u/BeltMountain5596

I used to think Lucy's journey was one which she went from being naive to gritty. While that part is still true, I'm starting to feel the entire character arch is really one of finding freedom.

This could be hard to comprehend at first since she had a materially good life compared to almost everyone else. But while freedom and prosperity usually go hand in hand, it doesn't always. And in her case it didn't.

Hank was a loving father, but was also her prison warden as well. When she had her first chance at freedom in Shady Sands, Hank forcefully took her back and nuked his wife and the town. Life in the Vaults with the jumpsuits is nothing more than a soft jail, and her main bestie (Steph) being a traumatized concentration camp survivor who married her oppressor (in a way) just adds to that. Then when she emerged from the vault she continued to lose her freedom, first to bounty hunter mode Coop (who literally tortured/tied up/mutilated and sold her to organ harvesters before bringing her to Vegas be traded), then the legion who actually officially enslaved and crucified her, then back to Hank again in a grander jail of a vault. The climax was when he was about to lobotomize her via the chip to stop disobedience--almost turning her into a literal robot slave.

And her escaping from that, and reuniting with Maximus (who also escaped the oppression of barracks life) in House's HQ was the first time in her life she was truly free. With an equal partner and a potential employer (House might be evil capitalist but he still traded via rules of commerce) instead of a de facto master. Now ready to challenge the greatest slavery force in the wasteland (the legion).

So perhaps she is the embodiment of finding freedom. First she finds her own freedom, then she defeats the legion and Enclave in the coming seasons to ensure freedom in the Wasteland. And perhaps the series ends with the establishment of a sustainable free society (perhaps Shady Sands 2.0).

And if the Pre War era represents a free society sliding into oppression, and the Wasteland era thus far represents the rock bottom of humanity, then perhaps Lucy's arc is to kick start the rise back to a better future, through the restoration of liberty and compassion.

It's interesting that Steph might have the other sadder path version of this, where trauma leads to her becoming an oppressor herself via phase 2.

It'll be interesting how their two paths juxtapose.

I read that Medieval England had like millions of sheep at any given time, and the assumption is that big dragons like Vhagar eat on average hundreds to a thousand sheep a year. So my guess is that if Westeros goes without a Dance for another 100 years, there might be 100-300 dragons (especially if the wild ones breed and hatch), meaning Westeros' primitive agrarian economy starts straining and collapsing?

So perhaps whatever happened was part of Aegons prophecy, to keep the realm united to resist the Long Night 2.0, and the Dance was necessary to protect Westeros economy and the prophecy intention was for dragons to exist at the beginning to unite the realm and will come back later to fight the long night?

That's assume in the heat of the moment after Aemma's death when Alicent went to seduce him he fathered a child with her, but then refused to marry her and made her his mistress. This is not unprecedented in the medieval world, the institution of a Royal mistress was customary. It would avoid the Dance by concentrating all power to Rhaenrya and her consort, but given how powerful the Hightowers were, what type of fallout do you think we're looking at? Would it simply sow she seeds of hatred for a worse Dance further down the road?

My understanding is that Coop was born maybe 2040s and came of age when the resource wars were in full swing. If so, he might have became a professional soldier right out of school and been involved in questionable acts in Mexico and Canada, before maybe becoming famous due to his war hero record and pivoting to a dream Hollywood career as a John Wayne type.

So while he was depicted a kind and naive prewar, I also believe he drank the Kool aid and did a bunch of "law and order" stuff as part of the occupations, and he never thought that was unethical, which is why is managed to survive in the wasteland (him being more at ease with necessary cruelty just like how House was at ease with bad business practices).

So when Coop said to Lucy he was just like her before the war (i.e. "stupid"), I think that wasn't really the case as Lucy's kindness is universal while he had a much higher social dominance orientation.