The argument that Alicent and Rhaenyra have no agency when the show is analyzing what agency they could possibly have given their circumstances is infuriating. And this isn't to say they have none.
It's about how they individually respond to desperation. Alicent has only known subservience and the surrender of her body, and the one time her desperation came to surface ended in failure with everyone having even stronger reasons to not come to her side, and so she has learned to recede into depression, watching her emotionally neglected children strive towards ruin. Rhaenyra's struggles are similar: the loss of her agency over her own body to men's sexual desires and the "duty" of pregnancy, not to mention how she is viewed as a woman first and therefore an intelligent ruler last, the main difference here being that Rhaenyra has had a subtextually trans narrative since Episode 1. It creates a constantly bubbling bloodthirst she's been trying to silence lest it make her the exact kind of failure her council think she is already.
Alicent's ambition has NOT been removed from the story whatsoever. Rhaenyra leaving a trail of blood in her wake on her quest to be queen has NOT been removed from the story. They have simply been given stronger, more tragic motivation.
The agency complaints are wildly and maddeningly obstinate. You are CHOOSING not to see how the seeds of their respective falls from grace are planted, how despite their struggles to remain true to themselves, they are in fact complicit in war crimes on the way. But because they struggle, because they weep in frustration and rage, they are seen as inconsistently written, somehow lacking in depth, and, unsurprisingly, weaker than their book counterparts.
This got long. Sorry. It's just so crazy to me that people treat the story with the same misogynistic disdain that the writers are centering it around, and they just don't see it. So much of what they love about the main saga is being used here, but suddenly its bad and an affront to George R. R. Martin's writing because the characters are not "like their book counterpart"?
I saw this on Twitter a few days ago and I really do agree its like there seems to be very little thought directed towards examining what story they’re trying to tell which is clearly centrally about misogyny and violence and the way those things affect women and then everyone gets mad when they depict the way those things affect. women.
Also because a comical amount of time in season two was devoted to both Rhaenyra and Alicent risking literally everything and blockade running in the middle of a war zone to break into their opponent’s main stronghold to try and sue for peace on their own. Does that not count as agency
