#pro grrm

[coffeebooksrain18]

The way I've seen people say shit like "well he's entitled to his Headcanon I guess." As they're talking about GrrM as he talks about HIS STORY! Like it's not a Headcanon my guy, it's the author telling you the facts. You don't need to like it, but that doesn't change the facts.

[meanqueens]

ty grrm for my canon alicent crumb (alicent loved her family so much that it was her who organized jaehaera and maelor’s escape from king’s landing and refused to snitch on what happened to them)

[spacerockfloater]

Daily reminder that Sunfyre and Aegon won three battles against three dragons and survived them all. They were literally undefeated.

Say whatever you want about Aegon but that man dived head first into battle even if he was at the brink of death and emerged triumphant every single time.

Fire cannot kill a dragon and all that, I guess. Isn’t that right Targ stans?

[reyraereads]

There is something a bit disturbing how GRRM makes all the Greens disabled in some way.

Aemond loses his eye, Aegon gets crippled, Helaena loses her mind, and Alicent loses her mind towards her end. Jaehaerys has an additional finger and Jaehaera is ‘simple’ (when the girl is probably just quiet; she’s literally 7!!!!)

Larys has a club foot and Tyland is tortured to the point he’s blinded.

Whilst on the Blacks side there’s none of that even when they are conditions that would allow for it. Like, Baela is only mildly burnt from her dragon fight whilst Aegon breaks his legs. Especially considering that Aegon has been dragon-riding for at least a decade whilst book Baela had been a dragon-rider for a year.

And, Team Black fans eat up the ableism shit that GRRM throws at them. The ‘right side’ is the ‘beautiful’ able-bodied one that never gets crippled in any way whilst the ‘wrong side’ is the ‘ugly’ disabled one.

[coffeebooksrain18]

GrrM said what he said, and he meant what he said. Get over it TB, he won't change his mind just cause you throw your tantrums and throw your phones. He's the author, not you, not HBO, and most definitely not fucking Ryan Condal or Sara Hess!

King Aegon

Queen Helaena

Rhaenyra

*that’s it that’s the post*

[kass-of-the-midlands]

Elia Martell // Sansa Stark

[i-am-traveling-the-multifandom]

In GRRM's post (on Aegon's nameday):

He used 'queen' 6 times. 5 times for Heleana and once for Alicent.

He mentioned that Maelor was a very important person in the dance even though he was just a child.

He confirms that Heleana and Aegon are the biological parents of Jaehaerys, Jaehaera and Maelor (not Aemond).

He mentions that Heleana was loved by the smallfolk.

All in all we feasted today

[wishesofeternity]

The thing about HotD is that it while it absolutely minimizes the agency and ambition of both Rhaenyra and Alicent, this is specifically used to glorify Rhaenyra and frame her as righteous while condemning Alicent and framing her lacking. That's the key difference in both their textual portrayals that has directly led to 90% of the fandom hailing Rhaenyra as the second coming of Christ while spewing the most hateful vitriol at Alicent just for existing. But y'all are not prepared for that conversation.

[the-daily-dreamer]

Well well well… GRRM confirmed team 💚? ✔️✅✔️✅

GRRM SAID HELAENA THE BELOVED & RHAENYRA THE REVILED

I DONT WANT TO HEAR ANYMORE MAESTER THEORY. GRRM HIMSELF CONFIRMED RHAENYRA WAS HATED AND ITS NOT HISTORY WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS OR BY ANTI-TARG MAESTERS.

GRRM wrote this story to show that both sides were capable of evil and corruption, both sides had innocents who paid the price, and BOTH sides had a reason to fight. The reduction and changes by the writers to preserve the image of team black has even disappointed the creator of this universe! Because important character traits and plot lines have been destroyed and lost their impact and for what?

To push a “feminist” narrative of a toothless heroine in Rhaenyra. As opposed to a real story about the cost of power and war.

[hed184]

One of the worst parts of the "Aegon the rapist" scenario is that it was just an expository plot device that didn't add anything to the characters or the discourse about sexual harassment:

1) We didn't learn anything about Dyana's personality and how the rape affected her in the long term.

2) We don’t know how she deals with her trauma after the violation.

3) We don't see how other maids reacted when they found out one of their own was assaulted by their powerful boss, and they can be the next target.

4) We don't see how her co-workers or family members reacted to her leaving her job with a bag full of coins. Did they believe her story? Or did they believe she sold herself? How did people's opinions effect her?

All of this is left up to speculation on the part of the audience which is lazy writing on the part of the writers. Not to mention, the framing of the scene makes it clear that the scene was not about the victim. Hell, it wasn't even about the rapist. It was about Alicent and *her* reaction to the rape! And even then, it didn't effect her or her relationship with Aegon in any meaningful way!

[coffeebooksrain18]

The way TB must have been having the tantrum of their life when GrrM said.

"Helaena was loved by the small folk., and Rhaenyra was not"

Like sorry that you upset, but the Author said what he said, you can't be upset, it's his story he knows how it goes.

[dreamfyre-beautiful]

A massive problem I have with the writers of HOTD is they are not following GRRM writings. GRRM has said he doesn’t want a black and white story, there is not good guy in his story.

To frame one side as the better is the wrong interpretation of his writings and showcases how misunderstood his story telling is by the writers of HOTD.

Considering the writer himself has said that blood and cheese was green propaganda says the bias he already has for the other side.

[drakaripykiros130ac]

More and more I see people questioning how the Blacks didn’t outright win and destroy the Greens in one go with all the advantages they had.

The answer is simple: The Greens were protected by plot armor.

GRRM gave the Blacks almost everything they could ask for (thereby favoring them):

1. The best allies (the Winter Wolves, the Lads, Cregan Stark, Jeyne Arryn, etc.)

2. The most Houses supporting Rhaenyra’s cause (53)

3. The largest territories (the North, the Vale and the Riverlands)

4. The largest and best fleet (commanded by the Velaryons)

5. The Velaryon fortune

6. The most dragons

Normally, with all these advantages, they should have won the war with their hands tied behind their backs. The Greens only had home-field advantage (King’s Landing) and Vhagar. That’s pretty much it.

But of course, GRRM wanted it to be a more balanced war, and despite giving the Blacks plenty of advantages, he protected the Greens so the story can actually take place.

1. There is just no way that Aegon the Usurper could have survived everything he endured (Rook’s Rest, and then battling with Baela etc.) In my opinion, he was one greenie who was definitely protected by plot armor.

2. Daemon using B&C to only kill one of Aegon’s heirs instead of eliminating everyone in that tower is also kind of plot armor for the Greens. There is no way that he wouldn’t have taken advantage to have everyone in that tower killed. It would have weakened the Greens considerably (not to mention that Alicent was the “brains” behind the operation).

3. Then you have Rhaenyra sparing Alicent after she took King’s Landing (the woman who bullied her as a child and stole her throne) for some dumb reason like “My father loved you so I am doing this for him”. Yeah right…With how much Rhaenyra hated the woman, she wouldn’t have hesitated to chop her head off.

4. For some reason, Rhaenyra decides to go to Dragonstone after the storming of the Dragonpit, instead of the Vale. Another plot convenience for the Greens. The Vale was obviously the best place to go. The Greens wouldn’t have been able to touch Rhaenyra there. The Arryns would have protected her and her child, until Cregan Stark arrived and dethroned the usurper. Happy ending, the end. But yeah, it’s Asoiaf. There are no happy endings, and GRRM had to give Rhaenyra a tragic end.

All in all, the Greens survived as long as they did because of plot armor. No, they were not politically savvy (believe it or not, that’s Daemon. He managed to convince the Red Kraken to side with the Blacks and didn’t really offer him anything in return).

Otto was a terrible Hand who got fired twice, Criston Cole was another terrible Hand who was all muscle and had no political intelligence (or any kind of intelligence), Alicent was a manipulating and greedy shrew hiding behind her sons, Helaena was completely useless, Aegon didn’t know what the hell he was doing or why he was doing it, and Aemond was a brainless psycho on the biggest dragon in existance.

Oh, and there’s also Daeron the Forgotten, who after torching Bitterbridge, managed to get himself killed by a fallen tent.

[darklinaforever]

So many people purposely fail to understand that Jaehaera's death is necessary to the plot and message of GRRM. The line of usurpers must be exterminated, it is the karmic punishment of the Greens. She even gets killed by a direct member of this team it seems to me, which makes the message all the clearer. But obviously, everyone who is against the death of this little girl simply thinks that both sides were in the same wrong and that the forgiveness of the two lines must be done through the lasting marriage of Aegon III and Jaehaera. What bullshit. The Greens were the villains. That's all. It's that simple. They were not on the same level as the Blacks. We are not in a story where each Team is equal and where the sins (being apparently all on the same level) committed by their parents / families, will be forgotten, redeemed and forgiven through the union of their children. Hell, it's not a story of enemy clans that is resolved by marriage between the descendants of the two families. Is it crazy that so many geks don't understand this ?!

[spacerockfloater]

hi! i noticed you learnt about what ryan condal said regarding blood and cheese. it was…something. i would like to know your thoughts on the matter. though it would be completely understandable if you need sometime to gather them together or if you would rather not at all! thank you and bye!

Hello beloved, thank you so much for asking me! I’d love to share my opinion!

If anyone’s wondering, @rhaenelle is referring to this interview where Ryan Condal essentially says he believes that Blood & Cheese’s brutality and heinousness was exaggerated by the Greens in a propagandistic attempt to convince their subjects that Rhaenyra and Daemon are the worst villains ever born, hence why he toned the event down; to show us what he thinks is the accurate version of Jaehaerys’ murder.

Now, I am aware that Condal had already warned us that HOTD was going to be a feminist retelling of the events of F&B, which practically means that his plan has always been to whitewash the everlasting fuck out of Rhaenyra. So what do I think about this?

Well, for starters, I think that Ryan Condal is an excellent businessman. He knows what kind of tropes are going to make the audience engage with his show. He understands that people need a hero to cheer for and a villain to hate, therefore he removed the moral ambiguity from all of the characters and divided them into two categories: the Blacks, enlightened revolutionaries full of passion, deserving of admiration and correct in everything they do, and the Greens, pious fools with a moral superiority complex who are stack in the ways of the past and commit despicable crimes. The average viewer does not possess the intelligence to comprehend that both parties have their good and bad moments, and that they’re both correct in fighting for what each believes is rightfully theirs. Simultaneously, he benefits from the modern trends that want women in media to take revenge when they are wronged and emerge as triumphant girlbosses, because of course a white upper class woman’s suffering in a western world (or Westeros) society has everything to do with her gender and nothing to do with her personality or decisions (even if this works solely for Rhaenyra, because Alicent seems to be held accountable for every single one of her actions). Finally, it is obvious that Condal is trying to appease disgruntled Daenerys fans, so he has rebuilt Rhaenyra into this tortured martyr that wishes to change the world for the better in an attempt to make her resemble her great granddaughter six times removed.

For all of these reasons, I find it very logical that he is going out of his way to minimise the tragedy the Greens experience. It just doesn’t make Rhaenyra look good and honestly, who wants that? The producers saw how unhappy Danny’s stans were when they made her lose her shit; they’re not going to make the same mistake twice. They don’t want their show to tank like the last season of GOT did, so they’ll do everything in their power to keep the audience happy. And it’s working! What’s the last thing Condal says in this clip? “You kinda start rooting for [Blood and Cheese]!” and boy oh boy, the TB stans sure do! Literally hundreds of memes that rejoiced at Jaehaerys’ death were posted on X this week, with tens of thousands of likes. But when Lucerys died, it was presented as the most foul thing to ever happen in the ASOIAF universe. It is the TB supporters that dictate which child murder is good and which is bad, and that decision usually depends on which child came out Rhaenyra’s womb, not let’s say, the fact that one kid was a toddler that could barely walk, while the other was a teenager that laughed at the disabled person he mutilated himself.

It’s all just marketing

That being said, I want to clarify that I understand why Condal and the HOTD producers do what they do, but being a good entrepreneur does not necessarily make you a literary genius. Now, I’m not gonna explain why stripping Rhaenyra off of every character trait that made her interesting is a bad decision and that in their attempt to remove the blame from her so that they can elevate her as this righteous patron of feminism, they’re accidentally removing all of her agency and turning her simply into a victim, because I have a whole blog dedicated to that. But let’s just say that presenting Rhaenyra as this sexually liberated idol that’s incapable of evil, when in fact she’s an entitled aristocrat who’s completely at the mercy of men around her, from her father to her husbuncle, is the most performative activism move ever pulled in recent TV history, as well as pushing the narrative that Alicent suffers from internalised misogyny because duh, a woman can only be good and a feminist if she supports Rhaenyra, not when she pursues her own interests.

Ultimately, I think we just have to accept that this show is not meant for TG fans. We are not going to find any satisfaction in it. Everything that was unique and admirable about the Greens in the book has vanished. Their family dynamic is fucked up, Alicent’s children hate her, Aegon and Halaena cannot stand one another, Alicent is constantly a victim and never someone that chases her own ambitions, Halaena is very vague, Aemond appears to be more angsty than angry, Aegon is a stupid rapist, Jaehaerys’ death was turned into a mockery, Alicole was weaponised in order to make us shit on Alicent and Criston even more and so on. This show barely caters to us because we’re not making them any money.

The reason that there are more TB than TG stans is because (I’m gonna get so much fucking hate for this) most people who watch TV are fucking morons. I swear, when F&B came out 6 years ago, no one gave a flying fuck about Rhaenyra, because we all understood that everyone involved in the Dance of the Dragons was fucked up in their own way and that the message of this story, just like the general message of ASOIAF, is that nobody deserves to sit on that fucking throne. We were all in agreement about that. But then this fucking show came along and all the oblivious simpletons that swallowed whatever the producers shoved down their throats, grabbed the book and decided that “Woah, this book is obviously a critique on patriarchy and Rhaenyra is obviously the victim of the story”! As if GRRM, the man who said that he doesn’t sit down and think “Oh, I’m going to write a woman now” but instead he believes women to be people just like men, with complex personalities, would ever do that. And they just can’t believe that it is possible for book!Rhaenyra to be an evil racist classist full of entitlement! Surely it must be because the Greens are rewriting history! There’s no way GRRM, the man that created Cersei fucking Lannister, would ever make a female character that’s vicious and crazy just because she feels like it! Y’all need to sit down for a moment. I say this as a radical feminist that supports the 4B movement: you’re projecting your own ideas onto George’s work. Not all the media we consume has to reflect our ideologies, but if you think that it has to, then this book isn’t the anti misogynistic masterpiece you wish it was.

Like, when it comes to F&B, I am firmly anti Targaryen and did not wish for any side to win. I wanted them all wiped out to be honest. But when it comes to HOTD, I’m TG basically out of spite at this point.

All in all, I just think that things are going to go downhill for us from this point on. They’ll just keep glorifying the Blacks until the very end.

[reyraereads]

You know shout out to @aifsaath & @gwenllian-in-the-abbey for this genius line — “In the privacy of their chambers, Rhaenyra had never referred to Queen Alicent as anything but ‘the concubine.”

Because Team Black Stans talk about Alicent as though she’s a concubine or expect her to be one.

The way they say Aemma is ‘classier’ or ‘better’ for a woman that in canon was Queen for 3 years vs. Alicents’s 23 years. These people have internalized misogyny when talking about Targ women. Same to Targ men, Targ stans see Targ women as breeding machines for pure-Targaryen children. It’s actually so insidious.

Because what class and grace did Aemma have? She was married at 11, birthed Rhaenyra at 15, and dead at 23. Unlike, Alicent she wasn’t beloved by the smallfolk (no where in the text even says anything about Aemma’s queehood). Like, no shade on Aemma but we know nothing about her other than her suffering in her pregnancies. If Targ stans think all that suffering was worth the ‘pure’ Targaryen Rhaenyra; then they need help.