Nettles - Tumblr Posts
this but during the dance of dragons
i know that when a book describes dragons picking up their riders they probably mean scruffing them by the neck in their mouths like a kitten, but i always imagine something like this
Hoping and wishing and praying that Nettles isn’t written out of the show and that she’s just not in season 2. Please. I’m begging. Saw a theory that Rhaena will have Nettles’ arc without the romance(?) with Daemon and like. I hope not. I want so much more for show!Rhaena and show!Baela but I don’t want that more to take the form of Nettles’ story. Part of what’s cool about Nettles is that she is not Valyrian! The fact that a non-Valyrian was able to tame a dragon is so special and a critical piece of lore! Especially since Nettles is of the smallfolk! To give her arc to a highborn Valyrian would be so frustrating. Of course this is just a theory and not even my theory but based on the changes made so far it would check out. And please I want my pink and black dragon pretty please Morning is my favorite dragon. Hess and Condal are straight up allergic to showing us the prettiest dragons. Why hasn’t Sunfyre been on screen as much as possible? He’s supposed to be the prettiest dragon of all time. Show us Sunfyre! Show us Dreamfyre! Show us Tessarion! And please give me Morning 😭
Well, I no longer imported the theories of Netles being non-Valyrian because the program put other seeds without a trace of Valyrian blood, including Corlys' two bastard children. its importance reduced even if we didn't want it
Did you see a leak that Daeron is Criston's son? What do you think?
ummm i don't think it's a leak, it's a theory. and yeah no way lmao
i'm 99% sure that alicole starts in s2. also, daeron has the classic targ features & rides a dragon. nettles is the only non-valyrian dragonrider and if the show will change that i will riot.
Part 1: Why is Nettles black?
TLDR: George subverts a bunch of stereotypes specifically tied to black women in media with Nettles, she's black, innocent, not practising magic, young, doesn't nurture or take care of anyone and her own sexual experiences aren't exploited in her narrative rather in a projection of someone. The closest she comes to any other race is when they call her a dragon lady at the end, which is an Asian stereotype but not something invoked to critique. Nettles is black.
So I said it before, but now again, this is a two part post because when it comes to this character, I think the relevance of her race is often lost because of what is percieved as a greater narrative purpose. But Nettles race and specifically her being black is important to her story. The next part will delve into her role in the narrative as a black girl, but this part is generally why I can say she's black with confidence using the written narrative.
STEREOTYPES/ TROPES
There are multiple stereotypes used to box black women in specifically from the inception of race in media. Some of the most prominent are the (in great reduction to the nuance):
Sapphire: angry, loud, and rude black woman
Jezabel: sex driven, lust bound, and seductive black woman
Mammy: nurturing, sexless and typcially bigger black woman.
Magical black woman: linked to some sort of witchcraft practice but not central to the narrative. Not to be confused with the magical negros trope which is different.
Tragic Mulatto: mixed raced stereotype that they belong no where.
Ghetto: I saw this recently, but this is basically the hood girl trope.
Grown black girl: this is when they treat black girls as older than they are, like adults when they are kids.
These concepts have smaller sub tropes, and there are more stereotypes, but even to this extent, there is a battle with media literacy when it comes to the way people see black female characters in media.
For the sake of Nettles, we'll be covering all in the next part. Along with the history, seeing as most if not all the origins for these tropes can be found in Slavery.
SUBVERSIONS.
With the sapphire trope, George manages to give Nettles these characteristics and add on to them, so while they are a part of her character, there is depth and nuance. She is rude, called foul-mouthed in the narrative, but she is also fearless and smart. She never gets angry in the written narrative, but she does cry and mourn and show an emotional intelligence we don't get from all her peers. She defies the expectation of a rude, lowborn character being crass, lusty or power hungry, and jealous alone.
The Jezabel story is a perverse fantasy. A black woman is solely driven by lust and desire, nothing more than a sexual object. It's a trope that actively harms young black girls as well. So, in the books, whether or not you believe Nettles has sex, she isn't solely there for it. She isn't just there to have sex with Daemon, and when it is brought up, the men around her prioritise the innocence of her youth rather than the treason she is said to commit.
Nettles doesn't really fit the many trope as she is younger than the trope typically allows for but within the narrative of all the connections we could've gotten we got one with a Prince rather than with children to communicate the fact that she loves but she isn't a care taker.
The magical black woman stereotype or black witch stereotype is rooted in the both spirituality and abuse. White women would use both the Jezabel stereotype and this one to claim that the reason their husbands would sleep with the enslaved women of the plantation were because they were sexually deviant seductresses who ensnared the men basically.
This is the clearest stereotype George both evokes and subverts. He purposefully wrote that in to draw a real world parallel and subverting it in his book.
Lastly, the tragic mulatto stereotype is the trope of two white for the black side to black for the white side. Basically, they are sad because they have nowhere to belong. Interestingly, George doesn't use this at all. Which to me was an indicator that Nettles doesn't have this complex. All the people of colour, especially the brown skinned ones, have a complex relationship with the Valyrians, but Nettles doesn't.
ONE EXCEPTION.
This isn't really an exception, but more so a name he uses that is tied to a trope. Nettles is called a dragon lady out of context of the stereotypes in the books. The reason I brought it up was because a lot of people seem to think Nettles could be any kind of brown in the narrative, which isn't exactly correct. The dragon lady stereotype is tied to many Asain women, but the content of it isn't tied to Nettles past the name.
I think we have moved past the need for the Ghetto trope. It's basically someone who grew up in an urban, low income area and whose behaviour represents the culture there. I don't think Nettles is a victim of Reaganomics so I don't think she's affected by this.
Nettles is also purposefully treated as a young lady in the narrative. She's the Westeros equivalent of 18 and is treated by the men of her narrative as a girl. She's called a child, said to be innocent and freed from her sentence because of it. The exception to this is with Daemon Targaryen, who sexualises her narrative, but it isn't meant to be explotative AS IT IS WRITTEN. It's presented as love.
OVERALL.
George uses black women stereotypes and tropes in media and subverts them with Nettles. He specifically uses her appearance to justify it and allows him to communicate with race without saying it out loud. Nettles is a black character written in a story where she can defy the media conventions of her identity. She is back for a reason and none at all.
a poor canonically poc girl interchangeable with granddaughter of the richest man in Westeros.
a girl getting groomed by a white man years olden than her interchangeable by that years older white man's daughter. And this white man is also the Prince Consort.
HOTD LOGIC!
I want Rhaenyra to order Rhaena be killed if they are changing her with Nettles because if not then this is once again 'feminist girlboos can do nothing wrong' narrative being forced down our throat. Let Rhaenyra be intresting! Let Team Black have relatable characters!
Friendly reminder that if Rhaena is indeed claiming Sheepstealer and Nettles is being cut, it is just a show and the actor portraying Rhaena shouldn't have to experience any sort of hatred from toxic fans simply for doing their job.
So many shows and movies that are based on books have removed/added characters in the past. This is nothing new and clearly a decision that will best suit the show canon.
I spoke about this on twitter, so I will speak about it here as well. I've had issues with making Rhaena and Baela (and Laena) black because I felt that the show very much underutilized them as characters and essentially made the plot devices for Daemon and Rhaenyra without giving them agency outside of those two. In general, their presences are heavily reduced to make them building blocks for the whit characters.
So this issue with Nettles’s arc being given to Rhaena is even more unsettling because these two are both Black women, who deserve their own separate narratives. This thing where they make characters Black only to reduce their plot importance is already insulting enough, but ruining storylines for two Black women is just lazy and disrespectful.
Rhaena deserves her own narrative. She deserves to be the last Targ woman who was able to hatch a dragon egg before Daenerys, her connection to Daenerys is supposed to be prophetical, so let it be. Let her have her own character and her own arc. They are both the mother of dragons, so let's not suddenly forget that. And having a Black woman as the predecessor to that title is important.
Nettles deserves to exist. Don’t erase a Black woman’s whole existence just to lazily slap it on another one who has an established arc. It's important to showcase a non-targ able to actually ride a dragon and tame one and to also show her importance to the Dance. She is a player even if she doesn't have Valaryian blood in her. And she is Black! That is important too.
Black characters shouldn’t be interchangeable, and making a character Black shouldn’t come at the expense of completely ruining the plot or taking away their agency in a narrative sense.
I've been obsessed with the Dragonseeds for years. So hype to see them in action...
@paletmblr 3 year anniversary: characters of color ↳ NETTLES By any name, she was black-haired, brown-eyed, brown-skinned, skinny, foul-mouthed, fearless…and the first and last rider of the dragon Sheepstealer.
Love how Nettles and show Laena stans claim that Rhaenyra, and by association her fans, are racist. It just really shows their own lack of critical thinking and hatred for Rhaenyra (for no good reason).
Like, for Laena, there's no evidence that Rhaenyra hated her, let alone for her race. She and Rhaenyra were, at the very least, friendly. The show cut out their close friendship from the book to make way for the contrived drama with Alicent. There is no evidence that Rhaenyra disliked Laena, the closest we have is her being a little jealous of Laena dancing with Daemon. That had nothing to do with Laena herself, it was about Daemon, the brothel, and her wanting to marry him. Even after Laena's death, she is only ever angry with Daemon, never Laena.
With Nettles, we only have the book evidence. Yes, in the book, we have a passage saying that Rhaenyra looked down on Nettles for not looking Valyrian. This is where we need our critical thinking skills, actually we need them for the whole book. The first question we need to ask is, does this make sense for Rhaenyra as a character? Simple answer: no. Rhaenyra loved her all her children, including her oldest. She didn't love Jace, Luke, and Joff any less because they didn't inherit her features. Then there's the matter of Rhaenyra supposedly accusing Nettles of "magic" for taming Sheepstealer. Rhaenyra would have no issue with witchcraft, she loved Visenya, who was rumored to use blood magic.
So why did she order Nettles' execution? Well Daemon himself told us: Mysaria. Rhaenyra at this point was in KL and had been betrayed by the dragonseeds Ulf and Hugh, despite the fact that she legitimized them and gave them lordships. This betrayal was quickly followed by that of Corlys, her Hand. This left her with Mysaria as one of her only advisors, and Daemon was off doing seemingly nothing with Nettles. Rhaenyra has lost almost all her children and had been abandoned by her closest supporters. A perfect set up for Mysaria to manipulate her into getting revenge on Daemon (by the way in the books, Mysaria was Lyseni, meaning very white). It was Mysaria who convinced Rhaenyra that Daemon was sleeping with Nettles and convinced her to order her execution.
In conclusion, no, Rhaenyra was not racist. She never displayed hatred or even anger towards Laena, even was on seemingly good terms with her. Rhaenyra's anger towards Nettles and her execution order was driven by paranoia from the betrayal of the dragonseeds fed on by Mysaria, end of story. The most racist character would be Mushroom for going on about Nettles' "non-Valyrian looks", not Rhaenyra.
Look at this....☠️ https://www.tumblr.com/bohemian-nights/737003196544958464/fuck-rhaenyra-fuck-the-writers-with-this-sapphic?source=share
Fucking hell.
First off: I find it interesting the anon doesn't acknowledge that Laena x Daemon is also incest. Sure, she's not his niece, but she is still related to him. They love projecting their insecurities about their ship onto daemyra.
Second: yeah, HoTD choosing to make the Velaryons black then sidelining them massively is shitty and, sure, could be interpreted as racist. However, how is that Rhaenyra's fault? She didn't make Daemon marry Laena when he couldn't have her neither did she kill Laena. Condal and Hess chose to write out Laena's relevance (which already wasn't much outside of being Daemon's wife and Baela and Rhaena's mother) in order to give Alicent more screen time. But again, that's neith Rhaenyra's nor Emma D'Arcy's fault, stop blaming them (also Emma is good at playing Rhaenyra as she is written, the only issues are the writing, which aren't their fault). Op also chose to ignore the fact that Daemon actually is confirmed by GRRM himself to have loved Rhaenyra the most.
Moving on, once again the Rhaenyra antis are bringing up how Rhaenyra isn't "feminist". Literally no one in F&B is feminist by our modern definition. Visenya and Rhaenys are probably the closest, and even then, they aren't writing feminist manifestos (which apparently Rhaenyra is expected to for some reason). Alysanne, the most proactive queen regent, still enforced arranged marriages on her daughters and granddaughters. Rhaenys didn't advocate for Laena's right of succession in the book and in the show refused to support Rhaenyra long before Laenor's "death". Her antis hold Rhaenyra to unfair and unrealistic standards while making excuses for or ignoring other characters who don't meet them.
In that same vein, I still can't get over how Rhaenyra antis will say that TG aren't the conservative group. They say Rhaenyra isn't a feminist and that TG, the ones who are obsessed with male primogeniture and believe being gay, a sexually liberated woman, a child born out of wedlock, or not adhering to the equivalent of the Catholic Church make someone subhuman are the "progressive" group. It's delusion at its finest. Alicent and the greens are misogynistic and, because of them, women's rights in Westeros ended up more repressed than ever.
The fact that the op says that Visenya and Queen Rhaena are acceptable shows they have no understanding for TG or F&B. First off, TG would never support either woman. Visenya was hated by the Faith and most of the Lord's of Westeros, she was a warrior accused of witchcraft and dared to interfere with the misogynistic customs alongside Rhaenys. Rhaena was gay, something she wasn't allowed to live fully because the Targaryens chose to conform to Westerosi ideals. She was also robbed of her inheritance, even Jaehaerys acknowledged that Rhaena was the rightful heir, just as Aegon acknowledged Rhaenyra was.
As for the racist allegations, those come exclusively from Mushroom, someone who is far from a reliable source. Mushroom invented an entire woman to try to add "spice" to Jacaerys' story: Sara Snow. A woman of whom there is no record of, even though she was raised in Winterfell and supposedly married Jace. If Mushroom is willing to make up a whole ass woman to make the story more dramatic, why should we trust anything he says?
Yes, Rhaenyra ordered Nettles' execution, but that was because of her rumored relationship with Daemon and Rhaenyra's paranoia which had grown massively since Hugh Hammer and Ulf White's betrayal. Was it just? No. Was it racially motivated? According to Mushroom, maybe, but looking at Rhaenyra's character, it doesn't make sense.
Moving on, what exactly does op mean by "she's done too many things to claim she's been wrongly framed by the narrative"? By the time Nettles comes along, Rhaenyra hasn't done much that could be considered reprehensible. Op seems to have an issue with Vaemond's death, which Rhaenyra did order in the book. They seem to think that Vaemond "rightfully called her out" and was wrongfully killed.
She ordered Vaemond's execution after he declared her sons bastards in order to challenge Corlys' decision regarding succession. Keep in mind, Vaemond in the book is Corlys' nephew, not his brother, which moves him even farther down the line of succession. Vaemond not only was putting Rhaenyra and her sons in danger but was also trying to usurp all of Corlys' line, including Baela and Rhaena, who op seems to like a lot.
Yeah Rhaenyra is much harsher in F&B, but that hardly makes her evil and irredeemable. Queens Visenya and Rhaena were both harsh and even cruel sometimes, yet op doesn't think they're irredeemable monsters.
I do agree with op's anger over the sidelining of the Velaryons, as I said earlier, but taking it out on Rhaenyra is completely uncalled for. Rhaenyra wasn't a monster, anyone who believes that has frighteningly little reading comprehension. Rhaenyra's reign would have greatly helped women's standings in Westeros and pushed along gender equality. Ignoring that fact and blatantly saying the greens aren't supporting the repressive patriarchy is delusional and idiotic. The greens' actions were damaging in every way. Vaemond was far from an innocent victim, he was power hungry and misogynistic in both the show and the book. Keep your angry focused on the right people, don't take it out on a woman who had her whole life destroyed by the patriarchy.
Apparently nettles was meant to have either had an affair with Daemon or been his child or whatever he was very close to her regardless so there was something going on there
Why are people denying this aspect
Yeah, in F&B there's speculation over whether Daemon and Nettles were lovers or father and daughter. I'm honestly inclined to think the latter, not just because I'm a diehard daemyra shipper, but also because I don't think sleeping with Nettles fits Daemon's character, especially in regards to Rhaenyra.
Daemon seems to have a close relationship with all his children in F&B. So it makes sense that he'd try to prioritize Nettles as much as he could with the war going on if we go with the daughter theory. Daemon is also rather protective of his family, so him wanting to be close to at least one of his children during the war and protecting her also makes sense. I like to think that, if the war hadn't happened and Nettles still tamed Sheepstealer, she'd integrate nicely into daemyra's blended family.
I see a lot of Rhaenyra fans tend to want to minimize Nettles involvement with Daemon, but that's purely because the Nettles stans and Daemon x Nettles shippers act so insufferable. I honestly think Nettles is an interesting character, I wish that we could've had a show that does all the characters well, so maybe we'd have a chance to see more of her outside all the prejudices and rumors of Westeros. But, since it appears she won't be in the show at all, I can't say I'm too disappointed, as I know Nettles would be fucked over, just like the rest of her generation of Targaryens. It's basically the same feeling that I'm kinda relieved that the show is being so rushed so it'll be over soon.
People who stan minor characters can be some of the most annoying groups ever. Because they're not just enjoying a character, or even stanning a character who doesn't have a lot of relevance, they're pissed off that the main characters are more important in the story.
Last week, I answered an ask from a Nettles stans who was saying the reason Nettles isn't as popular as Lyanna, Brienne or Arya is because she's not white. One thing I didn't talk about in my response to that was how unrealistic of an expectation it is for Nettles to be as popular as characters like the women they mentioned.
Nettles is a minor player in the story of the Dance; she's not unimportant, but she's also not one of the main characters. On top of that, Nettles doesn't do anything after Daemon's death, she disappears for the rest of F&B, unlike characters like Baela and Rhaena. As for the main series, Nettles isn't even mentioned once.
So how does it make sense to complain about how she isn't as popular as characters who are actually in the main series? Arya and Brienne are both pov characters; Arya is also one of the main five and one of GRRM's favorite characters. Lyanna may not have any pov chapters, what with being dead by the events of ASOIAF, but she permeates the narrative and her past actions still affect the plot.
Lyanna, Brienne, and Arya are very popular characters because we interact with them a lot in the books. They have established personalities, we the readers know them in a way we simply don't know characters like Nettles.
Now I'm not saying it's wrong or bad to like side characters, even ones we don't know a lot about. Shit, I love Nettles, she's an interesting and exciting character. But the problem arises when people act like their character more deserving of interest just because you like them.
No matter what changes that could be made to Nettles without changing the story, she will still be a minor character in one section of F&B. It's not surprising that she's not as popular as characters who are well known and more impactful. Acting like it's a moral failing that Nettles isn't as popular as fucking ridiculous.
It's not just Nettles stans who do this, but they're the ones at the forefront of my mind. Basically: stop bitching about how your fav is a minor character with few established traits and therefore less popular than those who aren't minor.
Sketch: Nettles and Sheepstealer
The Maiden, the Mother and the Crone: a study on Nettles
Nettles, the Maiden
In ASOIAF, the maiden represents innocence and chasity. Now, like all the other faces of the faith of the seven, the maiden is represented through various characters, with one of them being Nettles. With her upbringing being unknown, all that is known about Nettles’ childhood and sexual experience are speculations made based on her class, race and gender. She is not granted the privilege of innocence the noble women in Westeros are given.
Despite the authors of fire and blood, and the people in-universe accusing her of promiscuity, Nettles’ connection to the maiden has almost nothing to do with sex, but is rather an exploration of the war amongst the noble houses of Westeros, and the fault of legitimacy as it pertains to Targaryens.
The Claiming of Sheepstealer
According to the accounts in Fire and Blood, Nettles claims the wild-dragon Sheepstealer by feeding him freshly slaughtered sheep everyday until he came to accept her as his mount. In various cultures, religions and art pieces, sheep are used to represent innocence and purity. Sheep are also generally defenseless against harm, and are likely to die from panic if even frightened.
How this relates to Nettles and the maiden:
The account of the events we get in ASOIAF, always comes from nobility. We do not get the POV of anyone of low birth, but, we don’t need their POV to know that the smallfolk are always at the mercy of the people that rule over them. They are always the first and largest casualties in wars that are usually insignificant to them and their well-being. Nettles being of low birth means that she’s lived most of her life unprotected, and at risk of being a means to ends for the schemes of a lord or lady, or even a prince. Nettles being of low birth means that she’s a sheep in a realm ruled by dragons.
By becoming the rider of Sheepstealer, Nettles becomes exposed to life of the nobility in Westeros, in the most devastating way, war.
Nettles, the Mother
Motherhood in Westeros
The loss of innocence for the women of ASOIAF is usually synonymous with the loss of their virginity. Sex isn’t typically done for their pleasure, but rather the fulfilling of their marital duties by providing their husbands with an heir. Their value as women is based on their fertility, so a child sired in marriage is often the sole form of agency and protection women in Westeros get.
GRRM frequently uses metaphors to explore the loss of innocence, like Jaime being cut by Ser Arthur Dayne during his knighting, or Jaime witnessing the death of Brandon and Rickard Stark, or Sansa experiencing her first period, etc. For Nettles, her loss of innocence is written in a way that parallels the optics of motherhood in Westeros.
When Nettles claimed Sheepstealer, she was granted individuality. She is no longer a mere sheep in the field, she has an identity, the Unlikely Dragon-Rider. She is granted protection and value, much like the wives of the lords of Westeros are given, after providing their husbands with a son. When Rhaenyra calls for her head, Lord Mooton, Ser Florian, and Maester Norren all saw it as an unjustly request. If she hadn’t claimed Sheepstealer, if she still remained as a nameless, baseborn girl, she would’ve been killed, swiftly.
Nettles, the Crone
The Dance of the Dragons was the most deadly war fought in Westeros, as it was headlined by dragon-riders. Most of the participants wound up dead by the end of it, with their cause lost in grief. There are many events that led to the dance of the dragons, but at its core, it was a war fought over the legitimacy of House Targaryen. Nettles is one of the few people who survived it, and her dragon is one of the last to be seen or heard of before Daenerys Targaryen’s hatching of Rhaegal, Viserion and Drogon.
Masculinity and Legitimacy in Westeros
The conquest of Westeros by Aegon and his two sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, was only possible with the dragons of Old Valyria. The legitimacy of the Targaryen dynasty relies on blood quantum,i.e.,having the blood of the dragon, and being able to ride one. All the Targaryen kings, from Aegon, straight down to Viserys, were dragon riders, and that played a part in their kingship.
Kings in Westeros are the ultimate male figures, followed by knights, maesters and lords. Looking at these archetypes and their specific roles,- kings and lords protect the realm, knights defend the innocent, maesters share their wisdom with youth-, Nettles fulfills all of them during the Dance.
The Black Ram
After the Dance, Nettles is worshipped as a fire witch by the mountain clans of the Vale. According to the accounts in fire and blood, the youths would bring her gifts and return as men with burns to show that they faced the dragon woman in her lair. Nettles in this instance is being used as a rite of passage and symbol of the loss of innocence, as well as wisdom, paralleling the relationship between her and Sheepstealer.
Through Sheepstealer she becomes a warrior and a protector of the realm, and she defends Rhaenyra’s claim like any knight would. Who best to act as a rite of passage but the woman who has played in every archetype they aspire to be?
Before her departure from Maidenpool, and one her last recorded appearances, Nettles feeds her dragon Sheepstealer, a black ram. She’d slit its throat herself, and the animal’s blood was said to have stained her leather clothing. The black ram is often associated with wisdom, discernment, sacrifice and guidance. In most cultures, it represents different gods and goddesses of war, fertility and royalty. She started her story as an innocent sheep, ignorant of the spoils of war, and ends as the black ram, the epitome of wisdom.
And to close: Nettles isn’t confirmed to be of royal blood, but she is embodiment of House Targaryen’s ideology of being gods amongst men.
In the end, the brown dragon was brought to heel by the cunning and persistence of a “small brown girl” of six-and-ten, who delivered him a freshly slaughtered sheep every morning, until Sheepstealer learned to accept and expect her. Munkun sets down the name of this unlikely dragonrider as Nettles. Mushroom tells us the girl was a bastard of uncertain birth called Netty, born to a dockside whore. By any name, she was black-haired, brown- eyed, brown-skinned, skinny, foul-mouthed, fearless…and the first and last rider of the dragon Sheepstealer. – Fire and Blood
Thinking about ships for Daeron when he does show up (please god let Daeron be real). These are my top two options right now, Baela Targaryen and Nettles
For Baela, they have the same appeal that Aemond x Rhaena has for me. Star crossed loves on the different sides of the battle field. You also have Baela as the heir and ruler of Driftmark and Daeron being her malewife supporter who defends her right to her home over anyone else.
For Nettles, they kind of have the same star cross lovers thing but more like the Prince falls for the enemy general kind thing. Also Daeron being super bashful and shy around Nettles because she’s very outgoing and a little crass. Also Daeron asking Nettles which targaryen she’s related to and her saying she’s not related to any targaryen and he’s just like, “you approached a dragon, without being part targaryen, and got it to bond to you? You’re so fucking cool”. Also I love the idea of Alicent wanting Daeron to marry for love and her and him having secret weddings with their chosen person (Criston for Alicent cause I’m a filthy Alicole shipper). Also k like Nettels being with someone her own age and not a creepy old man.
Hope we get some nice ship material for Daeron! Hope we get Daeron