u/Swordbender

When people defend Rhaenyra’s choices in this episode: I’ll often hear: “Corlys just needs to wait, she’ll get around to making Alys and Adam Velaryons one day. Why would he have this conversation now, just after Jace died?”

And it’s like, we need to read the terrain here. Corlys has no heir. There’s a reason he’s pushing for this now — immediately following Jace’s unexpected death.

As things stood, Jace was in line for the Iron Throne and Joffrey was in line for the Velaryon seat. Now Jace is gone, and Joffrey will ascend the Iron Throne.

Corlys has no more Velaryon boys. Rhaena and Baela are both Targaryens. Corlys has no heirs.

Then, as a gotcha, people also like to say: “Serves him right, he waited 30 years to stop being a deadbeat. He can wait a little longer.”

Actually, no, he can’t.

This isn’t about Corlys’ treatment of his sons. It’s about making sure his line doesn’t go fucking extinct. When Corlys acknowledged his Baseborn sons, that was him dealing with being a deadbeat. Now he’s trying to legitimize them, which is something only Rhaenyra can specifically do.

Okay, so why does this legitimization have to be now?

Corlys, first of all, is an old man. If he keels over now, the Velaryon line is done. The Velaryons survived the Doom, and they’re now likely to loose their seat at High Tide. Why? Because Rhaenyra was skittish about lending credence to rumours. Great.

More importantly, the Blacks are in the middle of a protracted war. A war which has - in a very short time - claimed the lives of Corlys’ wife, daughter, and true born son. All of them dead as a consequence of fighting for Rhaenyra’s claim (and Corlys has good reason to believe that Daemon and Rhaenyra had Laenor killed in service of Rhaenyra’s claim).

Is it unreasonable to think that Corlys might die any day now? And it reasonable for him to be satisfied with Rhaenyra saying offhandedly: “oh, we’ll get around to it sometime” when Rhaenyra has no gold, is lacking ample food provisions, and hasn’t yet killed any of her rival claimants?

Understand that House Velaryon is teetering on the brink of total elimination. This needs to happen now.

So, let’s now briefly get into Rhaenyra’s hypocrisy.

She doesn’t want to lend credence to the rumours of her sons’ bastardy? Okay. But she’s somehow okay with making things worse for her bastards by giving other Targaryen bastards fucking dragons.

Why is she okay with this? Shes okay with this because she needs the dragonseeds. Right now, Corlys needs a Velaryon heir — but Rhaenyra doesn’t need a Velaryon heir.

To sum that up, Rhaenyra is fine with harming her childrens’ legitimacy insofar as it serves her, but not when is serves her most valuable ally (who also happens to be her Hand).

Corlys is the best friend Rhaenyra has. He:

- Managed to beat the Triarchy
- Had Hight Tide burnt down to ashes
- Sacrificed his entire immediate family fighting for her cause
- Is in charge of the largest fleet of Westeros
- Accepted her bastard as his heir, even though he shared no blood with Luke

And Rhaenyra shoves his one fucking request to the side. Staggeringly poor move.

Arguably worse than anything Aegon did as king.

And before you call me biased for that last comment, consider that the worst thing Aegon did as king is hanging ratcatchers. If Aegon had personally pissed off Lord Redwyne or Borros Baratheon in such a flagrant manner, I’d be singing a different tune.

In the wake of Jacob Batalon receiving a Rolex from Tom Holland and Zendaya saying that we need to bring tissues to this movie, I realized that Ned is dying.

Ned doesn’t seem to be in any scenes in the later acts. Peter only rescues MJ and hides her. And now Tom Holland buys Jacob a gift that could be a going away present?

I’m calling it.

I’m just curious. I know today is when the first episode premieres, I’m just wondering when the critics will receive their episodes and be able to post their reviews — whether social media or full reviews.

...regarding Aemond kissing Alicent.

Am I the only one who thinks it's narratively coherent with Aemond's personality?

Don't get me wrong -- I'm less than thrilled about the choices made in the show when it comes to the characters (especially on the Green side), but Aemond's character has actually built up to this.

Like, we all know that he has lingering, strong mommy issues. But more than that: Aemond (and the other Green kids, esp Aegon) has been parentified his entire life by Alicent. She treated her kids like tools, relying on them to protect her and the entire Green cause.

It only seems natural to me that Aemond would see her as a peer, rather than strictly a parent. This, plus his extant maternal hang-ups, makes the kiss (if it even happens) kind of a logical and interesting choice to me.