[frazzledsoul]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Okay. Let's try this again! This is is the third chapter of my "Taylor Swift sends Rory mixed CDs" story I published earlier this year. It's a bit of an odd one.

I originally wrote this chapter last year and avoided posting it. However, I don't know how much longer my laptop will function so I'm just putting it out there.

Light RPF as both Jess and the pop star make an appearance (sort of) and there's a tiny flash forward. I'm pretty sure this is at the top of storytelling no-nos, but it is what it is.

[frazzledsoul]

One of the most insufferable things about the ASOIAF fandom/cinematic universe fandom is that almost anyone remotely normal about this series left in 2019 so instead we have the most weird, obsessive types who not only have a parasocial relationship with the books/characters but with GRRM himself. So, as a result, the fandom treats him like some Santa Claus Grandpa who they coddle to an almost parody-like level as he continues to lie to them about books he never intended to finish so they continue tuning into to all the supplemental shows he gets a vanity title on so he can continue to cash checks and get media attention.

Also, this whole 'well HOTD and that Mad King play are 'semi-canon' and some parts are canon and others are not but I'm not gonna tell you which ones are canon and which ones are not' is so creatively and professionally bankrupt its comical. He gets away with all types of bad behavior but its always the adapters of his work that get shit for not having the same committment to the source he himself refuses to commit to. GRRM can never fail, he can only ever be failed.

This is why the fandom has gaslit themselves into thinking King Bran is not a hilariously stupid endgame for the books after railing that idea, before they found out it was a GRRM edict to Benioff and Weiss. I don't think I've quit ever been in a fandom this delusional and with such a cult of personality around the creator before.

See, if you know about GRRM's professional history it all makes more sense.

He was a prolific short story writer in the 70s and early 80s. He had a bunch of different settings he was going to write more stories in, but never did. He was going to write a bunch of stories spinning off from Sandkings, but never did. He was going to write a bunch of stories about the werewolf character in The Skin Trade, but never did. He was going to write more Tuf Voyaging stories, but never did.

Sounds familiar.

His magnum opus was supposed to be the novel The Armageddon Rag, which was published in 1973. Unfortunately, it flopped and pretty much destroyed his professional writing career, so he started working for Hollywood. His TV writing career was not nearly as prolific as his fans make it seem, and he quit after about a decade because so much of the stuff he worked on didn't make it to air. He wanted to write a fantasy saga that TV budget restrictions could never touch.

Thus ASOIAF is born. He published the first three books in quick succession, and then stalled after that. I think he lost track of the story after the Red Wedding and has never really been able to pick it back up. Then HBO came calling, and they had the money to film most of ASOIAF and he became a demigod who was going to make all the fans dreams come true and write them their Hollywood ending after the show disappointed them.

None of that is going to happen. He's done. He has a history of abandoned projects and was likely mostly interested in seeing his visions come to fruition and is not so interested in the writing anymore. All of that is fine, but people cling to these fantasies of him riding in on his white horse and saving the story, even as GRRM openly admits that he thought the show ending was "too happy."

But it is what it is. The play is just another adaptation, nothing else.

[gameofthronesdaily]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season 3 Episode 8 — "The Treasons at Tumbleton"

[shaunashipman]

EMMA D'ARCY as RHAENYRA TARGARYEN HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 3.08 "The Treasons at Tumbleton"

[this-old-stomping-ground]

[dduane]

(looks sideways at the guy who’s not here) …Yeah, there are times when you’d say this and think you could get away with it. 😏

[frazzledsoul]

[frazzledsoul]

Propaganda I Am Not Falling For (Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon/ASOIAF edition)

GRRM is going to ride on his white horse and write a Hollywood ending to ASOIAF that makes everyone happy (lol)

GRRM is going to finish TWOW someday

GRRM is going to finish TWOW and A Dream of Spring, but only after all of the spinoffs have finished airing, even the ones that don't exist yet

GRRM is going to finish ALL of his unfinished ASOIAF projects before he dies

GRRM considers Dany to be the only important character in the book series. No one else matters. He will never, ever write anything bad happening to her or show her failing in any way. The series will end up with her single handedly defeating the Night King (even though he doesn't really exist in the books yet), conquering Westeros, and being worshipped by everyone who lives there.

Only people who are delusional think the story is about the Starks at all.

Anything bad that has ever happened in the fandom is the fault of the Jonsas, even though they are usually the victims of most of the bullying and physical threats

Jonerys/Dany/Emilia fans have the God-given right to threaten, harass, and belittle anyone who insults their kween and anyone who calls attention to it is the real villains.

Sophie Turner deserved to have her Stark tattoo scratched out and she is actually the bully for defending herself against the fans who threatened her

Sophie should be pushed in the river and drowned for calling attention to her pregnancy (ships wars are so fun, guys. WTF?)

Kit Harington owed it to Dany/Jonerys/Emilia fans to hook up with Emilia IRL and give the fans "a real boat baby". When he declined and knocked up his wife instead, he was a LIAR and a HYPOCRITE and those fans will never forgive him for not giving into their delusions

It was disgusting that Rose Leslie walked around in public and did PR for her projects when she was pregnant. Decent pregnant women should hide their stomachs from view to avoid upsetting the sensitivities of vulnerable fans

Rose and Kit were WHORING their son out by occasionally taking him out in public as an infant. He too should be hidden to avoid upsetting fans

Kit expressing his gratitude to Rose for sticking with him through his personal problems means he is only with her out of guilt and doesn't really love her. This proves (somehow) that Emilia is his one true love.

Kit was desperately jealous of Ben Barnes for being in the quickly canceled Shadow and Bone and is upset he is not good enough to be in this generic fantasy series

Leigh Bardugo (author of Shadow and Bone) should be shamed for not loving The Darkling (her own creation) as much as Ben Barnes did and for being a secret Jonsa.

Sophie and Rose are LAZY and PATHETIC for working less in the years when they had back to back pregnancies. Being a mom isn't a REAL job, you know.

Kit and Rose are both jobless and no one will hire them, despite having back to back projects.

Kit is actually a loser because he HAS to work. A real man wouldn't need a job.

The Game of Thrones franchise is a failed franchise because it has only produced two spin-offs in six years. It is not clear how many spin-offs would need to be produced to be successful.

Game of Thrones should have gone on for fifteen seasons like GRRM wanted even though he refuses to write source material. The show also should have taken a time out and allow him to finish writing. If the actors complain, TOO BAD! They absolutely signed a contract to let GRRM do whatever he wanted.

King Bran is absolutely a terrific idea and not a monstrous theocracy come to life.

Giving Gendry a random title so Arya and Gendry couldn't run off together made total sense.

Arya and Brianne were victims of cruel sexism because the show would not let them rule as queens, have a quiet male consort, and end up wives and mothers.

Despite Jon verbalizing his exact wishes out loud and making it clear for years he hates being given authority of any kind, he has always longer to be a king and it is cruel and barbaric to not saddle him a title he would hate.

Jon is totally NOT living his best gay wildling life with Tormund right now.

GRRM is the only person who didn't love season two of HOTD.

Ryan Condal is absolutely a terrific showrunner who knows what the fuck he is doing.

Alicent somehow has proved herself virtuous by offering her entire family up for slaughter.

Rhaenys's decisions and loyalties totally make sense. Who wouldn't devote herself to the woman who she thinks killed both of her children?

Daemon is a terrific husband and father despite not showing any interest in any of his children and killing and strangling two of his wives.

Ewan Mitchell screentime absolutely wasn't atrociously wasted this past season.

Viserys was a wise and noble king and not an absolute clusterfuck of a ruler and human being in every way.

We will see Daeron someday. Hope springs eternal!

[frazzledsoul]

Which of his alter egos would Jess Mariano be most likely to make out with?

Peter Petrelli (emo with super powers)

Jack Pearson (raging PTSD but a sweet guy)

Tim Timmons (goofy, buzzcut of inner sweetness)

Hayden Payne (rich, buzzcut of pure evil)

Bo (seemingly evil jock until he gets a boyfriend)

Voting ended onAug 13

[frazzledsoul]

I am very much over genre fans crying about "bad writing" when things aren't spelled out for them exactly the way that they want and attacking the characters/actors and deeming them ruined forever because they didn't get what they wanted.

If you complain about absolutely everything, your complaints have zero merit.

I'm just over it.

[frazzledsoul]

My thoughts on House of The Dragon season 3

The bad:

Alicent unfortunately is ruined beyond repair and it seems trying to kill off most of her family members is her sole characteristic. I will say that I do believe that she loved Heleana, but mostly because she sees Heleana as an extension of herself. She kept prostrating herself before Rhaenyra all season and Rhaenyra could have cared less. Surrendering to Rhaenyra only made their lives worse, not better. All of her assassination attempts failed. The war continued on. And she took up a lot of screentime that could have gone to other characters.

Rhaena's brief dragonriding career. I don't know what they were thinking with this plot. This was a complete disaster and Rhaena caused nothing but grief to everyone, over and over again. I have to laugh because the discourse for years has been that Rhaena was Vhagar's true dragonrider and if only she would have claimed her then everything would have been sunshine and roses and Vhagar would listen to everything she said. I don't think so.

Whatever that Alicent/Aemond mess was. Look, I think in a family with this much incest it's not impossible that Aemond's sexuality might be twisted in this direction, but honestly guys ....WHAT THE FUCK?! No.

Granny Vhagar's disappearance. Where the hell is she?

That entire episode devoted to Rhaenyra in council meetings discovering the concept of work for the first time. Zzzzzzz.

Rhaenyra breaking into sobs when reclaiming the throne and seemingly going on a crying jag every five minutes: girlfriend, you are an adult. There is a time and a place. Get it together.

The medium:

Daeron. No, I'm not going to cry about him not doing exactly what he did in the books and I quite enjoyed his dynamic with his two "dads" Ormund and Gwayne. However, I do think as a character he falls a bit flat for me.

Alysmond. I think that the whole "love triangle" (yuck) aspect turned me off and the chemistry was underwhelming, as well as Aemond's resistance to it, but I do like it. Just not as much as I wanted to.

The battle of the Gullet/Criston's death scene: they were both somewhat underwhelming.

The Larys/Aegon dynamic. I don't think it was necessary for Larys to drag him quite so hard, even if it did end up motivating Aegon. That storyline kind of dragged until the big Sunfyre moment.

Baela having a love triangle with her uncles. Okayyyyyy? Targs gonna Targ, I guess.

Daemon. Just Daemon....in general.

The good:

Ormund Hightower. He's a cartoonishly evil gay hairdresser and I enjoyed every minute of his insanity.

Tessarion and Sheepstealer. Sheepstealer deserved better!

Aegon's big Sunfyre moment and "reunion" with Aemond. He is risen!

Criston's descent into depression and his suicidal death march and the dynamic between him and Gwayne. Gwayne just wanted to run away with him, but Criston was too dead set on dying. You could have had it all, man.

Rhaenyra is finally evil. Took you long enough! She is much more interesting this way. I am surprised the writers leaned into making her look bad to this extent. I like it.

Heleana's slow descent into depression and hopelessness. Look, I know GRRM basically quit the show over the poor girl not having enough motivation to chuck it all away, but I think that's a shallow and insensitive way of understanding how depression works. Heleana lived her life pretty much as Alicent's puppet, taking on the life of early marriage and motherhood that Alicent had endured, and trying to eke out some small pleasure in the life that she was given. Then slowly everything that gave her joy is taken away from her right as she begins to realize that her future is hopeless and that any choice she makes will bring on misery and death. She knew that life was not going to get any better for her or her children. So she took herself out and left Rhaenyra a final sign behind letting her know she knows what she has become.

That's how it feels a lot of the time. I think the show got it right this time. And as I've said in another post, there are a lot worse plot deviations Ryan chose other than this one.

Overall, I did feel it was a better season than season 2. There were things I liked and things I didn't but this was the first season I really felt affected by some of what happened. I do think it was more even-handed than it has been in previous years and did not piss me off nearly as much as it did in season 2. It will never be a great show and it isn't art, but it's enough to keep me coming back for one more year.

[frazzledsoul]

What is the most likely way for the Green line to continue on in the TV universe?

Daeron survives, marries Rhaena, produces lots of little Hightowers

Alys and Aemond 's son is Catelyn's ancestor

The main Targ line comes from (a totally alive) Jaehaera and Aegon III

Voting ended onAug 12

[frazzledsoul]

Now that it's all over, I have to say that I find it puzzling that GRRM chose to crash out over Heleana killing herself "for no reason" as opposed to...Alicent trying to kill most of her children, using a dog to manipulate us into feeling sorry for unrepentant child-killers Blood and Cheese (he praised that shit!), Aegon being treated like a villain for mourning the death of his child, Aemond trying to kill Aegon, Rhaenys killing thousands of peasants only to have it never be mentioned again, Alicent prostituting her feet, calling immolation by Dragonfire "a dragonrider's death", Daemon beating his first wife to death with zero consequences, that absolute nonsense about the prophecy at the end ...should I go on? He said nothing about all of that. Blood and Cheese was atrociously handled and treated like a minor incident one should forget about as soon as possible.

Oh, and if the S3 outline contained all the major beats it did when it was given to him, that means he also overlooked the omission of Nettles/Rhaena's disastrous dragonriding career, whatever that Alicent/Aemond shit was, the Mysaria/Rhaenyra "affair", that stupid dragonfight, Fake Daeron, and Alicent becoming even more homicidal than she was before. He said nothing.

However, he chooses to crash out over Heleana not having a "good reason" to commit suicide.

Heleana has been haunted by visions of death and carnage since she was a small child, is often misunderstood, isolated and friendless, is forced to marry and copulate with her brother when she's barely a teenager, has twins at 14, witnesses her son being murdered, is threatened by her other brother, is imprisoned when her mother decides to become a family annihilator, has to endure her mother trying to force her to abort her pregnancy and abandon her daughter, is constantly reminded that her mother is trying to off her siblings one by one, is separated from her daughter seemingly permanently, and is finally handed several visions where she knows that any choice she makes will result in death for her children or for innocent people.

And then Rhaenyra starts to torture her.

Like.....that's a lot of reasons. Heleana's life has mostly been misery, death, and servitude. Not all of it was awful. She loved her children, her bugs, her tapestries. She tolerated Aegon. However, she was handed so many tragedies in her short life her descent into depression and desperation is completely rational. She doesn't need to know that her toddler was mauled to death to find a reason to kill herself. The rest of her life was reason enough.

And this way, she gets to go out as a final "fuck you" to Rhaenyra because she knows her reign of terror is going to get much, much worse and she wants to escape it before it can be visited on her and her son.

Now maybe all of that wasn't in the outline, but a good portion of the horrors described above were things George cooked up for this poor girl. If he doesn't think they're worth wanting to take an exit out after having endured them ... I just have to say WTF.

And honestly, the way it happened is more accurate to how depression can feel. At least for me.

So, yeah, I think GRRM was mistaken for crashing out over this plot point when so many of Ryan's other decisions have been much, much worse.

[anarchopuppy]

sometimes being a fan of something means not wanting them to make any more of it

[gameofthronesdaily]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season 3 Episode 8 — "The Treasons at Tumbleton"

[vhagar-balerion-meraxes]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S03E08 - "The Treasons Of Tumbleton"

[alysmond]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | Season 3, Episode 8

[experienceandobservation]

Jeremy Allen White | At The Studio City Farmers Market in Los Angeles, California | August 09, 2026

[frazzledsoul]

I don't want to say that the way House of the Dragon depicted Heleana's death was done well, but I get what the intention was.

Heleana sees no way out. If her baby makes it to childbirth, it will be taken from her and murdered. If she rides Dreamfyre, she will have to kill a bunch of innocent people and she does not want to do that. If she somehow escaped with her children, she brings on the Long Night (or maybe that last vision meant that they can only be together in the afterlife).

Rhaenyra has locked her away, is starting to torture her, and her mind is breaking from the strain. She also knows her death has already been written to ensure Rhaenyra's downfall.

So she jumps.

How many times when you hear of someone's suicide or suicide attempt that no one knew anything was wrong or that there didn't seem to be any reason for that person to kill themselves? There is not always a cause and effect.

And unfortunately Heleana had a lot of reasons to take her life. Her entire life she has been haunted by dark visions she can't control. Her mother forced her to marry her brother when she was 13 and she gave birth to twins a year later. Her son was murdered in front of her. Her brother/husband was maimed by her other brother and then abandoned her. The baby she wanted so badly to save will never live. Her mother is constantly lying to and manipulating her. She has been separated from her daughter, perhaps permanently. And as long as she lives, Rhaenyra will make her life miserable.

And in the end, she has no choice. It is ordained. She must die while Rhaenyra rules in misery and tyranny. There's nothing she can do.

Unfortunately, I do see a lot of logic there in the mind of a clinically depressed person, especially under these particular circumstances. I understand why she did it.