#i mean i like discussing all of them but y'all seem to enjoy the aegon stuff the most

[navree]

I know you’ve shared your thoughts on Aegon II before but if there’s anything you haven’t or still want to talk about, I’d love to hear it <3 

I just came around to enjoying his character but like others, what he did to Dyana and the child fighting ring makes me apprehensive and I have to check myself and make sure I’m not woobifying him. 

Like, what would you like to see from him during his reign and his relationships with his family now that he’s king. I hope they don’t hammer us with more wild awfulness, (and hopefully he doesn’t lash out at Alicent or Helaena who are going to witness a horrific act of cruelty), to show us how unworthy he is. We won’t know until we know but child fighting rings, really? Most of what I like about Aegon (fan meta aside) seem to be TGC’s own acting choices, apparently the “do you love me line” was improv, so there’s only so much he can do. Thanks!

I know that some people are really dooming about the upcoming seasons and the Greens but I will say, it's not just Team Green who's been part of the backlash to some of the more stupid stuff in Aegon's character, it's been general audiences AND TGC himself. Combining that with the fact that they know there's an audience for the Greens (they only gave Ewan eleven piddly minutes of screentime and he turned that into making him the fandom darling, they know there's a capacity for it, along with as many people appreciating Alicent as they did), I'd imagine that they're not gonna turn those people away with more cartoonish antics, especially the stupid fighting pits. Those especially I think were just there to kinda establish that Mysaria is a champion of the poor, due to her background as a slave (and also I don't remember if they ever specified what Aegon's involvement was in that tomfoolery was because I'll freely admit to skipping over that portion whenever I rewatch the ep).

It's important not to woobify Aegon because, as much as I say that those scenes seem to exist only for the sake of existing and not to really say anything about Aegon other than cartoonish nonsense, they did happen. And there's information to be gleaned from them, especially the Dyana scene, both for Aegon (he's a drunkard and a bit of a lech, as well as clearly inebriated when he attempts to consummate his marriage) and certainly for Alicent, to show why the smallfolk like her and what kind of woman and ruling queen she is and how her own experiences have shaped her and her interactions with other women. But I can choose to focus on the myriad other aspects of his character, and the insights his actor provides into him, and acknowledge that those scenes were poor writing choices I disagree with even if I still think they happened.

I'm unsure as to what I'd want to see from his reign, because his reign is well chronicled in F&B and is incredibly short, and his reign is largely filled with his wartime decisions. I'd like to see his relationship with his council, and with the smallfolk, especially after the coronation and the mythologizing that's gonna come from what happened with him and Alicent and Meleys on the dais, along with the fact that his mother and wife are well known for being adored by the smallfolk. I'd just like to see some of why people would be willing to go along with his reign, especially when compared to the book where they were far more unenthusiastic than they were in the show. I assume he'd have a better relationship with his family than we saw in season 1, especially with Alicent after she proved her love for him in such a big way, but I'd also like to see some good moments with Helaena and especially with his kids, not just to show why he'd be willing to spare Aegon the Younger and Gaemon Pale-hair with his apparent softness for children, but also to an add an extra gut punch in how good everything was going before it goes to shit. And I don't think he'll likely lash out at Alicent or Helaena for anything, since a) Blood and Cheese is gonna happen pretty soon in season 2 and b) there'd be no reason to. Aegon's gonna be nearly as destroyed as Helaena from what happened (and I don't think even he would start castigating his brokenminded wife for how she handled an atrocious situation while in fear for her life, and certainly not his mother who was attacked and then bound and gagged in order to prevent her from interfering at all), and even the source material specifies that he wasn't being cruel to Helaena, he just wasn't capable of providing comfort to her, both because she was just so mentally debilitated by what happened and also because of his own grief. I think if he lashes out at anyone, it'll be Aemond. Speaking of Aemond...

One thing I absolutely want to see is more of Aemond and Aegon. I've talked about them a bit as we've seen in season 1 in the aforementioned Aegon posts, but let's talk about season 2 and what I want. First things first, I want them to expand on the fact that, in the book, Aegon was the only one who wasn't upset with Aemond after Storm's End. I want to see him don his big brother hat and try, in his clumsy way, to attempt to comfort him, to point out that it's not so bad that he killed Luke, and hey he got the Baratheons over to their side so that's good. I want him to take Aemond at his word that it was an accident, to throw him that feast as an Aegon-style attempt to make him feel better. Because I want their relationship to be at its highest point we've seen in the narrative before it comes crashing down. Blood and Cheese is gonna be seen, in universe, as Aemond's fault, and I want that to really fuck with Aegon for a while. I definitely want the family to stand together in the immediate aftermath of it, like from the moment it happens until whatever funeral they hold with Jahaerys, and I'd really like to see Aemond try to be a comfort to his siblings (as I've written in fic, he should tell Aegon, he should be the one to do it) while dealing with his guilt in the process. But as Aegon, as F&B says, drinks and rages and drinks, I want him to start turning over in his mind the fact that it was Aemond's killing of Luke that prompted this horrible thing to happen to his wife, to his children, and I want him to blame Aemond, to his face. To call him kinslayer, to say that he holds him responsible, and I especially want one of those scenes where person A (Aegon) beats person B (Aemond) into the ground while person B refuses to fight back because they think they deserve it. Mayhaps a bit hokey (even tho this show did the stupid White Hart which is peak hokey) but if that beatdown ends with Aegon weeping like a child about the whole thing because he's really just grieving and needs an outlet, that'd be great too.

And crucially, I want Aegon's involvement at Rook's Rest to be a surprise. The source material is oddly explicit in the fact that, if it was only Meleys vs Vhagar, she'd have a chance, but it was adding in Sunfyre that ended up being her doom. So I want it to be primarily Aemond and Criston's plan, and Aemond's prepared to essentially have a kamikaze attack, taking Meleys and Rhaenys down even if it kills him, and maybe it gets close, and then suddenly, in swoops Aegon on Sunfyre. Unexpected but he's there, and he's saving Aemond from Rhaenys and Sunfyre is incurring grievous wounds in the process, before the final plunge happens that kills Rhaenys and injures Aegon. And then, after the attempts at highs after Storm's End and the deep lows of the Blood and Cheese aftermath and the slow attempt to build back up to something normal, when Aegon swoops in to save his little brother and finds himself incapacitated, that's when he names Aemond his Prince Regent. And that's when Aemond takes it, as seriously as he can, and why he refuses to call himself king in the meantime, because Aegon trusted him with this, after everything, and he won't let his family down ever again. @ HBO I don't have a minimum salary requirement if you're hiring, just saying.

The Aemond and Aegon stuff is my main wishcast for season 2, and I've written a Blood and Cheese fic that's my ideal interpretation for how the immediate aftermath can go (still want that beatdown tho, just later in the aftermath), and I'm hoping for everything else I'm proven either right or semi-right. Haven't touched on everything I could talk about with Aegon; there's some sex stuff I've alluded to in previous posts that I almost included here but this is already long and it's an incredibly niche reading of the character, but if y'all wanna hear it lemme know.

#personal #answered #anonymous #sorry this is a bit late and kinda disjointed i was out to dinner with my mother and for some reason #the cocktail i ordered was served in like a fucking TANKARD #so i may be a wee bit inebriated #i think aegon might mellow out also because tgc might get more say #he's not gonna get final say and writers can just tell him 'do what's in the script and ignore him' #but these writers seem amenable to hearing suggestions from the actors #since they're the people embodying the characters and getting in their heads #like you said they've kept in some improvised stuff like the 'do you love me' line #so i'm not necessarily one for doomcasting about him because for however much we mock these writers #they've done more things right than they've done more so far (also my bar is so low after d&d) #but have some more eggo rambles #he's my beloved boy (all of the greens are my beloved boys except for when they're my beloved girls) #but he is a beloved boy and i like discussing him #i mean i like discussing all of them but y'all seem to enjoy the aegon stuff the most