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why do you woobify a character who is a serial rapist? 🎤

i assume you mean aegon?

i dont woobify aegon. i never have. he deserved that slap and more from alicent and i've said as much multiple times. i dont think he deserves better at this point, hes earnt his fate.

but personally im very secure in my sense of morality and i know i can recognise what aegon is and that he deserves to die a horrible death whilst still seeing in him a great deal of complexity and sorrow thats worth paying attention to. hes a character, not a real person, imo you're meant to explore the different facets of him this way. thats what asoiaf has kinda always been about - exploring your own morality in grrm's fictional obstical course. i can know aegon for what he is and condemn it and still find empathy for the boy he Was and say that everyone failed him.

the only reason i dont bother viscerally hating on him/his actions on this blog is because i usually find it more interesting to consider a different perspective and the show already frames him as awful. i'd much rather hate on viserys for getting such good PR whilst being The Worst, or hate on Daemon for having the most annoying personality i've ever experienced and getting praised for it.

(p.s. everyone leave this person alone we may not see eye to eye but its just a stupid hbo show no point starting real fights over fictional people)

#ask #ozymalek #find a post with me coddling him i dare you #you wont #i actually kept meaning to make a post explaining my exact stance on this so thanks ig

A Response to Ozymalek’s Video on HotD’s Alicent Hightower

LINK to Video on Youtube, “Let's talk about Alicent Hightower...”

This was my comment on their video, specifically responding to them answering the hypothetical of a company asking them to make Alicent a more “sympathetic” character than she was portrayed in the book (skip to 9:07):

Your "sympathetic Alicent" sounds much better. If Alicent were Aemma's lady in waiting and another mother figure to Rhaenyra or at least matronly towards her, Rhaenyra's loss of a mother would make her emotionally more needful of Alicent's presence and they would spend more time together. Perhaps Alicent even becomes Rhaenyra's l-i-w. Viserys, in visiting Rhaenyra, sees Alicent and has more conversation with her than before when she was serving Aemma as Alicent as Aemma's "peer" of age. Having been physically closer to her, Alicent can regale Viserys with moments and memories of Aemma, which would comfort Viserys and bring them closer.

Thus we still have the element of semi-seediness and feeling conflicted for both parties (maybe in this version, Alicent loved or cared for Aemma very much). Thus they have a noncoercive emotional bond that still presents an uncomfortable storyline that audiences contend with: the show could have asked: “Is this right, when Alicent was Aemma's l-i-w? But they like each other, but then Alicent may have a son. Is Rhaenyra going to be disinherited before she ever reaches adulthood, and through her own mother figure? Will Rhaenyra lose another mother? Was this Alicent's plan (even semiconscious) all along? Where does her ambition start and her love for him end?” Etc.

As for Rhaenyra, I think that to some people, the sense of betrayal may not come as sharp as between childhood friends because she already sees Alicent as a mother figure and just lost her mother, she might be grateful for that. Or because they think that mother-daughter figures where "mother" betrays the "daughter" is somehow less poignant or serious than two female peers doing it....but no, it has its own pain and is still a mighty betrayal. It's an adult hurting a child AND having had some sort of genuine connection with her before. Which makes the betrayal as damaging and as terrible as it is. But what makes up for that (or what else, rather than "makes up, "to the careful observer) is Rhaenyra's fear of being replaced--politically and emotionally, being “abandoned” by both matron figure, actual mother, and father all at once.

And what about Alicent, now smarter, thinking of the future and the happenstance of her birthing a boy? Does she now spend less and less time with Rhaenyra, semi/intentionally separating herself from her? To make it juicy, yes she does, and intentionally. Thus the break between "mother-daughter" occurs even before Viserys marries Alicent, as each woman sees the other's ambition and priorities. She and Alicent can get into actual public debates and confrontations even before Alicent marries Viserys because 15-year-old Rhaenyra sees the writing on the wall. If she is 9, like in the book, Alicent could still try to separate herself from Rhaenyra, or a change worth exploring is that she actually does try to foster goodwill between them so that later when she fights for Aegon's claim, Rhaenyra is more conflicted and caught off guard (in Alicent's perspective).

What's even juicier is that 9-yr old Rhaenyra perhaps feels more and more, as she grows, Alicent's duplicity and lack of earnestness in her regard and affection before and after marrying Viserys. Children are people, they can still feel ill will or impatience from adults and this itself could make a stifling environment for Rhaenyra, and set up her self-doubt. This woman has always cared for me and she loves my mother, aren't I betraying her by questioning her intentions? That sort of thing. The queen's party is small and discreet until Alicent accidentally shows her hand or Rhaenyra hears what happens with Otto's dismissal and hears Alicent vie for Aegon.

The point is there is a break. Here is still room for feelings of betrayal that are also suppressed, by both women/girls. After Viserys shows how he doesn't want Aegon despite Alicent caring for him and building an actual relationship with him, she grows resentful while also feeling it her duty to be emotionally accommodating to a degree and out of Viserys' line of sight. Most of the time. Sometimes, she can't help but direct her resentment to Rhaenyra through innuendoes, subtle insults, recriminations for slouching, looking a certain way, acting "unseemly", etc. Because maybe she convinces herself that as the Queen and Rhaenyra's stepmother, she has a duty to "guide" her toward that only "right" way of dress, thinking, etc. Meanwhile, she's not being totally honest with herself and is actually trying to break Rhaenyra down while gathering her own supporters. Before Viserys dismisses her suggestion to marry Rhaenyra to Aegon, she thinks that she's molding Rhaenyra to be a good woman for her son.

Thus leading to Rhaenyra's red/black dress moment, and Alicent reacting to that by also declaring her party's color, green. I think we can still have Otto being emotionally abusive towards Alicent from her childhood, and inserting even more motivation for her wanting power, some of her attraction for Viserys, and wanting her son on the throne. It doesn't have to be all about Otto hurting her and wanting power over him, escaping him, or surpassing him (though that would be still part of it).

So then we’d have a better narrative and concrete scenes in her childhood/adolescence of her anxiety growing and growing, more than what we got in the show. She may also just want power that the average noblewoman/woman of Andal-descent families get and feel justified in wanting such power by serving Aemma, being Rhaenyra's role model (in her eyes), and bringing comfort to Viserys. Like Catelyn, Alicent could have had a living contradiction in her belief that she, as a woman, was entitled to decision-making power, but through her son and husband being paths to that power denied to her. Using as well misogynist principles to place herself on top. That need for power would itself be corrupting.

blankwhiteshield says this:

You can have an irredeemable and evil character that the patriarchy still suppresses and affects the psychology of immensely, rendering her a bigger monster. The commentary on the destructive capacity of static social constructs is not lost as a result. A character can turn into the devil of the story due to a world that ceaselessly strips her of her humanity, as well as as a result of the choices she actively makes.