#well it's apparent that this is coming from the idea that rhaenyra apparently is “arrogant” (negatively esp)

[horizon-verizon]

NOTE TO SELF:

Seth Abramson Article "HotD Ryan Condal Responds to Criticism of the Season 1 Finale" -> basically how HotD is written disfavorably against both female characters in the most basic fiction writing way (active vs passivity making and breaking a character) AND inconsistencies of basic logic

My Post Questioning the Logic of Their Relationship

A List of Posts I Wrote against the Anti-Targ Sentiment

Incest in Old Vayria and Marriage

The Popularity of the Targs vs First Men/Andal History Pre-Targs

Somehow, the Targs are "Upstarts" (Against a Classist Take which reveals the fear of dragons and magic bc they are consistently shown to be dualittic instruments of freedom and destruction, thus out of the control of "mere" humans)

This One Post Written by Ozymalek about How Many Years Westeros Actually Had Peace Under the Targs (no infighting like what occurred BEFORE Aegon I conquered [not colonized] Westeros)

Ozymalek Dissecting Episode 6 and how Show!alicent Doesn't Compare to Book!Alicent (While episodes 6 & 7 were closer to the book!Alicent, she is still is the over-victimized/dumbed down version)

Against the Idea that Rhaenyra Had to What the Other Lords Thought She Should be, since They Already Think her unworthy based on her Gender

The Textual/Canonical Treatment of Alicent Reveals Misogyny from the Maesters and Larger Westerosi Society Against Her in a Multilayered Ironic Twist -> History barely remembers and the text/Gyldayn/maesters/society don't truly see her as a true threat, yet she directs the usurpation of Rhaenyra with her Wits by Acting within the Constraints of the Very PAtriarchy that will Belittle Her)

So Really, It's a Lot More Complicated than What is Being Lead Here

LOOk I’m not saying that the dragon show is perfect, but I’m tired of reading these takes about how the show doesn’t understand the source material. That it has a pro-Targ stance. How people can say that even after a finale where two Targs lose control of their fire-breathing nukes and end up jump-starting the bloodiest civil war in Westerosi history?? I don’t know.

People seem to think that the show has portrayed Rhaenyra as perfect (questionable) and the good guy, and wouldn’t it be better if they’d stayed more faithful to the source material where Rhaenyra was kinda awful and a terrible leader?

Here’s the thing about the source material okay (and I’ve seen surprisingly little discussion of this): F&B is written from the perspective of a Maester living in a world steeped in violent misogyny. Maester Gyldayn’s prejudice against women colors his interpretations of events. I think Martin expects the reader to engage with this aspect of the text. That not only are we dealing with three unreliable sources, but the narrator himself has his own prejudices. Women who birth trueborn male children are spoken of much more charitably than women who refuse to marry or exhibit any sort of sexual agency. In fact, any woman exercising sexual agency has been characterized as fickle, manipulative, or vindictive (e.g. Saera Targaryen, Rhaenyra, Alys Rivers, etc.). So we can’t take any of the Maester’s impressions about women at face value. This shit is subtextual and it is frustratingly ignored by A LOT of book readers. 

HotD is directly engaging with this latent theme in F&B. Which is GREAT and unexpected after the way GoT treated women. A lot of people seem to think that the show is pro-team black, but I think the show’s just pro-Rhaenyra (it’s also pro-Alicent, I’m sorry if you can’t accept this but Rhaenyra 👏and👏 Alicent👏 are👏 the 👏protagonists). Or at least it’s trying to portray her with more empathy and nuance. Book!Rhaenyra doesn’t have much agency. Daemon is the driving force behind everything she does. He teaches her how to have sex, he fights all the battles she wins; after Luke’s death she’s barely involved in the war. From the perspective of a misogynistic Maester this must be the truth. The show could’ve portrayed a more morally gray Rhaenyra but ultimately the writers decided to make this show about Rhaenyra and Alicent and their tragic, doomed love affair the disintegration of their relationship, as a commentary on how violent patriarchal systems ruin people even when they have generally good intentions. And show!Rhaenyra’s far from perfect, she’s arrogant, she (like her groomer uncle) has issues with consent, she absolutely takes advantage of her dumb dad’s callous treatment of everyone apart from her.

So the fucking white stag is the thing people bring up as an example of the the show picking Rhaenyra as the rightful ruler/ chosen one. But this ignores the context of the what happened before we see the white stag. Viserys’s hunting party has caught a normal stag, and we see him unwilling to kill it but caving under the pressure because that’s who he is as a person and as a king. Viserys hates violence but when it is expected of him he will enact it (cutting open his first wife to get an heir, committing marital rape on his second wife). Rhaenyra sees the white stag but she shows restraint. Her claim to the throne is already threatened by Aegon’s birth, killing the stag would have been as symbolic gesture to show the lords present at the hunt that her father had made the right choice when naming her as heir. But unlike her father (and her uncle) Rhaenyra does not believe in using violence as a show of strength (something that becomes relevant again in the finale).

The stag can’t be a sign that Rhaenyra is the divinely appointed ruler of Westeros because we (and the writers) know how this all ends. 

AND THEN there’s prophecy and the business with the dagger. Now we’ll have to see where they go with this (I think they have some coherent plan with this). But does the prophecy as the reason for Aegon’s conquest now cast Targaryen imperialism in a positive light? Well again, we know how the story ends. It was a dumb af ending but this is the prequel to GoT the show, so writers know how this ends. The Targs don’t do shit with this dagger. Their precious prophecy will be lost to time. The most they did was act as glorified couriers who brought the dagger from Valyria. All their ideas of grand destiny will amount to nothing. What do you call that? Dramatic irony? 

[anothersarcasticdolphin]

Some more fleshing out of the 5+1 Aemond fic idea. I plan to start writing this the coming weekend if I can, but if real-life stuff gets in the way it may be another week or so. Second Conquest will take a bit longer to get completely and properly outlined, so it will probably be a little bit before that fic gets started.

1. Driftmark - Oneshot - Aemond overhears Rhaena and Baela talking about how Rhaenys explicitly forbid them to try and claim Vhagar at this point - it’s too close to Laena’s death, and her dragon is still in mourning. This makes the already incredibly dangerous task all the riskier. Aemond just thinks they are cowardly womenfolk and decided to go try anyway - especially after some more explicit pink dread references. Aemond sets out as he does in the show and finds Vhagar, who shows little interest in him until he tries to climb on her. He does succeed in mounting her, but as she flies he loses his grip on the saddle and plummets to his death. Epilogue a year later with a distraught Alicent, her memories of the night brought back to the present by both the timing and the fact that Rhaena claimed Vhagar one year to the day that Aemond died trying.

2. Storm’s End (Butterfly’s Wing on Ao3) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45177862/chapters/113652772

3. King’s Landing - two chapters - The first chapter is Daemon contemplating the concept of revenge and Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship before giving the orders to have Aemond killed. He should go through the other potential victims in a cold detached manner, one after the other, before finally settling on Aemond. The second chapter is a small council meeting from Alicent’s POV. Aemond was supposed to be there, but the meeting is early in the morning so they just start - Aegon isn’t too great at attending these meetings. After the meeting Alicent goes with the intent of chastising him, and finds him dead, the servants not having dared to wake the apparently sleeping prince.

4. Rook’s Rest - three chapters - The first chapter is told by Criston Cole, who explains the green strategy and what happens on the ground - that it is a trap, that he has archers and scorpions waiting, as well as Sunfyre and Vhagar. The fight itself is incredibly quick from his perspective - Sunfyre is crumpled on the ground, dying/dead, with a terribly injured Aegon screaming even before he has really registered what has happened, before anyone on the ground can open fire. He watches Meleys and Vhagar dance for a bit, Meleys superior speed and agility coming into play, before what looks like a miss on Meleys part results in Vhagar just kind of wandering off. Criston is then terrified as Meleys makes short work of all the green forces on the ground. Second chapter is Vhagar’s perspective - she’s just flying around, thinking Sunfyre is an arrogant little brat when Meleys takes him out. Vhagar approves of that, but does humor her rider in his attempts to get revenge. Once he is killed by Meleys’ flames Vhagar is just sad and disappointed. All the anger was Aemond’s, and he is dead. Third chapter is Rhaenys - she goes through her methodical plan to separate and take out the two green riders. She dive bombs Sunfyre, having Meleys only release him when it is clear he will his the ground, and he does, hard. Hard enough to shatter his wingbones, which ends up cutting arteries and he dies soon thereafter. She then has a few problems with Vhagar, but does eventually use ‘energy fighting (basically dive bombing)’ to get a clean enough shot that Meleys can take out Aemond, even if Vhagar wasn’t even tickled. She then has a very nervous few moments before Vhagar leaves. After that, she turns her attention to Criston Cole’s soldiers and slaughters them.

5. King’s Landing - One chapter - This is by far the darkest of them all, somewhat modeled after my fic series mirrorverse. (Which is not HotD). Daemon puppets Aemond and they have a little conversation in front of the mirror as Daemon stretches Aemond a bit - he’s got some fighting to do (the kingsguard aren’t all sleeping) - before setting off. Daemon methodically butchers the greens - Aegon’s children, Helaena, some kingsguard, Aegon, Daeron, Otto, and Alicent. Daemon then turns the blade on Aemond.

+1. Dragonstone - Daemon and Aemond have a conversation before Viserys’ death which basically boils down to Daemon sees them as similar while also basically telling Aemond that he will kill him - and that doing so will be his first order of business -  if there is so much as a sniff of treason from the greens after Viserys’ death. Cut to after Aemond is told of Viserys’ death when he and Criston go out to search for Aegon. Aemond pauses for a moment, but then goes and gathers the crown, Ser Erryk, the sword, and Rhaenys. Ser Erryk takes the crown by sea while Rhaenys and Aemond take the sword by air - they won’t be able to hide who they are, and they want to make sure at least one of the two makes it to Rhaenyra. Instead of going to the dragonpit, Rhaenys calls Meleys to her in a moment similar to Daenerys in Meeren, and they escape from the red keep, Vhagar showing up partway to Dragonstone. Aemond informs Rhaenyra of Viserys’ death, hands her the sword, and pledges his loyalty to the queen.