Armand told the truth

Arya (she/her). European. Mostly AMC Iwtv and VC. Occasionally I write. Header by prettynerdieworks, profile pic by laszloggs

[aryastark-valarmorghulis]

I guess I'm writing House of the Dragons fanfiction now ❤️

Sweet lies, bitter truths (Gwayne/Cole)

Gwayne remembers.

The language of dreams (Jace/Cregan)

Cregan Stark dreams and Jacaerys Velaryon comes to Winterfell.

who ever loved, that loved not at first sight (Jace/Cregan)

Jacaerys Velaryon flies to Winterfell.

[tyrannuspitch]

something interesting about how ormund attacks gwayne when they reunite is that it's not just any form of emotional abuse, but - specifically and literally - bullying.

a) this is nothing like how ormund talks to daeron. he threatens and shames daeron, but it's always very grandiose. we've never seen this kind of playful malice from him before. he's even doing a fucking """gay voice""", and that gay voice is based on gwayne's.

b) the way ormund uses daeron against gwayne... it's not just that it's daeron being mean. it's ormund taunting gwayne with the sight of a smirking teenage boy.

c) 'backs against the wall' is not a line that works one-on-one or even really as a three (since it's plural). that's something you say to shun someone as a group, a way of announcing the moment you see them that they're other, unwanted, and fair game. and gwayne's weary reaction really seems to say: yeah, i've heard that one before.

and then in gwayne and daeron's argument afterwards, gwayne seems to have lost sight of the actual power dynamic of his and daeron's relationship. he's acting like a) he is entirely helpless to defend daeron, b) daeron has the power to say no to ormund and defend gwayne and just isn't doing it, and c) daeron has betrayed him for his own safety (when gwayne should know full well that there's nothing safe about being ormund's favourite.) and almost the whole time the camera is emphasising the fact that daeron is taller, while gwayne looks up at him and speaks with an outraged but pleading tone, as if he is the child.

i think this is genuinely an emotional flashback. gwayne is on one level trying to be the parent and to wake daeron up to ormund's behaviour being unacceptable, as he's surely had to do many times before, but in this moment daeron has a better grip on what's happening than gwayne does. ormund has transported gwayne to his memories of peer abuse and distorted everything, and gwayne's only able to ground himself in the reality that this is actually child abuse, and he is an adult responsible for that child, when daeron gets desperate enough to directly ask for his mother.

BUT ALSO. while this layer is interesting, it's even more interesting that it's not the only layer. as gwayne experiences it, ormund is the bully humiliating and shunning gwayne with his smirking accomplice; but he's also the patriarch punishing him for being a disobedient disappointment and looking down on him with his compliant favourite; and he's the groomer using another victim to suddenly withdraw any sense that gwayne is special or desired, while his sexual humiliation remains. and every one of those things takes gwayne back to childhood in its own way.

[baelcrtargaryen]

Gwayne Hightower & Daeron Targaryen HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | 3.06

[rebvilla]

specter

[alysmond]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | Season 3, Episode 8, "The Dragon in Winter"

[casszanova]

Wet cat x mentally ill dog

[vhagar-balerion-meraxes]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S03E06 - "Faceless Men"

Requested by @dyannasdayne 💛💛

[chelkoooowwww]

Hotd scenes analysis from ep4 & ep6

Parallels between Gwayne’s conversations with Criston in Harrenhal and Ormund in Tumbleton .

“Feather bed” is deliberate

Here are some similarities that i’ve noticed between these two scenes:

1) Both these conversations involve a table. Gwayne is tapping on its surface trying to convince Ormund and Criston. Both times he is standing, while Ormund and Criston sit, which symbolises that Gwayne’s talking with someone, who’s above his rank.

2) Both times Gwayne finds the strategic situation hopeless:

3) Ormund himself draws a parallel between him and Criston. Gwayne believes that continuing the battle is madness. In reply Ormund asks Daeron if he thinks of him as a madman for doing so.

4) Both Ormund and Criston are dismissive of Gwayne’s worries. Criston comes up with a guerrilla war tactic and Ormund refers to Rhaenyra’s “squeamishness”. However, Criston manages to convince Gwayne, while Ormund (as it seems so far) doesn’t.

5) Also, “guerrila war tactic” can be considered a creative decision (from some point of view) in the situation that desperate. Ormund accuses that creativity is exactly what Gwayne lacks. As if he says “you are not intelligent enough to understand me or ser Criston”. He insists that Criston was right to fight till his death (Ormund ofc doesn’t know that his goal was to kill himself, and not to achieve a greater good). Needs to be said that both Ormund and Criston are delusional, but for different reasons. They share similarities, but are actually compete opposites.

Now to the usage of the “feather bed”.

Feather bed, at least how i interpret it, is a symbol of wealth and privilege. Criston uses it to emphasise the difference between Gwayne and him.

In the scene with Ormund Gwayne concludes the conversation with “I’m fatigued. It’s been weeks since i’ve seen a feather bed”. He deliberately ridicules himself in front of Ormund, which could mean that Gwayne no longer cares if he considers him weak. As if he’s saying: «Yes, i’m a fragile coward, and I need my feather bed and a tower of mattresses and blah blah blah, I don’t care”.

In the same time, by saying this, Gwayne reflects on his conversation with Criston. In that case his phrase can be interpreted as an expression of guilt. He is probably ashamed of using this privilege again, after all he had been accused of by Cole. Or probably this is what Gwayne would have said to Criston, if he had turned back time to Harrenhal.

That’s not the only time Gwayne is somehow reminded of Cole in ep6. I’ve wrote about this here.

So in conclusion what I’m trying to say is that…

Crispin Cole starts to slowly haunt Gwayne’s narrative…

[thensson]

You are Jeff, Richard Siken

[rebvilla]

specter

[acesofnyx]

"I'm sorry about your friend"

"He gave himself to the dust"

The writers were snorting the goddamn doomed yaoi cocaine

[alysmond]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | Season 3, Episode 7, "The Dragon in Winter"

[seaside-storm]

FREDDIE FOX as SER GWAYNE HIGHTOWER House of the Dragon (2022- ) 3.07

[pissbataille]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON— 3.07 THE DRAGON IN WINTER

[chelkoooowwww]

i don’t what to imagine gwayne seeing criston’s head on a spike, i don’t want to.

props to Freddie Fox’s performance. very subtle yet piercing. i cannot imagine gwayne grieving in any other way.

[dyannasdayne]

Ormund throwing Criston's death in Gwayne's face and insulting him before walking away versus Daeron literally comforting his uncle and sitting with him in his grief.

[cakebatteronabrickwall]

recontextualizing the cole and gwayne dynamic posthumously by revealing more and more about gwayne's inner workings might be one of the most interesting writing choices hotd has made so far