And yes, Daemon's daughters (Baela & Rhaena) and Daemyra's sons (Aegon III & Viserys II) survived the dance. Not Alicent. Sad. Nah, I'm joking. It's just as well that this bitch is dead. The Greens stans make me laugh trying to make believe that Alicent survived everyone in the end. No way. She will be locked up, hating the color green for the rest of her days before dying of fever. Not very glorious. (On the other hand, those in the comments who try to say that Daemon may have survived... No. He's fucking dead. Stop having weird fantasies about him fucking surviving !)
have yall stop to think how most of those "anti targ" and "anti daenarys" and think her a mad queen because of the show or are those people who says stupid shit like "it was foreshadowing of her being mad" when talking about dany killing slavers in the books, are literally just a bunch of team green mfs that hate rhaenyra and see daenaerys as an extention of her (because dany comes from her line) as if the whole reason targaryens exists isn't for dany??
not only that, but best believe if the story was different and dany was somehow descendant of the targtower line they would love her and use that fact as a gotcha towards team black.
This "gotcha" moment in comments under my previous ask is so funny. No, I don't think that Alicent was unhappy and should be pitied. She successfully married a king who was kind to her and, yes, allowed her too much. She's not a victim. As for Rhaenyra, was her first son born a year after her marriage? So how long have they been trying with Leanor - a couple of months? As a princess in the Middle Ages, she had to either give birth to her children from her husband or not give birth at all, and not think about "love" lol. Marriages at that time were unions for the sake of duty, not for the sake of feelings. Laenor should have realized this too, by the way, and found a way to impregnate his wife.
Hold on, I want to get @reignof-fyre on this one too.
So much to unpack here, imagine saying a gay man should man up and suck up his gayness to do something he is incapable of.
What you people don't realize, if it was at all possible for Rhaenyra and Laenor to have biological children together, they would have. It wasn't for lack of trying or effort. It was just the way the cookie crumbled.
Rhaenyra was not thinking of love when she slept with Harwin. She needed to provide two heirs to two great houses. And by your logic, if she couldn't have Laenor's children she shouldn't have had them at all, and then the men of the realm would see her as deficient and say stuff like "if she can't do a womens job how can she do a mans" so Rhaenyra can't win.
Corlys, Viserys, and Laenor all claimed them as sons/grandsons. The only people who were bothered by it was team green. In the book, many people who supported Alicent even admitted it wasn't likely they were bastards and it was just an article of faith she made them take. The lords of Westeros were racing to marry their daughters to the princes because they were princes. I'd rather be ruled by an illegitimate but good king, than a legitimate tyrant. But it doesn't matter because Jace is legitimate because Viserys says so!!!
Rhaenyra: That was so hot, Kepus.
Daemon: I literally called the person who just flirted with you a degenerate dog, told them I hope they get dragged through the streets, and am currently planning at least ten ways in which I'm going to murder him.
Rhaenyra: I'm so in love with you.
People hold up the bastard card up rhaenyra's face as if she intentionally gave birth to her sons by deceiving laenor and his fam meanwhile laenor knew about the whole thing and he never gave a shit. I always see people blaming rhaenyra for failing to produce offspring with her 1st husband but these same people turn around to pity laenor on how he was used as a political tool by his father who refused to acknowledge his true tastes(granted this is the medieval times so Corlys ignoring the obvious signs shouldn't really be considered as evil) and was "murdered" by rhaenyra so that she could marry daemon. I'm so tired of hearing this narrative of rhaenyra deserving femicide because she tried to "pollute" the iron throne by making her bastard sons kings. They are first and foremost her sons and the iron throne would pass onto jace from rhaenyra not laenor. Regarding the driftwood conflict, its tricky cuz as much as I like to hc that corlys would have never removed luke as heir(If he did, that would indirectly confirm the rumors of his son being gay and not being able to perform his duties) there's also the whole thing with Addam and Alyn. Now in the context of the war both of them were legitimized obviously to gain more supporters for tb but I don't think they would have been made trueborns if the war never happened.
It's a litmus test.
Because you absolutely can have legitimate conversations about bastardy in Westeros, the legality of it, and how Nyra's boys are at a disadvantage simply because of how they look (we are talking about a universe where Daeron the Good got called a bastard and then usurped for being a skinny nerd with a Dornish wife. And he looked 100% Targaryen)
However, a lot of this discourse usually boils down to the boys being unquestioned bastards because they're not biologically Laenor's. His consent, or the consent of the other important men in this equation: Corlys and Viserys, doesn't matter, and can never matter.
Because if you break it down, it's not about their consent. But about Rhaenyra transgressing. Stepping out of her prescribed subservient role.
Like if you're looking at a traditional, feudal marriage a woman is extremely limited in her power. She is functionally subordinate to her husband, with her life and sexuality belonging completely to this one man and this one man alone. If she has an affair, or bastard kids, she is supposed to be punished. Ostracized or possibly even put to death for "bringing shame" to the man and his legacy. (Compare that to the man, who can do whatever, with no to minimal pushback. Hell, he can even father bastards and raise them alongside his kids, if he wants to)
Rhaenyra doesn't conform to this. Not only does she assume the masculine role in terms of status (being the named heir over Aegon), but she also takes charge of her sexuality. She has multiple partners, has kids who are not her husband's. Laenor is the one who adopts them as his own, and they inherit power from her. Better yet, she doesn't 'get punished' for this. Viserys accepts the kids, as does Laenor and Corlys, and she's allowed to keep her status.
This is why some folks will scream how Laenor consenting to the arrangement doesn't matter, how it can't matter, how the boys are bastards and will always be bastards, despite them legally being legitimate (accepted by their father, with his knowledge, blessing and consent)
Because they cannot fathom a woman stepping out of the 'natural' hierarchy and doing something that only a man can do. They need Viserys to punish her, exile her, strip her of her titles, or Corlys to reject her children. They insist Rhaenyra "cucked her husband" because a man relinquishing his patriarchal power and dominance to a woman is a perversions of the 'natural order'. Sex and progeny, in this context, are power, a cudgel wielded against someone who is meant to be lesser, a step below in the hierarchy.
Rhaenyra isn't that. She's the inversion, and this is why her transgression isn't tolerated, and can't be tolerated as it represents a challenge to the status quo. (while other bastards are accepted and exalted just fine: see Jon Snow and how everyone insists that he must turn out to be legitimate simply because something something, he's the chosen hero. Even though there is no way for Rhaegar and Lyanna to have legally married, much less had their union accepted by anyone)
It always amuses me when TG acts like Alicent's life would've been better if she hadn't married Viserys, like no, if she had failed in seducing Viserys her father wouldn't have allowed her to marry someone of her choosing, he probably would've married her to the best buyer and given her status it wouldn't have been someone very important and as we were able to see, Otto doesn't care about the age of the suitor
And no, don't say "But but but house Hightower was important bla bla bla" because though that's true, her father is the second son, so unless her uncle died with no heirs, her marriage prospects weren't very good, the only thing that would've saved her a little would be the fact that she was friends with the heir, and someone would've married her in the hopes of getting close to Rhaenyra and striking an alliance, but that's me trying to find something positive about a marriage with Alicent (in the political sense). Like, there's a reason why Otto didn't publicly present Alicent as an option, because he knew he would be laughed at, who would think that the king was going to choose the worst out of his 2 options?
Viserys married her because he thought she was interested in him (in s1 ep 2 she tells him she had been enjoying his company), or at the very least that they got along, she visited him in her best clothes looking better than she ever had (cause let's be honest here, she looked great), which showed more skin than normal, she ate with him, gave him gifts, etc. Like that's shit you do in Westeros if you are interested in someone. He also married her not because he was looking for a male heir, but because he needed that little reassurance that if something happened to Rhaenyra before she had children there would be someone who could take the throne, like there's a reason why back then people had many children, not because they were the product of love but because they had titles to lend and they needed to ensure that they would pass to someone in their lineage, after all, Corlys said it himself "History does not remember BLOOD, It remembers NAMES"
Viserys isn't some sort of pervert for marrying someone younger than him, that was normal in Westeros, women were considered old and barren as soon as they turned 24 (exaggeration), do you really think lords married young girls to prey on their beauty and youth? No! They married 15-year-olds because they were fertile and because of the advantages the marriage would bring to them, a marriage was never simply because "they are beautiful"
People need to stop putting so much blame on Viserys, does he deserve it? probably, but greenies often forget that Otto was the one who pimped out his daughter, and put all the blame on Viserys as if he had requested the guards to bring Alicent to his chambers as if he had made the first move.
"oh but he told her not to tell Rhaenyra" Wrong, he ASKED If she had told Rhaenyra, why would he ask her not to tell Rhaenyra, what, 6 months after they started seeing each other?
One last thing, Alicent did have a choice, she could've told Viserys "My dad sent me to comfort you" and then acted like she misunderstood what Otto meant by it and if she didn't do that and went with her fathers plan she could've told Rhaenyra, that way she could've at least saved her relationship with her. After all, if Alicent had a right to get mad at Rhaenyra for not telling her she had gotten stuffed by Criston, Rhaenyra surely has a right to get mad that her best friend had been seeing HER dad behind her back for MONTHS
