Is it really fair to assume that if Alicent Hightower had only borne daughters, the Dance of the Dragons would have vanished into thin air?
Many Team Black interpretations present a neat, almost convenient narrative: without male heirs, Alicent becomes politically irrelevant, and Viserys effortlessly marries her hypothetical daughters to Rhaenyra’s sons to seal the realm in harmony.
But doesn't that view drastically underestimate Alicent’s political mind and completely ignore the massive, self-inflicted storm brewing on Rhaenyra’s side of the hall?
Without the pressure of putting a male claimant onto the Iron Throne, wouldn't Alicent have flourished as a mother to daughters? She understood the quiet, formidable strength required of noblewomen better than anyone. Rather than letting her daughters serve as simple political padding to legitimize Rhaenyra's line, wouldn't an astute Alicent and Otto have looked outward? Imagine the geopolitical leverage of marrying Targaryen-Hightower princesses into great houses. By weaving a web of alliances across the realm, Alicent could have built a bedrock of soft power that didn't rely on wearing the crown directly.
More importantly, why do so many assume Rhaenyra’s path to the throne would have been smooth simply because Alicent lacked sons? Rhaenyra’s political conduct was an accident waiting to happen. Passing off three obviously illegitimate as lawful and legitimate heirs was an open insult to feudal law and the nobility of Westeros. Demanding that the realm blind itself to the blatant reality of their parentage, under threat of mutilation or death, showed an astounding level of arrogance. How could Rhaenyra expect every house to honor strict inheritance laws for her, when she so casually dismantled those very rules for her own convenience?
Even without Aegon II in the picture, could Westeros ever truly accept a bastard sitting on the Iron Throne?
Would the Velaryons of Driftmark really allow a bastard to inherit the Driftwood Throne over legitimate bloodlines without a fight?
How long would Daemon Targaryen content himself with watching a non-Targaryen bastard inherit the realm over his own legitimate blood with Rhaenyra?
The precedent of the Great Council of 101 AC had already firmly established male-preference primogeniture. With Rhaenyra’s claim already on shaky ground, wouldn't compounding a female ruler with illegitimate heirs have triggered a civil war regardless?
If Alicent’s daughters were married to the heads of Great Houses, those lords would now possess legitimate Targaryen bloodlines. When Jacaerys is made king or his sons after him, wouldn't those powerful houses feel entirely justified in rebelling against an illegitimate succession?
Doesn't reducing Alicent to merely "the mother of male claimants" rob her character of her true intelligence and agency? And if Rhaenyra’s own reckless choices laid all the dry tinder for a future civil war not just for herself but also her descendants? How might the game of thrones have shifted if Alicent’s only had daughters?
Please tell share your thoughts on this!
This answer might be slightly unsatisfying, but what it comes down to for me is that with this sort of question you have to back all the way up and assume that everything is going to be different from the start. In these sorts of scenarios people tend to neglect the butterfly effects and assume that Rhaenyra still marries Laenor, still has an affair with Harwin and those same three bastard boys are still born, Daemon still marries Laena. And sure, these things might happen, but I also think the family dynamic is so fundamentally altered if Alicent has not given birth to Rhaenyra's direct rivals for the throne that it is very hard to say what might change.
For instance, in Fire & Blood, Otto is sent away as Hand because he's been pushing for little Aegon's claim. If there's no male heir, Otto perhaps never gets sent away and Lyonel Strong never becomes Hand, and the affair with Harwin never gets off the ground. And keep in mind, Rhaenyra's marriage to Laenor happens the same year that Alicent's last child is born, and it only happens because Viserys threatens to disinherit her in favor of Aegon if she doesn't marry Laenor. Without Aegon for Viserys to use as a leverage to influence Rhaenyra, would Rhaenrya still marry Laenor at that exact point? And without male claimants pushing Daemon further down the line, would Daemon not perhaps be making bolder moves on his own behalf? Would he pursue Rhaenyra more doggedly, or would he take another road? Would the Velaryons themselves still choose to marry Laenor to Rhaenyra with Daemon still so close to the throne, or would they judge that too risky and look to an alliance with Daemon to press his claim instead? There are too many factors here to say one way or another, but you need to answer those questions first before any others. At the end of the day, if Alicent has only daughters then Daemon is far and away the biggest challenge to Rhaenyra's claim as he's much closer to the throne than he is if she has brothers, and many will still see him as the valid claimant. How that would shake out though depends on too many factors to say. I think any claim through Alicent's daughters is a non-starter in any case.
As for the question "doesn't reducing Alicent to merely 'the mother of male claimants' rob her character of her true intelligence and agency?" I guess it depends upon the context. In Fire & Blood, arguably, if Alicent were the mother of daughters she might fade into the background, much the way Aemma Arryn does. That doesn't mean that, if given a POV or story of her own there wouldn't be points of interest or times she was able to maneuver politically for benefit of her daughters, or that she doesn't have her own points of agency, but Alicent's role in Fire and Blood is shaped uniquely by her unique circumstance as being the mother of the only firstborn son to be more or less disinherited in favor of a daughter. That situation is what puts her children in danger and is what makes her fight for Aegon's claim so pressing from her point of view. Of course, if you're writing a story that is not Fire & Blood, Alicent is as much of a character as you wish her to be. You're right in that fully fleshed out characters should have their own wants and needs and and goals rather than simply servicing the character arcs and growth of other characters, but there are other things that an Alicent who only has daughter can want besides her children or their children on the throne.
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
jimmyeatworldofficial
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
amandla
titsay
