Why does Daemon care about his dream/ vision of the girl with dragons (Daenerys). Why is it important? They have a dozen dragons just chilling there at the time so who is this random girl he dreamt of and why do her dragons matter?

Why was the Master of Laws trying to rape the dowager Queen? Whatever the time period, that would get his head lopped off for daring to do this against royalty.

Why is Alicent allowing the Black dragons and their riders to take the Red Keep without a fight? Why does she even want peace ? Her own grandson is beheaded, two of the black princes are dead, countless lives lost in the gullet, and by surrendering she puts ALL her allies at risk, even the low born servants who worked for the greens. Not very peace loving of her to let all of those people die, and they WILL because they will be executed for their green affiliation.

Why does Rhaenyra trust Alicent to keep her word and fly in with her dragons and no back up army ??? Leaving your dragons unattended to sashay inside the keep with just your uncle-husband is crazy.

Gawd, I miss women who weren't afraid to wield power and took their responsibilities seriously. House of the Dragon seems to confuse emotional incontinence and weakness with femininity, and I honestly want nothing to do with that worldview.

Visenya was supporter #1 of her son Maegor, she raised him to be strong and warriorlike, while she saw his half brother as weak and unworthy. Aenys didn't fit her standards, he wasn't her son. And Rhaenyra holding a sword now is not going to change the fundamental differences between them, both as women and as mothers. One could never be the other, and that's not a bad thing, but they need Rhaenyra to think it is, even when her book counterpart never acted like she wanted to be anyone else but herself.

Why take away her self-esteem? When the one person Rhaenyra died having faith in was herself?

"What would Visenya do?" She'd usurp Rhaenyra. That's what she'd do. And the writers insist that Rhaenyra should believe that she should be more like her. That's honestly very sad for her character. Can't be the ambitious femme that uses the system to her advantage. But will also never be the warrior who goes to battle for the divine right of her blood.

... But in my opinion, almost nothing is as grating as Helaena's characterization.

Rhaenyra and Alicent, for all their handling is abysmal, do have a sort of guideline, at least on paper. Rhaenyra wants the throne: crying every two minute, yes, acting as she's a Geneva convention expert in an ultra feudalistic world, all right, but at least she has a goal she's moving towards. Alicent is an idiot and an hypocrite on an almost pathological level, but she wants to "be at least myself (...) die free and unnoticed" (how she wants to do that in practice is a discussion for another day), which is... underwhelming, but still something.

What the fuck does Helaena want?

She's not a Cassandra figure; she never tries to act on her visions or even warn those around her. She's too little tormented for the reference to stick. She's not a grieving mother, because it's one thing to express grief in an unconventional way, it's another to shrug your child's brutal death because "children die". She doesn't want to burn innocents but doesn't ever advocate herself for peace. She's not a dragonrider despite having a dragon. Aemond is treated as a monster for the crime of asking her a perfectly reasonable thing - help him fight against the side responsible for her boy's murder. She wants to keep chicken, because apparently anything with more layers than that is too far beyond the scope of her Neuro divergent mind.

The dreamer arc they explored for her on the show? Not explored. Her relationship to motherhood, Queenship, partnership, familial relationships? Non existent.

She's there only to spout the occasional spoiler, and be the mouthpiece for the writers. See, the most innocent character on the show is totally fine with her mother selling out her family and faction to the wife of the guy who had her son beheaded. That means they deserve it and Rhaenyra is morally righteous!

She was pimped out by Otto, raped by Viserys, and blackmailed by Larys in S1, blamed for B&C because she was having consensual sex for the first time in S2. Now in S3 she’s going to be kissed by her own son and Jasper Wylde is going to SA her?? This is literally more than all the other female characters combined. Forced to be a child bride and teen mum, paraded at the funeral, attacked by the smallfolk, in obvious pain from moon tea and/or miscarriage, her relationship exposed and ridiculed, constantly bathing and naked and her body “atoning for her sins” - I could go on and on.

You’re telling me even after her (terrible) “redemption” in S2, Alicent still needs to be assaulted multiple times by multiple men, when in the past this has been used to prove just how wrong she was for siding with them?? Except HOTD changed it so she had no agency in any of that anyway. She’s excluded from the green council, misunderstanding Viserys’s last words, and selling out her family to finally support the “right” side - so what exactly is there left for Alicent to be “punished” for in S3?

Like in what world does anyone feel comfortable inventing this amount of assault, perversion and obsession with a woman’s body, and continue to frame it as righteous punishment and redemption?

Alicent is simply their morality tale for “bad” women, but who wants SA as a “gotcha” moment even for people they don’t like? Because it’s not even standard for GRRM’s world - every single instance is a show invention. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. And yet the writers have the gall to claim this is a feminist retelling of F&B.

Ryan Condal only does this specifically with Alicent. He doesn’t subject the other female characters to the same kind of repeated sexual violence and humiliation - only Alicent.

Aliceny is SA’d by everyone, got incest SA’d by her own son and was sexually humiliated just to blame her for B&C (even Ryan Condal doesn’t hide his bias toward the Blacks, saying that in the books Blood and Cheese is TG propaganda against Rhaenyra, which is why that scene was adapted the way it was.) Olivia Cooke talked in interviews about how heavy and uncomfortable some of Alicent’s sexual content has been to film. It really raises questions about how sexual violence is used in HotD, especially when it keeps happening to the same character in ways that can start to feel repetitive rather than narratively necessary.

Condal just hates Alicent because she’s prudish. And I think that speaks the misogyny disguised as “criticism” of prudishness, religiousness, or traditional behavior in women by using their sexuality to punish them. So you hate Alicent because she’s… religious? Because she’s prudish? I know modern audiences, with 21st-century lenses and zero knowledge of history dislike women who don’t express sexuality or power in a “liberated” way, but that doesn’t justify sexually humiliating them this is very disturbing and disgusting.

At the same time, you have Rhaenyra, who is written with a much more openly “sexually liberated” energy and is written in a way where her sexuality is not used against her in the same punitive way. That contrast is what makes the treatment of Alicent stand out more.

And what makes Rhaenyra sexually liberated? Because her so called sexual freedom or extramarital affairs were literally the fallout of Daemon’s grooming? Isn’t it true that he groomed her for his own ends, “liberating” her to sleep with him and others, and in doing so destroyed her own reputation & claim to the throne? And because it looks “exotic” or “liberated” next to the fantasy Catholics coded Alicent?

Bk!Alicent is certainly written within a world that is hostile to women, especially women at court, but her arc is not around sexualized punishment or humiliation as a thematic goal. She’s actually one of the more politically respected women of her position.

Condal need to understand that for a noblewoman living in a quasi-medieval world chastity wasn’t just a matter of personal morality it was political. Her reputation affected her family’s standing, her husband’s authority, and her children’s legitimacy. A scandal could damage her entire house, and even a rumor could cost her safety, influence, and dignity. Modesty wasn’t simply “prudishness” in that world, it was a strategy for survival. So why punish that kind of character through sexual humiliation in the narrative?

When a character is repeatedly written through sexual punishment or humiliation while another is written through sexual empowerment, it just shows the biased written of who gets to be “liberated” and who gets to be degraded and humiliated.

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?

On my Megumi can do open barrier domains original post, here a new post because I can't reply directly to that comment.

You're falling into the exact same traps that anyone else decrying Megumi's domain skills fall into:

no explanation on what Megumi was doing in the scene above in the open street

pulling an explanation of OBDs out and just deciding that Megumi doesn't fall into it

Megumi exclusively refers to a normal domain when he talks about his incomplete one

not being able to close a barrier with space altering properties doesn't mean that Megumi can't use barriers like the veil. He explicitly says that he can't place an artificial space of different sizes over reality. That's the skill he doesn't have

Megumi was ready to expand his domain in the street but he didn't because Reggie would've escaped -> meaning the skill to open a domain in the open in the same manner as Sukuna and Kenjaku is something that Megumi possess.

If Sukuna can do an open domain, and Kenjaku learned it after 1 thousand years, but Tengen can't even though she is the master of barrier techniques, then this tells us that OBD isn't just the next step of barrier techniques. This makes Megumi not able to close a normal domain barrier with space altering properties irrelevant.

But what could be a skill that helps make "painting on air" a reality?

Hanging your domain onto something that isn't your own barrier, maybe? A first step to discard your physical canvass and start painting on air. Like Megumi does against the finger bearer.

He uses a completely unique skill set no other sorcerer possess, to put his domain on top of someone else's barriers in a 1:1 ratio to reality. Then he expands his domain again, this time by using a physical structure aka a wall to hang his domain on top. After already confirming to us that he didn't need an external structure, while showing us that he now possesses a domain construct like Sukuna and Kenjaku.

Domain constructs aren't unique to OBDs, but taking the scene I've been talking about this whole time into context, it simply adds onto it.

The crux of the matter is:

Megumi doesn't know that open barrier domains are a thing, which is why he doesn't capitalise on what he can do and what he has. He thinks he has a second grade skill set even though Sukuna already praised him for what he can do: place his domain over someone else's

The other characters, when they talk about what Megumi did against the finger bearer, don't know that Megumi has progressed in his skills because right after the fight against Reggie, Megumi gets possessed. The others in Shinjuku talk about Megumi with outdated information

and even then they remark that what he did was extraordinary after the discussion started because what he did was explicitly compared to Sukuna's OBD

My very last thoughts on this:

An open barrier domain is not the mastery of barriers, otherwise Tengen would have one, but the mastery of domains itself plus the environment. For which hanging your domain on something that isn't your own barrier is the first step to master it.

The informal definition of an open barrier domain, carrying water without a bottle and painting on air, tells us that barriers aren't used at all for this kind of domain

It's literally pulling your inner domain out into the real world without a carrier, so mastering barriers isn't the required skill to for an OBD, meaning Megumi's lack in skill of barriers doesn't matter

The sure-hit still has a barrier though, so for the definition of an OBD to make sense, the sure-hit barrier needs to be its own additional thing that's separate from the domain

Except for the sure-hit, Megumi's gym domain wouldn't be inferior to a normal domain. As long as the normal domain, when expanded, isn't wide enough to contain the entire gym within itself, Megumi's domain would remain outside of the normal domain's shell, making Megumi can attack it from there as long as he survives the sure-hit

Megumi's domain against the finger bearer wasn't just his shadows on the ground. Megumi's domain encapsulated the exact same space as the finger bearer's barriers.

Kusakabe's knowledge on Megumi's DE skills don't go further than the Yasohachi bridge mission

Sukuna praised Megumi for his achievement against the finger bearer, which tells us unmistakably that Megumi did something exceptional. A half-failure to open a domain wouldn't have made Sukuna praise shit. The skill to de-couple your domain from yourself/your barriers and hang that domain onto an external structure is a skill so great that Sukuna liked seeing it and positively commented on it

An OBD can't be the next step of mastering barrier techniques because then Tengen would have one or Sukuna would've the title of Barrier Master

And again, feel free to comment with constructive criticism. Any shit about "but divine and Sukuna" will get the finger at this point. The middle or the block finger, depending. Best would be to start looking at the scene of Megumi debating himself about opening his domain in the street.

sukuna praised todo and called him a true sorcerer for boggie woggie and praised megumi for some shikigami he saw being summoned which he easily defeated, if having an open domain was so simple then better sorcerers like gojo or yuta would have had an open barrier

sukuna much like gojo mentioned megumi’s potential hence why it was impressive he was able to pull such a big skill

some of the points you made are directly contradicted by the story

On my Megumi can do open barrier domains original post, here a new post because I can't reply directly to that comment.

You're falling into the exact same traps that anyone else decrying Megumi's domain skills fall into:

no explanation on what Megumi was doing in the scene above in the open street

pulling an explanation of OBDs out and just deciding that Megumi doesn't fall into it

Megumi exclusively refers to a normal domain when he talks about his incomplete one

not being able to close a barrier with space altering properties doesn't mean that Megumi can't use barriers like the veil. He explicitly says that he can't place an artificial space of different sizes over reality. That's the skill he doesn't have

Megumi was ready to expand his domain in the street but he didn't because Reggie would've escaped -> meaning the skill to open a domain in the open in the same manner as Sukuna and Kenjaku is something that Megumi possess.

If Sukuna can do an open domain, and Kenjaku learned it after 1 thousand years, but Tengen can't even though she is the master of barrier techniques, then this tells us that OBD isn't just the next step of barrier techniques. This makes Megumi not able to close a normal domain barrier with space altering properties irrelevant.

But what could be a skill that helps make "painting on air" a reality?

Hanging your domain onto something that isn't your own barrier, maybe? A first step to discard your physical canvass and start painting on air. Like Megumi does against the finger bearer.

He uses a completely unique skill set no other sorcerer possess, to put his domain on top of someone else's barriers in a 1:1 ratio to reality. Then he expands his domain again, this time by using a physical structure aka a wall to hang his domain on top. After already confirming to us that he didn't need an external structure, while showing us that he now possesses a domain construct like Sukuna and Kenjaku.

Domain constructs aren't unique to OBDs, but taking the scene I've been talking about this whole time into context, it simply adds onto it.

The crux of the matter is:

Megumi doesn't know that open barrier domains are a thing, which is why he doesn't capitalise on what he can do and what he has. He thinks he has a second grade skill set even though Sukuna already praised him for what he can do: place his domain over someone else's

The other characters, when they talk about what Megumi did against the finger bearer, don't know that Megumi has progressed in his skills because right after the fight against Reggie, Megumi gets possessed. The others in Shinjuku talk about Megumi with outdated information

and even then they remark that what he did was extraordinary after the discussion started because what he did was explicitly compared to Sukuna's OBD

My very last thoughts on this:

An open barrier domain is not the mastery of barriers, otherwise Tengen would have one, but the mastery of domains itself plus the environment. For which hanging your domain on something that isn't your own barrier is the first step to master it.

Tengen who is a character that has the best refinement in the verse, followed by kenjaku who also has one of the best understanding of barriers and she couldn’t figure it out how ro do it

Megumi is a well written character and very much top 3 in my book when it comes to his character and what he represents in the story but he doesn’t know how to do an open domain and would never be able to do something of that kind

His domain is inferior to anyone with a complete domain(absolutely anyone) he deserves credit considering he managed to open his domain so young(even if incomplete) and considering he didn’t care to become a jujutsu sorcerer if it wasn’t for tsumiki but there is a power system that’s not really up to interpretation

Also, the downplay of open barrier is a huge problem because many people actually believe is thay easy to do one(e.g the people that insist sukuna had one due to a binding vow when that’s not how it works) having an open domain is an impossible feat that only two character with immense knowledge of jujutsu have

Kusakabe also gives a good representation of what an open domain is

But to make my point on the difference:an open domain will always win against a closed domain regardless how strong the closed domain is(Unlimited Void versus Malevolent Shrine) while an incomplete domain will always lose against any complete(closed) domain since it can’t be opened like a normal domain can

He already mastered it 👇

The problem is that he doesn't realise its potential. He thinks his domain is incomplete because a proper domain has to have properly closed barriers that compress space around it. If you don't go through this strict formula, then what you have is half a failure.

That's why Megumi goes out of his way to find compensation for his lack of barrier mastery. Of course in this case it was warranted, but that just goes back to how he doesn't understand the kind of power he has and how to use it.

To hammer it home: Megumi could've expanded his domain in the open street. He's capable of doing that, just like the King of Curses and a 1000 year body hopper. But unlike Sukuna and Kenjaku, he has no idea what to do with an open barrier domain; he still thinks its a mishap what he's producing there.

Just like in the beginning of the story, Megumi's mindset regarding these things is what holds him back. Who says he can't make that kind of domain expansion work for him in the open street? Sukuna annihilated Shibuya with it by using binding vows to expand his range because it was open. And who says Megumi can't create his sure-hit with that arrangement? You don't need a closed barrier for the sure-hit.

Of course in part, Megumi's problem is that he just doesn't know things like that are possible. From history he has no idea, and the strongest sorcerer he knows can't do something like that either. Megumi also has no idea what Sukuna did in Shibuya; these boys have not exchanged information on that in any way.

the part in the street where Megumi thinks of expanding his domain does not exist in the minds of many, many people

people confuse Megumi not being able to close his barrier, which is what he means about having an incomplete domain, with an inability to expand an open domain

Megumi can do one but not the other; his closed domain is incomplete, his open domain is complete except for the sure-hit but with the domain construct

people bring up the discussion between Maki and Kusakabe in Shinjuku, not realising that those two have outdated information on Megumi's proficiency in DEs

no one was there to see Megumi's better domain inside the gymnasium and he didn't talk with anyone about contemplating expanding his domain in the street before he was possessed

people use backwards logic to dismiss what literally happened in this episode; instead of taking what Megumi said here into their understanding of how domains and barriers work, they find some twisted logic that starts with "Megumi can't" and work their way into denial of facts from there

one person tried to tell me that Megumi can't use barriers at all

having an incomplete domain≠open domain

an open domain is characterized as a divine feat that only two characters were able to achieve which are simultaneously the smartest and most knowledgable about jujutsu characters which are kenjaku and sukuna

not to mention tengen’s statement that even she couldn’t figure it out even considering her knowledge on barriers

And you have to be enrolled by 25th October