#sorry i can't use rhaegor as the ship name; we'd need to diversify a little

[lemonhemlock]

maegor i and rhaena…I thought I was the only one who saw something in that 👀 I can totally imagine Maegor lowkey obsessed with his niece whilst she hates his guts, peak problematic romance ❤️ I kinda wish HOTD adapted the book from the beginning or at least from Aenys and Maegor’s era as I thought their sections were very entertaining. But I guess then we would have had to sit through Jaehaerys’ storyline which is less exciting imo. Would love a flashback episode or something.

MAENA is the OG Daemyra!! He kills her husband and takes the crown from her only to crown her again as his wife! Against all reason - she hates men! Don't tell me this is not unhinged yandere behaviour. ☠ It's like nothing but the first ever Targaryen girl born after the Conquest is good enough for him, Mummy's first choice of bride for her miracle dark magic baby! 🙏

There's no reason to believe that we won't get any more shows based off different time periods in Fire & Blood, but the problem with Maegor's storyline is that it's really, really brutal. While Henry VIII and his many wives are really popular material for screen adaptations, Maegor truly surpasses him in every way in terms of abuse and cruelty and I don't really think we need to see more stories based on brutality against women. At least when it's in print, you can fast-forward through the paragraphs, but would we really need to see what happens to Alys Harroway and her family in graphic detail?

One way to avoid this would, naturally, be to sanitize Maegor and make him less awful, but, again, that's not the point of him. He's not really called "the cruel" for nothing. I suppose it could work if you don't really show Maegor all that much and he just appears every now and then, focusing the story on Aenys' brood. But then again you wouldn't really be able to expand on his character.

My grand idea to adapt Maegor's story would be use the sitcom format, complete with laugh track, even when his lines are gruesome and not funny, and kept the brutality suggested in the background. It would amplify the horror in a more psychological way, as opposed to all the gore.