Reminder that it is not wholly that Viserys marries again that is the wrong done against Rhaenyra and the security of her claim.
Viserys believed--or forced himself to believe--others' willing and consistent maintenance of peaceful etiquette, or their loyalty to "peace". Because he didn't have the willingness to imagine uncomfortable scenarios AND dedicate solutions towards them, esp after explosions of the tensions he'd create and failed to really address before or as they occurred. He thought current (imperfect or insufficient) obedience meant later ("perfect") compliance. That everyone had the good faith of the "realm's" interests at heart, or he simply decided to close his eyes to the facts showing contrary while he'd been alive: Alicent's demands and disgust for Rhaenyra's sons, Aegon & Aemond's actions, his own reneging on the deal with Rhaenyra abt not having Otto as his Hand or so close (she point-blank told him Otto's scheming too much and dangerously...). Could still be both working in tandem, reinforcing each other in his rationale.
Yes, he would either eventually have to marry again to have "back up" kids if anything happened to Rhaenyra OR he'd have to immediately abdicate for her to become Queen. The latter which I think she was not ready for and too young for at the time he was considering who to remarry. She wouldn't have had the years of sitting at Council and being Princess/Lady of Dragonstone experience that she had in canon.
Viserys' first stupidity was thinking marrying a Hightower was a safe bet...one of the most powerful and ambitious families of the realm? One where your families' historical contention is a bit wrought back from Maegor and Ceryse Hightower to the Faith Militant? And when it hasn't been long enough since then? Sure.
He severely overestimated Otto's dedication or sense of responsibility and underestimated his ambition bec he refused to take and observe him too closely and possibly understand he'd have to upheave the familiar order. He should have gone for a not-shabbily ranked house but not so eminent or rich as to endanger his chosen female heir if they had kids...bc the Hightowers had a lot of supplies in the Dance or large enough armies to be a problem. To attract those looking to "cash in" on this war, like Rogar Baratheon in Jaehaerys' I/Rhaena BB/Alysanne's time post-Maegor.
His second stupidity--if he commits the 1st anyway--was to not severely punish Alicent for her obvious plotting. Or, you know....stop having kids with her after the first boy! You have your "spare", stop!
Yes, there's the issue of insulting the Hightowers, that exiling Alicent is not like dimissing Otto bc she is Queen Consort/mother to one of his kids, etc. But he should have disempowered her practically without diminishing her courtly rank. Soft "exile", where she is announced to live somewhere away from the main Targs and visits occasionally but shortly. Disguise the act as something towards Alicent's piety in the model of Alysanne's good queenship. Force his kids to spend much more time together sans Alicent AND Otto.
Which also means NOT REINSTATING THE SAME MAN YOU DISMISSED EARLIER FOR PUBLICLY QUESTIONING YOUR SUCCESSION CHOICES!!!!
He reinstates Otto out of a jacked-up notion of "going back to the familiar" for his notion of "peace". EDIT (12/19/25): Really, the issue is that he refuses to consider that image can't be the only thing in your arsenal of politicking/power maintenance. Image-maintenance and constant "giving in" to the status quo even of your subjects doesn't sufficiently consolidate power in the long run nor advance your unit(s) when you are not balancing that with through future planning where you make the dicoveries that you need to make presently inconveint decisions for said outcome. Viserys thought pleasing his subjects superficially would do thetrick when all it did was leave his heir exposed and foment resentments and paranoia. There are times when you have got to use some sort of force to get things done right or to protect interests that are worth the act. And it doesn't have to mean physical violence, I'm also talking sometimes you have to simply put your foot down or manipulate people to do things they may not wan tot do for a bigger picture.
It's him choosing to believe Otto "changed" not bc he had evidence but bc the easiest option, as Otto had the years of experience and Viserys likely thought it reinstated a picture of his own magnamity/strength & good will to both "forgive" Otto and that House Hightower-House Targaryen are once restored their bond.
Third, let's say he still sires too many kids by a Hightower wife. He should have made Rhaenyra his Hand AND never confined her to Dragonstone as he did in response to the Driftmark-Vhagar debacle.
In the 3rd scenario, Alicent would still need to be physically away from her kids. Unfair to the Queen consort to be separated from her own children for months on end? Yes. Another way a woman is used by this system, also yes.
But in the case of his GOAL of protecting HIS CHOSEN HEIR, as a king with final say and who has not been particularly pressed to make a girl his heir other than preventing his (loyal) brother from becoming king....Does it prevent or was it more likely to prevent a posthumous war, also yes. Was Rhaenyra basically forced out of her own home for years bc of a certain older woman/stepmother...also yes. If Viserys didn't want any trouble and live as conflict-absent as possible, he never should have created and maintained the repsonsibility of having the 1st female royal heir apparent.
There might have been an incentive to marry Hightower bc of that rift of Maegor not-so-long past, to re-tie the crown to the Faith like Jaehaerys kinda did...but we see how that turns out.
It's not even like Viserys had to ingratiate his family w/the Faith much bc we have no sign post-Jaehaerys the Hightowers and the Faith were a true serious threat actively planning anyone's downfall. Jaehaerys at least was trying to disempower an empowered and rebellious entity. It's more likely Viserys married Alicent bc she was young (but not too young lie Aemma, to reduce risk of death by labor), pretty, seemingly relatively docile & pleasant & accommodating (she read to a dying Jaeaerys numerous times at 15) aside from all the political stuff I believe Viserys considered bc he wanted to copy Jaehaerys' practices. Thinking it would continue the House's prosperity best of all...bc Jaehaerys was so "good" and competent. A preemptive move to maintain said eminence of the Targaryens.
It backfired on him. Or his legacy. That he was so conflict adverse that he neglected very simple possible consequences for some preventable actions is exactly what I do/did not want to see in Rhaenyra of HotD.
It is actually because of Viserys' conflict adverseness coupled w/his and Jaehaerys' male centeredness that we're lead towards the circumstances of the Dance. Even for the pretext of Aegon's prophecy (which Jaehaerys AND Viserys interpreted as "men needing to be the one sin power, assimilation, then not being in "too much" conflict w/the Andal-FM nobles, etc"):
why, oh why did Rhaenyra not consider that AEGON of all people could not run Westeros well or be held back from running it into the ground even w/Otto there? That he'd actually take Rhaenyra's counsel abt the prophecy or i how to run a kingdom--remember, she ruled Dragonstone for most of her life by that point whereas Aegon...--IF she hd given up the throne? Would Aegon take this prophecy seriously? Doubtful. He's too busy bemoaning abt how he didn't get a position "all the other boys" would. (He's simply unprepared and we see very uninterested in actually considering the consequences of his own rulings, as we saw in how he tries to conduct the peasants' petitions more to seem righteous than to solve problems without severely disadvantaging himself/the crown down the line...bc he has little will for foresight). So how can Rhaenyra or anyone expect him to carry the Targs through to cultivate "worthy" successors who could be TPTWP when he's barely a ruler himself?!
deciding that a goddamned letter from a woman who point blank sought to have her publicly shamed and/or disinherited or endanger her sons actually deserves pause on any negotiations or demands of Otto's cease of the usrpation (bc that is what she did, she should have ripped that paper apart) was absurd and always will be...you can negotiate or try without being a pushover...but she didn't try bc Alicent is her best friend...as for trying to use Nymeria as a possible de-centive agaisnt aggression, that is and would be a SEXIST move....female "obedience" AGAIN!
AFTER Aemond kills Luke during a diplomatic mission (yes, despite what liberals or others try to tell you, there always has been modern AND medieval "rules of war"), show!Rhaenyra continues to try to "negotiate" with the woman who is keeping said kinslayer/murderer from the punitive law...sure...
show!Rhaenyra actually thought Alicent--the Queen Dowager (not a Queen regnants like herself) and having history of not being able to gainsay Otto...remember S1E4 when Rhaenyra herself challenged Alicent about believing Otto--has any control or authority over her own sons or the green council in absentia of Viserys' complacent authority...okay, sure...
show!Rhaenyra disguises herself as a septa to meet with said woman privately with little-to-no proper guards....AGAIN, after Aemond kills Luke and AFTER Blood & CHEESE. In light of how less powerful Alicent actually is without Viserys...WHY is it Alicent that Rhaenyra tries to make negotiations?
Why does she (or rather audiences) trust her younger sons would be safe with the greens when even under Viserys, her other sons weren't?
Point is why is show!Rhaenyra so damn sure of Alicent? At any point, when Alicent was never a "sure" or consistent person, no matter which you slice it.
She didn't truly well before, what makes one think she'll--if she even decides to come through, show!her is so inconsistent in everything but wanting to have a seat w/the men--pull through at the last moment? To prevent war....when she helped it happen bc of obvious, unrestrained jealousy?!
Alicent is only jumping ship in the last episode bc she didn't get the respect and power that she thought she'd get...and this is the person you expect insider help? What if in the next breath, she decides that "Oh no, I see how my sons will ruin both mine and Helaena's lives, I must stay and correct my mistake".
From Rhaenyra's perspective. We the audience--bc of good ol fashioned plot armor (if you are just a show watcher) OR bc we know what happens (bk readers)--know Alicent will....but we are not Rhaenyra nor are in her position.
So yeah, Jace was completely in the right to be critical of Rhaenyra, mother-be-damned. It was his brother who was murdered; his mother could have died and then he'd have to either capitulate or pick up the fight without her protection or the oaths paid to her granting much of their later allies (maybe); it was him and his Velaryon brothers who had to endure the environment Alicent and the greens cultivated at the Keep since young childhood from courtiers. That it was kinda played for jokes in the show was absurd. (Yes Rhaenyra lost a son, endured humilations like those we saw in S1E6 from Alicent and probably some collective dissaproval from courtiers now and again. That doesn't erase Jace & his brothers' own unique problems stemming from their society's reactions to their births AND, definitively, how Rhaenyra was wasting/self contradicting the aim of just keeping herself & her sons alive, much less staying alive to fight for the throne.)
And so yeah, Rhaenyra should not be emulating Viserys' core policy of conflict adverseness on the cusp/during an actual usurpation even as she should be thinking of ways to stave off war or at least some aggression. But once blood is spilled...instead of trying to work with, use their crimes to pressure them to comply to your terms at least!
Of course it's admirable she's trying to avoid war. It's devastating...but let's not act like:
it'd be Rhaenyra's fault or sole responsibility that it happened (and esp even if she hadn't)
there was a huge likelihood either parties could trust the other after B&C and Luke's death, to even honor their negotiations w/o some physical threat or even a little skirmish...what abt Aemond for goddsakes, is punishment would have to be a part of the table...maybe Daemon's as well for B&C
