"Why?" Elrond asks. As a child he is full of whys. Why does the sun rise and why does the moon change shape and why is the grass green and why are you queen of this fortress and why does the sea love Father so much, and does Elros' hair part differently than his and why did he have dreams about pieces of a blizzard stuck in glass bottles?
Sometimes, especially when she is tired or when she has been crying, Mother grows exasperated with him and cries, because it is so, and because that is how it must be and, most dreadfully of all, because I said so.
But most often she answers him. Right now she bends down and kisses him on the forehead, then the nose, plucking her shining necklace from his neck. "Because I mislike it," she says, "whatever else might come there is an aura of death about that jewel, and wearing it you look paler than you ought and older. Come, try on my earring-cuffs instead, or wear the emeralds. They are scratched already, and can take a little play."
My needs for Temeraire fics is a pendulum between two moods :
Beautifully crafted platonic epics with a particular care brought to Laurence and Temeraire's tenderness for each other, as well as detailed historical research
William Laurence Gets Railed (By At Least One Person And More If Possible) (Physically Or Emotionally) (By His Friends or His Enemies)
people have been fawning over how humanlike the gods are for a month now, but now its wrong to compare them to mortal powers because they're otherworldy beings that can't possibly be thought of in human terms? or is the suggestion that they're like mortals, but they're just an innately superior group of people that deserves to have power over everyone else?
Hello anon! Are you the same person who got all up in my askbox yesterday? You certainly seem to have an equally poor grasp on what I actually said and a willingness to make it somebody else's problem. However, I no longer have a headache and am feeling less cranky, so lets treat this as a genuine question.
I never said it's wrong or even inaccurate to compare the gods to humans/mortals. What I said is that some seem over-eager to equate them with groups or systems where they don't actually fit, or to project or own world onto them. This tends to lead to poor textual analysis. For example, equating the gods with mortal rulers (specifically tyrannical rulers, even), the one percent, a higher social class, rich people, or colonizers of mortals all read as comparisons made from the assumption 'gods are the most powerful sentient beings of Exandria; therefore I will compare them to the most powerful people of our world'. Do these comparisons make actual sense as parallels? No! Kings and rich people and colonizers aren't innately more powerful than others because we don't live in a fantasy world where magic is real. You can take said power from them and redistribute it fairly. You cannot do this with the gods.
Ultimately, the last few words in your ask neatly sum up the problem with this mindset: do the gods deserve to hold this power over everyone else? Lets look at this through a comparison: do sorcerers like Imogen deserve to hold power over everyone else? She, like most sorcerers, was born with powers others do not have and has no way to get rid of them. They cannot be taken from her and redistributed to the masses to make things more equal, because they are a part of her innate self. In using them, Imogen can do good, but she also sometimes ends up hurting people by reading their thoughts without consent or, at times, even meaning to. So, does Imogen deserve this power? By now, you might see the problem. It doesn't matter whether she deserves her power because you can't take it from her without killing her, no matter how unfair you think it is that she has it. 'Do they deserve their power' is an irrelevant question that people keep coming back to. What you're actually asking is, 'do the gods deserve to live', or even 'do we have the right to kill them' which is a lot more loaded.
The gods already evened the playing field as much as was possible by locking themselves behind the divine gate, severely diminishing their influence on Exandria. They can no longer cause any more harm than any mortal, because now they must act through mortals such as clerics and paladins, through which they do a lot of good (or have we already forgotten about c1 and c2, or even the resurrection of Laudna by a divine cleric and the actions of FCG in c3?). If this still isn't enough for you, you might want to ask yourself whether what you actually want is fairness and the good of the people of Exandria, or if you're just looking for pointless revenge for the sake of it.
The fandom god discussion is interesting, but I feel it’s sometimes hindered by an unwillingness to separate gods from mortal society, or even a sort of over-eagerness to project our own reality onto them, which simply doesn’t work. I've seen the gods referred to as rulers or tyrants demanding worship (which I kinda understand because it’s something Ludinus says in-game, though it’s funny to see fandom corners confidently repeat the inaccurate talking points of the antagonist) but more interestingly I've also seen them referred to as a higher/the highest social class, as colonizers imposing themselves on mortals, the raven queen specifically as new money. Overall these comparisons tend to talk about the gods and their actions regarding Aeor in the past and predathos/the Vanguard in the present less as if they're about saving their own lives and more as if they want to preserve their powerful position.
The gods, by their very nature, are above mortals. They cannot be compared to any mortal ruling class because they didn’t choose or strive for that power and cannot feasibly get rid of it/step down/redistribute it (nor do they actually in any sense rule; killing the raven queen, unlike killing an actual queen, will not end the 'tyranny' of death), they simply have it by virtue of being gods. Saying that’s unfair or unequal and that the gods should be killed because of it is akin to saying it’s unfair a mountain is bigger than you and demanding it be levelled, except the gods, unlike mountains, are living, feeling beings who shouldn’t have to die because some people can’t stand the idea of not always being top dog. Thing is, the gods themselves ultimately understood this power imballance and that they can't help but hurt Exandria the way humans can't help but step on bugs, and thus removed thelselves from the equation by creating the divine gate. Saying this isn’t enough and that they're clinging to power is just demanding they line themselves up to be killed.
to me this is one of the most important passages of the revenge of the sith novelization, as it contains a fundamental thesis of the prequels. the clone wars were designed to kill jedi. sidious put the order in checkmate before they'd even begun fighting. he used their compassion and trust against them by leveraging their sense of duty to push them into fighting a morally dubious war to protect innocent lives, tarnishing their galactic reputation. he gave them friends in the clones that were crafted to become their assassins. he spread the jedi out, thinned their numbers in years of brutal combat, and then when they were sufficiently weak, wiped them out.
the revenge of the sith required so much planning and moving from the shadows over decades to arrange the galaxy into a trap. the prequel jedi did not have the knowledge that we the audience have, they were operating out of a place of partial understanding and with the best of intentions. to hold them to a standard of omniscience and omnipotence instead of appreciating the genius and patience of the sith is unfair and missing the point. they're not perfect, but they are good. it is tragic that being good is not always enough, it is tragic to know that our best of intentions can come up short. it is tragic that evil can gain power and harm the innocent without repercussions.
this book is heartbreaking on a personal level, but also on a political and ideological one. it reflects the very real world when greed and fear hold sway over a population, where exploitation and oppression win. the jedi are slain and it is brutal to read, and a generation afterward struggling in the dark without them. however, star wars ultimately carries a message of hope: you can kill jedi, but you cannot kill compassion and community. wherever people love each other, there is light. the empire fell and the jedi returned because you cannot kill their ideas. so there is hope, but that doesn't change that it is an egregious crime in the prequels that they were slaughtered.
I think the thing that shocks me the most about the discourse, if you can even call it that, around book Alicent vs show Alicent, is the idea that people think book Alicent had full autonomy over all her choices and she wasn’t a “victim” like show Alicent.
Now first, I put victim in quotations bc the way people who do not like her have almost bastardized that word. Alicent is a victim, and those things (rape, abuse, neglect) were done to her. That says everything about the men who did that do her and nothing about her. But people are hellbent on throwing Alicent, a woman in a violently patriarchal environment, being victimized back at people as if it is moral flaw of hers. Which is just terribly ironic bc the same folks who say Alicent “did it to herself” or “deserves what she is getting” also seem to think the crux of the story isn’t about generational trauma catching up with itself, how far people will go for power, or even how all girls and women are harmed - albeit to different degrees. But more the fact that Rhaenyra is the only woman to be harmed - and the only harm done is not getting the throne easily. Those same people wouldn’t be caught dead admitting that Rhaenyra is also a victim in the way they shit on Alicent for being. From the father who sets her up fail, to the baby daddy that’s been eyeing her since she was barely 18, to the uncle that grooms her. It takes away from the fantasy projected onto Rhaenyra if she too is surrounded by men that use her and she never escapes that.
Second, it’s funny how F&B gets heralded by some as this exploration of how history is skewed depending on who is telling it. But people can’t read between the lines (you honestly don’t even have to do that much work) with book Alicent. Showing 14 year old Alicent being preyed on, 16 year old Alicent being pregnant with her second child, and 18 year old Alicent being raped is somehow the show needlessly making Alicent a victim. But reading about a 13 year old bathing, dressing, and taking care of a king who mistakes her for the daughter he abused and neglected, and then that same girl, at 18, marrying another king that killed his previous child bride is just girl bossism on book Alicent’s part?
People hate conceptualizing the idea that (even book) Alicent is caught in patriarchal trappings bc to some that takes away from Rhaenyra’s plight…. Bc they can’t wrap their heads around several women *gasp* all going through hardships, and that ultimately people will respond to trauma differently depending on tools/knowledge they have at their disposal. Alicent neither being gleefully evil nor picking herself up by her bootstraps to somehow end years of patriarchal violence is not the neat box they want for her.
Saw you mention a Sokka and Azula relationship some days back. Any elaboration?
@spacecuttle Sokka/Azula? I saw you say they could make each other worse.
well they share all the same flaws and complexes but are also scarily intelligent so they would just enable in each other in the worst possible ways if left to their own devices. like they could rule the world together but also feed into all their worst impulses to be condescending assholes who simultaneously negate their egos and consider themselves nonhuman vessels of obedience and sacrifice for their respective causes (both informed by the patriarchal logic they have internalized thru their fathers). they are so fucked up and insane, whether as rivals or as friends or even something more, because it’s like. well it’s the recognition of the self through the other but also they both refuse to look in the mirror (they both have their mother’s face btw) so it’s just this undefinable essence that exists within them both that they refuse to locate despite being so brilliant and observant otherwise, bc their biggest blind spots are themselves, but somehow they know the other like the back of their hand, except they don’t even know the backs of their hands. do you get what I’m saying no i think i sound insane. but they ARE insane. is the thing.
realistically i think postcanon they’d begrudgingly get along because azula genuinely respects sokka and sokka thinks she’s kind of funny and also just feels bad for her (again, he’s like “wow she’s so fucked up. glad I’m normal and nothing like her”) so he sort of just hangs out with her out of pity, but eventually does grow genuinely fond of her. adopts her as yet another little sister (which zuko thinks is crazy he’s just like “ummm you can have her”) and they play pai sho together and talk political theory and gossip about zuko and the gaang. azula tries to get into engineering and physics to help him with his research but realizes that she’s actually way more into politics and history than math and science (like she’s good at it, but it’s not as fun for her) so sokka starts giving her history books with slightly more accurate information in them so that they can actually have a conversation that isn’t just him attempting to dispel imperialist propaganda for two hours. and aang gets really into it too and they start a little book club where they read history and philosophy and go to archives and older libraries.
and they’re just vibing they’re just hanging out but everyone around them is afraid that one day zuko is going to do something so stupid that they’re just gonna snap and stage a coup d’état and take over the world. but thankfully they’re both so fucked up in the ego that even though they’re both constantly like “zuko is an idiot who should listen to all my advice” they never once consider actually deposing him. because their role is to serve not to rule. but no one else knows that they are loyal and humble before anything (because they’re also loud, condescending assholes) so everyone just lives in fear of them snapping. they don’t tho. but they could :)
I like zukka as a ship but I cannot go into the tags for content about it. why is everyone so insistent on making zuko a little femboy. so many people just see a long haired man regardless of culture/time period and call him femme. And they make sokka hypermasculine like hello????? he’s so fucking flamboyant ?? he wrote poetry, loved arts and crafts, wore a gay little purse, and did DRAG. in CANON. In a modern setting sokka would fix your car and then say SLAYYY do a death drop
sokka & katara with “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” if you’re still taking prompt fills!
For this prompt game!
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say that now, but I know how it is,” Sokka says, banging through the door into the kitchen.
“Oh, do you now,” Katara scoffs, catching the door before it can slam behind him and pointedly shutting it. Quietly.
“Oh yeah,” Sokka says, making a show of giving her a pitying look and ignoring her eye roll with the ease of fourteen years of practice. “This is how it starts. First, you join the swim team—”
“You’re on the swim team.”
“—then you meet a boy—”
“You met a boy. And a girl!”
“—then before you know it you’re going off to college across the country and moving in with Aang—” Oh, the way she huffs and blushes and flounces over to the fridge to start a snack. Glorious. He’s going to get so much mileage out of this. “—and graduating and becoming a doctor and getting married and having kids and moving across the country again—“
“Back to where I started?” she asks, tart.
“—to a whole new place that’s very far away, for—” He takes a deep breath, inhaling as long as he can just to see the way she whirls around, exasperated, “—an amazing, life-changing job opportunity you’ve always dreamed of,” he finishes all in a rush, snatching a soda out of her hand. “And you’ll never—not once!—look back on your poor older brother, Sokka, who put you through high school—”
“Pretty sure that’s dad and Bato.”
“—and helps you study—”
“Pretty sure that’s also dad and Bato.”
“—and makes your lunches for you.”
“One time,” she says, leveling a finger at him. “One time.”
“I’m telling you,” he says, arch and biting back his laughter, “That’s exactly how it’s going to go. I know.”
“You know, huh,” she says, huffy, and he grins, cracking his soda open.
“Yup.” An obnoxious sip. “I do.”
“All of that.”
“Mhm.”
“Just like that.”
“Just like giving a mouse a cookie,” Sokka says, smug.
“And yet,” she says, grabbing her snack and flicking the can in his hand, “When I look around—what’s this,” she pretend-gasps, eyes wide with faux surprise.
“Don’t try out for the school play,” he advises.
“—I’m not at college, or married, or having kids!”
“It’s a progression,” he sniffs. “Which you should know from your homework.”
“Sokka, I’m right here,” she says, exasperated. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And even said full of teasing and that particular little-sister brand of annoyed affection, it still makes him pause. It’s still good to hear. It’s always good to hear, actually, so he drops the act, tossing her a bag of chips and tugging her into his side.
“Yeah,” he says, resting his cheek against the top of her hair and blinking away the memory of doing her hair before school. “I know.”
And he knows it’s a lie, too, even if she doesn’t realize it now at fourteen. He knows it like he knows she’ll go off to college, because if one of them is going to get out of here he’s going to make sure it’s her. And he’s seen the way she and Aang look at each other, has heard her talk of medicine and helping people and saving lives and things like Mom and Yue not needing to be spoken of at all, just like he’s seen how she is with the neighbor’s kids. He knows, the same way he knows that whatever she does, wherever she goes, it's not going to be staying here.
And he knows he wants that for her, too, even as it hurts something deep within him to think of being left behind, of her life unfurling so rich and full without needing him to be part of it.
But maybe if she was going like that, the way he describes...Maybe being left behind wouldn’t be so bad.
And maybe as long as that sentiment stays true—not going anywhere—staying together might still be possible, in a way. Even if it doesn’t look like this anymore.
“Yeah,” he says again, giving her a squeeze before dropping his arm and offering her a bright grin. “I’m not going anywhere either, you know."
“Don’t worry,” she says, laughing and exasperated and uncomplicated and everything he wants for her, “I know.”
people be like “it was Alicent who ruined the friendship!”
“No it was Rhaenyra!”
It was neither.
Both of them were young teens, both dealt with horrible situations.
“Alicent should have told Rhaenyra” Her options were extremely limited, she did the safest thing. She did not choose to marry Viserys, she was used by her father for political gain.
“Rhaenyra shouldn’t have lied to Alicent” She had been groomed by her uncle (also for political gain) and then thrown away. She felt ashamed and humiliated, it is understandable she lied.
They were both children and victims, neither of them were at fault for anything that happened to them.
The real fault lies on the men. Literally just the men, otto, viserys, daemon. All these adult men are the ones to blame. For everything in the show honestly not just the end of rhaenyra’s/alicent’s friendship.
"Alicent should've rebelled! She should've told Rhaenyra about her father forcing her to meet with Viserys! She should've placed an ultimatum! She should've blah blah blah".
Have you perhaps considered that she was a scared child? A 14 year old girl, who just lost her mother and wanted nothing but simple comfort, wanted to be happy, sitting in the Godswood with her best friend without a single care in the world?
Have you considered that maybe being pimped out by her own father to the king scared her even more? Realizing that Otto saw her, his own daughter he was supposed to protect and fucking support as any bare-minimum-good parent should, as nothing but a tool to gain power?
Have you let yourself think that maybe it broke her even more? Otto seeing the toll it was taking on her, knowing it very well, but still choosing to push her into that mess.
Have you considered that not every person is strong enough to go against everything they know, on top of being through so much at such a young age, being a girl, especially in the world of ASOIAF?
Look, I'm not denying Alicent has done some things to blame her for. But this? It feels so wrong. Some people blame a teenage girl for not going against grown up powerful men, and then call themselves feminist.
did Alicent call for her mother? did she ask her, a woman she thought was so wise and all knowing, why? why it happened to her? why her father betrayed her so? why this man who was so much older than her, looked at her with such empty lustful eyes? did she silently pray for her mother when Viserys raped her, night after night, begging for her to save her? did she imagine her mother walking next to her as she made her way to Viserys's chambers, knowing what was to happen, unable to change her fate? did she scream for her during labor, begging for her to be by her side, to hold her hand, to make the pain stop? did she cry for her mother when she was raising a child, while still a child herself, another on the way, clueless as to what to do? did she ask her for advice? did she beg for forgiveness cause she was failing her children? did she kneel at the Sept till it hurt more than she could bear, trying to feel her mother's arms around her? did she take Aegon? Helaena? Aemond? Daeron? did she take them with her to pray, to get to know her mother? did she have to hold them still and remind them to be quiet in such a place? did she hold them close as she told them stories of her?
did she ever think of Aemma? she must have, she must have when Viserys forced her into the late queen's robes, she must have when he frequently called her by the wrong name, when he sought her hand in marriage before his mourning period had even ended. did she beg for Aemma's forgiveness? was she sorry for what Viserys was doing to her? did she blame herself? did she feel guilty for having a healthy son on the first try, for having 4 healthy babes? did she tell her kids of her? did she share her memories of Aemma with them? did she question how she managed to be with Viserys for so long? how she lost so much cause of that man yet pain and anger never once flashed in her eyes? did she think of the last conversation she heard from her, about the child bed and royal wombs, often?
Let's talk in depth about book Alicent. because even though i read the book 3 years ago I didn't engage online about it until the show's release and um. wow. some people have a very different interpretation of her to me. and also... some of those interpretations show a fundamental misunderstanding of the text, a tendency toward indulging the misogyny present in Fire and Blood, or both.
People are saying the writers changed a lot about Alicent's story and 'made her a victim'... they didn't. It was always possible to read the book and perceive that she was in many ways a victim. Honestly the biggest thing they changed was her age, probably to assist the interpretation they'd chosen, but the larger elements all stay the same; in both versions she's worked in service of the crown since she was young (as a type of companion either to Jaehaerys or Rhaenyra) and she and Rhaenyra initially have a good relationship (according to one source in F&B - this supposedly changes when Aegon was born and not named heir). So making it Rhaenyra we see her close with just makes the emotional tethers that might have been there anyway more visible. After all, Rhaenyra Does spare Alicent's life in F&B, and whilst she says it's for Viserys sake, Alicent at that point had been at the very least complicit in the deaths of most of Rhaenyra's children. Rhaenyra having such a strong former bond with Alicent is going to give this event in the show a lot more weight. It's not hard to see why they made this change, because it adds to the tragedy of the story immeasurably.
The fact is everything we see of Alicent in F&B is up for debate to some extent. Like, for example, did she seduce Viserys? of course certain sources tell us yes, but Fire and Blood is brimming with asoiaf-typical misogyny; it all reminds me somewhat of the story of Anne Boleyn, her story molded into something unrecognisable by history in order to make her the instigator. In truth, we have no way of knowing if Alicent wanted Viserys or not, but we do know she probably didn't have to seduce him. She was widely regarded as being the most beautiful woman - it wouldn't have taken a lot for Viserys to notice her. People, characters and readers alike, assume that because she wasn't a good political match he must have been persuaded, but Viserys was a selfish man, (that is indisputable, we see it in many of his provable actions), so it fits with his character to choose a slightly unsuitable wife on the basis of his own lust. The age gap in the show only serves to demonstrate visually the power imbalance that was at least somewhat present in the book anyway. And yes, this like most things in the book is up for interpretation, but I will say this: I seriously do not respect people calling her 'evil'.
The text never presents Alicent as evil. Even in the worst of her actions she is never legitimately shown to revel in the pain and suffering of others. At most you could argue she was ambitious, but I don't even believe that on the basis of one specific thing: it was her, not Otto, who asked Viserys to betroth Aegon to Rhaenyra. This was not a crazy suggestion in the book, as it was presented in the show; they were only a decade apart, and it was the Valyrian custom that the eldest son would marry his eldest sister, as Aegon the conqueror married Visenya. Alicent wanted this without stipulating the expectation that Aegon would rule instead of Rhaenyra. Viserys reportedly dismissed Alicent on the basis of believing she only wanted Aegon a step closer to the throne, and it can be read that way, but personally I don't think so. I think she was exhausting options to try to protect him after she realised Viserys was never going to name him heir.
Ultimately, Alicent would have been stupid to ignore that her children's lives were at stake. Especially in Fire and Blood where she was much less familiar with Rhaenyra. Nothing in Rhaenyra's actions suggested she wouldn't be capable. She reportedly had no affection for her brothers where she doted on Helaena, suggesting she already saw them as threats. She had demonstrated herself willing to accept physical harm to them in favour of her own sons. She was later thought to be at least complicit in the death of her husband Laenor, who had by all accounts been a good, kind husband to her… and then she married Daemon. Even before this he had been an obvious threat to Alicent's children; a violent man who'd always lusted after power, with a known hatred for Hightowers and who'd never been kind to his nephews by Alicent. Even if Alicent didn't believe Rhaenyra capable of murdering her sons, she would have been stupid not to believe Daemon able.
The truth is even in the book this crisis was set in motion by Viserys. Once he'd refused to marry Aegon to Rhaenyra the bomb was built and ticking away, it was only a matter of time. Even if Rhaenyra's heirs had been indisputably trueborn, Aegon and his brothers and any descendants they had would have been symbols for those who wanted to oppose the Crown to rally behind as soon as Rhaenyra or Jacaerys disappointed them, no matter if Alicent's sons had personally bent the knee. The situation only became more dire when it was clear that Rhaenyra's heir was not trueborn.
Fire and Blood isn't even really quiet about Rhaenyra's first three sons being bastards. To me it read like Rhaenys' Baratheon blood allowed those who wanted to believe otherwise to delude themselves, as Viserys does in both versions. After all, in the book Laenor being gay is an open secret. But the thing is… it doesn't even really matter if they were or not. With so many people believing they were bastards, they were pretty much as good as. Eventually, and most definitely after Rhaenyra's death, there would have been some form of conflict. Because if Jace, an assumed bastard, ascended the throne it would throw into question the claims of almost every lord in Westeros, many of whom would have older bastard brothers. and if a bastard who didn't even look targaryen could sit the highest seat in the realm over a trueborn silver-haired son of a king like Aegon, what's to stop the bastard brothers of any lord from laying claim to their seat? Aegon would have become a rallying point for that dispute whether he liked it or not, and Jace would have been forced to dispose of him if he wanted to maintain power.
In light of this, it's really no wonder Alicent repeatedly voices her animosity over Rhaenyra's sons questionable births. It's very telling that in F&B every cruel comment she reportedly makes about or to Rhaenyra references it. and I say "reportedly" because one of the worst of her quotes, her saying 'mayhaps the whore will die in childbirth' about Rhaenyra, people quote as fact… if you do this I will laugh in your face and ask if you read the book. because Alicent did not say that. or rather, if she did, Fire and Blood would not be able to tell us either way because the quote is attributed to her by Mushroom, one of Rhaenyra's supporters who (apart from being a famed liar) was with Rhaenyra on Dragonstone at the time.
The other two quotes used to argue her supposed evilness are from slightly less questionable sources, and honestly, yeah, it does seem likely to me Alicent implied to Rhaenyra her bastard sons' blood was worth less than that of her own trueborn sons'… but at that point, with the horror she'd experienced on account of Viserys upholding Rhaenyra and her sons' questionable claims, her reacting in this way is perhaps cruel and prejudiced, but not evil. And almost justifiably cruel in my opinon; for all she knows the woman she's talking to directly ordered for her six-year-old grandson to be brutally murdered in front of her, her daughter, and her other grandchildren, directly leading to her daughter's madness and later suicide. Was she going to be respectful? Is it fair to expect that from her? This focus on the term 'bastard blood' overshadows the rest of the quote: “Bastard blood shed at war. My son’s sons were innocent boys, cruelly murdered. How many more must die to slake your thirst for vengeance?” Why is Alicent being a bit of a bitch treated as a worse sin than Rhaenyra ordering the brutal murder of a toddler, or at the very least excusing it.
The last quote mentioned to back up claims of alicent's 'evilness' is her telling her granddaughter Jaehaera she should slit the throat of her husband Aegon III in his sleep. By this point it seemed to me Alicent was no doubt consumed by bitterness and would have attacked Aegon herself given the chance, but even without condoning her words or actions we can see how she became like that; all of Alicent's sons are dead and she wants all of Rhaenyra's gone too. Wasn't it "an eye for an eye, a son for a son"? - Rhaenyra's side set the precedent, the idea that it is justifiable to take one innocent life in exchange for another, no matter if its the life of a child who just happens to have been born on the other side of a war.
Alicent by the end of her life had certainly been driven to cruelty in her grief, twisted into something ugly by the world and locked away to rot.
And yet her final words weren't steeped in bitterness or violence. When the fever sets in she accepts death, even welcomes it. She speaks of seeing her children again, and King Jaehaerys. So doesn't that say she was never driven by hatred at all? That there was never any kind of innate evil nature? At least that's my interpretation. This is the same girl who spent her youth reading to a dying king for no clear reward, and felt such affection for him that she mentioned him at the end of her own life, perhaps pining for the time before her marriage. (No doubt in the show she will mention Rhaenyra instead). This is the woman whose daughter and grandchildren visited her with such reliable frequency her grandson's killers knew to wait in her rooms for them.
So what was so evil about her? That she quite understandably saw Rhaenyra and her sons as a threat, and preemptively acted to protect her own? As much as people like to project ideologies onto these characters, neither Alicent nor Rhaenyra's motivations were ideological, that much as clear.
I may have many reservations about House of the Dragon's execution of it, but the decision to present Alicent as a victim of the world she inhabits was not only the right choice, but also kind of the only choice. HotD is presented as objective truth, where F&B is a collection of biased accounts dripping in the misogyny of the men relating them, and so HotD had to be a critique of its own source material. I admit to having my own bias, and my analysis is at least slightly skewed in Alicent's favour because I'm responding to the most negative interpretations of her. And they are all just interpretations. But in my opinion, those adapting the text looked at Alicent and saw her, where clearly many readers didn't. They asked "what if this woman is misunderstood?", "what if this woman had no real choice?", "what if the men of this world just chose to ignore her complexity, because she was a woman?" and those were absoutely the questions to ask.
Sorry people this is gonna be a long post, but I needed to vent.
A lot of people in the HOTD fandom are so quick to say that everything Alicent does "against" Rhaenyra is because she's judging her for not following the "rules" of the patriarchy, but imo the anger and conflict between them is way more personal than that. After Alicent is chosen by Viserys as his new wife, Rhaenyra, showing all of her immaturity (understandable, she's so young) feels betrayed by Alicent and starts treating her poorly. Of course Alicent in turn feels betrayed by her closest friend cause Rhaenyra abandoned her when she needed her the most. She was too sheltered and comfortable in her privilege to realize that other women cannot simply say no, Alicent was considered her father's property and then her husband's to do with as they pleased. She is continuously raped by a man she did not choose to marry, forced to carry child after child and on top of that she is refused the only comfort she had, her only friend. She never had the luxury of choice, but Rhaenyra in her naivety, still punished her for it. Alicent tried to hang on, still caring about Rhaenyra and still trying to reconcile with her and being constantly denied and judged by her.
Then, the moment Rhaenyra did something that would surely put her in trouble, she lied to Alicent's face. Alicent believed her and defended her with the king, insisting that Daemon must have lied, that her father must have been misinformed. Viserys knew this to be false, he knew Rhaenyra had lied, but still she was not punished for it. Instead Alicent is indirectly punished again, losing her only ally (Otto is a vile person, but still for Alicent he was the only piece of home, of familiarity she had) because of Rhaenyra. Naturally when she learned that Rhaenyra had lied to her, it was another huge blow to Alicent's heart, because trusting Rhaenyra has literally cost her the only bit of protection she felt that she had left. It's only natural at this point, that Otto's claims about Rheanyra's character began to take root in Alicent's mind. Rhaenyra proved that she could not be trusted and Alicent wasn't about to put her children's lives in the hands of someone who had betrayed her so. She realized that no one would protect her, not Viserys, not Rhaenyra, so she must do it herself.
From then on things were bound to go downhill cause Alicent began resenting Rhaenyra as she still remained oblivious to her privilege and she benefited from it again and again, perhaps even using her father's affection for her to her advantage. And Rhaenyra (understandably) grew tired of Alicent's treatment of her.
In light of that, what happened with Aemond inevitably had a massive impact on their situation, especially on Alicent, whose faith in Rhaenyra was already broken. Her son lost an eye (taken by one of Rhaenyra's kids). Rhaenyra refused to even acknowledge the magnitude of this offence, so quick to defend her kids (and their birthright), who would never do anything wrong and were simply defending themselves (despite there being 4 of them against Aemond) And even in such a dramatic circumstance, all Viserys cares about is protecting Rhaenyra from what essentially is, the truth.
So in my opinion Alicent is not only saying "it's not fair" because Rhaenyra constantly did things that were not "proper" and was never punished for it, what she's saying is more along the lines of "Rhaenyra abandoned me, betrayed me, punished me, hurt me, my son and others to fulfil her selfish goals and nobody ever punished her for it or even had the decency to admit that she might have been wrong".
Alicent is not questioning Rhaenyra's claim to the throne because she's a woman, she's questioning her integrity and wether or not she's trustworthy, she's doing it to protect herself and her children, who she feels could never be truly safe as long as Rhaenyra rules with Daemon by her side.
And feelings like these cannot be simply dismissed, not even with an apology, one must really work on rebuilding trust in each other in order to fix years of betrayal and mutual hurt and resentment, and sadly they just didn't get enough time to do it.
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