Untitled

[lalolarevival]

This latest episode left me feeling so unhinged I dug up something that I’ve had in my notes app for 3 years and finally published it let’s go rhaenicents

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[emmaziadarcy]

[lalolarevival]

‼️🚨‼️ ADULT GODSWOOD SCENE 🚨‼️🚨

[lalolarevival]

i’ve been listening to the fire & blood audiobook and i’ve become so much more appreciative of the HOTD creators

whoever came up with the idea of having Rhaenyra and Alicent carry a lasting, inextinguishable love for each other that endures all sorts of hardships and grief, and then make the whole show hinge on that relationship is a storytelling genius

absolute glimpse of the divine in that writing room im afraid

in the chronicles, nobody really knows who in the Green Council helped Rhaenyra’s conquest of King’s Landing. and all of the cruelty that Rhaenyra dealt to Alicent and Helaena is contested as an extension of the myth of Rhaenyra becoming “King Maegor with teats”.

[lalolarevival]

rhaenicent kiss rumors floating about on twitter but lets be for real

as much as i love the fact that the dance of the dragons is ultimately a tragedy that hinges on rhaenyra and alicent’s relationship, i am fully against the idea of them as a couple. makes no sense. ruins the story.

too much grief has left no space for any plain kind of love.

at this point in the story, they might share some understanding and nostalgia, but never romance.

the only acceptable moment for them to be together would be after they’ve lost everything and have nothing left but each other to love and resent.

[thedeepthought]

me: I ship them

friend: oh like romantically?

me: no. like cursed object passed between hands for centuries, they are cosmically linked, probably bonded by blood ritual, I think they’ve fought in a war together in at least three lifetimes, and their souls make direct eye contact every time they breathe in the same room

friend: so… romantically?

me: yeah. like. with kissing.

[rhaenyratargeryen]

My husband would have desired this mercy be shown to his daughter. Your husband? Or you, his daughter’s childhood companion?

[somerhall]

the way alicent said it. she was so done with that man and his bullshit.

[lalolarevival]

The dialogue in that scene felt a little bit unearned BUT

I was vibrating in my seat with the ambiguity of that “you and I”. Alicent says it as a way to refer to everyone else but Viserys (a statement about Viserys), but also as a way to put herself and Rhaenyra on the same side of something again. Like, yes! They are uniquely positioned to understand what the other is going through. There’s so much sudden intimacy in that shared, exclusive burden. It’s like Alicent is testing the waters in that regard and Rhaenyra doesn’t pull back.

Also the way Alicent is so sure that she still understands Rhaenyra deeply enough that she can make an assumption about how Rhaenyra sees the world without batting an eye. It’s so understated, but it’s pretty daring, that assumption.

uhhhhhhhh

Oh how Alicent wishes that it could somehow be her and Rhaenyra against the world. It’s her last and only hope.

[lalolarevival]

Rhaenyra spent the whole episode having things demanded of her that she had no way of providing. Each time, a death knell rang in her ears, even as Daemon proclaimed them gods and asked her to live up to his divine aspirations.

Then Alicent steps into her chambers with a request of her own. Rhaenyra steels herself. Gods, she is so tired.

A casket sent to Oldtown.

This, this she can provide.

The room is finally quiet. Her head even stops buzzing for a moment. How dare she be Rhaenyra’s singular source of relief in the whole of the realm?

So Rhaenyra reaches out.

[lalolarevival]

The way her lips curl upwards genuinely for the only time in the episode.

[lalolarevival]

Rhaenyra spent the whole episode having things demanded of her that she had no way of providing. Each time, a death knell rang in her ears, even as Daemon proclaimed them gods and asked her to live up to his divine aspirations.

Then Alicent steps into her chambers with a request of her own. Rhaenyra steels herself. Gods, she is so tired.

A casket sent to Oldtown.

This, this she can provide.

The room is finally quiet. Her head even stops buzzing for a moment. How dare she be Rhaenyra’s singular source of relief in the whole of the realm?

So Rhaenyra reaches out.

[lalolarevival]

Daemon took Daeron but left the dragon with the Greens????? seems like an oversight

[catcrumb]