I Find It So Interesting How This Show At Its Core Is YEARNING To Be An Understated Brooding Character

his big doleful eyes and violently self-destructive tendencies have captivated me

The amount of ppl who don’t realize that Alicent choosing Helaena’s safety over her sons and Helaena willingly giving up her son to protect her daughter are direct parallels drives me crazy. LIKE ITS SO OBVIOUS!!!!! And it’s such an important part of the message of the show and also Alicent’s character development!!!!

I think that’s why it makes me so mad when ppl berate Alicent in the finale for “choosing Rhaenyra”! Because she wasn’t choosing Rhaenyra, she was choosing her daughter! Her now being able to be at peace with Rhaenyra was an obvious benefit, because her love for Rhaenyra is also important, BUT she never would have made that choice for JUST Rhaenyra.

It’s all about making sacrifices as a mother. And how when it comes down to it, society wants you to choose your sons, because they’re the heirs, and they’re the ones who are “more important”. I mean, come on people, the reason why Aemma died is because Viserys was so obsessed with having a son. That’s a major part of the message about misogyny.

And so Alicent and Helaena choosing their daughters was their rebuttal against the patriarchy, and the only one they could really make.

And when it comes down to it, it was also Alicent choosing her younger self. This season also showed that Alicent really sees herself in her daughter, so in a way, choosing Helaena was also her way of making things up to her younger self. So, she also chose herself over her sons. Which again, she never would have done if she wasn’t protecting Helaena. But it annoys me when people call this selfish, because it’s like…. Yeah! She’s allowed to be selfish for once in her life. I was shocked by the amount of ppl who are self proclaimed “Alicent apologists” being annoyed once they perceived her as not a saint anymore. I also admired her love for her kids in the first season, but I’m also proud of how she’s growing to choose herself! And while she’s definitely not evil like her weird misogynistic haters make her out to be, she DOES have flaws. She’s a genuinely complex character, which is the reason why I thought everyone who liked her liked her in the first place.

But yeah it just annoys me when people say the finale was out of left field because I thought that Alicent’s actions in it made a lot of sense honestly. Idk maybe it’s because it’s different from the book and I’ve never read the book…

But during Blood and Cheese when Helaena chose her daughter I was like “I sense a parallel coming” … this is going to show Alicent something important… and I was not surprised when the parallel delivered 🤷

if you were going to tell me i would be in tears at the end of an eight-episode mockumentary on fucking freevee because not only did they manage to find one of the most genuine men on the planet earth to be part of their entirely-staged story, but because every single actor who got to know him longer than we did at the end said full-stop they’d fallen in love with him and were so happy to be his friend and had so much fun with him and because everyone acknowledged that he just went above and beyond time and time again every time he was faced with a moral or ethical dilemma and proved people ARE inherently good actually!!!

i wouldn’t believe you and yet. here we are

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.

“Team green! No team black!” Shut the fuck up!! Just have Rhaenyra and Alicent settle this in bed DAMN

Nancy Wheeler, Sam Larusso, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Lori Grimes, and Alicent Hightower, I will always defend you from your misogynistic haters.

hotd tells the story of an undying love between two women which consistently overcomes the violence of war, feudalism, and patriarchy. the affection between rhaenyra and alicent weaves through the narrative to tell us something larger about misogyny, gendered violence, etc., that is far more compelling than f&b's incessant and arguably banal “male primogeniture is bad,” thesis. rhaenyra and alicent are not “codependent,” and hotd’s writing (with regards to this relationship) is not “misogynistic;” this relationship is a representation of the power of love against seemingly insurmountable odds and the consequences of rejecting adherence to duty in an inherently corrupt sociopolitical system. rhaenyra and alicent’s dedication to one another sharply contrasts the brutality of the dance, compelling the audience to contemplate the futility of the conflict, the pervasive nature of misogyny, and, ultimately, the faculty of love as a means to combat suffering.

rhaenys acting all stoic and superior being like 'its not my war to start' but she'd already murdered and disfigured hundreds of innocent people like oh my god the unintentional unseriousness of this show

"hannibal fell first but will fell harder!!"

"will fell first but hannibal fell harder!!"

"hannibal fell first AND fell harder!!"

bro they both fell off a CLIFF!!!! those mfs are in the OCEAN!!!! WHAT!!!!

No because literally if Byler is canon this show is a cinematic masterpiece.

omg i was wondering why will didn't bring up that he could still feel vecna sooner or why we didn't at least get a shot of will looking panicked the moment they got back to hawkins like i thought the way they brought that up was way too random but if that scene in hopper’s cabin is actually from mike's pov then it makes so much more sense that we as the audience find out at the same time as he does 😭 and the way that scene is shot with will framed in the light because thats how mike sees him i feel ill