„Are You For Real(?) (…) There Was A War! (…) Which Started Immediately After Lucerys‘ Death.“

if you have “zionists dni” in your bio, i do not trust you. at all. bc y’all have proven that “zionist” can mean anything from “actual kahanist who hates arabs and thinks that bombing gaza into oblivion is great” to “doesn’t want every single israeli to be violently murdered or expelled.”

i do not have time to figure out if you’d consider me an antizionist bc i’m highly critical of the israeli government and think the occupation of the west bank and siege of gaza are wrong, or if you’d consider me a zionist bc i think the jewish people originated in eretz yisrael and that antisemitism is bad even when it’s coming from progressives and leftists. i do not have the luxury of giving the benefit of the doubt to ppl who say “death to zionists” when there’s a very real chance they are including me and pretty much every other jew on the planet in that statement. you (hopefully) would not expect queer ppl to have a calm conversation with each person who says something questionable just to check if by “kill all pedophiles” they were including us in that statement. extend the same consideration to jews when using a word that has been used, within living memory, to systemically persecute and murder us in several countries.

The thing is, there is room for a great deal of that and it could be utterly amazing if - if you gave it to an excellent writing team.

As an example the Roman Emperor Domitianus is often regarded as one of Rome’s bad tyrannical emperors. Tacitus in particular paints him as an incompetent man, jealous of his servants great successes. He is accused of fabricating triumphs and wasting roman lives in unsuccessful wars. Thing is, he was extremely popular with the army and when Trajan began his Dacian Wars a lot of the necessary infrastructure was in place, put there in large part by Domitianus who also campaigned in the area, even though less successfully. Regarding his tyrannicsl nature, none of his reforms that were seen as tyrannical were ever reversed by his successors but only Domitianus ever caught any flac for it. Pliny remarks on his the ascension of Trajan to the imperial throne that he is so happy too never again have a princeps that he has to call dominus. Guess what he called Trajan in all his letters.

You could absolutely make a show about how Maegor and Jaehaerys ultimately shared many of the same ideas and values but one was very good at making them palatable to the Westeros-edition of the patriarchy and the other was murdered and labeled the worst Tyrant in history.

But again, you‘d need goid writers and the track record thus far does not inspire much confidence

HOTD and the future shows

Wanna know what I am fearing, in light of how the second season of HOTD have proved to be?

The future series based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg... if a show based on the Dance of Dragons-era/generations in Fire and Blood, can become so changed from the source material, how will things go for Egg aka future Aegon V in his boyhood, and Dunk, the future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, in how their plotline will be handed?

In fact, one worry of mine, when thinking about all of this, is how a TV show based on the reign of Maegor the Cruel would end like, based on what HOTD have done as "supposed" changes to the plot and characters.

I know that Classical Disney Movies may sound odd as a way to describe Maglor the Cruel, but I am thinking of the hand-drawn Original Disney Classics and the ongoing trend of making them into Live-Action versions:

Say that Maegor the Cruel as he is written in Fire and Blood, as well the other published books so far, is akin to a such Classic Disney movie, and how not all the Live-Action movies based on the Classics have proved to be....let's say well received, by fans.

If the second season of HOTD have proved to not be well received by fans for various reasons, then how well would a TV show based on Maegor do? Would the tv team try and paint his cruelity as "propaganda written by the Maesters/his enemies" to make Jaehaerys come off as a much better King? Would they rewrite his personality to 180 degrees, akin to how Season 2-Alicent is NOTHING compared to her book self? Would they try and make up something "tragic" about his relationships to his six wives, going for the far too common "All girls want bad boys" idea and that Maegor only "need" someone to see his "supposed real" self akin to Beauty and the Beast?

I am sorry for babbling, but if this mess of a second season is the result of trying to make a tv show out of Fire and Blood so far....

Then I am in honest doubt that the 2025 tv show about Dunk and Egg is not gonna live up to the original written tales of them.

And I can see Maegor's character in a possible TV show be haunted by cries from fans in style of "he is not like that in Fire and Blood!" "When did someone called the "Cruel" in-story suddenly become a "misunderstood" character like this?" "He is called the Cruel, not the "poor, second son" of Aegon the Conqueror!"

Here is your mission.

alicent shouldnt stripe rhaenyra out from her birthrights and rhaenyra shouldnt do that for alicent's kid either, because other lovely anon: friendly reminder that in HOTD all rhaenyra's kids are bastards and her natural heir is aegon... sooo... yeah, i'd say they are even. 👍

Sure they're even! I'd dare say that in Alicent's eyes, Rhaenyra's cold indifference for her siblings and her future hurts as much as her childhood betrayal did all those years ago... Because Rhaenyra herself could have acknowledged and recognized Alicent's fears about her children and done something about it... formed an "I-will-never-under-any-circumstances-hurt-your-children-and-my-siblings" pact, but she wanted Aemond "to be sharply questioned" instead, and insisted on naming Jacaerys her heir which further jeopardized Aegon and his siblings because everyone knew they were the real male Targaryen heirs who could be easily used by anyone who disliked Rhaenyra as pawns to claim the throne from her. As long as the legitimate male heirs were alive, and Rhaenyra continued the stance of enmity, hostility, and complete disregard toward them, they would remain a threat and challenge to her reign and claimants to the throne, and Alicent would do everything in her power to make sure they stayed alive by having Aegon sit that throne himself.

Random question do you know of any team green fics? I’m tired of running into fics that are villainizing everyone on the green team while saying oh Daemon is a good father, Rhaenarya is so right and justified for putting her illegitimate children on the throne. Aemond is jumping ships to team black for some random niece character who also can do no wrong and has a great dragon. Alicent is a bad mother and Criston is an incel also apparently Daeron doesn’t exist. I don’t know man I’m at my wits end I have been looking through AO3 for some decent fics and so far I have only really found like three. Sansa is reincarnated as Heleana fic, a child between Rhea Royce and Daemon Targaryen is out for revenge for Rhea’s murder at the hands of Daemon, and Alicent’s kids have had enough of Viserys and Rhaenarya’s bullshit and are now focusing on gaining great PR from the common people and the lords by actually running the kingdom. These are the ones that I found and everything else has been disappointing I know it’s Fanfic and it’s a hobby so I should be grateful that there is something but I’m kinda desperate to find something that has more substance. Do you have any recommendations?

I completely understand your frustration and I can relate! Finding good fics for any team green member is so hard.

Here's some of the good ones I've found:

criston x alicent, smutty, one shot archiveofourown.org/works/42319941

criston x alicent, two chapters long, a bit angsty, a lot of yearning archiveofourown.org/works/42055596

aemond and alicent, one shot, very sweet archiveofourown.org/works/42198003

alicent x criston, one shot, a bit angsty, the ending is so so sweet between alicent's kids archiveofourown.org/works/42339219

aegon one shot, really angsty archiveofourown.org/works/42491748

aemond x baratheon oc, multi-chapter https://archiveofourown.org/works/42378888/chapters/106422750

sansa is reincarnated into helaena, multi chapter archiveofourown.org/works/42130989

starts off really sweet but gets dark once the dance begins. aemond x oc wherein oc is helaena's friend. archiveofourown.org/works/41724126

alicole, multi-chapter, criston being the father that stepped up https://archiveofourown.org/works/42570909

criston and aemond its so so 🥹🥹🥹🥹 https://archiveofourown.org/works/42715350

alicole, one shot, post aemond being maimed by like a day archiveofourown.org/works/42340896

the aemond x alys one shot that was promised archiveofourown.org/works/42662460

aemond x oc, multi chapter, oc is dornish she is disabled and fat. tw for fatphobia and ableism archiveofourown.org/works/42781746

pro team green, multi chapter. not sure where its going but im liking it so far archiveofourown.org/works/42777264

alicole modern au, tooth rotting fluff 🫶🏼 archiveofourown.org/works/42769806

I'll post more that I find and tag them as 'team green fics'

Now, can you send me the links to the other fics you mentioned please 👀👀

Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard)

Aaron Rutten (free)

BoroCG (free)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates)

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, ect Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Libresprite (free, for pixel art)

Those are the ones I can recall.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

Don’t try defending this

On the subject of Alicent and the accusations of hypocrisy, I'm not really interested in delving into what societal taboos she actually is and isn't breaking. Don't care, have fun, girl.

What does interest me is how the popular framing of Rhaenyra vs Alicent as feminist girlboss vs woman for Trump prevents people from acknowledging what the show explicitly told them in season 1.

Simply put, I never understood why people were interpreting Alicent as someone who honestly, genuinely wants to enforce the values of duty, honor, and sacrifice as a social norm to combat "sexual immorality" (??? I guess???), instead of hiding behind them as the only available coping mechanism for her horrifying personal situation.

Mind you, Alicent isn't just subjected to what the standard for Westerosi noblewomen is, i.e. being sold as a bargaining chip for loveless breeding while expected to have no say in it. She gets a particularly nasty version of this by being sold to an old creep at 15 and put into an extremely exposed position as a queen who is, to reiterate, 15 and thus unable to tweak any personal space, power, and advantages in this marriage until after child number three. And as a plus, she gets mocked both by her husband and his incompetent idiot of a brother (for whom she went to bat, btw), discarded by her only friend, and her children being ignored and neglected by the very man who made sure she'd have them—starting at 15.

So it's the least surprising thing in the world that she would reframe her powerlesness in a way that'd give her some sense of active involvement, i.e. she made a sacrifice and she made that sacrifice in the name of duty.

Alicent's moral framework is such that it encompasses the totality of one person. It's actually astonishing how little of it she applies to others. She empathises with Rhaenyra not stepping up and "doing her duty" by marrying whomever her dad throws at her, and seeks to give her options. She's outraged at Rhaenyra not because she can't stand the idea of a girlboss winning, rather because it's physically painful how little Rhaenyra cares about the precariousness of her political position. She doesn't turn against Rhaenyra because the latter had extramarital sex; it's because she lied to her fucking face. And even when gunning for her bastards who are the textbook definition of usurping and a succession crisis waiting to happen, she allows for one bastard as a freebie.

So no, Alicent's "where is duty, where is sacrifice" isn't her demanding that an immowal girlboss corrects her behaviour right now, young lady. It's a cry of a person breaking because she can no longer ignore that her cope was ever just that, that she was made to give and sacrifice everything while fuck-ups who sacrificed nothing and demanded everything are now going after her children, the fruit of a life she never wanted to live.

Now, why was she made to live that life? Because Viserys.

Why was she made to have those children? Because Viserys.

Who created the situation to which adopting a coping mechanism became a matter of survival? Viserys.

Well, Vizzy? Is fucking dead. Tragically he wasn't given the Drogo treatment of having an urgent meeting with a pillow but he is indeed toast. So the whole reason why Alicent reframed her awful life as an act of dutiful sacrifice? Is gone.

So it doesn't surprise me whatsoever that the moment she became a widow she decided to do something very much undutiful and unsacrificial and jumped on Criston's dick, or that the old programming where she isn't allowed to have anything at all would always immediately bounce back.

(Why is Criston, apparently, pursuing the relationship, I still have no earthly clue)

Alicent’s relationships with her children can never be perfect and healthy because they’re objectively broken from their onset. And I’m so tired of seeing brain dead takes comparing the “superior” relationship Rhaenyra has with her kids to Alicent and her kids as some sort of gotcha.

Alicent’s exposure to motherhood isn’t on her terms in any conceivable way. Her children are the products of marital rape and coercion. They are conceived and born when she is a young teenage girl 15-18, well before she is ready to have them. They are born in quick succession with no opportunity for her to recover. And, they are from a man that not only does she not love but who neglects and belittles her.

All these factors severely damage Alicent’s ability to connect with her children in their infancy. And can you blame her given the circumstances?

She’s not ready to have them at all, so she doesn’t know how to properly mother them. And she likely resents them at least a bit in the early stages because they are the physical manifestation of not only her rape but the life she is trapped in. And that likely compounds with severe guilt because these are her babies, why doesn’t she feel the love and joy she’s supposed to?

And yet. She still loves and cares for them. She holds them as babies (despite being a baby herself) and dutifully cares for them even though she could simply dump them off with a nursemaid. She charges with a knife at Rhaenyra for them. She stands between them and a dragon from them. She betrays her closest companion of her childhood for them. She defies the king and their father for them.

I know that Alicent makes some crucial mistakes that ends up hurting her children. And I know that the scenes we see with Alicent and her kids often show her lack of connection to them. But despite the fact that her relationship to them can be nothing but fractured at the onset. There is so much passion and love and devotion she has for them.

These are not scenes of a woman who is a bad mother. These are scenes of a mother who adores her children and would do anything for them. But who can only love them roughly because she never had an opportunity to love them gently. Their very existence was never gentle for her and never fostered through love.

Alicent’s relationship with her kids may be broken. But it’s not her fault that it is. And no matter what there is love and it is her motivation. So stop acting like she is a bad mother when she’s fighting like hell to breed a relationship with them that is fostered in connection.

rewatching ep5 we light the way and the way the wedding vows are being said over this scene of criston attempting suicide and alicent saving him...the real union of the night being between them. in this episode they're finally disillusioned of the roles they've been playing. they realise they'd been lied to and used. and at the end of the episode, they are just raw mirrors of shame and naivety staring back at each other asking for help. one flesh, whatever may come