Choosing Greens or Blacks - House of The Dragon

Greens or Blacks - House of The Dragon

So I’m sure by now you’ve probably made your decision on who you support based on what you watched in Season 1 of House of The Dragon. Either you support The Greens with Aegon as King or you support The Blacks with Rhaenyra as Queen…But I’m gonna give you a quick argument for what I believe are the best reasons to support The Greens, and then I’ll give you a quick argument for wht I believe are the best reasons to support The Blacks, and at the end, I’ll tell you who’s obviously the right choice. And you can tell me in the comments what you think.

#gameofthrones #houseofthedragon #georgerrmartin #asoiaf

[Akiraspin]

It's so obvious that both were unfit for rulership. Rhaenyra is proud, vain, spiteful, emotional, and stubborn. Aegon is lazy, incompetent, indecisive, hotheaded, and ignorant.
Viserys is to blame. His parenting is to blame. He never ever ever criticized Rhaenyra nor disciplined her properly for any wrongdoing, even when she sired the most obvious bastards in the Seven Kingdoms entire history, and he never ever properly raised Aegon to prepare himself for potential statesmanship, because he felt he would be betraying Aemma's daughter. Viserys it to blame. Good man, terrible king, even worse father.

[trogers]

If Viserys had named Aegon as his heir the expectation of being king would have been there from the start, so Aegon might have taking everything more seriously and learned how to be a good ruler. Also he could have arranged a marriage between Aegon and Laena to heal the relationship between him and the Velaryons. This would not only prevented the War with Dragons but could have resulted in a peaceful kingdom.

[PistachioDean]

I’m taking Shireen Baratheon’s view and not taking a side. “When people started declaring for one or the other, their fight divided the kingdom into two.” It’s crazy how black and white the fandom still sees this whole debacle and ASOIAF in general

[ХъюгаНаумова]

Having to make a choice as a viewer is somewhat stupid, when the whole idea of the story is to show that both sides were flawed and had legitimate reasons to fight.

[thing_under_the_stairs]

I'm on the team everyone always forgets, and the one that gets the worst of it in every war - Team Smallfolk. And in this case, Team Dragon, too. One of the most tragic aspects of this story is that this pointless power struggle kills nearly all of the dragons left in the known world. I'd rather keep the magnificent beasts alive than worry about who's on the throne!

[Daenerys]

I’m going to say this to correct you from early. Viserys actually was trying to change the precedent of male primogeniture to the iron throne specifically. In his conversation with Corlys when they discussed laenor wedding rhaenyra and who would rule after them, he specifically states that regardless of gender the firstborn child will rule.

[QuinnFirstOfHerName]

People have an understandable aversion to the idea of Aegon as king, but the more you actually analyze the story, the more you see that the Greens are probably better for the stability of the realm, which should matter more than the who the "rightful" heir is.

[TheMrPeteChannel]

The Greens didn't kill a sleeping child.

[colinplaisance]

To be fair, the dance of the Dragons is more inspired by “the Anarchy” between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Not so much the war of the roses.

[Kaboomboo]

The Wars of the Roses is more the basis for recent events in the GoT universe. Dance of Dragons is more like Matilda's claim.

[Derekivery]

The show makes it clear you are suppose to root for the blacks. I would say that is one of my minor complaints about the show is this idea that it is suppose to be ambiguous who are the good guys ... for the most part it's pretty clear in that it is the blacks (again at least the show wants you to think that).

Several members of the Greens are straight up Monsters, and even Allie the most sympathetic of all Greens literally drew blood on Rhaenyra before the war even started.

Damon is the only possibly "bad guy" on team black, while team green has several.

Besides people doing the "Well actually Little Finger is a hero" kind of click bait-y analysis, it is objectively seen as Team Black is who you are suppose to root for.

Aegon is objectively a bad guy, he ignores and possibly abuses his wife, he raped a maid, he watches the children beat each other to death (and it is suggested some are his children). No one could see Aegon from the show and legit go "yep, that's my guy, he should be king."

Rhaenyra is NOT great, she is the Westeros Karen, she doesn't show any real plan to make the Kingdom better, but feels she is entitled to the throne because her daddy promised it to her.... I mean he did, even if she is the rightful heir, in the words of GRRM.... what does that tell us about her tax policies?

As a viewer of the show, I am reluctantly team black, but I know it's because the show wants me to be team black.

If I was a citizen of Westeros, I would super not care, one stuck up dragon rider is the same as the next, maybe I'd be team green just because I was raised to think men are suppose to be rulers, but all in all, I'd just want food and to not get burned by a dragon. Who ever gets me that has my support.

[S.D.__]

I have to disagree with your Laenor point. They couldn't tell anyone he wasn't dead. That would defeat the whole purpose of faking his death. It was done so he could escape that life. Princess Rhaenys aka The Queen who Should've Been might have ok with him running off to do his own thing, but with how Corlys is about honor and Velaryon legacy, I don't think he would've been ok with it. I liked Leanor. I'm glad he got to go live his best sailor/pirate life. I'm curious to see how they're going to handle Seasmoke since his bonded rider is still alive.

[davidlewis]

@1:00 incorrect. Daemon WAS the male heir, by all rights, he should have been Crown Prince. But Otto hated him and pushed for Rhae... until he got his daughter in the marriage bed. Then became all 'by the blessed precedent of the sacred great council of 101...' because his grandson would be king.

[usamahBlackLove]

The Greens would also further the Hightower and Maesters agenda of destroying dragons …. That’s a plot point missing here IMHO

[bravassSubs]

Me too, I blame Viserys for ALL of it.
Daemon was right all alone, Viserys was weak.

[gaiusmariuscaesar]

Slight correction at 7:18 you say that daemon according to tradition would take the thrown over rhaenyra, but as is shown with Alys karstark a daughter takes precedence over an uncle, so otto was in fact keeping to the tradition when he had rhaenyra proclaimed heir.

[bananaforscale]

Viserys wasn't chosen as a king because he was male. His competitor was Leanor, not Rhaenys. Even in the show you can make an argument that Leanor would inherit the throne eventually.

[seanp]

Minor note: in the show, Viserys was absolutely trying to change succession to favor the first-born child regardless of gender. He said as much to Corlys. And with that in mind, I have to disagree with your comment about which claimant would create a stable realm. Yes, the lords of Westeros will always prefer a male heir, but that's no reason to accept their prejudice and just roll over. If everyone acts as you suggest and only goes for the path of least resistance, the realm will never improve. Women would always be inferior, bastards could never get more rights, and the smallfolk would always be stomped on. Change requires a willingness to upset the establishment, and making decisions based on not offending people means that things never get better.

Similarly, I think it's presumptuous to say that Rhaenyra being the heir is responsible for all the instability. Ultimately, the Hightowers, and her sblings, were the ones who chose to incite violence. People could be upset with her reign all they want, but if the prince they want to crown doesn't support them, there's only so much to be done. The war started because the greens wanted the throne despite Rhaenyra being heir, and they were willing to kill everyone to get it. That is on them, and Rhaenyra isn't to blame for not folding to their demands.

Also, I just want to note that Rhaenyra's children are not known to be bastards. Sure, there are definitely rumors, and those rumors are making people talk, but there is no proof. "Just look at them" is not proof, and short of either Laenor or Corlys insisting they're bastards (as the man claiming to be their father and the Lord of House Velaryon), there's no way to really get proof. Yes, the rumors would likely follow them, but they would never become more than that. Keep in mind, the history books continue to call them Velaryons, lords they met had no issue making betrothals with them (Lord Manderly was fine with accepting Joffrey for his daughter, Cregan Stark had no issue with betrothing his son to Jacaerys' daughter, and Borros Baratheon was fine with Luke marrying one of his girls). So while yes, the talk would probably be irksome, it probably wouldn't lead to anything without the greens fanning the flames and trying to rebel anyway.

[RiseeRee]

I would add the caveat that Rhaenyra doesn’t want to rule just to rule. She believes the Song of Ice & Fire prophecy and believes the Prince who was promised will come through her line. She said as much to Daemon. Ultimately, it’s about protecting Westeros and the world, not just gaining power for herself.

Also I’m not sure Aegon would give more stability. Unlike Rhae who attended the council meetings and learned to rule, Aegon is largely untutored. At best he’d be a puppet to House Hightower, which would cause dissent, or he’d be an absolute monarch with no knowledge of how to rule.

[eddiii]

none of the bastard points are relevant its not supposed to be obvious they are bastards thats the showrunners fault for making the velaryons black and giving rhaenys white hair