#like show daemon is clearly very ambitious for the throne

[thevelaryons]

why did daemon chose to marry laena? I have always thought it was because she is prince aemon’s granddaughter and her mother and brother laenor were at some point considered jaehaerys’ heirs, we know daemon is ambitious so marrying her will bring him closer to the throne. but the show made laena (who is interested in flying more than boys) the one who seeks him out, she even admits that she was not his first choice.

The show has a lot of odd writing decisions that depict characters acting opposite from their book counterparts so trying to determine the motivations of the book characters by looking at the show versions is an exercise in futility.

Daemon clearly had a preference for Valyrian women. His favourite paramour was Mysaria, he willingly chose to marry Laena and then Rhaenyra, at brothels he was described as picking the Valyrian maidens, and he had no interest whatsoever in the non-Valyrian Rhea. So just as he had, at one time, wanted to have a family with Mysaria, this time too, with Laena, he could create a family with a suitable partner.

Though I’d say his reasons for marriage were more personal than political. Apart from being Valyrian, Laena is also a beautiful young woman described as having a fiery & adventurous personality, she claimed the dragon Vhagar at a young age, and she is the daughter of two people who Daemon is already familiar with. All of that would appeal to a man like Daemon.

Corlys is the type to keep an egg in every basket so I think he would see the political value of the Daemon/Laena marriage, but Daemon’s actions don’t make him appear to be acting in any political interest.

Prince Daemon fell in love with Laena, the singers would have us believe. Men of a more cynical bent believe the prince saw her as a way to check his own descent. Once seen as his brother’s heir, he had fallen far down in the line of succession, and neither the greens nor the blacks had a place for him…but House Velaryon was powerful enough to defy both parties with impunity.

Daemon is more pragmatic than people believe, so I don’t see him as the falling in love at first sight type. But his marriage to Laena was clearly not about the throne either. If Daemon’s claim is considered low on the line of succession, then Laena’s claim is even lower. Daemon would have to go on a murder spree to eliminate Viserys/Rhaenyra/her sons/Aegon/his sons/Aemond/Daeron, and then he and his children by Laena could be considered claimants for the throne. Clearly Daemon was not doing any of that.

Prince Daemon knew that his brother would not be pleased when he heard of his marriage. Prudently, the prince and his new bride took themselves far from Westeros soon after the wedding, crossing the narrow sea on their dragons.

It’s said that Daemon chose to leave Westeros after marrying Laena. Daemon is many things but not a coward. So it wasn’t simply a case of fearing his brother’s wrath. Daemon, hardly if ever, fears Viserys. Daemon’s marriage to Laena removed him from the political sphere entirely.

He and Laena returned back to Westeros only after they had children, at which point they took up residence with Laena’s family. It’s very unusual for a man in Westeros to be living with his in-laws, but that’s what Daemon did.

Laena is described as a fiery girl and Daemon is given the description of hot tempered. In his wife, Daemon found someone who could match his personality. They’re a very fire on fire dynamic. Just like Laena, Daemon also claimed his dragon. They both seem to dislike the stagnancy of staying in one place and are rather restless individuals (at least until they become parents). For many years, Daemon was stuck in a marriage to Rhea just as Laena was stuck in a betrothal to the Braavosi boy. They both know what it’s like to be devalued, Daemon because of his brother’s dismissal and Laena in general because of her gender being the reason she was passed over as heir to the throne. But neither of them are defined by this, judging by how Daemon chooses to live his life on his own terms and not by the whims of his brother and Laena not being bothered by the distance to the throne. So I’d say their marriage was a case of two like minded individuals finding common ground with each other.

[nash-dara]

In what world was s1 favouring the greens? They were shown as hypocrites, rapists, pimps, murderers etc. the blacks were clearly the heroes of the story and they continue to be.

I can give you few examples that are pivotal to the whole story;

• Rhaenys' hair is black because her Baratheon Blood is so strong, she didn't inherit the typical Valyrian features.

• Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey are not 'Strong' babes, they are only rumored, those are only rumors made by the Greens.

• Alicent became someone whose somewhat sympathetic and does some terrible and stupid decisions when in the books she's very decisive and the one who planned it mostly and not a puppet of Otto. She's supposed to be a cunning manipulative stepmother.

• The show make Alicent usurp the throne because of a misunderstanding when in the book it's because she's ambitious.

• The show Aemond, they made him do a "prank/bullying session gone wrong" shitshow, for the reason that he just supposed to appear as sympathetic in killing Luke instead of a psycho going into a rampage .

• On the flip side, they highlighted all the crazy antics of Daemon and erase his good side. He wasn't supposed to kill Rhea, or those moments that shows Daemon cares about his family and not just a power hungry and war monger person were erased.

• Although I do admit that they frame Rhaenyra as the 'protagonist' in the pilot episodes and washed some of her crimes including killing Laenor which is in the book but in the show Laenor somewhat fake his death with the help of Daemon and Rhaenyra.

• However it doesn't changed the fact that they also did the same thing to other characters namely Alicent and Aemond. They also didn't show that Rhaenyra do ruled the Dragonstone and know how to rule and not just a spoiled princess who wants to inherit the Iron Throne because her daddy said so, no, even other lords agree upon it and only minor houses favored the Greens.

• Honestly, I just really enjoy the nuance of each character in the book, no matter what team they are even if they are not the team I root for because all of them are complex and not just a binary, white-black morality and now because it is adapted into a show they somewhat have free passed to butcher it. It is just sad and disappointing at this point that they (the show) didn't frame it as like a History Book telling what happen in the past before Dany as they put biases to a lot of characters whether they are Greens or Blacks.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Hope I gave you some clarity why I think the season 1 was bias to the Greens, although right now I'm still unsure too if the season 2 would be able to show the balance viewpoint of both Team's warcrimes.

[msunitedstatesjames]

As someone who legitimately enjoys House of the Dragon, this show has some real issues with side characters. Specifically, the timing and scene quality of side characters.

I feel like I have to point out that I have read Fire and Blood, as well as all the published A Song of Ice and Fire books, but I read them all years ago and don't remember a lot of the specifics.

I'm also going to be comparing HotD to Game of Thrones in here, even though I realize this show and that one are very different beasts.

One of the great things about early Game of Thrones was its characters. Almost every character was given a unique personality, story, and enough time to thrive. Even the side characters were given this more often than not. And frequently, even characters with incredibly small parts, who might show up in just a few episodes, were memorable.

In total, Game of Thrones had 73 episodes. Hot Pie was only in 12 episodes. Shireen Baratheon was only in 10. Lyanna Mormont was in 9. The Blackfish was in 7. Robert Baratheon was in 7. Mance Rayder was in 5. Hell, Maggy the Frog was in 1 episode and I still remember her. You probably remember most or all of these characters by name and face if you watched GoT, as well as knowing some of their traits, motivations, and possibly deaths. But I'm struggling with the sheer number of side characters being introduced and rushed past our faces with very little fanfare in House of the Dragon.

I thought this was highlighted quite clearly in episode 6 with Ser Darklyn. He's been in 9 episodes, which is more than Robert Baratheon and, perhaps a fairer comparison, the same amount as Lyanna Mormont. His attempt to become a dragon rider and his subsequent death could have been a genuinely impactful scene. I really wasn't sure going into the scene if he would be successful or not. I've read the book, so I knew some of the off-shoot Targaryens did eventually succeed, but I didn't remember specifically if he was one of them. They had five episodes before this (not even counting season 1) to try to make him a memorable character whose death had some impact, and they just didn't really try. I knew this guy had been in other scenes, but his character was so bland that I couldn't have told you anything specific about him. The only reason I remembered he was in the Queensguard was because of the armor and cloak. Even when I looked him up on the wiki most of the description was just like, "he escorted Rhaenyra." I feel like Game of Thrones would have really taken the time to make this dude likeable before they had him burned alive. And it's not like they didn't have the time. Daemon's been fumbling around Harrenhal for like 5 episodes, doing very little. He even had Alys tell him in this episode to just wait 3 days for something to happen. I know he's kind of become the flagship character of this show, and I like the little cameos we're getting, but I feel like I've seen the same 3 scenes happening over and over there: Daemon is awoken from a weird dream by Ser Simon, Daemon talks to Alys, Daemon saunters around trying to threaten people. I get it. But what I don't get is why I'm supposed to care about all these randos who have been given 5 minutes of time total in the last 5 episodes.

There's Alyn, a sailor who apparently saved Corlys off screen and who has a seemingly ambitious brother. That's all we know about him for the first 4ish episodes until we find out he's Corlys's bastard. Now we also know he doesn't want others to think he's getting special treatment for being Corlys's son, but that's about it, and he's already been in 5 episodes I think.

There's Hugh, the obviously Targaryen blacksmith with the sick daughter and long suffering wife. Honestly I wouldn't remember his name if not for subtitles. I think he's been in four episodes so far.

There's Ulf, whose name I had to Google. He's another bastard Targaryen allegedly, and he seems to be a typical struggling peasant of King's Landing. That's honestly all I can remember about him. I think he’s been in 3 episodes.

I could have told you Hot Pie's name after 3 episodes. Or Shireen's. Or Lyanna's.

I understand that all of these characters will have narrative importance eventually, but the writing is just not doing a good job of making you really care. Look at Lyanna Mormont, we loved her from her very first scene.

I feel like the writers are really relying on the audience having read Fire and Blood, and either being superfans or having read it so recently that they remember minor characters who might have gotten a few pages of mentions in the sprawling narrative of that book. And this just isn't realistic for a show with a fanbase of this size.

Again, I really do enjoy this show. I think compared to other fantasy shows it is overall of good quality. It's just a shame that the writers weren't able to fill in some of the blanks left by the "historical" slant of Fire and Blood.

[navree]

Do you think in the book that Daemon loved Rhaenyra genuinely or he just wanted power?

This is kind of a tough one for me just because I don't really ship Daemyra so I'm not someone who's going to be actively looking for the good sides of the ship. But I think, just looking at it objectively, it was a mixture of both.

Daemon is someone who is capable of feeling love, first and foremost. There are people who say he's a narcissist so the only person he can really love is himself, but I do think he loved Laena, I do think he felt some kind of way towards Nettles, especially considering what he was willing to do to help her escape, and I do think a part of him loved Rhaenyra. He was clearly sexually attracted to her, he clearly doted on her as a niece (and bad Targaryen boundaries/incest habits along with the way Westerosi society views women and their maturity), and they were very close in his time between coming back from the Stepstones and his marriage to Laena/exile in Essos. He spent time with her actually doing stuff, doing activities like hawking and just hanging out and talking about his life. He also did support Rhaenyra's claim during the Dance, when it might have even been more beneficial to him personally to support Aegon's side and the legal precedent of "male children above female children", especially considering the whole thing started due to him being displaced for Rhaenyra. But he stayed to support her, he fought for her, and even when Rhaenyra demanded that Nettles be killed, he was said to have responded sadly, not with his usual quick temper. There's also the fact that the consort of a monarch doesn't necessarily have a lot of power, and Daemon's role if Rhaenyra had actually reigned would have likely been that of "extra special Queensguard who's allowed to fuck the Queen" more than anything.

But there likely was a desire for power too. Rhaenyra could be molded by him to follow his way of thinking once she was in power, and Westerosi gender roles likely would have allowed him more influence than a queen consort would have to a male monarch. And with Rhaenyra as queen, and if anything Should Befall the Strongs I mean Velaryons, then it's his sons, his bloodline, that are in line for the throne, it's his line that continues House Targaryen. And of course, even without Daemon in King's Landing, it's still Daemon's people who had a lot of influence on Rhaenyra's queenship, like Mysaria, Daemon's former lover.

Ultimately, Daemon is written to be a person, not a black and white cartoon, and like most people, there are likely multiple motivations, often intertwined, for why he does the things that he does. I think it's not out of the question that part of his marriage and relationship with Rhaenyra was borne of genuine love, but while also thinking about what it could offer him and how it could advance his own power.

[la-pheacienne]

My two cents on episode 7 because I just watched it.

It was an amazing episode. I will even argue that it was the best episode so far. So many things happening, nothing felt rushed. The funeral after party was GOLD. So many dynamics being explored between all the characters, so many feelings expressed just by angry stares, longing glances and half spoken innuendos. Like a pot slowly boiling and ready to explode. The fight between the children was perfect, the fight between Alicent Rhaenyra and Viserys later on was easily the best scene in HotD until now. I am team Black until the very end and I love Rhaenyra with all my heart but I FELT Alicent in this episode and THIS is great writing. I absolutely loved that Alicent regretted her actions afterwards, I also loved how she expected her father to be pissed and judgemental, and he was judgemental but at the same time appreciative, like? That's some great, multilayered dialogue there, people. The way Daemyra schemed and plotted their wedding and Laenor's escape was GoT season 1 material. Epic plot-twist.

Let's talk about Daemyra. I went over many posts here about the couple, and I admit that I am genuinely confused. I will address some of the complaints I saw: Matt and Emma don't have chemistry. Emma wasn't into it. Daemon wasn't into it, he was blank and passive and indifferent. The sex scene was short and we didn't see oral sex and different positions, orgasms, eye contact, whatever. The dialogue before was also lukewarm because Daemon didn't confess his undying love for his niece on one knee. We still don't know Daemon's motives because he doesn't speak. He didn't show enthousiasm after the mariage proposal. Etc etc etc.

Part of the reason for this reaction IS the incredibly high expectations. Another part is the ridiculous nature of a lot of these expectations. With all due respect for Daemyra's shippers out there (because I am one of them) I think you are confusing this show with Pride and Prejudice. This is not a romance show. This is not a show about the epic love story between Daemon and Rhaenyra. This is also not a romcom. It's a Game of Thrones show. The love story is a part of it, not even the main thing. Yes the dialogue wasn't exactly lovey dovey, yes Daemon didn't start crying when Rhaenyra proposed, he didn't swear eternal love and devotion like Romeo. No, he didn't go down on Rhaenyra in a feminist power move.

I'm sorry, but who fucking cares.

I've said what their dynamic in this episode definitely wasn't, let's see what it actually was. Let's talk specifics.

What I saw with my own eyes, was two broken depressed people coming together again under the least ideal circonstances (hmm the funeral of Daemon's wife hello). I saw a very bitter and hurt Rhaenyra that still longed for Daemon. I saw a depressed Daemon that felt everything is lost to him until Rhaenyra confessed her feelings. I saw a very strong female character pursuing what she wants. I saw tenderness, love, devotion. I don't need romantic words for it, I saw it. It was fucking there. Daemon finally let slip the real reason why he chickened out in the brothel and in the mariage ceremony: wasn't for the throne, wasn't for his own ambitions, but for HER. "I spared you, you were only a child = you didn't understand what you were doing and how much it would cost you, your reputation, your claim to the throne, everything, so I let you be because I cared so much for you". "You have a place in my court if this is what you need" "I need NOTHING", said Daemon the ambitious bastard who only wanted Rhaenyra for the throne. Yeah. That's why he was so hesitant in Rhaenyra's affections, that would CLEARLY benefit him, that's why he was so considerate, and cautious, and afraid and hopeful and tender. Yep, the throne. That was the WHOLE fucking point of Rhaenyra pursuing HIM instead of him pursuing her. To show that he wants HER and not the throne, he wants what's best for her and he wants to make sure that's what SHE wants. He's not trying to seduce her because it would come across as yet another plan to get the throne. His feelings are already clear, Rhaenyra knows it, we know it, we saw how depressed he was and we saw the longing in his glances and the tenderness in his words, we didn't need big rom-com déclarations. So, Daemon's motives aren't clear people? Really? WTF.

The dialogue before the sex scene was impeccable. The most romantic scene in the whole GoT universe. Let's talk about the actual sex scene. Yes it was short. Yes I don't care. Again, this is not a romance movie. The sex scene was extremely cute, appropriate for the CIRCOMSTANCES (FUNERAL HELLO) and the characters position in this particular chapter of the story, Rhaenyra is not a cheerful teen anymore and she gives the deadly victorious possessive look in the end that I personally loved. Yes it was short, but again, it's not an epic romance movie, it's Game of thrones and there are other, more important things to show than oral sex, sorry. Go watch porn.

The only complaint that is valid is the lighting. That was shitty.

[drpepperhateblog]

HOT D - The End

Remember before House of the Dragon came out when I listed my hopes for the show? 

I was skeptical of the series due to the fact that in the books all the characters are horrible, irredeemable people. While I could accept some outright villains on each side, I hoped the potential rulers, Rhaenyra and Aegon II would at least both be sympathetic, at least at the beginning.

Unfortunately, the Dyana scene has confirmed that they will not be doing that at all. House of the Dragon has instead chosen to make Rhaenyra more sympathetic and turn her into the protagonist of the story. While Alicent is more sympathetic in this version too, she is also not the ruler! There is no reason for the audience to root for the Green faction now. That sucks. That’s not “the human heart in conflict with itself”. You might as well replace the Greens with Sauron and they’d be about the same level of sympathetic.

What’s perhaps more striking is that they have not only chosen to not make Aegon II sympathetic, but they’ve outright made him even worse than his book counterpart.

With that being said, I have to write down all my thoughts.

The Dyana thing is infuriating. Aegon II is now confirmed to be irredeemable. Of course they had to go down the rape route. It wasn’t enough to have him be someone who sleeps around or is surrounded by sex workers á la Tyrion Lannister. The decision now means the only “right” thing to do is to support the Blacks, whereas in the books while everyone were fucking terrible, at least they were all terrible and didn’t receive clear favoritism as Rhaenyra very clearly gets here. It’s disappointing.

Targaryen memorabilia being replaced with stars of the Seven did not happen in the books as far as I know, and it’s quite obvious the showrunners want us to think Otto and Alicent do so because they’re the bad, ambitious, greedy, power-hungry Greens who want to replace the Targaryens with themselves. Boring! Suggestion on alternate ways to do this if they wanted to make it more interesting: Maybe have the Hightowers and other noble lords grow discontent with the Valyrian traditions, like the incest for instance, and be grossed out by it. This would however also require separating Aegon II and Helaena, so that would need to be rewritten if they wanted to go down that route. Or just, you know, don’t write it at all.

Happy to see Criston with the Morningstar that he was supposed to kill Joffrey Lonmouth with. But isn’t it a tad too dangeorus to use against an unarmored prince of the Iron Throne during practice? I do admittedly know nothing about weaponry however.

Why does Jace and Luke not get proper time to talk about the fact that they are bastards? Luke inheriting Driftmark that he knows he has no actual claim to. Jace being next in turn to the Iron Throne that he knows is not his, since he is a bastard. Surely they have some feelings about that?

Why does Rhaenys not advocate for Rhaena and Baela inheriting Driftmark? First off, she believes Daemon and Rhaenyra had her son killed. Explore that, properly. Secondly, Rhaenys was the eldest who was passed over in favor of a less competent and younger man. Laena was older than Laenor. Baela and Rhaena’s claims to Driftmark are just as good as Rhaenys’ (and Rhaenyra’s!) own to the Iron Throne. Instead she doesn’t even try to argue in favor of them but settles for a marriage match, when she knows that last time she did so HER SON DIED! When Laena married Daemon, she died due to his choice to stay in Pentos and not get help from physicians in Westeros (Rhaenys’ words, to be fair, Corlys claims the Pentos physicians are just as capable). When Laenor married Rhaenyra, she and Daemon ordered him to be killed (or so Rhaenys believed). Why on earth would Rhaenys think marrying her grandchildren to a family of people who caused the deaths of her own children is fine?

“I thought I wanted it” Rhaenyra tells her father regarding herself and the throne. Rhaenyra, you did not want the throne. You said so yourself, so many times that Criston even thought you’d be willing to run away from it.

Vaemond should have argued that he is a closer blood relation, being the Sea Snake’s brother rather than his grandson, and also that he is older and more capable. Book Vaemond could not really pull that argument as he was a nephew. But I guess Show Corlys is fine with his brother dying?

Daemon goading Vaemond into calling the Strong boys bastards makes no sense considering it undermines the claim of himself and Rhaenyra too.

Instead of Rhaenyra ordering Vaemond killed Daemon just straight up publicly executes him, because I suppose no one possibly could step in the way or ask the king for orders? The Kingsguard? This is a relative of the royal family! The silent five are also excluded for some reason. Likely because it shows that Rhaenyra is an awful person.

I guess the event where Alicent wears green and Rhaenyra wears black is just straight up removed.

Of course we had to add Aegon II being an ass at dinner. Lord forbid we give him good traits. Helaena also publicly insults her husband, because we needed additional reminders that Rhaenyra is the only good choice and the Greens are bad. Further attempts to make Rhaenyra look good by being the first to arise and compliment Alicent, despite the fact that Alicent’s strength is supposed to be that she is politically competent whereas Rhaenyra is not. At least they added Luke giggling at Aemond and his eyepatch, which does make his “Strong boys” toast a bit more justified. But again, why the hell is Aemond being made more sympathetic than Aegon II?

Excluding Rhaenyra and Alicent having different opinions on what maester should best treat Viserys was unfortunate in my opinion, especially when Daemon acts as if Otto and Alicent are drugging Viserys into being completely incapable.

Where the hell is Daeron?

Alicent misunderstanding Viserys does give her some additional reasons to crown Aegon II, which is nice. But they already have a good argument, and the show seems to forget that frequently: the Great Council of 101.

[hellsbellschime]

Hi!! I'm still consuming HOTD passively through my dash, and I haven't read the books, but I have a question. Rhaenyra will go on to have three male "trueborn" sons by Laenor before she marries Daemon, right? With their parentage being viciously defended from "slander" and all. Given that Daemon is pretty ambitious, wouldn't he see them as massive obstacles to his own kids by Rhaenyra inheriting the throne? They betroth Jacaerys to his daughter Baela, but would that be enough for him?

Well it's interesting, F&B is very low on character development and doesn't explain a lot about character motivation, at least to me it's very much like "this is what happened and that's it" (which is why the intensity of some people's concept of a character always throws me off), and the show is presenting Daemon in a very interesting light. He's a complete asshole and extremely ambitious, but there is a part of him in HotD that clearly genuinely cares for his family. He's manipulating Rhaenyra and Viserys but also sincerely loves them and isn't doing EVERYTHING he can to grab at power. And although it's hard to say what GRRM's intention was, this does make some sense to me in that even in F&B, if he really wanted the throne he probably could have gotten it earlier on. Unfortunately, Viserys and Rhaenyra are both easy targets in different ways, and realistically he could have offed Viserys and even Rhaenyra if he wanted it all to himself, and he didn't do that, which is something.

I do wonder what he would have done with Rhaenyra's first children, as I don't know if he was essentially waiting to cross that bridge until he came to it i.e. getting rid of dragonriders when you're at war is bad strategy, or if he would have made other moves to hamstring them/get his own children in power without killing Rhaenyra's other kids. I mean, given Blood and Cheese, it's obvious that if he has any familial love then it only goes so far, but for whatever weird as fuck reason it seems like the non-Hightower Targs never saw Alicent's branch of the family as "real Targaryens" so it's not hard to imagine Daemon feeling differently about Rhaenyra's children either.

[music-is-love-90]

This is the second post, following Joffrey Lonmouth.

Next in our parade of men, we come to Ser Criston Cole. He is saved from the title of Dumbest Man in Westeros only because Joffrey spilled the beans about his illicit love affair with the groom to clearly the most pissed off man in the room. Very Pretty. Very Dumb. RIP.

Of the three, Criston is obviously the one that pisses me off the most. I think it's mostly because he is every man who has ever decided he knows a woman simply because she happens to be sleeping with him. What's amazing about that is that he even admits he only "knows [her] a little". What's more amazing is that that "little" does not seem to include the fact that Rhaenyra wants to be Queen. She is honestly one of the most ambitious characters in the show, probably only second to Otto Hightower. Anyone who has spent five minutes with her should know that she will never be happy anywhere except on the throne. But here he comes, mister knight in shinning armor, with his "we can go to Essos and live off oranges" shtick and is shocked when she says no?!

Yes, Rhaenyra chaffes under the expectations of her role, but that does not equal that she would be willing to chuck it for a Knightsguard who broke his oath and is now suggesting he throw it out completely. She may not like all the things expected of her, but Rhaenyra knows her duty and she wants her throne.

What's more, his suggestion they run off together puts him firmly in the list of men who have tried to take Rhaenyra's power away from her.

In their current situation, Rhaenyra has all the power. She seems to genuinely like him and even care for him, but we never see him being given the opportunity to say no to her. His proposal switches that power dynamic on it's head. If she were to run away with him, she would be totally in his power. She has never lived as one of the small folk (as we clearly see when she visits Flea Bottom with Daemon. She doesn't even know she has to pay for food, much less how to survive in that world) and she would have to rely on him completely.

That is the moment his little fantasy falls apart. Rhaenyra is not built to be subservient to anyone. If he knew her at all, he would know that but that is arguably his greatest sin:

Criston Cole is living in the wrong genre.

He believes he is living in a fairy tale, where the pure knight gets to live happily ever after with his chaste princess. He can excuse the parts of the story that don't fit his narrative because, clearly, it's true love. But Rhaenyra knows what genre she's in, she knows that she was born to be Queen, and that, no matter how much she may like him, he will not put her on the Iron Throne.

She she says no. She's even kind about it, seeing no reason why they can't continue as they have been, and in the long tradition and history of men who are denied what they believe is theirs by right, he gets angry. He can't take that anger out on Rhaenyra directly, so he turns it on porr, sweet, dumb as a bag of bricks Joffrey, who has the audacity to suggest that this might work out for all of them. And, in a final act of "poor, cast aside me", he goes to commit suicide in a garden dedicated to gods he doesn't worship, but is shown to be a place of refuage and peace for Rhaenyra. One final temper tantrum to punish her for not chosing him over her birthright.

(If only Alicent had arrived a few minutes later. I jest! Well...)

Daemon will finish this essay I have written for no other reason than I am unhealthily obsessed with this show.

I'm awake and I have more to say. Shocker.

Let's talk about the three love interests.

(Not you, Harwin, sweetie. You are by far the least problematic, but you're also not really a love interest yet. That being said, we do love you so much.)

So, let's start with arguably the dumbest of the group (which is a pretty high bar, it must be said), Ser Joffrey Lonmouth!

This boy. This sweet, sweet summer child. This idiot of the first degree. He is standing in a room that contains Rhaenyra and Daemon making eyes at each other while Criston Cole stands to the side, brooding the brood to end all broods, and decides: "Ah, yes. She's fucking the guard."

Like, congrats. You did land on the right guy, technically, but you ignored the biggest threat in the room, which is what gets you the title of Dumbest Man in Westeros. Anyone who looked at Daemon and didn't think: "Wow, it's weird that the guy who is constantly out of favor with the crown and clearly wasn't invited this shindig just rolled up to the obvious displeasure of the King" while also trying to figure out who the Princess was really in love with just truly has failed in that moment.

But he does get points for trying to handle this diplomatically and, if he had actually gone to right guy, it probably would have worked! If he had gone to Daemon and said "Hey, I'm the guy Laenor is in love with and you're the guy Rhaenyra's in love with. Let's team up to keep them safe and our secrets safe", Daemon would have laughed, told him he was adorable, and left to go drag Rhaenyra out of the room to hash out the details.

But no, dumbest man in the Seven Kingdoms went to the clearly pissed off, scorned lover, and revealed all! For his crimes, he gets his head bashed in by the Psycho. Really, the true victim is Laenor, who really does not deserve any of this. He had a sweet deal going with Rhaenyra, it's just that he apparently likes them pretty and dumb.

This got really long. The other two will be in other posts.