u/StrawberryScience

I don’t know if I can take another ‘everything looks normal’. I’m scheduling an HIDA test, a stool test, and a pancreatic enzyme test.

So my question, half serious, should I eat something triggering before the tests so the doctors can see with their own eyes what’s going on?

Or is that a bridge too far?

(It’s also a chance to eat onion soup again.)

Why did he fight tooth and nail to head up the Royal Dragon Riding Women Show staring Princess Female Dragon Rider A, B, C and D featuring morally grey and nuanced themes of femininity and power?

I’m trying to think up alternate ways to reenforce the Targaryen rule. Since this is the height of the Golden Age, there are a lot of Targaryens and a Lot of Dragons. A blessing and a curse since it’s taking a lot of resources to feed and house them. So I’m trying to put them all to work.

Right now, I have dragons doing search and rescue missions on the Blackwater. But can you help me come up with other ways to prove dragons are useful in peace as well as war?

And realizing he sucks at everything because he never put any effort into anything.

Aegon spent his childhood debauching himself. He’s a hedonist who’s only interested in the fun glamorous parts of life.

In the final season, i hope he’s going to be ‘victor’ of the Dance and run his reign directly into the ground.

I see a lot of people saying Rhaenyra should have done this or that to ‘secure her position’ as Princess of Dragonstone. But I can see why she would think it’s already secure…

Rhaenyra was publicly sworn in as Princess of Dragonstone by over a hundred lords. In a society based on Oaths, that’s as close to iron clad as anyone can get. The ’I personally didn’t swear an oath’ argument is a hyper technicality fig leaf. It’s like the argument I don’t have to pay taxes because I didn’t choose to be an American Citizen, my Parents did. Yeah, you’re technically right but who in their right mind thinks like that.

Rhaenyra made a strategic marriage to the richest house in Westeros, House Velaryon, and doubled her heirs’ claim. Yes, her sons were sired by Harwin Strong, but they were legally Laenor’s and betrothed to the next blood heirs, Baela and Rhaena. She had the wealth, the fleets, and Rhaenys and Meleys by her side.

Rhaenyra’s second marriage secured the only battle hardened Dragon Rider and General in Westeros as her consort. Daemon had spent years in the Stepstones. He and Caraxes knew how to fight and how to campaign.

Rhaenyra’s mother was an Arryn, and higher ranking than Alicent. As storied and old as the Hightowers are, they are a Vassal’s Vassal. It’s easy to believe that the Paramount Houses (especially Tully and Tyrell) would prefer that a Royal of their rank ascend rather than send the wrong message to their older, more powerful bannermen.

At the time of the Dance, House Arryn was headed by a Lady and House Baratheon had only female heirs in the direct line. As Fire & Blood said, Aegon ascending over a named female heir would threaten Jeyne and Cassandra’s rights. It’s only because Borros was a Bore that Rhaenyra lost the Stormlands.

Rhaenyra had be ruling on Dragonstone for over a decade. Aegon spent his time getting drunk and assaulting the help. She had proven she could manage territory.

From what I understand, at the height of the British empire, the various Kings and Royals made repeated, almost exclusive, marriages to various small Germanic Duchies. These marriages don’t seem all too beneficial to the British Empire.

It feels like a weird contrast to the Medieval and Early Modern monarchs who weddings tended to be more strategic. Kingdoms like France, Spain, and Denmark. Heiresses like Elizabeth of York.

I know that there was a prohibition against a Catholic Marriage Partner but what about Kingdoms like Denmark, Sweden, and Norway? Did it extend to Russia or Poland?

Why did this keep occurring?

There is no mention of F&B’s Manderly betrothal. Joffrey is unspoken for and the current Crown Prince.

Alicent knows that Aegon can’t have more children. Jaehaera is, at present, his only living heir. So Jaehaera should be immediately been declared Aegon’s heir and betrothed to Joffrey Velaryon/Targaryen.

This sets up a fracture line between the claim between Aegon’s line and Aemond/Dareon.

(Helaena’s pregnancy fucks it up but Rhaenyra doesn’t know that yet.)

Beware the Villainess has an antagonist who is supposed to be this evil, Moriarty type-criminal mastermind. However when the protagonist transmigrates from our world into the story and meets said character face to face, she’s blown away by how dumb and clumsy he actually is.

She puzzles over this before she is struck by a realization…

“[Psycho Antagonist] can only be as smart as the Author, and the Author is dumb as #^]#%}*.”

I just think that’s an interesting idea to bounce around for no particular reason. 😈

Does anyone have any Pro-Team Black fanfics that don’t turn the Greens into stereotypical Evil Doers™️? Where Alicent and Otto aren’t Homer Simpson/Peter Griffin level Child abusers and the Green Princes aren’t little sociopaths in training?

Does anyone have any Pro-Team Black fanfics that don’t turn the Greens into stereotypical Evil Doers™️? Where Alicent and Otto aren’t Homer Simpson/Peter Griffin level Child abusers and the Green Princes aren’t little sociopaths in training?

Alicent’s ‘You Killed My Father’? You mean the same Father that pimped you out, psychologically terrorized everyone around him, and started a war?

Helaena’s ‘Did it make you feel better?’ No, but it would make me and my remaining sons feel safer to know the architect of the war was dead.

Torrhen Manderly’s ‘I’m Evil and I know it’? If you’re so greedy, why do you care about the smallfolk? Or are you just so shortsighted you forget, Rhaenyra did not start this war. And what was the point of even mocking the sitting Queen?

Corlys’s ’They are Bastards.’? And if you find another brace of sons will Rhaenyra be expected to legitimize them as well? You had five and ten years to denounce her and five and ten years to find your other heirs.

Any good Self-Insert stories that twist the formula a bit? Like being narrated by an outside POV or not doing a tech uplift?

Just something that doesn't hit the same notes beat for beat.

My coworker told me to refill the ice cube tray and then complained I did it ‘wrong’.

My office doesn’t have a fridge with a built in ice maker, so we use three ice cube trays instead. So my co worker and I split the last six cubes in one tray, three a piece. Then, without asking, they hand me the tray to refill. I didn’t care even if we were both using it I came in after them.

But when I went to the sink to fill it up they freaks out. Apparently only use filtered water is good enough for their ice cubes. I got so cheesed off at them and handed the tray back. If they NEED to have something done a specific way, they should have said something or done it themselves. I’m not a mind reader and I don’t care if what kind of water makes my ice cubes as long as it’s potable.

Sweet Jeez Almight.

Every new leak has me dreading season 3 even more. *Rhaenyra* being the wicked stepmother instead of Alicent. Changing Jace’s death from ‘I love my brothers so much’ to ‘I need to prove my mother’s mistakes don’t define me’. Making **Alicent** the voice of reason in Rhaenyra’s court and driving her away from Daemon and Mysaria. Once again throwing a woman of color under the bus for their shitty milquetoast lesbian misery porn.

And the Freudian shit at Harrenhal, I can’t even.

I have this epic length HotD!SI that I started writing. I was really proud of it. But every little change, every ‘I know better than George’ moment is another reason I can’t bring myself to pick it up again. I just can’t stop thinking about how GRRM’s powerful, morally grey narrative of two women trying to have power in a patriarchal society has been reduced to a TERF’s ‘All women are good and gentle. All men are violent and evil.’ Wet dream.

Two Actions, Both Alike in their Ambiguity. In Squalid Westeros, We Lay Bare the Debate...

There are two main actions at the heart of the HotD fandom flame wars: Otto pushing Alicent to be Queen and Rhaenyra's first three children. And I think these two choices pose an interesting contrast with each other.

What Otto and, to a lesser extent, Alicent did was legal. There is nothing against the law about setting up a widower with a new wife. Viserys himself decided he needed a new wife and more heirs and Rhaenyra reluctantly agreed. Alicent was of a rank to be worthy of a Queen's Crown, even if she would be an unexpected and controversial choice. Her visits were above board and she did not say or do anything to imply she wasn't willing or that she was trying to force Viserys's hand.

However what they were doing was deeply immoral. Alicent was reluctant to pursue Viserys and Otto clearly leveraged his authority as her father. Otto was grasping for power and going behind the backs of a Court which would not approve of his methods. Not to mention, he was setting up a succession dispute, if not with Rhaenyra or Daemon, then certainly with the Velaryons. Otto's decision to push for Alicent's Crown made the realm weaker, more fractured, and served no one but himself.

On the other hand we have Rhaenyra's arrangement with Laenor and Harwin. Rhaenyra conceived three bastard children and passed them off as Laenor's trueborn heirs. This is explicitly and unquestionably illegal. However, this is not a truly immoral action.

Rhaenyra was pushed into a marriage with Laenor Velaryon. She did not want to get married at all and only accepted because of her father's well-meaning pressure. Laenor himself was gay and quite comfortable with it. He and Rhaenyra agreed not to ask each other for love they could not give, Only duty. Duty that Laenor could not preform. Laenor explicitly stated he could not get Rhaenyra pregnant; Even if this wasn't true, it was what Laenor and Rhaenyra believed. And it created a minefield for them to navigate.

The Legal course of action here was to either suck it up and have no children or go public and annul the marriage. Both options would have been a political disaster for Rhaenyra and Laenor. Either way, Rhaenyra would humiliate the Richest Man in Westeros and a Royal Dragonrider and lose their support completely. At best, they would be neutral. At Worst they would jump ship to the Greens. And either way Laenor would be saddled with the threat of another arranged marriage, this time to a wife who might not be as understanding as Rhaenyra.

So, with Laenor's agreement, Rhaenyra tried to thread the needle. She would have children with another man and Laenor would accept them. Which Laenor did, loudly and repeatedly, even when it was obvious they were not his biological children. Which is Illegal under Westeros's system but which is not immoral.

Walder Frey’s most common gripe is that no noble house will marry his many children but that’s not only false; It’s insulting to the many houses that did.

Walder himself married a Royce, a Swann, a Crakehall, a Whent, *and* a Rosby. These are major power players in Westeros, rich, storied. The Royces were considered worthy to marry a King’s brother at the Height of the Targaryens’ power.

His sons also do incredible with Brides from Houses like the Lyddens, the Leffords, and the Darrys. He even asked for the only daughter of the Lord Lannister and got it, for his *second son.*

His daughters have done equally well marrying into Houses like Brax, Vance, and Vyrpren.

The fact that Walder can obtain so many good marriages for himself and his family and still complain about his dim marriage prospects is proves how narcissistic and greedy he is. He wanted Houses to beg for a chance to marry his 19th son or his 7th daughter.