Istg The HOTD Discourse Is Driving Me Insane. Everyone's Screaming About How "X Character Is So Stupid

Istg the HOTD discourse is driving me insane. Everyone's screaming about how "X character is so stupid they could've literally stopped the dance but chose not to because they are evil" and. yeah, you're not wrong, but you're also missing the point. they are all terrible people !!!! none of them are fully justified !!!!!! none of them would make good rulers !!!! they are all fucking idiots who fail their kingdom in every conceivable way because of their hubris, petty fights and personal vendettas. None of them would've actually stopped the war from happening, that is the POINT: their circumstances and characters would never have allowed them to.

If Viserys had been a good father/husband. If Alicent had accepted Rhaenyra's offer to unite their families. If Aemond had not chased Luke. If the strong boys had not attacked Aemond. If Rhaenyra had stayed and ruled by her father's side. If they had handled the situation in a better way. If they had done this. If they had done that.

But they couldn't. Viserys would've always favored Rhaenyra and abused Alicent. Alicent would've never married Helaena to Jace. Aemond would have never forgiven Luke. They are all entitled, vengeful, prideful, arrogant, flawed. That's what makes this story a tragedy – it was doomed from the start. Not because fate doomed them, but because they doomed themselves. Because they are who they are, they all suffer, and the entire kingdom goes with them.

This is not a Good vs. Evil story. It's not about picking whoever you like best and trying to pretend they were Actually Right All Along. I could make an entire post just about every one of your """faves"""" atrocities, and you know what? There's nothing wrong with still liking them despite that. I love Alicent, but I'm not gonna sit there and act as if she did nothing wrong. She tormented Rhaenyra for years based on a claim she couldnt prove and antiquated values no one should have to follow !!! She usurped her best friend's throne !!!!! She divided the family and the realm !!! because of the way she raised Aegon and Aemond, any chance at peace or forgiveness between the team green and team black became impossible !!!

But guess what??? Rhaenyra is not blameless either !!!! She raised Luke and Jace to believe they were entitled to everything, including a dragon (dragons are not things that inherently belong to anyone. if vhaegar accepted aemond, that was that. jace and luke had no right attacking him) and not only that, but aemonds eye !! she does nothing to punish them, because they are her 'sweet, darling boys who can do no wrong' (cofcof she sounds like the fandom cofcof)

[I also dont agree with alicent that they should've taken lukes eyes but COME ON. they did nothing??? just made them hug and that was that?? viserys and rhaenyra gaslit her to death in that scene for DEFENDING HER SON who was MAIMED and you have the gall to blame her for being mad. yeah right, ok]

she also leaves to dragonstone when it was IMPERATIVE that she stayed by her fathers side to secure the throne. she did nothing for YEARS, no alliances or plans or anything, nada, and then was mad at her enemies for rulling her kingdom when....she made no attempts to actually rule her kingom. she doesnt take a 'no' from criston cole and almost drives him to suicide. she is coerces him into sex, knowing shes in a position of power over him.

daemon is a fan favorite and everyone swoons over him. to an extend, I get it, but again, you can't act like he's just this 'sexy power hungry badboy icon' when he 1. calls women 'cunts' and 'whores' and degrades them multiple times (same thing ppl hate cole for doing once and then imediatelly apologizing about) killing his first wife (she did nothing to him, and he still had the nerve to degrade her after murdering her), isolating his second wife from her entire family and then ignoring rhaenyra's needs in his thirst for power and vengence (she lost visenya all alone...) and then, yeah, he PHYSICALLY ASSAUSTED HER. he shows no respect towards anyone but himself, not even his wife, and yall are still there calling them 'couple goals'. I'm not even gonna lie abt it, Daemon is one of the characters that pisses me off the most and I can't believe like 97% of the fandom is ships him with his victim child bride.

but again, I can't stop you from liking him even if I wanted to. You can do whatever you want, my opinions on the characters are mine alone. my point is they are all terrible, and you cant just pretend they're just and noble just bc they're your faves. stop with the "alicent is actually right" and "rhaenyra is actually morally superior" bs because BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG. this is not only about a single person's failures, or a group of people failing, this is about about SYSTEMATIC FAILURE. the system failing itself. its not a "oh alicent is so mean and ruined everything" or a "rhaenyra is evil" story. it's a "all of these people suck and the monarchy is an intrinsically broken system of government" story.