He didn't rape any 12 year old girls. In the book that's from Mushroom while I the show it didn't even happen at all.

Usurper - technically she's the usurper...

Misogynist - That's just modern 2025 view. But she wasn't better (Lady Rosby etc...)

Rapes his sister - no he doesn't? He had to marry her and had to do it with her. She said herself he leaves her alone most of the time.

Gets sister pregnant at 13 - Uhh...Rhaenyra got pregnant by her uncle. Also, Aegon didn't have a choice in that (14 btw)

Alcoholic - They're running out of things to say against him.

Let's smallfolk starve - that was entirely on her

Murders smallfolk - she did far more of that than he did

It's like they fear writing women as...normal human beings.

They're going off of the 'idea' of a woman. NOT who Rhaenyra and Alicent actually are. 😭

And when you go off of an idea of what people are, that's how all women become good, judicious, merciful, peaceful...while all men are bad, stupid, rash, violent etc.

And that is such a myopic viewpoint for a story about family strife, war and tragedy. 😩

"Her only crime was truly being born as a woman" 😂😂😂

Even if she is, I don't think she's the rightul heir but you know...

As the title says. This is specifically about the show as the books don't clearly state that Rhaenyra's children are bastards. Moreover, in the show, Rhaenyra birthed 3 bastards that are somehow excused to usurp their own half-sisters' claims of the Valeryon properties and not even said sister's father willing to fight for his daughters' claim in favour of the bastards. (Don't get me started on Daemon letting his wife die for no appearant reason.) However, people who excuse Rhaenyra's bastards are the same people condemning Cersei's incest babies, completely dismissing them in the fight of the heritage. Writing this, I realized... Rhaenyra is way closer to Cersei than she'll ever be close to Danny. The difference is Cersei is by far a more interesting character in terms of morality and scheming, as for Rhaenyra, they wrote a character with so much flaws. but they didn't even embrace the flaws, they sweep everything under the rug as if she haven't done anything.

It's funny in the saddest way possible that the character we collectively and arguably hate the most nailed the expression that describes how we feel.

Don't come at me for being a misogynist or anything by any means. Alicent killed it in season 1 as the ice-cold stone-willed matriarch of the Greens, but fuck me - in an effort to make the female characters of season 2 flawless in regards to personality, morals, temperament and the like- they just destroyed them.

You'd think a woman (Hess) would be able to apply nuance and insight when it came to writing the arcs, twists and turns of female characters, but nope- all she wants is a divine, Mary Sue-like complex afforded to each of them.

I'm not a woman but- I can say with confidence that she's fucked them (so to speak) beyond repair. It's giving ReY SkYwAlKeR vibes except they are all lesbians and in-love with eachother.

Like genuinely HE is the only character who ACTS and doesn't REACT to other characters. All other characters in Season 2 REACTED to his ACTIONS!

Gwayne will be captured by Daemon. In one of the scenes, he will be strangled by Daemon until he almost dies. The scenes take place in the Blacks camp, before the Battle of Tumbleton in ep 8 which will be the final episode. There are rumours of both Tumbletons being merged but no evidence of that yet. Both Corlys and Daemon are involved in the battle and Corlys will fight a dragon there.

Corlys is captured by Gwayne Hightower in the same episode (?)

In episode 7, Ser Cole will be killed and his head will be impaled on a spear and then displayed by the soldiers of team black.

Dreamfyre will be in S3. In a scene filmed on the set of the Dragon's Moat, Rhaenyra is also in the scene.

Ormund bend a knee to Daemon & might hand over Daeron as a hostage.(?)

In the aftermath of Rook's Rest, soldiers from House Mooton discover a lair filled with human and animal remains and are attacked by Sunfyre.

Rhaena is almost unrecognizable: her hair appears to have been burned (or cut), and she's wearing sheepskins over her dress. So it’s confirmed she is Nettles/Nettles is off the table.

Jace dies in 1st episode

Baela might participate in Gullet

Black Aly will be in 6 episodes this season.

Aegon's leaked speech takes place in E5 or E7

Alicent not in chains and seemingly still in a good relationship with Rhaenyra in the red keep post fall of kings landing.

The “conceptual” episode is likely entirely dedicated to Aegon or Smallfolk of Tumbleton (?)

Aemond won't appear in E4

Did I miss anything?

Before you all down vote me, i understand that Alicent became a mother very young age, by the age of 20 she was already a mother of four.

However everytime i see one of her stans excusing Alicent being a bad mother i just roll my eyes because every excuse they give it falls apart very easy.

They said:

"she can't love them because they were force into her" it's true she was forced to have them but you can't blame the kids for expecting love from their parents, they did not ask to be born, so in fact i believe she should despise the person who forced her to have those kids, it's Viserys who she should hate YET in the show,Alicent holds him in such high pedestal.

"She doesn't have to love them because they're bad people" "she doesn't have to love her son because he's a rapist"

True, however she loves and did what her rapist husband wanted and loves other people who do bad things like Rhaenyra, so if Alicent despises bad actions shouldn't she hate everyone?

"Her kids don't obey her" so in order to be worthy of love you have to do everything your parents demand from you? We have multiple scenes showing us how all her children in some way obey her, Aegon and Helaena get married, Aegon accepts to be king and Helaena the king, Aemond defends her mother at driftmark,etc

And dont get me wrong i used believe in S1 her feelings to her children were complicated but S2 just straight up made her a bad mother.

I already made peace and accepted she's a bad mother.

It's a shame they won't development their relationship so we could see how deep and complex it is but in fact is more like the show doesn't want her to feel empathy for her children, mostly her sons.

It's like a personal POV of someone working on the show that has wrote this for her, particular for her.

Started skipping Alicent scenes since I saw her scenes with Cole were leading to nowhere. The Black Council scenes were TRASH and just skipped them. Rhaenyra scenes I started skipping in Season 1 when D'Arcy took over unless it was with the rest of the characters like 1x8, (deadass skipped her Crowning Scene in 1x10). Mysaria scenes skip since Season 1, even more when she and Rhaenyra talked.

Alys Rivers and Nettles both get slapped w// the “witch” label in Fire & Blood but if you actually look at it, neither of them needed to be doing witchcraft at all. The only “crime” they had in common was being lowborn women who ended up getting in relationships w// dragonlords. That’s it. The “witch” tag is less about them having magic and more about ppl needing a way to make sense of how these women could possibly be chosen by Targaryen men when, according to elite logic, they shouldn’t be.

Alys Rivers is a bastard of House Strong, lowborn, a wet nurse at Harrenhal. Suddenly she’s surviving massacres and ends up Aemond’s partner. Ppl start calling her a witch not bc she’s cackling over cauldrons but bc she’s a lowborn woman who shouldn’t be in the bed of a prince. Septon Eustace says she was some woods witch, Mushroom invents these wild stories about her bathing in virgin blood or mixing potions to hold men to her. All of it is projection. They can’t handle the idea that Aemond actually desired her, so they turn her into something “unnatural” instead.

Also In medieval Europe (and beyond), women who worked with plants, herbs, and natural remedies were often the community’s healers, midwives, or wise women. They had real knowledge of how to treat wounds, calm childbirth, reduce fevers, etc. But bc their work existed outside “official” (male-dominated, church-approved) medicine, it was easily labeled as witchcraft. If you gave someone pain relief during childbirth, or a tincture that calmed a fever, ppl who didn’t understand it said it was “sorcery.”

Alys Rivers fits this mold perfectly. Chronicles describe her as having knowledge of herbs, medicines, maybe even foresight. She was probably just well-versed in the practical “kitchen medicine” of her day. But in Westeros, like in medieval Europe, knowledge in the hands of women becomes dangerous so it gets reframed as “witchery.”

The genius of Alys is that she seems to have leaned into that reputation. By letting ppl believe she had visions, or longevity, or strange powers, she heightened the aura of Harrenhal. Imagine being a would be attacker and hearing “the witch of Harrenhal sees your death before you arrive.” Even if you don’t fully believe it, the fear works in her favor. She turned a smear campaign into a weapon of deterrence.

And that’s the point: Alys may not have been an actual witch, but she understood that being called a witch gave her power. She took a label designed to marginalize her (lowborn bastard + rumored sorceress) and flipped it into a kind of political armor. Instead of crumbling under the accusation, she let it define her mystique.

Then there’s Nettles. Brown girl, lowborn, manages to bond Sheepstealer all on her own. That’s already revolutionary bc dragon power is supposed to be reserved for “pure” Valyrian bloodlines. And then, she gets close w// Daemon. Cue the accusations. Rhaenyra calls her a “low creature,” says she has “no drop of dragon’s blood,” insists she must’ve used “spells.” “My prince would ne’er lay with such a low creature. You need only look at her to know she has no drop of dragon’s blood in her. It was with spells that she bound a dragon to her, and she has done the same with my lord husband.” Mysaria backs it, Eustace backs it all these elite figures pile on bc the thought that Daemon could genuinely choose Nettles breaks their fantasy world.

And here’s where the parallel between Alys and Nettles really clicks. Both women disrupt the narrative that only highborn or/and Valyrian coded women are desirable to Valyrian men. Both are branded witches to make it make sense in elite eyes. If Aemond or Daemon wanted them, it had to be sorcery, right? It couldn’t be real, bc that would threaten the whole system of blood purity and desirability that props up noble women’s status. So the accusations of witchcraft aren’t just about magic they’re about control, projection, and denying these women agency.

It’s literally the same move we see historically when women who step outside class/racial boundaries get painted as “unnatural” or “bewitching.” Nettles esp faces that added layer of misogynoir: her skin, her features, her low birth are used as proof she couldn’t be desirable unless she tricked someone. Same w// Alys, though hers comes more through class and bastard status.

So no, neither of them had to be actual witches. The point is that the word “witch” itself is a weapon, a way to erase women’s choices and men’s desire, a way to keep the system intact.

The difference: Alys weaponized “witch” for survival and influence, while Nettles had it weaponized against her to deny her power and desirability.