“In A Show Full Of Morally Compromised Grey Characters, I Wanted To Present A Character Who At This

So nice of HBO to reveal literally every second of Aemond’s screen time via stills and clips ahead of tomorrow’s episode, to save the Aemond girlies the trouble of watching. They are so kind.

Aemond in season 2.

hotd purposefully making all the greens look incompetent af to highlight how great their TB protagonists are in return backfires so hard it's actually funny.

in the book the greens were a powerhouse, they had the best warrior, the bigger army, great political minds on their side, the bigger dragons and strong competent riders to ride them. they were a threat. the show making them all stupid makes rhaenyra & the rest of tb look so weak and stupid in return. like you can't even win against those guys? really? also it shows how rhaenyra is a poorly written character - it is necessary to ruin other characters like alicent, aegon, daemon and aemond for her to appear smart & capable.

I do unfortunately love aemond because being loved on conditions in your family and what you do for them messes with your head. he has to protect his older brother who wouldn’t do the same for him, him and and sister don’t understand each other, his elder half sister didn’t care when her son took out his eye, his mother loves him only when he is the version she expects, he is a pawn to his grandfather, invisible to his father, no one has ever apologized to what was done to him and does not like him for what he has become

I waited 2 years for this?!

I know it's been months and we're all done complaining about House of the Dragon, but it was just such a wasted opportunity to not follow the book canon of the Greens being beloved of the people.

Even if they still wanted to frame the show with Rhaenyra as our star and character to root for, framing Aegon as a full blown antagonist just doesn't have the same dynamic storytelling that GRRM creates. Aegon being an inept king is absolutely not the same thing as him being disliked. Inept political leaders become populists and demagogues all the time. Framing Aegon as someone without real leadership or intelligence BUT with magnanimity and charisma makes him a much more real threat. Rhaenyra would be the better monarch, but as a woman and as less charming, she fails to get the support of the people. It's topical.

If they followed through on the scene of Aegon holding court, clearly reveling in the fact that the people love him, it creates a more interesting character motivation. Aegon didn't even want to be King, so the war to keep him on the throne feels wildly futile, but Aegon fighting to keep the love he's always been desperate for, that's compelling.

Plus, Helaena as a beloved queen would have furthered the themes around gender that season one created. She's meek and pleasant and pretty, so people love her. Rhaenyra as fiery and lusty and powerful, so people hate her. It's topical, it's dynamic, and it actually says something about the perception of gender as a performance in which you are punished for not participating.

And this isn't me saying "wow the show needed more misogyny; they needed to be nicer to the pretty princess" I'm saying it's a show about misogyny, so like, do something with that.

"Why should I care about his feelings, when nobody cares about mine?"

- this line by sansa stark is more feminist than any of the tripe hotd has tried putting forward lmao

Do not mourn me, Mother. It was a fair exchange. I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon. Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022-present)

1.01 // 1.08

"alicent holds love for our enemy" | hotd s2 final trailer.