I think a lot of Aemondwives are okay with his atrocities (ie; all the murder and kinslaying and burning innocent people with his war machine) but they dislike how Aemond is very into being a Targ. The show makes this even more clear with him cosplaying as Daemon, but they donโt want to entertain the idea that heโs fighting to put a Targaryen king on the Targaryen throne lmao. Thereโs a subset of team green thatโs so anti Targ they have to talk about how these are Alicentโs kids and theyโre against the things the Targaryens stand for, etc etc. itโs baffling. So, I think that goes hand in hand with many Aemond stans being horrified at people shipping Helaemond/thinking he would be staunchly anti incest and anti Targ exceptionalism.
You're probably right in this.
I think there is a very interesting discussion on House Hightower's attempts to ingratiate and perhaps take over / appropriate / assimilate the Targaryens into Andal society & customs, which is partly why I find them so cool & the greens are my favourite Targs. So, while I can identify such an aspect at play here, we're talking about a blend, they still heavily lean into Targaryen legacy, especially for tapping into that vital legitimacy required for ruling. They still have dragons, they still practice incest. So IMO stanning the greens should come with that acknowledgement and acceptance.
Like, I definitely don't think the narrative of the main series would be elevated by a Targ restauration and I'm secure in my belief that Dany is being set up for a corruption/downfall arc, but we're talking about a prequel here, a side-story within the fictional history of ASOIAF. We already know the ending. These characters are self-contained within said history, they're not "winning" anything. I think Fire and Blood demonstrates both how difficult good governance is, but also how the Targaryens are not the most well-suited people you could possibly plop into the role of monarch, to put it lightly.
This is not to say that they shouldn't be criticised and certainly the idealization Targnation partakes in is definitely not aspirational, so don't get it twisted, because I'm not about to turn a leaf into apologia. But when said characters are getting their just desserts anyway, it's going to get very tiring to be a hater on main all the time. There's 300 years of Targaryen history, good and bad, and probably most of the ASOIAF shows we're going to get will have Targaryens as protagonists. So I think there's a little of bit of failing to see the forest for the trees here. You can like dark or villainous characters without having to justify your choices every time you post with never-ending disclaimers. The Targaryens suck for a million reasons? So what, you can stan them anyway, just don't be weird and obnoxious about it.
Ultimately, though, if you dislike them so much that you are uninterested in exploring their complexities or these themes that can be tabled for discussion, you have to make an executive decision for yourself and stop watching these shows or engaging in their respective fandoms, because what are you even doing to yourself at the end of the day? There is something to be said, though, about how a lot of the anti pushback is directly fueled by the deranged pro-Targaryen takes that veer into blood supremacy buffoonery. Sooner or later, though, even we are going to exhaust our arguments and we'll have to determine how to engage with Targaryen characters in our own way. I think people are afraid to just admit they like Targaryen A or B just for who they are, good and bad, controversial or not, without dressing it up in some anti-Targ way because they feel compelled by their principles or something.
Also, being okay with Aemond's atrocities, but finding fault merely in the fact that he leans into being a Targ, is so contradictory I can't begin to wrap my mind around it.
