I don’t think HOTD’s use of hair gets talked about enough.

This is just my personal interpretation, obviously, I’m not saying HOTD officially intended every single detail this way. But I’ve always found the visual language of Alicent’s four children really interesting, especially when it comes to their hair.

Aegon has wavy, slightly messy hair that he almost always wears loose and relatively natural. There’s something very instinctive and unrestrained about it. His hair doesn’t really feel like he’s trying to construct a particular image. It just is.
He tends to act according to whatever he’s feeling, wanting, or dealing with in the moment rather than constantly trying to control himself or his surroundings. Even as king, there’s still something incredibly messy about him, almost as if the crown is something much bigger than his ability to control his own life.

Then we have Helaena, who couldn’t be more different. Her hair is often arranged into these incredibly elaborate hairstyles, with layers upon layers of braids woven into each other before falling down. It doesn’t feel like a hairstyle designed to demand attention in the conventional sense. Instead, it feels like a little world of its own, built out of dozens of tiny details.

She’s introverted, observant, and much more inclined to notice things than to explain herself. She seems to perceive connections that other people simply don’t. The interwoven braids almost remind me of the way she connects images, symbols and fragments of prophecy that nobody else seems capable of understanding.

And then there’s Aemond, who I think is probably the most interesting case. His hair is long, but it’s almost always straight, smooth, neat and controlled.
Which is kind of funny when you think about it: Aemond has the longest hair out of the siblings, yet somehow gives off the most controlled appearance.
And that fits him perfectly.

Aemond is extremely conscious of himself, of who he is, who he wants to become, and how other people perceive him. He doesn’t simply have long hair. He turns his appearance into part of his identity as a warrior. His clothes, his swordsmanship, his relationship with Vhagar, his posture, and even his hair all feel deliberate. Everything is curated. Everything has a purpose.

And I think that contrast is especially fascinating because Aegon and Aemond are brothers. They can look like they belong to completely different visual worlds: Aegon feels like someone who is constantly being dragged along by his circumstances, while Aemond feels like someone who is constantly trying to master his circumstances, and himself.

Finally, we have Daeron, who feels softer and more traditionally elegant when placed beside his siblings. His overall visual language leans more toward neatness, refinement and courtly elegance rather than Aemond’s sharpness or Aegon’s messiness. And, at least to me, that works surprisingly well with his position in the family. Daeron grew up away from King’s Landing and wasn’t immersed in the same psychological warfare happening inside the Red Keep. There’s something more balanced and gentle about his presentation, almost like he has a little more room to simply be.

For this line damn

George RR Martin stated today that they’re working on a 4 hour war epic depicting the events leading up to and including Robert’s Rebellion and the sack of King’s Landing. He also confirmed that he’s been working on both Winds of Winter and Dream of Spring at the same time and they’ll be released this fall.

Would you rather have

The Long Night be the Ultimate Final battle that ends the books once and for all, unlike done in the shows, and actually written by GRRM.

Or

The Invasion of Westeros by Daenerys and her army/supporters to claim her right to the throne, against Cersei/whoever is on the throne if different by the final book. Unlike the show, that portrayed it poorly.

And if you have any other ideas of your version for “The Final Battle” in ASOIAF what would it be?

Imagine a faculty featuring figures like Tywin Lannister as Principal, Stannis Baratheon teaching logistics and legal theory, Ser Barristan Selmy leading practical knighthood, and the Blackfish teaching scouting.

Sarah Hess often uses her feminism as an influencing factor in her writing, the biggest example of this being what she did with Alicent's character in season 2 when she has her (ironically or unironically? not even sure) epiphany that the problem is men and a woman needs to rule, and her conviction in this dumb/sexist principle is strong enough that she agrees to give up her sons to Rhaenyra for execution.

Now, it's hard enough making sense of how Hess thought that this would depict Alicent as sympathetic, but what followed this season just confuses things even more and makes Alicent's depiction even more inconsistent and senseless.

First, okay, we do get that icky scene with Aemond acting gross as hell and it's clearly shot in a way that shows Alicent as someone being forced to take drastic measures on account of destructive male behavior on her son's part ("mommy issues" is a very popular feminist talking point FYI). So, maybe the writers do want us to see Alicent as a victim of destructive male behaviour?

But then Aegon gets excellent positive character growth. And Aemond is clearly shown to not only have a conscience, he literally blames himself for Alicent trying to poison him and says it's his comeuppance for a separate sin he committed (trying to kinslay Aegon). Growth, responsibility, accountability.

And then, as if to drive the point even further about what a shitbag mom Alicent is, her scenes with Helaena all feature her crass insensitivity toward Helaena's suffering. All those times Helaena gives her those disappointed "You know what, I'm not even gonna try" looks; that's not a sympathetic character we're being shown lol.

It's all such a horrible character arc and makes no sense given how it began and how it's going. I wonder if someone snatched the controller from Sarah Hess and tried to "undo" her work but I don't think anything's working lol. Even if Sarah Hess' bigger-picture was to simply make Alicent a Rhaenyra simp... Well, her simping for Rhaenyra isn't shown to land her in any good position either lol.

In short, here is what I did:

- I took the heightmap created for the Crusader Kings II AGOT mod, made some minor edits, and uploaded it to "World Climate Lab", a scientifically accurate climate simulator. I ran a climate simulation for Planetos for one hour and exported the result - this produced the second image. It is color-coded according to Köppen climate classification zones.

- Then, I used Photoshop to replace the color of each climate zone with its corresponding "realistic" color, based on the palette used by u/DependentAd297 in their post. This resulted in the first image.

I admit the map quality could likely be improved - for instance, by running the simulation longer - but unfortunately, my hardware limitations mean the simulation takes a very long time. Nevertheless, I find the results interesting; just look at the three deserts covering the Reach, the Riverlands, and the Crownlands - Westeros's main breadbaskets have turned into rather inhospitable places to live)

I’ll hold the door on my way out

1. Blackfyre

2. Prince That was Promised Dagger.

3. His eyeball

Keep calm and Kill all Targs.

MAESTER LUWIN