Still thinking about this group selfie... like imagine this is a modern au and you're on holiday and THIS is the family staying in the old, expensive villa next to your hotel
all this talk of aemond and cordelia being parents and aemond being a girl dad got me shedding tears 😭 and it's not helping that we're getting crumbs of the cast doing press junkets and Mitchell being sighted, i swear that man comes out of his cave and goes right back in so fast (or i just could be living in my own cave 😭). all im saying is were getting fed. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I'm so excited for all the upcoming hotd promo, so I'm with you there! And thank you so much 🥹 <3
How do you think Aemond and Cordelia would approach parenthood? What would be the similarities and differences in their parenting styles?
If they had a son/daughter who did not abide by traditional masculine/feminine gender roles, how would each of them react? Tbh while Aemond yearns for fatherhood often, I don't feel the same with Cordelia. Like motherhood for her is just something inevitable (because it often is for noble ladies) rather than a desire.
Love green tides btw!
Thank you so much, these are great questions!! I’m sorry my response is so long haha, but I loved answering them.
So, as you said, motherhood isn't something Cordelia longs for; rather, it is an expectation placed on her and women more broadly. Because she was the youngest in her family and never had to be around babies, she's a bit awkward around children.
Although she doesn't dream about parenthood, I think having children (daughters especially) could be healing for her. Of course, children shouldn’t be expected to heal a parent's childhood trauma, and that’s not what Cordelia is seeking, but I think a daughter would allow her to rebuild the kind of mother-daughter relationship she lost at nineteen. It's also kind of why Aemond wants to be a father — because he wants to be the father Viserys never was.
While Cordelia doesn’t fantasise about motherhood, she understands her duty to secure her husband's bloodline. So, she's not going to protest, because the expectation was grilled into her from a very early age.
In comparison, Aemond’s desire to become a father reflects a very traditional, male craving for legacy. He wants a large family, which he mentions in I think ch 33 and again in ch 36. Unlike a lot of Westerosi men, however, I think GT Aemond wouldn't be completely blind to the struggles of childbearing, as he cares for Cordelia. But his longing for "many children" nonetheless reflects the reality that he isn't the one expected to do the physical and emotional work that comes with pregnancy, childbirth, et cetera.
When it comes to parenting styles, I think Aemond and Cordelia would have their own roles within a somewhat traditional family structure that would not overlap very much.
Aemond is definitely a girl dad. He wants daughters, and he wants to be a father they can look up to. Because I headcanon that he admires Visenya, I think he would want his daughters to learn at least some martial arts, strategy, and warfare.
Targaryen female dragonriders possess significantly more military power than non-Targaryen men. That gives them a level of autonomy that women like Alicent or Cordelia lack. Since Aemond is a Valyrian blood supremacist (let’s be real lmfao), he would want his daughters to embody Visenya or Rhaenys-like ideals. The Conqueror sisters were very different (Visenya being traditionally more ”masculine” and Rhaenys more "feminine"), but both were powerful. That's what Aemond wants: daughters who will uphold the dynasty by any means.
That said, Aemond is no feminist lol. He supports male primogeniture; I have no reason to believe otherwise given his blatant misogyny in F&B and how he treats women in HotD. So, although he wants his daughters to be competent, his sons are the ones expected to rule.
Aemond would be the strictest on his oldest son and heir. He wouldn’t tolerate a son like Aegon at all, nor would he tolerate incompetence in general. This is because I believe he'd view his children as an extension of himself, which means he’d expect them to excel.
If a younger son (not the heir or the spare) displayed ”feminine” traits (like being nurturing or not wanting to learn swordfighting) Aemond would probably be like, ”Alright, you can do that, as long as you make yourself useful somehow." He'd allow some leeway there simply because the younger children aren't as politically important. But his oldest sons... yeah, they would have to become proficient in a traditionally ”masculine” way: combat, politics, strategy, and what have you.
Cordelia… honestly I don’t think she’d want incompetent sons either, but she would focus more on her daughters. Since she was left out of important conversations as a child, she would want her daughters to be more prepared and independent. If a daughter wanted to learn how to wield a sword, for example, Cordelia would allow it and perhaps even encourage it. Conversely, if a son was gentle or ”feminine” in some other way, she would view it as a good thing, because she’s been around plenty of hyper-masculine men (*cough* Medrick, Aemond) and knows they aren't always the happiest.
However, Cordelia would largely leave her sons’ education to Aemond. If they had disagreements (like if she thought he was being too harsh) she would voice her opinion privately, but she wouldn't necessarily oppose him. He is the patriarch, after all (help).
Cordelia largely subscribes to traditional gender roles due to her conservative upbringing. By modern standards she's conservative, though by Westerosi standards she's ordinary. The Faith of the Seven, which is kind of her moral compass, centres on a seven-faced god divided into three masculine and three feminine faces (plus the genderless Stranger). The female roles (Maiden, Mother, Crone) are very much tied to children and family, while the male roles (Father, Smith, Warrior) are more about profession and protection, I guess. So, she would expect her daughters to become mothers and her sons to become strong and proficient.
So, would Aemond and Cordelia accept some flexibility in gender roles? Yes, but only to a degree, and it would depend on the child's position in the line of succession.
Faith, culture, and tradition would clash quite a bit in Aemond and Cordelia’s case. They come from different cultural backgrounds, after all (northern/Reach/riverlands vs. Valyrian/Reach/crownlands), and have different mother tongues. Plus, Targaryens practice sibling incest... but I will not poke that beehive today lol.
Cordelia is religious, so I think she'd want to instill the Faith into her children. She'd be disappointed if they didn't want to learn the scripture or go to the sept with her. However, because she'd be married to a non-religious Targaryen, she'd have to make compromises. I don’t think Aemond would personally care about his children’s religious beliefs, but he needs the institution of the Faith on his side, so he would teach his children to maintain good relations with Oldtown and the High Septon to prevent another religious uprising.
Language-wise, Aemond would definitely speak High Valyrian with his children. He wants to keep the language alive and continue whatever Valyrian traditions he upholds. Cordelia isn't super tied to northern customs, and is a bit more culturally southern (the Manderlys value knighthood and the Seven), so she wouldn't feel the need to raise her children as "northerners". In fact, I believe she would want them to be as culturally Valyrian as possible... hm. Perhaps we'll get into that more later!
Alicent's hair changed because Olivia chopped all her hair off into a very blunt chin length bob for a role she did around when they were filming s3. So the hair and makeup team lost all the volume and length that made Alicent's hair big and curly, because s1 & s2 were Olivia's real hair with some extensions for extra hair and length.
When you chop all of it off into such a blunt cut, what happens is more work needs to be done for extensions to blend them, or they have to go with a wig with would likely never be as full as her natural curls, so they likely have the top of her hair scrapped back so harshly and then using what they have left to hide the extentsions they need to use!
Not blaming Olivia at all, get your bag girl, but I know she had the h&m team stressed out how they were going to hide such a short cut when she had such long flowing hair last season(s)
Oh that makes sense! See, I didn’t even think of that. It’s good that there are people who know more about this stuff than I do because I’ve always been clueless about hair and styling.
It’s a bit of a shame, but I’m excited to see Alicent again nonetheless!
I like Alicent as a character. I liked her more in season 1. Season 1 Alicent was THE QUEEN. Character wise, looks wise. For fucks sake she's the prettiest one in the show. And I loved her costumes in season 2. She's so elegant, literal royalty. She never disappoints. Did you see her hair in season 1? That was ethereal and otherworldly. Now if you compare her season 1 hair to what we saw at the trailer for season 3 it does look a bit down. But we'll have to wait till the release to see what actually happened. But what I think is that, they did this purposely. I mean look at how they ruined her character, I won't be surprised if they ruin her hair as well. Seems like they are deliberately trying to make the audience hate her as if the black stans hating her wasn't enough. They had to take away her pretty hair too. I still have hope though. Alicent Hightower will always be the prettiest queen of the seven kingdoms to me.
I did notice that her hair was different, and I don’t disagree with you! I’m not sure why they changed the styling… I mean, I have a lot of questions about hotd’s styling (including hair) in general, but I’ll leave that for someone more knowledgeable to analyse. I just wrote that post because of some stuff I’ve seen during the past few days :p
”Omg guys did you see the trailer?? Aemond looks so good omggg me getting ready to defend all his war crimes ahahah... and Aegon my baby my innocent babwyyy he did nothing wonggg omg I just want to hug him and tell him it's going to be alright 💔"
”Why does Alicent’s hair look so awful in the trailer? Guys are you seeing her hair? It looks awful. And she’s a bitch. And ugly. That’s what you get for selling your sons I guess. Maybe if she hadn’t sold her sons she'd still have luscious hair"