#i have a ton of other post criticizing their choices for egg's characterization so i'm not getting into that again 😅

[lemonhemlock]

okay ik you’ve been disappointed in hotd’s depiction of aegon and you’re against the idea of him ‘going darker’ so to speak in s2- if i can play devil’s advocate, im actually super stoked for it (you’re welcome to delete and move on, it’s your blog and you didn’t ask for contradictory opinions! im encroaching here lol. you’re def not required to even read this at all)

obviously hotd has made aegon the ‘villain’ so to speak (there’s a hundred arguments to that and i agree with a lot of them but from the pov of a casual showfan, he’s a rapist and he likes to watch little kids fight 🤷‍♀️) i think the time skips in s1 did a lot of damage to building relationships beyond the primary rhaenicent/daemyra, and the greens kids suffered the most. we see glimpses of aegon/aemond’s relationship, but helaena never gets to speak to either of her brothers (l m a o) and alicent gets limited screentime with them as adults. daeron is, well, non existent. what we get of aegon’s role is that he seems to be the troublemaker/problem child- the way alicent reacts with dyana suggested (to me) that this isn’t a first time occurrence, and it’s more of her being at the end of her rope than experiencing the shock that her son is capable of this.

the show doesn’t do a great job of balancing the actual depiction of aegon we see on screen (he’s kind of a large adult failson) vs the one other characters tell us about. i understand the reasons why, but it creates this disjointed feeling of the sad/rejected boy vs this monster other people are trying to say he is. i think when we see the coronation, and he receives this uninterrupted love for the first time in his life, it’s gonna be a joffrey-esque situation at least in terms of this unstable manchild getting absolute power. it’s going to change his dynamics with his family for sure- ik you’ve talked about alicent/aegon and aegon/aemond roles, and tbh im excited to see him claim that power in those relationships. i think it’ll be a large shift from s1, because now he has the idea of acceptance and admiration from the public, and his own family has given him the crown! they’ve doomed themselves to his actions in a way

anyway this is long 😔 i get people dislike how he’s written in the show (totally understandable!!) but with what we’re given i must confess i can’t wait to see him go nutso, especially after blood & cheese. the idea of the greens infighting but still being a force to contend with in the war at whole is delicious to me lmao!!

Hello there!

I'm actually not opposed to him going darker, I just think there are more interesting ways of doing that, ways that don't involve further brutalizing two female characters that already have it pretty rough canonically. There's no need to add to that - it would kind of feel like what D&D did to Sansa by giving her Jeyne Poole's storyline with Ramsey, after escaping KL and Joffrey's abuse. Just unnecessary and cheap shock value. For whomever is interested, I went into further detail here, here and here.

The show doesn’t do a great job of balancing the actual depiction of aegon we see on screen (he’s kind of a large adult failson) vs the one other characters tell us about. i understand the reasons why, but it creates this disjointed feeling of the sad/rejected boy vs this monster other people are trying to say he is.

I do agree with this. On screen he behaves in a certain way, off-screen we are told he is different.

i think when we see the coronation, and he receives this uninterrupted love for the first time in his life, it’s gonna be a joffrey-esque situation at least in terms of this unstable manchild getting absolute power. it’s going to change his dynamics with his family for sure- ik you’ve talked about alicent/aegon and aegon/aemond roles, and tbh im excited to see him claim that power in those relationships. i think it’ll be a large shift from s1, because now he has the idea of acceptance and admiration from the public, and his own family has given him the crown! they’ve doomed themselves to his actions in a way

My main gripe with this is that I don't want another Joffrey. What would be the point in that? :)) They shied away from turning Alicent into a Cersei-clone, why turn Aegon into a Joffrey-clone? They don't even have the same origin story - yes, both were ignored by their fathers, but Joffrey never craved his mother's affection, because he already had it; Cersei doted on him and was very indulgent. Joffrey never had the sword of Damocles hanging over his head because there was another claimant endangering his life. Also, Joffrey is not really shown to be particularly awful towards Myrcella either; she's more or less nonplussed by his existence.

Even when Cersei admonished him and he had his power trips, he never really did anything to her, it was just posturing. He didn't really have the balls to go against his mother, because deep down he knew she was always on his side and there wasn't anything to gain by that? As soon as things got tough, he was the first to cower behind her skirts. Furthermore, Joffrey's entire power comes from the Lannisters - how is he going to piss off Lannister Girl #1 and, by extension, Lannister Patriarch #1? It's very much a case of "fuck around and find out". When Tywin came back to KL, he made quick work of containing Joffrey and there was fuck-all "the king" could do about it. All of Joffrey's awfulness is extended outside his family, apart from Tyrion - although, we should note that he doesn't always have the guts to go against Tyrion all the time either and is even disciplined by his uncle a few times.

Similarly, it doesn't really make sense for the Hightowers to be such pushovers because Aegon decides to act like a prick. Aegon's entire powerbase comes from Oldtown. Yes, Aegon has an advantage over Joffrey because he has a dragon, but he can very much be locked in his room or not allowed entry to the Dragonpit if he acts like a little shit. And what would he even do with his dragon anyway - burn his family members? Come on. There should be Hightower guards sworn to Otto and Alicent swarming the place, just like Cersei had her personal army of Lannister soliders sent by Daddy. Anything else doesn't make sense. Erryk and Arryk have already manhandled Aegon, Aemond gave him a black eye, Criston would backhand him so fast if he were mean to Alicent?

I mean, I'm not in the writing room, and they ultimately can write whatever they want and bend themselves over backwards explaining it, but they've set Aegon up so far to be a different character, so why not act like it? And, if not, at least respect the internal logic of the fictional setting, because I don't see why Aegon should have unfettered access to power right now either. He has literally zero allies at court and no network of support apart from what his Hightower relatives have built for him.

anyway this is long 😔 i get people dislike how he’s written in the show (totally understandable!!) but with what we’re given i must confess i can’t wait to see him go nutso, especially after blood & cheese. the idea of the greens infighting but still being a force to contend with in the war at whole is delicious to me lmao!!

No worries, I don't even disagree with you on principle - I'd like to see ~the darkness, but there are more novel ways to go about it rather than abusing his family members (if that's the way they even intend to go! bc all of this is speculation anyway LOL). I don't mind him scuffling it out with Aemond, but I would hate to see the greens' love and loyalty for one another erased for some gratuitous cliche villain plotline.

Not to mention that the other side is most likely going to be Sainted Rhaenyra as the most wonderful mother to Hero Jace, who loves & respects & would die for her + everyone mourning Rhaenys as a war hero, loving (grand)mother, dutiful wife and queen-who-never-was, everyone vowing to avenge her. Meanwhile Alicent is going to be painted again like the most failed mother in the world, daily regretting her decision to crown her son and weeping after Rhaenyra, the most capable queen that ever was robbed.

And I just don't think that would be a v good story. 😫