Latest Posts by iknowhowtrianominaworksbutimlazy - Page 2

"Do you support Israel?"

I don't know - what do you mean by "support Israel"?

Do I support Israel's current war in Gaza? No.

Do I support Israel's right to get its citizens back? Yes.

Do I support Israel's settlements in the West Bank? No.

Do I support Israel's right to exist? Yes.

Do I support Israel's current government and leaders? No.

Do I support Israel's right to defend itself? Yes.

So I dunno, do I "support" Israel or not? What about Palestine?

Do I support reparations for Palestinians in the West Bank? Yes.

Do I support Hamas? No.

Do I support Palestinians in Gaza being free from war? Yes.

Do I support Hamas' violence against Israeli citizens? No.

Do I support Palestine's right to exist? Yes.

And then there's this...

Do I support the destruction of Israel? No.

Do I support the destruction of Palestine? No.

Do I support a world where Israelis don't fear death? Yes.

Do I support a world where Palestinians don't fear death? Yes.

The only way to achieve actual peace in the region is to support peace between Israel and Palestine. You cannot get this if you destroy Israel OR Palestine.

Actually, you know what? This just pisses me off a bit too much to let slide. I know intelligence, integrity and antisemitism don‘t usually go together but you might remember how after a „valiant group of arabic freedom fighters“ by the name Al-Qaeda „targeted infrastructure and military targets“ on US soil, America alongside NATO allies invaded two seperate countries, one of which demonstrably had nothing to do with any of the previously mentioned „liberation effort“ and murdered approximately six times the number of civilians Israel has killed combatants and civilianscombined.

Also Gaza prior to October 7th had a very rapidly growing population, which usually is not an indication of a genocide going on. I can assure you Jewish population did not increase during the Holocaust.

It’s so funny seeing pro-israelis try to defend Israel with the excuse of ‘Israel protecting themselves’. or that it’s ‘Not Israel’s fault because Hamas is hiding with civilians’ etc etc.

Like please. The USA has managed to kill !THREE! leaders of terrorist groups without killing tens of thousands of innocent people. Turkey has killed ISIS militants and hit targets without killing tens of thousands of people.

They also prove how they’re completely ignorant how violent Israel has been towards Palestine before. This has been going on for way longer than October 7th 2023. There is absolutely NO justification for what Israel is doing. If you support genocide simply say so.

The thing is, there is room for a great deal of that and it could be utterly amazing if - if you gave it to an excellent writing team.

As an example the Roman Emperor Domitianus is often regarded as one of Rome’s bad tyrannical emperors. Tacitus in particular paints him as an incompetent man, jealous of his servants great successes. He is accused of fabricating triumphs and wasting roman lives in unsuccessful wars. Thing is, he was extremely popular with the army and when Trajan began his Dacian Wars a lot of the necessary infrastructure was in place, put there in large part by Domitianus who also campaigned in the area, even though less successfully. Regarding his tyrannicsl nature, none of his reforms that were seen as tyrannical were ever reversed by his successors but only Domitianus ever caught any flac for it. Pliny remarks on his the ascension of Trajan to the imperial throne that he is so happy too never again have a princeps that he has to call dominus. Guess what he called Trajan in all his letters.

You could absolutely make a show about how Maegor and Jaehaerys ultimately shared many of the same ideas and values but one was very good at making them palatable to the Westeros-edition of the patriarchy and the other was murdered and labeled the worst Tyrant in history.

But again, you‘d need goid writers and the track record thus far does not inspire much confidence

HOTD and the future shows

Wanna know what I am fearing, in light of how the second season of HOTD have proved to be?

The future series based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg... if a show based on the Dance of Dragons-era/generations in Fire and Blood, can become so changed from the source material, how will things go for Egg aka future Aegon V in his boyhood, and Dunk, the future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, in how their plotline will be handed?

In fact, one worry of mine, when thinking about all of this, is how a TV show based on the reign of Maegor the Cruel would end like, based on what HOTD have done as "supposed" changes to the plot and characters.

I know that Classical Disney Movies may sound odd as a way to describe Maglor the Cruel, but I am thinking of the hand-drawn Original Disney Classics and the ongoing trend of making them into Live-Action versions:

Say that Maegor the Cruel as he is written in Fire and Blood, as well the other published books so far, is akin to a such Classic Disney movie, and how not all the Live-Action movies based on the Classics have proved to be....let's say well received, by fans.

If the second season of HOTD have proved to not be well received by fans for various reasons, then how well would a TV show based on Maegor do? Would the tv team try and paint his cruelity as "propaganda written by the Maesters/his enemies" to make Jaehaerys come off as a much better King? Would they rewrite his personality to 180 degrees, akin to how Season 2-Alicent is NOTHING compared to her book self? Would they try and make up something "tragic" about his relationships to his six wives, going for the far too common "All girls want bad boys" idea and that Maegor only "need" someone to see his "supposed real" self akin to Beauty and the Beast?

I am sorry for babbling, but if this mess of a second season is the result of trying to make a tv show out of Fire and Blood so far....

Then I am in honest doubt that the 2025 tv show about Dunk and Egg is not gonna live up to the original written tales of them.

And I can see Maegor's character in a possible TV show be haunted by cries from fans in style of "he is not like that in Fire and Blood!" "When did someone called the "Cruel" in-story suddenly become a "misunderstood" character like this?" "He is called the Cruel, not the "poor, second son" of Aegon the Conqueror!"

Actually planning on doing that.

I’m half tempted to rewrite season 2, just for the sake of fixing the mess they have made. I shall title it “Fuck You Condal” and it shall be known as the ‘I reject your fanfiction and substitute my own’ movement. Anyone wanna help?

Team Green as Pigeons just because…

Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down

Me at the function (House of the Dragon watch party) sharing what I learned from this open access book chapter about authority in Game of Thrones

if i see one more article, post, or news anchor talking about how joe biden is old, i'm putting my fist through a window. i feel like i've gone through the fucking looking glass.

this is project 2025, trump's plan for what he'll do if elected. whatever you think is in there, it's worse. watch a breakdown of the highlights here. this man wants to unravel the fabric of our democracy for good - this all aside from his vitriolic hatred of poc, his determination to start ww3, and the fact that he can't string a sentence together without telling outrageous and easily verifiable lies. his administration will start their crusade to exterminate trans people on day one, and they won't stop there.

do not talk to me about how joe biden is old, as if that could ever matter to me more than my life or the lives of my friends and family. my little sister is 14, she's trans, and i don't know what to tell her when we talk about politics, because one of these people wants her dead and the other one is old and some of you are still acting like those problems are equals.

i can't fucking stand this. i'm not hearing it this time, we are not repeating 2016. refusing to vote is not an act of protest, it is an act of complacency, and our most vulnerable will suffer for your negligence. vote like your life depends on it, because for some of us, it really fucking does.

the thing is. the THING is. no one. absolutely NO ONE thought Aegon would be able to rule. he was this piece of clay to be moulded by Otto, Alicent, and the small council. the only thing those people wanted from him was his uselessness. and the FUNNY thing is. he FAILED at being useless.

Aegon, the family failure, failed at failing.

Alicent's New Bedroom: Book vs Show and Impact on Blood and Cheese

This is the Red Keep. It's made up of distinct towers and structures.

Maegor's Holdfast is the place of the royal residence, where the king's apartments are located. This is where the king and/or queen and their immediate household. It has unique characteristics:

"The royal apartments were in Maegor's Holdfast, a massive square fortress that nestled in the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes, a castle-with-a-castle. Ser Boros Blount guarded the far end of the bridge, white steel armor ghostly in the moonlight" (p. 502, Edward XIII, A Game of Thrones).

Well-designed and well-guarded, not even a rat catcher in the castle knows of a hidden way in or out of Maegor's Holdfast:

"The hidden doors and secret tunnels that Maegor the Cruel had built were as familiar to the rat catcher as to the rats he hunted. Using a forgotten pssageway, Cheese led Blood into the heart of the castle, unseen by guard. Some say their quarry was the king himself, but Aegon was accompanied by Kingsguard wherever he went and even Cheese knew of no way in and out of Maegor's Holdfast save the drawbridge that spanned the dry moat and it's formidable spikes" (p. 424, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son, Fire and Blood).

This is the most secure location within the Red Keep itself, which is why the royal family lives there. It is a large space with many rooms, including the Queen's Ballroom. In season one of House of the Dragon, Viserys lives in the king's apartments with his wives and there are many bedrooms where members of the royal household and their household staff live. After Alicent marries Viserys, she moves from the Tower of the Hand where she lived with her father to the king's apartment in Maegor's Holdfast and lives there until Viserys' death.

Separate from Maegor's Holdfast is the Tower of the Hand, where the Hand of the King and his family live. The tower contains many rooms, including the bedchamber of the Hand of the King, rooms for his household, and the Small Hall. There are guards in the Tower of the Hand, but there were those who were familiar with its hidden doorways and secret tunnels:

"Any man of normal size would have had to crawl on hands and knees, but Tyrion was short enough to walk upright [...] He came to the third door and fumbled about for a long time before his fingers brushed a small iron hook set between two stones. When he pulled down on it, there was a soft rumble that sounded loud as an avalanche in the stillness, and a square dull orange light opened a foot to his left. The hearth! He almost laughed [...] When he found himself in what had been once his bedchamber, he stood for a long moment" (p. 1070, Tyrion XI, A Storm of Swords).

After Aegon is crowned, he, Helaena, and their young children move into the king's apartments in Maegor's Holdfast, so the Dowager Queen, Alicent moves out. But where does she move to? In Fire and Blood, Alicent moves back into the Tower of the Hand, where she lived as a child with her father. It's because of this move to the Tower of the Hand specifically that Blood and Cheese have the opportunity to access Aegon's sons. Every night, Helaena and her kids would leave Maegor's Holdfast to go to the Tower of the Hand and visit Alicent before bed, which allowed Blood and Cheese to plan their ambush. Despite Helaena having a guard and the presence of guards throughout the Tower of the Hand and the Red Keep itself, Alicent's new bedchamber and its secret passageways have Blood and Cheese a chance to sneak in and make their move:

"The Tower of the Hand was less secure. The two men crept up through the walls, bypassing the spearman posted at the tower doors. Ser Otto's rooms were of no interest to them. Instead they slipped into his daughter's chambers, one floor below [...] Once inside, Cheese bound and gagged the Dowager Queen whilst Blood strangled her beadmaid. Then they settled down to wait, for they knew that it was the custom of Queen Helaena to bring her children to see their grandmother every evening before bed [...] Blood barred the door and slew the Queen's guardsman, while Cheese appeared to snatch up Maelor" p. 424, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son, Fire and Blood).

House of the Dragon, however, decided to make some major changes to the event of Blood and Cheese. In HOTD season 2, Queen Alicent doesn't move out of Maegor's Holdfast, and and instead, despite having choice of several different bedrooms, decides to move into the specific room where Rhaenyra lived up until episode 6 of season one.

The show previously added a tunnel from Rhaenyra's old room to the outside of the Red Keep in season one. However, instead of using that connection to have Blood and Cheese surprise Alicent in her room as they did in the book, they instead use a tunnel to sneak into the Red Keep. They then proceed to walk through large portions of the Red Keep, including the throne room, eventually walking right into Maegor's Holdfast, all the while unchecked by any servants or guards. They walk right into the king's apartments where the unguarded Helaena is with her sleeping children. Once Blood begins killing Jaehaerys, Helaena carries Jaehaera through empty hallways to Alicent's room where she walks in on Alicent and Criston.

Why the changes from the book? A few possibilities:

1) The show made the change because they write the characters of Alicent and Criston as intrinsically linked to Rhaenyra, so they wanted to make a point of showing them have sex in her old room, in order to make them both hypocritical, something that could only likely happen if Alicent lived there. Placing this scene at the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence adds an extra shock element for viewers. Removing Alicent's presence during Blood and Cheese and giving her a sex scene during the event instead viewers to focus on her "hypocrisy" as well as point the blame and outrage towards her and away from the true culprit. Additionally, the show doesn't have to include a scene where the Greens act like the family they are.

2) The show made the change of hallways being empty of servants and guards, as well as personal guards being absent from members of the royal family, to show viewers that the Greens have somehow become incompetent almost overnight when it comes to household security, despite having lived in the Red Keep for the last several years and effectively ruling the kingdoms in Viserys' stead. This diverts blame away from the Blacks and toward the Greens, as they should have been protecting themselves. Specifically, the blame is in on Criston Cole for not having guards posted (there's no real explanation for why he did not have them posted).

3) The show made the change because they wanted to film a one shot of Helaena and her baby walking through Maegor's Holdfast to call back to Rhaenyra's walk through the same hallways with her newborn in season 1 episode 6 because everything comes back to Rhaenyra in this show and they wanted viewers to connect the two events for whatever reason.

Among other changes to Blood and Cheese, it seems to me that the show ultimately changed these aspects of the event in order to minimize the event itself and shift the blame.

I sat down to write my reaction post to the second ep of HOTD and…realized Idk how to approach it, where to start. And not because I hated every single thing about it – like with ep1 there were lots of good or at least interesting moments. There were other choices I wouldn’t have personally liked in any circumstance but that weren’t necessarily bad in and of themselves if they’d been in another show, surrounded with other context or other scenes. The problem is how ridiculously biased this writing is and how that bias and the ridiculousness of it permeates everything, even the parts that were good or fine or reasonably in character. We knew, of course, even from S1, that the writing was biased. But this season it feels especially blatant.

How am I supposed to feel about say…Jae’s funeral? On one hand, a gut-wrenching scene, carried so well by Olivia and Phia’s superb understated acting. It’s a scene that has every reason to be there – royal funeral processions/spectacles were (and still are) normal. And even if it’s not a regular occurrence in this universe (questionable), it’s a very good and smart play by Otto. On the other hand, is it not suspect that the funeral of this child was less of a melancholy moment of mourning like Luke’s funeral (despite the obviously grieving family) but focused on Helaena’s panic attack at being too close to too many people, and with the distraction of Jae’s cart getting stuck in the mud (was that supposed to be symbolic of something???). Do we not remember TB shrieking long before the episode aired that the Greens have a public funeral for Jae “just to make the Greens look bad”? These people are known for the worst faith takes, so what does it say that the writers apparently agree with them?

How am I supposed to feel about Alicent’s inability to successfully, if at all, to comfort her children? Is this a potentially interesting exploration of how her own grief, guilt, self-blame/low self-esteem, and complicated relationship with her kids due to their common and individual family traumas (and, in Helaena’s case…neurodivergence, I guess?) have and are affecting her? Or is it just a low-key attempt at character assassination, given that last season she was shown as perfectly capable of showing affection to her children (more than one with Aemond, hugging Helaena and making other attempts when she was less receptive, even kissing Aegon at the coronation despite their turbulent relationship)?

Is Alicent’s self-blame and guilt a potentially interesting exploration of how grief can affect people, of what happens when a person feels they are breaking some moral or ethical or religious code of conduct that they sincerely believe in/believe they can be punished for breaking? Or does the narrative blame her too/knows that a large chunk of the audience will too or at least will find the self-blame and guilt pathetic or unsympathetic (because goodness knows that’s all Twitter/X has to say on the matter, it seems).

How am I supposed to feel about Aegon hanging the ratcatchers? Of course, Otto is right – this was a terrible thing to do, not just because it was politically a misstep, but first of all because there were many innocent people executed without trial. It’s a canonical event, and in context of Aegon’s grief and fury, it’s interesting in and of itself, it’s part of the commentary on the wreckage that war and nobles’ games cause. I’d have no issue with it, except…. Why was this made into a literal cartoon-villain-esque kick the dog moment? By making me feel sorry for the sad, cute puppy am I supposed to think that hanging Cheese was somehow wrong? After he sawed off a child’s head? And why is it that the smallfolk get angry when Aegon hands the ratcatchers but not when Rhaenys trembles dozens of smallfolk in the dragon pit? How come Aegon is held accountable for all his mistakes, at least by the people closest to him, and Criston very specifically sends a kingsguard member to impersonate his twin and kill Rhaenyra, but the show removed maximum responsibility from Daemon and of course made sure that Rhaenya was just appalled by the whole thing. (And suddenly cares about Helaena? I actually rolled my eyes at that line so hard it hurt.)

What am I to think of the messy/awkward/complicated TG family dynamics? They’re interesting! They’re fun! They could make for some great television (and fic lol). I could/should/would enjoy this. But on the other hand, when TB get all these bonding moments, or the potential messiness (e.g. Rhaena feeling ignored by her father) is ignored in like 85% of situations? And when this imbalance is not at all in the book? (When it feels like they wanted to cut/held off on Daeron specifically because he was so sweet and mild tempered and beloved by everyone?) It becomes frustrating, not fun.

At what point do I need to decide that this show isn’t worth it? After all, I think the sentiment that “maybe this is just not telling the kind of story you want to hear/watch” is generally a wise approach. Except…that would hold if this was an original show or if it was one of those “loosely based on/inspired by” things that were not pretending to be adaptations. But when you’re advertised an adaptation, you’re not coming in blind. Ideally, you’re coming in knowing what sort of story you’re coming for, at the very least. Unlike  ASOIAF, the Dance is a fully finished story. There shouldn’t have been any “nasty surprises” like some people got in the last seasons in GoT…

But they mentioned Daeron by name. Tom’s acting is incredible. We know I’m not going anywhere for now lmao.

Maybe I won’t do my usual type of notes/reaction post this time, after all I’ve said so much of what I most feel right now anyway.

Sorry for the depression/pessimism guys. I’m just so tired.

What really angers people about Criston and Alicent is that Criston perceives himself as a protector to Alicent FROM Rhaenyra. A lot of people take what he said about Rhaenyra being a spider as him still being angry and rejected, and given the lack of media literacy among this fandom, I get that.

But Criston said that in response to Aemond shaming Alicent, and implying that she is a liar and a hypocrite. Aemond accused Alicent of having love for the enemy, and indirectly he is calling her a traitor. Criston was not thinking of Rhaenyra nor did he care to mention her until he perceived Aemond's comments as threatening Alicent due to her feelings toward Rhaenyra. He does not mention in depth what happened to him, but he does mention Alicent and Rhaenyra's relationship and basically explains to Ameond how Alicent was manipulated by Rhaenyra and lied to.

And that is true. Rhaenyra did lie to Alicent years ago which resulted in her father being dismissed and her being utterly alone at court. Rhaenyra manipulated Viserys into not really giving a fuck about Aemodn losing an eye all those years ago, and that negatively impacted Alicent.

Criston doesn't really care nor think of Rhaenyra in regards to himself -- he thinks of her as a danger and threat to Rhaenyra.

And because so many people dont really care for Alicent outside of Rhaenyra, this idea that someone is protecting Alicent and her honor from Rhaenyra infuriates them because in their eyes, Alicent exists for Rhaenyra. She exists to take abuse, manipulation, and shame from Rhaenyra.

Keep in mind, both Criston and Alicent faced sexual violence at the hands of Targaryen royalty, and that is something no one else can understand. That unique experience to them dictates their connection and how they act with one another. Criston was never actually able to seek justice for what happened to him, but he doesn't want Alicent to be soiled.

Alicent and Criston, through victims of trauma and abuse, and just being subservient to Targaryens, are always going to have a deeper, more meaningful and trauma-related bond than Rhaenyra and Alicent and I think that pisses people off.

Reblog this if you support sex-averse and sex-repulsed aces, including:

Aces who never want to have sex

Aces who had sex in the past but don't desire it anymore

Aces with sexual trauma who feel like their trauma ties into their asexuality

Aces with sexual trauma who don't feel like their trauma caused their asexuality

Aces who don't want to talk to you about sex

Aces who don't want to hear about sex

Yes even aces who do not want to engage with any sexual content and don't want it in their own personal spaces

Yes even aces who express the desire to have more spaces for queer adults where their boundaries are met (on top of the queer spaces that exist, we do not want to sanitize your existing spaces ffs)

If you cannot be normal about these people existing, if you believe they're a threat to our community and to how we're viewed by people who aren't aspec and the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, you are not an asexual ally. Yes, even if you're aspec yourself. Especially if you're aspec yourself.

Because it's been pride month for 4 days and I'm already seeing people trying to throw us under the bus or pretend we don't exist because that makes the ace community more palatable to exclusionists and people who swallowed too much "aces are puritans" propaganda.

I am continuously perplexed at how a show as objectively bad and problematic as hotd keeps inspiring outstanding fanfics like yours and @gwenllian-in-the-abbey’s. Truly it’s a mystery to me, especially considering that the books covering the dance are supposed to be quite mediocre as well from what I’ve perceived. Just so you know,with that trailer out now I’m gonna completely blend out the events of the show and consider our fathers clad in red canon

@gwenllian-in-the-abbey AAAAAAAAAAAAAA, I think George's gonna order a hit on us:D

I'm glad you like our slightly destructive approach to teh canon. I'm mostly fueled by spite and my dislike for George's and HBO's complete disregard for the historical context of the stuff they draw their inspiration from (you can't do the Matilda vs Stephen showdown and expect the same sense of injustice, when your main conflict is about Viserys' imbecilic approach to rules, Rhaenyra's weak-ass claim and papa/dragons being her go-to solution to all her problems, Daemon being a chaos gremlin, Corlys' malignant ambition and the Hightowers being the only ones who actually care about the rule of law.)

A lesbian romance doesn't automatically turn a story into a feminist manifesto, nor does a girlboss who's treated by the narrative as the second coming of Christ. Context matters and it's a mistake to view the Dance through the lens of modern ideals about egalitarianism.

GRRM's hubris when it comes to "Aragorn's tax policies" is just another thing that enrages me and Gwenllian, because the man completely misunderstands the medieval legal codes. Just because they were complex that doesn't mean they were fucking contradictory on their own; no one wanted civil wars breaking out each time a monarch died.

Problems happened when two countries with generational beefs worked on two different principles of succession, ie. England (male-preference primogeniture) vs France (male-only primogeniture), or if there was some dynastic fuckery that completely messed up the clear-cut succession lines with usurpations and cousin marriages (Yorks vs Lancasters).

Had Richard II (the son of the Black Prince) died peacefully without issue, the succession would have followed through the line of the Duke of Clarence, with Edmund the Earl of March eventually becoming the king (and he was Richard's heir, btw).

But that's not what happened. The son of John of Gaunt usurped the throne and it was then passed down through his line, because he was the crowned king. Now, you can argue whether or not he had any right to do the usurpation in the first place and whether or not he was the legitimate king and you bet people back then argued about that too. This ambiguity is how you create a proper narrative about actually conflicting claims. The only thing propping up Rhaenyra against her brother is the fact that Viserys is a moron.

How the fuck can I take F&B seriously and without the Dead Sea's worth of salt, when it pretty much blows Jaehaerys' posthumous dick about his wisdom when he "let" the council of 101 decide the succession (while politely ignoring the fact that Jaehaerys' own claim is legit only in the cases of either full salic or semi-salic succession, ie male-only), while never once it calls out Viserys out on his extremely dangerous decision. He gets to die venerated as the peaceful grandpa and all the blame for his incompetence is piled on Aegon II and Alicent.

Let's go through the possible succession systems, shall we?

If we follow male-preference primogeniture, the legitimate line of kings ends with Aerea because she was the eldest child of Aegon the Uncrowned, Maegor's eldest nephew. Only after she and her sister die without issue, Jaehaerys can become the king. Jaehaerys' canon ascension works only because Rhaena gave up her daughters' claims. The next in line would be Aemon and after him Rhaenys. But that's not what happened.

If we follow the salic law (male only), the legitimate line of the kings goes Aegon I -> Aenys I -> Aegon Uncrowned -> Jaehaerys I -> Viserys I -> Aegon II. This is probably what Jaehaerys wanted to ensure, since he challenged Maegor's kingship in the first place.

If a crowned king can choose his heir, then Jaehaerys was never a legitimate king and Aerea was the true queen, because Maegor, who had won his crown in the trial by combat, chose her as his heir.

What about the principle of seniority? Cognatic seniority where men and women have equal claims is out of the question since Aegon I was the crowned king, not Visenya. Male-only seniority would go Aegon I -> Aenys I -> Maegor I (uncontested!) -> Aegon Crowned This Time -> Viserys the Not Tortured to Death -> Jaehaerys I -> Aemon (only if his uncle Viserys has no issue) -> Baelon -> Vaegon -> Viserys I -> Daemon (EW).

Notice the distinct lack of Rhaenyra.

Team Black keeps mentioning the widow's law, but that's a bulk of nonsense. I suppose the misunderstanding originates from a (willful) misinterpretation of this passage. The book says:

Now, I highly doubt Jaehaerys intended for the law to mean that a daughter from the first marriage should come before the sons from the second. The wording is a bit unlucky, but I suppose the intention was to establish the legal position of the second wife and her children as united with the position of her step-children - she has the same duties towards them as if they were own, and the same goes the other way. Which would make sense. Because otherwise, no one would be desperate enough to marry a widower with daughters. Since we know that title and land ownerships have remained in the same families without changing hands once or twice since the implementation of the law, I really doubt the team black's literal interpretation of the passage was the one intended. Ffs, Viserys was pushed to marry again because he had only one daughter, meaning, this law wasn't viewed the way the Team Black wishes for. And I'm not even delving into the fact that this would be a female inheritance hack penned by Jaehaerys, if that was the case. Talk about ooc.

So, yeah, we're taking Gyldayne's interpretation of the past with so much salt our hearts are gonna fail.

…And guilty of conspiracy to commit murder … and a sexual predator …and incompetent …and married to a serial rapist, pedophile, murderer (thrice over by now) …and sheltering a terrorist.

it's always both sides are bad :( when one of them is a rapist incompetent usurper and the other is... a woman

TB and their selective feminism.

alicent shouldnt stripe rhaenyra out from her birthrights and rhaenyra shouldnt do that for alicent's kid either, because other lovely anon: friendly reminder that in HOTD all rhaenyra's kids are bastards and her natural heir is aegon... sooo... yeah, i'd say they are even. 👍

Sure they're even! I'd dare say that in Alicent's eyes, Rhaenyra's cold indifference for her siblings and her future hurts as much as her childhood betrayal did all those years ago... Because Rhaenyra herself could have acknowledged and recognized Alicent's fears about her children and done something about it... formed an "I-will-never-under-any-circumstances-hurt-your-children-and-my-siblings" pact, but she wanted Aemond "to be sharply questioned" instead, and insisted on naming Jacaerys her heir which further jeopardized Aegon and his siblings because everyone knew they were the real male Targaryen heirs who could be easily used by anyone who disliked Rhaenyra as pawns to claim the throne from her. As long as the legitimate male heirs were alive, and Rhaenyra continued the stance of enmity, hostility, and complete disregard toward them, they would remain a threat and challenge to her reign and claimants to the throne, and Alicent would do everything in her power to make sure they stayed alive by having Aegon sit that throne himself.

So let me get this straight - Alicent was “evil” and “crazy” and “overreacting” for wanting an eye for an eye (a belief she doesn’t normally hold unlike Daemon) in a moment of fear and desperation after her son was permanently maimed and her husband’s response was to not give any punishment at all to Luke, sending a message to everyone that Alicent’s children don’t matter even to the King and anyone can harm them without recourse. Viserys even threatened to further maim and disable “anyone”, meaning Aegon and Aemond, by cutting out their tongues to protect Rhaenyra’s obvious lies. Viserys proved he will never protect Alicent’s kids and Rhaenyra confirmed Alicent’s fear that she will kill her children by not even trying to apologize or show any remorse or diplomacy at all (but Alicent is the enabling boy mom, and also an abusive bitch when she does punish her son for being a perv… okay) instead blaming Aemond and demand he be “sharply questioned” (aka probably tortured) for exposing her lie. Of course Alicent would want to make a show of strength back after such a clear threat to herself and her children.

But a grown man ordering the murder and decapitation of an innocent toddler is totally justified. Like they’re celebrating the murder of a toddler, I know not all Team Black people are doing that but enough to be deeply disturbing. And this is the same grown man who cut the hands off of poor people for stealing while he has never known what it’s like to not have food or clothes. Hammurabi’s Code is totally good with Team Black except it’s barbaric and evil when it’s over Aemond being disabled and disfigured for life by his childhood bullies. Even if it was gonna be revenge, Aemond should’ve been killed then (even though he didn’t mean for that to happen, he’s more responsible than a baby). That’s what Rhaenyra wanted. Daemon is a psychopathic abuser who can’t help but undermine Rhaenyra’s power and the lengths people will go to justify his actions astounds me.

On the subject of Alicent and the accusations of hypocrisy, I'm not really interested in delving into what societal taboos she actually is and isn't breaking. Don't care, have fun, girl.

What does interest me is how the popular framing of Rhaenyra vs Alicent as feminist girlboss vs woman for Trump prevents people from acknowledging what the show explicitly told them in season 1.

Simply put, I never understood why people were interpreting Alicent as someone who honestly, genuinely wants to enforce the values of duty, honor, and sacrifice as a social norm to combat "sexual immorality" (??? I guess???), instead of hiding behind them as the only available coping mechanism for her horrifying personal situation.

Mind you, Alicent isn't just subjected to what the standard for Westerosi noblewomen is, i.e. being sold as a bargaining chip for loveless breeding while expected to have no say in it. She gets a particularly nasty version of this by being sold to an old creep at 15 and put into an extremely exposed position as a queen who is, to reiterate, 15 and thus unable to tweak any personal space, power, and advantages in this marriage until after child number three. And as a plus, she gets mocked both by her husband and his incompetent idiot of a brother (for whom she went to bat, btw), discarded by her only friend, and her children being ignored and neglected by the very man who made sure she'd have them—starting at 15.

So it's the least surprising thing in the world that she would reframe her powerlesness in a way that'd give her some sense of active involvement, i.e. she made a sacrifice and she made that sacrifice in the name of duty.

Alicent's moral framework is such that it encompasses the totality of one person. It's actually astonishing how little of it she applies to others. She empathises with Rhaenyra not stepping up and "doing her duty" by marrying whomever her dad throws at her, and seeks to give her options. She's outraged at Rhaenyra not because she can't stand the idea of a girlboss winning, rather because it's physically painful how little Rhaenyra cares about the precariousness of her political position. She doesn't turn against Rhaenyra because the latter had extramarital sex; it's because she lied to her fucking face. And even when gunning for her bastards who are the textbook definition of usurping and a succession crisis waiting to happen, she allows for one bastard as a freebie.

So no, Alicent's "where is duty, where is sacrifice" isn't her demanding that an immowal girlboss corrects her behaviour right now, young lady. It's a cry of a person breaking because she can no longer ignore that her cope was ever just that, that she was made to give and sacrifice everything while fuck-ups who sacrificed nothing and demanded everything are now going after her children, the fruit of a life she never wanted to live.

Now, why was she made to live that life? Because Viserys.

Why was she made to have those children? Because Viserys.

Who created the situation to which adopting a coping mechanism became a matter of survival? Viserys.

Well, Vizzy? Is fucking dead. Tragically he wasn't given the Drogo treatment of having an urgent meeting with a pillow but he is indeed toast. So the whole reason why Alicent reframed her awful life as an act of dutiful sacrifice? Is gone.

So it doesn't surprise me whatsoever that the moment she became a widow she decided to do something very much undutiful and unsacrificial and jumped on Criston's dick, or that the old programming where she isn't allowed to have anything at all would always immediately bounce back.

(Why is Criston, apparently, pursuing the relationship, I still have no earthly clue)

It never really sunk in until you mentioned it but yeah, there is something weird and gross about how a handful of the characters on Team Green are disabled, especially when the show is choosing to portray them as the villains, or at least that's what the casual audience thinks.

it's a stark contrast to game of thrones/asoiaf, which is still praised to this day for its inclusion of multiple disabled characters. tyrion, jaime, and bran each had several dedicated episodes exploring what happened to them and how they are disadvantaged and discriminated against in a world not made for their bodies.

on the other hand, aemond and larys are widely viewed as evil. their disabilities are footnotes in the origin story of sick and violent individuals, as if they are disney villains. helaena is the epitome of the magical savant stereotype/trope, and she goes from cryptic to conversant, touch-averse to touch-neutral, whenever the writers want to show that she approves of team black or hates team green. people care more about rhaenyra getting scratched and luke getting threatened by alicent than the person she was fighting for, the person who actually permanently lost an eye.

this is wild to me because we literally watched aemond and helaena grow up. there was so much opportunity to show how aemond's depth perception would've changed as he trained with criston and learned how to ride vhagar. so much opportunity to flesh out helaena's prophecies and communication style. and don't even get me started on how larys's entire relationship to his body is reduced to an evil foot fetish. there's no examination of how disabilities have affected any of these characters' lives or how they've made accommodations. the only reason why any of their disabilities are brought up is to vilify or ostracize them. it's deeply dehumanizing and ableist

Running theme here is: The Time-Jumps fucking suck. We went from „I do not want children“ to „Oh look! I‘m giving birth to my third child!“ without ANY build-up and then went from tortured longing that can never be to „Quickie in the middle of the day“ without any explanation on how the fuck we got there.

the fact that we are going to have to sit through multiple alicent/crispy scenes this season and didn't even get ONE harwin/rhaenyra scene last season is a crime

Reblog or your mom will die in 928 seconds.

I love my mom.

I am risking nothing

I AM SORRY FOLLOWERS, I LOVE MY MOMMY

Will not risk.

sorry followers :(

TiL (click to go to the thread, which probably has more interesting tidbits I missed).

Bonus:

i had a dream that time travel was invented and too many people choose to travel back in time to save the titanic from sinking (the question of whether unsinking of the titanic deserved so much attention in the face of human history was the subject of both heavy academic and online discourse), which caused a rift in the space-time-continuum that led to the titanic showing up indiscriminately all over the world’s oceans and sea in various states of sinking.

this caused a lot of issues both in terms of fixing said space-time-continuum and in terms of nautical navigation, and after a long and heavy battle in the international maritime organization it was decided that the bureaucratic burden of dealing with this was to be upon Ireland, much to their dismay. the Irish Government then released an app for all sailors and seafarers so they could report titanic sightings during their journeys, even though they heavily dissuaded you from reporting them given the paperwork it caused.

anyway i woke up with a clear image of the app in my head and needed to recreate it for all of you:

“Rhaenyra was right, now they really see Alicent as she is. She’s such a hypocrite! Where is duty and sacrifice, huh?”

Here, let me show you:

Twenty consecutive years of this woman suffering, performing her duties, sacrificing herself and picking up the broken pieces of everyone around her was just not enough for you, huh?

But no, let’s collectively shit on her for sleeping with her guard after her job as a queen, mother and wife was completed and this action affected literally no one outside of her and Criston, because she scolded Rhaenyra, not for having sex out of wedlock, but because her lies broke her family apart and she failed to perform every single one of her duties, yet still somehow remained the most entitled and demanding person in HOTD.

This I actually and unambiguously love.

COURTLY LOVE AT ITS FINEST!

This is Alicent giving Criston her handkerchief as a token of her love and affection and a symbol of remembrance as he leaves for war.

My pookies ARE IN LOVE

Someone had to say it and I‘m so glad it didn‘t have to be me.

“I want Aemond Targaryen”

…bitch me too but that’s a really weird thing to say in front of your war council, there’s a time and a place for thirsting over your brother