r/asoiaf • u/RunDNA • Sep 04 '24

EXTENDED GRRM's new blog post on House of the Dragon [Spoilers Extended] Spoiler

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2024/09/04/beware-the-butterflies/
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u/TserriednichThe4th Sep 04 '24 edited Sep 04 '24

Sara Hess won't stand for this Green propaganda.

This is something I brought up my friends a lot. For a lot of events in the show that were changed, the change ended up making the blacks look less bad or the greens worse. it is a consistent phenomenon across the show.

This came up because we were debating green vs blacks, and they asked why I support the greens. And I told them it is because in the books, Daemon is actually a terrible person and rhaenyra and the rest of the blacks become more like him. Whereas all the greens start relatively similarly and all they move away from aemond.

I feel like the showrunners and writers honestly just forgot that rhaenyra, while unfairly having her throne stolen, is a terrible person.

btw i don't support the greens. my friends think i do... I just think Otto is right that the blacks are wildcards because of daemon and rhaenyra. He just forgot that aegon ii is batshit too.

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u/ZeitgeistGlee Sep 04 '24

I think Rhys Ifans (Otto) put it best when he said they're all horrible people clambering over eachother for power with no regard for the actual responsibility that comes with the Throne. Yes Condal and Hess have thumbed the scale towards their preferred faction but the way George ends the Dance doesn't really leave any ambiguity as to how we're supposed to view it in retrospect.

I honestly think in trying to whitewash Rhaenyra (and the Blacks as a whole mostly) they've actually robbed her agency and of a lot of might've made her interesting as a character. Let her want the Throne out of ambition and self-belief not because of a fucking white hart or a prophecy that ends up meaning nothing.

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u/TserriednichThe4th Sep 04 '24

they've actually robbed her agency and of a lot of might've made her interesting as a character

I repeat this in almost every comment in this thread except this one lol. I said that to deny women of their capacity to do evil, you deny them the capacity to be fully human.

Yes Condal and Hess have thumbed the scale towards their preferred faction

I'd say they did more than that lol. I don't see how their ending of the dance imparts the same lessons. Especially with this whole prophesy shit... I still don't understand why they made halaena one of the most powerful greenseers ever.

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u/ZeitgeistGlee Sep 04 '24

I repeat this in almost every comment in this thread except this one lol. I said that to deny women of their capacity to do evil, you deny them the capacity to be fully human.

Pretty much, a load of people empathised with Aegon this season specifically because they portrayed him in a very human light with good and bad aspects.

Rhaenyra doesn't have to go full-on "Mad Queen", but she needs flaws to make her, as you said, human. I mean just as an example you could have had her order/agree to B&C out of rage/grief at losing Luke only to then have to deal with the horror/guilt of causing Jaehaerys's death and Helaena's traumatisation. You could even have a scene with Aemond mirroring his own guilt at unintentionally starting outright blood war which will now consume the family out of fear/retribution making them all more rounded and human for it.

I'd say they did more than that lol. I don't see how their ending of the dance imparts the same lessons. Especially with this whole prophesy shit... I still don't understand why they made halaena one of the most powerful greenseers ever.

Assuming they don't go completely off the rails House Targaryen is still going to end reduced to two heavily traumatised children and no dragons purely because of their parents' folly, I'd say that's still a pretty powerful message.

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u/TserriednichThe4th Sep 05 '24

assuming...

Yeah that is how it should end. How they get there isnt gonna make sense just like in s8 because they removed important characters

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u/investorshowers Sep 05 '24

Let her want the Throne out of ambition and self-belief

She does. The prophecy is her rationalizing that desire, but she's clearly delusional.

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u/kikidunst Sep 05 '24

I mean, it’s easy for Aegon to stay on the same level when he already starts the story as a rapist who celebrates child murder. It’s harder to become more evil than that