#his whole reaction to the alice scene too...

[cronchy-dumbass]

Only two episodes in and I fear I am already insane about the vampire Armand. He's a theatre director. He's fucked his whole company. He was going to threaten Louis but he realised he was hot and decided to invite him to the theatre instead. THEN after dropping "It's alluring, it's practiced. I find myself wondering what is in there" he DID threaten him and proceded to finish it off with "Armand, for you". He is, above all, a lying liar who lies and is actively pushing Louis to be the worst version of himself. I love him.

[ragyragd0ll]

Amon honestly has such a nice colour pallet, especially in his clothes, like the purple and gold is so nice together, really gives a nobel feel, but the red crystals is the cherry on top since they give such good contrast, and just pulls it all together with a somewhat ominous vibe.

And using the gold at the edges of his cloak was a really smart choice on the artists end since it gave better contrast to his robe, and told us something about him, that he saw himself as higher than others.

Plus, the silver really looks nice with the gold, it's hard to mix metals and have it look good, but the artist did it, and it's muah.

And the white and gold at the top of his robe really pulls us to his face, and in his face, phew, where do I begin?

His eyes are literally so gorgeous, like the colouring of them are just... Yes! I just looove brown eyes, and his shine real good! I actually mistook them for yellow at first, but looking closer they are actually cobber, brown, and dark grey.

And his hair? I am in love with it's shading, I love the blue, I love everything about the blue, and it's just soooo nice that the artist used blue for the hair shading, really gave it life.

And his skin? I love the cool red-ish shading it had, it's scrumptious, I could just eat his flesh, in a canabalistic way, yes.

[bizarrelittlemew]

okay. i just watched the movie Snakeskin (2001). i bought a physical dvd in the year of our lord 2024 because Taika has 6.5 minutes of screentime in it. and now i'm sitting here trying to process wtf i just watched asjdhfdjsk so here are the highlights (thank you Meow @blakbonnet for going through this experience with me)

first of all, enjoy these screenshots from the trailer (i'm still not sure if they're mandatory disclaimers?):

...but say yes to snake imagery, because there will be a lot of it

we are definitely in 2001. this is extremely apparent throughout the whole movie. but especially from this girl's hair

Taika's character (Nelson) and his girlfriend (Daisy, pictured above) drive around in a repurposed ice cream truck and sell drugs btw. it's called Mr. Trippy.

main character Alice (Melanie Lynskey) is a huge fan of ✨America✨. her best friend is in love with her but she only wants Bad Boys. also said friend's name is Johnny but it's actually Craig

ALSO Craig-slash-Johnny is played by Dean O'Gorman (Fili)??!?!?!?

their hobby is to drive around picking up hitchhikers but only those who look not boring

enter The American. this guy is the most American you have ever seen. americans wish they could be as American as this guy. no one else has ever Americaned harder.

as you can see, i'm not lying. he even says "howdy ma'am" so we're convinced he is a real American

three skinheads are after The American because he stole their drugs (i think). he also stole drugs from Nelson and Daisy, who now owe money and/or drugs to their boss, who also has beef with The American for reasons i'm still not totally sure of

The American not only steals drugs and money, he also has a real gun(!!!) and fucks pretty much everyone?

"darlin'. u gotta earn the raaaiht. ter wear snakeskins 😎"

oh my god the sunglasses emoji just reminded me of the fucking sunglasses oh no i'm not sure i can do this akjsdhjsk this will make sense later i promise

do not learn gun safety from this movie

at one point, there is a whole lotta sheep. we are, after all, in Aotearoa New Zealand. and ok this had the cutest moment of Taika yelling "SHEEPY" out of a car

there's a scene where uhm. uhhh no not gonna describe this i think but. yeah fair warning this movie has some period-typical homophobia let's just say 💀 this is the live reaction:

MOVING ON

if you enjoy the 2000s aesthetic of "look how edgy we are doing drugs" *colorful-haired people on couches in dark club* *echo-y laugh* *hallucinations* *it's mushrooms look it's mushrooms we're doing psychedelics* then this is the movie for you my friend

oh and Alice also did acid at some point while being very "i've totally done drugs before" about it (((doubt)))

GIRL GET UP FROM THAT DIRTY BATHROOM FLOOR

[New Zealand accent] "wow. six and acid." yes she is living all her american dreams as you can see

by nighttime, all three cars (main characters, mr. trippy, and the nazimobile) and the motorcycle (mr. drug boss) have made it pretty far up the mountain, it seems. cute moment between mr. drug boss and nelson. look how :D he is!

but you know a movie with Taika in it needs to have a father figure talk down to him so he gets very 🥺 right after this

lots of shit goes down (i won't spoil too much if by any chance you still want to watch this) and it turns out that the older skinhead guy is the best actor in the movie??

and NOW things get weird

Craig and The American have so much beef by now that they decide to solve it by russian roulette

Alice's reaction to this is something like "ugh, you guys are crazy, i can't watch this 🙄"

like she just walks away?? GIRL THEY'RE AIMING A REAL GUN AT EACH OTHER

she keeps COMPLETELY UNDERREACTING TO WHAT IS HAPPENING like (spoilers from now on) CRAIG IS SHOT AND KILLED and she doesn't even run over and she doesn't even say anything to The American?? WHO SHOT HIM???? he's just standing there??

and then. AND THEN.

ok this is where i fully lost it for several minutes and missed half the following scene. i was fucking HOWLING like actually crying with laughter, i couldn't see or breathe and my partner got worried ksjdhfdjsk ok so here's what happens

they're in the car. craig is obviously very dead. alice is kinda in denial i guess. The American tells her to shut his eyes and she's like why? BECAUSE HE DEAD GIRL!! but she doesn't, she doesn't shut his eyes, no, this is what she does instead

I COULD BARELY MAKE THIS GIF BECAUSE I KEPT LAUGHING TO THE POINT OF TEARS

NOT THE SUNGLASSES ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. THE UNTAPPED MEME POTENTIAL HERE IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

ANYWAY shortly after this we hear one of the funniest lines in the movie (and it's not even about the shooting and killing of Craig):

"fuck, Seth! this isn't fucking America, you can't just go around shooting everybody!"

oh yeah The American does have a name and it's Seth

i'll just post a few chat screenshots for the next part because i can't really describe it, i promise we're almost at the end

after some incredible visual effects™️, we end with Return of the Sunglasses (and me scaring my cats away because i was sobbing again)

i haven't even really talked about Taika's scenes much (the reason i watched this in the first place) because the ending took me OUT and honestly he is maybe the most normal person in this whole movie. one review (from the trailer) wrote this:

and yeah that may honestly be the best way to describe it. 10/10 movie watching experience, highly recommend. thank you for coming to my snek talk

[fatum679]

I don't know if you've seen the episode finale so I won't get into specifics, but let me just say it literally made me sick. Seriously, even in the worst case scenario I couldn't have imagined something this atrocious. I'm done with this disgusting show.

Oh, and for those people who were screeching for two years that Aemond has been being whitewashed and that he is in fact Clowndal' s favourite character... Well 🤡🤡🤡.

Hello! Thanks for waiting. I really wanted to watch the whole episode.

I can only say one thing, that season 2 of hotd is much worse than season 8 of got. And it became clear to me that season 1 is not so bad, because Miguel Sapochnik was there.

I will not say that I will stop watching this show, because I want to know how this circus will end. But I will not wait for season 3 as much as I waited for the second. Also, I no longer have the desire to root for TG, from now on I am only pro Aemond & pro Daeron team.

I still like Helaena and i am pro Helaena, but after the scene where she talks to Daemon, I'm incredibly disappointed. Who thought of this shitty scene? Helaena actually wants the man who killed her son to team up with Rhaenyra and kill her family, her little brothers and in the end, Jaehaera to be pushed out the window. It's such a cringe because it doesn't fit with Helaena's character for her to help Daemon.

Now I ask questions: "What kind of mother and sister is she after this?" I also got the impression that Aemond is really the ONLY one who wants to TAKE REVENGE ON DAEMON FOR THE DEATH OF JAHAERYS "We will lay waste to Daemon and his army. Let our enemy see that we will answer outage with outrage". I understand that Helaena does not want to go to war, but after the scene with Daemon, it looks like she does not want to help Aemon kill Daemon specifically and help in the war against TB, not because she does not support violence at all. I'm so confused. Many people think that Helaena was controlled by Bran or Brynden… But the scene itself looks like she knew what was happening. I hope it was just a trance and she wasn't in control, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've already analyzed the Aemond and Helaena scenes and I don't want to repeat myself. I don't support how Aemond hurt Helaena by grabbing her hand. But I still continue to support Aemond because he is the only one who fights for his family (not for Aegon) until his death. There is a war going on now and either they win or they all die, even Jaehaera. So all of Aemond's reactions are connected to the fear that his family will die. In another scene, Aemond regrets and cries, he doesn't want Helaena to be captured, he asks her for help, he thought that Helaena would want to take revenge on Daemon for Jaehaerys' death.

Aemond hasn't left for Harrenhal yet, he's leaving in 3 days, and I hope we get some scenes of Aemond & Daeron & Helaena in Season 3. And I'd like Helaena to leave for Harrenhal too.

After episode 8 I hate Alicent completely and irrevocably. I don't even hate TB as much as I do her.

Alicent raised all her children to follow the path of DUTY AND SACRIFICE. Most of all, this idea was instilled in Aemond and I'm sure Daeron. Aemond made his sacrifice - losing an eye and his duty - protecting his family with his life. Now Aemond demands this from everyone else because HE WAS RAISED THIS WAY BY HIS MOTHER and his brain was PROGRAMMED THIS WAY. This is all Alicent's propaganda. His words are literally Alicent's words! And now she hates him. You damn b*tch, you made him like this.

«The crown has need of your service». «Our wishes must take second place now to what is necessary to preserve the throne».

«What have I done but what was expected of me! Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law…Where is duty? Where is sacrifice?»

«They have defiled our birthright, made commoners into dragonlords! It is a sin and must be punished!»

«To have three is an insult, to the throne, to you, to House Velaryon and the match you battled so hard to make for her. No to mention decency itself»

«As you were once! And you see now what the consequence of your weakness!»

«I have to believe, that in the end, honor and decency will prevail»

«We are in peril today more than yesterday!»

«If Rhaenyra comes into power your very life could be forfeit. Aemond’s as well»

«’Tis no longer our rule that is threatened, our very lives»

«And now you take my sons' eye, and even that you feel entitled?»

Alicent is a traitor, she ruined her children's lives! She sold Aemond and Daeron and even her beloved child Aegon, he continued to do terrible things and she is always forgave him. Note that once Aemond fired Alicent for her incompetence, she began to pay attention to Helaena. We remember that Helaena previously shunned Alicent's touch. I'm glad Daeron stopped writing letters to Alicent.

As for the other characters and scenes.

I don't feel sorry for Aegon at all, the man did terrible things in his life, his actions led him to what happened to him. He bullied his brother all his life and was not going to stop, did not respect him and treated him as his own weapon, not as a younger brother.

"He's a twat." "My brother, at least, knows his plase. He's as loyal as a hound. I can set him ans his dragon on my foes at will" "What a fine, sweet thing, did you fuck her like a hound?"

Aegon took the 13-year-old child to a brothel, where Aemond was r***d by a woman 30 years his senior. Aegon was having fun watching kids kill each other in the fighting pit, he didn't care that his son was there. Aegon r***d Dyana and others. So I don't care about him and his suffering.

Sunfyre is useless against adult dragons, and Aegon is an idiot and attacked Meleys, which resulted in Sunfyre's wing bones being crushed and his belly being ripped open. The show says he died, but I don't believe it.

Almost all Targaryens are criminals, like Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters, but most Targaryens did bad things during the war. Aemond and Daeron did not commit crimes before the war, but Aegon and Daemon committed crimes during peacetime. It's not a big difference, but still. Rhaenyra committed crimes in peacetime, but in the series all her actions were cut out and it is terrible propaganda.

Larys continues to manipulate Aegon as if we don't know he's going to poison him and as if we don't know what Larys is asking for in exchange for his information (...foots...)

I don't understand why helaegon are happy that Aemond grabbed Helaena's arm roughly. They also wanted Aemond to push her off the balcony. They are clearly mentally ill and they clearly hate Helaegon. Either way, helaegon stans will have to cry. Helaegon didn't even warn Aegony and let him be burned, she didn't even come to him.

I don't understand why helaegon stans are happy that Aemond grabbed Helaena's arm roughly. They also wanted Aemond to push her off the balcony. They are clearly mentally ill and they clearly hate Helaena. Either way, helaegon stans will have to cry. Helaena didn't even warn Aegon and let him be burned. she didn't even come to him.

Aegon can no longer have children. Helaena is not pregnant, a lot of time has passed since episode 1-8, Aegon's burns have healed and his bones have fused, but Helaena still has no belly. Helaena is not pregnant, if Maelor is born, then his father will not be Aegon. Or Maelor will not be at all, although we were previously confirmed that he will be born.

Rhaenyra's plot is boring as always, I'm waiting for her to start being betrayed by bastards.

Aemond's toast to bastards > Rhaenyra's toast to bastards.

Rhaenyra still wants a son for a son after Jaehaerys' death. She is Maegor. Rhaenyra, what about an eye for an eye? Maybe you should have given Aemond an eye 6 years ago. Why are you demanding a son for a son now? Then let's a grandson for a grandson. What about Laenor?

Daemon's visions are such cringe. Are we watching a Mary Sue story about Rhaenyr's chosen one? This is so boring. Damn it, this isn't Harry Potter, it's Fire and Blood. We know that Arya killed the Night King, and because of Jon Snow and Daenerys, the Night King got a dragon, if he hadn't gotten a dragon, he wouldn't have been able to get through the wall.

The constant humiliation of Alicent's children because they have Hightower blood is so funny because Rhaenyrs has Arryn blood. They are still the LEGITIMATE CHILDREN OF VISERYS.

Brynden Riverst, I love you, but why do you have two eyes? What the hell?

Alys Rivers supports Rhaenyra and Daemon, she supports TB. Alys will not support Aemond, who will kill all the Strongs. alysmond - will not happen, because it is complete shit. Also, the writers will not degrade a female character so much that she loves and has a child in such a relationship. Aemond despises Strongs and batards and I doubt he will love her. But Aemond haters can shut up, because Aemond will not make her his war trophy, he is not Aegon and has not r***d anyone. Alys will most likely run to Daemon.

The bottom line for the entire 2nd season is that it is a complete disappointment, I do not advise anyone to waste their time and wait for season 3, look for leaks. You can watch season 3 when it comes out, but do not waste your life and do not put high hopes on season 3. I will also try to follow this advice.

[sophsicle]

ASKSLSJJDKAJ the ohb chapter was insaneeeeee the way the whole thing was shaped was beautifulllll

ALICE IS AFTER NARCISSA does anyone actually know that she is just riding off to Crouch???? Has she told anyone or is it just that she’s searching???

The idea of frank as chancellor actually fits so well I’d be so hyped for itttt

WALBURGA IS GONEEEE (or actually in the dungeons which has so much potential for angsty prison visits from reg which mirror the start of the story) AND REG IS MORE OF A LEADER

THAT FINAL SCENE WAS ACC SHAPED SO WELLLL like I don’t know properly how to describe it but I didn’t even consider that it could be the pirates and then James was simping for reg and didn’t even look and they were entering the room and it was all building up and thEN ITS REMUS QND HE SEES JAMES AND JAMES ISNT IMPRISONED OR ANYTHING HES JUST SIMPINGGG AND IS LILY THERE???! AND ALSO REMUS HAS SOLD HIS SOUL BASICALLY HAS BEEN TRAPPED WITH RIDDLE TO GET JAMES BACK BUT HES LIVING HIS BEST LIFE is James even willing at this point to go back with remus? I don’t think he could leave reg at this point but I also don’t see remus understanding his need to stay!!!! Also if Remus has to spend ages trying to convince James to leave (he may even help with battle planning etc) he’ll be staying at the castle and may A) try to bring Cyrus up with him except Sirius can’t come without revealing his secret and also seeing reg again and/or B) have Riddle decide that he needs to oversee him better and come stay in the castle, or assume that the negotiating is too slow (Remus maybe couldn’t tell him that James had been fine) and decide that he will bring Cyrus up to the castle himself to bargain, leading to all of them in the castle in a massively entertaining unholy scrumple

But yeah basically that end bit was both the perfect build up to a cliffhanger, and the best, most question/thought provoking cliffhanger I can think of

THANK YOU FOR THE CHAPTER IT WAS AWESOME

it brings me so much joy to hear you say that about the last scene because i tried very hard to achieve that exact reaction, like i wanted to find some way to get them into the palace but still have it be a shock to James when he comes face to face with them

truthfully Pirate james Potter is not a planner (tbf most James Potters are not planners) so he hasn't thought about any of this at ALL. like he never considers not going back to the ship, obviously he will go back that is his family, that is his crew, Remus is his literal soul, but i also don't think he ever considers leaving Regulus, like he's obsessed, wants to be around him all the time, wants to take care of him, SO having to work that out is going to be a time

and yeah sirius is in a crazy position at the moment, and he is also insanely torn between wanting to see his brother and not wanting to be "Sirius Black" if that makes sense? but of course, Reg and James are both well aware that SIrius is on that ship so he can't really hide for much longer

IT"S GONNA BE CRAZY

[nashiriel]

could we get the scene of the immediate aftermath of the whole cannibal x bb!luke bonding? like luke’s family’s realizations and immediate reactions?

Hi anon! Sorry it took me a while to get to this interesting ask!

TBH, thinking it through, a lot of the reactions would probably mirror the aftermath in the main fic. Though perhaps considerably heavier on the WTF aspect , for obvious reasons!

But below are a couple of rough snapshots of some different perspectives on the matter...

She had carried fear with her from the moment they first laid Jace, pink and squalling, in her arms. Does not a mother always? That which came with his first fever, his first tumble from Vermax’s saddle, the first day he went proudly to the training yard. Other nightmares too, those her maidenhood’s mind would never have conjured; Alicent’s seething triumph at each dark-haired babe presented to her, the whispers crawling through court when Luke’s egg stayed cold and inert in his cradle. And then, to find her family besieged in the Velaryons’ own halls, the flash of Alicent’s dagger raised towards her child, the sting of its bite barely felt amidst the bitter satisfaction of finally having that pious poison loosed before all.

But none of these compare to the moment the messenger staggers gasping into her solar. Rhaenyra hears children, beach, hears the Cannibal, and then all that comes between then and the moment she dives from the sky upon Syrax, is lost to a cold roar of panic.

She had known the Stranger’s face long before her own children’s. She knows what to expect as the beach opens up before Syrax’s wings, wet sands and sweeping ink, even as every scrap of her screams against it-

The bodies of her men still lie smouldering. A dragon, white and slender as mist, crouches atop the rocks, pockmarks of dark sand bubbling to glass where blood drips from his scored hide. Laena’s girl kneels by the pale splay of his wing, cradling an arm blistered raw to the elbow as she stares with eyes scored empty with pain and wonder. 

The Cannibal, looming amidst it all. Black and vast and terrible, and the entirety of him tethered to complete stillness under the outstretched palm of her son. 

“Mother,” Lucerys breathes when he sees her, and she watches the dragon’s eyes sharpen back into sudden fury, sensing her presence only now as her son breaks his gaze. 

“Mother, look! I found a dragon-”

The Cannibal’s hiss, a gust of wind lashing through the caverns of the Dragonmont, splits the air as Rhaenyra hurls herself forward to seize Luke in her arms. His startled yelp is lost amidst the unfurled shadow of Syrax’s wings, and with a surge of triumph, Rhaenyra glimpses Caraxes rippling scarlet against the sky. 

Luke clings to her and the Cannibal’s rage fizzles back into stillness. She presses Luke close to her heart as she stares up at its eyes, knowing that her flesh alone cannot shield him from its flames but willing without hesitation to protect him with it until the last. 

Amidst black scales, eyes gleam back at her, slit green and murderous, before the Cannibal stretches its neck and snatches up the corpse of one of Luke’s guards. Too late, Rhaenyra tries to press Luke’s face to her neck to spare him the sight as the dragon’s jaws languidly cleave the body in two, the ridge white of the spine trailing tattered peach flesh as the lower half lands with a wet thump before Luke’s shocked eyes. 

Those teeth jut taller than Luke himself. Rhaenyra will not think of how the Cannibal could have simply swallowed the corpse - his fellows too - in one efficient bite, if that had been the sole purpose of that display. 

It takes the combined might of Syrax and Caraxes to ward the dragon back from following Luke and Rhaena back to the castle. She is not fool enough to think it gone completely; as dogs bay when a wolf ventures close to the homestead, so Syrax’s fury snarls through the night when she senses it prowling the clouds above. With a cold loathing, she knows Luke must be brought out again come the daylight, for his word alone would send it back to its cavern of corpses. 

And still her sweet boy frets as she tucks him into bed that night, a task she refused his maids despite how her hands still shake. 

“Won’t he be lonely, all by himself in his cave, Mother, if there are no other dragons in his nest? Can’t I see him? Tyraxes still sleeps with the baby.”

The notion of the Cannibal curled in sleep with his belly puffed in the air like Joffrey’s drowsing hatchling is almost enough to bring a laugh to Rhaeynyra’s lips before she recollects herself, smoothing down Luke’s hair with wearied affection.

“He’s far too large to sleep with, sweetling. And he cannot be here, around so many dragons. Do you truly think he would want them disturbing his rest?”

She still remembers finding that nest as a young girl, exploring some dank cave close to the lowest reaches of the Dragonmont. She and Laena had been rushed back to the castle by their guards where Alicent anxiously waited with the rest of her ladies, but they had seen enough already. Even Laena whispered of her shock afterwards. The few eggs not crushed to fine powder lay cracked open, the contents picked clean, each and every hatchling in the entire nest gone with only a single severed tail to betray them.

“I’d like to try the Cannibal against Vhagar,” Laena had vowed to them all that night, dashing and dauntless as any knight in her fine silks and well enthused by the prospect of her challenge. “See if he finds so easy a meal in her.”

Luke frowns then, nestling down amongst his pillows like some fluffed-up sparrow. 

“I don’t think so,” he says eventually, blinking up at her with those large, liquid brown eyes. “I don’t think he does like people very much. Or dragons. Only me.”

The Cannibal had looked into those eyes too. The dragon had been close enough to see its own reflection, wildfire overlain over the dark as a broken spear fell from her child’s soft hand. 

Rhaenyra thinks of another weapon then, Luke’s piping shout - “he was going to kill Jace-”

She thinks of Alicent’s son, his face carved open, and the hunger burning hot in the Cannibal’s eyes, and she wonders.

But most of all, she thinks of her fears for all of them - her boys, dark-haired and perfect the moment they were laid at her breast, the girls who are Laena’s own legacy, all the sons and daughters still to follow now that Daemon has cleaved himself to her entire. The world she was given glimpse of as she tore helplessly towards the beach, as Alicent’s blade sought her son, one unforgiving and hideous in its possibilities. 

The Cannibal can only ever be as nothing, compared to that. 

. . .

The windows in the chamber she has been given on Dragonstone are large and airy, their sill framed by two sphinxes raking each other’s tails. They do not face in the direction of the beach, but that doesn’t matter. Grey Ghost’s presence whispers through her blood like the soft sigh of the tides. She would know him anywhere.

He’ll know her too, she thinks, in the sharper moments between the watered tinctures of milk of the poppy the maester brings her to soothe the throb of her hands. He must be young, barely larger than Vermax, and he has never had a rider. There is no one for Rhaena to measure up to his eyes, no comparison between Baela’s bravery or Mother’s fire. What lies before them now is bright and unmarked as fresh snow. 

Or it will be, when they let her fly. 

“You may ride when your burns heal, and no sooner,” Aunt Rhaenyra tells her archly, dabbing ointment on Rhaena’s burns with her own soft hands. “There has been quite enough foolhardy behaviour of late.”

Rhaena flushes, unused to being scolded as a troublemaker, but Rhaenyra’s smile softens the sting. 

“Laena would laugh herself hoarse at your father and I both, for being so surprised. Your grandmother had forbidden her to try Vhagar, so she slipped away when we were supposed to be at prayer. The dragonkeepers had not fitted Vhagar’s saddle for years, so she climbed her tail and flew to greet Syrax and I barebacked. Wilful girl! It felt like half the city streamed into the streets to watch her in the air. I had never known her to be more joyful…until she wrote to me of her daughters.”

To Rhaena’s astonishment, there is a quavering note to her voice, one that sounds awfully like Rhaena’s when she is trying hard not to cry.

“She was so proud of you,” her aunt whispers. “How could she not be, like as the two of you were? Your father too. Do not think you ever needed a dragon, to make them know it.”

A knot eases in Rhaena’s chest as Aunt Rhaenyra hugs her then. She is not Mother, will never be Mother…but Rhaena finds it harder to be angry for that now, towards a woman who speaks of Laena Velaryon with such love in her eyes.

“You may go to see Grey Ghost later, if Maester Geradys permits it,” Rhaenyra says after pulling away, voice a little gruffer now. “The dragonkeepers say that his neck is healing well. He will fly…and so will you, when you’re ready. They have already taken his measurements for the saddle, though I fear we will needs must order a new one within the year. You both still have much growing to do.”

“What about Luke?” Rhaena asks, eagerly. “Will he have a new saddle too? We can fly together now!”

It will have to be a big saddle, closer to Mother’s than Baela’s, to fit Luke’s new dragon. 

Rhaenyra’s smile looks tighter than before, but she is still gentle as she touches Rhaena’s shoulder, careful not to jostle her bandages.

“One day, mayhaps. Things are…more difficult with his dragon.”

“Oh,” Rhaena says, disappointed. Though she has to admit, she…she isn’t quite sure of Luke’s dragon. She still feels a little queasy when she remembers how the air itself had seemed to erupt into shadow and flame, the disbelieving pain as her outflung hands bubbled up in white blisters in that searing heat…and how none of it had been as awful as hearing those men, hearing Grey Ghost, scream in those jaws. 

She’s glad Luke got a dragon. She knows what it’s like, to watch the skies jealously, alone but for the sting of being left behind. All their whispered plans of what Rhaena could do if their plan worked, the future she hadn’t fully dared to let herself dream of…Luke will fly with her for all of them now, and the thought sends excitement thrumming through her.

She just wishes the gods could have given him a nicer dragon. One as nice as Luke himself. 

Rhaena’s not rude enough to say that though, when Luke shyly puts his head around her door the next day. He smells of ash still, though his skin glows pink from the scrub of a fresh bath, and his lip trembles when he sees the bandages swaddling her hands.

“Do they hurt a lot?”

“A little,” Rhaena admits. “But,” and here her voice almost comes out in a squeal, so happy that she can barely contain it, “we did it! Both of us! It worked, Luke!”

“I never meant for you to get hurt though, Rhaena,” Luke insists, padding over to her bedside with uncertain eyes. “Or Grey Ghost. I’m sorry. I didn’t know the Cannibal would come.”

“You stopped him though,” Rhaena says firmly, and if it wasn’t by the spearhead he’d snatched up from - from - from that black shape crackling on the ground, well, that doesn’t matter. 

Luke had stopped it, had saved she and Grey Ghost both. Just as he had come running with Jace to help her and Baela without question, that night Vhagar was stolen. Just as he had used the knife to protect them all.

“And at least you won’t have to help me carry fish to the beach any more.”

“I didn’t mind it,” Luke says, which is a lie, because Rhaena saw how his face screwed up each time Cook dropped the bucket down in front of them, and she has to duck her head under her hair to hide her giggle. Through the fall of her braids, she sees Luke pad over to her bedside; he’s clutching a curved seashell, which he places carefully in her lap. 

“There’s no crab in it, this time. I checked.”

Rhaena blinks, puzzled, and he shuffles his feet.

“Jace told me that you should always bring a lady flowers to help her feel better,” he explains anxiously. “But I couldn’t find any in the garden like the ones you used to write about from Pentos.”

She thinks of them even as he speaks, the petals curling over in whorls of pink and white like splashes of Myrish lace in Mother’s walled garden. Mother had liked to read her letters among their perfume; Rhaena still remembers curling up next to her, fingers carding through her hair as Mother read out the funnier stories tucked in Uncle Laenor or Aunt Rhaenyra’s writing. 

“But I thought this looked more like them than the roses in the garden. It’s curly too, see? And it’s pink inside-“

He falters, staring between her and the shell. “Do you like it?”

“I do,” Rhaena manages, and she does, though her eyes swim with tears. 

“I just…I w-want-

Mother, Pentos sunlight gilding her smile, the promise of home-

“I want the flowers in our garden,” she finishes, and is immediately ashamed of herself.

Luke’s face firms in sudden resolve. 

“We can fly there then,” he declares. “Now that we have dragons. You, me, Grey Ghost, and the Cannibal. We’ll find your garden, and we’ll bring a flower home for you to plant, so they can grow here too.”

He pauses, face suddenly uncertain. “...If you don’t mind waiting until Mother lets me fly the Cannibal.”

“I won’t,” Rhaena assures him, feeling, in an odd kind of way, as light as the shell as she looks into his face. It has warmed in her hand, and she notices there’s a hole in the outer lip, where the pink fades into coils of white. She will thread her silver chain through it, and wear it close to her skin.

Anyone else, she might not believe they meant it when they made her a promise like that. But Luke had believed in her from the first. Luke had helped her win a dragon. Luke had stopped the Cannibal. 

She’ll trust him until the day she dies. 

“Where is the Cannibal now?”

“In his cave,” Luke says, sitting cross-legged as he looks up at her. “He wants me to come to him, but Mother hasn’t let me today. I’ll have to go to him soon, or he’ll try to crawl through the gates again. Syrax hates that. He hasn’t gone to the beach though, I promise. I don’t think Grey Ghost likes him.” 

“They will be best of friends one day,” Rhaena vows, and her heart soars when Luke beams at her. 

“Just like us.”

Rhaena has a dragon. Father is proud of her. She will see Mother’s garden again with her own eyes. 

In this moment, all things are possible. 

. . .

Viserys expects many things when the letter is laid in front of him, the wax embossed with the ancient seal of the princes of Dragonstone. His heart swells with hopes as he unfolds it, so many in number that almost all anger is forgotten in their midst.

Rhaenyra surely writes an apology. A recognition of the customs and decency she had flouted, the disrespect in her forgetting dear Ser Laenor so quickly; in wedding without the leave of her king, her father. She will offer contrition for all that Alicent has deplored, even though both must recognise such folly cannot be undone as his queen pleads; she will beg her forgiveness as her mother, so that they might meet once as friends. 

She will even - ah, but here is the sorrow of a brother, even more so than the love of a father, stirring him - write of a new chapter, unmarred by the unhappy beginnings that preceded it. A new babe to fill her arms, a son to finally allay all that Daemon has lost.

But Rhaenyra writes of none of these things. Instead, he finds himself reading of her Lucerys, and a shadow that he has never laid eyes upon, but remembers of Dragonstone all too well.

The Cannibal.

He sinks back further into his chair, biting back an ill-natured curse as the movement sends pain throbbing from beneath his linen bandages. All his years weigh upon him then, cold and heavy as the crown upon his brow. 

Rhaenys is with Lucerys already, Rhaenyra written. His relief at his cousin’s presence in this matter, steadfast and sensible to the last, overrides the twinge of irritated hurt that Driftmark should be informed of this before word was first sent to King’s Landing.

Corlys loves Lucerys well, as is only natural, the most precious keepsake left by poor Laenor as he is. But he should not forget himself in this. They may carry the Velaryon name, but Rhaenyra’s sons are of the king’s blood. A dragon’s claiming shall always be the concern of the Iron Throne.

And  a dragon such as this…

Part of Viserys feels the surgery of pride that Rhaenyra must know, his mouth lifting in a smile as he envisions the awe and delight his own council will offer when he tells them such glad tidings. Ah, but Lucerys had proved his blood in truth, to follow his mother and take a dragon at such an age! House Velaryon can stand proud in their heir, for those foul rumours will finally be laid to rest with this. And to think of Aemond, and Daemon’s own Rhaena too! Surely his House’s future has never looked brighter, when all of the king’s blood now lay claim to a dragon’s glory. 

So how then can it be, that there is winter’s chill in Alicent’s eyes still when he call her to him at night? That his daughter soothes her grief with his brother upon Dragonstone, that Daemon should dare overreach himself as Otto has so faithfully warned and claim her hand in scorn of his king’s express command?

And why, as such churlish discord plagues his house, the Cannibal should take his first rider?

A dragon that has ever been a bane rather than blessing to their blood. A dragon that devours its own as the king’s flesh devours him, now coiling around his blood’s heart as their divide cleaves his heart as never before. 

Perhaps he is a fool, flinching from the mummer’s shadow as it plays upon his walls. But is it greater folly, to close his eyes to such portents as the gods lay them so clear before him? 

One day, such will be Rhaenyra’s burdens to carry. But for now, it is he who sits the throne, and he must bear it for her, for them all.

And so it is the king’s hand, rather than a father’s, that dips his nib into ink and laboriously brings the process of instructing Princess Rhaenyra to bring her son to King’s Landing, that his grandsire may look upon his new dragon. 

. . .

The training blade in his hand is wooden, the tool of a child, and that is only the first humiliation to be endured as he circles his target. The bristling head of the strawman seems to spread wide in mockery; Aemond’s blows fall wide of the painted circle on its chest again and again, his head split by a nauseating pain as the leather grip becomes increasingly slippery with sweat. Soon his remaining sight is wavering no matter how he tries to focus it, his breathing laboured as if he treks a mountain rather than performing a drill so basic the youngest, lowest-born page in the Keep could manage it. 

At least his brother’s reluctance to bestir from the beds of his whores has finally overcome his amusement at observing this. The squires in the yard don’t dare turn their heads to watch after Ser Criston’s sharp warnings, let alone laugh, but Aegon had had no such constraints at Aemond’s first attempts, when even attempting to swing left him reeling about like a drunkard. He cannot say he misses him, no matter how Ser Criston sighs as he reports another absence to their mother. 

Yet sometimes, when he staggers back amidst Ser Criston’s earnest encouragement, unsteady on his feet as a tottering infant - and that is what he is reduced to now, all that he has earned on the training ground wiped away by the same stroke that plunged half his world into agonising dark - he can’t help but notice the lack of another.

A voice soft-pitched with admiration and excitement, a small hand hot in his, dark eyes wide with awe as he watches Aemond move fluidly through drills his nephews hadn’t even yet been permitted to attempt. It had been an irritation at times, to have Luke trailing him about the Keep, not least the mirth it gave Aegon to foist their nephew on him as he took Jace off to the Dragonpit. Yet still there comes moments of disorientation, like the itching pull of skin when he tries to blink with both eyes, where he looks about, expecting an admiring shout or plead for instruction-

Then Aemond remembers once again, and rage grinds against the bones of his chest. 

The blade has shattered to splinters by the time the messenger arrives, telling Ser Criston that the queen has need of them both immediately. 

Normally, Mother can scarcely hide her worry at the sight of him returning from his drills; she praises his diligence and bravery, whilst a candle burns at the Warrior’s shrine each morn, Mother’s hands clasped in prayer that the gods give strength to his arm and shield him from any further wound. Today, though her face is tense with concern of an entirely different sort, all her polished composure doing little to mask her fury. 

“A letter arrived from Princess Rhaenyra this morning. Concerning that boy.”

Aemond absorbs the news she relays in silence. Lucerys has a dragon now, one large and fearsome. Lucerys has Father singing his praises in the council chamber, telling all of the wonder he has accomplished. 

Lucerys is leaving his nest on Dragonstone, finally flying back in reach after all these moons.

“They say his dragon is called the Cannibal,” Mother says, and she gives a shudder that may be unease or simply delicate disdain. “And apparently it is as savage and wild as those boys themselves. I begged your father to reconsider this foolishness, but he says he would see it with his own eyes. As if this whole affair is not Rhaenyra contriving to win his favour again-”

“She knows half the realm spits on her new marriage,” Ser Criston agrees, his hands folding neatly before him into fists. “The king’s love may blind him, but too many see her for what she is now, and her bastards too. She is desperate. Do not forget, she knows now she has your son to fear.”

Mother’s lips tighten; she is still fearful, after the last embers of her faith in her husband’s protection were quenched in Driftmark, to hear the truth spoken aloud.  

None will dare force her to parrot Rhaenyra’s lies when Aemond rules the skies upon Vhagar. 

It had been one of the few comforts Aemond could hold into as he lay recovering in his sickbed, the knowledge of that incredible strength and power of Vhagar in flight. The knowledge that the oldest dragon in the world had looked upon him, and seen worth, even when no one else had.

And sweeter still, to know that it was one thing the bastard could not take from him, that little Luke had probably spent every night since pissing himself in fear on Dragonstone, knowing that he remained tethered and helpless on the ground. 

Now Luke has a dragon. And Father expects all to marvel at his glory.

Aemond had longed for a reunion once all the thankless promise of the training yard finally bore fruit. Had pictured it a thousand times over, fantasy mingling with memory of that night. Luke’s choked gasp as Aemond’s palm slides against his soft throat, those dark eyes drawn black with fear as Jace writhes in the dust beneath Aemond’s heel.

To think, though, of the bastard seeing him as he is now, near a cripple with command lost of his blade, even his own balance, and rage churns afresh with his shame.

But still. Luke, finally come forth from the safety of his mother’s skirts. There will be opportunity here, if Aemond has only the wit to seize it, no matter how carefully Rhaenyra watches her precious son. 

“It is monstrous, that they dare show their faces. But you will not be made to endure this for long,” Mother vows, reaching out to stroke his hair. Her touch is featherlight, belying the iron resolve of her words. 

“My darling, I promise you this. That animal will not be allowed to harm you again. Perhaps this will at least give your father cause to remember what he took from you, what they would take from us all if left unchecked. His crimes against you will be answered one day, by men or gods.”

But it was not the gods, the same gods who see fit to bless Luke with yet another gift the bastard does not deserve, who had the will to seek Vhagar at her rest. Who grimly rises, day by day, to claw back mastery of his own body. No gifts are ever thrown into Aemond’s lap as a favoured son; what he wants, he can only take.   

What vengeance he is owed from Luke Strong, he will seize with his own two hands. 

[danjaley]

Alternative Ending to 1793

(Lots of alternative plotlines in this year!)

So the gist of the plotline always was that Matt and Jon return, on the whole successful, but nothing really is as it was before. Jon is heartbroken about Nicolas and went to exile in Cornwall to avoid him. Matt learns about his children's illnesses and Alasdair's plans to visit his mother. Originally there was to be a complete hysteric letter from herself, but it never progressed past those two sentences. I still think Ysobel's reaction is very much in character, but when I wrote this, I thought it was the first letter the Duchess sent in those nine years.

The Duchess’s letter: Do not deny me the comfort to see my son once more! It is the most cruel thing a mother can suffer to be separated from her child! Ysobel: I don’t want to argue to the contrary, but she doesn’t seem to have felt the cruelty very keenly these past nine years.

Then, Jon fell ill in Cornwall and had to be rescued by Matt. In this version it's much more apparent why Matt feels he needs to rush to his aid, and also it's not Christmas yet. Emotionally, I rather liked this version. But what I finally went with brought out better that Matt just can't get down from his stress-level and sense of responsibility. Although he is overreacting in assuming Jon was dying.

Matthew: Shon hashn’’ shen’ a le’’er thish ‘eek. Ah’m shailing ‘o Cor’’all. Alice: Are you sure it’s not just the post being delayed? Matthew: Ah shaid Ah’d come if he shtopped wri’ing. Sho Ah’ll go. Ah can’’ jusht leave Shon ‘o die! No’ af’er Ah kille’ a ma’ for him. Alice: Nobody said he was dying! Wait, you did what!? […]

(Jonathan Brodie to Matthew McCarric, letter delayed in the post) I have a bad cold. Only writing to prevent you from rushing to Cornwall.

Jonathan: Matt! What are you doing here? I wrote to you! Matthew: Musht ha’e mished me. Are y’ ill? Why ish it sho col’ here? Jonathan: To fetch more wood I’d have to get out of bed. And the landlady’s servants are busy elsewhere. Matthew (shouting down staircase): Ah wan’ ‘o shee a fire in the Shottish Shentleman’sh room thish inshtan’! An’ bring shome hot shoup! * * * Matthew: Are y’ be’’er? Jonathan: Yes. Thank you. I’m glad you’re here.

Another reason I changed plans was that I felt a professional failure would be a bit too much misfortune for poor Jon. Actually, the next scene in which we'll see him at work in 1794 makes much more sense if he was successful in Cornwall.

Matthew: Wha’ are we goin’ ‘o do wi’ you? Jonathan: I don’t know any more. I’d really like to go home. Then I could at least read my books and have Sarah look after me. But my apartment is only a few streets away from my parents’ house. Mother would want me to visit. It would only be painful. And dangerous. Matthew: Have you finishe’ your work for ‘he Cornish Shentleman? Jonathan: No. I fell ill. He chose another architect’s plans.

And then there was all this fuss getting him back to Edinburgh where we need him. That's why I finally decided to cut it short, let him return straight away, and jump to the Christmas scenes.

Jonathan: The only idea I had at all was to sell my apartment and buy another somewhere else. Glasgow might work. It’s not too far away and closer to you. I’m certainly cured of the English south. But then – as someone who knows a thing or two about real estate – it would be such a bad deal to trade in Edinburgh for Glasgow just because of a broken heart. Matthew: Jusht co’e home wi’ me. You ca’ shtay i’ the guesht room you deshigned yourshelf. Jonathan: Thank you. But I can’t intrude upon you and Alice when your baby is so ill. But we can travel together and I take a room in Glasgow. At least until Christmas. Mother will invite everyone then and I can’t stay away without giving very good reasons. Matt – you’ll come to all the Christmas gatherings too, won’t you? Then I could at least talk to you the entire time. Matthew: Ah can’’ shtay away fro’ ‘hem either.

Regrettably though, this eliminated the concluding gag for Captain Burton's storyline:

Captain Burton: Good morning! Is Mr McCarric in? Eliza: I’m afraid not. He’s down South to help a relative in need. Captain Burton: Are you kidding me!?

Secret fun fact: I'm really glad it's 1794 now! I'm still not sure if it's a very elaborate joke between us or if we're actually going to do this. But my sister and I started researching for a historical novel to write together, which would be set in 1794 (got to do with the French Revolution, but not with Scotland). I've been confusing the two years all this summer!

[hotd-brainrot]

I think I figured out what personally bothered me sm in this season of HOTD. And it wasn't (only) the fact that it didn't align with F&B.

I feel like the writers forgot, if not completely disregarded almost everything they established in the second part of seasons 1?

I expected Aemond's entire arc of becoming a villian, but not against his own faction? And the thing is, if they truly wanted to go for it, it was doable, but they went way too fast with it and in ways that made no sense? In season 1, yes, we see Aegon bullying Aemond when they were kids, but then during the dinner scene we clearly see they bonded since then and have each others' back. If anyone from the green kids is isolated in that scene, it's Helaena.

In the beginning of s2, they seem to go along with that, have Aegon implicitly trust Aemond, inviting him to his council, not believe Larys when he says it's Aemond plotting with Alicent to rule in his stead. Then there is a brothel scene which is on all accounts awful, but fine. Let's say for a moment Aegon is grieveing and reverts back to his old habits of humiliating Aemond as a way to cope.

Why don't we see more of Aemond's reaction when he is alone? He humiliates him at the council, which makes sense to make them even. Shows he is more in control.

But trying to kill him? And doing so in a way that's clearly pre-planned since he tells Vhagar to wait? It feels like such a jump with no build-up, especially since we have his express regret over killing Lucerys! He shows, Lucerys, who cut out his eye more grace then he does his own brother who we see him support on multiple occasions? What?

And again! If they really wanted to go with this route, why not show Aegon taunting him and embarrassing him on more occasions? Show Aegon distrusts him or undermining him? It would have been so easy.

Also. If they truly wanted to go for "oh, Aemond burned his bully and abuser" then why tf did they have Helaena suddenly defend Aegon? She says he ignores her except for when he is drunk. We get exactly one scene of them together (I am not counting them passing each other on the stairs bc that was...something) where they disagree on if Jaehaerys should go to a small council or not. Despite the fact they lose a child, we don't see them interact at all, and I am supposed to think Helaena is meant to care for him enough to wish death upon Aemond because he burned him? From what they have showed us, I didn't get the feeling Helaena particularly cared for either of her brothers.

Perhaps she does, but we are never shown this??? Like, at all?? Insanity.

But so we don't say I only talk about the Greens, I think the Blacks have a similar issue? Rhaenyra is the only one we see(kind of) care for her family. What about Daemon? Baela? Rhaena?

Listen, I am not saying Daemon, similarly to Aemond is a great person, but I genuinely despise how they made his whole character about Rhaenyra? Did they forget he has two daughters from his marriage to Laena and two sons with Rhaenyra? The only interaction he has with Baela is in episode two and he ignores her!

Rhaenyra sends Rhaena away without a word from Daemon. Rhaena doesn't even bring him up! It's not even "What did my father say to this idea?" Type of situation. Hello??

Even if they wanted to go with "Daemon is a bad father" we see him face pretty much no consequences for it? He hallucinates Laena asking him if he took care of their girls before it's swept up under a rug again. Baela says she sometimes thinks she hates him, but then it turns into another conversation about Jace's parentage.

I also have no idea how we are meant to care for Aegon iii and Viserys later on bc they are A) aged down and B) so irrelevant and unnmentioned I almost forgot they were there at all while making this post.

I could write another essay on Alicent and Rhaenyra but I feel like there have been much better posts on them already but just...what is going on??

Did the writers forget the core of the story was meant to be Targaryen family? Fucked up family, yes, absolutely, but the point was that the war of ravens started because they all wished for power, but the war of fire and blood started because they started killing each other. If they don't care for one another, if they are not family, what IS the point? Why do they keep fighting? For power and revenge? No, no, for feminism and peace!

Give me a break. Genuinely. It's not even about it being inaccurate to the book anymore, it's about the characters losing their central motivations and only letting the plot happen to them, instead of being actuve participants. That's why everyone loved side characters more than main ones! At least they are making active choices!

[atopvisenyashill]

alright things i liked

baela pointing out that jace is not the first bastard to inherit a seat that isn’t his by blood. that was a fun convo and i loved the back and forth and i love that she comes at it like “why are you moping do you think you’re the only bastard in the fucking world” and jace is like barely able to argue his point that LIVING that reality is so much more draining than she realizes, he’s too busy daydreaming about strangling ulf to death over the kitchen table.

everything helaena did. sensing daemon is having a dragon dream and using it to get him back to rhaenyra’s side, the way she really was listening to alicent’s idea about running away to essos together, letting her mother speak her piece in her defense, then going out onto the balcony knowing aemond is going to corner her and giving him the dressing down of his LIFE while he cries, all very good.

abigail thorne. omg. am i mad she’s not sabitha frey? yes. was she still hilarious? also yes.

ESSOSI OUTFITS THAT LOOK GOOD. WE GOT BLUE HAIR FOLKS!!!!

ulf and hugh and addam. trying to find their place, trying to bond with their dragons and each other, unsure of their footing. addam looked ready to turn to goo in his chair. hugh wincing at every “lowborn” quirk ulf has. ulf going ham on acting like ulf bc he’s nervous & telling jokes to cover it. loved it.

alys alys alys. crying at daemon’s bedside at what’s to come, at what she’s going to face next. do you think she saw simon’s death and wept for her silly uncle. does she grieve her cousins before they have even died. does she weep at daemons bedside knowing she’s leading him to his end.

larys and aegon. the whole scene was so good, the way larys is really trying to convince aegon to leave & fight another day and he has like a VERY solid plan but aegon is so completely shaken up bc he just had no idea aemond hated him that much, this is just what love is to him, is this constant push pull of humiliation and abuse that hes still as blind as he was when he was a child to the way his actions affect aemond.

alfred brune just nervously disappearing into the crowd after Daemon gets everyone singing “god save the queen” is so fucking funny. man is like “oh i misread that one HARDCORE i am about to get ate by a fucjing DRAGON while those two watch and fuck nasty” his ass is GRASS lmao

things that were booty, ass even

every single scene helaena had should have come earlier in the season. there’s no reason alicent & helaena couldn’t have had this convo in the last episode instead of alicent fucking off to the godswood for a swim.

i think it’s fine In Theory that alicent goes to rhaenyra and basically surrenders. she’s been shut out of power, she’s lost control of aemond, she’s terrified for helaena’s safety, and otto who was her rock & partner in all things has been gone for a long while. she’s floundering, her shitty boyfriends have abandoned her, she thinks her only shot is to work out a surrender with rhaenyra. COMMA BUT. caving to rhaenyra saying “i’m gonna have to execute aegon” was dumb & ooc. i’m tired of all these little trips between KL and dragonstone. i think that confrontation lacked a lot of punch, alicent was FAR too calm. idek what they’re doing w alicent’s reactions half the time tbh, this feels once again like being unable to let an actress just look ugly for a minute. even during a scene where she should ostensibly be nervous and freaking out, she looks immaculate & prettily distressed. i’m very much over it esp with how often we’ve seen rhaenyra look banged up or windswept or tired or whatever this season.

officially fridging marilda just takes so much intrigue out of the hull boys & alyn specifically. marilda is the only baseborn or lowborn character we get in the book that isn’t shit talked and this is likely due to alyn making SURE his mother is respected. to cut all of that for���.what? more manpain? unacceptable.

pls tell me why tyland gets more haha jokey scenes than baela and rhaena get for any scenes at all. baela fights and SURVIVES the last dragon battle in westeros. rhaena is the last dragon rider until dany. they are powerful political forces just as their grandparents and parents. but they just do NOTHING it is so FRUSTRATING.

in theory i’m fine with aegon thinking sunfyre is dead and then finding out he’s alive bc sunfyre has come to rescue him from something. but if sunfyre doesn’t show up WAY EARLIER than the swan dive, if they CUT SOMEHOW THE SWAN DIVE and we don’t get to see aegon snot-crying and screaming as he holds baela’s burnt open face against a headstone and screams that he’s going to kill her for killing sunfyre while she’s glaring and daring him to fucking do it then, you all will never know peace from me. i will literally never stop bitching i will become the most annoying poster on this website i will find condal and hess and i will-

all build up and for WHAT. did they forget that even tho s6 ended with a bunch of shots of people’s armies moving there was an entire fucking battle that happened and then cersei committed religious terrorism??!!!

OH SO WE KEEP YAPPIN ABOUT DAERON ALL FUCKING SEASON JUST THIS RANDOM ASS FOURTH CHILD THAT WE DIDNT HEAR ABOUT ONCE LAST SEASON, AND ALL WE SAW WAS THAT TWO SECOND SCENE OF TESSARION FROM THE TEASER??

AND WE DONT EVEN SEE DREAMFYRE??

[brynnsasha191]

“just another mean and bossy man trying to tell Rhaenyra what to do”

This show is so stupid because they write these scenes with the intention of us siding with Rhaenyra or Alicent over the mean men but the exact opposite keeps happening! 😂

The reason it’s not working is because neither woman has actually done anything remotely useful or politically sound the whole season.

Even after they gave Jace’s dragonseed idea to Rhaenyra they still managed to make him look more rational by showing concern about how this will affect his legitimacy. All the whilst his mother’s basically saying “thoughts and prayers 👍🏽”. Do you have any idea how incompetent you have to make your leading lady that fans are looking at her 16 year old son and concluding he’s more suited for the job???

As for Alicent, can someone please tell me one useful thing she has done this entire season? She mopes around, takes baths, fucks Criston, then lets Rhaenyra Targaryen go even though all she needed to do was shout and the war would’ve ended right there. So when the Green Council refused to make her regent I don’t know a single person whose instant reaction was “these men are being sexist to poor Alicent”, the audience saw it for what it was: Aemond has proven to be 100x more competent than his useless mother so it makes sense why he’s Prince Regent. Doesn’t help her cause that she was so mad she didn’t get to be regent she threw a tantrum and sold her family to the enemy. Again, this is just proving the patriarchy right: women are too emotional to rule 🤷🏽‍♀️.

This is so true. They were so desperate to be feminist that they went in the exact wrong direction and proved the wrong point. Neither Rhaenyra nor Alicent can make a single decision without spending two episodes thinking and biting fingernails about it. They are in the middle of a civil war and neither of them can bring themselves to do anything about it other than crying over their friendship that has been over for two decades. It gets across the completely untrue point that women can't rule on their own. And that Rhaenyra needs Jace and Daemon to do it for her. And Alicent can't rule because if she does, she sleeps with her kings guard.

You're so right. They keep making scene that they think will make us side with them because of the patriarchy but they're both written so stupidly that the men are actually much more competent than them so we end of side with Jace, aka a man, aka the 'patriarchy'.

I think they also wanted to make us think Rhaenyra and Alicent are amazing, wise, and gentle queens (aka uwu babies) by making both of them dislike the idea of actually going to war and chasing 'peace' until the very last episode. But this did not make us see Ali and Rhae in a positive light, it just made them hella annoying. Show!Rhaenyra wants to stop war, book!Rhaenyra was running to war. Boycott this show, I'm not even joking. The sexism is actually out of control. My final straw was when they turned Alyssa Targaryen, a strong and amazing female character into a sexual object in order to portray A MAN in a certain light.

I think it's time that everyone, team black AND team green put our feet down and tell Ryan and Sara "No more". This is trash.

[blackcat419]

Hotd S2 E1 A Son for a Son review

It's here. Two years weight and I'm more disappointed than a vegan at Outback Stake House. Lets get into this then.

Predictions for Season 2 and if they came true

My predictions for the reactions towards Blood and Cheese were pretty damn on. People justify Jaehaery's death, missing the irony of an eye for an eye, a son for a son, when Aemond didn't get Luke's eye and Jaehaerys isn't Aemonds son, Alicent being blamed for it.

Blood and Cheese was an accident, meant to go in for Aemond, stumbled upon Helaena, and just got told who the son is, at least they didn't accidentally trip and stab Jaehaerys.

White walkers are alluded to even though we now know they're so easy to take care of, just need one episode and POOF!

No Dyana mention so we'll see if she shows up.

Where we left each character and where they are now

For TB its very consistent. Rhaenyra is mourning Luke, Daemon is pushing for war, Rhaenys is pushing for no war, and Corlys is pushing to be relevant.

For TG its all over the place. Our consistent characters include Otto pushing for war and control, Alicent pushing for control but less war, and Larys pushing to hold the most secrets any person can. Our characters that have changed are Aegon now wanting to be king and trying to prepare Jaehaerys, Aemond deciding he totally did mean to kill Luke, Alicent changing from rule follower to now rule breaker, and Cole deciding he does like sex actually.

Aegon and Aemond's transitions make sense, they were set up in last season and it works for them. Alicent and Cristin are in a full-blown sexual relationship that's been going on long enough for them to feel comfortable doing it in mid-day. That was not set up. We miss an entire character arc for both where they 1. decide they don't want to follow the rules society tells them to and 2. decide they want to bone. This was not set up in season 1, it comes out of nowhere, there is no explanation for why these two are boning now, how they justify it to themselves, if they justify it to themselves, nothing. So instead of an interesting character arc where we see change, we just get the end with no idea how they go here. Thanks, I hate it.

Conflicts

Again, for TB the conflict is consistent from season 1 and makes sense. Rhaenyra is being pulled by her duty to the realm for peace but by her grief for war. Daemon is pushing for war, Rhaenys is pushing to not start the fight, and Corlys is there too.

But for TG it's all over the place. We still have the dumb conflict between Alicent and Otto over how much war we'll have. Not between peace and war but just, should we have more or less? it's not even really about involving the dragons as that's Aegon and Aemond's position. Overall, Alicent and Otto's conflict is poorly thought out and their positions hold so little difference that it borders on meaningless.

The conflict between the two groups is who will strike the first blow. We already have one kid dead and a blockade but we are still waiting for someone to act. wow, so intense much drama.

Adaptation from the Book

The main parts of the book being adapted are Jace's visits to the Vale, the sisterlands, White Harbor, and his stay in the north. Rhaenyrs finds out about Luke's death, and blood and Cheese.

The only part done well is Rhaenyra's grief over Luke's death. It is so powerful and Rhaenys saying that she can't properly grieve until she knows Luke is dead is very powerful. Jace has an amazing trying to talk while he cries scene, the funeral pyre is so emotional, and very well done in showing how much losing Luke affects these characters.

I am very disappointed that Jace's whole storyline going north is turned into exposition about Stark customs and the wall being so sexy and cool. No Jace and Cregan being friends, no Jace trying to convert Cregan, not even Jace hooking up with Cregan or Sara Snow. just nothing.

Blood and Cheese has to be the worst thing I've seen in a while. We have Daemon telling them to kill Aemond but it is ~ ambiguous ~ whether he said to kill Jaehaerys. We have Rhaenyra saying she wants Aemond dead but it is ~ ambiguous ~ if she knows Daemon is doing this. Blood and Cheese literally walk past Aegon in the throne room? No secret passageways into the queen's chambers, no plan, no nothing! they just happen to find Helaena. We also lose the character development of Helaena where in the books she offers up herself to be killed and only after Blood and Cheese say they'll rape Jaehaera and kill all of them, does she give in and choose Maelor to die. We don't get their cruelty of telling Maelor his mom wants him dead and then killing Jaehaerys. No, Helaena just offers up her necklace, they take it, then AFTER she knows they're going to kill her son (one of them says they need a head and a son for a son), she just walks out and runs into Alicent riding Cristin? Why? Where is the tension of Helaena being forced to choose a child to die only for that child to know their mom chose them, the drama of Helaena offering up herself to try and save her kids, the horror at what these monsters are willing to do for coin? Nothing. It was emotionless, I only felt shock at how poorly it was done.

Overall Enjoyment

I did not enjoy myself. This was not fun or interesting to watch. The showrunners are scribbling over a beautiful sketch with crayons.

What I hope for the next episode

NO MORE ACCIDENTS! I swear this show is the house of accidental war crimes.

I want to see Nettles, Daeron, and Maelor.

I want actual character development instead of character teleportation.

I predict that Alicent's character will continue to be massacred and put in scenes where Ryan Condal can see Olivia Cooke naked.

[liaa--qb]

ok I seriously can't decide what they are doing with Aemond's character ?😂

Yes it's too early as it were only two episodes I know but what they are doing with him 😂??? He's roaming elsewhere away from there family.

Aemond's deed should have effected him badly. He is a kinslayer yet he is experiencing zero shits from his family , council people, whole crowd of Kingdom. Nothing no reaction at all. Alicent is angery even that is barely expressive.

Aegon's child died because of him and his reaction to this is shown completely null, instead of asking what happened, how happened from his family. He is shown hanging with that lady in brothel.

This was Aemond's reaction to Viserys but we see nothing when jeh, Aegon, hel is harmed because of him.

He's almost having no good scene in these episodes. He barely is having 3 mins along non sense script.

My brother joked how his story with just 7 mins in previous season was most interesting and now his is the one in greens who is becoming boring 😂.

I am not saying that brothel scene could not happen and all. It could.. but atleast before this give him some scenes with his family which are sensible enough. Also I know that other characters also need to have their proper time as so many of them are going to die and might not have scenes further. So I do get it why makers doing it.

Well it's just two episodes so obviously there will be nothing much for him until prince regent era but still it looks like so much is missing in his arc in just 2 episodes.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

I saw your post about book!Aegon and I kinda find it funny how the show didn't actually write aegon ii based on how he is in the book, but they instead took many charactaztions from Aerys the mad and Aegon the unworthy and mix it in one character in the show and called it a day. I am not even a fan of the greens in general but show!Aegon ii is colser to Aegon iv and Aerys ii than to book!Aegon ii

I'm sorry it took me so long to answer this anon!

There's a lot I could say about show!Aegon II and I struggle with this one because there's certainly some disconnect between the character as described by the writers and Tom Glynn-Carney, and how the majority of the viewers perceived him. I don't think the writers are intentionally borrowing from Aegon IV and Aerys II, but I do think that if they didn't intend for him to be a sadist or an irredeemable sack of shit, which is what they claim, the writers have been kind of careless as to how they go about that.

What's interesting is that I remember watching when the show first aired, and the reactions to young Aegon were quite positive going into episode eight. Young show!Aegon is quite entertaining (window wanking aside), friendly enough with the Strong boys (fans had not latched onto the whole "Aemond was a victim of lifelong bullying" narrative quite yet at that point), expresses quite clearly that he doesn't want to challenge Rhaenyra, is manhandled, yelled at, kicked, and slapped around by adults in almost every scene he appears in, is developing an alcohol problem at the ripe old age of thirteen, is betrothed much too young to his sister when he clearly doesn't want to marry her, and finally sees his brother lose his eye and gets thrown under the bus for it. Like, on a base level the show had built a lot of audience sympathy and goodwill towards him, and then they burned that goodwill in an instant with the Dyana scene, and then burned it further with the child fighting pit scenes (and boy they really missed the mark there because a good portion of the audience seemed to think Aegon runs the child fighting pits, or that he "forces" his bastards to fight there), which is such a bizarre choice. The time jump doesn't help. It's our first introduction to Tom Glynn-Carney's Aegon and his portrayal is just oozing with pathos (and really, hats off to him for that, he is the sole reason grown up show!Aegon is even mildly sympathetic) but there's so little screentime with him that it's hard to connect that kid asking his mother "do you love me" and crying at his own coronation (who is very much the kid who said he wouldn't challenge Rhaenyra and who said, "just look at them, everyone knows") with the same guy who supposedly watches child fights and rapes the maids.

That said, when you recall that the showrunners have reiterated the idea that the real conflict in the show is between Alicent and Rhaenyra and they want the show to center around them, it makes more sense in that those moments in episode eight are not really about Aegon at all, they're about Alicent. Alicent pays off Dyana, Alicent is angry with Aegon and says "you're no son of mine," and that leads directly to Alicent's attempted reconciliation with Rhaenyra-- she's fed up with this man child of hers and maybe the realm should just have a queen! Aegon is just a tool to get Alicent's character to a certain point that she never got to in the first place in the source material, a position Alicent almost immediately reverses because the source plot demands it. And this I think is one of the problems with HotD's inconsistent characterization overall, is that they're trying to fit characters into a narrative space that they weren't originally written to occupy.

And I understand that they were never going to make Aegon a protagonist, and that the showrunners are likely not likely gutsy enough to do a Succession style narrative where there is no protagonist but where Aegon and Rhaenyra are both equally flawed people, doomed from the start, but sympathetic enough that we can't help but hope against hope that they might escape that doom somehow. However, the Dance is a lot more tragic and compelling on a base level if Aegon is not a total villain but this very troubled guy who never really wanted the throne, feels backed into a corner because he doesn't want his family to die, takes the throne, and with each loss becomes increasingly convinced that he has to win. And they could still do this, but right now the vast majority of this audience just sees him as the rapist asshole brother (who is not even the good brother, that is Aemond who has studied the blade) stealing poor Rhaenyra's birthright for no reason except that he was manipulated by his lying evil mother and her lying evil father, and they see it as very very wrong and unfair since she is obviously a better person and would make a better ruler, just like Dany. To me, the latter is just not a compelling narrative, and I cannot imagine that the writers believe it's a compelling narrative either, so hopefully they get their characterization under control for season 2.

[presidenthades]

Here’s the behind-the-scenes for Lavender Ch. 7!

Usual disclaimer that these thoughts aren’t necessarily canonical to the fic verse until/unless I write them into the actual story.

Aemond being the first to refer to Aegon as the new king makes me feel a lot of feelings, especially after S2. In this verse, even though Aemond thinks Aegon is farrrrr from perfect, he still sticks with his brother.

Harrold is still secretly Team Rhaenyra even after Viserys disinherited her, so he looks to her for cues. If Rhaenyra had decided not to support Aegon, I think Harrold would follow her even if that means civil war. The rest of the Kingsguard might splinter just as in canon.

This fic allowed for some fun thought experiments about the HOTD line of succession. If the king’s word is law, then Baelon/Elenar is the rightful king, and everyone (including Rhaenyra) supporting Aegon is committing treason. But readers were overwhelmingly in favor of Aegon becoming king. So does that mean “the king’s word is law” only matters if we like what the king is saying? 🧐 Maybe it means that our real-world arguments about “the rightful king/queen” don’t really matter, because we’re all just going to argue in support of our preferred character no matter what we actually believe. Most of the people advocating for “the king’s word is law” aren’t actually absolute monarchists in real life, and most of the people advocating for “male primogeniture is the custom/law” aren’t actually misogynists in real life. It’s all fiction. Anyway, that’s my soapbox for the day lmao.

Smallfolk be rooting for Aegon like he’s their favorite sports team. ⚽️

Luce’s instinct is to reach for the poker when the door opens, because Larys has been hanging out with Jace wayyyyyy too much. (And as Jace later reveals, Larys was hanging out with Jace right before Aegon arrived.) Next time Larys showed up, Luce was ready to just bash his head in and figure out how to hide the body later. 🪦

Luce is a Jacegon cockblocker in every universe ahahahaha.

I love that Aegon’s first reaction to hearing that Luce is married is that a) she married not-Aemond and b) Aemond’s gonna be pissed. Truly a bro.

Even while nursing a baby, Jace insists on following protocol and kneeling to the new king. Girl needs a vacation. I also made a point of having Jace be the first to address Aegon as “Your Grace.” Of course he hates it and almost immediately tells her to stop it.

Note how Aegon never calls the baby “Baelon” in his dialogue or internal monologue, and Jace never calls him “Baelon” either. They know their kid isn’t keeping that name. Jace has probably been secretly calling him “Elenar” the whole time.

Elenar is very much a Velcro baby/mama’s boy in this universe. Jace takes care of him 99% of the time, and she is peak caregiver. Little buddy isn’t going to lower his standards after her lol.

I love Jace’s speech about Viserys’s death. She helped mastermind it/nudge Alicent in that direction, but she’s never going to explicitly admit it, even to Aegon. Then, in the same breath, she implies that Aegon better not pull a Viserys on their son one day, or else. Such romance. 😍 Of course Aegon is immediately turned on lmao. He makes a point of disarming himself so he doesn’t spook Jace, and then I included the “I find it stimulating” line as a nod to Aegon’s speech when he fires Otto in S2.

Elenar didn’t get Aegon’s in utero singing in this verse, so he doesn’t recognize his daddy right away. 😢 As far as Elenar is aware, Aegon is a threat to Elenar’s monopoly on Jace. 😡 Or maybe he just hit Aegon out of reflex. Idk. Elenar has impeccable timing every time his parents get frisky.

One commenter said that they hear Sir Patrick Stewart’s voice whenever Elenar has “dialogue.” I have decided this is canon.

“He owes someone a lot of money.” Aegon remembers his promise to make Lord Celtigar pay reparations to the one-legged man. #SmallfolkKing

Jace knows that Aegon will get overwhelmed if he’s inundated with political things, so she filters out what she deems is most important for him to deal with, right now. Aegon is lucky she’s trustworthy. She also knows he gets hangry, so she has pie ready for him before they get to business. She sorts through what Aegon HAS to do (e.g. attend Viserys’s funeral) and what can be delegated (e.g. planning the funeral). She knows what Aegon has the capacity for, and she works with what she has.

Usually a coronation is a big state affair which requires lots of planning, so it gets pushed out. Seven is a symbolic number in Westeros, hence the seven month waiting period.

Jace all but admits to Aegon that, if circumstances became truly dire, she would’ve agreed to sleep with Larys. This confession is a very big deal because,if her husband were less in love with her, he might forever suspect her of adultery under the “right” circumstances. “Womanly virtue” and “chastity/fidelity” are essentially the same thing in this setting. But Jace hates lying so she tells Aegon. And Aegon, malewife that he is, appropriately places his anger on Larys instead of Jace.

I don’t think Larys’s primary goals are to sow chaos or get feet pics. Those are ways for him to amuse himself and to demonstrate his leverage over people in power. He likes that he, the crippled second son of House Strong, managed to get the king’s ear and encourage Viserys to almost destroy his own family. But he also knew Viserys wouldn’t live forever, so Larys was thinking of what to do once Viserys is gone. Despite his scheming, Larys is just a man who experiences lust, and his type is young, vulnerable women thrust into positions of power. Jace is his type, and becoming close to her helps him get even more power/influence (she’s the mother of the future king). If Aegon hadn’t come back, or if he’d died in the trial, Larys may have eventually wrangled himself into the role of Jace’s second husband. From there, it’d be easy for him to become the Hand. And maybe Elenar suffers an accident, and if all of Viserys’s sons are also dead, then the Iron Throne eventually falls to Jace…and any children she might have with her second husband. 👀

It was tricky figuring out the consequences for Alicent. Aegon’s inability to pardon her and expect everyone to forget what she did is an example of how kings can’t just get what they want all the time. Alicent is a pious woman, so she feels compelled to confess to the crime of husband-slaying/kingslaying. Harrold also wouldn’t let the matter go without it being punished somehow; Harrold loved Viserys too. Jace knows it’s more politically and legally stable to enact a punishment rather than sweep it under the carpet. But she and Aegon acknowledge that Alicent simply did what they would’ve done if they had the opportunity, so it feels wrong to truly punish her. Hence, Alicent is confined to drafty Castle Driftmark, where Rhaenyra has to regularly check in on her, close enough for her dragonriding children to visit. Oh no! Anyway.

Are Alicent and Rhaenyra going to be a romantic thing now? I left it open to interpretation. They are definitely friends again at the very least. Their history in this universe isn’t as fraught as in canon, so there is still room for the HMS Rhaenicent if that’s what readers want to interpret!

“You will be a fine king” is a twist on what Alicent says to Rhaenyra in S1E8. Aegon’s waited his entire life to hear his mom say it, and she finally did. 😭

Now that there’s a Velaryon queen, there’s a bit of a Velaryon Ascendancy at court. It’s why royal marriages happen, after all. Rhaenys finally gets a taste of ruling because she’s helping Jace, and Jace is the one really conducting business for Aegon.

Jace experiences caregiver burnout this chapter. Not only is she a full-time mom to a newborn, she also has to perform the duties of a queen consort AND help Aegon with his duties. She’s good at helping Aegon delegate but she can’t help herself delegate. 🥲

I really wish I could get a sketch of the scene where Aegon runs mostly naked through the castle corridors while carrying a screaming baby. 😂 Servants had a lot to gossip about that day.

Aegon hid his goodies at Sunspear so they weren’t looted. Jace gets to wear the pearl lingerie he described in his letter, after all. 🤭

Aegon’s passing thought to give the dagger to Daeron ends up being a VERY good decision, as we see in Chapter 8.

The child’s drawing that Aegon finds was indeed made by him. 😢 Viserys is an antagonist in this verse and very awful to Aegon. But deep down, Viserys did love Aegon—definitely the little Aegon in his memories, at least. I imagine that Viserys occasionally looked at that drawing, felt regret about his scheming, then put it away and made himself forget any affection he might have for Aegon.

Did Aegon destroy two very important historical artifacts (a king’s journal and potentially a copy of Daenys’s Signs and Portents) without a second thought? Yup. Will he regret that one day? Maybe. But he’s an “act first, think later” kind of guy, so.

See Chapter 8 commentary here.

[angelofthepage]

Memory Joey - What is your source?

Hi I did not get my full eight hours of sleep, and I am chomping at the bit with a new thought, so prepare for a slightly unhinged Kat theory about Joey.

Last night I was chatting with my partner in crime Beth about a number of Bendy things, but one of my many takeaways from that conversation was a new angle of looking at Memory Joey. So, recently I shared that I was frustrated with the narrative shift of Henry and Allison being ink copies, because it feels like it cheapens the original BATIM and doesn't do anything to serve the Joey Drew Redemption Arc (tm) narrative. We as the player know the man has a body count. Even if you take these two characters out of the mix, he's still responsible for the deaths of multiple other characters, mostly in the books, but like, come on, the whole "I own thousands of them" comment about souls in BATIM? The coffins with secret names on them? Joey you ain't slick. We spent too long establishing that Joey used his employees for their souls across MULTIPLE MEDIUMS to suddenly throw all of that out the window, and I don't entirely buy the idea that these two aren't the real deal. Granted, it still leaves us with questions about how the ink demon works given, there was also time dedicated to establishing that he was imperfect because he's soulless, but that's for another day.

But then, last night we talked about how none of these characters know Audrey is the daughter of Drew. And if they did know that, would their reactions be different? Would they still try to help her? I'm not sure. But it got me thinking about how there's a lot of things we the player know/believe that the characters don't. And that's when it hit me.

Memory Joey's story wasn't for us. It was for Audrey.

Now, that sounds obvious, like no duh, he's talking to Audrey for the whole scene, of course it's for her. Memory Joey doesn't know we as the players exist, he's got nothing to prove to us. But hear me out: that sequence wasn't meant to give us as players new information or prove he's a changed man, we weren't the ones who were supposed to believe in it. Audrey was. He has EVERYTHING to prove to Audrey. That's the daughter of the man he came from, his precious little girl, the first time he made something with the ink machine out of love, and she doesn't even remember that he's her father. Joey Drew, throughout his lifetime, cared a lot about how people saw him. Having shoes and a suit that didn't make him look poor, appearing financially stable to investors, the nasty things he had to say when he thought he wasn't being recorded, acting like he had control when everything he knew was falling apart, Joey was always trying to keep up appearances. And while I'll believe that he can mostly let go of that with time and growth, I don't think he could deal with Audrey, his daughter, seeing him as the bad guy. Especially when she doesn't remember Joey? Trying to make a good impression, sharing that yes, he did bad things, but he wasn't all bad? That he changed? That's covering Joey's ass something fierce.

Audrey isn't aware of Joey's body count. She doesn't know what happened to his employees. How Sammy became a cultist, how Susie was mistreated and manipulated to be desperate to be Alice. The entire story of Buddy Lewek and Norman Polk. She knows NONE of it! She doesn't know what he did. She doesn't know there were so many teenagers, just a little younger than her, that DIED because of his machine. And until you get the note about the kids that came before her, she has no idea she's not the first.

I often give Memory Joey a pass, he doesn't strike me as someone who would want to lie, especially to Audrey since he clearly cares about her. He delivers his slideshow presentation so earnestly, it feels like he truly believes this is what's true. But then I'm left questioning, what is his source? Why does he believe that they're clones? But maybe...maybe he is lying on purpose. I think it could be an equal opportunity for both. Joey was a liar in life, he lied about so many things (which is frustrating when he's the one giving us most of the information we look to to figure out how the heck ink works, Gent can you please give us some notes to cross reference?). Why wouldn't he lie to appear better to his own daughter? Memory Joey making that distinction for himself, that he himself cares for how Audrey sees him and Joey, would be a really valuable detail for his character, but him not knowing and believing all the information that someone like Joey left behind for him (since I'm assuming that's where his understanding of the cycle comes from) would also be interesting for his characterization.

But here's the kicker: by introducing the idea that Henry and Allison are not truly their human counterparts, if that turns out to be untrue, you've made a grave mistake Memory Joey. Audrey doesn't know any of these people were human before they became ink. I mean maybe she can deduce that other humans are in here given Allison's whole "I remember my first day" speech, but then Memory Joey throwing this at her, Allison is a creation rather than someone who was once alive? Who's to say she'd think twice about it? Wilson treats everyone like they're just ink and not worth caring for after all. But if she finds out about the sacrifices? That many of these ink creatures were once human? Oh Broseph my dude, you are gonna have a lot to answer for, more ways in which her trust in you will be utterly broken. That is a very messy, delicate balance. I kind of want to see that. I want to see him have his world view turned on its head, learning that he was wrong about Henry, and have him genuinely not know that he was fed bad information. Let him process that, let him struggle, and let Audrey grapple with the truth too.

Yeah, I don't necessarily think Henry and Allison are clones. Inhuman, yes, but clones? I think we need more than Memory Joey's word to know that for sure. So I ask again, sir, what is your source?

[slow-writer]

TMAGP Episodes 7 & 8 Reactions

That was totally my face during both episodes, I swear.

Spoilers below!

Okay, I'm freaking out on a cellular level, it feels like.

Episode 6 had the introduction of new OIAR employee, Celia Ripley, who is voiced by Lowri Ann Davies. Those of us from the TMA fandom recognize her as the voice of Lynne Hammond who later became Celia because her name was taken from her after the Change. There have been speculations on whether she is playing the same Celia (even though this is a separate universe) or if this is just a little wink from Jonny and Alex behind the scenes. But then came the next 2 episodes.

The sheer amount of lore that was dropped in these 2 episodes has the fandom REELING. So, let's get into what we've heard!!

EPISODE 7: Right off the bat, Celia not only references that the dated computer system is basically better than "wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." This feels like a TARGETED MISSILE at the TMA fandom. But right after that, she asks if any of the spoken cases have anything in common, and if there's a way to search the cases that have common threads, like, "Oh I don’t know. Every case about being buried alive or meat or… whatever." And if that wasn't enough, she recognizes the voice that Alice calls Chester (AKA, John!).

Those statements alone have me thinking with 99.99999999% certainty that this is the SAME Celia from TMA (or at least, she's tapped into her memories in some way).

Apart from Celia, we have Hilltop being referenced in a case, which could very well mean that it's a similar situation from TMA. Very possibly a rift in space-time or whatever. Some nexus of power or something.

Then Sam received a supposedly internal email from someone called "John" that contained an address and a name. Does this mean that John is truly trapped in the computer system like we've all been theorizing? Is this his attempt at making contact and warning Sam not to follow in his footsteps? AGH!

And then we have poor Colin, driven mad by whatever's corrupting the code he's been trying to maintain, taped over his webcam, and full on refusing any electronics to enter his office (that weren't already there, and he must have clearly tampered with them so they cannot spy on him). He even attacks Sam when he pulls out his phone. That man has a lifetime subscription to Paranoia Plus, if you ask me, poor thing.

Lastly, we get confirmation that Lena at least tried to kill Klaus, but may not have succeeded, and Gwen's blackmail of her puts her in a new role of "External Liaison," whatever that may be. (Oh boy, oh boy.)

And if that wasn't enough, we have today's episode....

EPISODE 8: No preamble on this one, just straight into a case. And man, are we having fun with the whole liminal horror plus Stranger vibes in this one! But the GOOD SH*T comes after the case ends.

Poor Colin's been put on Mental Health Leave, so I'm really hoping that wasn't the last we'll 'see' of him. And the banter between Gwen and Alice has much more of an edge now that Gwen's been promoted. But!!!

Sam and Celia went off together after they ended their shifts early (ooooh), and who did they meet?

GERRY EFFING KEAY AND HIS 'GEE-GEE' GERTRUDE!!!!

And I checked, yes, they are 100% voiced by their TMA counterparts, Jon Gracey and Sue Sims (Jonny's mom).

Gertrude calls Gerry her grandson (though I'm curious if this means Gerry's actual mother is dead here too, and when Gertrude stepped in as a surrogate, or if she's actually his grandmother).

When Sam and Celia ask about the Magnus Institute, they both kind of go quiet, like they don't know what they're allowed to say or if they can trust these strangers who randomly showed up to their house. Sam reveals that he was part of their "gifted kids" program (hello, ARG info!) and saw Gerry was also listed and wanted to "swap stories." Gertrude seems to want to push them away, all protective, but Gerry just says he doesn't remember much.

Did Gertrude blow up the Magnus Institute in this universe and adopt Gerry after she found him there?!?

And finally, after Gertrude kind of rushes them out, Celia makes a deal with Sam. They agree to keep track of anything that falls under each other's mystery interests. Because she's "doing a favor for Georgie" (HFGJHFD!), she needs to look into "Weird physics stuff: time travel, other dimensions, teleportation, all that good stuff."

Was Celia sent here from the TMA dimension to do recon?!?

Anyway, there's so much more to dive into, but those are the things that are currently making my brain buzz. How has your Thursday been?