Anti Sarah Hess - Tumblr Posts

the showrunners are all so tg its insane

Yeah, I think Condal tried to disguise it a bit when season one first came out, but he's really just letting it all out now. What the fuck is he planning on doing that will make us "consider switching sides"?

I don't understand people who claim he and HoTD are biased towards TB. They made Rhaenyra be completely inactive politically outside of that one small council scene. They took Jace's interests and gave them to Aemond. They made Daemon kill Rhea, even though in the book he wasn't even in the country. They made Rhaenys and Corlys be completely unsupportive of Rhaenyra, when Rhaenys was her biggest support in the book. They removed Baela and Rhaena's personalities in favor of spending more time on the greens. They turned Laenor into an absent father who chose to abandon his children (biological or not, they were his sons).

Meanwhile, the greens get a majority of the screen time. Alicent is turned into a perpetual victim who refuses to help herself or her children, even though she's the second most powerful person in the realm. Aegon is made to be a "sympathetic" baby with daddy/mommy issues who rapes women because "he doesn't understand consent" (yes, Hess literally said this). Aemond is made to be a poor bullied baby who is actually just so right to be king, guys! Helaena is made into a dreamer yet still has no bearing on the plot other than "sad victim".

The plot itself suffers sooo much because Condal and Hess just had to make the greens into a bunch of poor innocent babies. The greens are the most cartoonishly evil Targaryens GRRM has ever written. But of course, if Condal and Hess are going to ignore the fact that Daemon is meant to be a gray character (GRRM said he's the grayest character in F&B), why wouldn't they ignore how completely shitty the greens are (with the exception of Helaena, who we know nothing about).

"aegon is an interesting and complex character" imagine finding a character who is an abuser/rapist " interesting" what is your morality to find a character like that complex? "all the characters are bad people" yes but I don't see anyone calling Ramsay Bolton interesting or complex. TG stans are so weird, they keep making these stupid excuses for aegon just because Tom is a good looking guy i think....Like Aegon all you want but accept that he is a horrible person, don't make excuses just to not feel wrong for liking a character like that

A character having an abusive mother (yes, Alicent abused him, even before he was raping women) and negligent father isn't exactly an original backstory. Because of this the characters/antagonists with it need to be well written or at least have more to them to make them be actually complex. There are interesting characters with the same backstory traits as Aegon, but they have more substance to their characters; their more than just "my mom doesn't like me and my dad doesn't care :(".

That is a tragic childhood, but if someone never grows past this and uses it constantly excuse their shitty actions (like rape), they loose any sympathy, for good reason. Aegon isn't a complex character, he's a bland trope played by an attractive man. The only deviation from the trope is Aegon's whole "I don't want it :(" thing, which is basically just him not wanting responsibility. Yeah, someone can like that trope, everyone has favorites, for antagonists and protagonists alike. However, people calling him "complex" or sympathizing with him are blatantly wrong.

Aegon is perpetually infantilized by the show and the fans and it's just so frustrating. Aegon isn't a child, he's a grown ass man, who rapes servant girls, rapes his wife, hates his family, and doesn't want any responsibility. Honestly, Ramsay is a better antagonist than him, because at least Ramsay is fully committed. D&D weren't interested in trying to make him "sympathetic" (probably one of the only good things I'll ever say about them).

Aegon is a rapist, a negligent father, his brother's bully, and an awful ruler. There's nothing redeeming in his character, the only thing close to that is his reluctance to take the throne, something he quickly lost once he got a taste of the power. Anyone who sympathizes with him or likes him needs to help, Condal and Hess included.

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.

If HBO favors the Greens over the Blacks (probably because the Blacks are Dany's direct ancestors), I kinda fear a Dunk and Egg show playing favorites with Aerion over Egg for the same reasons. Also wouldn't be surprised if every female character in Dunk and Egg gets turned into a passive, sobbing knock-off Sansa like Alicent is in HOTD (at least book Alicent is more interesting, even though I find both versions of the character to be pretty vile people).

I'm hoping that if HBO does choose to do a Dunk and Egg show, they'll have better show runners than Condal and Hess, but I'm not holding my breath. If they choose to follow the HOTD model, here's how I think it'd go:

Maekar actually married his wife, Dyana Dayne, when she was fifteen, while he was thirty-two (don't think about the timeline, just watch the fun marital rape scenes!). Dyana is actually a repressed lesbian who's in love with her handmaid. Maekar doesn't care about any of his children, instead he's obsessed with medieval legos!

Daeron's visions make him be completely unable to have conversations with people, he just whispers ominously in a corner. Aerion isn't actually a sadistic asshole who tormented his little brother by the way. No, he's just sooo misunderstood and no one bothered to teach him that killing animals and threatening to mutilate his brother is wrong! Aemon is completely devoted to the Faith and hates his heathen family members but he still wants to be a dragon rider for some reason.

Daella wants to be a man, she hates womanhood, motherhood, and femininity! She wants to be a knight, but never actually does anything to try to pursue those dreams, just mentions it once in the first episode. Rhae exists, maybe.

Meanwhile, Aegon, despite being a titular character, doesn't get as much screen time as his more "interesting siblings". No, he's doing things, maybe, meanwhile we get to watch random rape scenes and Aerion jack off a few times. Duncan is far from your stereotypical noble knight, oh no, he's a borderline psychopath when he doesn't get his way, but somehow is still redeemable? He also actually did kidnap Aegon, Daeron didn't smuggle him out, he did this because Daella slept with him but refused to run away with him.

This is a joke post, but I'm truly genuinely scared of how HBO would handle a Dunk and Egg adaptation. Neither HOTD nor GOT are actually good adaptations, they both ignore important plot points and themes. Dunk and Egg would just become a mess of "subverted expectations" and sexist fake feminism.

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.

Why do you think women like Aegon? I mean, they want a r*pist and and it's just weird.

I honestly have no idea how he has stans lmao. I understand liking a character who's a rapist, I like Ramsay Bolton and Euron Greyjoy as characters; I think they're interesting antagonists. But it's one thing to enjoy a character as a villain and a completely other thing to support, make excuses for, and deny the actions of a character.

Aegon is sympathetic to an extent; he had a fairly difficult childhood, with a father who was distant at best and a mother who physically abused him. However, he has an established pattern of dealing with his issues in destructive ways: bullying Aemond as a child and assaulting women and dealing in child trafficking as an adult. He's very much a textbook tragic backstory villain.

The issue with his portrayal on HOTD is that they went to far in trying to make him sympathetic. Hess even tried to excuse his raping of women. There's a deeper issue in HOTD's writing, just like there's a deeper issue with Aegon's fan base.

There are people with rape kinks, so I could see the attraction there for people who are into that. However, Aegon's stans aren't just indulging a kink, they're actively defending a rapist, so I don't believe that's the reason.

I'm not a psychologist, but I do know that often attraction to rapists/criminals in general is a symptom of some mental health things. I'm not saying that everyone who stans Aegon has a mental illness, but it is a thing in real life. I don't know if there is a connection there and I don't really want to speculate so I'll just leave that there lol.

Anyway anon, I wish I could answer your question in a real way, but the truth is I don't know. There's a lot of layers to the human mind, and however Aegon stans rationalize loving him so much isn't something I understand. I know Tom Glynn-Carney's looks probably factored into it, so maybe it's just an extension of the whole babygirl trend in fandoms.

Apparently Rhaenicents are claiming S2 will end with Alicent and Rhaenyra reuniting at Dragonstone, Alicent abandons Team Green and is 100% Team Black, helping Rhaenyra seize Kingslanding. Knowing Ryan and Olivia I wouldn’t be shocked if this actually happens 😂

But like, why though?😂😂

I don't understand why Condal and Hess decided to go for the HOTD adaptation to be honest. They clearly want to write a lesbian period piece, so why didn't they just write their own original thing? I mean they've made enough changes to the story of the Dance that they may as well just be making a different story.

I don't get rhaenicent shippers; like I understand the ship itself and why people ship it, but the diehard shippers are confusing. Rhaenyra and Alicent are on such massively opposing sides that them "making up" isn't logically going to make sense. Alicent raised her sons to hate Rhaenyra and her children, which led to Aemond killing Lucerys. Rhaenyra forgiving that makes no sense (not that there's no chance that couldn't be written, it'd just be stupid and would require even more inconsistency).

I don't see how an ending that requires these two characters to lose so much of their personalities and autonomy can be construed as satisfying. Rhaenyra's faction is responsible for Alicent's grandson's murder. Like they built her motivation around protecting her children, but now she's going to join Rhaenyra once she poses an actual threat to them? It's not a logical following of the story.

In order for that ending to come around, both Rhaenyra and Alicent's characters have to be retconned massively. Motherhood is a big part of both of them, but apparently their children shouldn't matter to them? According to these shippers anyway. That ending just makes no sense, especially with the changes made to Alicent's character in the show. But, I won't say it's an impossibility considering Condal and Hess' track record.

HOTD has made many interesting choices in their adaptation of the story of the Dance. One of their favorite excuses for many of their questionable choices is "feminism". Why did they remove Alicent's ambitions and autonomy? Feminism. Why is Rhaenyra less proactive and hesitant? Feminism. Why are Daemon and Otto the primary active agents in the lead up to the Dance? Well women can't be in the wrong or violent, so feminism.

These choices are the farthest thing from feminist; they're sexist, end of story. Every decision surrounding the women of the Dance reeks of benevolent sexism. One of the most obviously sexist decisions made is the purposeful removal of female cooperation and friendship.

Rhaenyra in F&B has many female allies and friends. Her ladies in waiting loved her so much, one of them, Lady Elinda Massey gouged out her eyes at the sight of Rhaenyra's death. Lady Jeyne Arryn, Lady Alysanne Blackwood, and Lady Sabitha Frey/Vypren are just a few examples of ladies who fought for Rhaenyra (Alysanne and Sabitha literally fought in battles). Lady Fell chose death over betraying her oath to Rhaenyra.

Now, we haven't had any opportunity to meet most of these women I listed in the show. Lady Fell was portrayed as she was written in the book, a very minor character who simply foreshadowed how most of the realm would choose Rhaenyra over Aegon. Elinda Massey, however was reduced to an unnamed servant, not even a lady in waiting. Her treatment is an echo of one of my biggest issues with HOTD, the treatment of Laena and Rhaenys.

Laena was Rhaenyra's dearest friend in the book, in fact it's implied that they had a romantic relationship. Whether you believe that telling or not, it's undeniable that she and Laena were extremely close. They chose to betroth their children while they were infants, Rhaenyra flew to Laena's bedside during her final labor, and she stood vigil with Daemon over Laena's body.

All of that closeness and intimacy was removed in the show to make room for Alicent. So let's break that down: they removed a long and healthy relationship between two women and replaced it with a short-lived (in terms of screen time) friendship that quickly fell apart and turned into an intense rivalry. Reinforcing an old stereotype of female friendship: that it is entrenched in rivalry and toxicity and can quickly be turned to enmity. Alicent was so quickly and easily turned against Rhaenyra and it's even implied that she was jealous of Rhaenyra long before they became enemies.

Rhaenys in the book was an ardent supporter of Rhaenyra. She happily claimed Jace, Luke, and Joff as her grandsons, advised Rhaenyra to go to war, and gladly flew against Aegon and Aemond.

Meanwhile, in the show, Rhaenys was turned into one of Rhaenyra's rivals. She constantly challenged Rhaenyra's ideas, dismissed her as a naive child, disliked her children, and even considered backing the Greens. On top of that, they turned her into yet another "peaceful" woman. She advises against the war, and seems to continue to do so in season two. Rhaenys is virtually unrecognizable in the show. They chose to take a woman who tried to prevent a younger woman being wronged by the patriarchy the same way she was and turned her into a bitter woman who resents Rhaenyra (for most of the show).

HOTD claimed to have wanted to tell a story about how the patriarchy pits women against each other. That's all very well and good, but that's not what they actually did. They took a story where a woman is wrongfully usurped because of her gender and is supported by many other women and turned it into another tired female rivalry story.

Rhaenyra has no female friends aside from Alicent. Laena was turned from her dearest friend/lover into simply a rival for Daemon's affection. Rhaenys was turned from a supportive mentor and defender to someone who took out her resentment for the system on a fourteen year old who only starts to support her when she's proven "peaceful".

HOTD chose to perpetuate a harmful stereotype about women: that we constantly view each other as threats/rivals and can't have truly healthy relationships with other women. Rhaenyra had women who supported and cared for her in the book, in the show all she has is Alicent. A woman who abused and undermined her for ten years, raised her children to hate her, and usurped her. Every change HOTD made in the name of "feminism" solidified just how sexist it really is.

I NEED your opinions about this

https://twitter.com/WtDasoiaf/status/1774489198499684598?t=PPxX9vIyxF8IERTu0pQ8MA&s=19

That post was deleted since I started writing this earlier today, so I'll do my best to sum up what it said really quick. Basically it was some leaked script where Alicent is secretly meeting Rhaenyra at Dragonstone to negotiate peace. She offers to split the realm, Rhaenyra angrily refuses and Alicent is upset (because of course). Rhaenyra says she will spare any who bend the knee but Alicent says that that isn't going to happen. That's all I saw of it. Now, onto my rant:

I fucking knew they were going to try to make Alicent a "peacemaker". Condal and Hess are just going to keep shoving that goddamn rhaenicent narrative down our throats. Even after Rhaenyra's children have been murdered along with Alicent's grandson.

Like why the fuck would Rhaenyra go to meet Alicent alone? Alicent is her enemy, her son murdered Luke, her other son stole her throne. Alicent abused Rhaenyra for ten years, any goodwill between them now just makes no sense! The writers are constantly willing to prioritize their bullshit ship over cohesive storytelling and consistent characters.

There's a chance that the leak is fake, which might be why it was deleted so quickly (but that might also be because it's true). However, the fact that the scene is something I can definitely see them having in there speaks volumes. It wouldn't be the first time Alicent and Rhaenyra were randomly shoved into almost reconciling, and it still makes no sense.

To be clear though, Alicent's offer was actually in the book, however the setting is very different. In the book, Rhaenyra has taken KL and is in the process of hunting down Aegon and his supporters. Alicent offers it as a last ditch effort to secure power and security for her family. It's very obviously a power grab on her part, one that Rhaenyra quickly rejects, just like in that scene.

My main issue with this scene isn't the offer, it's the circumstances in which it happened. Alicent offered it because Rhaenyra was winning and was planning on killing Aegon as soon as she got her hands on him. She wanted power, her whole motivation in the book is power. She offers to split the realm because Rhaenyra has KL and has imprisoned Alicent. That scene is turning Alicent's blatant power grab into yet another scene of "poor Alicent, she just wants peace 😔". Something that makes no sense considering that she started this whole fucking thing when she declared war on Rhaenyra sixteen years ago. It's just frustrating and shitty writing.

I am convinced that Alicent Hightower either has multiple personality disorder or a colossal hypocrite or she is just badly written. It's either "Aegon is king " or "no it's Rhaenyra" by the next episode. "Now let's usurp Rhaenyra's throne and cause a war because my drugged dying husband told me" ." Oh no war is bad and people die in it, I had no idea".

I personally think it's bad writing. Condal and Hess can't seem to decide what direction they want her character to go, as you pointed out. Alicent makes no sense as a character with how she's been written in the show.

It literally feels like there's a new writer every episode, and that writer doesn't know what happened in the story before. It definitely seems like the writers might have finally settled on a personality for Alicent in season two. However, that personality just happens to be the dumbest and most hypocritical one.

I’m going to say this as an Alicent anti: wtf are they doing to her??? 😂

The whole argument for Team Green is that Alicent usurped Rhaenyra because she feared for her children’s safety but now she’s going to turn on them after FORCING Aegon to crown himself king when he didn’t want to?!

I don't even know what the show runners are on. I do think that their laughable attempts to make TG look better are actually proving my point though. The obsession with making "both sides bad" has rendered their characters inconsistent and completely unbelievable. Their storyline is jumbled and makes no sense. The entire show is a complete mess.

The idea of both sides being equally bad destroys everything in the story. GRRM wrote a story about how sexism and hunger for power damage the world. Rhaenyra being usurped marked a dramatic drop of the power women held in Westeros. Otto and Alicent's greed and misogyny caused the deaths of thousands and the dragons. The loss of the dragons led to the Others gaining strength.

Obviously, the blacks aren't perfect, or even heroes. Daemon is as morally gray as it gets, Rhaenyra is classist and kills to get her way, many of the blacks' allies committed atrocities. However, the fact is the greens are the villains of the Dance and the blacks are the protagonists.

The greens are all irredeemable and awful people, that's the whole point. Just like the slavers are monsters, Euron is basically a demon, and Ramsay is completely evil. Certain characters of ASOIAF are meant to be completely evil, it part to show how the ideas they champion are also completely evil.

The show runners have completely missed the idea and themes of the Dance. Because of that, their story and characters are destroyed and just incomprehensible.

Do you also have a feeling that Tom and Ewan are promoted too much? I have a feeling that they're the only actors I see.

I've been avoiding the promos for the most part tbh, but from what I've seen, yeah, I agree. It definitely seems like they're leaning into them a lot, probably because so many people in the fandom find them attractive.

I also can't help but wonder if it's also partially because of how much the show runners favor their characters. Condal basically wrote Aemond into his self-insert and Hess has gone to bat to defend Aegon literally raping a girl. They already clearly favor the greens in the adaptation, but it seems like Aemond and Aegon are definitely some of the favorites, alongside their version of Alicent.

Every part of the promo decisions have left a bad taste in my mouth. Even the new costumes and hair styles have been kind of ruined for me with the emphasis on the "choose a side" bs. I was already sceptical of how season two was going to be handled, but with every promo and leak it's becoming clear just how badly this is going to play out.

What do you think about the recent 'leak' that the Fall of King's Landing and the Condal's-fanfic-battle preceding it (!!!) will happen in episode 8? I'd like to believe it's just a fake info, but honestly? - Rhaena tames Sheepstealer and Daemon is a wife beater - everything can happen now. And if it is really true, then where's the Gullet?? And what purpose do the Dragonseeds serve? These guys do exist, they are officialy casted. Rhaenyra has her own air force. There's no one protecting King's Landing (Aemond is in Harrenhall, Aegon is drunk on poppy milk and Helaena's in her own la la land) YET according to leakers, there's still an actual battle with actual soldiers happening when Rhae and Daemon take KL. Oh, oh, and that battle sequence is as big as 'one Avengers movie' in Condal's own words... WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. HELL It's not just a fanfic, it's a parody. Blacks have 6 huge dragon and 2 smaller ones at the end of s2, but you won't see them burn greens soldiers and take KL in a span of five minutes, because Condal wants to have a cool battle. It makes the whole existence of the Dragonseeds completely pointless. Rhaenys' sacrifice is pointless. I understand that shooting a normal fight is cheaper than animating eight CGI dragons, but no one forced them to include it in season 2!!! Why not just move it to season 3? I understand nothing.

It's honestly seemed like Condal has wanted to shorten the Dance since the beginning. Like, the amount of time skips in season one are ridiculous. He could've been able to make a whole ass other season from the events in the first few episodes if he hadn't jumped around so much.

I think that and what you're talking about, anon, are all symptoms of how Condal and Hess want to write a different story. The Dance isn't the story that they want to tell, it's so painfully obvious. They've twisted GRRM's story and characters to be almost or completely unrecognizable.

People who want to write their own stories shouldn't be in charge of adapting existing stories. They'll only ruin the work.

The amount of disrespect HOTD decided to show yet another woman is just....wow. Alyssa Targaryen was an absolute badass who had a loving and healthy relationship with her husband and loved her sons. And this fucking show decided to just do that with her in order to further demonize Daemon.

Over and over this show just completely fucks over the complex and amazing women GRRM wrote. Alyssa being turned into a sexual object to make Daemon appear in a certain light is so disgusting, even aside from the Oedipus complex thing. It's misogynistic and fucking revolting. Even in death the women of HOTD can't escape.

Fuck Ryan Condal and fuck Sarah Hess