Lazy‘s Fandom Blog

Mostly HoTD, ASoIaF

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The Islamic republic regime will be gone before GTA6 is out

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[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

reblog if you would never let ai write fanfics for you

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Catelyn is the anti-fantasy mom: no wise platitudes, no emotional stability, no saintly patience. Just a woman watching the world punish her for caring. A depressed, grieving, maladaptive icon.

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We in Team Green often talk about how desperately Aegon wants to be a girl/Rhaenyra and how no-one really won the Dance, but building off my last post, I‘ve come to believe that there is another character who would love to be someone else and that is our girl Rhaenyra herself. And I believe she wants to be Alicent so badly.

Why? Because I believe Rhaenyra is for all her faults not a power-hungry person. She did not covet the Iron Throne to exercise power through it. Both sides wanted the throne for what the other side got in the end. Aegon took the throne against his will, inclination and better judgement to protect his children. And all of them died during the war. Rhaenyra, who after the war was scorned and hated and blamed for every misfortune that befell Westeros, wanted to be accepted and loved.

I think she wanted to be seen as Alicent and Helaena were. A beautiful, wise, kind picture perfect Queen. No one ever questions Alicent’s authority. No one ever uses mean names for Alicent but Daemon.(in Universe that is) When Alicent enters a room the men rise from their seats and sit back down only when she takes her seat. Alicent (in the Book at least) is the undisputed leader of the Green Council, it is her court, her Keep that she may decorate however she pleases. No one ever thinks of disobeying her because she‘s no man.

And I think Rhaenyra cannot understand why that is. She‘s also beautiful (yes, even in the book she isn‘t described as ugly), she‘s witty, a fashion icon, she commands intense loyalty from her inner circle but in the realm writ large her and Alicent‘s/Aegon‘s situations are reversed: It is Rhaenyra who never seems to be able to do anything right, who is shunned at every turn and I think it bothers her much the same way as Viserys‘ neglect eats all the Greens up from the inside.

Even in death it is Alicent and Helaena that are remembered as great Queens. Not her. I just think there is a very compelling story here, if only the showrunners understood my vision…

[justalazyfandomblog]

I find it incredibly interesting and frustrating to observe the HotD discourse. Frustrating because seeing people write of large chunks of the book as „propaganda“ is just not how historical analysis work. But if we were to try to engage with the text as historians of this fictional world we could attempt to unearth systemical and irreconcilable disputes between both Blacks and Greens at the root of this conflict. And it is not sexism vs progress.

It is rather a fundamental disagreement about the nature of Kingship. And funnily enough the lines of battle extend deep into the fandom.

On the one Hand you have TG who champion a very Westerosi idea of Kingship: the King is the most powerful nobleman in the Kingdoms, but he is very much a nobleman, a primus inter pares and very much subject to the customs and laws that govern that class. Presupposing that framework, Rhaenyra and Viserys seem almost suicidally stupid at times, ignoring the illegitemacy of the Strong boys, murdering (or not murdering) Laenor antagonizing the royal court when they are dependent on their favour etc.

We here in TG can pontificate until Kingdom come about Rhaenyra‘s stupidity or Daemon‘s shameless violence and TB will just be utterly baffled what we‘re even trying to say. They are Targaryens. The laws of Westeros do not apply to them. Meanwhile all our arguments and legal theories would fall flat in the face of Caraxes showing up at our doorstep to have a nuanced discussion about the topic of succession and royal will.

Because to Viserys, Rhaenyra, Daemon and their fanbase the King is something fundamentally different. The Monarch is a Dragonlord from Old Valyria. The social constructs of Westerosi nobility do not apply to them. You will accept my sons as legitimate, because I say so and that is the only thing that matters here. Openly breaking the rules becomes a demonstration of power, to remind the Lords of their subservience and relative impotence. I am going to murder a member of an important family and you all know I did it, but there is nothing you can do about it.

And yeah, Targaryens are so ludicrously more powerful than any other House that it is a very reasonable model to understand Targaryen legitimacy and representation. But regardless of all their might they need the cooperation of the nobility, unless Syrax takes up a post as the realms first flying administrator.

Note that both sides have to make concessions to the other side to some degree. Aegon is still very much a Dragon Rider King who expects people to fall in Line or else and while Rhaenyra even though she continues her scandalous affair, she never is so bold as to openly admit to it.