#lyonel strong

[allyriadayne]

House Strong during the Dance of the Dragons

[gameofthronesdaily]

“What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms, or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” — G.R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

[kuramirocket]

Rewatching House of the Dragon 1x06 and urrrggghh it just reminds me of how much I hate Alicent.

Just already the beginning of the episode how Alicent forces Rhaenyra to come to her, up stairs, after she has just given birth to see her newborn. Yet, she has the gall to act surprised of how Rhaenyra should be resting when she was the one who requested Rhaenyra's presence in the first place!! And all because she wanted to see for herself if Rhaenyra's third child is a "bastard."

And then how Alicent has the nerve to call Rhaenyra'a children "savages" all because her own son Aegon, Lucerys, and Jacaerys played that pig with dragon wings prank on Aemond who does not have a dragon. Yes, it was cruel and out of line, but the fact that Alicent refuses to even acknowledge that her own son Ageon torments his brother Aemond is just. Even Viserys questioned whether Aegon wasn't the primary instigator. Like Alicent just uses any little excuse to hate Rhaenyra's children. Children who have no control and are not at fault for the circumstances of their birth or who their parents are. And nevermind the fact that Viserys, the king, sees Rhaenyra's children as legitimate. Literally the king's word is law. If he accepts them then that is all that matters.

Alicent is just bitter and miserable from her father's own early poisoning of her - forcing her to marry Viserys in the first place and as Queen forced to give birth and have children. Again, she is a victim of the patriarchy as I have said previously in other posts and reblogs, but she desperately seeks to undermine Rhaenyra because she hates the fact Rhaenyra goes against the system and actively has romantic/sexual autonomy. Alicent claims to care about "decency," but no she doesn't. Plain fact is that she is angered another woman can navigate and rebel against a harmful patriarchal system in a manner she could not.

Furthermore, Alicent actively sought to poison her own children against Rhaenyra. When she tells Aegon Rhaenyra would become queen and thus, Jacaerys would succeed her, Ageon's reaction was literally to say, "So?" Aegon never cared about being king in the first place!!! It didn't matter to him!!! The Dance of Dragons ahould never have happened. But no, Alicent has to poison her children with her own bs that stemmed from her father - your life will be in danger because Rhaenyra will see you, my children, as a threat to her claiming the throne. Like bruh, Rhaenyra has never been the type of person to murder an innocent person as clearly shown when later on she states Haelana is "innocent" when it was thought she ordered the killing of Haelana's child. So, literally, Alicent's children were never in danger from Rhaenyra in the first place.

And then when Rhaenyra proposes that Jacaerys be married to Haelana so they can unite their families like the one they are, Alicent later tells Viserys that Rhaenyra is desperate and trying to bury the transgressions against her. Like what is she even talking about???? What transgressions??? Rhaenyra has literally never done anything to Alicent. Alicent just sees Rhaenyra living her own life, making her own free choices and she just seethes over literally nothing. And if it's about the treatment of her children that shouldn't even be what she's so upset about because again, her own children participate in the mistreatment of their sibling. So, further just shows Alicent's hypocrisy.

Another example, is how Alicent laments her father was removed from being hand ten years ago. She says, that Harwin Strong's father, Lyonel, cannot be partial as hand of the king because of the rumors that Harwin is the true father of Rhaenyra's children. Yet, she states her father would have been "partial to me!" So, again, she doesn't care about fairness and neutrality in a hand or care about the good of the realm, only in having supporters in who will help her destroy Rhaenyra's reputation and that of Rhaenyra's children.

All in all Alicent is hypocritical and only sees herself as a victim. And while yes she was a victim of the patriarchal system, still she seeks to uphold it because she cannot stand to see a woman like Rhaenyra enforcing her own free autonomy under the guise of saying it's like a slap to Viserys and the throne.

As a side note. Do not get me started on Criston Cole. Just how much of a victim he see himself as too. Oh, I sullied my vow of chasity and dishonored myself as commander of the kingsguard by sleeping with Rhaenyra. But because she refused to runaway with me to restore my honor, I remain bitter 10 years later and take it out on innocent children by pitting Rhaenyra's children against Alicent's children during training practice. I use the excuse of the real battlefield and in a real battle you will not know who your opponent is, thus, a match a taller, older and more skillful Aegon against a younger and less skillful, Jacaerys. I am brutal in this training egging Aegon on to keep beating Jacaerys. And when I am rightfully called out by Harwin, I belittle him by insinuating he is the father of these "bastard" children. Yes, what a good man I am who has been such a victim. Clearly, Rhaenyra took advantage of me even though I equally as much wanted to bed her. How can you expect a man like me to resist such temptation from a woman throwing themselves at me?! Don't people know only men can be whores and not women too?!! Rhaenyra was selfish for wanting to pursue her own ambitions over living a life with me as a commoner. The selfishness of this spoiled cunt!!

Like literally, I do not know how anyone can side with Cole. The fact that like Alicent he remains bitter and miserable all these years later, but worse takes it out on Rhaenyra's children who are innocent and have done literally nothing to him.

Both Cole and Alicent are beyond hypocritical.

[laryssstrong]

And what of your lord, Larys Strong, hm?

[chasingthedragons]

Strong genes (& bastards)

1. Ser Simon Strong 2. Nobleman Strong 3. Lord Lyonel Strong 4. Ser Harwin Strong 5. Lord Larys Strong 6. Prince Jacaerys Velaryon 7. Nobleman Strong 8. Alys Rivers 9. Prince Lucerys Velaryon 10. Noblewoman Strong 11. Noblewoman Strong 12. Prince Joffrey Velaryon 13. Paxter Strong 14. Germund Strong 15. Nobleman Strong

TARGARYEN - TARGARYEN BASTARDS - STARK - BARATHEON - LANNISTER - VELARYON - TULLY

[prettymuchteddy]

People who say that House Hightower destroyed the Targaryen dynasty are kind of silly because House Strong is right there. Like House Strong really apparently wanted to get in on the action and just helped bring down a monarchy.

Harwin straight-up had illegitimate children with the crown princess. And yes I know it takes two to tango but Harwin could have stopped it, though as we see in episode 6 he is more than down with this arrangement. The fact that the children just kept coming out looking nothing like her and he still kept seeing Rhaenyra. After Jace he should have taken a step back, I guess he wanted to see if things would change with Luke? Clearly not. The rumors about Rhaenyra's children just tarnished her reputation and put a target on their children's backs. This was him supporting Rhaenyra too and all he was doing was making things worse.

Larys is a whole nother level. The man flipped sides more than a pancake on a stove. The man was plotting against everyone, I swear. He was undermining anyone who wasn't outright helping him. He even got some personal hits in by helping force Rhaenyra out of King's Landing and then poisoning Aegon. This man was made for chaos and he happened to be born in the right time for it.

Lyonel is rarely talked about but it needs to be said, if Viserys neglected the growing problems so did Lyonel. He watched for years as his son, the commander of the city watch, got close to the princess and her having children who looked suspiciously like him yet said nothing. It's not until Criston Cole mentions it that he confronts Harwin. Like just because no one has had the guts to say doesn't mean no one was thinking it. He said it himself Harwin is committing treason that can result in the exile/death of Harwin, Rhaenyra, and the children but again why say it this late?

Just when you thought all the Strongs were dead after Aemond's attack on Harrenhal, enter Alys Rivers. Whether you believe that she cast a spell on Aemond or not, she followed her family tradition of messing with the Targaryens. Intentionally or not, she led Aemond to Daemon and was there to witness them kill each other. Single handily, she killed two Taragryens as well as two dragons: Vhagar and Caraxes. Then she ran off with baby Aemondcito to vibe at her vacant family home.

Say what you will about the Hightowers, I have never seen such a collected group effort by one family (unintentional or not) to cause so much chaos to another family. They were on opposing sides at some points yet still through every step were petty and screwed over the Targaryens. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. This was mostly me highlighting how weirdly funny it is how involved House Strong was in taking down the Targaryens before they themselves went extinct as a house. No hate to anyone just weird how connected they are with everything.

[thetinksessays]

Consent and Rhaenyra

Warning: Today’s essay is going to be about consent and the issues surrounding it. As such, it may not be safe for everyone.

Introduction

I’ve been thinking a lot about Rhaenyra’s relationships (mostly Laenor and Harwin) recently, largely in the context of her children’s bastardy. But it’s also been at the back of my mind that there’s some disturbing issues around consent with at least one of Rhaenyra’s relationships (Criston) and potentially another as well (Harwin).

I’m going to refer to Rhaenyra as the heir here because some of this takes place before Aegon’s birth, when she actually was the heir, and some of it takes place before Viserys’ death, when she was treated like the heir though she actually wasn’t.

Also, this is all showverse, unless I say otherwise.

Ser Criston

Right off the bat, in the scene itself, Criston outright says no and Rhaenyra completely ignores him. She also ignores his less than comfortable expression and hesitance.

But there’s more to it than just that. Criston is a half Dornish steward’s son. By contrast, Rhaenyra is a Targaryen princess and the heir to the throne.  It’s explicitly shown that Criston was given his position on the Kingsguard because of Rhaenyra. He literally owes her pretty much everything.

I bring up these things because they all factor into why Criston likely felt he couldn’t say no to Rhaenyra.

Being a half Dornish steward’s son places Criston in the second lowest rung of Westerosi society. He’s not a peasant but he is lowborn, and Dornish lowborn at that. Dorne wasn’t part of the Kingdoms yet and even when it is, there’s a lot of racism against the Dornish, so we can safely assume it was probably worse at the time of the Dance.

Rhaenyra, meanwhile, is at the highest rung of Westerosi society. There’s maybe three people more powerful than her, and one of them isn’t even consistently in Westeros (King Viserys, Prince Daemon and Lord Hand Otto). She could very easily get Criston killed if she wanted. One word to her father (Oh, father, Ser Criston forced himself on me!) and Criston’s dead.

I’ll like to point out that only about 30 years before this, Jaehaerys I had Braxton Beesbury tortured and killed for sleeping with his daughter. And Braxton Beesbury was a Lord’s son and a relative of a member of Jaehaerys’ small council.

If that could happen to someone much higher up in Westerosi society, well, what chance does half Dornish steward’s son Criston have?

Even if Rhaenyra doesn’t get him killed, she still could have him stripped of his place in the Kingsguard and therefore disgraced in from of the entire kingdom, or exiled, or sent to the Wall or any number of horrible things.

There is a massive power imbalance here, so much so that there’s no way Criston could have felt he could say no anymore insistently than he did, which Rhaenyra ignored.

If you can’t say no, you also can’t say yes. There’s no actual consent there. Criston was raped.

Ser Harwin

So obviously, the situation with Ser Harwin is very different than with Ser Criston. We never see them being intimate. The few scenes we get of them interacting does suggest there’s no discomfort or tension between them.

I would like to point out a few things here, though. First, many people love to claim that Rhaenyra and Harwin loved each other. I say the same thing to that as I say to people who try to claim Daemon loved Laena: you don’t love someone then immediately jump into bed with someone else after their death.

It’s unclear how much time passes between Harwin’s death and Rhaenyra boinking Daemon at his dead wife’s funeral (just to make clear yet again what a disgusting thing that was), but it doesn’t seem to be long. Jacaerys is still mourning Harwin, because he knows Harwin’s his dad for some inexplicable reason, and it’s still fresh enough in Aemond’s mind for him to bring up during the fight.

Second, if there were issues between them brought on by the big power imbalance (more on that in a minute) then Harwin probably wouldn’t want to remind Rhaenyra of them, lest she cause him problems.

Third, the few times we see them interact are mostly around others or at least their children. So of course they’re going to be pretending everything’s fine.

Now, let’s talk about the power imbalance here. It’s less than the one between Criston and Rhaenyra, but it’s still there and still pretty big.

Harwin is the son of the Hand, true, but Rhaenyra got the last hand dismissed pretty easily. It wouldn’t be hard for her to do that again. And if Lyonel gets dismissed, then Harwin loses his place in the City Watch and Larys will lose his position in the confessors. Unlike Criston, who doesn’t seem to have any family, Harwin has a family who will also be affected by Rhaenyra’s power.

Like Criston, if Rhaenyra wanted Harwin killed, it would be really easy. Again, one word to her father and bye bye Harwin. Only it could also be bye bye entire Strong family. It’s not like Targaryens haven’t killed entire families before. Including a previous family that held Harrenhal, matter of fact. No doubt Harwin, who grew up in Harrenhal, knows what happened to the Harroways.

(Very interesting that Maegor keeps coming up here. A future nickname makes more and more sense.)

While I don’t think Rhaenyra did rape Harwin like she did Criston, an argument can be made for it, which is worrisome enough on its own.

Bonus: Ser Laenor

This one doesn’t involve sexual consent, but does involve power imbalances and the ability to say no to Rhaenyra, so we’re going to talk about it.

Team Black stans love to say that the true parentage of Rhaenyra’s sons shouldn’t matter because Laenor agreed to it, and didn’t care about it. But did he actually agree?

Well, personally, I thought the way he behaves and talks during the handful of scenes we got after Joffrey’s death and before his ‘death’ is pretty clear in his annoyance/upset with the situation. But stans will say I’m misinterpreting or demonizing or whatever.

Let’s start off by pointing out that, unlike Rhaenyra, Laenor was never given a choice in who he was to marry. Corlys and Rhaenys, mostly Corlys, are very obvious with their desire to put one or both of their children as close to the throne as possible (and yet they never get bashed for it like Otto does. I wonder why.) so they probably wanted Laenor to marry Rhaenyra long before Viserys suggests it after Rhaenyra wrecks her marriage tour.

Despite what Rhaenyra claims, they pretty clearly weren’t trying for long, if at all. Rhaenyra and Laenor were married in 116 AC. Jacaerys was born that same year. So, presuming the wedding was at the beginning of the year, Rhaenyra had to get pregnant, by Harwin, pretty much straight after the wedding. Meaning she and Laenor likely didn’t try at all, especially considering the man he loved was murdered at the wedding so Laenor likely wasn’t anywhere near the mood to try for a while afterwards.

Did Laenor know beforehand or did Rhaenyra just go ahead, get pregnant then tell him, meaning he had very little choice but to go along with it?

It is made very, very clear that Viserys will not tolerate anyone saying anything insulting about his daughter (and only her. You can say whatever you like about his other children. You can even mutilate one of them. He won’t care.) including questioning her children’s parentage. I very much doubt he would accept it coming from Laenor.

So Laenor can’t do anything about his wife’s very obvious affair and bastards because her father, the King, will likely kill or mutilate him for it (see: his decree about tearing tongues out, Aemond’s face, what’s left of Vaemond’s head).

On top of this, when Rhaenyra decides she no longer has any use for him (because she wants to marry his very recently deceased sister’s husband, who is also her uncle) she fakes Laenor’s death. I have never thought that Laenor actually agreed to that- he goes from promising to be there more for her sons to agreeing to abandon them pretty much the next scene and he doesn’t seem like the kind of cold hearted bastard he would need to be to do that to his poor parents.

So, yeah, there’s a pretty big power imbalance there.

Conclusion

All of Rhaenyra’s relationships involve a big power imbalance between her and her partner, except for her marriage to Daemon.  That is unavoidable simply because of her position as crown princess and heir to the throne, but doesn’t necessarily mean that she is using that power imbalance to abuse/manipulate/threaten her partners. However, when there’s evidence she assaulted one partner and she faked another’s death, it does throw all of her relationships into question.

She was willing to ignore Criston’s non-consent, so who says she didn’t do the same for Harwin? She pretty clearly didn’t care about Laenor, so who says she cared if he agreed to her affair?

Did Rhaenyra ever care about any of her romantic partners besides Daemon? I would argue no. She used and abused Criston, was very quick to move on after Harwin’s death and made Laenor fake his death to be with Daemon. They were fill-ins until Daemon came back.

I guarantee that if Daemon had been in King’s Landing during her marriage to Laenor, all three of her bastards would be white haired and purple eyed. Harwin wouldn’t have entered the equation and would still be alive and happy.

It really is interesting to consider how many people would be much happier if Rhaenyra had never entered their lives, isn’t it?

[addamvelaryon]

Viserys orchestrated Harwin’s death (with Lyonel being an accidental casualty) to deal with the rumours of his daughter’s affair getting out of control. From that moment onwards, Larys dedicated himself to seeking revenge.

During the war, it’s obvious Larys is playing both sides against each other. When he’s standing up on that scaffold, awaiting execution, he speaks like a man who has nothing left to live for but who is content with all that has happened. The war accomplished what Larys set out to do in leading to the death and destruction of Viserys’ family.