up!! No!!

Jojo: Hey so Mama was wondering if you guys knew what happened to all our limes. They've been missing since you visited last with Rhea and Vaggie.

Vaggie: .....RHEA.........?

Rhea: ....

Vaggie: RHEA!

Rhea: Mm!! *shakes head*

Vaggie: *starts signing about where the hell all the limes went*

Rhea: *squeezes her eyes shut TIGHT* HMMPH!!

[curse-d-owl]

I've always wanted to remake my post regarding my criticism for Three Hopes's treatement of Claude's character and his route cause i realized alot more errors his character has both from thinking about the route and reading some other posts from other people.

As a disclaimer I'm not against the concept of Claude temporarily teaming up with Edelgard in order to get rid of the central church cause they keep Fodlan shackled to the past. The issue is that this concept not match the foundation of the story.

The concept is that Rhea is violently against progress and choose to make the oppressed suffer for the sake of the current system and she has the power to keep Fodlan stagnant. Because of it Claude has to temporarily team up with his aggressor Edelgard to take Rhea down.

The foundation on the other hand tells an entirely different story by having both Dimitri and Rhea reforming Fodlan to Claude's wishes. Because of that it makes Claude needlessly idiotic and the second half a badly written mess that benefits no one.

And i don't hate this route solely cause he teams up with Edelgard either. It's not a matter of who, it's a matter of what.

For example if Claude teamed up with Dimitri and Rhea while they're against change and fought Edelgard while she actually wanted to help Claude's goals then I'd complain about it just the same as I do with the current route.

But all that aside here is why Claude's character got butchered and his route is a two pack of ass.

Starting with his character in Houses he's clever and ambitious, he condemns resorting to war before using diplomacy, knows that Edelgard's war is wrong and that she needs to be stopped, he wants every race to make amends and put their troubled history in the past, he doesn't cling onto grudges and knows when to fight, knows how to fight strategically and knows when to give up for the sake of avoiding needless casualties and lastly Leicester is nothing but a stepping stone for him to achieve his goals. He isn't so patriotic to a place he barely lived in to the point of wanting to preserve it's glory.

Hopes Claude is the exact opposite of his og counterpart and does the exact opposite things.

Moving onto story grievances:

All the build up of Leicester vs Adrestia in part 1 gets thrown out the window. Especially when Holst vs Leopold was hyped up to be a strong and climactic rivalry

Caspar is hellbend on killing Leicester soldiers despite the fact they're retreating and yet has the audacity to play the victim and resent Leicester for giving them a taste of their own medicine.

He's smart enough to tell beaten commanders to surrender instead of throwing their lives away and yet he goes on a suicide mission to fight both the empire and kingdom despite having a major disadvantage against both sides.

It's especial egregious when he tells Petra to prioritize her life for the sake of her nation only to go against his own advice in Scarlet Blaze.

He sides with his aggressors who stop at nothing to conquer Leicester and sides against his allies who actually work to right the wrongs of Fodlan, for 2 years straight and not one protest from Rhea before she lost her church to Edelgard.

Claude doesn't use Edelgard at all, he gets used

Claude is reduced to Edelgard's errand boy and babysitter.

3/4 of a continent with violent aggressors from the north against 1/4 of a continent does not make for a good nor interesting story. Doubly so when Houses has him outmaneuver the empire with limited numbers and resources.

Edelgard spits in Claude's face and tells him it's raining by denying her violent invasion in Leicester and barks at him for being the overemotional aggressor who doesn't want peace in their meeting. You know who else pulled this repulsive stunt if invading a nation and lying about it? Gangrel, the repulsive villain of Awakening. Not a good look for a character that's supposed a righteous saviour.

Hubert resorting to blackmailing into signing that pact through empty threats despite Claude only disagreeing with the southern church. He tells Claude that if Leicester does not do Adrestia's dirty work they will attack them. Adrestia doesn't care for Leicester and doesn't stop at a non aggression pact nor offering restitution out of remorse.

Edelgard has no remorse about the deaths of Leicester she caused nor using them but the game shames Claude for prioritizing his allies over Empire soldiers.

He has a violent grudge against Faerghus over some old shit from centuries ago but doesn't have one for Adrestia for being the cause of everyone's suffering, the obstacle to peace and being the only faction that hurt Leicester.

At the same time he complains that Almyra gets hated for their long history of invasions that continued to the present. And yet he justifies burning down Faerghus over the past.

And on top of that he has the nerve to accuse Rhea of chaining Fodlan to the past while he did the same with Leicester by using Faerghus's past aggressions against Leicester to justify their invasion.

Leicester is uncomfortable potentially killing Ferdinand and Edelgard despite the fact they violently invaded and endangered Leicester but have no qualms about burning Faerghus to the ground over false accusations towards Rhea and has no qualms endangering Sreng and creating more bad blood by luring them into their war.

In Houses Shamir apologized to Petra for Dagda dragging Brigid in their war against Fodlan and but in Hopes she aids Claude in luring Sreng into his war. Another victim of Golden Wildfire's character assassination.

The federation plot point is poorly handled. While it is interesting that they finally highlight the issue of the roundtable it is irrational of Claude to eternally reshape Leicester to consolidate power into one ruler and strip away power from everyone else. Like Shez mentioned in their support with Claude it should've been a temporary change, not a permanent one.

Pulls an Ionus and violently oppresses the 3 territories for not wanting to lose their independence and that doesn't get addressed at all. Which is especially egregious considering Lysthiea was a victim of the exact same oppression.

Lysithea herself has an extremely troubled history with the Empire for what they did against her, her parents and her people. None of this gets properly addressed per usual.

It's made even worse when Erwin apologized to Lysthia for not being able to help house Ordelia's oppression at the hands of the empire. This paralouge happens after they team up with said aggressors.

He blames Faerghus for their deaths caused by his unjustified invasion instead of taking accountability

His plan of getting the kingdom to cut ties with the church + stop Edelgards war by violently invading Faerghus is one of pure idiocy cause again, the kingdom and church already work hard to move away from crests and nationalism and Edelgard will not stop until she has conquered Fodlan for herself.

Has the audacity to claim he's gonna end the war in a way that spares many lives when his way is violently invading Faerghus and dragging Sreng into their war.

Drags Sreng into it when:

1. They already have a massive advantage against the kingdom

2. Neither the empire nor Sreng cares about stopping at Rhea, they both want to conquer Faerghus

3. Creates more prejudices and bad blood

4. Goes against Claude learning to trust his allies and not sacrifice more lives than he needs to by provoking a foreign nation into sacrificing their lives for conquest.

First claims he doesn't know what goes on in Dimitri's head when others ask Claude to request help from Dimitri and then in his invasions claims he hopes to get it through Dimitri's thick skull as if he defends the central church and it's harmful tenets for funsies. It's made even worse when he has open dialouge with his actual aggressor Edelgard.

Expects an honest conversation with Dimitri and one where agrees with him after violently invading Faerghus.

The one golden opportunity to get rid of Adrestia by killing Edelgard and he instead protects Edelgard all cause he felt bad about Randolph. Cause per usual with the Fodlan writers Edelgard can do no wrong and anyone that gives her a taste of her own medicine is the real villain. And this is the Claude that's allowed to be a schemer and a cold hearted opportunist by GW fans lmao.

Accuses Rhea for being responsible for the war when all she did was fight back against people trying to kill her and not Edelgard.

Irrationally kills Rhea and is now left with:

A violent empire that has won and comes for Leicester next

A kingdom who has suffered many wounds cause of Leicester and lost their archbishop

Many devout believers that resent both Leicester and Adrestia

More bad blood and deaths between Sreng and Faerghus

The accusations against Almyra gets proven instead of debunked.

He has put himself in the bad ending of Scarlet Blaze all because Hopes Claude got dropped on his head when he was an infant and thought that this was the best course of action.

Hopes Claude is objectively one of the worst and dumbest lords in Fire Emblem and i get a headache everytime people claim Houses and Hopes Claude are the same or worse claim that Hopes Claude is better. The only people that claim Golden Wildfire is good either are massive Edelgard fans and have a hate boner for Dimitri and Rhea.

GW fans don't even like Claude. Theyre Edelgard fans that only like Claude as an accessory to their true fave.

Here are some other complaints i have as well:

He gets presented as a punk in his own cutscenes with the other leaders

He doesn't get a rousing speech in his own route. He gets a rousing speech in Scarlet Blaze when he betrays Edelgard and becomes an enemy that can get killed.

Forced to kill Cyril, the only other Almyran.

In Scarlet Blaze he throws away the lives and safety of Leicester when in contrast in Crimson Flower he knows when to raise the white flag and secures the safety of Leicester.

He doesn't take care of 2 of his problems like the other 2 lords. Dimitri defeats the empire and kills Thales, Edelgard defeats both Rhea and Thales while Claude has only killed Rhea while the empire is still a threat.

The Golden Deers don't have route of their own, the second half of their story is dedicated to the black eagles which is a bigger insult to them than Verdant wind being Silver Snow but with the Golden Deers and Nemesis. They're supporting characters in their own route.

Edit:

I forgot to mention that there is a violent increase in racism towards Almyrans. Both how they're portrayed and how they're treated.

Especially from Judith who's hellbent on treating them like as if they're violent monsters cause of the actions of a few as if Fodlan doesn't have their own history of immoral crimes.

And not to mention it does a poor job focussing on Claude's goals in making amends between the Almyra and Fodlan.

They could've also could've taken the creative liberty to write an understandable reason for Almyra invading Fodlan ( like either the 10 elites from Leicester invading Almyra or the Agarthans stoking a fued between the 2 nations ) instead of portraying them as violent barbarians that wage war for the fun of it.

But yeah that's it for my long rant about Three Hopes.

I've you've made it this far i thank you for taking the time out of your day to hear me vent about my favorite character being mistreated.

I've also made a route where i fix the second half of the story to actually benefit Claude's character and not have him be a moronic accessory for Edelgard.

[slotumn]

I think it's possible that because Rhea has spent her important developmental years as young adult around humans + overall spent more time with humans (and pretending to be one) than other Nabateans at the beginning of canon, and as a result, acts and thinks and even subconsciously sees herself somewhat closer to human than Nabatean.

It's hard to scale nuke dragon ages to human ones but I don't think she was older than the human equivalent of preteens when the Zanado massacre happened, and based on that it probably means she spent early part of her adolescence running from the Elites and gathering other Nabateans + later one establishing herself as a saint at Enbarr and winning over Wilhelm and co. Saint Seiros as we see her at the opening movie is probably in the human equivalent of late teens~early 20s— the insane drive and peak physical performance stage of your life.

I don't think she was completely cut off from her birth culture in those years since there were other Nabateans she'd gathered, but it wasn't an environment where she could be open about it— and after she took on the identity of Saint Seiros, it probably means she spent just as much, if not more, time connecting and talking to humans than others of her kind.

At any rate, this results in her thinking and acting like she is something close to a regular human, rather than a big near immortal dragon shifter. It's even more prominent when you see Indech and Macuil, who have very clearly drawn a line between their existence and the humans'. Seteth isn't as severe, but I think that's partially because he lost his ability to transform (+has a daughter), hence he had to adjust to being more humanlike out of literal physical necessity.

Meanwhile Rhea retains the ability to turn into a living flying missile launcher slash anti-missile system, however you would not be able to guess this based on how she moves politically.

And this is not because she can't do politics, she clearly can based on the War of Heroes, it's just that she keeps doing everything how a human with a human mindset and outlook would. Even if there are factors like the Agarthans still lurking around and contacting humans to butcher her into another Relic (or her fearing that they would, even if it's not actually feasible)/running low on transformation juice and needing to save energy behind why she doesn't make the specific move of revealing herself to be the Immaculate One, there are other places where she tries to adhere to regular human standards about it even though she doesn't really have to, and it would arguably be easier for her not to.

Most notably, becoming and keeping her position as Archbishop— she's the founder of the religion, she could have said some shit like "the goddess blessed Saint Seiros to be immortal so now she gets to be archbishop forever," yet she does not do that. People would already know she doesn't age at a regular rate too, she was already around in public life as Saint Seiros 100+ years when she became archbishop, but instead of leaning fully into that she claims Saint Seiros had a kid(!) and pretends to die every once in a while to act as her own descendant.

The behavior doesn't make sense if Rhea has completely internalized her divine/"different" status and is trying to rule over humans from that perspective alone; it does make more sense if she was already halfway mentally assimilated into the human way of things when she came into power, and she only internalized human standards further as she pretended to be one for centuries. Of course she hasn't forgotten that she's Nabatean, but again, for any line she draws between herself and humanity, it's not so severe and literal like Macuil and Indech's are.

Tl;dr there are lots of "what if a human had a god complex and fucked things up" characters but Rhea is a "what if a divine being had a human complex and fucked things up" character

[eschercaine]

One of the things I hate about that Dragon Show© is everything is just an accident or misunderstanding.

The Greens usurped Rhaenyra because Alicent misunderstood what Viserys said? As if they were not plotting to put Aegon on the throne from the very beginning.

Almond killed Luke by accident? In the book, Aemond is a Targaryen version of Joffrey Baratheon. He didn’t think twice about chasing and killing Luke in a storm.

And now what? Blood and Cheese killing Jaehaerys is because they misunderstood the assignment? Or is it an accident on their part?

But when it comes to Rhea Royce, who died during a hawking incident, she was killed by Daemon... who was, in the books, several miles away from her?

I’ve read Fire and Blood, though I haven’t finished it yet. But from what I see, the Greens are the villains. Alicent is a Karen. Criston is an incel; nothing happens between him and Rhaenyra. In either two versions, they both rejected each other. Daemon didn’t kill his first wife.

Yet the writers are trying desperately to make the Greens the “victim” in all this, making excuses for their behavior. While Rhaenyra who was just doing the best she can after her own father thrust her into a dangerous position is being... “villainized”?

The Dragon Show©, to me, is like Ryan Condal’s fanfic version of Fire and Blood with pro-Greens and anti-Blacks propaganda, plus with the butchering of every character.

If one has to make a tv adaptation from books, video games, or any other form of media, at least respect the source material.

[randomnameless]

Post ask: sorry it's giant but u know me yeah??? yeah.

Since that was a response to someone else's post and I don't have enough to say in terms of all or most of the topics to reblog it in response, yeah, I'd say the Agarthans are the lesser of the two evils to Edelgard. If it was the other way around, I would imagine she'd ally with Rhea to get rid of Thales and Friends, but she chooses Thales and Friends over Rhea.

I understand she needs their assistance to win her war and all that, but Edelgard could've just as easily allied with Rhea after telling her the truth about the Agarthans and whatnot (Hopes notwithstanding since that's a different situation and would for another post/ask/etc), and she'd have a power equal to the Agarthans allied with her. By which I mean, Rhea and Thales+the other Agarthans are basically at the same strength, so she more or less had a choice between the two sides to ally with. Having Rhea would also mean having the KoS which isn't a group to scoff at.

So yeah, that said, I think she determined Agarthans were just less evil in her mind (especially considering she has similar values to them, such as saying in the Lonato chapter that she'd sacrifice her own people for her goals, but that's also exactly what Solon does to Kronya, and in Hopes, what Arval does to Solon. In other words them doing that isn't a moral nope I'm out for her/obviously wasn't a deciding factor).

Also, I think it's very likely that she preferred to side with humans over dragons. It reminds me a lot of this one line in FE9, where an NPC says he'd rather side with humans/his own kind because "at least you know what you're getting". Considering the hatred she seems to have (for unexplored reasons) toward dragons, it would make sense that she would choose to side with the people who are human like her.

She seems to have more reasons/goals/things in common with Agarthans overall, and if she doesn't accept Rhea's values and such, it makes sense that she'd have a preference toward Agarthans. No idea if you could say that Thales has a part in it because he's by appearance her uncle, so maybe that plays a part too? Again, unexplored, but it could be a factor since Thales has had her uncle's body for years now and is pretending to /be/ her uncle to the public.

Yet again, UNEXPLORED LOL, but I wish they went more into depth of like, why would she side with the people who tormented her and killed all her siblings? Why would she listen to anything they told her, much less ally with them? I was much more preferable to SB's situation because it felt more like the right thing to do as far as her character. If they had that much of a chokehold on the Empire, there was still nothing stopping her once she was safely in GM and could've talked to Rhea privately, and also asked that she doesn't do anything to raise their suspicions that Rhea and Friends have caught on/know what's happening because it could put her/the Empire/etc in danger.

The whole "they have us in a chokehold" kind of thing isn't really how it goes in CF because she does willingly want them allied with her to use their tech and whatnot, so it's a mutual usage and she does target Cornelia who ends up being collateral damage for being in Faerghus when she attacks Faerghus (again, a technical ally who she ends up killing).

Which like, she didn't have to attack Faerghus at all because Cornelia had so much power there. Again, that was an ally of hers technically; though I guess it gets muddy because Rodrigue still trusted Cornelia and was working alongside her in CF, so it's highly likely Cornelia was fighting /with/ Faerghus to take out Edelgard before truly running the place with an iron fist (which like, that might be true in general; I don't really remember since my memory on CF overall is a little hazy in comparison to the other routes).

Also makes me think that was another thing they should've put more focus on (which they absolutely could have considering CF was cut short chapter-wise). Thales gets mad that they attacked Cornelia, but was Cornelia actively fighting the Empire with Faerghus, or was she holding back (i.e. Faerghus was fighting the Empire but Cornelia personally was trying to mitigate damage because it would benefit the Agarthans)?

If Cornelia wasn't doing anything, yeah, I can understand Thales getting mad, but if she was, then he can't really be mad that they killed an Agarthan in the middle of that conflict. Like, Faerghus was going to fight back no matter what, but Rodrigue was treating Cornelia like a commander or something? So like... what was the Agarthans' role in all that? How much did they help Faerghus fight back? Obviously they want to weaken the Empire for more control, so it makes sense to side with Faerghus in part, but it's just a really condensed arc because it only lasts for one chapter.

This got a bit off topic BUT I wrote it anyway because it was relatively related. I just feel like there were better methods to write out the whole Edelgard and Agarthans thing, but they made CF a lot shorter than the other routes and effectively shot themselves in the foot by doing so with the story.

I feel like they did that with the chapter count because CF was supposed to be much more of a secret route, but since they made the conditions significantly easier by their own admission than they intended to originally, they gave themselves like what, five chapters less to work with the story? Makes it more convoluted than it could've been.

How dare u send me a long ask

jk

for what it's worth, in heroes, she calls them both monsters/beasts !

Beasts hiding in the light. Monsters slithering in the dark.

So she knows they're both non-humans, but having pointy ears is worse than having pale skin ?

And yet, the lizard are just so BaD with their "non human-ess" that she always targets them first - because let's be real, in Nopes, she just kicks her uncle out of Enbarr, but doesn't make sure he's dead or his cult is dealt with, no, she returns to her top priority, make Fodlan a lizard-free world.

Part of her hatred against Nabateans must come from agarthan slithering in Adrestia since... uh, the moment Seiros left? and some of it might also be part of her growing up as an Adrestian Nobles, and being Big MaD (tm) that the stupid church let those barbarians get their own country 400 years ago :( Maybe her rac- specism comes from those two sources?

About Cornelia - in CF Rodrigue seems to work with her, but we have also to be reminded that in CF, Cornelia is still under cover and supposed to be the nice lady who cured the Kingdom - she can't pull all the things she does in the non CF routes or manipulate Rufus like she does in AG because Rhea (and her knights) is in Firdhiad! I personally thing she was mitigating her efforts - not actively helping the Kingdom, and having to prepare her Titanus army in secret because the second the capital, aka Dimitri hears about this, there's a possibility Rhea will know too, and the gig would be up (Rhea herself isn't that familiar with Titanus, but she most likely knows giant robots are either Nabatean, or Agarthan - coupled with Cornelia's permanent youth it could raise way too much suspicions).

Yep, I also think so regarding the chapter count! CF was supposed to be the bonus/bad end route so it'd make sense if it is shorter, but imo, also because the writers wrote themselves in a dead end - if Rhea has to be the main enemy because her ears are pointy, you can't suddenly throw Agarthans in the mix and for Supreme Leader to demolish them at first, and then taking Rhea's head because her ears are pointy!

They already wrote themselves in a bretzel knot with the "nu uh it was Rhea who launched those missiles trust me uwu" where even the CF writers couldn't possibly imagine that no characters would ever call doubts on her bullshit of the day - but imagine if the rest of the cast had to come clean with Flamey's association to Agarthans, what they did (hello war assets!) who they are and what they want?

I know CF operates on a "suspension of disbelief" level - but even at this point I think it would have been hard for the FE16 writers to make any sense of it.

Giving more screentime to Supreme Leader's association with Agarthans (especially since she believes she needs them to off Rhea, after all, she asks her Uncle to come and watch the final battle, so maybe she thought he could summon "reserve troops" if everything failed like what happens in the non-CF versions of the Assault in Garreg Mach?) would also means giving more spotlight to Flamey's actions during White Clouds, and we know FE16 is allergic to that.

So, in a nutshell, I think Supreme Leader targets the lizards before targetting Uncle'n'co because :

Both are non humans but pointy ears are even "less human" than Agarthans because pointy ears are "beasts"! (which would explain why in Nopes she immediately shifts her target on pointy ears after Thales is only "outed" of the Empire and not killed - bear in mind she targets Rhea when Thales is still alive, but in CF, killing Rhea is her top priority!)

She needs Uncle's help to target pointy ears (which doubles as horrifying if she counts on Thales'n'co's abilities to get rid of Nabateans because she checked their resume and/or they told her how they genocided them all save for half a dozen remaining ones)

Getting rid of Pointy Ears means she'll be able to MAGA (one of her main goals!) while getting rid of Thales won't bring her any step closer to unifying Fodlan under Adrestia's banner

She's more pissed at the Goddess not answering her prayers when she was being tortured than at the people torturing her themselves! (Thales lit says he gave her the CoF so she'll become their greatest weapon! So she knows the one who cut her open wasn't Aegir, or acting on Aegir's orders, but the mole men working with Thales!)

Granted, as you pointed out with the PoR comparison, if both are non humans, an usual "racist" human wouldn't want to side with either of them - Thales is a monster, Rhea is a beast, so who should she side with?

That's why I suppose she has some personal grudge against Nabateans (more personal than any grudge she can have against the one who butchered her and her own siblings!!) to make her hate them much more viciously than hating Agarthans. Is it because the Church recognised Faerghus' right to be independant? Or something else?

i still have my au/verse/hc where Emperor Willy named his half-nabatean son Lycaon as his heir, when he had other older fully-human children who felt like the half lizard stole their throne, and since then House Hresvelg harbours a deep resentment against nabateans, who are supposedly better than themselves (else why would Willy have picked his latest kid and not a human one???).

[daenysthedreamer101]

Daughter of Steel and Bronze ~ HOTD

Ch 12 - Hidden secrets

HOTD x Targaryen!OC, Targaryen!OC x Harwin Strong

Warnings: make out session (nothing too explicit), inappropriate thoughts?

HOTD masterlist

"The year 115 was an eventful year for the Royal family. Princess Rhaenyra turned 18 and after an unsuccessful tour to find a husband she returned home to King's Landing. Destiny would have that her uncle, Prince Daemon, also returned to the capital on the same day. Shortly after, rumors began spreading of the Princess losing her maidenhead to her uncle. To quell the rumors, His Grace betrothed his eldest daughter to the son of the Sea Snake, Ser Laenor Velaryon.

In the Vale, the most unfortunate event occurred - Princess Daena was attacked on her 17th name day. The miscreant was a petty lord from the Vale who drunkenly assaulted the Princess. Her mother, Lady Rhea Royce, was furious and demanded his head. His Grace outraged that his niece was hurt, agreed with his good sister and demanded the lord be put to the sword. When the knights of the Vale were sent to arrest him, they found the man butchered in his cell. Many suspect this was the work of Prince Daemon avenging his daughter." 

(Fire & Blood, Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros, by Archmaester Gyldayn)

~

115 AC, King's Landing

An emergency Small Council meeting was called in the early morning hours. Once everyone was settled, Lord Lyonel spoke up.

"Troubling news come from the Vale, Your Grace. Ravens flew in from both Runestone and the Eyrie." 

This caught Viserys's attention. "What do you speak of, Lyonel?"

"A couple of days ago, a feast was held at Runestone, in honor of Princess Daena's 17th name day. It appears that she was attacked, Your Grace." 

"Seven Hells, Lyonel. What do you mean?" His Grace asked, worried that something awful happened to his niece. 

"During the hour of the bat, the Princess left the feast and walked by herself into the godswood of the castle. There, the miscreant cornered her and...harsh words were exchanged. She told him to leave her alone, but he was unwilling to listen. If what the letter says is true, he started choking her against the heart tree."

"Gods be good! Is she alright?"

"According to the castle's measter, she has severe bruising all over her body and her wrist appears to be sprained." 

His Grace was too stunned to speak. Lord Lyonel continued. "Lady Rhea is furious. She demands his head. She already spoke to Lady Jeyne Arryn and demands justice for her daughter."

Lord Lyonel gave the letters to His Grace. Viserys couldn't believe someone would be so foolish to assault a member of the Royal family. He knew if Daemon caught news of this, he would kill the man himself.

"Write to Lady Rhea. Tell her that she has every right to execute him for hurting a member of the Royal family." His Grace proclaimed. 

~

Runestone, the Vale

Days have passed in a blur. She barely left her room, hells, she barely left her bed. She barely spoke, her throat aching whenever she did. Her wrist was sprained, so she couldn't even dress herself, or brush her hair; she couldn't do anything by herself. The twins had to help her with everything. 

"Daena." Her mother came in. In her hands was a platter with many things on it. She put the platter on the table and sat on the edge of the bed. Daena's eyes were glued to the ceiling. "Look at me." Her mother said, moving her silver curls from her face. 

"No! Don't look at me! I'm hideous!" Daena exclaimed, turning her body toward the wall. Rhea sighed. It shattered her heart to see her daughter so broken. She rubbed Daena's back, trying to give some comfort.

"My love. You are not hideous. You will heal and come out of this stronger than ever!" Rhea said, patting Daena's head. 

Daena suddenly turned and looked at her mother with furrowed brows. "What lord will have me now, in this condition? Rumors will spread that I was...sullied. No matter what I say, people will believe what they want to believe." 

Rhea tilted her head, giving Daena a look of pity. What Daena said was true. She could only imagine what those snakes in the Red Keep would say once word of the accident spread. And no matter how hard Rhea tried, she could not protect Daena from such rumors. 

"Come here. I need to put the ointment on you." Rhea said as she picked up a jar filled with a cream the measter said would ease Daena's pain. It was a thick, viscous cream with a strong herbal smell. Daena huffed but moved closer. 

As her mother applied the cream to her bruises, Daena looked through the window and listened as the raindrops fell. Grey, heavy clouds were present in the sky, blocking out the midday sun. Daena wondered where Vermithor was. She hasn't seen him since before her name day. She wanted to go outside and greet him but her mother would not allow it. 

Back in King's Landing, Rhaenyra was going back to her chamber after the Small Council meeting. The possibility of her marrying Ser Laenor loomed heavy over her. Another thing on her mind was her dear cousin Daena. She was violently assaulted, at her name day celebration no less. She received a letter from her cousin, in which Daena told her how Ser Harwin valiantly saved her from the miscreant. 

For the past eight months, she and Daena have been exchanging letters. It seemed that both Princesses grew closer to their respective knights. If the letters were anything to go by, Daena fancied Ser Harwin. Nyra had her own knight to fancy. 

"Good night, Ser Criston." She said to her sworn shield as she entered her room. 

"Sleep well, Princess." Ser Criston replied. 

Nyra closed the door and sighed slightly. She took off her earrings, placing them on the table. She then noticed a strange bag hanging off one of the chairs. She picked it up and turned it upside down emptying it. She looked at what fell out of it; a bunch of peasant clothing. Besides the clothes was a scroll.

She opened it; it contained a drawing of what appeared to be the layout of her bed and instructions in High Valyrian. She followed the drawing and discovered her room was connected to a secret tunnel. She had an inkling of who could be behind this. 

At the end of the tunnel, Daemon awaited with a smirk on his face. The night proved to be quite eventful for Rhaenyra, just not in the way she expected. 

~

Back at Runestone, Harwin watched as the raindrops splashed against the window of his room. It had been raining the entire day. Ever since the accident, he barely left his chambers, too embarrassed to speak to anyone, especially Lady Rhea.

A soft knock on the door disturbed his silence. Joy came in and closed the door but his eyes stayed glued to the window. "Harwin." She called quietly. 

"The Princess has requested your presence." She informed him. This made Harwin turn around and look at his sister. 

Why would the Princess want to speak with him? Was it so that she could curse him out and banish him from her service? No matter what Hanna told him the previous day, he had a hard time believing the Princess wasn't angry with him. If he was so angry at himself, surely the Princess was as well. 

"Now, Harwin. She seemed quite eager to speak with you." Joy added and quickly left the room. He knew he had no choice but to go. He wished he didn't have to. He was scared; scared to be confronted, scared to look at her in the eye. How could he ever defend himself? 

~

Harwin sighed. He had been dreading this moment for days and it was finally happening. He gently knocked on the door of her room. "Come in." 

He opened the door and slowly walked into her room. This was his first time inside her chambers; they were half the size of her King's Landing chambers but spacious nonetheless. In the far left corner was her bed. In the center of the room was a large settee made of oak and covered in red velvet. 

To the right was the window and below it was her writing desk. She stood in front of her desk, her back turned to him. Her long hair was loose, falling freely down her back like a river of silver. She was in her nightgown; it was long, falling just above her ankles. Over that, she had a silk shall wrapped around herself. "Princess." He said quietly. 

"Sit." She said softly not yet turning to meet his eye. He sat on the large velvet settee. He nervously waited for her to speak. He was too embarrassed to look at her, so he looked at the rug. 

"I wanted to thank you. For everything you've done for me. Not just for saving me, but for being so loyal to me all these years. I couldn't be more grateful to have someone like you by my side." 

Harwin felt relief wash over him and some of his guilt disappeared. After a couple more seconds of silence, she finally turned around. A soft gasp escaped his lips - her ivory skin was marred with dark bruises all over her jaw and neck. Her left wrist was bandaged and a certain emptiness was in her eyes.

She quietly sat next to him, their thighs touching. Her hands were on her lap, nervously playing with her rings. Harwin observed the bandage on her left hand and eventually took her hand in his. "I've failed you, Princess...please, forgive me." He said, his voice breaking as he looked at her bandaged wrist.

"...You didn't fail me, Harwin." She argued.

Harwin argued back, saying none of this would've happened if he had been there to protect her. Words stumbled out of his mouth as he poured his heart out about all the shame and guilt he's been feeling. Once she noticed tears forming in his eyes, she put her good hand across his mouth, silencing him.

"It was not your fault. I am not angry, Harwin. Not with you. I could never be angry with you." She insisted. She brushed her thumb against his lips while she buried the fingers of her bandaged hand into his dark curls. 

She enjoyed the way his breath caught in his throat. She started caressing his cheek with her hand and admired his features while he stared at her in bewilderment. "My knight in shining armor." She whispered with a smile on her face. Neither of them noticed how she leaned closer to him and how her chest was pressed against his.

"My darling Princess." He whispered back as he snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her onto his lap. His blue eyes met her lilac ones. Their noses touched, and he could feel her breath tickling his face. He basked in the warmth of her skin, her pink lips only inches away from his own. Her hair smelled of lemon and rose oil and it all drove him insane. 

Everything she did, everything she said - it all drove him to the edges of madness. The sound of her laughter, the warmth of her skin, the softness of her touch, the way his name sounded on her lips; she was the only thing he could think about.

He held her tightly in his lap, caressing the edge of her hips with his hand. She laid her head upon his shoulder and looked up at him with those doe eyes of hers. She had a small pout on her lips and, gods, did she look angelic. Even with all the injuries, she looked like the Maiden herself. 

"How could I ever repay you?" She whispered softly, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

He gave her an inquisitive look and she straightened up in his lap. She spoke while playing with the collar of his doublet. 

"You have served me loyally for many years. I owe you a great debt." 

"It is my duty, Princess. You owe me nothing."

"I know...but still. I wish to reward you somehow." She replied with an air of playfulness in her tone.

"Truly, my Princess, it's alright, you don't have to-" He started saying but was cut off when she placed her plush lips onto his own. They were warm and so, so, so soft. It was a chaste kiss that lasted only seconds but for Harwin it felt like time itself stopped. 

She pulled away slightly to breathe but her lips still lingered above his own. He placed his hand gently around her neck, careful of her bruises, and pulled her back for more. He deepened the kiss this time, but was mindful not to overwhelm her. She was surprised but quickly gave in, relaxing her body against his.

Once he felt the need for air, he pulled back, and was met with her angelic face - her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink, her lips red and swollen from his ministrations and her pupils blown wide with emotion. Then, a smile appeared on her face and she bit her lower lip and started giggling. 

"That was my first kiss!" She exclaimed and he couldn't help but smirk at that. Pride grew inside him at the thought of him being the first man ever to kiss those plush lips and caress her soft skin. His mind wondered, making him think about kissing the base of her throat, pulling her hair, nibbling at the skin behind her ear, all while his name fell form her lips-

"Harwin." She called for him, pulling him out of his thoughts. 

She couldn't help but chuckle at his expression. He stared at her lips and his eyes were wide with what she could only describe as hunger. She wondered what he was thinking about. Before she could ask, he gently grabbed her face, his thumb caressing her lower lip. Instinctively, she wrapped her lips around his thumb and licked it all while looking him straight in the eye.

She knew what was happening and she knew exactly what she was doing. Lady talk and gossip wasn't as innocent as men would think. Many ladies spoke of many different ways couples could pleasure each other and in the beginning, Daena blushed and ignored these conversations as they made her uncomfortable.

But as she matured, her mind started creating...interesting pictures, and many of them involved her sworn protector. They ranged from innocent kisses to him on his knees, his face beneath her skirts. She knew it was considered wrong and a sin, but she couldn't help herself, and him constantly gazing at her didn't help at all.

"You little minx." He said, his voice raspy. She bashfully looked away and he pinched her waist. She gasped and playfully slapped his arm. "Don't play coy with me now. Where did you learn that?"

She smirked and looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

He pulled her closer, their breaths mingling. Their noses touched and he kissed her again. He could feel her smiling against his lips. They kissed a bit more and then she finally pulled away. She couldn't stop giggling and the sound reminded him that despite being a Princess, Daena was just a young girl who just experienced passion for the first time. He was glad her first kiss was with him rather than someone else.

"As much as I enjoyed these...activities, I think it's time you leave, lest someone grows suspicious." Daena whispered like she was afraid of drawing unwanted attention. 

She got off his lap, allowing him to stand up. She stayed seated, looking up at him with wide eyes. She bit her lip playfully and looked down at her feet. He placed his hand beneath her chin and slowly lifted her head. He brushed her lips with his thumb and leaned in for one final kiss. 

"Good night, Princess." He bid her farewell softly. 

"...Good night, Ser Harwin." She barely uttered, too focused on the heat that was pooling in her lower belly. She crossed her legs instinctively and a sweet spark of pleasure danced across her body, like someone lit a fire inside her being. She laid back on the settee and focused her gaze on the embers inside the hearth. 

A/N - sorry for not uploading any chapters for a couple of weeks. Uni and exam season was killing me lol. But that's over so I can fully focus on writing new chapters.

Hope you like the new chapter. Next one will be sad, like real sad😭

Thank you for reading! 💕

If you have any opinions feel free to comment.

[mostbelovedaewwrestlertournament]

Oh you all like data, do you?

Well here, the 100 wrestlers with the highest votes across my main 3 tournaments (Plus a few extra cause ties) as voted by 123,607 votes from tumblr users just like you

Willow Nightingale - 1870 (AEW)

Eddie Kingston - 1617 (AEW)

Danhausen - 1358 (AEW)

Orange Cassidy - 1244 (AEW)

Chuck Taylor - 1017 (AEW)

Athena - 796 (AEW)

Hikaru Shida - 755 (AEW)

Rhea Ripley - 742 (WWE)

Samoa Joe - 731 (AEW)

Sami Zayn - 720 (WWE)

Bryan Danielson - 711 (AEW)

Kenny Omega - 660 (NJPW)

Jamie Hayter - 653 (AEW)

Nyla Rose - 592 (AEW)

Kris Statlander - 586 (AEW)

Riho - 560 (AEW)

Hook - 552 (AEW)

MJF - 549 (AEW)

Jon Moxley - 535 (AEW)

Anthony Bowens - 529 (AEW)

Emi Sakura - 528 (AEW)

Mr Brodie Lee - 501 (AEW)

Adam Cole & Stokely Hathaway - 490 (AEW)

Hiroshi Tanahashi - 467 (NJPW)

Wheeler Yuta - 459 (AEW)

Jay White - 450 (AEW)

Samoa Joe - 446 (WWE)

Zack Sabre Jr - 441 (NJPW)

Christian Cage - 437 (AEW)

Dean Ambrose, Naomi & Penta El Zero Miedo - 432 (WWE, WWE & AEW)

Bray Wyatt - 427 (WWE)

Shawn Michaels - 421 (WWE)

Eddie Guerrero - 420 (WWE)

Malakai Black - 414 (AEW)

Chuck Taylor - 408 (NJPW)

Jade Cargill - 406 (AEW)

Dalton Castle - 402 (AEW)

El Desperado - 401 (NJPW)

Mick Foley - 392 (WWE)

Asuka - 389 (WWE)

Maki Itoh - 384 (AEW)

Nick Jackson - 383 (AEW)

Jay White - 380 (NJPW)

Anna Jay - 376 (AEW)

Becky Lynch - 370 (WWE)

Billy Gunn - 365 (AEW)

Billy Gunn - 356 (WWE) this is the funniest thing in the world to me

Mustafa Ali & R Truth - 354 (WWE)

Kevin Owens - 348 (WWE)

Minoru Suzuki - 344 (NJPW)

The Undertaker - 342 (WWE)

Cody Rhodes - 341 (WWE)

Seth Rollins - 339 (WWE)

Juice Robinson - 338 (AEW)

Mercedes Martinez - 337 (AEW)

Damian Priest - 335 (WWE)

Toni Storm - 333 (AEW)

Xavier Woods - 329 (WWE)

Evil Uno & Sonny Kiss - 328 (AEW)

Katsuyori Shibata - 325 (NJPW)

CM Punk - 322 (AEW)

Willow Nightingale - 319 (NJPW)

Sting - 312 (WWE)

Iyo Sky - 310 (WWE)

Max Caster - 307 (AEW)

Hiromu Takahashi & Kofi Kingston- 306 (NJPW & WWE)

Bret Hart & Swerve Strickland - 305 (WWE & AEW)

Kazuchika Okada - 304 (NJPW)

The Bunny - 300 (AEW)

Brody King - 297 (AEW)

Mark Davis - 291 (AEW)

Owen Hart & Penelope Ford - 290 (WWE & AEW)

El Phantasmo - 288 (NJPW)

Wheeler Yuta - 287 (NJPW)

Hirooki Goto, Drew McIntyre & Roderick Strong- 285 (NJPW, WWE & AEW)

Ricky Starks - 279 (AEW)

Sting & Ruby Soho- 278 (AEW)

AJ Lee - 277 (WWE)

Bianca Belair - 275 (WWE)

Randy Orton & Kiera Hogan - 273 (WWE & AEW)

Sheamus - 269 (WWE)

Tomohiro Ishii - 265 (NJPW)

Owen Hart & Rey Mysterio - 264 (NJPW & WWE)

Luchasaurus - 263 (AEW)

Shota Umino - 262 (NJPW)

Matt Jackson - 261 (AEW)

Cesaro - 255 (WWE)

Scott Hall & Serpentico - 252 (WWE & AEW)

KENTA & Dusty Rhodes - 251 (NJPW & WWE)

Goldust & William Regal - 250 (WWE) father & son separated by 1 vote

Ember Moon - 249 (WWE)

Will Ospreay & Jey Uso - 248 (NJPW & WWE)

Shinsuke Nakamura - 247 (WWE)

Sasha Banks - 246 (WWE)

Chyna & The Butcher - 245 (WWE & AEW)

Hangman Page & Eddie Kingston - 243 (NJPW)

Clark Connors & Thunder Rosa - 240 (NJPW & AEW)

Satoshi Kojima, AJ Styles & Yuka Sakazaki - 239 (NJPW, WWE & AEW)

Kyle Fletcher - 237 (AEW)

Dolph Ziggler - 234 (WWE)

[horizon-verizon]

I don’t know if this is only my impression, but in my opinion, people started questioning Daemon’s status as a grey character only when HOTD worked very hard to villanize him (like having him straight up murder Rhea Royce while in the books he was still in the Stepstones and she very unambiguously had a riding accident).

Book!Daemon really is no worse than Jaime “I pushed a child out of the window and never once felt remorse over it and raped my sister in front of our dead son” or Oberyn “I beat women, drove them to suicide, steal their children and have sex with teenagers.” 

I remember that before HOTD started airing, show runners were bragging about how HOTD won’t have gratuitous violence against women the way GOT was accused of having. My immediate reaction was “press X to doubt” and I really hate being vindicated: Aemma being butchered, Alicent being an abused child bride, Daemon murdering his wife and then chocking Rhaenyra, Larys assaulting Alicent... and none of this was in the book. Like, what was the point outside of Condal and Sapochnik having this massive hate boner for Daemon ?

Jaime didn't rape Cersei in that scene canonically, but yes Daemon is that sort of man/character, this suave, charismatic, action-oriented, extremely loyal, highly martially skilled bulwark of his claimed group. This character doesn't really have to a be a down on his luck sort of "bad boy" (Oberon has had the best of luck really, he has very little to no family drama other than Elia's murder and Obara's mother, and it's really the first that is a tragedy against him form an external agent rather than Viserys befuddling Daemon or Tywin making his "love" for Jaime so obviously conditional).

Once again, Daemon and certainly none of the men we listed are good men nor feminists, and they all displayed misogyny or traumatize relatives that makes one want to grip their necks until they choke out. But we certainly didn't need to make up lies abt Daemon to make Rhaenyra seem better; why do women seem "better" only after they are abused & unable or don't choose to try to "punish" the man while they have the political chance to after all the examples of Targ women before her not having similar conditions but still always trying (sometimes succeeding) to push back or avenge themselves on a man (Rhaena-Rogar)?!

And again, this is a thing not to victim blame but to point out that it is a trend established in HotD for women to get even MORE and not-canon abuse form their male partners BEFORE we even get to Daemon choking Rhaenyra out, so we can safely assume this is how the writers are characterizing their female characters.

I think the point, therefore, is to sell through whitewashing, or really declawing feminism & reversing it through making/banking on the idea of "women-are-natural peacemakers/men are natural chaos makers and women need to keep men in check". Which still makes the value of women male-centered under the guise of infantilizing men, which makes men less accountable for their own actions. Daemon is one of the more brashly violent men and is a prime male character in this event AND he's a Targ, so there's also the element of Targ-antis being very popular in the fandom who Condal wishes to write the story toward (Targs are violent colonizers, yada, yada)...again for $ and a misunderstanding of feminism or a desire to show off how much he "gets it" and we are the ones who don't really.

Repackaged benevolent sexism to sell to the masses who don't really understand these concepts. Honestly, this show is insufferable marketing of a story with strong performances more than a story/"adaptation" of the original. And part of why he's maybe so insistent on making his "own" story from the story he still claims he is "faithfully" adapting is that apparently today's media industry has execs push for more sequels, prequels, etc. of things and writers who want to write original stuff can't and thus try to make adaptions "theirs" from that deprivation. Maybe Condal falls under this category, or maybe he simply is trying to capitalize on this consumerist nonsense. It it what it is.