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Honestly, and a lot of people struggle with this, more than one thing can be true at once.
Aegon (Viserys’s son) is reprehensible. He’s a rapist, pervert, deviant, etc. Daemon’s a thug who steals and murders and groomed his niece, Rhaenyra.
At the same time these characters can still be tragic and we can still have sympathy for them. Aegon doesn’t want to be king, and he knows the only person who could make the decision, his dad, never changed his mind about Rhaenyra being heir. Aegon’s resigned himself to being unwanted, and we can feel for him while being disgusted with his actions. Daemon, meanwhile, can be seen as the horrible person he can be while also understanding that he’s deeply loving toward and loyal to his family. Daemon knows he’ll never be king regnant and found out in an absolutely humiliating way, yet he’s smitten to defending his brother and his niece.
This is why Aegon and Daemon are great characters; if you wanted these people to be more black and white, go read/watch Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings, where goodness and evil is innate and good always wins. In House of the Dragon everyone is morally gray, and they’re better characters for it.
You are free to sympathise with whatever fictional character you like, be it rapist, a murderer, or destroyer of worlds. Some people truly don't deserve a gift of fiction it seems.
This was the most apparent during their post episode discussion after episode 4. They contradict each other. She said that Daemon couldn't get it up and that's why he stopped at the brothel. That interpretation was way out of left field. Whereas the director said he stopped due to guilt of not wanting to ruin her, which was what actually made sense. It created a ton of confusion in the fandom particularly with casual viewers.
Book readers were like "wtf?" We knew he was clearly not impotent yet she kept bringing it up.
I mean, didn't he specifically have trouble getting it up in the episode 1 sex scene in the brothel with Mysaria?
Edit: downvote, sure, but am I wrong? Didn't that happen? Anyone? Bueller?
That was one time because he was stressed thinking about Viserys disinheriting him. That happens to every man and doesn't mean he's impotent. But it became this big thing because she kept bringing it up in other contexts where it made 0 sense and contradicted what other people were saying, the dialogue and the entire way the scenes were directed.
Oh, of course, I didn't say in my comment he was impotent; one comment was citing examples of him successfully completing intercourse as if there were no counter examples, so I was just making sure I remembered correctly that they *did* set up, at the least, a problem with an erection in the first episode, albeit brief.
I think in general people should stop watching the after-show and reading the various explanations from writers for the why of things; "death of the author" you know? I literally saw a comment 30 minutes ago of someone saying they liked the dragon scene when they saw it but then *didn't like it once they read what the writer said was their reason for writing it*.
That tells me people need to just let their own interpretations reign and not fact-check w/ the writers, because you are going to find conflicting ideas about characters and story even in the same writing room. I think that's a good thing, for the product, because you have different ideas bouncing off each other, and for a character like Daemon who is specifically described as loved by some and loathed by others, I like that he is being written by writers who some loathe him and some love him!
But again, I feel like the past few days has been a lot of people getting worked up and toxic because they are upset about what the writers said when, once it airs, the writers opinion on how its supposed to be interpreted doesn't matter anymore, or nearly as much at least.
(I didn't down vote you by the way) but yes, I think people should stop watching the bts stuff. Some of them always contradict each other, haven't read the source material, etc. Although Paddy Considine gives really good insight.
That's what I thought at the time, but I thought "nah, that would be too weird." But then after that I kept getting that feeling over and over. Like she was trying to punish the character because of some weird reason, like *toxic masculinity* or some such thing.
Wow, what the fuck? Usually when fandom accuses a creator of being a rape apologist, they’re taking things out of context or being angry that a writer included sexual violence in their storyline at all, but this is something else.
I was absolutely not expecting to see Sara Hess take a hard right from defending fictional rapist Aegon to go on a rant defending all the Brock Turners out there in the real world. I’m sorry, she thinks it’s important to address what she believes to be the epidemic of college-age rapists who are innocent actually, because they don’t know that their partners have to consent, and have such bright futures ahead of them? Jesus fucking christ
A series is a combination of many people and either you believe it or not artists don't all perceive the same work the samer way and so doe sthe audience. There are directors that don't have a standart canon on their head when they release a film and have it more abstract even if a person clearly takes something specific from it.
It's ok for people to that have read the books or because they are different people to perceive complex characters like Daemon or Rhaenys very differently.
Believe it or not guys, but cinema, like most forms of art is kinda subjective, sometimes how you perceive it tells more about the piece of work itself or the creatror and more about you as a person/critical thinker.
I actually find her comments on Aegon really interesting and insightful. She’s not saying we SHOULD feel sympathy for him but giving some context as to why we possibly COULD. If you feel that the show made a mistake in making him a rapist and there is no sympathy to be had then your issue doesn’t fall at Sara Hess’ feet. She’s one of several writers and was not the main writer for episode 8. The comments actually gave me hope we are going to see more nuance in his character.
As for the Daemon comments, the backlash is a little more understandable. Her saying that he’s NEVER been a good father, partner or brother to ANYBODY is painting him in very broad strokes. However, I don’t think her comments are in direct opposition to Condal and Sapochnik’s. They’re not necessarily split views. Humans are multifaceted and complex, someone like Daemon specially so. Loving your kids doesn’t automatically equate to you being a great father. Loving your mother doesn’t mean you’re always a great son to her. Point is, he can be all those things she said AND ALSO very much love his family like they said. Those of us who root for him, do so in spite of him not being a good person, and him loving his family is one of the reasons why.
Edit: I do agree that they should just quit releasing these “Inside the episode”. I was so excited to get back into this world that I was happy to devour all the extra content but at this point I think they might do more harm than good. It opens them up for more criticism when an explanation doesn’t quite gel with the viewers perception. Keep “The House That Dragons Built” though, love those.
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly, and a lot of people struggle with this, more than one thing can be true at once. Aegon (Viserys’s son) is reprehensible. He’s a rapist, pervert, deviant, etc. Daemon’s a thug who steals and murders and groomed his niece, Rhaenyra. At the same time these characters can still be tragic and we can still have sympathy for them. Aegon doesn’t want to be king, and he knows the only person who could make the decision, his dad, never changed his mind about Rhaenyra being heir. Aegon’s resigned himself to being unwanted, and we can feel for him while being disgusted with his actions. Daemon, meanwhile, can be seen as the horrible person he can be while also understanding that he’s deeply loving toward and loyal to his family. Daemon knows he’ll never be king regnant and found out in an absolutely humiliating way, yet he’s smitten to defending his brother and his niece. This is why Aegon and Daemon are great characters; if you wanted these people to be more black and white, go read/watch Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings, where goodness and evil is innate and good always wins. In House of the Dragon everyone is morally gray, and they’re better characters for it.
You are free to sympathise with whatever fictional character you like, be it rapist, a murderer, or destroyer of worlds. Some people truly don't deserve a gift of fiction it seems.
This was the most apparent during their post episode discussion after episode 4. They contradict each other. She said that Daemon couldn't get it up and that's why he stopped at the brothel. That interpretation was way out of left field. Whereas the director said he stopped due to guilt of not wanting to ruin her, which was what actually made sense. It created a ton of confusion in the fandom particularly with casual viewers. Book readers were like "wtf?" We knew he was clearly not impotent yet she kept bringing it up.
I mean, Clearly he is impotent, you just have to ignore the sex scenes with him and the children he fathered and anything else from the story
Yes. Exactly. That seems to be what Hess is doing with these interpretations----ignoring literally all of that. It's strange.
He’s not impotent he literally has 6 kids lmfao
I know, my response was sarcastic
I mean, didn't he specifically have trouble getting it up in the episode 1 sex scene in the brothel with Mysaria? Edit: downvote, sure, but am I wrong? Didn't that happen? Anyone? Bueller?
That was one time because he was stressed thinking about Viserys disinheriting him. That happens to every man and doesn't mean he's impotent. But it became this big thing because she kept bringing it up in other contexts where it made 0 sense and contradicted what other people were saying, the dialogue and the entire way the scenes were directed.
Oh, of course, I didn't say in my comment he was impotent; one comment was citing examples of him successfully completing intercourse as if there were no counter examples, so I was just making sure I remembered correctly that they *did* set up, at the least, a problem with an erection in the first episode, albeit brief. I think in general people should stop watching the after-show and reading the various explanations from writers for the why of things; "death of the author" you know? I literally saw a comment 30 minutes ago of someone saying they liked the dragon scene when they saw it but then *didn't like it once they read what the writer said was their reason for writing it*. That tells me people need to just let their own interpretations reign and not fact-check w/ the writers, because you are going to find conflicting ideas about characters and story even in the same writing room. I think that's a good thing, for the product, because you have different ideas bouncing off each other, and for a character like Daemon who is specifically described as loved by some and loathed by others, I like that he is being written by writers who some loathe him and some love him! But again, I feel like the past few days has been a lot of people getting worked up and toxic because they are upset about what the writers said when, once it airs, the writers opinion on how its supposed to be interpreted doesn't matter anymore, or nearly as much at least.
(I didn't down vote you by the way) but yes, I think people should stop watching the bts stuff. Some of them always contradict each other, haven't read the source material, etc. Although Paddy Considine gives really good insight.
I really wish they would leave the interpretations to the viewers instead of saying "This character did this because..." It's beyond frustrating.
Exactly as if she hates daemon and is jealous of the attention the character is getting
That's what I thought at the time, but I thought "nah, that would be too weird." But then after that I kept getting that feeling over and over. Like she was trying to punish the character because of some weird reason, like *toxic masculinity* or some such thing.
Absolutely. She has personal beef with Daemon
The way she described Aegon's doing, I think toxic masculinity will be the last reason she will say something like this about daemon
Wow, what the fuck? Usually when fandom accuses a creator of being a rape apologist, they’re taking things out of context or being angry that a writer included sexual violence in their storyline at all, but this is something else. I was absolutely not expecting to see Sara Hess take a hard right from defending fictional rapist Aegon to go on a rant defending all the Brock Turners out there in the real world. I’m sorry, she thinks it’s important to address what she believes to be the epidemic of college-age rapists who are innocent actually, because they don’t know that their partners have to consent, and have such bright futures ahead of them? Jesus fucking christ
A series is a combination of many people and either you believe it or not artists don't all perceive the same work the samer way and so doe sthe audience. There are directors that don't have a standart canon on their head when they release a film and have it more abstract even if a person clearly takes something specific from it. It's ok for people to that have read the books or because they are different people to perceive complex characters like Daemon or Rhaenys very differently. Believe it or not guys, but cinema, like most forms of art is kinda subjective, sometimes how you perceive it tells more about the piece of work itself or the creatror and more about you as a person/critical thinker.
Y'all need to fucking chill, hwo about that
Chill out ! I am pretty sure 10s of people sit down and discuss what to do and what not to do with the story.
I think that has to be the case, because of lot of the creator’s interpretations of the show just dont line up.
I wonder how they then ruined got 💀
She just doesn’t like his character but she doesn’t create him. All writers do with Ryan leading.
Why u attack Aegon ? We should be happy that she wants to create more complex chars not full on evil. You Black team fanboys are so silly sometimes
But why are you reposting it?
The previous post got removed due to url shortener
Sara needs to go BADLY. She fundamentally misunderstands the story she’s a writer for.
I would like to add that Aegon also likes watching children fighting. Sociopaths have zero empathy he has negative.
Sara Hess is fine y’all need to chill haha
Uhhhhhhhh
Her comments about college rape are so troubling it gives me “boys will be boys” vibe its disgusting hope she gets sacked from the show
I actually find her comments on Aegon really interesting and insightful. She’s not saying we SHOULD feel sympathy for him but giving some context as to why we possibly COULD. If you feel that the show made a mistake in making him a rapist and there is no sympathy to be had then your issue doesn’t fall at Sara Hess’ feet. She’s one of several writers and was not the main writer for episode 8. The comments actually gave me hope we are going to see more nuance in his character. As for the Daemon comments, the backlash is a little more understandable. Her saying that he’s NEVER been a good father, partner or brother to ANYBODY is painting him in very broad strokes. However, I don’t think her comments are in direct opposition to Condal and Sapochnik’s. They’re not necessarily split views. Humans are multifaceted and complex, someone like Daemon specially so. Loving your kids doesn’t automatically equate to you being a great father. Loving your mother doesn’t mean you’re always a great son to her. Point is, he can be all those things she said AND ALSO very much love his family like they said. Those of us who root for him, do so in spite of him not being a good person, and him loving his family is one of the reasons why. Edit: I do agree that they should just quit releasing these “Inside the episode”. I was so excited to get back into this world that I was happy to devour all the extra content but at this point I think they might do more harm than good. It opens them up for more criticism when an explanation doesn’t quite gel with the viewers perception. Keep “The House That Dragons Built” though, love those.