#can you tell I want to write an essay about Rhaenys?

[honeyandsalted]

Every time someone complains about how they changed Alicent’s character from the book, or how they liked young Rhaenyra better, I think about this. Book Alicent because, (from what I’ve heard) she is more straightforward in her grasping for power (“girlbossing”) and younger tv Rhaenyra because she comes across as more sassy (“girlbossing”).

In the TV show, Rhaenyra matures to a quieter, more outwardly thoughtful soul as an adult, and Alicent’s desire for power is generally more grounded in her and her children’s safety rather than wanting to rule, or at the very least trying for find justification for having sacrificed her own needs and wants her whole childhood.

Also! I think the same phenomenon has led to a vast misunderstanding of a lot of female characters.

I see a lot of people who loveee Rhaenys s1 and then call the scene where she doesn’t kill Aegon and prevent the war “bad writing.” I love Rhaenys too but I have a feeling a lot of people mostly like her because she had that typically “girlboss” attitude: confident, sassy, and angry. What I feel they overlook is that Rhaenys is bitter, and insecure, and a little lost and alone.

My father, for example, hated this scene! Because he took Rhaenys at surface level and likely thought of her as this smart, somewhat ruthless, (or “manly”) woman, who would not hesitate to end the war before it starts.

And she probably would have, had she not had that conversation with Alicent not long before that.

Rhaenys likely cannot help but see some of herself in Alicent, who is also bitter, and alone, and overlooked by the men around her. Rhaenys herself saw the Throne pass over her for the men in her family, saw her children pass away, and saw her husband leave her alone in his grief. So when she faces Alicent and her family on Meleys, and Alicent steps in front of her son, she cannot bring herself to kill her. She cannot kill this women who is using her final act to still try to protect her son, this women who, although she likely hates to admit it, reminds her of herself. (Not to mention, she still has her own reservations about Rhaenyra).

It is a moment of weakness, for Rhaenys. People expect her to be logical and cutthroat (girlboss) so when she does the illogical thing (not ending the Greens), they see it as bad writing instead of another aspect of the complexity of Rhaenys character.

not now sweetie, mommy is watching how the massive girlbossification of female characters has led to the belief that weak and vulnerable female characters are badly written characters because apparently every woman needs to be outspoken and witty and snarky and brave in order to be considered “complex” and have any value in a piece of media!!

[daylander1000]

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

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

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

S2 predictions? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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

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

Tell me that this isn't Rhaenys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I honestly try to not think about s2 of this.

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

And I deleted it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

This show has curb-stomped narrative coherence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No optimism here.

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

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

I've seen Catwoman more than 5 times.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But HotD is something special.

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

Like, just think about that.

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

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

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

[just-some-random-blogger]

meow meow, its muning and PLEASE tell me you received the first part?? bc just after they said that it's sent they said tumblr is broken TT i hope it really was sent.. so yeah it must be part 2. 'i literally opened genshin for this' ohh i feel honored. firSt of all, THE CAT TT omg what a cutie you have there. you remember ekaterina? well, my besties name is liza. just find it hilarious and kinda "mom i'm on tv!" hope youll make a stable relationship with lisa ghjdjdh. good for you. its so cute how you speak about xiangling. its great she made you feel this way. your brothers can just envy you enjoying your life and playing the way you want instead of just 'optimally' being nerds) jean seams to be gaslight gatekeep girlboss! i like it. hope you'll learn how to value her like she deserves TT 'THE CAT I STOOD THER' well the kittys laying now and its even more cute TT tbh it was the first thing i noticed... 'i have to keep adjusting the camera' oh so youre the cameraman now? youre doing great, sweetie. idk if i understand 'op' right but if i do then yelan slays. she's pretty. hope she'll do well if you plan to keep leveling her up. 'you cant talk to this cat' so cruel!!! sayu is basically my mood 24/7, i could've slept forever if i had an opportunity. i'm happy you feel so much about sayu, its cute. and hope youll get klee. and youll be the mother of two children... pls dont end up like viserys... AHJAJA amber TT poor girl. weak + weak = getting stronger so... idk good luck to both of you. good for musicians, in this house we love musicians. tbh i never heard of xinyan too but yor love is everything that matters. well morning is pretty! hope it didnt tire you up too much. i appreciate the efforts, though. thanks for showing me all of them!! she's Minimum viable product?.... anyway i'm glad you teamed up so well. she made her best so let zhongli work too. 'hell theme is fresh' i know about dante girl TT i really want to read it but i dont have time. but i know TT im not stupid. i meant like?? its a fictional concept that doesnt exist (or its not proven). hell is such a big thing to fantasise about. its fresh in a away its still not overused and hasnt been told everything about? i literally study literature like.. thoroughly... now i feel so stupid TT i just wanted to see more modern images of hell TT 'theres something about the idea of sending an ask that makes me anxious' its totally ok!! theres nothing really scary! ive been anxious to send asks too but probably being anon helped me a lot fhdhj. no is still an answer, if anything. we say 'they dont beat you for asking'. go and communicate with everyone you want to. 'im allergic to dust' GOD BLESS YOU and good luck. poor babe. 'the weather is cold' 1) i understood i cant slap people. literally. i have no experience so i have no knowledge. 2) what system do you use? like centigrade or fahrenheit? and what is cold for you... 3) its pretty warm now in where i live! its -18° C so im satisfied with the weather. 4) actually, not the whole russia is cold... its just me being from siberia. its +2° rn in the city where my besties from which is in the south. hope the movie'll be interesting at least. its ok. you can write whenever you want and whenever you're comfortable. since you've closed requests, just give you some time and enjoy some time off writing. (but let me know when youre willing to hear a concept about daemon feeling guilty and having to face the surprising reality). some emotions again! ive watched some videos with hotd cast and i'm so in love with Olivia TT shes not mommy, shes mother and i love her TT i love even the actors of rhaenys and corlys (sorry babes, my memory is bad). the girl who played young alicent is also soso cool. alicent's cast is really amazing. maybe i still think theyre not as similar as young and adult rhaenyras but their acting is good. do you have a fav hotd actor (beside daemon)? ok i think ill go end up my essay and go to bed. love you!! have a nice day/evening/night/life! good luck with the assignments! take care <з

yes i very much did get your first part HAHAAH muning

i kinda feel bad for the eternal pain of this perfectly looped gif

tumblr go bonk🤠 it cant handle your love for me

'i literally opened genshin for this' ohh i feel honored. firSt of all, THE CAT TT omg what a cutie you have there. you remember ekaterina? well, my besties name is liza. just find it hilarious and kinda "mom i'm on tv!" hope youll make a stable relationship with lisa ghjdjdh.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH STABLE RELATIONSHIP HAHAHHAHA. yeah i get what you feel every time i see another hannah im like OMG NO WAY but i hope they dont make a hannah character 😔👎 idk its weird someone else has my name HAHAHAH like that song by twenty one pilots 'down in the forest' LOLOLOL

good for you. its so cute how you speak about xiangling. its great she made you feel this way. your brothers can just envy you enjoying your life and playing the way you want instead of just 'optimally' being nerds)

HD:ASHDFAFDH:AHSF SO TRUE MY BROTHERS SUCK THE FUN OUT OF THE GAME SOMETIME though i understand why they tell me this because it is frustrating to play when you have no idea what ur doing and every since i tried out some of the stuff they said, i really did see results so HAHAHH

jean seams to be gaslight gatekeep girlboss! i like it. hope you'll learn how to value her like she deserves TT

T_T #justiceforjean

'THE CAT I STOOD THER' well the kittys laying now and its even more cute TT tbh it was the first thing i noticed...

i specifically posed there to show you the kitty!!!!

'i have to keep adjusting the camera' oh so youre the cameraman now? youre doing great, sweetie.

😡❌🍅 its the camera in the GAME 👎👎👎👎👎

idk if i understand 'op' right but if i do then yelan slays. she's pretty. hope she'll do well if you plan to keep leveling her up.

im so sorry i assumed you just knew HAHAHHA OP means over powered hHAHAHHAAHHA. yes yelan slays. i do plan to level her up.......... eventuallly

'you cant talk to this cat' so cruel!!!

there are some cats you can talk to

hold on let me open the game T_T

here !! his name is prince! you can 'talk to him

noelles so tiny T_T

lol nvm i changed to the main character and i cant talk to cat because my level is not high enough to challenge him HAHHHAH anyway lol thats it

sayu is basically my mood 24/7, i could've slept forever if i had an opportunity. i'm happy you feel so much about sayu, its cute. and hope youll get klee. and youll be the mother of two children... pls dont end up like viserys...

im luv sayu for real. AND PLSSSSSSSSSSSSSS NOT YOU COMPARING ME TO VISERYS T_T NAURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR i hope i get klee too! T_T i will love her forever even if shes weak HAHAAH

AHJAJA amber TT poor girl. weak + weak = getting stronger so... idk good luck to both of you.

AHHAHHAHHAAH WEAK + WEAK = GETTING STRONGER SLAYYYYYYYY <3 LOVE THAT MENTALITY

good for musicians, in this house we love musicians. tbh i never heard of xinyan too but yor love is everything that matters. well morning is pretty! hope it didnt tire you up too much. i appreciate the efforts, though. thanks for showing me all of them!!

<3 im luv u too <3 i wasnt tired but i was a lil relucant to share em because it might be oversharing now LOL but anyway i like showing you things <3

she's Minimum viable product?.... anyway i'm glad you teamed up so well. she made her best so let zhongli work too.

T_T noelle my love T_T shes not a minimum viable product T_T IDEK WHAT THAT MEANS ok i know what it means now i guess ??? maybe she was like that for me???? T_T but thats so sad to think T_T

'hell theme is fresh' i know about dante girl TT i really want to read it but i dont have time.

i aint ever reading that its too long T_T i hope you get to reading it since you seem to want to

but i know TT im not stupid. i meant like?? its a fictional concept that doesnt exist (or its not proven). hell is such a big thing to fantasise about. its fresh in a away its still not overused and hasnt been told everything about?

I SEE good point good point

i literally study literature like.. thoroughly... now i feel so stupid TT i just wanted to see more modern images of hell TT

T_T you wanna see modern hell T_T PLS i hope you only mean in the show

'theres something about the idea of sending an ask that makes me anxious' its totally ok!! theres nothing really scary! ive been anxious to send asks too but probably being anon helped me a lot fhdhj. no is still an answer, if anything. we say 'they dont beat you for asking'. go and communicate with everyone you want to.

SOOOOOO REALLL FOR THAT LOVE THAT FOR YOU AND ME i will try to be more.... or ok less anxious about sending asks!! 😤😤😤😤😤 ill try T_T HAAAH

'im allergic to dust' GOD BLESS YOU and good luck. poor babe.

T_T every time i clean a really dusty place my body is like is this a threat CLOG THE NOSTRILS then i cant breathe T_T

'the weather is cold' 1) i understood i cant slap people. literally. i have no experience so i have no knowledge. 2) what system do you use? like centigrade or fahrenheit? and what is cold for you... 3) its pretty warm now in where i live! its -18° C so im satisfied with the weather.

let me stop you right here AHAHHAHAHHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHHAHHAHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHH ok #1 ok i get it BUT youre going to slap me when i answer number 3 #2 i use Celsius like you!! #3 T_T HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAH its 28C here HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i would die probably if i went to you. but ok to be fair i have an electric fan open and when its night it gets colder so HAHAHAHAHHAHH

4) actually, not the whole russia is cold... its just me being from siberia. its +2° rn in the city where my besties from which is in the south.

T_T cold is relative sure but russia is all cold to ME T_T

hope the movie'll be interesting at least.

me too T_T im going to watch it after this T_T

its ok. you can write whenever you want and whenever you're comfortable. since you've closed requests, just give you some time and enjoy some time off writing. (but let me know when youre willing to hear a concept about daemon feeling guilty and having to face the surprising reality). some emotions again!

<3 <3 youre so sweet <3 so much sweeter than normal <3 im taking credit T_T JK YOUVE ALWAYS BEEN SWEET IM LUV U SO MUCH i am glad you didnt say the daemon idea cos i might wanna write it A:LSHASLFHLASFHASL:HFAS HAHHAHAAHHAAH

ive watched some videos with hotd cast and i'm so in love with Olivia TT shes not mommy, shes mother and i love her TT

i mean shes both mommy and mother T_T im luv her so much

NAH BUT THIS SCENE WAS SO INTENSE BUT THEYRE BOTH SO HOT IN IT HKASHF:LHASFAS:F

i love even the actors of rhaenys and corlys (sorry babes, my memory is bad).

I LOVE THEM TOO IVE SEEN A FEW INTERVIEWS WITH THEM and they look like theyre having so much fun <3

the girl who played young alicent is also soso cool. alicent's cast is really amazing. maybe i still think theyre not as similar as young and adult rhaenyras but their acting is good.

I LOVE HER TOO i remember stumbling on ... young alicent actress T_T EMILY emily's tiktok and she was so ?????? SO COOL ???? WOW

do you have a fav hotd actor (beside daemon)? ok i think ill go end up my essay and go to bed.

ig i like tom glynn-carney (aegon) because ???? HES SO SWEET IRL WHICH WAS SHOCKING?? i mean he's so slimy as aegon SO ITS LIKE <3 <3 ??!!!! idk hES SO PUUPPPPY AND THATS WHY I MADE AEGON A PUPPY IN THE MODERN AU and yeah i like aemond's actor ewan mitchell too!!! he's a cutie pie as well AND ??? SO GOOD AT EVERYTHING????. I MEAN I ALSO LOVE EMMA theyre so HAS:FHSA <3 BUT I MEAN I ALSO LOVE OLIVA SHES so TAL:FHASL:FSA SOOOOOO <3 yes. HAHAHAHA

love you!! have a nice day/evening/night/life! good luck with the assignments! take care <з

i love you my baby <3 i hope youre doing well with your work and life and eveything. <3

xxx

[nerajaana]

The most irritating thing about these people who call Daenerys racist (and apparently all of us, lol) is that they think they are morally superior for supporting the martinis.

but the martinis aren't even poc, right?

Hit the bullseye nonnie!

Nothing can be more hilarious that some noobs screaming into the void about how the rl wocs stanning dany are a bunch of white feminists......ever used the brain cell your ancesters underwent evolution to obtain over millions of years? like, have some respect for them at least???? The ones who're still suffering the aftermath of the imperialistic colonial regimes are here stanning the fuck outta Daenerys Targaryen while many many of her haters, who accuse her of being a imperialist tyrant, are the same fucking people stanning the british royal family irl.....how much more hypocritical can they get?????????!!!!!!!! Who's gonna tell them this series is not for a bunch of bourgeoisie enthusiasts to live vicariously through the characters??? Absolutely pathetic.

(😣😭pls im a martell stan lets not call the canon ones martinis pls feel free to deride the fanon versions tho the book ones are bae💖💖💖#EllariaDeservedBetter #ArianneMyLove #FUGeorgeBringBackQuent2021 #FuckD&D)

The Dornish's race is something i don't think even the creator of the said characters has any fucking clue about. One time he goes they're a combination of Wales, Moorish Spain and Palestine (........tf george), another time he mentions how the sandy dornishmen are supposedly inspired from the mediterranean/greeks. Is it a case of colorism or xenophobia or a combination of both? It's definitely not just simple racism and bRoWn CuLtUrE....istg i will virtually throttle the next fool to talk about dornish culture being equivalent to the real world brown cultures- mr privileged ignorant old white guy has exposed his blatant orientalist attitude already why the fuck are you outing yourself as the same how the fuck will you justify that line of thinking you're all millenials and Gen-Zers you grew up with internet what's stopping you from educating yourselves what's your fucking excuse-

it's insulting as fuck, really. even the aryan remarks. do they even know what Aryan is truly about, before hitler and the french tart went ahead and desecrated it?? (and, gosh the aryan terminology also opens up the can of worms that is the caste system of my country and boyyyyy that's a whole another set of problems this bunch of wokesters will never even bother to look into, let alone attempt to understand)

Reeks of performative activism, they think they're championing for the oppressed or some crap while infantilising us in the same breath about how we don't know any better since we like dany and the targs ....what exactly are you lot attempting at you fools? The entire fucking human population can't be categorised into black, brown and white and call it a day. It's so much more complicated, the issues are way too fucking messed up and complex to be boxed into categories. The spectrum between white & black is so bleeding vast and beyond their understanding that wouldn't even fuckin know where to start, let alone draw conclusions and parallels to throw em about. Some rando comes up with bullshit about how Rhaenys being in dany's place wouldve been empowering.....how? how does reading about a half mediterranean greek/moorish spainiard and half elfin white girl being in the place of a character you call a white coded saviour trope woman make your woc self feel better? how's that supposed to work??? Oh and how seeing people like her being enslaved would make the issue of slavery more personal........newsflash hon, Lysenis, the ones who closely resemble Valyrians are right there in the slavers bay, shackled. The whole cursed thing isn't even about the race, the writer himself literally said how it's got to do with the Romans not what the fcking whites attempted at a couple centuries ago. Does he need to write a mfing essay about it?And really, isn't a bit of human empathy more than sufficient to want to abolish something as cruel and inhumane and disgusting as slavery? what the ever loving fuck-

*deep breath*

wow would you look at that length. Hope my answer's adequate nonnie, apologies if this isn't what you'd expected😓

have a lovely day ahead!

[pygmyharmoset]

I could write an entire essay on the factors stacked against brothel madame in this narrative.

People are understandably impacted by the csa and they are well within their rights to be - but it’s always made me deeply uncomfortable that people just automatically label a prostituted woman with essentially zero power a sexual predator- just because she is older.

Is she an adult, while Aemond is a child when they first meet? 100%. Should a child have any sort of sexual contact with an adult? Absolutely not. Was the circumstance in which they first interacted okay? Never

But. She is a brothel prostitute. She herself has been sold or trafficked into the brothel, maybe even when she was younger than Aemond when he met her, probably having to endure sexual abuse herself - just because it’s paid for doesn’t mean she can’t be abused or assaulted or that she actually wants to have sex with strangers.

She is in no position to deny two royal princes. Aegon is as much to blame , if not the main culprit - for Aemond’s abuse. These are dragon riding princes, they can literally torch all of the Street of Silk and Flea Bottom with one breath from their dragon, if they are angered.

In S2e2, Aegon hangs all the ratcatchers, even the innocent ones, because of his hunch. No one could stop him from killing all those innocent people - he’s the king - his word is absolute.

As OP says, how is she supposed to say no to the princes, when Aegon seeks her out and pays for her to lay with his brother?

The power differential would have been very different if she was a noblewoman or a royal and she actually had the power to say no - or to choose to seek Aemond out and groom him/ deflower him.

We see Viserys with Alicent - he cannot have sex with her without marrying her, so he does. But you see his pedo tendencies when he tells her not to tell anyone about their meetings. He then proceeds to maritally rape and impregnate her, a 15 year old child. No one can say no to him because he is the king, despite Alicent herself being noble and the daughter of the Hand.

Even with Daemon, when he takes Rhaenyra to the brothel, he is her older, royal uncle. He’s been grooming her since we first see them together. He leaves her in the brothel, half- naked and flees, but he can say no to her because they are equals in power. She cannot have him punished on a whim, because they belong to the same social class.

As OP says, the small folk have no protection, no standing, no recourse. When even nobles are not protected, what can the small folk do except try their best to survive, in whatever way they can?

In GoT, Joffrey ties up a prostitute and shoots her full of arrows as part of his bed-sport. Sure, he was a psychopath, but who is to say these princes are not?

The woman is doing her job, pleasing her royal patron, and indulging his kinks, with an eye to her own safety. She talks to him like one would talk to an angry beast (or a child throwing a tantrum) except that the beast/child can kill you. She suggests to him that he should remember the smallfolk and that they get hurt - because the royals don’t care.

Rhaenys busted out of the dragon pit, killing god knows how many commoners. Do any of the royals care? No.

Overall, while Aemond definitely was a victim of csa and carries deep trauma for it - the brothel madame, although the tool of his abuse - is powerless herself.

The root of his abuse is a patriarchal, feudal society and system that expects masculinity to mean that little boys have to present as adult men and behave that way too, while little girls are sold off as broodmares - and the peasant class is subject to the whims of the nobles and royals.

Can we please talk about the insanity surrounding the discourse around Aemond and the brothel madame? She is not his abuser. She is a survival sex worker who was absolutely not in any position to deny Aegon when he took Aemond to her establishment for the first time when they were 12 and 15, respectively. This woman is a victim of this society in the way that all women were, except that it’s amplified ten-fold because of her profession and her status as one of the small folk. 

She’s not a predator. She’s not prowling the streets for young virgins to deflower. And it seems like this takes just reeks of ageism in a lot of ways. A member of the royal family, the potential heir, if talk was to be believed, came to her establishment with a purse full of coin. It’s transactional, yes, but are we really going to act like she, or anyone who worked there, really had the option of telling Aegon no? Would it have been less awful if Aemond was essentially forced by a family member to lose his virginity to someone that you personally found more in line with your beauty or age standards? Because that is what is comes down to. Aemond didn't want to fucking be there, Aegon thinks he's getting cool big brother points via psycho-sexual trauma, and whoever ended up in that room would have been a tool in that trauma. Would it be easier to stomach if that woman wasn't clearly older? If you found her more attractive?

And in the scene in s2 e2, it’s not her infantilizing Aemond. This is what he’s paying for! This is what he wants! This is the kink that he’s choosing to play into, and she’s doing her job and securing her safety and leaning into the protection that being a favorite of a royal man offers, however tenuous that may be. How are we supposed to fault her for doing her job? For taking her own safety and standing seriously in the face of royal patrons? We’ve seen time and again in this universe what happens to women who deny those same whims. Do we just expect her to fall on some sort of moral sword that wouldn’t have even existed then?

Like this kink of Aemond’s isn’t for everyone. You don’t have to like it, it doesn’t have to be your thing. And I get the feeling it’s unraveling a lot of head canons that have popped up over the last two years of waiting, which is why people are getting so weird over it. But to just paint this woman attempting to survive with the brush of a sexual predator is really gross. She didn’t seek him out, Aegon brought him to her, and we know from Viserys screaming at Daemon in s1 e4 that this is probably a common practice within that fucky ass family. One of the major points of this story is that the small folk have no protection, no standing, no recourse. How could she have denied them? It’s explicitly stated when Mysaria is talking to Rhaenyra that people like her, like the madame, have absolutely no protections. And that’s not even taking into account the public hanging of the rat catchers. This is what happens when royals and those in power are angry - the small folk are fodder for their power trip. This is what the entire episode was about.

You can have your icks (though I’d encourage you to ask yourself why her age and profession bother you so much), but to say the person that yucks your yum is an abuser and a predator is just way out of pocket in this scenario.