queenvhagar

[queenvhagar]

it's so fascinating to me how every single youtube video essayist consistently concludes that the reason why house of the dragon season 2 was bad is because it only had 8 episodes and no battle at the end. i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but 2 more hours of incoherent misogyny and extremely fake looking dragon battles was not going to significantly change our lives. game of thrones season 8 also had a battle at the end and was still bad.

call me crazy but maybe if you hire an amateur showrunner solely obsessed with asoiaf deep lore, you're going to end up with a show that largely ignores the original social stakes of the world and uses the characters as vessels to glorify the worldbuilding that he thinks is cool. maybe you're going to end up with a show completely devoid of any satisfying relationships, arcs, or touching emotional core

[queenvhagar]

young alicent hightower

[queenvhagar]

studies

[queenvhagar]

New hotd director just posted this meme on their Insta and you know what, I'm so fucking ready!! Alicent was butchered already anyway. She can stay far, far away for all I care. 🤷‍♀️

"Nothing burns like betrayal" lmaooooo.

[queenvhagar]

[queenvhagar]

Castles of Westeros (1/∞)

Attilio Simonetti - Return to Mantua, 1870 // Joseph Mallord William Turner - Conway Castle North Wales // Ludwig Willroider - Mountain landscape with a castle // Carl Hilgers - Winter moated castle with a returning hunter // Karl Heilmayer - Zenoburg near Meran, Tyrol // Thomas Cole - The Past

[queenvhagar]

rhaenyra stans accusing alicent of turning her children against rhaenyra like nobody can possibly decide to dislike her without some evil manipulation at play. like no have you consider they hate her ass because she treated them like shit and offered to have one of them tortured?

[queenvhagar]

"kill them with kindness" WRONG. wild boar.

🐗🍁

[queenvhagar]

Any advice on how to get back into ASOIAF after HOTD kinda ruined it for me?

It's been months and I still cringe at the sight of anything from this universe. And it doesn't help that fandom spaces are full of deranged TB takes now. I get that it's all just fiction, it's not that deep, but man... ASOIAF was one of my absolute favorite worlds, and now I fear I won't be able to touch it ever again

Rereading the source material helps to remember just how good this story is, and I have some YouTubers I'd recommend who are true to ASOIAF and rightly critical of its adaptations' shortcomings:

- Quinn the GM (great ASOIAF analysis, covers the source material and in particular loves Jon Connington and Young Griff analysis)

- TheEmpyreanSpeaks (great "what if" videos based in the lore of the world of ASOIAF)

- The Grease Goblins (ASOIAF analysis, HOTD critical)

- Critical Maester (Team Green friendly, HOTD critical, some new takes I haven't seen other places)

Many other YouTubers are good too. There are some I don't watch much anymore because of recent HOTD apologizing/GRRM bashing (Glidus and Alt Schmidt X) but if you can get past that their other ASOIAF content is mostly good and entertaining to watch.

Otherwise I search tags that align with my interests (pro team green, anti hotd, asoiaf, that kind of stuff) and sometimes I'll find new posts and communities.

Unfortunately with the adaptations being so bad and fans being so media illiterate it's hard to find good regular content in fan spaces, so I understand the struggle. That's why I've actually been more active in other fandoms recently. Sometimes you just gotta open up to other stories that tell similar stories in good and meaningful ways. But I know. ASOIAF is really next level and it's sad how a lot of it has gone wrong in the wrong hands.

[queenvhagar]

I spent more time scrolling your blog than I care to admit because of your grounded and reasonable takes on the absolute shitshow of HotD. Thank you for healing my sanity a little bit 🙏 It's great to see that media literacy and critical thinking still exist in this fandom

Happy to have helped, anon 😌🫡

[queenvhagar]

the reason all of the divine intervention and prophecies and magic saviordom work so well with Daenerys and not HOTD Rhaenyra to me is that Dany is an underdog. like teenage girl raised on the streets used as a pawn for her entire life until the moment she performed a literal world-changing miracle and she immediately decides to use the magic to help those even less fortunate than her. for lack of a better word it is magical the night is alive with the music of dragons.

however in HOTD the heir to the throne most beloved of her father established member of a dynasty that uses dragons as tools of conquest and state power having the same prophecy and magic just does not work for me because it is not anything special!!! the only thing she seems to want to use it for us to install herself and we don’t even really know why she wants power. Plus the dagger is goofy. 

[queenvhagar]

“My son/s were attacked!”

[queenvhagar]

unquestionably funny that ryan said it was sooo annoying and expensive like just far far too big an inconvenience to have maelor exist. okay fine - then why did we get approx five scenes of rhaenyras toddlers sat there playing, doing nothing for the plot, just existing for rhaenyra to stoke their heads sadly and be that oh so perfect motherly figure they clearly mean to depict her as. like they genuinely didnt need to be in half the scenes they were in. You know who did spend a lot of time with and doted on her children? Helaena. You know who was beloved of the smallfolk? Helaena. You know who they did riot in the name of? Helaena. They wish Rhaenyra was Helaena so bad.

[queenvhagar]

Found your blog and i have to rantt. How do you deal with tb targies? They are insufferable to the core and bath in deluluship hypocrisy all day every day but the worst thing is they are VERY stupid. You could smell a targie mile away by their stinking stupidity and being in the majority they have ruined fandom and canon like their idol ryan condom. It is vexing as hell.

LMAO this gave me a good laugh so thanks 😂

Welcome to the blog!

The majority of the fandom is just so disconnected from the actual story itself and reliant on symbols of Hollywood white feminism that they can turn into memes and reaction images to share on socials with each other. For the most part that is the extent of their understanding of and engagement with the show. Never mind the logic of the decades long and several books deep preexisting world in which the story takes place, coherent and thematically resonant storytelling, and development of three dimensional characters with realistic motivations.

The overly active TB stans in the fandom honestly thrive on the surface level symbols the show presents. Girlboss with a dragon (even adding scenes that never existed or are stolen from other characters even if it doesn't make sense)? Slay. Girlboss makes out with another girl (even though there's zero build up and it's never mentioned again therefore having no narrative impact)? Slay and amazing storytelling obviously. Two royal women in secret love with each other (despite it being so pathetically one-sided and it quite literally breaking the story and gutting one of the involved characters)? Malewife bows and simps before girlboss (even though he's her decades older uncle who groomed her from childhood and repeatedly abuses her)? Jealous ex is a loser misogynist incel (even though it's clearly the case that he was wronged by a single woman and he dislikes her because of this, and he clearly is actively devoted to the woman he is sworn to protect)? Black dragonrider exists onscreen (but no development or storyline whatsoever and the actual Black character with a dragon and a compelling story is cut)? MAJOR SLAY as long as they can get the surface level read and not have to think too deeply about the story. Bonus if they can make the memes and posts on their phone while watching the show in the background! All good shows should let you be able to be on your phone at the same time and still tell a story doncha know 🤪

How do I deal with the BS? Well first of all I'm not on TB majority apps like Facebook and Twitter anymore. As for on Tumblr, this is my general approach: try me with nonsensical arguments and takes on my posts and you will get corrected. Continue to make noise and try to contest basic facts and you're gonna be blocked. Rude asks are immediately blocked with pleasure. I avoid annoying tags related to TB stans and properly tag my own posts to keep them away.

A side note because I feel like I see this a lot is that TBs seem to assume people who support TGs are somehow all conservative and sexist and condoning of violence against women because we support the Green cause. The weird conflagration of liking fictional characters equalling wholeheartedly endorsing such actions in the real world and in our personal lives aside... it's like they think queer leftists can't support TG for some reason. It's wild. And so extremely weird because truly the Green story is a story of what happens when societal systems of power create problems for people who have less of it and what people will do to survive. Like what's not there to resonate with? Of course I'm going to sympathize with the struggle of a woman and her kids in a sensitive and precarious societal position as they band together to survive (especially when the other side is made up of the most privileged people in society flaunting their wealth and power over others because they can). As much as the show wants to say it, Viserys and Rhaenyra are not the ultimate victims of the story nor are they blameless for the way it plays out.

Anyway basically I know that I know this universe and story and that many people being loud on TB simply do not. Just like almost everyone involved in HOTD's production (not you Rhys Ifans shhh) (and probably some other actors like Bethany Antonia, who has said she has begged Ryan Condal not to change her story in the past). And of course GRRM has confirmed this as well on his blog, in detail. Production willfully misinterprets and picks apart the story, thinks they know more than the author himself about how the story should be told, and refuses to listen to his input.

I wouldn't even say GRRM is Team Green. He just knows his story and how the point is that choosing sides was the problem, which is antithetical to what HOTD has done with the material, missing entirely its themes and destroying the story's logic, consistency, and characters in the process.

As for me, the only reason I'm so strongly Team Green is in reaction to the show and the incoherent stans it created. They are so wrong on almost every level and I cannot be on their side about any of it. Team Green it is then 😂

Well, long post again, but thanks for the ask! Best of luck out there 🫡

[queenvhagar]

"I don't want to go back to the table. He said my bugs were disgusting."

(Sorry if the translation is not correct. I speak English very poorly and trust Google Translate)

[queenvhagar]

Do you know why Alicent doesn't wear the crown after marrying Viserys? Margaery and Cersei wore the crown with the symbols of their native houses after marrying the King of the Seven Kingdoms. I mean, imagine what Alicent's crown might look with symbols of Hightowers

Great question. Alicent is never seen with a crown in the show, despite wearing one in the book.

One moment they almost included (and even filmed) was her wedding:

She wears the colors of her new house, adorned in dragon imagery and Targaryen red. Her crown ornately reflects this.

Her crown also plays a role later at Aegon's coronation where after Aegon is crowned with the Conqueror's crown, Alicent places her own crown from her head onto Helaena's and calls her "my Queen," making significance that not only is Aegon king but Helaena is his queen and should wear the crown to reflect it.

Why was this all cut? Indeed a large part of episode 2 was cut, including Rhaenyra calling her a whore and Alicent telling her she had no choice, Alicent getting ready for her wedding with destroyed nail beds reflecting her anxiety at her uncontrollable situation, and the entire wedding ceremony itself, which likely emphasized the enormous age gap between Alicent and the older king and showed her official entrance into the Targaryen family. The coronation is of course also drastically altered: now crowning of Helaena and no flight on Sunfyre, despite it being a public event well-known to the histories.

The simple conclusion is the obvious answer when it comes to why the show erased so much Green content, which of course is that it didn't fit a particular (incorrect, oversimplified) narrative they decided to tell and sell to the audience.

Personally I would have loved to see an evolution of her crown to reflect her identity and embrace of her position and power. Start with her wedding, in which she is swallowed by Targaryen reds and dragon imagery. Let her continue wearing variations of this until the Green dress moment, where she debuts a uniquely different crown: one with fire imagery of House Targaryen, yes, but this time evoking the fire atop the High Tower of Oldtown, with emerald adorned throughout. Make her grand entrance in that moment one where she is undoubtedly the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms:

And later, as she grows to embrace the Faith more visibly, a more simple crown that bears symbols of the Seven, worn in public and especially at court:

(this moment with a crown, showing her position visibly to all others and reminding them of her status as Queen as she navigates the game of thrones)

Then at the coronation, she removes the crown she is wearing, places it on Helaena's head, and proclaims her "my queen," a move that no doubt endears them to the smallfolk further:

(imagine Helaena with a crown - stunning no doubt)

I welcome any art of these moments! Feel free to tag me in it so I see it. The women of Team Green should have had these moments with crowns and we should have seen it.

But of course the only woman who can be seen wearing a crown in this show is Rhaenyra.

[queenvhagar]

helloooooooo! your thoughts on aegond and all the lost potential

I just think the book and even season 1 (for the most part) really set up a united Green front: one family within the larger Targaryen family who only has themselves. Alicent, whose strongest allies were her own children, whose rights and safety she stood up for at every turn. Aegon, a reluctant leader who rose to duty when his family's lives were endangered; Aemond, who trained his whole life to be a weapon his family could yield to protect themselves; Helaena, a dragonrider in her own right and loving mother to her children, queen to her people, sister to her brothers, wife to her husband, neurodivergent yes but capable and loving and insightful, determined to support her family through it all and who helped to convince Aegon to take the crown. Cole, a cunning knight who rose from the very bottom, against all expectations, now sworn to defend this family to the end.

For me, Aegon and Aemond, especially following Blood and Cheese, were the fiercest proponents of the Green cause and were united in their goals to get vengeance for the horrifically murdered Jaehaerys and his traumatized family. They planned Rook's Rest together with Cole, they rode to battle on dragonback together, and when Aegon was injured beyond belief and many doubted his survival, Aemond stood behind him and upheld his position as the rightful king.

The Greens weren't perfect, but their loyalty to each other and commitment to their family was a key redeeming quality of theirs. They were a family that fought for survival in a political nightmare thrust upon them by their own family's incompetence and entitlement as well as the feudalist medieval patriarchal system in which they lived. It's supposed to be tragic that their determination to their cause and connection to each other was not enough to save them.

Except of course HOTD removes basically all of that to create surface level drama and reduces all of them to be cartoonish one dimensional versions of themselves. No family here! Or loyalty. Or love. They're just evil incompetent freaks who apparently deserve to lose from the get go and who "stole" a crown for no reason except they all hate women I guess. Just wow. Talk about prestige television guys. Absolutely phenomenal work. Millions of dollars into this show. And of course all the critics including the author himself don't know what they're talking about 🤪