#and rhaena with lines

[ride-thedragon]

And before we begin, my predictions for episode 3.

1. I audibly scream for Baela and Rhaena lines

2. Rhaenys reads Rhaenyra, Daemon and their council to filth

3. Rhaenys and Corlys are the best couple on the show.

4. Larys mocking or emulating Alicent in some way.

5. Rhaenyra says Alicent's name because gay.

6. Rhaenyra and Alicent paralleling in some way

7. Baela/Jace conflict.

8. Jace pisses me off.

9. Addam and Alyn plot thickens.

10. GWAYNE AND ALYS (WELCOME HOME, THE KIDS MISSED YOU).

11. Helaena and her bugs , maybe her kid.

12. Someone tells Aegon he needs an heir.

13. Simon Strong becomes the only man I care about in Harrenhall.

14. Daemon gets the haunted and Larys says Daemon will be haunted.

15. Vale arc starts

16. Baela speaking high Valyrian.

17. Rhaenys with her grandkids (pure copium)

18. Gwayne serves C.U.N.T

19. Bracken twink take down.

20. Finally, I'm yelling at a decision so dumb it's considered camp.

[alicentflorent]

I understand baela might consider herself more “fire and blood” than ”of salt and sea” it’s normal to be more connected to one side of your heritage but what about rhaena? Perhaps she is “of salt and sea” you know, rhaena who doesn’t have a dragon, who has no relationship with her targaryen father but was very close to her velaryon mother? Rhaena who feels like she has nothing to offer her family of dragon riders because she can’t fight alongside them, who was sent away for that reason. Rhaena who’s strength’s are more suited for politics than battle? Rhaena who spend most of her young life betrothed to the heir of driftmark and expecting to become lady of driftmark only to have that ripped away from her when her fiancé was killed?

Rhaenys was advocating for rhaena to be named lady of driftmark right up until she died and neither Corlys or Baela brought her up when he was willing to name a woman as heir.

[daenerystargarycn]

rhaenyra is NOT the stepmother she is the mother that stepped up 💪

[seaworthit]

The black brides

[sukibenders]

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

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

[thevelaryons]

Okay so Baela can’t get Driftmark because she is of blood and fire, as she tells Corlys and he accepts this reasoning. “Driftmark must go to salt and sea.” Then how come Corlys was okay with Luke as his heir but Luke wasn’t salt and sea. Corlys also doesn’t want Joffrey as his heir but Joffrey is the same age now as Luke was when Corlys first spoke of him inheriting Driftmark (s1xe7). Corlys tried to kill himself in the following episodes when he went to fight in the Stepstones, so he was okay with leaving Driftmark without an heir of salt and sea. But now he’s not okay all of a sudden.

You do realize that Corlys, as he exists in the show, is just there to prop up other characters, right? Trying to find any deeper meaning behind his actions is a lost cause.

HOTD changed many aspects of the Driftmark succession. In the book, Corlys did not particularly want Luke as his heir. Rhaenyra had to force the issue and she proved that she was willing to have people killed/maimed if they opposed her. Corlys was likely willing to settle for Luke as heir because he was already betrothed to Rhaena. Later, when Luke dies and Joffrey becomes heir, Corlys is already making plans to have Joffrey replaced by his own blood. Joffrey is betrothed to a Manderly girl, and betrothals are not easily broken, so he can’t just be betrothed to Rhaena now. Which is why Corlys proceeds to appoint another heir, who is actually of his blood. F&B never officially referred to Luke as Corlys’ heir (compared to the other heirs to Driftmark), probably because the situation was not so easily accepted by Corlys. Like I’ve said before, Corlys considers being a Velaryon and being his heir as two separate things.

In the show, Corlys accepted Luke as heir from the beginning, even before the betrothal with Rhaena had been made (the show scene is inspired by a book scene between Jace & Viserys). Rhaenyra doesn’t need to use violence to force Corlys’ decision about his heir. The show portrayed Corlys as a person who doesn’t really have a problem with his heir not being of his blood in season one. The events of season one were portrayed in such a way to keep Rhaenyra’s hands clean. But now Corlys’ actions in season two don’t match up with his actions in season one because of the various changes that have been made.

The reason Baela and Rhaena were never considered for Corlys’ heirs in the book is that legally they can never inherit Driftmark while Rhaenyra’s Velaryon sons live. Laenor was the heir to Driftmark. So naturally, his sons will be heirs after him. Then it will be Laena. After her, it will be her daughters. Once Laenor and Laena die, the matter comes down to their children. There is no situation in which either Baela or Rhaena could be named heirs to Driftmark ahead of the boys, especially if one of the boys (Luke) is older (it’s not like the situation with Rhaenyra versus Aegon, where Rhaenyra is older). If the Dragon Twins were named heirs ahead of Rhaenyra’s sons, it would completely expose that the boys are illegitimate (why is Lord Velaryon randomly making his granddaughter heir ahead of his grandson?). Everyone would know and it would create a huge scandal. Laenor would be considered a cuckold publicly. It also makes house Velaryon lose any potential ties to the Iron Throne. King Viserys would either have to start executing Rhaenyra & her sons for high treason or he would start targeting Corlys and his family if they dared to expose Rhaenyra (just look at what happened to Vaemond and his family). Either way, the situation would get ugly. So of course, Corlys has to play along with the ruse. He doesn’t attempt to change the line of succession at that point and is willing to settle for Luke because it at least serves his family’s interests. During the war, Corlys has the upper hand over Rhaenyra, so he can attempt to change the succession accordingly.

There’s a reason why Corlys later passes Addam & Alyn as Laenor’s bastards instead of acknowledging that he is the one who fathered them. There isn’t anything stopping Corlys from saying he’s the father. At the time, Rhaenys is dead so Corlys has nothing to be afraid of. But Corlys’ intention is to change the succession to favour his own blood and the only way to do that is to pass Addam & Alyn off as Laenor’s sons instead.

House Velaryon follows Andal succession. Laenor’s sons (Jace/Luke/Joffrey) come before Laenor’s nieces (Baela/Rhaena). Laenor’s brothers (Addam/Alyn) come very last. By passing Addam & Alyn off as Laenor’s sons, and by virtue of them being older than Joffrey, they are ahead in the line of succession. And when the succession issue has been resolved as Corlys sees fit, there would be no further reason to change it to make either Baela or Rhaena the heir.

It’s easy enough for Corlys to make Addam his heir over Joffrey in the book because of the way the Red Sowing is structured. Corlys took part in planning that with Jace. It was said that whoever claimed a dragon would be honoured by being ennobled. So it’s not particularly a suspicious situation for Corlys to act at this point. Once Addam succeeded in claiming a dragon, Corlys can “reward” him by naming him heir to Driftmark. Rhaenyra needs Corlys on her side, since he’s providing the majority of her army, so she has to accept the situation with Addam (even if it means passing over her own son, Joffrey). Jace supports him in this decision because he was making active efforts to appease Corlys to keep him on their side.

The show complicated matters with all the changes it made in season one, and now season two. If HOTD had portrayed Corlys more similar to his book counterpart (aka reluctant to accept Luke as heir in the beginning), then there wouldn’t be as much confusion about Corlys now being reluctant to accept Joffrey as heir. So long as Laenor’s sons exist, Baela and Rhaena were never going to be considered as heirs to the Driftwood Throne.

[klaus-littlestwolf]

So…

The whole Nettles storyline isn’t happening which sucks cause it was awesome and Sheepstealer was Awesome!

The writers Know that Sheepstealer was awesome and because of that I’m sensing that the dragon that’s killing all of the sheep is probably Sheepstealer who is going to be mounted by Rhaena now for precisely No Fucking Reason!

Is she going to spend weeks earning the dragons trust by feeding him sheep? Chiseling away at his hard demeanor watching him eat day in and day out until he allows her to mount him?

No, of course not because Rhaena doesn’t have that kind of time.

They won’t give us Nettles, and they can’t Not give us Sheepstealer…wtf HOTD writers? Wtf?

[maxanor]

the way la*nyra did not exist on the f&b wiki until 2 months ago yet targ stans act like the show is erasing crucial queer history by "not showing their relationship" and "replacing it with rhaenicent" there's really nothing you can do but laugh

[derangedthots]

so i've spoken before abt how jace might've insisted on postponing his and baela's wedding till after the dance (despite ample opportunity/mutual desire) bc his love for her wanted to give her a ceremony without death looming over it. and that his fear for her compelled him not to wed and inevitably bed her when the tragedy of three harrowing labors might take what should be a joyful time away from them and - even more than that - take his beloved baela from him.

but what if, and bear with me for a moment, what if beyond rhaenyra and laena and rhaenys - all three women robbed, in some way shape or form, of a queendom - jace's thoughts took him to another targaryen ancestor, robbed of her birthright, burdened with the loss of her husband, and left alone to defend and protect their children from usurpers? maybe i'm just spitballing but what if jace's nights during the dance were haunted by the memory of rhaena targaryen, black bride, queen of the west, queen of the east, and whose ghost yet haunts the halls of harwin's his father's home at harrenhal?

what if he sees his baela, bold and brave and so beautiful, and knows - gods willing - he'll make her his queen. what if jace sees her and wants so many things for her but not one of those things is to make a rhaena targaryen of her. rhaena who was queen of the west and queen of the east but never ruled as queen of westeros in her own right - and, in trying to spare baela of that fate, jace dies anyway.

and she becomes a bit like rhaena regardless: robbed of her love and her crown.

[duncan-rohanne]

for a show that is trying so hard to be feminist it's failing on spectacular level. every woman on this show is somehow put into role of a victim. they are the victims of patriarchy and they can't get out. every time they try to have their voice heard the bad men will shut them out. every time they try to have a relationship the bad men will ruin it. every time they try to have friendship or family bond the bad man will step in the middle. and it got to a point when it's not subtle, it's hitting out on the head constantly. this episode especially.

and it's fucking wonder because the book didn't do that. yes, westeros is patriarchy. a hardcore one. it's so patriarchal that a war is fought not to have a woman on the throne. but the women of game of thrones and in the books were more than victims. they worked their way around it. they schemed, they fought, they clawed their ways out on the top. book!alicent wouldn't even try to become a regent? why would she? why are we watching show!alicent be so bitter? her son is a king, second son a regent, daughter is queen, she is fucking the hand, her father is doing her bidding somewhere and her brother is at her feet. if she played it smart she would be the most powerful woman in seven kingdoms but no, she isn't allowed to be scheming, she isn't allowed to want revenge, she isn't allowed to play the players. she needs to be victim.

i don't even want to talk about rhaenyra because they whitewashed her to a point where she can't even make a decision/action without someone advising her.

cersei lannister would never. daenerys targaryen would never. arya stark would never. catelyn stark would never. margaery tyrell would never. hell, as certified sansa hater, sansa stark, especially her, would never. they played the men around them to their best abilities. they guided their husbands, sons, brothers, lovers.

it's so frustrating. alicent and rhaenyra are like "i'm so clever, i can fix this but the men won't listen to me." yeah girl, you had 20 years to do it and you kept making it worse, not learning from your mistakes. i wouldn't listen to you either.

like i said, for a feminist show, i'm not getting any feminism. either take down the patriarchy (which would be interesting arc but it can't be since this is a prequel) or learn how to work within it. this is just perpetual story of "oh well, i tried..."

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

ok ok its my fault for being on reddit but r/houseofthedragon rn full of people arguing that demon and his 99% neck lizard have a stronger bond than aegon and sunfyre and it's so fucking frustrating that its entirely condolt's fucking fault that this is even a fucking argument because he thinks the greatest bond between a dragon and his rider to ever go that fucking hard in this universe is pRopaganda and gives dae mon and car ax es more screentime. i'm just so fucking done man. never showed us sunfyre TRULY until it was time for demon jr the anime edgelord to attack him and aegon, never get the fact that sunfyre is literally on aegon's arms, never got the coronation flying, DIDN'T GET ANYTHING UNTIL IT WAS TIME TO FUCK HIM UP FOR THE PLOT.

i wish this mf would get fucking fired before he has a chance to touch these two anymore because I don't think i can handle how he will underplay and butcher the fact that this dragon literally fought tooth and claw with a broken wing to find his way back to his rider.

[ride-thedragon]

Holding on to the fact that Daemon said Pentos was the home of him and his children has never worked out so well for a hyperfixated individual.

[atopvisenyashill]

podcast makes a point that the iron throne is completely at odds with the concept of the valyrian freehold, and kinda dooms the targs from the start because the freehold being a large group of families reminds them that their power is completely tied to the living and very killable dragons whereas the throne demands only one person on top, so you HAVE to reconcile the branches on your family tree or they WILL start getting massacre happy about being The One On Top.

it’s a really great point. anyways i think this could be fixed by aegon giving every single lord paramount a dragon. there’s no way this goes wrong it’s full proof i’m a genius.

[prodixal]

@trcshcans || kyra bracken

Rhaena had not truly allowed herself to grieve. First came denial, then rage, then hope that revenge could be the path to closure -- and now, now she was only sad. Now it was tears that coated her face, a sense of hopelessness that inhabited every part of her being. She no longer wished for anything except for things to return to the way they were. Last couple days were a blur, and she was tired -- so very tired of pretending she was tougher than she had truly been. Of pretending she cared less than she did. She'd missed Xaerys, she'd missed his laugh and his softness and his advice. His letters, which came promptly and without failure. Xaerys never missed a letter. Never missed a name day. Never failed to be a good brother. He was the best of them -- and for it, he died. She could not stay inside anymore, Rhaena never liked being inside. She needed cold air against her skin, and for the darkness of the night to swallow her whole. She needed Morghos, to touch her scales and rest against her cheeks. Yet on the way, through utter darkness, she ran into the very last person she wanted to see in this state. A sigh is not of disappointment, she was simply tired. "Not tonight Kyra." she says softly, perhaps the first time she'd sounded like a genuine person. "I cannot do --- whatever this is."

[an-abyss-of-stars]

Idk how, idk where, but I'll create a whole new fic if it means I can put Rhaena in a shimmering water-like sheer dress!!!

JUST LIKEE... SHE'D LOOK SO GOOD IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS, ESPECIALLY THE 1st ONE!! LIKE I'm blinded by the beauty of the first ONEEEE

Like there's certainly modern au potential, and maybe I'll squeeze it in somehow 🤔🤔

BUT ALSO, I have the vaguest idea for a dark au where Aemond has won the Dance, everyone else is dead, but he's specifically spared Rhaena to be his Valyrian Queen (like a real Henry VI situation where he needs to marry Elizabeth of York because he needs legitimatize his own claim as well as sure up his line with the blood/relations to the last dynasty blah blah). BUT OF COURSE, this is less of a chore for him, because he absolutely WANTS to marry her, but he's still the guy who helped kill her entire family, so she absolutely hates him with the hot intensity of a thousand suns 😂😂

I imagine for his faction of fucked up Lords and Knights who rallied for him, he keeps Rhaena safely locked away in a tower or special chambers 🤔🤔

This wedding is being forced upon her, it's her safest option, but she's still marrying a mad man who lusts for her, AND THIS SHEER VELVETY IRIDESCENT DRESS IS THE WEDDING DRESS 😳😳

Please that's all I have for this 🤣🤣

[navree]

me @ you calling Lucerys boring! 😆 come on, he's just a kid! cutting out aemond's eye was bad, i agree, but i don't think he was as bland as everyone says. his imposter syndrome in 8 and 10 was interesting to watch at least. he was a brave little boy.

I mean I don't really see anything brave about bringing a knife to a fight he not only had fuck all to do with but where he was clearly at fault (Aemond did nothing wrong, he tamed a free dragon, Baela and Rhaena get a pass because they're grieving but Jace and Luke had no business being involved and certainly no business escalating into 4 v 1 violence against the clear cut victim), trying to literally murder someone because I don't know what the fuck you're trying to do when you stab a knife at someone's face but it's certainly not a warning shot, showing zero remorse for it at all, and at worse acting like a little snot when in the same room with your victim. The fact that Luke got away with this scot free (didn't he literally say "I didn't do anything" you boring little asshole you stabbed out someone's eye that is the opposite of not doing anything!) is an absolute travesty of justice that stains everyone involved (mostly Viserys and Luke but I'm not letting Rhaenyra "pls torture the ten year old stabbing victim until he tells me how he figured out that these white dark haired children aren't the sons of my black platinum blond husband" Targaryen off the hook either). Aemond could have died, not only from the initial wound, but from the myriad of infections or other issues that could have plagued him during the healing process. For God's sake, Viserys nicks himself on the Iron Throne and they have to lop off his arm, his infected injuries and their treatment have already made him pretty firmly decrepit by Driftmark, the fact that Aemond healed without any serious and lifelong and further damaging complication is a goddamn miracle. And even kids know that murder is bad, I'm pretty sure that if I were Lucerys's age and I tried to commit homicide I'd have to deal with some consequences.

And I'm sorry, but I call him boring because he is! They wrote a boring character! That's not on me for picking up on it, that's on the writers and the myriad choices they made that led to them severely underdeveloping several characters, most prominently Lucerys (Jace and Baela and Rhaena at least get another season of life to develop further, Luke gets four episodes and they knew that going in). This is a song I've been singing literally since the show was airing and it's not gonna change, cuz he's dead and therefore stuck with his boring character and complete lack of characterization.

Him being a kid is not a character trait, and it certainly doesn't make him more interesting anymore than, say, his eye color would. The impostor syndrome thing they kinda tried didn't really work because 1) it's not impostor syndrome if it's true, he's not a Velaryon and Vaemond was 99% in the right in that entire thing (I don't like him throwing out misogynistic slurs, you can point out that these aren't Velaryons but Strong bastards without stooping to calling Rhaenyra a whore, I hate men sometimes) 2) in episode 8 it exists for one single line and is not a driving force for him at all for the remainder of the episode to the point that it could be cut out and mean nothing, especially since that scene was only there to introduce adult Aemond and 3) it doesn't even make sense because the person who was set up as having issues with his lack of Velaryon heritage and Harwin being his father was Jace. Jace is the one who hears the rumors and clocks it early on in childhood, Jace is the one who is deeply affected by it to the point of bitterness towards his own mother, Jace is the one who grieves Harwin but also feels angry that he can't express it. All of that was set up as part of Jace's arc, not at all Luke's, who is literally set dressing up until he decides to commit criminal offenses in the middle of the night. And then time skip, and suddenly Jace is A-OK and Luke, who has shown no issue before now (or any personality at all) is slightly concerned about it for one line in episode 8 before going back to being a piece of cardboard until episode 10.

And I'll be honest, the second that scene came out in episode 10, I immediately saw it for what it was, which was a very obvious patch job. The writers were clearly aware that they had not given the viewers any reason at all to care about Luke one way or another, so we weren't going to feel a lot when Vhagar (deservedly, imo) munches on him. So they hastily added in this really heavy-handed scene of poor uwu soft boy Lukey who is so concerned with doing right and needs to blink up tearfully at Mommy and be her sweet boy and get little kisses to assuage his worries, so that we'd feel some emotion and then be said when he becomes the Jonah to Vhagar's whale. It just doesn't work because there was nothing for him before then and therefore I don't care, I just feel bad Rhaenyra.

Luke is a bland and boring character. That's not an attack, that's just what the writers did. They tried to cram too much into a ten episode season, literally twenty years of history, and it caused a lot of characterization problems for a lot of characters, particularly for the Team Black ones. And a consequence of that is that the character with the least amount of time for development got not development and no personality. He's a plank of wood, he's a platonic version of the sexy lamp trope; there's nothing there and he exists only for us to feel bad when the lamp is smashed. Seriously, name me five individual character traits that Lucerys has. He's a momma's boy, even though I'm not really sure that's a character trait but I'll give it to him, and I guess he's devoid of empathy, considering that he doesn't appear to feel literally any remorse for mutilating Aemond (seriously, is it like the Dothraki and "thank you"? does the word "sorry" not exist in Valyrian languages? you can't even send an apology gift basket or a note?). But he's not brave, as there is no scene that shows any bravery or courage, and he's not noble or kind or thoughtful because there's nothing that shows any of that, or anything that shows him being the opposite, cruel or cowardly or weak, because he's a basically a character who could be played by sticking a wig on a mop and waving it around. And any characterization of insecurity exists as something hamfistedly crowbarred in at the last minute in his final episode to try to manipulate the audience's emotions with less sensitivity than D&D trying to tug at our heartstrings by having Drogon try to nudge Dany awake after she's killed.

But there is a character that I do consider to be a brave little boy, though I regret to inform y'all that it is Not a fourteen year old with no depth or personality or written characterization whose main claim to fame is maiming a person without apology and then dying. Nah, the brave little boy title goes to post-Driftmark Aemond. Aemond, at ten, is delivered a life altering injury whose recovery was likely very slow and very painful, involved a lot of worry about whether he'd have to deal with infection or further risk of death, and had to relearn how to do literally everything now that he was half blind, and he did all of it. He survived, and he thrived. He relearned how to walk, how to balance, his spatial awareness. He learned how to fought and even became incredibly good at it, and maintained his bond with Vhagar, as well as trying to keep himself mentally sharp as well. He did all of that, despite the huge setback he was dealt with at age ten. That's brave, go Aemond.