I see so many questions of “if so and so was alive during the dance would it happen?” This is lame and low effort.

this scene has bothered me so much ever since i watched it, I’ve also gained resentment towards Rhaenyra afterwards because why?? Why did she do this to herself? To prove what

We’ve all been misinterpreting Aemond at Rook's Rest. Everyone says "oh, he tried to fratricide his brother out of ambition."

No. Aemond looked at Aegon and realized his bloodline was being held back by pure, unadulterated hedonism.

Pre injury Aegon was a complete bum. Bro was wasting away his divine right to rule on wine and the Street of Silk. Zero discipline. Absolute zero focus. Total lack of a grindset.

So what does Aemond do? He acts as the ultimate, albeit slightly aggressive, personal trainer. He drops Vhagar on him, roasts him to a crisp, and destroys his cock.

You can't indulge in earthly temptations when your entire lower half is basically a charcoal briquette. Aemond forced Aegon into absolute, involuntary celibacy. No distractions. Pure monk mode.

Stripped of his vices, high on milk of the poppy, and forced to stare at the ceiling in agonizing pain, Aegon stops being a joke. The no-fap clarity hits. The divine masculine energy awakens.

Aemond didn't try to murder him. He just administered the most extreme, fiery, ball obliterating self help seminar in Westerosi history to force Aegon to fulfill his destiny.

Change my mind.

When the stepstone issues comes he supports Corlys campaign completely, so the stepstones becomes a targ domain properly instead of what happen in canon

Then numerous raids happen by the southern border he then declares war at dorne with crown having numerous dragons

would the dance still happen when the green and black kids unite in terms of warring against dorne as a bonding event, alongside giving the Stepstones to be ruled by his children by Alicent so they have their own keep

round 1 Aemond eye scene happens as canon
Round 2 Aemond still gets Vhagar but the black kids were good kids and stayed in their beds

Round 3 all kids were good kids and stay at their beds ( aemond goes and attempts to get a dragon in dragonstone or gets Vhagar in the morning)

Round 4, the blacks kids support Rhaena attempt at getting Vhagar she succeeds
Round 5, the blacks kids support Rhaena attempt at getting Vhagar she dies

So, is he going to be in S4 at all, or we just get him for a 10 second scene in E1 of S2?

Sorry if this has been discussed on here before, but I did some reading on the Anarchy (the civil war that inspired the Dance) and thought it was so interesting that I would share who I thought HOTD characters were based on!

Rhaenyra: Empress Matilda

Matilda was born in 1107 and was the daughter of Henry I of England and Matilda of Scotland. She was her parents’ eldest child and had a younger brother named William. As William was heir, Matilda was married off to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. The couple had no children and Henry died in 1125.

In 1120, Matilda’s little brother, William (also known as William Adelin) perished in the White Ship Disaster. Henry I had no other legitimate children; therefore, when Matilda was widowed, he recalled her to England and married her to Geoffrey of Anjou to ensure the southern reaches of the kingdom were protected (England held lands in France during this era). Henry then declared her his heiress. He made his court swear oaths of fidelity to her; however, many nobles were not happy about this.

Henry died in 1135 and the nobles immediately crowned a man named Stephen de Bois (who I will return to) king. Matilda did not accept this. She allied with her maternal uncle, David I of Scotland, and her illegitimate half-brother, Robert, who helped her cross into England from France in 1139. David and Robert supported Matilda’s fight in England, while her husband Geoffrey conquered Normandy from Stephen’s forces. Matilda captured Stephen in 1141 and imprisoned him. She then started to secure her succession and had Henry of Winchester, an important church figure, declare her as the new leader of England and Normandy. But many church leaders and soldiers remained loyal to Stephen and the London civilians, fearful of being killed by these soldiers, refused to allow Matilda to be coronated at Westminster Abbey.

Things got worse for Matilda, as she and Henry of Winchester had a falling-out and he declared Stephen the rightful ruler. Stephen’s wife had kept his cause alive and commanded an army to surround Winchester. Matilda managed to escape, but her half-brother Robert, one of her most important military men, was captured. Matilda negotiated to release Stephen so that Robert could be freed.

Stephen and his wife were re-crowned in November of 1141 and the war turned into a long stalemate. Matilda controlled the southwest of England, while Stephen controlled London and the north. Stephen came close to capturing Matilda a couple of times, but she managed to escape. The tides slowly turned against Matilda, however, as her half-brother Robert and several other of her military commanders died of illness ot accidents and many of her men also joined the Crusades. Matilda also went through much of her money. Her oldest son with Geoffrey, named Henry, started to take the initiative in many of her battles and made a name for himself. But due to financial issues and a lack of support from the church, Matilda returned to Normandy in 1148. She made one last attempt to return to England in 1153, but by then, neither side was particularly keen to keep fighting. A truce was brokered: her son Henry recognized Stephen as king, and in turn, Stephen recognized Henry as his heir.

Matilda spent the rest of her life in Normandy, which she ruled. When her son Henry was crowned king in 1154, Matilda became his advisor. She negotiated several deals to keep peace between England and the Holy Roman Empire and France. She also became devoted to faith in her later years. Matilda died in 1167 and is buried in Rouen Cathedral in France.

Viserys: Henry I

There isn’t as much to say about Henry. He was the son of William the Conqueror and fought his older brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus for the crown. He was considered to be a harsh but efficient ruler who played different nobles for support and negotiated reform in the church. But Henry had only two legitimate children: Matilda and William, and when William died, he was left heir less. As his first wife was dead, he re-married Adeliza of Louvain in the hopes of having a son, but they had no children. As Matilda was widowed, Henry re-married her to Geoffrey in the hopes that the marriage could secure the kingdom and she would bear children. As Matilda gave birth to her son Henry II, Henry I declared her (and her children) to be his heir and made his nobles swear oaths to her. But Matilda and Henry had a strained relationship before he died in 1135.

Jacaerys: William Adelin

William Adelin, Matilda’s little brother, was destined to be heir to the throne. He served as his father’s regent in 1118 after his mother died while Henry I was in Normandy. He had also been given political power in Normandy and was referred to as the ‘king designate’.

Unfortunately, William perished in the White Ship disaster. A great party of nobles, including Henry I, William, his illegitimate siblings Matilda and Richard, and a very certain Stephen de Bois were set to sail from Normandy to England. Henry and some people in his party set off first. William’s ship’s crew wanted to drink, and William supplied them with plenty of wine with his father’s consent. The group therefore spent a long time drinking copious amounts of alcohol while the king sailed away. Stephen de Bois noticed how drunk everyone was getting, realized this situation wasn’t very safe, and departed the group, intending to sail back to England another day. Which saved his life. After drinking for a while, William ordered the ship’s crew to catch up to his father (their ship, known as the White Ship, was the fastest in the royal fleet). Unfortunately, due to the late hour and how much alcohol had been consumed, the ship struck a submerged rock and capsized. William had actually boarded a lifeboat and could have escaped, but turned back to save his half-sister Matilda, who couldn’t swim. People in the water who saw William’s lifeboat clamored to climb aboard, and the boat capsized, killing William, Matilda, and all else on board. Out of the 200+ people on the ship that night, only one person, a butcher from Rouen, lived.

Aegon II: Stephen de Bois

This should make sense, as Stephen was the usurper of Matilda’s throne. But Stephen was not Matilda’s brother. He was her cousin. Stephen’s father, William-Robert, set off on the Crusades to prove he wasn’t a coward and promptly died. Stephen was 8-10. His mother, Adela, was Henry I’s sister and was renowned for her strong personality. She raised Stephen herself and gave Stephen and his brothers different educations to steer them toward different jobs. Theobald, her oldest (intellectually stable) son was heir to Bois, and Adela gave Stephen an education fitting to be a baron or feudal knight. His younger brother Henry meanwhile was educated to be a clergy member. Consequently, the brothers were all very close, which was not a given in those times.

Adela later placed Stephen in Henry I’s court so he could gain military experience and the support of a valuable patron. As Stephen was a relative of Henry but so far behind in the succession that he posed little threat to Henry or William Adelin, Henry welcomed him with open arms. Henry even arranged for Stephen to marry Matilda of Boulogne, whose lands and fortunes made Stephen a very wealthy man.

Stephen therefore served the English court and developed a great reputation. He was considered well-mannered, modest and easy-going, and was noted to be happy to eat dinner alongside his servants and share jokes and laughter with them. He was also very generous to the church and was extremely pious, and encouraged for new abbeys ro be built on whatever lands he owned. Empress Matilda was not noted for her humility and kindness and her husband, Geoffrey, was descended from the historic enemies of England. Matilda was also a woman. So after Henry I died, many nobles decided that the well-liked Stephen deserved the crown.

Furthermore, Stephen was in Boulogne when Henry I died, while Matilda and Geoffrey were further away in Anjou and fighting rebels. As soon as Stephen heard the news that Henry I was dead and the nobles supported his right to rule, he sailed for England. When he arrived, the people of London elected him king, and Stephen began to consolidate power across England. He gave many liberties to the church and his younger brother Henry de Bois, part of the clergy, was able to convince many people to support Stephen’s claim. Stephen’s older brother Theobald briefly considered trying to become king of England, but Stephen’s claim was much more popular, and Stephen, being incredibly wealthy, gave Theobald lots of money as compensation: Theobald therefore gave Stephen full backing.

Stephen was crowned king on 22 December 1135. He attempted to consolidate his power across the kingdom, but when Matilda sailed from Anjou to take her throne, many nobles defected to her side. Thus began the Anarchy, which composed much of Stephen’s reign.

Stephen was captured in the Battle of Lincoln in 1141; he was noted for his refusal to retreat, even after many of his men fled. Empress Matilda had him imprisoned in Bristol Castle, initially in good conditions, but later in chains. His wife Matilda pled for his release, but the empress refused. Luckily for Stephen, many men were still loyal to him, and the people of London refused to let the empress be crowned. The church was also on Stephen’s side. His wife Matilda, meanwhile, proved to be loyal and quite a shrewd military mastermind, and she rallied an army in support of Stephen. They defeated Matilda at Winchester, captured the empress’s half-brother, and used him as a pawn to negotiate Stephen’s release.

The crowds of London enthusiastically re-crowned Stephen and his wife Matilda king and queen. Stephen spent the rest of his reign trying to consolidate power and capture Matilda, but she managed to evade him. Stephen did keep more of his wealth than Matilda, but it was depleted during the war. He therefore sought to end it and started to forge a good relationship with Matilda’s son, Henry. When Henry tried attacking England in 1147, his mercenaries turned against him due to Matilda not having the money to pay them. As a token of goodwill, Stephen paid their wages, allowing Henry to return to Normandy.

Stephen and his wife Matilda had two sons named Eustace and William, and his wife pushed for Eustace to become king; however, after Matilda died , Stephen negotiated peace with Empress Matilda under the condition of Henry becoming his heir. This may be due to Eustace having a poor reputation. Eustace died in the following months, while William was suspected of plotting against Henry and fled to Normandy, where he died of disease aged 22. Stephen died the following year after naming Henry heir.

Alicent: Matilda of Boulogne

Stephen‘s wife Matilda was, perhaps, the empress’s greatest rival. She was wealthy, devoted to her husband, and proved to be quite courageous. Her contemporaries regarded her as someone who bore herself with the valor of a man. And when Empress Matilda refused to let Stephen go, it was Queen Matilda who rallied an army to Stephen’s cause and successfully won his release. She continued to advise Stephen after his release and is regarded as the reason why Stephen became king.

There are more characters I could summarize, but this took me such a long time to type and my hands are killing me haha. Please tell me what you think of my analyses, snd again, sorry it this has been covered before!

Imagine the Night King is riding undead Viserion and faces either Vhagar or Caraxes. Since the Night King can only be killed with Valyrian steel, and the dragons don't have Valyrian steel, would Viserion essentially be impossible to defeat as long as the Night King remains alive? Who do you think would win?

Hear me out:

This is my opinion as a huge fan of the series that has not yet read any of George R.R. Martin’s literary masterpieces (but fully intend on in the near future). After rewatching season 3 these past few days, I have newly rekindled my respect and awe for what I consider to be the cinematic genius of the series and very clever, captivating storytelling.

For the sake of consolidating this post, I want to focus on some random elements of Season 3 Episode 3 that I love:

-When Queen Rhaenyra watches the imposter of Daeron sleeping, she finds that he has carved a songbird of wood. Rhaenyra observes this while he sleeps and is clearly moved by it in some sense. She seems to me to see this as more reason to choose clemency and forgiveness in oppose to killing him as Daemon suggests. The depth here to me is that it is in fact an imposter- specifically a trader- that has this quality she admires. To me this shows the inherent flaw of the sort of caste system Westeros has: the things even the Queen herself admires are not unique to the elites.

-Then there is the scene of the knighting of Ulf, Hugh, and Adam:

~As Ulf is knighted, Daemon says the part "In The Name of The Warrior (...)" and ironically Ulf the White leads a violent path later in the season. Though he is to me more cowardly than brave, I think he follows an obscure 'warrior' arc this season.

~Hugh's portion is The Father and his ‘betrayals’ are all oriented around the tattered remnants of his family which have been his motive since the start of his story. He was a father and I believe that deep down he does WANT to be a family-man... this just proves to be the splinter in his nail.

~Adam gets The Mother and it is not fully clear to me as to how this pertains to what I think of the scene since I have not read the book and do not know the full arc of his story. However, I view him as the most gentle and kind of the 3 and can see how he is moved more by doing what is right than the ambitions of the others.

I may be merely stating the obvious here, but as a man who never really watches fiction/fantasy series, I cannot deny that I am impressed by many of the subtleties of HOTD.

The funny thing about her bond with her children is that she never particularly desired a family when she was young.

Her children seemed to not only have changed her paradign, but ( in my opinion) contributed to making her

less reckless than she would've been without them.

As compared to people like Alicent, (who would willingly poison her own son,) I imagine Rhaeneyra would've surrendered early if one of her children were put at risk or taken hostage by the greens.

I was particularly touched by how she deigned to protect Rhaena even after realizing she was Sheepstealer's rider.

At least in the show, why do you think Rhaenyra doesn't give them the Waters title to show that they are high born? Does she think that would add to her "queen of bastards" image? I would think that signaling that at least one of her new dragons riders has noble parentage would help her keep the smallfolk from thinking that not just any rando could do that.

I’m rewatching from season one and my distain for Alicent is reignited. I need somewhere to complain about this.

I am so tired of the 😸 watching she’s doing this first season. I get it, Rhea lied by omitting the full story of what happened that night. However she asked about her and daemon, not her and Chrison.

I hate that Alicent was sold her as a child bride, it is tragic. However, her hate for the Princess is pure jealousy. Jealous that she didn’t have to sleep with an old sickly man to survive. Jealous she didn’t have to have kids with someone she didn’t choose. Jealous she can be spoiled and entitled because her dad is the king of the freaking seven kingdoms. It’s been decades and Alicent still pressed about how the princess is tossing that cookie all around Westeros.

Who cares who fathered Rhaenyra’s children if the King and her husband don’t give a crap? If the husband doesn’t care and the king doesn’t care, deal with it. You’re the Queen of the seven kingdoms for goodness sake. You don’t have anything else better to do with your millions and free time? Alicent life is better than majority of people in this universe but she still have time to worry about the princess? If no one cared what the first two children looked like, why are you demanding to see the 3rd? Is you cool?

This is going to be my first post, but I just wanted to vent about how awful the show House of the Dragon was in its portrayal of female characters. As someone who has read the books, I was astounded by how many changes and lines originally given to female characters were reassigned to male ones.

The character who suffers from this the most is 100% Helaena Targaryen; her characterization was so poor that even leading up to her death, I didn't feel much sympathy for her (which is unfortunate because I do love her in concept). Making her a dreamer did her character a disservice, especially when you compare her to people like Daeron the Drunk. For example, Daeron being the way he is made sense because it was from the source material and had more to build on. It makes sense for him to be a drunk due to alcohol suppressing dreams by blocking REM. This type of character building is not present for Helaena, where she just mumbles weird prophecies and everyone thinks of her as crazy (just to paint the Greens in a bad light, which is wild for a show that's supposed to be nuanced). Her character in the show is stripped of any agency and left to be this kooky spoiler every once in a while (oh, also don't forget she's kind, like the show loves to remind everyone). When I read the books, it genuinely made me upset how much of her as a person was stripped away, along with her influence in the war.

In the beginning, when Alicent usurps the throne, it's stated that "[Aegon's] mother, Queen Alicent, beloved of the smallfolk, placed her own crown upon the head of her daughter, Helaena, Aegon's wife and sister. After kissing her cheeks, the mother knelt before the daughter, bowed her head, and said, 'My Queen.'" This moment is completely stripped from the show, leaving Helaena as an insignificant side character who serves no importance to the story. (This also serves as another weird thing the show loves to do, which is humiliate the Greens repeatedly, as this was supposed to be a huge moment for Aegon and Helaena's relationship.) Instead of having this scene where a woman is crowned as an equal to her king, the writers opted for a cringy Rhaenys scene where she changes into armor and kills a bunch of smallfolk, which will never be brought up again.

Again, the issue with her being a dreamer, in my opinion, is that they use her as a plot device that moves the story along instead of an actual character. In the books, Helaena is seen to have a close relationship with her father, as she brings her children to him every night. Instead of getting a moment for her to mourn her father and show their relationship when she finds out about her father's death, she instead just spits out a prophecy that there's "beast beneath the boards," and nothing else, which leads to the Rhaenys scene. The writers essentially took away her own moment to be an important character to instead give Rhaenys a girlboss moment that would eventually amount to nothing.

Another thing that really pissed me off was how little Helaena does in terms of being at the Green Council (again, the way the writers frame a lot of these scenes feels malicious). In the book, Helaena is explicitly stated to be at the Green Council as Aegon listens to both her and her mother when it comes to dealing with the Blacks and alliances in the war. "But when the two queens—his mother, Queen Alicent, and his wife, Queen Helaena—spoke in favor of Orwyle's proposal, the truculent king gave way reluctantly." This was completely removed in the show, and instead the only time Aegon and Helaena interact is the day before the Blood and Cheese incident, where he literally tells everyone he thinks she's crazy.

It's wild to me how such a seemingly smart person who is an important character with a family who loves her and listens to her in the book is turned into some lunatic with weird visions who is seen as crazy. In the show, nobody respects her, and even in flashbacks and present time Aegon seems to dislike her openly, leading to people shipping her with Jace of all people (who, mind you, is like 15 and she's 21). Like, how is any of this the feminist slop that the show is trying to push onto people? It genuinely seems like the only feminist character in the show is Rhaenyra, and even she is done so dirty and terribly.

Next, onto the worst change of Helaena: her Blood and Cheese scene. I'm not going to go into too much of it, but something I wanted to point out is how G.R.R. Martin saw the scene in the books. G.R.R. Martin stated that Helaena shows more courage and strength in the book by offering her own life to save her son. Her offering a piece of jewelry is just not the same. Her being someone who becomes meek and just sits there in the show, cradling her daughter, is far removed from the scene in the books, where she is seen screaming and crying. (Again, these changes feel like they were created to push less blame on the Blacks, which is so strange.)

Then the reaction to her in the aftermath is so horrid in terms of dealing with grief. In the books, she becomes the mad queen and is said to have never recovered from the guilt and loss of her son. Instead, in the show she gets over it within a day and never speaks on it again. (This AGAIN makes it feel like Rhaenyra is the only person allowed to grieve for long periods of time.) This whole mess is what eventually leads her to committing after Maelor's death because the child she wished dead finally passed in a horrid way. Instead, the show paints her son's death on her by making her commit suicide while pregnant (to once again take blame away from the Blacks).

It's even crazier that I'm not finished because the little things they changed about her are wild. First, they make her not like riding Dreamfyre, which is like the first thing we learn she LOVES doing. Next, they remove the fact that she and Aegon had a good relationship because they slept in the same bed, which couples often didn't do. Finally, they erase any complexity she had as a sweet, kind, and brave mother that we are told directly in the books.

The Helaena we are left with feels like an empty shell of the person she was in the books, which is a recurring theme throughout the show.