#bncommentary
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People really are missing the point of a character like Nettles. Being the a non-Valyrian dragonrider is what makes her different(in every positive definition of that word) and helps to serve a larger purpose in this story.
Valyrian blood is not special. It’s not needed to do great things. No one is special because of what family they happen to be born into.
A non-Valyrian Nettles shows that we are more than the circumstances which we are born into. Our birth, our names, and our very blood does not define us. Our actions are what do. We can overcome so much and rise to become absolutely extraordinary with a little bit of determination, patience, and a dash of help along the way. Nettles exemplifies that to the fullest extent.
She's more than a Black Valryian. She doesn’t have to be Valyrian. She shouldn’t have to be Valyrian.
She’s a survivor. She’s a final girl. She’s a Black low-born girl likely without a drop of dragons blood that tames a wild dragon with patience that killed countless others who had dragons blood. She survived the Dance where others high and low alike fell and perished to become a firewitch to the Burned Men.
Her legacy is immortalized in the history books(and by the Burned Men cause they still worship her) as one of the last(if not the last) dragonrider(s) before Dany all without having any known Valyrian ancestry.
#nettles doesn’t need Valyrian blood to be great#nettles#hotd#hotd spoilers#nettles asoiaf#nettles f&b#hotd fandom critical#bncommentary#hotd commentary#nettles characterization#🐑🐉#house of the dragon#netty#she’s not daemons kid guys#the dates don’t align for that but keep trying it#surprise surprise most of the ones cheering this crap on aren’t black themselves 🤦🏽♀️#I see what’s happening here which is ironic because any other time she isn’t Black#but now she is because you can use that#how does having valyrian blood benefit nettles at all#how does it add to the story GRRM is trying to tell#she can be valyrian but it shouldn’t be requirement#that thinking is backwards#what did tyrion say? never forget who you are wear it proudly#nettles likely isn’t valyrian let’s be proud of her claiming a dragon without dragons blood#nettles is great because she’s nettles#no dragon blood required and I love that 🙌🏽
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The interpretation that Nettles’ story ends in tragedy instead of triumph is rather odd to me. She’s a lowborn Black girl who came from nothing. Who’s thought of as less than nothing because of her background. Yet despite being on the lowest wrung, of society, she survives the Dance.
She comes away with her life, her dragon, and her independence, and is eventually worshipped and respected by a group of people who are weary of outsiders, yet that is a tragic ending?
She lives where those who sought to destroy her perished yet she's the one who we should look on with pity?
Does she wind up queen, knighted, or the lady of some house great or small? No, but the assumption that her story had to end with her gaining a title within the larger Westerosi society for it to be a triumph and a tragedy is inaccurate and once again missing the point of her arc. Her story is one triumph and not a tragedy.
#she overcame#don’t forget that#nettles#nettles F&B#netty#nettles asoiaf#asoiaf meta#valyrianscrolls#bncommentary
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Like clockwork, the moment that Sophie is almost surely going to be played by a Black woman there is a sudden uptick in the Sophie should be a man or trans because that would be “true representation” discourse.
Representation for all communities is important(although that’s not what this rally is about), but Sophie Beckett is the last character in Bridgerton who should be gender-bent or made trans since her story is directly tied to her being a working-class biological woman.
It's because she's a woman that her only means of employment is as a maid. It's because she's a woman that she was almost raped by a pack of men. It’s because she’s a biological woman and fears birthing children who will be illegitimate and who may have to go through life as she did that she refuses to be Benedict’s mistress.
You can’t just plop a (white cause that’s what the real issue is) man or a (white) trans woman into her place without changing her story which is unique in the Bridgerton universe and dare I say the most empowering. So while yes it would be nice to see a gay love story on the show or a trans person, Benophie isn’t the couple to turn to for this representation.
And said representation definitely shouldn’t come at the expense of representation for Black women who are rarely shown as love interests or get to be leading ladies in media. Representation for Black women may not be your representation, but it's still representation for an under-represented marginalized group.
Seriously if your idea of representation hinges on the fact that Black women should step aside and wait “our turn”(aka we shouldn't be represented because y'all always come up with some excuse for why it isn't “our turn”) you need to reassess some things because that isn't going to happen any longer.
This also goes out to the people who keep saying that there are “too many” Black people on show therefore Sophie shouldn't be Black when the only Black woman* that has been featured has been Lady Danbury who is a side character who most certainly does not have a happily ever after(HEA).
*I love Queen Charlotte and both India and Goldie’s portrayal of her and I loved the spin-off, but both women are mixed.
Let’s not forget the people who said Sophie being Black would be too “problematic” since she’s slave(she’s not a slave you’re insulting the enslaved when you refer to her as such) while cheering on every other group of women playing Sophie.
That was what some said a year ago when people suggested Sophie could played by a Black woman, but now that it’s coming you’ve moved on from that excuse to needing to see two white men on your screens.
So once again this isn't about representation it's just another instance of fandom misogynoir aka trying to keep Black women off your screens useless we are there to serve you or be tortured.
Cause somehow seeing Patsey getting wiped and raped 23 million times is “powerful” representation, but seeing a Black woman being loved and cared for and getting a HEA with a man who adores her is “problematic.”
Again I do understand the ones who genuinely want to see themselves represented on screen, but to make this much of a fuss about a Black woman in the role of Sophie Beckett, it’s inexcusable.
Reference point to this rant.
#I didn’t want to rock the boat but one must say something#i tried to leave the dragon show fandom and then i am met with this#just bring in Sophie Beckett Shonda and make her Black#sophie beckett#bridgerton#afoag spoilers#fandom misogynoir#benophie#bncommentary
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love your blog <3
there's no reason for nettles to be cut. the only reason she's not in s2 is because they want to milk "daemyra" as much as possible and don't care about sacrificing the only canonically black character to make the main white couple look good.
it's bullshit. they do shit like this and then claim to be "progressive" ? including black character only to turn them into side kicks for the main white characters and mistreat them is not progressive. why are baela and rhaena sidelined for the strongs? in f&b they're more important. why is laena turned into the "unloved wife"? second to rhaenyra? why is vaemond framed as the villain for being angry that his home is being robbed by a white boy?
and now we have a shot of all of the dragonseeds - except nettles, the only important dragonseed. and when you try to complain the stans hit you with the "but there are other black characters" card. they say that "race doesn't exist in westeros" (LMAO) to excuse and justify luke being the heir and pretend like there's nothing problematic with a white person stealing a black family's home. they also use the "no race" card to justify nettles being erased or downplay her importance. the gaslighting and racist undertones are actually crazy.
thank you for calling these people out.
Thank you. I do try and try my best not to come off like a crazy person talking at a wall, but this fandom and this show are nuts and severely anti-Black.
I won’t say it’s worse than other fandoms, but admitting there is a problem is like pulling teeth.
You have people blatantly lie and pretend like their headcanons are actual canon which is extremely disturbing when it comes to the Black(ish) characters because those headcanons are made to take away their characterization.
There is only so much one can ignore without disregarding their self pride.
As far as the showrunners go I will say I don’t think they are trying to prop up that ghost ship because they wouldn’t have added choke-gate if they had any intention of turning Dumbnyra(I’m not respecting a ship populated by people who think it's fine to call Black characters the n-word) into an epic romance, but they are trying to hold off on putting Nettles on the show because she makes said self-insert look bad and they can’t have that.
Yet they know cutting her looks suspect considering their past actions.
They think diversity = having Black(ish) people there never mind lighting them on fire, sidling them, turning them into an undisputed villain, turning them into stereotypes, etc., and unfortunately they’ve emboldened an extremely racist and toxic fanbase with their (in)action(s).
Laena was deliberately made into the disposable Black girlfriend, but no one cared about that. No one cared about how that looked or how Black fans would feel with that being our representation. How it's harmful and damaging to see that play out time and time again. They cheered it on and called her slurs while doing so.
Now I’ve seen people claim to be concerned about Nettles and her being made into a mistress and yes there are problems with showing a Black woman as a mistress, but there are just as many if not more problems with showing a Black(ish) woman as someone’s second choice or showing us as undesirable. Not a peep was said about the latter.
The same people who are so concerned(I see y’all in her tag) are the same people who a couple of months ago were calling for Nettles to be cut and replaced with Baela and Rhaena or even Addam because they are all Black(ish) now. Never mind that Nettles’ story is vastly different from theirs.
That Nettles isn’t supposed to be indisputably Valyrian like the others(at least in the books her heritage is the least clear out of everyone present and in the show she still isn’t being claimed by anyone).
Never mind that she isn’t supposed to be Daemon's daughter(the dates don’t line up and I dare anyone to tell me they bathed naked with their father at 17; I dare anyone to say that someone who claimed a wild dragon with the highest body count during the sowing doesn’t know how to bathe herself).
Or that she isn’t just someone’s mistress(you don’t risk your life for a woman who is just your mistress).
That she isn’t an unloved unwanted woman despite who she is(Daemon chooses her. We can talk about how that isn’t “progressive” enough for some people although I’d argue that it’s progressive for a character like Nettles, but that’s what’s written in black and white).
That she’s saved and survives the Dance. She’s the only dragonseed that survives maybe even the last dragonrider for two hundred years. She certainly gains more than what she had(she becomes the spiritual leader of a tribe for God's sake). 
Is Nettles’ story perfect, no, but people are holding her, her arc, and her potential characterization in the show to an unhealthy standard that they would never hold a character like Rhaenyra, Daenerys, or an even Helaena to and basing whether they like her or not based on that standard.
They aren’t allowing her to be a nuanced character let alone someone with her wants and motivations who experiences love and loss alike.
Nettles' arc is as complex as every other character in this story, but people don’t want that. They don’t even want her there.
Never mind that she’s important to the narrative and there is a reason for her complexity, it’s her skin color they see. Her skin color is the only thing they see and therefore they fail to see her as someone deserving of her dynamic arc.
Instead they want the downtrodden girl. The abused girl. The poor orphan girl who is just grateful to have found a family. The girl who can easily be placed into a box and doesn’t need any analysis whatsoever.
A girl. She doesn’t need love because she’s a girl. She doesn’t need to have her own will and desires because she’s a girl. She’s a child. She’s not a nuisance. A box of gunpowder waiting to go off and change the narrative. She’s not a threat.
I’ve talked about this before(too many times), but that’s who they want.
They can’t have a Mammy that looks too obvious given the story, or Jezebel(I imagine that’s what they’ll say she is once she appears although they’ll look crazed trying to pigeon hole her into the slut category), and they know she most likely won’t be cut, so they settle for the non-threatening, sexless, naive(selectively intellectually challenged) child.
The show calls itself diverse and the fans claim themselves to be feminists, but that’s a joke and a slap in the face to Black fans who aren't self-haters (who the fandom has harassed anytime we don’t blindly agree with and call them out on their bullshit).
Black fans don’t want characters who look like us wrapped in bubble wrap with a pretty little bow on top. We want characters (in every sense of the word), but neither the showrunners nor the fans seem to get this(tale as old as time or at least it’s centuries old).
I started ranting I’m sorry anon, but Nettles tag has been a mess so I used this as an opportunity to voice my peace. It’s extremely disturbing that you have a bunch of non-Black people trying to police Black representation particularly representation for Black women, but at the end of the day what they have to say doesn’t matter.
#bnasks#bnask#nettles#anti hotd#anti hotd fandom#fuck the show and the fandom#bncommentary#laena velaryon#hotd fandom misogynoir
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In terms of Nettles' fashion’s, I'd like to see her start off with earth tones. Her outfits should obviously reflect her present station in life so she should be styled along the lines of this:
Then either in late season 2 or early season 3, I'd like to see her fashions progress to where more bold colors are added and the quality of her garments increases. Along the lines of this:
#nettles#nettles f&b#hotd#hotd spoilers#hotd fashions#nettles asoiaf#house of the dragon#👩🏾🐑🐉#netty#asoiaf fashion#no weapon formed against nettles shall prosper 🗡#asoiaf fashions#hotd fashion#valyrianscrolls#houseofthedragon#bnedit#bncommentary#nettles fashion
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In defense of Nettles innocence 🐑
Unpopular opinions coming through, Nettles is one of the most innocent characters during the Dance.
Every account of her being “less than innocent” comes from biased sources(the chroniclers) that don’t think that a lowborn girl, especially a homeless Black lowborn girl with a prostitute for a mother who’s had to steal for her supper, can be innocent. She’s simply not allowed to be innocent(other than acknowledging that the execution orders for her were wrong) based on the boxes that she’s been put into.
When you are dealing with a character like Netty you can't take one action in a vacuum. You have to cipher through the biased accounts and take into her entire life story to see who she is. When you actually look at her you have a girl who still possesses a great deal of empathy and compassion despite everything she’s been through and she’s been through a lot.
We never see her harming innocents. During the Battle of the Gullet, we see her defending her home(Driftmark) from the Triarchy:
The civilian casualties came from the Triarchy’s end, not Nettles and Sheepstealer who had come in to attack their ships at sea after they(the Triarchy) had already attacked Driftmark. Nettles never rained “fire and blood” down on the innocent people of Driftmark. She had only come in to protect them.
Furthermore, she shows great empathy when Jace a boy she barely knew was killed before his time during the battle. She mourns for his loss and sacrifice(in conjecture with witnessing the overall destruction of her home).
When the Blacks take the capital, shes not raining down fire balls, she literally just lands her dragon on Visenya’s Hill:
She isn’t a warmonger, or a war criminal, and while she’s technically a soldier, we don’t see her harming any civilians or instigating any fights. She sees very little combat and she’s not terrorizing everyday citizens.
Now onto her “innocence” or lack thereof. If she was forced to prostitute herself(aka if you believe that she’s not a maiden) then it’s most certainly not because she wanted to:
Her losing her virginity isn’t an empowering moment. It’s not a moment we should look onto to show she’s got agency or control or God forbid that she’s a wanton Jezebel. It’s a moment where we see just how dire her circumstances were. We can see how Westeros society harms girls like Nettles and leaves them vulnerable to abuse.
Nettles isn’t willingly having sex(we’ve got no indication of her having normal sexual relations with a lover, with the exception of Daemon, only that she potentially trades sex to feed her belly).
She's not some liberated medieval woman who because of her low status in society has sexual freedom. She’s not choosing to f*ck. That’s not what is happening here. It’s about survival plain and simple. In a world where women do not have many options and lowborn women even less, this is her only option. The option being rape(because again this isn’t something she wants).
She’s potentially a victim of pedophilic rapists. She would’ve forced herself to endure rape when she was a child as young as 9 all to feed herself. The act of losing her innocence is a sin on her abusers and not on her.
Let’s talk about her relationship with Daemon Targaryen. The most “villainous” thing she does is sleep with a man, Daemon, in an open marriage:
A man with whom she finds some amount of happiness (and she’s gotten so little of that). A relationship that hurts no one except her when it’s cruelly ripped away from her (and leaves her reeling in the aftermath because unfortunately, she’s the innocent who suffers from loving a man like Daemon).
In her other sexual dealings(her rape) she isn’t willingly choosing the course of action she’s taking. She’s doing so to survive, but with Daemon for the first time in her life, it’s not only about survival. It’s about her joy. This is what she wants and she puts herself and has someone who is willing to put her needs first.
As far as her slaughtering sheep and symbolism go, the sheep are more so a metaphor for herself. The sheep are her, not her victims or her sins. She's the lamb for slaughter. She's the innocent who is destroyed and transformed by others' sins to
Slaughtering the black ram(which symbolizes strength, determination, and triumph over one’s enemies) when she leaves Daemon marks her final transformation, because up until then I think she had hope and had found some happiness/peace in where she was. She is still a seed sprouting.
However, the last shred of what was is taken away with her execution orders. She therefore grows as a person. She’s overcome what has been thrown at her to come into her own. She is not beholden to anyone. She's her own woman. Yet at the same time, she’s still the same empathetic fearless Netty that she was. Those demons who sought to destroy her did not break her spirit. She's just been freed from them.
At the end of the day, Nettles is just a young woman who’s been dealt an unfair hand in life but still manages to rise above it all and never impart harm on a world that has harmed her.
She’s a scrappy girl who has to do what she has to, but she's not a “bad girl.” She hasn’t done anything reckless or harmful enough(any time she attacks, or steals, or whatever it’s in self-defense) to be considered a “bad girl” (which is why I find the accusation that she is downright untrue when you look at her character's actions) or that she’s even “morally gray” or a “wayward girl.” I think she’s an all around good person who hasn’t done anything fundamentally wrong especially considering the world she lives in.
Nettles is well within her rights to exact some vengeance on a world that has shown her nothing but cruelty and contempt, but when it’s all said and done what does she do? She chooses to lead a quiet life away from it all. She isolates herself and shuns polite society. She chooses peace and solitude rather than violence.
Does Nettles have to be an innocent character? No, but leading with the argument that she’s somehow a deeply flawed character who’s not a innocent to prove a point that you can do bad things and still deserve sympathy which is an important point to make, but it isn’t telling her story. There are plenty of characters throughout the Dance who are less than innocent that you can sympathize with, Nettles, however, isn’t one of them.
I think it’s a cop-out to say that Nettles isn’t innocent because that’s how the world, both ours and in universe, sees her. She’s not a mother whose innocent child has been unjustly murdered right before her eyes, or a little girl who witnessed her family killing each other, and she’s not one of the faceless victims of the Dance. She doesn’t have blonde hair or pale skin.
Physically, she’s not what we think of when we think of “innocent” and that blinds our own opinions of her and her story despite who she’s shown to be.
It takes more to see past our biases, to take off the goggles, and to truly recognize that she’s not a corrupted person than to say that she’s innocent because that is what we see when we look at her.
We don’t recognize that someone like Nettles is one of the innocents whose life was almost destroyed by the destruction around her. We don’t see that she is unquestionably a good girl who has a lot of garbage thrown her way but manages to rise above it and not sink into its depravity because that is not what we have been taught to see.
Instead, we see the less-than-innocent girl who while she did not deserve to be murdered, she still has something about her that leaves one feeling like she is tainted.
#nettles#nettles characterization#netty#house of the dragon#hotd#hotd spoilers#nettles asoiaf#nettles f&b#hotd meta#bncommentary#please no one take me seriously because I do understand the take that she doesn’t have to be innocent but at the same time screw it#I just feel like there isn’t enough evidence to write off her innocence
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Rant ahead: it seems like certain fans are trying to give Rhaenyra certain characterization out of spite and/or to slight Nettles.
What characterization you may ask? Well, things like claiming Rhaenyra is the youngest dragonrider, to counter the claim that Nettles is seemingly the only non-Valyrian dragonrider, when there is no evidence to support the former:
(Me literally typing the words into my e-copies of Fire & Blood, The Rise of the Dragon, and The World of Ice & Fire and getting, surprise surprise, 0 results).
This is what the actual text says about Rhaenyra(first highlighted passage) vs Nettles becoming a dragonrider(second highlighted passage):
Nettles is the only seemingly non-Valyrian dragonrider(there are 36 dragonriders in total, and all at least have evident Valyrian heritage) that we know of in the entire ASOIAF universe:
(*Aurion was a dragonlord and rider from Valyria who was last seen in 102 BC. Jaenera was also another Valyrian dragonrider from before the Doom).
Keep in mind that Nettles was not born into a royal dragonriding family, the sole surviving Valyrian dragonriding family, where it was expected that she’d eventually claim or hatch a dragon. She was not born with a dragon egg. She tames a wild dragon who even the likes of Alyn Velaryon, who has obvious Valyrian heritage, could not tame. She’s an “unlikely dragonrider.” Certain characters, cough cough Rhaenyra, have a hard time believing that she could even tame a dragon unaided in the first place due to her dubious heritage.
Now, let’s get into how certain fans like to claim that Rhaenyra is oppressed when she is in fact the most privileged woman* in Westeros at the time(see the first highlighted section of the prior text and these passages):
(*Yes Rhaenyra experiences misogyny, but most certainly not in the way that Nettles does. She is very privileged being a highborn Valyrian royal woman in comparison to Nettles who is a lowborn non-Valyrian bastard woman. If you want a real life comparison, think of the misogyny Black women deal with as opposed to white women).
She actually uses her privilege as queen and as a Valyrian to try and murder Nettles:
Who is spared mainly because people feared what Daemon would do to them if they hurt her(first highlighted passage):
Even among Nettles' defenders, she is not thought highly of. I.e. Corlys Velaryon referring to her as “dirty and ill-favored,” while trying to save her life(second highlighted passage above).
Those more ambivalent towards her certainly do not have many kind words to say about her. Archmaester Gyldayn tries to insinuate that she is “lifting her skirts for some shepherd” in order to bind Sheepstealer to her. (In all likelihood, Nettles chose to live on the streets instead of following in her mother’s footsteps). The Archmaester also mentions how she might have been too ugly (while referencing her skin tone) for Daemon to be attracted to her(third passage).
Whether by Andal or Valyrian standards, Nettles is actually someone who is looked down upon due to the circumstances of her birth, breeding, and complexion. She’s a Black brown-skinned bastard girl born to a whore who grew up on the streets and can barely get a kind word to be said about her.
Rhaenyra on the other hand is a white blonde haired high-born woman who is recognized as queen by many in spite of the fact that she has younger legitimate brothers whose claim to the throne is greater than her own(by the laws of the land). She’s beloved by the realm for much of her life and only becomes genuinely unpopular after the standard of living lessens under her reign.
Moving on, how can we forget the claim that Daemon would die for Rhaenyra. In actuality, he was willing to give his own life to save Nettles when he most certainly did not have to, but love often includes sacrifice:
Daemon left Rhaenyra out to dry and never looked back, but saying that is the eighth deadly sin according to a particular segment of this fandom. Keep in mind, the text clearly states his “final act” was an act of betrayal:
(Before anybody tries to use this as “evidence” for Daemon offing himself cause he couldn’t handle Nyra not loving him no more, which is another lie, Rhaenyra doesn’t think Daemon has betrayed her until she learns that Nettles got away. Up until then, she thought Daemon was under Nettles' “spell,” see the passage on Rhaenyra ordering her death, and that he’d be “freed” once she was dead. She lets it be known that she wants him alive and back with her, but Daemon himself did not want that after she tried to murder the woman he loved).
Lastly, even the nickname Nyra which is a fandom invention seems to be a play on Netty which is as canon as canon gets:
(I’m bringing the nickname up because I don’t even see people refer to any other character in HOTD by a fanon nickname at near the frequency that I see people refer to Rhaenyra as Nyra. Someone, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m not seeing it).
Obviously, I’m not saying that people are trying to copy Nettles' story word for word. Still, there are some headcanons that are being peddled for Rhaenyra that line up with Nettles' characterization. Enough to make one pause and ask what’s really going on here.
#hotd commentary#nettles#hotd meta#anti rhaenyra stans#hotd#house of the dragon#hotd spoilers#daemon targaryen#netty#bncommentary#way to go team feminism 👏🏽#this fandom is a mess🤦🏽♀️#meant to post this ages ago#anti rhaenyra targaryen#rhaenyra targaryen
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What are your opinions on both Book!Rhaenyra and Show!Rhaenyra.
😬 Welp obviously unpopular opinions coming through:
Book!Rhaenyra is incredibly entitled, self-centered, and narcissistic. She literally is what happens when you are never told no and essentially every whim is indulged and handed to you on a silver tray.
I know some people have said that her depiction is borderline misogynistic in the books(Maegor with tits), but if you look at real-life monarchs(who come from empires built on colonialism and slavery), even to this day, they are not nice people so I’d say her characterization isn't exactly an unfair depiction.
Of course, people always like to point out that Rhaenyra did not start off bad(she was the realms Delight and beloved by the people). She was just stressed from losing nearly all of her kids. She snapped like any of us would do. She’s actually the true victim of the Dance.
I’ll grant her supporters the first part, but the subsequent arguments🙃 Rhaenyra started acting, um how should I say, in a questionable manner long before she started losing her children. People always leave out how she ordered Daemon to chop off Ser Vaemond’s head and feed it to her piss-colored dragon for daring to speak the truth. Unlike in the show, this happened three years before the events of the Dance when she was mentally sound.
Yes, you could make the point that it was technically done to protect her children(and herself), but then you can also argue that if she really wanted to protect her children she would not have had such obvious bastards(I’ve seen people try to argue that they aren’t bastards in the books because they’ve got Baratheon and Arryn ancestry, which is dumb as hell because they have features that don’t come from either house) in the first place.
Plus it’s not as if her children would be killed if they were acknowledged as bastards. They’d still be alive albeit out of the running for the Iron Throne. Of course that would have probably taken her out of the running as well so murder and cutting out the tongues to silence those who state the obvious to be queen someday it is😄
Honestly, I feel like she’s a dumber duller version of Cersei(and that’s saying something because while entertaining she is pretty idiotic). Rhaenyra is not very charismatic and she’s a hypocrite(bastard hater while having bastards herself) and a racist(and once again stress isn’t a “good” reason for racism so if you feel that way 🙃). I’ll keep it cute and leave it there, but in my humble opinion, there is nothing about her that is really likable.
Show! Rhaenyra is boring. She started out fine and we could see some of book! Rhaenyra's arrogance that fuels her fire and drive, but when they switched actors in episode six she became lifeless.
We see a little of that fire return during the scene where everyone is gathered in the Great Hall of Driftmark and Rhaenyra suggests for Aemond to be questioned, but it once again disappears.
Now I want to be clear, I do not blame Emma for Rhaenyra’s lack of fire. As I said, during the Great Hall scene in episode seven, the fire was present. However, production so far seems hell-bent on making her into this sympathetic heroine of sorts which is why it has disappeared.
They are setting her up to be this wronged woman who the patriarchy wore down even though that simply isn’t the whole truth. Before this show even though people felt like she was the rightful heir, no one saw her as this hero who had a heart of gold. They recognized that she wasn't a very likable person while still acknowledging how she was wronged in some way.
Now you have people who act like she never did anything wrong(some of the people behind HOTD included). That she is the unquestionable hero and a kindhearted person who was destroyed by the war when that's simply not the case. I don’t find it cute how they are trying to redeem a racist sociopath in the name of supposed “feminism”(all while tearing down and stripping every other woman character of her characterization🙃).
I will say that even though they’ve whitewashed her, she still doesn’t come off as sympathetic to me. You can see moments of her arrogance. It’s not as vicious as in the books(I.e. chopping off Ser Vaemond’s head and feeding it to Syrax), but it’s still there like during episode seven and when she was taunting Daemon right before she got choked out by him in the finale.
Going forward, I hope the show brings in more of her book personality because she’s not very entertaining to watch.
#anti rhaenyra targaryen#dont like her#never will#she should still be more entertaining in the show because right now she's giving nothing 🤷🏽♀️#bnask#bnasks#bncommentary#my opinions#hotd commentary#insert the ghetto dora meme and that is how I feel about Rhaenyra
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This is my Notebook
#queen charlotte a bridgerton story#the ending was perfect#🥹#queen charlotte: a bridgerton story#charlotte x george#I almost don’t want another season on these two cause it was just so perfect#im 😭😭😭😭😭#like this is up there with 2005 pride and prejudice for me#bnedit#bncommentary
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Shipper goggles aside, I fail to see how Daemon and Nettles’ relationship gets so much pushback by the fandom for being problematic when nearly every other ship on this show is just as problematic if not more so:
Alysmond has the same power imbalance as Dattles(Aemond is a prince and Alys is a lowborn bastard) and they have around the same age gap(Alys is at least 40 and Aemond is 19 in the books and 16 in the show).
Helaemond is incest and some of the theories surrounding it, Aemond fathering Helaena’s kids at 13, are borderline at best.
Helaegon is incest.
Daemyra is incest, has a significant age gap between Daemon and Rhaenyra, and there is actual abuse going on. And don’t go it’s only in the show that Daemon is abusive because in the books he’s a 30-year-old man taking his 14-year-old niece(who is still underage by Westeros standards) to brothels and teaching her sex acts.
Rhaeicent fans like to act high and mighty yet they are shipping a ship where one character is fine with the other character's son being maimed and did nothing to stop or punish her husband from murdering her ex-lover/friend’s grandchild.
I’m not even going to get into the most depraved ship of them all, Lucemond, where some of you, who are definitely adults, are trying to sexualize an irl minor.
All this backlash is said and done in the name of “protecting Nettles.” However, in any other case, you are okay with or willing to overlook ships where incest, physical violence, emotional abuse, power imbalances, and significant age gaps between partners exist, but Daemon and Nettles relationship is going too far.
Daemon and Nettles is taking it too far yet for the first time in Nettles life someone puts her first. Someone is willing to consider her. To care for her. To love her. To die to save her. That’s somehow too much?
We must protect Nettles, yet you are fine with other women characters being in incestuous relationships, being with a man who has killed their entire family, being with a man who has everything over them, being with a man who has choked them out, and being with someone who could care less about whether they and their kids live or die. Okay 👍🏽
No one is saying you have to like Nettles with Daemon or ship them, but if you find the relationship problematic and think that she should be “kept away from him” only to then turn around and go OMG I can't wait until Aemond meets his soulmate Alys and murders all the men at Harrenhal or try to convince us that Daemyra somehow isn't abusive despite the grooming and that Dattles is what is really creepy then you're being very disingenuous with your reason as to why you dislike her relationship with Daemon.
#excuses excuses#hotd meta#nettles x daemon#daemon x nettles#house of the dragon#hotd spoilers#daemon targaryen x nettles#dattles#bncommentary#dettles#daetty#hotd
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Almost all the reasons Daemyra stans hate Dattles are the same reasons they should hate their own ship.
Similarities between Daemyra and Dattles.
They both have cheating. (Daemon is married to Rhea Royce when he starts to pursue Rhaenyra. Despite this a lot of Daemyra stans like to use the excuse that at that point in time Daemon and Rhea were having “problems.” When Daemon starts to pursue Nettles he is married to Rhaenyra but just like Rhea, he and Rhaenyra are having “problems.”)
They both have an age-gap. (While the age-gap between Daemon and Rhaenyra is less than the age gap between Daemon and Nettles, but we must remember however that when Daemon first meets Nettles she is by Westeros standards an adult, whereas Rhaenyra wasn't.)
Children
Then there are some who say they don’t like Dattles because Daemon had children specifically with Rhaenyra during when all of this was going down. These children being Aegon III and Viserys II. This troubles people because they worry how that would affect Aegon and Viserys's view of what a healthy relationship let alone a marriage should look like.
But the same people neglect the fact that (at least show wise) not only do Daemon and Rhaenyra's actions (Rhaenyra having an affair with Harwin while being married to Laenor, Daemon being at the very least a emotionally unavailable husband to Laena and a neglectful parent to Baela and Rhaena ) but also their marriage (them getting married so quickly after the death of their respective marriage mates and in Rhaenyra’s case also her lover) could have very well given Jace, Luke, Baela and Rhaena an unhealthy view of what a healthy relationship should look like.
Grooming
Rhaenyra and Daemon:
He gave her pearls and silks and books and a jade tiara said once to have belonged to the Empress of Leng, read poems to her, dined with her, hawked with her, sailed with her, entertained her by making mock of the greens at court, the "lickspittles" fawning over Queen Alicent and her children.
Eustace, the less salacious of the two, writes that Prince Daemon seduced his niece the princess and claimed her maidenhood. When the lovers were discovered abed together by Ser Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard and brought before the king, Rhaenyra insisted she was in love with her uncle and pleaded with her father for leave to marry him. King Viserys would not hear of it, however, and reminded his daughter that Prince Daemon already had a wife.
"When he looks at you, he sees the little girl you were, not the woman you've become," Daemon told his niece, "but I can teach you how to make him see you as a woman."
He began by giving her kissing lessons, if Mushroom can be believed. From there the prince went on to show his niece how best to touch a man to bring him pleasure, an exercise that sometimes involved Mushroom himself and his alleged enormous member.
Daemon taught the girl to disrobe enticingly, suckled at her teats to make them larger and more sensitive, and flew with her on dragonback to lonely rocks in Blackwater Bay, where they could disport naked all day unobserved, and the princess could practice the art of pleasuring a man with her mouth. At night he would smuggle her from her rooms dressed as a page boy and take her secretly to brothels on the Street of Silk, where the princess could observe men and women in the act of love and learn more of these "womanly arts" from the harlots of King's Landing.
Viserys at first refused to believe a word of it, until Prince Daemon confirmed the tale was true. "Give the girl to me to wife," he purportedly told his brother. "Who else would take her now?" Instead King Viserys sent him into exile, never to return to the Seven Kingdoms on pain of death.
Nettles and Daemon:
Maester Norren writes that "the prince and his bastard girl" supped together every night, broke their fast together every morning, slept in adjoining bedchambers, that the prince "doted upon the brown girl as a man might dote upon his daughter," instructing her in "common courtesies" and how to dress and sit and brush her hair, that he made gifts to her of "an ivory-handled hairbrush, a silvered looking glass, a cloak of rich brown velvet bordered in satin, a pair of riding boots of leather soft as butter." The prince taught the girl to wash, Norren says, and the maidservants who fetched their bath water said he oft shared a tub with her, "soaping her back or washing the dragon stink from her hair, both of them as naked as their namedays.”
To which his brother answered, "It may be we shall be destroyed whatever choice we make. The prince is more than fond of this brown child, and his dragon is close at hand. A wise lord would kill them both, lest the prince burn Maidenpool in his wroth."
All we know is that the maester, a young man of two-and-twenty, found Prince Daemon and the girl Nettles at their supper that night, and showed them the queen's letter.
"Weary after a long day of fruitless flight, they were sharing a simple meal of boiled beef and beets when I entered, talking softly with each other, of what I cannot say. The prince greeted me politely, but as he read I saw the joy go from his eyes, and a sadness descended upon him, like a weight too heavy to be borne. When the girl asked what was in the letter, he said,
'A queen's words, a whore's work.' Then he drew his sword and asked if Lord Mooton's men were waiting outside to take them captive. 'I came alone,' I told him, then foreswore myself, declaring falsely that neither his lordship nor any other man of Maidenpool knew what was written on the parchment. 'Forgive me, My Prince,' I said. 'I have broken my maester's vows.' Prince Daemon sheathed his sword, saying, You are a bad maester, but a good man,' after which he bade me leave them, commanding me to 'speak no word of this to lord nor love until the morrow.’ ”
No word of farewell was spoken betwixt man and maid, but as Sheepstealer beat his leathery brown wings and climbed into the dawn sky, Caraxes raised his head and gave a scream that shattered every window in Jonquil's Tower. High above the town, Nettles turned her dragon toward the Bay of Crabs, and vanished in the morning mists, never to be seen again at court or castle.
That Prince Daemon died as well we cannot doubt. His remains were never found, but there are queer currents in that lake, and hungry fish as well. The singers tell us that the old prince survived the fall and afterward made his way back to the girl Nettles, to spend the remainder of his days at her side.
+Bonus
[As to the girl Nettles, "She is a common thing, with the stink of sorcery upon her," the queen declared. "My prince would ne'er lay with such a low creature. You need only look at her to know she has no drop of dragon's blood in her. It was with spells that she bound a dragon to her, and she has done the same with my lord husband." So long as he was in the girl's thrall, Prince Daemon could not be relied upon, Her Grace went on. Therefore, let a command be sent at once to Maidenpool, but only for the eves of Lord Mooton. "Let him take her at table or abed and strike her head off. Only then shall my prince be freed."]
—Rhaenyra about Nettles.
Conclusion
Personally whether or not someone ships either of these couples is up to them. I however can’t stand a hypocrite, and I’ve noticed that’s what a large percentage of Daemyra stans are especially when it comes not only to Dettles but Nettles as a whole.
And I especially as a black woman, can’t stand the misogynoir that I've seen Team Black (and Green) display when it’s comes specifically to the black/blackish women in House of the Dragon.
This was eloquently put 🙌🏽 I’ve got nothing to add except my praise, I love how you have shouted out Team Green's antics cause they also b!tch and moan about how it makes Daemon a villain(and not all the other crap he’s done) to choose Nettles over his psychotic racist wife.
I too didn’t really care about Dumbnyra, its stans, and its sympathizers until they started going off on a hate campaign against Daemon and Nettles.
Very unserious bunch of racist morons who think they can get away with calling Black/Blackish women the n-word: 
Yes, that was directed at Laena, but it's only a matter of time before Team I don't want Nettles to be on the show, and if she is on the show don't let her be a Negro, goes calling Netty the n-word too for “ruining” their Appalachian mountain realness ship.
Or throwing a temper tantrum because a canon character, who despite their best efforts to ignore her existence or bash her, is all but confirmed to be in the show:
Don’t get me started on Team Green who are populated by white feminists who believe themselves to be morally superior when in reality they are just as racist as Team Dumbnyra or bust when it comes to Nettles and her relationship with Daemon:
(The irony is not lost to me how they point out Rhaenyra’s racism then proceed to treat Nettles like a toddler or sometimes even defend Rhaenyra’s racism because she’s a woman🤪 Black women shouldn’t be in romantic relationships in their minds)
Or those upset because they can’t use Nettles (like how they wanted to because in their mind she’s only there to show how evil Daemon is to their white sister) to dunk on Daemon:
I can't take these people seriously when they complain about Dattles and label it problematic while they ignore their ships problems.
Alysmond(still love you, but I’ll drag some of the white and non-Black fans who are suspect), Rhaicent, Helaemond(aka Hellmanns), and Dumbnyra are all equally if not more problematic than Dattles.
(I have a mini rant on this in my drafts that I’ll post this weekend).
Their anti-Black misogynoir is clouding their views on Daemon and Nettles.
#well said 👏🏽#nettles#netty#daemon targaryen#daemon x nettles#bnask#bnasks#bncommentary#dattles#dettles#hotd spoilers#fandom misogynoir
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I was wondering how you see Alysmond as the white/ reversed Dettles. I'm not hating just curious
Well, to start Daemon and Aemond are literally mirrors of each other(right down to their names).
Both are second sons of House Targaryen who must forge their paths in life since they’ll never inherit the throne. They have both done their share of questionable things to make their mark and they get more caught up with their need for vengeance, personal glory, and the women in their lives, than their responsibilities to their first families.*
*Daemon is married, but he is in an open marriage and Aemond isn’t married, but he’s betrothed to a lady from a great house to the benefit of his family.
Alys and Nettles are both lowborn bastard (non-Valyrian) women without a dollar to their names who have accusations(real or imagined) of witchcraft thrown their way. Both have the chroniclers of the Dance questioning why these powerful princes (who could have anyone they wanted) would ever look their way.
Alys is an old wetnurse though young looking and Nettles is young though “ugly” and Black. They are not who you would typically picture princes of the realm would want and yet Aemond and Daemon are infatuated in love with them to the point where they are willing to do things for them and put their lives ahead of anyone else’s.
Aemond goes back to Harrenhal after having abandoned it to save Alys from Sabitha Frey(this is something he didn’t even do for his mother and sister who were trapped in Kings Landing*) and Daemon chooses to abandon his wife and queen to save Nettles from an untimely death.
*I know he had his reasons for not going back/it probably would’ve been suicide going by himself, but that isn’t the point. He could’ve easily left Alys to her fate, but he didn’t same thing goes for Daemon with Nettles.
Both couples also have a severe age gap (20+ years) which is where in part the problematic accusations come into play (especially for Dettles).
I’ve seen people use the excuse that even though Aemond is a prince Alys is older than him. Hence, it evens out the power imbalance issue in comparison to Dettles, but what good is being older when your man/husband you married (with next to no witnesses) could turn on you at any moment, abandon you, or order your death and no one would bat an eye?
Aemond would never do that cause he cares for her, but he could easily do so and face 0 consequences for his actions, same for Daemon. Age isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. It doesn’t protect a peasant woman against a prince. Alys has no more power in her relationship with Aemond than Nettles does with Daemon.
And honestly, Nettles does have a dragon. It’s nothing compared to what Daemon has, but she’s not completely powerless. If she didn’t want to be with Daemon based on her character(she’s a fighter) I think she would’ve left Maidenpool way sooner and never looked back.
Now their relationships aren’t carbon copies of each other, and it’s fine to like one more than another or you don’t like either, but the premise and dynamics at play (rich boy falls in love with and saves the poor girl; think Cinderella, but worse 🤣) are pretty much the same.
#bnasks#bnask#asoiaf#daemon targaryen x nettles#dettles#daemon targaryen#nettles#aemond targaryen x alys rivers#alysmond#alys rivers#aemond targaryen#asoiaf ships#house of the dragon#bncommentary#sorry I didn’t answer this sooner I was out last night 🤣
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When either team black and team Green stans talk about Nettles, no matter the sides they always ALWAYS dim down her character to the relationship she has with Daemon and Rhaenyra especially Daemon and it's just pathetic on both sides. Green stans see her character as a child that has been groomed and use it as a "Ah ha!" Moment against Daemon's character, Team black stans see her as the reason why their stupid ship falls apart and both sides are just completely blind to her character. She's so much more than that, this girl who grew up ALONE on the streets and KEPT HERSELF ALIVE for 17 years was OUTSMARTED a bunch of highly trained and skilled soilders and was able to claim a wild dragon, Sheepstealer is the ONLY wild dragon that someone was able to claim and Nettles, someone who wouldn't know anything about dragons, didn't grow up around the culture of dragons etc was able to do that SHE DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. And yet, they want to use her character for their petty arguments when she is so much more than that. Also, I find it hilarious when people think of her character as some naive little girl who gets easily manipulated. You know who was a naive little girl that got easily manipulated? Rhaenyra! Do you know what makes Rhaenyra and Nettles different? Rhaenyra is a sheltered, spoiled princess who grew up in the comfort of castle walls, whereas Nettles has seen the real world. She's apart. If it is, she's not living some sheltered life she's seen and been through a lot in her youth. I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm just tired of seeing her character get dumbed down and used by both sides. Nettles is smart and cunning BEFORE the dance and AFTER the dance. When she gets sent away and ends up on her own again (with the addition of Sheepstealer), she kept herself and her dragon alive and became an actual deity among men, she was smart enough to do that. She's a fighter, she's a survivor, she's brave, she's compassionate, she's smart, she's cunning, she's caring, she's so much more than just some groomed child/mistress.
Pretty much. Which is why I’m just #team Nettles over here. It’s very clear that the vast majority of both teams don’t view her as an actual character in her own right and instead view her either as a nuisance(cue she’s only Daemon’s daughter and if you say otherwise, especially if you say Daemon loved her in a romantic capacity, I’ll say your a total liar and bury my head in the sand when you bring in facts) or a tool(cue poor Rhaenyra and Nettles, it’s so sad how Daemon groomed them both😔 Protect Nettles and the racist white woman who tried to kill her while she was possibly pregnant✊).
They do always try to dim her light and make her seem unimportant. Yeah, she’s a secondary character, but that’s never stopped the praise before. There are plenty of secondary players who have people who they actually care about and make up a ton of crap for.
However, with Nettles, even her accomplishments are picked over, stolen, and put on other characters with little backlash.
Like the anti-Blackness is permeating throughout their posts on her. Because if you want Nettles to be a Magical Negro to Rhaenyra’s overprivileged dumba** behind, her Mammy, view her as a little girl when she’s a grown woman, or else you’ll call her a Jezebel, let’s make no mistake, it’s misogynoir:
The reason why I bring up her relationship with Daemon so much is because her romance with him is a part of her story. Taking that away(and trying to pawn her off to second-tier boys) only serves to limit her characterization and reinforce stereotypes. They don't think she's desirable. We don’t need more she’s a strong independent Black woman who doesn't need a man stories. Especially not ones where she’s dedicating her life to a psychotic white woman. That’s regressive asf.
Nettles’ character is worth way better analysis and actual praise than what she’s being given. While she may be a secondary character she’s actually important to the narrative.
She grew up a homeless orphan(which is why it’s so insulting when people try to act like she’s a freaking idiot who doesn’t know how to bathe herself yet she can tame a dragon🤦🏽♀️ Put most of the highborn women in her position and they wouldn’t survive a day in her shoes).
She’s the only known non-Valyrian dragonrider who claims a wild dragon. A prince who believes in Valyrian supremacy falls in love with her to the point where he’s willing to sacrifice his life for her.
Nettles is self-made. She’s self-taught. She’s loved for herself. She survives a freaking war and becomes a fire goddess/witch. Who wouldn’t want her? Who wouldn't want to be her? She’s the sh*t 😎
At this point, I’m over it. I’m waiting for her to get more than a handful of fans and to see her get a somewhat happy ending (unless the show wants to face major backlash by killing her off when she survives in the books, she’ll get her happy ending). The Dumbnyra and Fettles stans can go cry and voice their concerns about that🤷🏽♀️
#nettles#netty#nettles f&b#nettles asoiaf#nettles ask#tired of the takes#it’s exhausting#fandom misogynoir#bncommentary#kinda relates but look up what yoyo’s character was told in theyclonedtyrone#she’s told she wasn’t special but she actually was 🤷🏽♀️#bnask#bnasks#hotdask#its always a great time to rant about the awesomeness of netty 😊#daemon x nettles#nettles x daemon#hotd commentary
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There’s something about Nettles that I don’t quite understand- what does the privilege of innocence mean? I’m having a little trouble because what exactly is she guilty of? Bad taste in men?
If I’m being honest, her being Black is the real reason why they don’t think she’s innocent/worthy of being included in the show/worthy of being in a romantic relationship with the “main guy.” Daemon is crazy as hell, but he’s “desirable” so they’ve deemed Nettles unworthy of him and want to pass her off to lame rejects, ahem Jace ahem non-existent Daeron, or say she's a lesbian * when she’s not 😒
I really hate sounding like a broken record at this point, but 99% of the sh*tty discourse surrounding her would go away and she’d be seen as a worthy, an innocent(cause yeah she hasn't done anything bad), and worthy of love if she were white.
Nettles isn’t the first victim of being treated like crap and unnecessarily hated by a fandom for the crime of existing. It’s quite common for Black women characters because people have very little empathy for Black women(and girls). In real life, they have a hard time believing we are innocent or seeing our worth which extends over into fiction. If someone doesn’t believe me take a look at this video(it’s a bit long, but it’s highly entertaining, informative, and relevant given how some people also try to deny that Nettles is Black in the first place 🫠 )
*There is nothing wrong with being gay or being in a same-sex couple, but I’ve seen enough fandoms(and it's getting more common) try to push this on straight Black(ish) women characters because they don’t want her to be with the main guy. It’s racism disguised as progressivism because most people know it looks extremely bad to say “I don’t want my fave with a Black woman” so this is a way to escape the racism charges without outright seeming like a racist.
Hell look how people harp on the show not showing Rhaenyra and Laena 🙄while completely ignoring the fact that they screwed over her relationship with Daemon. They don’t care about the first relationship either(see how they treat Rhaeicent) they just don’t want Laena to be the focus of Daemon’s affections.
#her crime is being a black character with a storyline#if she was in the background or someone’s servent they’d be okay with that but she’s not🙃#netty#nettles#hotd#house of the dragon#hotd spoilers#bnask#bnasks#bncommentary
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One of the(many) things that bugs me about this fandom when it comes to Nettles is how even mentioning her relationship with Daemon is considered “reducing” her role to just being that of his "love interest.” This idea is ridiculous to me because it’s promoting the same thing that they accuse Nettles x Daemon shippers of(aka stripping down her characterization).
Yes, Nettles is her own independent character with her own story that ends and begins outside of Daemon, but he is a part of her story.
Her relationship with him is just as important as being an orphan bastard (non-Valyrian) girl from Driftmark, the only dragonrider of Sheepstealer(and probably the last dragonrider for 200 years), or a fire witch to the Burned Men. All those aspects make Nettles Nettles. She is more than one thing and romantic love doesn’t detract from it. It only adds another layer to her characterization.
#nettles#nettles characterization#house of the dragon#hotd#hotd spoilers#nettles f&b#dattles#nettles x daemon#I feel like this is being driven in large part due to misogynoir#and some internalized misogynoir from some black fans themselves(and I’m not talking about black as in the team)#this literally happens a disproportionate amount with black women characters and I am sick of it#a la shuri and people getting mad at people shipping her with namor#romantic relationships are important canon romantic relationships are important until unless that character is a black woman#then it becomes inappropriate somehow or reducing her arc#miss me with the fake concern for her character 🙃#yeah that’s all I have to say on this for now#bncommentary
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There’s something I’m really trying to wrap my head around: if you hate Nettles for breaking up Daemon and Rhaenyra then what difference does her skin color make?Like, I’ve definitely criticized Martin for his habit of having an older man finally meet his soulmate who just happens to be a young dark haired tomboy but I’m consistent about it. Why would Nettles being white make her more palatable? She’s still breaking up a ship
When I say that Nettles being race-bent would make her more appealing to this fandom, I’m basically going off of the pattern with other fandoms when it comes to Black female love interests and how this fandom has been treating her so far.
Go into any fandom(The Bear, The Flash, Marvel, Sleepy Hollow, Vampire Diaries, The Flash, Twisted, Riverdale, you name it, it’s there) and watch how they act when a Black girl might get/gets with the resident fandom hottie that everyone lusts after.
Like clockwork suddenly there are a million and one excuses on why she can’t get with the guy or how their relationship is “wrong”(she doesn’t need a man she’s strong and independent, why can’t she just be friends with him, they have no chemistry, it’s abuse, she’s a lesbian, etc).
Google fandom misogynoir and what pops up will leave you feeling a mix of vindication cause you aren’t going crazy and severely depressed because no one really accepts accountability or gives a sh*t so the problem keeps festering for years.
People will try to gaslight you into thinking nothing is wrong(which is what they are currently doing with Nettles since her fanbase is small) until people are finally forced to admit that there is a problem once they've been called out by white people or several articles have been written about their vicious behavior. By then it's too late.
Most Black people leave fandoms for this kind of abuse because when you are treated like less than in real life then when you try to have some fun like everyone else you are still treated like crap. Fandoms should serve as a source of escapism, yet for Black fans they are just another headache.
The only reprieve Black women have is when we create our own shows and movies (which people still get mad at but that's another discussion) and even then sometimes you are still dealing with a load of bullcrap(Shonda Rhimes I am looking at you).
The reason why this happens is because sadly fans use most of these female characters as self inserts. And while Black girls have no problem seeing themselves in other women the same isn’t true for other women(and that has to do with the ignorant belief that they are better because they aren’t Black).
These people are not used to not being put on a pedestal for nothing other than having the right skin tone so when once in a blue moon that doesn’t happen(or it looks like it won’t happen) it sends some into panic mode and thus comes in a need to put those Black characters back into the undesirable box.
The HOTD/Dance fandom in particular has a problem with this.
See how before this show Laena used to be thought of as Daemon’s great love, but the moment she became Blackish she was tossed to the side in favor of saying Miss Maegor was his great love, called her N-word, and compared her to a monkey. People don't have a nice word to say about show!Laena unless it's to support a ship where their self-insert is at the center of that didn't even happen with essentially no canon basis.
And you can’t use the excuse that the fans don’t ship it because Daemon was a crappy husband to Laena. After all, Dumbnyra wasn’t portrayed in a healthy light either yet it’s the most popular ship in this fandom by a long shot.
Now, I obviously don’t think everybody would suddenly start shipping Dettles if she were white or race-bent, but for a great deal of the people objecting to the ship and hating on her, it seems that Nettles’ race is the main reason why:
The fact that you have Dumbnyra stans(the last highlighted one) respecting Alys(a character from another team who they actively dislike) more than Nettles says it all and if that’s not enough then you also have this:
I guess props to them for at least acknowledging that Nettles is Daemon’s lover, but saying it’s fine to replace her with a white woman? Okay😒
Another anonymous individual straight up admitted they don’t want Daemon with a Black woman:
And it’s not as if people haven’t actively wanted Nettles to be race-bent, denied she’s Black-ish in the first place(see people thinking that it’s impossible for Black people to have brown skin🙃), or said that she was going to be played by insert non-Blackish.
Even when that beach photo was leaked no one really bothered looking for the two Black actresses in the pictures(some dumba** literally thought a obviously Black woman wasn’t Black and instead was a white woman in Black face because she wasn’t the color of the night sky🤦🏽♀️).
Team Green is not innocent either because the only value they see in Nettles is as a prop for a racist white woman’s awakening or as a gotcha moment to say Daemon is a pedo:
I would take you guys saying she's a child and her relationship with Daemon is icky seriously if you didn't ship the white version of Dettles, Alysmond.
All of this isn’t a coincidence. Nettles’ race is literally the thing that makes these people uncomfortable with her character, her relationship with Daemon, and her presence in the show(and the book for those who actually read it and didn’t immediately descend into a fit of rage at the mere mention of her name). She’s disrespected and treated like sh*t from this fandom because she's Black.
Again everything wouldn’t be peaches and cream if Netty wasn’t who she was, but as it stands, Daemon and Nettles would not be met with such visceral hate and repulsion if Nettles were white(or even non-Black) instead of a Black girl which non-Black fan girls refuse to actually relate to.
#bnasks#bnask#nettles#daemon targaryen#daemon x nettles#daemon targaryen x nettles#hotd fandom misogynoir#bncommentary#anti hotd fandom#anti asoiaf fandom#i’m tired 🙃
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