Is It Fair to Call Alicent Hightower a Wicked Stepmother to Rhaenyra Targaryen?
This is a super long blog post I worked on bc I wanted to make things clearer.
Pre-Point: Fire & Blood is written like a biased history book with multiple conflicting accounts. We don’t have POV chapters or direct access to the characters’ inner thoughts, so naturally, readers will interpret things differently that’s the whole point. If anything is based on misogynistic logic, then your interpretations may reflect a lack of nuance and a tendency to echo the misogyny embedded in the text, rather than challenge it. Martin deliberately made the story unreliable to encourage readers to think critically. “Unreliable” doesn’t mean everything written is a lie It means we’re supposed to question the different versions of events and read between the lines.
I talked a LOT about the wicked stepmother 1/HERE, 2/HERE, 3/HERE and 4/HERE
Thoughts and Criticisms of F&B. This is a pseudo-history book:
Many readers misunderstand how Mushroom should be read. His accounts are not meant to be taken at face value; they require scrutiny. Mushroom’s aim is consistently to inflate his own importance in the Dance and in the private lives of powerful women, presenting himself as a far bigger participant and witness than he likely ever was. This is why he claims Alicent seduced the king or called Rhaenyra a whore not because these things are reliable truth, but because sexual scandal is the currency through which he inserts himself into history.
There is also a failure from the show to recognize that a woman whose children are being sidelined, and who is demanding her own rights through the rights of her children, is still at the center of an important and meaningful political story.
GRRM isn’t using the wicked stepmother trope because he believes it. He’s using it to show how history turns powerful women into villains. Gyldayn is the point. Fire & Blood is not a neutral chronicle; it’s a court history written by an old, misogynist, elite, male maester whose worldview is rigidly hierarchical. He believes in bloodlines, male primogeniture, and the moral authority of kings. Women enter his story either as vessels for heirs or as disruptions to the system.
When a woman starts exercising power, he reaches instinctively for the oldest story he has: the wicked stepmother. Alicent is not written as a political actor making rational decisions in a succession crisis. She is written as the woman who wanted too much. Once she has sons, once her interests diverge from Rhaenyra’s, her motives are no longer allowed to be structural or systemic. They must be personal. Emotional. Spiteful. Sexualized. She becomes jealous, grasping, manipulative not because the book proves it, but because that is the only framework Gyldayn has for a woman who defends her children against another woman’s claim.
By making Alicent as jealous, manipulative, and cruel, the historian avoids harder questions. Viserys doesn’t have to be blamed for creating an unstable succession. The lords don’t have to be blamed for enforcing misogynistic rules only when it benefits them. The system itself doesn’t have to be questioned. Everything can be pinned on one woman. Alicent becomes the “wicked stepmother” bc once Alicent has sons, she is no longer just the king’s wife she is a political actor protecting her children in a succession system where losing usually means death. Men do this constantly in Westeros. When men do it, it’s called duty. When Alicent does it, Gyldayn turns it into spite.
Alicent threatens a comforting myth: that women in power are either passive or unnatural. She proves that women must play the same brutal political game as men if they want their children to survive. That makes her dangerous to history, not because she’s cruel, but because she’s rational. So history strips her down. Her fear becomes hysteria. Her strategy becomes scheming. Her grief becomes malice.
Gyldayn uses Alicent, Rhaenyra and other women in his account not simply as historical actors, but as tools for the project of writing history itself. He is writing decades after the war, with access to legend, rumor, and moral tradition far more than hard, verifiable facts. As a result, these women are shaped into moral examples warnings about what should not be allowed or tolerated in society.
Alicent receives subtler, but no less pointed, criticism from Gyldayn and from broader Westerosi culture because her power does not come through a passive transfer. She does not simply wait to become Queen Mother after her son’s accession. Instead, she actively works to shape the succession and the court around her children’s interests. Importantly, Alicent was never officially regent. Aemond held the title of Prince Regent, and Alicent exercised authority in practice while he was absent. She is condemned not for breaking the LAW, but for operating too visibly within it. Her fault, in Gyldayn’s telling, is not illegality but impropriety wanting power, acting on it, and refusing to be small.
Gyldayn, Septon Eustace, Mushroom, Orwyle, and all the other unnamed secondary narrators may have intentionally or not twisted real behaviors or events making some women seem more wicked, evil, or irresponsible, or shifting the burden of responsibility onto them instead of Viserys.
Anyway…
If you read the book straight, Alicent looks like an evil stepmother or a villain. If you read it critically, she looks like a woman fighting inside a system designed to endanger her children.
And anyone calling her an “evil” or “wicked” stepmother is repeating a misogynistic trope whether they realize it or not. That stereotype comes straight out of medieval inheritance culture, not from any real “moral” failing in the women themselves. For centuries, stories painted stepmothers as villains bc remarriage created built-in conflict: a second wife had no legal authority, no property of her own, and no guarantee that her children would inherit anything. She was automatically treated as a threat to the older children’s claims. Fairy tales didn’t invent the Wicked Stepmother patriarchy did. And the trope stuck bc it makes ambitious, older women as unnatural, scheming, or dangerous whenever they acted to protect their offspring or secure their position. Alicent fits that mold perfectly, not because she’s “evil,” but because she’s living inside the exact same political structure that produced this stereotype in the first place.
We see writers like Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Daphne du Maurier lived in times when patriarchy was just how the world worked. Still, even though they were surrounded by sexist ideas, they challenged those ideas in their stories. They took old, sexist tropes about women and turned them upside down instead of repeating them. The “evil stepmother,” the “hysterical widow,” the “jealous second wife” those tropes came straight out of the world they lived in. Martin, though? He’s writing in a totally different era. He has access to feminist theory, gender studies, and centuries of criticism that already called out how misogynistic these tropes are. So if he were genuinely reproducing the same old “evil stepmother” stereotype with Alicent, that would be a huge step backward not just bad writing, but lazy writing. And honestly, he’s not doing that.
In Alicent’s case, we don’t have her POV. So we don’t get her real thoughts, fears, or reasons just how other people described her. That’s why calling her “evil” or a “wicked stepmother” doesn’t really work. The stepmother trope makes it seem like any woman who protects her kids or gets involved in politics must be acting out of jealousy or spite, which is unfair. And because Fire & Blood is written like a history book, not a story with POVs, the maesters leave out her personal side completely. So judging her only by what biased historians say especially when they already saw ambitious stepmothers as suspicious ends up repeating the same old misogyny all over again.
Alicent Hightower is just like Catelyn Stark both are hated by a lot of peoples, but this hate is rooted in misogyny. They’re blamed the most and reduced to the stereotype of “evil stepmothers fighting with their stepchildren,” Neither Alicent nor Catelyn acted out of petty jealousy or cruelty. There’s a strong fan belief that Catelyn Stark and Alicent Hightower are cruel, abusive “evil stepmothers” to Jon Snow and Rhaenyra Targaryen, but this simply isn’t Martin’s style. People ignore the heavy historical & social pressures these women faced and hold them to unfair standards, standards that aren’t applied to the men who actually held power, like Ned Stark or Viserys I.
It makes total sense for women like Catelyn or Alicent to feel tense or anxious about other kids in their husband’s house bc there are actual political and material stakes at play. Alicent didn’t try to take Rhaenyra’s inheritance out of greed or malice; she truly thought her son’s rights were at risk. Aegon was the only firstborn being passed over for a daughter, which was unheard of. And Viserys was still around protecting Rhaenyra most of the time just like Ned stark was around Jon snow and he will NEVER let Catelyn abuse him. No one ever punished Rhaenyra for her behavior, not even Alicent.
How medieval households worked?
Alicent was busy doing her own thing, because people forget that being a queen even a queen consort meant she had duties to be tending to and her own kids to look after. she didn’t have time to be the so-called cruel evil stepmother that many tb fans seem obsessed with making her into, bc god forbid they actually know how medieval households worked. They forget that in medieval courts, women were expected to handle domestic governance, which wasn’t some soft side gig it was crucial to keeping the kingdom from falling apart. Alicent was managing her role while also dealing with her husband, her kids’ futures, and a ton of court gossip. So no, she didn’t have endless free time to bully Rhaenyra every waking moment. If someone thinks a queen had nothing better to do than be petty 24/7, that shows a lack of historical literacy meaning they don’t really know how societies back then actually functioned. It’s basically projecting modern drama stereotypes onto a world where people had way more serious stuff to handle.
That idea doesn’t even make sense if you think about it for two seconds. The castle was huge. The Red Keep alone was basically a massive castle with tons of separate wings, towers, and chambers. They weren’t all living in one little house where Alicent could constantly be hovering over Rhaenyra’s shoulder. Even inside the castle, they had separate apartments, private rooms, and their own staff. Queens had their own quarters, their children’s nurseries, and their own schedules. Rhaenyra also had her own attendants.
A) Alicent and Rhaenyra knew each other long before Viserys married Alicent.
The book explicitly says that
“Rhaenyra, secure in her place as heir, welcomed her father’s new bride, for they had long known one another at court.” -TWOIAF
Alicent had spent like years in KL, attending to King Jaehaerys as his companion and later serving in the royal household, where she and young Rhaenyra interacted regularly. They weren’t strangers at all. Their relationship originally started on friendly terms, almost like an older-sister/mentor dynamic before Viserys’s marriage. This is different from the “wicked stepmother” trope. In classic fairy tales, the stepmother is usually a stranger who enters the household and immediately becomes hostile. In the case of Alicent and Rhaenyra, they knew each other long before the marriage, interacting regularly at court. Had an established, friendly relationship, almost like sisters or mentor/mentee. Only became rivals because of politics and the ambitions of the court, not simply personal hatred.
Alicent is actually described in a way that makes her come off as warm and caring. She genuinely cares for Rhaenyra too; there’s that scene where she calls her “daughter” at the feast, which isn’t just polite it’s affectionate.
“Princess Rhaenyra poured for her stepmother at the feast, and Queen Alicent kissed her and named her ‘daughter.’
Though this is only one interaction, it tells us a lot. Alicent wasn’t a bore, and there’s no mention of her being unnecessarily cruel so assuming otherwise would be unfair. She made an effort to understand her new stepdaughter and showed her affection. Calling Rhaenyra her “daughter” wasn’t trivial it was a deliberate act of care, declaring a loving, maternal role in line with her character.
At just nine years old, Rhaenyra likely didn’t fully understand the implications of her father marrying Alicent. Alicent, at 18, was closer in age to Rhaenyra than to Viserys, (she’s 11 years younger than viserys) making it easier for them to relate as peers rather than stepmother and stepdaughter. Because Rhaenyra had known Alicent for years at court. Rhaenyra may not have initially seen her as a replacement for her mother, but rather as a peer which could explain why they appeared genuinely happy together at first.
“Ser Criston protects the princess from her enemies… but who protects the princess from Ser Criston?”
This isn’t beefing or spreading rumors Alicent is pointing out that 13yo Rhaenyra is in a vulnerable position as an unmarried girl surrounded by ambitious men. Notice how the word “protects” is repeated twice. Alicent is emphasizing protection she’s insisting on it. she’s desperately trying to defend Rhaenyra. By putting Criston in both roles, the line subtly says it out loud he is the danger. In the book, Criston is way older than rhaenyra, so any romantic/sexual involvement w// a teen princess isn’t just inappropriate, it’s disturbing. He’s a sworn Kingsguard, bound by oath. No matter how u slice it, Rhaenyra is surrounded by men w// agendas, and for a brief moment, Alicent is the only one seeing the danger which is interesting considering he later joins her side.
“many lords and knights sought her favor,”
And Alicent was clearly aware of the dangers that posed. If Alicent had wanted to discredit Rhaenyra’s virtue, she would’ve encouraged Criston’s actions. But she was genuinely looking out for Rhaenyra’s well-being, which is honestly rare in a world like ASOIAF. Like, not many people especially in Westeros would actually speak up about something like that. But Alicent did? She noticed the dynamic between Rhaenyra and Criston Cole and literally called it out, asking, “who protects the princess from Ser Criston?” bc w/ most people in that world wouldn’t even think to protect a young girl from potential harm especially if that girl wasn’t their own daughter. Alicent didn’t have to say anything, she could’ve just let Rhaenyra make her own mistakes, but she didn’t. She saw something that didn’t feel right and said it out loud. That’s empathy. That’s maternal instinct. This is what spreading rumours is:
“Even so, there were those who murmured that the Hand had risen above himself, that he had brought his daughter to court with this in mind. A few even cast doubt on Lady Alicent's virtue, suggesting she had welcomed King Viserys into her bed even before Queen Aemma's death. (These calumnies were never proved, though Mushroom repeats them in his Testimony and goes so far as to claim that reading was not the only service Lady Alicent performed for the Old King in his bedchamber.)”
Did we forget that Alicent herself was a victim of rumors too? Before Alicent even becomes queen, she is already the subject of gossip. People whisper that King Viserys was lusting after her even before his first wife, Aemma, died. Saying that Alicent was Viserys’s mistress while the queen was still alive, that she did “more than read” to the dying King Jaehaerys, and that her rise to queenhood wasn’t a matter of political marriage, but seduction and schemin (the fact that she was only 15yo)
Even if you argue that why didn’t Alicent do something if she thought Rhaenyra was in danger? That question comes from applying modern expectations to a patriarchal society / medieval world. She raised the issue of Rhaenyra’s safety and how dangerous it was for a young, unmarried girl to be surrounded by ambitious men. That’s already a huge risk in that world. She did act, in the only way she safely could. And if you expect more from her, you’re ignoring how women’s voices were limited in that world.
B) Now, the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra evidently deteriorates
However, based on what we do know, it’s likely that the change began once Rhaenyra truly understood what Alicent becoming queen/stepmother actually meant.
“But when Alicent gave birth to a son, Prince Aegon, a daughter, Princess Helaena, and another son, Prince Aemond, in rapid succession, and Rhaenyra remained Viserys’ heir, those feelings started to change.
“The amity between Her Grace and her stepdaughter had proved short-lived, for both Rhaenyra and Alicent aspired to be the first lady of the realm…”
As a spoiled only child who was used to being the center of attention especially during Aemma’s life Rhaenyra may have felt displaced by Alicent and her children. When Aemma lived, Rhaenyra had been;
“At the center of the merriment, cherished and adored by all, was their only surviving child, Princess Rhaenyra, the little girl the court singers dubbed “the Realm’s Delight.” […] the princess was placed into service as a cupbearer...but for her own father, the king. At table, at tourney, and at court, King Viserys thereafter was seldom seen without his daughter by his side.”
And GRRM said:
“RHAENYRA TARGARYEN: The first-born child of King Viserys I, Rhaenyra Targaryen was almost ten years older than her half-brother Aegon. She was the king's only living child (two siblings having died in infancy) by his first wife, an Arryn of the Vale, and grew up expecting to become the first ruling queen of Westeros. When the second of her brothers died soon after being born, Viserys himself began to treat Rhaenyra as his heir, keeping her by his side in court and at council meetings. Many of the nobles of the realm took nte, so the young princess was surrounded by flatterers and favor-seekers all through her childhood…Pampered from an early age.”
She was a pampered only child raised to believe the world revolved around her. She was “the king’s only living child by his first wife”. Her father spoiled her, surrounded her with flatterers, and made her believe she could do no wrong and Aemma may have been content to let her beloved daughter shine as the “first lady of the realm”/“the realms delight” especially since she had no sons and Rhaenyra was her only child. But Queen Alicent had no reason or desire to do the same for her new stepdaughter. she herself is now the queen with her own new children. Rhaenyra was used to being the center of attention. She got all her father’s love and the court’s praise as a kid, so when Alicent and her children arrived and shared that attention, it’s easy to see why Rhaenyra might have blamed Alicent. She was still young and didn’t know how to handle not being the only one important. That jealousy and feeling replaced helped start the long feud between them.
And since Alicent had no desire to let Rhaenyra be the First Lady of the Realm, people act like she’s an Evil Stepmother for not being endlessly nurturing to everyone’s Child and refusing to nurture someone else’s Child. Just like Catelyn refuses to treat Jon like one of her own. She doesn’t have any “Motherly Instincts” towards Theon. Even with Brienne, she connects with her on more of a Woman-to-Woman level than through some Mother-Daughter dynamic. She never feels obligated to play the angelic Mother to every child, and the fact that people hate to see Women refuse to be endlessly a Mother to every Child is, again, Misogyny.
Also the book does not say they were fighting to be First Lady it says they both aspired to that role. Aspiring means they both desired or were positioned to hold that status, and you can aspire to something without scheming or fighting for it. If Alicent decided to step back when she was queen and let her stepdaughter have all the Attention it would’ve been a political disaster. It would’ve made her look like a secondary figure in her own marriage, basically sending the message: “she’s just here to give the king heirs, not to wield influence.” That’s what ppl mean by a “glorified mistress.” Someone who bears children but holds no real power or respect at court. And honestly, that’s not fair. Queenship isn’t just about producing heirs it’s about holding authority. If Alicent had allowed herself to be sidelined, it would’ve weakened her and her children’s standing permanently.
Aemma could be considered “good” because she was compliant, never ambitious, and didn’t disrupt anyone’s expectations. She fits neatly into the chroniclers’ idea of the ideal queen: vassal of heirs, compliant, invisible, and unambitious. Alicent, by contrast, is ambitious, politically savvy, and unapologetic about securing her family’s position so she’s “wicked” in the eyes of chroniclers and fandom who unconsciously equate female ambition with “immorality.”
There are many **real medieval examples where queens did step into political power after having sons and refused to be sidelined, because stepping back would have meant losing authority, and security for their children and faction. When the queen wasn’t satisfied with being a wife and child‑bearer only… they will use their proximity to the throne and their sons’ future legitimacy to secure power for themselves and their children.
Bc a queen isn’t just a wife she is the most politically and socially visible woman in the realm. Being the “First Lady” of the court isn’t about jealousy it’s about visibility. Alicent’s choice to be the first Lady wasn’t selfish it was self-preservation, and it was her RIGHT. This is the only reason anyone would marry the king. she wanted to assert her own authority, not be treated like a ghost in her husband’s reign. After all, her marriage to the king wasn’t born of love it was a political move. She provided male heirs, and in return, she secured power, as was expected of her.
C) Later, we have the problem of succession
Rhaenyra is a teenager, atp there’s no point in portraying Alicent as “beefing” with a child.
A lot of people blame Alicent for creating the succession crisis, when in fact it was Viserys’s fault.
Viserys had done nothing to change the order of succession. The Princess of Dragonstone remained his acknowledged heir, with half the lords of Westeros sworn to defend her rights. Those who asked, “What of the ruling of the Great Council of 101?” found their words falling on deaf ears. The matter had been decided, so far as King Viserys was concerned; it was not an issue His Grace cared to revisit. Still, questions persisted, not the least from Queen Alicent herself. Loudest amongst her supporters was her father, Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King. Pushed too far on the matter, in 109 AC Viserys stripped Ser Otto of his chain of office and named in his place the taciturn Lord of Harrenhal, Lyonel Strong.
They accuse her of trying to replace Rhaenyra with her own sons and she was beefing with her but Alicent and Otto brought their concerns to Viserys, not to Rhaenyra. That alone undermines the claim that she was “bullying” a child and It’s not “creating problems” for Alicent to raise valid political concerns especially considering Westeros’ gendered succession norms and the precedent of the Great Council. Her sons were always going to be seen as potential heirs, not because of her, but because of the system. Raising those concerns with Viserys is not the same as attacking or bullying Rhaenyra. In fact, there’s no evidence that Alicent ever voiced these concerns to Rhaenyra directly.
You can argue Alicent had political motivations (just like most people at court), but that doesn’t equate to personal cruelty or abuse. It is EXPECTED and NORMAL for noblewomen to want their children to inherit as I explained HERE. Yet Viserys only firmly reaffirmed Rhaenyra’s status as the SOLE heir Only after marrying Alicent and fathering three sons. So who’s really at fault? Viserys. If anyone failed Rhaenyra, it was him. It was viserys who refused to clarify what Rhaenyra’s status meant only after he had sons. Alicent didn’t create that ambiguity. She was reacting to it, like anyone in her position would, especially in a world where sons always inherit before daughters. And we know that if Aemma had given him a son, Viserys 100% would have named that son his heir. And it wasn’t just Alicent and Otto who raised the issue what about the people at court who asked, “What of the ruling of the Great Council of 101?” Were they also beefing with a child just because they questioned the succession? Viserys spat on the Great Council’s ruling by naming Rhaenyra his heir without ever summoning a new council to confirm it. He left the realm divided and confused that’s where the real fault lies.
We know that King Viserys I was inspired by Henry I of England, the father of Empress Matilda, who in turn inspired Rhaenyra. Henry did the exact opposite of what Viserys did: when his child died, he remarried to have another heir. When his second wife failed to produce children, he named his only surviving child, Matilda, as his heir and never remarried again. Viserys, however, acted VERY differently. After the death of his child, he named Rhaenyra his heir, then remarried and had three sons.
This doesn't make any sense in any reality… In the first place, did we ever have a king in medieval Europe or in Targaryen history who named his daughter heir to replace his brother bc of the insult thing, then remarried, then had three sons, then kept her as heir, then spat on the Great Council of 101 and never summoned a new one to back his daughter w// fresh legitimacy after having three sons? Not to mention Viserys never required ALL the lords to swear oaths of loyalty to Rhaenyra, he made only HALF the lords swear oaths 24 years ago when Rhaenyra was just a child and named it a day, then he never renewed or reinforced those oaths again. If you compare it to the real-life historical basis, the succession crisis between Empress Matilda and Stephen falls apart. I also explained HERE that in Henry I’s case, naming his daughter the sole heir meant facing one battle: convincing the realm that a woman could inherit. In Viserys’ case, however, he faced two battles: persuading the lords that a woman could rule and convincing them that his new sons and wife didn’t matter.
So why ALL the blame on Alicent ? And not on viserys? because Alicent is a woman. The men, like Viserys, who caused or helped the problems, are forgiven or not blamed as much. Alicent had sons and wanted to protect. The reason Alicent gets blamed more is because of sexism. People judge her harder just because she’s a woman.
D) Next we have the tourney.
Alicent did NOT Declare war by wearing Green on Rhaenyra simply by wearing a green gown at the anniversary tourney in 111 AC. The book says:
“In 111 AC, a great tourney was held at King’s Landing on the fifth anniversary of the king’s marriage to Queen Alicent. At the opening feast, the queen wore a green gown, whilst the princess dressed dramatically in Targaryen red and black. Note was taken, and thereafter it became the custom to refer to ‘greens’ and ‘blacks’ when talking of the queen’s party and the party of the princess, respectively.”-F&B
And in RoTD:
“The queen still had supporters who adhered to her view that Aegon, not Rhaenyra, should be Viserys’s heir. But Princess Rhaenyra, now in her teens, had her own supporters. The tensions between Rhaenyra and her stepmother played out at feasts and tourneys…and any other noble gathering. At a great tourney in 111 AC, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the king’s marriage, Queen Alicent appeared dressed all in green while fourteen-year-old Rhaenyra was clad in the red and black of House Targaryen. Ser Criston Cole, wearing the princess’s favor, defeated all the knights of the queen’s faction that he faced. After this, their factions received formal names: the greens and the blacks.”
All I see in this passage is Alicent making a perfectly normal political and ceremonial choice for the fifth anniversary of her own marriage to the king. She appears dressed in green. Nowhere does Gyldayn claim that Alicent’s gown was a formal declaration of war or an open challenge to Rhaenyra’s rights. He doesn’t even imply it. Nothing in the book says Alicent insulted Rhaenyra, challenged her claim directly, or “started” anything. What the passage actually tells us is that Alicent still had supporters who believed Aegon should be heir, and Rhaenyra had her own faction as well. That situation is completely normal in a medieval monarchy. When succession is controversial, factions form. They always do.
At the time of the green dress incident, Rhaenyra is not a little girl. She is a teenager, old enough to be politically aware, old enough to have supporters, old enough to understand succession, and old enough to feel threatened by another claimant. Rhaenyra takes Alicent’s actions as an insult because, in her view, Alicent is daring to compete. Not abusing her. Not mistreating her. Competing. Alicent is advocating for her own children which is exactly what Rhaenyra herself expects loyalty for when it comes to her future sons. The “wicked stepmother” trope gets slapped onto Alicent because it’s culturally familiar and morally easy. It lets the narrative say: this woman is bad for wanting power through her children, while ignoring that this is the only socially acceptable way women are allowed to wield power in Westeros.
THE FACTION
The existence of an Alicent/Green faction ≠ an active rebellion. In a medieval court, factions are normal, constant, and mostly performative. Lords talk. They posture. They signal loyalty. They wear colors. They gossip at feasts and tourneys. That is politics, not war. these people weren’t doing anything. They weren’t raising armies. They weren’t refusing oaths. They weren’t attacking Rhaenyra. They weren’t crowning Aegon. They were expressing preference in a system where succession was unresolved and legally messy.
That’s why calling it “beef” or “wicked stepmother plotting” is ahistorical. This is not Alicent “picking a fight.” This is a court doing what courts always do when: a king names an unconventional heir, a male heir exists and precedent and proclamation clash. And crucially: as long as Viserys is alive, these factions are inert. If you actually believe: “talk = threat” then every court conversation is treason. That’s not how power works. Threats only become real when: someone is given legitimacy, someone is given space or someone is allowed to mobilize.
Borros Baratheon is the perfect example. He doesn’t “rebel” because he talked. He becomes dangerous because he is allowed to choose, armed with leverage, and rewarded for it. That’s when performance turns into action. Until then, these lords are doing what they always do: hedging, signaling, and waiting. Alicent having supporters is not her “starting a war,” and it’s not her “beefing” with Rhaenyra. It’s the political environment Viserys created by refusing to resolve succession cleanly and refusing to secure anyone’s future properly.
The Hightower sigil is a white tower crowned by a flame on a gray field. Their famous beacon is consistently described in A Feast for Crows and elsewhere as reddish orange, never green
He drained the dregs of his tankard. The torchlit terrace of the Quill and Tankard was an island of light in a sea of mist this morning. Downriver, the distant beacon of the Hightower floated in the damp of night like a hazy orange moon, but the light did little to lift his spirits.
So this idea that green was a recognized martial banner for House Hightower is simply made up. The green gown was her own choice, not some pre-arranged family war signal. Green was HER color. The Hightower sigil: No green flame anywhere. Literally none. the Hightowers’ official colors are silver or gray. The famous beacon is described as reddish orange, not green. That means all these claims that green was some ancient “war color” of House Hightower are completely invented by the show. Here is exactly what TWOIF says about their history.
The Hightower flame is not green. Their tower is not green. Their stones are described as gray. Their beacon shows up as reddish orange in the night. Rhaenyra deliberately showed up wearing black and red, the colors of House Targaryen itself. Was that a declaration of what? If you’re going to claim Alicent was “declaring war” by wearing a green dress that wasn’t even the color of her house’s flame or field, you have to explain why Rhaenyra coming dressed “dramatically” in Targaryen colors isn’t equally provocative or more so.
[HOTD]: It wasn’t like in the show, where Alicent came late to Rhaenyra’s wedding wearing green while Rhaenyra was in a white wedding dress at this point the show is trying to victimize rhaenyra and people mix the show with the books. That whole scene was created for the show. The show totally dramatized that moment just to push the “Greens vs. Blacks” divide but it doesn’t even make sense, because Rhaenyra was wearing a white wedding dress while Alicent showed up in green and in the book the Blacks were called the Blacks because it was Rhaenyra who went to Alicent's wedding anniversary party wearing her house colours when she always favoured purples and maroons.
Anyway, it’s clear that Alicent and Rhaenyra aren’t getting along by this point. But there’s NO mention in the book of Alicent actually doing anything to harm or bully Rhaenyra. By this point, rhaenyra IS spoiled. She had grown used to having her father’s undivided attention, and suddenly, he remarried and had three new children with his new wife… It’s entirely possible and actually quite normal that Rhaenyra felt displaced and reacted emotionally to this dramatic shift in her family life. This doesn’t mean Alicent was cruel. It means that Rhaenyra, like many children/ teenagers in blended families, may have struggled with jealousy or resentment which is a common, human reaction. Even today, we see many children get jealous when a new baby or sibling is born and that’s with parents trying their best to handle the situation. Sometimes, no matter how much the adults try to help, the jealousy still happens. That’s just how children are. It’s a normal emotional reaction.
E) This is where things really start to fall apart, because Daemon begins to cause trouble.
When Daemon came back we see he was especially cold to Alicent kids, Aegon and Aemond his nephews since their birth pushed him further down in the line for the throne. So if anyone is really having beefing with kids, it’s Daemon Targaryen.
“although he treated her with all the courtesy due her station, there was no warmth between them, and men said that the prince was notably cool towards her children, especially his nephews, Aegon and Aemond, whose birth had pushed him still lower in the order of succession.”
Daemon spent six months mocking Alicent and her children. He was the cool, rebellious uncle who gave Rhaenyra gifts, paid her attention, and took her on dragon rides, making her feel more special than the queen. At the same time, he openly making fun of Aegon and Aemond who were just babies. A teenage Rhaenyra, who liked him, followed what he did.
“making mock of the Greens at court and the ‘lickspittles’ fawning over Queen Alicent and her children.”
Daemon zeroed in on Rhaenyra’s issues with Alicent, and together they openly mocked Alicent, her children, and their supporters. It wasn’t subtle it was public, deliberate, and part of the growing hostility at court. They raced dragons together, and Daemon told her she was way prettier than Alicent, which boosted her teenage ego.
Princess Rhaenyra was a different matter. Daemon spent long hours in her company, enthralling her with tales of his journeys and battles. He gave her pearls and silks and books and a jade tiara said once to have belonged to the Empress of Leng, read poems to her, dined with her, hawked with her, sailed with her, entertained her by making mock of the greens at court
Rhaenyra was only fourteen. Whether the rumors were true or not, Viserys kicked Daemon out again. Daemon returned to the Stepstones, and things in King’s Landing calmed down. I’ve already explained the grooming part HERE.
“Queen Alicent’s urging that Viserys sent Daemon away. But Septon Eustace and Mushroom tell another tale...or rather, two such tales, each different from the other. Eustace, the less salacious of the two, writes that Prince Daemon seduced his niece the princess and claimed her maidenhood. When the lovers were discovered abed together by Ser Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard and brought before the king, Rhaenyra insisted she was in love with her uncle and pleaded with her father for leave to marry him. King Viserys would not hear of it, however, and reminded his daughter that Prince Daemon already had a wife. In his wroth, he confined his daughter to her chambers, told his brother to depart, and commanded both of them never to speak of what had happened.”
DAEMON was her true enemy, not Alicent, not her younger siblings. It was him. He shaped her into hating Alicent and her younger siblings he groomed her. He was exiled twice for good reasons. We know exactly what his relationship with children was like he mocked a dead baby and called him “heir for a day,” he groomed his niece just because she was named heir, he destroyed her relationship with her siblings and he was known for raping the “youngest” and most “innocent” and he’s a child murdrer. People blaming Alicent for everything while giving Daemon a pass is honestly a great example of how misogyny works in fandoms. So why is all the hate going to Alicent instead of Daemon? Because people are more comfortable blaming women especially than blaming men who act violently and break all the rules. That’s misogyny. It holds women to higher standards and excuses bad male behavior as “complex” or “grey,” while any female ambition is called evil.
So who’s exactly was beefing raping, grooming and killing children? Daemon Targaryen. People blame Alicent for turning her kids against Rhaenyra, but in the books, it was daemon who started it. Alicent did what literally any noblewoman in her position would’ve done and still got blamed. Daemon broke every rule and still got defended. At that point of course Rhaenyra and her stepmother, Alicent, don’t get along at this point. Rhaenyra and Daemon had just spent six months making fun of Alicent, her kids, and everyone in her circle. Aegon was only about four or five years old, so any tension was mostly one-sided but even little kids can tell when someone’s ignoring them or making fun of them. Also, Rhaenyra made it CLEAR how she felt by always calling Alicent’s kids her half-brothers, instead of just saying brothers like a normal sibling would. That says a lot.
“My half brothers would be more to his taste,” she told the king (the princess always took care to refer to Queen Alicent’s sons as half brothers, never as brothers).
It’s also interesting that Aegon always called Rhaenyra “sister” and “heir,” which suggests Alicent never poisoned him against her because if she had, he wouldn’t have spoken of her that way just like the way rhaenyra does.
Someone may say: But Alicent is the one who need to fix the relationship between rhaenyra and her siblings! Again you can’t apply twenty-first-century standards of blended family harmony to medieval societies especially royal courts. Alicent could not take Rhaenyra to a therapist or send her to a progressive boarding school to process her feelings. I know many ppl today judge Alicent through a modern lens, as if she could have solved everything by encouraging some warm, close relationship between Rhaenyra and her younger half-siblings. But this is an unrealistic expectation and shows a lack of historical understanding. In medieval-style societies it wasn’t possible for Rhaenyra to build bonds with her half siblings like today by taking care of the babies herself, teaching them to read, or taking them to school. Royal children were raised by wet nurses, maesters, and septas. The family dynamic was formal and often distant. So when you today insist that Alicent “failed” Rhaenyra emotionally, or was automatically cruel because Rhaenyra felt jealous , you’re ignoring basic feudal realities: Royal marriages were about alliances and heirs, not feelings. Queens were not expected to “blend” families in modern terms.
F) The entire emotional labor of the family cannot fall on Alicent’s shoulders
People love to dump all responsibility onto Alicent as if she alone should mend the family, make peace, make Rhaenyra happy, make her children adore their half-sister, and magically smooth over structural conflicts created by Viserys and the entire feudal system. Alicent cannot “make her children love Rhaenyra” when Rhaenyra never tried to know them. People speak as if Rhaenyra was some warm, loving big sister who was denied the chance to bond with the younger kids. But in canon, she barely interacted with Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, or Daeron. She did not spend time with them, didn’t build any trust, didn’t treat them like siblings, never refers to them as “my brothers” always “my half-brothers” The only time she pushed to “interact” with Aegon or Aemond was to demand punishment for the “bastard” insult And that’s it. That’s the relationship. You cannot demand that Alicent “make her children love Rhaenyra” when Rhaenyra showed no interest in them and no desire for familial closeness. Even in feudal terms, Rhaenyra didn’t act like siblings in royal families who were politically raised together to avoid conflict. She simply didn’t engage. Viserys creates the conflict ? Alicent is supposed to fix it. Rhaenyra refuses to bond ? Alicent is supposed to fix it. The children dislike each other ? Alicent is supposed to fix it. Tension rises ? Alicent is supposed to fix it. Violence erupts ? Alicent is supposed to fix it.
But Alicent did actually try to fix the relationship and she told viserys:
Queen Alicent had her own candidate: her eldest son, Prince Aegon, Rhaenyra’s half-brother. But Aegon was a boy, the princess ten years his elder. Moreover, the two half-siblings had never gotten on well. “All the more reason to bind them together in marriage,” the queen argued. Viserys did not agree. “The boy is Alicent’s own blood,” he told Lord Strong. “She wants him on the throne.”
Rhaenyra is now sixteen. She’s no longer a teenager she’s an adult. Alicent actually proposes she marry Aegon, and one of the reasons she gives is that they don’t get along. “All the more reason to bind them together in marriage,” she OPENLY acknowledging that Rhaenyra IS hating her now six-year-old younger brother. If Alicent hoped for Rhaenyra and Aegon to marry, why would she be poisoning her children against Rhaenyra?… But Viserys shoots the idea down, saying, “the boy is Alicent’s own blood she wants him on the throne.” I mean…? yes, of course she does, it’s her RIGHT! AND SHE WANTS HER SON TO STAY ALIVE. Viserys treat Alicent like a glorified mistress he uses her for heirs but won’t fully back her politically, won’t protect her sons in the succession, and refuses to make clear choices. Alicent end up being stuck between the role she should rightfully hold and the way her husband diminishes her. Why is that Book Alicent’s “worst crime” is wanting her husband to do what virtually every lord and king in the Seven Kingdoms does: name his firstborn son as heir or having her blood on the throne.
Even under the stupid argument that the proposal was an attempt to undermine rhaenyra’s authority as Queen. this is still complete fan-fiction and not supported by the book. Why wouldn’t Daemon undermine her authority, considering he was explicitly meant to be kept away from Rhaenyra and the throne? Her entire claim was, in part, justified on the basis that Daemon had to be disinherited and excluded from power. Where does it say Otto, Alicent, or Aegon II would’ve usurper / undermine Rhaenyra if she married Aegon? Viserys being annoyed at Alicent wanting her “blood” on the throne doesn’t mean he thought they’d undermine Rhaenyra. since any children Rhaenyra and Aegon had would also be of their 'blood', so they would get what they wanted “their blood” on the iron throne. And Aegon wouldn’t have usurped Rhaenyra if she’d been his wife from the start he even called her sister and heir and the main argument used to convince him was that she’d kill his family but if they’d had children together, that threat/argument wouldn’t even exist.
END…
Adult Rhaenyra
Once Rhaenyra marries Laenor, the situation fundamentally changes. She is no longer a child navigating a blended family. She is a married adult woman, publicly confirmed as heir, forming her own political household. At that point, the idea that Alicent should still prioritize a warm, maternal relationship with her stepdaughter over the security of her own children stops being realistic. By then, Rhaenyra has already made her hostility clear. She openly resents Alicent and her children, she spent 6 months mocking them, and treat their very existence as an insult/threat. That matters. In a feudal system, feelings become policy. If the heir despises you, you cannot assume mercy later. Alicent would have been irresponsible not to read the writing on the wall.
And yes, the half-siblings’ dislike of Rhaenyra is completely understandable. From their perspective, she is: An older sister who resents their birth. Someone who mocked them publicly. Someone who calls them half brothers instead of just brothers. They didn’t create that rivalry. The system did and Rhaenyra never tried to soften it. Rhaenyra didn’t have to love Alicent or dote on much younger siblings. No one expects that. But as heir, she did have a responsibility to manage relationships that directly affected succession stability. Cultivating even a cold, formal bond something like “we disagree, but we coexist” would have gone a long way. She never even attempted that. Instead, Rhaenyra consistently chooses the worst option: She’s reactive rather than strategic. She takes things personally instead of politically. She lashes out, then doubles down. She never adjusts after mistakes.
A smarter heir would have understood that Alicent’s children were not just “annoying reminders” of her father’s remarriage they were permanent political facts. You don’t neutralize rival claimants by ignoring them or humiliating them. You neutralize them by binding them to you with roles, incentives, and mutual interest. Rhaenyra does none of that. So by the time Alicent stops trying to play stepmother and starts acting purely as a political mother, it’s not cruelty or jealousy it’s triage. Rhaenyra is grown, married, entrenched, and openly hostile. Alicent’s remaining duty is to the survival of her own children.
And honestly? If Rhaenyra had been even moderately patient, cautious, or self-aware, the Dance might never have happened. But she isn’t written as smart. She’s written as impulsive, proud, quick to anger and convinced that being named heir means she no longer has to earn loyalty. That flaw doesn’t make her evil but it does make her a disaster waiting to happen.
Aenys did coexist with Maegor, even though Maegor was violent, volatile, and terrifying. And the reason that coexistence worked, for as long as it did, wasn’t law or precedent it was personal politics. Aenys genuinely loved his brother, trusted him, and kept him close. He gave Maegor status, command, and honor. He didn’t try to sideline him, call him half brother, humiliate him, or pretend he didn’t exist. That emotional bond mattered more than any legal theory. The war only becomes inevitable after Aenys dies, when the throne passes to Aegon the Uncrowned. Aegon and Maegor had no such bond, no shared trust, no emotional investment. Maegor was cruel and had no reason to accept Aegon’s rule, and Aegon had no power to contain Maegor. At that point, law collapses and force takes over and Maegor wins.
That’s exactly the lesson Rhaenyra fails to learn. Violent or rival claimants can sometimes be managed if there is: genuine affection or respect, inclusion rather than exclusion, a sense that their survival and status are tied to the ruler’s success. Aenys understood this instinctively. He ruled softly, but he ruled relationally. Rhaenyra does the opposite. She treats Alicent’s children as insults, not as political realities. She never builds affection, never offers security, never creates mutual dependence. She assumes her claim is self-enforcing.
Viserys openly favors Rhaenyra over all his other children, to the point where his children with Alicent (Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron) are treated almost like political afterthoughts unless they’re directly useful to maintaining Rhaenyra’s claim. He doesn’t cultivate their public image, he doesn’t ensure they hold central positions at court, and he shows no visible desire to integrate them into the same intimate, doting relationship he has with Rhaenyra. So alicent decided to take care of her own children instead of his own child.
Viserys didn’t even try to secure anything for his kids with Alicent. Like, compare that to Henry I Empress Matilda’s father and Viserys’ real-life parallel who made sure his illegitimate sons were well provided for. Henry I gave his bastards lands, titles, and marriages to secure their futures. Why? Because Henry knew that men with nothing to lose are dangerous. If his bastards were landless, powerless, and dependent on royal favor, they could become focal points for rebellion. By giving them security, he reduced the incentive to challenge Matilda. But Viserys? Viserys does the exact opposite. He has three trueborn sons which is already a political earthquake in a male-preference monarchy and yet: He does not grant them independent lordships. He does not give them meaningful political roles. He does not arrange marriages early to bind them to loyal factions. He does not carve out futures that exist outside Rhaenyra’s inheritance.
And this is the truly baffling part: Viserys intends to pass over his sons, yet does nothing to protect them from the consequences of that decision.
If Rhaenyra inherits, her brothers are: Obvious rival claimants. Living symbols of an alternative succession. Permanent threats to her legitimacy, whether she wants that or not. Any competent king would understand that this puts those boys in danger. Either you: Integrate them safely into the political order with lands and power, or Accept that they will become flashpoints for conflict. Viserys does neither. He just… ignores the problem and hopes love and oaths will fix it.
Under Viserys’s plan, Aegon, Helaena, and their children are not being integrated into the future regime at all. They’re being asked to exist at the mercy of Rhaenyra’s goodwill, with no independent base of power, no legal insulation, and no guaranteed safety. Which means their safety depends entirely on one thing: Rhaenyra choosing not to see them as threats. And that’s an absurd gamble to ask a mother to take especially in a system where rival heirs don’t have to act to be dangerous; they just have to exist.
That’s why Alicent’s fear isn’t paranoia it’s rational. Viserys is asking her to trust that: Her sons will be safe without power. Rhaenyra’s reign will be uncontested. Daemon will magically stop being Daemon. Centuries of succession custom will simply not matter. That’s not governance. That’s denial. Henry I prepared for conflict even while trying to prevent it. Viserys refuses to prepare at all and leaves his wife and children to pay the price for his wishful thinking.
From Aegon’s perspective, the logic is brutal but simple: If he does nothing, he remains a living rival forever. If Rhaenyra feels insecure, he and his children are liabilities. f anything goes wrong in her reign, he becomes the obvious scapegoat. So what does he actually have to lose by pushing back early? The status quo already puts him on a slow path to erasure.
That’s why Alicent’s resistance isn’t some personal vendetta against Rhaenyra. It’s a response to a system that has already decided her children are expendable. Any mother in a dynastic society would read the situation the same way: if your sons are denied power, land, and futures, then they are being denied safety. And this is where Viserys truly fails them all. He wants a clean, painless succession without doing the work that would make that possible. He refuses to choose between his daughter and his sons, so he chooses nothing and “nothing” in feudal politics is a decision with consequences. Alicent pushes back because she has to. The structure gives her no other option. In a world where power equals survival, asking her children to “freeload” under their sister’s rule isn’t peace it’s a countdown.
Let’s not forget that Court gossip always exaggerates tensions especially between women.
Misogyny fuels the dramatization of female relationships. In Westerosi court culture, which is like real-world history, women’s interactions are often reduced to catfights or rivalries, regardless of reality. Two powerful women in proximity are expected to hate each other, and even minor disagreements are exaggerated into deep animosity. Court gossip is both performative and strategic: nobles benefit from portraying houses or key figures as unstable or divided. Rumors of enmity between a queen and her heir, for example, could serve multiple political agendas.
If Alicent truly had open and obvious enmity toward Rhaenyra as early as 10, she would have been politically punished for it. Viserys loved Rhaenyra and continued to support her claim even after Alicent bore him sons. If Alicent were openly antagonizing Rhaenyra in court, she would be undermining her own position as queen. There is little concrete textual evidence of her doing that until the war nears. We don’t have a neutral narrator this is filtered through male and biased chroniclers. Much of our perception of Alicent “antagonizing” Rhaenyra comes from sources like Septon Eustace and Mushroom, whose accounts are biased, contradictory, and colored by misogyny.
The idea that Alicent made her hatred “obvious” or “antagonized” Rhaenyra from childhood is likely a distortion rooted in court gossip and misogynistic assumptions. The reality was probably a tense, complicated, and mutual discomfort amplified by sexist tropes and chronicler bias rather than direct personal hostility on Alicent’s part. There’s basically no solid evidence in the books that she’s some Machiavellian villain. Most of it comes from Mushroom or other interpretations that exaggerate her ambition or make her as a foil to Rhaenyra.
THIS IS a very GOOD post about the evil stepmother Alicent by @gwenllian-in-the-abbey here:
💬 2 🔁 75 ❤️ 153 · Do you think that book!Alicent was a one dimensional evil stepmother and the show has fixed her by making her a sad vict
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