MeJCinta

James Norton as Ormund Hightower

I don't think it's on the actors at all though. They're not getting good writing & probably doing the best they can. Also Rhaenyra wasn't supposed to be a model - she had 5 sons and that changed her figure. It's kind of like how Tyrion is uglier than Peter Dinklidge.

secondly, i don't know that i've ever made this clear but i quite despise rhaenyra's character. and yes, i've read the books. i understand she's worse there. and what if i told you i don't care? her characterization in this show is fucking pathetic. why is she more sympathetic to the people that started this entire war than to her own allies? why is she not allowed to be vengeful? to be mad? to be cruel to the people that have taken so much from her? why does she somehow have more venom for the people trying to protect her and fight for her cause? why must every other character be stripped of everything that makes them who they are in order to make her look more magnanimous and sympathetic? when in the end, she justifies every reason as to why there is belief that she should not rule.

it's already bad enough that the effects of rhaenyra's mistakes are pawned off to other characters to sanitise her while the mechanics behind the most critical, pivotal moments of the plot have all been resigned to mishaps and misunderstandings of those other characters because now can anyone point to a single fucking person in this show and tell me, with conviction, what is their motive to do any of the things they do?

i'm supposed to believe alicent, who we've seen slash rhaenyra's arm for the injustice aemond suffers, who has told aegon "living or breathing, you are the challenge", who shields him with her own body when meleys emerges from the dragon pit, who answers "you idiot" to aegon questioning whether or not she loves him because it's so obvious and inevitable as the knowledge that the sun rises in the east—this is who i'm supposed to believe is selling out both sons to die by the hands of the woman she has spent decades detesting? she is suddenly so frightened and horrified at the reality of war only WEEKS IN that she forfeits her own children's lives? if anything, why does that not make her more intent on ensuring their survival?

alicent is nothing if not dutiful. she was once ambitious and righteous but #that man stripped her of that, set fire to her agency and cunning and then called it feminism and we all mourned. she may not be the most emotionally intelligent mother. she may not know how to show them she cares but she bleeds as they bleed. she cries for helaena because of what they've done to her girl. she sees aegon burned and broken and she asks if her son is going to die with so much fear and despair in her voice. why is rhaenyra the only mother on this show allowed to consider her children? allowed to fester in her own grief? although i have to admit that even then, they won't allow her to let that ebbing harden and be honed, as is of characteristic of grief, because the writers ,for some reason or the other, think angry, rageful women are impossible to sympathise with and this episode proved it.

helaena, most egregiously, is largely unaffected by jaehaerys' death. unlike her book counterpart, she does not desire to be queen nor she does not sink into such debilitating despair after b&c that she loses grasp of reality. but what then is left of her? and the answer is absolutely nothing. there is no grief, there is no urgency, there is no rage. there is quite literally nothing at all. the writers want me to believe this is innocence but frankly, i think it's cruelty. this just makes it seem like she had no regard for her son at all.

and in all of this, rhaena, baela and house velaryon are still who i grieve for most. i do not understand how any of them are still on rhaenyra's side and why the writers seem to hold their black characters in such contempt if not complete disregard. baela doesn't even really mourn jace and we're already setting her up with that loser ass baldie??? she brought jace back five minutes ago. why is she just #fine?

rhaena, by definition, was the only truly innocent targaryen in the dance. and it's not simply because she didn't have a dragon. book helaena took dreamfyre to the skies on her coronation day and wrote to rhaenyra asking her to swear fealty to aegon. she did not object to her half-sister's usurpation. but they're setting up rhaena of all people as the one who is to blame for jace's death (book rhaenyra ordered jace to fight in the gullet btw). they're using rhaena as a scapegoat for what was originally rhaenyra's orders and whitewashing helaena of her allegiance to rhaenyra's usurper at the cost of rhaena's innocence. i think this is the most upsetting thing to me because why can they not let a black female character exist as a beacon of feminity and gentleness as she was in the written material? even nettles, who was fierce and loud and brave, was not foolish or even morally grey. they've taken two beautiful and capable female characters, despite being nothing alike, merged them, and then turned the audience against her when neither of those characters were even remotely unlikeable to begin with!

they've also robbed rhaena of lady arryn's genuine care and consideration when contrary to the bullshit they put on my screen, even show lady arryn would have more reason to take rhaena in, after rhaenyra was incredibly disrespectful and did not uphold her side of the deal with the vale. rhaena is the king consort's daughter. who genuinely believes she's at any real risk of death?

At Aegons coronation, they erased Dowager Queen Alicent placing her crown on her daughter's head and calling Helaena her queen.

We know that Helaena was happier before she became queen, but that's after Jaehaerys died. Before that, Helaena doesn't express her opinions and feelings on her ascension or the political scenario.

During Blood and Cheese, Helaena offers her necklace for Jaehaerys' life. Her NECKLACE. In the book, she offers her LIFE. They changed so much of the scene, whole characters aren't where they're supposed to be, but they couldn't leave in a line that shows Helaena is willing to die for her LITTLE CHILDREN, like many mothers would, including neurodivergent ones.

In the book, when forced to choose a son to be murdered under horrible threats made to her daughter, Helaena chooses Maelor to die instead of Jaehaerys. It could be because Maelor was younger and didn't have the awareness that Jaehaerys had, but Helaena's choice ultimately prioritises the life of her firstborn, Aegon's heir. It's a political move. In the show, she's so far removed from politics, the only thing she does that remotely comes close is being forced to parade her son's body around the city.

Then, they refuse to let her call Jaehaerys by his name, instead she calls him "the boy", and people argue that it's because she's in shock, but no other character calls Jaehaerys by his name UNTIL Helaena herself says "I'm sad for Jaehaerys but I ought not to. Children die all the time" in the most dismissive way possible. She doesn't ugly cry. She doesn't sob or scream or express her pain. Her devastating grief is conveniently opted out, and episodes later she is ready to be the cryptical catch-you-in-a-lie targaryen oracle. She doesn't ride her dragon to assist the war efforts, not because she's spiralled into depression and what is crudely called madness, but because she doesn't like to ride, as per Rhaenyra, and if she's ought not to be sad, she can't be enraged or vengeful either, because it would be just as inconvenient and wrong, and she's a pacifist with a sensitive soul that shouldn't be corrupted by her evil brother.

An angry mob of smallfolk throws fish at her and Alicent, when she was notoriously beloved by them in the book.

Her authority as Queen Consort is constantly ignored, bypassed and disrespected by her own mother, when Helaena outranks her.

Why is no one campaigning for Helaena to use the power her position gives her?

They made her a vessel for the prophecy, a plot with so many holes it's become swiss cheese.

Not interested in politics? She's neurodivergent. Doesn't offer her life for her children? She's neurodivergent. Is not consumed by grief? Neurodivergent. Doesn't like to fly on her dragon that she claimed at what, eleven years old?

We’re supposed to view Helaena agreeing with Alicent as proof that her decision to betray the Greens is completely justified.

Problem is C&H have written Helaena to be a simpleton, not a voice of reason and common sense. This isn’t even me being rude, it’s a fact. By implying she’s on the spectrum (in the most ableist way imaginable I might add) they have created a character who views the world through the eyes of a child and has no concept of the real world.

Helaena has only known a life of wealth and privilege, her romanticising the idea that she can “keep chickens” is the exact same poverty porn Marie Antoinette did with her fake village. Neither queen knows the first thing about keeping chickens or living in abstract poverty, it’s just play pretend for them.

So this scene doesn’t actually prove Alicent right, instead it highlights just how stupid she truly is to genuinely think two noblewomen with 0 life skills could hack it in the real world.