Spoilers for the rest of the dance but we should all know what happens in my drunken critique of Rook's Rest and how the battle in the show fucks it all over:
Thinking back to season 2, holy shit having Aemond try to kill Aegon at Rook's Rest was really, really out of character and a bad writing choice with the show's overarching themes.
There are many different ways to interpret Aemond "burning Aegon" over Rook's Rest. For instance, one could state: Aemond had no other choice to save Aegon given he was essentially being attacked by Meleys and was losing. The show had to go "6'4 nice guy, basically incel, white man wants the throne so he kills for it ". + The whole Helaena's prophecy of Aemond burning Aegon being goes against the whole "prophecy not being accurate" theme in ASOIF. You know, like the whole "song of ice and fire" and Alicent believing it to be Aegon, whilst Rhaenyra claimed it as her right to rule; another actually interesting point if explicitly stated to be something the Targaryens claim to be a right to rule. One could compare this to the whole "white man's burden" which would link into a leftist interpretation of empire, and how they sought a justification to act to convince the public to the good of Empire. Especially because the Targaryens are not presented to be the good guys (well no one is to GRRM but still).
Oh, and It would have been a far more interesting dynamic of Aemond (if Rook's Rest was him failing to save Aegon) being like: Damn, no matter what I do everyone would think I am the bad guy so I might as well be that and burning the Riverlands" than just be "Oh I chose evil lolololol". Especially considering how he actually cared for Helaena as shown in S1; and if the writers wanted to hawk on about the green's being dysfunctional this would have worked because Aegon thinks Aemond tried to kill him, Aemond thinks he tried to save Aegon, and Helaena thinks he tried to kill Aegon.
I mean hell, I am someone that could defend Alicent wanting Aegon dead (in terms of euthanasia and how fucked Aegon was following Rook's Rest). But like, the whole Aemond thing, no. It really should have been that Aemond had no other choice, which links back into Rook's Rest and the conflict of the overarching theme of Aegon wanting to be "loved" (Aegon seeks love from the smallfolk and being king, as noted at the end of S1E9 with his coronation) and Aemond's overarching theme of wanting to do good for his family, and be the best possible person he could be (despite this always resulting in a loss for his cause), such as him claiming Vhagar (his lost eye), and Aemond killing Lucerys etc. The writers actually set up Rook's Rest as the perfect counter-fit to both themes; where Aegon wanted love from being king and Aemond wanted love from action for his family and how this created conflict.
Which Aemond's failure have fit into Aemond going off alone as "protector of the realm and burning the river lands"? Great, this could have been him trying to win the war in his own accord and not trying to fuck over his family by doing shit, hence they wouldn't be collateral. This could have linked well into the overarching theme of Daemon in S2 and his failures (granted Daemon as a character is fucked because Sara Hess, I dread to imagine his scenes in Harrenhell...). This then links into his choice to fight Daemon over Harrenhall as it would be just him, and even if they both die his other family members would be fine.
