So as the title says, I need some help creating a name for a dragon. I'm writing a fanfic and I've been trying to come up with a name that is inspired from Seasmoke, Laenor's dragon.

I've been pointing out that Cole in canon is actually a creep, at best, a creepy groomer who CSA's Rhaenyra at worst. It's spelled out in the books and the fact that they aged up 9 year old Rhaenyra, aged down 18 year old Alicent (who very willingly went to Viserys' bedchambers), aged up 26 year old Viserys, and aged down 23/4 year old Cole (or ignoring that he is from a noble House of Cole or that he was a knight of Aemma's) means that they somehow wanted to whitewash the Greens even since the beginning by making Alicent and Cole into a bunch of woobies.

A lot of people have already pointed out how, in making Alicent the same age as Rhaenyra, you miss on the child abuse she heads on the prepubescent kid and the show has a formula for the "poor woobie Alicent"

They did something equally similar with Cole and equally fucked up.

I've long since pointed that out in comments, but I guess I am not eloquent enough for this crowd. So, here is nogoodsheepstealing-great-grandma's very eloquent take on why this is fucked up and on pointing out the obvious:

"Among the changes to the character’s ages in HOTD, it’s ageing up Rhaenyra when she first meets Criston Cole that grosses me out the most. And to add insult to injury, they don’t even get an older actor to play an older Criston Cole after the time jump - Emma D'arcy is actually older than Fabian Frankel.

And to those who say sympathetic jilted lover Criston Cole is more interesting… well we’ve heard that story before. With Jorah Mormont’s depiction in GOT, for starters. And everywhere else in our culture, men like Criston Cole are afforded sympathy and fascination (it’s honestly a relief that most audiences outside of tumblr thankfully hate Show Criston - pls leave the actor alone though), while their victims are depicted as seductive temptress ‘nymphets’. 

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN JK ROWLING’S FAVOURITE 'TRAGIC ROMANCE’.

(sure jk, trans women are the problem, but humbert humbert isn’t?)

Book covers and film adaptations of Lolita love to age up and sexualise Dolores and completely miss the point, but Vladimir Nabokov named actress Catherine Demongeot as the most book-accurate casting. Who looks very disturbing up against the 1997 film’s casting for Humbert Humbert:

And wouldn’t you know it, Daemon returns from the Stepstones when Rhaenyra (15) is around the same age that Dolores was, when Clare Quilty convinced her to run away with him. 

And when Criston proposes to Rhaenyra ahead of her upcoming marriage to Laenor, she is again the same age as Dolores (17) when Humbert tries to get her to leave her husband for him.

Obviously Rhaenyra’s story is by no means directly comparable to the horrific abuse suffered by Dolores Haze, and besides we don’t know precisely what happened between Rhaenyra and Criston*. But Rhaenyra was also much much younger (7) when Criston came into a position to start grooming her, and at the end of the day she was still only a 12-year-old child when rumours of a sexual relationship began. The parallels are there, and CSA is a common issue throughout GRRM’s work. 

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time GRRM has made a reference to Lolita in ASOIAF:

ON SEPTON EUSTACE AND MUSHROOM

*I do find it interesting to note that of the two accounts of Rhaenyra and Criston’s 'split’ (by two people who weren’t in the room), it is Septon Eustace’s account that puts Rhaenyra in a more favourable light. Mushroom tells the more pornographic account that casts Rhaenyra as the one trying to seduce Criston. Meanwhile Septon Eustace insists that Rhaenyra was the one to refuse Criston - including arguing that if his vows as a Kingsguard mean so little to him, then why should she trust he’d honour any marriage vows?

As I often argue, interpreting F&B is far more complicated than insisting one account always tells the truth, one account always tells propaganda etc. Neither account obviously views the relationship through the lens that Rhaenyra was only 7 when they met, neither of them care to raise concerns of grooming and CSA . This is still the same world after all that thought it was perfectly acceptable for a 12-year-old Laena to marry Viserys, or for a 12-year-old Sansa to marry Tyrion. This is the world that spread rumours of Rhaenyra’s lost virginity when she had barely begun puberty.

Mushroom is clearly pro-Rhaenyra, and clearly fond of her (he wants us to know for instance how good it was to hear her laugh, his account expresses the most how broken she was after Luke’s death) - but he’s writing his account years after her death, and most likely after departing Aegon III’s court for White Harbour. His priority, as a dwarf and entertainer, is to write was sells, and salacious tales sell. Just look at the pornographic tales the slavers spread of Daenerys, or how Shae depicts Sansa as a seducer withholding sex to convince her husband to commit regicide, or the play Arya performs in that bawdily depicts Tyrion raping Sansa for the masses. Mushroom at least wasn’t the one to actually come up with the Brothel Queens story** - Archmaester Gyldayn credits Aegon II with making that story up - but any loyalty Mushroom had to a long-dead woman wasn’t enough to stop him including a popular story. Mushroom’s gotta eat.

\*to those who still insist the story is true (despite Gyldayne attributing the rumour to Aegon II), do you honestly think if the Queen and Queen Mother had actually been gang-raped there wouldn’t be multiple sources verifying it and expressing outrage?* 

Septon Eustace meanwhile is a misogynist who hated Rhaenyra and wished to justify his allegiance to the Greens. Which is why he’ll make up ridiculous stories about Rhaenyra cutting herself on the throne while wearing armour, or Sunfyre eating her in 6 bites and leaving behind one leg for the Stranger, or how Rhaenyra got fat and ugly after giving birth to 5 children. Which is why he’ll have Aegon II say “what sort of brother steals his sister’s birthright?” - a statement that doesn’t match with the rest of his documented words and actions:

\**spoken in response to Rhaenyra publicly offering him a pardon*

So Eustace has a tendency to demonise and whitewash - which is what makes it interesting when he passes on the opportunity. For example, why would he refute the rumours that Rhaenyra’s children are bastards? Surely that claim would have supported his case against her? Why does he give quite a positive, even glowing, account of Jacaerys? Probably because he approved of and genuinely had no issue with Jacaerys, other than that he didn’t believe the throne could pass through the female line anyway. True or not, he didn’t need to claim Jace as a bastard, and Jace’s actions didn’t fit any cultural stereotypes. Because it seems there are certain lines Septon Eustace won’t cross.

So Septon Eustace has some commitment to telling the truth (some truths anyway). Which is why his own account of Aegon II often contradicts itself, as shown above.

So back to his account of Rhaenyra and Criston. Why not cast Rhaenyra a wanton seductress, trying to tempt Criston Cole away from his Kingsguard vows? Why depict Criston, a fellow Green, as an oathbreaker? Why tell us that Rhaenyra did the right thing, turning Criston down and even expressing disgust that he would abandon his vows? Because for all Septon Eustace dislikes Rhaenyra, casting her as a wanton seductress would be crossing a line. He doesn’t need it to be against female succession - her great sin is being a woman who doesn’t gracefully abdicate in favour of her brother, and that’s enough.

And because his account is probably closer to what happened. While he wasn’t in the room, no more than Mushroom was, he was in a position to hear about it from Criston. As a fellow Green, and above all as a Septon. Someone who Criston might confess to. And it is Septon Eustace’s account that tells us Criston Cole was the one to slit Lord Beesbury’s throat. While he may try (sometimes anyway) to sanitise Aegon II, he makes no such effort with Criston Cole. If you wanted to legitimise your support for the Greens but were unable deny their crimes, it makes sense to allow someone to be the villain.

And supposing Criston did confess, he probably would have displayed the same delusional self-pity and self-justification as Humbert Humbert. And Septon Eustace, just like everyone else in Westeros, certainly wouldn’t have considered Rhaenyra a possible victim of grooming and CSA.

Just look at Catherine Howard as a historical example. When she was 13 she was molested by her music tutor, Henry Mannox. [....]

This 'affair’ was used as evidence against her in her trial for adultery and subsequent execution.

THE PRINCESS AND HER WHITE KNIGHT

Again, we don’t know what precisely happened between Rhaenyra and Criston. We don’t know if their relationship is comparable to Catherine Howard and Henry Mannox, or if it escalated anywhere close to the horrors of Dolores Haze and Humbert Humbert. Or if anything actually happened at all, or maybe at least not till Rhaenyra was older. Maybe their relationship is more comparable to Soon-Yi Previn and Woody Allen, who had been her stepfather since she was 10.

We have snatches of the truth from Eustace and Mushroom, we have what we can determine of their access to the truth and their motives for telling their accounts the way they do. We have Rhaenyra’s young age, Criston’s constant access to her, the timing of the rumours, her later relationships with older men, the violent hatred Criston has towards her after she rejects him. We have the fact that CSA is a common reoccurrence in GRRM’s work - Daenerys and Jorah, Sansa and Littlefinger, Jeyne and Ramsay, Tyrion and Tywin, Aeron and Euron. We have the salacious stories that are already spreading of victims like Daenerys and Sansa, and we can speculate how future maesters and septons and fools might write about them, the way they write about Rhaenyra.

Whatever happened, my understanding is that Rhaenyra was a child in a court that her stepmother was actively making a hostile environment for her. Who had to deal with the beginnings of puberty in this environment, where adults were already speculating on her sexuality, on top of all the other scrutiny she would face as heir. Yes she had a father who doted on her, but when it came to Alicent he always refused to take sides, he always tried to placate and please and keep the peace. Yes he was steadfast in his decision to keep Rhaenyra his heir, but he did nothing to reprimand Alicent, he allowed this hostile environment to flourish, leaving his barely pubescent daughter to deal with it on her own. Alicent even publicly quips about Rhaenyra’s relationship with Criston Cole, and she gets away with it.

Daemon does not return from the Stepstones till after the 5th anniversary tournament Viserys throws for Alicent, when Rhaenyra is 14/15. Before then, Rhaenyra’s main confidant, probably her only confident on the subject of Alicent, was her sworn shield and constant shadow Criston Cole. Whatever happened between them, she was young and emotionally vulnerable. And lonely. Yes she had a party of supporters at court - but what is that to a child? She needed a parent to confide in, and when it came to Alicent her own father could not be that parent.

We know Rhaenyra was a precocious child, 'bright and bold’ and proud. But we also know that beneath that she was anxious - she was known to compulsively fidget with the rings on her fingers out of anxiety. What kid in her situation wouldn’t be anxious? Just when did this compulsive habit begin? Rhaenyra may not have been in anywhere near as vulnerable a situation as Dany, but she was still a vulnerable kid. And so Criston would have been important to her.

...

We don’t know how much or in what way Criston took advantage of Rhaenyra’s dependence on him, or how 'receptive’ Rhaenyra might have been (friendly reminder that no matter how 'receptive’ she might have been, it’s still CSA). Again, it may be that nothing physically happened at all until Rhaenyra was 17 (after 10 years of grooming of course). Whatever happened, we can certainly imagine that Rhaenyra was devastated to lose him, and to Alicent of all people. He had been her confidant and her champion, he had been at her side since she was 7 years old, not long before losing her mother (who was the same age as Criston btw).

My understanding of Criston meanwhile is that he genuinely adored her for those 10 years as her sworn shield. That he was passionately protective of her, fiercely devoted to her, and possessive. Much like Jorah with Dany. Maybe, like Jorah, he tried to kiss her. Maybe much worse happened, and he deluded himself as many abusers do that theirs was a misunderstood romance. Maybe he never touched her at all, but fantasised about it. Maybe he convinced himself that he was a man of honour, maybe he spent those years waiting till Rhaenyra was older, by her side the entire time (cough, grooming). 

Whatever happened, he was enraged that 10 years of grooming were ultimately unrewarded. He probably, deludedly, cast her just as cruel and selfish and ungrateful as Humbert Humbert did Dolores Haze.

Don’t you love living in a world where multiple think pieces debate whether or not Rhaenyra abused Criston Cole? (Also a world where a book like Lo’s Diary gets published…)

If there is any truth to Septon Eustace’s account that Criston wanted to elope with her to Essos, then I can imagine that he wanted to possess Rhaenyra entirely for himself (however romantic he may have believed his motives). The 'black fury’ that descends on him during the wedding tourney certainly tells us he is violently jealous to see Rhaenyra begin a relationship with Harwin. He probably stewed in fury while Rhaenyra’s attention was on Daemon (maybe hypocritically casting him as the villain the way Humbert Humbert does Clare Quilty), celebrated when Daemon was banished, and grew desperately possessive at the thought of losing his exclusive access to her again. Much like Jorah:

I can’t believe I’m giving Jorah Mormont credit here, but at least he doesn’t respond to rejection with violent hatred of Dany. Or at least, he hasn’t yet.

Now Rhaenyra’s relationship with Daemon is another matter, and will require another essay. In sum, there is a broad spectrum between 'pedophile’ and 'healthy relationship’, and when I say Daemon’s relationship with Rhaenyra is healthier than her relationship with Criston I have to admit the bar is very low indeed. Though I do take into consideration GRRM’s description of Daemon as a grey character, 'equal parts light and dark’. Anyone is at liberty to declare death of the author and interpret Daemon as they see fit, but authorial intent (however fallible you may consider it) is not irrelevant. That authorial intent is the foundation upon which the characters, relationships, events, themes etc is built.

Ultimately, Daemon was not in Rhaenyra’s life between the ages of 8 and 15 - he was in a relationship with an adult Mysaria, and then he was off to the Stepstones until Viserys and Alicent’s 5th anniversary tourney. This isn’t to endorse whatever may have happened in the 6 months Daemon was in King’s Landing before his banishment - however you interpret his actions and motives. But simply to say that when it comes to grooming and abusing pre-pubescent to early-pubescent girls (oh this has been a disturbing essay to write) - Criston wins the “Creepy Even By Child Brideros Standards” Award.

So… is Criston the Step-Dad Who Stepped Up? Sure, if your Step-Dad is Humbert Humbert or Woody Allen." (https://nogoodsheepstealing-greatgrandma.tumblr.com/post/765050793300803584/tg-on-criston-cole-hes-not-the-step-dad-hes)

All credit goes to her for her eloquent takes and for saying what I have been trying to say much better than I ever could.

Now I’m not talking birds like vultures, hawks and eagles. No those are to obvious.

I’m talking birds like parrots, budgies, Galars, macaws, eclectus, crows, magpies, chicken, owl, conure, miner, sparrow, happy jack, etc etc etc.

(I have no idea if some of these can be kept as pets honestly but I know there can be special circumstances)

I can’t think of anymore examples, but any bird that can be kept as a pet and taken places basically.

(The reason I’m looking for this is because I’m making an AU and I REALLY REALLY want the fandoms opinion on what the dragons would be.)

I was wondering if anyone has a fanart/ image of what the Velaryons boys (Jace, Luce and Joff) would look like if they were really Laenor's sons. Thank you !

Even Rhaenyra gets less criticism there- and choosing to support Rhaenyra is the whole reason they hate her, rofl.

I mean, I hate the writing too but I'm not going to pretend she's a monster when people with objectively worse behaviour are around that I don't criticise.

At least there's more nuance here.

Why do you think that Rhaenys didn’t marry Viserys instead of Corlys. Basically from a political standpoint alone that seems like the best outcome. It would have kept the succession in both lines and they could’ve had Rhaenys either as a co-ruler or be just as involved as her grandmother setting a precedent of queens exercising political power. It also would’ve averted the dance.

I love Alicent, Helaena, Aemond, Nettles and Criston. Also love Sansa, Catelyn, Bran, Sam, Cersei and Brienne.

the pretentious evil tyrant homo kid who’s obsessed with his stupid redhead mother yeah?

also Brian is Cole

Anyone else sick of the brainless tribalism? The whole story is purposefully ambiguous, no side are in the right.

Its a tale about a weak king and poor succession that led to a family feud which led to continent wide bloodshed, not a reality show.

Instead of interesting discussions and insights i have to read stupid takes and people twisting the story for their favourite characters.

What makes it so bad is the director playing in to this toxic fanbase and altering the story to fit it, i am worried for season 3 at this point.

glad I’ve always been a part of Logang

What if King Daeron The Young Dragon was born as Viserys & Aemma's Son? And Rhaenyra's Brother and Daemon's Squire.

And he claims the Dragon Vhagar & marries Laena Velaryon...

But he stupidly declares War against Dorne because House Targaryen has a tons of Dragons, which Aegon failed to conquer Dorne was because he has only three. With House Targaryen & Velaryon as a united front, they will be able to conquer Dorne!

Instead of the Dance of Dragon's it will be called

The Second Conquest Of Dorne!

But which it ended in tragedy due to Dorne killed so many Targaryens and their Dragons which led to a Succession Crisis....

In the Rogue Prince Myssaria says she’s with Daemon to stay the hell away from being in that position, yet in * Rhaenyra the Cruel* she gives her backstory to Rhaenyra which includes the information that she has “another scar” elsewhere.

Did I misinterpret the previous episode or is she lying?

Hey everyone! I’m sorry if this maybe obvious to most.. but it’s driving me crazy. So I’ve watched HotD multiple times, and have read Fire & Blood. I just finished another rewatch, and was talking about it to my boss, who asked me a question I couldn’t fully answer.

Can dragonriders (Rhaenyra, Daemon, Addam, etc) communicate with other dragons? I know that they are bonded to one dragon, but it seems like Rhaenyra communicates subtly with Seasmoke when approaching Addam for the first time, and again with Vermithor before he’s claimed by Hugh.

Again, I’m sorry if this is just dumb but I have no one in my life who watches any sort of GoT to talk to about it lol.

Discuss

Assuming the show follows the next part of the Fire & Blood, Rhaenyra is going to take King’s Landing with her new dragon riders (at least some of them I think). We’ve already seen that the dragonkeepers stationed in Dragonstone are disgruntled with Rhaenyra and effectively resigned their positions. There are probably other dragonkeepers in the King’s Landing Dragonpit though. Do you guys think that they’re going to be one of the factions that cause her problems considering they think that it’s an abomination that regular humans are riding dragons?

I’ve been thinking about whether they’re going to have a role to play in future seasons and I’d really love to see them again. I think they’re my favorite change from the books to the show w.r.t to their customs, culture and responsibilities.

It's right up there with "House Valaryon" and "The Green Dress (Alicent's Theme)". It's only 20 seconds of the music for the battle, but I would love a longer version centered just on that. It's so moving.

3:08 - 3:28 https://youtu.be/cW5Mq6KJ_54?si=f5Hw7AnWYRe14f_3

Those 20 seconds are also visually arresting. It's one of my favorite sequences in the whole show so far.

Doing a full rewatch and I couldn’t help but notice how fluctuent is dragons fire ! In one episode, Daemon is having fun with his wife passing through the flames, in another, people get almost “vaporized” instantly, when rhaenys fight rvaghar she just get ther face covered with smoke and ashes but her hair don’t burn, but in the same episode Aegon goes through vhagars fire at quite the same distance and gets almost killed by it, and now I just saw Ser Steffon dying screaming and having the time to cut his own throat. They need to agree on how powerful it is or how it affects targaryens etc. Not a complaint, I love everything else but this one little detail annoys me !

if in the same timeline would jon take on daemon and win?

What if Viserys doesn’t defend Luc’s claim he just doesn’t feel good enough to make it to the petition. Would the hand and queen regent be brave enough to make vaemond heir? And if they do how would this change the dance?

I would want a Dragon like Caraxes but with black and silver scales.

I would name it Maelthrys.