"The show wants us to believe Alicent was such a good ruler while constantly claiming she always had men in her way, that makes no sense."
Well, yes. That's the whole point, I fear.
For a fandom that always complain about nuances and the show making every character too "two-dimensional", you yourselves are really lacking on that matter. Some of the criticism against episode 3 prove it yet again.
One of the main focus of the show is pointing out the struggle women, including in upper position, faced because of society's mysoginy. Both Alicent and Rhaenyra's entire lives illustrate it perfectly.
Alicent's dependant on the men around her, unlike Rhaenyra, she's born royal and was never meant to have a power other than they are willing to grant her. Her authorithy relies on her father, her husband, then her sons. Her regency was permitted because she was supported by men, and tolerated by others (out of regard for the first). During S1 E6, we see Alicent and Rhaenyra in the small council, Viserys is there to support their power, so the rest of them aren't going to dimish it in front of him. Yet, Rhaenyra's inheritance had always been questioned because of her sex, therefore Alicent, who spent her entire life cathering, is very much aware than her own position is questioned.
Alicent was Viserys's regent, him being still alive and sometimes conscious prevented the rest of the small council from denying Alicent's authorithy. She was also the daughter of the Hand, I highly doubt Otto would have let someone else take over Alicent's position (not when it benefits him so well). So from episode 6 to 8, Alicent's power doesn't seem question. We do need to consider that we aren't told how the entirety of Alicent's. Who knows how exactly they were treating her during that time? It is likely that her decisions were being doubted in a way Viserys's wouldn't have been. And again, tolerance isn't acceptance nor respect.
Yet, in episode 9, same episodewe see the crack of this facade as soon as Viserys passed. He was the bridge of her power and that fridge collapsed. We are revealed that the small council had been planning to usurp and kill Rhaenyra without involving her. If they hid something that important to her, the mother of the very man they're planning to crown, what makes you think it's the only matter they kept her in the dark about? Cole killed another member who wasn't aware of the conspiracy and opposed to it. It's further proofs that, even amongst the men, the small council wasn't honest within one another. Why wouldn't that apply to Alicent as well? Why wouldn't they be whispering behind her back as well?
Through S1, we see various characters plotting against Viserys's will and questioning him. How do you not believe they were doing the same thing to Alicent? A woman? Only in her position through marriage? The main reason behind the Greens faction is that Rhaenyra is a woman so she shouldn't rule. Do you genuinely think people with that mentality won't treat their own women the same, even they're forced to accept her?
Then, Aegon is crowned and Alicent's downfall began. As the queen and the prince (non-heir), his mother was above him. When Viserys died that hierachy shift. We moved on to S2 and we saw Alicent losing her authority bites by bites. It started when Viserys died and Aegon became king, it worsened when Otto got replaced by Cole (he was no longer there to support her) and reached its peak when Aemond was made regent and kicked her out of the council. Times and times through S2, Alicent was reminded that she was just a woman and for this exact reason, she was never fully accepted (again, one of the main of the show).
Alicent was the most qualified to be regent: she had already done correctly it, she has the qualities requiered from a ruler, she had been in the small council for 16 years at most. But she's refused because she's a woman. They favored Aemond over, someone much younger, with no experience, dangerous and unstable, and who's barely been attended the small council for few months/weeks. Aemond worsened the conflict by killing Luke, as she said "Aemond is young. And his lack of restraint has already cost us dearly, while Alicent tried to do the smart thing: negociated with the other party to avoid a war. Despite her competences, despite her attempt to serve them, they once again disminished her because of her genitals. They wouldn't have done it if they believed in her from the start. Alicent was no longer above them and the king being bedrotted and unconscious, there was no one to prevent them what they have always wanted: deny her. So, how have you watched S2 and still claimed that Alicent saying that men have worked against her is absurd?
Even among the Blacks (some of which are just there out of loyalty for Viserys and/or hatred for the Greens, not because they genuinely believe in women's right to rule), Rhaenyra is still victim of mysoginy. Rhaenyra is the previous king's first born child and his chosen, yet she still has to face it, why would that be any different for Alicent who is somehow an intruder in their world? I thought we all knew that siding with your opresssors won't ever make them view as their equal. That's a reality Alicent had to learn.
Viserys himself contributed to lessening her. He treated her as his sexual object and baby machine (just like he did with Aemma). He ridiculed her when she tried to a good hostess for Daemon by showing him the tapestries (definitely not the first nor last time). He constantly made her feel like her and her children were replacements and second thoughts. He diminished and invalidated her words, like her claim of Rhaenyra's children being bastards (the truth). He let her be humiliated and acted like she was being unreasonable when Aemond lost his eye. If her own husband treated her like that, other men disrespecting her was also happening.
So yes, the show saying that Alicent was good ruler while acknowledging that men have worked against is logical. It's litterally what happened. Two things can be true at once.
As much as there is a lot valid criticisms against hotd, sometimes, some of you are mistaking your disliking of the story and refusal to understand it for that same reason for actual bad writing.
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