#alicent uses her personhood and her womanhood as her first defense and offense

[rhaenyradelights]

i’ve said this before but like. rhaenyra can feel abandoned because she knows what it’s like to Have Others. she once had a mother. she once had a doting father. she once had a beloved companion. she once had a doting uncle and a queen-who-never-was to look up to. as a princess she was loved and coddled and rewarded for her impetuousness. but as a woman (not a girl). as Heir. she has none of that. so she can feel it’s loss keenly. she can feel all the things that are taken from her because she was never meant to be heir, because she is not a son.

#alicent doesn’t feel abandonment in the same way bc she never had that sort of life #her love and hatred is honed on rhaneyra as the betrayer as the narcissus as the hand that refuses to reach out #but alicent is not starving in that way bc she was never fed #their pains are separate #alicent feels emptiness and absence and quiet and solitude #but she doesn’t feel Loss in the same way #alicent uses her personhood and her womanhood as her first defense and offense #rhaenyra feels her womanhood as the thing she cannot cast off and the source of her own issues #alicent as the tower. what is a tower beyond its own walls sturdy and true #rhaenyra is a dragon trapped inside a body she didn’t ask for #alicent’s form is used against her and it’s the site of so many battles and so much violence #but rhaenyra’s body… is it’s own crime #rhaenyra #meta #text