Anyways No Amount Of Waxing Poetry And Pretending To Intellectualize Ryan Condal & Sara Hess’s Terrible

The constant talk of Helanea being ‘an innocent’ is so infantilizing especially because she’s autistic code or shown as having some type of neurodivergence.

That is a grown woman with kids and who had to watch one kid be killed. She’s allowed to be mad and upset and not be brushed off as an innocent little baby who doesn’t even like her dragon.

💥🙌👏

Bestie can I be so for real I am so upset about the way Aemond is written. Season 1 Aemond is basically book Daeron but angsty, but Season 2 Aemond is like book Daemon (disloyal, wants power). Not that book Aemond was someone to applaud for loving his family, that dude was a psycho but he was such a LOYAL psycho. Smh.

Bestie you are absolutely right. Season 1 Aemond and season 2 Aemond are so disconnected and there's no through line or explanation for why. Seemingly they just decided to go with a different characterization suddenly, maybe because they realized Aemond was fairly sympathetic in the first season.

His true characterization is loyalty to his family and willingness to do anything for them, and Aegon and Aemond are loyal to each other. Go to Storm's End and betroth yourself to secure an ally for the Greens? Aemond will do it for Aegon. Kill your nephew and probably guarantee war? Aegon will throw a feast to celebrate and support Aemond's actions. Need to take out one of the Black's dragons? Aegon and Aemond will attack together. Aegon is injured and unable to rule? Aemond will rule as regent and refuse to take the throne from him. Aegon and all his surviving children are missing, his mother and sister imprisoned, and Rhaenyra and Daemon have taken king's landing with help from houses in the Riverlands? Aemond will burn everything to get vengeance for his family and draw Daemon out to battle against him. Aemond takes down Daemon but dies in the process? Aegon orders a massive statue to commemorate his brother and honor his loyalty and legacy.

But because the Greens are supposed to be caricature disorganized incompetent and selfish villains, they hate each other and put each other down even in the midst of war. Aemond has to be an outright evil and self-interested, power hungry anime baddie who hates his lazy, hedonistic, sadistic brother Aegon apparently 🙄 and Helaena is just there in the background as a non character at this point and everything that defined her character in the book is removed.

It really is out of character and makes no sense for Aemond to take out his own brother and his dragon when they're at war with a faction of the family that has several dragons and that faction poses a much more significant threat to Aemond than Aegon does... It's really just lazy writing. Instead of actually exploring the character motivations of the two, like how Lucerys' murder led to Blood and Cheese and how the brothers feel about that, it's turned into "Aemond wants to kill Aegon over petty childish bullying and because he wants the throne." Like be for real 🙄

ryan condal you will not see heaven

The only good thing coming from season two are the top notch visuals were getting for Aemond :)

For science....... here's Aemond mounting the horse in slow-mo.....

House of the Dragon Review

The Good:

- Aegon and Tom Glynn Carney. Aegon is the one compelling character this season, and his arc is great. He tries to be a good King but can’t protect his son. He tries to get Alicent’s love, but can’t no matter what. He tries to save his people but he gets destroyed in the process. He trusts his brother who betrays him. And Tom acts with his whole heart and soul. They’re truly the only good this season and the only reason I’ll keep watching

- Larys, Matthew Needham, and his relationship with Aegon. Just *chef’s kiss* The best relationship on the show. So much manipulation but genuine growing fondness too. Can’t wait to see Tom and Matthew inevitably do press for season 3 together and talk about the relationship in depth

- Ramin’s score. He is the only thing that’s consistent through GOT and HotD

The Meh:

- Rhys Ifans is a great Otto, but they criminally underutilized them

- Rook’s Rest was an amazing episode but they still had Rhaenyra be the hero by giving her a “divine” reason to go to war

- Episode 1 also was meh because Blood and Cheese being botched ruined what would otherwise be a great episode

- Ep 2 is similar to Ep 1. LOVED the Green scenes and the Twin scene, but they had Rhaenyra feel bad about what happened which is SO out of character. I also don’t like the propaganda angle they took with Blood and Cheese with Otto

- Aemond becoming his book self was great, but it was done rushed and sloppily. They underutilized both Aemond and Ewan

- Phia and Helaena are also great but again, criminally underutilized

- Olivia is a fantastic actress, despite what they did to Alicent

- The Dragon seeds being burnt by Vermithor would be in the Good if they didn’t try to brush it off and still claim Rhaenyra’s innocent

- Daenon and Alys scenes were either incredible or a total snooze fest. No inbetween. They were repetitive and not all the Daemon haunted scenes were necessary. Matt and Gayle are great though

- Criston and Fabien are underutilized, especially post Rook’s Rest

The Bad:

- What they did to Alicent. It is unforgivable. They threw her character away in favor of Rhaenyra. They can’t stand the thought that a woman doesn’t worship Rhaenyra

- Everything with Team Black. This is not hyperbole. The scenes were dull, designed to sanitize them so they are the Good guys and destroy them in the process. The actors, I’m sorry to say, are not on the level of the Green actors. Even the better Black actors (Emma and Steve) have stiff moments through the season

- Sexual humiliation and degradation of the Greens. This isn’t the place to get into it, but people have talked about it elsewhere

- Sanitizing Rhaenyra still, even after episode 7 and trying to make her a hero

- Sanitizing Viserys. The man raped Alicent and abused his children that weren’t Rhaenyra. Why are the Greens holding him in high regard?

Overall, I’d say a 5/10. All it took was the show having Black centered episodes to descend into GOT season 8 levels, since the Green episodes are SIGNIFICANTLY better

“In a show full of morally compromised grey characters, I wanted to present a character who at this time in his life was just completely black. His appearance lends to that, so I'd thought I'd lean into it.”

— Ewan Mitchell.

My man 🥵

12 DAYS OF AEMOND TARGARYEN-MAS

Day Eight: Aemond + anger

Bonus:

MY MAN

Ewan Mitchell as Prince Aemond Targaryen.

I always end up liking your Aemond stories! I love your writing style

Thank you 😭🫶🏻 it means a lot to me to get such lovely messages 💕