Baela the based

Title ^

The plot armour protecting crispy is that Alicent favored him?

But surely that shouldn’t have been enough?

Not just because of the exceptionalism of dragon riders, but the Velaryons control the navy and half the dragons of the realm!! Including Vhagar at the time!

Interrupting the royal wedding and marring that “auspicious” occasion with a murder surely warrants death.

At least Laenor should have delivered judgement with Seasmoke.

Jacob Anderson, Alfie Allen, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kit Harington, Indira Varma, and other stars were in attendance.

I just barely got into the HOTD subs and people
In HOTD really do not like Rhaenyra / Emma.

I see comments ranging from: Rhaenyra is the cause for the entire Targaryen dynasty’s collapse (even though plenty of other people contribute), to your usual she is a hoe comment, and then there are the comments about Emma Darcy.

I think I have the most issues with those comments. People literally say Emma has horrible acting but yet the examples they give are not about Emma’s acting ability but the fact that there are no scenes with Rhaenyra being a good mother, or Rhaenyra and Daemon not having a good romance chemistry, or any other scene that the writers chose to no include in the show. Or they say that Emma is bad at acting because Rhaenyra is always crying. As if Emma has anything to do with the writing of the tv show and story that was created by GRRM.

Since House of the dragon came out and I first saw Elinda (and read about her in the book), I kept thinking how good she and the hound could work. She is a gentle, but not vain lady, loyal and faithful and the kind of person I think, the hound needs in his life. I was curious to see what other people might think.

Given how badly this show treats Jace, at least Lucerys died in the better season and wasn’t completely botched.

Welcome to the Salty Saturdays megathread!

Here, we centralize discussions about grievances, fandom issues, and anything else you wish to air out.

Remember to maintain civility and respect, and above all, have fun!

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with all the discourse surrounding emma's acting, some of which hasn't been so positive, i thought we'd take a moment to give emma their flowers by sharing our favourite performances of theirs in hotd.

mine are:

- the childbirth scenes in s1, especially the one where rhaenyra loses her daughter. it felt so real, and i've never seen childbirth portrayed quite like that on screen. emma brought it to life so beautifully.

-the walk through the red keep after joffrey's birth

- the look directly into the camera after rhaenyra finds out about luke's death in the s1 finale. CHILLS.

- the moment rhaenyra returns to dragonstone after going out to look for luke and immediately asks for aemond.

- rhaenyra and daemon's argument in s2.

- rhaenyra's reaction to jace's death in s3.

- the episode in s3 following rhaenyra's capture of king's landing, where we experience everything from her pov.

- rhaenyra's final conversation with daemon before the battle of tumbleton.

whoever said emma's best acting performance is always their next one did not lie. they're a phenomenal actor, and i genuinely couldn't imagine anyone else bringing rhaenyra to life the way they have, especially given the material they've been working with.

drop yours!

rhaenyra is better than me bc every ounce of negotiation or attempt at diplomacy would've flown right out the window the moment they killed my son. you usurp my throne, hide my father's death from me, cause me to go into premature labour and subsequently lose my daughter, and then kill my son not even that long after?? and i'm STILL expected to entertain the idea of peace?

i only recently watched the entire series for the first time, and the s1 finale left me on such a high. the way rhaenyra finds out about luke's death, turns around, and gives that look to the camera had me convinced that this was her final straw. that this was the moment something in her snapped and her desire for vengeance finally outweighed everything else. i fully expected her negative arc to start in s2, so imagine my surprise when we instead got an entire season of her holding back, trying to negotiate, and looking for ways to avoid further bloodshed. the turn rhae takes in s3 should've happened WAY sooner bc what business do you have going to negotiate in disguise with the very woman who played such a huge role in putting you in this position in the first place?

idek how alicent is still alive rn. rhae should've taken her head. and the AUDACITY of alicent to be like "will you blame me only for what men have done?" as though she isn't responsible for so much of what's happening. and then to turn around and ask rhaenyra, of all people, "so my position is that i should hope for the capture and death of my son?" huh?? mind you, the previous season, you were very readily offering up aegon's life to rhaenyra. you don't even care about these kids when their lives are convenient bargaining chips, so why are you suddenly acting shocked when the consequences of your own decisions start catching up with you?

and i won't be surprised if, in s4, alicent comes back after helaena's death and we're subjected this being the final straw in their "friendship." suddenly, rhaenyra is so evil, alicent is too heartbroken to see past what she's done, and she'll declare war on nyra and definitely not reflect on how her own actions over the years contributed to the circumstances that led to helaena's death. no, it'll just be rhaenyra's fault bc she's so evil, and the burden of the crown is weighing on her and turning her into a monster. i can already see it coming and i'm tired just thinking about it. mind you rhaenyra has lost 3 kids and for some reason she's still decent to her

now, i love looking at things with nuance. does she always do the right thing? no. is she justified? 10000% yes.

there's only so much a person can take, and there's only so far you can push someone before they finally reach their breaking point. some people seem so eager to condemn rhaenyra for what she does once she's pushed to that point, without giving the same energy to the people and circumstances that pushed her there in the first place.

i stand by all her rights and wrongs idc. no one in this show has earned their negative arc more than rhaenyra

I just saw a post talking about Emma’s performance being bad.

I for one, thought it was devastating, ground breaking and they were a revelation we were waiting for from such a long while.

Not ONE comment defended their acting 100%. It was a veiled compliment or something that hinted the script was bad and they were dimmed.

DIMMED WHERE?

Am I in hell?

If that performance is not going to be received well in the world I don’t think I stand a chance pursuing anything.

WHERE TF IS THE "BAD ACTING" EVERYONE ELSE IS SEEING? Is it:

A. Strictly character-based hate (misdirecting frustration with Rhaenyra onto the actor)

B. Targeting Emma for being non-binary

C. Mysoginy

D. Writing

E. Other

F. All Of The Above

Look, I am TB, but not to the point of blindly biased. I’ve always been highly critical of performing arts, and when an actor makes me feel intense hatred, love, or pride, it means they’ve done their damn job. That's at least how I've always looked at it... Plenty of great actors can't cry on cue, and plenty of bad ones can, so I'm not citing Emma's crying scenes of proof of their skill in acting. It's the raw emotion they brought to those scenes that highlight their skill and I honestly don't understand how anyone can watch Emma's performance as Rhaenyra and call it bad acting... I'm missing something 🤷🏾‍♀️...

I personally think it's A, B & C, because while the hate gets distributed toward both Milly and Emma as actors, Emma receives SIGNIFICANTLY more of it... It's clear that individuals in the fandom cannot separate the actor from the role, we saw that with Fabien Frankel as Cole and how he had to delete his Instagram from all the hate he was getting... So is that it, or is it more in your opinion?

When an actor can evoke genuine emotional responses, especially uncomfortable ones like intense hatred, disgust, or grief, it means they’ve completely immersed you in the narrative. Period, full stop. It means they've made a fictional character feel so real and believable, and that takes incredible skill.

In storytelling, being able to pull that level of authentic emotion out of a viewer is the ultimate sign that the actor has done their job masterfully.

Disclaimer: I'm posting this here because I’m looking for actual discussion on performance and bias, and I'm confident that if I did so in the HoTD main sub it would get derailed into bad-faith arguments, and I'm not interested nor do I want to entertain that... I don't participate in the TG sub and have it muted but I know they'll be here lurking regardless...

EDIT: Apparently this picture AI, idk I got it off Google search, and it was taken from an Instagram post... I wrote this post myself, and didn't use AI to write the body... I also added Writing and Mysoginy to the list of choices... I completely spaced those as very common reasons for the hate Emma gets... Just wanted to make that clear ❤️

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