#hotd talk

So....we're all ovulating right?

HE WAS JUST MADE FOR THIS ROLE! LIKE OMG!

Jace's hair

The costumes, the cinematography, the set designs

THE MUSIC! RAMIN DJAWADI NEVER DISAPPOINTS

Jace being a sassy little king in ep4. He was sooo pissed at Nyra. It was giving Mrs Weasley in the Chamber of Secrets lol

All the dragons we got to see. Beautiful fire-breathing, sky puppies! They did nothing wrong and they don't deserve this 😤

Aemond continues to serve looks. I dislike him but dammit does he look good. Best wig in the show for sure.

"THE KING IS MY GRANDSON AND MY GRANDSON IS A FOOL!"

Simon Strong was so wholesome

Helaena just being on screen

The entire argument between Nyra and Daemon

"To indulge the darkness you keep sheathed within you like a blade"

Ugh, love that line!

Gwayne. From the very first moment he appeared on the screen. Idk why but I like him.

All the BTS stuff we got

Rook's Rest killed me! I legitimately sobbed for like thirty minutes after I realized omg Rhaenys is gone! for good!

Cregan! I wish we saw more of him tbh

Jeyne Arryn. She seemed like such an interesting person and her story is pretty interesting so I'm not sure why we got so little of her

But she never felt that empathy towards Alicent. She never saw Alicent as a victim of both of their fathers and the society that they live in. Their meeting on Dragonstone is evidence of that. She tells Alicent that she’s always thought that she could have it all with no sacrifices.

Rhaenyra- as an adult woman now, who should be wiser. Who should have a better understanding of patriarchy and misogyny as she has been a victim of it herself still fails to recognize that Alicent had no choice. She can’t recognize that Alicent’s marriage to Viserys wasn’t a happy one. It wasn’t a healthy one. She knew that Alicent didn’t have the support that she had gotten from her husband, her lover, her uncle, her father in law.

As a mother herself now; she doesn’t recognize how difficult it was for Alicent to first become a mother at 15 years old and to be a mother 4 times over by the time she is 20 years old. Even though Rhaenyra felt that she didn’t get the proper support from Laenor, and Rhaenyra knew that her father wasn’t a father to his other children, in fact it’s something she took snide satisfaction in after the Dragonstone incident.

Rhaenyra knows all of this, Rhaenyra witnessed all of this and STILL thought that Alicent “had it all” and was grasping for more?

This is probably the thing that pisses me off the most about the Dragonstone meeting. Rhaenyra can’t recognize that Alicent was a victim, is a victim. Not even the 14 year old Alicent. The writers had Alicent recognize Rhaenyra’s victimhood at the hands of patriarchy while Rhaenyra still sees Alicent as having been privileged.

The writers are so incompetent that they don’t realize that they’ve shown that Rhaenyra has had the barest amount of personal, mental and emotional growth because she is still so self centered she can’t recognize her own privilege and that there are victims other than herself. While Alicent having been through what she has been through, having been so unprotected and alone can admit to her jealousy because of Rhaenyra’s privilege. Alicent can feel sorry for how she treated Rhaenyra. Alicent can take accountability and feel remorse for her part in the chasm that formed between their families. Rhaenyra doesn’t recognize the part she played in it. She can only see what people did to her and not what she did to people. She can’t see that there are other victims. She can’t see her own personal missteps- and they are numerous.

Alicent was 14/15 and flat out told Rhaenyra she didn’t want to marry her father but she isn’t a Princess, she doesn’t have a dragon, she doesn’t have a choice. Rhaenyra heard that, saw Alicent’s misery in the subsequent years. Saw Alicent and her children discarded by Viserys and somehow thinks Alicent won something when she married into the Targaryens.

Even when she makes the “Son for a Son” ultimatum she can’t even recognize that Alicent has already suffered a loss equal to her own, her little Grandson was murdered in his bed while his mother watched and his sister slept just feet away. She feels like it should be an easy choice for Alicent to choose her over her own son while in the same episode Rhaenyra welcomes a baby killer back into her life and inner circle. Grasps his hand and tells him that he better not leave her side ever again.

The unevenness of her relationship with Alicent is so apparent. Rhaenyra expects all of Alicent, all of her devotion, all of her loyalty but Alicent can only have a fraction of that from her and her attitude is that Alicent should feel privileged to have even that.

Agreed completely, i can't believe the dragonstone reunion and Rhaenyra asking a son for a son.

She's one of the worst characters created and the show is just one bad choice after another.

I still can't believe she turned around and kissed Mysaria after her story, like what is going on.

Now, many people are saying they’ve poorly written her character to contradict herself over and over.

I mean Alicent had it pushed into her by Otto that if Rhaenyra were to become queen, her children would die. And she pushes this same sentiment to her own children, to Aegon.

Alicent cares very deeply for her children, and she has protected them and lashed out in their defense. -(aemond when he lost his eye. Aegon when Meleys and Rhaenys were a threat.)

But she’s also seemed to be very willingly to let both her sons die and that has upset a lot of people.

Now I do understand the outrage, because it does seem out of character for her to so easily agree to this. I think she has known for quite a while now that their deaths if Rhaenyra won, would be inevitable.

I think for a while now she has already mourned her sons. When she saw them grow into beasts, when she knew they were too gone to listen to her anymore (especially aemond.)

I do though wish there had been more she had done to try convince Rhaenyra to let Aegon live. I think Aemond is a lost cause and she knows that.

I think how it could’ve played out is her accepting the death of Aemond (“a son for a son” and that was the son that took Rhaenyra’s son.) Her little boy became a beast and she understands he won’t listen to reason anymore and will fight his way to his death.

But Helaena, Aegon and her grandchild, i think she couldve fought and asked for all of them to leave with her and they’ll never be seen again. That aegon will never try to claim the throne and that they’ll go to a far away place.

But yea idk I feel her accepting the inevitable death of one of her sons (aemond) could make sense as she leaves with her two other children and her grandchild.

He’s just…. Tragic to me. I actually like the idea of him being Corlys’ brother versus his nephew (like in the book) because of the parallel it sets up with the other brother duos we get.

I would have to go back and check, but I don’t think an actual date was given for when their parents die. For corwyn, their father, it ranges from like 60-90 AC or something. Corlys was born in the 50s so they probably grew up like Viserys and Daemon - without their parents. There is a really interesting through line between these second sons that we see (Daemon, vaemond, and Aemond). I know he isn’t character of real significance compared to the other two, but it would have been cool to see him navigate that. Especially since Corlys, his older brother and house leader, is constantly seeking validation in other forms (despite creating the house’s wealth basically himself). I would think Vaemond would have been those on some of those voyages Corlys took. He was there for the stepstones; even criticizes Daemon during it lmao and petitioned for help from Viserys. So, we get the sense he’s not a huge fan of some of the Targs. It also makes me wonder how he felt about rhaenys since he was fine publicly contesting her and corlys’ wishes. It gives off the vibe that vaemond was there for his brother through it all… till their house was in peril.

Idk just imagine it’s you and your brother against the world. He goes off and marries a dragon rider (probably under the guise of thinking he would be king consort or at the very least acquire more power through having dragon riding velaryons), and then said older brother essentially never gets over not getting the crown in the family. It leads not only the detriment of your house, but also your relationship with him - it cost you your life when you point out the obvious. Then in the afterlife you have to watch your house crash and burn for supporting the women you said they shouldn’t. TRAGIC!

The fact that this good boy sat by Cheese after he was hanged, just looking at his owner, waiting for him and whimpering IN SPITE OF THE FACT that he was kicked the night before...