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A lot of people are also reading his speech as an attempt to manipulate Aegon by taking him down a peg, Alicent-style, so that he'll be more compliant. Which may also be true.

But the moment reads more to me like Larys losing control of his own feelings. There are aspects of jealousy in his speech, with him listing off all of Aegon's privileges. (While Larys also grew up in privilege, he was always in the shadow of his older brother, pitied for his disability, and no one really expected much of him.) And also, at this point, Larys is exhausted and fed up and probably scared. He's not accustomed to traipsing around in the woods and the mud and being regularly exposed to physical danger, or to not having his money and his title to protect him. He's had to improvise and alter his plans several times due to Aegon's recklessness putting both their lives at risk. He's had to make concessions to keep Aegon appeased, such as taking a detour to visit Sunfyre's body. And all this after he saved Aegon's life and risked everything to get him out of King's Landing to safety...for his own selfish ends, yes, but it was still a genuine risk and I do think there was some kernel of him feeling a sense of kinship with Aegon. He bet everything on this guy. And Aegon trampled all over that. Like, yeah Larys is a sadistic schemer but I think he's still capable of feeling unappreciated (however hypocritcal that might be on his part, since he's used and discarded a lot of people).

And Aegon...many of Aegon's actions have been stupid and reckless, but considering all he's lost and considering that he's probably still in intense pain most of the time, I think a lot of that is coming out of him being low-key suicidal. His pride is all that remains to him, so of course he clings to that even when it's dangerous. Larys is the only ally he has but he knows what kind of man Larys is and he doesn't fully trust him. Aegon's also accustomed to his own parents belittling him so on some level he's probably been bracing himself for this exact moment. The way he jiggles his leg like an antsy, anxious kid through the whole cruel speech is so telling. Because it hurts but he's not surprised. Larys isn't telling him anything he doesn't already feel about himself. He didn't want the throne because he didn't see himself as worthy of it. That feeling of worthlessness has defined his life.

I wish the scene had gone on a little longer because I really would've liked to see the immediate reaction to this. Does Aegon bite back? Does he crumple into meek submission? Does he just go numb and silent?

Mild spoilers for HOTD season 3:

I saw the preview for episode four, and while I'm looking forward to more scenes of these two characters and their journey, I find it odd that Aegon's disability seems to be getting downplayed so much recently. Like in s2 they made a point of emphasizing that he was going to have permanent difficulty with walking. When he and Larys left King's Landing, he couldn't even stand without visibly being in pain.

I could overlook the moment when he jumps out of the carriage and fights that soldier, because adrenaline can be a powerful painkiller, but like...now he seems to be walking around without even a cane and without any apparent pain. Given that he and Larys are fugitives right now I think we can assume that he still doesn't have access to painkillers. And they seem to be traveling on foot?!

Idk, maybe I'm nitpicking, but given Larys' whole speech in season 2 about how Aegon would "never run again" and would have to get used to a life of limitations, I was expecting this subplot to actually grapple a bit more with the realities and difficulties of them being two disabled men (one with chronic pain issues as well) on the run. But I feel like Aegon's disability is gonna get reduced to him just having a few scars.

So this fic is, I guess, my attempt to write them actually dealing with those difficulties.

There's this conversation happening where some people will say "Jax was never held accountable. She should have faced more consequences for her abuse of the other characters" and other people will say, "She abstracted, which is basically death. What more consequence do you want?"

I think there is a disconnect here as to what is meant by "consequence" or "accountability." Consequence is not synonymous with "suffering," and from a narrative standpoint, death is not necessarily a consequence. It can be, but it really depends on context.

For instance, if you have a story about a parent who is emotionally abusive to their adult children and then the parent gets a terminal illness and dies a slow and painful death, this isn't really accountability or consequence, because the illness had nothing to do with the abuse. It's just the blind cruelty of the universe. If anything, it makes the abusive character more sympathetic because they're now suffering even more than the people they hurt. That's not to say that telling a story like this is inherently bad; there'd be plenty of stuff to explore there in terms of the confusing emotions the children would feel in this situation. Succession does stuff with a premise like this in terms of Logan Roy's increasingly poor health throughout the series, while he continues to fuck with his kids' heads. Logan suffers a lot as a result of his stroke. But this is not what people mean when they say "X should have faced consequences for their actions."

What many people wanted with Jax was, I think, a scene like the one we got with Caine, with all the characters venting to his face about how much harm his actions have caused. What we got instead was Jax abstracting off-screen, which is not cathartic or satisfying in the same way. Which, again, is not to say that it was the wrong decision from a writing standpoint. I think it would've been repetitive to have two such confrontations. But for the people who specifically wanted to get that moment with Jax, I get why they are dissatisfied...especially since Jax's cruelty was a lot more pointed and deliberate than Caine's.

I've tried to avoid getting too in-the-weeds with discussing the reveal of Jax as trans in the finale and how it intersects with this conversation about "accountability," but I do find this particular intersection of discourse to be very frustrating. I've said before that I think the reveal was done well and tactfully, and I still think that. It also doesn't fundamentally change much about the character. We already knew, pre ep9, that Jax had some kind of secret pain or struggle which was shaping their behavior. The finale filled in the blank on what it was, but the secret could have been something else, or remained completely unrevealed, and the character's arch would have been fundamentally the same: it is an arch about self-isolation and nihilism and using cruel humor as a mask and a coping device, and any number of secret pains could serve as the grain of sand for forming this sort of toxic pearl. But the reveal of Jax as a woman (or at least some form of transfem) has brought a gender-politics charge to the whole discussion around her, which is unavoidable but (I think) is also kind of a tiresome red herring.

And I want to reiterate here that I do not think this is "bad rep" or that it should be taboo to portray queer characters as abusive or as bad people. Queer characters should be allowed to showcase the entire range of human experiences. Women can be abusers too, while still being complex people with reasons for being that way, even if that doesn't absolve them, etc. If anything I find it refreshing to find a nuanced portrayal of a female abuser.

But responding to "Jax should have been held accountable and faced more consequences" with, "You just hate trans people," or, "You just hate women" is intellectually dishonest. It's a cope. Yes, there are people out there who will simp for a problematic male character while not granting the same leniency to a problematic female character, but the thing here is, most of the people who hate the character also hated the character pre-reveal, when they still believed that Jax was a man. Because egg representation is kinda rare in general and because "problematic" eggs are especially rare in fiction, this is a particular, unique case...which is, honestly, what makes it interesting, but which also breeds a lot of moon logic discourse like "you just hate this character because she's a woman even though you thought she was a man until two seconds ago."

Tldr: "I wish this abuser had apologized for her actions instead of dying anticlimactically off-screen" is not bigotry. It's not a case of "death is too good for her." It's like the abusive parent dying of cancer before the kids get a chance to confront them and ask for an acknowledgment of all the harm that they caused. It's the denial of that validation and the frustration that it brings.

I've heard some takes that Caine's redemption arch was rushed, and I do kinda feel that. I have mixed feelings about the decision to bring him back, because his "death" was such an impactful and shocking moment and having it turn out to be a fake-out kind of weakens that.

I'm still ultimately glad they did bring him back, because I think an ending with Caine permanently dead would have just felt too bleak. He's the soul of the show in many ways. But I would've liked to see a few more steps in his emotional journey. If Goose was hellbent on giving so much attention to Jax's backstory and mindscape (which is her prerogative, of course) I think this show really needed one more episode to flesh out...everything else.

One really bizarre take I've seen about Caine, though, is that his redemption arch isn't really about remorse, he's just afraid of the Circus-members now that he knows they have the power to kill him, so he's behaving himself out of fear. And...no?

Caine is still a nearly all-powerful god in this world. He could still kill any of them at any time (or worse). Kinger was only able to "kill" him because Caine was distracted, and even then, he didn't actually kill him, he just temporarily booted him into the void or something. None of the humans are a legitimate threat to Caine. We saw how easily he could squish them like flies if he really wanted to. The only power they have over him is emotional, because ultimately, he's someone who wants to be liked and to do good. Plus we hear him talking to himself in the void so we know that he's genuine in feeling bad about his actions; fear doesn't really factor into it.

And that matters, because what actually makes his redemption feel earned for me is that he is confronted, held accountable, had all his very real flaws starkly laid out in front of him in the most triggering way possible...and while he obviously reacted quite badly in the moment, he ultimately listened. He moved past his own pain and insecurities. He heard them and grew as a person.

Kinger and Caine work together on a program which can restore abstracted people, and Jax is the first successful de-abstraction. Jax returns in a female form and, after some initial confusion and an adjustment period, she reintegrates into the group and resumes normal Circus life as a happier version of herself. But the story mainly focuses on Gangle's POV and her feelings about this.

I've always liked this guy's Enneagram videos and found them useful for writing character archs. When I first watched this one I hadn't actually seen HOTD yet and so didn't have any context for his discussion of Aegon, and having seen HOTD now...hmm. Aegon II as a Type 2 (the lovey dovey type who is all about relationships and connections) is very counterintuitive. Like, Aegon does a lot of horrible things and is not very empathic in the usual sense of the word. But I do kinda see what Hartwell is saying.

(I think this commentary holds up a bit better if you're focusing mainly on season 2 Aegon rather than season 1 Aegon, since I do feel like they were written differently, with him being a bit more nuanced and tragic in s2 onward. And the fact that they're played by different actors heightens this impression.)

Initially I would've pegged Aegon as an 8 (the challenger) or a 7 (the thrill-seeker) since he's very prideful and impulsive and these traits seem to drive most of his actions. But much of this could be a kind of mask or armor he's cultivated due to the role of king that's thrust onto him. "More than anything, he wants to be wanted" is, I think, an accurate description of his character. The desire for power is not the thing that drives him. When he was first called on to be king, he didn't want it, to the point of running away and hiding; his prior life was mainly one of feckless distractions which were attempts to fill an inner void. There's that moment in the carriage where he asks Alicent if she loves him.

And the video essay does acknowledge that Type 2s are not necessarily all sunshine and rainbows. The drive for human connection and being wanted can take on some very dark forms.