So many of them and nobody does a thing. It’s alicent and Cole versus everyone else. 2 versus like 20. Cmon!

So much of the discourse around the Dance and the main series to a lesser extent is pointless discussions about who is the rightful heir, what the law is, if the king's word is law or not, who should be king according to primogeniture, cognatic or agnatic-cognatic....

It really doesn't matter as much as some fans think it does. The IT isn't some post-enlightenment nation state. The rightful king is the one that can "enforce his claim". This is not to say that symbols of legitimacy or ancestry does not matter, rather that it's not the end all be all of succession.

The Dance is obviously inspired by the the Anarchy, where Empress Matilda, only surviving child of Henry I, was usurped by her cousin Stephen of Blois.

Charles IV, the last Capetian king, died in 1328 without a direct male heir leaving his kingdom in a succession crisis. His nearest male descendant was his nephew Edward III, King of England, through Isabelle line. However, the French nobility preferred Charles patrilineal cousin Philip of Valois instead, claiming that women could not inherit the Kingdom of France (later justified as the Salic Law), and thus Edward claim was not valid. This was a continuation of the precedent set in 1316 when Philip V took the throne over his niece Joan. This one of the main causes of the Hundred Years' War. I'm sure many of you can spot the similitudes with the great council of 101.

I could go on and on, point is : History is ripe is with succession crisis, civil wars and usurpations. It's not enough to claim that X is the rightful heir by virtues of Y law or because king Z said so. Westeros does not have the modern institutions needed to enforce strict succession laws. It's a mix of tradition, precedent, blood ties, whatever the kings decides, whatever his vassals wants, and mostly whoever has a big enough stick to enforce his claim.

This isn't just about Rhaenyra and Aegon. Robert Baratheon had no serious claim to the throne (especially considering that Viserys and Daenerys were still alive). Stannis glazers too like to think they can win any arguments too by repeating that he is the Rightful King™ by law and that Renly was a usurper that would have set a bad precedent or some shit.

With all the shitty changes, from rhaenicsnt to how soft and jarringly passive adult rhaenyra is to how alicent is weepy baby who can do no wrong except for like 2 episodes, how white washed daemon is, laenor and laenas deaths...

If they don't give us the hour of the wolf I'm throwing hands

Give me mah boy cregan with his baddie (black ally) and his gruff sweetness to aegon and my life is yours

"We have come to die for the dragon queen" gains a hot wife, temporarily adopts the king, casually becomes hand for like a week

Maybe bro chilled for a year while rhaenyra was crashing out but never let it be said God doesn't reward loyalty

I know I'm just one fan amongst countless but I'm an amateur writer and I've been passionate about it since I was a kid, so I'll expose my ideas regardless. Maybe you'll find them good, who knows lol.

I'll try to be as faithful as possible to the books, with "changes" being done just to flesh out what's already there in the book.

I'll start by saying I would make the pre-Dance era last two seasons instead of one, I think there's a lot to cover in that time period.

What I would keep the same as the show.

Daemon's introduction.

His introduction as a menacing, violent and mercurial prince that contrasts so starkly with his affable and peaceful brother was pretty well done in the show. I'd keep it as it is, with Daemon organizing a public and morbid show of mass punishment in King's Landing. I'd also keep the Small Council scene afterwards the same, establishing his rivalry with Otto and his reasoning for his brutality, implying that, despite his enjoyment of violence, he also is interested in keeping the peace in his brother's city.

Jace's struggle with his bastardy.

Jace struggling with being not just an evident bastard passing off as trueborn, but as being the heir of the heir to the Throne, is one of the not so many changes from the book I liked. It gives Jace something to overcome rather than him simply being a perfect prince. That being said, I'd modify his characterization a bit via showing him actually overcoming his insecurities and realizing he can become a "worthy heir of the Iron Throne" despite his birth.

Laenor's participation in the Stepstones war (although not his "death").

Laenor in the book is kind of a nothing character besides the guy's sexuality. I liked his extra characterization in the show as warrior and dragonrider. I'd make his arc about coming to accept the Strong boys as his own despite them not being really his... to then give him a heartbreaking and tragic end via being killed by his lover Qarl, who is paid and subsequently killed by a hooded figure.

Viserys's general characterization.

This is one of the things that were explicitly praised by GRRM, so I'm not touching show Viserys very much beyond him marrying an actual adult instead of a teenager (more on that later).

What I would change from the show.

Rhaenyra's age and dynamic with Alicent, as well as their characterizations.

I'm keeping Alicent's age from the book, that being a young adult, with Rhaenyra being a bit older than the book but still much younger than Alicent. Let's say... Rhaenyra is 10, and Alicent 18 by the time Viserys remarries.

The relationship between the two is initially sisterly. Rhaenyra came to love and cherish her as a big sister since before the marriage, and Alicent was fond of Rhaenyra in turn.

The seeds of their future enmity appear after Aegon is born. We can show Alicent giving birth to her firstborn son with her being overjoyed, and with Rhaenyra being present in the room, excited about having a little brother... and right there, while Rhaenyra has a moment holding baby Aegon, we focus the camera on Alicent looking at them somewhat worryingly.

We are shown Rhaenyra's and Alicent's relationships with their fathers, with Viserys grooming Rhaenyra to be his heir, and with Alicent talking with Otto about Aegon's rights. We see Alicent being conflicted at first, but not really disagreeing with her father. I want their dynamic to be a Margaery and Olenna one.

By the time Helaena is born, the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent is quite colder, albeit Rhaenyra is still allowed to be present in her sister's birth, also holding Helaena lovingly. By the time Aemond is born however, Rhaenyra isn't even allowed to visit, and the first time she sees her second brother in her stepmother's arms, Alicent and Rhaenyra exchange a mistrustful and antagonistic look. This is where their rivalry is truly cemented, and I'll use this as foreshadowing of Aemond becoming the most hostile of Alicent's children towards Rhaenyra and her own.

Around this time Viserys notices the enmity between Daemon and Otto, has been passed down to Rhaenyra and Alicent.

We are shown Rhaenyra on one hand ingratiating herself with Lords and Ladies, showing a lot of maturity for her age. We are shown something similar with Alicent, also a charming woman. The two parties are starting to form. Behind Alicent, it's Otto advising and encouraging her. Behind Rhaenyra, it's Daemon encouraging and grooming her... sexually (but more on that later).

Daemon's characterization and his dynamic with Rhaenyra.

I'll use Daemon's campaign in the Stepstones as the main source of action during the first season, since most of it will be focused on politicking and relationships decaying with others forming.

I'll make most of Daemon's likeability come not from being a manchild obsessed with Viserys's approval, but with being a competent military commander and a badass. I'd portray him as a violent and ambitious glory hound who's darker urges are kept in check by two things: his love for a few select people, and him venting his darkness in overall good causes, like freeing Westeros from the Triarchy's harassing.

On the flip side however, I'm gonna show both his fucking of young girls in brothels, and also his predatory dynamic with Rhaenyra in a more negative light, portraying him as the manipulative groomer he was in the book, with him also playing a part in Rhaenyra not attempting to get close to her half siblings. Just like Otto contributed in driving Alicent away from Rhaenyra, Daemon will do the same. Two ambitious second sons will further feed the seeds of the future conflict.

Daemon's dynamic with Viserys will be extremely dysfunctional yet with some love deep down. I'd make Viserys reminisce about their youths and trying to calm Daemon down, whereas the Rogue Prince, at his own twisted way, would try to help Viserys in turn see that Otto and "his brood" are a menace to House Targaryen. Viserys will answer with "Alicent's children are also my children", with Daemon scoffing at that.

After Daemon fails to convince Viserys to kick Otto out, divorce Alicent and send her and her children away, he takes more drastic actions to cement his power in court: His grooming of Rhaenyra escalates into molestation under the excuse of "giving her lessons" to please Criston (who I'll talk about later). All this in order to "ruin" Rhaenyra and coerce Viserys into marrying his daughter to him. Viserys gets enraged and exiles him again, exchanging some truly harsh words: The King calls the Prince a selfish leech that only thinks about himself, and the Prince will retort with the leeches being those that surround Viserys. Neither is portrayed as wrong.

We are shown that the episode with Daemon affected Rhaenyra negatively. She feels confused, abandoned, used and manipulated. She starts lashing out more openly at Alicent's thinly veiled provocations and convinces her father to fire Otto. This is where her edge will start to appear.

I'll come back to Daemon later.

Alicent's dynamic with her children.

As her rivalry and unpleasant attitude towards Rhaenyra increases, and her relationship with Viserys gets strained due to him not only not naming Aegon heir but kinda openly preferring Rhaenyra to her kids, AND with her father gone, Alicent feels alone and leans into her children, becoming even closer with them. I want to show her as genuinely loving and nurturing yet also a bad influence towards them, in particular Aegon and Aemond. She's more relaxed towards Helaena and Daeron due to them not being high in the line of succession.

Her dynamic with her kids will be similar to Maekar's with his own. She will try to raise them well, and will love and protect them, but she'll fail due to her own unresolved issues.

None of that, "I kinda hate my kids except Helaena, and I love Rhaenyra".

I want Alicent to evoke mixed feelings: Anger for her increasing pettiness towards Rhaenyra, and sympathy due to her love for her kids.

The Green kids's characterization.

This is maybe the part I wanted to get the most. I feel they are so underdeveloped in both book and show.

Aegon II

Aegon grows up jealous of his father's favoritism for Rhaenyra, emphasis is made on Otto and/or Alicent filling his head with him being cheated of his birthright, but initially shows no interest in ruling while deep down wishing for it. He turns to drinking, partying and whoring and overall being an irresponsible imbecile. Basically more or less as he was portrayed in HOTD but ffs, TAKE AWAY the child fighting pits and his bullying of Aemond. I don't even mind if he's shown being inappropriate and pushy towards serving girls and a point is made about dubious consent, but take away those other two things.

Show him having an okay relationship with his younger siblings and as a caring at his own way yet quite absent father to his kids with Helaena.

Helaena

Helaena isn't made autistic and simply a kind girl growing up. She has mixed feelings about marrying Aegon (on one hand she cares for him as a brother, on the other she doesn't like him that much and knows he's gonna be unfaithful), is kinda scared of Aemond, and mothers Daeron, with that serving as an aditional reason for why she was such a good mom despite having kids at 14.

Aemond

Aemond is shown as an aggressive kid obsessed with fighting and the one that shows the most hostility towards the Velaryon princes. He's maybe given one or two moments of warmth with his mother or Daeron but that's about it. The most notable "good" thing about him, it's him having the balls to claim Vhagar. Maybe also make him look up to Daemon since he's a kid while also hating him (this is one addition from the show I didn't mind that much). Whatever likeability Aemond has, should go around the fact that he has legitimate martial skills and can back up his assholery.

I'll show how losing his eye turned him from aggressive and callous to outright violent and wild. His story will basically consist on him getting worse, and worse, and worse.

Daeron.

Daeron is properly introduced in season 1. A perfectly normal, obedient and nice kid, loves his parents and older full siblings. You can make him even kinda get along with Jace at first, before souring up. I'd make him appear until the Driftmark incident and then send him to Oldtown.

He is particularly close with Helaena, which will serve as foreshadowing to his violent reaction to her son's brutal killing in Bitterbridge.

Criston Cole's characterization.

None of Criston being "just an incel". I think it can be interesting to make him a Duncan the Tall gone wrong kind of character.

A relatively lowborn knight who becomes friends with a kid member of royalty, and becomes her protector. He initially sees her as nothing but a little sister. Then when Rhaenyra is 14 and influenced by Daemon's "lessons", she proposes to him, he refuses.

But this incident made Criston start to see Rhaenyra differently and in a less familiar way. This culminates on him proposing to Rhaenyra when she is 16, with this time him being the one refused.

Keep the obsessive hatred to Rhaenyra, but also showcase what a menace the Kingmaker was as the best warrior of his time. I saw a comment saying how he should have beaten Harwin in a tourney while looking at Rhaenyra taunting her. That would have been GREAT. Either that or make him do the same with Joffrey while spitefully looking at Laenor. Show him as an ambitious asshole yet also a great fighter.

I'm keeping his semi fatherly dynamic with Alicent's kids, and maaaaaaaybe some courtly love with Alicent, but I completely remove their fucking.

Daemon's later characterization.

While I frequently mock the conception of Daemon as a "bad boy with a heart of gold", I do think this trope applies a bit... but not towards Rhaenyra but instead towards Laena. I'd show him having quite a normal and happy marriage with her, being an okay father to the twins, with family life kinda "taming" him in a way, and filling his ambitious and violent void with something more positive. He temporarily accepts being away from the Throne and settles with his grandchild by Baela and Jace to become ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

But then, Laena dies. And everything goes to shit.

Daemon copes with his grief via turning to his ambition once again. He decides he has to marry Rhaenyra and become her Consort, and to completely snuff out any possibility of Otto ruling the Seven Kingdoms through Aegon.

He's heavily implied to be the hooded figure that paid Qarl to kill Laenor and soon afterwards marries Rhaenyra. I'll make Rhaenyra unaware but somewhat suspecting of this, yet accepts Daemon as a necessary evil as tensions with the Greens increase.

Last pre-Dance years.

The marriage of Rhaenyra and Daemon, as well as Otto's return to court, Aemond's claiming of Vhagar and the loss of his eye, escalate even more the tensions between the Blacks and Greens.

It's around this time Otto and Alicent fully decide to usurp when the time comes. They hesitated for a long time to risk civil war despite their ambition, but with Daemon as King Consort they believe they and the Green kids's lives are in danger. I'm presenting their motivation as a mix of both: Unchecked ambition and legitimate fears.

I'm keeping a dinner similar to the one that happened in episode 8 of season 1, but instead of a true reconciliation between Rhaenyra and Alicent, there's only a melancholic remembering of better times between them while Viserys is present... only to then their kids fighting again once Viserys leaves and the two mothers hardening themselves once again: It's too late.

Viserys dies and I play the Green Council scene exactly as it was in the book. Once they reach Aegon, he initially refuses not out of respect for Rhaenyra "being the heir and not him, what kind of brother steals his sister's birthright?" but out of fear of himself, his siblings and kids dying in the war. Then Cole and Alicent tell him "If you don't do this, all of you will be at Rhaenyra and Daemon's mercy, and then you will all surely die... and besides, this is your birthright Aegon. You know this." Aegon considers refusing again... but the mix of fearing for his family's safety and his own bitterness for being passed over, take over, and he gives the two of them his consent.

At the same time in Dragonstone, I add one original scene of Rhaenyra and Daemon arguing what to do once they ascend. Daemon suggests exiling Otto, Alicent and her kids and to "take care of them" if they make a fuss. Rhaenyra refuses to the last part since she doesn't want to become a kinslayer. Daemon suggests keeping them as prisoners or force them to the Wall. Rhaenyra somewhat hesitatingly says that her father loves them, and it wouldn't be right to do that to them. Silence between the two, matter unresolved.

Conclusion.

Well, that's about it for the time period right up until the usurpation. What do you think?

I just wanted to express how much I love Daemon in HOTD. He perfectly encapsulates the total meaninglessness a younger prince feels.

The sheer political issue that his own brashness runs up against Otto Hightower's conciliatory style of rule: a style of rule Viserys favors and leads to Daemon being marginalized.

A guy who suffers sheer indignity fighting the Crab Feeder, using his symbolic crowning to show his devotion to his brother, and then literally no one caring after. All of his glories turning into ash because none of the fighting or political gains matter under the autocracy. Especially to Daemon, a man who is cloaked in privilege, who literally can't gain materially anymore.

Trying to isolate himself from the court nonsense, run away from his feelings, and dick around Pentos before watching his wife die. Realizing there's no meaning or end there either.

And because of his own sheer pride and political weakness, he fails to express the love he has for his older brother: or be there to support him when it counted.

---

I'm in the minority when I say I like the Harrenhal stuff in S2 (to be clear I don't like season 2 as a whole), because I feel it's a natural extension to his general absurdist characterization. Nothing he does amounts to anything. He looks cool, he is masculine by his society's measures, but he keeps fucking things up and betraying the love and trust of those around him.

So I love that he essentially gets cloistered in Harrenhal, going insane as dark magic keeps seeping into his psyche and he views the life he didn't lead and his niece-wife's life he might've ruined, while also getting jump scared by the consequences of his careless actions in the riverlords.

Realizing that this civil war is just.... violent. Realizing he's stuck in someone else's tragedy. His own relationships are ruined, and his life is going to amount to nothing, except >!a violent end, the death of everyone he knows, and the ruin of his house!<.

Unwin Peake: Led the efforts to take down the Two Betrayers.

Daeron Targaryen: The Sack of Bitterbridge.

So instead of going to the Baratheon,Aemond went somewhere else like tully or Tyrell would the Baratheon had Joined Rhaenyra and would that have doomed her as we know Baratheon weren't that involved in the war and only Joined at the end and wouldn't have contributed much to Rhaenyra side

While having Tully or Tyrell support would have made Green stronger than canon