maekar & maekarlings

It's sad to see how many truly talented authors worry that their fan fiction, which they write for free, isn't good enough or doesn't fit the canon, while Ryan Condal gets paid for turning someone else's work into a puddle of vomit.

Helaena is a terrible neurodivergent representation. They use it as an excuse for her to barely be a character: has no goals, no real attachments to anyone but her bugs, doesnt care about anything that is happening around her, and they infantilize the hell out of her just because "look! she is autistic, that means she can not do politics, express her opinions, have autonomy over herself, her family, or her life. She only cares about bugs and nothing else. Like a little toddler or a puppy". Its so disrespectful to neurodivergent people, and gets everything wrong about autism

The fandom's universal centering of Rhaenyra regarding Criston's motivations and actions like he has no real agenda, personality, or life of his own separate from hers and the invalidation of his grievances with her is so revealing of how real life prejudices translate into media consumption, specifically americentrism and eurocentrism. Many of these people suffer from main character syndrome in real life from being white and/or born in the imperial core. They're used to stripping racialized brown people from the global south of their agency and painting them as hostile caricatures why wouldn't they do it to a brown character who insulted their White Protagonist Princess™?

Currently thinking abt alicent still imprisoned years after the dance ended, in fact, hearing songs about criston cole, his bravery and his death, knowing she never got to properly say goodbye to her lover, the man that was always by her side and who s last thoughts were still her...

It then they'll say Criston rejected Gwayne bc he hasn't moved on from rhaenyra bc that's the only thing they know how to talk abt 🙄

I feel bad for those who are blinded by irrational hatred for ser criston cole because once you accept him into your heart, you realize that he has some of the best dialogue and writing on the show. he's a great character who gives us a rare glimpse into how the average person in westeros would respond to the events taking place

The Maekar Stannis comparisons are very valid but one key difference is that Maekar would absolutely never in a million years sacrifice a single one of his children. He would rather fight every single Other on his own than kill any of his chaos demons.