I have a necklace. It's of great value. That's not a son.
To people saying Alicent is somehow a rape supporter by placing Aegon on the throne… are you good??? Did you not see Alicent slap him and denounce him as her son after what he did to Dyana? And to those saying something along the lines of “she should have killed him” or “she shouldn’t have supported his claim”; first of all most of you belong to the same part of the fathom that say that Alicent should have been punished for attacking Rhaenyra, and then you want her to kill a prince?!?!? I’m sorry where is the logic it that. Also, her son being a morally corrupt person doesn’t mean she should endanger the lives of all of her children and grandchildren by allowing Rhaenyra to become queen. Like, sure, sorry Aemond, Helaena and Daeron, your brother is not a good person so I’m leaving all of you (as well as the realm) at the mercy of Daemon and Rhaenyra who have openly killed people that stood in their way and spoke the truth before but no I’m sure it’ll be fine, she’s your sister, never mind the fact that she threatened to torture your ten year old brother after her sons maimed him for speaking the truth, I’m sure it’s all good now and she’s going to leave Viserys’ THREE male legitimate sons running around in peace.
Also, if Alicent is supporting rape by being in proximity to Aegon and giving him more power what on earth does that make Rhaenyra who placed wifekiller blood supremacist Daemon at her side??? Make it make sense.
Being Alicent Hightower's granddaughter
Being created by Aegon II's sperm
Being autistic
Marrying the son of the woman her father killed in a political marriage
Not making her traumatized husband happy
Having "diluted" blood
Being named after misogynistic King Jaehaerys
Something striking about the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent that the show tries to awkwardly scoot past is that time and time again, Alicent sacrifices her own interests and desires for Rhaenyra's benefit, while Rhaenyra never does the reverse. Alicent teaches Rhaenyra history, dresses and crowns her for her investment ceremony, comforts her after her mother's death, advises Viserys *against* naming Aegon heir, supports reconciliation between Rhaenyra and Viserys that ultimately gets her father and sole supporter fired, seriously considers switching sides to her despite the severe risk to her own children, and goes against her father to try and save her life. The most Rhaenyra gives Alicent is a few hollow words of praise in episode 8.
Though the show doesn't seem to realize it, their relationship isn't one of equals, but of master and servant. Otto and Alicent are parallels in this sense - both are in a sense, servants of the Targaryens who do not wish to merely serve. But the show buys into the expectation of their service and Targaryen masterdom uncritically: the great crime of Otto and Alicent is their attempt to subvert the natural order of things rather than meekly serving their Targaryen masters. It's why Alicent is most sympathetic when she is loyal to Rhaenyra, but the reverse isn't true, because why would Rhaenyra be expected to do anything for a mere servant like Alicent?
Which really just goes to show the big class blind spot the show has. By presenting "goodness" as solely a function of how closely one can follow Viserys' orders, they're regurgitating one aspect of medieval social customs to oppose another. With this context, Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship feels less healthy and a lot more like a premonition of Alicent's relationship to Viserys, with similar power imbalances. Rhaenyra and Alicent love each other, but Rhaenyra sees Alicent as a sidekick at best, doesn't take her seriously as someone with her own inner life and desires, and is sensitive to Alicent's perceived disobedience ("questioning my virtue is an act of treason.")
I think it also gives context to Criston and Alicent's relationship, given that Criston is *also* relatively low nobility, and a servant to the Targaryens, who feels taken advantage of by them, and whose great crime is trying to be something other than a servant, to *make* kings, not just to serve them.
Hello, love your art. It's very cute)))) You have a new russian fan. Can you tell me what rulers do Hungarians consider to be the best? I have to admit I know very little of Hungarian history...
Hi tairin! I’ve seen your other message too and I’m thankful for the kind words! Sorry for the delayed reply! I wanted to make a painting-like drawing for you but I suck at digital painting so here I made a list of Hungary’s Top 5 (+1) rulers in my usual style instead.
I’m afraid only Hungarians will get these jokes. /sigh/ Here are some info about these kings and queens:
-Szent István/Saint Stephen: he was our first king, he brought christianity to Hungary and founded the state. He wrote our first laws and a guide for his son on how to govern the kingdom rightfully - his son was sadly killed during hunting and so ‘game of thrones’ started after his death.
-Hunyadi Mátyás/Matthias: the renaissance king, son of the turk-beater Hunyadi János/John, his family’s symbol is a raven with a ring in its mouth and he founded an elite mercenary army called the “Black Army”. He also conquered Vienna and South-Austria by the way. Legend says he also travelled the country in different disguises and served justice among people.
-Károly Róbert/Caroberto: arrived from Italy from the Anjou-dynasty to take the throne but due to not fulfilling the 3 requirement of Hungarian coronation (must be Holy Crown, in Székesfehérvár, by the Archbishop of Esztergom) he made detours and fought wealthy powerful nobles until he was coronated for the 3rd time for real. Phew. The Hungarian throne is demanding.
-IV.Béla: his father was a money-waster so he decided to be the opposite. Nobles didn’t like him that much though so they didn’t come to protect the country when tatars invaded. Béla fled to Croatia and after tatars left, he returned to refound the state. Hungary became a multi-ethnic country under his rule. (That’s why she refers to the ‘kuns’.)
-Szent László/Saint Lawrence: he was called the knight king because he waged wars all his life. He also carried an axe around for some reason. He was raised in Poland by the way. Many legends are centered around his figure. He rescued damsels in distress and fooled enemy with throwing small stones at them, while the enemy believed it was money.
-Mária Terézia/Maria Theresa: the queen Austrian men didn’t want and Hungarians did because she pleaded with her child on her arm so the Hungarian nobles were touched and exclaimed: Our lives and blood for the queen! (Vitam et sanguinem pro rege nostro!) She also enforced compulsory education for kids so young schoolers of today always blame her for hard education, haha.
Aaand that’s all for this history lesson. Hope it wasn’t too much. ^-^’
MAYA ANGELOU ‘Phenomenal Woman’
i actually hate talisa maegyr. i think her whole plot with robb was so stupid. like in the books robb’s marriage with jeyne is this tragic situation that’s really a culmination of the stress and grief that robb has been going through and unable to truly process because he is a child trying to lead his people in a war. he gets injured and then learns that his former best friend has just betrayed him, captured his home, and killed both of his younger brothers which adds to growing list of loss in his life. his father got executed, his sisters are being held hostage, his best friend betrayed him, and now his brothers are dead. so while he’s injured and kind of being consumed by his grief, jeyne westerling is there to comfort him and they do the deed and this only makes things worse because of how robb was raised and instilled with his father’s honor, as well as seeing how jon was raised, robb feels compelled to marry jeyne to preserve HER honor which ends up being his downfall. but nooooo in the show robb falls in love with foreign beauty talisa maegyr and dies because he’s an idiot and couldn’t keep it in his pants. like don’t get me wrong i love robb’s scenes in the show richard madden call me i just think the story could have been so much better and been true to the tragedy that it is in the books.
a vine comp but it’s twdg season 4
"Helaena does not ride. She has no taste for it". That one line summarizes so many issues with the writing of Helaena (and even Alicent) this season. Women in this show who get in Rhaenyra's way are not allowed to want ANYTHING! Rhaenyra has been presented as the just, equal, rightful ruler so of course they can't risk her looking bad by maybe presenting us the perspective of another woman, a dragonrider who claimed the mount of a previous Targaryen queen, who tragically lost a son because of the war, who was a beloved queen by the smallfolk, whose council was listened to by her husband the king, and, most importantly, never suggested (in the book) that Aegon back down from his claim, only that he should pursue a peaceful resolution before going to war. Queen Helaena's death sparked the uprising of Kings Landing that would lead to Rhaenyra's own downfall and death. Helaena baby you deserved so so so much better than this. She deserved a proper coronation, she deserved to grieve her son, she deserved to ride her beloved Dreamfyre, and we should have seen her struggles and triumphs of being queen in a time of war. Aegon even declared that only his mother and wife be honored and recognized as the two legitimate queens during the dance 😭 This show did her so dirty and i will never forgive them 💚💙🩵💛
Couldn't have said it better
Sorry people this is gonna be a long post, but I needed to vent.
A lot of people in the HOTD fandom are so quick to say that everything Alicent does "against" Rhaenyra is because she's judging her for not following the "rules" of the patriarchy, but imo the anger and conflict between them is way more personal than that. After Alicent is chosen by Viserys as his new wife, Rhaenyra, showing all of her immaturity (understandable, she's so young) feels betrayed by Alicent and starts treating her poorly. Of course Alicent in turn feels betrayed by her closest friend cause Rhaenyra abandoned her when she needed her the most. She was too sheltered and comfortable in her privilege to realize that other women cannot simply say no, Alicent was considered her father's property and then her husband's to do with as they pleased. She is continuously raped by a man she did not choose to marry, forced to carry child after child and on top of that she is refused the only comfort she had, her only friend. She never had the luxury of choice, but Rhaenyra in her naivety, still punished her for it. Alicent tried to hang on, still caring about Rhaenyra and still trying to reconcile with her and being constantly denied and judged by her.
Then, the moment Rhaenyra did something that would surely put her in trouble, she lied to Alicent's face. Alicent believed her and defended her with the king, insisting that Daemon must have lied, that her father must have been misinformed. Viserys knew this to be false, he knew Rhaenyra had lied, but still she was not punished for it. Instead Alicent is indirectly punished again, losing her only ally (Otto is a vile person, but still for Alicent he was the only piece of home, of familiarity she had) because of Rhaenyra. Naturally when she learned that Rhaenyra had lied to her, it was another huge blow to Alicent's heart, because trusting Rhaenyra has literally cost her the only bit of protection she felt that she had left. It's only natural at this point, that Otto's claims about Rheanyra's character began to take root in Alicent's mind. Rhaenyra proved that she could not be trusted and Alicent wasn't about to put her children's lives in the hands of someone who had betrayed her so. She realized that no one would protect her, not Viserys, not Rhaenyra, so she must do it herself.
From then on things were bound to go downhill cause Alicent began resenting Rhaenyra as she still remained oblivious to her privilege and she benefited from it again and again, perhaps even using her father's affection for her to her advantage. And Rhaenyra (understandably) grew tired of Alicent's treatment of her.
In light of that, what happened with Aemond inevitably had a massive impact on their situation, especially on Alicent, whose faith in Rhaenyra was already broken. Her son lost an eye (taken by one of Rhaenyra's kids). Rhaenyra refused to even acknowledge the magnitude of this offence, so quick to defend her kids (and their birthright), who would never do anything wrong and were simply defending themselves (despite there being 4 of them against Aemond) And even in such a dramatic circumstance, all Viserys cares about is protecting Rhaenyra from what essentially is, the truth.
So in my opinion Alicent is not only saying "it's not fair" because Rhaenyra constantly did things that were not "proper" and was never punished for it, what she's saying is more along the lines of "Rhaenyra abandoned me, betrayed me, punished me, hurt me, my son and others to fulfil her selfish goals and nobody ever punished her for it or even had the decency to admit that she might have been wrong".
Alicent is not questioning Rhaenyra's claim to the throne because she's a woman, she's questioning her integrity and wether or not she's trustworthy, she's doing it to protect herself and her children, who she feels could never be truly safe as long as Rhaenyra rules with Daemon by her side.
And feelings like these cannot be simply dismissed, not even with an apology, one must really work on rebuilding trust in each other in order to fix years of betrayal and mutual hurt and resentment, and sadly they just didn't get enough time to do it.
Westerosi propaganda??
"if you believe westerosi historical propaganda" you guys it's so unbelievably over
Mainly a Hotd blog but I also enjoy talking about Asoiaf and Aot. Book!Alicent and Criston slander is not permitted here. 19
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