agent knitter

Reagan and the GOP spent 50 years brainwashing Americans into thinking that the government is the enemy, and we will all be prosperous if we give the rich tax breaks and let the money "trickle down."

And so now we have Trump, who gave the rich huge tax breaks, which led to a spiraling deficit, and Trump cutting back on Medicaid, ACA support, SNAP, and other social benefits in order to have enough moneyto fund ICE, his war, his ballroom, etc.

Major/Lieutenant Colonel Sam being the brains WITH brawn (and a crack shot to boot) of SG-1, saving our Galaxy a dozen times over while getting the respect she deserves from her peers. Doesn't let something like a little crush on her Commanding Officer slow her down. Literally her ONLY drawback is the occasional bout of poor writing.

Goes through hell over and over without hesitation and always manages to pull her team out of the fire, kicking many asses along the way.

It took me forever to get this done. Life has been lifing, but HERE WE GO.

This contains books and shows spoilers, so if you haven't watched or read..........GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Also, other than what we already know, these thoughts are my OPINIONS bc as we know, the info on certain targs is limited, and we can only really gather what is up to our interpretation from the books/show.

First, what do we know for sure about Maekar?

He's the fourth and final son of King Dareon and Queen Myriah. Maekar himself has six children: Daeron, Aerion, Aemon, Daella, Aegon (Egg), and Rhae, with his wife Dyanna Dayne. He and his family mostly resided in Summerhall, and he fought in 2 blackfyre rebellions before his death. The first rebellion gave him the nickname the anvil. Maekar is described as thickly built, prickly, and impatient, and was not very charismatic, and became even more unforgiving after Baelor's accidental death.

Now, what I think about Maekar.

The main thing that piqued my interest about Maekar was, admittedly, his children, specifically how he interacts with them.

Daeron, for example. Daeron is a drunk. Hence the name Daeron the Drunken, but he drinks due to his dragon dreams. From what I remember, we really don't have any input on how Maekar dealt with the dreams specifically, but we do know that he knew what was going on with Daeron, but wasn't entirely sure on how to deal with it. Despite Daeron not enjoying tourneys and being, as Egg put it, a shit knight, Maekar encouraged Daeron to participate in the Tourney at Ashford anyway. Some people have said he did this because his eldest brother, Baelor, and his first son Vallar were participating. I belive it.

Despite Maekar's significance in the first Blackfyre rebellion, he was often compared to Baelor, and I believe he was compared to Baelor before then, as a lot of his descriptors are written as "unlike Baelor." I think Maekar carries a lot of pride within himself and hates the comparison. It would be completely feasible for him to have the same sentiments for his children. He wants Daeron to participate, even knowing he's not a great knight, because he doesn't want Daeron to be one-upped by Vallar as Maekar seemingly was by Baelor. And I don't mean this to say he didnt love Baelor, quite the opposite, I believe Maekar adored his older brother and had great respect for him, which could have definitely amplified the feeling of wanting to set himself and his children apart so they could be just as great as Baelor.

Next Aerion. This is a hot take that I somewhat agree with, and it is just my opinion, not a fact! I think Aerion could have possibly been Maekar's favorite child. Hear me out. I find it hard to believe that Maekar had no idea what a monster Aerion was under his own roof. But I do find it likely that he could have turned a blind eye. Aerion, despite being a psychopath, is what Maekar absolutely would have adored in a son. Aerion is an extremely competent fighter. He might have lost to Dunk in the trial, but we will not sit here and act like he wasn't carving Dunk like a pumpkin for the majority of the fight. And after being sent to Lys, he joins a Mercenary group, and his return to Westeros is marked by his participation and seemingly doing well in a Blackfyre rebellion. Warrior feats aside, he was the picture of a chivalrous prince (is maekars preaseance of course). Despite his numerous faults, Aerion might have been the closest Maekar got to what met his expectations. I think this inturn caused Maekar to turn a blind eye or be in straight-up denial about Aerion's vile nature. Even at the cost of others. Maekar steadfastly defended Aerion at the tournament even after we see that he thinks what Aerion did was entirely ridiculous. This leads me to believe that this definitely caused strain in the household and might be directly attributed to Eggs nature. Which we will touch on in Eggs section later.

But just from his interactions with his two eldest sons, here are some conclusions I've come to about Maekar.

I don't think he was an inattentive father as some think him to be. Maybe to his girls, possibly, but to his sons no. To me, it would not make sense for him to be so prideful that he would want Daeron, who again famously is not a good knight, to fight in tournaments ill-prepared. And we can see Aerion himself is VERY prepared. So we can sort of infer that he made sure Daeron had some sort of attention to mold him into the son Maekar wanted. I don't think Maekar would let him off just because he's hungover or dealing with the dragon dreams, especially since he is the first son. And Daeron's behavior might have been completely overlooked had he been a decent fighter. We don't often see Maekar bring up Aerion's shortcomings, but the first few things we see Maekar say about Daeron were his shortcomings and his propensity to drink.

But just because I don't think he's an inattentive father doesn't mean I think he's an effective one. Because I don't. His inaction against Aerion until the tourney in Ashford directly affects the rest of his children in the household. Daeron and Egg both want Aerion dead. We have little to no insight into how the rest of the children view him, but we can infer that it's not good. Daeron states that Aerion was a glad child once. At the time of the tourney, Aerion was either 16 or 17 years old. Egg states that when he was little, Aerion snuck into his room. Aegon is 9-10 years old. There couldn't really be that much time for Aerion to have been a glad child before he started terrorizing his siblings. Considering egg is still very young, and Aerion's tortures started way before Ashford, we can say that Aerion had been doing these things for some years. And I am somehow told to believe that Maekar had NO clue what he was up to? Absolutely not. Again, this is my opinion, not fact, but I do not believe Maekar had any idea; he simply ignores it because otherwise Aerion was what Maekar wanted in a son.

So attentive father, possibly! Effective father, lol absolutely not. I believe image means a lot to Maekar, and I feel like this proves it. And when I say attentive, I don't mean in the way of coddling his kids. I mean it in the way that he makes sure that things turn out the way he wants them to be when it comes to his kids. Which we can see does not turn out well.