House of the Dragon star asks that people stop sending hateful messages to his loved ones

To have a public profile online is to become a potential target for trolls, harassers, and other lowlifes. It's a very common story. For instance, how many actors have we heard of who are driven off social media because the toxic portion of whatever fandom they were representing decided that abuse and harassment was a good use of their time? It happens way too often.

And sometimes it feels like there's no way to predict it. Take the case of Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays King Aegon II Targaryen on HBO's Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon. This week, Glynn-Carney posted a plea to his Instagram Stories asking people to stop harassing his friends and loved ones, which is apparently a thing that's happening:

"It has been brought to my attention that there are messages being sent to my friends and loved ones that are of a hateful and harmful nature. Please stop. This behaviour is not acceptable. Accounts dedicated to this kind of trolling will be taken down. I think we can often forget the power of words. Spread only love. Tom"

Online, some are assuming that people are targeting Glynn-Carney's friends and family specifically because of his role as Aegon. Glynn-Carney doesn't actually say that, although given that playing Aegon is by far what he's best known for, I don't suppose it could be anything else.

Although that doesn't mean it makes any sense. Why in the holy hell would anyone send hateful messages to an actor for playing a role on a TV show, let alone send them to that actor's friends and family? What are people thinking?

And this next part doesn't really matter — this sort of hate and abuse is unacceptable behavior whatever the context, as Glynn-Carney says — but I'm especially baffled that anyone could watch Tom Glynn-Carney on House of the Dragon and think anything other than, "That guy crushed it." Glynn-Carney's performance was my favorite thing about the recent second season of House of the Dragon. His Aegon was angry, conceited, pained, afraid, vulnerable...his performance was so good. If you feel compelled to send him a message and that message is anything other than "thank you," I'd have a think.

And sending messages to his friends and family, particularly hateful messages, is beyond weird and dumb. I hope that stops. Pretty sure this one blog post can fix the toxicity problem on the internet. Good job, me.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.