finally rendered those baela and rhaena sketches;

baela, lady of driftmark 🌊 & her younger twin sister— rhaena of pentos 🪷

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Mentally tracking how Rhaenyra is related to the twins

So Rhaenys was her father’s cousin, and they are the grandchildren of Rhaenys, which I believe makes her their second cousin once removed

She is their aunt as they are the children of her first husband’s sister

They are also the children of her uncle, making them her cousins

And then when she marries Daemon they are her stepchildren

i'm getting really tired of the "Aemond had no right to claim Vhagar" bs.

first of all, if justify Rhaenyra - Laena's cousin who grew up with her, and Daemon -Laena's husband - having sex on her goddamn funeral then you're in no position to criticize Aemond - who has literally never met Laena in his life - for trying to claim her dragon.

Aemond saw Vhagar and decided to go for it. Vhagar disappeared for years after baelon died, who knows if he'll ever get the chance to get close to her again? and maybe Rhaena will succeed in claiming her before him? it was a now or never moment for aemond.

baela and rhaena were justified in their anger, it's their mom's dragon. it's the last thing they had left from her. BUT aemond has never met these girls. he's desperate for a dragon. he's desperate to prove himself. so yeah, he's going to put himself before two strangers.

now let's talk about "Aemond paid the prince for claiming Vhagar \ Aemond deserved losing his eye" bs

no. no he didn't. aemond did not "pay the price for claiming Vhagar". it wasn't a sacrifice he had to make. vhagar accepted him as her rider, he had already claimed her when he was attacked by the strongs and the twins. aemond lost his eye because Luke cut it out. that's it.

Aemond's insult towards Rhaena was obvs directed at the strongs. for aemond, this wasn't even about rhaena. it was about finally winning against his bullies. and don't get me wrong, it was a shitty thing to say. but guess what guys, aemond's a kid too. he's like what, a year, two years older then Jace? kids can be selfish. kids can be really fucking mean. was insulting rhaena the empathic and mature thing to do? of course not! but it's clear that all aemond cared about was just getting back at the strongs. aemond's behavior was really normal for a bullied 10yo.

[and btw, Rhaena and Baela getting really angry and attacking aemond is also really understandable . from their POV, they've just lost their mom, and this random kid has just claimed her dragon & insulting them. ]

My favourite thing is how the Rhaena and Baela actors each favour an age variant of Laena.

They also each favour one of her family members.

Baela (both actresses) favour Rhaenys and Nanna's eldest version of Laena.

Rhaena favours both younger Laena's because they look so much alike but also Laenor, who looked like Laena's twin until the time jumped.

Thank goodness for Velayron genes. Also, this makes it all the more obvious with the Velaryon boys and who they are related to closely. That's a step they didn't need to take, but I'm glad they did.

See, I don’t even think Baela and Jace love each other. They barely know one another. We get no indication whatsoever of how any of them feel. The first time these kids ever met was at the worst funeral in the world, then Baela is fostered in Driftmark with her Grandmother while Corlys is running away from his grief and how he gave his children away to the Targaryens because of his ambitions and he lost them both. Corlys was the one originally pro Strong boys, Rhaenys was not. She would not have grown up hearing how great they were just for breathing. How does she feel being betrothed to a bastard? (She might not be anti bastard but truly as much as tb wishes, No noble raised girl in Westeros dreams of growing up and marrying a bastard) A bastard who’s brother just usurped the position her Grandmother was raising her for. Now, Rhaena may love them as brothers because she has been raised with them but now she’s suddenly engaged to marry her little brother. We got to see how Aegon felt about being betrothed to his little sister and it was realistic. How do they feel about their Uncle being murdered in front of them in favor of Rhaenyra? Baela has just lived with this man for the last 6 years and he did love her mother. He would not have been trusted to give a Eulogy at her funeral if Corlys and Rhaenys felt he didn’t love their daughter. The twins have no resentment and animosity towards Rhaenyra for that careless Valyrian wedding so soon after their mother’s death? They just smile like puppets and take their places next to the bland boys and get stars in their eyes when they see Rhaenyra who herself is bland af as a future Queen. She’s done nothing in the past 6 years deserving of that kind of admiration. Unlike Alicent ruling the 7 Kingdoms and Rhaenys ruling Driftmark In Corlys’ absence. Dragonstone is almost deserted. Rhaenyra made no boss moves in that time, nothing that showed any ambition or skill. She couldn’t have been further from the image of Queen Alysanne if she tried.

On to the boys, we get Jace’s feelings on Harwin’s death but not Laenor’s? How do he and Luke feel about the murder of their father? The whispers that Rhaenyra and Daemon did it? Jace is not as naive as Luke, does he believe it? She made them bastards in the first place and then she made them fatherless bastards. 6 years later do they still see and care about Laenor as their father? Did/do they grieve him? Besides the Driftmark succession, what are the lingering effects of his death? Is there any resent towards Rhaenyra for the positions she’s placed them in? Towards Daemon, who was a stranger to them for replacing their father?

I wish the show writers would’ve fleshed out the tb kid’s personalities and inner thoughts/actions like they did the kids/teens in GOT. The interactions between the young cast with each other feel so natural. The younger generation in HOTD didn’t get that much screen time in comparison but still, we see the dynamics between the Stark siblings so clearly within the first 2 episodes. We get a sense of their inner thoughts, feelings, goals, beliefs and conflicts.

Jon loved his father and Ned loved him, like Rhaenyra loves her sons. He raised him like his other children, YET we know how Jon feels about his parentage. We see although he himself can have classist tendencies, he is self conscious about his bastardy. He has moments of bitterness and self loathing. His brothers and sisters- including Sansa- loved him and despite that love for him Sansa’s pov of bastards is typical of the period she was raised.

Sansa’s reaction to her betrothal to Joffrey barring she did not yet know his true parentage and his true nature is realistic for a noble Westerosi girl. Robb’s reaction to the forcing of his hand and his marriage alliance to the Frey girl is realistic as well and how he eventually fucked it all up. That’s why I don’t Bristle at the idea of Jace and Sara, it would be the most human thing he did.

Thank you, anon. I really love your perspective and analysis of the Blacks teens. They deserve so much better.

I'll be saving this in my file for fics lmao. Because the show writers are useless at this point.

Rhaena and Baela Targaryen

Patreon | commissions | print store ✩

Daemon with daughters. I hope to see Rhaena and Baela more next season.

Yes.

Petition for all team Black and team Green fans to not be at each other's throats this upcoming season, and instead, we all just root for our favorite war criminals in peace? And normalize liking characters from each team and just have a preference on teams? Because that sounds like a fun time to me, thank you 🫶

“Lady Rhaena of House Targaryen, brave Baela’s twin, had brought a dragon’s egg with her to the Vale...an egg that had proved fertile, bringing forth a pale pink hatchling with black horns and crest. Rhaena named her Morning.”

Dragonstone Baela and Vale Rhaena

The Dragon Twins

baela and rhaena sketches i did based on a tweet about the twins having fun, shell decorated hairstyles

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I will never forgive hotd for the way they treated baela and rhaena.

baela and rhaena only exist in the show for the benefit of other characters. the little scraps of rhaena we get in ep 6 are only to build up the aemond & luke conflict later on. it was never about rhaena, because the subject of her being the only dragonless kid in her generation is literally never brought up again until daemon's dragon count in ep 10 when he gives her that nasty look = until the blacks NEED rhaena to claim a dragon to fight for them.

laena was the girls' mother. they loved her deeply. but apparently they just accept the fact that their dad married another women 2 days after their mom died. the girls are not blind or deaf, and were old enough to see the way daemon treated laena. but they seem to have no resentment towards daemon or rhaenyra. (and don't give me the BuT iT WaSn'T RhAeNyRa's fAuLt BS. yeah, rhaenyra is not their mother and has no responsibly towards them. BUT. there's just no way the 10yo baela and rhaena would not hate the woman their father replaced their beloved mother with. there will always be resentment. even when they grow up).

baela was fostered at driftmark for years, she was raised by rhaenys. she's corlys's oldest grandchild. but she's robbed of her inheritance by someone who has 0 velaryon blood and have no feelings or opinions about that?

they don't have any feelings or opinions about being used for their velaryon blood to cover up for their stepmom ? they don't care about being married off without even being told beforehand? they have no feelings \ opinions about ANY OF THIS??????

at least with rhaenys they showed us that she was feeling resentful and angry, with baela and rhaena we get nothing. nothing! the girls barely appear, and when they do appear they barely talk and when they do it's always for the benefit of someone else.

We can't tell Baela and Rhaena apart is okay as a criticism of their small part in the show, not as you not being able to tell them apart. Keep that to yourself.

A cheap parallel with a woman that slept with Laena's husband on her funeral day, while hinting to Daemon that Laenor should be killed before subjecting Laena's children to a sudden marriage ceremony when their mother hadn't sunk to the depths yet, is making this fandom jerk off? I've seen it all, I'm afraid.