House of the Dragon Failed Its Black Characters

Comments · 820

• PR

  @Princess_Weekes · 1 month ago · pinned

  I apologize for the previous thumbnails; the image of Nettles WAS sketched by hand and rendered by AI by the person who made it. Once it was pointed out to me (and yes egg on my face for not noticing, I just didn't think) I took it down because this channel and I are commited to not using generative AI and I promise to be more vigiliant in the future. Again, I'm very sorry--it won't happen again. ~P.W

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• WI

  @witchplease9695 · 1 month ago

  Kind of crazy they erased a canonically Black character by making a canonically white character Black 😭

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• JO

  @JourneytoReel · 1 month ago

  not only do they drop Nettles. they ALSO bungle what they did to Rhaena in the show. she's a princess who loves traditionally feminine clothing, jewelry, etc. even has a pink dragon.  making a "Rhaenettles" arc was a disservice to BOTH characters.

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• UL

  @ULTIMAFAX · 1 month ago

  At the end of the day, this show's writers think they know better than George R.R. Martin. They do not.

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• AU

  @AustinPSmith96 · 1 month ago

  Reposting to remove accidental AI, this is one of many reasons I will always fight for you!

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• MA

  @MamiMelusine · 1 month ago

  Whew, Princess you are making some points…it feels like once race swapped characters now embodied as Black are degraded and their relationships to the rest of the cast degraded as if this love and intimacy cannot exist across racial lines that the show is also pretending do not exist: why we never see Daemon mourn his beautiful brave wife who tamed the biggest dragon in existence, comfort his daughters after her death, comfort his own children after the dragon is stolen from them and they are attacked, we never see Rhaenyra’s tenderness and intimacy with Laena, Leanor fathering the three children he happily claimed, Baela kissing her stepbrother-fiancé, and it goes on and on…

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• CH

  @ChestnutAndCopper · 1 month ago

  Ryan Condal knew he didn't want to adapt Nettles in season 1. Her character is a challenge to misogyny, misogynoir, racism, classism and he doesn't have the range and never did. I will be mad about Nettles until the sun goes cold.

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• MJ

  @mjmwise · 1 month ago (edited)

  The underwriting of Baella and Rheana in the show is completely at odds with the way those characters offer vibrant and compelling presence in the court of Aegon III and Jaheira in the book.

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• SA

  @saffrin7 · 1 month ago

  When you read that quote from Ryan Condal about Rhaena becoming feral, my jaw dropped! Just a complete lack of awareness from him.

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• SE

  @Serryl · 1 month ago (edited)

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65cdvEVnBo&amp;t=1580">26:20</a> It&apos;s so interesting that Ryan Condal looked at a black, possibly lowborn woman taming a wild dragon in an unprecedented way and thought the essence of that character was simply being a wedge between Daemon &amp; Rhaenyra 🙄

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• BL

  @blueyeshadow2738 · 1 month ago

  I feel Ryan and co. Didn’t measure the consequences of meshing Rhaena and Nettles together. They also made Rhaena suffer way more as a Nettles character than the Nettles character in the book did. It just feels weird that he said he didn’t want a cheating trope that’s why he excluded the character yet it could’ve easily been fixed by making Nettles’ Daemon’s daughter. It’s also weird that he said that but then Rhaenyra sleeps with Mysaria. It’s just the lying that gets me. It just seems he didn’t want to include nettles but couldn’t say it although Nettles is a testament against Targaryen exceptionalism. She’s very important

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• AR

  @arianweneverett3910 · 1 month ago

  The purpose of Nettles was always to cast doubt on the idea of Targaryen supremacy. &nbsp;If someone who looks the polar opposite of your stand&apos;ard Targaryen could use wit and cunning to tame a dragon, without any proof of Valyrian heritage, then maybe anyone with enough wit and cunning can do it. &nbsp;Hills Alive had a great video on this. &nbsp;Nettles was a major threat to Rhaenyra because of that and her supposed jealousy over Daemon and Nettles was maester misogyny. &nbsp;Instead it was clearly a realization that if Nettles can do it, what&apos;s to keep a Lannister or a Tully or a Stark from one day winning a dragon with wit and cunning. &nbsp;It was the same &apos;oh shit&apos; moment the Greens felt when they paraded Meleys&apos; disembodied head around on a cart. &nbsp;Dragons were supposed to be supernatural and their Valyrian riders&apos; closer to gods than mortal men. &nbsp;If they&apos;re ultimately just meat that can be dragged through Kings Landing on a cart, like a supersized slab of beef, the awe and majesty dwindles. &nbsp; Rhaenyra needed to get rid of her because of this. &nbsp;Rhaena being a dragon rider upholds the Targaryen supremacy myth, and Daemon caring what happens to her isn&apos;t a sign of him being out of his wife&apos;s control, but of him protecting his own daughter. &nbsp;Nettles needed to be both black AND lowborn and a decent human being. &nbsp;That would have let her contrast with Rhaenyra and Daemon and Aegon and Aemond and all the other white, power hungry nobles who play with the lives of millions for the right to sit on an uncomfortable metal chair.

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