That sex scene was wasted on Criston Cole and it should have been Ser Harwin like the book suggested.

They even nod to it in the very same episode! Why????

Harwin/Rhaenyra were underdeveloped and it would have added to the tragedy of Rhaenyra then being forced into a match that would not give her heirs — one that she actually fought against in the book partially for that very reason.

Rhaenyra and Cole's fallout would have gone the same way if he'd simply discovered Rhaenyra with Harwin and Rhaenyra had invoked her authority over him for the very first time to order him to keep quiet. Had she put him in a position where he was torn because he is Rhaenyra's protector and he did vow to protect secrets but officially he's sworn to the King, not the Princess.

It still would have knocked Rhaenyra off of Ser Criston's "good woman" pedestal. It would have emasculated a man like Ser Criston for a girl to give him an order like that, for her to then use Ser Harwin or Daemon as a threat to back that order. It would have made him realize he didn't want to answer to a "bad woman" when she ascended the throne. And hey, you could even throw some pining and jealousy in there and make him feel betrayed in that regard.

This scene, and how it gives Alicent 'justification' for her turn against Rhaenyra, would have gone almost the exact same way.

"Oh, no! But what would motivate him to crush Joffrey's skull at a banquet?"

Crazy idea, why don't we consult this handy book full of great recommendations? It's called Fire and Blood!

Where Rhaenyra gives her favour to Harwin rather than Cole for the first time, and Cole shifts his allegiance to "good woman" Alicent. Where Cole channels his rage through tourney fights and it's left ambiguous both in and out of universe whether he consciously meant to kill Laenor's champion or was just raging at him within 'acceptable confines' with no real goal?

Actually... that would make more sense! And bonus, we wouldn't need to deal with all these willfully uncharitable misinterpretations about Rhaenyra and Cole that attempt to vilify her sexuality. I mean, people would still vilify her sexuality, but at least we wouldn't need to deal with the honestly irresponsible 'coercion' arguments.

Wait... this scene has even more behind it now!

Huh, isn't it strange? That changing plot points to better align with the book doesn't seem to change the story overall? That in fact, it seems to make the bigger story make more sense overall? Hmm... I wonder why that is?

If you had the chance to change something about the dance of the dragons (TV show or book), what would it be? For example, how a character dies, which team a house is on,or an entire character personally. How would you change it to make the story better, in your opinion?♥️🖤💙💚

Thanks for the ask anon and sorry that it took me this long to reply. This is a tricky one and this can be long.

House of the Dragon is a complete mess and a mediocrity of a show on every level, except for the acting. The writing is at an abysmal level, and I am convinced that it only got the interest and the rating it got thanks to the fact that it is under GoT's umbrella. And the fact that the showrunners/writers decided to be ungrateful and to insult the very show thanks to which their shitty fanfiction is even relevant, tells me everything I need to know about the arrogance and the ignorance existing behind this travesty of a show. The showrunners/writers seem to have completely misunderstood the themes of The Dance dealing mainly with class stratification, the corruptible nature of power, the consequences of blind ambition, and the pitfalls of unchecked privilege, reducing it all to a dumbed-down and pandering fanfiction in which tokenism, outdated and bigoted caricatures, and banal depiction of sexual assault are used casually as tropes, while pretending to write a 'feminist' or a 'progressive’ show. So, for House of the Dragon, EVERYTHING is to be changed.

Rhaenyra should have never been written as the main protagonist: From Episode one, we already have a failure in our hand with the writing as the showrunners decided to solely use Rhaenyra as our main protagonist in a show that is supposed to depict a severe and ineluctable succession crisis at the top of the Kingdom, resulting in the splintering and in the factionalism of the ruling family. Because, at the heart of this story, this IS the main thematic of the Dance - the civil war that will be tearing the ruling family at the head of the Realm apart and, consequently, the Realm itself apart (except for Dorne which was not yet part of the Seven Kingdom). We should have had different POVs to illustrate the deep divide that have been festering within the Targaryen clan itself and POVs from some of the closest families around them helping them rule. So, if it was me writing this, the POVs would have been: • Alicent - for the Hightowers POV, to see things through her lends and because of the important role she will have as a Queen in the future and as the head of one of the factions. • Rhaenyra - She will be the heir, one of the main claimants to the throne, and the head of the other main faction. • Daemon - self-explanatory. Playing his own partition/having his own ambition and need to be in power. • Corlys - to have a POV for the Velaryons and to highlight their side of the story and their narrative as a clan close to power. I would have made the Velaryons more politically savvy and Corlys primarily working with the sole perspective of preserving and consolidating the Velaryons' place of power/closeness to the Throne. As a whole, the Velaryons and Corlys' allegiance will clearly and only be for the Velaryon's name and clan. I would also use that POV to illustrate the Velaryons tinge of resentment towards Viserys and towards the dismissive way House Targaryen have treated them since Aemon's death. • Criston - POV of a lower-class man of Dornish descent getting into the heart of power and having to navigates its difficulties with his set of believes and morals, and how being in the middle of all this impacts his decisions and his ambition for the ascension of House Cole to a more prominent social status.

Using Season 1 as a set-up Season and not rush with catastrophic and mismanaged times skips: Season one should have really been a set-up season, taking the time to really put the foundations into place, while having enough belief in the story to give it the time needed to develop naturally. I believe that it is important to pose the base that the fracture in the clan Targaryen and with the Velaryons have been created since Aemon Targaryen's death which, according to me, is truly the start of this whole succession crisis. The Dance is just the poorly managed resultant of the whole process, seeping through several generations of resentment and hatred for one another. This will also completely negate all the stupid arguments I have seen online of 'if Viserys had married Laena, all this will not have happened'. This is because the show writers have failed the only-show fans who have no clues that the Velaryons have already threatened war during the whole Rhaenys vs Viserys ordeal. It would also emphasise the reason why it was important for Viserys to not shun the Velaryons and to keep a close alliance with them and would explain the reason why Vaemond became that adamant and not too keen on letting Rhaenyra's bastard usurp their ancestral throne. If only the Velaryons were taken seriously by the writers and not solely used as tokens and brownie points to prop-up Saint Rhaenyra?

Being aware of tokenism, bigotry and of anachronistic representations: This show seems to have been written by people who appear completely oblivious to how careful they should have been with how to manage negative stereotypes.

Avoiding Tokenism: From a standpoint of a Black woman like myself, the way the Velaryons were written was quite insulting. The showrunners/writers seem completely oblivious to how bad it looked to have the only House cast as Black being completely subservient, usurped and abused by their white-coded Targaryen counterparts, with no protest from most of them. The only one of them who protested – Vaemond - was villainised by the narrative and was made to say a misogynistic slur to justify his murder in open court. Murder which has no further consequence in the narrative. These showrunners/writers seem to not understand the racial implications that this casting choice creates in this world and seem completely ignorant to how to organically integrate that change into the narration and how to prevent stereotyping those race-swapped characters, so to not reduce the Velaryons to mere tokens. As a result, the writing made the Velaryons act like complete idiots devoid of any sense of pragmatism, strategic mindset, or political intellect, in a world that literally demands those characteristics of the people playing the game of throne. And the way Rhaenyra’s relationship to them was written also reeks of racist undertones. Overall, the way the Velaryons were written just demonstrates the ignorance and the shallowness we have behind this show and highlights the fact that the race-swapping was only made for aesthetic purposes and for some veneer of visual racial diversity.

And the best example to illustrate that vile treatments of the Velaryons is the way Laena and her daughters were written - not that Laenor or Corlys or Vaemond were spared either - but the treatment inflicted onto those female characters, now made WoC, represent better the showrunners/writer’s deep misogynoir, to which I am sure, they are completely oblivious. Laena's role and arc in the source material was completely butchered and diminished, by rewriting and reducing a feminine, beloved and desired (in her marriage to Daemon) woman - seduced and brazenly wanted by Daemon as his wife in F&B - into some teenager seducing the grown man Daemon, all while he only had eyes for the White girl Rhaenyra, actively feeding into the stereotypes about girls of colour growing up faster, having to be needy and desperate for men attention, and having to seek out male attention to be noticed. I mean, as if Laena was not beautiful enough for a man to notice her without her having to throw herself at him? But it doesn't stop there. They managed to erase her relationship with Rhaenyra, reducing it all to some repulsive scenario of pitting two women against each other for a man, the complete opposite of what happened in the source material, in addition of making Laena the ‘other woman’, the lesser desired one, and the unwanted wife, in her relationship with Daemon. And let not forget the trauma-porn inflicted on her WoC body in that violent and traumatic death, which is a complete bastardisation of an invented only-show concept of “a woman dying a dragon rider death” - whatever that means. Apparently, once Laena became mixed-race in the show, she became some thirsty, miserable, completely isolated woman, willing to go along with only being good enough as a second choice to her white husband, and dies violently by suicide instead of the beloved and cherished woman full of strength and humanity we have in her white woman depiction from F&B. The same abhorrent treatment was inflicted onto Baela and Rhaena, both written as some wallpapers and empty headed mute dolls with no layered personalities and no real wants of their owns, just willing to go along with anything, even to their own detriment (this includes Rhaenyra’s bastards sons taking precedent over them for Driftmark), as long as it favors and bolsters the causes and the ambition of Rhaenyra - the woman their father married just few weeks after their mother's funeral.

Avoiding Bigoted depictions:

a) Some of the tokenism arguments can also be applied to the showrunners/writers’ decision to depict Ser Criston Cole as a brown man of Dornish descent, which already comes with its own in-world racial undertones, while being very hell-bent on portraying his character as an emotional, thuggish, and resentment-driven character, who got his positions as hand-me-downs from two white women, instead of the intelligent, calculated man, always in control of his emotions, and above all, driven by ambition, and who got to the highest position of knighthood in Westeros by the merits of his own competence, as he was described as in his White-coded version in F&B. This illustrates once more the showrunners/writers’ incapability of understanding the tokenistic nature of their racial representation. Also, maybe unaware, and oblivious to their own bigotry on display in what they were implying here, the showrunners/writers went with the problematic trope of the savage, misogynist, and violent brown man for this character. And the fact that they decided to deliberately frame this brown man as some misogynist and vindictive man, unreasonable and unjustified in his anger towards his sexual predator when he is the victim of sexual assault in that “Rhaenyra’s sexual empowerment” episode, just disgusts me. As if his feelings and the shame he felt from the whole ordeal the next day, as a person, was to be dismissed or worst, mocked. The optics of the showrunners narratively dismissing his trauma while they have decided to change his race in the show, just highlights once more the racist undertone we have in the writing of some of the characters in this show. It also illustrates how out of touch the people behind this show are when it comes to representing power and racial dynamisms in a sensible way.

b) Larys Strong is the first disabled character we see on screen with his clubfoot and someone in the writing room though that it was a great idea to then transform him into some deviant sexual predator who gets off by fetishizing FEET. You cannot make this up! The showrunners/writers also butchered his character by making him the confirmed and sole murderer of his father and brother, when in the books, 3 other characters, Corlys, Viserys and Daemon, were also plausible culprits for that crime - but they are all Team Black so better whitewash them all and put it all on the disabled and only Team Green character that was also under suspicions for this murder. And all to see Alicent’s feet, ladies, and gentlemen! Instead of the enigmatic, calculated, and ambitious character we have depicted in F&B, the showrunners/writers made Larys Strong into some outdated caricature and despicable representation of a disabled character, embodiment of all of the devious and negative traits, by equating being disabled with being devious in morality and mentally. It is just a vile way to represent disabled characters, quite akin to the way they were viewed in medieval times as bearer of bad intentions/evilness, which also confirms the ableism and the hollow activism we have behind the scenes of this show.

Avoiding anachronistic representations:

a) Equating Alicent to a 'Woman for Trump' - a misogynist and reductive slur used within a very 21st century USA political discourse - while portraying a woman supposed to be within a setting mirroring medieval Europe, just shows the lack of culture, and of historical knowledge we have in this writers’ room.

b) Anachronistic girl boss characterisation: Rhaenys is written as a vessel to peddle nonsensical 21st century notions of White feminism, a hollow wannabe and anachronistic girl boss, spouting anachronistic speeches, while the show completely removed any agencies from most female characters, and took strong female characters from the original story and turned them into some victims of situations, none of their own doing of course, who constantly cry and are afraid of making any decisions, all while most of their negative traits are given to the male characters, absolute monsters and responsible for all woes that afflict the female characters. Also, Rhaenyra is whitewashed into some girl boss and some absurd notion of a ‘modern politician’ - modern in which historical period, no one knows – who spouts drivels like ‘when I am queen, I will make a new order’, to brazenly pander to Daenerys’ fanbase, when both women are nothing alike, except for the fact that both are Targaryen women.

4. Follow the source material and not thematically rewrite the Dance:

No Aegon I prophecy or dream. Maintain the Targaryens as the ruthless colonialists they are instead of trying to justify their reason to brutally colonise a whole continent. As a person from the African continent, this is not the kind of rhetoric I would like to see peddle, justifying colonisation in the name of some superior purpose.

No white stag apparition coming to anoint our Saint Disneyesque Girlboss Rhaenyra to rule. This is insulting to the intellect of people who want to see complex storytelling.

Completely rewrite the dreadful Episode 9 and make it as close as possible to the book’s depiction of the Green Council.

No Girlboss moment for Rhaenys, murdering hundreds of peasants and ruining Aegon’s coronation.

Erasing that bullshit about Alicent confusing Viserys last words and make the Green reason to crown Aegon and Helaena based on tradition and precedents, as in F&B, and not based on some feeble concept such as the King’s word. We are not in an Absolute Monarchy here, but the uncultured idiots we have behind this show don’t even know the difference.

Not erasing fat women representation with Rhaenyra and Helaena when you claim to be such ‘feminist’ and ‘inclusive’ show. Where is the inclusion of different female body shapes? Or are they not worthy of representation? Instead, we have one of your showrunners (the incompetent Sara Hess) using fatphobic language to make it seem like it is weird for a woman’s body to evolve after several pregnancies.

Showing women on the Green side (Alicent or Helaena) going through their pregnancies and giving birth.

Not erasing Helaena in her own coronation.

Not infantilising Helaena and making her a side character in some other characters story (Aegon, Jace).

Showing the Green kids with their dragons in Season 1. As it was portrayed in HotD, most casual viewers don’t realise that in real Targaryen fashion, those kids should have their dragons around them in most official displays (side eyeing the whole dragon pit debacle here).

Where is Sunfyre and a clear view of Dreamfyre?

Making Vhagar roar when Aemond eye was slashed.

Making one of the adult correct Baela’s and Rhaena’s wrong assumption that Aemond stole Vhagar. Why did the incompetent showrunners/writers even insinuate that foolishness in the first place without having one of the adults rectify the Dragon lore? We all know that it was to paint Aemond as the villain in this situation.

Making it more evident that Rhaenyra meant torture when she said, ‘sharply questioned’.

Why was Daeron and Maelor absent?

Not making the Dragon/owner bond murkier with that shitty and useless singing session from Daemon in Episode 10, when it is canon that one rider cannot have 2 dragons at the same time to ride. Surely Daemon, as verse into Valyrian lore as they proclaim him to be, should be aware of that. This is just confusing the casual viewers.

Using Mushroom's accounts for both the Greens and the Blacks – if I am using them at all.

Not erasing Mysaria’s miscarriage as it is part of her characterisation.

Not claiming to wanting to make a 50/50 adaptation when BTS the showrunner Ryan Condal is using gobbledygook such as ‘they made Aegon usurps his sister Rhaenyra’s throne’, when, by all Westerosi tradition and precedents, Aegon could not usurp what is already lawfully his as the first-born son of the King.

For the book version of the Dance, I don’t have much to change to be honest:

I would have significantly toned down the Daemon’s fest.

I would have made the Velaryon more neutral or playing both sides, with a strategic splitting of the House to support both sides.

I would have made some of the Houses change team, like for example, making the Royces in the Vale side with the Greens, splitting the allegiances in the Vale, to better illustrate how profoundly divided the whole Realm becomes with the war of succession.

The Redwynes (which I would have made the maternal side of Alicent) and most of the Reach would have sided with the Greens.

I would have betrothed Daeron to one of the other powerful Houses in the Reach.

No Wolf Hour.

No army pulled out of nowhere in the Riverlands after Aemond reduces them to crisp. Instead, some part of the Vale army would make the bulk of it.

Finally, no Jaehaera death. That was just petty and quite stupid writing from GRRM with no logical justification as to why she needed to die. No need for the “most sexy 6 years old” to ever exist in the story.

Jaehaera and Aegon III will have their children, who mostly have no real impact on the Targaryen line anyways, apart from Daena the Defiant who gave birth to House Blackfyre.

Продолжаю читать ретро-мистику для успокоения нервов и просто так.

"Живописец Шалкен" Шеридана Ле Фаню.

Рассказ - из тех вещей, где действие происходит не в родной для него Ирландии, а в Европе, в Голландии. Я, к слову, "ирландские" вещи Ле Фаню в среднем люблю меньше, потому что в них он часто словно бы ленится и просто обыгрывает какие-то местные предания. Не знаю, лежат ли в основе "Живописца Шалкена" какой-то голландский фольклор, вай бы и нот, но здесь сюжет выглядит достаточно интригующе. История повествует о том, как к племяннице богатого художника, у которого главный герой, Шалкен, был в учениках, посватался при загадочных обстоятельства странный мужик стремной наружности и при том явно очень богатый. Шалкен к тому времени был влюблен в девушку и планировал на ней женится, когда разживется деньгами, она будто бы отвечала ему взаимностью. Вскоре после свадьбы становится ясно, что что-то тут нечисто. Спойлерить сильно не буду, но судя по некоторым деталям девушка была в этой истории отнюдь не пассивной жертвой, а была в сговоре со своим богатым женихом (либо как минимум была не настолько против этого брака, как показывала в начале). История понравилась в том числе тем, что по ней напрашивается фанфик, объясняющий в подробностях, что там у них произошло-то. Также она может приглянуться любителям тропа "Красавица и чудовище", потому что те самые ДЕТАЛИ дают, имхо, повод для спекуляций на тему.

"Завещание сквайра Тоби" Ле Фаню Я люблю, когда в рамках хоррора можно увидеть не только страшненькую историю, но и некую жизненную историю. И вот этот рассказ как раз из таких. История двух братьев, не любивших друг друга (во многом благодаря отцу, который при жизни выделял младшего, а старшего всячески поносил). После смерти отца семейное поместье по завещанию достается младшему. Старший пытается с ним судиться, но безуспешно, а со временем дело приобретает мистические оборот - и да и новые юридические подробности вылезают. По сути, если убрать всю мистику, останется история горького семейного конфликта и запоздалых сожалений и угрызений совести. Вещь, тащем-то, жизненная, и оттого особенно цепляющая.

"Легенды озера Лох-Гур" Это как раз тот случай, когда Ле Фаню дал волю лени. Имеем сборник совсем коротких историй, в которых нет особо ни интриги, ни конфликта, по сути просто пересказ некоего события. Ощущение, что Ле Фаню надо было заработать денег и он оформил в рассказ известные ему местные страшилки, не позаботившись даже сюжет какой-то из них создать. Те же "Легенды старой Англии" Эдвина Хартленда местами примерно такое же впечатление производят, только там эти короткие истории не выдаются за художественное произведение.

"Белая кошка, проклятие Драмганниола" Выглядит также адаптацией какой-то ирландской страшилки, но поскольку тут автор пытается в хоть какой-то сюжет, то рассказ производит менее удручающее впечатление, чем предыдущая вещь. История о некой семьей ирландских фермеров, членам которой незадолго до смерти является белая кошка - напоминание о проступке их предка, соблазнившего девушку и не женившегося на ней.

The King has requested your presence.

Emily Carey in Platform 7 episode 2 part 1

Two ships grounded and only one escaped the barricade?

Three ships grounded. Teach is still loose. All things considered we are very lucky.

I`m sorry, you weren`t there to see it. I know it cannot be comfortable to be so remote.

I don`t know. I got to make this. I am sure there be others that found themselves more uncomfortable today than I.

An evil for these times destined to move through the world in handsome human guise

Hannah New as Lady Tilley Arnold in stills from Bridgerton season 3.

"then would you consider, living for me?"

Moeka Hoshi and Anna Sawai behind the scenes of Shōgun 🫶🏽 via Moeka’s instagram @moekappa382

LÉA SEYDOUX AS MADELEINE SWANN Spectre (2015) dir. Sam Mendes

Blackthorne: Last night, you asked about my daughter. The truth is I've never met her. I left England before she was born. One year, eleven months, six days from Amsterdam. She'll be two years old now. Mariko: You serve your lords honorably.

Luke Roberts as Woodes Rogers in Black Sails 409

Ellie Bamber - The Digital Cover - The Laterals

- Where are you going? - To my room.

Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve