Fuck the pretender

Exactly, anon, this is all very true. Many Team Black stans lean heavily into Valyrian blood purity arguments and can show clear double standards toward female characters, especially non-Valyrian women. Society - -and fandoms too - -have this way of holding women to impossible standards, especially in politics or power struggles, that men rarely face. People scrutinize how a woman acts, speak, or “defend herself,” but if a man does the same thing, he’s called strong… People’s sexism and woman-hate inevitably shows up in how they critique Alicent. Because no one’s calling them out in real time, they feel free to call her as “evil” or “manipulative” with misogynistic slurs for doing the same things men like Maekar do without criticism. They get comfortable indulging their biases, feeling justified in tearing her down, and projecting their worst impulses onto her character.

Maekar is a Valyrian MAN and Alicent is a non-Valyrian WOMAN. That’s the part TB fandom never wants to interrogate. Both Maekar and Alicent are sharp tongued. They say ugly & harsh things. That’s true. But The problem is who is allowed to express anger. A man being harsh = “hot headed & complex.” A woman being harsh = “bitter, cruel, evil,” People try to brand her as “evil” or “scheming” without nuance, and somehow just calling her that way gets conflated with being a “fully realized character” or “worthy of analysis.” The substance of her actions, her cleverness in court politics, her protection of her children none of that matters. It’s about displaying moral superiority over others in the fandom and proving they “see through” her, as if pointing out sexism in a character automatically makes them insightful. It’s performative gatekeeping, a way to show they’ve “won” the moral game, rather than engaging with her as a complex person acting under constraints.

Fandom sexism treats her as if her “worth” is measured solely by her ability to marry well & produce heirs / baby machine like that’s all a woman can do. Any assertion of power, ambition, or defense of her children beyond mere obedience is treated as “evil” or “overreaching,” as if she’s failing some moral test. Alicent’s children, unlike Maekar’s, were facing discrimination because of blood and racial politics - - their mother wasn’t a Targaryen, and Team Black fans used this as a way to push their whole “Valyrian blood purity” agenda. Meanwhile they conveniently forget that Maekar wasn’t married to a Targaryen woman either, so his kids weren’t magically “pure” either but somehow that never gets held against him or his line. It’s wild how selective the fandom can be about what counts as “legitimate” or worthy of sympathy.

Viserys & Beesbury and their blood purity toward Alicent’s children.

It’s very clear that GRRM deliberately has Viserys and Beesbury use blood-centric terminology when they speak the way they do. Words like “Alicent’s blood” and “more Targaryen blood”

If we start ranking claims based on “stronger blood,” then you open the door to the logic that Maegor, as the son of Aegon the Conqueror and Visenya (a full Targaryen sister-wife), had “stronger” or “purer” Targaryen blood than Aegon the Uncrowned, whose mother was Alyssa velaryon /half Andal. Yet Aegon the Uncrowned was the lawful heir by primogeniture. Beesbury was a complete blood purist and a hypocrite here.

Why should the rhetoric Viserys uses calling them “Alicent’s blood” be brushed aside as nothing more than favoritism? Why isn’t that language recognized as its own political act, with its own origins and consequences? Words like that are built to linguistically separate children from the king and fold them into their mother’s line is to mark them. It redraws belonging. That obsession with blood purity is baked into the Targaryen monarchy itself. Whether consciously / unconsciously, the dynasty leans on it as a tool to assert authority and justify succession decisions. Viserys, Beesbury, Daemon, Rhaenyra and others aren’t inventing a new ideology they’re exploiting a pre-existing paradigm that has always tied Targaryen power to the “purity of the blood of the dragon.”

From HERE:

Viserys referred to her children as “her blood” rather than his own, showing his fixation on Valyrian purity even when it came to his OWN children. The Hightowers were one of the wealthiest, most influential, and loyal families in the realm, yet Viserys treated Alicent with contempt. By dismissing her and her children, he insulted not just her personally but also the precedent of non-Valyrian consorts queens, signaling that only Targaryen or pure Valyrian blood truly mattered. If the king can simply ignore the children of a non-Targaryen queen, then why would any great house risk giving its daughter to a Targaryen king? It makes the political alliance worthless. If a queen’s sons can be skipped over just because she isn’t Valyrian, then her role becomes powerless. Bc the queen’s security comes from her children. If that security is stripped away, queens have no reason to trust the throne and every reason to fight for their children. It makes civil war more likely. And When the king refuses to protect his own sons, noble houses will protect them instead even through rebellion. This is exactly what happens with Alicent’s family.

This kind of message would make every noble house feel undervalued and unsafe at court. When a king shows that only “pure” Valyrian blood matters, he weakens the trust that keeps the realm together. Even families that have always been loyal would start to question their place and their future. Viserys calling Alicent’s children “her blood” instead of his own makes it obvious that he cared more about blood purity than about his family or the stability of the kingdom. Because Alicent wasn’t related to him the way Aemma was, he treated her children as if they were less legitimate even though they were his trueborn sons. For any great lord, marrying a daughter to a Targaryen king is supposed to be one of the highest honors. It should secure the family’s status for generations. The expectation is simple: the queen and her children will be respected and recognized. Viserys’ actions set a dangerous precedent for future non-Targaryen consorts. If a king could ignore or disinherit the children of a non-Valyrian queen without consequence, it would teach every future consort that she had no authority over her own sons. In effect, queens who were not Targaryen would have almost no real power, their political influence entirely dependent on whether the king chose to recognize her children. This precedent could destabilize the realm and lead to rebellion or civil war, as powerful families sought to secure their heirs by any means necessary.

And the Rhea Royce stuff is even worse. Daemon’s contempt for her is explicitly tied to her being Andal, to her not being “worthy” of him. He refuses to consummate the marriage because he doesn’t want “lesser” children. That is canon character blood purity / racism and classism and instead of interrogating it, parts of the fandom excuse it or reframe it as romantic incompatibility or “Daemon being Daemon.” If a non-Targaryen character said the same things, fandom would (rightly) drag them to hell. What really exposes the hypocrisy is Nettles. Nettles blows up the entire Valyrian exceptionalism myth. She bonds with a dragon without looking Valyrian, without a recorded Targaryen lineage, without fitting the beauty standard and instead of engaging with what that means, a lot of stans dehumanize her, or sexualize her in ways that strip her of agency. Or they rewrite canon so Daemon couldn’t possibly love her unless she’s secretly Valyrian. Because if she isn’t, the blood myth collapses.

If Alicent were a Targaryen man same personality, same words, same motives she’d be one of the most glazed characters in the entire fandom. A Valyrian prince, married off for politics, trapped in a system he didn’t design. Bitter, ambitious, sharp-tongued, resentful of being sidelined. Fiercely protective of his children because he knows the system will chew them up. Constantly warning people that things are going to end badly. Says ugly, uncomfortable truths instead of smiling through them. Ppl would be calling him “complex,” “tragic,” “politically astute,” “morally grey kingmaker.” “The father who protects his children” Instead, because Alicent is a woman, non-Valyrian, sexually regulated by the story, denied direct power, she gets reduced into “evil stepmother.” And Alicent is called a mother of rapists so why isn’t Maekar called a father of pedos since Aerion SA’d his own brother? If Alicent were a Targaryen man, she wouldn’t need defending. She’d already be canonized.

Alicent doesn’t need to be a Visenya or a Maekar, swinging swords on the battlefield, to fight for her kids. She defended her family and her children with everything she had, even behind the scenes. Unlike Maekar, her children were active, and directly in danger - - put in a position no one before had faced - - so yes, she had every reason to fear for them and grieve when she actually lost them. She’s is the perfect scapegoat for fandom bias she’s non-Valyrian, she’s cautious and practical, she’s fully aware of political realities and all of that clashes with the story of the “glorious, silver-haired, morally superior Targaryens.” Ppl who romanticize Rhaenyra or Daemon project onto them they’re heroic, progressive, or “feminist” simply because they have silver hair and Valyrian blood. Any opposition to them especially from a non-Valyrian woman who’s actually acting strategically to protect her children is supposed to be evil & manipulative.

Alicent’s “crime” isn’t ambition or ruthlessness (visenya, Daemon, and Maegor do far worse without moral condemnation). It’s that she doesn’t fit the fandom’s white Valyrian fantasy. She’s clever, politically savvy, and protective of her kids but that makes her a threat to the beloved protagonist story. She’s hated because she challenges the myth of Targaryen supremacy, showing that blood and dragons don’t automatically make someone strong and for standing up as a non-Valyrian woman and forcing people to take her seriously.

It’s pure race- and gender-based gatekeeping, she’s not Targaryen, so somehow she has no say in succession or politics. Meanwhile, the actual Targaryens, including the worst ones, get excused because of their bloodline. It’s less about Alicent herself and more about how fandom enforces the “Valyrian = good, non-Valyrian = bad” blood purity hierarchy. That’s why people cheer silver-haired murderers ( Hello Aerion??) but vilify a woman who just wants to survive & protect her family.

Even though I’ve seen people say that Maekar would never turn his children against their own blood the same way Alicent did.

BUT…

Alicent never turned her children against her own blood. She was not okay with Aemond killing Luke, she was not okay with Aegon celebrating it, and she explicitly tried to restrain the violence at every turn. She even calmed Aegon down when he wanted to kill his half sister and pushed him to propose peace terms instead. Blaming Alicent for her sons’ crimes is no different from saying Maekar “made” Aerion assault people or that he orchestrated his sons’ worst acts. Parents can love, defend, and protect their children without controlling their actions. Alicent did not order Luke’s death. She reacted with horror. Holding her responsible for her sons’ choices is DEEPLY misogynistic.

She even proposes she marry Aegon, and one of the reasons she gives is that they don’t get along. “All the more reason to bind them together in marriage,” she OPENLY acknowledging that Rhaenyra IS hating her now six-year-old younger brother. If Alicent hoped for Rhaenyra and Aegon to marry, why would she be putting her children against their own blood?… But Viserys shoots the idea down, saying, “the boy is Alicent’s own blood she wants him on the throne.” I mean…? yes, of course she does, it’s her RIGHT! AND SHE WANTS HER SON TO STAY ALIVE. Viserys treat Alicent like a glorified mistress he uses her for heirs but won’t fully back her politically, won’t protect her sons in the succession, and refuses to make clear choices. Alicent end up being stuck between the role she should rightfully hold and the way her husband diminishes her. Why is that Book Alicent’s “worst crime” is wanting her husband to do what virtually every lord and king in the Seven Kingdoms does: name his firstborn son as heir or having her blood on the throne.

Even though we see in the book that Alicent does try to stop the war, especially when her children are at stake. She literally crawls to the Iron Throne on her knees to beg for peace, offering compromises, councils, and even splitting the realm if it would keep her children alive. That’s not the move of someone who craves power for herself it’s the move of a mother trying to protect her family. After the Blacks take King’s Landing, she still approaches Rhaenyra and proposes summoning another Great Council to settle the succession but Rhaenyra refuses. Alicent’s actions throughout the book show that her FIRST priority is her children’s safety.

Alicent is deeply aware that politics and succession are unforgiving, and deadly. She has to protect her children in a world where no one will forgive weakness, where a simple whisper can spark a war. Seeing Rhaenyra “pretend everything is fine” is both irritating and threatening because it’s an example of a parenting strategy that could and already does endanger her own children indirectly, and her enemies’ children directly. Alicent, after all, was a woman & royal consort, not a queen regnant. Like other consorts, she never held the same authority or autonomy as her husband or even her male children. Her influence was largely confined to the court, exercised through soft power means and arranged marriages always requiring her husband’s approval. She couldn’t draft policies, enforce laws, burning cities, or wage war on her own. Everything was done either with the king’s consent or under his ignorance.

What if Maekar were put in Alicent’s position and saw Rhaenyra birthing three bastards alongside two legitimate children, all of whom posed a direct threat to his own children? What if he saw one of her bastards maim his son? What if he saw Rhaenyra killing Vaemond her own kin and leaving his family maimed? What if he saw Viserys threatening anyone who questioned their bastardy with death / mutilation? What if he saw Viserys putting bastards on the line of succession and ignoring his trueborn children and calling them “Alicent’s blood”? Hello, Blackfyre Rebellion redux. He would remember what Aegon the Unworthy did to his father. Maekar himself fought against bastards and knew the Targaryen history of bastard crises legitimacy disputes and succession favoritism firsthand the Blackfyre Rebellion was literally sparked by Aegon IV legitimizing his bastards over the trueborn heir, Daeron II. Aegon IV constantly questioned Daeron’s legitimacy while showering his bastards with perks. Daeron II, the trueborn heir, was treated as a bastard, while Daemon Blackfyre received the legendary Blackfyre sword at twelve and was legitimized, put alongside or even ahead of the rightful heir. That left Naerys in a politically weak position, exposed to court gossip and undermining.

Viserys I who also favored bastards over his trueborn children was… kind of doing the same. Even though Aegon was the son he’d been waiting for, he keeps him completely useless on purpose so they can’t challenge anyone and Aegon ends up bored, frustrated, and trapped in a system where even his own kids would technically be under Rhaenyra’s rule. no role, no responsibilities, no autonomy, a forced marriage he doesn’t want. Even bastards were treated better than him. And yes, Alicent saw all this happening her sons disrespected, maimed like Aemond and Viserys did nothing in fact, he defended Rhaenyra & her bastards. Eventually, he had to step in, saying: “No one mocks my grandsons as ‘Strongs’ again or their tongues get pulled out.” Basically, when kings disrespect queens and their trueborn kids, it blows up in everyone’s face and leads to straight up wars.

And Maekar was not gentle about threats. He was rigid & proud. If he believed his sons were being structurally displaced by heirs whose legitimacy was publicly doubted, he would not shrug and say “let the law handle it.” He would interpret it as danger. People talk about Rhaenyra’s sons as if the only question is whether they technically have Targaryen blood through her. But perception matters as much as law. The Blackfyres prove that even fully acknowledged bastards with partial royal blood can destabilize the realm for generations. So three bastards whose legitimacy is contested while sitting directly in the line of succession??...

Placed in Alicent’s position, Maekar would not see a neutral legal landscape. He would see a monarch overriding long-standing patriarchal precedent in a society structured around male primogeniture, while dismissing dissent as treason. He would see rival claimants whose existence acknowledged & protected by the crown materially endangered his own children. And given his family’s history, he would understand how quickly legitimized or chosen rivals can cause a whole war.

I see people denying that Rhaenyra is a Mary Sue in HOTD. Well here is an article on the TV Tropes website about this : https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommonMarySueTraits

I'll go through most of the relevant traits and you'll see yourself how it fits Rhaenyra to a T. Warning, it'll be long !

1) Personality

"Erm... what personality? The typical Mary Sue doesn't have one per se, because she isn't meant to be a character. Rather, she's an entity by which the author makes cool stuff happen. She's thus not defined by her personality, but rather by her special powers, fantastic romances, and random acts of heroism."

Now this definitely doesn't apply to teenage Rhaenyra who did have a personality but the most common criticism adult Rhaenyra has gotten is that she's bland and boring. She doesn't have any defining character trait anymore (she lost her pride, her entitlement, her impulsivity, her sarcasm). She's only defined by the fact that Viserys named her the heir of the Iron Throne and then by her status as the rightful queen.

"What little personality a Mary Sue has isn't as important as how other characters react to it. People will trust her implicitly, even more than they trust their families, significant others, or closest friends. Anyone who doesn't react to her this way is usually portrayed as evil or stupid. She doesn't have to do anything to deserve this treatment; she's an impossibly good person because the author says she is."

This literally describes how Mysaria and Alicent act towards Rhaenyra in S2. Also how the Greens are portrayed as evil idiots because they don't worship the ground she walks on.

"She may be flawed, but these are all Informed Flaws. This usually happens when the author is actively avoiding these common traits but doesn't know how to do it realistically. This usually leads to "flaws" that never actually hinder the character or make her look bad. If it's something that makes her Darker and Edgier, we never see any of the drawbacks of it. Sometimes she will even complain about her special place in the world solely because the author realized that the character can't look too perfect without alienating readers."

This is episode 7 of S2 in a nutshell. Condal claims it was meant to portray Rhaenyra as a darker character but it's an informed flaw. The show still frames her as a badass rightful queen for initiating the Red Sowing. Rhaenyra is also constantly complaining about being named heir or being queen when it grants her an even more special place in the world of Westeros.

"The author wants to write a badass but doesn't know how. This leads to a character who mistreats everyone around her and is never called out on her abrasive, casually abusive behavior. Other badass characters, no matter how tough or violent, provide her with an opportunity to "put them in their place" — or rather, they instantly capitulate and turn into meek Wangst factories around her."

Rhaenyra is never called out for her bad decisions by anyone but the designated villains. The Dragonstone scene was literally written to provide Rhaenyra an opportunity to put Alicent in her place and Alicent turned into a meek doormat in her presence and not only did she capitulate for Rhaenyra but also sacrificed her family for her.

2) Skills

"Her skills will generally be inexplicable and poorly defined. Many of them may not actually play any role in the plot; they're introduced solely to make the character seem even more awesome."

Literally her dragonriding abilities. S1 presents her as a great dragonrider and she's always riding Syrax but this skill doesn't play any important role in the plot (because Rhaenyra actually wasn't a great dragonrider in F&B and Condal & co added this just to make her more badass).

"Relatedly, there's no effort to her skills. She never actually trains or learns anything to become more powerful; she is just Inexplicably Awesome. The author rarely finds it necessary to explain why Mary Sue is as powerful as she is, and they're certainly not going to stop the action to show her training."

Do I really need to explain this one ? HOTD is always asserting that Rhaenyra would make a great queen even if we never saw any scene of her actually learning how to rule.

"She doesn't have normal sex. She has the most mind-blowingly divine sex ever. Interestingly, she's often also a virgin at the start of the story-not for any plot reason, but to differentiate her from the other girls in the story. Her lack of experience never diminishes the quality of the sex."

All of Rhaenyra's sex scenes are portrayed as romantic, very pleasurable and sensual. Especially in comparison to the gross sex scenes given to Alicent.

"She has excellent fashion sense. Usually, this happens without her even trying; she's just naturally beautiful and whatever she wears will always be awesome and stylish. Even if she's meant to be a rough-and-tumble Tomboy type who doesn't care about that sort of thing, the other characters will always praise her Unkempt Beauty and perhaps even admire that she's also low-maintenance."

Applies more to teenage Rhaenyra but still.

"Don’t expect the Green-Eyed Monster to show up. Envy appears in the Sue's life only as a means of angst; it's there to show the downsides of being awesome at everything. Anybody who gets jealous of her is deliberately set up as stupid or evil."

Rhaenyra was the one envious of Alicent in F&B but in HOTD it's Alicent who is envious of her. And we know Rhaenyra won't get jealous of Nettles in future seasons since Nettles was cut from the Dance by Condal & co.

3) Physical Appearance

"She will never look ugly, no matter what she's been through. The worst she'll ever be reduced to is Unkempt Beauty. If she is ever somehow injured or scarred, the scar will always look cool and serve more as a decoration than anything else."

Rhaenyra got a scar from Alicent slashing her with the Valyrian steel blade but it only made her cooler.

"She is always skinny. She is almost never depicted as putting any effort into maintaining her impossibly "perfect" body. She never has to diet or exercise to stay in fighting shape."

Rhaenyra is slim in HOTD despite her six pregnancies, sedentary lifestyle, and book description as someone who gained weight as she got older.

4) Character Relationships

"Mary Sue is often designed to hook up with another character, often as a form of Wish-Fulfillment. This isn't that bad in and of itself (okay, it is kinda weird), but Mary Sue accomplishes this without any sense of realism. She just grabs her lover's attention straight away, and their relationship will never face any obstacles or tension; it's true love from the start and nothing else. The biggest giveaway is if she essentially "cures" him of all the angst that ails him (at the expense of his characterization)."

This literally describes Rhaenyra's relationships with Mysaria and Alicent. Both women are inexplicably drawn to her and obsessed with her. The characterization of Alicent especially suffers due to this. No one can tell me that Rhaenicent isn't a wish-fulfillment of the writers of HOTD.

"Her love interest will often be dating or married to someone else in canon. This is not a problem for Mary Sue, whose author can get rid of the other girl in many ways, including killing her off, derailing her into a hateful person and thus making her easy to break up, or even letting her step aside or sacrifice herself just so that he can be with Mary Sue. Sometimes Mary Sue is introduced as a canon character's New Old Flame, explaining why he might leave his current girlfriend for her (but raising the question of what led them to break up in the first place if they're that great together)."

What's funny is that here "the other girl" are actually Alicent's own children. HOTD writers turned the relationship between Alicent and her sons into a strained toxic mess to justify her betrayal of them and her sacrificing them for Rhaenyra. But the mindset remains similar as if they had villainized a lover of Alicent to make Rhaenyra look like the better option. Alicent and Rhaenyra were also established in HOTD as childhood friends which they weren't in F&B so the last sentence applies too.

"Most characters give her more heed than they normally would. The good guys never stop praising her. The bad guys never stop belittling her (and thus making themselves look bad). They talk about her when she's not present. At least one will confess to being secretly in love with her (if more than one does, they may fight each other over her). The villains will obsess over her, to the point of destroying themselves in their jealousy or opening themselves up to redemption and the realization that she was good all along (usually by having sex with her)."

How the Blacks and the Greens are portrayed in HOTD in a nutshell. I don't even need to explain this one.

"Characters' previously established personalities change in reaction to her. Proud, arrogant gimps suddenly acknowledge her superiority in everything. Responsible leaders will defer to her instead. Villains will obsess over her to the detriment of all else. Competent characters will become stumbling buffoons who require her help to do anything. They all become unnaturally focused on her in some way."

ALICENT IN THE FINALE OF S2.

5) Story Elements

"Mary Sue is without exception a single-person Spotlight-Stealing Squad. The entire story hinges on her existence. If you removed her, there would be no story."

To be fair this one can't be blamed entirely on HOTD since the Dance was also caused in F&B by the fact that Rhaenyra was maintained as heir by Viserys despite him later fathering trueborn sons. But it's still relevant so I have to put it here and the writers of the show definitely went above and beyond to make the story revolve even more around her than in the source material.

"Mary Sue is The Chosen One, even if the setting already has one. There are many ways she can accomplish this: she may be vaguely "destined to help the destined one fulfill their destiny" (i.e. do all the work except the final blow so that the prophecy is still technically correct). Being the Chosen One makes her critically important to the world and allows her to continue stealing the spotlight."

HOTD literally made the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy entirely about Rhaenyra when in the books it's about three specific characters : Rhaegar, Jon Snow and Daenerys. Martin may also have intended for Aegon the Conqueror to be motivated by this prophecy but he never wrote it in relation to Rhaenyra and the Dance, that much is certain.

"The worst Mary Sues of this sort just watch the plot and occasionally take over one of the canon characters' accomplishments."

Several of the plans and ideas of Corlys and Jace in F&B were given to Rhaenyra in S2 of HOTD.

"She's Too Good for This Sinful Earth and will perform a Heroic Sacrifice to prove it. The story will often go out of its way to ensure that she doesn't leave an ugly corpse, either by a method involving no external physical damage or just not leaving a body to be recovered. Half the time, it doesn't take anyway."

This is a bit of a cheat but I'm almost certain that either her death in HOTD will be shown as a heroic sacrifice instead of a pathetic defeat or she will inexplicably survive through a fake death scheme like Laenor's.

"She almost never does anything wrong. Sure, it's possible for her to do things that most readers would consider objectively wrong, but she's protected by Protagonist-Centered Morality; according to the narrative, everything she does will be right, and everyone who calls her out will be wrong. In the rare instance that the narrative does consider an action of hers wrong, it's usually; (a) a way for the author to disclaim her being a Mary Sue by introducing a single imperfection (that has no bearing on anything anyway), and (b) designed to show her smarts by making her feel instant remorse, and she'll be Easily Forgiven anyway."

The only characters who call out her bad decisions and bad actions are the designated villains, this says it all.

"Speaking of children, she might have a child. She might get pregnant from her mind-blowing dalliance with her love interest. Such children are not characters in their own right. They exist as nothing more than a cute Living Prop or a motherhood fantasy. Accordingly, the baby will be beautiful, hardly ever cry, and generally be impossibly well-behaved. The baby will also be never quite as cool, beautiful, and powerful as Mary Sue herself. Indeed, as if to ensure this, 80% of such children will be male."

The Strong boys as shown in HOTD in a nutshell. Well-mannered, good-looking, respectful, kind, loving towards their mother but do not exist outside of Rhaenyra. Compare that to Aegon and Aemond who are considered to be monsters by Condal & co yet treated as characters in their own right. Meanwhile Aegon the Younger and Viserys are just cute living props with a cute baby dragon. Rhaenyra is a motherhood fantasy indeed.

6) Presentation

"Passages that don't concern her will be written with little effort, as though the author is writing them out of obligation and only wants to write the bits she wants to obsess over. This leads to pressing concerns of the actual story not being mentioned in favor of the characters obsessing over Mary Sue; important plot points may even occur off-screen, no matter how major they may be."

Most of the storylines that don't concern Rhaenyra are botched and rushed. The best example being "The Green Council" who was the worst episode of S1 and a red flag to me. It's even worse in S2 : it's not shown how Aemond's family reacted to the death of Luke, it's not shown how Corlys organized the blockade, it's not shown how Mysaria escaped Kings Landing, it's not shown how the Hightowers and the Winter Wolves are preparing for war, it's not shown how Alicent and Cole ended up sleeping together, it's not shown how the daughter of Hugh Hammer died, it's not shown how Otto was captured and by whom. Nothing matters if it's not about Rhaenyra (and Daemon to a lesser extent).

"If Mary Sue is not on screen, the characters will be talking about her anyway, giving them a chance to speak "honestly" about her. If they like her, they sing her praises; if not, they will gripe about her and thus be portrayed as evil and jealous."

This one's obvious. Baela pretty much serves as a Rhaenyra cheerleader in all her interactions with other characters while Cole's repetitive hateful words about Rhaenyra are meant to mark him as a villain.

7) Author Investment in the Character

"One of the biggest signs of a Mary Sue is the author having a particularly strong interest in the character at the expense of all others"

Just read any interview of Condal and Hess. Even Phia Saban was explicit about this when she talked about how HOTD ignored the F&B theory that the eggs of Daenerys are Dreamfyre's and made them instead the eggs of Syrax ("It's from Rhaenyra").

"The author uses the character to promote his or her own opinions, often by pitting her against a Straw Character who will never be right no matter what he does."

Rhaenyra in HOTD is the empowered girlboss who fights the patriarchy whereas Alicent is a bitter tradwife who suffers from internalized misogyny and only sees the light after betraying all her male relatives, including the nice Gwayne and innocent Daeron.

"The author takes personal offense at any criticism of the character or story, no matter how well-meaning or justified it is. Bonus points for displaying an overblown ego in the process."

I feel like this one will come true very soon...

"The author aggressively ships her with a canon character."

Hess openly ships Rhaenyra and Alicent together.

Where Aegon and Aemond were fighting and winning dragon battles at 19 and 21 with no prior experience, Aerion was embarrassing himself and his House by cheating in jousts and getting his ass beat by Duncan around the same age. Its only after Maekar sent him to exile did he start learning

Book Aerion was also needlessly cruel to his youngest brother - a direct parallel to Joffrey. Book Aegon & Aemond were mostly minding their own business. Aegon II was already married at 15 and Aemond was grappling with his disability at 10. Whereas Aerion was throwing his child brother’s pet cat down the well for funsies

There was also genuine trust and loyalty between Green brothers unlike Targ-Daynes. All of Aerion’s brothers hated him to the point of death. While Aegon II was commissioning statues for his fallen brothers. Its an insult TBH to compare them to Aerion. They were not inherently mad or cruel, no more than Blacks. War, death and destruction turned them into monsters but that was true of both sides.

Book Aerion however was cringy evil and bratty. Even in later life he did not fully mature, being stupid and Mad enough to drink wildfire. His death was more a mockery than tragedy. Aegon & Aemond never even lived long enough. They were dead at 20 and 23. Not saying they were heroes or such but their achievements involved higher stakes than whatever Aerion or his brothers managed at the same age

Out of three era of Targs, Aerion is most like Viserys the beggar king. Even Vissy 3 had valid reasons to crash out as traumatized survivor of war. His actions were understandable to some extent but Aerion got all princely comforts and none the responsibilities until his exile much later. He isn’t in the same league as either of his Dragonriding great-something Uncles - one of whom was the 6th King of Westeros and the other was rider of the last conquest dragon

This!

Because no one is denying aerion is a monster or even justifying his actions like "poor aerion he lost his mother !!!" " aerion was in constant pressure to keep up with his cousins!!" "He did that to gain his father's affection " unlike some aegon stans .

129 AC

The Greens (book version)

Characters in the images, from left to right: King Aegon II Targaryen, his mother Queen Dowager Alicent and her father Otto Hightower, the king's brother Prince Aemond and sister-wife Queen Helaena, another brother of the king Prince Daeron, the king's children: the twins Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Jaehaera, Prince Maelor

140 hours of work ✋😔