#septon eustace

[aeriondripflame]

septon eustace giggling and kicking his feet while writing his self insert oc daeron targaryen into the histories

[elinor-bolton]

So I wanted to write about the textual evidence regarding Aegon II and the child fighting pit, and why its extremely dubious that it happened at all based on the text of Fire&Blood

So just a little bit of background on fire & blood. Fire& blood, the book containing the information the house of the dragon is based on, was written in the asoiaf universe from the perspective of Maester Yandel, contains sections from the perspective of Archmaester Gyldayn. It containes six chapters detailing the Dance of the Dragons, taken from several people’s accounts that were there at the time. The perspectives that matter in this particular bit of the story are those of Septon Eustace, Grand Master Munkin, and Mushroom, the fool. One should note that all of these perpectives contain inaccuracies, and often conflicting stories, but Eustace was known for being a supporter of the Greens and Mushroom was said to have greatly loved Rhaenya and was known to add an air of scandal to any of his accounts (ex during the early days of the Dance, Jacaerys was sent to the Vale to request aid from Lady Jeyne Arryn, the ruling lady of house Arryn, known as the “Maid of the Vale” because she never married. According to Mushroom, she agreed to lend her support only if Jace could make her climax with his tongue. This is obviously ridiculus, as, besides the obvious, not only was Jace 15 and Jeyne 36 at the time (Not the pedophilia doesn’t happen a lot in asoiaf, it is generally doesn’t happen with an older woman and a younger man) and Jeyne was well accepted by the history books to be only interested in women. She had a lifelong “companion” in Jessamyn Redfort and was known to have died in her arms at the age of 40.) But back to my point. The perspectives were biased and Mushroom told scandalous stories. We do know that Septon Eustace was the only one who we can be certian was in Kings Landing for the events of Ep 9, as he preformed Viserys I’s last rights. We do know that Mushroom was not at KL directly after Viserys I death, as he was at Rhaenyra’s court at Dragonstone.

So, we get to the events of Ep9. All accounts agree that Aegon was not with Helaena and their children when called in by the council. Munkin’s account simply states the prince was found “at his revels” Eustace’s account says that Aegon was found “abed with a well-kept paramour, the daughter of a wealthy trader.” Mushroom, who was definately not present told a very different story. He states these “revels” “were at a Flea Bottom rat pit, where feral children fought each other for the amusement of watchers, while Aegon, drunk and naked, was pleasured by a young girl.”

Now we know these rat pits existed, and several members of the Dance may have visited them, including Aegon (once again, by the account of only Mushroom), Daemon and Baela (see the end of the linked above article on”rat pits” However, literally the only person who says the Aegon was there was Mushroom, who very much was not in Kings Landing. I’m not in any way trying to argue that he was “in bed with a well kept Paramour” (honestly he was probably drunk at a brothel) But I think it’s absolutely ridiculous and incredibly biased that the writers of the show decided to take the obviously unsubstantiated account of the story and use that to make Aegon seem worse. It’s just part of a larger pattern of the writers picking the absolute worst accounts for Aegon’s character building and completely ignoring the objective accounts for Rhaenyra (Such as the fact that in the text she definitely ordered the death of Vaemond, who did not call her a whore (Although he did accuse her of committing adultery which was high treason so) Instead the show has Viserys”ordering his death” and Daemon acting on his own to behead a noble without trial (aka literally the thing that Joffrey does to Ned Stark that starts the war with the North) which is a super big issue the narrative just glosses over, but once again i digress

[notyour-valentine]

You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them

You don't stop loving someone, just because you hate them ~ (Aemond Targaryen x Rhaenyra's daughter)

(I wrote as vaguely as possible but still maybe a little spoiler warning for House of the Dragon)

There had been long standing rumours about Prince Aemond and his niece, born to Princess Rhaenyra between the Princes Jacaerys and Lucerys. These were most prominently spread by Mushroom, who claimed the Prince and the Princess, close since childhood, had secret meetings on an isle off the coast of Stonedance with the Prince even hoping to take her to wife. Septon Eustace only ever mentioned that Prince Aemond danced repeatedly with the Princess at the feast for King Visery's return to health in 127 AC until Prince Daemon decisively put an end to it. The reaction of the Princess to Prince Aemond's toast is not recorded.

Whether or not the claims are true can only be debated. What is known is that while the grieving Princess and her dragon set the entire fleet to torch, Prince Aemond refused to take flight with Vhagar, even if the young Princess and her dragon would have proved little challenge, as unlike the Prince's mount, the young dragon had not yet faced another dragon in battle. Indeed, it is even claimed that when archers took aim and loosened their arrows, Prince Aemond threw them off the battlements to their deaths in a fit of rage, threatening any other would-be-dragon-slayer with Vhagar's fire. This change infuriated Lord Borros, but with the Princeling unmoved, he had to watch his ships burn at the Princess' hand.

In late 129 AC Mushroom claimed that Prince Aemond sought to the meet with the Princess once more, but to no avail, as she had long vowed revenge on him and his brothers.

All that speculated youthful affection, however, would be well and truly forgotten when the two claimed lovers met again- on dragonback.

~ Archmaester Gyldayn in Fire and Blood, Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros

[stromuprisahat]

There was no way to spirit away the Iron Throne, however. Nor would Queen Rhaenyra sleep until she claimed her father’s seat. So the torches were lit in the throne room, and the queen climbed the iron steps and seated herself where King Viserys had sat before her, and the Old King before him, and Maegor and Aenys and Aegon the Dragon in days of old. Stern-faced, still in her armor, she sat on high as every man and woman in the Red Keep was brought forth and made to kneel before her, to plead for her forgiveness and swear their lives and swords and honor to her as their queen. Septon Eustace tells us that the ceremony went on all through that night. It was well past dawn when Rhaenyra Targaryen rose and made her descent. “And as her lord husband Prince Daemon escorted her from the hall, cuts were seen upon Her Grace’s legs and the palm of her left hand,” wrote Eustace. “Drops of blood fell to the floor as she went past, and wise men looked at one another, though none dared speak the truth aloud: the Iron Throne had spurned her, and her days upon it would be few.”

The Princess and the Queen × Fire and Blood (George R. R. Martin)

Of course it did! How could a WOMAN sit on the throne unharmed, right?!

Not to mention this was obviously something that happened only to the unworthy ones. It's not like Viserys, for example, an Heir chosen by the Realm's nobility, lost part of his hand...

Or gods forbid common sense would be used, and all those wise men realized whole night sitting on a seat full of sharp objects might result into a scratch or two, especially if the person's wearing fucking armour- therefore their range of movement might be limited- and prone to fidgeting...

I also can't help but wonder how do you cut your legs, when you're wearing armour. And in a way it's visible to random passer-by.

[ride-thedragon]

Something I've realized with the whole Nettles x Daemon thing is that most people who deny it are Daemyra fans who can't use the only person denying their relationship in the narrative. Septon Eustace is the only person saying they weren't sexual. Rhaenyra and Mushroom both don't deny it. Maester Gyldayn and Maester Norren both are just like it's quite likely from the evidence.

Eustace is the only one going out of his way to deny it because of the way Nettles looks but because of the racist element that Rhaenyra utilizes they can't say that.

He also is constantly lying on or belittling Nyra in the narrative, which is what they assume the Nettles's storyline does to her as well, so they can't use him as a defense this one time without lending credibility to his other nonsensical claims about her.

Personally, I'd use the witch allegations, but that's because I like to have fun to prove my points.

That's really tough for y'all, though. Daemon isn't a good guy to Rhaenyra outside of it. Y'all will never convince me that y'all are for Daemyra but not also Daemon and Nettles. It's very similar in the show.

Two people who come together at a tumultuous time in their lives and escape the politics of Westeros with a constant threat in the background to their happiness. That's crazy.

[muadweeb]

in f&b septon eustace speculates that ser arryk found daemon and rhaenyra in bed together (🍄 goes a step further and says that daemon was teaching rhaenyra how to seduce ser criston!) and that's why he was loyal to aegon ii and in hotd its implied that ser erryk knows aegon ii is a weirdo who likes seeing starved children fight to death (🙄) and that's why he is loyal to rhaenyra...its almost a tragedy you know? twins who look so much like each other forced to fight to death for 2 sides of same wretched family. that's the horror of the dance of the dragons. the greens, the blacks...no they are all silver haired cunts fighting for the ugly fucking throne. the main casualty, the victims are just normal ppl of westeros caught in the web of fate!!!!

[sweetestpopcorn]

Rhaenyra and Rhaenys (The Conqueror) are the only queens whose private/sexual life was constantly under scrutiny and countless rumours were invented to ruin their reputations, yet people claim Rhaenys parallels Laena? In what universe? 🙄

Hi there Anon!

I can't say that this is accurate. Most women from House Targaryen had their sex life scrutinised in the books, that is in no way unique to Rhaenys and Rhaenyra. I am also quite unsure on how fair it is to compare the rumours between the two of them.

Rhaenys was rumoured *sigh* to take on multiple lovers between her favourites and while there were "whispers" that Aenys was not Aegon's son, his real father is not even named by anyone in the books. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is mentioned to have taken on two lovers, first Daemon before she was married, and then Harwin, after she married Laenor. The latter is also named as the father of her three sons by several sources. The only one who denies Harwin was Rhaenyra's lover is Eustace though he later slips when he mentions that Daemon saw Harwin as competition for Rhaeyra's affections. However, in Rhaenyra's case there is ample proof that both of these "rumours" were actually quite true as we have significant evidence that are presented as facts and not as theories or rumours - i.e., how much time she spent with Daemon and how he behaved towards her, how Harwin courted her, how close she was to each of these men, the appearance of the "Velaryon" princes - for anyone who still has doubt it is BROWN hair and BROWN eyes and a pug nose like Harwin had - and how she behaved when Daemon and her became widows. Concerning Criston and Rhaenyra, while he was a favourite of hers, this was when she was a child/very young girl, before Daemon returned in 111 AC, and mostly it makes him look bad, not her. Eustace, a Green, very much blames Criston, Alicent, another Green, makes him sound like a creep when she asks who protected Rhaenyra from him -> before she decided to turn a blind way to what she said a few years before and take him on. This was when Rhaenyra was around 12/13 btw and again, before Daemon returned. Mushroom is the one who does blame Rhaenyra, making her sound like a Lolita of sorts, even so, he maintains that the two were never lovers (much like Eustace doea).

With Queen Rhaenys there is no such evidence to these "affairs", it really comes down to whispers. It's said she entertained a number of singers, poets, etc in her chambers but it's never mentioned she was alone with any of them. Moreover, while Aenys was not very strong he resembled a Targaryen, and his son Aegon was said to be the spitting image of Aegon the Conqueror, Aenys's father.

If we are just speaking queens, that would not be fair since Laena was never a queen, nor even a princess, so even if she had rumours surrounding her, by that premise we could not compare her to Rhaenys. If we are broadly talking about Targaryen women Saera, Viserra, Alyssa, Rhaena (Aenys's daughter), and Baela, had their private lives put on display and countless both facts and rumours are presented about them. For instance, it was rumoured that Rhaena - compared to her grandmother Rhaenys in appearance all the time - lost her V card to a singer in one of her flights on Dreamfyre.

Looking now at only queens, seldom were Rhaenys and Rhaenyra the only ones whose private life is examined. People tend to conveniently forget that actually Alicent had quite a few rumours about herself, yes all put forward by Mushroom, but brought up in the books nonetheless. And on this a note. It will never not be funny to be how people are willing to believe everything Mushroom says about Rhaenyra at face-value no matter how little sense it makes, yet they brush aside everything he says about Alicent. Just something for people to ponder. Moving on though, Mushroom claimed not only that Daemon took Alicent's v-card and that was why Otto hated him, but also that she performed s€ggsual favours for Jaehaerys. Furthermore, he also maintains she and Viserys were intimate before they married. So actually, she was a queen who did have her private/seggsual life talked about. The same is also true of Maegor's queens, especially Alys Harroway. Even of Tyanna of the Tower we hear rumours.

All in all, I don't think there's much about Laena and Rhaenys that warrants any great parallel or comparison, nonetheless, saying only Rhaenyra and Rhaenys had their private lives dissected is also not accurate.

All the best :)

Note: Anything I write only concerns the asoiaf canon. Nothing I write about ever concerns the redacted canon. Again, this is only true for the asoiaf canon. Thank you.

[asongoficeandfiresource]

The World of Fire & Blood Calendar 2023 || The Three Chroniclers of the Dance by Chase Stone

Septon Eustace and Mushroom do not always agree upon particulars, and at times their accounts are considerably at variance with one another, and with the court records and the chronicles of Grand Maester Runciter and his successors. Yet their tales do explain much and more that might otherwise seem puzzling, and later accounts confirm enough of their stories to suggest that they contain at least some portion of truth. The question of what to believe and what to doubt remains for each student to decide.-- Fire and Blood

[horizon-verizon]

And here again our sources differ. That night, Septon Eustace reports, Ser Criston Cole slipped into the princess’s bedchamber to confess his love for her. He told Rhaenyra that he had a ship waiting on the bay, and begged her to flee with him across the narrow sea. They would be wed in Tyrosh or Old Volantis, where her father’s writ did not run, and no one would care that Ser Criston had betrayed his vows as a member of the Kingsguard. His prowess with sword and morningstar was such that he did not doubt he could find some merchant prince to take him into service. But Rhaenyra refused him. She was the blood of the dragon, she reminded him, and meant for more than to live out her life as the wife of a common sellsword. And if he could set aside his Kingsguard vows, why would marriage vows mean any more to him?

Fire and Blood, by George R.R. Martin, pg 370-371  

[PT6 of What Happened Between Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Criston]

[mononijikayu]

im sorry but i really cant take mushroom’s thought that rhaenyra would ever seduce ser criston cole,,,like at this part of the story, i think septon eustace was more truthful considering not only how young rhaenyra was, she was also not about to lose herself into a marriage to a guy who was about to forsake his vow about being a kingsguard just for her to lose much more than that to be with him.

[lemonhemlock]

hey! i wanna ask something based on this ask you got from anonymous.

i literally don’t believe a single thing said by mushroom about the greens but what about those people who say septon eustace trashed aegon ii too, despite him being a rhaenyra anti himself? tbf i don’t remember exactly when he trashed aegon ii so bad that he became completely cancellable but some of the team black stans heavily emphasise on it. as an aegon ii stan i obviously don’t justify abuse & it’s reasonable to brush off mushroom’s tales about him (one of the main reasons is he didn’t even spend enough time with him as he did with rhaenyra, to claim the things he did about him). but it’s also very much likely that a lot of things that has been said about his personality & actions are blown out of proportion. mind you they don’t give a fuck when mushroom or any other narrator talks shit about any of the team black characters, at best they admit those claims with grudges but most of the times they pass it on as “bad writing” or “biased writing”.

so, when we read f&b, which narration in your opinion seems more reliable to you because i’ve seen both teams being described weirdly enough from both their supporters & non-supporters.

Hello there!

Certainly, analysing the veracity of the different sources Archmaester Gyldayn uses to compile Fire and Blood is actually a very interesting exercise, but, unfortunately, I don't have the energy to engage with it at the moment as throroughly as I would like. So I'm putting this out there in the event that someone else has more drive towards the subject than I do. 💌🕊

One thing I will add, though, is that the in-universe author, Archmaester Gyldayn, interposes his own biases on top of the other sources he uses, but that's more subtle and less analysed in the fandom, I feel. Gyldayn, however, is writing during the reign of Robert Baratheon, so there's no particular political need for him to have Targaryen bias. It is very interesting to note that initially GRRM intended for Gyldayn to be the last maester serving at Summerhall before it burned down, but, because he decided that the book Fire and Blood should cover the entirety of the Targaryen rule, this was retconned and he got to live until after the Rebellion. One place where I do feel Gyldayn's biases coming through, though, is when he's interpreting succession laws.

Septon Eustace is the one who anointed Aegon because the High Septon was too old to travel from Oldtown to King's Landing. I admit I haven't interrogated that very closely, as within the lore it is mentioned that the seat of the High Septon was moved from Oldtown to KL after Aegon's conquest. So what was the High Septon doing in Oldtown in the first place - I don't remember if there is a reason provided. Eustace is more friendly towards Aegon in his writings, but he has the advantage of actually being in King's Landing, as opposed to Mushroom.

Honestly, off the top of my head, I don't remember when/if Eustace cancelled Aegon to any considerable extent (lmao). Perhaps someone else could chime in? Eustace does rise later to the ranks of the Most Devout, who are some very highly regarded priest people, perhaps similar to Catholic Cardinals. So, I would imagine that if Eggon truly was as depraved as Mushroom says, Eustace would have said something about it? For example, Mushroom tells us this very spicy tale that Aegon liked to watch other people having sex after he got injured, but that it supposedly filled him afterwards with so much shame he'd start crying and call for Eustace to grant him absolution. ☠ This however begs the question - if it's true, why wouldn't Most Devout Eustace say anything about this extreme behaviour that supposedly happened repeatedly? Gyldayn considers Eustace's writings to be pretty balanced, on the whole, "sober" and "ponderous", but also not shying away from relating the "most shocking and salacious rumors and accusations".

Anyway, Eustace IS a priest, after all, and should be busy with priestly business. He doesn't have a seat on the Council, so realistically-speaking, how much gossip does he have access to? Here we turn to Grand Maester Orwyle, so was more in the thick of it, you'd expect. However, Orwyle's fate takes a pretty dramatic turn since he is accused of poisoning our Egg :( and is sentenced to the Night's Watch, then has a crazy story of trying to escape, is caught and spends his last days writing up his account of the war in the hopes of receiving a pardon. Since Aegon III is the new King now, one would expect that he would try to lean more towards the blacks in his writings, so anything he says has to be filtered through that lens, as well.

So, I think what we should mainly keep in mind when reading Fire and Blood is whether a) the person in question actually witnessed the event, was at least in its geographical proximity or realistically had access to information channels and b) whether they had any reason to be biased. Here is where the sources have various levels of believability and we get messy stories like Lord Beesbury's death. Pro-Aegon Eustace, who was NOT in the room, tells us the wildest version, which is that Ser Criston slit his throat then and there. Whereas Orwyle, who WAS in the room, but is writing in a situation in which he is trying to get pardoned by pro-black people, relays the mild version: Lord Lyman was sent to the dungeons, where he died of a chill. As you can see, it's not so simple as source X favours Aegon, while source Y favours Rhaenyra. Mushroom also loves Rhaenyra, for example, but his tales do not paint her or the blacks in a good light. I'd say that perhaps the best strategy is to take each event on a case-by-case basis and judge its standalone veracity.

The problems with Mushroom's testimony is not just that he paints everyone in a bad picture and is always salacious, but he frequently talks about events he couldn't have possibly witnessed AND always includes himself in ridiculous ways. If we give credence to Mushroom, then we have to believe that somehow everyone had a huge boner for this very lewd dwarf and repeatedly included him in their most intimate moments. Let's imagine that what Mushroom says about Rhaenyra is true, that Daemon taught her how to please a man, would she really "practice" on court fool Mushroom? How would Mushroom know exactly what acts Daemon taught Rhaenyra? Is it really believable that they would fool (lol) around in his presence?

Same with Aegon. (After Rhaenyra's death) Mushroom claims that Aegon was in pain and rarely smiled, but he somehow enjoyed Mushroom's jokes so much, he insisted that he always be by his side and help him dress. This is where Mushroom gets his account of the King's burns, supposedly. But did Aegon or the people around him really could not go about their days until Mushroom took a good hard look at the king's naked body? Mushroom is a dwarf, how is he even going to help Aegon, an invalid, dress properly? Logic would have it that he'd be more of a hindrance than a help.

However, in other instances, maybe Mushroom's tales do have some credibility, as he was at least in the right place - the Cargylle twins' duel, Visenya being scaly (though perhaps it's a bit much for Mushroom to have been the one to carry her to her funeral pyre), Alyn and Addam being Corlys' sons, not Laenor's etc

As for Munkun, he appears after Orwyle is sentenced to the Night's Watch, so Aegon is dead by then.

There is also Yandel to consider, who writes TWOIAF for Tommen. So he shouldn't theoretically feel pressured to write from a Targaryen bias, but he uses Gyldayn as a major source. Meta-textually, that's an explanation for why most of the information in TWOIAF is replicated in FB. Again, off the top of my head, I don't remember Yandel being an Aegon-hater specifically, but his account of the Dance is much more brief anyway.

If anyone has more developed thoughts on the matter, feel free to add them. :)

[thekingofwinterblog]

So one detail from Fire and Blood that’s actually pretty subtle, is that acording to one of the sources, it was Arryk Cargyll who “Found” Rhaenyra in bed with Daemon Targaryen during her courting period.

Now of course, anyone who has watched of House of the Dragon knows this could not possibly be true for various reasons, and yet this factiod is treated as historical fact by the Septon recording it all. Which means he likely invented the entire thing out of whole cloth, or rumors from seeing Daemon be dragged before his bro by one of the kingsguard.

it is also this version of events that has Rhaenyra basically go on her knees, and beg, BEG her dad Viserys to let her marry her uncle despite him already being married.

Why is this important? because it’s actually meant to set up a motivation/justification by the priest for why Arryk Cargyll would later sully his cloak by first turning his cloak against Rhaenyra, then go to assassinate her, without spelling that outright for a reader of his work that this was his intention.

Arryk HAD to have a genuine, personal, justifiable reason(in his eyes anyway) for turning on his rightful queen and against his king’s lawfully chosen heir, and thus be scrubbed of responsibility, and it’s actually Rhaenyra’s own fault that this man turned. It couldnt just be that he is a piece of shit oathbreaker. It HAS to be Rhaenyra’s fault somehow.

Which 1. Is a great example of this book being very unreliable as a lot of the stuff happening in it is pure fiction. 2. Also a great example that one cannot trust a single one of the sources fully. They all lie. Pro Aegon, Pro Rhaenyra, neutral. doesnt matter. They ALL Lie.

[kataraavatara]

The fact that most people accept Eustace’s version of events where Criston had to beg Aegon II to take the throne and only convinced him to usurp because his family would be in danger as the word of god is genuinely funny. Like this is the guy who personally anointed Aegon and said the throne cut Rhaenyra while she was wearing full body armor. And then they’ll make posts where the “Aegon only took the throne to protect his family 🥺” is a given. and not. you know. them swallowing the very convenient narrative of a very unreliable source.

[doloresabernathypiplup]

“Assurément, je ne suis qu’une jouvencelle et je n’entends rien aux voiees de la guerre. Votre avis, messires ?” Daenerys IV, ASOS

“Par ailleurs, nous dit septon Eustace, le roi accueillit ces décrets “avec courtoisie” et remercia lord Peake de sa sagesse, puisque “je suis toujours un enfant, comme votre seignerie le sait bien, et manquant d’instruction sur ces sujets”. Si ses véritables sentiments étaient autres, Aegon choisit de ne pas les exprimer, et préféra se retirer de nouveau dans le silence et la passivité.” Feu et Sang : Sous les régents. La guerre, la paix et les foires au bétail.

“Vous ne devriez pas vous attarder ici trop longtemps, Votre Grâce. On nourrit les Astapori, comme vous l’avez ordonné. Nous ne pouvons rien faire de plus pour ces malheureux. Nous devrions regagner la cité.

- Allez-y si vous le souhaitez, ser. Je ne vous retiens pas. Je ne retiens aucun d’entre vous.[...] Je ne puis les guérir, mais je peux leur montrer que leur Mère se soucie d’eux.” Daenerys VI, ADWD

“L’autre héros, à la stupeur de tous, fut le jeune roi. A l’horreur de sa Garde Royale, Aegon passa ses journées à visiter les malades, et il restait souvent assis avec eux des heures durant, parfois tenant leur main, ou adoucissant leur front enfiévré avec des linges frais et humides. Bien que Sa Grâce parle rarement, il partageait ses silences avec eux et écoutait quand ils lui racontaient des histoires de leur vie, imploraient son pardon ou se vantaient de leurs conquêtes, de leurs bonnes actions et de leurs enfants.” Feu et Sang : Sous les régents. La Main encagoulée.

Some parallels between my two favourites Targaryen rulers I thought about when I read again Fire and Blood. The quotes are in french because I only have the french versions of the books. 

[stromuprisahat]

I wanted to allow Aegon the benefit of doubt, because his first answer regarding stealing Rhaenyra's crown sounds noble and all:

Moreover, the prince at first refused to be a part of his mother’s plans. “My sister is the heir, not me,” he says in Eustace’s account. “What sort of brother steals his sister’s birthright?” Only when Ser Criston convinced him that the princess must surely execute him and his brothers should she don the crown did Aegon waver.

Plus I figured he would realize ruling won't give him enough time for his favourite pastimes, whether it's children fighting while he's fucked by another, or rich mistress... but then I checked the source- Green supporter, surviving the war, therefore likely to embellish his account a little.

And few pages later he's far from merciful:

“My half-sister and my uncle are guilty of high treason. I want them attainted, I want them arrested, and I want them dead.”

Sure, his and Nyra's coronation might have changed his mind, BUT...

Just compare it with Rhaenyra's reaction to comparable offence.

[ride-thedragon]

Have you noticed that the f*cked up stuff Rhaenyra says about Nettles matches a description that septon Eustace (I think) gives Nettles earlier? Though I still think it is entirely possible she said this things!

So these are the descriptions we are given about Nettles. I think the most important descriptions about her come from the last picture because that's the one that's agreed on, no crooked teeth, no scar, what they all agree on is she was skinny, brown skinned, black haired, and brown eyed.

I don't think it's a similar enough description, though, to discount what Rhaenyra said. She wasn't really going after Nettles' 'flaws', more so her original description. What Rhaenyra says is that Nettles is too common to seduce Daemon. Then, directly after she comes after the agreed on appearance of her to say she couldn't tame a dragon or seduce Daemon without spells.

What Eustace is doing is pointing out the reasons the prince wouldn't take her to bed by saying she isn't traditionally attractive or pretty (it's Daemon Targaryen, son of Alyssa, Bawdy Wench with a crooked nose and different colouring but I digress). But he doesn't use the idea of her description. It's the crooked teeth and slit nose he uses to discredit the idea.

So they are using different reasoning to come to different reasoning. Nyra says they are having sex but that Nettles used spells to seduce/ control Daemon to do it. Giving him plausible deniability when he returns to her and not holding him accountable to any more than likely consensual actions he participated in.

Septon Eustace is saying that Daemon had autonomy but would never sleep with her because she's too ugly.

They're working with different ideas and implications for what happened between them, so I don't think he'd go out of his way (this time) to change her words.

Again, I'd like to shout out Uncle Corlys, who calls her ill-favored.

So overall, they have different conclusions as to what is going on.