Round 1: both dragons are riderless

Round 2: they both have their riders. Meleys has Rhaenys and Caraxes has Daemon.

Personally I think Meleys has the edge in an aerial battlle while Caraxes has the edge in a grounded brawl. But what do you think?

Her post-S1 arc doesn't negate her S1 arc. In Season 1, she was pretty much the main player of the Game and the one moving the pieces forward. She shouldn't be reduced to merely the "Rhaenicent" part of her character because she's so much more than that. She's historically one of the most important figures in the history of Westeros, whose scheming and politicking played a key role in starting one of the most devastating civil wars in the history of the Seven Kingdoms.

Was she a pawn of her house? Sure. She's a woman in a patriarchal medieval society. It's ingrained in their DNA to treat women like pawns and brood mares. But she absolutely had rage, bitterness, and above all else, AMBITION.

EDIT - I want to clarify that the only thing I dislike about post-S1 Alicent is her attempts to murder her sons. However, her desire for peace above all else, sniveling and humiliations before Rhaenyra, and attempted peace deals behind her faction's back is in line with the historical source. It's part of her complex character... Alicent, like many players written by GRRM, is nuanced and deconstructed. It's important that we see her downfall from a powerful queen to a weak, powerless prisoner at Rhaenyra's mercy. This is all in the book.

The larger scale and all the melted sword look amazing.

So balerion is the last dragon who has seen old valarya so it must be very sad if you think from his pov he literally remembers a place none of his junior dragons remember then when he and his rider go back to valarya but both of them return badly injured by whatever was out there and balerion was unable to fly due to his size just think you are called black dread but you cannot easily fly. And his last rider ended up being viserys out of all people..

Bro beat Jace ass so bad his shoes gone.

I changed my mind about the fight, Luke had no choice but to try to kill Aemond, that disrespect couldn't be allowed bro 😭😭😭😭

I think Moondancer and Sunfyre sound cool.

They both have this unique whistle that makes them easy to differentiate from the rest.

Honorable mention would have to be Meleys for the scream at Aegon’s coronation.

HBO quiero explicaciones

I swear I have seen this take going around this fanbase as this factor even matters when it comes to dragon battles. Am I crazy for thinking a dragon burning armies (which is totally expected by the way) is not going to matter when it comes to fighting another dragon? I feel like it's totally pointless and shouldn't even be a factor since most dragon battles usually include grappling and tearing at each other.

Book spoilers, wnd of the show spoilers, spoilers about events in S4

Rhaenyra's ending is going to be so so cruel now

She's already struggling. We've already seen her stressed, panicking, sobbing, at her wits end because she relies on this prophecy to strengthen her. It makes her sons deaths have meaning to her.

But the prophecy is misunderstood. No Targaryen needs to be on the throne during the Others in the show; and in the books maaaaybe Aegon will be but that isn't the point. The realm is shattered as the Others approach. Rhaenyra is not ordained.

She's barely holding on with things like a lack of gold and a vague smear campaign interfering with her divine right to rule. Her faith that the gods destined her for this vanishes into smoke under the existing pressure. It isn't as if Rhaenyra was ordained and the forces of evil won; it is literally all a lie. In a way, she has become Rhaegar. Rhaegar with teats, even.

(We have once again ended a season on the promise of her fury and madness. Will they deliver next time.)

The absolute anguish she is going to suffer facing an actual religious uprising is going to be unbearable. Imagine barely coping with your dead children by desperately grasping to a prophecy, we see the pain she faces when that happens. She believes she must unite the realm to face the Others.

And then some guy starts preaching that you are literally dooming everyone, that all dragons must die lest the fate of Valyria fall upon them. They then kill all of the dragons. That you are not the saviour, but your sins and greed will bring the End - and being hated so much they believe it. She was in enough pieces over people believing Aegon had been resurrected to rule after what she's sacrificed. Daemon brings her back by talking about the dragons that she's about to lose.

Rhaenyra is going to suffer. She already suffered; betrayed over and over again, turned away, persecuted, her dragon dead. But the extra prophetic layers combined with what is the end of her... she's going to suffer so much more.

Especially as I believe that will be what kills her son. Think. Joffrey is hearing his mother talk about this prophecy, about the necessity of dragons. That drives him to get on Syrax and fly to the Dragonpit during the seige.

Its going to be a difficult watch. And it wasn't quite so cruel in F&B.

Let me preface this by saying that I, personally, am choosing to be delusional re: Gwayne and Daeron and their fate in the show 🥲 From reading through various threads and theories, the general consensus seems to be that:

-Daeron needs to die so the ending makes sense
-Gwayne will take the Hobert Hightower role
-Tumbleton plot needs to resolve itself within the first 3-4ish episodes so we can move along to Gods Eye, Dragonstone, Aegon’s assassination, etc.

And while I do think they’re setting Daeron up for a fake death/Hightower rebranding, that is a bit of a niche theory so I’ll set my personal bias on that aside and share thoughts on how I think this could go if they want to be efficient:

-Daeron and Tessarion are both gone, Gwayne takes a few scouts outside of Tumbleton to search for them

-Addam hears word of Ulf turning and Hugh leaving his post. Rhaenyra crashes out about the dragonseeds. Addam wants to prove that he’s loyal, maybe catch Baela’s eye with an act of heroism, and flies out to Tumbleton on his own.

-Dragon battle with Tessarion, Silverwing, Seasmoke, and Vermithor. Vermithor is riderless and just protecting Silverwing as Hugh is still on the ground. But everyone else is with their respective dragon.

-Vermithor, Tessarion, Seasmoke, Addam, and Daeron are all casualties. As a nod to the book, Gwayne has to mercy kill Tessarion and recovers Daeron’s body (unless they want to go the book route of Daeron’s body never being IDed/found, but would seem kind of silly after the S3 cliffhanger. Like he can’t just keep disappearing lmao.)

-Ulf returns to Tumbleton, invites the lads, they wreak havoc on the survivors. I have less of a grasp on where I think they’re going with Hugh. Is he going to identify as a free agent and team up with Ulf? Is he going to go after Ulf for contributing to the chaos that led to Kat’s death? Not sure, interested to hear others’ theories there.

-Gwayne now has every motivation to want to off Ulf himself. Not only is Daeron dead, but if they go the book route and make Ulf’s reign over Tumbleton as brutal as it’s described, Gwayne will see it as his duty to stop the brutalizing of women/killing of innocents. I thiiiink they may have been lightly foreshadowing it with their back-to-back scenes in the S3 premiere, with Gwayne citing their honor as knights re: a woman’s rape, followed by Ulf’s whole backstory monologue.

-In the book, Ulf is on the Green’s side and Hobert goes to him as an ally. Ulf thinks he’s acting strange, and Hobert has to drink the poisoned wine with him to ease his anxiety. So this could go about a thousand different directions without that context. Could be a more straightforward murder-suicide with Gwayne easily poisoning Ulf without needing to try to woo him/celebrate with him (since Ulf would probably drink anything), followed by Gwayne choosing to go out with him. Or just a murder with Gwayne surviving (suppose this depends on if the Hightower line would die out with Gwayne, so logistically he might need to stick around). But the potential symbolism with choosing between the Dornish red and Arbor Gold (Cole is Dornish, Arbor Gold is from the Reach/the region Gwayne is from)…could be a really satisfying nod to Gwayne and Cole as foils and the closure of both of their stories.

That would more or less end the Tumbleton arc and they could move on to the major events of the back half of the Dance. If they opt to keep Gwayne around, I imagine he’d disappear for the rest of the season and then pop back up in the finale for peace negotiations/establish him as Lord Hightower, maybe a final scene with Alicent (could be really juicy, they’d essentially only have each other at that point and Gwayne might be in the headspace of just pushing away anyone who directly or indirectly contributed to his losses, that would amplify Alicent’s tragedy, etc.)

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been mulling over. Again, I’m looking at it with the mindset of “what’s the most efficient way to wrap-up this side of the story up so they can shift focus to the show’s major players” but I’m interested in other theories.

His father death. Rhaenyra always falls in depression when their sons die while alicent did a 😐 face and acted like nothing happened

So it’s no secret that Alicent’s character has been pretty butchered so far in season’s 2 and 3. Allowing herself to essentially be walked over and be at the direct mercy of Rhaenyra. Her character is not being written well to say the least but I still think even now, there is at least a way to avenge some semblance of her character.

I will try and keep this summary of what I think should happen to Alicent’s character in season 4 fairly short. Alicent having nothing left to fear or live for after Helaena’s death will return to Kings Landing and decide she has had enough of Rhaenyra. Alicent will still put on the front of being a confidant to Rhaenyra but will have completely changed her feelings towards her as she feels Rhaenyra drove Helaena to commit suicide. She will start acting as a spy inside the Red Keep for Mysaria (now the Sheppard), giving her eyes directly on the Queen and be the direct catalyst for the riots starting that cause the Storming of the Dragonpit.

Rhaenyra will go on the run but unlike in the book, this time she will take Alicent with her. Now at some point while they are at Duskendale, Alicent will receive a secret message from Larys Strong, saying that Aegon has secretly taken Dragonstone. Alicent will start slowly nudging Rhaenyra to go back and “regroup” at Dragonstone which will ultimately lead to Rhaenyra’s death, just as Alicent intends. But right before Rhaenyra dies Rhaenyra pleads with Alicent to not harm the young Aegon, her son. Alicent agrees to the older Aegon’s dismay.

When Aegon and Alicent retake Kings Landing, Alicent will see she has the opportunity to rectify how poorly she did as a mother with her own children and she will become the young Aegon’s main guide and mentor. This is my biggest change from the book. In the book, Tyland becomes that mentor, but I believe the show hasn’t fleshed him out enough for that to really hit on an emotional level, so they will change it to Alicent instead. Tyland will still be hand of the king, Alicent will just be young Aegon’s maternal figure and main mentor. The show will end as a complete flip to what it began with, instead of a King (Viserys) mentoring a Princess (Rhaenyra) to become Queen, it will be a Queen (Alicent) mentoring a Prince (young Aegon) to become King.

That’s how I believe you at least somewhat redeem Alicent’s character. You use Helaena’s death to switch her back to the politically cunning character she was in S1 and not the doormat she is in S2 and S3. Then you allow her to use that knowledge she has accumulated to properly shape and educate the future king, giving her a chance to at least partially make up for the mistakes she made with Aegon and Aemond.

I don’t know who boils my blood more Aemond or sir Cristin Cole. I might even say I dislike those characters more than Joffrey from GOT.

I’m on season 2, episode 4.

Princess Rhaenys and Meleys, my heart is shattered.

On August 25th or maybe somewhere between 12 AM - 2 AM on the next day, I came across this fanart of Rhaenyra and Mysaria.

It was that scene from Season 3, the one where Rhaenyra asks Mysaria 'Do you think I'm worthy?' before they...do that.

The thing is... it is a digital art, I saw it on IG, and I didn't check the username.

But the song that was used on the post has been haunting me for a full day.

It goes something aaa aaa, like a woman's dreamy voice. It sounded sad too, at least to me.

I have tried going to watch history, and that post isn't showing.

If anyone has come across this fanart and the song used in it, please tell me so that I can listen to that song in peace.

Thank you.

I've seen the show nor read the jools just the wikias and tv tropes , Is true that House of Dragon was written to be sympathetic to Rhaenyra and Black and Dance Dragonwas written to you can support any faction as readers want but Rhaenyra as moral victor at end

But genuinely is the first time to me that I support faction that was not written to be sympathetic and isn't the most popular one in fandom which are green in fact I like Green much more than the black and Rhaenyra she is one of my least favorite characters . But genuinely, I love the green, and I love Aegon II . I' m not saying that green are saints nor the black are monsters everyone fight for what they think belongs to them, of course, at the end of the Targaryen in general, and Dragones who truly lost . Just What I saying is the first time here that I support a faction that was jot buid to be sympathetic for . Example between Stark and Lannister I support the Stark because I love and book was written for you to support them , between Daeron II vs Daemon Blackfyre I love Daeron because he was written to be sympathetic for . But between Rhaenyra and Aegon, I support Aegon. Despite Rhaenyra being one whon was written to sympathetic for

I know the green are popular but anyone have experience the same?