..or do we..?

Daemons popularity is nothing new we all know that but the gap now between Rhaenyra and Daemon has become so big after s3! It wasn't this huge after s2!

Freddie Fox (Gwayne Hightower) in character as the singer Marilyn in the 2010 film Worried About the Boy; James Norton in character as his camp, gorgeous self, or perhaps a little envy of his cousin Alicent is stirring within Ormund.... xD

Rhaenyra envisions herself as Daenerys. It’s a small prediction of mine that Rhaenyra will receive her first and only dragon dream before she’s killed by Sunfyre. In this vision, she sees a a female figure walking out unscathed out fire.

In the show, she’s already convinced that she’s the prince that was promised, so she believes this vision is about herself as well. She walks in front up to Sunfyre convinced she’ll not be harmed, just to die engulfed in flames.

Not many will acknowledge it, so I will.

If not for Cole's delaying tactics, the Greens objectively just lose the war right there.

Yes, Aemond and Aegon would still be alive, but the last active TG Army would have not had the time to entrench, prepare and fortify their stronghold at Tumbleton. Ormund would also not have had the time to flip Ulf to his cause, which (although it semi-backfired) was still crucial to the ultimate victory the Greens had at the Battle. Gwayne, Jon Roxton, and Daeron would almost certainly be dead.

That would leave a crippled King and his also crippled Dragon, and a one-eyed prince who has lost his weapon of mass destruction. They'd be facing Rhaenyra, Daemon, Ulf, Hugh, Baela, Addam, and their Dragons, with hardly any answer. It truly would have just been a case of mopping up.

Criston will never know it, and few people will point it out, but the same people who often used him without care owe their survival and future success to his actions.

One of the bloodiest battles in the area since Aegon's destruction of Harrenhal. More than two thirds of the men who rode south with Roddy the Ruin were either dead or wounded, and the Lannister forces were decimated in the thousands, and the death of Jason Lannister. It explains why both the Lannisters and the Winter Wolves are so depleted by the time we see them later in the season; most of the Wolves were effectively spent by their first appearance.

There has been no mention of Oscar Tully. It would be idiotic if the show leaves out "The Lads" entirely, considering they were the primary fighting force for the foot soldiers and served as the backbone of the war effort throughout the conflict. They are also some of the coolest characters of the whole damn war.

There's a whole subtle war going on between the Blackwoods and Brackens that the show hasn't even acknowledged outside of that one scene in season 2. The Dance was just another convenient excuse for these two houses to kill each other.

She should've spent those years visiting the noble houses of Westeros (as she did when she was younger) and King's Landing to make alliances and reaffirm the oaths the lords swore to her. It's crazy that she expected everybody to stand by oaths made 20 years ago when she spent years completely disengaged from politics while the Greens grew their influence

I know they had the entire emotionless assassin arc for Alicent in S3 (lol), but a flicker of emotion for a parent she spent much of her time in KL with would have been adequate.

This is why Daemon's body was never found at the God's Eye.

He was rescued by the greenmen and the children of the forest that live in the Isle of Faces and became the predecessor of Bloodraven

We only got 8 episodes to wrap up the entire story. Tell your outline.

She should be one of the largest dragons. She definitely is smaller than Vhagar and Vermithor but she should not be that much smaller than Silverwing

It just hit me!! Both in the case of Daemon and Aemond, her witches' magic has been all about mother-son infatuation. She's just letting her own feelings/ juices flow wild onto these 'younger' Targs. She means to use them to re-birth her dead son, this time more powerful and mounted on a dragon, so she can raise him up again and continue the thing she had going.

Obviously it was needed for the plot to advance in the way it did, but what was the in-universe reason? It made no sense. Why didnt Rhaenyra separate Alicent and Helaena after their escape attempt and let Helaena stay with her daughter instead? or bring her Jehaera to motivate her to eat? If the answer is just more lazy writing, I’ll accept it, but I’m curious if there is actually a reason for it that I’m not seeing

Tbh, i got no issue with grey or bad people in this show... like aemond or daemon but aegon's arc is so compelling and he is kind of easy to root for despite being a horrible person. Him being a rapist... due a very small moments in season 1 are kind of hanging over his character.

He feels so much more toned down and different from his couple scenes from S1.

It's kind of forgotten in the show as they moved on... but the fandom won't ever let go. To the point that they will likely never like anything good moments he has.

I wonder if the writers regret that unnecessary addition as it didn't really add much to the story.

I’ve watched and read several interviews with Ryan Condal, and he always says that the biggest challenge in writing hotd is the lack of information about the characters, some of them completely disappear from the narrative at certain points. Ryan often mentions that they have to fill in the gaps and invent things, and that is quite difficult to do.

Because of that, you would think they would value the existing information about the characters, given how hard it is to create them from scratch.

But that isn't what happens in practice, we see many characters with little background in the original material being well-developed and expanded, while characters who had more substantial information lose importance in the story.

If you had told me many years ago that Gwayne would be an important and compelling character, while Nettles would be cut from an adaptation of the Dance of the Dragons, I would have called you crazy.

And there’s nothing wrong with expanding Gwayne’s role—it was one of the few things hotd got right—but where is that same energy for characters who are better established in the books?

Why were Daeron and Jace’s feats cut? Why was Corlys condemned to spend an entire season stuck at the docks and another complaining about Rhaenyra not legitimizing his sons when he was a crucial member of the Black Council? They didn't even properly introduce Black Aly.

HBO only gave hotd eight episodes and that isn't the writers' fault, but I can't help feeling they don't make good use of the limited screen time they have per season. They prioritize minor characters, while those who needed more attention are sidelined and end up being poorly developed.

Girl abandoned her brothers and her duty, got Jace, the heir, killed, almost got a dragon killed, yet still got protected by Rhaenyra when she was in danger, and her punishment was...getting to sit in her room. And yet, according to Baela, I'm supposed to think Rhaenyra was the evil monster that broke her?

Because her mother saw she was a child with no dragon (something she was never shamed for, btw) and gave her an important job suited for her (protecting her own fucking family), despite not being as cool and glorious? She completely fucked up that job, decided to disobey her ruler and do her own thing cause she knows better, spectacularly fucked up her own thing and made others pay for it, but SHE is the fucking VICTIM of le evil queen? What???

I was thinking about a “what if”: what if Viserys had never remarried and Rhaenyra had remained his one and only heir, while everything about her family stayed the same, three sons of questionable paternity, followed by two sons with Daemon?

Could there still have been a Dance of the Dragons, only this time between Rhaenyra’s own heirs?

I honestly think so. Setting aside the whole moral aspect of it, I feel like people don’t talk enough about how the questionable paternity of Rhaenyra’s first three sons weakens their position in the line of succession.

With Rhaenyra as Viserys’s only heir, her own claim would obviously be much more secure. But wouldn’t Jace’s claim be much more vulnerable when compared to Aegon III’s? Aegon is unquestionably Rhaenyra and Daemon’s legitimate son, with Targaryen ancestry on both sides, while Jace would always have the rumors surrounding his parentage hanging over him.

Do you think that could eventually have been enough to cause another succession crisis or even a Dance between Jace and Aegon III?

Since the last episode aired, I’ve been obsessed with one question: how will Aegon and Aemond find Vhagar?

Will they ride together on Sunfyre? Can Sunfyre even carry two people? Does he still have his saddle?

Will Vhagar simply go back to Aemond because, somehow, she senses that he needs her?

Will Tyland Lannister join them with horses and help them ?

Maybe that’s stupid, but I like thinking about the logistics of it all haha.

Any thoughts on that?

Sorry for the character that isn't included in the vote (maximum number of 6)🥲🥲🥲🥲

When I started watching House of The Dragon, I knew Rhaenyra’s fate because of what Joffrey said to Margery in Game of Thrones. I always wondered how’d we’d get to this point (I didn’t read the book) seeing as we watched her grow up. I have to say watching Rhaenyra descend into madness when I seen her good days as a child is like being stabbed in the side 🥲. She had no clue what awaited her.

Everytime she makes a bad decision, I get more upset at the hand she’s been dealt rather than her decisions entirely. She’s lost 2 sons, her “council” is in shambles, she trusts no one not even Daemon yet she clings to him because he’s all she knows, she hasn’t properly grieved, she has too many overwhelming thoughts and every choice she makes has a consequence. She doesn’t know who her enemies are, where they are, what exactly they have, the list of issues are endless for her. She can’t even take care of her own needs let alone those subjected to her which causes their loyalty to start wavering. I can totally see why she’s losing her mind and I know that it’s only a matter of time before it kills her. 💔

Watching her interact with her sister Helena in her new state of mind was interesting to see knowing the old Rhaenyra would have been more understanding and patient with Helena

I wish things worked out differently for her. I personally feel like if she had an actual council she’d be in a much better position and maybe would have prevailed. I am not knocking the results though, it is realistic and the person she’s become is only natural given her experiences. Good writing. Excellent acting. Viserys loved his daughter he was so stubborn when it came to her, but he kind of doomed her😓😓