#not to mention having to watch tyland mud wrestling in orientalisit exotic pirates of the caribbean land (apparently Lys?)

[nogoodsheepstealing-greatgrandma]

Missing Women of HOTD - Marilda of Hull

A familiar sight about her father’s shipyards, the girl was better known as Mouse, for she was “small, quick, and always underfoot.”

When Addam was ten and Alyn nine, their mother inherited the yards upon her own father’s death, sold them, and used the coin to take to the sea herself as the mistress of a trading cog she named Mouse. A canny trader and daring captain, by 130 AC Marilda of Hull owned seven ships, and her bastard sons were always serving on one or the other.

That Addam and Alyn were dragonseed no man who looked upon them could doubt, though their mother steadfastly refused to name their father. Only when Prince Jacaerys put out the call for new dragonriders did Marilda at last break her silence, claiming both boys were the natural sons of the late Ser Laenor Velaryon.

On Driftmark, the town of Hull experienced a rebirth. Scores of new ships were built and launched, and Lord Oakenfist’s mother greatly expanded her own trading fleets, and began work on a palatial manse overlooking the harbor that Mushroom dubbed the Mouse House.

On his tomb is engraved a single word: LOYAL. Its ornate letters are supported by carvings of a seahorse and a mouse.

The fleet set sail at mid-year, led by Oakenfist in a galley he named Bold Marilda after his mother.

I can't believe we had to sit through Sharako Lohar the cool lesbian slaver when we could have had this Queen instead.

Both her sons are so proud of their mother and she's clearly so important to them, it's so shitty the show erased her. And then there's 30-year-old Show Alyn giving a speech about going hungry just to rub the salt in the wound - because we can't have Bold Captain Marilda and her fleet of trading ships. It's not as though this season centered around a sea blockade or anything.

We could have had Marilda play an active role in that blockade. Though of course, the entire plotline of the famine in King's Landing was ridiculous. Most of their food comes from the Reach, the Breadbasket of the Realm, by Road. That was why there was a famine in the War of the Five Kings when the Tyrells blocked the Rose Road. But we all knew the writers hadn't really thought the famine through the moment the starving crowd started throwing food in protest-

But if we had to have it, then Marilda could have been the one tasked with delivering the food aid. Or if we focused on the actual effects of the blockade (its impact on trade of goods from the free cities, which would have been more luxury goods impacting the wealthier of King's Landing), we could have had Marilda being the liaison with other disgruntled captains and traders, or the one helping to keep them in line and not break the blockade.

Imagine also if we had a book-accurate depiction of the Sowing of the Seeds (no Squid-gaming a crowd of bastards into a room and ringing the dinner bell for a crazy religious ritual or whatever the show was going for in The Bells Round 2). If instead of divine intervention dropping a dragon on a passive Addam (and triggering Rhaenyra's descent into crazy cult leader apparently) he was actually able to be a character with agency - actively responding to Jace's call for dragonseeds and willing to take the risk. Because he's Bold Marilda's son.

We could have then had Corlys quietly begging Marilda to keep the boys parentage a secret so he doesn't shame the memory of his recently deceased wife. And Marilda says "sure no problem" and then turns around with the baldest of bald faced lies that the kids are Laenor's and watches the succession chaos unfold (until Book Jace of course saves the day with "Yay, new brothers! Please Mom can I keep them?"). Marilda stares Corlys down until he guiltily chimes in to request his 'grandsons' be legitimised.

We could have seen Marilda's guilt and grief at what happens to her bold and daring youngest son - an age-accurate Alyn (14) who eagerly tries to follow in his big brother's shadow and suffers burns for life. Heck, the show could have even paralleled Marilda and Addam at Alyn's sickbed with Alicent and Kylo Raemond at Aegon's sickbed - only with actual love in the room.

We could have had Marilda's pride at watching Addam legitimised and knighted, tainted by sadness at the cost to Alyn, but relief that both her sons survived. We could have had her keeping a recovering Alyn company while Jace trains with Addam and the other dragonseeds (replacing the little brother he lost). We could have had her be the one to confront Corlys for his absence. We could have had Corlys make it up to her by telling Alyn tales of his voyages, offering him an alternative path now that he can't join Addam as a dragonrider.

It would have been a hell of a lot more engaging than Dull 30-year-old Alyn having what feels like the same conversation with Corlys over and over again about that time he was the sailor who pulled him from the sea-

Or Less Dull But For Some Reason Younger Addam, who talks about wanting an opportunity for glory but ultimately is a passive character who gets a dragon landed on him. Contrast to Nice Man With Wife And Sick Daughter Hugh, and Funny Drunk Ulf - two white men who we are for some reason following instead of Nettles, and who actually get to make the active decision to go claim a dragon. Because they get to be written with motives and agency.

Considering the treatment of Laena, the erasure of Baela's personality, the decision to merge Nettles with Rhaena, the dullification of Alyn and Addam... and considering the rush to shower attention on Hugh and Ulf and genderbent Sharako Lohar and Gwayne Hightower of all people...

It does lead me to conclude that any potential interest the writers may have had in adapting certain characters... abruptly vanished the moment a certain casting decision was made.