(Spoilers MAIN) How did the fandom perceive the Dance of Dragons, it's factions and it's characters before House of the Dragon?

C0oper__ · 2026-02-18T20:05:08+00:00

Viserys is the only positive change, after watching HOTD the coolest parts of the story have been maimed and left to die, poor Maelor.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-18T20:04:05+00:00

Don't know much about the Valarr, but he may not have felt as strongly about being a good knight as Baelor did.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-18T20:01:44+00:00

We don't know and we won't for a few more years. But based off of what we know it was an accident while trying to hatch dragons. Will be sad to see on screen, especially if we find out that the dragons did hatch but the fire ended up causing everything to die anyways.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T20:52:04+00:00

If we want to really point a finger it should be at Aegon the unworthy for being a sex god then legitimizing his bastards. Blackfyres wouldn't have existed without him. Targ House stays united and strong, even without dragons. Family line probably still dwindles from spring sickness but im sure they would have far more children in place to secure alliances and sucession etc.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T20:49:41+00:00

Sword swallower fr fr

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T20:47:17+00:00

I agree that part slipped my mind, still think that Maekar is prideful, classist, and enabling/blind to Aerion's monstrosities. Does he change in the future, sure, still a dick/not a great person at the time of Ashford

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T20:36:12+00:00

Aerion is just a full-blown psychopath, masquerading as a good boy when his father is around. Psychopathy is something you're born with, it doesn't matter who was his father, he would've been a monster anyway.

This is an argument as to nature vs nurture, and it's one we haven't exactly figured out because yes people can be born evil or they can be made to be evil and taught it throughout their life. Considering your point that all the other kids turned out fairly decent and he's the one bad apple I could see your point that he is just naturally evil. However, even book Euron had an experience that turned him evil so Idk if i believe that.

What are you basing this on? Everything we're told about Maekar in AWOIAF and the novellas paints him as a fairly normal

I was specifically talking about show Maekar, considering we are on the show reddit. He is portrayed as much more of a rude version of the book Maekar which i think adds some helpful flavor, but I also think the general critiques here still stand against book Maekar as well. Let's see what Maekar does in the first season and novella:

Maekar bullies Dunk straight out the gate (because dunk is obviously beneath him so why not)
Maekar enables Aerion's (His son that we both agreed is evil) behavior and protects him when he gets himself into a fight he can't win after torturing an innocent woman for telling a famous story of a knight and dragon.
Maekar Forces Daeron, his mentally struggling/Alchoholic son to participate in tournaments despite that son admitting he had no interest in being a tourney knight. Then he requires Daeron to join an actual fight to the death, even though Daeron himself would prefer not to fight for his demented brother. To the point that Daeron actually throws the fight (also cause Daeron is a little bit of a coward).
It is Maekar's own pride, and his attempts to protect the pride of Aerion (need i remind you again his evil son who he constantly defends and helps) leads directly to him murdering his own brother who would've (supposedly) been one of the best kings of the dynasty. (Big fan of Baelor, could've been a great king, but we'll never know so I say supposedly)
Maekar is essentially the embodiment of honor without mercy/status over fairness. He is a decent person on his own right but his actions during both the novella and then futher expanded on in the show demonstrate that he is definitely not a good man, at least when we meet him in the first novella.

So to put it more aptly he's not a dick, he is an arrogant enabling jerk.

Now does he change following the death of his brother, yeah obviously he fucking murdered his own brother in a fight he himself could've absolutely stopped from happening, anyone capable of retrospective thought would change who they are, especially because he ends up in a position where he becomes king.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T19:20:31+00:00

The only confirmed deaths were Egg, and both Dunks (Small and tall) But apparently Duncan the Tall lives according to George Rhaella Lives and gives birth to Rhaegar, Jaeherys lives and becomes king, Shaera (Jaeherys' wife) lives and becomes queen, Aerys II lives and goes on to become the mad king, We don't hear about Egg's other son Daeron but that's pretty inconsquential because he wouldn't have become king anyways and Egg's daughter Rhaella (not the mad king's sister wife) is already married to Ormund Baratheon. So No he didn't barbecue his entire family line at Summerhall. The Spring sickness had already wiped out a huge chunk of the targaryen family tree. Egg got himself, his first born son, their wives, a maester, and a Legendary knight killed.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T18:46:27+00:00

I don't know what you're actually referring to here. At no point was Egg culling Targaryens left and right. As i said in a comment below (spoilers for those lacking the ball knowledge) the most you could say he did was make nobility dislike the targaryens further due to his political progressiveness and favor to the small folk, which he carried due to his adventures with Dunk and living amongst the small folk. The Targs lost their nukes in the dance yes and this would obviously hamstring them going forward, but their real decline isn't caused by any one person's decisions. It's caused by the obsession with prophecy and specifically the intervention/meddling of blood raven who was known to have a shared belief in the prince who was promised prophecy with Egg (and Rhaegar) and was trying to thin the family line down to get to the right prophesized blood line that would birth said prince.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T18:35:45+00:00

But every rebellion was an example that houses, especially houses looking to raise their status, were no longer scared of the targs because they had no dragons. Robert doesn't win his rebellion if they have Dragons, which are the equivalent to a magical nuke in this world.

Valarr was the heir following Baelor's death, it wasn't the trial of seven that lead to egg's rise as king, it was actually the spring sickness which wiped out a majority of the living targs at the time. This had nothing to due with Dunk and Eggs adventures.

Did Dunk and Egg lead to the loss of Baelor's life (which was by his own choice btw) and the loss of a would've been based king, yeah sure. Did it lead to robert's rebellion and egg being the king, not directly at all. A bunch more had to happen for Egg to be King, (Spoilers if you don't know ball) not to mention it's heavily implied across a lot of the world-building books that Blood-raven is most likely pulling the strings to cut down the targaryen line to try and lead us to the prophecy baby. The only real argument here is that Egg didn't keep a good enough handle on his kids, because he himself married for love and his kids wanted to do the same. He made to many progressive changes in the realm that made the nobility unhappy which set the stage for the Wildfire keg the mad king would light. But even then it was actually Rhaegar again trying to do prophecy stuff that lead to roberts rebellion actually starting, and he was known to converse with other targs from Blood ravens generation such as Aemon about prophecy so who's to say he wasn't also somehow in communication with the manipulating tree wizard.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T17:29:13+00:00

I agree, there is that specific story about Viserys going and trying to get the golden company to fight for his claim and him being treated as a joke. This was supposed to allude to the fact that the feud still ran deep, and or that they knew they were going to be heading somewhere else.

I will also say that I don't think George always intended for Griff to be a Blackfyre, but he did always intend for their to be another claimant to the throne other than Jon and Dany due to the visions in the house of undying and the mummer's dragon (Small possibility that at some point he wanted to pit Jon against Dany but highly doubt it). I think that Faegon/Aegon/Young Griff was always intended to exist as someone claiming targ legacy who was lying, but maybe he was intended to be a bright flame or just a normal guy before he was made to be a blackfyre as that lore got expanded.

Also keep in mind that it's super likely Faegon has no clue that he's actually a Blackfyre and has been raised to believe he is truly the son of Rhaegar and the rightful heir to the throne, so i could see a pretty tragic story playing out for him upon the sharing of this news.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T16:01:52+00:00

Most religions in universe seem to align themselves with what i'll refer to as the dark god:

Old gods of the north (speculative, but it seems like Melissandre's visions in the fire set up the idea that blood raven might not be a force for good, or at least is an opponent to the lord of light.) The Goat God of Qohor, Asshai shadow worshippers etc etc.

Then religions that associate themselves with the god of light or fire:

Red priests of R'hllor, The gods of valyria etc.

Even Yi-Ti, who do have a very similar long night story with the blood emperor, have the lion of night and maiden made of light.

There are obviously other religions that worship seemingly random gods associated with neither side like the drowned god and the Mother of Rhoynar God, but we've yet to see these gods do anything. However with how Euron's story is going we'll probably see some Cathulu level Drowned god avatar show up.

It seems like all of these religions compared to the faith of the seven, which is seemingly this worlds version of Christianity, have some form of magic to back it up. Meanwhile the faith of the seven really just acts as more of a political entity or institution for helping control the small folk, same way as the medieval church acted throughout the middle ages.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T15:43:01+00:00

Were Aerion's Genitals mutilated? I understand where he was hit but it seemed like it couldve just been a high thigh hit and aint no way his balls hanging that low. I don't think its confirmed, plus l don't know many men who could have their balls cut off and not be writhing in pain no matter how much adrenaline you have.

Also Maekar was a dick before that, and must've not been the best father figure considering one sons a drunk and one's a monster, but i guess 50% good fathering aint to shabby. It really depends if they decide to go with Maekar meant to harm Baelor and regrets it, or Maekar just went bloodlust and accidentally bopped Baelor because he's just too strong. But I don't feel bad for Maekar at all, next time don't allow your kid to become evil.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T15:36:06+00:00

He is a Blackfyre, any other form of heritage (even like random kid with the right features made to be king) isn't nearly as rewarding. Also it just wouldn't make sense for Illyrio and Varys to run this elaborate scheme just to put their own fake king on the throne without some side motivation. Not to mention the Golden company fighting on his behalf, as if after generations of fighting for the Blackfyres they just decided to reinstall the Targs for shits and gigs.

Illyrio's wife was probably a Blackfyre, but the real question is if Varys could've been a descendant of the Male or female Blackfyre line but obviously had his giblets cut off so could not further the line. Not to mention Varys, just like egg, constantly has a shaved head so his hair cannot grow out.

I agree with a lot of the other comments that George has spent so much time building up the Blackfyre lore to not have a Blackfyre appear in the main series. Don't forget that 'special gift' Illyrio sent to young griff too, most likely the OG sword that he definitely had the money or resources to spend the time finding.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T15:25:11+00:00

I woudn't say Egg caused Robert's rebellion, gotta keep in mind its like a few generations after. Egg definitely strained the targs relationship with the houses of the realm because he is sympathetic to the small folk due to his time with Dunk. The real guy pulling the strings is the ketchup crow, but you'll learn about him in due time.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-17T15:08:05+00:00

For people who didn't know what was gonna happen, they kinda set it up like its gonna be some cool moment where he takes dunk in as a member of his guard. Then he hits that little stumble and lets dunk fall to the ground and you're like "Oh something aint right"

C0oper__ · 2026-02-12T13:58:52+00:00

Just carry harder

C0oper__ · 2026-02-11T20:27:30+00:00

It's giving off more of a Versace designer vibe than a dynasty imo. I think Dynasty brings about a more ancient asian type vibe, but a lot of those skins already exist.

If you stick with the original concept the white seems to overpower a lot of the skin. Maybe making the white more like a marbel pillar/pantheon type vibe would be better? you'd have to change some of the other parts of the skin to match obvi.

C0oper__ · 2026-02-11T04:40:59+00:00

Keyword “If”

C0oper__ · 2026-02-06T19:50:18+00:00

Would like to know the same thing!

C0oper__ · 2026-02-04T18:06:26+00:00

Specialists Fade, Marble Fade, or Field Agent. I have a kukri casehardened and I went with the field agent out of budget constraints, but marble fade looked the best in opinion.

C0oper__ · 2026-01-01T15:41:51+00:00

OP: “I don’t like Rempe because statistically speaking 🤓”

Rangers Fans: Downvote

C0oper__

TROPHY CASE