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daenerysies · 29 days

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deep diving into the episode three line from rhaenyra, “no one is here for me,” and how if the takeaway from that scene is that rhaenyra is a selfish brat you aren’t proficient enough to do anything past surface-level reading.

in episode one rhaenyra expresses to alicent that she hopes her father gets his son, “for as long as i can recall it’s all he’s wanted.” which leads us (the audience) to understand that while rhaenyra loves both of her parents she feels ostracized from her father (and mayhaps even her mother, to some extent, because of her constant pregnancies) due to his ‘need’ for a son to continue the targaryen dynasty. she is a daughter, only seen as valuable for her womb, which is evidenced that she knows about when talking to her mother. rhaenyra wishes to be a knight and ride off to battle and glory, with aemma giving her a gentle reality check on her lot in life. she does not want to serve the same purpose as her mother.

aemma dies near the end of the episode, with viserys ordering her butchered for the chance that his long-awaited male heir might live. this is a violent and gruesome scene, followed by rhaenyra not even being given the privilege of hearing her mother’s death first. she is instead relegated to members of the small council being alerted, even corlys and rhaenys learning about this before her, she is a silent member on the sidelines. she does not know the extent of what has happened, but she knows that something is wrong.

we have to think about how she learns of her mother’s fate. did otto tell her? did rhaenys? did viserys? did she see her mother’s body ripped open? did she see the bloody sheets left at the scene? was she allowed to hold baby baelon, considering he didn’t die immediately? was she there when he took his last breath? maybe it would bring her some comfort, she didn’t get to say goodbye to her mom. maybe she held him until he passed. did her father offer any explanation? we’ll never know, but these are all such heavy questions in regards to what she experienced that day. she’s fourteen, has spent her entire life watching her mother grieve dead baby after dead baby, losing little bits of herself in the process. it’s no wonder this was a traumatizing period for her, fueling her want (her need) to not be shackled down by marriage and childbirth.

even at her mother and brother’s funeral she isn’t allowed to just grieve, to just be. she has to hold her head high, she has to comfort her father, she has to order their corpses burned. was her father happy for the few hours he had a son? she wouldn’t know, she never will be that for him. how long does he spend wallowing is his self pity? he reprimands daemon for not being there for his niece, but where was he, her father? he banishes daemon, takes comfort from his daughter’s best friend. he finally comes to her, tells her of a great danger rising from the north; from my blood comes the prince that was promised, his will be the song of ice and fire. she hasn’t heard from him in days, a targaryen must be seated on the iron throne to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. her mother is dead, and he has wasted the years since she was born wanting a son. she is now enough, her mother never was.

it has now been six months since her mother's death (murder), and she has been heir the *entire* time. her father won't talk to her, she is still the cupbearer for the small council. lord corlys is angry about a war he says has cost him, the crown will not help. she suggests they use dragons, a show of force against their enemies. her father admonishes her, "it isn't that simple, rhaenyra." he allows the lords at the table to belittle her efforts. the only one appreciative is corlys, "at least the princess has a plan." otto says there are better uses for her talents, she has been heir to the iron throne for six months. she's been given the chance to choose a future kingsguard, she wants one with actual combat experience. the hand is exacerbated, she is firm in her decision. ser criston cole will be the replacement for ser ryam redwyne.

alicent has been visiting her father in his private chambers secretly, corlys wants his daughter to be the next queen. viserys begins openly courting lady laena of house velaryon. rhaenyra and alicent visit the sept, she expresses her worry, her mother has only dead for half a year. the lords seek to replace her, alicent convinces her that she cannot worry about the plots of lords and men, she is the heir, however. why shouldn't she worry? she misses her mother.

she meets with her father, he reassures her, "i loved your mother very much." she apologizes for speaking out of turn at the small council meeting, he tells her she will learn (will he be the one to teach her, though?) daemon has taken a dragon's egg and seized dragonstone, bringing news of his future marriage to lady mysaria. the king means to go himself to stop him, otto will not let him. daemon took baelon's egg. rhaenyra is angry. she reaches dragonstone just after otto's party, she knows they were about to come to blows. she confronts daemon, she is the reason he was disinherited. if he kills her, he'd be done with all this bother. daemon scoffs, walking away from her. he throws the egg whilst still retreating. rhaenyra smiles and leaves. her father is mad once he learns what she's done. she left without his permission, but she retrieved the egg and prevented bloodshed, he should be pleased with her efforts. otto would never have been able to accomplish what she did, he relents.

rhaenys lectures her about the order of things. the realm will never accept a woman ascending the iron throne, but it's different for her. her father is the king, rhaenys' father dies as a prince. her father made the lords of the realm swear obeisance to her, rhaenys never had such a thing. the lords chose viserys over rhaenys at the great council, viserys has not given them a choice. rhaenys is the the queen who never was, rhaenyra is the queen to be. when she is queen she will create a new order, rhaenys warns there will be war (unfortunately she is right).

another meeting takes place between father and daughter. he must take a new wife, someone to help propagate the targaryen line. they are vulerable, to easily ended. rhaenyra understands, it is his duty as king. obviously he will marry laena, the daughter of one of the most powerful houses in the realm and of pure valyrian stock, it is a fine match. alicent is still visiting her father in secret.

her father calls a small council meeting, he means to announce his next wife. rhaenyra is ready, she gave him her blessing (why is alicent here? she never has been before.) her father starts speaking, "i intend to marry... the lady alicent hightower." corlys is enraged, otto is pleased, alicent is anxious. rhaenyra was ready, it has all fallen apart. alicent is her best friend, that friendship dies before her very eyes. she runs from the room.

it has been two years. viserys and alicent are married, and they have a son, with one more baby on the way. the boy's name is aegon, it is his second birthday. he has past his infancy, the lords believe it is only a matter of time until the king names him heir, rhaenyra is well aware of this. the queen visits the godswood where rhaenyra sits. she overrides rhaenyra's authority, commanding the singer to leave. she states the king wishes for her to join them, he wants them to have fun as a family. they do not need her to celebrate his long-awaited son. it is the king's command, she leaves unhappily. alicent wishes for things to be different, rhaenyra knows they never can be.

together they all sit, traveling towards the kingswood. rhaenyra asks after alicent's well-being, viserys reminds her that she will be in this position sooner than late (the same position that killed her mother). "it isn't so bad, the days are long but aegon came quickly and without fuss." the queen states. rhaenyra is hurt, she tries not to show it. the king reminds her she has duties, rhaenyra retorts sarcastically. how long will these duties last, once her father names alicent's son as heir over her? her life will be forfeit before long. no one is here for her.

"no one is here for me." translates to "no one has been here for me. i’ve been alone and angry and terrified for years. i am my father’s heir, but what does that mean? what will it cost? you put me here. daemon put me here. alicent put me here. you have a son now, he outlived baelon and my other siblings. how long until i am cast aside again? made to be some petty lord's wife, made to be a broodmare until it kills me? i don't want to end up like my mother. this heirship is all i have. it will soon no longer be mine. i'm only seventeen. no one is here for me."

rhaenyra is never shown the same amount of grace as alicent for her strifes and anguish in life, for the fact that she too was a child from episodes one through five. rhaenyra might not have been a child bride, but she still spent her life being told she was never enough. she was not a boy, she could not be the heir, her father needed an heir. he kills her mother for it, he ignores her unless she can benefit him. he makes her believe that he will marry laena, only to blindside her by marrying alicent. she realizes alicent has been lying to her for months. her father continues to undermine her throughout the years. he names her heir to spite daemon, which she admits she knows about in episode two. he allows the lords to ignore her. it takes him two years to reassure her he won't replace her. rhaenyra is an angsty teen who has seemingly lost everything and has no support to counter that. she is not upset that no one showed up to a two-year-olds birthday party with her in mind, she is upset that her father continuously overlooks her, that he takes and takes and takes everything from her. he took her mother, he took daemon, he took alicent, he had a son. she has not been able to catch a break due to her father's selfishness. in all honesty, she should have acted out worse, maybe burn everything to the ground. viserys would deserve it, she was far too lenient with him.

#house of the dragon #rhaenyra targaryen #pro rhaenyra targaryen #in defense of rhaenyra targaryen #anti viserys i targaryen #team black #pro team black #anti team green #anti team green stans #hotd meta #i wrote most of this within the past two hours #if you see any typos no you didn't #putting the anti tg tags bc its always them calling rhaenyra a selfish brat #that is my wife i will not let you slander her

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lunamond · 22 days

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The disproportionate hate show!Criston gets is so bizarre. No argument I’ve seen his haters make sofar has made any sense to me.

He is outside of Mysaria the only siginficant lowborn character we meet. He rises up from the son of a steward of a minor house to the position of King‘s Guard thanks to Rhaenyra, who then pressures him into having sex with her, sth that could get him executed. Afterwards she not just rejects his proposal, but laughs in his face.

And when as a result of this experience Criston is shown to be emotional distraught and bitter, people call him an incel? (I assume that they refer to his ideology and not his actual status as a celibate, because not being celibate is literally what started this mess)

It really rubs me the wrong way, when people remove all context from this situation. A lower class person getting a well-off position from a person with authority, who they then end up having sex with is ALWAYS a relationship with a power imbalance (Obviously there are irl relationships like this, who work out and manage to be relatively healthy, but that doesn‘t remove the imbalance of power and the increased likelyhood of abuse).

We see Criston‘s reluctance when Rhaenyra makes her move. It does not matter if Criston was attracted to her or not. The simple fact that he is in a vunerable position makes him denying her a risk. It also does not matter that Rhaenyra had no malicious intentions, the simple fact that she ignores Criston‘s refusal and continues pressuring make this whole scene super uncomfortable. Her ignorance and naivety does not erase the impact of her actions.

Criston growing to hate her afterwards is perfectly justified.

As a man who grew up in Westerosi society, he inevitably holds misogynist beliefs, which is reflected in the insults he uses after this. But compared to the acts of every single character on this show, singling out his character is pretty ludicrous, when we have plenty of male (and female) characters who have done worse:

Like commiting SA (Viserys, Aegon), grooming young girls (Viserys again! I really hate this man, Daemon, Otto, Corlys and Rhaenys because telling your daughter she has to sleep with a grown man when she is 14 is pretty much the same thing Otto does to Alicent) and the only major crime Criston is guilty of sofar: murder (Daemon killed his wife and the servant in Driftmark, also he did large scale police violence which people love to forget about, Rhaenys killed potentially hundreds of smallfolk at the coronation)

Obviously, anybody is allowed to dislike whatever character they want, but a lot of people flatten Criston into just a misogynistic bitter incel who is just mad that Rhaenyra has sex, ignoring every bit of context we get for his behaviour.

This becomes escpecially weird, when those same people have no problem stanning Daemon, who calls his 1st wife a „bitch“, „uglier than sheep“ and then murders her, because he sees her as inferior as a none-valyrian. But Criston calling Rhaenyra, a person he feels personally wronged by, a „spoiled cunt“ is apparently a too far.

It is just really frustating when the character with the canonically lowest social standing gets afforded the least amount of nuance by the fandom (the writers are obvs not excempt from this criticism either).

#There are also people who like to bring up Christon‘s age relativ to Rhaenyra and accuse him of being predatory towards her #This is dumb because for one this still doesn‘t erase the power imbalance #Nor has Christon ever been shown to make an inappropriate move towards her #Also them having a significant age gap in the show is debatable (book Criston is another matter)#We never get a clear age for Christon Fabien never being aged up doesn‘t help either #But based on context clues he is relatively young when we first meet him #He is a knight and fought in one war that doesn‘t mean anything when we have characters who are 16 and are full fledged knights in asoiaf #So he might be anywhere from 18/19 to early twenties when Rhaenyra is 14 in ep1 #Rhaenyra in the ep4 is 18 so at most Criston would be 25 #Compared to all of Rhaenyra‘s relationships this is fine actually realistically she and Harwin would have had a similar age gap #And that relationship is broadly regarded as her most healthy relationship #hotd #house of the dragon #criston cole #pro criston cole #rhaenyra critical #anti rhaenyra targaryen

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bbygirl-aemond · 1 year

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HotD casting is literally INSANE like you can't tell me this isn't exactly what olivia cooke's son would look like

#there's something so special and tragic about alicent's eldest looking the most like her #especially given the parallels of them being forced to marry and have kids way too young #hotd #house of the dragon #tom glynn carney #olivia cooke #aegon targaryen #aegon ii targaryen #aegon #aegon ii #aegon the elder #alicent #alicent hightower #show

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killianglyndon · 1 year

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@gameofthronesdaily event 01: favorite character(s)

↳ RHAENYRA TARGARYEN

ins / po

#house of the dragon #rhaenyra targaryen #hotdedit #gameofthronesdaily #targaryensource #tuserbea #userzil #tuserabbie #dixonscarol #userarjay #zanisummers #userbelin #***#*hotd #dont ask me why some of them look really bad #ask photoshop :) seriously this is probably one of most creative set ever lmao

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i-love-it-loud · 9 months

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I love that everyone on here has decided that Sihtric is Cregan Stark OR the guy from Vikings Valhalla is.

I will say I am bias towards Sihtric, I loved The Last Kingdom. I mean they already casted two people from that show *cough* Aemond *cough* Helaena soooo a third wouldn't hurt....

#I just feel so strongly towards Arnas playing the shit out of Cregan #And I read one article that was most likely 100% bs saying it's rumored that Æthelflaed could be casted too in hotd #While we're at it let's get Finan up in this bitch #idk any of the actors real names except my man Arnas that's why I'm referring to them by their characters #house of the dragon #hotd #cregan stark #sihtric #hbo #cregan x reader #cregan stark x reader #Mr. Steal your girl #sihtric x reader

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saltywinteradult · 5 months

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you ship rhaenicent because you think alicent should just forgive rhaenyra for everything she's put her and her children through and just be happy being lifetime president of the rhaenyra fan club. i ship rhaenicent because i love it when people make their breakup everyone's problem and i can't wait for them to homoerotically commit all of the war crimes because this is a tragedy and they could never have each other. we are not the same.

#rhaenicent #rhaenyra x alicent #also this is optional but i'd love for them to hate fuck #gay sex would most definitely not solve anything and would probably make things worse but they should try it anyway etc etc #istg 90 percent of rhaenicent shippers missed the whole point #the love was there but it didn't change anything because there were just too many forces against it #that's the POINT #house of the dragon #hotd #alicent hightower #rhaenyra targaryen

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lady-clouves · 2 months

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I want nasty uncontrollable horrible women this season. I want Nyra to go batshit crazy and be hell bent on getting her throne back, I want her to show just how deep a mother’s rage can really go. I want Alicent to really commit to supporting Aegon, I want to see her be selfish for once and take and keep taking. I want Baela to be the badass dragon rider she is, I want her to be a character we know and feel for and I want her fight with Aegon to be the coolest thing in the entire show. I want Rhaena to show just how political savvy she can get. I want Helaena to be more than just the mad woman stereotype. I want Mysaria to really be the one that’s team smallfolk and actually look out for them and their best interests, especially commoner children. I want Nettles to BE THERE and I want her to wow everybody and put targ stans into an early grave; I want to see her claim sheepstealer, I want to see her interact with the blacks, I want to see her ride her dragon, and be the coolest hottest person there. And I want to SEE Alys and all her freaky witch stuff, while making self insert girlies angry. And by god I want Rhaenys to have the best ending scene a character could ask for.

#y’all want strong women but can’t handle them when they don’t fit your ideals and standards #or just flat out don’t like them because that character doesn’t like or support your fav #am I hoping to much for Mysaria? most likely but I’d love if they could change her role in b&c #after they’ve changed literally everything else #Laena’s daughters deserve the screen time there mother wasn’t given #in Nettles we trust #rhaenyra targeryan #alicent hightower #rhaena of pentos #baela targaryen #nettles tamer of dragons #alys rivers #asoiaf #hotd

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somestorythoughts · 26 days

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Eldritch Echo

So. I haven't seen the Bad Batch and don't really intend to, but I have read some fics (please do not take that as me saying that's the same as understanding the story) and between that and my thoughts of eldritch stuff in Star Wars and a cool art piece I came across that I think was referencing something I don't have the context for, I started wondering what it'd look like if of the Bad Batch, Echo was the only eldritch/cryptid/vampire/otherwise not human one. NOT because of the Techno Union, but because of something that happened sooner OR he'd always been like that. And I might put a bit of that in my vampire clones thing but I was thinking eldritch and I ended up writing a thing. So. Enjoy:

***********

Crosshair’s willing to admit he doesn’t dislike Echo. He respects the guy’s resilience and his willingness to go with the flow, which is necessary for someone working with their team, even as he rolls his eyes at Echo’s tendency to twitch at the state of their ship and his reluctance to drop the “sir” when talking to Hunter. More than that Echo has zero qualms about sassing him if Crosshair picks a fight and it’s a lot of fun to rile him up.

That said. Echo is also really freaking weird.

Crosshair is very observant, between his eyesight, his role on the team, and his training he had to be and either something’s very off about Echo or he’s started hallucinating because he keeps seeing things that don’t make sense. Not for a reg and not for a cyborg.

He explains this the Hunter once, trying to see if he’s noticed anything, and Hunter frowns. “Can you give me an example?”

“His eyes for one.”

Hunter blinked. “What?”

“We all know what most trooper’s eyes look like. And we’ve seen some variations. But they don’t change color. I’ve seen his eyes go golden or violet, and it wasn’t the lighting.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes I’m sure what do you take me for?” Crosshair snapped. “Look. Next time we’re on a sunny planet. Take a look at his shadow. It doesn’t match him at all. I’ve seen it prowling around him like a tooka without him or a light source moving. It doesn’t look like him either. And remember that time we were sparring and he panicked and bit me? I asked Tech, the Techno Union didn’t do anything to his teeth, but I know what bitemarks look like and that was not it.”

Hunter sighed. “I’ll pay attention but-” He paused. “Huh.”

“What?”

“It might not be anything.” He replies and only knowing that he’s getting to the point keeps Crosshair from interrupting. “But remember how I told you guys that people smell like animals? They’re distinct from each other, and you know I can’t describe it cause I tried to describe you guys, but it’s not like they smell like flowers or old books or whatever people like to think they’d smell like unless they’re wearing a scent. Echo, he doesn’t smell like a trooper. I just never thought about it for some reason.”

“And what does he smell like?”

Hunter frowned as he tried to find the words. “Well. He does smell a bit like a trooper and a bit metallic. But he also smells like, what’s was the spice in that cake you liked so much? The one we found on that mission with the weird vultures?”

Crosshair hummed. That had been a really freaking good cake. “The lady said it was a cardamon cream cake. So he smells like cardamon?”

“Cardamon and lilies and wet dirt is the best way I can describe it and I know it’s not his soap cause he uses the same stuff as the rest of us. So yeah. I guess I’ll pay attention.”

Two days later Crosshair gets confirmation that something’s up in a way he did not expect.

Because walking around in the dark in the middle of the night is his job so it’s already odd to find Echo leaning against the cabinet in their ship’s tiny kitchen in the pitch dark. “You’re going to trip reg.” Crosshair says and leans over to get the lights when Echo looks up.

And twelve pairs of golden violet eyes meet Crosshair’s.

He staggers back, trips over something, falls. “Crosshair!” Echo grabs his hand, pulling him up, then scrambles for the lights as if he forgot they might be necessary and Crosshair yelps as the light hits his eyes.

He blames that and the shock for blurting out; “What the hell are you Echo?”

Echo blinks, looking hurt. “I’m a trooper. Like you all.”

“Troopers don’t have twenty-four freaking eyes.” Crosshair hissed. They aren’t there now, he’s got 2 brown eyes in the exact same shade of brown nearly every trooper has, but Crosshair knows what he saw. He knows what he’s been seeing.

Echo tilts his head. And he grins. It’s a smile Crosshair’s seen before, whenever Echo’s about to respond to his taunts with something cutting and clever, part “take that” and part inviting him to share the joke. There’s nothing off about that smile save for that it’s mirrored in Echo’s shadow, splayed against the cabinets behind him too dark for their lights.

“The Bad Batch.” Echo muses, like there’s a joke Crosshair hasn’t caught yet, and he’s never had a reason to call Echo dangerous even when he didn’t trust him, but he’s starting to feel cornered even though Echo hasn’t moved. “You think you’re the only strange ones. ‘Don’t worry Rex, we know how to handle a reg.’ Never mind that Torrent was always a little crazy, or it used to be. Never mind that I was an ARC and a damn good one, and we’re all more than competent. And I appreciate what you all did, in welcoming me into the squad, I appreciate it more than I can say, and I do really like you guys, but you are so freaking cocky. So certain you can handle anything. And to be fair you’re damn good at your job, but sometimes it’s annoying. So.” He grins that taunting grin again. “You want to know what the reg’s deal is? Figure it out.”

He leaves. His grinning shadow lingers a moment before following. Crosshair stares.

And then decides that a glass of water isn’t gonna cut it and goes for the stash of moonshine.

#the bad batch to me is kinda like the hotd or got shows #in that I haven't seen them and am not really interested in changing that #but I have more contextual/background information then I do most shows people I follow ramble about because I'm familiar with related thing #I've read part of got and seen the clone wars #and I like some of the fics #I like the idea that whatever Echo's got going on supernatural-wise it's completly unrelated to the Techno Union #it's something he's either always had or had for most of the war and he's comfortable with it #but he's not exactly open about it #I have no idea if i'll write any more of this but if anyone's interested or I get more ideas I could try #the clone wars #clone troopers #eldritch clone troopers #eldritch echo #eldritch #the bad batch #tbb #bad batch echo #arc trooper echo #crosshair #hunter

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neybe · 1 month

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crawling on my knees, foaming at the mouth, begging yall with tears in my eyes not to forget that jacebaela is The power couple when that little white boy in the north shows up

#i wont let it happen to them #jacela #baela targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #house of the dragon #hotd #the most predictable thing in fandom is a black girl getting sidelined for a white ship

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daenystheedreamer · 3 days

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aegon and jace if they just went to the club where they belong

#draingon gang..#hotd #i really think some of the most bisexual men alive are drain gang fans so if you want one as a bf you should start listening to the most #annoying music ever. though i think ecco2k at least is for real some type of gay. probably allof them even the one thats married #jacegon #tagging LMFAO

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daenerysies · 5 months

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why are alicent stan’s so gleeful about what the show has done to her character? book-wise she was an antagonistic, ambitious, manipulative woman who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it; versus the show, where she has been turned into a constant victim to the men around her with no autonomy or agency what-so-ever. whether it’s otto, viserys, aegon, larys, she’s been reduced to a hypocritical, bitter, puppy-eyed woman with no want for anything in her own life; just a doll to be played around with and eventually discarded.

instead of being the calculating and intelligent woman who dog walks viserys up until his death (and even after) she's now his victim because of the decision to age her down to 15 rather than 18 like her canon age, and in turn age viserys up in order to further emphasize the age-gap and power dynamics. she is portrayed as an abusive mother on screen (physically and mentally to aegon, mentally to helaena and aemond), falling into the 'abused becomes the abuser' trope, which is a rather harmful stereotype. she told aegon that he would be king, but then began having 'second thoughts' when the actual usurpation took place, of which she apparently had no idea, "am i to understand that members of the small council have been planning secretly to install my son without me?" once again reducing her to a pawn of the men around her. these second thoughts took place because of her apparent 'reconciliation' with rhaenyra, as if a few words and hand holding could ever undue the years she spent undermining rhaenyra and attempting to have her and her children disinherited and shamed (mayhaps even killed due to the bastard rumors). she is now a victim to larys as well. larys, despite his lower standing than her THE QUEEN, is able to 'manipulate' her into doing sexual favors for him in order for her wishes to be granted. she has no control over the men around her and no respect from any of them because they know she is willing to bend over backwards to please them. she openly admits that she knew her father had been manipulating her for years, and she still fed into his bullshit. she only wants aegon to be king due to her 'misunderstanding' the words of a drugged up and dying man (and it being HIS 'wish' for aegon to succeed him, not hers). her only want in the show is 'to make a window in the wall of her prison.'

the greens were named for HER in the book. not aegon. not otto. not house hightower. her.

“the beacon on the hightower, do you know what color it glows when oldtown calls it’s banners to war?”

“green.”

except that it doesn’t in canon. house hightower’s only set color is grey, and their only beacon is the regular depiction of red and orange fire. there is no green to be scene anywhere to represent the hightower’s or oldtown or their beacon. the color green didn't have any meaning to her. alicent chose it for herself. she wasn’t ’showing off her allegiance to her father and house after being scorned by the targaryens’ it was a political statement that she CHOSE TO MAKE for herself. she was the leader of team green and was the main culprit in usurping rhaenyra and crowning aegon. she didn’t do it for her father, or her house, or viserys; she did it for herself, because SHE wanted aegon to be king.

there are ways to add complexities to characters without completely changing everything about them, and what they stand for. alicent might have partially fallen into the evil step-mother trope in the book, but considering it’s a historical account; we have next to no information on how she really feels. they could have deep dived into her feelings regarding the succession, how marrying the king without a male heir should have given her the privilege of being the future king’s mother, instead finding out the harsh reality; that viserys would not remove rhaenyra as heir, and that she was negated to only being the king’s wife and giving him spares. they could have played into how complicated her relationship with rhaenyra is, how angry and self-righteousness she would have felt considering the only reason viserys was made king was due to male preference primogeniture. why she felt the need to isolate and bully a child because of said child's father’s decisions. there were plenty of other roads that the writers could have taken to add actual nuance into alicent’s story, and not just adding in more unnecessary and brutal violence towards women.

all of this to say that aging her down and turning her into nothing more than a abused child-bride was not the way to go to add nuance to her story. women shouldn’t have to be tortured, neglected, raped, abused, etc. in order for the audience to like and feel sympathy for their character. that’s an inherently sexist and abhorrent point of view, and considering how virtue signaling a lot of her fans are it’s not surprising that they’re willing to overlook it for the sake of continuing their poor baby alicent ‘always a victim to the men in her life’ rhetoric; as if that was ever a core part of her character.

what they gave us in house of the dragon was not the real alicent hightower, just a cheaply made original character with alicent’s name slapped on her in place of a discount sticker. hotd's biggest crime was reducing powerful ambitious women to side pieces in the big bad men's war. why do women in this universe have to suffer in order for the audience to feel sympathy for them and their plight? and no, i'm not going to argue with anyone going, "b-but OBVIOUSLY you just don't understand her character uwu," i understand her plenty, thanks.

if you actually like alicent (or any of the women in general) in fire and blood you should be seething in outrage over house of the dragon's portrayal of them.

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soyboywenzie · 1 month

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Being the daughter of Alicent Hightower would be a special kind of hell. That woman would not rest until her self-insert daughters were either married to an old Lord allied to the Greens or sent away to become Septas. Also, she would never abide any daughter of hers acting like a mini-Visenya. Alicent would work overtime to ensure that her daughters were exact copies of her with none of the "queer Targaryen" attitudes.

like being alicent’s child is not for the weak, as we seen. she isn’t a good mother, she’d expect you to be perfect all the time and the smallest showing of weakness makes her rant about how every sacrifice she’s made means nothing because you aren’t acting the way she wants.

and that’s the funny thing to me, because fics were the oc is a carbon copy of alicent in looking is one where im like, she’s fucking hate that kid because they’d be a direct reflection of her that she cannot fight, that she cannot hide. aegon looks like her but he’s everything she not and worst than what she thought rhaenyra was. helaena is her only daughter who is so different from her in every way that she can’t even try to understand. aemond is a carbon copy of the man her friend is devoted too. we do not even know if daeron is around. but the daughter who looks like her, the one who is a pure reflection of her stolen youth??? my god, save that girl.

alicent wants little septons and septas who can be scared and intimidated and then be modeled like she was with otto and she could never get that. someone said that in otto’s hand alicent was a stradivarius but aegon in alicents hand is a butter knife and that’s the best way to talk about them. she wants all her children to be Stradivarius’s but they are all cheap silverware that will get replaced the minute they aren’t usable anymore.

im ranting again, oops

tdlr: she wants a certain thing and can never get it, because her children aren’t her. they cannot close themselves up and whine about duty and sacrifices because they’ve never had to. she’d send her children to the highest bidders even begrudgingly because the ‘stability’ of the realm matters more than their happiness. exactly like it was for her.

#house of the dragon #hotd #team black #anti team green #anti alicent hightower #she a horrible mother and that’s fine #she could have been a better mother if her father wasn’t him #if her husband was him #but she can be to blame because every bad part of her children can be directed by her #we can see her in their parts #we see her in every bad action they do #Viserys was neglectful so what he contributed to is so small anyways but the most active people in those children’s lives??#we see it in them more than viserys

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arabian-bloodstream · 2 years

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One more lovely moment from the beachsex of romance supremcy scene.

Look at how his hand grips her thighs, so fucking hot. Look at how her fingers brush and graze his chest, so tender and hot. Seriously, daemyra peeps, watch that scene and watch how she is touching him constantly, everywhere, every inch of him that she can. Phew boy!

#daemyra #daemon x rhaenyra #beachsex of romance supremecy #daemyra positivity #mygif #hot hot hot!#I love them so much #they are the purest and most chaotic of otps #they own my heart #hotd 1x07

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fruitageoforanges · 2 months

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Definitive thoughts on rook's rest post, maybe? I haven't seen many metas about how aemond and helaena must have felt about. That.

oh yes... 'definitive' thoughts maybe not so much, as i'm never good at 'definitive', but i do have thoughts.

i've actually written something in one of my fics about aemond's reaction to rook's rest, which sums up some of my thoughts:

He remembers Aegon after Rook’s Rest. The smell of him, burnt meat and rot. Blood, sharp, cloying. It was the smell of death; the maesters who slaved to save his charred flesh hung bundles of flowers to try to dispel it, but it clung on all the same, sour mixing with sweet. Recalling it brings sharp nausea to his mouth. No-one ever said it — the king may die . To do so would be treason, and Aemond isn’t sure what he would’ve done if one of the maesters told him to his face. After spending nights sat by Aegon’s bed, sword laid across his knees, he was wild enough to fight the Stranger themself if they came for his brother.

as much as it's a pivotal moment for aegon, it's also something of a pivotal moment for aemond. what we know of him is that he doesn't like aegon, but for all his cunty remarks like 'the crown looks better on me', he doesn't usurp him when he has the chance, and at storm's end he directly accuses luke of trying to steal his brother's throne. there's a deep vein of duty and love there, however complex. also, aemond was the one who killed meleys at rook's rest — i think watching aegon burn drove him a little wild. aegon, as the eldest brother, is the thing that has defined aemond's entire life, and it's probably the first time he's had to confront losing him. so: rage and grief enough for there to be nothing left of rhaenys but bones, and likely frustration that he can't just fight the stranger to heal aegon.

for helaena... obviously this is post-b&c, so she isn't mentally well, but i think she probably foresaw rook's rest in some capacity. and as/after it happened she just got this sick sense of certainty, that once again tragedy has struck her family, once again she was given advance warning but it was all for nothing, nothing changed, doom is overtaking them bit by bit and there's nothing she can do to stop it.

#answered #hotd #house of the dragon #hotd meta #greens <3 #team green #aegon ii targaryen #aemond targaryen #helaena targaryen #i hope that was clear #like - i think rook's rest. and particularly the moment when vhagar comes in and kills meleys #is one of the most important moments for aemond and aegon #it cements for once and for all that aemond is aegon's attack dog #but then their relationship is massively rewritten by aegon's incapacitation #i also think there's something important about aegon becoming disabled #aemond has been disabled for half his life #so i think aegon suffering disabling injuries is another thing that binds them closer

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