u/ramm_jeet

Trying to make it for tomorrow.

Stuck refreshing my podcast player because I just got out of the Odyssey and need all the takes. Only to realise the US premier is still two days away.

It’s a masterpiece! The performers deserve all the flowers. Goransson deserves all the flowers. Nolan, flowers. Flowers everywhere.

Shout out to Jo from House of R for this great reminder… the people who wrote the Targaryen history were not unbiased, similar to the chroniclers of Roman history (quote below). The Faith and the Maesters have always had a dog in the fight. Before Aegon landed its safe to say very little connected Westeros like the seven gods (in the south) and each household having a maester who reported to the Citadel. Aegon came and changed the order of things. It is not unreasonable to think that both these institutions would not like this and would look for ways to undermine their rule. A task made easier because they were the custodians of history.

1. Is Targaryen “madness” overblown?
   Most likely. For sure there were would have been some mad rulers (Maegor WAS cruel) but the coin flip, idk. It’s also possible that the history took the worst day in someone’s reign and made it the thesis of their argument.

2. Were Targaryens really the only house in Westeros where incest was practiced?
   The histories probably harped on it because the Targaryens were the only ones that could not be shamed into submission about it.

3. Is Rhaenyra really the only leader who ever to passed off their bastards as their legitimate heirs?
   Definitely not, just even from real world experience this would be highly unrealistic.

4. Dragons… profane magic? Idk, the homies look like they’re trying to have a good time with each other and their riders.

“Many of the most memorable stories about emperors come from writers who belonged to, or sympathized with, Rome’s educated elite. Authors such as Suetonius, Tacitus, and Cassius Dio preserved priceless material, but they were not neutral reporters in the modern sense. They wrote with literary aims, moral judgments, political assumptions, class prejudices, and sometimes a strong dislike of emperors who humiliated the Senate or upset traditional aristocratic privilege.
This does not mean their accounts should simply be dismissed.
Roman historians could be sharp observers, and bad emperors really did exist. But hostile evidence has to be handled carefully. When a ruler was hated by the Senate, stories about sexual excess, foreign habits, theatrical behavior, religious eccentricity, cruelty, cowardice, or madness could become part of a political portrait. A ruler who insulted senators might be described not merely as rude or autocratic, but as a monster against nature, a tyrant, or a disgrace to Rome itself.”

Perhaps along with dragon riding and high Valyrian lessons, Targaryens should have also invested in chronicling their own histories. I’d love to hear their side of the story.

Now that we’re in the thick of the dance. What are your thoughts on dragons?
Are they “a weapon should never have been tampered with”?
Is the problem *Targaryens* riding dragons? Or is 150ish years of Westerosi rule a good ROI and you take the good with the bad?

Go to the iron bank and get your gold back, matter of fact, take the rest of their gold too. Burn their ships and make sure they cannot attack you while you sort out your house. Give the realm a common enemy that isn’t you. Get gold without inconveniencing the nobles and merchants.

Of course in practice there are many limitations to the idea but you know, ruling.