#well i take back ALL OF IT RHAENYRA DID NOTHING WRONG AND SHE AND DANY SHARE A SOUL

[iheartbookbran]

*sighs into my microphone*

I swear those cold takes about Rhaenyra being so much more privileged than Alicent, and never having to struggle against the patriarchy are so unserious asdfghjfda, and they rely solely on playing the suffering olympics game that is so old and tired in the asoiaf fandom. I mean the exact same thing happened with Sansa and Arya (and later Dany) and people need to stop making such horrible accusations under the pretense of defending their fave while trying to appear progressive.

I can’t believe that I have to say this but no, Rhaenyra is not inherently more “privileged” than Alicent. Both women are at the very top of the social ladder, one as the queen and the other as the crown princess. The difference being that Alicent lives her life in a very conservative and by-the-rules way, and is miserable for it. Meanwhile Rhaenyra breaks those rules and finds momentarily satisfaction for it, but her every action is dissected and harshly judged by the court and she therefore can’t really find peace or happiness. Just because Alicent doesn’t realize at the start of the story just how much power she’s actually able to wield doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

And btw, it is true that Rhaenyra can experience relatively more freedom because her father, Viserys, allows it to her. But this is not really that closely connected to her Targaryen status, or being a dragon rider, despite what some people might claim. Targaryen women are still subjected to the same expectations and oppression as any other (noble) woman of the realm. If her father wanted Rhaenyra to conform to what a woman of their context was expected to do then he could have, case on point Jaehaerys never had any qualms in forcing his daughters to do his bidding to the point it ended up killing some of them.

This kind of thinking also conveniently absolves Otto Hightower, Alicent’s own father, of responsibility for her fate. He, the second most powerful man of the kingdom at the time, chose to place Alicent into the king’s path knowing full well what the consequences for his actions might be. Viserys is of course just as culpable for marrying Alicent but if it hadn’t been him, any other man high enough to satisfy Otto’s ambitions would’ve taken his place and Alicent would’ve ended up trapped and unhappy anyways. This can’t possibly be a Targaryen-man problem because last time I checked, they didn’t invent the patriarchy.

Like, it’s very difficult to watch that scene in which Alicent is being marital r*ped by Viserys and not feel a ton of compassion for her but I struggle to understand how Rhaenyra should be blamed or resented for not sharing the same fate as Alicent, specially when it was by sheer luck that she managed to avoid it. I mean let’s not forget it was Viserys himself who killed Rhaenyra’s mother in his quest to have a male heir. She’s dependent on Viserys’ good will to keep her status, so how is that a good thing?

Obviously you can argue that it was wrong of Rhaenyra to lie to Alicent about what happened with Criston Cole and Daemon, but it’s also worth noting that A) Rhaenyra was under no obligation to share information about her sexuality to anyone she didn’t want to, and B) she lied precisely because she knew that telling the truth could have repercussions for her if Otto ever found out, and that he would not hesitate to use that information to brand her as “damaged goods” and push for Aegon to be heir instead. Of course Rhaenyra wanted Otto out of the picture, but that doesn’t mean that the next logical leap would be for her to want to kill her half-siblings, Otto just manipulated the situation to make it seem as such to Alicent.

This line of thinking becomes even more outrageous when you remember that Rhaenyra’s greatest sins are actually like… *checks notes* having pre-marital sex and *checks more notes* choosing the men she has children with? I guess??? And it’s not as if Alicent’s own son Aegon doesn’t have sex with anything that moves while being married and his own wife very much not approving of his cheating. His claim to the throne isn’t gonna be put into question over it though but tell me more about how Rhaenyra has “male privilege” or whatever lmao.

The fact that Rhaenyra’s actor, Emma, as a nonbinary person, has talked about how they identify in Rhaenyra’s own experience and relationship with gender, only to then see some fans claim that Rhaenyra doesn’t struggle at all with her womanhood and is privileged in comparison to Alicent is so funny and also sad. I dare y’all to think of a single afab person irl who doesn’t conform within the gender norm and who also doesn’t face any kind of backlash from society as a result of it, I’ll wait.

Like, I hate to break it to you guys but neither of these women are really winning under the patriarchy long term speaking, and trying to say otherwise is dumb af and frankly quite misogynistic. Be real.

#remember when i was like ‘well i support rhaenyra on principle but i don’t like her that much as a person especially when compared to dany’ #well i take back ALL OF IT RHAENYRA DID NOTHING WRONG AND SHE AND DANY SHARE A SOUL #no literally this is the same ‘arya (and dany) has MaLe PrIviLeGE over sansa because of their lack of feminity’ #and equating one’s subjective level of feminity to one’s morality discourse all over again in a different package #i’m BEGGING y’all to stop using t*rfs talking points to defend your faves PLEASE #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #i’m hesitant about using the tag but it’s not as if i’m saying anything bad about the character and also… i’m right lol #hotd #fire and blood #house of the dragon #f&b book spoilers #hotd meta #meta #my meta #fandumb