Can We Speak Who The Phrase "many Will Die, And The Winner Eventually Ascends The Throne" Its Dumb? Lol

can we speak who the phrase "many will die, and the winner eventually ascends the throne" its dumb? lol like ow thanks alicent for saying the most obvious thing... who wrote that?

Lmao right? They played it like it was Soo profound when she's literally just saying how war works. But it's Alicent saying it, so of course Condal and Hess want to frame it as her being "wise". It's ridiculous, especially since she's saying it like she wasn't the one who started the fucking war in the first place.

I must be the minority of the minority here but god... HOTD is a mediocre adaptation, I don't understand people who treat HOTD as the new GOT (when GOT was good) the script of this series is poor, getting close to a poorly made fanfic made by Ryan. The characters are not 1% of what they are in the books (Rhaenyra/Alicent/Helaena/Rhaenys are practically new characters) and yes, it was only the female characters that they did that i think.... GRRM needs to stop letting people ruin his work, I thought he learned from GOT but no...

HOTD is definitely a mediocre adaptation. It falls into the traps of all the subpar and straight up bad adaptations do. It fucks around with character ages, it removes important plot points and characters, it changes characters' motivations and arcs, and it tries to cram too much information and too many events into too short of a run time.

The writing is sloppy or at best mediocre, the actors are good, but they can only do so much with what was written. The fundamental and purposeful misunderstanding of the story of the Dance alone shows how much HOTD has failed as an adaptation.

Actually, they did fuck over some of the male characters; Viserys becoming an old creep when he was in his late twenties in F&B when he married eighteen year old Alicent, Daemon murdering Rhea and marrying a teenage Laena, Laenor abandoning his children willingly. But it all is just a sign of how little Condal and Hess care about the actual story of F&B, just their rhaenicent fanfic.

I think this show wasn't GRRM's call, since HBO had already bought the rights to ASOIAF and it's world. He did have some input, as we see from Aegon's Dream, but clearly not very much.

I think one of the only reasons people pretend HOTD is a "good" adaptation is because the bar is in hell for those. Because it is, at the very least, better than the Eragon and Percy Jackson movies. But better than awful isn't anything close to good. Anon if you're in the minority, then I'm right there with you, HOTD isn't a good show.

"Palestinians were killed long before Hamas was formed and would still be getting killed even if Hamas never existed."

I personally like it. I mean, it’s not in Fire and Blood, but honestly it wouldn’t make sense for this prophesy to be in it. How could the maesters know about it or even Mushroom?

One of the many things I have always loved about the Targaryens is how magical they are, compared to the Andals. This prophesy adds to that.

I know that the biggest question is: how could Jaehaerys have found out about it? He was, after all, the youngest of Aenys’ sons and not expected to inherit the throne.

My personal headcanon would be: Aegon told Aenys, who told his children who were destined to be King and Queen, Rhaena and Aegon the Uncrowned. And then Rhaena told Jaehaerys when he took the throne.

And even after all those years had passed, some sort of prophesy is heavily implied to have reached Rhaegar in Asoiaf (which might make it book canon as well):

"Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.'"

So, what do you guys think? Since it’s GRRM’s idea and not the showrunners’, I am inclined to see the prophesy as canon. And I like the idea of it.

I have a feeling Ryan leans into Alicents victimhood so bad that we get all these unnecessary shots of alicent looking into the distance in the s2 trailer over important people like Jace and Cregan (who they're probably saving in the later half) because they want Olivia to come out of this an a Lister and use the show to launch her career

I don't feel super comfortable speculating about the actors since I know very little about them. However, I do know that Condal's obsession with Alicent is damaging to the show and will continue to be in future seasons.

Characters have already been sacrificed in the name of giving Alicent more unnecessary screen time. They removed Laena from most episodes and she's only there to marry Daemon and die. They removed Rhaenyra's ladies in waiting so they can focus exclusively on her friendship with Alicent. Helaena is just there in her scenes, any scene where she's meant to be a central character are always overtaken by Alicent. Baela and Rhaena have no distinctions from each other or personalities in general.

I'm completely expecting this trend to continue in the next season. Jace already has very little screen time or established character and we probably aren't going to get anything else until he dies. Cregan is probably going to be made into a minor character in the Dance or he's going to be turned from a complex character to just a war hunger monster.

Meanwhile, instead of seeing the actual conflict of the Dance, we're just going to get scenes of Alicent reacting to news. She's going to stare sadly into the middle distance while doing her pathetic doe eyes. The war itself isn't going to be shown very much, I'm sure, instead Alicent will cry over men doing things and Rhaenyra will randomly revert back to pining after her childhood friend who betrayed her constantly.

My expectations for season two are in hell. Condal just flat out sucks, I disagree with basically all his decisions and his writing is riddled with holes. Alicent is so clearly his favorite, it's like watching D&D obsessing over Sansa all over again.

“Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it,”