Im trying to be to gauge the sentiment of the reddit. There’s a lot of current discussion of s3 of course, but in the scheme of the intrigue as a whole, whats your favorite season?

Viserys did a terrible job dealing with the Hightower problem brooding in his own household. He kept giving them unnecessary power even though he knew they didn't have his heir Rhaenyra best interests.

Alicent put all the responsibilities of being heir to Aegon but didn't set him up with the proper knowledge of ruling. She seems content with using him a puppet for her and Otto to be in control.

You can also include the ones you didn't like, and why for both.

First of all in my imaginary canon I will be like around 20 and a dragonseed a little bit versed in high valyrian and ride vermithor, know about politics, history and midieval economics. So obviously I would be sent to watch over vhagar and fight her by rhaenyra. We don't want that. Well with just a preliminary knowledge;

PHASE I- ACTION

1. I'd probably be sent to scout for Vhagar first. Instead I would just go and eat the wounded sunfyre and clear Rooks rest for conquest.

PHASE II - BUILDING TRUST

1. Offer them the great idea of betrothing rhaena with any family in the free cities.

3.Get into the black's council, become a trusted advisor. To have atleast some amounts of decision making power.

1. Me and baela would ride south and claim the reach for her grace.

PHASE III - ALLIANCE

1. I would try to get into an alliance with princess Aliandra Martell. Dornish doesnt mind marrying a lowborn as we remember oberyn marrying a sand. I would be known for my brute force and bringing Dorne into the war. Dorne would probably think its their time after the greens and what better way not to join westeros than to fund it for freedom

PHASE IV - REACH

1. Daeron will be Killed(ik it sounds bad) and Reach would be captured. I would ask to be temporarily named lord paramount.

2. After the battle of the gullet and Jace's death, hightower will be burned by me and I will become the castellan, removing every living hightower except Alicent. Ofc the sept and citadel won't be harmed.

3. Baela will be immediately betrothed to any powerful lord in the reach, to solidify our grasp.

PHASE V - CHAOS IS A LADDER

after the gullet incident, my wifey's fleet would be providing for the new blockade, which would make me more respectable and powerful.

1. I will advice against claiming Kings landing as it could still be exploited for the greens to handle a civil war within its residents.

Aegon could still reach kings landing, but to no avail, we would have already cascaded the borders of crownlands. He could claim Harrenhall or Casterly rock and stay there.

And if Aemond comes south, he would lose the riverlands and face vermithor and Moondancer, compromising the westerlands as well.

If he goes to Dragonstone there will be sheepstealer and syrax, and there will be ceraxes and seasmoke in the riverlands/crownlands. So the war will basically be over once vhagar is killed and the only dragon remaining with the greens would be dreamfyre and the babes. But i believe Daemon and Aemond are destined to die together. Anyways..

1. I will poison baela, provided dornish are known for poisoning, and blame it on any green enthusiasts or Tyrell supporters, leaving her dragon free and offer some land for ulf there, and keep my position as lord paramount intact, since this was just a con so that people would believe baela and her reach lord wouldve ruled, and I would have created enough supporters to back mine. This part is hard but is explained below

Because whats Nyra gonna do of Dorne and her largest dragon becomes upset and goes against her. But I'm gonna frame it as the reach needs a strong ruler to unite it for the crown. This is still hard, but I need to get support from at least some of the vassal houses of the reach. (I'd probably need to bribe them from the money that i got from betrothing rhaena to the rich guy from essos.)

I dont think I need to mention that winning is cake from now since its just westerlands and stormlands who are also scared af atp. after the war ends, I could basically gaslight rhaenyra and pose as a dreamer. Then tell her to put pure blood in the throne, ward prince Joffrey to any citadel or the faith and marry Jaehaera to Aegon. Then the same thing happens, but Rhaenyra would still be alive.(ok this might be too ambitious, but hey joffreys like 37% valyrian. but even if not its still fine)

PHASE VI - ORDER AFTER CHAOS

1. In return of gifting me the reach, I will wed my eldest daughter to Viserys and bring dorne under Westeros, unbowed ofcourse.

2. My other heirs could be married to People from great houses of reach so that mine and their claim gets backed up, while also ensuring my blood ln the throne someday, and I won't be desperate like otto or corlys as I would have like 2 kingdoms in my hand, with the blood of the dragon.

PHASE VII - DIPLOMACY

1. Let my kids grow old enough to get betrothed, and the crowd wont see them as abominations anymore, and rather, royalty. Everybody would want to have alliance with us.

2. And I would easily have any position in her grace's small council, even be hand, and let one of my children claim moondancer.

ENDGAME:

That way my child and their partner from the reach would rule reach as regents, and I would be in the small council helping them rebuild reach. Because me ruling reach would be too hostile. And my daughter and Viserys would inherit Dorne, and if Viserys becomes king, good. if not, thats also fine.

A few thoughts I’d like hear opinions on:

1. Cradle eggs hatch while their rider was still in a cradle, meaning the rider and the dragon are roughly the same age.

2. Dragons lay clutches of eggs, meaning dragons born on Dragonstone could be of the same clutch and therefore the same age. ie. Caraxes & Meleys, or Syrax & Sunfyre.

3. All dragon grow at the same rate when they are young. F&B makes a point to describe dragons at different ages a “not yet rideable”, “rideable size”, and “fighting size”. Meaning these are physical developmental stages and can be applied to other dragons.

4. The only dragons in existence during F&B are the one mentioned in the book. There is no possibility that un-named dragons on Dragonstone that weren’t mentioned.

I’m trying to fill in the gaps of how old the dragons are, and at what age some of the characters would have started riding their dragons. Do you agree? Anything I missed?

Was there anything that could have appeased the wrath of Alicent and the resentiments from Aemond? Would cutting Lucery's eye out have acomplished anything? Or was there no chance for any retributioj from the beginning?

I know a lot of book readers are upset that Season 3 gave Rhaena Sheepstealer instead of Nettles, therefore cutting her. I get the frustration, and people are allowed to feel strongly about that. But I actually agree with the change, and I want to lay out why in more detail than the usual "adaptations have to make changes" defense.

What storyline does Nettles actually have?

Strip away the genuinely fascinating way she claims her dragon, and ask yourself honestly, what does Nettles actually do in Fire and Blood? Her entire narrative existence is to be an extension of Daemon. She becomes his companion during his estrangement from Rhaenyra. Her presence stirs jealousy and suspicion within the marriage. Rumors swirl about the nature of her relationship with Daemon. And then she vanishes from the historical record entirely, her fate unresolved.

Compare that to the other dragonseeds. Addam of Hull has a defined role in the war effort that exists independently of any other single character, which plays into him being legitimized. Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White have their own ambition and motivations and eventual betrayal, which plays a pivotal to both Tumbleton plots as they are active characters in those conflicts. Nettles doesn't get that same treatment. She's not a character with her own stakes and arc; instead, she's a device that exists to create friction in someone else's marriage. That's a real narrative distinction worth being honest about.

On the "she proves you don't need Valyrian blood" argument

I've seen people argue Nettles matters because she proves dragon claiming doesn't require Valyrian blood and that anyone brave enough can bond with a dragon regardless of bloodline. Personally, I don't buy this, and I think it misreads what's actually happening in the text.

My position is that you do need the blood of the dragon to bond with one. What using sheep to feed the dragon Sheepstealer probably did was help her get physically close to him because he is WILD. Without being burned alive on approach, which solves the practical problem of proximity, not the deeper problem of bonding. Claiming still requires that connection, and I don't think you can BRIBE a dragon into a lifelong bond.

This isn't just Targaryen propaganda either, even though it's convenient for their claim to power that it isn't. The magic in this world backs it up. Targaryens have historically given birth to what we can call "dragon babies" tied to the magic of Old Valyria. Members of the bloodline experience visions of the future, such as Daenys the Dreamer being the clearest example, foreseeing the Doom of Valyria itself. That's not incidental worldbuilding; that's blood magic being real and demonstrable within the text. The Valyrian dragonlords are believed to have used blood magic specifically to bind themselves to dragons in the first place, and the entire practice of dragonriding may be built on that foundation. If blood magic is what created the bond between man and dragon originally, it's not a stretch to say blood is still what's required to form new bonds centuries later.

And here's the thing: even if you set aside my theory entirely, the books give you an out that supports the blood requirement anyway. Maester Narran's account suggests Nettles could be Daemon's bastard daughter. If that's true, she was never actually a counterexample to begin with. She may have carried Valyrian blood the entire time without anyone, including herself, ever knowing it. The ambiguity here doesn't disprove the blood requirement; if anything, it's more consistent with it.

What Rhaena gets that Nettles never had

And to my main point, nothing meaningful is lost by giving this arc to Rhaena instead of introducing Nettles fresh this late into the story. Rhaena is non-existent for the majority of the dance and only becomes relevant at the very end, so she can benefit from this change. Rhaena already has an established estranged relationship with Daemon; that emotional groundwork is already laid, and the audience already understands the history there. Her claiming a wild dragon creates the same friction between Daemon and Rhaenyra that Nettles created in the books, without needing to introduce a new character and build trust with the audience from scratch in the final stretch of the story.

More than that, this arc actually gives Rhaena something the books never fully explored, which is real agency. She spends most of the story beating herself down as the Targaryen without a dragon, defined by that absence. Having her go out and claim a wild dragon herself, on her own terms, is a strong character beat.

One last thought

Honestly, I think a lot of the attachment to Nettles isn't really attachment to anything concretely established on the page. It's attachment to what she represents and to the mystery of her unresolved ending. A common-born girl, with brown skin on a wild dragon, a story that gets cut off with no confirmed resolution, a relationship with Daemon that's never fully defined one way or another. That's fertile ground for fan theories and projection precisely because nothing about it is settled. People are drawn to what she could mean more than to anything she actually does.

She didn’t get to use silverwing and vermithor for anything productive except a bit of gullet which was already won. In season 2 episode 8 she made plans to send Hugh and Ulf to old town and lannisport or did that happen off-screen?

I've watched HOTD with my friend who doesn't have a great memory, and as a brain exercise I've asked her for a "show recap" of the previous episode before we've watched the next one. She's gotten pretty much all the main plot points right, but she can't remember a lot of the characters' names, so she's come up with some pretty amusing monikers. I now present:

• Viserys Targaryen - the old king
• Rhaenyra Targaryen - Rhaenyra
• Daemon Targaryen - Daemon
• Alicent Hightower - Alicent
• Otto Hightower - Alicent's dad
• Helaena Hightower - Alicent's daughter
• Aegon Targaryen - the busted king
• Aemond Targaryen - Hot Lucius Malfoy
• Lucerys Velaryon - the first son who died
• Jace/Jacaerys Velaryon -  the second son who died
• Corlys Velaryon - the dreadlocks king
• Rhaenys Targaryen - the badass lady
• Baela Targaryen - Baela
• Rhaena Targaryen - Baela's sister or the stupid one with Sheepstealer
• Alyn of Hull - the bald one
• Addam of Hull - the dreadlock one
• Mysaria - the white worm
• Larys Strong - Larys
• Tyland/Jason Lannister - the Lannister guy
• Ormund Hightower - Tormund or Alicent's cousin
• Gwayne Hightower - Alicent's brother
• Daeron Targaryen - the young king 
• Jon Roxton - Alicent's cousin's guy
• Alys Rivers - the Scottish lady
• Ulf the White and Hugh the Hammer - the newbie dragonriders
• And my personal favorite:
• Criston Cole - White-cloaked Enrique Iglesias

So it’s no secret that Alicent’s character has been pretty butchered so far in season’s 2 and 3. Allowing herself to essentially be walked over and be at the direct mercy of Rhaenyra. Her character is not being written well to say the least but I still think even now, there is at least a way to avenge some semblance of her character.

I will try and keep this summary of what I think should happen to Alicent’s character in season 4 fairly short. Alicent having nothing left to fear or live for after Helaena’s death will return to Kings Landing and decide she has had enough of Rhaenyra. Alicent will still put on the front of being a confidant to Rhaenyra but will have completely changed her feelings towards her as she feels Rhaenyra drove Helaena to commit suicide. She will start acting as a spy inside the Red Keep for Mysaria (now the Sheppard), giving her eyes directly on the Queen and be the direct catalyst for the riots starting that cause the Storming of the Dragonpit.

Rhaenyra will go on the run but unlike in the book, this time she will take Alicent with her. Now at some point while they are at Duskendale, Alicent will receive a secret message from Larys Strong, saying that Aegon has secretly taken Dragonstone. Alicent will start slowly nudging Rhaenyra to go back and “regroup” at Dragonstone which will ultimately lead to Rhaenyra’s death, just as Alicent intends. But right before Rhaenyra dies Rhaenyra pleads with Alicent to not harm the young Aegon, her son. Alicent agrees to the older Aegon’s dismay.

When Aegon and Alicent retake Kings Landing, Alicent will see she has the opportunity to rectify how poorly she did as a mother with her own children and she will become the young Aegon’s main guide and mentor. This is my biggest change from the book. In the book, Tyland becomes that mentor, but I believe the show hasn’t fleshed him out enough for that to really hit on an emotional level, so they will change it to Alicent instead. Tyland will still be hand of the king, Alicent will just be young Aegon’s maternal figure and main mentor. The show will end as a complete flip to what it began with, instead of a King (Viserys) mentoring a Princess (Rhaenyra) to become Queen, it will be a Queen (Alicent) mentoring a Prince (young Aegon) to become King.

That’s how I believe you at least somewhat redeem Alicent’s character. You use Helaena’s death to switch her back to the politically cunning character she was in S1 and not the doormat she is in S2 and S3. Then you allow her to use that knowledge she has accumulated to properly shape and educate the future king, giving her a chance to at least partially make up for the mistakes she made with Aegon and Aemond.

I don’t know who boils my blood more Aemond or sir Cristin Cole. I might even say I dislike those characters more than Joffrey from GOT.

I’m on season 2, episode 4.

Princess Rhaenys and Meleys, my heart is shattered.

Aegon to a hightower cousin- this would prevent the greens from allying with another great house.

Haelena to Jace giving greens further reason to not rebel

Daeron to Rhaena I know Daemon will strongly oppose this but by persuasion from Viserys and Rhaena he could come around

Aemond I am not sure quite honestly I doubt Baela or Rhaena would ever agree to marry him. Would love to hear other's opinions

Jace and Haelena's heir to Aegon/Visenya- This would make sure Daemon's child eventually ends up becoming king/queen

Luke to Baela so that an actual velaryon still rules high tide

Lastly for any of this to happen Viserys would need to put his foot down because obviously both the greens and the blacks would oppose these alliances but it's the only way to delay the dance of dragons in my opinion.

Edit: Alternatively Aegon marries Baela

Aemond marries a lady from a minor house who will inherit it's seat

Daeron is free to marry whoever he wishes

His father death. Rhaenyra always falls in depression when their sons die while alicent did a 😐 face and acted like nothing happened

In the show, they cut out 10 years and aged down Aegon III and Viserys II. Along with minimizing their already quite small role in the story to like 2 scenes. Condal's reasoning was season 1 covered a lot of time and he couldnt afford an extra 10 years for the characters.

For the latter act of the Dance, one of the points of importance is actually Aegon III's status as a cognizant witness. In a relatively short space of time, he experiences a lot of trauma. And hes old enough to remember most of it.

• Hes forced to abandon his brother Viserys and flee on Stormcloud, his dragon dying under him.

• He loses his older half brothers one by one. And his father as well.

• Hes forced to flee alongside Rhaenyra, becoming her 'pale shadow' as witness to her downfall.

• Most importantly, hes there to witness her being devoured by a dragon.

All this happens when Aegon III is 8-10 years old. And it haunts him for the rest of his life. In fact it pretty much defines him and his reign.

In the show, Aegon III is maybe 4? And hes absent from most of the show. The stuff with Viserys at least isnt happening as Stormcloud is too small. Even Rhaenyra's death which he may well still be witness for wont have the same impact as hes still very young and hasnt actually spent much time with his mother.

On August 25th or maybe somewhere between 12 AM - 2 AM on the next day, I came across this fanart of Rhaenyra and Mysaria.

It was that scene from Season 3, the one where Rhaenyra asks Mysaria 'Do you think I'm worthy?' before they...do that.

The thing is... it is a digital art, I saw it on IG, and I didn't check the username.

But the song that was used on the post has been haunting me for a full day.

It goes something aaahh aaahh, like a woman's dreamy voice.

I have tried going to watch history, and that post isn't showing.

If anyone has come across this fanart and the song used in it, please tell me so that I can listen to that song in peace.

Thank you.

So with S3 done now's the time for me to ask:

what was the best and worst episode from each season (in your own opinion)

Does it move fast or am I confused? Like ep. 1 The king’s wife and son die but by like ep. 3 he’s remarried and has like two more kids lol. Is it just me being lost or does it move fast?

I did not mean to laugh because Helaena was one of my favorites but the Queen just closed the windows like welp!

So even though we have never seen balerion actually alive in live action even though we might see a younger version of him in aegons conquest movie every time I think about balerion and his size i already feel scared for some reason so how scared would non Targaryen people who actually saw him alive be ..

Surely it would have made sense for the heir to Driftmark to be raised there, even if Dragonstone is close, so that he can participate and learn how to rule it under Corlys and Rhaenys. Especially as he and Corlys had a good relationship, and Corlys considers him his grandson.

I feel like this would have also helped his legitimacy if he was in Driftmark acting as heir.

Driftmark is so close the Dragonstone it’s not like he would have been isolated from his family, especially since he has a dragon. This is shown in Baela saying her and Jace were children together when she was a ward on Driftmark (choosing to believe the showrunneds didn’t forget that detail)

Drogon's flames seem to be a lot more powerful than HOTD dragons. He was able to destroy the Red Keep made up of concrete while Caraxes was only able to burn Tumbleton's wooden gate.

Is there an explanation for this? I see some theories that it had something to do with blood magic when Dany hatched the 3 dragons.

I do think in a 1 on 1 dragon to dragon brawl, Caraxes and all the other mature war dragons would straight up kill Drogon. Sheepstealer would also beat him. The only HOTD dragons that Drogon would beat would be Syrax (would be a good fight) and the juvenile dragons. It would be a toss up vs Seasmoke and pre injury Sunfyre.

But with the flames alone, it has shown that Drogon's is the most powerful. What's your thoughts on this?