#he clearly favored aenys and neglected maegor

[katrantsasoiaf]

on twitter everyone is losing their mind about the alleged aegon the conqueror prequel and the supposed pitch about aegon being a "drunken lout" or something. but like

even if that was the case, they seemed bothered by the idea of aegon being interesting. like, most of the criticism of a supposed pitch that we have no information about besides one tiny tidbit with zero context. it's merely the idea that aegon i is anything less than "the most disciplined" of the targaryen kings or something. but aegon i is easily the most boring of the aegons in the story because he has no actual personality. i mean this so very genuinely.

aegon ii even with the small amount of characterization that he recieves in fire and blood, at least he had some defining traits and flaws, a character arc, and a downfall. aegon iii as well is a child at the end of fire and blood and got more characterization than the grownass aegon i. aegon iv is a terrible person, but we know so much about him and his actions and his relationships to other characters. aegon v is a main character of the dunk and egg stories.

meanwhile, aegon has no personality.

i saw the description, and being charitable, it could make sense for his character based on his supposed dream in house of the dragon.

mostly because i envision him as prince hal in this pitch. if you don't know, "prince hal" refers to the media critisim of the characterization of young henry v in shakespeare's plays henry iv, in which he is characterized as wayward youth who enjoys the company of petty criminals and wastrels. that is until his ascension in henry v in which he becomes this great warrior king who conquerors the french crown for england during the hundred year war.

basically the plot of netflix's "the king" with timothée chalamet (you know, the movie everyone in this fandom uses to make edits of book!jon snow, and fun fact, dean charles chapman aka tommen and tom glynn-carney aka aegon ii feature in this movie too).

so, i would imagine aegon the conqueror as a youth on dragonstone. his father, aerion, is ruling still and aegon is unmarried. perhaps he is like prince hal, with no real purpose in his life, just living his life up on the island with no responsibilities or burdens.

and then one day, he has his dream. of the white walkers, of the long night, of the prince that was promised. and perhaps it's this horrible dream that causes him to realize that he needs to end his past behavior and begin planning for the future, to prepare for the threat in the north. like how rhaegar found the prophecy and then decided that "it seems i must be a warrior", aegon will decide "it seems i must be a conqueror". and that's when we get him visiting westeros for the first time, ordering the painted table be made, etc.

or perhaps it's because of this dream that for a time he becomes a wastrel. much like his descendant, daeron the drunken who was also burdened with the gift of prophecy, who drank and whored to cope with the trauma of his visions. perhaps, aegon also sought to run from the burden of destiny in wine and ale. until he changed his mind and began his plotting of the conquest. maybe at the behest of his sisters, rhaenys and visenya, to not ignore his dream.

idk, but either of these would have the potential for character development. the idea that his mysterious (aka personality-deprived) characterization in fire and blood was due to a calculated transformation by aegon the conqueror to preserve his own mysticism. that he has not always been this person history views him as, but rather it was someone who he needed to become because he believed that he was required to by destiny.

perhaps i should have prefaced this post with the fact that i hate aegon the conqueror. and a show about the conquest is a terrible idea of a lot of reasons (a blackfyre rebellion show would be much better. honestly who do i have to pay to get a dunk and egg show?)

but this was the weird reason that fans latched onto that derives from the same problem a lot of stans had when hotd came out. which is that most characters in fire and blood are very bare bones, if they have any characterization to begin with. and readers fill in the blanks with their headcanons. but when adapted, the writers had to fill in the gaps themselves, and then fans get made when that doesn't match their headcanons. which to be honest, i do the same.

but until an actual synopsis is dropped, the outrage about aegon the conqueror's character assassination is ridiculous.

you need a character first to assassinate.