Fun fact about me: not only do I think F&B is a unreliable source and shouldn't be treated as gospel, I also think that HOTD should be entitled to the same level of adaptational flexibility that GoT was.
cristiano ronaldo admitted that he raped a woman and is getting cheered for at the world cup while connor mcgregor was on jimmy fallon after he raped a woman so violently she needed to get her tampon surgically removed. and people will still say rape allegations ruin men’s lives
its crazy how superhero fatigue always hits whenever a female led movie is in theaters but next month when it's spider-man everyone will suddenly be pro superhero movies again
noticing how it’s always “we have to take the medieval mentality and her victimhood in context” when you interpret rhaenyra’s actions/internalized misogyny but when it comes to alicent it just gets watered down to “she is a male-centered bitch who hates women” by the same people
HOTD sidebar: I really like how the premiere showed Ulf (loudly) and Hugh (silently) being like "wait. I tamed a giant apex predator and as my reward I get to die for a family that never took care of me?"
people’s disgusted reaction to the aemond and alicent kiss would make total sense if they weren’t out there shipping an uncle and the niece he groomed. incest is incest and you’re not a westeros peasant
I like how HOTD has a thematic undercurrent of Targ incest slowly but surely psychologically breaking almost everyone forced to participate in it, but a certain subset of the people watching are still viscerally upset when it's blatantly portrayed as upsetting and unnatural.
gosh i love how alicent's always just dwarfed by the red keep. you can see her loneliness in every frame, how small she feels/how small she IS within the system. and then comparing this to the shot of her standing alone on dragonstone looking towards the water, not boxed in+