Posted a similar question on the Green sub for the women, asking what their reasons are for supporting Aegon over Rhaenyra. Got some…er…interesting answers, to say the least.
Also got accused of Team Black never asking this question to men 🙃 So, let’s hear it.
So, men of Team Black! What are your reasons for supporting Rhaenyra over Aegon?
We have never seen Helaena interact with, or even mention, Dreamfyre in the show. She apparently has no “taste for it”.
Why would she bond with a dragon only to abandon it?
If the showrunners wanted to portray her as reluctant to join the war, it would have been far more powerful if she had been an active dragonrider who still refused to fight because of her unwillingness to cause destruction.
Some interesting parallels between Jacaerys Velaryon and Jon Snow
I was up wayyy too late thinking about asoiaf and a few interesting parallels popped in my head. Some seem obvious, some are totally a reach but I am including them all anyway:
Both are dark haired Targaryens + bastards, born to parents whose names start with “Rhae”(Rhaenyra/Rhaegar). Neither boy has the typical Valyrian look expected of them and it works in Jon’s favour and backfires in Jace’s.
Names start with J - Jacaerys/Jon. Minor, but stood out to me.
Both of them are deeply connected to the Starks. Jace is southern born prince who travels north to the Starks. Guess who else is a southern born “prince” who is brought to the Starks?
Jace was (rumoured to?) have taken a lover named Sarah Snow. Probably just a funny coincidence rather than a parallel, but still mention worthy.
But the most interesting is that Jace and Cregan Stark swore the Pact of Ice and Fire. If I remember correctly, Jace’s first born daughter was to be betrothed to Cregan’s first born son as a part of the pact. Well…Jon Snow literally IS the song of Ice and Fire.
One thing I know from reading GRRM is that there are very few coincidences lol. He often reuses and recycles things to draw symbolism and connection.
Thoughts?
Edit: formatting
Her character was pretty much butchered in season 2, but whatever we have seen so far in 3…man…
Alicent spent her children's entire lives breathing paranoia down their necks, conditioning them to believe that Rhaenyra would murder them the second she took the throne. A trickle down effect from her father, no doubt.
Then she forced Aegon to take a throne he didn’t even want to touch with a ten foot pole, essentially shoving him into a role he neither wanted nor was he prepared for.
She married off her own son and daughter to each other at an incredibly young age, destroying any chance of a normal life, just to block a potential Helaena/Jace match.
Heck, the only "decent" son she has (Daeron) is the one who was raised entirely away from her and Viserys (yes, I hold him equally culpable in ruining the green kids)
And after ALL of that? She agrees to sacrifice Aegon and Aemond's lives for her own freedom.
Worse, in the last ep, she willingly throws DAERON under the bus too.
Are you telling me a seasoned political player like Alicent Hightower didn't have the basic sense to control her facial expressions and play along when a fake Daeron was brought before her?
And like there is absolutely zero guarantee Rhaenyra would have spared him and sent him to the wall anyway? Daemon could have easily persuaded her to "eliminate the competition" regardless of any promises made. Man was all but ready to play football with Otto’s head…how is she so naive suddenly?
She is trading the lives of not one, not two, but THREE of her children for a "friendship" she’s loathed and bitched about for the last 20 years of her life.
Are Aegon and Aemond good people? Absolutely fucking not. But the writers doing a complete 180 from her book counterpart has made show-Alicent entirely irredeemable. Like, I don’t care if she spends the entire season helping Rhaenyra, I just can’t take her actions seriously anymore. Not as a mother, not as a political player, not as a prisoner.
The writers have failed her character so bad and it feels even worse because Olivia Cooke would have cooked had she been given a more book accurate Alicent to play with.
Sigh.
Had an interesting “what if” thought.
Do you think Rhaenyra would have still beheaded Otto Hightower if Alicent and Helaena were already present in the throne room? Say they were dragged in moments before Daemon brought Otto out.
Alicent would undoubtedly beg for her father’s life to be spared, but would Rhaenyra actually be swayed? Especially considering she already seemed grateful that Alicent kept her word, ensuring a (more or less) bloodless takeover of the city.
Would that lingering gratitude make her hesitate, or would Daemon's influence win out, ensuring Otto's immediate execution regardless?
In the latest episode, Helaena said Jace and Luke were always kind to her (or kind in general). And it broke my heart a little.
A Jace/Helaena marriage honestly could have prevented a lot of tragedy, and it undoubtedly would have given Helaena a much kinder, happier life. Which makes me wonder: whose idea was it to marry Helaena and Aegon instead??
If it was Viserys: I guess it makes sense in a "adhering to old Valyrian customs" way, even if it was incredibly damaging to both kids (especially Helaena, who was forced into motherhood so young).
If it was Alicent: This is where it gets fascinating. Alicent is an outsider from Oldtown. She is intensely pious, follows the Faith of the Seven, and was raised to believe that incest is unnatural, an abomination. She even explicitly calls Targaryen customs "queer" in Season 1.
Was Alicent so consumed by ambition and her hatred of Rhaenyra that she actively pushed for her own children to enter an incestuous marriage?
For a non-Targaryen who weaponizes the Faith, the hypocrisy is staggering. It must have been deeply damaging for her psychologically to force her children into something she fundamentally views as a sin, and to watch them have children of their own! Especially since neither Aegon nor Helaena even wanted it.
And to put her daughter through whatever she herself went through … like ma’am, you could have at least waited until she was 17-18.
Thoughts? Any context I am missing?
I’ve been thinking about Fatima’s rapid decline, and the timing with her completing the clay Golem is wayyy too specific to be a coincidence.
She started deteriorating only AFTER that sculpture was finished. Instead of these being two separate plotlines, I think her physical decline and the Golem are directly connected through the show's manifestation rules.
In EP 9 Sophia used Clara to slip her blood into Fatima’s tonic in, triggering a rapid decline in her (possibly turning her into a creature). But what if this transformation is the exact catalyst the Golem needs to activate? In traditional folklore, a golem requires a “spark” to animate.
Conveniently, we just learned a huge mechanic about how manifestation works in Fromville: it often triggers right around death. Look at the creepy dolls. They only materialized into an active, physical threat after the man from Tabitha's vision who feared them died.
If Fromville manifests nightmares upon death, it makes perfect sense that it can manifest hope or protection the same way. Fatima poured all her desperate desire for safety into molding that clay. Her crossing into a near-death state (or dying completely) will likely be the exact trigger required to awaken the Golem.
Imo, leaving a giant mud sculpture in the Colony House attic without a payoff in Episode 10 would be terrible writing. With the townspeople backed into a corner, they need a major wildcard.
In short, I think the wildcard = the Golem
Thoughts?