thinking about how alicent is the only person who tells rhaenys she should have been queen without having something to gain from doing so. sure, corlys says rhaenys should have been queen, but we see again and again that power is his top priority and rhaenys has got to know that if it didn't bring corlys personal gain, there's no saying he would believe that. sure, her children have probably told her that, but again it's difficult to divorce that from the power they would have gained.

for alicent, it's entirely the opposite. she would have less power if rhaenys had become queen, because her husband would be a prince instead of king. and yet.

and yet.

i just think it's very telling. i mean, eve best also point blank says the same thing, so it's not just me. she says this makes rhaenys "look at alicent for probably the first time." it makes rhaenys "take alicent seriously." it makes her "quite impressed by [alicent's] strength and tenacity." it makes her see that alicent is "remarkable."

I have to say that the one scene in HotD that really annoys me is the one between Rhaenys and Alicent in episode 9.

I’m not even going to get into how much they downgraded book canon Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. The show version is almost nothing like her.

In that scene, the showrunners were using Rhaenys to try to gather some more sympathy for Alicent, with the whole heart-to-heart about the “window in your prison” bullshit. As if Alicent didn’t play a huge part in creating that “prison” for herself. And I’m sorry, if as the Queen, the most powerful woman in the Realm, you still act like a victimized prisoner, even though you had power to control your own life, then that makes you a pathetic and crappy Queen. Alicent is blaming others because she herself didn’t take control of her own life (as one of the very few women in the Realm with the power to do so).

In this scene, Alicent tries to recruit Rhaenys and by extension, the Velaryons (non-book canon), with no other argument other than badmouthing Rhaenyra. I’m sorry, but this just shows blatant and mindless pro-Green favoritism on behalf of the showrunners.

Nothing about this makes sense. Princess Rhaenys Targaryen was in a similar position as Rhaenyra many years prior. Did Alicent really think that Rhaenys would help her do to Rhaenyra what the lords of the Great Council of 101 did to her???

Like I said, logic truly seems to fail the showrunners. Either they used the moment to try to portray the Greens as the better party, or they wanted to show how much intelligence Alicent lacks (the canon version of her wasn’t the brightest but not quite this dumb either).

Canon GRRM version of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen was a fierce and intelligent woman, who didn’t hesitate for a single moment to take Rhaenyra’s side and uphold her claim. She despised Alicent and would never give her the time of day. Not to mention that Rhaenys never held back. She wanted all out war, and she was the one to propose the use of dragons (not Daemon). All of this because she sympathized with Rhaenyra greatly and she was not going to stand by and experience a deja vu. She wanted Rhaenyra to succeed, because she didn’t.

The showrunners made their version of Rhaenys have some sort of beef with Rhaenyra out of jealousy (because Rhaenyra has an actual chance to be Queen, whereas she didn’t), while at the same time, she shows sympathy towards Alicent (for some non-understandable reason).

And for a show whose purpose apparently is to impose feminism, they sure have a way of limiting their female characters, making them act all “proper” and “lady-like” and wanting to resolve matters “peacefully”. In an attempt to make Alicent the absolute victim, they even scrapped the idea that she was the mastermind behind the usurpation and the leader of the Greens. She was supposed to be the one in charge, not Otto.

In actual canon, the women were the ones who waged war, and the men obeyed.

The super biased mentality of these showrunners never ceases to amaze me.

Rhaenys killing smallfolk is so…. Like wtf, and then people be like “Kinslaying is the worst crime there is! She’d be stupid to do it!”, first HOTD never introduces the notion of kinslaying, and killing hundreds of people is a crime too! She is already a criminal for what she did, why stop halfway if you’re going full murderer ? If you’re gonna commit a decapitation worthy offence, then you might as well kill the people who are a legitimate threat to your future great grandchildren and granddaughters themselves.

Them coming out saying that Rhaenys didn’t kill them because it’s not her war…. Lol, it was her war the moment she agreed to betroth her granddaughters to Rhaenyra’s sons. Her family (the little that is left of it) is in legitimate danger and she passed up the opportunity to kill people who WERE ACTIVELY PLANNING ON KILLING HER FAMILY ANYWAYS. (Yes, I know it was mostly Rhaenyra and Daemon but Jace and Luke and Joff would have to go too and Daemon is the father of Rhaena and Baela, the twins have legal claim to the throne, so no ways they letting that slide either).

Yeah, this has been my argument as well. I will never not be angry about this damned episode, esp this scene.

My biggest gripe about this fool of an episode is that if Rhaenys says she doesn't want to "be involved" in "their" war is that in ANY iteration of these events where Baela & Rhaena exist without turning this into a full-fledged AU like sweetestpopcorn's "The Black and the Greens", Rhaenys will ALWAYS be "involved"...

because those girls are DAEMON'S DAUGHTERS and ONE OF THEM LIVES WITH DAEMON AND RHAENYRA!!! And this Rhaenys constantly has said she primarily cares about her own kids and grandchildren, not Viserys, Daemon, or Rhaenyra...so what gives?!

In a world where these strategy-minded people would, you know, think strategy...Rhaenys practically spoon-fed them a public reason to go to war and assume a protective-justice persona!!!

To further paint the blacks as violence mongerers or even just shit-starters, even with those killed being peasants, bc the sheer number of people killed simultaneously who live around you & around your castle who have historically been a part of some Faith-led attacks against the crown (Aenys, Maegor, Rhaena & her brother Aegon--the Poor Fellows) is astronomical. Killing that many smallfolk doesn't pay and rather makes for a larger number of angrier smallfolk with a reason to be angrier than average. You'd think she'd realize that and idk, maybe not kill dozens if not thousands of smallfolk.

Otto will always look to them as possible rivals because of that connection to the person he thinks will likely always contend with him/anyone for power, espe after he includes the younger boys' hostage-taking in his terms in episode 10. Aside from Otto--who had a grip on Alicent's decision-making until it came to Rhaenyra (as if Rhaenyra doesn't come with her kids, who Alicent has accepted the risk of exile or total ruination for 10 years, but I digress).

And Alicent--by the next season's 2 trailers--appears to go back to Otto as a consultant and guide as to how the greens will face the blacks, so we can't argue that she will not escape his influence even with her allowing herself to understand his manipulativeness. She obviously didn't want a war and has tried to stave it off by holding Rhaenys hostage and sending that damned page to Rhaenyra with Otto's terms--that is if she actually sent it--she also sets up a possible war through usurping Rhaenyra in the first place! And Alicent isn't actually fighting against Rhaenyra for the sake of "the realm" but for for her own position as the mother to a possible king/wife of a past king and the lives of her kids.

Even in the book--if you are inclined to believe that she believes this and/or has sincerely taken Otto's fear of Daemon as her own maybe bc similarly to the show he instilled in her that fear of him--Alicent brings up Daemon's supposed bloodthirstiness and inevitable murder of her kids as reason to usurp Rhaenyra ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

As for the kinslaying part, they refused to insert Rhaenyra's lines of that, instead making her grab Otto's pendant and throwing it off the bridge in a much more flaccid version of what she does with Orwyle's chains in the book. Without the context of her giving Aegon that chance to withdraw AND criticizing Orwyle taking the green side and basically going against his own maester code of following traditions and laws, show!Rhaenyra's protests against Otto is more losing the desired cool & careful, wise reservedness that HotD already favors over original "proud" book!Rhaenyra. And I think that it's to give the Dance story this faux measure of "balance" that ozymalek talks about HERE:

People often argue whether HOTD showrunners are biased in favor of Team Black or Team Green. I think the answer to this question can't be encapsulated within the context of "bias", at least not fully. They are biased for both and neither at the same time and it's difficult to explain, but I will try to articulate how I see it. The Dance era in "Fire and Blood" is something that will fundamentally cause the feelings of cognitive dissonance. I think this is why people initially disliked this book when it first came out. It did not provide easy answers, it was written as a historical account, the in-universe historians were clearly biased. People, however, had trouble realizing who the historians are biased for and against. Team Green would have you think that "F&B" is biased against the Greens, because their allegiance as maesters clearly being to Hightowers notwithstanding, they could not evade simple historical facts: that most of the kingdom supported Rhaenyra, that Greens were horrendously misogynistic and that her usurpation was clearly wrong. That's why, approaching it from the "choose your favorite war criminal" point of view, it was difficult for Greens to accept that their preferred side is so cartoonishly evil - obviously bias must have been involved, even though the only pro-Black narrator of F&B is Mushroom, the rest are Greens. The maester's anti-Targaryen bias, however, manages to sneak in and mess with the reader's balance, causing said cognitive dissonance. It's hard to deal with it as a reader, let alone as a showrunner who's trying to adapt a story in which not everything is set in stone. They incorrectly assumed that, because they are constantly forced to question what is happening in the story, the bias is with the underlying idea that there was a correct side. As such, they assumed that all the inconsistencies result from maesters not choosing to view it that way. Ryan Condal repeatedly stated that he does not want watchers to pick sides, while George RR Martin embraces it and even encourages it (and I think that he himself has picked the Blacks). Such is our nature as human beings. So they decided that they have to balance the scales. Because Greens are poorly developed, they added more characterization for them that contradicts their book personas (abused child bride meow meow Alicent who is clueless about the plans that in the books she herself set in motion, for example) while simultaneously taking the characterization AWAY from team Black members. Rhaena and Baela barely have any lines, and though this may be the case of simple racism, it's pretty telling that they ignored the fact that Baela is tomboyish and has short hair. Rheanyra herself is so toned down that she does not resemble her book counterpart in the slightest, making her seem weak, stupid and undecided. Daemon straight up becomes a villain and a wife murderer rather than a throughoutly gray character (book!Rhea Royce unambiguously dies after a hawking accident while Daemon is still fighting in the Stepstones); that's because Team Black was in a desperate need for a corrupting influence in order to balance the scales. But some Greens aren't spared from this treatment either. Otto is made much worse than he was in the books, he straight up pimps out his teenage daughter so that he can elevate House Hightower. While Aegon is also a sex pest in the books, showing him openly rape a lowborn woman was a risky decision (as was the not very subtle implication that he rapes Helaena as well); not to mention that the child fighting pits come from Mushroom, whose entire gimmick is making shit up. So neither side is really spared from being villified and whitewashed, depending on whom we look. The showrunners were fully committed to making choosing sides a confusing process, making the cognitive dissonance of this story to be even stronger. This is why they aren't really biased for or against anyone.

The Queen Who SHOULD Have Been

in case anyone needed to love Rhaenys and Meleys more, in Fire and Blood it's mentioned that Rhaenys insisted on showing up to her wedding to Corlys on Meleys' back.

This specific scene. This fucking scene. Man, this scene. Larys is obviously a creep but this is such a… universal experience for women. Not as in ‘every woman has had a man jerk off to her bare feet two feet away from her’ but as in “men only befriend women to get in bed with them”. As in the constant objectification. The constant question at the back of the mind of any woman who watches the world carefully. The question, is what this man says sincere? Or is it but an attempt to acquire something I would not give from me? As in the men who jerked off to Marilyn Monroe and then advocated for the version of her murder instead of suicide because the fact that she might have hated it all enough to kill herself was unbearable. As in the millions of male porn addicts who joke about it as if they aren’t jerking off to videos of women being hurt and raped. As in men describing women’s bosoms more than their emotions in books. As in your colleagues and teachers staring at your chest, joking about your ass, touching you. As in men catcalling you on the streets. As in men seeing you as a pair of nice feet, not as a grieving, feeling, conflicted human being with longing and sadness and joy in your heart.

The Greens | Ghost

House of the Dragon 1x09

Click here for the -> Full video

House of the Dragon: Predictions about Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Nettles

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!

So, I’ve taken to reading Fire and Blood (the fictional historical text written by a maester called Gyldayn), which chronicles the Targaryen dynasty from before Aegon I’s conquest to Aegon III’s ascension. Thinking about Rhaenyra and Daemon and Nettles, I wondered how the show would portray what happened between them all. 

But did you know about Grand Maester Munkun’s own writings that detailed all the events after Alicent and Otto gathered the “green council“ when Viserys dies?

As some know, Fire and Blood is supposed to be a text that draws from several sources, mainly two: a septon/priest called Septon Eustace and the dwarf fool Mushroom. 

The first was the confessor/confidant for Viserys, Alicent, and Aemma while working in the Red Keep’s sept, while Mushroom entertained Viserys and Rhaenyra and stayed by Rhaenyra’s side for most of the events of the Dance of Dragons, even entertaining Aegon II and Aegon III later on.

The Possibilities as to Where I Think the Show Will Go with This

Daemon and Nettles actually do have an affair, despite him being canonically 49 and her 17 at this moment. I imagine they grow closer by Daemon being impressed by Nettles’ self reliance and ability to claim her dragon, Sheepstealer even with her neglible lineage. He’s grown distant from Rhaenyra and her getting more cold due to the recent betrayals, the deaths of her sons, her stillborn daughter, and other current trouble at King’s Landing. He takes to showing Nettles the finer things of his own living and the two hit it off. Perhaps he is also impressed with her position as being the least-looking Dragonseed (Valyrian bastard) making her the outcast amongst outcasts. He’s the black sheep of his family. And she’s pleased someone so prestigious, handsome, daring, etc has an interest in her. With how physically unattractive and nonvirginal she’s painted, she might not have experienced someone openly showing attraction for her. (Daemon likes pretty women both in the show and the book; he likes pretty women and is reputed to like virgins best in the book, at least in his youth.)  The attention’s alluring, despite it’s ill-advised condition (or perhaps a little because of it?).

They don’t have an affair and it takes a while for Daemon and Nettles to grow as close as they do. They happen to grow very close due to their long hours alone flying around to find Aemond and Vhagar. Daemon’s still being impressed by Nettles and Nettles by him in return. However, in this scenario he sees his physically-emotionally absent daughters Baela and Rhaena in Nettles and wishes to act out what he couldn’t with his own daughters on Nettles. (It could still be sexual or erotic, but there’s a chance it never goes past the weird baths.) Nettles may see a father figure in Daemon, something she’s never had and takes the chance to experience now. Plus, she’d still likely be surprised pleased someone so like Daemon has any sort of interest in her.

They don’t have an affair and it goes like scenario 2, except he and Nettles have been developing a relationship while both are in King’s Landing and while Daemon’s sleeping with Mysaria. That darker-skinned girl who brought the Cargyll twins/Otto to Mysaria before Otto burned Mysaria’s home is very likely Nettles and Fire and Blood has them all in King’s Landing together. While Nettles is supposed to be near Dragonstone to claim Sheepstealer before going to King’s Landing, the show might have Nettles travel to Dragonstone somehow, claim Sheepstealer, and come back. Mysaria may see Nettles getting along with Daemon, or have sent Nettles to him/Dragonstone. Mysaria may or may not get pissed at the perceived betrayal of Nettles, and it may not even be totally because she suspects them together so much as Nettles is not going to be willing enough to do her bidding, or Mysaria may see her as compromised and aligning herself with the same nobles who ruin the smallfolk’s (including her own) lives on the daily. So she goes to Rhaenyra (or contently twists the truth to her when summoned). Or Mysaria sows the seeds by bringing up the other dragonriders’ betrayal. It wouldn’t be the first time showrunner and TV writers changed plot details to suit their vision.

They do have the affair and and it goes like scenario 1, with scenario 3′s Mysaria/back-and-forth events described. More of a chance Mysaria is actually put out by the sexual relationship, but still motivated more by how much she can and can’t use Nettles in light of Nettles getting closer with Daemon. Mysaria might be a bit more happy twisting the truth, etc.

What Happened...As Recorded in Fire and Blood

[Paraphrase] When Rhaenyra finally took King’s Landing, two of her fighters/dragonriders betrayed her and she began to suspect another two after others in her council expressed their doubts. She called for one’s arrest and the other’s head. 

The last one was Nettles, a 17 year old dragonriding girl who was apparently not pretty, brown haired & skinned--didn’t have any of the classic Valyrian features. Nettles and Daemon were off trying to find Aemond to stop him from burning up a section of the realm, and Mysaria (Daemon’s lover and current spy mistress) affirmed that Daemon and Nettles were getting it on while looking for Aemond (491).

(Septon Eustace is the one Gyldayn relies on here.)

In response, Rhaenyra (though reportedly fine with Daemon sleeping with Mysaria while he was at King’s Landing) announced that Nettles enchanted Daemon and had to be killed. The Rationale: Daemon wasn’t at fault but was untrustworthy, being under Nettles’ spell. She sent the lord hosting them a message to kill Nettle and not to harm Daemon.

That lord’s maester, Maester Norren, wrote:

...‘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...The prince taught the girl to wash...and the maidservants...said that he oft shared a tub with her, ‘soaping her back or washing the dragon stink from her hair, both of them naked as their namedays’ (487).

And when Norren told Daemon about the secret order, Daemon’s reaction:

...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.’ (498)

And the next day Daemon and Nettles separated, Nettles never seen by any noble ever again.

Context

Gyldayn says this of how much and the quality of the information of the Dance of Dragons the maesters have at the moment of him writing:

...for much of what happened in the years that followed happened behind closed doors, in the privacy of stairwells, council rooms, and the bedchambers, and the full truth of it will likely never be known. We have of course, the chronicles laid down by Grand Maester Runciter...and many a court document as well, all the royal decrees and proclamations, but these tell only a small part of the story. For the rest, we must look to accounts written decades later by the children and grandchildren of those caught up in the events of these times...; third-hand recollections of aged serving men relating scandals of their youth. While these are undoubtedly of use, so much time has passed between the event and the recording that many confusions and contradictions have inevitably crept in (355-356).

There was still one other cited source, Grand Maester Munkun, who writes drawing from Grand Maester Orwyle’s confessions after Rheanyra imprisons him.

The Sources

[Septon Eustace]

...set down the most detailed history of this period (356).

Nor was he reticent about recording even the most shocking and salacious rumors and accusations, though the bulk of...[his text]...remains a sober and somewhat ponderous history (356).

[Mushroom]

...was thought feeble-minded, so kings and lords and princes did not scruple to hide their secrets from him (356).

Whereas Septon Eustace records the secrets of bedchamber and brothel in hushed, condemnatory tones, Mushroom delights in the same, and his Testimony consists of little but ribald tales and gossip, piling stabbings, poisonings betrayals, seductions, and debaucheries one atop the other (356).

Gyldayn says of these two and their value: 

Septon Eustace and Mushroom do not always agree upon particulars and at times their accounts are considerably at variance with one another, and with court records and the chronicles of Grand Maester Runciter and his successors (357).

[Grand Maester Munkun/Grand Maester Orwyle]

Though Munkun’s exhaustive history was not written until a generation later, and drew on many different sorts of materials...his account of the inner workings of the court relies upon the confessions of Grand Maester Orwyle, as set down before his execution...[Orwyle] was present at the [greens’] meeting and took part in the council’s deliberations and decisions......though it must be known that at the time he wrote, Orwyle was most anxious to show himself in a favorable light and absolve himself of any blame for what was to follow (393). 

Separate Note: While Fire and Blood is narrated by a person who is recording the Dance of Dragons events second/third hand and from sources that sometimes contradict each other, this doesn't mean that sources used have credibility. The devil's in the details and some more time thinking.

What do you Think?

Shoutout to Lord Beesbury in this upcoming episode.

He may be a doddering old man now and regularly bores people to tears in the Small Council, but he’s got guts and he’s loyal. Always respected him for that in Fire and Blood.

BAD BITCH MELEYS AND RHAENYS I REPEAT-

did anyone else have this realization while watching episode nine?? i remember going "aww that's so cute they all just hang out in alicent's room when she's not- OH GOD NO"

LMAO

I finally watched episode 9 of hotd I know I know it's about goddamn time and it literally amazes me how in every scene he's in Otto Hightower is unapologetically framed like a makivalian supervillain

Do you think Aemond is overrated? Both in the book and the show

How impressive he is, as in the accomplishments he has that accrue and mesh together into an imposing dressing?

Or his moral character (as in practices good morals)?

Yeah, overall. For different reasons when we go book vs TV show.

Because book!him didn't conquer anything (Criston is the one who arrived at Harrenhal after Daemon abandoned it, and then Aemond came around to claim it since Criston was also fighting for/with him). He thought he won there and that Daemon ran away, but Daemon was actually drawing him and Criston out to fly to KL and meet with Rhaenyra so they could take the city. He doesn't really get to command an army during battle, since Criston advised him to go to Oldtown and wait for Aegon but he instead wanted to just go to KL and fight Rhaenyra....but then after a mysterious argument -- that may or may not have been over Alys Rivers -- Criston and the entire army leave him to go south and Aemond is left alone. Instead of going to KL to do as he previously said he would, he burns down multiple riverlands castles, villages, and towns to draw out any of Rhaenyra's riders. He leaves behind Alys when Sabitha Frey comes for Harrenhal, and when he comes back and fires on her people he takes back Alys and disappears until Daemon draws him out. And then he eventually dies after taking the bait (Yeah he probably knew that this was a final battle of sorts. Doesn't negate that he underestimated Daemon even though the older man fooled him twice). With a sword thrust into his other remaining eye so hard that it stays in his corpse at the bottom of a lake and out through the back of his neck.

But even though we are only in the first season of HotD, the book's suggestion of his character outstrips the show's. The show's Aemond is both whitewashed AND a more pathetic version of him because the writers refused to give him half as much violence, anger, and amoral volatility as his book self has. Aemond is a lot more confident, tongue-whipping, vocal, etc and had been so since he was a small child:

Two years later, she produced a daughter for the king, Helaena; in 110 AC, she bore him a second son, Aemond, who was said to be half the size of his elder brother, but twice as fierce.

AND

Prince Aemond, despite the loss of his eye, had become a proficient and dangerous swordsman under the tutelage of Ser Criston Cole, but remained a wild and willful child, hot-tempered and unforgiving.

(Fire and Blood; “A Question of Succession”)

The word “remained” lets me know that Aemond was “willful”, “hot-tempered” and “fierce” from young childhood. And there are no suggestive contradictions to this characterization. If anything, how he speaks about Rhaenyra, how he beat his nephews "savagely" in the Vhagar claim and eye incident, and his behavior during the war all support the fact that he was a raging, misogynist bitch with too much power, a desperate need to prove himself, and an unwarranted axe to grind. Plus there are no accounts of him being a benevolent or even just a mild force to be reckoned with.

In HotD, he's presented first to audiences as a nonprovoking victim of bullying...when he would have been the bully in canon.

Was it cool to see a dragon claiming happen? Of course. And if you didn't know about F&B or hadn't ead it, you'd be all for Aemond in that scene due to the bullying. (And after the fight scene you should at least feel conflicted -- that's what the writers seem to be going for. I say you should still dislike him even if you hadn't read the book -- if you see what the original purpose of this scene is.) But from the beginning, book!him and his brothers hated the V boys (quote above).

Aemond purposefully kills Lucerys in canon. And for a guy (in the show) supposedly into the "philosophies" and learned...he couldn't muster the calm to not pursue his nephew in a rage? He couldn't not challenge him in front of Borros?!

This change (because it doesn't exist in canon) makes Aemond look even worse and more pathetic because he had the supposed material to develop a more rational mindset (as the show implies)...but throws it all out the window at Storm's End.

And Lucerys didn't even provoke him at Storm's End. Aemond was the one who approached him to demand his eye for his lost one!

Then there is the fact that medieval "philosophies" in the real world were written by religious supporters, monks, friars, nuns, and generally religious people. Would there be more moderately religious or atheist texts, yes, but the bulk came from religious persons either interpreting the Bible and its events or reusing ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers' thoughts and Christian-izing them, and citing word of mouth and other Christian principles or thinkers.

An example of the latter is how Tertullianus, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Aquinas, and Saint Ambrose all developed the idea that no human could truly shapeshift because they do not have God's shape-creating power to modify and the "nature", i.e., the soul, and that any subsequent change reported is actually delirium, hallucination, or the work of witches' and demons' illusions. Because they do not have God's power, they are rather creating illusions rather than real transformation and shapeshifting. And the "evidence" or reasoning came from people's word of mouth and eye witness accounts that were not disproven because those were the accounts and the mode by which they had the materials.

So if Westeros is modelled after medieval Europe and England, we can assume that these "philosophies" are these kind of texts, what always seek to prove the Faith's and the Seven gods' primacy and legitimacy, even if they were written by maesters. Highly biased. All it likely did for Aemond was reinforce his patriarchal obligations and privileges as well as his prejudices against his nephews.

*EDIT* The person who did read philosophies and prepared themselves mentally as well as physically would be Jacaerys Velaryon, not Aemond. He's the one giving military commands and such (the Red Sowing, Battle of the Trident, etc.) and he is the one who would have had to work hard to show that he was a capable ruler and commander because enough of the court suspected his parentage. *END OF EDIT*

Then there is the set up for Alys Rivers in the 9th episode, where he goes to get Aegon back with Criston. They talk to an older female sex worker whom Aegon took Aemond to have sex with when the guy was 13, and it seems Aemond is very uncomfortable or dismissive when she addressed him. People who have read the book know that this is setting us up for Alys, but instead of a situation where Aemond claims Alys as his sex slave/war prize just because he wanted to (from attraction) and could, the show is leading us into a narrative where Alys might be the one to victimize Aemond through psychological manipulation. All because she is at least 20 years older than him. Meanwhile, again , canon Aemond is fierce, volatile, and violent; he is a prince; he was trained by Cole to be a very good swordsman and fighter; at Harrenhal, he had a whole host of soldiers; he has a dragon. In what world could Alys Rivers be Aemond's abuser?! She could be any age, and she would always be at a heavy disadvantage.

If she ever were to emotionally manipulate him, it would be due to survival and take back power that was taken from her, not out of evil or selfishness or sexual perversion. Especially if she did have visions of the future, and told Aemond that Daemon would be at Gods Eye, she would have seen Daemon kill or injure Aemond....which means that if she did have visions, then she purposefully sent Aemond to die. She would have used his preexisting arrogance and desperate need to have a legacy of his own against him.

Even if she were to be a conniver, should I really feel bad for him, with all that he is?

Not only do these changes in writing and characterization all make Aemond a lot less confrontational, bold, etc, it also reduces his accountability. Because everything can be traced back to how "helpless" and "wronged he was". Meanwhile, this is a terrible way to look at what his loss of eye and subsequent evil acts means for a story that tries to show what patriarchy and entitled upperclassed men/boys can do when given a lot of leeway or allowed to develop a sense that they can and should demand more (for power respect, and glory).

Reducing or removing accountability is what Condal and the writers are pretty much going for, unfortunately. Since apparently they wish to make Aemond more reactive than proactive. As in he reacts to things as they happen. But that's not how writing stories works, characters drive the story forward in ASoIaF not plot, and reducing accountability and action only dulls the character. Where is the passion of ambition that drives him and his mother? Gone, because apparently wanting power at the cost of even your own integrity and/or others' lives with no just provocation makes you "boring".

So, in all and again, yes Aemond is criminally overrated. In both versions. He's also better and more entertaining in the book by being so comically evil while still making more sense as a character due to that unbridled entitlement fostered in him.

Thoughts from the latest HotD episode:

(Yes I’m late, ik ik)

Would not have thought, at that small council meeting, that Alicent would be the voice of reason

Honestly overall, Alicent is the best of them but tbf the bar isn’t high

“Criston, this is an intervention. You can’t keep breaking people’s necks!” “What?” *crack* “Criston!!”

Good on the (former) leader of the kingsguard tho. I’m pleasantly surprised, I’ve only seen that actor play assholes

Surely??? There has to be a backlash??? For imprisoning/killing the lords and ladies???? Who don’t bend the knee???? Like you can’t just do that, right????

Ok the thing with the children is kinda fucked up

I audibly cheered when Criston got kicked down the stairs

Otto Hightower you’re a little fucking bitch. Alicent… bestie I did not expect to kinda appreciate you but here we are.

FEET? FUCKING FEET?????

Tbh it like,,,,, fits with Larys’ character, but giving the character with a clubfoot is a little distasteful actually

Also Alicent bestie what the fuck. Yeet the whole man, for the love of god.

I hope the White Worm isn’t dead!! She seems kinda cool

I feel like it’s a problem when the heir who wants to be queen is passed over for the guy who really doesn’t want to be king.

Also jesus this is a King Joffrey 2.0 situation isn’t it?

Aemond really do be giving the side eye at that coronation huh?

Rhaenys bestie you trampled all those people with your dragon and for WHAT?

Not any fire? Not even a little bit? Couldn’t you have at least spitroasted Otto before calling it a day?

Anyway I’m conclusion fuck this I’m gonna go finish my Rangers Apprentice book