Aemond Targaryen - House Of The Dragon S2E1 -> A Son For A Son

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.

“Daemon died fighting for his Queen!”

Did he though?

To me, he did exactly the opposite of fighting for her at the end.

Here is what Daemon knew:

He could stand a chance to fight Aemond and survive if he did it with Nettles, leaving him the chance (at the very least) to then fight the rest of the greens.

Rhaenyra then sent for Nettles head, and he would not stand for that so he let her escape. That’s when he decided to fight Aemond, though he stood no chance to survive (let’s not kid ourselves by saying that Daemon was just that powerful. He only killed Aemond by killing himself).

At this point the news of Ulf and Hugh being turncloaks have reached him, and for all he knew Silverwing and Vermithor were approaching Kings Landing, with Tessarion. Making a much larger threat than Vhagar, a threat that would be responded with Seasmoke, Syrax and Tyraxes at most, and he would not think Tyraxes would join and maybe even doubt Syrax.

Dreamfyre also resided in the pit at that point, and while Helaena was no fighter, and for all purposes mad at this point, that made the greens dragon advantage enermous.

——————

TB:

Tyraxes (small)

Seasmoke

Syrax (unlikely to fight)

Caraxes (if Daemon were to join)

TG:

Vermithor

Silverwing

Dreamfyre

Tessarion

———————

We obviously know that Hugh and Ulf would turn again, and then + Addam and Daeron would die with Silverwing being the only survivor.

But he didn’t. He only knew that they had turned and were fighting with the greens, and he still decided to send Nettles away knowing he stood no chance of living.

To me, he did not die for Rhaenyra. He died because he gave Nettles the chance to flee. While knowing that Rhaenyra was pretty much mad, and was going to lose.

All in all, their decision to remove Nettles is entirely idiotic in my opinion.

You deserved so much better than that.

The sexual humiliation of the Greens is nauseating. There was no need to have Aegon talk for two minutes about his burned genitals. There was no need to have Aemond stroll naked out of a brothel. There was no need to show Alicent getting dicked down so much.

It kind of make senses now why B&C was so tame. B&C reflects extremely poorly on Daemon & Rhaenyra by extension so they tried to diminish the atrocity of it all and make it as ambiguous as possible so they could move past it in the finale. Daemon realizes “he messed up” and Rhaenyra is allowed to “bring him back into the fold” without it being such a “big deal” add in Alicent’s humiliation where she begs forgiveness without mentioning her dead grandson and betraying even her brother and “kind” youngest unseen child and it all makes sense.

For contrast Aemond’s atrocious action against Lucerys isn’t explored beyond “Aemond regretting it” but then is very much built on by the narrative as he goes on to attempt to kill his brother, physically assault his sister, diminish his mother, and burn a village of innocents. Helaena Targaryen who previously had very little understanding of her dragon dreams blatantly tells her brother without remorse how he will die and then appears to the man who had her son and daughter brutalized (Daemon)in a vision to assist him.

I find it fascinating how the general audience seems to view Viserys as this wise and peaceful ruler, girldad and loving husband who did nothing wrong his entire life.

Yet even according to show!canon he continually impregnated Aemma in hopes for a male heir, despite her having MULTIPLE life threatening pregnancies. We have a scene of him raping underage Alicent. He ignores all his sons and daughter resulting from said rapes. But he's such a cool dad because he lies to the entire realm on behalf of his firstborn daughter's bastards! He's a dragon dreamer and he believes the big Ice and Fire prophecy, yet he has no interest in his second daughter who clearly has visions of sorts. Certified girldad. He never ensures the safety of Alicent's children after his death because he didn't even protect them when he was alive. He does nothing when his son gets maimed, in fact, he protects his grandson who did it. He has a family dinner on the brink of death and we're supposed to feel bad for him because the kids are making a scene. Up to this point he simply ignores hostilities and never tries to make peace between the two sides.

But apparently he's smart and kind and progressive for naming a woman heir (out of fear of his brother getting to sit on the iron throne).

WILD that Ryan Condal keeps changing so much from the source material for no reason that the actors literally have to beg him to include certain things and not cut others

"Your beauty never ever scared me"

You tell me it's not about Aemond Targaryen? The scared insecure child that he is inside? The one who deems himself unworthy because he didn't get a dragon as fast as others? The one that a second something worked for him (claiming Vhagar) he lost an eye? Making him "ugly" and "scary looking"? Aemond whi covers his eye so they don't look at him with disgust? Insecurities turning into rage/hatred

And there is the Reader who loves him despite the anger and hurt he carries inside of him. Reader finds it beautiful.

I do unfortunately love aemond because being loved on conditions in your family and what you do for them messes with your head. he has to protect his older brother who wouldn’t do the same for him, him and and sister don’t understand each other, his elder half sister didn’t care when her son took out his eye, his mother loves him only when he is the version she expects, he is a pawn to his grandfather, invisible to his father, no one has ever apologized to what was done to him and does not like him for what he has become

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!!!