Lord Varys

Unless my medieval studies confuse me, the only descriptions we get of noblewomen in literature is in a courtship context ... and we have that only for a rather limited period compared to the actual length of the middle ages. That allows us to guess what kind of women were viewed as desirable (to fuck and/or marry) but not how the ideal married noble matron looked like. So I'd reserve judgment on that. Your examples at best point to the fact that young women are desirable - they tend to be not that fat in any culture (modern times excluded, of course). Westeros ain't the real world middle ages. The special fantasy seasons thing should influence culture more than it does. It makes no sense for nobility to keep themselves slender or thin if starvation in winter is a specter that haunted this world and culture for millennia. Even if they can be absolutely sure they would not starve in winter - and that's a big in light of the fact that they have no clue how long winter will last and no way of knowing if their food is not going to rot or get otherwise corrupted - then there is literally no way the society could be as stable as it is if the nobility had feasted in winter with their hoarded food while the common people (their own servants included) starved or watched their friends, kin, and neighbors die of starvation. Also, of course, in a world where entering winter fat and plump might be a real life-or-death situation would definitely espouse other body ideals than we do. Hell, they would mostly give shit about 'chivalry' and bodily fitness and all that ... at best it would be a means to gain sufficient wealth to get fat and settle down. Yeah. Not to mention that this is the standard practice for pretty much every actor. They want to know how long their gig is likely to go, what is going to happen to their character so they can include knowledge about that in their portrayal, etc. Depending how the adaptation they do goes they might take more or less inspiration from the source material ... but the idea that they don't check is very unlikely. I think we can be very sure that the secondary and tertiary characters remain just that - because with their pacing and the number of episodes they have anything else is just not possible. Those deaths are mostly random and pointless. People usually throw their lives away for little or nothing at all. Hobart Hightower is just a complete moron - Ulf wasn't that bad a chap, and their last dragonrider. Killing him was just stupid - even more so getting himself killed in the process.

10,000 Golden Company men weren't even worth a chapter covering the journey. It just happened. George rarely bothers with that.

Ice monsters should come down south, not the defenders up north. The North is crippled, they won't stand a chance against the undead. Also, whoever lets Dany fight the Others alone will lose any legitimacy whatsoever. They will be worse outcasts than the Freys. There are ships and food enough in Essos. If anything the Lannisters might fight for Dany. Aegon is going to fight Tommen and Cersei, so whoever fights him later might be a friend of the West. The Riverlands are torn and split, they won't marshal an anti-Dany army. The Stormlands still have some strength as we see at the moment. The Reach would be the only region with the strength to marshal a host large and powerful enough to challenge Dany's invasion - like they did during the Conquest. Even if events before Dany's arrival makes the Reach bleed, it won't bleed out. Too large for that. But the most important point is that they are close enough to KL to march there without much difficulty. Dorne is likely to support Aegon but only with the 20,000 Doran has already assembled. That shouldn't matter since he would be the king of the soon-to-be undead. He is going to need Dany, Aegon and all the allies and troops he can get. But they might be able to do without him. Depends on the timeline. If the Wall falls before Dany shows up, there shouldn't be a Second Dance - or any big quarrel between the sane people. If not, then there is potential for conflict - although even then more about who is the savior, etc. than who is king.

That sounds like a confused timeline. Aegon and Dany are not likely to fight each other while or after the Others are defeated. They are not morons. Also, of course, I see little reason for Dany to waste her forces against an enemy like the Others while she is not effectively the ruler of Westeros. If she isn't she might offer help to the ones in charge, but she won't waste her troops while other pretenders don't. Not to mention she is not likely to land in the North or otherwise close to the Others.

Right now ... but not against Dany who isn't even there yet. Mounted archers don't necessarily mean archers who can shoot ahorse. The Dothraki are confirmed to be doing that. Westeros doesn't seem to have even proper and professional equivalents to English longbowmen or else knights were already history. Their archers are not effective enough to make armored knights obsolete. Bow design doesn't tell us the material. Nobody said every Dothraki needs them, but they should have more than a dozen. Because, again, if they didn't, nobody would care, the author included. She is likely to take over all the Dothraki, which means she will have nearly limitless manpower.

Also, in context - stop imagining Dany will have to fight great campaigns. KL is on the eastern shore. She will land there and take the throne. Battle won. If the war continues then people will have to march against her - good luck with that. I don't see many lords doing that nor do I imagine there being a lot of pretenders being there with the weight and strength to challenge a Targaryen queen with dragons. Who would say 'yes, you are the rightful monarch and not Mrs. Aegon the Conqueror'? We also can say that Aegon's campaign will be one for the Iron Throne - he landed in the Stormlands and will move against KL once he has Storm's End. Once he has the throne he can reasonably expect that a lot of people actually bend the knee without opposition ... because why not? They don't want a war with no end, winter has come, and aside from Euron and Stannis no pretenders are left. I guess Aegon could mount some resistance if he were to get away when Dany takes KL. But that would only complicate things and it should be hard enough to fit Dany's actual landing into the timeline, no need for her to have to fight against anyone but the Others once she has taken the throne.

That is irrelevant as the Riverlands are in ruins now and not likely to commit themselves to fighting yet another pretender who most likely is not going to threaten them. They are avenging themselves on their current enemies. And if they are done bathing in Lannister and Frey blood before Dany arrives they are likely to go home rather than fight and die for a cause that's clearly not their own. The only difference there could be Targaryen loyalists in the Riverlands who end up siding with Aegon and who might then, in that capacity, fight against Dany. But they could just as well switch to her side. Impossible to say. Stannis' sellswords have to be hired and moved ... what madman is going to sign up with a guy whose seat of power is Castle Black?! If he gets any sellswords they would be used in the North, not in a fight against Daenerys. The Dornish that will commit themselves should join Aegon soon and then fight and bleed and die in Aegon's campaigns prior to Dany's arrival. Sure enough, perhaps the bulk of Doran's 20,000 or so will survive all those campaigns, but it will just be 20,000. Not nearly enough to mount a real resistance against Daenerys' invasion. Dragonbone is rare ... but it is in the story for a reason. We don't have a weird hierarchy of bow efficacy just because it is fun to have that - if it were we could have hierarchies on strength of armor, sharpness of swords, thickness of walls, etc. We do have such a hierarchy because it will become important. We already saw goldenheart bows in action in AFfC and ADwD and we will see dragonbone bows with Dany's Dothraki. Nobody is saying tens of thousands of Dothraki will wield them - a couple of hundred or thousands would be enough. And they definitely would have to have that number or else we wouldn't have heard that the Dothraki do have such bows. There would be much more such bows than Valyrian steel weapons, since dragons roamed and died in Essos for thousands of years ... more than enough bones to make a lot of bows from. With the dragonbone bows the Dothraki could crush an army of hundreds of armored knights before they even reach them. But, of course, their riding skills and ability to shoot from horseback even with common bows should enable them also to harass and crush baggage trains, outriders, scouts, and the like. Westeros as a whole is not prepared to actual face an all-out cavalry force. In any case, though, the main reason why Daenerys shouldn't face much problems isn't numbers. It is that Westeros is deeply divided right now. These people won't work together, period. Perhaps not even against the Others. But certainly not against a woman who can reasonably enough claim to be their rightful queen. The people who are not spent or dead by the time she shows up will likely see her and her cause more as an opportunity for their own gains - like Euron and Doran and Aegon already did - than somebody they have to crush. So far nobody has a direct quarrel with her. And the fresh wounds of the War of the Five Kings and the aftermath are much more painful than whatever quarrels dead people once had with Rhaegar or Aerys. Jaime is the only Usurper's Dog left ... and he isn't even a lord in his own right. If Dany has to fight armies it will be pretty small armies, compared to Westeros' actual military potential. And if she truly brings the entire strength she might be able to marshal in Essos - which she might have to so people can defeat the Others - then most such armies are pretty likely to capitulate rather than insist to die on the battlefield. Aegon's real loyalists might fight if they can't reach a compromise, but nobody else should. Nobody but another Targaryen pretender would have a real quarrel with Dany. Euron certainly might be another danger, but less because of military strength and more because of sorcery. And Stannis might already be dead by then.

It is kind of childish to try to downplay real powerful forces in this fantasy world by citing real world historical military knowledge. This is a fantasy world, and certain groups and factions are introduced because they have plot relevance. Especially in Dany's plot it is very much unthinkable that certain groups there are introduced to die early or fail. That includes the dragons, of course, but also the Unsullied and the Dothraki. The Unsullied are professional soldiers, one of the few we see in this entire fictional universe. The Dothraki also have a powerful martial culture. Westeros doesn't have that on a broad societal level as lots of hints about the quality of the common levies show. But even if they were all great soldiers, the continent is now in disarray, there is no chance that the Westerosi can build a united front against Daenerys, so her troops should easily triumph. Aegon can at best hope to take the Iron Throne ... but not to crush the Lannisters in the West, Stannis in the North, Euron at sea, or any other resistance he might face. Also, it is of course ridiculous that people who hate each other deeply due to past grievances like Robert's Rebellion, the War of the Five Kings and especially the Red Wedding and everything that's following that before Dany shows up ... will just forget all that to fight together against a Targaryen queen with all trappings of legitimacy and real power. Even the threat of the Others might not be enough to unite all of Westeros. But Daenerys definitely is not going to pull this off. Also we have the fact that only powers on the vicinity have really untapped military resources. Dorne and the Vale, essentially. They won't march their entire strength into battles that will take place hundreds and thousands of leagues away. Not in the middle of winter. In fact, the Vale might not give a damn about Dany unless she is stupid enough to land there (which would make no sense at all). If they play a role at all they would have to leave the Vale by ship soon. Dorne might oppose her but likely only with troops that will join Aegon before she lands. If Doran has already marshaled 20,000 men now, they won't sent more if they are defeated. Not if Dorne's entire strength is just about 30,000 or so men. The Riverlands are done, the Westermen are not likely to ever defend Aegon or oppose Daenerys, the North is still tearing itself apart (and will soon face the undead). The only which could try to marshal an army to challenge Dany on land would be the Reach ... but they might lack motivation to do so. Both because of the Ironborn problem and their original affiliation with the Lannister regime. If the Tyrells and most of their bannermen oppose Aegon's rise to the throne, they would be natural allies of Daenerys later on. If not, then there could be a Field of Fire like battle there called the Field of a Thousand Arrows where the superior Dothraki archers and riders crush the chivalry of the Reach like they crushed the Sarnori. George clearly plays up the effectiveness of (superior) archers against cavalry. We might see the first iteration of that when the Golden Company archers crush Mace Tyrell's mounted knights if/when they descend on Storm's End, but another such thing would be the Dothraki wielding dragonbone bows to devastating effect against enemy cavalry. They can shoot from horseback in general, and such battle tactic seem to be completely unknown in Westeros. Westerosi archers and crossbowmen seem to operate entirely on foot.

That is not part of the Dance, anyway, but the epitaph of Addam's reburial years later. The impact is that Alyn makes this then. Some guy calling him loyal when he dies has little meaning. We see that he was loyal.

To further illustrate the point - any monarch can staff his or her government with people of their liking. That doesn't mean those people had to be part of the government because the king or his court had no other choice. Jaehaerys I also won a total victory over Maegor the Cruel and his cronies ... yet his regency government also include some Maegor cronies into his government - not because he was forced to do this because of the lingering strength of Maegor's supporters but as a sign of reconciliation. Similarly, the suggestion that Jaehaerys could marry Elinor Costayne was based on the same reasoning. A victorious Stannis or Renly would also be free to include Tywin, Tyrion, or Robb Stark in his government - that mere fact as such wouldn't mean they were forced to do this. Although, of course, it would be possible that they were forced to. However, literally nothing in the history as written in FaB suggests that Aegon III and his government were forced to include random Greens into the regency council, government, and court. That was a sign of goodwill and reconciliation, not a condition that Aegon III would get the throne! That decided long before a regency government was set. Effectively we get two successive coups or changes of the people at the top after the murder of Aegon III. First when Cregan Stark seizes power from Corlys and Larys, and then also when Cregan gives up the power he has seized to go back home without establishing a proper government. Only then is the regency government we get later formed.

As we keep pointing out - the Black victory at the end of the Dance and the triumph of King Aegon III is not directly connected to the later staffing of the regency council and government. Aegon III becomes king because the Greens are crushed in the field, lose all supports among their alleged loyalists, and Aegon II's own court murders him. That is a total and decisive defeat of the Greens. The victors then offer not only generous terms to the former Greens but also decide to include some of them in the regency government. Tyland's pardon is one of Lady Johanna's terms and she does have some leeway there as she still has a quarter of the royal treasury in her possession as well as a lot of money in general. In exchange for all that, she greatly helps with the rebuilding of the Realm after the war. Tyland is made Hand because the people in charge actually want a weak Hand. It is not planned that he ends up running the show - the actual plan was that the regency council governs the Realm while the Hand merely executes their command as they would execute the commands of the king. One imagines that the real power at court was in the hands of Corlys Velaryon until his death - afterwards Tyland gained more power and subsequently power remained with Hand. Peake would have been more powerful as he was not just the Hand but also Protector of the Realm and one of the few regents left at court. Tyland's power seems to have been more informal, more the power of a guy who knew to play both the Corbray Protector as well as his superiors the regents. Peake then exerted real power. Also, of course, months pass between Tyland wanting to kill Aegon the Younger and Tyland's return from Essos and his eventual rise to the Handship. If Cregan hadn't gone back home and/or if Corlys' desire for unification hadn't prevailed the guys in charge of the regency government would have been all Blacks. And it is obvious that the Blacks got what they wanted - Aegon III on the throne - while the Greens neither avenged Aegon II (a Black zealot who felt the murderers stole his victory did that) nor continued to push the claim of the last Green claimant, Jaehaera Targaryen. They effectively gave up.

Why can't you let this go? Aegon III was crowned king! He, not Jaehaera, not Aegon II's last surviving descendant. That means his side won. It was a dynastic struggle. And the way to measure victory in a dynastic struggle is by way of checking whose bloodline prevailed in the end. It is like saying Empress Matilda's side 'didn't win' their conflict with King Stephen despite the fact that Stephen was unable to pass on his stolen throne to an heir of his own choosing ... and was forced to hand it to Matilda's son (who was fine transferring her claim to her son, Henry II). It is completely irrelevant who served on his government, who he married, who staffed his court. He was the king, he wore the crown, he and his little brother continued the Targaryen dynasty. Even if Alicent and Otto Hightower had served as Aegon III's regent and Hand they would have lost. Because their goal, the goal of the Green party was to deny Rhaenyra's blood access to the Iron Throne, was to put one of their own on the throne. They fought for the blood of Alicent Hightower. And they lost. And we know they lost militarily, were utter crushed in the field, abandoned by their so-called allies even before Aegon II's 'friends' fed their king his poison (even more so thereafter), their only hope being hilarious dreams about Essosi sellswords taking up their cause. The Greens were forced to accept a peace and a king they never wanted. Whereas the Blacks even chained Aegon II's last surviving child to their king. Any actual Green loyalist would view Jaehaera Targaryen as the rightful monarch of Westeros after the cowardly and treasonous murder of Aegon II - and the last thing they would want for her is to marry Rhaenyra's broken brat while he sits the Iron Throne in her place. It is like saying the Starks and their supporters would be fine with a peace where Sansa or Arya are forced to marry Joffrey or Tommen. Even if we imagined a more equal compromise - in any setting where Aegon III or Viserys II become king the Black cause won. That is inevitable. They accomplished their goal. And your quote there is a joke, really. The progress was supposed to be a show of unity. But it was a unity in the wake of a Black victory and the coronation of a Black king. Of course they could play around with the colors of the war parties if they wanted to. But you know what? King Aegon III and Queen Daenaera never actually did this progress ... and perhaps one reason for that was that the Hand and the regents and the court thought they could use their king as their figurehead and mouthpiece ever after he came of age. Guess what? They couldn't. And I'd be very surprised if Aegon III ever wore green. It also strikes one as obvious that his customary blacks can be seen as a very clear political statement. If Aegon III didn't want to give the impression he was Black at heart he would have adjusted his wardrobe - wearing another color entirely, or swapping Targaryen blacks for Targaryen reds. Just as it is quite striking that the colors of House Targaryen remained the red-and-black they had always been and didn't include any green silliness (as they could have like with the Tudor rose allegedly being a combination of the York rose and the Lancaster rose). Rhaenyra's colors triumphed like her bloodline triumphed. In that context you cannot but wonder why George had Rhaenyra wear a gown in the traditional Targaryen colors at the tourney where the rivalry allegedly started - while associating Alicent and her party with a color that is actually (also) associated with envy in the European tradition. I don't think that is an accident - George could just as well have made gold (like in Aegon's sigil) or the Hightower colors the color of Alicent's party. But he didn't. Could you perhaps keep twitter out of discussions of adults? It is fine if you look for links and fotos and 'news' ... but not for a discussion. The place is designed to breed and fuel conflict, so keep it there. Why would one want Sylvenna Sand being introduced early? The woman doesn't really feature in the story. If there is a character they could easily cut it would be her. Essie could easily enough have a political mind of her own. Not saying they should cut her, but having her early would mean we get silly brothel scenes and other stuff like that. Gyles Belgrave would only feature in the next season if they weren't able to keep things straight. He is not part of Viserys I's KG. We know what happens to those of Viserys' Seven who stand with Aegon II (sans Harrold Westerling, of course), and aside from Willis Fell who hides at Storm's End they all die. Aegon II only appoints new members to his Kingsguard after his restoration at the end of the war, beginning with Marston Waters on Dragonstone. We would need a rather convoluted KG plot if Aegon II had more KG in KL prior to Rhaenyra's ascension because that would then mean we need explanations what happened to them, what they did during the second half of the war, how they survived until Aegon II's restoration, etc. If, for instance, Larys Strong were to sent some other KG with Aegon II to Dragonstone then that would inevitably mess with the Marston Waters' plot. The chances that a KG of Aegon's could remain in KL after Rhaenyra takes over makes little sense - they would never trust a guy who swear a vow to Aegon II. They would be executed or sent to the Wall. It is just much easier to go with the plot we have ... and to focus and flesh out a character like Marston Waters rather than a named extra like Belgrave.

Yeah, an earlier or changed death for Jace strikes me as unlikely. It would have to be a big battle, and there just is the Gullet where he could die like he does.

Thinking a bit more about Jace and Cregan: Anyone wanna bet that the Song of Ice and Fire will come up in that conversation as the deciding factor - or one of the deciding factors - as to why Cregan will declare for Rhaenyra? If they are smart they will even bring up Torrhen bending the knee as something that was influenced by talk about prophecy and dreams and the prospects of having dragonlords alongside the Starks in some other War for the Dawn ... that would then be another spoiler for the books, most likely, but something that would tie HotD and Targaryen and Stark history very nicely into the larger ASoIaF picture ... while further undermining the ridiculous ending of GoT. The notion that just three dragons and a not-so-large army whose loyalty to Aegon hadn't even been tested yet (for the most part) forced Torrhen into submission feels and sounds ridiculous - and there was clearly going on something else which historians never caught up on because whoever was privy to the talks between Brandon Snow and Aegon never talked (or if they did, Gyldayn never heard of it). I'm pretty sure the big book revelation about Torrhen Stark's submission is going to be that Aegon shared his dream and prophecy knowledge with him - and Torrhen's own knowledge about the threat the Others still posed very much fit with that. The idea that what history remembers as 'the king who knelt' might be more a Targaryen-Stark partnership would be a very nice historical twist in light of what happened between these two houses later.

I think 'charming' was a good choice of words there, as antagonizing Queen Sharra too much could have caused her to try to seize or kill Visenya after little Ronnel was safely away from the dragon. As a character, Visenya isn't really developed, so I don't find her very interesting. We have no clue how she felt about Aegon, Rhaenys, the nature of their weird incestuous polygamy thing, Aenys, Maegor, her step-grandchildren and daughters-in-law, etc. There is some potential villainy there, but not so much - her undermining the reign of Aenys before it started is one such, ditto, of course, her murdering him if she did that, and her making Maegor king rather than trying to help the rightful successor, Aegon the Uncrowned. Recalling Maegor was one thing, crowning him another entirely. But even at that late stage of her career she still seems to have kept Maegor in check. He only goes off the deep end after his mother is gone. I think if George were to write this out in detail we would see Maegor-Visenya during Maegor's reign very much resemble Tiberius-Livia as potrayed in I, Claudius. The fact that Maegor didn't attack Alyssa and her children directly until they made a move against him would have been something Visenya ensured. We also hear that she advocated for clemency after the Battle Below the Gods Eye. There is also a sign that Visenya had problems with Tyanna (and thus, perhaps, also with her son), resulting in her retreating to Dragonstone. Keeping Alyssa and the children there could have been less an evil hostage situation and more her way of keeping them safe. I'd not be surprised if a detailed account of Alyssa's flight were to reveal that the dying Visenya called Alyssa to her chambers and gave her leave to go, knowing or expecting that Maegor would kill her and her children eventually, if they remained in his power. I'd also not be surprised if the estrangement between Aegon and Visenya revolved around her not wanting to see what Maegor was, and her trying to push Aegon to advance Maegor as much as he did advance Aenys - especially if neither of them (or only Maegor) was Aegon's biological son. Aegon would want to have a sane successor, one whose cruelty and paranoia would not undo what he and his sisters had built, whereas Visenya might be more obsessed with blood claims and a loyalty to her (and Aegon's) own kin. If neither child was Aegon's seed then Maegor would come first as the child of the eldest sister, whilst Aenys' Targaryen blood would only come from the younger Rhaenys.

Rhaenyra could be in KL even before the fall. She could go there in secret, as could other characters. They have dragons to fly around ... and they have agents and sympathizers in the city. If you think about the teleporting characters shit GoT did ...doing that with dragonriders in HotD would be much easier. And plot-wise the show needs to have Aegon II and Rhaenyra face each other off before their final confrontation. If they never talk to each other in this show before the end, the entire thing is a joke. That is one of the reasons why I think Rhaenyra will be at Rook's Rest. They could change details there, have it start with a parley, where Rhaenyra and Aegon talk, with Aemond and Vhagar coming in after the talks failed.

The whole plotline from episode 3 kind of fizzles out in the show ... Viserys says she can make her own match, and then he sends her on a suitor tour where men throw themselves in front of her in a very formal way that makes it almost impossible that she can judge the character of a candidate or get to know them in a proper way. Whatever choice she has in that setting is no choice at all - it is like 'the choice' Aegon III has at the ball. In the next episode her match is made for her because of the whole Daemon affair ... and because Viserys really feels the need to placate the Velaryons and heal the rift between the two houses. I'm not sure what the point of the 'you can find your own match' was ... when they didn't do anything with that. They could have had a plot where Laenor and Rhaenyra actually agreed to marry for the good of their houses. In fact, Rhaenyra being reluctant to have children in the show could have meant she would deliberatly choose a consort who would not knock her up (immediately). Then the fact that she has children as early as she has would be explained with her falling in love with Harwin. But for that the show would have to portray the Rhaenyra-Harwin thing.

That is most definitely not the case in the book ... and you are reaching there if you assume it will be the case in the show. They robbed Aemond of his 'justified vengeance', so the idea they will want to make this monstrosity something these people wanted to do is stretching things. The whole point of the Laenor thing is that people will wonder if they did it, will wonder if they had Laenor murdered ... without there being proof. The show shows that nothing happened to Rhaenyra and Daemon afterwards. But the murder of Jaehaerys will be used by Rhaenyra's enemies to hammer home the fact - real or imagined - that she did murder him. Nobody will wonder, people will believe it - and that's just bad for her cause. There is no possible gain to that murder. And, frankly, a 'cross us and you'll live to regret it' message is something that is of no use after the war has begun. The idea that Helaena would break down like she does in the book was always never very likely. They want to do something else with her. If she becomes a recluse then likely because of her dreams and prophecies, not because of the death of a child. In fact, the Helaena we see in the show might not care all that much about her children. She clearly lives partially in her own world.

I think that thing should be bigger in the show, with there actually be more casualities there than the twins - like, have the guy go after little Aegon and Viserys in their nursery or wherever they are kept, and have some women getting themselves killed to save the boys - a variation of the attempt of Alysanne at Maidenpool. Then could the other guy come in and we could get a short and bloody duel. I'm not sure any side ever actually filled their KG to the full number. They may have decided to postpone that until the war was won. Although Rhaenyra may fill hers after she takes the throne, I guess. Also Aegon II seems to have filled after his restoration. Thorne and Fell are a must in the show, I think, but they could come in/feature only when needed. Once Westerling is gone there would be room for another KG. I don't really care for 'Stark time' if the pacing goes like that. There is no payoff nor point to any of that. Give them some shots where they talk, do the Sara thing or not, but don't waste time hanging around with people who we are only going to see again in the show finale - or shortly before that. Jace would also not be necessary for the Sowing, as show Rhaenyra's is no weak-willed woman not caring what happens in her castle. She will be there and she will make the call. Jace can at best be a good second-in-command to his mother - a role they set up for him in the season finale - but not a leader in his own right as he kind of was in the book. If there is more stuff for him to do they would have to invent it - have him flying around more, perhaps inspire the Black Reach lords to challenge the Hightowers. Also, of course, Baela and Rhaena need stuff to do. Rhaenyra could actually go incognito to KL for some reason. From what we heard Corlys will apparently be very angry over Luke's murder, demanding vengeance. The idea he would presume to feel more stricken over the death of Rhaenyra's son as she herself is feels weird. With Rhaenys it could be different - and if they go with that it could also be more an unintentional thing - Corlys being just angry emotionally while rationally knowing that Rhaenyra is not to blame for Rhaenys' death. Which she also wasn't in the book as Rhaenys volunteered and, in the end, decided to fly into the dragon's mouth rather than trying to get away. After rewatching Rhea's death scene I actually have to disagree there. He doesn't cause the horse to fall ... and he then kills a woman who is apparently paralysed from the neck downwards. He gives her the mercy killing Robert wanted to give to Bran (who at least could still use his arms). And you even can interpret Rhea's last words as begging him to kill her - she wants him to finish, which, in this context, means to kill her. She would not survive such a paralysis for long in this world, anyway. That said - he might very well have gone there with the intention to kill her. But he just stands there, the horse throws Rhea because it sense her fear. It wasn't Daemon. While Daemon certainly is capable of having Jaehaerys murdered - it makes no sense politically. Daemon lectures Rhaenyra in season 1 that public opinion is important, so murdering an innocent child in her name is the last thing he should want to do ... if he cares that their side prevails. Which he still does at that point. It makes sense for them to authorize a murder - but not one of the children. Nope, that works pretty fine, as Mysaria champions commoner children, not degenerate royal children who might grow up to become fucking Aegon II. She gave the Greens their king, enabled them to pull off their coup and have the early coronation they wanted ... and Alicent thanks her by burning down her house - which, I'm sure, killed a lot of her people, many of them children she cared about. In context we have also to keep in mind that show Daemon has no sway over Mysaria anymore. They were history even when Daemon returned from the Stepstones in episode 4. Why should she do his bidding as he wants her to do it in the show? I'm sure he might reach out to her somehow ... but she will tell him that she will see to the details as she sees fit. And there is also the issue of Blood and Cheese themselves running amok. I think there is a good chance, even in the book, that they themselves picked their own target, without checking back with Daemon or even Mysaria. The whole thing was covert infiltration and assassination, not some corporate conference call. It is propaganda in the sense that she likely don't wants this - but the propaganda will paint her as the one commanding it. Yes, you are also responsible for things done in your name in this context, but propaganda and historiography care/want you to be personally responsible. The difference is there. But the Greens spreading propaganda won't know if Rhaenyra or Daemon or Mysaria or whoever actually commanded what happened. They will blame her, personally. Not 'the system Rhaenyra'. Thinking about more about context - sparing Alicent's life is even more irritating in light of the blood price Rhaenyra has already paid when she takes the throne - Luke, Rhaenys, Jace, and Viserys have died (or so she thinks) whilst Alicent has only lost Jaehaerys so far. Aegon is merely injured and Helaena broken, but both live and could recover. She shows remarkable mercy there if you imagine this as a total war.

That is missing the Cargyll attempt which definitely should take place prior to Rook's Rest and be the direct payback for Blood and Cheese. I don't think this would make much sense after Rook's Rest - also, of course, because it takes place earlier chronologically. Would also be very much surprised if Jace wasted so much time on his tour and if Meleys were the only Black dragon at Rook's Rest in the show. Pretty sure they are setting Rhaenys up to martyr herself to save Rhaenyra. They gave her this silly 'Is she worthy to be the queen' plot in season 1, so the obvious payoff for that is Rhaenys sacrificing herself to save the queen she chose in the end. If they want to have the moping Corlys plot he could blame Rhaenyra not for her cowardice as in the book but by blaming her more abstractly, for existing, for convincing Rhaenys that her cause was worth dying for.

That makes it very likely it actually won't be Rhaenyra's work at all. And maybe not Daemon's either. They are not stupid enough for that in the show.

Euron's evil eye seems to be more than just a mismatched eye like Tyrion's. There seems to be something scary going on with Euron's other eye which is why he keeps it hidden. That said - you are right there in principle ... but this doesn't mean anything. We have no reason to assume a Greyjoy-Lannister link but very much a Joanna-Aerys link. Also, of course, Euron's condition there might be his greenseer mark, akin to Bloodraven's albinism. It is Princess Alyssa Targaryen, the daughter of Jaehaerys and Alysanne and wife of her brother Baelon. She is one of the birth mothers from whom the main branch of House Targaryen is descended from. This is no small thing. She does have a purple and a green eye ... and we have no idea where the green eye is coming from there. We don't have to explain Tyrion's black eye. It is not about the eye color, but the fact that he has mismatched eyes. Since he didn't we don't know. We build our theories and look for hints in the published and known material, not hypotheticals we might never get. We can surely say that it is no coincidence that there are two Targaryens (one of them a bastard as Tyrion would be) The reason why Tywin might have such thoughts doesn't matter. The point is that he has them, and Tyrion even repeats such thoughts himself. The possibility that the dwarf isn't Tywin's seed is right there in the plot and even finds its way into Tywin's last words. That is nothing we can wash or wish away. Also, of course, Tywin could know perfectly well that his wife did fuck Aerys and enjoyed it - if he was allowed to have sex with her before or after (or right in the middle, if he liked to watch) then he still doesn't know who the father of Tyrion was ... assuming such a thing took place around the time of Tyrion's conception (the same would be true if Joanna had been raped by Aerys at a time she had also had sex with Tywin). And it really seems this is the case. Tywin lived at court, Joanna in the West. They were together at Aerys' court for the anniversary tourney and in the next year Tyrion was born. Chances are high that Tyrion was conceived while Joanna was at court there. That Tywin was actually submissive in bed and only projecting 'manliness' and 'strength' to the outside world less he be seen as another version of his father is also very likely - not just because of the talk that Joanna ruled the man but also because of the Chain of the Hand around Shae's neck ... and Shae's words that she was scared of Tywin. She is no stranger to weird sex play. But what Tywin made her do in the night before Tyrion's execution seems to have been a bit much. Also take into account the secret brothel tunnel ... which likely didn't just help Tywin fuck clandestinely but also to demand services the whores would better never speak if they valued their tongues and lives. But the best hint in that regard is meta-textual: Check the proto-Tywin father figure from 'The Armageddon Rag' - there is a very nasty plot twist there, one that turns this guy on his head. And it stands to reason that Tywin Lannister is going to face a similar - and quite total - destruction of his 'public persona'. That has already begun with all those revelations about him actually smiling, about him laughing - he wasn't what his children thought he was, perhaps not even what his siblings thought he was (although Kevan and Genna might certainly know more about his true personality than his children). The dwarfism could be simply a Targaryen monstrosity who survived. We know the stillbirths did not all look like dragon-human hybrids, many were just malformed and not viable. Tyrion might be one such who survived. Tommen isn't really a good case there since young blond children often have very pale hair - it might darken later if Tommen lives long enough. But again - this is not a conclusive thing. We point out that Tyrion's pale hair fits the bill of certain Targaryens (and Maekar would be his great-great-grandfather if he was Aerys' son) which helps to strengthen the possibility, but it doesn't decide anything. As I keep saying - we need textual confirmation for that. Also, of course, things have to be so subtle that folks don't whisper about Tywin being cuckolded by King Aerys. Regarding the black hair we can point out, though, that Aerys' only grandmother was black-haired Betha Blackwood - who apparently didn't pass her colors to any of her descendants in the main branch of House Targaryen. But it would certainly be possible for Tyrion to have inherited his black hair from her. Vice versa, we have also no clue where the hell in the Lannister family tree that black hair comes from ... but we have to explain it. It is just there, and not really evidence in any direction. Tyrion could have red hair and still be Aerys' or Tywin's son. It doesn't really matter. The author decides that.

Just two seasons for the Dance proper would only work if they cut a lot of stuff, secondary characters included. Even if they focus on the royal drama only it would be two few episodes.

If Rhaenyra had taken the throne at the end of season 2, then the Gullet wouldn't have been the climax. There are people to grieve for, ruins to visit, and curses to exchange after that mess before we can move on with the plot. Rhaenyra would think she lost two sons in that fight, not just Jace, Corlys will lose his castle and all the treasures (we don't care about in the show). They seem to be racing pointlessly through the plot, though, which doesn't reflect well on the quality of the next season in light of what they did in the first season.

This is not 'proof'. It is just a fact that would be consistent with Tyrion turning out a Targaryen bastard fathered on a Lannister woman. Ditto with the mismatched eyes which are confirmed for two Targaryens. The biggest thing indicating this might be the case is both motive (Aerys lusting after Joanna) and opportunity (Joanna and Aerys being at the same place around the time Tyrion was apparently conceived). Insofar as textual evidence is concerned, Tyrion being Aerys' son has actually more textual support than Jon being the child of Rhaegar and Lyanna. After all, somebody else raised Jon, he looks like Ned, and quite a few characters believe on what woman Ned fathered Jon. Tyrion is even deemed a potential bastard by his own father. There are the dragon dreams, etc. But there is no way to 'prove' this kind of thing until we have actual textual confirmation. However, once we have this a lot of clues will fall into place. Both Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister work perfectly as 'hidden Targaryens'. Much better than any other character. And I'd even argue that Tyrion 'Targaryen' works even better than Jon 'Targaryen', since the revelation for him would likely come earlier and would have a stronger emotional and political impact. Jon as Rhaegar's son feels like a weird post script or epilogue to the story since his plot is very unlikely to have a big political relevance - in fact, this Targaryen thing could even undermine whatever political weight he might gain in the North as Lyanna Stark's (bastard) son's claim to Winterfell and the North would definitely much weaker than that of any trueborn child of Lord Eddard Stark.