#aegon and daemon are honest in that they’re sickos and know that and everyone else knows it too

[aeriondripflame]

pls do elaborate on aegon-daemon-ism!

aegon has a lot in common with both viserys and daemon; I usually see ppl only talking only abt the former (particularly in conjunction to the more popular, and usually primary, daemon-aemond-ism,) when ironically aegon-daemon have much more similar personalities, but with daemon's worst trades cranked up a notch within aegon (or, alternatively, narratively much starker lampooned + aegon's tertiary character-ism vs. daemon's main character-ism and aemond's secondary character-ism). but aegon is wholly missing all the "good" parts of daemon, particularly the warriorhood (and, also, daemon being, at least post-rhea royce, a family man)

ppl usually pattern viserys-daemon dynamic onto aegon-aemond. and I see the parallels, but, while there are similarities, particularly later when aegon is king, this strict reading misses out on the fact aegon is a sort of pseudo-second-son/pseudo-first-son due to rhaenyra's status as heir ever since his conception. second-son to one half of the family, first-son to the other half, a dual-identity wherein he is able and cain, romulus and remus, usurper and king, valyrian old blood and reachian old blood, dragon and tower, red and green etc etc (aegon II for multiple reasons. and grrm is having some fun with this symbolism--his children are a pair of twins; he takes the throne twice, his entourage includes the two toms, he even has two eyes, two shattered legs...) not dog and cat, and yet dog and cat...hyena... alive and dead (inebriated, "dead man (and dying dragon)")

and I feel like partially this is due to the fact ppl don't take rhaenyra's position in the narrative seriously, or are, at least, conscious of it. if you only look at aegon-aemond and draw conclusions, such as it being basically new gen viserys-daemon, thus viserys=aegon, daemon=aemond, you're missing out on rhaenyra-aegon paralleling viserys-daemon

rhaenyra’s status of the daughter as firstborn son making aegon the pseudo-secondson is interesting i’ve never thought to compare them to viserys and daemon. i do think that presenting them as foils of the same sibling relationship works in that viserys and daemon are defined by their intimacy (viserys basically raising daemon, ‘he is my brother’, ‘i’ve only ever defended you’, etc) in comparison with rhaenyra and aegon who are defined by their distance (‘what kind of brother steals his sister’s birthright?’ as knowing in theory how siblings are supposed to be but not having the shared history between them).

in f&b, due to the aemond daemon foil, it kinda goes without saying that they are overtly the most similar, but with hotd i’ve started to lean towards aegon sharing more qualities with daemon. it all started with “king’s landing will learn to fear the color gold.” for me. daemon and his gold cloaks, aegon and sunfyre (and his personal and then royal sigil). then with the reactive inappropriate laughter/amusement. early season drunk daemon compared to post-timeskip aegon. to me, aemond despite his quiet nature has a very loud presence, whereas daemon and aegon are both watchers. they act out for attention rather than just receiving that attention outright. but with the viserys and daemon / aegon and aemond parallel, they are both the one who clings.

i think really it comes down to the fact that deep down they know that they’re detestable and they think that something is inherently wrong within themselves, so it is overcompensating and self medicating with like sex, attention, and alcohol.