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thephantomcasebook · 2 years

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hi ive never read the books but i had always assumed team black won the war since rhaenyras son ended up on the throne but i saw you say team green won, how did team green win? i dont care about spoilers

Let me give it to you as clean as I can.

Toward the end of the war and after several extremely bloody battles there is a stalemate between the Greens and Blacks.

The Blacks have more Dragons and riders, but they have very little allies beyond the Northmen and the River Lords. So they rely on Dragon power almost exclusively which makes them exceedingly more powerful than the Greens in any engagement.

The Greens have a larger army, but their only dragons are Vhaegr and Tessarion - they have Dreamfyre but Helaena is a non-combatant, and Aegon took off after being injured in the first battle of the war. But while they're not as powerful as the Blacks, the Greens are vastly more intelligent and better equipped than the Blacks. The Greens are also the superior fighters than the Blacks - both Aemond and Daeron are far better dragon riders than most of team black but for Daemon. Also both Criston and Daeron are the best Battle Commanders in the history of Westros which is why even with dragon superiority, the Blacks can't get anywhere.

Now the problems start because, by the end of the war, Rhaenyra doesn't give a fuck about anyone ... everyone is her pawn to gain the Iron Throne - even her own children. While Team Green's greatest weakness is that they care way too much about their loved ones. This is what Daemon and Rhaenyra capitalize on.

Aemond brings calamity, in the end, on the Greens.

Criston and Alicent were in the middle of planning a large and intricate offensive to break the stalemate but it required more men. So, they send Daeron to Old Town to marshal a second army. This is important, because before then Daeron hadn't really fought in any battles. He was left by Criston and Aemond to guard King's Landing and protect Alicent, Helaena, and the children, and also oversee and plot the war in the map room with Alicent. He and Tessarion also were a deterrent from a dragon strike - having taken a good chunk out of Baela (I could be wrong about that) when she and Nettles tried to raid King's Landing.

But when "The White Worm" informs Rhaenyra and Daemon that Daeron - the Greens protector - has gone south, Daemon hatches a scheme to draw Aemond and Criston away from King's Landing so that Rhaenyra could take the city.

Daemon and the Black army launch an attack on Harrenhal and take it. This is important, because, Aemond's lover Alys Rivers is at Harrenhal. So immediately Aemond wants to go and liberate Harrenhal. But Criston and Alicent tell him no, that they have to wait till Daeron returns with the Hightower army from Old Town. But Daemon taunts Aemond till he can't stand it anymore and Aemond takes off on Vhaegar and with half the army to go fight Daemon - and rescuse the woman he loves. Criston, having no choice, takes the rest of the army to chase after Aemond.

Daemon then leads Aemond on a merry chase through the Riverlands while the main Green army falls into a trap and nearly gets annihilated by the Starks.

At the same time, Rhaenyra and several of the dragon riders attack King's Landing now that it has been left undefended with Daeron gone. Rhaenyra goes full Dany and destroys good portion of King's Landing and kills tens of thousands of people. After Rhaenyra puts most of the city to the torch, Alicent surrenders the Red Keep to save the rest of the citizens.

Hearing that King's Landing has fallen, Criston turns what's left of the Greens army around and makes a desperate run to King's Landing to save Alicent. But he and his cavalry are ambushed outside of King's Landing by another portion of Rhaeynra's army. After a desperate and intense fight, Criston and the last contingent of his men are surrounded. Rather than surrender - Criston asks that they let his men live and that the commanders of the Blacks fight him in single combat - prove they're true knights.

instead they shoot him dead with a dozen crossbow bolts, mutilate his body, and bring Rhaenyra his head. It's then that Alicent sues for peace, to end the conflict. But Rhaenyra tells her that there is no going back, that the war ends only when everyone Alicent loves is dead. Then, she shows Alicent Criston's head. This enrages Alicent and she goes full Vaemond - calling all of her elder children bastards and Rhaeynra a whore. Rhaenyra is so deeply shook and angered by this that she orders her head removed. But "The White Worm" intercedes and proposes an alternative.

Since Alicent and Helaena are so pious, perhaps it's time they have bastard of their own.

So, Rhaenyra gives Alicent and Helaena to her men for a week, every man having a turn at either of them. All the while Rhaeynra sits back and watches. However, by the third night, Helaena gets free long enough to throw herself from a tower window and leaps to her death rather than be raped another night.

The news of the "Brothel Queens" incident spreads like wildfire throughout the realm and enflames the common people with hatred for Rhaenyra. Fore both Alicent and Helaena were extremely beloved by the small folk. And the death of Helaena, in particular, enrages the people of King's Landing.

At this point Daemon returns to Kings Landing to figure out what the fuck is going on ... and is shook(th) to the tenth degree by the death and destruction that Rhaenyra caused. Daemon restores order to the Black forces and makes Alicent off limits. Rhaenyra and Daemon have a huge falling out which she tells him that he's dead to her and that she'll kill him if she ever sees him again - exiling him.

So Daemon flies back to Harrenhal and waits for Aemond who is extremely enraged at what has happened and has been on a revenge tour setting the Riverlands aflame, roasting Black lords in their castles with Vhaegar.

Daemon and Aemond duel atop their dragons and they end up killing each other and their dragons over "The Gods' Eye" near Harrenhal.

When news comes back to King's Landing, Alicent is traumatized by grief - first Helaena and now Aemond. But Rhaeynra's response to Daemon's death is basically like "Fuck that guy." and she declares victory for her side and calls for all the Lords of the Seven Kingdoms to come to King's Landing and pay homage to her as Queen.

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(a bit of music to convey the feeling at this point in the books)

However, in Old Town, they're still wearing green. The Hightowers call for Daeron to be crowned King, but Daeron refuses - saying that there's a war to win still. And the army he was sent to raise leaves Old Town to go to King's Landing as instructed, but this time to rescue Queen Alicent.

The Tyrells and the Rowans - who have declared for Rhaenyra - move against them but Daeron cooks them with Tessarion and wins the battle by himself. So in awe of his skill and swashbuckling nature the Greens name him "Daeron the Daring" and he immediately starts gaining folk hero status among the common people.

Rhaenyra however is unimpressed and unafraid of Alicent's "Wittle Bwaby Daeron" and sends the Lord of the Reach some help. Then, for the next two months, begin a furious and desperate campaign to rescue Alicent by Daeron, who continues to destroy Black forces - using Tessarion to scout enemy positions and using his recon flights to place his forces. And with each victory more and more people join his army on the road and people start considering him a hero.

Eventually, as public opinion turns against Rhaenyra and Alicent continuously trolling and taunting her about not being able to stop her 'Wittle bwaby", Rhaenyra sends a good portion of the veterans of the Blacks army to 'do something' about the upstart - including sending two of her dragon riders to counter what Daeron is doing with Tessarion.

The Black forces encamp at a town called Tumblestone. But Daeron and the green army steal a march on the Blacks and ambush them in the night. In the slaughter, the veterans of the Blacks shut themselves into the town. But Daeron uses Tessarion to destroy the gates. Also, at this point, the two dragon riders that Rhaenyra sent to combat Daeron turn on the Blacks and start to burn the town.

This is also when the Greens lose control, seeing that this is the same army of Blacks that murdered Ser Criston, sacked King's Landing, and gang raped Alicent and Helaena for days, so they began to massacre not just the Blacks, but the towns people that sided with Rhaenyra. Appalled by the savagery of his men, Daeron tries to restrain them, but by the time that he regains order in the ranks most of the towns people are dead.

With a total victory over the main Black army, they once more try to crown Daeron. But after seeing the monstrous behavior of his men and the shifting loyalties of Rhaenyra's former dragons riders, Daeron instead scolds all of them, saying that he doesn't want to be King - Aegon is their king. He only wants to rescue the queen and bring Justice back to Westros ... this embitters several factions in the greens.

At King's Landing Rhaenyra's rule is failing as she is becoming more and more unhinged. The people are already teetering on revolt and with the disaster at Tumblestone, "The White Worm" is hearing that people are starting to prepare to help Daeron when he arrives. So Rhaenyra starts executing people at random. She also, at the same time, empties King's Landing off the last of her strength in arms to march on Tumblestone and stop Daeron.

This time it's the Blacks that surprise the Greens at the Second Battle of Tumblestone. The Starks and Tullys get into a bloody haymaker fight with Daeron's army and after an extremely brutal and savage fight no one really wins. But the Stark and Riverlord army dissolves afterward. But the Greens can't claim victory either - despite their army still being intact.

Cause Tessarion is dead ... and no one can find Daeron.

He completely disappears and no one ever knows what happened to him. He got his men into quick order and lead the counterattack personally against Lord Dustin and his "Winter Wolves" and then disappeared.

Afterward the Green army without Daeron the Darling to lead them - everyone convinced that he was killed by treachery during the battle - also dissolves before getting to King's Landing.

But Rhaenyra doesn't get a chance to celebrate. Because, when news hits King's landing that Daeron had died ... and by treachery, it's the last straw. All of King's Landing - all of it - rises up against Rhaeynra. They overrun the City Watch and storm the Dragon Pit, killing almost all of the dragons. Joffery goes to the Dragon Pit to try and rescue the dragons, but when he tries to mount his mother's dragon, Syrax bucks Joffery off and he falls into the riot. The mob, seeing Prince Joffery, tear him apart like a zombie hoard.

Eventually Rhaenyra is forced to flea with Aegon III - her last remaining child. But they're mobbed and Syrax his mortally wounded. Eventually, Rhaenyra gets to Dragonstone - though Syrax dies almost right after. But when she and Aegon III enter the castle they find Hightower men waiting and they're seized.

Rhaenyra thinks that this is where Daeron went ... but she is shocked to see that it's Aegon II that has been hiding out in Dragonstone all this time throughout the war. It is then that Aegon orders that Rhaeynra be devoured by his dragon Sunfyre, which she is and right in front of her son.

At this point the Baratheons have rallied their own men and a lot of Daeron's army and march into King's Landing to restore order on behalf of Alicent and the Greens. And when Aegon II arrives back in King's Landing he is named King and the Greens are declared the victors.

As concession to heal the realm, Aegon agrees with Alicent and Corlys to name Aegon III his heir and to marry him to Aegon and Helaena's sole surviving daughter. But also Alicent sees to it that Rhaenyra is stricken from the records as the legitimate queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

Thus, ends the Dance of Dragons.

The Greens are the victors but Daemon and Rhaenyra's descendants end up ruling by the sanctioning of Alicent.

#House of the Dragon #Alicent Hightower #Criston Cole #Aemond Targaryen #Helaena Targaryen #Rhaenyra Targaryen #Daeron Targaryen #Daemon Targaryen #Spoiler Post #A Summery of the Dance of Dragons

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