#lanesus answers hotd asks

[comradekarin]

Heartbreaking to think that we could have had a peck on the cheek in Season 1, but HBO decided against it.

bethany and harry did mention they improvised a small kiss scene in season one but it didn’t make the final cut. my oomfs think it was during the dinner scene right before jace asked helaena to dance. absolutely sick that i have to see so much of criston cole on my screen, alicole sex scenes, daemon going to pound town on his mom, and seeing that dumb look on alicent’s face every single scene but i can’t get a small jacaela kiss that would have taken two seconds? anti blackness is a hell of a disease because why else are they robbing us blind like this?

[comradekarin]

The fact that they deleted Jace kissing Baela’s cheeks pisses me awf. Like we can’t even get that? They are teenagers in love, only feel safe to truly confide in one another and they have never kissed once? They’ve known each other and have lived together since they were kids. They really expect us to believe that they haven’t even shared a chaste peck? They don’t even hug and barely have screentime together.

literally!! I mentioned the kiss scene here a while back but it’s still true. season two legitimately feels like filler outside of the rooks rest episode. and for a season that feels like filler, the writers are certainly focusing on the WRONG things to fill the time. the fact that alicent has more screentime than all of teamb and teamg kids… a season meant to be about the children yet all of them are given scraps. criston cole has more screentime than teamb kids! this alone tells me the writers aren’t serious about developing jacaela.

i had to suffer three consecutive episodes of baela not saying anything. rhaena doesn’t show or say much of anything (and it’s growing clear her storyline has now been swapped for nettles). jace clearly has grievances but the writers don’t follow through with them. baela is supposed to be his betrothed! its implied through harry and bethany’s body language that they talk about the dragonseeds… but would it kill ryan and sara to have scenes of jacaela actually talking? scenes where they aren’t constantly playing cheerleader for rhaenyra? scenes about grappling with rhaenys dying? daemon leaving? how they feel about rhaena not being with them? luke being mentioned in a way that shows how they BOTH loved him instead of luke being treated like a cautionary tale all season? moondancer and vermax scenes? even their handholding scenes are blurry and zoomed out, and all they do is hold hands lmao?? and it kills me because it’s not like they’re being completely ignored, their scenes just tend to either be short, a little one sided (as in jace seems to be the primary focus), or subtle.

i personally think the writers are gonna rush a lot of things when it comes to them in season three before you know what happens. like how before luke died we got those last minute scenes with him and rhaenyra. season two would have been the perfect time to truly develop jacaela, but the writers just didn’t go for it. it’s like they have difficulty writing meaningful dynamics lol. i personally also think the writers just don’t care enough about baela (and rhaena) to even develop their surrounding relationships… but i won’t get too much into that.

[comradekarin]

In your rhaenys post, What do you mean that the male characters around them are smarter than them (alicent and rhaenyra)?

TW. long post……….

what i mean is that in the writers’ pursuit of portraying their female characters as “peacelovers that don’t wish for destruction and bloodshed”, they are also making them appear extremely naive, much to the detriment of their respective factions. lucerys has been murdered by aemond while acting as an envoy. visenya was born pre-maturely after rhaenyra heard the news of viserys’ death and the greens’ usurpation. jaehaerys was killed as a placeholder for aemond due to the rat catchers inability to find the latter. viserys is presumed to have been killed by the greens to even steal the throne from rhaenyra. do we see rhaenyra truly reckoning with all of these events? no. alicent lost her grandson and clearly still does have gripes over aemond losing his eye as a child (i have a personal headcanon that alicent edged the possibility of aemond getting revenge further down the line). alicent is also responsible for spreading those illegitimacy claims about rhaenyra’s three children, and consequently endangering her and her kids’ lives. she is also—albeit indirectly—involved in harwin and lyonel’s death. despite the fact that their families are at war and are killing each other, these women remain firm in keeping peace. yet their stances aren’t cemented because of their losses, but because of the writers’ consistent efforts to erase what has happened to them now and in their past.

rhaenyra goes to kings landing to sue for peace. that in of itself is extremely foolish. she doesn’t tell her council where she’s going, nor does she seem to have a plan if things go sideways. and in her absence, jacaerys and baela are essentially thrown to the wolves mitigating the black council’s frustrations with, again, no info on where rhaenyra even is. rhaenyra goes to KL, speaks to alicent, and by bad writing extreme luck is able to leave unharmed. alicent literally doesn’t tell anyone that nyra infiltrated, OR that she let her go. they come off as silly to the audience, not wise. jacaerys seems to be the only person with common sense, to make matters even worse. there’s even times where you’re thinking that rhaenyra should have listened to daemon.

these women are not allowed to express how they feel about the events happening around them. not only are the writers destroying the complexity of their feelings, but they’re also falsely equating alicent and rhaneyra even though narratively it doesn’t make sense to put them on the same pedestal. rhaenys spoke to alicent herself, who wanted her help to rob rhaneyra of her throne, thus endangering the lives of baela and rhaena due to them being betrothed to jace and luke. yet, a couple of episodes later, we have rhaenys implying that rhaenyra is to blame for jaehaerys’ death and sees the “violence” in the men around alicent, thus urging nyra to go to KL. baela is only being used as a rhaenyra’s cheerleader so far this season, never really having her own thoughts and opinions on this war outside of her support for nyra (which isn’t inherently wrong, her support I mean). and don’t even get me started on helaena’s lack of reaction to her son’s death. i think daemon cried more over that little boy than her. rhaena doesn’t even have enough scenes for me to make an assumption, which is bad in of itself.

lastly, in going this “peaceful women, evil men” route, we also get a lot of contradictions with the writing of these characters. especially so with alicent. no longer is alicent this protective, cunning and bitter woman we saw in season one. now? it’s almost as if the writers are trying to absolve her of the things she did in season one, thus erasing what makes her the character her fans love. whether it’s trying to push the rhaenyra x alicent ship, bad writing, or both, overall, i just think it’s really silly and just soft misogyny to even have this line of thinking when writing women. the writers only have like six anyway, and it’s like they haven’t done any of them justice.

[comradekarin]

Do you still love Jacaela?

of course I do. those are my pookies. I will never forget when oomfs mira and snow were the only ones putting that work in for the jacaela community! the problem is that season three for hotd isn’t coming out until my fucking college graduation and I’ve been struggling to get through jaehaerys’ chapters in f&b, so I’ve had little motivation to engage with hotd. but jacaela is still the best hotd ship… that will never change. I still read the fics on archive too!! currently seated for reading this one right now as we speak, anon…

[comradekarin]

It’s just me, you, Harry, Bethany and like 3 scenes against HBO, Ryan and Jacelaenas/Jacecregans/JaceSara flop lovers

NO BECAUSE WE ARE IN THE TRENCHES???? what does hbo and this fandom have against pretty people being in LOVE

[comradekarin]

living for your hotd hot takes!!! what do you wish would have happened in S1 & S2 in your ideal world?

thank you anon. i know some people are sick of me bitching….but blame ryan and sara!!! i love when i get asks anyway, it’s fun :)

now, i won’t go into specifics mainly because i don’t know what plot points i would change exactly (while still keeping it faithful to the show/books). but as for season one, in an ideal world, there aren’t so many time skips. i do understand that time skips and short seasons are because of budgeting, but the frequent time skips didn’t help with establishing the dynamics between the characters, namely alicent and rhaenyra. i believe there’s an entirety of twenty plus years shown in season one, yet a lot of groundwork isn’t really laid down. i personally wish we got more harwin/house strong. it’s easy to forget larys is harwin’s brother, and larys is such a major player with teamg that it really makes you wonder his relationship with his brother and father. more of harwin and rhaenyra! i would even go as far as to wish for more interactions between nyra and alicent’s kids outside of the pivotal scenes we got. in an ideal world, season one would truly show the build of resentment, of bitterness, of suspicion and distrust amongst not just the kids but the adults as well. the events leading up to the estrangement of rhaenyra and alicent in their adulthood (though, this is implied more than explicitly stated).

this last wish is more personal, but i wish the writers hadn’t cut out jacaerys and rhaenyra’s conversation before he left for the north in s1. jacaerys wishing to fight, like daemon, and urging his mother to act for every second she stalled him and his siblings remained in danger. granted, rhaenyra appeared very naive and childish in the script, so it’s probably for the better it never made the final cut.

i’m only halfway through season two, but my main issue with the season so far is the lack of consistency when it comes to characterization. there’s a lot of back tracking and contradictions that make the characters we loved in season one unrecognizable in two. in an ideal world, season two would focus more on team black/green kids. developing the relationship between aemond and aegon (and their dynamic with alicent). letting the audience see jacaerys being political savvy and his budding friendship with cregan while he was up north. the writers acknowledging the bond that rhaena should have had with jacaerys and lucerys; she was ward of dragonstone for six years yet the writers seem to forget this fact. seeing baela murder cole via burning in 4k would also be pretty cool. giving baela way more screen time and actually allowing her to have a voice about the war, the dragonseeds, rhaena and so forth. daemon interacting with the dragon twins more. showing visenya during daemon’s many episodes at harrenhal! the fact that childbirth is such an important component in his relationship with his mother, laena and rhaenyra yet it’s not emphasized is also criminal. but just cutting the harrenhal episodes will do, too. and more jacaela! i’m crazy so i catch all of their crumbs, but i do wish their scenes were less jace centric and more mutual. like, sure, we get the eye, dinner and council scene, but those are short lines rather than dedicated screentime. and even in baela’s moments of comforting jace, her opinions on things are never really mentioned. everything she says go back to what rhaenyra will think, how rhaenyra will react, what rhaenyra will do, etc. i also wish we could see more of aemond and alicent? i think i get her and aegon’s dynamic, but i’m not entirely sure where her and aemond stand. aegon and sunfyre! jace and vermax! addam and jace’s friendship! more of corlys and rhaenys’ reaction to lucerys’ death (lucerys never truly beat the favorite grandson allegations). or, lucerys and visenya being mentioned at all. and i can’t believe i’m saying this, but more otto!! and less criston cole (it’s insane cole has more screentime than all of tb!kids).

season two honestly feels like filler and stalling, yet the writers aren’t using this time to build up tension or meaningful dynamics so that they can really sell season three. it doesn’t showcase grief all that well, either, so i wish that would be improved, too.

so, there’s probably a bunch of other things i want to see but i won’t bore you too much, anon!! outside of baela burning cole, i feel like my wishes wouldn’t stray too far from the narrative? if anything, it would only enrich show canon.

[comradekarin]

You don’t like mysaria x rhaenyra?

not really? the chemistry is there, i just don’t like how rhaenyra is seeking counsel in a woman that played a role in the usurpation of her throne. i don’t like the fact that almost every piece of advice she’s given rhaenyra will eventually bite rhaenyra (and those closest to her) in the ass. like, the kiss was hot, don’t get me wrong… but mysaria feels a little bit like larys. we don’t know their true motives, we don’t know where their loyalties truly lie or what could get them to switch up. with them, things tends to be transactional and conditional. there’s moments of vulnerability from them of course (i.e larys becoming emotional whenever discussing his disability and mysaria talking about her inability to have children/her father abusing her). yet, i’m still not sure what to make of them. if this is supposed to be intentional by the writers, ok, sure. it feels deliberate the way they’re creating that riff between rhaenyra and jacaerys over mysaria, at least. but if not? i’m not sure how i feel tbh.

[comradekarin]

“the writers’ tendency to keep up with this “men are violent warmongers, women are peacekeepers who don’t want bloodshed” farce is just soft misogyny.” How is it misogyny that two women want to prevnt a war before it starts? it IS true that all the men around them are pushing for bloodshed, Jace included.

“Jace included” KEEP MY WIFE NAME….. OUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH (og post for smart people, will not answer this)

[comradekarin]

Daemon was possibly worst off that Alicent and Rhaenyra in the repetitive scene front and yet he managed to gather the biggest land army TB has. Jacaerys secured key alliances with the North, Vale and the Twins & suggested a more stable version of the dragonseed plan. Aemond is hadcore carrying Team Black. Cole had managed to basically cut Dragonstone by land and his plan took down the most dangerous dragon the Blacks had. They Did Stuff, amidst having their own emotional character arcs and they have made moves that are logical and further their causes. The biggest thing Rhaenyra did was a desperate ritual sacrifice, giving dragons to guy she doesn't know anything of and one of which is very obvious loose cannon. The most significant thing Alicent did was... sell her entire side off, which kinda goes against her previous characterization. Rhaenys? Died the silliest death, by being a experienced dragon rider that allowed a downed lizard the size of a building to sneak up on her. Rhaena left All her resposibilities, to go chase a dragon in the dumbest way possible, without any forethought; the amount of plot armor required for a girl without provisions to survive IN THE VALE (where raiders are plentiful, remember Cate and Co having to fight back in GoT) in colder times. There' a pretty big difference in how men and women were portrayed and I wouldn't call the show particularly feminist, despite the overexposition of Rhaenyra and Alicent.

anon, you perfectly articulated my thoughts. the men in the show are able to have their own emotional arcs without it hindering the execution of their end goals. on the other hand, all the female characters follow this identical “no violence” prototype that actually harms not just their relationship with other characters but the narrative itself. and what’s worse is that a few of these female characters are portrayed differently than their season 1 counterparts. in season 2, there are a lot of contradictions and inconsistent characterizations that don’t serve a narrative purpose. and this is not to say that all of the men are perfectly written, either, nor am i trying to imply that rational characters are inherently good characters. but, all of the choices the female characters are making aren’t reflective of their season one traits, let alone the books. and these choices are being made so we can stick with this narrative that “its the men that are violent, and all the women are trying to navigate around them”. it’s silly. i go further into how exactly here.

i do wonder what we mean when we say a piece of film is “feminist” though. just because female characters are centered in a show doesn’t inherently mean a work is inherently feminist. as you said, rhaenyra and alicent do have the most screentime in the show yet nothing of substance is really created with that time. how can the show even be seen as “feminist” when the women are reduced to these one dimensional archetypes that don’t move the plot forward.

furthermore, how many times can the writers get away with the narrative that “fire and blood is ambiguous and not wholly rooted in truth”? it’s true, yes, but they are using this to make drastic changes to characters and plots that don’t even make sense half the time. it’s just bad writing. yet when i bring up how drastic the writing between the male and female characters are in the show differ, everyone throws a fit. it’s not wrong to have critiques, especially when the writing choices made in the show resemble one of fanfiction. at what point does “taking creative liberty” turn into “writing what i want to see”?

again, this is not me hating the show per se. i still have my own favorite characters, favorite moments, and favorite dynamics. i just wish the intentions with the female characters were there. how the writers baited the audience into thinking this would be the case with the season one finale just for it to not turn out to be true? it’s just wild to me.

[comradekarin]

You liked the harrenhall subplot? A lot of people hated it myself included lol

i actually did like the harrenhal plot, i just think it was dragged on for far too long. it should have been two episodes maxed, not the entire season. a part of me also thought it wasn’t needed?? i personally don’t think daemon wanted to be king in the way the show was making it out to be. i do think he had lingering feelings about not being viserys’ heir (which, I’d argue, is more about daemon’s complicated relationship with viserys and less about wanting the throne itself), but i didn’t see it as being so intense that he’d be willing to take rhaenyra’s throne from her. but let’s say i’m wrong in interpreting that way, i still think the type of visions he had were meh. where was adult rhaenyra? his children? visenya, the baby he JUST lost? the scenes he had with viserys were good and all, but i also felt like we always knew daemon loved his brother? it wasn’t exactly new information. the scene with his mom was just gross and a waste of screentime. they could have used it as an opportunity to explore daemon’s relationship with childbirth and how it impacted the women around him (i.e. rhaenyra, laena, his mom….) but i digress. overall, i don’t think it’s a bad concept actually. it just started to feel like filler after a while.

[comradekarin]

They took dramione's popularity, is now lucemond 🤢

it should be cato x katniss and luke/rhaena 😩😩😩 if lucemond has no haters im DEAD because wdym aemond and luke?

[comradekarin]

Any favorite dynamics on the show? And favorite characters? Btw your “lanesus watches hotd” tag cracks me up !! Can’t wait for your season two reactions 😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

yay!! ok. these will be ranked out of order? like in no particular order, they’re just listed as favs. so imma do my top five favorite characters first: rhaenyra (she is actually number one), the dragon twins/nyras boys (they share a slot), rhaenys, daemon and corlys. for my top dynamics: aegon and alicent, rhaenyra and jacaerys (that’s really more with s2), rhaenyra and viserys, lucerys and corlys & aegon and jacaerys. bonus: baby!jace and baby!baela transcends ranking and shall not be included. it wouldn’t be fair if I added them.

[comradekarin]

Sara Snow was the delusions of a pedophile. Mushroom made up sexual tales about Jace more than once. Like when he said Jeyne Arryn raped him.

i didn’t make it to that far into f&b but…. he says shit like that but i’m supposed to believe jace cheated on baela with a bastard? i also think fandom forgets sometimes that jace and baela are like fourteen and twelve respectively in the books so that’s even more weird-

[comradekarin]

Season 1 no kiss between Rhaenyra and Harwin Season 2 no kiss between Baela and Jace :(

MIND YOU! the only two romantic ships i care about. i appreciate a lot of hotd dynamics, but those are really the only two id read a shippy fic for. but ryan and sara hate me too much to give those two ships any canon material to work with-

[comradekarin]

Can't wait for Jacaela mood boards

from me?

[comradekarin]

Maybe the reason we didn't get a kiss or a hug was because Harry was underage at the time they filmed season 2? At least we got a hand-holding scene. I wonder who wrote the scene between Harwin and Rhaenyra with baby Joffrey. Although it didn't require physical touch, it was still sweet and intimate. They could have done the same for Jace and Baela...

possibly? i mean, there are numerous actors that have considerable age gaps between each other that still perform intimacy scenes (whether that be sex scenes, kiss scenes, or romance in general). currently, harry is 20/21, so it wouldn’t be “obscene” if he and bethany shared any scenes of that nature in season three. two, i’m not entirely sure how old he was. season one, i get that since he was 16 at best. but like you mentioned, that final harwin and rhaenyra moment was insanely intimate and vulnerable without there being any words exchanged between one another. that could also easily work for jacaela, too. while i do like their hand holding scenes, it sucks the writers aren’t giving them screen time with good dialogue. they also cut out the short, improvised cheek kiss scene harry and bethany did (which wouldn’t have taken any time away to include in the show). its tragic becaus i KNOW harry and bethany have the range to do it.