Honey, Wake Up, A Great Article Just Dropped

Honey, wake up, a great article just dropped

goodreason.substack.com

The House of the Dragon is at War With Its Own Premise

A sad day in Westeros

I’ve been thinking about this comment in response to what Ryan Condal said in his interview for the HBO podcast and I decided to post it here because it’s so well-articulated and thought-out it needs to be shared with as many people in this fandom as possible.

A key word here. I'm sure you guys saw how they want to tell us that Rhaenyra is a queen. Like referring to her as Rhaenyra I Targaryen or the last episode name, the queen who ever was. And we have GRRM himself, the author of the book don't even referring to her as queen. He only refers to Helaena and Alicent as queen and Aegon as king. And he himself point out that Helaena is gentle and loved while Rhaenyra is not.

Aegon II literally issued an edict that Rhaenyra was a usurper and only a princess, only Helaena and Alicent are queens. Aegon III took over as Aegon II's heir, not Rhaenyra's heir. Neither he nor Viserys II purged that edict of their uncle. Nor did any other King. In fact, they adopted strictly agnatic succession laws. What more do they need to accept that even Rhaenyra's own sons, grandsons, great grandsons do not see her as the Queen.

In the excellent words of Stannis the Mannis,

“traitors have always paid with their lives . . . even Rhaenyra Targaryen. She was daughter to one king and mother to two more, yet she died a traitor’s death for trying to usurp her brother’s crown. It is law. Law, Davos. Not cruelty.”

Rhaenyra was never remembered as queen. Also not a single Targ kid was named after her because she was a traitor, pretender and usurper.

I'm not surprise the post is not there anymore. Because it's literally change the plot of this stupid show.

Princess Jaehaera Targaryen with Morghul and Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen with Shrykos.

[REPOSTED WITH PERMISSION. ART BY CRAZYTOM]

Instead of trying so hard to make fans think of Daenerys when they see Rhaenyra, they should have tried to insert a bit of Daenerys into every Targaryen character.

Right now it's obvious the show is trying to make Rhaenyra a Dany 2.0 and doing everything they can to link this one character to Daenerys. The amount of scenes she gets with her dragon, the idea that Syrax's eggs are somehow Daenerys' dragons and it's thanks to Rhaenyra that dragons live on... likely all due to the writers seeing "dragonriding ruling queen" for both characters and then really overly forcing the connection at all costs even if it doesn't always quite fit.

What I would have preferred is to see all of Daenerys' ancestors within her and her in them. Show all of their connections to their dragons and their joy in flying. Show all of them as quick to anger and slow to forgive. Show all of them believing in the power and superiority of their dragon blood and the inherent right of their family to rule. Show all of them willing to use fire and blood to avenge what they see as injustices and being ruthless in their pursuit of that justice. Show me how each of these characters are as Targaryen as the next and how absolutely tragic it is that within this so similar family they only saw their own differences and their own ambitions, leading to them destroying themselves and the dragons that they loved so much and that gave them so much power.

All of this means not leaning so hard on showing Rhaenyra as just like Daenerys, but showing Dany's traits in the others. Show Helaena finding freedom, power, and independence on dragonback and savoring her strong bond with Dreamfyre, which comes more easily to her as an autistic woman surrounded by people playing the unspoken game of thrones around her. Show Aegon on Sunfyre after the coronation as he wears the conqueror's crown and reminds the people of his ancestral Targaryen power and right to rule. Show their children and their hatchlings. Let Baela have her own opinions apart from her betrothed and his mother and let her be bold in expressing them. Let Rhaena learn the importance of politicking and soft power in ruling and gaining allies and the balance between hard and soft power, and let the moment she hatches Morning at the end of the war be a melancholic moment, as she finally has a dragon but now is alone in this fact as one of the last living Targaryens.

We should be able to see traces of Daenerys in all of these Targaryens, and choosing just one to try to emulate Daenerys over all the others is a misstep and minimizes the impact of this story as a dynastic civil war of a family destroying itself.

the fact that this fandom can't even agree on the targs conquering westeros by force & killing thousands was bad :\ [and that loving them as characters doesn't contradict that statement]