#irredeemable war criminal

[om0000]

mfs will make one of the most interesting n nuanced characters uve ever spun in ur brain just to stuff them into a kids media n make them look like this:

[hikaaa-bi]

seriously though, can we stop associating redemption with forgiveness? redemption isn't about being forgiven, it's about trying to do better and be better, even if you're not forgiven.

sometimes you make mistakes that people can't forgive and that's okay. the important thing is to remind yourself that you're on the right path, and you're going to be a better person regardless of whether they want to forgive you or not. that's their decision and they're entitled to it.

sometimes people forgive you and sometimes they don't. but you shouldn't stop working towards being better just because someone refused to forgive you. because you shouldn't be trying to fix your mistakes solely because you want that person to forgive you, you should be fixing them because it's the right thing to do.

[aeoris4lovers]

posted from the depths of bazzoxan

[nekrotiize]

Yeah Magnificus is an asshole sure but have we considered the fact that he’s literally a wizard. Wizards are just like that.

[mitski-slope]

i am Frankly so sicj n tired kf the 'azula thought ursa hated her bc shje was the only one 2 tell her no' take ! ut has been established timr n time again thst ursa played favourites !! u may not like 2 believe that she in fact has flaws n waks not oerfect the entirety of her life but u n i both know she had a favourite child n everyone (including azula) could tell !! yes she was obviously being abused n she Tried her best kn an awful situation but she waks not the perfect mother n it os so so poitnless to try n makr her one !!

[reality-detective]

Trump Speaks in Orange Garbage Vest...

"For the past 9 years, Kamala and her party have called us racists, bigots, fascists, deplorable, irredeemables, and they call me Hitler... They've taken your money, they've thrown open our borders to criminals... They've sent our blood and treasure to fight in stupid foreign wars... This Tuesday is your chance to stand up and declare you are not going to take it anymore."

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Propaganda why Tony Stark is insufferable:

>Makes weapons

>Billionaire

>Made multiple AI Surveillance Robots

>Gaslight a child into fighting a super soldier in a foreign country for him

>His fans are annoying

Portrayed as a hero because? He chose to no longer mass produce war weapons and bombs after suffering the consequences. Huge hypocrite. Doesn't care about anyone but himself. Will backstab people if they believe in human rights when it's inconvenient to him. Seen as a hero while he's the personification of privileged people saying they're not privileged

There’s the usual “he’s a war criminal who only felt bad about it when he realized his weapons were killing white Americans as well as Arab people” reason, and also he’s just super annoying. You had to be there for the original Avengers shitty dialogue a la “we have a Hulk” that had Tumblr in a vicious chokehold. Also he was supposed to FINALLY go away after destroying all his suits in Iron Man 3 but he just… didn’t! Which is bullshit.

Tony is so annoying. When they first meet he straight up bullies Peter into fighting for his personal bullshit, insults and objectifies Aunt May in front of him, spits into his trashcan and is in general being pushy af. He blackmails Peter when he doesn’t wanna come to Germany with him AND HE DOESNT EVEN EXPLAIN WHY HE WANTS HIM TO COME. Uncomfortable vibes lol.

Tony being the one to tell peter “if Captain America wanted to hurt you he would’ve” when Peter was trying to state his case, yet HE’S also the one who put Peter in harms way when he didn’t even want to go with him???

Telling Peter that he should stick to being a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” (stealing his thing once again) when that’s what Peter _was_ doing before Tony took him out of his zone and filled his head with grander things to be apart of….bitch? Die. Ohh waaaait (jkjk) but yeah

Super long, sorry lol

Thinking about how in Homecoming when Peter accidentally caused that boat to get split in half because the Vulture’s gun exploded and Tony was acting like as if Peter was completely in the wrong for going there just because he did it without his permission. He was acting like as if Peter was out of line and “disobeyed him”, trying to act like his father. And then I remember how in CACW he’s the one who scouted Peter in the first place just because he saw he might be useful against a personal squabble between him and Captain America despite knowing that he was a kid and he’s just now acknowledging how dangerous it is because Peter “acted on his own”

Completely hijacking Peter’s superhero story and trying to control his every move (Training wheels protocol and baby monitor thing he put in the suit), acting like Peter should’ve known that Tony would send someone in despite the fact that he’d been ignoring him for 2 months since Civil War and not keeping him updated on anything!!

How the hell is peter supposed to know Tony is going to listen to him when he treats him like a kid instead of a superhero when it’s convenient for him? And when Tony loses his temper after Peter says he’s 15 not 14 like “the adult is talking” bitch he could literally flatten you without your suit!!!

I guess in a way he is acting like a father but like the absentee kind. He’s more like a sperm donor father trying to act like he has any rights over Peter’s life smh.

It’s not that reprimanding Peter for the situation is bad, but the way he makes it seem as if Peter is irredeemable as if Tony wasn't a literal weapons dealer lmfao. He could’ve said what was the truth about it without completely invalidating him saying shit like “no thanks to you” after Peter asked if everyone is okay when it’s literally thanks to Peter finding a lead on those guys in the first place that they were even noticed and it’s not like the FBI being there could’ve in no way caused a similar situation.

And then near the end of the movie when he’s getting crushed by the building rubble screaming and crying for someone to help him where the fuck is Tony?? That scene just proved that he never needed Tony’s suit in the first place to be Spider-Man since he had to use 100% his own strength to lift it off of him. I know he would’ve found the motivation even if Tony hadn’t been involved in the first place to give him the suit, take it away from him and have the words “if you’re nothing without the suit you shouldn’t have it“ echo in his head. Why did Tony even take the suit away? Like as if he expects Peter to stop being spoderman without it??? Holy fuck. This is why you don’t make it out of endgame /j /srs.

When Tony took this suit away from Peter he was like “God I sound like my dad“ shouldn’t that be a red flag to him? Wasn’t he literally just saying that he wished his dad was better than he was?? Lmfao

Propaganda why Victor Frankenstein is insufferable:

Victor Frankenstein is so pathetic not even tumblr could love him. The best parts of Frankenstein are the ones where your blessedly saved from being in his whiny, self deprecating, self centered pov. He’s so conceited that when his creation tells him directly “In revenge for killing the wife you were making for me I’m going to kill YOUR wife to see how YOU like it!”, Victor Frankenstein thinks that the creation is going to kill him and *only* him. (A decision And on top of it, he’s a shitty dad. Truly the worst.

this fucker has zero self awareness, which could maybe be fun to read about! except that 3/4 of the book consists of him constantly woe-is-me-ing about his own mistakes and how he shouldn't be responsible for any of his own actions.

He's not irredeemable, but his refusal to take accountability til it's too late is irritating

[asha-mage]

To this day people are still arguing about how their least favorite Three Houses lord is actually a terrible irredeemable war criminal, meanwhile in Awakening my boy Robin is out there pulling off improvised fire bombings like it aint no thing.

'That meanie Edelgard set fire to Gronder!' this, and 'That jerk Dimitri taunted Randolph before killing him!' that. Well my special guy Robin consigned tens of thousands of Valmess soldiers to a watery hopeless grave without even the chance to fight back and his husband and daughter are very proud of him.

[gothamite-rambler]

Jason may have a point here

Jason: Kill him.

Batman: No.

Jason (insistent): Kill him.

Batman: No.

Jason (angry): Kill him!

Batman (loud): No!

Joker: Can I kill myself to escape this nightmare of awkward father-son tension?

Jason and Batman: Shut up!

Jason: Ignore me, like you did when I died. What about the countless lives he’s taken? What about Barb? What about the hell he’s put all of us through for some sick joke? If you didn’t want to do it for those reasons, what about me? I wanted to ignore this, but he took me away from you! Why not vindicate me? I thought I was your son!

Joker: Guess you weren’t that close.

Jason smacked the Joker with the crowbar for the fifth time.

Jason: Shut. The. Fuck. Up! Back to you, B—Batman. When I saw the bomb tick down, I accepted it. I accepted my death with the assumption that when I died, you’d kill him. Then I wake up, and this monster is still alive. Why?

Batman: I’ve contemplated torturing the Joker in private. Making him feel pain from every nerve in his body, savoring the light leaving his eyes when I finally kill him. But I don’t want to go to that dark place… because that won’t fix crime. If I kill the Joker, I would be crossing a line I can’t come back from.

Jason (in disbelief): Stop joking.

Batman: I’m not.

Jason (tapping the gun on his leg): You have to be.

Batman (deadpan): When have I ever joked with you in this suit?

Jason: It’s not too late, because you can’t be serious. It literally would fix one thing… HIM! Because he’d be dead!

Joker: Can you tell me what type of torture methods you’d perform on me? I might need to use those later.

Jason pointed his gun at the Joker, showcasing how the crazy clown is only proving his point.

Batman: If I kill him, I would never return to who I was—the person I became to fight crime. I would kill the next one like him.

Jason: Then fucking do that! You can't be arrested. You’re friends with Commissioner Gordon, who, by the way, the Joker shot his fucking daughter. You shot his daughter, right?

Joker: Yeah.

Jason: Okay, so should I shoot him, or do you want to go first?

Batman: The Joker would have to do something insanely unforgivable to make me kill him.

Jason stays silent for fifteen seconds, unsure of how to respond.

Jason: …He blackmailed my mom into handing me over and tortured me horribly and then I died in a bomb explosion. Not from the bomb either, from being suffocated under rubble. Just so you know, I was legally dead for five years because of him.

Batman: That’s different.

Jason (twitching eye): Different how?

Batman: You're here now.

Jason looked around, incredulous.

Jason: Am I on a hidden camera show? Because that’s not a defense. Are you seriously trying to excuse what he did just because I’m back now?!

Batman: Um... It’s not right!

Jason: Why? Go ahead, tell me—why is it wrong for me to kill him and for me to kill irredeemable criminals? I'll wait. I have the detonator.

Batman: Because when my parents died—

Jason: Nope, nope, nope! My mom sold me out to the Joker. My dad beat me; my step-mom beat me! You’ve got to come up with something else!

Joker: …He has a point.

Batman (clenched fist): Okay, after saving lives without killing criminals, I learned that all life is valuable.

Jason (without hesitation): Joseph Stalin.

Batman: Okay, that was a war leader—

Jason: Charles Manson.

Batman: Hold on, he was a cult lea—

Jason: Jim Jones.

Batman: They volunteered in both situations.

Jason (calmly): Adolf Hitler. The Nazi soldiers who knowingly participated in the extermination of Jews and those who escaped to Brazil.

Silence.

Joker (weakly speaking): I’m… the one possibly dying, but he brought up a couple of good examples. Like I’d kill me after that.

Batman (stammering): No, wait, because that's not the same. The Joker is not the same as them.

Joker: Thanks, Batsy. I try to be different.

Jason (trying to breathe calmly): Okay, I’ll cancel out the world dictators, the cult leaders. I’ll do that for you… Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Wade Wilson... I can go all day; I love learning about true crime and wars. He’s not exactly like them either, but he’s pretty damn close.

Batman: …

Jason (irate): And again… him torturing and killing your adopted son isn’t the line? Am I near the line?!

Batman: I told you not to fall for your mother's tricks.

Jason (shocked): Oh… my God! Are you resorting to gaslighting? Are you really gaslighting me while I have a bomb? We’re doing that?!

Joker (not taking any of this seriously): I wouldn't stand for that, neither would Barbara.

Jason hit the man in the arm with the crowbar to silence him.

Batman (doubling down): All I’m saying is that when you came back, you started killing left and right.

Jason: Yes, rapists to my right and murderers to my left. It’s not like I kill shoplifters.

Batman (scoffing): Hypocrite.

Jason: A shoplifter might have a reason to steal and doesn’t resort to kill people.What rapists have you met that had a reason? Because rapists aren’t redeemable; they’re fair game. Same with, let’s see, child traffickers, pedophiles, serial killers, assassins—literally awful, evil people! That’s target practice.

Jason aimed the gun at the Joker as he spoke to emphasize his point.

Batman (indignant): Okay, last I checked, murder is wrong!

Jason (pointing his gun at the Joker): It sure is!

Batman: A criminal is a criminal. I treat them all the same.

Jason (laughing because he had this one ready): Let’s talk about Selina Kyle.

Batman (nervous): Let’s not do that.

Jason: No, no, she gets a pass when she’s attacked people to escape prison. If a criminal is a criminal, then why isn’t she in prison? Because she meows at you? Because of your odd sexual tension with her—I’ve read your journals. And I don't judge man, that's your love life, but I want to know why she gets a pass. Why does Black Mask walk? Why does Mr. Freeze walk? The Joker gets to walk… why is that? Tick-tock, detective.

Batman: …If you give me five minutes, I will think of an answer.

Jason (cocky): It bothers you, doesn’t it? That I’m doing a better job at being you? That I'm taking on businesses in this crime-ridden area because I can admit that crime will never stop? Is it that I kill murderers and rapists, and that hurts your feelings?

Batman: It doesn't bother me… I just don't want you to do this.

Jason (serious): Let me dial back the snark. I'm not asking you to kill Selina or Riddler or Mr. Freeze. I want you to kill the Joker. The man who's been alive and committing crimes since I died. I'm not even mad at you for not stopping my death. Honestly, I forgive you for that. But for the love of God, kill him! Kill him, and I’ll take the blame. That’s all I ask. I am begging you! Do you see this? I am begging you!

Batman sighed with regret knowing he couldn't turn on his morals again. It would only lead to worse happening to him and his family and that included Jason.

Batman (final decision): I can't. I won't. I'm sorry.

Jason: I—Wow, you’re actually going to make me do this. Okay, I kill the Joker or… you kill me.

Jason tossed Batman an extra gun, which the man catches with ease.

Jason: Or you can shoot him.

Batman (somber tone): I regret the day I let you into my life… Not because of any faults you made, but my own. I gave you a good life, with the life of a hero in the mix. Now that you’re alive again and there’s nothing I can do to stop you… I won’t kill him or you. Again… I’m sorry.

That was all he could say. The decisions he made in the past, when Jason died, were secrets he wanted to keep buried, even if it meant Jason would never learn the truth and would continue to harbor resentment toward him.

Jason: Heh… You regret taking me in because of the hero life you gave me—not because I died or because my murderer is still free. Cool. I suppose you’ll just stand by and watch me take him out.

With a dry chuckle, Jason spun the gun in his hand, poised to pull the trigger. Batman reached into his utility belt for a weapon.

Jason (with feigned sweetness): This is fantastic! I always wanted a moment like this with you!

Jason grabbed the Joker and aimed the gun at the cackling psycho's head.

Jason: I’m going to enjoy this!

Batman: DODGE!

Jason: What?

Batman hurled a Batarang at Jason, striking him in the neck and impaling him. In shock, Jason dropped the gun and the Joker, blood spurting from the wound.

Joker (amused): This is fun! What a twist! I didn't think you would hurt your own son!

Jason (shocked and angry): You threw a Batarang… at ME?!

Batman (regrettably): Oh shit, shit, shit! You were supposed to dodge!

Jason (betrayed): You pulled a Piccolo on me!?

Batman: I thought you would dodge! I shouted “dodge!”

Jason: You thought I would read your damn mind, toss Joker aside, dodge, and then not shoot him?!

Batman maintained a stoic expression, but inside, his mind was screaming in embarrassment.

Jason and Joker: Oh my God, you actually did. GREAT! I’m agreeing with him!

Jason yanked the Batarang out of his neck, chuckling dryly as he trembled.

Jason: This doesn’t even hurt me, crazy right? I—You threw this at me to save him… You know, maybe in a few years we can laugh about this, but not here, not today. I’m sorry too… but I’ll see you again.

Jason pressed the detonator, successfully escaping alongside Batman. The Joker was buried beneath the collapsing debris of the buildings, but somehow still alive.

[eggthedyke]

Thinking about Deep Space Nine s4ep4 Indiscretion and how it makes you confront Dukats humanity (ironic word to use I know).

But where as before he was always the cartoonish irredeemable villain with no good in his soul this episode makes you see him as someone with the capacity to love, to feel pain, to laugh, to laugh at himself, to relate to Kira, to share common experiences with her, even with something as simple as the ration bars they both used to eat.

But in the end it doesn’t make him a good person. It just makes him a person.

The point isn’t “everyone has good in them deep down”

It’s that all of these people, even the most depraved, even the worst of the war criminal and dictator are still people. And it’s Worse because they’re people.

He isn’t a one demential being. But he still Did all those things, he still enslaved, tortured and killed all those people and despite claiming to love one of them, he has no remorse for it. He still intend to kill his own daughter, but at the same time, he cannot stand the idea of her living a life where she is tormented for her patrilineage. The daughter he’d had the forethought to send away from Bajor and Cardassia so that once the occupation ended they could still live full lives. The daughter who is still less important then his political career. The daughter who he says he will love, weep and mourn even after he takes her to an early grave. The daughter he loves too much to hurt. The daughter he takes home, damn the consequences.

And the fact we know he isn’t an unfeeling being, that he has the capacity for remorse but simply doesn’t feel it in relation to his actions to the Bajorans, makes him that much more of a monster.

But we cannot separate out the monstrous anymore, they feel just the same as us, love the same as us, talk and laugh the same as us. There is no clear line between us and them, no promise that we won’t become, are not, just as monstrous.

[asthedeathoflight]

Yk I keep circling the issue of like how Armand gets talked about in the fandom because he does do some bad shit but at the end of the day nobody has to put a fucking disclaimer on their Lestat posts do they so I'm pretty confident in saying its just fucking racism. Every time anyone mentions Armand in the broader context of the whole show they have to do an aside about how hes an irredeemable monster who we are only discussing in the context of fiction but everyones favorite mediocre white guy doesnt need a disclaimer because everyone just magically understands that this is the choose your favorite war criminal show when the war criminal is blonde.

[visenyaism]

thoughts on sansa vs dany discourse

everyone fighting over which morally good teenage girl is an irredeemable war criminal and which morally good teenage girl is the one true girlboss-queen of westeros is distracting me from my mission to convince everyone that jaime lannister did nothing wrong

[babybutchianthe]

the consistent backlash against the possibility of reading john as a perpetrator of sexual assault, as though the gravitas behind that sort of language is offputting in a way the language used to describe him as an imperialist and war criminal isn't, is an excellent example of how actual incidence of sexual assault is exceptionalised and rendered such a taboo subject that those who've been sexuallt abused are barred from sharing their experiences or seeing them portrayed in fiction. the people who rally against reading john's actions as allegorical for grooming and sexual assault can freely recognise his repeated violations of bodily autonomy, agency, and self-determination committed both within the houses and outside, both directly and via proxy, but they refuse to acknowledge that these actions could be equitable because rape is an unimaginable evil that doesn't happen unless the perpetrator is a deviant of some kind. it's a perspective that refuses to grapple with the nature of imperialism and the violence that the reproduction of its social structures is dependent on because it's easier to look at the horror of a system doing what it is designed to do and say that was the exception, not the rule—to say bad things are done by intrinsically bad people rather than people who were born into systems that make bad things commonplace.

something else about this perspective is that it assumes people reading john this way are trying to incite a paradigm shift and outspoken condemnation of him, but it's the opposite: the resistance to the framing of his behaviour as allegorically predatory and exploitative is born out of a perspective that exceptionalises that, while the perspective that identifies that reading is one that understands this is not an individual issue, but instead one born out of the material conditions of john's time, with the focus instead being on examining why john can justify his actions to himself. by refusing to acknowledge this potential dimension of his character that is well rooted in the text those of the former perspective do very much reduce him in the process, out of the belief that ceding that john does exhibit predatory behaviour would mean he is thus rendered irredeemable—because, again, he would then be a deviant and exceptional individual rather than a person raised in our times and in accordance with imperial social structures that he would later reproduce while forming his empire. the only indictment sought by people highlighting the valid reading of john as a perpetrator of sexual assault is one against the world that moulded him into being able to justify that kind of violation. if you think that reading is somehow fundamentally incompatible with john being a nuanced and three dimensional character then you're part of the problem, in that you think the violence necessary to uphold the status quo cannot be sexual in nature or perpetrated by men that are apparent progressives.

[quitepossiblybamboozled]

honestly the best/worst part of tbosas is that Coriolanus was not inherently evil solely because of his conservative views. He was not vile or irredeemable simply for raised the way he was.

What made him so disgusting and deplorable in the end was that he chose not to change his mind. He chose not to grow, even at a detriment to others—especially at a detriment to others. That is what makes him evil in the end. Because growing meant confronting nearly two decades of apathy, meant changing the icon of his father from war hero to war criminal, meant viewing the Grandma'am as a hateful, spiteful woman instead of the pillar of their family that kept them alive, meant accepting that his mother's death, as well as his baby sibling's, was the Capitol's fault—was his father's fault all along, meant that Tigris having to "disgrace herself" was a direct result of the Snow family's own participation in the oppression of the Districts, meant accepting that the systems he put his faith in were flawed and cruel, meant accepting that so much of his "reality" was not real

so he chose the easier option and didn't accept any of it, even when it got innocent people killed. It was easier to convince himself that Bobbin would have been killed by someone else or would have killed Lucy Gray, that Sejanus' execution was basically a mercy killing, that Lucy Gray was lying to him all along.

he chose the easier, more selfish option at almost every single turn, and that is what makes him evil in the end.

[spider-mand]

So, common misconception (both in fandom and in-universe) about Spider-Man/Peter Parker is that he's naive.

Spidey's young for a hero, he's a wise cracker with a no-kill policy, he's a ray of sunshine - he must just not know, right? He grabs purse-snatchers, he never sees the really evil crimes like human trafficking and stuff. If he knew how evil and horrible humans could really be, surely he'd be a depressed nihilistic bastard like me.

Except he does know. Spider-Man has seen and dealt with those horrible crimes, the ones the tourists and newspapers don't see. In the Marvel universe, NYC is a hub of mutant/alien/monster/interdimensional activity - of course he's seen the worst of the worst, been to literal hell, all while he carries the weight of everyone he's failed and everything he's lost.

Spider-Man is not naive, he's optimistic.

That's one of his superpowers. He knows exactly how bad humans can be, and he believes in them anyway.

And 95% of the time, he's correct. He's not blind to the fact that irredeemable evil exists, he's just aware of the fact that most of humanity is not that. Messy and complicated, sure -- but not evil.

So when he does face actual evil, he's not a naive, toothless, "we can all be friends, even war criminals!" Steven Universe hero -- he's an angry, stubborn as shit "If I give up, despair wins, and I'll be damned if I let you win" weaponized sunshine hero.

...he's also hilarious and I love him.

[queenvhagar]

I think the moment the show really went wrong was in episode 8 of season 1. Up until this moment they had a more or less balanced take on the brewing conflict. While obviously more oriented towards Rhaenyra as the POV character and more sympathetic to her perspective, I felt like the other characters were still their own and that the writing was at least somewhat attempting to understand or show each character's motivation, thus giving more balance to the sides. Characters still reasonably existed as versions of their book counterparts, and their characters were not fundamentally altered.

Episode 8 goes away from the previous, more balanced approach to the story. First, they decide to introduce the adult version of Team Green's figurehead, the claimant opposing Rhaenyra in this famous historical civil war, through an original character created to be his panicked rape victim, ensuring the audience will see him primarily as a violent abuser going forward, despite little credible evidence this was his character in the books, in order to make his opponent seem more favorable. Then the Driftmark succession issue is fundamentally altered. On screen, Vaemond petitions the crown directly and a deathly ill Viserys endures the walk to the throne to defend his daughter. Vaemond is executed from behind by Daemon in an instant, and his death is never mentioned again by anyone. Rhaenyra plays no part in his death and doesn't even speak of it. Contrast this with the source material, where Vaemond puts forward his claim to Driftmark on the correct basis that Rhaenyra's sons are not Velaryons. Rhaenyra hears of this and orders Daemon to find him and take his head. Then she feeds his body to her dragon. Vaemond's cousins petition the crown to get justice for what happened. Viserys orders their tongues cut out, and immediately after he is cut so badly by the Iron Throne that he loses his hand.

An approach that could have maintained certain qualities of the on screen depiction while portraying the conflict as more nuanced and balanced: make the original character one of Aegon's paramours, or a whore he brought back to the castle, showing that he is unfaithful to his wife now in addition to his character being a drunk. Have Alicent discover them together and send the girl away with coin and moon tea, scolding Aegon for his laziness and his disinterest in duty. This small change fits with the book accounts of Aegon as someone more interested in women and wine than being king (initially). While this version of the character is flawed, he is not an irredeemable sex criminal who enjoys violence and subjugation of others.

Then, have Vaemond publicly voice his claim to Driftmark, at High Tide, in front of the court, upon hearing of Corlys' injury and illness. When Rhaenyra hears the news, she tells Daemon, and together they plan, just as they did with Laenor in the last episode, that Daemon will act for her. They echo their words from before about how the people should fear their power. This time, however, Vaemond will really die for speaking about Rhaenyra's deception, and Rhaenyra will feed at least part of him to Syrax. Let Rhaenyra have agency and affect the story, while at the same time demonstrating the protectiveness she feels for her family and lengths she'll go to secure power for them. Daemon will still take his life, but it will be at Rhaenyra's order. Let Rhaenyra have the boldness and the fire of her younger self.

Vaemond's cousins come to King's Landing to demand justice. Rhaenyra and Daemon go to court to defend themselves, and they are somewhat shaken to discover that Viserys is on his deathbed and Alicent and the Greens rule in the king's absence. Rhaenyra feels vulnerable without her father. She tries to broker the marriage deal with Rhaenys, and she visits her father in the night to ask for his help.

Viserys makes a final stand to go to the throne so he can affirm Lucerys as a trueborn Velaryon and order the tongues of the Velaryons. As they are seized by guards, Viserys collapses, slicing his surviving hand on the throne as he falls. Everyone sees the throne has cut him. The Greens believe that the throne has spurned him for his unjust actions, and they see once again that the Blacks are willing to go to any length to protect themselves and secure their power. Meanwhile the Blacks refute the idea that the cut from the throne meant anything at all with his ill health causing the fall, and they see the whole affair as having been necessary to secure their power and protect themselves and their own from those who would take it from them.

The king's hand is bandaged before the family dinner, when both sides make toasts to the other as a show of amity for the ailing king, but when he leaves the tension returns and the fight breaks out. Rhaenyra leaves with her sons immediately without a word, as Alicent goes to put the king to bed. She gives him a sip from his chalice, and as she leaves his room that evening she stops the servant, reminding her of the instructions to inform Alicent immediately of any changes to the king's health, understanding that the king is not long for this world and tomorrow could be the day when all their plans start to play out. We can be left to wonder what was in the chalice - was it truly medicine and a continuance of Alicent serving the king in her wifely duties, or perhaps, having witnessed the day's events, and having heard from the maesters that his new wound would never heal, did she take it upon herself to end his life and start the new chain of events to follow?

A more balanced episode 9 would follow the previous characterizations of characters and maintain more of the integrity of the source material. Alicent, Cole, and Otto call and lead the Green Council together, insisting it's necessary for the realm and their family that the Blacks never take the throne for themselves. The search for Aegon occurs immediately, with Arryk and Erryk searching random whorehouses on the Street of Silk and Cole and Aemond going to a specific brothel that holds special meaning to Aegon (and Aemond) with the madame.

Eventually, Aegon is found by the twins in the Sept, where he went to hide when he discovered he was being sought after (and Mysaria sells out his location to Otto). Aegon is brought to the council, where Helaena and Alicent are, and everyone convinces Aegon to accept his crown: the Blacks had Laenor killed, and then Vaemond, and now five noblemen are mute for challenging their power. They didn't hesitate to take Aemond's eye and threaten him with further harm, and they won't hesitate when it comes to Viserys' sons existing with stronger claims than her and her bastards, according to Andal tradition and the Council of 101 AC. Rhaenyra will have to put them to death to secure her power, so Aegon cannot let her seize the throne in the first place. Aegon finally agrees to do his duty.

At the coronation in the Dragonpit, Aegon is crowned by Cole and Helaena by Alicent, and the crowd cheers the both of them. At the exit, Aegon mounts Sunfyre and circles the city in a show of strength. As he flies, he is surprised as Rhaenys and Meleys brush dangerously close to them as the two of them fly out of the city and toward Dragonstone. The Greens, watching from the ground, know that Rhaenyra will soon know of Aegon's accession.

Episode 10 can exist largely as it is, and end the same: Rhaenyra suffers the loss of her father, her throne, and her unborn daughter. Daemon takes an active role in planning to take the throne, while Rhaenyra shows restraint, somewhat paralyzed by the circumstances. Rhaenys and Corlys discuss Rhaenyra's role in Laenor's death and the betrothal of their granddaughters to her sons, and ultimately decide to back her if war should come. The Greens send an envoy to deliver terms (Otto is not present, for obvious reasons) and Rhaenyra receives them in the castle (she doesn't hop on dragonback immediately after giving birth, for obvious reasons). Rhaenyra decides to send her sons as envoys to gauge her support, and Lucerys is ambushed by Aemond in the skies on Storm's End. The last shot of the season is Rhaenyra's look of fury at the news, and the promise of war in her eyes.