The Only Good Thing Coming From Season Two Are The Top Notch Visuals Were Getting For Aemond :)

The more we think about Alicent character assassination. The more it get worse.

Alicent Hightower: Artwork by Ertaç Altinöz in TWOIAF, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Artwork by Douglas Wheatley in Fire and Blood, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Olivia Cooke portraying Alicent Hightower in Season 1 of House of the Dragon, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Leo Ashton portraying young Aemond Targaryen in Season 1 of House of the Dragon, Phia Saban portraying Helaena Targaryen in Season 2 of House of the Dragon, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Olivia Cooke portraying Alicent Hightower in Season 1 of House of the Dragon.

The city is yours, Princess. But you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son Aemond will return with fire and blood. - Alicent Hightower (Fire & Blood)

Rhaenyra rejected her stepmother’s proposal with scorn. “Your sons might have had places of honor at my court if they had kept faith,” Her Grace declared, “but they sought to rob me of my birthright, and the blood of my sweet sons is on their hands.“Bastard blood, shed at war,” Alicent replied. “My son’s sons were innocent boys, cruelly murdered. How many more must die to slake your thirst for vengeance?” - Alicent Hightower (Fire & Blood)

Queen Alicent, beloved of the smallfolk, placed her own crown upon the head of her daughter, Helaena, Aegon’s wife and sister. After kissing her cheeks, the mother knelt before the daughter, bowed her head, and said, “My Queen.” (Fire & Blood)

Alas, the king was not of a forgiving mind. Urged on by his mother, the Queen Dowager Alicent, Aegon II was determined to exact vengeance upon those who had betrayed and deposed him. (Fire & Blood)

The constant talk of Helanea being ‘an innocent’ is so infantilizing especially because she’s autistic code or shown as having some type of neurodivergence.

That is a grown woman with kids and who had to watch one kid be killed. She’s allowed to be mad and upset and not be brushed off as an innocent little baby who doesn’t even like her dragon.

I honestly don’t get people who call book!Alicent an “evil stepmother” or a power hungry woman who ‘seduced’ V*serys and then tormented Rha*nyra for years.

There is literally nothing in F&B stating or even eluding to Alicent even wanting to be Queen or seducing Vis or even having an affair with him while Aemma was still alive (which is heralded as a mere rumor).

For all we know, book!Alicent may have been in the same situation as her show counterpart: a young girl forced to be married to the king despite not having any desire to do so. However, unlike her show counterpart, book!Alicent seemed to understand that it would strengthen her family’s status and at least made the best of her situation and embraced the power she had if she truly was forced to wed the king (again, nothing in the book stating so).

As for the whole “evil stepmother” stuff, all that’s said is that Alicent and Rha*nyra started off with a decent relationship before they grew apart because of their own personal ambitions, and most likely because both wanted to be in Vizzy’s favor due to the fact that both girls desired to be Queen.

Also people love to talk about how Alicent “tormented” her stepdaughter (despite having no evidence) and having beef with a child, meanwhile Rha*nyra openly mocked her siblings at court due to them being a threat to her claim and Da*mon was noticeably cold towards his nephews because they pushed him further down the line of succession.

Book!Alicent was literally just a normal medieval woman who wanted to protect her children and was a little bitchy. That’s it. Honestly, compared to the atrocities committed by characters such as Rha*nyra, Da*mon, Mys*ria, and others, she’s really not that bad.

So nice of HBO to reveal literally every second of Aemond’s screen time via stills and clips ahead of tomorrow’s episode, to save the Aemond girlies the trouble of watching. They are so kind.

Do you know where "the book is team green propaganda" came from? I often see this in the fandom in discussions

The showrunners themselves said this 🫠

Ryan Condal specifically called at least Blood and Cheese and the Aegon/Sunfyre bond propaganda, as in, he believes that women lie about their trauma and Alicent somehow got to the historians through all of this and lied about what she and her family went through (and apparently made up a grandson 🥴) with the specific purpose of slandering her ex bestie of three years/enemy of decades, despite the fact she apparently would kill her sons to reconcile with her... and he says the stuff about Sunfyre being beautiful and Aegon choosing his golden banner based on their strong bond was "Westerosi historical propaganda."

Basically it's their justification/shutdown of critics for what they view as their own superior writing changes to the story. These writers are high on their own fumes and their ego is so inflated that they think they can write ASOIAF better than GRRM himself (despite the fact that Sara Hess admitted she never even watched Game of Thrones and took no consideration of the universe when creating her own narratives in this show).

This also stems from this "maester conspiracy" where people believe a select group of people high up in society are secretly controlling things from the shadows and calling the shots... and like all similar conspiracy theories, this is actually deeply rooted in antisemitism.

It's very unlikely that a large number of people, even maesters, could collaborate in secret and all agree on set things in order to completely rewrite history... and there's the fact that the historical textbook Fire and Blood was written by GRRM as the in-universe definitive source on the real history, using a variety of sources including historians, eyewitnesses, survivors, and royal household staff, in which there are people sympathetic toward both sides of the Dance.

Despite all of this, writers and fans are convinced that somehow all the sources that paint TB in a bad light are fictitious propaganda while at the same time accounts that paint TG in a bad light are taken at face value, and vice versa: parts of the story that recount TG as doing something for realistic reasons, being Targaryen dragonriders with bonded dragons, or even being a loyal united front as a family are apparently lies and stolen from TB in order to make TG look better, so the show "corrects" this by giving it all to TB.

Really wild that anyone can think the author of a series known for his anti war, all characters and sides are morally gray, and each character is conflicted in their heart about love and duty stories apparently purposefully wrote a story where war is justified due to actual prophetic divine right... some characters are completely good and others are completely evil... and their motivation really changes whenever the plot or writers need it... and he did all of it by purposefully crafting a story based on lies for no reason.

And well, we already know that GRRM has some opinions about how stuff like this has failed the story.

All of my kinks are rooted in wanting to feel wanted so intensely that someone cant stand it. Regardless of which side of the dynamic I'm on it's all about aggressive desire

A key word here. I'm sure you guys saw how they want to tell us that Rhaenyra is a queen. Like referring to her as Rhaenyra I Targaryen or the last episode name, the queen who ever was. And we have GRRM himself, the author of the book don't even referring to her as queen. He only refers to Helaena and Alicent as queen and Aegon as king. And he himself point out that Helaena is gentle and loved while Rhaenyra is not.

Aegon II literally issued an edict that Rhaenyra was a usurper and only a princess, only Helaena and Alicent are queens. Aegon III took over as Aegon II's heir, not Rhaenyra's heir. Neither he nor Viserys II purged that edict of their uncle. Nor did any other King. In fact, they adopted strictly agnatic succession laws. What more do they need to accept that even Rhaenyra's own sons, grandsons, great grandsons do not see her as the Queen.

In the excellent words of Stannis the Mannis,

“traitors have always paid with their lives . . . even Rhaenyra Targaryen. She was daughter to one king and mother to two more, yet she died a traitor’s death for trying to usurp her brother’s crown. It is law. Law, Davos. Not cruelty.”

Rhaenyra was never remembered as queen. Also not a single Targ kid was named after her because she was a traitor, pretender and usurper.

I'm not surprise the post is not there anymore. Because it's literally change the plot of this stupid show.

For all TB fans saying "Rhaenyra wouldn't kill children." Your legit wrong.

She didn't care that Jaehaerys died in the books only that it made her look bad, and she felt bad for Helaena nothing else. She put a price on Jaehaera and Maelors heads, yes a 6 and 2 year old were sentenced to die cause she didn't want any chance of her losing the throne. When people did find Maelor they cut him in pieces and handed him piece by piece to Rhaenyra and she paid them for their "work".

Also she's not the feminist you think she is, she legit would tell woman asking if they could inherit there families seats "a son comes before a daughter." So why the hell should Rhaenyra be any different? Why does she get the throne if a son comes before a daughter?

You all really hold her on this pedestal that isn't even hers, she's not a Child loving kind queen, she's not a feminist girl boss queen. She's a cruel queen, so much so she was called "Rhaenyra the Cruel." And "Maegor with teats." You know how much bad and cruel shit you got to do to be called those things? Too much for you TBs to be comfortable with.

What did Aemond say to Cole (about his mother?) ? I can't really make out what he's saying before "That makes her a fool"

“Alicent still has love for our enemy and that makes her a fool”

Disrespectful little toad should support his mother’s right to a lesbian life partner.