GRRM's newest blog post
#love me my favourite war criminal uwu
“I’m Team Aemond”
Honestly, I'm DEVASTATED they've completely cut Nettles and are doing this whole Rhaena x Sheepstealer thing.
Not just because that means we will most likely never see Morning but because Nettles was such an important part of the story. Not just because of the battles she fought but because of her crucial role in Daemon and Aemonds battle and deaths.
Believe what you want, whether she was Daemon's lover or bastard daughter, it was Rhaenyra growing so paranoid after the two dragonseeds changed sides and ordering the ASSASSINATION of that young woman that pushed Daemon to go on that su*cide mission after Aemond.
With Nettles needing to flee and Daemon realising Rhaenyra doesn't trust him anymore and is willing to go after him/his lover/his daughter, he was willing to sacrifice himself and his dragon while bringing down Aemond & Vhagar.
Had it not been for that, the whole story would have been totally different. Perhaps the war would have raged on for far longer as well.
At this point it feels like they won't even do Rhaenyra's paranoia arch and her demise. That they won't have her order Addams arrest, imprison Corlys, order the assassination of Nettles, etc.
It feels like they've turned her into an empowered, always rational, never doing any wrong feminist-icon while her book version was SO much different.
That's what I liked so much about the books and the entire GoT/HotD universe; that there are no good people, only bad people and worse ones.
"Choose your favourite war criminal" type of stuff. That's totally missing from this show, in my opinion. It's all too black and white. It's almost... boring at this point.
At this point, I hold little hope for the rest of this show to get much better. Even George has (indirectly) spoken out against this change.
Ryan Condal: what shall I do with my cheating traitor asshole Daemon and my loyal asshole Aemond?
Ryan Condal: ah yes: Switch their personalities and give Daemon a redemption arc!
Ryan Condal and the whole writing room choosing the plotlines by throwing darts at a board, while blindfolded!!!
Every time someone says something about Alicent not doing anything about Aegon being a “rapist” it really pisses me off 💯
Like no shit Sherlock of course Alicent isn’t going to do anything to punish her son for a crime that was only wrote to make you gullible fools hate team green. Of course the writers wouldn’t have written in Alicent punishing Aegon, THEY DONT WANT YOU TO LIKE THE GREENS!!!!!!
And while I’m here I might as well say it, I hate when y’all get more mad at the characters for their actions and not THE WRITERS. You know the ones who keep treating us like we’re stupid & playing with our intelligence….
THEY MADE Alicent betray her family for Rhaenyra. WHY? Because they only want to center this story around Rhaenyra. Why? To make up for what happened with Daenerys & in doing that they’ve completely fucked up the story & the characters.
THEY MADE Rhaenyra seek peace & not war after her sons death. WHY? So they can keep pushing this “Rhaenyra is good” agenda, which makes her SO DAMN BORING 😩
THEY MADE Daemon an abusive wife killer. WHY? Because they want us to dislike him as much as they do. They want us to dislike Daemon, but not more than Aegon & Aemond, which is dumb cause those boys are just 2 different parts of Daemon 💀
THEY MADE Alicent, Helaena, Rhaenys, and Rhaenyra weak. WHY? Because they think that’s what real women are, peaceful and soft.
THEY WATERED the story down. WHY? Because they don’t think we have the ability to sort out complex problems (which in some of y’all’s cases they were right 💯🤷♀️)
THEY MADE team green incompetent and all over the place, why? Because they don’t care about telling the proper story, they want to tell their own story with half of the work.
THEY MADE Aegon a rapist. So y’all would hate team green & mission accomplished.
THEY played y’all like fiddles and it saddens my heart to know that y’all are willing to take less than what you, we deserve.
Fic Title: Mother of the Realm
First Version
Second Version
For all TB fans saying "Rhaenyra wouldn't kill children." Your legit wrong.
She didn't care that Jaehaerys died in the books only that it made her look bad, and she felt bad for Helaena nothing else. She put a price on Jaehaera and Maelors heads, yes a 6 and 2 year old were sentenced to die cause she didn't want any chance of her losing the throne. When people did find Maelor they cut him in pieces and handed him piece by piece to Rhaenyra and she paid them for their "work".
Also she's not the feminist you think she is, she legit would tell woman asking if they could inherit there families seats "a son comes before a daughter." So why the hell should Rhaenyra be any different? Why does she get the throne if a son comes before a daughter?
You all really hold her on this pedestal that isn't even hers, she's not a Child loving kind queen, she's not a feminist girl boss queen. She's a cruel queen, so much so she was called "Rhaenyra the Cruel." And "Maegor with teats." You know how much bad and cruel shit you got to do to be called those things? Too much for you TBs to be comfortable with.
having one faction being written as only heroic and awesome and the other being written as only villainous and awful negates the original message of grrm’s original work, btw. it’s kind of interesting to see how these characters are written (the greens being a dysfunctional family who don’t seem to like each other vs the blacks being given positive traits that belong to the greens in the books, or simply not writing things if the source material that could make the blacks seem not heroic) and how fans take this very seriously. it’s partly a result of the marketing strategy for season two, the whole “everyone much choose a side thing” because that’s… not the point of this war, at all. but it’s also the writing and it’s very deliberately very obviously pro targaryen, especially with the whole “aegon conquered westeros for the good of the world” thing they have going on. which is an incredibly strange take. i think it’s really telling when you compare how the tragedies are written. rhaenyra’s loss of her children is obviously and rightfully tragic. her journey in episode one of season two was so tragic and so beautiful because you don’t hear her speak until the end of the episode, when she finally realizes her son is gone. but you also have her riding a dragon immediately after giving birth to her stillborn daughter, who is never mentioned again, if i recall correctly, and that doesn’t seem… possible. but with the greens, you have a very horrific and traumatic event via the brutal murder of jaehaerys being reduced to two silly men committing a crime, when that crime was the beheading of, like, a five year old. you then have his grandmother having sex while this is happening, in an attempt to blame her for it, which is genuinely so infuriating. idk why i made this post, i saw that season two wasn’t even nominated for best television drama and i was just like. yeah i know that’s right. you cannot expect an show adaptation of a very well-known series from a very well-known author to do well when you completely ignore the original source material and then claim your interpretation is better or the truth. it’s simply insisting on itself and it’s simply pissing on the tragedy of the dance of the dragons and it’s simply exhausting.
New BTS shots of Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen
Book!Helaena that was so lost into the madness of grief because of her child's death to the point she unalived herself.
VS
Show!Helaena helping the very person who orchestrated the death of her child.
“ but the day was as black as prince aemond's heart [...] ”